Five songs : a pretty mess by this one band (and four others).

drawing of guitar amplifier with paint marker on wood block by me :)

Levitz / Grandaddy (1998)
Theresa's Sound-World / Sonic Youth (1992)
Dreams / TV on the Radio (2004)
That Great Love Sound / the Raveonettes (2003)
Head On / Jesus And Mary Chain (1989)

Levitz / Grandaddy (1998)

One of the great pleasures in life is discovering something awesome, and then tracing the history, etymology, evolution, and influences of that awesome thing and the tendrils emanating from it. I first heard Grandaddy in 2001 on a CMJ music sampler CD (Chartsengrafs) and immediately fell in love and started gobbling up everything I could find. The Modesto band had a handful of EPs, unreleased, barely-released, and compilation albums in addition to their studio ones, and in combing through these lovingly around 2004 I found one of my faves: the 4.5 minute clonky, atonal, mesmerizing fuzzy mess-of-melody Levitz. Jason Lytle has one of the most underrated voices in American music.

Theresa's Sound-World / Sonic Youth (1992)

My musical tastes have broadened continually since 1989, but also coalesced over the years as I've discovered increasingly the common threads that connect my favourite artists and sounds, such as a willingness to juxtapose noise with melody in innovative ways. I accidentally discovered Sonic Youth in the early '90s when I heard Youth Against Fascism and got goosebumps. 1992's Dirty is still probably one of their most accessible and pop-oriented albums, and still one of my favourites. Nobody gently prunes roses with a chainsaw quite like the daydreaming assault of these NYC legends.

Dreams / TV on the Radio (2004)

Ear Candy Records in Missoula, Montana. You gotta check these guys out, the clerk said.
I did. Every few years I revisit them and wonder why I don't listen to them more. The songwriting doesn't always live up to the quality of their sound, but when they are on, they are on. A mish-mash of styles and instruments and sounds that vacillates between chaotic and disciplined, but is always interesting.

That Great Love Sound / the Raveonettes (2003)

It is so hard to imagine the Beach Boys and the Jesus and Mary Chain having anything in common, but if there is any band that could possibly reconcile the disparity it would be the Danish duo whose commitment to fuzzy guitars and dark romance is rivaled only by an equal subservience to bubblegum catchy choruses and sexy songs that are here and gone before you have time to finish humming along to the first verse.

Head On / Jesus And Mary Chain (1989)

I think it's perhaps surprising sometimes, even (or especially) to those close to me how much I frequently love very dark-themed music. First time I heard JAMC was Snakedriver; their contribution to cult film classic The Crow. I immediately was drawn to the sneering, clang-buzz shadows of their three-minute fuzz-blasts. Veering along along rails of moonless night with occasional glimmers and strobes of light up ahead, the brothers Reid glumly raced through every track like it was their last; punctuated with shards of melody and fury and growls of noise. Finally, it was their last. But they left plenty behind. Not least of which was this four-minute headtrip.