[yaniv297]

28.9 – PJ Harvey 5-Pack and a Camera Obscura single!

 

I’m very glad to present my first major contribution to a C3X tour date!

 

So here she is, making her long-overdue RB doubt, one of the best, most consistent, creative and brilliant artists of the last 30 years – PJ Harvey. This modest 5-pack isn’t nearly enough to showcase all her brilliant work, and many of her best moments (from the stellar punky ‘Rid of Me’ to the 2011 political masterpiece ‘Let England Shake’) aren’t represented, but it’s surely a good introduction to her dark and brilliant work, with three of her own songs, and two very high profile duets.

 

PJ Harvey and Friends 5-pack:

 

 

 

1995’s “Down by the Water” was PJ’s breakthrough the mainstream, and a surprise hit. The song reached number 2 on Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart and received extensive rotation on MTV and college radio stations. Which was quite a surprise, seeing how it’s a fairly dark ballad about a mother murdering her own daughter. It’s very blues influenced, but at the same time quite modern with synthesizers and electronic instruments, and no guitars. Based on a great drums and synth-bass groove, it also includes some great call-and-response backing vocals, some great keys parts and a dramatic conclusion.

 

 

 

Yet another single from the same album, “C’mon Billy” never quite reached the success of “Down by the Water”, but it’s still a brilliant, fun song. Based on a classical guitar and a snare groove (no, I did not forgot the disco flip event – it’s all snare really, and accents are played on yellow), and a string arrangement (faithfully charted to keys), but the real star of the show is PJ herself – delivering a brilliant, desperate vocal performance, that by the end will have you jumping up and down octaves at will.

 

 

 

The 2000 album “Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea” is to this day, PJ’s most direct, mainstream work. It shows that when she wants, she can deliver a rock album as solid and rocking as anyone else. And “Big Exit” opens this album in this exact same spirit – simply speaking, it’s quite a banger! Kicks off with a guitar and keys riff, with bass strategically dropping in and out of the song and a relentless drum beat, it’s the most rocking song in this pack. And PJ herself, as always, is brilliant and delivers the big chorus with so much passion. Just a great song (and hopefully a great custom) all around.

 

Now, time for the duets:

 

 

 

According to PJ, she was always fascinated by the idea of having someone else sing on her records. “The Mess We’re In” was written by Harvey with quite a specific voice in her mind – Radiohead’s singer Thom Yorke, who she met in 1992 and kept in touch since. Yorke’s own band, Radiohead, at that time we’re quite busy neglecting guitar for their electronic, brilliant but polarizing “Kid A” (their best album IMO, but that’s a different discussion). But thankfully Yorke could still recognize a great rock song when he hears one, and he took a break from the bleeps-and-bloops to deliver a straight forward rock vocal performance, with some signature falsetto in the chorus. The result is an absolute charming, romantic breakup duet, with PJ taking the backseat on her own song and allowing Yorke to take the lead.

 

 

 

For a short while in 1995-1996, Nick Cave and PJ Harvey were the power couple of alternative rock. Both extremely talented songwriters of dark blues, rock and gospel, with much more sex and violence than usually found in those genres – it made too much sense. That relationship didn’t last too long (the breakup and the aftermath are all over Cave’s next album, “The Boatman’s Call”), but it did produce one musical souvenir: the deadly duet “Henry Lee”.

 

Taken from Cave’s “Murder Ballads” album., “Henry Lee” is the due’s take on the traditional folk ballad ‘Young Hunting’. While the cover to the single presented the due kissing passionately, the actual content of the song is a lot less romantic – it features Henry Lee (sung by Cave) rejecting Harvey’s unnamed character for another girl (who he ‘loves far better than thee’), and than Harvey murdering Lee in revenge by throwing him down the well. It’s a brilliant song musically, and an amazing duet to sing, with Cave and Harvey trading verses and harmonizing in the chorus. It’s been a fan favorite for years, and my personal favorite from this bunch.

 

 

And another kickass single:

 

 

 

Lead by the brilliant singer-songwriter Tracyanne Campbell, Scottish band Camera Obscura has been one of indie music lesser known secrets for years. “Lloyd, I’m Ready to be Heartbroken” is the opening track and lead single from their highly-acclaimed 2006 album “Let’s Get Out of this Country”, and simply speaking, it’s indie-pop perfection. A reply song to Lloyd Cole’s 1984 (also brilliant) tune “Are You Ready to be Heartbroken?” (hence the unusual title), “Lloyd” kicks off with some beautiful organ, and than goes into an ultra-catchy guitar riff. The song itself is brilliantly written, touching and the chorus is huge and fun to sing along to, along with some great harmony lines. It’s not hugely well known, but if you like indie pop or rock, I highly recommend giving it a try.

