Steve Stebbing

I really thought I had a good, slightly mellow but completely accessible playlist going on for for number seven. I even opted for the most mainstream sounding song by an old nu-metal favorite of mine and had some classic “sounding” rock, as the oldest record appearing on this list was from 1995, a song I taped of FM radio then played it to death. Then, I come through with the facemelting metal of Dez Fafara and an epic metalcore group from down under before finishing off with one of the best album openers of 2022. I would also say that this playlist brings home the important

Track #1: Phantogram – Black Out Days – Voices (2014)

To be completely honest, I don’t think I’ve come across a bad Phantogram song yet and that includes their side project with Outkast’s Big Boi called Big Grams. This duo from Greenwich, New York always has precise beats, incredible vocals and a drive that always makes you want to groove to it. This was the first track I ever heard by them, the second track off of their second album, and my electro-pop obsession became fully realized with them. I also heard it on the series How To Get Away With Murder very quickly afterwards.

“Dig a hole
Fireworks exploding in my hands
If I could paint the sky
Well all the stars we shine are burning red”

Track #2: Puscifer – The Mission “M Is For Milla Mix” – “C” Is For (Please Insert Sophomoric Genitalia Reference Here) E.P. (2009)

Before Tool or A Perfect Circle even make their first appearance on one of my playlists here, in comes one of Maynard James Keenan’s weird side projects but one that is very much him. I will say that I got into Puscifer very late but it was this badass track that got me into them and the Milla in this mix did for sure. For those who don’t know, Resident Evil and The Fifth Element actress Milla Jovovich guests on this song and adds even more attitude to an already gritty and biting song.

“Bought a hot shot gat from a north end Guinea
(What do you know?)
Ante up with your ass ’cause you ain’t got a penny
(What do you know?)
Droppin’ bombs from above cut ya all down to size
(What do you know?)
‘Cause they’re hip to the bull and they’re hip to the lies
And they’re hip to the lies”

Track #3: Thrice – Of Dust And Nations – Vheissu (2005)

As an album, this fourth one from Irvine, California rock band Thrice, Vheissu, is an important one in my life and a record that I constantly and consistently go back to. A disc with an incredible flow to it, this track, in particular, brings an atmosphere to it that is truly special and resonant with haunting guitar licks from Teppei Teranishi, one of my favorite songwriters ever. I recommend putting on headphones, closing your eyes and drifting away to Dustin Kensrue’s lyrics. This is definitely not the last Thrice appearance.

“Step out from time
See the dust of nations
Step out from time
Hear the stars’ ovation”

Track #4: PVRIS – White Noise – White Noise (2016)

Another Spotify recommendation that just caught on to a fever pitch, I was first brought to the electro pop sounds of the Lowell, Massachusetts trio with their third album, Use Me, and the first single off of it, Death Of Me, a song that will definitely end up on a playlist in the future. This track came from a dig into their other albums, this song coming off of their debut record, and it hits on my love for groups like Metric, Dear Rouge and Yonaka with a cornered sound within electro pop.

“I’m watching
I’m waiting
I’m aching
Suffocating
I’m breathing
I’m speaking
Can you hear me?
I’m screaming for you”

Track #5: J. Cole featuring Amber Coffman & Cults – She Knows – Born Sinner (2013)

I’m definitely very new to the music of J. Cole and the Fayetteville, North Carolina rapper seems to be very much in the news right now with this beef and diss track war between Drake and Kendrick Lamar so maybe it’s the best time to add him to a playlist. I love artists who go outside of the genre to create like Kid Cudi does or Mac Miller did, rest in peace. This is an awesome reflection of that and an absolute earworm that got recommended to me on a random playlist.

“She knows
She knows, ayy
Bad things happen to the people you love
And you find yourself praying up to heaven above
But honestly, I’ve never had much sympathy
‘Cause those bad things, I always saw them coming for me
I’m gonna run, run away (Oh, I), run run away, run away (Oh, I-I-I)
Run away and never come back (Well, alright)
Run run away, run run away (Oh, I), run away (Oh, I-I-I)
Show ’em that your color is black (Well, alright)”

Track #6: Korn – Twisted Transistor – See You On The Other Side (2005)

Yes, this is definitely one of the more commercial songs from this Bakersfield, California band that will always have a special place in my heart. I thought maybe I would’ve started with something off of their debut or even the follow-up, Life Is Peachy or even Follow The Leader but there was something about the way this song hit my ear that I know this would be the beginning of many appearances for Jonathan Davis and company. Like a lot of Korn songs, this track plays on themes of loneliness but I love that Jon is more on the point of music being your savior.

“Because the music do
And then it’s reaching inside you
Forever preaching, “Fuck you too”
Your scream’s a whisper
Hang on you, twisted transistor”

Track #7: Wolfmother – Dimension – Wolfmother (2005)

Roaring out of Sydney, Australia, Andrew Stockdale and his trio were put on this earth to remind everyone that the classic rock n’ roll that the boomers rail on about having disappeared is alive and well and inspiring so many people. The cheat here is that I say this song came out in 2015 in this blog but I’m taking the track off of the ten-year anniversary edition of their landmark debut record and not one of the easy songs like the radio single Woman or the now hockey anthem The Joker And The Thief. Instead, I opted for a tune that has a good old Stockdale scream at the beginning, for added effect.

