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Five Songs, 2/26/2019

Posted on February 26, 2019 | Joshua Buergel

The Flaming Lips, “Be Free, A Way”

On 2013’s The Terror, The Flaming Lips were using their psychedelia to explore not shiny wonder but the depths of despair. With Wayne Coyne’s romantic life falling apart and Steven Drozd again struggling with substance abuse, the Lips were not in a good place in their personal lives, and it comes through in the stark bleakness of their music. Piercing and melancholy, The Terror is one of their best records, although it’s not always a whole lot of fun.

Five Songs, 8/19/2017

Posted on August 20, 2017 | Joshua Buergel

Totally forgot to post yesterday. I’m super flaky this week. Sorry about that! Here’s some music for today, at least.

Less Than Jake, “The Troubles”

A few things distinguish Less Than Jake from the many other ska-punk bands that all started up at roughly the same time. The first is that they were more punk than ska, refusing to be tied down to the gimmick. The second is that the quality of their songs was, in general, much stronger than most of their peers. The third is probably the most important, which is that they lasted for forever. I’ve got eight albums from them, and I don’t think I have their entire discography. I think their sweet spot is from Losing Streak through Anthem, personally. This song comes from their most recent album, though.

Five Songs, 5/26/2017

Posted on May 26, 2017 | Joshua Buergel

No intro today, straight to the tunes!

Propagandhi, “Utter Crap Song”

Propagandhi, avowed anti-capitalists and purveyors of radical left-wing politics, played catchy punk with lyrics that were largely polemics. But they made things work, and their best albums (largely their first two records) didn’t let the propaganda totally take over the proceedings. This song is from a compilation of singles, Where Quantity is Job #1, which is as uneven as most singles comps are.