#38 "Classico" by Tenacious D

First off, I love "The D." If you don't like Jack Black, stop reading.

Comedy is an interesting thing. What makes some people laugh won't even crack a smile on others. I've never seen a Will Ferrell movie that I liked. I don't care for Adam Sandler's work too much either. "South Park" cracks me up though and I think "The Simpsons" is probably the most brilliant satire of American life ever produced. And while I loved "Beavis and Butthead" back in the day, I also enjoy Jerry Seinfeld's witty observational humor and Bill Cosby's hysterical story-telling. You just can't put your finger on what will make you laugh, but Tenacious D kills me.

Tenacious D's songs usually chronicle/parody all the great rock cliches. They write about worshiping Satan, doing lots of drugs, banging all the hot chicks, and rocking their socks off! It's all pretty stupid, but JB and KG's faux seriousness and mock intensity make for quite the listening experience. Their first album is RIDICULOUS! And though their follow-up, the soundtrack to their bio-film "The Pick of Destiny" is not nearly as good, there are more than enough moments to make you laugh... if you're cool, that is. "Classico" is their version of Johann Sebastian Bach's "Bourree in E Minor," because if you're going to really rock, you've got to have the classical chops!

"Classico" is from the album "The Pick of Destiny." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#37 "Classic Girl" by Jane's Addiction

Jane's Addiction is one of the more original bands to come out of the early alternative scene of the late 80's. They were an odd hybrid of rock, glam, and metal with a dose of middle-eastern mysticism added at the end. A lot of people always cite Nirvana of the great band of that era, but JA pre-dated them by a good bit and you can hear their influence on a lot of acts that came later. Sadly, Jane's original run was short and only produced two original albums, but it was great while it lasted.

"Classic Girl" is the closer on the original band's last release. It's an assorted album of hard rockers, radio-friendly fun like "Been Caught Stealin," and some Kashmir-esque epics on the second side. But as crazy and heavy and loud as Jane's Addiction could be, Perry Farrell has a real sensitive and thoughtful side too. The album came with a little booklet where Farrell spoke about the dangers of artistic censorship because his first choice for an album cover, which consisted of some nude sculptures, was rejected by record sellers and replaced with a plain white sleeve. He also wrote about the oppression of blacks and women. It was pretty deep stuff and I've never forgotten his words about females and their inherent beauty and suffering. "Classic Girl," which is just a sweet little love song, always makes me think of that side of JA.

There are some lines at the end that I really like. Farrell sings, "They may say 'those were the days,' but for us these are the days." I love that. So many of us look nostalgically back at the past, but this guy is smart enough to know that the present is pretty damned good too. And then he follows that up with "... and you know you're my girl... such a classic girl." I just find that to be so complimentary. A classic girl is a great enduring individual, not some new-fangled trendy bimbo. That's my kind of lady.

Oh... I almost forgot! Be sure to listen to the VERY end of the song. When it seems almost over and the music has faded out, if you wait just a few seconds you'll hear this sweet little "Good night." A nice finish.

"Classic Girl" is from the album "Ritual de lo Habitual." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#36 "Chinese Translation" by M Ward

I first heard M Ward via a Starbucks' cd sampler. There was something about his voice and the sound of the track that really drew me in. I remember playing the song for my wife, who has vastly different tastes than me, and even she said right away, "You know I like that kind of thing."

M Ward is almost the definition of the word "Anachronism," which means "something that exists out its own time." He's modern, but his music sounds very old and yet at the same time it comes across as something unique, fresh, and new. I know that he favors old recording devices, like Tascam four track analog recorders, and old instruments too. I've heard him say something along the lines that he wants his music to feel a certain way.... a classic and enduring way. When you listen to his albums, you definitely get a sense of warmth. After that introduction to him from Starbucks, I have since gotten all of his cd's and seen him in concert. Each M Ward release is better than the last one. You can't ask for much more than that from an artist.

"Chinese Translation" is from his second to last album. For me, it personifies a lot of what M Ward typically sounds like: beautiful acoustic finger-picking, old-school shuffling drums, great electric guitar flourishes, and a voice that sounds like it came from a long time ago. Something about the beat makes my head glide from side to side like a human metronome too. It's a wonderful song.

"Chinese Translation" is from the album "Post War." To hear the track, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#35 "Celebrity Skin" by Hole

And the street cred continues to crumble...

I'm probably not that far out of line in saying that we most likely would never have heard of Hole if not for Kurt Cobain. When he married Courtney Love, she suddenly became way more famous. I'm not saying she's not talented. She's proven her musical chops and even shown the world that she's a decent actress, buuuuuuuuuuut ... it IS Courtney Love. She's kind of a walking joke now.