 

 

Please note: all songs were updated from the original uploads on Friday, with some bugs and mistakes fixing (most notably – the first verse of ‘Big Exit’ is now fixed to be talkies and not pitched). So I highly recommend redownloading the songs if you already have them.

 

Thanks, and see you next time!

[rcale]

Bravo. Great choice to bring PJ Harvey to us lucky players. Ive not heard a single thing she has done that isnt at the very least interesting. Much appreciated!

[yaniv297]

Yaniv297 writes…

So, after all those magnificent Canadian opening acts opened up our evening, it’s time to clear the stage for one of Canada’s biggest and best rock bands: the Grammy-winning, critically acclaimed and brilliant:

Arcade Fire

The Canadian hmm, sextet (well they currently have 6 members) broke into our lives in 2004 with the masterful “Funeral”, widely considered a masterpiece, and one of the best albums of the decade, and have since released 4 more albums (which will all be represented in RB after this release), headlined just about every festival imaginable, and have left a huge mark on rock music. They already have a few songs on our DB – I’ll mention them below – but now they’re getting a major, career-spanning 9-pack, which means we’ll have cover for most of their classic tracks and anthems. We’ll do this in chronological order, by albums… So, here we go!

Funeral (2004)

Out of nowhere, back in 2004, a married couple and a bunch of weird Canadian dudes broke into our lives with this impeccable and astounding masterpiece. “Funeral” was a defining moment in indie rock, not only according to critics (best album of the decade according to LAS Magazine and Under the Rader, #2 at Pitchfork and Consequence of Sound, #3 at Paste and Popmatters, and many more) but mostly according to fans who keep coming back to it, and the countless bands it influenced.

Before today we only had one track from this great album – Ollie’s version of the great ‘Rebellion (Lies)’ – which was definitely not enough. So, today we bring you 5 (!) further tracks from this masterpiece.

Custom by agaed
Vocals by yaniv297

They say you should start strongly, but I honestly can’t think of a band who started their debut album as strongly as Arcade Fire. I’ll use a lot of superlatives in this post, but here’s a definite one – in this narrator’s humble opinion, this is Arcade Fire’s best song. Not only that, but one of the best songs of the decade and pretty much my whole life. There’s just something about it – I don’t know, man. It’s something else.

Introduced by some piano, into an iconic guitar riff, “Neighbourhood #1” (or as it’s known among fans, “Tunnels”), kicks off with ‘And’ – as if to symbolizes we’re in the middle of a story – and than takes you into a journey into childhood, filled with infectious guitar riffs, groovy beats, and a brilliant, emotional delivery by singer Win Butler, before finishing in some climatic “oh oh oh”s. It translates perfectly into an RB, with all instruments being fun and varied, and overall it’s just a damn great custom and song.

Custom by yaniv297

How do you follow one of the best album openers in history? Well, Arcade Fire did perfectly. The second in the Neighbourhood series, “Laika” is “Tunnels” quirky, weird little brother. Not quite as anthemic or stadium-ready (even though it’s damn great live), it’s an addictive, fun and peculiar song about a brother leaving the family going out on an adventure, which involves some weird stuff like being bitten by a vampire. Kicks off with a great drum beat, it has ultra tight rhythm section, accordion and strings charted to keys, and it’s fun all around – especially to sing (or rather, scream) along – “Alexander! Our oldest brother!”. It’s just addictive, trust me.

Custom by MrBurpler
Vocals by yaniv297

In episode three of our Neighbourhood series (#4 is on the album too, but wouldn’t be a great RB fit so isn’t charted here), this time we tell the story of an unfortunate power shortage in our town. “Power Out” is an epic, powerful and relentless track – and an absolute showstopper live. It kicks up firing on all cylinders, with a driving disco beat (drummers, prepare to work on that one!) and firing guitars, while later bass takes the lead in a fuzzy riff. Vocalist Win Butler absolutely spits out the stressful lyrics – “What’s the plan??” he screams as he describes as he goes out to “pick a fight with anyone”, before screaming in an iconic moment “Nothing’s hid from us kids!”.

Somehow, the song reaches it’s emotional climax when taking a step back to a melodic chorus, “when the power’s out in the heart of man”, before exploding into full on rock and roll madness again. A classic moment in Arcade Fire’s discography.

Custom by Kamtoch
Vocals and keys by yaniv297

When talking about Arcade Fire, the word “anthemic” is used often. Maybe it’s the U2 and Springsteen influences, but even as an unknown low budget band, Arcade Fire always aimed for a huge sound. But nothing, nothing in this album or the band’s career is as anthemic as the show-stopping, unique “Wake Up”. This is the show closer, the climax. Everything – from the opening guitar chords, to the bass-snare beat, to those huge soaring “oh oh oh”s – just screams big stadiums. Lyrics are sparse, each word counts, as Butler pleads: “Children, wake up”, before the song takes a surprising key change and ends on a double-pace, playful outro. The song made a big impact – it was used by U2 as a concert opener as early as 2005, and the band played the song with none other than David Bowie the same year. It also makes a rather brilliant custom – I’m sure you’ll have fun playing and singing along to this amazing tune.

