Johnny Mercyside: grinderman

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Monday, March 21, 2011

Noughtie: My 100 Favourite Songs of the Decade (Part 9)

Overall Favourite Artists | Best of 2000 | Overall Least Favourite Artists | Best of 2001

To view part 1, click here.

To view part 2, click here.
To view part 3, click here.
To view part 4, click here.
To view part 5, click here.
To view part 6, click here.
To view part 7, click here.
To view part 8, click here.

Here we go, the Johnny Mercyside official Top 20 is upon us. Here are my favourite 20 songs of the last decade. As I said at the end of yesterdays post, a lot of these songs are of the metal genre, I love my metal, but unfortunately it’s getting harder and harder to find decent bands that can play heavy music well. Anyway lets countdown from #20 to #11.

#20. “Turn Me On Mr. Deadman” – The Union Underground

Released: 18/7/00

Album: An Education in Rebellion

"I'd bet my bottom dollar this band will be around 10 years from now." - John Kalodner, the man who signed The Union Underground, the same man who found Foreigner, AC/DC, Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins

I thought I’d put up that quote. This band was going places. They had a great label, a highly reputable man working with them, a great sound. As I said, this band were better than the other metal bands around at the time, Drowning Pool, Disturbed, the lot. They were better. But then they split. There’s no reasons to why they split, they just did. It’s so frustrating when you see talented bands call it a day when you see other less talented bands have the spots these bands thoroughly deserve. If you don’t believe me when I say that this band is better than the others, listen to this song. It kicks fucking ass. That being said, I do have Disturbed and Drowning Pool featured in this listing so I want to emphasise, as bands a inferior to The Union Underground. But yes, they have also done some fantastic songs, as you will see later on.

#19. “Dance Commander” – Electric Six

Released: 13/10/03

Album: Fire

You must obey the Dance Commander! How can anyone not like this song? It’s by far the best of the three singles Electric Six brought out off their debut album. It really sounds great too; it’s one of their heaviest songs. But the lyrics are so funny, and the video of course is just awesome. Gay Bar may be a slightly better video, but this is definitely the best track. I absolutely love the Dance Commander, and shall obey him and all his orders. Amen.

#18. “Renegades of Funk” – Rage Against the Machine

Released: 21/11/00

Album: Renegades

Rage released two singles in this decade and they both make this list. Tells you all about the quality, not only of their songs in general, but their cover versions. They are rumoured to be thinking about making a new album and you know something, I’d embrace that. When you hear of certain artists say after a long time out “we’re gonna make a new album!” you have your suspicious. Yet Rage are a one in a million band, and I think they have a certain quality that no other band can match. Renegades of Funk is the epitome of that. They’ve made it their song, they’ve took the original by Afrika Bambaataa and throttled it, and turned it into this metal rap classic. I love this song and hope Rage can make a new album.

#17. “No Pussy Blues” – Grinderman

Released: 19/2/07

Album: Grinderman

I don’t know how much you know about Grinderman, Nick Cave’s new sister band. The best way to describe them is that they’re exactly the same band as The Bad Seeds, but with the old punk vibes from The Birthday Party. It’s like the two bands met for drinks and Nick Cave merged the inspiration of one and put them into the other. No Pussy Blues is a fantastic song, a very noisy song, yet it’s just great. The best thing about it is definitely the lyrics, the man that Nick Cave speaks of tries to hard to band this lady, yet “she never wants to”. He tries really really hard, and does everything for her, and she still “never wants to”. Nick Cave got asked in an interview if there was any other meaning to the song and he responded, "No, it's just about not getting any pussy." Great stuff, seriously, give it a listen above.

