The Singles Jukebox

We kinda like rock sometimes!

[Video][Website]
[6.33]

Micha Cavaseno: Fucking Mastodon: a band who go from an aspiring sludgy prog band to the unlikely cult metal band of an era to an even more unlikely source of hard rock jams. “Steely” Brann Dailor, arguably his generation’s greatest and once most masturbatory rock drummer and the former expulsion-artist turned sneery and yowling bassist Troy Sanders are so radio ready it’s undeniable. And the Thin Lizzy worship that these kids would go ON AND ON ABOUT, even back in the Leviathan-era, is now the holy guts of guitarists Bill Kelliher and Brent Hinds’ work. Is it as unusual as hearing “Ole Nessie” for the first time and thinking “Holy shit!”? Nah. Is it nice to see these goons are still going to make unnecessary amounts of money and maybe 5% of their fanbase will discover Today Is the Day and Neurosis? Sure. Will people jam this one? I suppose.
[5]

Brad Shoup: This would slay at my local bar: Tool timbre with Staley/Osbourne vocal drone, run through the wringer of ally politics. The wah gets a workout but everything stays tight; the solo is introduced almost grudgingly, fending off a second, hornet-sounding lead. And I’ll always be a sucker for drummers pulling double duty with aplomb.
[8]

Anthony Easton: This is more inspirational, more mid 90s grunge, and less ambitious than their other metal work. I want more songs about whales and fewer bland reassurances about how things will turn out. 
[4]

Will Adams: The extended instrumental bridge is the prize; the harmony really starts to darken, the stereo-panned guitars moving in parallel with mounting intensity. When the final chorus returns, there’s an extra boost that felt missing from the first half of the song.
[6]

Jonathan Bogart: Sonically this is almost exactly like the Christian rock that certain of my high school classmates in the mid-90s fervently insisted was the most lyrically meaningful and musically interesting listening choice possible; change a few pronouns and the lyrics wouldn’t be far off either. Which, for me, only emphasizes the gulf between who I was then — a homeschooled nerdatron trying desperately to catch up with the pop culture I had missed during the first thirteen years of my life, willing myself to like angsty hard rock because I didn’t know how to embody anything with more verve — and who I am now. I still don’t know how to embody anything with verve, but I do all my own brooding; I don’t need Mastodon’s help.
[6]

Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: Mastodon, Atlantan tech-metal progressive Melville nerds, finally wrote the soundtrack to a Teen Wolf movie. They never saw this in their career goals: and yet here we are, at “The Motherload” in all its posi-riff glory. High five and hug someone to this.
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