Custom by yaniv297

So how do you finish an album where pretty much every single song packs a huge emotional sucker punch? well, by the biggest emotional sucker punch of them all. “In the Backseat” sees Win Butler’s wife and bandmate, Régine Chassagne, takes the lead vocals, as she tells the breaking tale of her mother dying in a car crash and the impact it had on her life. This song starts as a tender piano ballad, but in typical Arcade Fire fashion includes a big chorus, and ultimately finishes on a beautiful, amazingly powerful instrumental outro, with Régine delivering some of the most powerful “oh oh”s you’ll hear in your life, over a repeated strings melody and some driving drums and bass. It’s a unique and absolutely beautiful track, and a worthy closer to such an album.

Neon Bible (2007)

Following such a perfect album is never easy, and while I won’t claim “Neon Bible” is as good as “Funeral” – it’s still a worthy follow up. And at it’s best moments, it’s as good as the monstrous album it followed. One of those best moments, emotional closer “My Body is a Cage”, was already charted by the great BornGamerRob. And two more of those best moments are released today:

Custom by yaniv297

Starts with a church organ and an acoustic guitar, “Intervention” is a dark, cathartic and beautiful ballad, that (as is tradition) grows into a big emotional climax. It’s an ambitious tale of a soldier, fighting for his country, while also being an anti-religion tune. Naturally the main focus here is on the vocals, as the song builds from acoustic to full band, but all instruments are fun and great to play along. And if you sing, make sure you give your all on the big “working for the church while your life falls apart!” line.

Custom by Kamtoch
Vocals and keys by yaniv297

Originally recorded for their debut EP, “No Cars Go” is a joyous, upbeat and great anthem, of late-night escapism from a world dominated by cars and planes. ”No Cars Go” is a huge fan favorite and brilliant live song, and for a good reason. Led by a driven drum beat and accordion line, with great energy before exploding into a soaring climax, “No Cars Go” is a musical celebration of everything that’s good about Arcade Fire. And it promises to be an absolute blast on Rock Band as well.

The Suburbs (2010)

Time for the next one, the ambitious, great concept album “The Suburbs”. Regarded by many as another masterpiece, the album was critically acclaimed upon release and it’s a huge fan favorite. The title track, “The Suburbs” is already in our DB thanks to MrBurpler, who contributes here yet another great song:

Custom by MrBurpler
Vocals and keys by yaniv297

“Sprawl II” is a key track, and possibly the best track, in “The Subrubs”. Soundwise, it’s quite an unusual departure from Arcade Fire’s usual indie rock sound, taking a strong synthpop direction, and vocally led by the great Régine Chassagne. “Sprawl II” is a hugely emotional tune, discussing suburban life, and the difficulties of growing up in it. It became an instant fan favorite, a necessity on every Arcade Fire show, and widely regarded as one of Arcade Fire’s best songs.

Reflektor (2013)

This ambitious, dancy double album isn’t represented in today’s pack – however, make sure you check out Hotfuzz’s three pack of “Reflektor”, “We Exist” and “Flashbulb Eyes”!

Everything Now (2017)

I’m not going to sugarcoat it, “Everything Now” probably wasn’t a great period for Arcade Fire. After a lot of hype, the album was widely seen as a disappointment and as the first major misstep in their career. And the satirical promotion campaign (which among others, including a satirical article about an “Arcade Fire: Rock Band” game – now if only…) wasn’t well received either, with many thinking it’s not as smart as it think it is. But even in their lowest moment, Arcade Fire could still deliver some absolutely great songs, and one of them is right here:

Custom by yaniv297

As soon as I knew an Arcade Fire pack was happening, I had to get this tune in there somewhere. It’s probably not as big as the others, but honestly I spent the better part of last summer with this song stuck in my head and singing it with my (even more Arcade Fire obsessed than me) brother.
“Put Your Money On Me” is widely seen as a highlight and probably the best song of “Everything Now”. A catchy disco tune, which eventually evolves into an ABBA-style, infectious chorus with a three-part harmony. It’s been released as a late single and exceeded expectations, and it’s surely one huge positive spot in this era for Arcade Fire.

