Bo Knows

Bo Knows

1. Bo Diddley, "Bo Diddley"
2. U2, "Desire"
3. Buddy Holly, "Not Fade Away"
4. Led Zeppelin, "Custard Pie"
5. Dr. John, "Iko Iko"
6. The Rolling Stones, "Please Go Home"
7. George Michael, "Faith"
8. Elvis Presley, "(Marie's the Name of) His Latest Flame"
9. The Magnetic Fields, "I'm Sorry I Love You"
10. Bruce Springsteen, "She's the One"
11. Johnny Otis, "Willie and the Hand Jive"
12. The Clash, "Rudie Can't Fail"
13. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, "American Girl"
14. The Who, "Magic Bus"
15. The Supremes, "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes"
16. Jefferson Airplane, "She Has Funny Cars"
17. The Stooges, "1969"
18. Guns N' Roses, "Mr. Brownstone"
19. The Go-Go's, "How Much More"
20. Them, "Mystic Eyes"
21. Ace Frehley, "New York Groove"
22. Primal Scream, "Movin' on Up"

Happy Mother's Day, 2016. Guess the theme.

Aerosmith, Pump

When did Aerosmith go bad? Even their most forgiving fans, the ones who lapped up "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing", seem to have jumped ship. It's been 13 years since the band had a hit ("Jaded"), making this an even longer dry spell than the one that Run-D.M.C. infamously dragged them back from. Some will claim that Aerosmith jumped the shark when Steven Tyler joined American Idol, or when they brought in song doctors for Permanent Vacation, or at the peak of the drug years in the late 70s, or when a group of New England kids decided to form a band that sounded like a louder, dumber Rolling Stones. Whatever the case, at some point in history, Aerosmith decidedly started to suck.



I'm in the boat that claims Pump, which turns 25 this year, was Aerosmith's last great album. Get a Grip was more popular, and amazingly is still their highest-selling album, but by then they were already drowning in the pop-rock sound they had embraced on their comeback, shooting off McBallads like "Cryin'," "Crazy" and "Amazing" that could almost make you forget they were performed by the same five guys who wrote Rocks. It was also memorably the tour where they kicked openers Megadeth off the bill and replaced them with Jackyl. We should have known it would get worse from there.

But Pump is a different story. Yes, it's from their pop era, but it showcases Aerosmith changing pop rather than pop changing Aerosmith. It sounds more like classic rock than glam metal, with "Young Lust" and "F.I.N.E." roaring out like a pair of hidden toys in Aerosmith's attic. The Tylerisms were in their prime ("Love in an Elevator"), but he wasn't too self-conscious yet to let his heart get broken ("What it Takes") or give the world a chill over murder and sexual abuse ("Janie's Got a Gun"). Perhaps it was the need to distance themselves form an abundance of third-rate imitators, or maybe a need to compete with newcomers like Guns N' Roses who trumping Aerosmith at their own game. Whatever the case, Pump stands as one of Aerosmith's best albums, and a triumph for hard rock.

Guns N' Roses, "14 Years"

Margaret recently asked me for New Year's songs, and there are always two I can think of--young U2's still-thrilling "New Year's Day" and the Breeders' sleek "New Year." But for 2014 especially, I'll be blasting "14 Years."



Use Your Illusion I & II is the closest that metal comes to the White Album, a sprawling, double disc mess of ragers, ballads, studio experiments and enough curveballs to get more dizzying with every listen. But on "14 Years," GNR sounded more like rock music's other great classic double album, Exile on Main St. Perhaps that was a conscious move on Izzy Stradlin's part, letting the world know that he (and not Slash) was the band's Keith Richards, the indispensable songwriter who could drop a hook as well as the frontman. Axl steals the chorus, but it's Izzy's song, a perfect barrelhouse rocker that conjures up the Mick and Keith's chemistry, if not their ability to put aside their differences.

