The 11 Best Songs By Ben Harper of the 90s

On another note from my car trip this weekend, I've been exploring the numerous XM/Sirius stations that come free with my new car for three months.  I noticed that there are about 25-30 rock stations but only about 5 pop stations.  With the constant media announcements that rock is dead, why would you have so many stations playing rock if no one wants to hear it?  This is just another of the long list of examples of the disconnect between what the record industry is pushing down our throats and what we actually want to listen to.  America crowds around the TV to watch American Idol and vote on their favorites...then as soon as it's over, they switch the channel to their favorite classic rock station.  I'm not suggesting there should be an American Rock Idol...the exact opposite actually.  You can't manufacture music.  It doesn't work.  There's a reason people return to rock music.  There's something real and authentic to it.  There's a real connection to it.        People love American Idol for the competition aspect...not the music.  If people truly love the singers...Clay Aiken would have been the next Michael Jackson...not the next Mike Reno.

Real musical artists have real careers.  Twenty years into his career, Ben Harper shows no signs of slowing down.  And he didn't need to win a popularity contest to be successful.

Here Are the 11 Best Songs By Ben Harper of the 90s:

1.  Another Lonely Day (Fight For Your Mind)

2.  Glory & Consequence (The Will To Live)

3.  Oppression (Fight For Your Mind)

4.  Widow of a Living Man (The Will To Live)

5.  Burn One Down (Fight For Your Mind)

6.  Jah Work (The Will To Live)

7.  Burn To Shine (Burn To Shine)

8.  By My Side (Fight For Your Mind)

9.  Will To Live (The Will To Live)

10.  Forever (Welcome To The Cruel World)

11.  God Fearing Man (Fight For Your Mind)

Buy Ben Harper's new album, Give Til It's Gone...now!!

The 11 Best Songs By Manchester Orchestra

This should have come out last week if not for Blogger's two-day hiatus.

Took a long road trip this weekend.  Started to grade music on a new scale.  The road trip scale.

I was surprised by how many of my favorite albums are not the most enjoyable to listen to while I'm driving a car.  Actually, I found myself skipping rapidly through them to get the songs I wanted to hear while avoiding the songs that were quickly putting me to sleep.  And this isn't a knock at mellow albums, I still found the melodic pace of the xx and Bon Iver to be quite entertaining.  The Cure's Wish was outstanding.  But while listening to a lot of my favorite albums, I found very little about them that I actually liked.  I struggled through DM's Some Great Reward, DCFC's Narrow Stairs, and The Killers Hot Fuss.  Oddly, I made it through Brandon Flowers solo album without skipping once.

Maybe some albums are just made with a different pace in mind.  Or maybe my frame of mind was in a different place.  Machester Orchestra's new album kept pace with me on my two-day fourteen hour trip...so they must be doing something right.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Manchester Orchestra:

1.  Wolves at Night (I'm Like A Virgin Losing A Child)
2.  Shake It Out (Mean Everything To Nothing)
3.  In My Teeth (Mean Everything To Nothing)
4.  Alice and Interiors (I'm Like A Virgin Losing A Child)
5.  The Only One (Mean Everything To Nothing)
6.  Where Have You Been? (I'm Like A Virgin Losing A Child)
7.  Everything To Nothing (Mean Everything To Nothing)
8.  Anne Louise (Fourteen Years of Excellence)
9.  This Neighborhood Is Bleeding (I'm Like A Virgin Losing A Child)
10.  Sleeper 1972 (I'm Like A Virgin Losing A Child)
11.  I Was A Lid (Let My Pride Be What's Left Behind)

Buy Manchester Orchestra's new album, Simple Math, now!!

The 11 Best Songs By The Antlers

I feel like there are two kinds of companies out there.  Companies who get it and companies who don’t.  I saw a news blurb about Google, who is out testing a driverless car.  That’s some awesome forward thinking.  On the other end, we have Warner Brothers.  WB doesn’t stream any of its movies for Netflix because they’re idiots and haven’t realized that streaming is the present while DVDs are the past.  But WB has their collective heads so far up their asses that they don’t even understand the DVD market.  On all WB DVDs they have 18 minutes of trailers.  18 minutes!!  And you can’t skip through this crap.  You have to watch the whole thing to get to the main menu.  That’s annoying the first time.  It’s worse if you take the DVD out of the player, because when you put it back in you have to re-watch the trailers a second time.  That happened to me last night.  I went to finish watching Matt Damon’s Hereafter.  After the first trailer, I didn’t have the patience to pursue watching it, so I took it out, sent it back and picked out a new movie on streaming.  Way to go, WB.  Your douche bag techniques drove me away from your product to someone else’s.  Congratulations for being giant idiots.

