This week I have everyone faked out with some good classic tunes, some heavy guitars hidden within, but then I go full post hardcore at the end and ruin the entire vibe. This is the hazard of creating a playlist in a day by day master but, now five months into doing this, that’s a pretty obvious statement, right? I break my own rules this week by allowing another Ronnie James Dio track onto the list a little early, but in my defense, it was his personal favorite of all he had created. I bring back two of the greatest bands of all time with songs off two of the greatest albums of 1999 and bring some love to a few newer rock bands before coming through with some serious noise. Trust me, if you have an open mind, it’s all worth it.
Track #1: Crown The Empire – what i am – Sudden Sky (2019)
Getting really angsty to start off this playlist and, don’t worry, the angst will most likely continue, at least for a few tracks. Spotify recommended this Dallas, Texas metalcore band with this exact song in particular and I was pretty hooked. I really love lead singer Andrew Rockhold’s voice a lot and the melodic notes hit so well here. There is a harder edge to his vocals elsewhere on the record but this is definitely the single to sell them on and I think a lot of people would dig them just hearing this leading single. The song itself is about the people which the band used to work within and how they overcame the obstacles associated with these people in order to take more control of their own band. I feel like it’s a direct shot at the labels.
“What am I supposed to do? (What am I supposed to do?)
You’re dragging me away from the promised land
You fucked me up (You fucked me up)
But I refuse to let you kill what I am”
Track #2: Middle Class Rut – New Low – No Name No Color (2010)
There’s a beautiful simplicity to the music of Middle Class Rut that I absolutely adore and maybe it comes down to my complete fascination with rock bands with two members. The first exposure to this Sacramento, California duo was certainly on the radio as this song was huge but I feel like calling them a one-hit wonder is so derogatory as they may not have had huge commercial success but they have so many bangers spread across five albums. Seriously, if you’re looking for some good rock grooves, there are far worse places you could look.
“I’ve got a new low
All 52 cards in a row
I see now that I won’t let go
No, I won’t let go
Well, who am I?
A cold shoulder left to cry
You feel bad, well so do I
Yeah so do I”
Track #3: Incubus – Nowhere Fast – Make Yourself (1999)
The second track on one of the greatest albums ever made, this is a grouping of songs I will be forever revisiting until the day I die. The second appearance of this legendary band, it was only a matter of time and the intro to this song makes it an incredible earworm immediately and a song that gets trapped in my head all day, not that I’m complaining. It also gets me with its content as well, a song about being stuck without an idea of where to go existentially. I’ve definitely had my moments there and had this song as a playlist for closing in on twenty-five years, as the album hits that milestone at the end of October. Incredible song and record and I think many people would agree.
“I take a look around, it’s evident the scene has changed
And there are times when I feel improved, improved upon the past
Then there are times when I can’t seem to understand at all
And yes it seems as though I’m going nowhere really fucking fast
Nowhere fast”
Track #4: Foo Fighters – Stacked Actors – There Is Nothing Left To Lose (1999)
The return of the Foo to my playlist and, although it is the second track of their’s to feature here, it does signify a couple firsts as this record was the first to feature the late and infinitely great and missed Taylor Hawkins on the kit as well as this being the first track off their third album. Dave comes out with some real vitriol to start out this record, tearing into society for being plastic and phony and, while he has stated it isn’t about any one person in particular, Courtney Love claimed on The Howard Stern Show that the song was directly about her. Of course, it is.
“God bless, what a sensitive mess
Yeah, but things aren’t always what they seem
Your teary eyes, your famous disguise
Never knowin’ who to believe
See through, yeah, but what do you do?
When you’re just another agin’ drag queen”
Track #5: Limp Bizkit – Rollin’ (Air Raid Vehicle) – Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water (2000)
Alright, partner, keep on rollin’, baby, you know what time it is. Now I know y’all be lovin’ this shit right here, because Limp is back on the playlist and it wasn’t a track from one of their lesser albums like Results May Vary, especially an album not featuring the incredible work of guitarist and total alien Wes Borland. This was the third single to be released in the Chocolate Starfish era and you best believe I was totally obsessed with it and played this album on a loop and definitely this song on repeat. It was the whole steering wheel dance to it, as indicated in the music video plus it was the entrance theme for The Undertaker during his American Bad Ass gimmick he was doing towards the tail end of the Attitude Era. This is a song of a generation and very fitting for this playlist.
