Monthly Archives: July 2015

My iPod #527: AC/DC – Highway to Hell

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However tired out they were by life on the road over the years, guitarists Angus and Malcolm Young along with lead singer Bon Scott were inspired enough to write a song about the bane of endless touring that would become one of their most popular for years to come. “Highway to Hell” was the result, and was placed as the opener to the album of the same name in 1979.

Admittedly I’m not the greatest AC/DC fan; I think the first time I ever heard the song was when it was used on the credits of a Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode years ago. But listening to it over the years has made me appreciate it more immensely. The riff, the chugging rhythm, the rousing chorus…. just musically the thing is fantastic. What I enjoy the most about it is Bon Scott’s vocal performance. I can’t help but try and match his raspy voice and ad-libbed yelps and screams when singing along and I can end up going over the top a bit while doing so. It is the great karaoke song if ever there was one.

Sadly the album would be the band’s last to feature Scott before he died a few months later in 1980, but his charismatic presence and voice are still emulated by many to this day.

My iPod #526: Freddie Gibbs & Madlib ft. Danny Brown – High

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Piñata, the collaborative album by rapper Freddie Gibbs and music producer Madlib, was released in March last year. All you want from a hip hop album are clever, detailed and meaningful lyrics delivered via a charasmatic voice and beats, good sounds and clear production to give those lyrics a rhythm to flow with. Piñata did not fail in providing those. It was one of my favourite hip hop albums of 2014. Gibbs’ lyricism essentially about his and the gangsta life matched with Madlibs’ soulful samples make up an hour’s worth of captivating music. Very good, check it out.

“High” is the fifth track on there and, if you didn’t assume already, is about getting high off cannabis. Gibbs tells us that the activity is one of his favourites; while his brother and sister were finishing college, he would be smoking the stuff in his house and now that he’s famous everyone wants to smoke with him when they didn’t give a damn about him before. Sex with groupies at shows can’t even be done without a bit of it either. Whatever the occasion, Gibbs gets high. Gibbs had featured on Danny Brown’s album Old released a few months earlier and here Brown returns the favour, though you can tell that he was in a completely different studio while recording his verse.

The instrumental bangs too. Madlib did well.

My iPod #525: They Might Be Giants – Hide Away Folk Family

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When listening to They Might Be Giants’ 1986 self-titled debut for the first time, the opening drum fill for “Hide Away Folk Family” slightly caught me off guard. The four preceding songs establish the album’s upbeat and sprightly mood that you assume it’s the kind of rhythm and mood they’ll be going for throughout the whole thing. But no. “Hide Away” slows the album’s pacing down, allowing the listener to breathe for a few minutes and really feel the music.

Sung and presumably written by John Flansburgh, the track has a cosy and homey feel to it with a light lullaby-like melody to its lyrics and cute instrumentation. Take away the lyrics which creepily depict a mother and father who are paranoid about their house being burned down or blown up, and you have a perfect instrumental for a child’s bedtime song. The ‘happy music with dissonant lyrics’ trope is one that They Might Be Giants have used countless times; this is another instance in which it is executed with great effect. You wouldn’t realise what it was you were singing about unless you had a very good look at the lyrics.

My iPod #524: They Might Be Giants – Hey, Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had a Deal

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“Hey, Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had a Deal” was originally going to be released on the Purple Toupee EP, when the title track was to be released as a single in 1989. For some reason the EP was shelved and the song was later placed as the opener to the band’s B Side/Remix compilation Miscellaneous T, two years later in 1991. The compilation is loved by many a They fan due to the fact that for a B Side album, the stuff on there are as brilliantly written and performed as any other song you would find on the three albums they had released by that time.

The song is a tale of a lad who is eager to get his new song on the radio, going to the local DJ to see if he can sort some things out. From the wordy title, you can probably tell that things don’t go as planned. The tale is told accompanied by catchy rhythms, an infectious melody and a delightful Carribean-like (xylophone? glockenspiel?) line and backed up by the witty lyrics of John Linnell. Notice how he cleverly pulls of a ‘Glass Onion’ and sneaks in some references to other TMBG songs in a verse. So much fun.

I could imagine this being a lead single for any album. Seeing as it was to be released with “Purple Toupee”, I assume that it was recorded during the Lincoln sessions. Goodness. I enjoy Lincoln enough as it is, but it would have been cool to have this on there. Though it’s title would have stuck out like a sore thumb on the track list.

My iPod #523: Alexisonfire – “Hey, It’s Your Funeral Mama”

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The video isn’t really eight and a half minutes by the way. Someone messed up on their part.

I think this song is awesome simply because it is about go-karting.  I have never heard of another song which touches upon the subject, even if there was it would never come close to topping this one.

“Hey It’s Your Funeral Mama” is a song from Alexisonfire’s second album Watch Out!, released in 2004. Why that’s the song’s title I couldn’t tell you. I have the feeling it may be taken from a film, or may have sprung up in a conversation between a band member and their friend. We’ll probably never know. The hilarious music video has nothing to do with the subject matter either. Alexisonfire hold auditions for Alexisonfire clones so the real band can take a break while the clones do their shows for them. It’s a good watch.

Alexisonfire songs always get me pumped up and motivated even if I’m not planning to do anything active. “It’s Your Funeral” is no different. Straight from the beginning, the alternate muted and power chords give off the sound of engines revving up before racing off as soon as the lead guitar line enters the mix. Overall, the guitar playing is sick. And slick. Kudos to Wade MacNeil and Dallas Green. But the highlight throughout the whole track is the interplay between MacNeil, Green and lead screamer George Pettit’s vocals. One guy will be singing their heart out in one line before the other abruptly comes out of nowhere to scream the next. A very hard to sing along to by yourself, for sure.

A really enjoyable song in the long run. Something to thrash your arms about and go wild to.