For most of tis third playlist, I as really cooking something up that was pretty accessable for a broader audience. Capital Cities is safe, Van Halen is a classic ripper, Letters has a great comedown after that, its all going well until I unleashed a major contributor to the end of the Limp B-I-Z-K-I-T. That song being a great nu-metal groove aside, I brought it home with a great hip-hop track with an atmospheric beat to end.
Track #1: Capital Cities – Safe And Sound – In A Tidal Wave Of Mystery (2013)
Peppy and immediately catchy, this leading track off of this Los Angeles pop duo’s debut album started becoming an earworm in 2011, two years before its release, and by the time the record was available it was everywhere. Those trumpets, that beat and the repetition almost make your body sway to it unconsciously. One of the two, Ryan Merchant, stated that they see the songs as an “anti-doomsday anthem” and I kind of love that.
“I could show you love
In a tidal wave of mystery
You’ll still be standing next to me
You could be my luck
Even if we’re six feet underground
I know that we’ll be safe and sound”
Track #2: Van Halen – Unchained – Fair Warning (1981)
My love for Van Halen is definitely handed down from my mom, as cassettes for OU812, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, 1984 and Fair Warning were always ready for listening. So, when I started listening to Jay Mohr’s podcast Mohr Stories, I picked up on this great track as his theme song and it rejuvenated my love for it. I also love it when David Lee Roth talks to the audience and this song’s got a great piece of that.
“Thought you’d never miss me till I got a fat city address
Non-stop talker, what a rocker
Blue-eyed murder in a size five dress”
Track #3: Letters To Cleo – Here And Now – Aurora Gory Alice (1994)
This song comes on and my inner Ben Wyatt from Parks And Recreation comes out and I’m grooving to the great drive of this Boston band’s only commercially successful song complete with that fantastic Kay Hanley lyric delivery. Speaking of Kay, her wink to Ben at the side of the stage and his reaction is exactly like me when I saw Veruca Salt in concert as a teenager. Beat for beat, no difference.
“And it might be
The comfort of a knowledge of a rise above the sky
But could never parallel the challenge of an acquisition in the
Here and now, here and now”
Track #4: Taylor Swift – invisible string – folklore (2020)
Folklore is a record that I have to credit with both making me a fan of the 2023 crowned billionaire and giving me one of the records that got me through one of the most isolating parts of my life, the pandemic. Taylor’s storytelling is all on display in this beautifully written song, another perfect collaboration between her and The National’s Aaron Desner and it may have at one time been linked to Joe Alwyn but I’m pretty sure it’s all about the Big Yeti, Travis Kelce now.
“A string that pulled me
Out of all the wrong arms, right into that dive bar
Something wrapped all of my past mistakes in barbed wire
Chains around my demons
Wool to brave the seasons
One single thread of gold
Tied me to you”
Track #5: Black Pumas – Fire – Black Pumas (2019)
The first time this track popped into my headphones while on a random shuffle, it made me pause everything I was doing. Black Pumas are a band that feels like they pull from so many different influences but the classification of “psychedelic soul” seems like a great start. This song started my fandom for them and I can’t get enough of Eric Burton’s voice, it’s just incredible. It spurred me to buy the record immediately on their website. Maybe it will make you do the same.
“If there’s a fire, call the fireman
If you’re in pain, baby, call a doctor
Don’t be afraid to say, “I need you”
I will understand, help me understand you, oh
Understand”
Track #6: The Parlor Mob – Everything You’ve Be Breathing For – And You Were A Crow (2008)
Even though this Asbury Park, New Jersey band has been around since the mid-2000s, it wasn’t until Spotify said “Hey, you’ll like these guys” that I got into them. That said, these guys fit into that Raconteurs, Black Keys and Blue Stones vein of rock and that twangy riff to start the track pulls you in right away. I also had to let my wife know that no, they aren’t Greta Van Fleet and predated them by eight years.
“Little one, how can it be
You hurt yourself but do not see
And everything you’re breathing for
Will let you down and leave you sore”
Track #7: Dr. JOE – Keep On Coming – Glad You Called (2020)
Another discovery I made in 2020, this Austin, Texas artist, by way of Salina, Kansas really gripped me within the first five seconds with a big sound and a groovy piano. Band leader Joe Sparacino and the group haven’t released a full record yet but this five-song EP is the beginnings of something fantastic in my opinion and hopefully, a full record is coming down at some point. Following up the track by Parlor Mob, this is definitely carrying a certain sound in this playlist.
