Labels: Great Tunes, Jefferson Airplane, Music, Music Review, Songs, White Rabbit

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U2 - October

Released in 1981, October is routinely dismissed by critics and fans as the worst early album by the Irish quartet. Bono has called October a “difficult second album.” It should have been because the subject matter is bold for a pop rock band: god and spirituality. It was the perfect preface for what was the band’s break-out album – the stunning War. But to dismiss October is foolish. The album is a wonderfully complex, atmospheric mediation. Highlights include:

• The gritty, drum-heavy “I Threw A Brick Through A Window” that sounds like it was recorded in a basement

• The wailing lament of English occupation of Northern Ireland in “Stranger in a Strange Land” (just listen to the emotional anguish of Bono’s voice).

• The piano ballad about the death of Bono’s mother “October” feels like a modern church hymn.

R.E.M. – Fables of the Reconstruction

After three successful albums, R.E.M. made some major changes for its generally overlooked fourth album recorded in 1985. The band switched to a producer known for working with English folk bands and left the United States to record in London. The result is moody, sinister reflections about the myths of Southern culture and folk music. If William Faulkner was a musician – he may have recorded Fables of the Reconstruction. The album contains many of the bands best music including:

• The portentous “Driver 8,” which was supposed to be the albums big rock number – yet it feels dangerous and secretive. The song is about the landscape around train tracks.

• “Feeling Gravity’s Pull” opens the album and announces that this won’t be an album filled with jangling guitars. It’s about falling asleep while reading and it signals the bands mysterious direction on Fables.

• The wonderful song “Kohoutek” (which is a comet), but the song is really about (and trust me it gets dangerous trying to interpret R.E.M.) lost friendship.

Pearl Jam – Vitalogy

This 1994 album (and the third) for Pearl Jam was a departure from its Seattle roots rock anthem sound that drove its first two efforts. Vitalogy is more experimental and can feel a bit adrift for fans that were used to the first albums. But Vitalogy shows the band maturing and taking chances – as well as experimenting with different sounds. While it was a critical and commercial success – Vitalogy isn’t often held up as one of the band’s best – but it is. Take these gems for example:

• “Corduroy” is a strange little number that starts with a cool guitar riff and then just builds. It’s a huge concert favorite and despite never being released as a single reached 13 on the Billboard charts.

• “Not for You” is one of our favorite Pearl Jam songs. It’s just got riff – and is very, very cool.

• “Better Man” is a song lead singer Eddie Vedder wrote in high school. It’s a straight on rock ballad about abusive relationships – done right.

Talking Heads – More Songs About Buildings and Food

Could there be a worse name for an album in existence? Perhaps, the poor name is responsible for why this album doesn’t get much attention from critics and fans – other than the fabulous cover of Al Green’s “Take Me to the River.” But despite the lack of commercial success for More Songs, it perfectly captures the eclectic nature of Talking Heads – a mix of reggae, pop, country, and punk rock. Highlights include:

• “Warning Signs” is a bouncy number that hard not to enjoy. It’s infused with that edgy Talking Heads energy.

• “Found a Job” is a cynical little jab at corporate workers and makes you want to dance like a robot.

• Call us crazy, but “Take Me to the River” is one of the best cover songs of all time.

Led Zeppelin – In Through the Out Door

In 1979, Led Zeppelin released its last studio album before the death of drummer John Bonham. In Through the Out Door was disliked by both Bonham

and guitarist Jimmy Page, who thought the album was weak. It also received mixed reviews from critics (although the fans ate it up). It’s generally considered the forgotten album by the band. But that’s a mistake. In Through the Out Door, quite frankly, rocks. It’s a tighter package than the band’s earlier blues infused tunes. Highlights include:

• The seminal rocker “In the Evening” which begins with an eerie, creepy introduction that was going to be used for a film called “Lucifer Rising.”

• “All of My Love” is a song written by lead singer Robert Plant about the death of his 5-year-old son. One of the only Zeppelin songs that Page wasn’t involved in writing.

• “Fool in the Rain” is the last song by the band to reach the pop charts. It has a soulful, playful sound.

