70-61
70. Unsung - Helmet
Meantime (Interscope / 1992)
Whenever (see: often) I find myself drinking at a bar and there happens to be a jukebox, I have basically 2 go-to picks. “Been Caught Stealing” by Jane’s Addiction is one. This is the other. If you didn’t already know “Unsung”, chances are you likely will recognize it (thanks to guys like me, at bars like yours), as this song is easily their most well-known. But if you didn’t: imagine a more sober Sabbath-era Ozzy singing over an early Snapcase piccolo-snare-and-guitar break. As good as the song is as a whole, for me the real magic occurs in the final minute and a half. Front-nerd Paige Hamilton stops singing and allows John Stanier (who now, not oddly enough, drums for Battles) complete control. The final 30 seconds are cathartic, Stanier building up to full sprint TAK TAK TAK TAK snare and then it’s all over way sooner and way sweeter than you’d imagined. Also, the original-edit music video (there were two versions that ended up airing) is one of my favorites ever. Neon shirts.
69. The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore - Walker Brothers
The Walker Brothers (Philips / 1966)
Who would’ve imagined that a song about the sun burning out could sound so dern inviting. Maybe these Walker Brothers were on to something; I guess the sun going out could be somewhat romantic, no? Let’s ask a scientist: “Within a week, the average global surface temperature would drop below 0°F. In a year, it would dip to –100°. The top layers of the oceans would freeze over, but in an apocalyptic irony, that ice would insulate the deep water below and prevent the oceans from freezing solid for hundreds of thousands of years. Millions of years after that, our planet would reach a stable –400°, the temperature at which the heat radiating from the planet’s core would equal the heat that the Earth radiates into space”, explains David Stevenson, a professor of planetary science at the California Institute of Technology. Thank you, nerd.
68. Sunshine Baby - Clout
Save Me 7” (Carrere / 1979)
The Merriam-Webster dictionary provided a few brief definitions for the word “clout”, one of which was “a piece of cloth or leather : rag”. If the lyrical content or delivery of “Sunshine Baby” gives any indication, I would imagine the girls of Clout had an alternate usage in mind when choosing their name. Because, excuse me for being a little crude, these girls ain’ton the rag. Er, how else could I put it. These girls aren’t bloody between the legs, they’re out to lick the blood from in between yours! Feel me? Okay, that may be a bit of an overstatement, but what at first seems like a groovy disco-influenced pop song, which it is, is also deceptively vicious. And aggressive. Chicks are on the prowl and we’ll say that they’re not exactly trying to NOT get laid (admit that the O on the record cover was supposed to look like a vagina). A pretty great sex-pop number to come out in ‘79 (from South Africa, no less), great bassline, great presence, and hardly over 3 minutes in length. Couldn’t ask for much more.
67. Sacred Love - Bad Brains
I Against I (SST / 1986)
Forget cowardly and newfangled studio trickery, for me a great unedited live-take is better than anything overly producey-sounding. Consider “Sacred Love” as one of the all-time greatest examples of the former camp, when you realize that the vocal track was actually recorded over the telephone from prison, where H.R. was locked up for selling weed. Fuck yes. It is that very telephone-line tonal quality that makes the song such a great one (you have to assume he’s somehow high even in jail still). Shit. I can’t say that I prefer I Against I-era Bad Brains to their early material, but the comparison likely isn’t a fair one when you consider how much the band had evolved in the span of a couple years. Classic record.
