Lambchop

Good news! No Japanese noise today!

Tribulation, “Cauda Pavonis”

Listen to this track, and think about the other stuff featured on Five Songs in the past. What do you think this band normally sounds like? Some kind of soundtrack-y kind of thing? Something closer to post-rock? Foetus tribute act?

If you look into your heart, you know the correct answer. Something like this? Yeah, it’s metal.

Lambchop, “Jan. 24”

Lambchop chose to release two albums on the same day in 2004, Aw C’mon and No, You C’mon. It’s not entirely clear why they chose to release them as separate records, instead of a double album. There’s not really any distinction between the types of songs on the two albums, and it’s not like one is all b-sides or anything. They just decided to release two records, a bit of an odd decision from a band that has always been a bit odd themselves. At any rate, the world is a better place for more Lambchop songs, so may they release fifty albums on the same day.

Yet another year-end roundup! This time from Pitchfork, so prepare to be enraged! And [here’s today’s music].(https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLexe714An2QjMniBJQbnevydhM3HcuMaL)

Flop, “Asthenia”

Lost among all the other Seattle bands of the early 90s, Flop was never the slightest bit grungy so they never broke it big. They did, of course, end up on a major label, but the majors were signing every band who had even toured through Seattle in those days, so that’s not that surprising. Instead of being grunge, Flop evoked the power pop bands of the Pacific Northwest, bands like the Posies and the Young Fresh Fellows. With Kurt Bloch (The Young Fresh Fellows, the Fastbacks, tons of producing credits) behind the boards, they even had some real continuity with all the other great bands in that tradition. And their first record, & The Fall of the Mopsqueezer, is an absolute gem, one of the best power pop records in my entire collection, a fuzzy piece of genius.

Six songs today! Repeats are your best value here at Five Songs Incorporated!

Nitzer Ebb, “Higher (Barry Adamson Mix)”

This is from an obscure EP called As Is, a little four song thing with a grab bag of tracks on it. It was put out to precede Ebbhead, which was to be their major label debut, and was supposed to get people hyped up. It’s not a bad little EP, you know, if you’re into Nitzer Ebb.

Yay for year end roundups! First one I’m looking at is The AV Club’s roundup and their ballots. So far, I’ve already picked up two records, Infinite Wave by Vagabon and The Incessant by Meat Wave. Fun! Today’s music!

Isaac Hayes, “Walk On By”

Oh my. With the untimely passing of Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes became probably the most important artist at Stax, writing and contributing to innumerable hits. He was also, of course, a tremendous performer in his own right, with songs like this being a great example. This appeared on the album Hot Buttered Soul, which is just tremendous.

Without noticing, I passed six moths of doing this stuff. Nice. Here’s today’s tunes.

Unsteady, “Me”

Another track from Unsteady’s fantastic Double or Nothing, this sarcastic song contains the genius line “I’m a blessed martyr to the church inside my head”, which I think about a lot. Anyway, the ratio of “how much I like this album” to “how much the rest of the world has heard of this album” is just about as high as it gets on this record.

Usually, when I do one of these, I go and listen to a bunch of music by one of the artists that popped up. Today, that’s Sicko. Go listen to Sicko, people! Here’s one song of theirs!

Also, new record: I had to upload three of these songs myself. That’s annoying!

Surgery, “Mistake”

Every now and again, a band sometimes puts out a thing that’s way above their average. Surgery, a scuzz-rock Amphetamine Reptile band, managed that trick with their EP, Trim, 9th Ward High Roller, a release that was inexplicably far better than anything else they’d done. This song, however, is not from that record, but from the earlier Nationwide, which is only ok.

Some unrepresentative tracks today. I’m always tempted to link out to other songs for bands, but I usually restrain myself, telling myself that they’ll come up again. This is probably a dumb policy! Music is over here.

The Dillinger Escape Plan, “*#..”

This track, with the ominous intro and escalating drums, is really designed to lead into the ferocious “Destro’s Secret”. Standalone, like this, it’s all foreplay and no climax. Oh well.

I think it’s been a bit since I’ve mentioned tools, so I’ll bring them up. The key thing I’ve been using to upload music is this MP3 to FLV converter. There are a bunch out there, but the others I’ve tried have been flaky or slow. This one has the tremendous advantage of pulling the cover art from the tags on the MP3, which saves a step of finding separate cover art. It also has the advantage of not being flaky or slow.

I’ve updated the blogging software on this thing, and I’m even poking around with new themes. Look at me, I’m…well, not professional exactly. Wasting my time? Yeah, let’s go with that. As is now traditional here at Five Songs Inc., you can listen along with me, if that’s something you’re into. Great set of songs this time around!

NoMeansNo, “Machine”

NoMeansNo started as a hardcore band, but unlike most of their peers, hung around for a long time and managed to evolve as they went along. Songs started stretching out more, some jazz started creeping in, and more than a little overt artiness. They were driven by the rhythm section, brothers Rob and John Wright, who were relentlessly inventive. NoMeansNo made my second favorite hardcore album ever, Wrong (two Wrights made a Wrong!), and continued with a string of strong albums including the source of this song, Why Do They Call Me Mr. Happy. I’m not sure how much people know them outside of folks living on the west coast during the late 80s/early 90s, but it’s a shame, they should have a higher profile.