Setlist suggestion

So you have all those cool Arcade Fire tunes now, what do you do with them? Well, I’m here to help! This is a setlist I built, based on real life Arcade Fire setlists (mostly from the last two tours), and adjusted to the songs we have here in RB.
Kick off with the epic ‘Reflektor’ into the soaring ‘Laika’ and an early anthem in ‘No Cars Go’. Things get emotional in the middle, with ‘Intervention’ into ‘My Body is a Cage’, before treating your audience with two singalong anthems in ‘Tunnels’ and ‘The Suburbs’. Get into some disco groove with ‘We Exist’ into ‘Sprawl II’, before finishing the main set with the legendary one-two punch of ‘Rebellion (Lies) into ‘Power Out’ (It’s a shame we can’t connect the songs here like they do in real concerts…). Take a few minutes rest as the audience applauds, before breaking their hearts with ‘In the Backseat’, and finishing off with the most classic Arcade Fire show closer, the cathartic and huge anthem ‘Wake Up’.

Play this setlist for the ultimate Arcade Fire RB experience!

• Reflektor
• Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
• Flashbulb Eyes
• No Cars Go
• Put Your Money On Me
• Intervention
• My Body is a Cage
• Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
• The Suburbs
• We Exist
• Sprawl
• Rebellion (Lies)
• Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)

Encore:

• In the Backseat
• Wake Up

And most importantly, have fun!

[Larry Storch, President and Founder of The Larry Storch School of Acting]

Holy crap. THANK YOU for all the hard work. 15 Arcade Fire songs are now available. I might not be able to wait until the normal Saturday Night drinking and Rock Band sesh to belt these out.

[k-mac]

Thank you so much for spearheading this amazing pack! Arcade Fire is one of the great modern bands. Even though Everything Now is probably their worst album, I still love half the songs on it, so big thanks for doing Put Your Money on Me! I see Everything Now in your WIP list so I’m super excited for that one eventually. It’s fantastic to see Funeral finally get the love it deserves. Amazing effort by all authors involved!

[Derek]

I don’t post a lot these days but I had to jump in and voice the appreciation for that Arcade Fire pack. Thanks a ton, friends. You are good people.

[yaniv297]

Thanks everyone!

 

 

Thank you so much for spearheading this amazing pack! Arcade Fire is one of the great modern bands. Even though Everything Now is probably their worst album, I still love half the songs on it, so big thanks for doing Put Your Money on Me! I see Everything Now in your WIP list so I’m super excited for that one eventually. It’s fantastic to see Funeral finally get the love it deserves. Amazing effort by all authors involved!

 

Happy to read that – I did ‘Put Your Money’ mostly because me and my brother couldn’t stop singing it all summer, so we might as well do it in the game. But happy to see people appriciate it among all the big tunes.

 

Also, I’ve made a playlist of all preview videos, here it is:

https://www.youtube….lR6sSdCrLJbOSGy

 

The videos show keys instead of pro keys, but rest assured pro keys charts are there and they’re great.

 

Now for Arcade Fire. I came across Funeral years ago back in high school, coincidentally around the time of a funeral in my actual life following the death of an immediate family member. So I found not just an indie rock classic but an album that so perfectly captured the range of somber emotion that was defining my life (and my family’s lives) around that time. That’s of course because it was honest, they were feeling the same when making the record. I fell in love with their other music too. Sprawl II became my favorite song of theirs and I’m so happy to see it in the game now.

Last month I had the unbelievable experience of seeing the band play the album live from start to finish. I had put the albums aside in recent but the show completely rekindled my love for their music, the ones that meant a lot to me and the ones that were just fun. This pack could not have come at a better time. Thank you very much.

 

Thanks! Reading this made my day. Glad to see those songs mean as much to other people here. “Sprawl II” was almost a last minute addition, me and Burpler were just talking about how amazing it is and needs to be in this pack, so we sneaked it in a few weeks ago. Hope you’ll like the custom.

And I envy you so much for being at that Funeral show – my jaw literally dropped when I saw this setlist. Sounds like a dream.

 

 

Happy birthday! And big thanks for everyone’s hard work to pull the Arcade Fire pack together. Love the suggested setlist idea too.

 

Thanks! I’m kind of a setlist obsessive so it was easy… I mostly followed the last tour template, but obviously we didn’t have most of the new tracks, including opener “Everything Now”, so I used the opener from last tour, “Reflektor”. Other than that we’re still missing a few staples (notably “Ready to Start” and “Afterlife”), and we have a few songs that the band rarely plays (“Flashbulb Eyes” “In the Backseat”) so I just stuck them were they made sense to me. But I do think it’s fairly close to an actual Arcade Fire setlist.

 

 

Also, I’ve made a playlist of all preview videos, here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjsgbCV94k8_oKO1kvlR6sSdCrLJbOSGy

 

The videos show keys instead of pro keys, but rest assured pro keys charts are there and they’re great.