Here are the 11 Best Songs by the Antlers:

1.  Kettering (Hospice)
2.  Two (Hospice)
3.  The Universe Is Going To Catch You (In The Attic of the Universe)
4.  Bear (Hospice)
5.  Stairs To The Attic (In The Attic of the Universe)
6.  Sylvia (Hospice)
7.  Nashua (Uprooted) 
8.  Shiva (Hospice)
9.  In the Snow (In The Attic of the Universe)
10.  Keys (Uprooted)
11.  Uprooted (Uprooted)

Buy the Antlers new album, Burst Apart, now!!

Double Shot: The 22 Best Songs By The Cars

It’s always a question whether a band should continue on when they lose one of their integral members.  Every time you get a situation like AC/DC, who loses an icon like Bon Scott, then turns around and releases the best-selling rock album of all time with Back In Black….there’s a Lynyrd Skynyrd, who after losing their legendary leader, Ronnie Van Zandt, pushes on to play county fairs and farmer’s markets.  Blind Melon and Alice in Chains added singers that sound almost exactly like their predecessors to mixed reviews, though neither tarnished the band’s legacy, it left you wondering…why? 

I feel like the Cars took the smartest route, instead of taking a chance with messing with Benjamin Orr’s legacy, they respectfully left the vacancy there.  Luckily, the Cars are one of those few groups who can get away with it.  Since Ric and Benjamin split vocal duties, there were always two sides of the band.  So, in honor of the new album, I want to also pay respect to both sides.

For the first time ever, here’s a double-header list.  Two lists for the price of one.  Enjoy.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Benjamin Orr:

1.  Just What I Needed (The Cars)

2.  Moving In Stereo (The Cars)

3.  Stranger Eyes (Heartbeat City) 

4.  Drive (Heartbeat City)

5.  It's All I Can Do (Candy-O)

6.  Go Away (Door To Door)

7.  All Mixed Up (The Cars) 

8.  Cruiser (Shake It Up)

9.  Bye Bye Love (The Cars)

10.  It's Not the Night (Heartbeat City)  

11.  Let's Go (Candy-O)

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Ric Ocasek:

1.  You Might Think (Heartbeat City)
2.  Gimme Some Slack (Panorama)
3.  You're All I've Got Tonight (The Cars)
4.  Don't Cha Stop (The Cars)
5.  Magic (Heartbeat City)
6.  Tonight She Comes (Greatest Hits)
7.  Heartbeat City (Heartbeat City)
8.  Strap Me Up (Door To Door)
9.  Shake It Up (Shake It Up)
10.  My Best Friend's Girl (The Cars)
11.  Hello Again (Heartbeat City)

Buy the new Cars album, Move Like This...now!!

The 11 Best Songs By Stevie Nicks

In a recent interview, Jerry Seinfeld compared the show Seinfeld to the Beatles.  Though it’s not a far stretch that his TV show was the medium’s version of the Beatles that wasn't the reason for the comparison.  He said it because both entities left at the peak of their popularities.  That it was better to leave on top, with the audience wanting more than it was to leave on the way down when you’ve been forgotten.  He brought up all the artists like Mark Knopfler who barely play…but when they do, it means something.  I believe that means something.

Stevie Nicks is one of those artists who legendary status isn’t just because of her epic catalogue of fantastic songs from Fleetwood Mac and her solo career, or her elite company of guest stars like Tom Petty, Prince and Layne Staley.  Nicks knows how if you keep a slow and steady pace, it can only amplify what material you do put out.  We, the audience, want her to play more, but she doesn’t…and that makes you love what she does put out even more.  Stevie’s new album is her first new album of original songs in 10 years, and though it was the longest wait for one of her solo albums…many are calling it the best of her career.

Here are the 11 Best Songs By Stevie Nicks:

1.  Stand Back (The Wild Heart)
2.  Edge of Seventeen (Bella Donna)
3.  Leather and Lace (Bella Donna)
4.  I Can't Wait (Rock A Little)
5.  Long Way To Go (The Other Side of the Mirror)
6.  Sable on Blonde (The Wild Heart)
7.  Nothing Ever Changes (The Wild Heart)
8.  Talk To Me (Rock A Little)
9.  No Spoken Word (Rock A Little)
10.  Planets of the Universe (Trouble In Shangri-La)
11.  How Still My Love (Bella Donna)

Buy Stevie Nicks new album, In Your Dreams, now!

