for those about to rock

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jesse's tagged me for a post on tunes. here goes:

1. "twin cinema", by the new pornographers -- basically, any song they've written would have a happy home on this list. this one is absolute perfection. my favorite song off of what is arguably their best album.

2. "big fat fuck", by ween -- the bass line has some kind of phasery effect on it that makes it all jiggly and bloated, and the vocals are processed to make them sound like fat rolls blurping out of a pair of stretch pants. ween is the only band that can make me laugh out loud with music.

3. "dicks hate police", by the dicks -- mean texas blues punk as brash as the name implies. lead singer gary floyd is a complete psychopath on this one, and the awesomely effective major-to-minor chord slashing that backs up his fury is equally maniacal.

4. "rusty cage", by soundgarden -- from the call-and-response guitars that herald the charging, fat and slinky verse riffs to come, to cornell's god-of-rock shriek, to the big ol' badass breakdown at the end of the song. i love how it fades out in that humming harmony -- it always makes me think of a car vanishing into heat distortion in the distance.

5. "heart full of black", by burning brides -- i saw these guys open for audioslave a couple of years ago. they reminded me a lot of the hellacopters: rolling stones swagger on steroids, coupled with loud and proud ac/dc ballsitude. i hadn't even heard this song before i picked up this wonderful game (to be blogged about soon), but its brawny hooks pulled me in right from the get-go.

6. "would?", by alice in chains -- for the way the chorus hits you like a tidal wave ("into the flood again", indeed) but especially for the outro, where cantrell uncorks one of the nastiest riffs in metal. when layne staley asks "have i run too far to get home?", it's not only a startling cry from the depths of addiction, it's a portentous question that he himself would ultimately answer with a sad finality.

7. "fairytale of new york", by the pogues -- i haven't been able to escape this song in the past couple of days. it's basically a ribbing duet in the style of conway twitty and loretta lynn, except it's actually a disfunctional christmas carol sung by two cranky irish punks. i've loved the pogues ever since i first saw shane macgowan spitting angrily at the microphone on their saturday night live performance.

now i need to tag seven. i nominate elliott, rasheed, scott, jamie, dan, meaghan and carl. have at it, folks!

posted by jomilkman @ 2:46 PM