Five Songs, 3/26/2019

I’m back!

Fog, “Pneumonia”

What do you get when you cross lo-fi indie rock with turntablism? You get Fog, pretty much, with this song sounding like Silkworm ran into Kid Koala. Which is a solid pitch! This kind of hybrid really only works when the constituent parts are good, and mostly, this album succeeds on that basis. I had kind of forgotten about it, honestly, and I’m glad shuffle dug it up.

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Five Songs, 5/2/2018

Today!

Gaza, “Skull Trophy”

Gaza, out of Salt Lake City, played a brand of metal that crossed a bunch of arbitrary genre boundaries, usually a combination of sludge and doom. I recognize that these kinds of categorizations are deeply unhelpful for folks unfamiliar with metal, and yet I provide them anyway. It’s loud and angry! It sometimes slows down to a drag along ala doom, and is often centered around big riffs, like sludge. And has a lot of shouting.

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Five Songs, 2/8/2018

Six songs today!

Xzibit, “Carry The Weight”

Before he was on MTV, before he became a meme, Xzibit was a hardcore rapper, which sometimes kind of seems like it’s forgotten. His debut album, featuring production by E-Swift and Muggs among others, is a strong piece of work. Xzibit is a solid rapper, and his storytelling is very good here. It’s not essential, but it’s a good album that seems mostly forgotten at this point.

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Five Songs, 11/8/2017

Hey, I know somebody playing on one of these! (SPOILER ALERT: not the first one.)

Pink Floyd, “Bring The Boys Back Home”

It feels really wrong to just have one track from The Wall in here. It further feels like this is the wrong time to discuss Pink Floyd. Maybe I’ll do a Pink Floyd special at some point. Anyway, suffice it to say, The Wall is over the top and ridiculous, and nevertheless I still love every part of its hammy majesty.

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Five Songs, 7/1/2017

Another month, same old nonsense. Still having fun, though. Let’s listen to some tunes!

Skinny Puppy, “Dogshit”

Skinny Puppy returns with a track off of what I think is their second-best album, VIVIsectVI. What made the album great was how surprising it all managed to sound. Between the abrasive noises, sampled vocals, synth lines that would layer up, and Ogre’s variety of vocal attacks, it all manages to keep you completely on edge while listening.

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