Saint Is A Sinner Too - Slash

You may remember my very first daily selection being Rocco Deluca, well lucky for you he's the vocalist on this track. Slash wanted an airy falsetto voice for the track and initially Thom Yorke came to mind but Slash had no real intentions of approaching Thom. Thus when he caught wind of Rocco he jumped at it.

This song is a big departure for slash featuring fairly stripped down acoustic finger picking that builds into a clashing crescendo. There is no guitar solo which in itself is huge for Slash as he's most certainly not used to taking the back seat.

Alice in Chains - Your Decision

A fair amount has been said about the new reincarnation of Alice in Chains. Following the death of vocalist Layne Staley, the band has been on an indefinite hiatus. The great thing is the reincarnated band is very very good. New vocalist William Duvall has really stepped up and given the songs the respect they deserve. He can perform the songs live with the same tonality without stepping on Layne's toes.

Your Decision should have been song of the year for last year. The pacing and melody create an overall beautiful song.

Alice In Chains "Your Decision" from Stephen Schuster on Vimeo.

Led Zeppelin - Dancing Days

It was only a matter of time before Zeppelin popped up. What can I say? The most influential hard rock band in history has had many things said about them. Dancing Days has a killer hook and is the perfect summer song.

Lenny Kravitz - Are You Gonna Go My Way

Time for some retro throwdown. The hair is bigger and the riffs are bigger. The video is simple but has a cool mood. The song is direct too. Lenny is talking about feeling good and asking if everyone could just follow his lead. The riffs are classic Hendrix and even the style feels like the 70s.

Edwin - Hang Ten

Time for a Canadian classic of the 90s. The video was really cool at the time as the various tattoos morph and eventually move on to other people in the crowd/band. The song itself is very straight forward and fun. I don't believe there is any important social commentary here.

The Cranberries - Zombie

Time for protest! Zombie was written by lead singer Dolores O'Riordan in protest of the conflicts that have been happening in Northern Ireland for decades. Sinead Oconnor had brought attention to the conflicts earlier in the 90s through various songs. In particular the song is about bombings that had killed two children. Despite the success of the song the conflicts continued until 2005 when the IRA declared all members should discard all weapons and embrace peace.

Sigur Ros - Untitled 1 (Floria Sigismondi)

This song is the perfect example of the images making sense of the music. It's mostly a mellow instrumental track. However the visuals tell a different story. Floria Sigismondi is one of the greatest visual artists of our time. She directs mostly music videos but also has done a few short films and her recently released Runaways biopic.

I really don't want to tell the story of the video or the song. That's for you to discover after watching. I'll warn you, it's not the easiest video to watch.

PJ Harvey - Shame

Much like my previous Elliot Smith post, this is completely new to me. I've been aware of PJ Harvey for quite a long time but really couldn't think of any of her music. Just spending 5 minutes with some of her music shows she has various sensibilities. She reminds me of Patti Smith as there is a punk sensibility to her music. She has that indie sound aswell but at her core the songwriting is emotional and strong.

Female rock artists and me have never been friends either, so this is important. There are few female singers that can really sing a song. That can kill a song when required. Fergie is a wicked rock singer but she doesn't bother with the genre. Who else is there? Either way enjoy this wicked song.

Buckcherry - For the Movies

Ahh, the 90s. One of my favorite musical decades. This song really summarizes the sound and flavor of the decade. It's overblown and direct and you've probably never heard of Buckcherry besides that Crazy Bitch trash that was played in strip clubs for awhile. No interesting stories here, just direct rock music. Enjoy.

Tim Buckley - Sing a Song For you

A very early and beautiful Tim Buckley song. This song is so powerful that it speaks for itself. There really is no story here. Tim was an amazing musician. You can find more on my Jeff Buckley comprehensive I posted a page back.

Nine Inch Nails - Last

This is going to be a rare treat as I usually won't feature industrial music here. It's not my favorite genre although I do enjoy a fair amount of NiN's work. For those of you that are going WTF is industrial, I'll break it down. Industrial was initially started for well, industrial people. It was intended to be more complex and experimental then punk but within the same vein. It's angry and not overly nice. Industrial music typically contains themes of oppression, anger, dissatisfaction etc.

Trent Reznor (AKA Nine Inch Nails) has really made industrial popular. He creates large, threatening riffs and really is a dark guy. He's never been a happy person. All of his music is dark and menacing and he's never really satisfied with what he's created. I picked Last as it's one of my favorite NIN songs just due to how fucking loud it is but it manages to maintain a steady groove. The Broken EP is probably one of the loudest, menacing and heavy records you can find. It's right up there with Soundgarden's Louder then Love. I'll feature another NIN cut in the coming weeks.

