Five Songs, 5/22/2021

Skinny Puppy, “Killing Game”

This is what passes for a tender song from Skinny Puppy. It works probably way better than it should, which really shows how good cEvin Key and Dave Ogilvie were at their jobs. Last Rights was the last album from them before they went on hiatus, and it’s an excellent one. I haven’t actually listened to any of their records after this one, I wonder if they are any good.

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Five Songs, 2/13/2021

Ice Cube, “No Vaseline”

Ice Cube ended the explosive Death Certificate with a savage diss track on N.W.A, one that N.W.A wasn’t able to remotely respond to. They kind of didn’t really even try. While the homophobia in the song makes it jarring to listen to these days, I still can’t help but admire how hard Cube went at his former bandmates.

Firewater, “Some Strange Reaction”

I was pretty bummed out by the dissolution of Cop Shoot Cop, another band that seemingly was destroyed by a major label contract. The marriage of the punishing rhythms and samples of industrial dance with Tod Ashley’s emotional lyrics and delivery was something pretty special. Luckily, Ashley didn’t wait too long to start up a new project which would quickly surpass Cop Shoot Cop. The first Firewater album, Get Off The Cross, We Need The Wood For The Fire, set the template for the rest of the band’s career. Borrowing bits and pieces from all sorts of music traditions, but centered around Ashley’s cynical world view, he described the band as a “wedding band gone wrong”. This is the first song on the first album, and what a way to kick things off.

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