 

Oh and happy birthday Prez! Hope you and your wife likes this pack!

[kueller]

Thanks! Reading this made my day. Glad to see those songs mean as much to other people here. “Sprawl II” was almost a last minute addition, me and Burpler were just talking about how amazing it is and needs to be in this pack, so we sneaked it in a few weeks ago. Hope you’ll like the custom.

And I envy you so much for being at that Funeral show – my jaw literally dropped when I saw this setlist. Sounds like a dream.

Hey if you didn’t add it yourself I would have done it eventually myself, but not any time soon so for the sake of everyone thanks for making that last minute addition.

 

I didn’t know they were doing a Funeral show until 3 minutes before it actually began. Needless to say I got crazy emotional when Tunnels started because I couldn’t believe it until the first notes came.

[yaniv297]

Phew!

 

So I’ve done this Primavera Sound tour date, it’s been quite a ride. A lot of effort, coordination, and writing went into that project.

 

If you haven’t already, I highly recommend reading the original thread to enjoy the full Primavera experience:

Day One

Day Two

 

Once again, many thanks to everyone who was involved!

 

Now it’s time to add to here all the 12 customs I’ve released during that weekend. Here they are:

 

 

 

This has been great and really fun to do. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I have!

[ejthedj]

Nicely done ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_biggrin.gif” /> I’m proud of you

[yaniv297]

28.11 – “Emergency & I” by the Dismemberment Plan, and a Suede single!

 

The Dismemberment Plan – Emergency & I, full album release

With Nolan, GreenPanda and Meta123

 

I know for the big majority of you, your first reaction to this post was: “Who??”. But really, trust me, I know everyone says this about their customs, but really, you absolutely want to check those guys out. And here’s three reasons why:

 

–It’s a masterpiece. That’s not just me saying, that’s pretty much the consensus. Here’s just a few major opinions:

Pitchfork have given this album their ultra-rare perfect 10.0 rating (I’m pretty sure only 3 albums received this grade rating since 2000). Their review simply read: “If you consider yourself a fan of groundbreaking pop, go out and buy this album right now. Now. Get up. Go” (yep, that’s the entire review). Rolling Stone magazine called it a “a game-changer for indie rock fans“, Glide called it a “landmark masterstroke”. PopMatters gave it a perfect 10, saying they “just can’t get enough of it” and proposing to revise the rating system to give it a new rating: 11/10. Allmusic called it a ‘firecracker’ and gave it 4.5/5. Consequence of Sound gave it 5/5 and called it “music that first opened our eyes to worlds unseen“.

I could go on and on, but you get the point: I’m yet to hear of somebody who heard this record and wasn’t left astonished.

 

–There’s nothing else like it. Usually, when describing smaller artists, you do it by comparing them to bigger bands. But here, I honestly have no idea. This record is unique, it seemed to exist in it’s own vacuum. I have no idea what it was influenced by. It doesn’t seem to belong to any genre or movement. I suppose it’s alternative rock – well, it’s rock because they use electric guitars and drums, and it’s alternative because it’s so damn weird, but it doesn’t really sound like what you associate with ‘alternative rock’. We have a lot of customs on this DB, but I’ll easily bet this record is among the most unusual customs in the entire DB. It’s fascinating.

 

–It’s perfect for Rock Band. This is still a game after all, and not every masterpiece fits it – but this one does. Guitars are soaring and brilliant, bass is melodic and groovy, and drums – oh my god, those drums. If you’re a drummer, prepare to discover your new favorite customs. I can’t quite describe the absolutely unbelievable drumming on this record. They’re extremely challenging, but not in the usual “let’s abuse the double bass pedal” way, or Keith Moon’s ‘extremely fast messy fills’ way. It’s challenging because it’s honestly original, unusual and super cool work. And if you want an example, just check out “Girl O’Clock” – the first 30 seconds will give you enough of an impression.

 

So yeah, just check it out. It’s thanksgiving, it’s weekend, you have some free time. Just download it, choose an instrument (I recommend drums, but they’re all great) and give it a go. It starts off normally enough – opener “A Life of Possibilities” is probably the most orthodox song on the record – but it will reveal itself, it will surprise you and it will take you for a ride. Especially the second side – from the pure weirdness of “I Love a Magician”, the disco groove of “The City”, the complete, bat-shit insanity of “Girl O’Clock”, the groovy apocalyptic vision of “8.5 Minutes”, the emotional rock/rap fusion of “Back and Forth” – there’s nothing like it.

 

So here you go:

 

 

And finally, here’s a playlist I made of all the charts of the album, so you can conveniently preview it and get an impression:

 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjsgbCV94k89D2hVJB77HL3AiRWov8E9Q

 

 

Hope you love it!