The Doors – Soft Parade

Generally considered the worst studio album by the Doors, Soft Parade actually is very good. The band experimented with added strings to its music with mixed results, but there are several songs on the album that stand out among the best the band ever recorded. Some of the best material on Soft Parade is:

• “Touch Me” is a rollicking good pop song that has become one of the band’s most popular hits.

• “Wild Child” is a hard hitting rock number with a heavy bass line and some fine organ work.

• “Shaman’s Blues” is one of the forgotten Doors’ anthems, but it holds up quite well.

Aerosmith – Draw the Line

Draw the Line was a commercial success in 1977, but hasn’t lived up beyond the 1970s and even the band has been critical of the LP. It was recorded in an abandoned convent in New York – and the band was heavily into

drugs during most the sessions. Yet there’s a raw tension going through Draw the Line that’s difficult to ignore – and it features some of the band’s better songs. Highlights include:

• “Draw the Line” is an explosive guitar rocker that features driving guitars and some vocal free play by lead singer Steve Tyler. Lots of great screaming.

• Long and mournful “Kings and Queens” is an underrated gem by the band.

• The jamming “Milk Cow Blues” which the band rolled out for an unplugged performance on MTV. Awesome harmonica.

The Cure – Pornography

When Pornography was released in 1982, it shocked critics and was generally polarizing for fans. To say Pornography is dark isn’t giving credit to darkness. Yet it was th

is album where the band really found its sound for the foot gazing anthems that made it famous in the 1980s. Highlight (or low lights) include:

• “The Hanging Garden” features lyrics about waiting for animals to die. It’s brilliant stuff.

• The very depressing “Pornography” opens with a police siren and somebody definitely cried during the making of this song.

• “The Hanging Garden” is a Cure staple (also known as “A Single”) and it rocks in a depressing kind of way.

Musical Memory: U2

12 Great but Lesser Known Songs by R.E.M.

Labels: Aerosmith, Doors, Led Zeppelin, Music, Music Review, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., Rock, Talking Heads, The Cure, U2

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Before we start banging our heads to the music, DaRK PaRTY wants to share with you five damn cool facts about AC/DC, one of the greatest heavy-metal bands on the planet.

5. Angus and Malcolm Young named the band AC/DC when they saw the acronym on the back of their sister’s sewing machine (meaning, of course, alternating current/direct current). They had no idea – none at all – that AC/DC was also a term used in homosexual circles for bisexuality until a taxi driver clued them in after a show several years later.

4. Bon Scott was not the first lead singer of the band. He was the second replacing Dave Evans in 1974. Most people think Scott died by choking on his vomit, but that’s not the case. He died in 1980 of acute alcohol poisoning after a night of binge drinking at MusicMachine, a London night club. He passed out in a car of a friend and the next day he was found inside dead.

3. The band has sold more than 150 million albums across the globe, including 68 million in the United States. Their mega-selling “Back in Black” is responsible for about one-third of that total.

2. The band fired drummer Phil Rudd in 1987 after he got into a fistfight with Malcolm Young. Rudd took Scott’s death poorly and fell into depression and alcoholism. After being fired Rudd bought a helicopter charter company and moved to New Zealand. He was rehired by the band in 1994 and remains the drummer to this day.

1. Before he selected his school boy uniform that has become his trademark, Angus Young wore other costumes on stage: Spiderman, Zorro, and even an ape suit.

Now on to the music. Here are DP’s picks for the 10 Best AC/DC songs of all time:

Whole Lotta Rosie

One of the best singles off the 1977 album “Let There Be Rock.” The song is about a real sexual experience Bon Scott had with an obese women who, apparently, was really, really good in bed. The song outlines her rather large assets: 42” by 39” by 56” and weighing in at 260 pounds. Fans have tried to find the real “Rosie,” but she has never surfaced. “Whole Lotta Rosie” is one of the songs current singer Brian Johnson sang when he auditioned as the replacement for Scott in 1980.

Walk All Over You

This is an underrated guitar rocker from “Highway to Hell” (1979). It has a great instrumental opening with Angus ripping through a staggered guitar solo which is soon joined by bass and drums before flying into the hard rhythm of the number.