I think "Celebrity Skin" kicks ass. It's fast. It's heavy. It's melodic. The lyrics are pointed and nasty. The whole track has a ton of attitude, something Courtney was never lacking in. I love the stopping and starting of the music too. I mentioned this in a previous post, but the tight stops of the guitar are great. I love the line "Oh Cinderella, they aren't sluts like you." Awesome. The whole song is about media whores. Courtney warns them to watch out what they wish for. "It better be worth it," she sings, because it's "so much to die for." I wonder... did she have any experience in seeking celebrity and getting chewed up and spit out by the press? Maybe if she'd listened to her own song, she might not be the mess she is now.

"Celebrity Skin" is from the album of the same name. To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.l

#34 "Buzzin'" by Shwayze

Whatever street cred I've established with the last four selections will be destroyed by this song. Actually, I should've written about "Buzzin'" a little while ago but I somehow skipped it. Maybe in my excitement to write about The Clash, The Libertines, Johnny Thunders, and The Replacements I forgot about this mellow tune. Sorry boys.

I heard "Buzzin'" sometime last year. It was one of those songs that I heard once and told my wife, "This will be a hit." It's just cool. The rappin' by Shwayze is solid and the dreamy vocals by Cisco Adler give it a good summer vibe. And how can you not like Adler's great alliteration in the opening line "Met her at a Backyard Block party By the Bar"? The two go back and forth throughout the song. Shwayze is basically singing to some girl. Adler recounts the situation from the third person. Shwayze's last line is hysterical. The girl says, "Boy... you crazy" to which he responds, "Nah... I'm Shwayze." Love it.

A cool piece of trivia on these guys. Adler's father Lou is a BIG time show business heavyweight. He's the former manager of stars like Sam Cooke and Carol King. He also produced the legendary campy classic "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and later directed "Cheech and Chong's Up in Smoke." As for his son, Cisco has made a name for himself with the ladies with famous girlfriends like Paris Hilton and Mischa Barton. Quite an impressive resume.

"Buzzin'" is from the album "Shwayze."

File was removed at artist's request.

#33 "Career Opportunities" by The Clash

My two little boys are cool for a lot of reasons, but one of the best things about them is their listening tastes. From the time they were infants, I've never given them anything but legitimate music to hear. My first son used to love George Harrison's "All Too Much" from the Yellow Submarine soundtrack. Before he could even clearly form the words he'd ask for "Wah Wah Woll" by Led Zeppelin. A few years later he'd asked if I could make him his own cd. What did he want on it? The Ramones. Steppenwolf. Paul Westerberg. Sure, he was clearly influenced by what I was playing in the car and was really only picking his favorites from what I allowed him to hear, but come on... how cool is it when a five year old requests The Clash on roadtrips?

"Career Opportunities" was one of Jack's favorite songs. I'd turn it on as soon as I picked him up after work and we'd just blast it. Car seats protect kids from a lot of things, but they don't restrict their ability to head bang! We'd crank this tune as we were rolling down our street. I can't imagine there were too many mini-vans in the neighborhood doing that. No KidzBop here! We were listening to The Only Band That Mattered.

Nearly everything you've ever heard about the greatness of The Clash is true. London Calling, long said to be one of the best albums ever recorded, is exactly that. And their two releases prior to that are like symphonies of machine gun fire, full of energy and frantic rhythm. They broke out, blew up, and burned out in too short a time, but in their heyday they were really something. What's cool is that even now, thirty years after their peak, their music is every bit as powerful as it ever was... even to a five year old.

"Career Opportunities" is from the debut album "The Clash." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#32 "Can't Stand Me Now" by The Libertines

"Can't Stand Me Now" is from the last album recorded by The Libertines. I heard someone say that the album is the sound of a band falling apart. That tension and sadness created some great songs.

"Can't Stand Me Now" is a sad "Sorry, but it's over" letter between band leaders Pete Doherty and Carl Barat. The lyrics read like a little back-and-forth dialogue between two people who waver between anger and grief over the loss of their relationship. For these two friends who had lived together, worked together, and achieved their dreams together, it's a sad tale of how things went wrong.

Carl: You twist and tore our love apart.

Pete: No, you've got it the wrong way around. You shut me out...

Together: I know you lie. All you do is make me cry, but I'm still in love with you.

Pete: Have we enough to keep it together... or do we just keep on pretending and hope our luck is never-ending?

