Nine Inch Nails

Bathory, “Song To Hall Up High”

Black metal pioneer Bathory (which was pretty much just Quorthon) pivoted away from the pure black metal of their earlier albums towards Viking metal, more or less establishing that genre too. Hammerheart is one of the key albums of that genre, and if you wanted more bombast in your black metal, Bathory can help you out.

Nine Inch Nails, “Gave Up”

After Pretty Hate Machine, there wasn’t any new music from NiN for several years, due to label disputes. When the dry spell lifted, it brought a six-song EP (not counting the two bonus tracks that weren’t really connected) of fury. Broken sounded to my ears like a totally new direction for the band, which was actually OK with me, as I had really moved away from industrial dance. It really was a preview of what The Downward Spiral was, and is just an excellent set of tunes.

The Gotobeds, “Calquer the Hound”

Indie rock out of Pittsburgh, the Gotobeds’ third album, Debt Begins At 30, sounds fanastic. There’s a real kind of Discord-y/post-hardcore thing going on here, which as you all know goes over well here at Five Songs HQ. This is actually the first album I listened to from them, and kind of forgot to go backwards, and I should really fix that.

Nine Inch Nails, “Came Back Haunted”

After his burst of productivity in the mid/late 2000s, with three albums in four years (four if you count Ghosts, which you should not), Trent Reznor did his usual thing and went away for five years between NiN albums. Unlike previous pauses, he was still making music. He was doing film scores and releasing music as How To Destroy Angels. But he came back to NiN and released Hesitation Marks in 2013, featuring a whole bunch of guest artists and a sound that is probably as close to Pretty Hate Machine as any other record he’s done. Much more sophisticated, of course, but fairly upbeat (as these things go) and kind of bouncy. It’s a fun record, which is not something you can say about most NiN records.

Nine Inch Nails, “The Beginning Of The End”

Year Zero marked the fastest followup that Trent Reznor had produced to date, with the album appearing a mere two years after With Teeth. At least five years had separated studio albums up to this point. Perhaps as a result of the relatively short gestation of this album, it’s not a lot different musically from the predecessor. It’s a theme album of sorts, examining a dystopian United States in the near future. It was marketed with an augmented reality campaign, which was genuinely new in 2007. The music itself is solid, but isn’t one of NiN’s essential albums.

Flying Lotus, “Eyes Above”

You’re Dead!, the incredible 2014 album by Flying Lotus, is a shimmering mass of fantastic ideas, with constant shifting across tracks, well-chosen guest artists, and lots of surprises across the length of the album. However, it’s one of those records that really works best as an album, and not as isolated cuts, as you miss the overall context of each song if you just listen to a piece.

Hooray, Five Songs!

Uncle Tupelo, “Graveyard Shift”

If you type the words “Uncle Tupelo” into a blog twice within an hour of midnight, it summons the band. Or so I’m led to believe by the worst horror story in the world, “Attack Of The Alt-Country Band That Apparently Was Bloodthirsty For Some Reason”.

You know, that dumb joke assumes that anybody read yesterday’s entry, and it occurs to me that that’s quite arrogant. Whatever, that joke owns. As does this song! It’s the opening track of the opening album from Uncle Tupelo, and while it’s a pretty straight ahead rock song, you can hear the lyrical themes that they would develop in their career.

It occurred to me that I didn’t explain who Plexasaurus Rex is. That’s my music server! As you might have guessed, I’m using Plex, and I have to say: so far, it’s pretty good! Did a good job organizing my music, interface seems solid. No complaints thus far. And, of course, I gave it a dumb name, the same dumb name that every other sad nerd who thinks they’re funny gives their server. Anyway, here’s today’s tunes,, now that we have today’s sad exposition out of the way.

Here’s today.

Mudhoney, “Beneath The Valley Of The Underdog”

A little bit of a slow burn, psychedelic number from Mudhoney here. This comes from Tomorrow Hit Today as well as appearing on the compilation March To Fuzz, which I believe I’ve sung the praises of before. I’m not going to check, as professionalism isn’t something we really go in for here at Five Songs. Which, you know, explains our love for Mudhoney.

Today!

Rocket From The Crypt, “Suit City”

I love the urgency in this song, it’s always driving forward hard. And it sticks around for just two and a half minutes. Get in, do what you want to do, get out. Nice.

Nine Inch Nails, “Let’s Hear It For Nine Inch Nails”

OK, you ready for what is probably the most obscure and dumbest thing we’ve had on here yet? Right. This is from the “Head Like A Hole” extended CD single. Four different mixes of “Head Like A Hole”, two of “Terrible Lie”, three of “Down In It”, a b-side, and then this. Four seconds of someone saying the title of the track to close out the CD single. And now, you’ve all listened to it. Somehow, it was already on YouTube.

Today’s tunes.

Death Cab For Cutie, “No Joy In Mudville”

This song comes to us from We Have The Plans And We’re Voting Yes, which I think is the first album I picked up from Death Cab. And…hang on, I stopped paying attention there for a bit. Hey, it’s the next song!

Nine Inch Nails, “The Warning”

Year Zero represented a return to form for Nine Inch Nails. The Fragile had restless experimentation, but the quality was uneven. With Teeth was better constructed, but also felt kind of paint-by-numbers at times. The artist that had made The Downward Spiral seemed to be gone, but Year Zero proved that that was emphatically not true. There are even times that I think it’s Trent Reznor’s best record. Paranoid and angry, the whole thing hangs together extremely well.

Keeping that streak alive.

Grandaddy, “The Warming Sun”

I sometimes wonder why some bands don’t connect with me. Grandaddy, for instance. Highly regarded by lots of people, so they’re a good band by most measures. They are mining a similar vein as Wilco, who I love. They obviously know what they’re doing. And yet? Nothing. It’s not clear why that is, how the aesthetics of Grandaddy just don’t turn my crank. But there we are.