Marnie Stern

Logic, “The Glorious Five”

I’m old, so I’m out of touch with music. Keeping up with the latest artists and releases requires a lot more hustle than I can really perform. Not to mention that my own personal network just doesn’t dig up stuff for me as much as it used to. It’s a natural thing, and it’s just a fact of agint. Music is a young person’s game. But I’m relatively more in touch with some scenes and genres than others. Hip-hop? I’m hopeless. I’ll just randomly come across artists, and I have no idea of how big they are or aren’t, or their reception. So, Logic - I have this record, I like it. He has a billion records though. How is he perceived? How is the rest of his body of work? No idea! It didn’t used to be this way.

Poster Children, “Clock Street”

Unlike a lot of rock bands putting out records in the early 90s, the Poster Children were not signed in the wake of Nevermind. They found their way onto Sire for their 1990 album Daisychain Reaction, putting them ahead of that particular game. Nevertheless, Nirvana’s success put them in a good spot for their followup album, Tool of the Man. It’s more Pixies than Nirvana, with a bit too much brightness to really break through in that scene. But, listening 17 years on, this stuff sounds fresher than a lot of grunge does these days.

Tame Impala, “Desire Be Desire Go”

Innerspeaker seemed universally beloved, so I went ahead and picked it up. And I like it fine, but it doesn’t really blow me away. It doesn’t really stick with me particularly, so I like it while it’s on, and then totally forget about it later. Like, this song: it sounds good, but it also kind of sounds like a billion Elephant 6 bands.

Polyrhthmics, “Lord of the Fries”

Track from the most recent Polyrhythmics album, Caldera, which is excellent as always. The compositions are getting more ambitious as they go along, which you can really hear on this song.

Hey, y’all! I’m going to be in Vancouver this weekend for SHUX! If you happen to be going, say hi!

Today’s music!

Boogie Down Productions, “Remix For P Is Free”

Criminal Minded is at the root of so much of New York rap. It’s really one of the foundational documents of the East Coast scene. There are so many echoes of this album in so many other records that it’s almost hard to even pick them out. At this point, the original sounds like a cliche, which is unfair, as this record is where all that stuff comes from.

Music over here.

Pharmakon, “Intent or Instinct”

Pharmakon is the avant garde noise project of Margaret Chardiet, one that is unflinchingly unpleasant. We go in for a fair bit of legitimately difficult music here at Five Songs, and Pharmakon is towards the top of the list. Chardiet was inspired to write it as a reaction to her own emergency surgery for a cyst, and it’s supposed to represent her abandonment by her own body. And, well, it sounds like it. Made of electronic noise and her own howls, shrieks, and agonized breathing, it’s disquieting in a way that many other extreme artists try for and don’t quite reach.

Music!

The Sea and Cake, “There You Are”

Chicago band featuring Sam Prekop and various other post-rock folks, working in a similar vein as Tortoise and Gastr del Sol. Like most other post-rock outfits, you’re in for a pretty wide variety of influences, and as time went on, you get more and more stuff added in to the sound. Still, due mainly to Prekop’s vocals, they’re more grounded than some of their peers in that scene.

I had kind of forgotten about this Marnie Stern record, and I’m so grateful that shuffle pulled it up. Check out this song, and then go listen to the rest of the album.

Iron Maiden, “Another Life”

This song is from Killers, which pre-dates Bruce Dickinson joining the band. Overall, the band had a more raw sound during this time period, although the dual guitar attack and galloping bass is still present. I actually really like the album a lot, while recognizing that the band is a bit different of a beast without Dickinson around.