Thou

One thing about Five Songs that I always appreciate is that it always makes me stay in the habit of putting music on when I can. There’s just something about always thinking “oh, I could write a post” that sometimes decays into “oh, I could put on some tunes” that I appreciate.

Lungfish, “Descender”

I know what the Five Songs party line is on Lungfish (kinda boring), so I’m going to skip that and just kind of focus on a sense memory. Specifically, I can remember wandering around my college campus not long after getting this album. I was trying to develop a taste for it, so I wasn’t doing much other than listening to it and walking around. But it was a beautiful fall day, and I kept walking past groups of kids having a great time outdoors. Three different frisbee games were going on. A hacky sack circle. A volleyball game had broken out. The breeze was blowing, the sun was shining, I was bumping tunes, and I was just kind of watching people having a great time. So even though I am not wild about the album, an association with a perfect fall day from one of the happiest periods of my life still clings to it. This album sounds like youthful innocence and hope. And is also kinda boring.

Gob, “Beauville”

I have regrets when it comes to the tagging system I use around here. Yes, it’s nice to have all the bands tagged, that’s useful. But I wish I had also tagged genres, and subgenres, and some of the common threads in these posts. Like “Canadian Punk” would have been a fun tag. Why did I listen to so many Canadian punk bands in the 90s? I dunno. I have no way of knowing if my punk consumption was disproportionately Canadian or not. How would you measure that? Count up the number of punk albums I own that came out in the 90s, weigh by population, see if they match the expected distribution? I suppose that would work, would likely be possible with some data scraping using the Discogs API, and is absolutely not going to happen unless someone were to pay me. Or if I get super bored.

Kowloon Walled City, “Diabetic Feet”

This is from the first Kowloon Walled City record, Gambling on the Richter Scale, where they are bringing back that Unsane sound. There’s something about that vocal style in particular that really reminds me of that band, which is of course a good thing.

Thou, “Corrupted Sanctum”

Thou contributed some songs to a video game soundtrack, which is kind of a funny phrase. I know absolutely nothing about the game except that it’s set in New Orleans, which presumably is how Thou got involved. Anyway, always happy to get new music from them, even if it’s a strange delivery like this.

Thou, “Prayer to God”

Thou released two covers collections in 2020, with Blessings of the Highest Order being all Nirvana covers, and A Primer of Holy Words being miscellaneous tracks from other artists. This, of course, is the Shellac tune, a feel-good ditty from 1000 Hurts. Pretty much everything Thou does is worthwhile, so I recommend this album.

Big Ass Truck, “Lil Tico”

Is frat-boy funk a genre? Seems like it should be.

Monobody, “Curry Courier Career”

Is there such a thing as a math jam band? I think there might be.

Trigger Cut, “Fireworks”

This is just pure throwback to mid-90s Amphetamine Reptile stuff. It makes the Pavement band name a little off, though, they should have called themselves “Shitbeard” instead. Anyway, you know I’m a sucker for this stuff.

Vampire Weekend, “Horchata”

This is actually the song that kind of clangs the most from the second Vampire Weekend record. It just feels far too clever, like it’s trying too hard, and ends up ringing false to me. It seems more like the result of a computation than something genuine. I don’t know exactly why that is, but that’s what I get from it, and largely from the entire album. Like Ezra Koenig decided to build the song around that horchata/balaclava rhyme, just to get it out there.

Black Moon, “Enta da Stage”

Black Moon’s 1993 classic, Enta da Stage, could not have been released at a worse time to get attention. The synthesis of the jazz-inflected beats of Native Tongues and the street rhymes of New York City would have been massively influential had it not landed at roughly the same time as Midnight Mauraders (showing how far these kinds of beats could be taken) and Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (showing how far these kinds of rhymes could go). Nevertheless, the album is a serious banger.

Grandaddy, “Now It’s On”

I think I’ve used this space before to kind of lament how Grandaddy hasn’t really connected with me. I can see the quality, but it’s just never really clicked. This is a fine tune, though.

American Music Club, “Outside This Bar”

American Music Club were still kind of finding their way with their second album, Engine. Musically, they would eventually open up some of the arrangements which would help give some more space to Mark Eitzel’s lyrics. But as you can hear on this song, the often harrowing storytelling was definitely there.

Thou, “Sifting”

Thou released a bunch of stuff in 2020. One of them was a compilation of Nirvana covers that they’d released in various other places, gathered together as Blessings of the Highest Order. This, of course, is the last song from Bleach, and it’s a real punisher here. The entire album is a good time.

Head of David, “Bugged”

Head of David is notable mostly for inspiring a bunch of other bands, not to mention being Justin Broadrick’s proving ground for the sound he would later refine as Godflesh. As for the band itself, a lot of their stuff sounds pretty leaden, but this track is pretty good.

Poster Children, “Clock Street”

Unlike a lot of rock bands putting out records in the early 90s, the Poster Children were not signed in the wake of Nevermind. They found their way onto Sire for their 1990 album Daisychain Reaction, putting them ahead of that particular game. Nevertheless, Nirvana’s success put them in a good spot for their followup album, Tool of the Man. It’s more Pixies than Nirvana, with a bit too much brightness to really break through in that scene. But, listening 17 years on, this stuff sounds fresher than a lot of grunge does these days.

New Bomb Turks, “Double Marlon”

Garage punks out of Columbus, OH, the New Bomb Turks exploded (heh!) onto the scene with their brand of aggressive rock, and they kept it rockin’ for a while. However, they did eventually fell off, and this EP (Beruhren Meiner Affe, “Touching My Monkey”) is kind of where the dividing line is. It’s a perfectly good five songs of their Stooges-esque stuff, but after this, it seemed like the were just kind of tired.