In this "assignment,"
i visit a random-as-a-squirell's-hat's-
-of course i stole this idea from "High Fidelity" (and why not? half of my days feel exactly like that movie, aside from the patchouli stink and former DJ experience), so i'll start my story there.
1. 'Taxman' from, The Beatles/Revolver [Parlophone 7464411]
any song that starts itself off with a count is already doing good in my book, unless you are counting in non-american speak, becasue then it is like i am kind of learning something and i'm not listening to music to get my learn on.
Def Leppard pulled a bad one, so go run laps : Sepultura, although, is allowed to do it in non-american.
the bass line is solid, the guitar work is talking right at you (the solo is SO perfect), the lyrics are excellently cynical in their delivery and content AND you get some tambourine. win-win-win-win-win
you think you were twisting and shouting to 'twist and shout?'
well dance yer little tucos off to this solid album starter.
they shoulda let George Harrison start off more albums.
it might not get the party started if all of your mohawk friends are over
but if there are ladies in the house, it's way better than Pantera.
- standout lyric -
"Now my advice for those who die, declare the pennies on your eyes"
2. 'Strength Beyond Strength' from, Pantera/Far Beyond Driven [EastWest 92302]
i'm not gonna sit here and say i listen to Pantera much,
if even at all anymore,
but the teenager in me went apeshit for Pantera.
how many crappy metalcore bands have stolen this breakdown? doesn't matter, they eat rat poop.
they wrote some awesome riffs and this is their best example.
first riff especially. fast, powerful, different. still stands up for me.
in retrospect, dudes' lyrics are retarded. but i'm not really sure what else could be expected from him.
- standout lyric -
"You're muscle and gall. Naive at best. I'm bone, brain and cock. Deep down stronger than all."
3. 'No Culture Icons' from, The Thermals/No Culture Icons [Sub Pop 611]
so, this is from a single, so this shouldn't even come up in this topic (it appears as track #3 on their full length "More Parts Per Million," but i don't have that one, so whatever, the game is changing right in your face, it's probably a different recording anyway, so stuff it), but it DID just come up into my earholes and it reminded me how much i like the song
(and this band), so, there you go.
it's four-on-the-floor, 1234 american garage rock and the song only lasts 2:21,
so you can play it on your FM stagstations if you want.
- standout lyric -
"Hardly art, hardly starving, hardly art, hardly garbage"
4. 'Deepwood' from, AVAIL/Over the James [Lookout 195]
there ain't no way to pick the best AVAIL song,
there ain't no way i can hear AVAIL and not feel good
there ain't no way i can hear AVAIL and not feel like a thousand other people also feel the same way
there ain't no way i can hear AVAIL and not feel that no matter what happens in life, no matter what comes your way, no matter what kinda bullshit you step in while walking in the rain to pick up your last check from a job you hated doing anyway, there will always be AVAIL, and there will always be an AVAIL song to remind you that things will eventually be allright.
and right now, 'Deepwood' wins.
you often hear poeple say things like,
"if i could do it all over again i'd, yadda whathaveyou go back to school blah blah work harder blah."
well.
If I could do it all over again, i would have gotten into AVAIL as a much, much younger person.
- standout lyric -
"i know i haven't always been around, but i can help you lead and take the blame anyway "
5. this one is a total cheater as it is four tracks, so technically NOT a track one, but MUST absolutley MUST be listened to as one track as they go right from one to the other to the next and to the next.
"Don't Eat the Yellow Snow/Nanook Rubs it/St.Alphonzo's Pancake Breakfast/Father O'Blivion"
from, Frank Zappa/Apostrophe (') [Zappa Records 310589]
humor - check
awesome call and response back up vox - check
Jack Bruce on Bass - check
tales of how to handle the weather, breakfast, royalty and business ethics- check
awesome prog rock - check
memorable chorus-like passages - check
i miss the times of tying songs together. i miss concept albums.
i miss being a wasted teenager and listening to Zappa with my friends while trying to figure out time signatures, crazy poly-rhythms, chord structures, key changes and these remarkably clever lyrics.
Frank Zappa was a genius and there is an entire catologue of work to back that up.
this is my absolute favourite 11-ish minutes of his work, most of which i can listen to at any given moment in any given mood.
- standout lyric -
"He went right upside the head of my favorite baby seal, and he went
WHAP
with a lead-filled snowshoe,
and he hit him on the nose and hit him on the fin,
and he
that got me just about as evil as an eskimo boy can be.
so I bent down and I reached down, and I scooped down and I gathered up a generous mitten-ful of the deadly
YELLOW SNOW"
- Worm
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