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

This may be one of the greatest named heavy-metal songs. The title was actually stolen from the “Beany and Cecil” cartoon. A character of the show, Dishonest John, had a business card that read: “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. Holidays, Sundays and Special Rates.” The number is an advertisement for a gentleman who invites people to hire him for a menu of despicable deeds.

It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock n’ Roll)

A scorching rock n’ roller with bagpipes. How can you go wrong? His song was released on the “T.N.T.” album in 1975. The song outlines the dangers of being in a successful rock band. These include being robbed, beaten up, conned, ripped off, and getting old. Brian Johnson doesn’t perform the song live because it was a signature number by Bon Scott.

Hells Bells

Yes, grammatically it should be “Hell’s Bells,” but give Angus and his mates a pass here (remember they didn’t know what AC/DC meant either). The song starts with a death knell and then kicks into a hard rocker. The song is probably the band’s most popular and was written as a tribute to Scott on the “Back in Black” album from 1980. It’s also played at New England Patriots games to get the fans pumped up.

You Shook Me All Night Long

Another rocker from “Back in Black.” This one is probably the tightest song AC/DC has ever written. It’s a by the book heavy-metal pop number (with plenty of sex with lyrics like “She made a meal outta me and came back for more”), but AC/DC just let’s this one fly and it works.

Have a Drink on Me

Another tribute to Bon Scott from “Back in Black.” It’s a song about boozing with the boys.

For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)

From the 1981 album by the same name. The song has a cannon firing off in salute to AC/DC fans. Believe it or not, but the song is based on an ancient Roman salute: “Ave Caesar, morituri te salutant” (Latin for “Hail, Caesar, those who are about to die salute you”). In concert, the band usually plays this as their last song.

Who Made Who

This song was on an album of the same name that was the soundtrack to the 1986 Stephen King directed movie “Maximum Overdrive.” The movie is about trucks conquering the world and enslaving humans. The song reflects this very serious issue.

Thunderstruck

From the 1990 album of the same name. One of the finest rocking numbers by the band that is about an airplane journey Angus took where lightning stuck the wing of the plane. The song has become a staple at sporting event.

Read our post on 7 Really Angry Bands here

Read our tribute to R.E.M. here

Labels: AC/DC, Music, Music Review, Rock

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13 Alternative Songs That Make You Think
You’re Cooler Than You Really Are

There are songs that make you believe you can take a punch to the face. You shake it off and then leap into a flying round-house kick that sends your attacker flying over the bar and crashing into the liquor bottles. As he howls in anguish through his shattered jaw, his frightened friends pluck bottle shards out of his ass.

You, of course, adjust your sunglasses (cause, hell, man, you wear Ray Bans at night) and the blond you were eying earlier sashays right up to you and gives your bicep one of those tender little squeezes that would make you giggle if you weren’t so goddamn cool.

“Wow,” she whispers breathlessly.

You notice she has Jessica Simpson’s legs and Scarlett Johansson’s chest.

You slap a crisp one hundred bill on the bar – you know, for the bartender’s trouble. Tom Brady slides over with a shot of Jack Daniels and you tap glasses with him before shooting it down. He slaps you on the back and you gesture to Jack Nicholson and Clint Eastwood. They want to know if you’ll meet up with them later.

Whatever, dudes.

Kirsten Dunst calls you to her table, but you ignore her. Instead you head to the door with the blond. Outside Bruce Springsteen gives you a high five and you climb into your black Porsche 911 T.

When you get to the hotel room, the blond heads right to the Jacuzzi and you hang up your leather jacket and .44 Colt in the walk-in closet. Then you tune the room stereo to one of these songs.

Connected
Stereo MC’s

We’re not big hip hop guys, but there’s something about a duo of pale British white guys trying to get soulful that we dig. This song was really it for the Stereo MCs who disappeared faster than a banana in a gorilla cage after “Connected” hit number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100. Best part of the song is the disco sample from “(Let me) Let me be Your Lover” by Jimmy Bo Horne. “Connected” has a back beat that makes you bang your head up and down with a frown. Chicks dig it that.

