Monsula, "Concession"
Monsula were one of the bands in the East Bay who had a bunch of people from the scene move through (up to and including Five Songs favorite Lance Hahn of J Church) and thus helped really mould the sound of a lot of bands. But even setting aside influence, this is really good stuff, bringing in some post-hardcore to the punk sound of the East Bay. Both Monsula albums were re-issued by Lookout on CD as a single disc, which was a fantastic deal. I suppose you can't get that deal these days.
7 Days of Funk, "Let It Go"
Funky! 7 Days of Funk is Dâm-Funk with Snoop Dogg (who at the time was going by Snoop Lion), and he's super comfortable over these heavy grooves, leading to one of my favorites of his latter day career. It's just pleasant to listen to.
Greentrials, "Tin Gloves"
I have no idea where this came from. It doesn't even appear on Discogs, very little footprint on Allmusic, and RateYourMusic has a grand total of 2 people rating it. Not exactly a big impact. I haven't got the foggiest how it ended up in my collection, I have no recollection of ever getting it or hearing it before. Mysterious!
Anyhoo, eh.
The New Pornographers, "The Bleeding Heart Show"
In contrast, I can tell you exactly where I bought this record: from the now-closed Freemont location of Sonic Boom here in Seattle. During a lunch break from work. I had teriyaki pork from Yak's Teriyaki (also closed). Just why I can recall this is anybody's guess, it's certainly not useful, but here we are anyway. Both that Sonic Boom and teriyaki joint were really good, though.
The True Loves, "Sunday Afternoon"
And, in the category of Josh Remembers Stuff, the first time I heard this song was when I was listening to KEXP, driving a U-Haul from Kingston out on the Olympic Peninsula to Bainbridge Island during a drawn out moving process. I had to note the time on the clock so I could look up the playlist when I got where I was going, so I could figure out the act and buy the record. A great call on my part, it's a lot of fun.