Welcome to the new year! I wonder how many times I'll type 2017 into the post titles around here? Anyway, here at Five Songs Ltd., one of our resolutions this year is to actually resume making progress learning the bass, which will be fun. But rest assured, we'll keep bringing you this nonsense as well.
Anyway, today we're doing another special: searching for the word "new" in the library and then randomizing among those tracks. Let's see what we get? I had 500 hits for this, a suspiciously round number, so this might just be randomized among the first 500 tracks with "new" in the name. Whatever. To the music!
John Zorn, "Melanie"
We've encountered Zorn before with Naked City, but here he is in a much more conventional project. However, being Zorn, it's still pretty avant garde. This is from News for Lulu, an album where they interpret a bunch of hard bop songs, but with a trio of saxophone, trombone, and guitarist. Yes, no rhythm section at all. At any rate, from this track, I think it'll be clear if you'll like this album or not.
No, this doesn't qualify at talking about jazz, why do you ask?
(NB: the song starts at 8:02 in the linked video.)
The Newcomers, "Pin The Tail On The Donkey"
An irresistable tune from the middle years of Stax, I feel like I've heard this song a ton being sampled by DJs, although my sad-ass memory is failing me about who did it exactly. Anyway, hard not to have a smile on your face when listening to this.
The New Year, "Gasoline"
Well, an appropriate band name here! I'm not sure the jangly rock of The New Year is really that celebratory, though.
J Church, "New Book"
From the debut album from J Church, which is still one of my very favorites from them. Like any great album, this album has the power to transport me back to a specific place and time. In this case, it's back to being in college, walking to the record store on a cold winter's day, and deciding to just spin it a second time rather than start up one of my new records on the way back.
Joanna Newsom, "Emily"
And let's finally ring in the new year with, um, 12 minutes of weird folk. Sure, why not. Seems appropriate. Here's to a new start!