Note: To see what the 5 Minute Month is all about, click here to read the first post in the series.

Another grading crunch tonight, and a busy day tomorrow, so I’m going to “cheat” again and share a video clip here. But you’re in for a treat, particularly if you’re not familiar with the band Morphine. I was introduced to the band during my first year of college and promptly dumped a ton of money at the used cd store out next to the the Best Buy (yes, those were the days when locally owned record stores had more customers than the big box retail stores). I calculated what I spent there during my first year of college, and well — let’s just say I never told my father how much it was.

But back to Morphone — ah, Morphine. Driven by the whisky-on-ice smooth voice of lead-singer and slide bass player Mark Sandman, the band’s low, rumbling rhythms offer something to complement any mood, from bittersweet (“The Saddest Song”) to hang-over mean (“Do Not Go Quietly”) and party-down happy (“Top Floor, Bottom Buzzer”), as well as down-and-dirty (“Electric Supersex,” “Honey White”). Sadly, Sandman (and yes, that was his real name, and yes, it’s completely fitting) died in 1999 at the age of 46, following an on-stage heart attack. But the music, as they say, lives on, and oh, does it ever. Enjoy one of my favorites, “The Night,” the title track from the album of the same name, made all the more haunting because it was recorded only days before Sandman’s death, and released the following year.

Word count: about 250
Time: A good 10 minutes.