Pixies - Hey

Time for a bit of a trip down memory lane with the Pixies. Here we have track 13 off their 1989 sophomore release "Doolittle" (#226 in Rolling Stone magazine's "Greatest albums Of All Time").

Jimi Hendrix - Red House (Live - Sweden 1969)

What can I say about this track...one of the best blues songs I have ever known. Hadn't seen this footage until tonight - and I reckon it rips - so up she goes. Enjoy. RIP Jimi.

General Surgery - The League of Extraordinary Graverobbers

Getting back to business, I'm happy to be able to share one of my favourite death/grind tracks from Swedish stalwarts "General Surgery". They formed in the 80s and since then have taken a massive hiatus of about 15 years, before re-grouping to record and release the 2006 album "Left Hand Pathology".

An aside - I have always really liked the band's name, although I can't explain why. I guess there's a simplicity to it, compared to other bands of this ilk, and that gives you (or me at least) some fucking inclination or something that the music is going to destroy. Killer track name as well, and album name for that matter.

Lastly, the riff. One of the best metal riffs I've heard. I guarantee there would have been more than a handful of guitarists who, upon hearing it, would have been spewing that they didn't come up with it. If your head doesn't automatically move in a steady back and forth motion to this song, see a doctor. Or better yet, a surgeon.

Wu-Tang Clan - Triumph

Skid Row - Youth Gone Wild

Beastie Boys - Fight For Your Right To Party

Another track from "Licensed To Ill" - which btw was The best selling rap album of the 1980s. This track was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. I know we've all heard it - but have we all appreciated it to the fullest?

( . )( . ) x 1000

Rolling Stones - Angie

I've always been a sucker for a good ballad - and this one is as good as they come.

Beastie Boys - Paul Revere

Track 9 from "Licensed To Ill" (1986) - MCA  and some other cats (not from the Beasties) wrote this jam. Way underrated and overlooked, it's a mock story of how the B-Boys met.

Beastie Boys - Pass The Mic

MCA has been one of my favourite MC's for a long, long, long time. I used to love it - and still do - how the timbre of his voice perfectly offsets the nasal stylings of Mike D and AdRock.

I also wanna give him props for being the realest and least "fashionable" motherfucker in the crew.

When he passed away I thought the best way to pay tribute to him would be to throw some of his music up here on the blog. Trouble was, he's done a whole lot of def jams and I couldn't decide which one(s) to put up. There are plenty of MCA tribute mixes out there, but to post one of those would be taking the easy way out - not to mention I would have no say in what songs were in the mix.

So as opposed to doing nothing at all, I decided to start by putting one of my favourite B-Boys tracks up. This is track 3 off Check your Head - my favourite Beastie Boys album, released over 20 years ago.

Gary Jules - Mad World (Tears For Fears cover)