To start off on the right foot here, the Slackers don’t have any bad records. But they have ones I love more than others. The Great Rocksteady Swindle didn’t totally resonate with me initially, so I didn’t listen to it much. But I decided to rock it hard for a week or so, playing it every night, for reasons that are unclear to me. Great decision as it turns out. The record is a banger, an upper tier record from them, up next to Wasted Days and Redlight.
[Read More]I ran out of interesting (?) things to say about matt pond PA a couple tracks ago. So, as per the standard Five Songs Style Guide, that gives me license to just blather here.
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Turns out I don’t have anything interesting to say that’s not about matt pond PA either. Oh! The new Belle and Sebastian is pretty good! That’s almost relevant to this band.
[Read More]I can often write these little blurbs while each song is playing, as most songs give me enough time to bang out a little bit of garbage for you all to read. Naked City, though? Forget it. Should change their name to Pause City!
This is the opening of House of GVSB, the last album from Girls Against Boys for Touch and Go, not to mention their last good album. Their brand of driving, almost danceable post-hardcore was in fine form here, which makes it a shame that they fell off so hard.
[Read More]There’s so much to love about this song. The rubbery bass especially on the chorus, the interplay between the horns and the organ, and of course Redding’s always great vocal performance. It’s hard to pick Redding’s best record, but I think I’d take Complete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary Of Soul as first among equals.
One of my favorite discoveries from 2017 was Your Old Droog’s second album, Packs. Coming out of the East Coast, his vocals frequently are compared to Nas, which makes sense in terms of delivery, and the beats on his record have a sort of psychedelic feel to them. When I first heard it, it reminded me a lot of Edan, which turns out to be for good reason as he worked with Edan on a couple of tracks (including this one). The overall feel is just square in my wheelhouse.
[Read More]WOAH. Kinda blacked out there for a little bit. But we’re back! We’re using a new service! This time it’s all running on all our own shit so it should be solid! I’m only at the mercy of the software! And the device it’s running on! And my home network! And…hang on, I’ll come in again.
Aw, who cares? The rock stopped, and now it’s going again. I think I even have most of my own music back. Let’s do this! HIT IT, PLEXASAURUS REX!
[Read More]I’m delighted by this set today.
As before, this is truly a strange artifact in the ol’ collection. Once again, it’s a pretty pleasant listen, and kind of makes me wish that there was more of this around.
It’s obscure day here at Five Songs! Well, as I mentioned last time, if Russell Simins is involved, I’m there. I mean, come on, listen to this shit! Groovy as hell.
[Read More]From a musty 70s basement to the sound of future rap, today’s Five Songs has you covered.
So, here’s a true oddity for you. Numero Group, a record label primarily doing reissues (and doing a great job!), released Cities of Darkscorch, a fantasy board game where you’re playing as a hard rock band, traveling around the world defeating monsters and questing. It was accompanied by a double LP, Wayfaring Strangers: Darkscorch Canticles, which was full of Sabbath and Zeppelin inspired heavy rock from a variety of acts. It all kind of tries to function as a time machine back to the early days of gaming, and ends up being a pretty unique package. I’m not sure it’s all good, exactly, but I’m sure glad I own it.
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