#16. “Starfuckers, Inc” – Nine Inch Nails

Released: 2/5/00

Album: The Fragile

Listings: Best Videos

Starsuckers was the censored single. But Starfuckers, has already been covered on this site in the Best Videos listing. The story is very simple, Trent Reznor, the man behind NIN, doesn’t speak much in interviews about artists he has been associated with in the past. So this is basically a statement against all those artists who went to the press and ripped his name to pieces, primarily Marilyn Manson of course. So Trent vented all his frustrations into this song. And what a song it is. It’s definitely the best single off The Fragile, and is often played in their live sets. It’s just a brilliant song. Also, NIN is the last artist to have three songs featured in this listing with the third entry being the highest, this one, at #16.

#15. “I Hate People Like That” – Jerk

Released: 18/11/02

Album: When Pure is Defiled

I’ve said it before, Jerk are nothing original, yet they have a sound that I thoroughly enjoy. Basically a Manson ripoff with immature lyrics, Jerk sound like the type of band I’d really dislike. However I really like their only album release and this was the primary single released off it. And no matter how silly the lyrics are, the song just sounds really good. It’s one of those stereotypical industrial metal songs but I just somehow enjoy love listening to it. It’s just hard to explain.

#14. “Vicinity of Obscenity” – System of a Down

Released: Hypnotize

Album: 29/5/06

I never knew this was released as a single until I did my research and saw it as such. Hypnotise for me, is SOADs worst album. By quite some distance as well. It just feels like SOAD went emo and this was the end result. But “Vicinity” was definitely my favourite track off the album, as it’s the type of song you’d expect to hear on say “Toxicity”. It’s just completely random hard hitting awesomeness, the type of song that you’d hear on their earlier material. The lyrics are random, funny and yet there is a hiding message amongst the odd lyrics. It’s just a fantastic song, with seemingly random shouts of “Banana, banana, banana, terracotta, banana, banana, banana, terracotta pie!” It’s brilliant.

#13. “Bombshell” – Powerman 5000

Released: Unknown, 2001

Album: Anyone for Doomsday?

“GET UP! GET UP! GET UP! DROP THE BOMBSHELL!” Man this song really kicks ass. It’s definitely one of the best metal songs of the decade, and it really should be more popular than it was. It’s the type of song that really should be a metal anthem yet for some reason no one really heard it. Seriously, if you like your metal anthems listen to this. I heard this song as it was the Dudley Boyz’ theme back in the early noughties in their time in the WWE. It was also on the Evolution soundtrack. It’s a great song, its nonsense heavy metal with a brilliant chorus. It’s simple yet fucking awesome.

#12. “Capital G” – Nine Inch Nails

Released: 11/6/07

Album: Year Zero

A lot of NIN fans including myself think that the start of “Capital G” is a discreet hidden homage to the king of pop, Michael Jackson. It sounds convincingly like the start of “The Way You Make Me Feel” it’s too close to say otherwise. But the rest of the song is Trent Reznor mixing his industrial sound with electronic synth of the late eighties. It just sounds so funky and cool and the lyrics are badass too. The song is about a man with a lot of power, if it’s God or Government, or George (Bush) who knows boasting about having this power; not giving a shit about anything that is lower than him and claiming how stupid it is for people to suggest that having power corrupts people as they have never even experienced it. It’s just everything about this song, it’s just perfect.

#11. “Shut Me Up” – Mindless Self Indulgence

Released: 12/9/06

Album: You’ll Rebel to Anything

Listings: Best Videos

The song got that so many people to notice this little odd industrial/punk/rap/electronic band just marginally fails to make my Top 10. They’ve done some fantastic songs, before this hit and after, but nothing will sound as perfect as this one. Nothing will grab the attention of so many people as this one. It was just released at the right time with the right music video and it got the attention that they deserved many years ago. Shut Me Up is a song that I think metal fans will remember for a long time because it just sounds so good. “I like my coffee black, just like my metal” is simply one of the best lyrics of the decade. MSI did so much right in this song and the video alongside it makes it even better. Seriously, if you like your metal like you like your coffee (… that doesn’t sound right but never mind) then give this song a go. The song, the video, are just fantastic.

That brings us closure to the ninety songs that miss out on my Top 10. Tomorrow you’ll see what songs I absolutely fell in love with, the ten songs that shaped my decade musically. A lot of them are metal as I said, but I do have some hard rock in there too. Take care and I hope you come back tomorrow.