Such a Night

Such a Night

1.  Louis Armstrong, "When the Saints Go Marching In"
2. The Rolling Stones, "Brown Sugar"
3. The Allman Brothers Band, "Ramblin' Man"
4. Leadbelly, "In New Orleans (House of the Rising Sun)"
5. Jerry Lee Lewis, "Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee"
6. The Meters, "Hey Pocky A-Way"
7. Dr. John, "Such a Night"
8. Billie Holiday, "Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans"
9. Frankie Trumbauer, "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans"
10. Creedence Clearwater Revival, "Born on the Bayou"
11. Fats Domino, "Blueberry Hill"
12. The Band, "Down in New Orleans"
13. Chuck Berry, "Johnny B. Goode"
14. Elton John, "Honky Cat"
15. Hank Williams, "Jambalaya"
16. R.E.M., "New Orleans Instrumental No. 1"
17. Chris Kenner, "I Like it Like That"
18. Muddy Waters, "Louisiana Blues"
19. New Orleans Rhythm Kings, "Tin Roof Blues"
20. Charmaine Neville, "Second Line"
21. Professor Longhair, "Tipitina"
22. Willie Nelson, "City of New Orleans"
23. Lee Dorsy, "Ya Ya"
24. Tom Waits, "Tango Till They're Sore"

For Nick and Sarah.

Nine Inch Nails at Prudential Center

CMJ hit the New York City area this week, and an abundance of shows, panels, screenings, showcases and industry parties flooded our town. Artists and businessmen of all sorts flocked through, representing all kinds of music, ideas and levels of success. All of them almost certainly had one thing in common: none of them could compare to the show that Nine Inch Nails brought to the Barclays Center and the Prudential Center this week. For all the talents that might have been performing nearby, there was only one genius playing in the city this week.

25 years into one of the most innovative careers in rock music, Trent Reznor, who is as much Nine Inch Nails as Prince Rogers Nelson is Prince, could have filled the arena with a microphone and a karaoke machine. Yet Reznor brings the passion and perfectionism that marks his best studio work onto the stage. Each song got a different light and LED treatment, with mesmerizing patterns guiding us through much of NIN's terrific new album, Hesitation Marks. A blue screen silhouetted the band for "Find My Way," magnifying Reznor's two-handed microphone tricks and guitarist Robin Finck's guitar god strutting. Strobe lights underscored the intensity of "Copy of A" and "Somewhat Damaged," perfectly supplementing a band that made the most abrasive dance music known to humanity.

Of course anyone with the right budget could afford a light show, but Reznor takes it to another level. For another band, it would have been distracting, either bogging down the pacing or an obvious distraction from inferior songs. Artists like Tool and Rob Zombie have extraordinary light shows, but both employ them at the cost of spontaneity, playing identical shows each night to stay in line with the mechanics. But Nine Inch Nails played a rock show, changing up the setlist, swinging their instruments and blowing through every song with a forcefulness that no machine could match. A pair of female backup singers, including Lisa Fischer from the Rolling Stones, gave NIN's music an R&B swing that worked shockingly well, revealing Reznor's funk sensibilities in the new "Satellite" and the underrated "Into the Void," wherein when Reznor traded stanzas with Fischer like an industrial Mick Jagger and Merry Clayton. At 48, Reznor is still unearthing his talents as an arranger.

But even if he weren't the composer, programmer and producer of every Nine Inch Nails record, Reznor would have been a rock star. Grappling the microphone and hurtling himself toward the crowd, he's a ferocious lead singer, bellowing stories of pain and hatred that transcend the adolescence that he wrote them in. Whether or not he's outgrown the lyrics to "Wish" or "March of the Pigs," Reznor understands that those feelings still matter to a lot of people, and he expresses them beautifully enough for us to keep coming back. By the time he finished "Head Like a Hole," with blazing searchlights dying down for a huge LED screen with the NIN logo, there was no doubt that Reznor's talents as a performer are in a league with his studio wizardry.

