Playlist Thursdays! 1

A new segment that I'll try to have up every week is Playlist Thursday, where I set my iPod to shuffle and give my two cents on the first 15-25 songs that pop up (depending on how much time I have). So here we go!

1. System of a Down-"X": Around the time Toxicity came out was when I got into metal. I remember "Chop Suey" blowing me away every time it came on the radio and becoming more and more interested in the heavier side of music. And here I am today; a misfit metal geek.

2. Nirvana-"Big Cheeze": Bleach is a shocking reminder of where one of the most popular bands ever got their start. Sludge metal mixed with punk and hardcore, and even a little Celtic Frost influence thrown in. Pretty heavy stuff, actually.

3. System of a Down-Radio/Video: These guys again?! One of the better songs off of Mesmerize, an all around great album where they shed the "nu metal" stigma. The way this song twists and turns through different tempos and meter is amazing. It's a prog rock epic in only 4 minutes.

4. Billie Holiday-"Body and Soul": Arguably the greatest jazz singer of all time. I personally find her nasally voice to be a tad off-putting, but not by much. The heaps of emotion and how honest she sounds makes up for it. Ella's still my favorite, and Coleman Hawkins' version of this song is better, but we can't count out Billie, that would be just wrong.

5. Kraftwerk-"Autobahn": Love this band! Pioneers of all electronic music we have today. This is the remix off the Mix album, but that title is a little misleading. All the songs are completely re-recorded, vocals and everything, just with modern technology and equipment. The resulting album was quite good.

6. Cavalera Conspiracy-"Ultra-Violent": Inflikted was one of the only albums where I heard one song with no expectation for the band and then immediately went out and bought the album. Wasn't expecting this to be so good! Punk ferocity with meaty metal riffs and exceptional lead guitar work. This particular track features Joe from Gojira, who was the bassist at the time.

7. Jelly Roll Morton-"Maple Leaf Rag": One of the standout ragtime pianists, and originators of jazz as well. This type of old ragtime is almost haunting to listen to even though the music is happy and upbeat. Reminds me of some of the music in Eraserhead, believe it or not.

8. Alice in Chains-"Sunshine": One of the more "metal" grunge bands, you gotta love AIC. This is off of Facelift, their first release. One of the main riffs sounds like something straight off of a Pantera album.

9. Megadeth-"The Skull Beneath the Skin": One of the most badass heavy metal statements of the '80s. Gar Samuelson's drumming steals the show on this album in my opinion. The guitars are chaotic, and according to Dave Mustaine: "I used up a lot of great riffs on that album." and that's easy to see.

10. ZZ Top-"Waitin' for the Bus": ZZ Top was actually pretty heavy, this song in particular. They had the distortion and meaty riffs down pat, but their blues influence was too strong to justify calling them a metal band.

11. Beastie Boys-"Slow and Low": My least favorite song off my favorite hip-hop album: Licensed to Ill. I recognize that other albums (some by the Beastie boys themselves) are better than this, but this album is just so damn fun that I can't help but call it one my #1.

12. Queen-"Fat Bottomed Girls": Wow, one hell of a great Queen song. I'm a man who loves a girl with a nice ass, so this song really resonates with me lol. The chorus is just anthemic. Essential '70s rock, basically.

13. Krallice-"Inhume": I'm particularly a fan of this band. I have physical copies of all their albums and love what their doing with black metal. They play dizzying chromatic melodies over somewhat more traditional black metal rhythms to differentiate themselves from standards in the genre. The vocals range from bizarre shrieks to throaty death growling. Highly recommended to anyone wanting more than your standard issue extreme metal.

14. Frank Ocean-"Lost": Ocean is one Odd Future member that I don't pay much attention to, but listening to this song makes me want to hear more (I only have a few songs from Channel Orange on my iPod) He's a decent singer, not exceptional, but decent. The music he sings and raps over on the other hand is much more than decent. More singers should screw with r&b like Frank does.

15. Big Pun-"Super Lyrical": Classic East Coast rap. Aggressive and raw, just how I like it! Tight flows and (as the title suggests) super lyrical.

16. Judas Priest-"Better By You, Better Than Me (Live)": My least favorite song off my favorite metal album, Stained Class. This track was the center of a huge controversy back in the day because of alleged backwards messaging telling kids to kill themselves, which was ridiculous. It's a cover of a Spooky Tooth song. I've never heard the original version.

17. Ours-"Get Up": After a very disappointing sophomore album, alternative rock band Ours rebounded with the very good Mercy... This is the last track off the album. Singer Jimmy Gnecco has often been compared to Jeff Buckley, and it's easy to see why. I don't think he's a better singer, but he has Buckley's style down pretty well.

I'm gonna stop here today, so I hope you enjoyed the variety of stuff on my iPod and I'll be doing my best to have this up every week. Keep it heavy \m/.