“You wanna mess with Limp Bizkit? (Yeah)
You can’t mess with Limp Bizkit (Why?)
Because we get it on (When?)
Everyday and every night (Oh)
And this platinum thing right here (Uh-huh?)
Yo, we’re doin’ it all the time (What?)
So you better get some better beats and, ah
Get some better rhymes (D’oh!)
We got the gang set, so don’t complain yet
Twenty-four-seven, never beggin’ for a rain check
Old school soldiers blastin’ out the hot shit
That rock shit, puttin’ bounce in the mosh pit”
Track #6: Black Sabbath – Heaven And Hell – Heaven & Hell (1980)
I haven’t done anything super classic in a long while it feels like so here is something tht was a total influence on my life and it is one of the founding groups of metal, Black Sabbath but the second itteration with Ronnie James Dio as the lead singer. This is sort of a cheat in my mind as I just brought Rainbow’s track Temple Of The King at the end of March so it’s a little early for more Dio but, to be honest, I totally spaced when I saw the mighty Sabbath, classic metal blinders. This is definitely the most Dio song of this era in Sabbath’s history and, reportedly, it was the song that Ronnie was most proud of in creating it. He had said that the lyrics are about which path we take in society, hether it be the path to Heaven, or the path to Hell and for the religious people who force you to do things and make you think that everything is evil. This song is supposed to tell you to choose your own path, which makes you a good person. Kind of fitting these days for sure, almost like Dio was a prophet. I’m not the only one to say that.
“Well, if it seems to be real, it’s illusion
For every moment of truth, there’s confusion in life
Love can be seen as the answer
But nobody bleeds for the dancer”
Track #7: GROUPLOVE – Inside Out – Healer (2020)
Sometimes a track can just be fun and mae you want to bop along on a sunny day and that is exactly what GROUPLOVE represents to me. A Los Angeles area collective that features Ryan Rabin on drums, the son of guitarist and founding Yes member Trevor Rabin, I got into these guys with their second radio single Tongue Tied in 2011. This song has a fun beat to it and that wild group singing to it that almost comes off as anthemic. The plucky sounds made this one a total earworm and it was a bright spot of grooves during the darkness of the pandemic.
“Baby
You’re makin’ me crazy
You got the only thing goin’
That I know’s worth waitin’ for
Baby
How you amaze me
Yeah, you got the only thing goin’
That I know’s worth waitin’ for”
Track #8: The Hunna – Sick – The Hunna (2022)
If there is a band that I have been most excited to discover, along with BLOXX, it’s these guys, an indie rock band out of Watford, Hertfordshire, England. Formed in 2015, this song comes off their fourth album, a record filled with absolute jams from top to bottom so expect almost all of these songs to appear at some point. People who have been reading this blog probably already know this, but I love an echoey song and this into has that feel all over it. The build to this song gets me going and I always bump up the volume when this track comes on my random mix. The Hunna absolutely rule and I hope more people get into them, they deserve all the acclaim.
“Aren’t you sick of feeling like that?
‘Cause I’m sick of feeling like that, honey
We’ve constantly got whiplash
We’re always tryna stay afloat”
Track #9: Jack White – If I Die Tomorrow – Entering Heaven Alive (2022)
Love him, hate him or with indifference, it is undeniable that Jack White has immense talent and this song is a beautiful showcasing of that. This song feels like a dusty desperado lament and I love every second of it. The analog Mellotron and Septavox synthesiser that Jack plays on this song add so much atmosphere to the song and then it gets to that solo and my face melts off with the beauty that I’m hearing. Furthermore, in my opening statement, if you hate Jack and his work, really, why? Explain yourself!
“If I die tomorrow
Could you find it in your heart to sing?
If my mother cries in sorrow
Will you help her with the many things
That she needs from time to time and day to day?
So if I die tomorrow
Will you know exactly what to say today?”