“Lightning crash on the hill tonight, yeah
And I got a feeling everythin’ is gonna be alright
Then a horse came a-runnin’ to me
I said, we’re gonna go to the sanctuary
Then a storm began to blow into another dimension”

Track #8: Spacehog – In The Meantime – Resident Alien (1995)

Being a generational MuchMusic kid, when the music video debuted for this track off the debut record of this Leeds, West Yorkshire alt-rock band, I was infatuated. I taped the video and watched it over and over again, singing along and breaking it all down, heck, I wanted to BE lead singer and bass player Royston Langdon. He was damn cool, so cool that he later married one of my dreamgirls Liv Tyler. They later divorced but that’s not the point. The point is he is and was pure cool and this song will always be an all-timer for me just for this simple reason. And that piano outro? C’mon, it’s magic.

“And when I cry for me, I cry for you
With tears of holy joy
For all the days you’ve still to come
And did I ever say I’d never play, or fly toward the sun
Maybe in the meantime, something’s wrong”

Track #9: Klaxons – Golden Skans – Myths Of The Near Future (2007)

My love for this track has to be directly related to my wife Jen showing me them along with a handful of other British groups that had slipped under my radar with all my heavy metal consumption at the time. Pulled from the debut record of the London band, categorized as dance-punk, new rave and pop rock, the harmonized vocals and the rising drive to this song pulled me in deep. To me, it’s crazy that this was the second single but Magick is still pretty great although I don’t think it gives a broad enough feel as Golden Skans does.

“Light touch my hands, in a dream of Golden Skans, from now on
You can forget our future plans
Night touch my hands with the turning Golden Skans
From the night to the light, all plans are golden in your hands”

Track #10: MISSIO – Bottom Of The Deep Blue Sea – Loner (2017)

I get really into dark pop and electro songs and this duo from Austin, Texas piqued my interest with the radio anthem Middle Fingers but hooked me down to the depressing depth beats with this beautiful and haunting track. The crazy thing is that among their three tracks that have charted as singles on United States alt-rock radio, it ranked the lowest. Sometimes I feel like the world doesn’t have any taste because this song has soul, and production and is a focus on founding member Matthew Brue’s winding road to sobriety as he reflects on his teen years as an alcoholic and addict.

“Welcome to my cage, little lover
Attempt to rearrange with ya, baby
Still don’t know your name, Miss Honey
Let’s go up in flames, pretty lady”

Track #11: Moby – Extreme Ways – 18 (2002)

Going old school to a simpler time in 2002 when electro was still pretty popular but the man at the top of the mountain, arguably at the time, was the New York City-born musician Richard Melville Hall, known to us as Moby. 18 is a long and fantastic record but this song pulls from my love for movies and music as this song is also known as the Jason Bourne theme, first playing in the Matt Damon character’s debut in The Bourne Identity that same year and appearing in every one of the films afterwards. Those beginning notes are iconic but the rest of the song gets me as Moby’s music always has a growing atmosphere that resonates with me every time I hear them.

“Extreme ways are back again
Extreme places I didn’t know
I broke everything new again
Everything that I’d owned
I threw it out the window, came along
Extreme ways I know will part
The colors of my sea
Some perfect colored me
Extreme ways that help me
They help me out late at night
Extreme places I had gone
That never seen any light
Dirty basements, dirty noise
Dirty places coming through
Extreme worlds alone
Did you ever like it then?”

Track #12: DevilDriver – Pray For Villains – Pray For Villains (2009)

After over ten tracks of pretty solid but largely calm and acceptable tracks, I’m now going to shift the script and melt some faces, starting with this title track off of a Santa Barbara, California groove and melodic death metal band’s fourth album that means a hell of a lot to this metal head. My love for Dez Fafara’s band Coal Chamber led me to his much heavier new project with their debut record and, after buying each subsequent record that followed I remember my anticipation putting on this CD as soon as I got it and this leading and title track ripping through me like a lightning bolt of energy. This song flies from the build-up at the beginning and is relentless to the end. My kinda jam.

“Every sorrow has its source
And your conscience isn’t free
In the dog days of summer
On another sober September
This was meant for you”

Track #13: Parkway Drive – Dedicated – Ire (2015)

Alright, let’s head back down to Australia for some more shredding metal and guttural screams with this monster of a track from this Byron Bay, New South Wales metalcore group. This track plays as a celebration of the band’s twelve years of existence and has some brutal breakdowns that feel almost iconically related to them. At its core, this song feels like a beautiful brochure to come visit Parkway Drive sonically because they have some metal wonders to show off and they definitely won’t be slowing down any time soon. The track is a ferocious gift that keeps on giving.

“12 years I’ve fought for this
12 years my heart still beats
For the ones who’ve stood beside me
Through the values that define me
No compromise, no surrender
These beliefs, they make me whole
Never the breaker, promise keeper
Remains the ethic instilled in me”

Track #14: Bad Omens – CONCRETE JUNGLE – THE DEATH OF PIECE OF MIND (2022)

After my discovery of Bring Me The Horizon, this was my next post-hardcore immersion and the leading single off of their second album, Finding God Before God Finds Me. Cue the arrival of their next album and one of my favorite records of 2022, THE DEATH OF PIECE OF MIND, a record filled with banger after banger and maybe the crowning achievement of this Richmond, Virginia four-piece. CONCRETE JUNGLE is the first song on the album and sets a brilliant tone for it, especially with the first growl from singer Noah Sebastian with the line on the breakdown “And I’m the fucking king”. Just awesome and an immediate energy bringer.

“The coyotes cry
And the sirеns pass and harmonize
Fires starting every day and night
Burn around us while we’re trapped inside
Wouldn’t it be nice
To play the game without a crooked die?
In a world where you don’t have to hide?
You don’t have to live in a disguise”