Steady Earnest, "Swim"
At this point in Five Songs' evolution, we've had more than 1500 bands on here, and I honestly cannot recall which ones I've introduced properly and which ones I have not. The tags help some - if I haven't tagged a band, I haven't introduced them! - but are not perfect. Because sometimes I write random shit instead of talking about the band. This is where a more professional approach here would help. I could go back and look at entries for bands and figure out if I've said anything real about them. But let's be honest: that's not going to happen.
So, here we are at Steady Earnest. They're a fairly obscure third wave ska act, and I imagine most people reading this probably could use an introduction. But I'm pretty sure I've already done one. Do I repeat myself? Do I link to previous articles, like anybody is reading those? Do I just go meta instead?
I think we all know what I'm going to pick.
The Coup, "5 Million Ways To Kill a C.E.O."
From the Coup's notorious Party Music, the record that nearly went out with cover art of the band blowing up the Twin Towers, which had been created prior to 9/11. The Coup chose that symbol to express their desire to tear down capitalism, and obviously couldn't stay with the artwork, but Boots Riley later expressed frustration with the decision to make the change. That, of course, touched off the expected performative outrage, making him briefly the target du jour of the Copy/Paste Warriors.
At any rate, divorced of the controversy, it's a great record, full of the slinky funk grooves and clever rhyming you expect from the band.
Waxahatchee, "Lilacs"
This song really comes alive in the chorus, which is good, as it's otherwise pretty simple song.
Wilco, "The Thanks I Get"
A nice, straightforward rocker here from Wilco, this originally appeared as a single around the time of Sky Blue Sky, which makes total sense when you listen to the tune. It would fit seamlessly into that record.
Death From Above 1979, "Blood On Our Hands"
Some lovely bass-and-drums racket here from DFA1979 to close out the day. I guess I spent all my words on the first two entries, huh?
Oh, I also think about the peaceful ending of this song quite a bit. Just a nice little coda.