The 11 Best Songs By Thursday

Thor has always been the comic book that I never thought would get it's own movie.  I wasn't even sure he would make his cameo in the Avengers movie.  But the movie is getting great reviews, and some are saying it is one of the best comic book movies...yet.  Thor isn't late to the comic book movement...but may be coming in to put the cherry on top.

The band Thursday has a similar story. When they came onto the emo scene, they were seen as the artist who was showing up late to the party.  They were well-liked but no one thought they had a chance to last.  Now, a  decade later, the band is still around, better than ever, and now getting something that alluded them when they first came...respect.  The new album, No Devolucion, is getting great reviews.  Even the critics who never bothered giving Thursday a chance are giving this album a big thumbs up.  Like Thor, coming late the scene doesn't mean you're not as good as everyone else...there's actually a benefit to it.  You get to see what everyone did wrong, and if you're insightful, you'll make sure you don't make the same mistakes.

Both these guys seem to have heeded the mistakes of their predecessors.  And, on a side note, Thor means Thursday.  True story.

Here are the 11 Best Songs by Thursday:

1.  Understanding In a Car Crash (Full Collapse)
2.  The Other Side of the Crash (A City By the Light Divided)
3.  Beyond the Visible Spectrum (Common Existence)
4.  Concealer (Full Collapse)
5.  This Side of Brightness (Waiting)
6.  Signals Over the Air (War All The Time)
7.  Paris In Flames (Full Collapse)
8.  Ny Batteri (War All The Time)
9.  Resuscitation of a Dead Man (Common Existence)
10.  Autobiography of a Nation (Full Collapse)
11.  Steps Ascending (War All The Time)

Buy Thursday's new album, No Devolution...now!!!

The 11 Best Punk Songs By The Beastie Boys

This week Miley Cyrus did the ballsy thing and took her teen pop shtick and layered it all over Nirvana's classic "Smells Like Teen Spirit."  This prompted Rolling Stone to do a list of the worst/interesting covers of the 90s anthem.  Tori Amos succeeds only because she re-invents the song.  Bruno Mars does a decent job, but he only succeeds by mashing it with Michael Jackson.  And Kathleen Hanna's version isn't bad, considering she was the inspiration for the song...also her story that goes with the song is priceless.  This got me thinking how iconic songs are impossible to cover.  SLTS wasn't just a well-written song, that is definitely part of its appeal, but there's more to it.  The song was huge because of its delivery.  Cobain's performance of the song is as iconic as piece of its songwriting.  There are good songs and there are good performances.  Good songs can be covered.  Good performances are untouchable.

You will never hear a good cover of the Beastie Boys.  There is no other group on the planet that could do reasonable justice to any of their tunes.  The Beastie Boys themselves are iconic.  And though their songs are a memorable part of our society, it's their unique delivery and performance that makes them unlike any other group...rock, rap, punk...or whatever.  They are their own genre.

Here are the 11 Best Punk Songs By The Beastie Boys:

1.  Time For Living (Check Your Head)
2.  Mullet Head (Ill Communications Japanese Edition)
3.  Heart Attack Man (Ill Communications)
4.  Tough Guy (Ill Communications)
5.  I Want Some (Aglio E Olio)
6.  Egg Raid on Mojo (Polly Wog Stew)
7.  Nothing To Say (Music For Our Mother Ocean 3)
8.  Transit Cop (Polly Wog Stew)
9.  Jimi (Polly Wog Stew)
10.  Square Wave In Unison (Aglio E Olio)
11.  I Can't Think Straight (Aglio E Olio)

Buy the Beastie Boys' new album, Hot Sauce Committee Part Two...now!!

The 11 Best Beastie Boys Songs of the 90s

When I first heard the Beastie Boys' "Check Your Head," I was shocked.  This was the Beastie Boys?  I was a big Paul's Boutique fan but this sounded nothing like PB or License.  It took a few listens, but by the end of the weekend, I was hooked.  This was the Beastie Boys!