To view part 10, click here.

Monday, February 28, 2011

Noughtie: Best of 2007 (Mixtape)

Welcome to Part 16 of the Noughtie series. This is the eighth Mixtape, celebrating the year of 2007 in rock and metal. 2007 marked a turn in music officially in my eyes. Emo music was really at the centre of everything, and finding good bands was starting to get difficult. The last three years of the decade were the worst three, in my opinion, but there was still some good stuff coming out. As usual, here's the rules of the Mixtape.

A Mixtape is a playlist of a certain genre, band or era. The list is generally 80 minutes long, the same length of a blank CD, with further recommendations if some of the songs aren't to your taste. Remember kids, downloading is wrong!

So what songs do I like from 2007? Let's find out shall we!

I'm Not Jesus - Apocalyptica
Walk - Avenged Sevenfold
Capital G - Nine Inch Nails
This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race - Fall Out Boy
Keep Your Hands Off My Girl - Good Charlotte
On Call - Kings of Leon
Tick Tick Boom - The Hives
The Pretender - Foo Fighters
Invincible - Muse
Running Up That Hill - Placebo
The Prayer - Bloc Party
Sick, Sick, Sick - The Queens of the Stone Age
In the Garden - The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster
Conquest - The White Stripes
Drama Queen - Switches
Brianstorm - Arctic Monkeys
Blood Sugar - Pendulum
No Pussy Blues - Grinderman
Baby Fratelli - The Fratellis

Don't like some of these songs? Try these five:

This Suffering - Billy Talent
Putting Holes in Happiness - Marilyn Manson
Teenagers - My Chemical Romance
Sorry - Madness
The Salmon Dance - The Chemical Brothers

What were your favourite songs of 2007? Do you agree with my assessment that the decade took a turn for the worse this year? Add any comments below. I'll be back on Monday for possibly my favourite part of the series, counting down my favourite 20 music videos of the decade. Have a good day.

Monday, February 07, 2011

Noughtie: Best New Artists

Overall Favourite Artists | Best of 2000 | Overall Least Favourite Artists | Best of 2001

Welcome to Part 7 of 22 of the Noughtie series. You've seen my overall favourite artists in the first part, but what about the artists that started their careers in the actual decade? Only two in that listing have made this list. What two? Who are the other eight? Let's get to it shall we!

10. Dizzy Rascal

Began in the Year: 2000

Good 'ol Dizzy. He's one of those rappers that can work with an alternative audience really well. For me personally his brightest moments were his early single "Fix Up, Look Sharp" which sampled The Big Beat, a cracker of a song, and "Bonkers" which had a phenomenal bassline. He's done a great job working in between the two worlds of rap and alternative, working with Florence and the Machine definitely continued his expanding reputation to colaborate and entwine genres. I don't like everything he's done, but I thoroughly respect the guy, he's a very talented man, even if he does sound dumb with his dopey sounding vocals.

9. The Zutons

Began in the Year: 2001

The Zutons have disappeared slightly off radar recently but there's no doubt they can make catchy songs once in a while. Abi Harding has also made saxaphone playing slightly sexy again as well. My favourite song by The Zutons is their brilliant "Pressure Point", I love how the song starts off slow, and the fantastic "hoow, hoo, hoo" calls infest the song. By the end, the lead singer Dave McCabe shouts "pressure! pressure!", it's just fantastic stuff. Yeah, The Zutons are a good band I'm fond of.

8. Bloc Party

Began in the Year: 2003

Bloc Party are one of those bands that don't (in my opinion) stand out very easily, with so many other indy bands out there trying to do their very similar thing. But when you do payt attention to this band, you can appreciate their music, they do some good tracks. My personal favourite is probably "The Prayer", I just think it sounds kick-ass, I love the tribal drums and the humming at the start and then the chorus with it's eighties synth sound is great. Bloc Party are a great British band.