For the encore, Reznor introduced the band (it was his first banter of the evening) and treated us to a few more songs, including "Echoplex" and Hesitation Marks standout "While I'm Still Here," the latter including the first-ever saxophone on an NIN record. But best of all were "I'm Afraid of Americans" and the closing song "Hurt," two drastically different compositions that gave two legendary artists (David Bowie and Johnny Cash, respectively) late career comebacks. One could take it as a pat on Reznor's back, or even a reminder that he doesn't need any guest songwriters or producers as he nears 50. Those of us in attendance saw that, like Cash and Bowie, Reznor deserves to be held in the highest regard for the way he's reshaped modern music.

Openers Godspeed You Black Emperor played just one song, the perfectly-named "Behemoth," a droning, 45-minute song that has not yet appeared on an album. Their performance may not have won them any new fans, but it was an appropriate gesture for a band that recently made a mockery of their Polaris Prize and once trashed Radiohead for being "owned...by a gigantic multinational corporation."

Ten Metal Bands to See Before You Die

NME's list of 50 artists to see before you die is problematic, as these lists always are, but it raises some good questions. Who are the artists that you need to see? Is it worth it to see Ozzy, who gives it his best shot but can barely keep up with the songs, just to tell your grandkids that you shared a room with the Godfather of Heavy Metal? Is it better to see a band like Gojira, whose songs you know, or GWAR, who puts on a real show?  Should you go to shows to discover new bands or to enjoy the ones you already like? How much of either?

My belief is that you go to shows to experience them. The only time I ever saw the Rolling Stones, there were plenty of big shots (and at least one Fox News commentator) there who probably couldn't tell Keith Richards from Charlie Watts. They got to live-tweet the show and tell their friends that they saw the The World's Greatest Rock n' Roll Band. If I ever go to a show for either of those reasons, I will stop running a music blog.

Keep in mind that this is for the state of metal in 2013, when Slayer and is down to two original members and Mastodon aren't having fun. On some nights, I'm sure they're all great--mind-blowing, even. But for consistency, if you only see ten metal bands from hereon, make sure that it's these ten. I'll be counting them down over the next few days.

G N' R Lies: "Mama Kin"

If we're counting Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide as GNR's debut, "Mama Kin" appears on two of the world's most beloved hard rock bands' first albums.

From Aerosmith, 1973:


From Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide, 1986:


After Rose Tattoo, Aerosmith was the second band that Guns N' Roses honored and obliterated by covering them on Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide. This time, it wasn't chops or charisma that gave GNR the distinct advantage, two things that Aerosmith has in droves. It was mainly something that that Aerosmith had that GNR didn't--a saxophone.

The saxophone may be the most polarizing instrument in all of rock n' roll, abhorrent in nearly every instance yet transcendent on Kid A, Cure for Pain and Bill Clinton's Arsenio Hall Show appearance. The A.V. Club and WNYC's Soundcheck have explored the sax's influence with simultaneous awe and scorn. For every Rolling Stones song with Sonny Rollins, there seem to be a thousand Kenny Gs. Aerosmith is one of the only rock bands that can make a saxophone work, and their "Mama Kin" is competent. But nobody listens to rock music for competence. "Competent" would be The Silver Bullet band, whom Aerosmith sound most like on "Mama Kin."

On Lies, "Mama Kin" comes right after "Move to the City," a GNR staple with gritty lyrics, a menacing progression, and yes--a saxophone. In that context, I like "Mama Kin" even more, knowing that Guns N' Roses had access to a saxophone and chose not to use it.

Joe Perry, whose band was taking Guns N' Roses out on tour the year that Lies was released, may have noticed. "I heard a lot of Aerosmith in them, which meant I also heard a lot of bands that came before us," Perry noted in Rolling Stone. "And I remember being a little jealous, because they were really hitting the nail on the head."

G N' R Lies: "Reckless Life"

When Appetite for Destruction broke, fans sought out Guns N' Roses' only other release, the limited vinyl-and-cassette Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide EP. There was no internet to help music fans track it down, no torrents to download it on, just word of mouth of the biggest and best band in the world caught on tape playing to a few lucky attendees.