66. Aztlan - Antonio Zepeda
Retorno a Aztlan (Olinkan / 1990)
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65. Anti, Anti, Anti - The Consumers
All My Friends Are Dead (In The Red / 2002)
Recorded in 1977, All My Friends Are Dead was an album remastered and released only in 2003. Due to, I’ll assume, some shockingly random chain of events (woah, I slipped on a banana peel and fell into this alternate universe!), Cali-based In The Red records made it happen. Ok fine, I’ll give them credit for that much. Guh. Also, if you’re anything like me, the fact that this jam is called “ANTI ANTI ANTI” and the record is called All My Friends Are Dead made it immediately great before I even copped it. I was further in luck because the song itself is even better than its titles suggest. That being said, I tend to drink to this a lot. Do yourself a favor and track down the entire record, as it should become one of your all time faves as it’s become one of mine. Super overlooked. FUCK PHEONIX
64. Halloween - Siouxsie & The Banshees
Juju (Polydor / 1981)
Everybody knows that Halloween rules. Man, you get to wear fake blood. Here’s a true story: This past Halloween I decided I’d take the train to some definitely dumb party in Asbury Park. I did my face up pretty well: lots of fake blood, lots of strange sticky cremes. After an hour or so in the bathroom, it was pretty clear that I’d be arriving as some sort of burn victim. I’d even made a believable neck wound. All set. I rode my bicycle to the train station. Not long after arriving, a decent sized group of post-trick-or-treating black girls approached me. Apparently they’d somehow forgotten it was Halloween, because they were convinced I’d been beat up or crawled out of a car wreck. Hm. I’d done a better job than I’d thought; I remained silent. A few other smaller children crawled out of candy bags and exclaimed similar sentiments. The novelty quickly wore off and I admitted that it was only makeup, which resulted in an eruption of disbelief which then turned into their silent and closer examination of my handiwork. “White people, y’all are weird”, I swear I heard one girl’s brain thinking. I lit a cigarette and it wasn’t long until one older girl had realized that one of her “Kee Kats” had been stolen from her bag. Who took her Kee Kat? Then the train arrived. Best holiday.
63. Coming For You - White Hills
They’ve Got Blood Like We’ve Got Blood (Fuck Off / 2005)
For me, this is the musical equivalent of blue balls, and I gotta say that’s why I like it. While I do feel that the dudes oughta’ve droned out for atleast four times as long as they actually did (3 minutes just ain’t enough time to get your motorik-proper on), conversely I have to admit that it’s brevity is one of the main reasons why everything works so well. Furthermore, in all fairness to the “artist”, “Coming For You” on record is flanked on both ends by 7+ minutes pieces of similarly droney krautrock, so you may have to scour eBay for the limited CD-R in order to truly consider this wee song’s place in the bigger picture. Sayin, it wouldn’t kill you to physically buy a record. Also, I’m pretty sure Julian Cope put this out.
62. Oh Lord - Brian & Dennis Wilson
The Cocaine Sessions (Unreleased / 1981)
On the day of his death in 1983, Dennis Wilson was quoted as saying “I’m lonesome, I’m lonesone all the time.” Pretty much. Overshadowed by brother Brian, Dennis, in my opinion, was arguably as gifted a songwriter, and this is illustrated by his bleary death-bed hymn “Oh Lord”. ” While “Oh Lord” to this day remains formally unreleased, the internet has allowed the infamous and drug-induced (guess which drug) Cocaine Sessions to find new light. Easily the session’s standout, the other tracks merely serve as spot-holders to assert “Oh Lord”’s apex position on the mantle of latter day Wilson-brother material. All in all, the Cocaine Sessions is an absolutely a wonderful and murky 30 minutes of tape, but you’ll hold on to it forever specifically because of this song. One of the sadder moments ever recorded.
61. Crescent City - Lucinda Williams
Lucinda Williams (Rough Trade / 1987)
Much like Dennis Wilson’s aforementioned “Oh Lord”, “Crescent City” is about a longing for things that have passed. But while Wilson’s song exists in an ethereal state where location is of no consequence, Williams paints her picture with site-specific references; yes, location exists as the narrative. Like many great songs of country-ilk, “Crescent City” is inextricably bound to geographic place. We know what Lucinda’s favorite bar is, what bridge she throws beer bottles off of, what VFW she does the Boot Scootin’ Boogie at, what color her mother’s butter churn is. “Crescent City” is specific to the point of being almost silly, but it isn’t, and that’s the point. Afterall, it’s not about how these places make her feel or what they mean, it’s that they exist at all.
