30: "Piss Off" by the Arrogant Sons of Bitches!
"And all my friends told me 'watch out' cause you were treating me like shit. I swallowed my pride and bit my tongue and thought nothing it". Another ASOB break up song? Why not. I like this song probably from a video of seeing it live before of ASOB ending the show. It does end with "This is the last goodbye" over and over, so that works really well. Also, it puts me in a good mood when I'm pissed off, makes me want to tell people to piss off. The ending of the song is a lot of fun too
29: "Faded" by Big D & the Kids Table
"So this is your first tour? I bet a beer that it's your last. Don't bother stickering the bathroom kid, I'll be covering it up in March". This is a very angry song, and I'm not so sure why. Big D doesn't seem like the band to hate on kids trying to make it big. Maybe it is their way of expressing that they finally made it and can be a little arrogant, but this song is a little too much. Another track I like because of it's live placement, this time as a show opener. It's one of Big D's best hard punk song, with the horns going along with that level of intensity.
28: "Kinder Words" by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones
"Kinder words here we can choose, we kinda got a lot to lose. The temperature? We need that to drop". I used to not really give this song much attention at all. In fact, the whole "Question the Answers" album never really appealed to me much. Then they opened in Boston with this in December 08. I've been hooked ever since. Slow build up into a hard punk-ska song is perfect way to open a show/album. Pretty good video that goes along with this song, but not nearly as good as the one for "The Rascal King"
27: "The Dirt Whispered" by Rise Against
"The dirt whispered, 'child, I'm coming home'". Maybe this song is an example of Rise Against "selling out" on their latest album, "Appeal to Reason". It is a pretty poppy song, not very hard, and features no hardcore parts. Oh well, it's a catchy song that sounds very sweet and I like it a lot. I could really seeing this make it onto a Guitar Hero, guitar seems like one of those songs.
26: "The Old School Off the Bright" by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones
"Bring in the skins with the pins and patches on their packs". In 08, the Bosstones opened with "Kinder Words". In 07 it was this song, which is also when I realized what a good song this was, especially to open with. This is a deceptively violent song masked by the instrumentals, but I like it for how it sounds more than what it is about.
25: "Down, Down, Down, to Mephisto's Cafe" by Streetlight Manifesto
"And the gears will spin and sinners sin but at least will give you hell. And the righteous few will spit on you, so I bid you all farewell". This is the first song I heard off of "Somewhere in the Between" after it was on a Victory Records sampler with a couple Voodoo Glow Skulls songs (also on it was "Watch it Crash"). I still think that overall, this is Streetlight's best song. Their strongest song. You really need to listen to it 8 times to REALLY appreciate how good it is. Once for the vocals. Once for the guitar. Once for the bass (yes, the bass is amazing). Once for the drums. Once for each sax, and once for both the trombone and trumpet parts. The ability to make 8 different parts into one amazing song is why I appreciate ska so much, especially what Streetlight is doing. It's almost as if they can do no wrong, and don't care what you have to say about what it is they're doing. "Mephisto" is over 5 minutes of non-stop musical greatness, and I can only wish that one day they'll top this.
24: "The '59 Sound" by The Gaslight Anthem
"Did you hear your favorite song one last time?". My friend Tommy describes this as the saddest song he's ever heard. You might not pick up on that if you casually listen, but listen closely to the words and you may agree. This is the kind of song I want to play when I die, really puts someone's death into a different perspective. This will probably go down as Gaslight's "song", and I have no problem hearing this song at every one of their live shows from now on.
23: "WTFIU" by the Hub City Stompers
"So get on that dance floor and do what you do. This is going out to my Jersey crew". If you're wondering, it stands for 'what the fuck is up'. This is one of HCS' very aggressive songs, one of many in fact, and a great way to kick off their "Dirty Jersey" album. It's one of the most energetic songs on this list by far, and shows how they're not here to fuck around.
22: "Rudie Can't Fail" by The Clash
"You've been drinking brews for breakfast. Rudie can't fail". Like Sublime, The Clash is a great way to trap people into admitting that they do in fact like ska music. The Clash are not known for their Jamaican roots song, but this is a flat out ska song, and one of the first couple tracks on "London Calling", their most successful and famous album. I probably like this song the most because it is The Clash playing a ska song about ska fans, but musically it is also very good.
21: "Little Bitch" by Big D & the Kids Table
"I know, you know, you're just a little bitch! One-Two!" A cover of the song made famous by The Specials, Big D brings 70's style British ska to a 2000's style of punk ska. The horns on this version are much more present, and replacing the organ solo with a guitar solo was a nice touch too. This song had about 6 videos, all of Dave drinking excessively at the bar...but in different cities! As a result, this becomes a great drinking song, so drink up and be merry listening to the fun sound of Big D.
Up Next: Remember when I said I tend to like opening tracks of albums? 5 of the next 10 are that! Songs about being black and broke! Looking for love! Life sucking! Drugs! Suicide! More gang violence! And, the word "fuck"....a lot
No comments:
Post a Comment