Had there been an internet in 1987, one could probably learn that Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide was a cheat. UZI Suicide, presumably GNR's own label to self-release EPs like this one, is better known as Geffen Records, the billion-dollar home to Elton John and Donna Summer. Investing in a band that was described by its own guitarist as a hand grenade ("and its like everybody's struggling to hold the pin in,") Geffen tried to get as much mileage out of GNR as possible, and released the EP a few months before Appetite to help market a raw rock band putting out their own records before a major entertainment business picked them up. Recorded in a Hollywood studio with a pre-recorded audience track, the sound of the Gunners blaring over hundreds of screaming fans was probably as foreign to the band themselves as it was to most listeners.

As "Reckless Life" proves, GNR were just as crucial to implementing their reputation as Geffen Records. Most of the world was sleeping on their punk-infected hard rock, blues-based solos and wild personalities, so the band threw it all into their first song. Within a few years, people who couldn't tell Slash from Duff McKagan could tell you that GNR were party animals (so much, that their reputation made it to a joke in The First Wives Club,) but with few folks outside of L.A. clubs or Geffen's doors in on the gang's Songs of Innocence and Experience, the boys had to tell everyone that they were, in fact, miscreants.

Today, "Reckless Life" sounds a little forced, like a band singing about a lifestyle before they lived it out in public. Listening to "Reckless Life" feels like looking at early pictures of the Rolling Stones in moptops and matching outfits, a portrait of the artists as a young band, in search of an identities. But by the time "Reckless Life" was reissued on G N' R Lies, the band had found identities, and the applause track didn't seem so strange.

Song of the Day: Pantera, "Suicide Note, Part 1 & 2"

On The Great Southern Trendkill, Pantera's Phil Anselmo and Dimebag Darrell were fighting too much to record in the same studio. Darrell was taking out his aggression with alcohol and cars, Anselmo was months away from a heroin overdose. Yet, like the great artists that they were, the band channeled that tension into their most extreme record to date, taking the "experimental fourth album" idea further than nearly any of their metal forefathers.

"Suicide Note, Part 1" starts with effects, over-dubbing and balladry--nothing that one normally associates with Pantera--and wordlessly references Zeppelin in away that reminds me of Neil Young's shout out to the Stones in "Borrowed Tune". But then the sequel abruptly kicks the first one out, as if to remind you that Darrell and Anselmo were not just holding on to life, they were throttling it. Heard together, "Suicide Note, Part 1 & 2" documents a band fighting itself off the edge. But they also depict a light that not enough people get to.

For Gradison, 1983-2012.

Brooklyn Calling

Does this look like the kind of mix that would have "I Just Called to Say I Love You?" Go to the mall.



Brooklyn Calling

1. Foo Fighters, "This is a Call"
2. Queensrÿche, "Revolution Calling"
3. The Rolling Stones, "Come On"
4. Muddy Waters, "Long Distance Call"
5. The Beatles, "You Won't See Me"
6. X, "Your Phone's Off the Hook But You're Not"
7. The White Stripes, "Hello Operator"
8. Chuck Berry, "Memphis"
9. The Grateful Dead, "Operator"
10. Kraftwerk, "The Telephone Call"
11. Blondie, "Hanging on the Telephone"
12. Al Green, "Call Me (Come Back Home)"
13. Lou Reed, "New York Telephone Conversation"
14. The Notwist, "Pick up the Phone"
15. Love, "The Red Telephone"
16. Penguin Cafe Orchestra, "Telephone and Rubber Band"
17. Prince, "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore"
18. The Mothers of Invention, "You Didn't Try to Call Me"
19. The Clash, "London Calling"
20. Bob Dylan & The Band, "Long Distance Operator"
21. Tom Waits, "Telephone Call From Istanbul"
22. The Cure, "Wrong Number"
23. The Replacements, "Answering Machine"

23 songs that are less annoying than "I Just Called to Say I Love You" or "Call Me Maybe."