Dragula
Rob Zombie

This song makes you want to burn down a church filled with nuns. Hard to believe this evil, little number is about the drag racer featured in The Munsters. It’s from Rob Zombie’s first album “Hellbilly Deluxe” and made popular by appearing on the soundtrack to “The Matrix.”

Low
Cracker

“Low” is one of those songs that just… rocks. It’s got a wicked heavy drum and bass line and just builds and builds until well… you rock out. It’s the best song from a rather bland American rock band that is generally known for being a nerdy group of angst-ridden babies. How they ended up recording a song this cool is one of the greatest mysteries in music history.

Hey Man Nice Shot
Filter

This is industrial music at its finest. It starts with the lyrics: “I wish I could’ve met you. Now it’s a bit too late.” The song is about the public suicide of Pennsylvania State Treasurer Budd Dwyer, who shot himself in the head with .357 magnum during a press conference. The music builds into a grinding crescendo with lead singer Richard Patrick screaming: “Hey Man, Nice Shot!” The band insists the song is about Dwyer’s guts and determination, but if you listen to this song long enough you’ll want to fire bomb your boss’s house.

December
Collective Soul

This song takes it down a notch from Filter, but it’s got that slick, scowling sound that makes you want to light up a cigarette and blow smoke into somebody’s face. Collective Soul could let it rip when the band was in the mood. The band would probably lose a fight against a group of kindergarten girls, but we don’t need our cool soundtrack musicians to actually be tough – just sound it.

Push It
Garbage

Garbage is so intense that if you invited them to your house you’d probably piss on your own rug. And “Push It” is their most intense song (so you’re never getting that yellow stain off). The greatest part of this song is when lead singer Shirley Manson (one of the coolest women in rock history) has a sampling of the Beach Boys telling her “don’t worry, baby.” The video contains an assassination scene.

Someday
Nickelback

This should be a song for wimps. The lyrics are about some she-man whining about his relationship coming to an end and wishing he and his girlfriend could just talk it through. Yeah, I know, I want to pistol whip the pathetic bastard as well. What saves the sorry ass lyrics is the very nasty guitar work by Ryan Peake. It scorches.

Souljacker
The Eels

The Eels are a popular indie band from Britain. But don’t hold that against them. This song is like sticking a piece of dynamite up your ass. It just explodes with rough and tumble lyrics. It’s about skulls and little Johnny shooting up his classroom, and little Sally not liking her daddy very much. The driving guitar, screaming lyrics, and brutal drum work makes you want smash your car into the next guy who plays Madonna on his car stereo.

Not For You
Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam is cool. Anyone who says otherwise should stop wearing lipstick to work (that goes for the chicks as well). Eddie Vedder says the song is about how music exploits young people and tries to sell them everything under the sun. That may be so, but when he starts screaming “Not for you!” you feel like pounding the guy next to you with a beer bottle.

Burden in my Hand
Soundgarden

Soundgarden isn’t just cool – they’re dangerous. Put them in a room with Collective Soul and, well, we can’t be held responsible for Collective Soul’s collective wedgies. In this ripping piece of grunge masterwork, lead singer Chris Connell sings about murder and dealing with the guilt through alcohol abuse. You won’t find this one in a Disney movie.

Killing in the Name
Rage Against the Machine

Rage’s signature song. It’s a furious rant against conformity and ends with lead singer Zak de la Rocha howling: “Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me!” Try not beating the crap out of a Republican after listening to this one.

It’s Been Awhile
Staind

Staind is from Springfield, Massachusetts, which is cool in and of itself. This is a guitar heavy reflection on how bad lead singer Aaron Lewis’s life has been: drug addiction, failed relationships, and an abusive father. Yet he blames only himself. We’d like to buy Aaron a beer and then sucker punch him. Just for fun.

Pale Shelter
Tears for Fears

By all rights this song should be very far away from this list. It’s by borderline girlie band Tears for Fears and it’s about parental love. Good Christ it pains us to even write that. But you know what? It kicks major ass.

Labels: Alternative, Music, Music Review, Rock

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