7. Pendulum

Began in the Year: 2002

I remember a time when this band came out and everyone started calling them a ripoff of The Prodigy. In a certain way they are but they do have their own style, naturally inspired by The Prodigy, but nevertheless it's certainly not stealing. In fact, both bands respect each other and I believe have remixed each others songs. My personal favourite is probably Slam, I just think it's their best sounding song, and it has a fantastic video to boot.

6. Grinderman

Began in the Year: 2006

Okay do Grinderman count? Technically, this isn't a new band, it's pretty much the same band as Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, so you could argue I'm cheating. Yet Nick Cave's "other" band has a different sound, a different direction. Grinderman combines Nick Cave's previous two bands together, The Bad Seeds and The Birthday Party. Grinderman is a middle ground of the melodic ballads of the Seeds and the frenetic teenage angst of the Party. Grinderman are a fantastic band, it's just debatable if they're new or not. My favourite track is definitely "No Pussy Blues", a brilliant song that if you have not heard it, is a must-listen track.

5. Arctic Monkeys

Began in the Year: 2002

Every indie fan's new favourite band the Arctic Monkeys have took Britain by storm, in a way not seen since Oasis really. Thankfully, interest in the band has gone down slightly since their first couple of albums, because as much as I do like this band, they were extremely overhyped. But they do have that fantastic swagger, that "feeling" in their presence on the telly and on the radio as a "propa British band", a band we can as a country be proud of. My favourite track is probably the first single of their second band, "Brianstorm", as that guitar riff is just phenomenal stuff. It also boasts one of the most bizarre lyrics I've ever heard "see you later, elevator". Hmm...

4. Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Began in the Year: 2000

There was a time when I didn't like this band. It was a personal reason, someone I have bad memories of loved them. So I immediately disliked them. But, years later, my fiancée loved them. I listened to them a few times and really started to appreciate their music. I appreciated how good they are. They have done some great songs, probably my favourite being "Pin", which is a brilliantly noisy track, the only problem with that song is that it's far too short.

3. Florence and the Machine

Began in the Year: 2007

Florence Welch, or her band name, Florence and the Machine, are the most recent new artist on this list, starting in 2007. In 3 years Florence has established herself as one of British rock's most promising acts. With her distinctive look and elegant vocal style, she's probably the best natural female singer since Dolores O'Riordan. I'm a huge fan of hers, and her debut album is fantastic. If I were to choose one song it'd be "Kiss With a Fist", I love it as it shows a slightly harder edge to her, most of the time she looks and sounds harmless but she does bite with this one.

2. Franz Ferdinand

Began in the Year: 2002

As I said before, the top 2 were in my overall favourite artists, but that doesn't mean I can't say more about them. Franz Ferdinand are one of those bands that are very well received but also have a lot of people disliking them. I don't know if it's lead singer Alex constant use of raising his eyebrow, if it's the drums that sound very similar in each track, or if it's that they were a part of this Art Rock movement in the early Noughties. But I think they're one of the most consistent bands of the decade, and haven't deviated away from making good music. My favourite song is probably "Lucid Dreams" a seven minute synth-rock masterpiece (in my opinion) that just sounds brilliant.

1. The Fratellis

Began in the Year: 2005

Yup, my favourite artist to come out of the last decade is The Fratellis. The reason why Franz Ferdinand got a higher rank in the "Overall Favourite" listing is because they have released three very solid albums. The Fratellis have only released two, but I prefer those two albums to the three FF albums. The Fratellis are a brilliant band, they really produce fantastic music, underrated music. Everyone talks about "Chelsea Dagger" but seriously, if you like that song you need to get their albums, they're full of fantastic, catchy songs, especially the first album. The second album is more melodic, a more mature album. But I think The Fratellis are becoming one of the most underrated bands at the moment. Get their stuff!

And we come to a close with this listing. I shall be back on Wednesday with the Best of 2003. Is it my favourite year in music? It's definitely up there. See you in a couple of days.