I put this together for some volunteers who will be making calls to help re-elect the President this weekend. For their sake, I'm not including the Dillinger Escape Plan or the Beastie Boys, although those might have been too distracting anyway. Thus, Brooklyn Calling doesn't get any heavier than "This is a Call," which, since Dave Grohl wrote it, will offend exactly no one.

Like many of my half-decent ideas, this one started with the Sound Opinions podcast. Every week, Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot kick off their call-taking segment ("On Sound Opinions, everyone's a critic, so give us a call on our hotline...") by playing a great song about the phone. Had I not heard them on Sound Opinions, I never would've picked out Chuck Berry's "Memphis" or "Come On," the Rolling Stones' first-ever single (also written by Berry) as phone songs. Kot and DeRogatis have also included "Operator," "The Telephone Call," "Call Me," "New York Telephone Conversation" and others on their show. Finally, thumbs up to Sound Opinions for featuring "Hanging on the Telephone," which I prefer to Blondie's more famous phone song.

Much has changed since the days of switchboard operators, and despite the underlying phone theme, many of these songs are hard to apply to the work that we do on the campaign. The most relatable songs here are definitely "Wrong Number," "Answering Machine" and "Your Phone's Off the Hook But You're Not."

Appetite for Destruction: "You're Crazy"

If two people tell you you're crazy, seek help. If Axl Rose tells you You're Crazy, you might be a lost cause.



"You're Crazy" is the heaviest song on Appetite for Destruction, a more concentrated shot of the band's punk roots than any of the punk songs that they covered. For some people, that grit is what separates GNR from Rock of Ages.

The charged version of "You're Crazy" is perfect for its spot on Appetite, where it's a blast of angry ruckus to change the mood back from "Sweet Child O' Mine." Still, there's an even creepier, unplugged version on G N' R Lies. The band all sound like they're succumbing to cabin fever as the tape rolls.



Yet my favorite version of "You're Crazy" is performed live, where Lies' gloom meets Appetite's aggression in a bloozey groove worthy of the Rolling Stones.



Hear how the song loses none of its venom at a different pace or a lower volume. How many other hard rock and metal bands could pull off stunts like this? If the Black Crowes ever heard "You're Crazy," they'd give up.

"You don't want my love, you want satisfaction," hisses Axl. These days, he's probably so used to getting his way that it seems crazy when he doesn't. But on "You're Crazy," he was just another guy who broke Nelson Algren's third rule of life.

New York for Talia

Last year, I made a New York City mix for my friend Ellen. In the process, I learned that there were far too many great NYC songs for one 80-minute CD, so I shaped it to Ellen's liking--she got Prince, Harry Nilsson, Leonard Cohen and Rancid. Last fall, I Frankensteined the mix for Richard. He got Nas, Jay-Z, Bill Withers and Lou Reed. Now, my buddy Talia has moved back to Brooklyn, and she enjoys Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen.




New York for Talia

1. Ramones, "Rockaway Beach"
2. Beastie Boys, "No Sleep Till Brooklyn"
3. Elvis Costello & the Attractions, "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea"
4. The Notorious B.I.G., "Juicy"
5. Bob Dylan, "Hard Times in New York Town"
6. Stevie Wonder, "Living for the City"
7. The Pogues, "Fairytale of New York"
8. The Drifters, "On Broadway"
9. Wu-Tang Clan, "C.R.E.A.M."
10. Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, "Drop Me Off in Harlem" 
11. The Rolling Stones, "Shattered"
12. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, "The Message"
13. Andrew W.K., "I Love NYC"
14. Fountains of Wayne, "No Better Place"
15. Tom Waits, "Downtown Train"
16. Simon and Garfunkel, "The Only Living Boy in New York"
17. Bruce Springsteen, "Jungleland"
18. Run-D.M.C., "Christmas in Hollis"

I'll take any excuse to put the Beastie Boys and Rolling Stones on a mix CD, or to argue that the Apple hosts the world's finest hip-hop. Here, "The Message" follows its clearest influence, "Living in the City," and there isn't much that can top "C.R.E.A.M." or "Juicy." But to Talia's liking, I'm giving her a Satchmo and Sir Duke team-up and of course "Jungleland," honoring her Springsteen fandom and the late Clarence Clemons' greatest solo.

