Saturday, July 26, 2014

Saturday Shuffle: Alice in Chains, Queen, DAC, Rob Zombie, White Wizzard


A few bona fide classics and one big bust make up this week's edition of the Shuffle ...


Alice in Chains, “Grind.” From the album Alice in Chains (1995). Alice in Chains’ self-titled record seems to get overlooked a little, but it’s a great album. The grooving, grinding riff of “Grind” is a great example of what you can find. Layne Staley’s dark and angry vocal on the verse gives way to a rare, almost hopeful chorus from the band.



Queen, “Stone Cold Crazy.” From the album Sheer Heart Attack (1974). One of the things that I loved about Queen, and Sheer Heart Attack, in particular, was the way they could bounce around the musical spectrum from a lounge tune to a song like this one that pretty much set the template for the thrash metal genre.


David Allan Coe, “Jack Daniels if You Please.” From the album Human Emotions (1978). Yep, David Allan Coe is crazy as hell. He won’t be winning any humanitarian awards, either. But the guy can write one hell of a country song in his saner moments, and this is one of his better ones.


Rob Zombie, “How to Make a Monster.” From the album Hellbilly Deluxe (1998). Zombie’s first solo album showed great promise. It was almost the equal of his work with White Zombie. Things went downhill from there. This is one of the weaker tracks from Hellbilly, though.


White Wizzard, “High Roller.” From the album Over the Top (2010). If there’s been a bigger disappointment for me than White Wizzard in recent years, I can’t think of it. This album held so much promise, but a revolving door of musicians, too much drama and the inability to match the incredibly catchy hooks of this record on subsequent releases have pretty much relegated them to also-ran status.

No comments:

Post a Comment