Living Colour, "Solace of You"

I saw Living Colour earlier this week, and have been on a kick ever since. I thought it would be a good nostalgia show, and it was--their energy and musicianship is always first rate. But the songs also held up much better than I remembered. "Cult of Personality" is deservedly a classic, but the range of tracks they performed from Vivid and Time's Up made me wonder why both of those records are underrated in 2014.

My co-attendee commented on how surprisingly diverse their influences are, and that may have something to do with it. A band that covers Robert Johnson, Talking Heads, "Amazing Grace," MC5 and James Brown all in the same night is bound to alienate someone. The hipsters who know "Cult of Personality" probably lump it in with Megadeth and the other thrash metal bands they ignore, and headbangers who bought Vivid likely wanted more meat and potatoes rocking. But for those of us who enjoy more than one type of music, Living Colour offers a plethora of riches.

"Solace of You," from Time's Up, sounds like it could have been written and recorded for Paul Simon's Graceland. Living Colour are often wrongly described as "funk metal" (or worse, rap-metal) by people who don't know how to handle the individuality of an all-black rock band. But more so, Living Colour gave metal a stronger sense of African-American tropes and history than any other band, exhibited by the American Afrobeat of "Solace of You." Not only did they bring something to the game that distinguished them from Metallica and Guns N' Roses, but they beat (and bested) Vampire Weekend and tUnE-yArDs to these polyrythms by about 18 years.

Best of the Cars

"As I'm buying a car this week (!) you should each make me a playlist about cars," my sister texted her music nerd friends a few days ago. So much for all the other work I was supposed to do this week.



Best of the Cars

1. AC/DC, "Highway to Hell"
2. Public Enemy, "You're Gonna Get Yours"
3. The Clash, "Brand New Cadillac"
4. Gary Numan, "Cars"
5. Arcade Fire, "Keep the Car Running"
6. Guided By Voices, "Motor Away"
7. Tom Waits, "Ol' 55"
8. Robert Johnson, "Terraplane Blues"
9. Tom Petty, "Runnin' Down a Dream"
10. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, "Crosstown Traffic"
11. Wilson Pickett, "Mustang Sally"
12. T-Rex, "Jeepster"
13. Van Halen, "Panama"
14. The Dead Milkmen, "Bitchin' Camaro"
15. Prince, "Little Red Corvette"
16. The Who, "Going Mobile"
17. War, "Low Rider"
18. Howlin' Wolf, "Cadillac Daddy (Mr. Highway Man)"
19. Alice Cooper, "Under My Wheels"
20. The Beach Boys, "I Get Around"
21. The Beatles, "Drive My Car"
22. Chuck Berry, "No Particular Place to Go"
23. Big Star, "Back of a Car"
24. Janis Joplin, "Mercedes Benz"
25. Neil Young, "Long May You Run"

Let the good times roll.

The car song is one of the most celebrated rock traditions, a move that made careers for Chuck Berry, the Beach Boys and Bruce Springsteen, among others.  To help cut this down to 80 minutes, I enforced the one-song-per artist rule. Thus we get "No Particular Place to Go" and "I Get Around," plus the Springsteen quota filled by singer-songwriters who wrote better car songs (Waits, Petty, Young.)

The first track that sprung to mind was "Cars," by honorable one hit wonder Gary Numan, and the obvious Prince, War and Wilson Pickett choices were also too awesome to resist. Of course I also had to include "Highway to Hell" and "Panama," both deservedly canonized yet unappreciated as car jams, as well as the amazing "Your Gonna Get Yours," Chuck D's uncharacteristically materialistic hymn to his 98 Oldsmobile. Maybe Flavor Flav got into his head.

At the risk of alienating both of my readers, I think that blues songs are best heard on mix CDs. Robert Johnson and Howlin' Wolf's talents stand out more next to Tom Petty and Alice Cooper than they do next to shoddily-recorded alternate version demos of the same song three times in a row. I also like the Arcade Fire and Dead Milkmen songs better out of their original context.

I still love the Who and Jimi Hendrix contributions, almost unreasonably, and "Back of a Car," like everything else from the original Big Star records, makes me swoon. #1 Record/Radio City is one of those things that probably gets an advantage if it finds you when you're still young enough to enjoy shaving.

Enjoy the tunes, Sis! Drive safe.

PL8LIST

Here's a playlist that I came up with while making my next mix CD. If you can correctly guess the theme, I'll send you a copy.

1. Led Zeppelin, "Trampled Under Foot"

Even with a clavinet in the mix, Led Zeppelin could do no wrong on Physical Graffiti. Lyrically inspired by Robert Johnson's "Terraplane Blues," this would later become the basis for Mastodon's "Trampled Under Hoof."



2. Rush, "Red Barchetta"

Carenheit 451.



3. Megadeth, "Mechanix"

If classic rock is your bag, imagine that Keith Richards and John Lennon wrote a song together in 1961. Us headbangers have "Mechanix," a Dave Mustaine/James Hetfield composition that predates Killing is My Business and Kill 'Em All. Metallica rewrote it as "The Four Horsemen," and Mustaine is still bitter enough to introduce his version this way.



4. White Zombie, "Black Sunshine"

20 years removed from La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1, "Black Sunshine" sounds like MTV star Rob Zombie doing Punk Godfather Iggy Pop a solid. More so was Jim Osterberg lending his support to a fledgling suzz-metal band that couldn't get much more than a CBGB gig at the time.



5. Ministry, "Jesus Built My Hotrod"

Ministry roasts industrial metal on a spit under the nastiest scatting in recorded history, courtesy of the Butthole Surfers' Gibby Haynes. This should be played at NASCAR events.



6. Deftones, "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)"

Had the Deftones never played Ozzfest or the Family Values tour, "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)" could be on Pitchfork "Best of the '90s" lists. Instead, we'll have to wait for metalgaze to become a thing.



7. Metallica, "Fuel"

Please. Give that man his dabajabaza.



8. Rob Zombie, "Dragula"

One out of every six post-1998 action movies includes this song, and one out of every two needs it. Bonus points for the music video's Night at the Roxbury moment.