Ellen returned my CD with her own terrific New York mix, and  I've cherry-picked "No Better Place" and "The Only Living Boy in New York" from her choices. Over all, I avoided the decibel levels that usually distinguish my mixes, though I couldn't imagine anyone resisting Andrew W.K.'s "I Love NYC."

One of my favorite parts of Ellen's and Richard's mixes was ending each one with the Sex Pistols' "New York." What better way to pay tribute to the Capital of the World than to end with one big raspberry blown by Johnny Rotten? Yet for all of Talia's intellectual curiosity, I couldn't picture her getting down to being called a pile of shit. Thus, I'm ending New York for Talia with the less divisive but equally satisfying "Christmas in Hollis."

Download here: New York for Talia

Dad Rock

Dad mixes are some of the hardest to make. Almost by definition, your father hates the music that you listen to. Mothers get far more musical tributes, and most father songs ("Come to Daddy," "Papa Don't Preach," "Had a Dad," "The End") are wildly inappropriate. Thus Father's Day mixes can be a chore, but let's give it a shot.

 

Dad Rock

1. Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Under the Bridge"
2. The White Stripes, "My Doorbell"
3. Shel Silverstein, "Dirty Ol' Me"
4. Squeeze, "Is That Love"
5. Fiona Apple, "Paper Bag"
6. Stevie Wonder, "Boogie on Reggae Woman"
7. Smashing Pumpkins, "Tonight, Tonight"
8. Sex Pistols, "Pretty Vacant"
9. Elvis Presley, "All Shook Up"
10. James Brown, "Night Train"
11. The Rolling Stones, "Loving Cup"
12. Harry Nilsson, "Maybe"
13. The Clash, "Rudie Can't Fail"
14. Jerry Lee Lewis, "What'd I Say"
15. R.E.M., "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"
16. Joni Mitchell, "Free Man in Paris"
17. Radiohead, "No Surprises"
18. Roy Orbison, "Only the Lonely"
19. Prince, "Starfish and Coffee"
20. Neil Young, "Comes a Time"
21. Santana, "Samba Pa Ti"
22. Shel Silverstein, "Comin' After Jinny" 

In the five years where DC101's playlist was the most important thing in the world to me, Dad would occasionally meet me halfway, at "Under the Bridge" or "Tonight, Tonight" (he never came around to "March of the Pigs.") I met him at Neil Young and Prince, and years later at Joni Mitchell.

Dad and I share an appreciation for Shel Silverstein, who appears in the giddy "Dirty Ol' Me" and the bittersweet "Comin' After Jinny," and we've also agreed on "Samba Pa Ti," Santana's best number and a subject of Nick Hornby's 31 Songs. On a limb, I'm hoping to increase Dad's appreciation for Jerry Lee Lewis, The White Stripes and especially the Rolling Stones, gracing us with my favorite song here.  Dad prefers the Beatles, so I've added Squeeze's best impersonation of the Fab Four.

This year, I've gone on Radiohead and Fiona Apple kicks, represented by father-friendly tracks, and more recently caught up to Roy Orbison, who joins a few of my favorite rock pioneers. The influence of artists like James Brown and Elvis Presley is now universal, and therefore taken for granted. A mix CD is ideal for emphasizing why they really matter.

The sore thumb here is "Pretty Vacant," which outguns everything else here by miles and shouldn't be on a mix for anyone over age 30. That being said, I do worship the Sex Pistols, and Dad likes Johnny Rotten's letter to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, so I'm taking a chance.

PS: Metalsucks has an excellent photo gallery of Metal Dads right here.