Introduction
Five Songs, 12/7/2017
Five Songs

Five Songs, 12/7/2017

Hey, the AV Club's "The Year In Band Names" is out! Oh, and we have music for today.

Two Fingers, "High Life"

Side project of Five Songs favorite Amon Tobin, Two Fingers is a collaboration with another producer named Doubleclick, along with some assorted MCs. In particular, Sway appears on most of the tracks here, including this one. And, damn, but it all works great. Stuttery and spastic in all the right ways, with some fun vocal work, this is a very entertaining album.

Jawbreaker, "Housesitter"

This song comes from Etc., a compilation of a bunch of various non-LP tracks from the late, lamented Jawbreaker. Because they were so good, this compilation is excellent, even after accounting for the usual discount you should place on any compilations like this. After you've gotten all four studio albums (yes, dammit, including Dear You), you should also pick this up to round out the collection.

Skinnerbox, "This A New York"

We've encountered King Django before with the Stubborn All-Stars, but here he is with another of his bands, Skinnerbox. This album, What You Can Do, What You Can't is a solid piece of third-wave ska, ranging a bit more afield into adjacent sounds for a more interesting album than is typical of the scene.

Ozomatli, "Chota"

The first Ozomatli album, featuring as it did contributions from Chali 2Na and Cut Chemist of Jurassic 5, was a ton of fun. Alas, I didn't find their following albums to be as much fun. Still, I like this record a lot. And, huh, we haven't had Jurassic 5 yet.

At any rate, Ozomatli themselves are a fusion of a bunch of different things, in particular latin, hip-hop, and a certain amount of jazz and funk. If that sounds good to you, give their first album a spin.

Dr. Ring-Ding & The Senior Allstars, "Call Di Doctor"

I feel like this band could have appeared on one of those "The Year In Band Names" lists. Anyway, this is, of all damn things, a German ska band. Dr. Ring-Ding was dedicated to as pure a take on Jamaican music as he could manage, and I can't decide if I should be impressed or horrified by his affected Jamaican patois. Anyway, if "traditionalist third-wave ska as performed by Germans" sounds intriguing to you, you've probably spent too much time hanging out with us here at Five Songs Incorporated.

Joshua Buergel
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