Email Author Raymond Cummings

2012 Stories by Raymond Cummings

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  FEATURED STORY

  Top five songs about killing your television

  published Sep 26, 2012

  We're only a decade or two removed, at most, from the retirement of the phrase "fall television season." It's a misnomer, an anachronism, as if television totally disappears from the face of the Earth... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  7 defiant back to school songs

  published Sep 04, 2012

  Even for those of us who are long past our days of cracking books and praying our way through quizzes, there are days where life seems to consist of nothing but school -- twisted hierarchical aspects,... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Nine unheralded work songs for Labor Day

  published Sep 03, 2012

  As a holiday, Labor Day is rife with contradictions: one works all year to receive a single lousy holiday -- just one fucking day -- celebrating the worker, but that day falls at a spot on t... More >>

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  Mariah Carey's "Triumphant" sums up the 2012 post-Olympics hangover

  published Aug 13, 2012

  Like Christmas, if expectations are set too high for any event or experience, disappointment is pretty much inevitable. Wait long enough for something to arrive, and when that something is over, the a... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Noise musician Peter J. Woods on new album Fear, Joe Smith, and Minneapolis bro-downs

  published Aug 10, 2012

  Count Milwaukee's Peter J. Woods among the uncompromising innovators who keep modern noise music thrilling. Initially as Raperies (Not Draperies) -- and later, solo -- and in collaboration with outfit... More >>

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  Killer Mike on being unhappy with Obama, and a zombie apocalypse

  published Jul 04, 2012

  See Also:El-P on Prince, his mother, and full band rap showsKiller Mike might be the most dangerous MC spitting right now. This isn't to say that modern hip-hop lacks for dissenting, uncompromising vo... More >>

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  Five beach-party bangers, and the end of an era

  published Jun 05, 2012

  Yup, you guessed it: this is the end of this particular road, and 5ingles is headed to that great big blog column scrapheap in the sky. Five (!) years and God knows how many columns later, the time ha... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Five no-name remixes of A$AP Rocky's "Goldie"

  published May 30, 2012

  Despite having jammed "Goldie" dozens of times since it dropped, it's still pretty easy to kind of loathe the thing. Not the beat from Hit-Boy, which is sleepy/sinister nightmare lollipop genius that ... More >>

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  Five songs that sound like screws tightening

  published May 22, 2012

  Sometimes pop and rock songs are at their best when the grooves are especially spiral-like or boa-constricted, when melodic ecstasy and sonic claustrophobia combine to create something amazing. This w... More >>

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  Five unique covers of the Reading Rainbow theme

  published May 15, 2012

  LeVar Burton hosted Reading Rainbow from the early 1980s to the mid 2000s. Earlier this spring, Burton -- who you may also remember as Geordi La Forge from Star Trek: The Next Generation and its ... More >>

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  Five songs about forgiveness

  published May 07, 2012

  Ask yourself: are you over it, or are you going to nurse a grudger How long are you going to be mad at someone close to you for a perceived sin or sin of omission that ultimately doesn't mean that muc... More >>

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  Five songs that bore us 'til the chorus

  published Apr 30, 2012

  You've been here before, haven't your Killer chorus, solid hook, great pick-up, inspired singing, and then, bam: lame, bullshit verses. Verses so dire and undercooked that it'd have been better had th... More >>

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  Five songs exploring mental illness

  published Apr 23, 2012

  This week, 5ingles explores songs that boast connections to mental illness. None of these are quite as stupendous as Suicidal Tendencies' "Institutionalized" or Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" or Green Day's... More >>

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  Five felicitous spring songs

  published Apr 16, 2012

  Spring -- in case you were too busy holed up with an Xbox and a case of Five-Hour Energy to notice -- has pretty much sprung. Which is why this is as a good a time as any for rousing, energetic tunes ... More >>

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  Five songs exploring the joys of drone

  published Apr 09, 2012

  This week, 5ingles tiptoes idly through spring tulips and the wild, weird world of drone, sampling conventional and unconventional takes on the form. It is recommended that you pull the shades down, t... More >>

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  Five identity crisis songs: Danny Brown, Garbage, & more

  published Apr 02, 2012

  This week's edition of 5ingles spotlights songs by artists who seem to be undergoing an identity crisis -- musicians who aren't quite themselves, who apparently woke up a bit off of their game. So the... More >>

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  Five utterly frustrating songs: Odd Future, Of Montreal & more

  published Mar 26, 2012

  Sometimes a song comes along and you just hate everything about it. Everything is wrong: your sensors are howling, the hair stands up on your neck, and it's some nightmare shit where unless you can so... More >>

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  Five paradigm-shifting tunes: Fela Kuti, White Load, & more

  published Mar 19, 2012

  What if a song could change your perception of everything -- how you view yourself, others, the worldr And if a song could accomplish something like that, what sort of statement does that make about y... More >>

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  Five best early 2012 iTunes free MP3s

  published Mar 13, 2012

  iTunes' miserly propensity to give away a pittance of free mp3s by new and emerging artists is a sort of open secret, a veritable whisper in the blogosphere's never-settling echo chamber of mp3s and s... More >>

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  Five mid-winter "posse" cuts

  published Mar 06, 2012

  Throw a bunch of hot-sixteen spouting knuckleheads and/or fellow-traveler musos together over top of a beat or backing track, and you've got a recipe for awesome sauce, or abject disaster. For every "... More >>

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  Five songs for the bleak, midwinter blues

  published Feb 28, 2012

  Winter's kind of awesome -- at first. Well, for a couple weeks, anyway, until Christmas and New Year's are over and it quickly becomes apparent that there's nothing else to look forward to, in terms o... More >>

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  Five twisted Mardi Gras songs

  published Feb 21, 2012

  Today, a multitude of shiftless youth are in New Orleans to consume copious quantities of alcohol, ogle members of the opposite sex, don ludicrous costumes, become well-acquainted with NOLA PD jail ce... More >>

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  Five unexpected Valentines Day songs

  published Feb 13, 2012

  Valentine's Day is approaching like a row of fresh-blooming tulips, a wall of menacing storm clouds, or a bit of both. This greeting card holiday always has musical implications, and the state of the ... More >>

• 5ingles: Black Dice, Jay-Z, Priurient & More

  published Jan 24, 2012

  Whether you're dealing with Black Dice, black metal, or Blue Ivy, 2012 is figuring to be a year filled with dark, rich shades -- none of these half-assed hues, please! These five singles are a cross-s... More >>