The chorus of "You Can't Stand Me Now" is pretty affecting when you think about it. When relationships are going bad, isn't it hard to realize that the other person actually HATES you now? You once cared so much for each other. Now there's nothing but anger.

Don't read this post and think this song is nothing but gloom and doom. It's actually a very upbeat tune, musically-speaking. It has The Libertines' trademark of dueling guitar melodies from Pete and Carl that make for a fantastic introduction. They play off one another for this slow build up to the point where the lyrics take off. It's a great song, but one with a lot genuine feeling beneath what you hear.

"Can't Stand Me Now" is from the album "The Libertines." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#31 "You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory" by Guns N Roses

An album from the nineties that everyone hated was GNR's "The Spaghetti Incident"... everyone but me! I thought it had a lot of cool songs on it. Sure, it was all covers, but I liked hearing the music that inspired Axl, Slash, and company to pick up guitars in the first place. They covered punk songs from the likes of The Damned, The Stooges, The New York Dolls, and The Misfits, but also included an old 50's tune by The Skyliners, a 70's rocker by Nazareth, and even added a Charles Manson song into the mix!?! You can't fault them for covering all their bases.

My favorite song in the collection was "You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory." The song was originally recorded by Johnny Thunders on his solo album "So Alone." Thunders was the former guitarist from The New York Dolls and a legend in the NY punk scene. Though most hard-core old school punks will crucify me for putting GNR's version here instead of the original, I really like this tribute by Guns' bassist Duff McKagan.

Duff McKagan brought some punk cred to GNR. He was pretty important in the early alternative music scene in Seattle, before he hooked up with Axl and the boys, and he always looked like he walked straight out of CBGB's, complete with the padlock-on-a-chain necklace that he sported. I like his voice and the husky way he sings this track. Thunders' original actually sounds a little sadder. The lyrics, said to be an acknowledgement of Johnny's pathetic drug-addled life, don't seem as tough as when Duff sings them, especially lines like "And even though they don't show, the scars aren't so old."

"You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory" is from the album "The Spaghetti Incident?" To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#30 "Can't Hardly Wait" by The Replacements

After I discovered Paul Westerberg via the Singles soundtrack, I went to a friend who loved The Replacements and said, "Give me their albums. I want to see what they're all about." The legendary back catalogue of PW did not disappoint.

"Can't Hardly Wait" is one of those perfect little hooked-filled pop rock songs that Paul Westerberg can throw off the top of his head at any time. It's one of the more produced songs he ever recorded too, complete with strings and horns. An original stripped-down version of this song appeared on a remastered version of this album recently and some say that what you hear on this track is the more polished record-executive version. Honestly, I like them both.

I love when a song stops and starts within itself... when the players are all in such great time that they can stop on a dime and begin again in perfect unison. I can think of an old Led Zeppelin song, "Wearing and Tearing," that does it. I'm sure there are some AC/DC tunes that do it too. "Can't Hardly Wait" does it twice, once before the horns get a little solo in the middle and once more near the very end, after the song builds and builds to a wonderful crescendo. There's also this great part right near that last stop when Westerberg sings "I'll be home when I'm sleepin'" and the intense strum of the acoustic guitar is turned up, all of the cymbals stop as drummer Chris Mars thumps his deep toms, and the strings kick in. It's almost like the dramatic finish to The Beatles "A Day In The Life" summed up in just two seconds. It's awesome and is the part of the song I always look forward to... that and the ridiculous line "Jesus rides beside me. He never buys any smokes."

"Can't Hardly Wait" is from the album "Pleased to Meet Me." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#29 "Burnin' Up" by The Goo Goo Dolls

A guy I used to work with first told me about The Goo Goo Dolls a long time ago... back before their huge "A Boy Named Goo" album came out, the one with "Name" on it. I remember thinking, "The Goo Goo Dolls?!? What kind of name is that?" I just couldn't even picture what a band with that name could look or sound like. Turns out my buddy was onto something. The Goo's were one of the biggest acts of the mid to late nineties.

Curiously enough, one of lead singer/songwriter Johnny Rzeznik's biggest influences is Paul Westerberg. And hey... so is mine! You can hear PW's crafty songwriting and heartfelt delivery in Rzeznik's work too. Westerberg even wrote a song for the Goo's, "We are the Normal," for their album "SuperStar Car Wash." Guess it's no wonder why I got hooked on their music pretty quickly.

