Oh Lucy, Can You Hear Me

Oh Lucy, Can You Hear Me

1. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, "Lucy"
2. The Replacements, "I Will Dare"
3. Bill Withers, "Lovely Day"
4. U2, "Even Better Than the Real Thing"
5. Shel Silverstein, "Dirty Ol' Me"
6. Monster Magnet, "Space Lord"
7. The Misfits, "Skulls"
8. Iggy Pop, "The Passenger"
9. Sinéad O'Connor, "The Emperor's New Clothes"
10. Ernie, "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon"
11. Têtes Noires, "Chains"
12. Stevie Wonder, "Boogie on Reggae Woman"
13. Pavement, "Date with IKEA"
14. Elvis Presley, "Don't Be Cruel"
15. The Meters, "Hey Pocky A-Way"
16. Bonnie Raitt & John Prine, "Angel from Montgomery"
17. The Weepies, "Gotta Have You"
18. The Rolling Stones, "Loving Cup"
19. Prince, "A Case of You"
20. Jane's Addiction, "Ripple"
21. Shane MacGowan, "Lucy"

Happy birthday, LAS.

Monster Magnet, "King of Mars"

Sometimes when I listen to Monster Magnet, I remember a friend's anecdote about them. I will paraphrase:

"I remember reading a metal magazine on the day of my Bar Mitzvah and seeing an article about Monster Magnet. There was a picture of Dave Wyndorf on a bed covered in naked girls and dollar bills. It made me wonder if God really was the way to go."

Metalie

Natalie asked me for a metal mix. I know that she enjoys Loretta Lynn, the White Stripes and Marilyn Manson, so I took it from there.



Metalie

1. Metallica, "Battery"
2. Nine Inch Nails, "Wish"
3. Goatwhore, "Apocalyptic Havoc"
4. Torche, "Healer"
5. Motörhead, "Ace of Spades"
6. Judas Priest, "Breaking the Law"
7. Lamb of God, "Now You've Got Something to Die For"
8. Living Colour, "Cult of Personality"
9. Anthrax, "Got the Time"
10. Black Sabbath, "The Mob Rules"
11. Monster Magnet, "Power Trip"
12. Iron Maiden, "The Number of the Beast"
13. High on Fire, "Rumors of War"
14. Deftones, "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)"
15. Ministry, "Jesus Built My Hotrod
16. Suicidal Tendencies, "You Can't Bring Me Down"
17. Rage Against the Machine, "Guerilla Radio"
18. Gojira, "Vacuity"
19. Slayer, "Angel of Death"
20. Converge, "Last Light"

I tried to sequence Metalie around an ideal jukebox night at the Lucky 13 Saloon. You come for your hits--your "Ace of Spades," "Breaking the Law" and "The Number of the Beast." But you stick around to find out that there's an American death metal band that rocks like Goatwhore, or to remember that the best Dio-era Black Sabbath song was on the Heavy Metal soundtrack.

I also took a few cues from Natalie's sister, whom I've known to teach Suicidal Tendencies in her classroom and throw horns to Monster Magnet outside of it. I've even included a few songs from a mix I made for Natalie's sister, most notably the Metallica/Nine Inch Nails combo that kicks things off. I wanted to try something new, but couldn't resist the way that the two sound together, or think of many bands that stand up next to either of them. They didn't become the great crossover metal and industrial artists by accident. In any case, consider Metalie a Sister Mix to her sister's mix.

But Natalie is her own lass, and she gets her own songs. I'm hoping that the Torche, Gojira and High on Fire tracks are all winning endorsements for modern metal. Maybe Natalie will hear Jeff Hanneman's immortality in "Angel of Death" and a Lamb of God song that wouldn't exist without him. Maybe this mix will provide endless headbanging delights, or maybe she'll forehand it into the garbage by the time she gets to "Guerilla Radio." But if that isn't metal, I'll eat my Motörhead box set.

Rage Against the Machine, "People of the Sun"

Saying that Zack de la Rocha can't rap is kind of like saying that Lou Reed can't sing.



I didn't realize how simple Rage Against the Machine's music was until I heard Audioslave, the easy listening project that the Zackless band formed with Chris Cornell. Listening again to "People of the Sun," it's basically just an E scale bass line and one power chord hammer-on, but with de la Rocha's vocals in the mix, it sounds like jazz. His rhyme schemes are not particularly deft, and his lyrics, including muddled messages about the Zapatistas and Aztec history, are no more profound than anything by Monster Magnet. But two things here make de la Rocha the greatest rap-rock frontman in history, and the only one who deserves a spot among the all-time metal greats.

The first is his tone, a clear and articulate spit that sounds furious at any level. Next to the mumbling grungers on '90s FM radio, it was a shock to hear anybody this intelligible. The second is his rhythm, an unpredictable, off-kilter delivery that changes verse by verse but always fits in the song. There are many ways that a rapper could approach music this easy, decades of sub-Run-D.M.C. flow to cash in on. But Zack's method was to write his own idea of hip-hop vocals. I'd bet that his voice convinced more people to care about Zapatistas than his lyrics did.

For Richard in Chiapas.