Melvins

Starts slow, but some interesting stuff today.

Coldplay, “Swallowed In The Sea”

Like I said last time, I’ll defend the first couple albums, but this album (X&Y), NOOOOPE. Too boring.

The Flaming Lips, “Okay, I’ll Admit That I Really Don’t Understand”

Well, I’m not sure what to do with this album. This is from Zaireeka, the transitional album between *Clouds Taste Metallic and The Soft Bulletin. So, what’s the problem? Well, at the time, the Flaming Lips were doing a lot of experimenting with how music is played back. They were doing “car stereo orchestras”, where they got a ton of cars together and gave each of them a specific tape, to be played in unison to produce a single piece. They decided, hey, that’s cool, and went for an at-home version of that with Zaireeka.

Pretty rugged set today. Starts off soft, but doesn’t stay there.

Big Ass Truck, “Return to Thermopolis”

I encountered Big Ass Truck when their first record showed up at WRCT while I was working there. How was I not going to play a band called Big Ass Truck? Turned out to be a funk record, and I somehow ended up with not only that record but the followup, Kent. I’ll be honest, I haven’t thought about these guys in a long, long time. Maybe I should listen to one of the records again, see how it’s aged?

Back in town, so hopefully I’ll be able to start posting these during the day again. Today’s tunes!

Melvins, “Your Blessened”

What gives a band longevity? How are some bands able to just keep going for forever, while most flame out after only a few albums (or even one)? It’s not just creativity, although the Melvins certainly have shown plenty of experimentation. They also have a certainly Melvins-y formula that they’ve applied plenty. Tt still manages to sound fresh and interesting. You listen to a song from Bullhead and a song from, I dunno, Hold It In, and you hear so many things that are similar. But I’m still happy to listen to them. What is the formula that King Buzzo and Dale Crover have discovered?

New Melvins album! It’s a double album, a first for them. Word is that the first album is good, the second is ambient nonsense. I guess I’ll find out. Meanwhile, here are your tunes for today.

Also, I totally had this entry ready to go, and forgot to post over the weekend. Broke my streak!

Preston School of Industry, “Monkey Heart and the Horses’ Leg”

There are times when you can really hear the Pavement in Preston School of Industry. This is one of those times.

The Wedding Present was great last night! Nice mix of older material and newer stuff, including playing “Dalliance” (included on the playlist), one of the great songs about longing ever.

We have music sign!

Knxwledge, “onlijournitro”

This is from yet another DJ album, with this one being basically just a collection of beats. Some of them are quite good, they’re mostly pretty short, and this overall feels like more of a collection of ideas than a coherent work. They’re actually pretty ideal to pop up in a shuffle format, honestly.

The intro to this series has been pushed off the page, so a brief mention might be in order. I’m writing about five random songs from my collection on a daily-ish basis, and giving everybody a link to listen along. Here’s the intro to the series, and here’s the link to today’s songs.

Prefuse 73, “Tel Aviv’s Gravel Toothbrush”

Prefuse 73 is one of the names that Scott Herren records under, mixing up hip-hop influences with electronic music. He’s at his best when you’ve got stuttering bits and pieces of recognizable hip-hop running through, but broken up in strange ways. When he wanders too far from that into pure electronic stuff, he gets less interesting to me. This is a short piece from Extinguished, which is outtakes from his excellent One Word Extinguisher album. On the whole, you can see why he left this material off the main album, so this record is for completists only. Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives and One Word Extinguisher remain the pick of the litter for him.

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.