Dean Carter - “Jailhouse Rock”
Yep, it's the Elvis chestnut, but way better. It came out in the mid-60's on the Milky Way label, somewhere in southern Indiana. All out-of-control with maximum reverb/echo/vibrato and a fucked up "slide guitar" solo that beats any of that southern boogie/pseudo-blues horseshit they try to feed you with a stick. Simply amazing!
Legendary Stardust Cowboy - “Paralyzed”
This sounds like a field recording of a waterhead in a psych ward (i.e. brilliant). It was originally released on the PsychoSuave label in the late 60's and re-pressed by Mercury records for national distribution. Goes to show that at one time major labels had their shit together.
MC5 - “Looking at You” (A-Squared single version)
Without a doubt, that White Panther/Up-Against-the-Wall-Motherfucker stuff was tedious as hell, but, no shit, the guitars on here sound like fighting pterodactyls. This is the original pressing, which is impossible to find, especially with the hard-cover picture sleeve. It was later re-recorded for Atlantic, but pretty lame by comparison.
Motorhead - “Ace of Spades”
Probably the best known thing on here, but to this day I can't hear it without wanting to hurt something. If more metal were like this, it would be a hell of a lot easier to make the devil sign and grunt like a cave bear.
Hüsker Dü - “8 Miles High”
Though I like the original just fine, for me this is the definitive version. I remember playing it for a guy in the record store I was working at when it came out, and he called it "blasphemous." What a dipshit.
Jesus and Mary Chain - “Upside Down”
Hands down the most devastatingly beautiful feedback ever put to vinyl. Though I love nearly everything these guys did, I'm pretty sure they never made a better record.
The Embarrassment - “Sex Drive”
These gods from mid-80's Wichita, Kansas looked like a Radio Shack manager's convention. But good lord could they fucking mow! Heavy sludgy guitar fragments plus Keith Moon drum flourishes combined with day-in-the-life lyrics that absolutely floored me. Easily my favorite band of all time, I shit you not.
Dinosaur Jr. - “Just Like Heaven”
I was never much into Fat Bob and the boys, but this is their best song. And Dinosaur Jr does it better. Is that a collective simpering whine that I hear? Probably.
Ministry - “Jesus Built My Hotrod”
Again, a band I never really cared about one way or the other, but if they actually WERE the inbred retards that they're trying to be on this song, I would have married them. But they're not, so I didn't.
Big Stick - “Drag Racing”
Another one of my favorite bands of all time. No single record other than Metal Machine Music clears rooms faster than Big Stick's first 12". Anything on it is a classic, but this is the one I play the most. "In the summer I wear my tube top and Eddie takes me to the drag strip." God damn.
Sparklehorse - “Pig”
This leads off his/their second album, Good Morning Spider, which I wasn't all that wild about it at first. Fast forward a month or so later, and it's in my forever top-ten. "I wanna be a pig. I wanna fuck a car." Not really, but it makes you think.
Willard Grant Conspiracy - “Go Jimmy Go”
This is from Mojave, an album that got me through a particularly bad time in my life. It's like starting an over-revved engine, letting it run a while, and shutting it off. And is unlike anything else on the record. Manic thrashing in a pool of sadness. Pretty smart sounding, eh?
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Wussy’s Left for Dead will be released November 6, 2007 on Shake It Records.
http://www.wussymusic.com
http://www.myspace.com/therealwussy
