Ear Bleed
So today I made a mix that literally made me burst with adrenaline-laced sweat. It's not the hardest music you've ever heard, nor is it some sort of esoterica list that you will be instantly impressed with. No, I'm going for pure effect here. Something about these songs--the bpm, the guitar chords, all played at dangerously high volume--just really does it for me.

The List that made me Sweat:
1. Mr. Self Destruct, NIN.
This song is a great start to "Downward Spiral," so I thought I'd use it to get this one started as well. The beginning, which is a set of samples of various noises that come from someone vomiting, presumably from heroin, draws you in, and then you get a very firm pounding. It sets the energy level for the mix, which is then sustained with:

2. Sex Type Thing, Stone Temple Pilots.
Yes, a highly-overplayed radio tune (and if my friend BilG is reading this, I can only imagine him vomiting on his own genitals, but fuck BilG), however it has a big meaty guitar thing going on there, and the tune moves quickly. The guitars are well balanced between restraint and bulldozing.

3. God Smack, Alice in Chains.
A perfect follow up from "Sex Type Thing." Once you get associated with the guitar riff, Layne Staley's vocals come on like the impending storm. The chorus brings a little more poppy sound to it, but the hard whammy chords always leave me bumping in my seat--near-metal bubblegum or no.

4. Scarecrow, Ministry.
Ministry has many songs that could be considered walls of guitar death, but I chose this song for it's near-dirge qualities. It brings the mix down a little right in the middle, but replaces the creativity of guitar work with the heavy drums that beat in your temple like a migraine, which is then immediately pepped back up by:

5. Death, Skinny Puppy.
From their "last" album, "The Process," which is definitely not their best album, but I thought it was their most honest album, where they really rock out instead of being pretentiously experimental (c.f. "Cleanse, Fold, Manipulate"). They really lay on the guitars in "Death," almost to the point of being a thrash metal song.

6. Innervision, System of a Down.
It was hard to pick the proper SOAD song to go into this mix, but "Innervision's" explosive beginning is what sold me on it. The chorus is destructively beautiful, and, jesus christ, the song is so well balanced I could weep sometimes. Today, however, is just sweat.

7. Spine of God, Monster Magnet.
What could do this song more justice than a brief quote:

So ride me, baby, in my bed of sweat and truth
and babble and groan words of praise and love
and fry like a pig
in the heart of the sun...

Pass the peyote, baby..

8. Stigmata, Ministry.
This is the live version, from "In Case you didn't feel like Showing up." We all know why it's here. One problem with the song, however, is that, it being a live version, I really wish I could chop the last thirty seconds of the audience cheering from the tail end of the song. Yeah, ok, I cheered for this song a few times, but I'm over it.

9. Sea of Sorrow, Alice in Chains.
Again, a way-overplayed radio song, but one I sing about every day. This song is about a woman, and I've found that by singing this song I find the appropriate type of women. Weird? Perhaps. But effective, and there are worse songs to have in your head all day. Besides, there is a lot of unrealized poetry here (granted that it's mixed in with a lot of rock-lyric-obviousness).

10. Zodiac Lung, Monster Magnet.
Get the impression that "Spine of God" is one of my all-time favorite albums? And the funny thing is that it wasn't a drug trip or anything that brought me to this incredible masterpiece of acid rock. I bought a car from a friend and he had the tape. That's it. You, on the other hand, should get some serious hallucinogens, a couple of sweaty pigs, and get your brains fucked out to this album. MM's stuff since has been, well, sub-par, but at least they recognize that they had a good thing once: several years ago, MM retoured the SOG album, which was then seven years old. I heard about the show the day after it happened and was madly depressed for weeks thereafter. Anyways, this song comes at the end to bring me down from the rush that brought me to this point. However it's a false low, because this song is as intense as any on the album. Therefore let me leave you with one last bit:


It's fuck ups like you that always seem to take it all
It's fuck ups like you that never seem to go away

- posted by frank crist @ 2:09 PM