“I keep on coming
Keep on running keep on climbing
Til I’m flying way up high
And still I keep on coming
You better run
If you’re that celebrated son
Showcasing trophies you ain’t won
You know I keep on coming”
Track #8: Royal Tusk – Shadow Of Love – Mountain (2014)
This was the first track from this Edmonton, Alberta rock band that I had heard, thanks to the Vancouver radio station The Peak 102.7 back when they were able to showcase more Canadian artists. I was hooked immediately with that heavy little hook and got familiar with their debut EP Mountain very quickly after. I love a trio with a loud sound and Royal Tusk has a great command of that.
“No matter what you said
No matter how you said
It never meant much anyhow
Cause I’m the one you love and I know how it was
To give a love that gets around
And we’re falling out
And the fire is fading slowly
Even in the dark, I’m scared of my shadow of love
Shadow of love
Shadow of love”
Track #9: Bring Me The Horizon – sTraNgeRs – sTraNgeRs (2022)
I got into this Sheffield, England band way into their pretty huge fandom but this screamed to the inner emo inside of me that is too stubborn to die. Yes, through this my love for post-hardcore was born and Oli Sykes is kind of the giant at the top of that genre’s mountain. This song is a great example of his ability to write with pointed messaging that is close to him and it has a pop-punk familiarity that I like a lot.
“We’re just a room full of strangers
Looking for something to save us
Alone together, we’re dying to live and we’re living to die
Dying to live, living to die
We’re just a room full of strangers”
Track #10: Interpol – Memory Serves – Interpol (2010)
Kicking off with a beautifully echoing guitar riff from Daniel Kessler, this song is a great five-minute representation of why I love this New York City band. Paul Banks’s voice and lyrics are so resonant in a track that exudes such sadness, especially his piece in just before the outro. It is such a darkly resonant song that feels like it should be listened to at night, in the dark.
“It would be so nice to take you
I only ever try to make you smile
No matter what, we’re gonna keep you occupied
But only at your place
Only at your place”
Track #11: Limp Bizkit – Eat You Alive – Results May Vary (2003)
Way to screw up the vibes of this playlist with a dirtbaggy song from Fred Durst and company as they leaned into a supposed relationship wiith Britney Spears that was flat out denied by her, I know. This song is also the single that started the mighty Bizkit’s fall from the top but it still rocks even though it has some laughably gross lyrics.
“I just want to look at you
I just want to look at you
I just want to look at you, oh, all day
There ain’t nothin’ wrong, no
There ain’t nothin’ wrong with that
Once you seep in
Under my skin
There’s nothing, there’s nothing
In this world that could wash you away
Once you seep in, yeah
Under my skin
There’s nothing, there’s nothing
In this world that could wash you away”
Track #12: The Smashing Pumpkins – Thirty Three – Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness (1995)
I would argue that this is the most beautiful song that Billy Corgan has ever written or one of them at least and it brings me back to the time of first collecting CDs and getting this landmark double album for Christmas. Any song off this record transports me back to a time in my high school life and this, the final single released from Mellon Collie, might be my favorite on the record.
“Speak to me in a language I can hear
Humor me before I have to go
Deep in thought, I forgive everyone
As the cluttered streets greet me once again
I know I can’t be late
Supper’s waitin’ on the table
Tomorrow’s just an excuse away
So I pull my collar up and face the cold, on my own”
Track #13: Big Wreck – That Song – In Loving Memory Of… (1997)
Some good late nineties Canadiana for the list as any time this Ian Thornley led group’s big landmark track comes on the radio I still crank up the volume. I love Big Wreck’s sound to this day and am a big fan of Ian’s solo work so this is definitely not the first time this part of Canada’s great rock contributitions will appear on one of my playlists. The lyrics to “That Song” are so beautifully wistful as well and I appreciate it on that level.
“So I always fool my friends and we head down there
You think that we are en route
We just drove past your old house
And you weren’t there
And I’m always great when I’m hanging
With your buds and they lie
They think that I’m just fine
Its always been that way, just a pocketbook Brando”
Track #14: Kid Cudi featuring Ratatat – Alive (Nightmare) – Man On The Moon: The End Of Day (2009)
Kid Cudi is a rapper I felt connected to pretty quickly as an existential stoner myself, so his rhymes and composition really jived with my atmosphere. The Man On The Moon records have always been my favorite and because of this track here, Ratatat was put on my radar and I have loved everything about this Brooklyn-based electronic duo ever since. I also think this is a great track to go out on with this playlist. Calming after the Fred Durst too.
“I watch the sun collapse and took up in the clizzoud
I am the lone wolf, go where I wanna
Let the moon shine, be the guide to the lizzight
Even when I stray away, the light never left me
Uh, I learn to follow my instinct
Blinded by the light, rather that than the evil
Feelin’ out of place in a room full of people
Try and be the same, but you know you’re not a sequel
Your fate will be
Whatever it shall be, be, be, be, be
Won’t fight no more
I let these things just be, be, be, be”
Steve Stebbing 