Sadly, The Goo Goo Dolls kinda went Hollywood. They got overexposed and radio-friendly and seemed to churn out ballad after ballad bound for mainstream movie soundtracks everywhere. Rzeznik suffered from serious writer's block too and our instant gratification society tired of waiting so long for new GGD releases. They don't measure much on my new music radar anymore. They do have some great songs though.

The Goo Goo Dolls are known mostly for Johnny Rzeznik's good looks and husky voice, but bassist Robby Takac makes a lot of contributions too. He's got a few songs on every one of their releases that I've ever heard, and they're often my favorites tracks. His tunes are always really fast and melodic. "Burnin' Up" is just like that. I love how it builds to this big ending when he's screaming "Try to take my hand tonight... I'll show you where to start. 'Cause every word that left your lips is like a needle through my heart!" It's full of anger and angst. You need a good "I hate you" song every once in a while.

"Burnin' Up" is from the album "A Boy Named Goo." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#28 "Burning Love" by Elvis

I shared a room with my older brother until I was fourteen. I have a lot of memories of that little red, white, and blue box we used to live in. One thing I'll always remember is sitting on the floor listening to my father's old 45's when we were kids. Those RCA discs, the ones with the little dog listening to the phonograph on the label, had some of our favorite music on them. We used to love "16 Tons" by Tennessee Ernie Ford. By the time we got to listen to them, most of those records were over twenty years old, but that never mattered. We'd still jam to them like they were brand new. And though there were a lot of choices in those little 45 record albums we had, we couldn't get enough of Elvis.

Most of my dad's Elvis collection consisted of the old songs... the ones that made him famous. "Jailhouse Rock" and "Don't Be Cruel." "Heartbreak Hotel" and "Hound Dog." Those are the ones I remember listening to the most. When Elvis' "#1's" collection came out a few years back, it brought me back to those days of laying on the bedroom floor... hearing all the pops and cracks as the needle wove its way across the warped vinyl surface. I could sing the words to just about every one of them over thirty years later, much to my wife's surprise and dismay. I love 'em. And it's too bad that Elvis is associated with the cheeseball stature that he cut in Las Vegas near the end of his career. He's been parodied into a joke now, but there's a reason we call him The King. He was the man.

Of all the Elvis selections I could've picked, I went with "Burning Love." Why? I simply love it. It's so fast. It's got this great beat. and some fantastic drumming. Give it a listen and play it really loud. Write me back when your body stops moving.

"Burning Love" can be found on the compilation "#1's". To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#27 "Burn One Down" by Ben Harper

"Let us burn one from end to end and pass it over to me, my friend."

"Herb: the gift from the Earth, and what's from the Earth is of the greatest worth."

Hmmm.... I'm not quite sure what this song is about. The lyrics don't seem direct enough. Is Ben Harper singing in metaphors? I really don't get it.

Obviously this song is about smoking pot. That's not why I picked it. I've got to give it to an old student of mine for turning me on to the album "Fight For Your Mind" some time ago. Though I never really became an avid Harper fan, I came to respect his prodigious ability and his great old-school style. This guy is a musician. You can hear and see it in everything he does. He channels and clearly respects the styles of the past. It's hard to knock him for that.

"Burn One Down" is just a great chill kind of tune. I do like the lines about "My choice is what I choose to do and if I'm causin' no harm it shouldn't bother you." Though the song is clearly about marijuana, I like the sense of respect that it's promoting too. Harper is singing about illegal drug-use, but you can still take the song from an angle of tolerance. In my book, that's never bad.

"Burn One Down" is from the album "Fight For Your Mind." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#26 "Bring On the Lucie (Freeda People)" by John Lennon

"Bring On the Lucie" is one of those great songs that you WON'T find if you're a Greatest Hits kind of guy. I know some people who live and die by those compilations. And sure, I have a few in my collection too. I have to admit... CCR's "Chronicles" is amazing! That being said though, you have to realize that if a band can string together that many hits, they HAVE to have made some other pretty good tunes too. That is certainly the case with John Lennon and his solo career.

Though we came to know Mr. Lennon from his work with The Beatles, his solo catalogue is pretty impressive too. Though he was not as gifted a musician or recording artist as Paul McCartney or George Harrison, who he admitted carried him to a degree, Lennon's songs were emotionally charged and extremely thoughtful, a combination that always makes for good music.

