Friday Five : ˈfrī-(ˌ)dā,-dē ˈfīv : On the sixth day of every week I hit the shuffle button on my iTunes and share my five and drop a little knowledge and insight for each track. Sometimes there is a playlist involved, sometimes there isn’t. Sometimes we have guest, but most of the time it’s just me. The rest is up to you, our friends and readers! Fire up your media player of choice and share the first five random track of your shuffle in the comments.

The Five:

Ani DiFranco – “Hell Yeah” (from Out of Range, 1994)

It’s been a while since an artist has appeared two weeks in a row. I lost touch with Ani somewhere after Revelling/Reckoning, but never lost love for her frank and beautiful songs. Out of Range was a record that came along at a turning point in my life, providing solace within its reflective songs.

Richard Hell & The Voidoids – “Love Comes In Spurts” (mp3) (from Blank Generation, 1977)

My memory of this song is tied entirely to the 1990 film “Pump Up the Volume”. I remember spending weekends at my friend’s house and watching marathons of it over and over.

Ugly Kid Joe – “Cats in the Cradle” (mp3) (from America’s Least Wanted, 1992)

I’ll admit to having this album primarily for the track “Everything About You”. When Tesla took their take on the Five Man Electrical Band track “Signs” all the way to number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, it became customary for the pop metal acts of the day to include a slightly obscure folk song in lieu of a power ballad. Ugly Kid Joe topped Tesla by taking the Harry Chapin classic all the way to number six.

Radiohead – “Karma Police” (from OK Computer, 1997)

This record took nearly 10 years to connect with me. When released in 1997, I was far too preoccupied with the Third Wave Ska and Indie Rock bands of the day to be bothered with Radiohead. I came back to the record after hearing the brilliant Kid A and now consider it to be one of my favorite records of all time.

U2 – “Get on Your Boots” (from No Line on the Horizon, 2009)

Every time I hear this track I can’t help but think it’s just a sub-par version of The Escape Club track “Wild, Wild West”. This release was disappointing to me, more for its lack of the caliber of songwriting that I’ve come to expect than anything else.

I showed you mine, what is on your five?