Monday Morning Shuffle

Sorry about this morning. Some things have been set in motion to ensure that years to come, i will be dictating this blog to my personal assistant while having my morning B, BJ and BR (figure it out for yourselves...) instead of typing it myself.

Will i still write the shuffle when i'm fabulously wealthy? Good question. I guess we'll see. (Going on a year by the way...)

On with the shuffle:
1. Zealots - The Fugees, off of The Score
I almost skipped this song. We've talked about the Fugees before. We've talked about how this is one of the finest hip-hop albums ever created. We've talked about how much i love Lauryn Hill and how i miss her. So what else is there? Well, nothing. But this is my favorite song on the album and if you have it, you should listen to it. And if you don't have it, go get the entire CD.

2. 500 Miles - Social Distortion
Man, i hate this song. But i love Social D covers. For some reason, they just do good work. I highly recommend Ring Of Fire and I Fought The Law.

3. Televators - The Mars Volta, off of De-Loused in the Comatorium
Lot's of repeats today but they're all good songs and we haven't talked about them before so we'll stick with it.
This is one of my favorite songs on this album...it starts of slow and has this methodical way about it. The lyrics are considerably creepy in the way that only the Mars Volta can be and it gradually gains steam and leads into the final song of the album. Since this is a concept album and all the songs lead into the next, it is kinda tough to separate one song in particular but this was always a segment of this album that made me stop and listen. There is also this meandering guitar through the song that you have to dig underneath the vocals to hear but it's one of those parts that is almost fun to follow.
If you don't have this album, well, i just don't know what to tell you.

4. Each Coming Night - Iron & Wine, off of Our Endless Numbered Days
I actually don't hate this song. I mean i knew there had to be a few in their collection that i could enjoy, i just didn't think it'd take me this long to find.
I don't get it. What's with the whispering. Just belt it out for fuck's sake! Unless you don't have a good voice, and then you shouldn't be a musician in the first place (with apologies to Bob Dylan).

5. Get Rhythm - Johnny Cash
This is one of my favorite Cash songs. Stop reading this and go listen to it. Great tune if you're stressed or in a bad mood.

Wow...that was uninspired. My apologies. That my friends, is why we do the Shuffle in the morning. I'll try harder next week.

Monday Morning Shuffle

Alright, busy day today. Lot's going on. Let's just get right down to it.

1. Flesh Into Gear - CKY, off of Infiltrate.Destroy.Rebuild
Most of you are familiar with CKY's sound from countless hours of watching Jackass. Bam's brother Jess is the drummer of this band and Jackass (and Bam) really got their start from being complete idiots on these promo videos called, creatively, CKY. If you haven't seen them, and you want to explore the roots of Bam, The Margera family, some sick skating and the performance art chaos that these fine individuals have perfected, then go find CKY, CKY2k, CKY3 and most importantly, Landspeed. Landspeed started it all...very few people know this. Also, CKY stands for Camp Kill Yourself.
As far as the band goes, i really like them. They rock for the sake of rocking. They have a crisp metal sound that doesn't go over the top in its brutality and i really like the sound of the lead singer's voice. They do some pretty unique things with effects and lyrics and they're definitely worth a listen. Some of it is actually rather catchy.

2. Don't Drag Me Down - Social Distortion, off of White Light, White Heat, White Trash
Last week, I decided to go nuts and download every Social D and Deftones song i could find. I was honestly surprised that the RIAA police didn't knock down my door that very moment. These are two bands that have massively obsessed followings that i never got into myself. I decided to give them a chance.
I've always liked Social D for the same reasons i like CKY above. They just rock for the sake of rocking. Let's get everything up tempo, let's get some good hard guitar going, let's beat the drums until our knuckles bleed and lets sing the lyrics like we've got an extra set of vocal chords, if we ruin these ones.
This song is no different. Good solid rock and roll fundamentals...verse, chorus, verse, guitar solo, chorus, done. I love it.

3. Free Bird, Lynrd Skynyrd
Jesus, am i over my head now or what? How do i write about this song? How do i even put it into context? Which part of the 10:07 do i talk about?
Ok, i figured out what to talk about: Why do people yell 'Play Freebird!!' at every concert? A simple google search proves that other people have spent quite a bit of time thinking about this very thing...in fact, the Wall Street Friggin Journal wrote quite a few words about it.
My favorite "Play Freebird!" moment happened a few months back when i was at the Mos Def show in Brooklyn. It was kinda quiet, Mos took a ton of time in between songs, looking at the set list, talking to the musicians, taking his jacket off, drinking water, talking to the audience...so he walks up to the mic after what had to be 3-4 minutes of silence and right as he's about to say something, someone yells it...Mos immediately cracks up, stumbles back a few steps and then just sits down in the middle of the stage with his head in his hands, laughing his ass off. I think he laid down at one point, and then gets up, walks back to the mic and says, "Fucking Free Bird???" and they go into the next song. Hilarious.
(and because it deserves mentioning, i pulled up google, did the search, read the article, wrote my little story about it and already typed the number 4 for the next song before Freebird finished...)

4. The Arcade Fire - Neighborhood 3 (Power Out), off of Funeral
I could have sworn i talked about this song in a shuffle before but it turns out that i haven't. I did mention it a week or two back in my Beats, Part 1 post.
This is without a doubt my favorite Arcade Fire song to date...it just rocks. I love the sound of it, the beat and the guitar. This is a song you can dance to. I really fell in love with it one night at The Hard Rock casino in Vegas when i was there with Nole, Ron and Jesse for the POOL show. We had met some other guys from the show and they had driven us over to the casino to hit another bar (we had been at The Palms and it sucked). As we were walking in from the parking garage, this song was playing over the main stereo and i asked the guy i was walking next to what he thought of the band, since i was still deciding if i liked them or not. He gave me a great explanation (although i'll be damned to remember what it was.) and the song just struck me as awesome as we walked through the casino listening to it.
Oh, and here's the inspiration for the song...

5. Every Ghetto, Every City - Lauryn Hill, off of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Again, i'm out of my league here. This song, this CD, this artist, is just flat out amazing and nothing i can say can do it justice.
This is one of my favorite songs on the album, just because her voice is so alluring and the beat is such a toe-tapper. It's just good.
Come back Lauryn. We need you. (i'd take a solo cd, a Fugees reunion, anything.)

Alright, that turned out pretty well. Wish i had some more time to discuss, maybe i'll come back tonight and add to it.

Have a good Monday.