They say good things come to those who wait, and Georgia quartet Five Eight proves it with the release of Your God Is Dead To Me Now (Iron Horse). It’s the band’s first album since 2004, and it features the lineup of Mike Mantione (principle songwriter, singer and guitar player), Sean Dunn (lead guitar), Patrick Ferguson (drummer and producer) and Dan Horowitz (bass), which hadn’t recorded together in 14 years. For its ninth release, Five Eight explored some heavy social and moral themes inside catchy pop riffs complete with whistled choruses, leaving you feeling like maybe things aren’t so bad after all. This week’s mix tape was made by Mantione, Dunn and Ferguson. They add, “We hope you enjoy our new direction.”
“Your God Is Dead To Me Now” (download):
The Low Lows “Tigers”
Patrick: Monk Mangham Parker is down there in Austin, Texas, obsessively making the most beautiful and haunting music you’ve never heard, and that’s a damn shame. Because he makes almost no move toward marketability or commercial viability, my secret fear is that it will somehow never reach the audience it deserves. The Low Lows started to catch fire in Europe, so what’d Parker do? He added a horn section and two other utility musicians, making the band so large it’s logistically impossible to get it across the Atlantic. SXSW came to town—Parker fled to NYC for a week, “just until the weirdos clear out.” Don’t fall in love with the Low Lows (it’s too late for me), because if you do, you’ll likely get exasperated and nearly give up, then you’ll stumble into a live show Parker called you about 30 minutes before curtain (“Oh, yeah, we’re in town. I meant to send you an email”), and the Low Lows will break your heart again. Video
Badfinger “Baby Blue”
Sean: Absolute power-pop perfection, brilliant melody, concise solo and middle-eight. This song makes more than a few recent bands completely unnecessary, but I’d rather not say who. Video
The Replacements “Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out”
Mike: This pretty much has all the elements of preteen punk-rock madness. I just love the disgust they have for the doctor! It’s off Let It Be, what has to be one of the most influential albums of the post-punk movement. An album I have been trying to rewrite most of my musical career. Video
Alan Lomax “Rosie”
Patrick: This is from Prison Songs (Historical Recordings From Parchman Farm 1947-48) Volume One: Murderous Home, recorded with a single microphone on a Nagra field recorder. There’s so much grief and anger in this recording, it’s astonishing. Video
The Mars Volta “Cotopaxi”
Sean: From Octahedron, with Thomas Pridgen drumming. Frighteningly difficult time signature, but it still feels like a rock song, not a math problem. Good for blowing the cobwebs out if I need another way to look at a song. Like bad microdot acid, but in a good way. Video
The Flaming Lips “The W.A.N.D.”
Mike: This one stokes all my conspiracy-theory paranoia, and when we’re in the car, the kids just love rocking out to that masterful guitar riff. It is amazing to me that so late in their career, they were able to create such a perfect song. The Lips put on one of the best live shows I have seen in years, which they ended with Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs,” set to a perfectly horrific photo montage, not unlike a psychotic version of Baywatch. Video
Neil Young “Don’t Let It Bring You Down”
Patrick: I got this on the After The Gold Rush vinyl reissue last winter. This song will forever remind me of a beautiful, turbulent, complicated woman I loved once. I dropped the needle on this track, and I was right back to riding in the van back when we used to tour for 200 shows a year, staring out the window wondering whether I was going to have a girlfriend when I got home, feeling that deep, blue puddle in my chest so heavy I was hardly able to breathe. Video
Will Johnson “Just To Know What You’ve Been Dreaming”
Sean: The album version of this song has beautiful piano track, but this one really draws you in. Looks like it was recorded on a cellphone, at a time when they were quite large. We toured with Centro-matic back in the day, and I don’t think anyone in either band had a cellphone, not even a really big one. Video
M. Ward “Chinese Translation”
Mike: Perfect singalong song for people who can’t remember words. This makes me cry, when I hold my wife’s hand and look in the rearview mirror at my five unbelievable children. With vacation anticipation and the wide-open highway of possibilities stretching out before us, M. Ward sings of the sublime joy of living like a zen master!!! Video
The Harmonizing Four “Motherless Child”
Patrick: Richmond, Va.’s Harmonizing Four made the most beautiful, sacred music I’ve ever heard, particularly during their tenure with bass singer Jimmy Jones in the late ’50s/early ’60s. Try to put this song in context in your mind before you listen; it was recorded in the pre-civil rights-movement South by a band of young men born in the capital of the Confederacy. Now listen to it, and see if this song doesn’t move you to the point that you think about changing your life. Video
Verbena “Baby Got Shot”
Sean: Birmingham, Ala.’s Verbena should have been huge. This song has a razor-sharp hook and a snarly, snotty delivery that is just irresistible. I like putting this on and telling people it’s a new band: “Oh, man, they played here last week. You missed it.” Once you hear this song, you’ll realize why people get so upset. Then I tell them they slept on this in the ’90s. Too bad. You still missed it. Video
The Small Faces “Maybe I’m Amazed”
Patrick: I think this version of the McCartney classic by a very drunk Small Faces is head and shoulders above the original. This track made me actually rethink my feelings about Rod Stewart in general. But the real standout here is the phenomenal drumming by Kenney Jones: solid and very present while still being tasteful. I wish I had this on my iPod for blasting in my car and at parties. Video
