Summer of Rock

2007-06-27T11:27:00.003-07:00

All right, kids, here’s your Summer of Rock Mix (not to be confused with Summer Rock, or Rock On, 1988: Endless Summer Nights). If you can’t listen to each and every one of these songs while drinking beer with people you like, then I have failed. So rock the fuck out already.

N.W.A., Express Yourself

2007-06-27T11:27:00.001-07:00

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from N.W.A., it’s that life ain’t nothin’ but bitches and money. But if there’s two things we’ve learned from N.W.A., it’s to give it up smooth because there ain’t no tellin’ when they’re down for a jack move. But if there’s maybe nineteen things we’ve learned from N.W.A., I think we can all agree, it’s that there’s a lot of brothers out there, flakin’ and perpetratin’ but scared to kick reality. Don’t ever be scared to kick reality. That’s what it’s there for. Ok? Kick the living crap out of it until it’s down on it’s knees promising to drive all the way out to Santa Monica and bring you back a cheeseburger from the Apple Pan, if you will please please please just let it live. Props to Aimée for picking this one. Above left, Ice Cube says, "See my new family friendly movie. Or I'll kill you."

Blink-182, Rock Show

2007-06-27T11:26:00.001-07:00

When people ask me how old I am, I always lie and tell them I’m 56 even though I’m only 49. But this song makes me wish it was still the summer before my senior year in high school so I wouldn’t be so embarrassed about listening to it all the time.

Manic Street Preachers, Motorcycle Emptiness

2007-06-27T11:25:00.002-07:00

You know how all of Europe loved Queen while everyone in America was too busy listening to Boston or Molly Hatchet or some shit? (And no I wasn’t, I was listening to something way more awesomer. So fuck off.) That’s kind of what happened to Manic Street Preachers who’ve sold gazillions of albums in places where they take NME seriously. As proof, I offer this song from 1992—which came on the radio like it was "Stairway to Heaven" when we were driving through Portugal last year. It may not be Queen, but it’s what we missed during the stoopidest days of the grunge rock. Incidentally, this comes from the same place as the Flamingoes (see below).

The Breeders, Flipside

2007-06-27T11:25:00.001-07:00

Until I started writing all this crap the other day, I never really put it together that while I can’t listen to a whole Frank Black album (see below), I have no problem listening to the Breeders, over and over and over again. Just pointing this out. Also, from about '92-'96 I had this awesome picture of Kim Deal wearing silver pants tacked up in my room. If anybody finds it, I’d like it back, please.

Flamingoes, Teenage Emergency

2007-06-27T11:24:00.000-07:00

So you know how sometimes you’re in the Amoeba Records in SF and you’re all like, hey, I wonder if they have the single of Marc Almond’s cover of Jacques Brel’s "Jacky?" And they do? And then you look for the album of outtakes from “Hair” and they have that one, too? (Dang. This is making me sound totally gay.) And then you’re so happy you think maybe even their bucket of 50-cent CD singles is pretty good? So you reach in and pull out this song that proves the law of “teenage” (See Criminal Class USA entry below)? Did that ever happen to you?

EPMD, Strictly Business

2007-06-27T11:23:00.000-07:00

Slam magazine (yes, that Slam magazine) once did a story on why 1987 ruled. Slam, their perspective on 1987 being radically different than mine, did not mention acid wash, Rush or zooking a stomach full of 151 directly out of a dorm room window. Instead, they spoke glowingly of the last Finals meeting between Bird and Magic (pretty good), the release of “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back” (awesome), and also the release of “Strictly Business,” (huh?). Intrigued, I found a copy located conveniently in Kwame’s CD collection, put it on and thought, dang, how’d I miss this? More insightful readers should be able to answer that question for themselves.

Lilly Allen, Knock ‘Em Out

2007-06-27T11:22:00.002-07:00

Cuter, funnier and easier to dance to than the Streets. This is what I wish the world had more of so that PS1 would stop playing so much robot fart music at Warm Up and then I might actually go.

Prince, I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man

2007-06-27T11:22:00.001-07:00

It’s impossible to say what this world would be like without Prince. Except to say that it is not a world I wish to live in. Here then is the shorter, “greatest hits” version of “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man” because my attention span is particularly short in the summer.

Ray Parker, Jr., Ghostbusters

2007-06-27T11:21:00.002-07:00

Shut up. This song rules. Also, I took this girl to see Ghostbusters that summer and after the movie she totally made out with me. So shut up some more. What? The video? Doye.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, The E Street Shuffle

2007-06-27T11:21:00.001-07:00

It's not summer without the shore and it’s not the shore without Springsteen. His first two albums could turn a place like Norway into Asbury Park or something. This is also Springsteen for people who don’t like Springsteen.

