I was originaly going to call this “Five Songs I Found,” because it collects music I discovered on my own, that wasn’t recommended to me, or given to me, and that I didn’t come to through normal channels (music blogs, record stores, etc.).  But when I think about it, it’s sort of like saying Columbus “discovered” the New World Native Americans, so I’ll say that they found me instead.

Once again, Internet Explorer is the wrong browser for this.  Firefox works better. For everything.

Adelina Agostinelli, “Addio del Passato” from Edison Blue Amberol #28159

The UC Santa Barbara Cylinder Archive is one of those little miracles that happens on the Internet every now and then.  These are digitized versions of the first commercially recorded music, back when Thomas Edison was a media mogul.  There isn’t a lot of good information about the singer, Adelina Agostinelli, on the Internet (no Wikipedia entry, Google hits are mostly to songs for sale), but this is one of the most painfully beautiful songs I’ve ever heard.  The age and wear of the cylinders lends everything in the archive a certain spooky melancholy, but Agostinelli’s razor-sharp tremolo makes this 95-year-old recording leap out at you like a guy with a knife. Visit the archives.

Bud Luckey, “The Alligator King” from Sesame Street

I don’t remember this song from my childhood, so I think I must have missed the episode of Sesame Street it aired in.  I found it years later on the now-defunct Napster, looking for some other music that I can’t even remember now.  This song is like a Greek tragedy, only with alligators.  Basically, seven sons vie for their dissipated father’s crown, and end up destroying him in the process.  I’m sure that’s not what you’re supposed to take away from this song, but remember that I view the world through “angry glasses.” Watch the video. Buy it from Amazon.

Cox and Combes, “Washington” from YouTube

I love fake history.  I love it hard.  I don’t remember what led me to the YouTube video, but I had to make a recording of the song to play on endless loop at the 4th of July.  This is America to me: magic, hostility, awe, and dicks.  Watch the video.

Metalmags and Her Dad, “Dad I’m Changing” from Song Fight!

Song Fight! is a website that runs weekly contests to see who can write the best song (in any style) for a given title.  Metalmags won the “Dad I’m Changing” fight, and in the process penned one of the saddest songs on the Internet. Metalmags is herself an interesting character, a sort of sci-fi Miranda July, as this video should bear out. Visit Metalmags on Song Fight, or go to her MySpace page.

The Mountain Goats, “Going to Georgia” from Zopilote Machine

If you’ve known me for more than a few minutes, chances are you’ve heard this story.  I was looking for secret Neutral Milk Hotel songs on the Interwebs, and act of devotion where I come from, when I stumbled on the WORST version of “Two-Headed Boy” in existence. Made me hate my ears.  But the artist, the not-really-plural Mountain Goats, had a lot of other songs, an enormous number, actually, and one of them was called “Going to Georgia.”  I happened to be going to Georgia later in the week, so I figured it should be good for a laugh.  What I then downloaded was on of the most blisteringly beautiful, shrieking, stomping, poetic explosions in the history of Western music.  I don’t need you to agree with me, I need you to listen. Buy the Album.  Live the Dream.