Posted September 1, 2011 at 8:05 am | No comments
When Wolfmother burst onto the rock scene with the blistering “Woman” in 2006, people were marveling at this band that sounded like Black Sabbath fronted by Robert Plant. With “Joker & the Thief,” the sixth single from their self-titled debut album, the Wolfmother took it to the next level, pumping in even more high-octane fuel to the hard rock fire. “Joker & the Thief” is a driving rock song, obviously influenced by the beginnings of hard rock in the ‘70s, but firmly rooted in the present. Its fast-paced riffage and constant energy have made it a favorite to include in commercials, video games and movie trailers, appearing in the films Jackass Number Two, Shoot ‘Em Up, the Hangover and even Shrek The Third.
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Posted August 31, 2011 at 8:04 am | No comments
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” is one of those songs that every guitarist should at least be able to hack through. It is the most popular and commercially successful song from alternative rock/grunge icons Nirvana, and the riff, which is an incredibly simple one at that, is forever burned into the memory of anyone who was alive in 1991 or the ten years after, when the song basically ruled alt rock radio. Kurt Cobain has admitted that with “Smells Like Teen Spirit” he was trying to write a Pixies song, as they were one of the groups he admired and identified with most. Their use of contrasting quiet and loud sections is a huge influence on Cobain’s songwriting, as many of his songs from Nevermind and In Utero use this contrast to build energy and intensity, especially with “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
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Posted August 30, 2011 at 8:04 am | No comments
Nirvana’s “Rape Me” is an odd duck. It’s a popular rock song where the most memorable and catchy line is “Rape me/Rape me, my friend/Rape me/Rape me again,” and it is still played on rock radio stations across the world. While the meaning of the song may be vague to many, including such disparate lines as “I’ll kiss your open sores” and “You’ll always stink and burn,” singer/guitarist/songwriter Kurt Cobain maintained that it is an anti-rape song. While talking to music magazine Spin, Cobain said, “It’s like she’s saying, ‘Rape me, go ahead, rape me, beat me. You’ll never kill me. I’ll survive this and I’m gonna fucking rape you one of these days and you won’t even know it.” “Rape Me” is a great song to learn how to sing and play, as the guitar part and vocal melody are relatively simple. Hell, it might even get you some action; just try and serenade a lady friend and see what happens. Ok, maybe that might be a bad idea.
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Posted August 29, 2011 at 8:04 am | No comments
“In Bloom” was released as the fourth single from Nirvana’s second album, the iconic Nevermind. The song conforms to Kurt Cobain’s oft-used “template” of soft verses with a simple, repeated melody and exceedingly heavy choruses featuring Cobain’s legendary gravelly rock voice. “In Bloom” also features one of Kurt’s best guitar solos, which finds him dive-bombing and wailing, but all to serve the melody. The song is a very thinly-veiled shot at Nirvana’s fans who didn’t get the message of the band. Since “In Bloom” came out, there have been millions of jocks unwittingly jamming to what is basically a diss track, singing “He’s the one who likes all our pretty songs/And he likes to sing along/And he likes to shoot his gun/But he knows not what it means.”
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Posted August 28, 2011 at 8:04 am | No comments
Nirvana’s first single from their 1993 album, In Utero, “Heart-Shaped Box” is the quintessential Nirvana song. It begins with a low key riff that repeats throughout all verse parts as Kurt Cobain sings such seemingly disconnected yet amazing vagueries, like “I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black” and “Throw down your umbilical noose so I can climb right back.” Although there have been many discussions about the song’s subject matter, Cobain has said that it was inspired by a documentary he saw about children with cancer, although it certainly seems like “Heart-Shaped Box” is about Courtney Love. Cobain has also said that the visceral chorus, which includes the line “Hey/Wait/I’ve got a new complaint” was an example of the media’s portrayal of him.
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Posted August 27, 2011 at 8:04 am | No comments
Released as a double A-side with “Rape Me” in December of 1993, “All Apologies” was the second single from Nirvana’s third album, In Utero. The song showcases Kurt Cobain’s mastery of simplicity, with a verse of one chord, a prechorus of only one chord, and, you guessed it, a chorus that has only one chord. The song doesn’t have a bridge; it just goes back to the verse riff, which is one of the most sneakily catchy riffs in rock, while Cobain repeats “All in all is all we are.”
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Posted August 26, 2011 at 8:04 am | No comments
“About a Girl” is the third track on grunge legends Nirvana’s debut album, Bleach, although it didn’t become very popular until it was released as a single for the posthumous MTV Unplugged in New York. While most of that album is fairly bleak and sparse lyrically, as Kurt Cobain has said that he wrote most of the lyrics the day before recording and didn’t really like them, “About a Girl” has some depth to it. Cobain wrote the song after his girlfriend at the time asked him why he never wrote a song about her, and the ironic chorus sheds some light on their troubled relationship: “I’ll take advantage while/you hang me out to dry/But I can`t see you every night/Free.” The song is one of the most pop-influenced songs on the record, and Cobain was hesitant to even include it. Nirvana was experiencing pressure from their record label, Sub Pop, to conform the record to the “grunge” standards, and a song with the Beatles as such an obvious influence like this one might be out of place. Producer Jack Endino loved the song, however, and got it included.
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Posted August 25, 2011 at 3:12 pm | No comments
As the last single released before the death of bassist Cliff Burton, “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” is fittingly dark and heavy. Beginning with a creepy reverb guitar intro, “Welcome Home,” from Metallica’s masterpiece, Master of Puppets, quickly gives way to ominous arpeggiated chords under James Hetfield’s powerful growl. In typical Metallica fashion, these layers build in energy into a heavy double time chorus of “Sanitarium! Leave me be!” Although the first chorus is short-lived, a heavy metal bridge has already been foreshadowed, and sure enough, after the second chorus, Metallica keep the energy at 11 for some palm-muted chugging and shred soloing that never relents, leaving those slow, scary chords from the verses in the dust in favor of pure brutality.
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Posted August 24, 2011 at 3:11 pm | No comments
“The Unforgiven II,” from Metallica’s 1997 album, ReLoad, is the band’s sequel to “The Unforgiven,” which was featured on The Black Album. It has some similar lyrical themes, but the most obvious similarity is that the verse chord progression in “The Unforgiven II” is very similar to the chorus chords from the original. This sequel shifts the “ballad paradigm” back to normal, taking the soft chorus of the original and making it a soft verse that leads up to a distorted chorus, which was the pattern they wanted to switch around with “The Unforgiven.” “The Unforgiven II” does exactly what a sequel should; it reminds the listener of the first installment, but is crafted as a completely stand-alone work as well.
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Posted August 23, 2011 at 3:11 pm | No comments
“Turn the Page” is a classic Bob Seger tune, released as a single for his 1973 album, entitled Back in ’72. It contains the classic line about being harassed on the road, “Oh, the same old cliches ‘Is that a woman or a man?” which references multiple incidents of truckers and the like giving Seger and his tourmates grief for having long hair (this was the early ’70’s, mind you). In 1998, Metallica released an album of mostly covers, entitled Garage, Inc., and their cover of “Turn the Page” was the monumental lead single, staying at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Mainstream Rock chart for an impressive eleven weeks. In lieu of the soulful sax in the original, Kirk Hammett busts out his slide to play that heartfelt counter melody as Hetfield channels the hardships of the road, making their cover just as impactful as Seger’s original.
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