The Four Tops, Are You Man Enough? (Theme from Shaft in Africa)

2007-06-27T11:20:00.002-07:00

Do not bother to look up the musical term “wokka, ch’wokka” in the dictionary. It is not there. Why this glaring omission? Because the Man wrote the dictionary. And the Man is a sucker.

Billy Bragg, Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards

2007-06-27T11:20:00.001-07:00

The revolution is still just a T-shirt away.

Stillwater, Feverdog

2007-06-27T11:19:00.001-07:00

My cousin Steve saw Stillwater open for Zeppelin at the Oakland Coliseum in July of ’75. He had just graduated from UCLA and was supposed to start work as an engineer at Hewlett-Packard a few weeks later. According to my mom, who got the story from my aunt, who got the story from the Oakland police, Steve dropped 16 hits of windowpane, claimed to have seen god during John Bonham’s drum solo, got arrested for trying to “fly” onstage during “Misty Mountain Hop,” was later released and then disappeared for three years. When he showed up again, he was the author of a best-selling book called “The Flying Mind: Seeing God, Spirituality and Self in the Everyday.” Signed first editions of “The Flying Mind” currently fetch up to $200 on eBay. Steve, now known by his followers as The Eternal Ravi Kai and worth untold millions, oversees a vast new age empire from his Center for the Flying Mind in La Jolla, California. Also, I totally made that up.

U.N.C.L.E. Joe’s Big Ol’ Driver, Johnny the Man

2007-06-27T11:18:00.000-07:00

U.N.C.L.E. Joe’s Big Ol’ Driver were the kind of band that actually wanted people to yell “Freebird!” at their shows. They would also play riffs from "Run to the Hills" between songs and were not adverse, as some people are, to the non-discriminatory use of the rock sign.

Elvis Presley, Rubberneckin’

2007-06-27T11:07:00.001-07:00

A hip and happening “now” song of today! Actually, this track comes from the last part of Elvis' career that was any good. Those who can force themselves to watch “Change of Habit” long enough to get to the “performance” of this song will be richly rewarded. Oh wait, that’s why god invented YouTube. At left, Elvis kicks ass, saves lives and seduces Mary Tyler Moore (who's a NUN fer cryin' out loud) with his hunka hunka burning love. I mean, with his guitar.

American-Rock-N-Roll Freedom, Criminal Class USA

2007-06-27T11:07:00.000-07:00

I have this theory which says that every song with either "teenage" or "rock and roll" in the title basically rules. After sharing this theory with Charles, he replied with a pair of mix CDs, one called "Dirty Old Man," the other called "Let There Be Rock." This song appeared on the latter and essentially turned my theory into an irrefutable law. So very few songs rock this hard while proving my genius at the same time.

Frank Black, (I Want to Live On An) Abstract Plain

2007-06-27T11:05:00.002-07:00

I once tried listening to a whole Frank Black album. I don’t know, I just couldn’t do it. But on this track he kind of turns surf rock into something for people who spend their lives on freeways. He then proceeds to generally kill it in just under two and a half minutes.

Led Zeppelin, Hey Hey What Can I Do

2007-06-27T11:04:00.003-07:00

Anyone who grew up listening to heavy metal/classic rock radio stations like KISW FM 100 "Seattle's Best Rock," knows (like they know how high today's Tom Sawyer gets on you) that for about a thousand years the only way you could get "Hey Hey What Can I Do" was as the flipside of "The Immigrant Song." Either that or tape it off the radio. KISW is now 99.9 FM and a mere shadow of it's former, admittedly shitty, butt-rock self. But it was the soundtrack for the days when we'd wait in line all night for Pink Floyd tickets.

The Dukes of Stratosphear, Vanishing Girl

2007-06-27T11:03:00.003-07:00

This song was going to be Muthafukin’ O.G. Henny Loc, Duck Muthafukin’ Mouf, and Bootnie Lee Farnsworth starring in The $20 Sack Pyramid. But you probably already have The Chronic. Turns out they only say "motherfucker" like eleven times. Slackers. Anyway, this is XTC pretending to be from the '60s. Also, who knew they made videos? Oh. Right. Anybody who watched 120 Minutes instead of listening to Rush. Me = Loser.

The Raspberries, Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)

2007-06-27T11:03:00.001-07:00

Sigh. If only we all had big American cars from the 70s with 8-track players, this song would sound ten times better than it already sounds. Phil Spectorish production + early FM radio studio touches = awesome.

X, The Have Nots

2007-06-27T11:02:00.001-07:00

At first I thought this song was a condescending dose of pity aimed at those wasting away in dive bars. Then I thought the song was a laugh—four pissy punk rockers pissing on slumming hipsters. Then I realized X were talking about themselves all along. Also, listen for the most solid list of bar names ever. We should each be so lucky to fall off a stool in any one of them.

Van Halen, Ice Cream Man

2007-06-27T11:01:00.001-07:00

If you don’t love this song, then you hate America, and freedom and probably puppies. And that’s the same as being a commie. Dick.