 

 

Normally my charting choices are pretty methodical: choose a pack/artist and work with that. But once in a while there comes a song so special, that I like so much, I just decide to quit everything else and push it to the top of the queue. The release of “Life is Golden” was never planned. It was not on the schedule two weeks ago. I’ll do a Suede pack at some point, but I didn’t even want to wait for that. I just found myself so addicted and excited about this song, I charted it so quickly when I should have been studying, and added it to the nearest date I could find. So on the song itself: Suede are mostly known as a great 90’s brit-pop band, with hits such as “The Beautiful Ones”, “Animal Nitrate”, “Trash” and many more (shameless self promotion – I charted “Trash” and “The Drowners” before, look them up in the DB!), and for their absolutely amazing first two albums (seriously “Dog Man Star” is a top 20 album for me). Since their comeback in 2012, they’ve released three albums that are more ambitious, experimental and instrumentally varied than their old work.

Those are all great albums, but this tune – “Life is Golden” from 2018’s “The Blue Hour”, released just two months ago – is special. There’s just something about it – forgive the pun, but Suede have truly hit gold with that one. It’s been insanely well received (Clash Magazine has called it “arguably their best song in twenty-two years”), it’s only been out for a few months and it’s already used as the climatic closing songs to their concerts, chosen over their wide range of hits. It’s a huge, emotional, catchy anthem, and is already a huge favorite and among the band’s best songs. Rock Band wise, it’s not extremely challenging, but it’s fun on all instruments. Guitars and bass are melodic and ever changing through, with a variety of parts to play and a soaring guitar solo at the end. Drums are basic but fun, keys have some nice strings parts, and vocals, as always, rule them all – belting out this chorus is an absolute joy, and there’s some nice falsetto too! This song will probably never be as popular as it deserves too, but I’ve been fairly obsessed with it recently, and I’m very happy to bring it to you. Hope you give it a try.

Thanks, see you next time!

[yaniv297]

20.1 – Four new tunes!

 

 

A track from the iconic 90s britpop band Blur – known for having a bit of a feud with a certain other britpop heavyweight – and whose frontman later went on to start Gorillaz. This track, the lead single from their 1997 self-titled album, was released as a cover version during the early days of Rock Band DLC (and was a bonus track on the European version of the game). Now you can finally play the original studio version of the song!

 

 

Mark Kozelek is a strange dude. An indie cult figure, and now well known as the frontman of Sun Kil Moon, his 2014 album Benjieven got some mainstream success (even though IMO, it’s very far from his best album). And he generally quite lost it, including being involved in a one-sided public row with indie band The War on Drugs, which included him releasing a special song with the delicate title “War On Drugs: Suck My Cock.”

But before all that, he was the frontman of one of the best, and most underappreciated bands of the 90’s – Red House Painters. Their music was usually slow, extremely emotional, personal and hard-hitting, and they had a golden run of records in the 90’s, including my favorite one, a self-titled album usually referred to as Rollercoaster because of the album cover. I’m very happy and excited to bring this band to Rock Band for the first time.

“Grace Cathedral Park” is the opening to this album, and it provides a great introduction to the album and this band. It’s fairly upbeat – by their standards, anyway – and includes interesting parts for all instruments, so it’s fun to play. And it’s also an extremely beautiful song, that’s widely regarded as one of the band’s classics, and just an amazing song.

The Beta Band are also quite a strange breed. Their style is described in Wikipedia as “‘folktronica,’ a blend of folk, Scottish, electronic, rock, trip hop, and experimental jamming” – and yes, this is as weird as it sounds. Through their career they’ve made several strange and wonderful records and songs, all extremely curious and creative. But really, one tune stands above them all.

“Dry the Rain” is one of those once-in-a-lifetime tunes. For me it’s a strong contender for the “best song of the 90’s.” It starts of as a chilly, beautiful, folky tune with acoustic and slide guitars, than slowly evolves into a true epic. The song truly takes it up a gear around the 3:18 mark, where my favorite bassline in music history kicks in – and I’m not just saying that, I spent a solid 10 minutes looking for a bassline I liked better, and couldn’t find any. The bassline leads the song into an amazing climax, with horns, harmony vocals, and overall it’s just a beautiful thing.

The song gained a bit more attention after featuring in the 2000 movie High Fidelity – where John Cusack’s character announces “I will now sell five copies of The Three EPs by The Beta Band, before playing the climax of the song in his record store. The filmmakers knew why they chose that song – it’s a brilliant gem that’s still fairly unknown, and an absolutely brilliant piece of music.

