Screeching Weasel

Screeching Weasel, “Leather Jacket”

Ben Weasel started letting some of the songs on Anthem For A New Tomorrow stretch out a little bit, and let the Ramones worship go just a tiny bit. The result is probably his best record - still very much punk, still very familiar, but tuneful and fun.

Aphex Twin, “Radiator”

The second Selected Ambient Works album from Aphex Twin doesn’t quite hit the same way the first one did. It’s very long (two discs of 70 minutes each), and it doesn’t seem like it was edited down enough. The first one is the most important ambient electronic album ever, and this one is more of a curiosity. Add in that I’m not a huge ambient guy, and this album hasn’t really gotten much play since I got it.

Tilt, “Partial Birth”

Tilt started their career recording for Lookout Records and then moved to Fat Wreck Chords, which is going to create a picture for you if you know these labels. And that picture is completely correct with one minor detail - the woman singing, Cinder Block, is considerably different from the typical sneering dude. Other than that, this is straight ahead California punk.

Belle and Sebastian, “Slow Graffiti”

I’ve sung the praises of Belle & Sebastian’s early EPs here before, I’m pretty sure, but I’m going to do it again. Between the release of the standard-setting If You’re Feeling Sinister and the below-standard Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant, the band released five EPs with new material, and they range from excellent to fantastic. Among that set, This Is Just A Modern Rock Song might be the best of them. This is the last song on the record, and is just a sweet little tune.

Pinkwash, “Gumdrop”

Legitimately don’t remember picking this up. Apparently this is a band out of Philly, and this is their only record.

[listening]

Not bad! I can see why I picked this up! It’s shame I’m getting dumber and more forgetful.

Farside, “I Hope You’re Unhappy”

This is probably the most likely Farside song to get big, a straightforward power-pop song about longing, one almost designed to get MTV play. I have no idea if it did so, because even by 1999 I was thoroughly unplugged from the zeitgiest. It’s a pretty good tune, though.

Leatherface, “Scheme of Things”

UK punk band Leatherface play it pretty much straight ahead, but they do a nice job with it. The thing that’s hard to adjust to is Frankie Stubbs’s voice, which is rough, to put it mildly. But, this entire album (Mush) is pretty good overall, and it’s worth giving it a try if you like this song.

Screeching Weasel, “Claire Monet”

Sure, why not. Apparently it’s Punk With Vocals You Really Have To Adjust To Day around here.

Zeal and Ardor, “Fire Of Motion”

We just had Zeal and Ardor in here recently. This is always a challenge: I have so little interesting to say about anything, that if we have a band show up twice too quickly, y’all will notice that I’m hopeless. Notice more that I’m hopeless.

I love the echoing guitar part that opens this track, this whole thing actually reads more industrial than black metal in a lot of ways, which kind of makes me nostalgic for 1990.

Today!

Queens of the Stone Age, “You Think I Ain’t Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like A Millionaire”

This is one of those songs where that little opening background riff will just pop into my head and stay there for hours and hours, just looping. It’s not unpleasant! This album just smokes, front to back.

Gorilla Biscuits, “(Untitled Hidden)”

I think I’ve introduced this old-ass straight-edge hardcore band before, so instead, I’ll just mention that they contributed personnel to Quicksand, which we heard from yesterday. As for the track itself, on my copy of Start Today, there is a series of little sub-10 second “songs” which are indistinguishable and unnamed. And, because of stupid tech limitations, I can’t tell which one this is. So, I’ll do another song today.

Today? Fun!

Iron & Wine, “Lion’s Mane”

I think it can be easy to dismiss all these neo-folk types as posers, as just boring sensitive white guys with guitars. And yeah, but some of them are clearly playing something pretty inspired as well. Sam Beam, doing business as Iron & Wine, is one of those worth paying attention to. His debut album, The Creek Drank The Cradle, is pretty precious, but it’s just filled with really nice songs. It’s just Beam’s voice and guitar most of the time, with just the occasional touches of slide guitar or banjo, as you can hear on this song. And while obviously, we here at Five Songs go pretty far in to pretty grim and noisy stuff, sometimes you just really need a pretty song, and Iron & Wine delivers.

Do you love Five Songs?

Screeching Weasel, “You’ll Be In My Dreams Today”

It probably says something about me that I own a lot more Screeching Weasel than I do the Ramones. Specifically, it says how old I am.

Jay-Z, “I Know”

One of Jay-Z’s strengths is how he has a bunch of different flows that he uses on different songs. Unlike some rappers, including plenty of famous ones, he always seems to change things up to really play along with the beat. And Pharrell Williams put together a great one here.

Nice set today!

Baroness, “Desperation Burns”

I mentioned last time around that everybody would have called these guys grunge if they had been around in the mid-90s. Tell me I’m wrong after listening to this!

Elvis Costello, “Pay It Back”

A jaunty little tune from his debut album, I’m not even entirely sure how to describe this. That’s because I’m shitty at writing about music. Good thing I go ahead and fail at it every day!

From rap’s origins to its future.

Run-D.M.C, “Hollis Crew (Krush-Groove 2)”

It sounds downright primitive today, but this album (Run-D.M.C., their debut) was a massive milestone in the development of rap as a cultural force. Somewhat forgotten now, Run-D.M.C. were the first rap act to have a gold record, proving that this new genre could have significant commercial appeal. They would follow that up with rap’s first platinum album and first multi-platinum album, as their sales and fame kept increasing (they would, alas, peak with that third album, Raising Hell). Run-D.M.C. changed the way rap sounded, the way it was made, and the way it looked. Rap wouldn’t ever be the same.