Rage Against the Machine

Senyawa, “Menuju Muara”

Indonesia duo Senyawa are avant garde in just about every possible way. They play homemade instruments. The music is experimental. The album was released by a bunch of different labels across the globe with no ownership rights to any of them, to challenge the way music is distributed today. And it’s truly unusual stuff, with a sensibility that is at odds with a lot of what I listen to. I genuinely enjoy listening to things that surprise me, so I really like this record.

Foetus, “Clothes Hoist”

Foetus released live albums pretty often, which were usually pretty good. The live show was often more direct and noisier, driven by having a live band making a racket. So it’s not just a re-hash of the album tracks, making them good listens if you like Foetus. This is from Boil, and the track is originally from Hole.

Antipop Consortium, “Splinter”

I got totally lost in the rhymes in the first verse.

Rage Against the Machine, “Calm Like A Bomb”

The last proper Rage album, The Battle of Los Angeles is also my favorite of their records. It shows the most focus, and they refined their attack to the point of total relentlessness on this one.

The Dillinger Escape Plan, “Jim Fear”

Meanwhile, about a month before Rage released that record, the Dillinger Escape Plan put out Calculating Infinity which…uh, kind of puts “total relentlessness” into perspective.

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.

A peek behind the curtains here at Five Songs International (a subsidiary of Songsanto): I sometimes write these things ahead of time. Like the weekend ones are usually paved out ahead of time. Still the same rules, though: I pick a time, start shuffle, and write about those five songs. But, in order to keep the flow of quality (?) stuff flowing, sometimes they’re not written on the day that they’re posted. Like, for instance, this was written on Friday while I ate lunch. Doesn’t make the songs any less good (or bad? I don’t know yet!).