They had re-invented themselves at a time when everyone had assumed they were down for the count.  Like Weezer's Pinkerton, when Paul's Boutique came out, no one liked it.  Critics hated it.  Radio refused to play it.  MTV barely touched it.  The Beasties looked to be a one-album wonder.

But with Check Your Head, they proved everyone wrong.  Not only did it redefine themselves and shed the one-time party-rap group stereotype, they delivered one of the most important albums of the decade.  They did it by looking past the confines of hip-hop and dove into ska, instrumentals, punk, and even country.  (check out GBU's 2007 post)

The Beasties have slowed down...but they have never quit.  With the new album, they decided to top their already unique music video style, by released a 30-minute mini-movie that would make It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World proud. (look it up)

One of the best things about being a Beastie Boys fan is that you never know what's coming next.  But you don't care, because they always deliver quality  And, you're always looking forward to it.

Here are the 11 Best Beastie Boys Songs of the 90s:

1.  Sabatoge (Ill Communications)
2.  Intergalactic (Hello Nasty)
3.  Get It Together (Ill Communications)
4.  Body Movin' (Hello Nasty)
5.  Sure Shot (Ill Communications)
6.  Jimmy James (Check Your Head)
7.  So What'Cha Want (Check Your Head)
8.  The Negotiation Limerick File (Hello Nasty)
9.  Flute Loop (Ill Communications)
10.  Pass the Mic (Check Your Head)
11.  Super Disco Breakin' (Hello Nasty)

Buy The Beastie Boys' new album, Hot Sauce Committee Part 2...now!!

The 11 Best Songs By Fleet Foxes

With Donald Trump’s chances of knocking out Obama for President looking slimmer by the second, another dark horse is taking a mighty swipe at another behemoth.  Today, Amazon slashed all of its song prices to .69 cents.  That’s almost 50% cheaper in some cases to Itunes’ prices.  Almost all of Amazon’s songs are better quality.  In this battle, I don’t believe Apple will be able to hire Seth Meyers to knock Amazon back in their place…nor do I think Apple has an OBL “trump” card to play.  No pun intended.   Maybe.  In this case, I think Amazon may be the front runner in this race.  Really, all Apple has is the hip factor.  That will not last forever.  Once that is gone, they will have to rely on product.  And if their product is the exact same (or even weaker) than the competition but costs twice the price what will the point be to buying their product?

The new Fleet Foxes is $3.99 on Amazon.  $9.99 on Itunes.  Need I say more?

Here Are The 11 Best Songs By Fleet Foxes:


1.  Tiger Mountain Peasant Song (Fleet Foxes)
2.  Mykonos (Sun Giant)
3.  Anyone Who's Anyone (Fleet Foxes EP)
4.  White Winter Hymnal (Fleet Foxes)
5.  Textbook Love (Fleet Foxes EP)
6.  English House (Sun Giant)
7.  Ragged Wood (Fleet Foxes)
8.  Quiet Houses (Fleet Foxes)
9.  Your Protector (Fleet Foxes)
10.  Drops in the River (Sun Giant)
11.  She Got Dressed (Fleet Foxes EP)

Buy the Fleet Foxes new album, Helplessness Blues, now!!  (only $3.99 for a very limited time)

The 11 Best Beastie Boys Songs of the 80s

This week will be all about the BBoys...even with Obama's big news.  It's time for our favorite jewish new york rappers to bring a little bit of life back to the party.  There's so many lists I want to do for this band.  Narrowing it down was practically impossible.  Best songs, best songs by decade, best instrumentals, best punk songs, best videos, best b-sides, best unreleased...the Beasties make a hard choice still fun.

I'm sure I can't go wrong with this one (and I'm sure you'll tell me if I did)...and we'll see what the rest of the week brings.

Here are the 11 Best Beastie Boys Songs of the 80s:

1.  No Sleep Til Brooklyn (License To Ill)
2.  Sounds Of Science (Paul's Boutique)
3.  Shadrach (Paul's Boutique)
4.  Shake Your Rump (Paul's Boutique)
5.  Fight For Your Right To Party (License To Ill)
6.  Time To Get Ill  (License To Ill)
7.  Paul Revere (License To Ill)
8.  Hey Ladies (Paul's Boutique)
9.  Rock Hard (Non- album Single)
10.  Egg Man (Paul's Boutique)
11.  B-Boy Bouillabaissie (Paul's Boutique)

Buy The Beastie Boys new album, Hot Sauce Committee Part 2...now!!!