"Bring On the Lucie" is one of Lennon's protest songs from the 1970's. It's not as pointed as "John Sinclair," which he wrote about a specific man's legal harassments for marijuana possession, but it holds with "Power to the People" as an inspirational tune about the harmful powers governing us in America. Lines demanding that Nixon and friends "Stop the killing" evoke images of the Vietnam war and lines about the "blood that you spill" are on parr with a lot of what the anti-war movement was promoting at the time. Lennon was never afraid to share his point of view. It got him into quite a bit of trouble, as chronicled in the wonderful documentary "The People Vs John Lennon," but it also made him a hero.

John Lennon is just one of many artists who died young. We often wonder "what if" about so many of them. Lennon, to me, is one that really had so much to consider had he lived. Can you imagine his role in "We Are the World," Live Aid, or Amnesty International? Or how might he have responded when his beloved adopted home of NYC was shaken on 9/11? I don't think we can even begin to scratch the surface of Lennon's potential.

"Bring On the Lucie" is from the album "Mind Games." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#25 "Boys Don't Cry" by The Cure

I can still remember watching the video for "Boys Don't Cry" in my buddy's house back when we were kids. Alternative music, then called "progressive" or "new wave," was just starting to make a stir. Suddenly videos by the likes of REM, The Smiths, New Order, and Depeche Mode were being interspersed with the works of contemporary giants like Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Bryan Adams. We didn't know what to think. These people looked odd. Their voices were not what we were used to. And though I was probably not old enough to understand, I could tell there was a deeper emotional and intellectual content to these artists. I mean... come on. I didn't have to be a rocket scientist at the age of fourteen to realize that there was probably a little something more to REM's "Fall On Me" than there was to "Summer of '69."

I wasn't really into the alternative stuff when it first came out. I was raised on The Beatles and Billy Joel, The Eagles, Queen, and Linda Ronstadt. When I was getting into my teens, my brother started listening to Black Sabbath, AC/DC, and Rush. A few years later I would discover Led Zeppelin. Maybe it was our parents' divorce that drove us to darker, heavier stuff but the artificial and atmospheric keyboards of a lot of new wave music just didn't hit me. The Cure, however, were always a little different.

To this day I still think that the reason that Robert Smith and friends endured for so long was because they were guitar-driven. Their music certainly reflected some styles and trends of the times, but it wasn't defined by it. Keyboards and programmed synthesizers were all over the 1980's, and not in a good way. Since some of those early alternative bands were so connected to them, when the keyboard trend started to vanish, they did too. The Cure, though, stuck around for a long time. Next to REM, they have to be considered the most successful act of that era.

"Boys Don't Cry" is typical Cure in that it's sad. Robert Smith is certainly the king of mope-rock and this single gave the world its first taste of that. It's upbeat though and centers on the old adage "boys don't cry" which seemed to make it accessible and almost instantly recognizable. The speaker is basically regretfully saying goodbye, acknowledging his failure, and moving on while "hiding the tears in my eyes." The video was great too. It was these little kids singing in front of a screen on which the shadows of the real band were cast. A really cool concept and one that introduced MTV to the more unique and interesting videos that alternative artists would make.

"Boys Don't Cry" can be found on the singles' collection "Staring at the Sea." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#24 "Box Full of Letters" by Wilco

About fourteen years ago I was sitting in my apartment reading the latest issue of Rolling Stone. I came across an article about a new band named Wilco. I don't remember what it said, but something about that write-up made me want to go out and buy the album. You've got to understand... that was a big deal. Before the days of Itunes and downloading, you couldn't preview music before you bought it. You had to take the chance that the $11.99 you were shelling out for some cd was going to be money well-spent. I used to have this code when it came to buying albums: If I heard one good song on the radio, that got me curious but one song was not worth the purchase of the entire cd. If I heard TWO good songs of the record, then I was willing to take the chance. So for me to go out and buy Wilco's "AM" without actually hearing any of it was a big deal. I'd never done that before.

"AM" did not disappoint. It's filled with great and simple rock songs. A few chords here, some melodies there... it all works. It's kind of loud and ramshackle. It sounds like a band having a good time. Wilco, of course, has gone on to have a long and acclaimed career. Their music has evolved so much over the years. For me, though, I miss the simplicity of "AM." I can admire their musical experiments and their artistic need to explore new sounds and styles, but I liked the stripped-down nature of their earlier records. But despite their ever-changing nature and their status as mega music geniuses, I still think of them as the little band I discovered long ago.

"Box Full of Letters" is the kind of song Wilco doesn't seem to make anymore. It's loose and fun. Wilco rocks out pretty hard live, but their newer records are kind of subdued. "Box Full of Letters" is a great for blasting out of your car stereo and driving fast with the windows down.

"Box Full of Letters" is from the album "AM." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.