When looking for a fit opening band for Radiohead, really I couldn’t come up with a better fit than Grandaddy. IMO, they’re the real “American Radiohead” – an alternative rock band with an experimental edge, falsetto vocals, and lyrics about technology and the anxiety of modern life. In that case, The Sophtware Slump would be their answer to OK Computer, or some sort of the sequel Radiohead never made – as Pitchfork wrote, “If Radiohead captured a feeling of pre-millenial tension, The Sophtware Slumpcaptured the feeling of disappointment that came afterward.”

Despite the similarities, The Sophtware Slump is a brilliant album on its own account – described upon release as “a work of rare and precious qualities, a collection of emotional, richly melodic songs” (from the Daily Telegraph review). “The Crystal Lake” is the lead single, and it’s one of the catchiest songs on the band’s repertoire. Kicking off with a catchy guitar line, it’s beautiful to sing along to, fun to play, and builds into the anxious chorus statement: “I’ve got to get out of here.” It’s a great rock song and a great introduction to this fantastic band.

[BornGamerRob]

These all sound great. Gotta get ’em all! 😊

[yaniv297]

26.1 – Nick Cave 6-Pack!

 

So what do Arctic Monkeys, Metallica, Harry Potter and the rest from that hint have in common? That’s right, Nick Cave. The Australian legend, “the prince of darkness”, a master songwriter and performer, is already 61, but he’s at the heights of his power. His latest album, “Skeleton Tree”, influenced by the tragedy of losing his son, his regarded one of his best. He finished a big arena tour, played huge spots in festivals all over the world, to great response, and is currently at the middle of a “Conversations” tour – intimate solo shows where he answers questions from the audience.

This pack will follow him at three key albums through his career, chronologically, presenting two classics from each. Here we go:

Since we’ll do it chronologically, as an introduction of his early stuff, here’s the 1990 love anthem “The Ship Song”, which I’ve charted a long time ago.

ALBUM ONE: Let Love In (1994)

This is my 5th favorite album of all time 😉. It’s just a complete masterpiece. Those songs I’ve chosen here aren’t even the best in the album – neither would make my top 3 – but they were chosen because of the best fit to RB, and most well known. But honestly, just listen to that record, it’s special.

Song on YouTube

We’ll start with possibly the deepest cut in this pack. “Loverman” is Cave at his heaviest and darkest – but with a wry twist of black humor, as always. It was heavy enough to inspire Metallica to cover it – a nice gesture, even though their version is IMO nowhere near the original. Kicking from a classic opening declaration from Cave: “There’s a devil waiting outside your door”, the song unfolds the story of the “Loverman”, who is some kind of sexual predator, stalker, possibly a rapist: “I’ve got a masterplan, to take off your dress and be your man”… It’s simulantly a story of a terrible human being, and a cry for help: “Help me baby, I’ve got no choice… I am what I am”.

Musically, the Bad Seeds create a typically masterful atmosphere, before completely exploding in the chorus. Which then continues into a memorable recreation of the title’s letters: “V is for VIRTUE, I ain’t gonna hurt you – E is for EVEN if you want me to”. Instrument wise, the drum will definitely have a blast in this one, and the entire band switch between careful creepy atmosphere to rocking the fuck out (in a similarly creepy atmosphere). It’s a good one.

Song on YouTube

Speaking of masterful atmospheres, there’s a reason why “Red Right Hand” is featured in loads of movies and TV shows, including all 3 first “Scream” movies, and it’s also the title track of “Peaky Blinders”. The Bad Seeds really outdone themselves this time – based on a brilliant and sexy bass line, some brushed drums, and a huge bell – creating an unforgettable soundscape, as Cave unfolds his tale on the mystical tall figure.

One of Cave’s most well known tunes, it’s a highlight of his live shows, and been covered by countless artists: Arctic Monkeys, PJ Harvey, Jarvis Cocker and Iggy Pop, Laura Marling and more. A true classic, long overdue at RB.

ALBUM TWO: Murder Ballads (1996)

Nick Cave wasn’t kidding with the title to this one. The album tells 9 murder ballads, with an overall body count of 76 deaths (that’s not including ambiguous lines like “he’s done many many more”), before concluding with an all-star cover of Bob Dylan’s “Death Is Not the End”. It’s also one of Cave’s funniest albums, and includes two high-profile duets with PJ Harvey and Kylie Minogue (which, of course, both end in murder). Cave’s certainly an interesting guy.

The PJ Harvey duet, “Henry Lee”, was already released in her pack back in September. It’s time for two more:

A note of caution: this song, and this description, includes a lot of curse words and a few, hmm, not-very-subtle sexual and violent descriptions. So if this kind of thing offends you, feel free to skip to the next song.

Song on YouTube

I just had to include that one, didn’t I? I mean, I think Nick Cave has written some absolute, heartfelt, touching and deep masterpieces. So sometimes I get a bit annoyed when people focus on what is essentially a meme song – even though it’s a fucking excellent one.