Track #10: Nine Inch Nails – No, You Don’t – The Fragile (1999)
Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails are massively important artists to me as it is music that spurred me through the adversity of my high school years. It seems cheesy and cliche to say that but his songs and lyrics were a safe space for me to retreat to after bad days and, with this album released during my final year of senior high, it was an infinitely played record during that year. Now an album that I think should have the greatest double album of all time sort of status, I took a track off of it that I love to yell and sing along with, embodying all of Reznor’s vicious defiance in some really pointed lyrics. When this song comes on, you play it loud. That’s the rule.
“Teeth in the necks of everyone you know
You can keep on sucking ’til the blood won’t flow
When it starts to hurt, it only helps it grow
Taking all you need (But not this time) No, you don’t”
Track #11: The Used – The Bird And The Worm – Lies For The Liars (2007)
Now, for some angst stuff to add to this playlist, it’s something I kicked it off with but relaxed on as far as a theme went. Bert MacCracken and The Used have been on my radar since the release of their second studio album, In Love And Death, in 2004, and I was an instant fan. This song, the first single off of their follow-up to that record, is different than any song they had put out previously has an insidious creepiness to the sound that I absolutely love. It has a plucky gothicness to it, a song that Bert wrote about this brother, who suffers from schizophrenia. A fantastic song through and through and it has been heard in some movie marketing before as an orchestral cover was used in the trailer for the 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans, a Blu-ray I actually just picked up recently.
“He wears his heart safety-pinned to his backpack
His backpack is all that he knows
Shot down by strangers whose glances can cripple
The heart and devour the soul”
Track #12: Alice In Chains – Heaven Beside You – Alice In Chains (1995)
Easily one of my favorite groups of all time, Alice In Chains is a band that will constantly appear on my playlists, both in the original Layne Staley line-up as well as the modern William Adler iteration because the sound and feel still remain the same. What other bands can really say that they recovered completely through the loss of their frontman and leading sound of their band? This song is an alltimer for me, something that also plays beautifully on their Unplugged performance but I wanted to bring the original off of their self-titled record, their third album, one that is occasionally informally referred to as Three Legged Dog and Tripod. Jerry Cantrell wrote and takes the lead vocals on this track, a blend of rock and acoustic about lost love, a relationship ended by his own cheating actions. That outro to this song is so incredible too and gets stuck in my head.
“So, there’s problems in your life
That’s fucked up, and I’m not blind
I’m just see-through, faded
Super jaded, and out of my mind”
Track #13: Death From Above 1979 – Freeze Me – Outrage! Is Now (2017)
I am and forever will be a sucker for rocker duos that produce a loud and distorted sound and these two from Toronto, Ontario embody that sound and, along with Royal Blood, have become one of my favorite artists in the last decade. The first single off of an album that I give a weekly spin, this is a song that you put on in your car for a drive and crank the volume big time. I will fully admit that it took this track for bassist Jesse F. Keeler and drummer and vocalist Sebastien Grainger to be put on my radar, with this being their third studio record but best be sure that I am really making up for lost time and many of their tacks will appear right here on one of my playlists.
“Tell me where you are, am I getting warmer?
You freeze me with that look when I go undercover
Readin’ me my rights when you were gettin’ closer
I resist arrest until you say it’s over”
Track #14: LIMBS – Empty Vessel – Only The Lonely Know (2020)
Alright, apparently it’s time to wake the fuck up because I’m bringing a closer that is going to rattle yor ears and melt your face. A post-hardcore band from Tampa Bay, Florida, Spotify is how I was put onto the path of this thunderous group and I’ve loved everything from them starting with this trio of tracks released during the pandemic year. Post hardcore has definitely furmulated some of my favorite music of my early 40s somehow and maybe it’s me wanting to hold onto my youth or that it has evolved to this level but I’m hooked on it and I’m really hoping on a third album to be incoming anytime now. Sorry to my listeners to not have one playlist without something heavy. Sorry, not sorry, I guess it would seem.
“You can take it or you can leave it
Say goodbye, you can watch me burn it all away
Yeah
You’re just a ghost
A memory lost in the smoke
You’re just a ghost
A memory lost in the smoke”
Steve Stebbing 