Anti Bullying (Filter - Hatred is Contagious)

Going to step out on a limb here and jump up on the soapbox for a bit. Hatred has to stop. Period. This isn't an option. It's not okay for you to belittle, threaten, harass or assault anyone simply because they don't subscribe to the same station that you do. We are all unique beings that have something great, valuable and worthwhile to offer. It's not anyone's right to take that away from you or hate you simply because you are different. Race, sexuality, gender etc are what makes each one of us unique and beautiful in our own right. We have gay youth killing themselves as they feel it's a better solution then standing up and fighting. We need to pick up our torch and our flag and stand up and fight for them. Difference is beauty and healthy.

Madonna - Frozen

Going to deviate a bit from rock music today. In the bubble of human existence there are many cases of brilliant music. I have vast appreciation for all sound. The thing is separating the disposable from the brilliant. The biggest criteria being did the 'performer' write the song. It's all too common to see 12 people getting song writing credits on a track and none of them are the face performing the music. It's obvious such situations are simply corporate. They get the best songwriters together and write the track, and then pass the song onto the most attractive performer that can push the song. Please note I'm referencing new, original music. This is not an attack on cover songs.

Now to Madonna. She does record a fair amount of pop bullshit. She really hasn't had a great album since 1998s Ray of Light. Frozen really was the pinnacle of her career and talent. It's a beautiful song accompanied by amazing cinematography and perhaps the most striking music video I've watched. The video follows Madonna around a blue tinged 'frozen' desert as she shapeshifts into various creatures and her body itself distorts.

The Wallflowers - One Headlight

Time for a throwback Friday. I very well may not be introducing you to anything new here. This song was popular in the 90s. Shockingly enough this song isn't pop bullshit. The melody is upbeat but the song itself is pretty gloomy. It also has a nice funky bass line that lives right under the surface. The Wallflowers are a one man band as no member besides Jakob Dylan has remained a constant member. Yes, Bob Dylan's son.

The Tea Party - Oceans

The Tea Party is one of the few great Canadian alternative bands. They have seen some success in Canada and Australia but remain unknown in the rest of the world. The Tea Party can be best described as World Music or 'Moroccan Roll'. Their influences are pretty broad and frequently feature odd instrumentation that gives a very distinct and unique feel.

'Oceans' is written for the Tea Party's former manager Scott Hoffman. Scott passed away from lung cancer in 2003. The song tackles existential issues and longing. The band was very close with Scott and his loss could have been what lead to the band disbanding in 2005. Enjoy the video, it compliments a fantastic song.

Stone Temple Pilots - Atlanta

Atlanta is the last song appearing on the Number 4 album. The album was STP's return as they had disbanded to pursue solo projects. Weiland had released a solo album and the DeLeo brothers had formed a short lived band called 'Talk Show'. Neither record sold well so a reunion was inevitable. Part of what makes the record work so well is you can tell the members' of the band had been writing great material that didn't fit any solo project well but worked in the STP mindset.

Atlanta is the darkest song on the album. It's hard to quantify what the song is exactly about. My wager is Weiland's lyrics come from divorcing his first wife as he references 'The mexican princess is out of my life'.

Alanis Morissette - Baba

Alanis is a seminal 1990s artist. Full of angst and range she unleashed her Jagged Little Pill on the world and smashed sales records. She took a trip to India to find some sense of peace. Baba was born from this trip. A tale of false prophets and mysticism this is the staple track from her followup Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie

Radiohead - Karma Police

For me, it just doesn't get much better then this song. It's structure is not in the form of a typical song. You don't go from verse to chorus to verse to chorus to outro. The tempo completely shifts for a short 2 verses. 'This is what you get when you mess with us' and then the song returns to the basic 4/4 time signature. Sometimes, simple is best. Just when the song feels familiar the melody starts to unravel the entire song ascends into an airy wisp 'For a minute there, I lost myself'.

An interesting note is the beginning of the song is in A Dorian. ;)

Temple of the Dog - Say Hello 2 Heaven

Temple of the Dog really lit the grunge fire and established several major bands. TOTD was a one off band and album in tribute to Andrew Wood, the late singer of Mother Love Bone. Chris Cornell was Wood's roommate and after his accidental overdose Chris felt that a tribute song was in order. Cornell met with Wood's bandmates and recorded a song, however there was a chemistry there. This resulted in an entire album in tribute to Wood's memory. The funny thing is Eddie Vedder was brought in to perform background vocals on a song. This is how Pearl Jam began.


Anyway, onto the music! Enjoy.

Robert Plant & The Strange Sensation - Shine it All Around

Rather then post a Zeppelin cut everyone has heard a million times, let's enjoy a little of Plant's solo career. This song showcases a wide variety of influences and is really quite magical. Enjoy.