Five Songs, 12/12/2021

Yazz Ahmed, “Bloom”

Yazz Ahmed is a jazz trumpeter and I have two albums from her that I really like. Wish I could describe them, but you know, I don’t know shit about jazz.

Death Grips, “Birds”

This is a great example of the unpredictability of Death Grips. Nothing about this song really makes sense, but it’s all intentional and hits the effect they wanted to achieve. That is, disorientation.

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Five Songs, 10/12/2021

Wilco, “Kicking Television”

This take is from Alpha Mike Foxtrot, the collection of rarities, live versions, and alternate takes that covers the first twenty (!) years of Wilco. “Kicking Television” appears on a bonus EP with A Ghost Is Born, and was also the title track of a live album, so it’s a familiar song from them, but this is an alternate take here.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, “Hell”

Apparently, we’re doing rarities collections today. Works for me! Bring it the fuck on!

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Five Songs, 2/25/2021

Swans, “Better Than You”

The late 80s/early 90s vesion of the band is probably the one that is most different from the other iterations. The period began with Burning World, the first (and last) Swans major-label release, which was a commercial disaster and an artistic mess. The other albums of that period (White Light From The Mouth of Infinity, Love of Life, and Ten Songs For Another World which was technically from World of Skin but who cares) were better artistically, but this is kind of the “pretty” Swans period. The albums all went out of print, and stayed that way for a while.

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Five Songs, 1/14/2021

Murs, “I’m Innocent”

Murs found himself on Warner Bros for Murs For President, and he turned in a big album to celebrate. There are a lot of ideas, a lot of big beats, a lot of targets. It’s a good record, but it feels like it’s a little much.

Mayhem, “A Wise Birthgiver”

I went a little bit into Mayhem’s history the last time they came up, so I won’t repeat that here. I’ll just reiterate: these were bad people, and even this later version of the band contains folks like Hellhammer who have said terrible things and never really recanted past links to repugnant beliefs. I bought this album unaware of the band’s history outside of Vikernes and Euronymous. Knowing what I now know, I would have avoided it.

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Five Songs, 12/22/2017

Well, I hope people find the brief essay down below interesting. Probably not. You can listen to something while you read, though.

Duke Ellington, “Braggin’ In Brass”

A monolith appears on primitive Earth. Agitated apes cluster around it, screeching, trying to ascertain its meaning, its message. Curiosity overcoming their fear, they eventually touch the monolith as the music swells. The music is “Yakety Sax”. Flickering neon words appear on the monolith: “JOSH IS NOT QUALIFIED TO TALK ABOUT JAZZ”.

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