It's D-Day! Let's listen to music!
Samiam, "You Looking At Me"
Bay Area pop-punk that was part of that lively scene, best known for producing Green Day. At their best, during the Billy/Clumsy/You Are Freaking Me Out peak, they wrote great anthem-like songs that were just flat out fun to listen to. This is a song from their first album, before they were really fully polished, but you can hear their later potential.
They Might Be Giants, "Fingertips 13"
The Fingertips songs were the little snippets at the end of Apollo 13, intended to liven up the experience of shuffling the album. I never really cared for shuffling albums, so mostly I think of them as just one long, weird song. But here, it serves the original purpose.
I shuffled my entire TMBG library for the kids the other day as we rattled around the house, and several of them came up. I explained what they were to William, and he seemed kind of offended by the very idea. Kids.
The Books, "Smells Like Content"
Oddball electronic artists The Books make music that's a little hard to describe. A little poppy, a little glitchy, a little environmental, a little experimental, it's a classic case of the whole being much greater than the sum of its parts. The album this comes from, Lost and Safe, is their best record.
Scratch Acid, "Amicus"
Before The Jesus Lizard, the legendary noise rock band, was Scratch Acid. Featuring David Wm. Sims on bass and David Yow's unmistakable singing and yelping, anybody who likes The Jesus Lizard and hasn't paid attention to Scratch Acid is missing out. If you're not familiar with The Jesus Lizard, well, at the time Liar was released, they were the best band in the world.
Succumb, "Seedling"
Brand new, um, tunes here at Five Songs LLP! This was released just a couple weeks ago. Succumb play discordant metal somewhere between death and black metal, but 100% abrasive. I haven't had a chance to listen to this much, only one spin through the album, but as is usual with me and metal, I want to be confused and surprised at all times. This is working!
This is from the label The Flenser, a San Fransisco label specializing in noisy and extreme music. I've liked a lot of stuff they've released, including records by Botanist, Bosse-de-Nage, Eight Bells, Sannhet, and others.
(NB: I've embedded the Bandcamp link below, but also added it to the Youtube playlist.)