Five Songs, 7/14/2022

Steady Earnest, “Skin It Up”

Steady Earnest is an all-star band of Boston ska bands, most importantly featuring Dan Vitale of Bim Skala Bim on vocals. Because he fronts it, Bim is the closest comparison, and if you like one band, you’ll like the other for sure.

James Brown, “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World”

After complaining about not being able to remember if we’ve had songs before, I can say: we definitely had this one. It’s too distinctive to not remember.

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Five Songs, 5/9/2022

The Minders, “Pass It Around”

Have I done the zalgofied text gag before? Feels like I have. Look folks, I ran out of material about a thousand of these ago. And it’s not like it was good material back then.

The Mono Men, “I’m Hangin'”

Just pure garage rock from the Mono Men, with a tune that closed their second album Wrecker!, although it comes to us courtesy of the comp Back To Mono! Yes, they used a lot of exclamation points. This record collects the first two Mono Men albums into one release, with some minor changes in track order, so it’s a solid pickup. You know, if people still bought CDs or anything. Because it’s not like any of this stuff is available on streaming. Unless you’re in my house. Come on over! We have garage rock and Chex Mix!

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Five Songs, 3/5/2019

Pretty fun one today.

Mastodon, “North Side Star”

Mastodon released Cold Dark Place in 2017, an EP of miscellaneous songs that were recorded during the sessions for Emperor of Sand and Once More ‘Round The Sun. Like most leftovers EPs, it’s a bit of a mixed bag, but basically fits in well with those albums. If you really want more latter day Mastodon, you can do worse than this record. For instance, you could buy an album from a totally unrelated band. That would be a bad move!

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Five Songs, 5/30/2018

Today!

Mono Men, “Don’t Know Yet”

Garage rock revivalists Mono Men, from Bellingham, WA, were dedicated to the proposition that back-to-basics rock was all anybody really needed. They were sufficiently dedicated to the idea that not only did they put out a ton of albums on their own, but they formed Estrus Records to put out records by like-minded bands (like The Mortals). In one of the bummers of indie rock, the building where they kept the masters for all of the Estrus records releases burned down, although I suppose that matters less in the digital age than it might have in previous eras.

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