But on the other hand: this song has inspired a whole community of Stagger Lee and Billy Dilly memes (like the one above), it made shirts that simply say “good pussy” legit Nick Cave merchandise, was the climax of countless shows, with Cave crowd surfing and shouting “SUCK MY DICK!” into the eyes of some terrified audience member, and recently lots of stage invasions too. It’s just a legendary tune, and it has to be here.

Technically, a cover of a popular 1895 folk song – even though personally, I’ve never heard any variation that sounded even remotely like Cave’s version, lyrically or musically – so I’m pretty sure it’s in practice an original tune. This is Cave’s take on gangster rap, taking the classic story of mass murdered Stagger Lee, with yet another badass bassline, and giving it a classic Cave twist – this is Nick at his absolute most badass.

Cave drops classic, profanity filled one liners (“She sees the barkeeper, says ‘Oh god he can’t be dead!’. Stag says, ‘well, just count the holes in the motherfucker’s head”) – too many more to mention, really – before the song takes a surprising homosexual twist, as Stagger Lee rejects a hooker in favor of her boyfriend (or in Cave’s colorful language, “I’ll crawl over 50 good pussies just to get to one fat boy’s asshole” – hence the “good pussy” shirts). Oh and, let’s not forget the classic rhyming – “I’m gonna sit right here till time comes to pass, and furthermore I’ll fuck Billy Dilly in his motherfucking ass”.

This song becomes an even huger monster live, often spanning 10 minutes with the Devil himself being introduced – and shot by Stagger Lee, of course. On a personal note, here’s one of those performances, where I was lucky enough to be on stage with Nick as a part of the stage invasion – so see if you can spot me ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_smile.gif” /> And it’s quite a brilliant performance anyway!

I could go on forever – but really, this song has to be heard to be believed. And now you can not only hear it, but play it, and try to sing those lyrics yourself. Just make sure there’s no kids around before you do.

Song on YouTube

It’s hard to imagine a more unlikely pair than Cave and Kylie Minogue. Both are Australians, but they don’t really share much else in common – he’s an alternative rocker whose made a name of dark and disturbing tunes, she’s a mainstream pop artist who writes catchy, light tunes. The story of how this song came to life, is almost as disturbing as the song itself, as Cave himself recalls: “I had a quiet obsession with Kylie for about six years. I wrote several songs for her, none of which I felt was appropriate to give her.” Until he wrote this one, which was finally appropriate – a romantic duet which ends, of course, with Cave murdering Kylie. We’re still on “Murder Ballads”, after all.

Cave sent her the tape, and – against the advice of pretty much all her advisors – Kylie decided to do it. The result was a huge success – even gaining them a nomination for MTV awards (which Cave refused – “music is not an horse race”, according to him). It’s a gentle, beautiful song, with a great strings arrangement. There’s also this great, recent live performance of this song – with Cave and Kylie dancing together, smiling and looking almost in love, and this lovely song of murder. And now you can recreate this murder duet with your loved one. And if your girlfriend gets annoyed that you gets to kill her – don’t worry, you can follow it with “Henry Lee”, where the girl character kills the boy…

ALBUM THREE: Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus (2004)

So we’re taking quite a leap forward in time, and Cave now is almost unrecognizable. From the dark depths of “Let Love In”, and murder tales of “Murder Ballads”, Cave has since recorded two beautiful, personal album of mostly piano-based love songs (“The Boatman’s Call” and “No More Shall We Part”) – and also “Nocturama”, but it’s best to ignore that one, so I won’t even bold it – before being back with this huge, bloated, full band double album, that was the one thing we’ve almost never seen from Cave before: the music was, well, almost happy!

“Abattoir Blues” is a proper rock album, full of hooks, rhythms, and it’s thoroughly enjoyable and upbeat to listen to, while “Orpheus” is a ballads album, but also lighter than his earlier stuff. Oh, and the entire thing includes a full church choir! This album proved that even without the darkness and devastation, Cave is just a brilliant songwriter who can do anything. So you’ll get the first and the last song of this collection.

Also note that another song of “Abattoir”, “There She Goes My Beautiful World”, was previously released here as a custom.

Song on YouTube

There’s only one word to describe this “Abattoir” opener – rocking. Cave just takes his band, and simply rocks, like he never did before, and yes, with a choir, and it’s fucking awesome. Full of merciless guitars (usually about 3 at a time, so I had to make some charting decisions…), rousing drums, epic choir harmonies (“Get ready! Get ready!”) as Cave leads the band: “Calling every boy and girl, calling all around the world… get ready for love!”. This is Nick Cave doing rock and roll, and he’s great at it.

Song on YouTube

About 70 minutes later, the last song of this double collection, is the angelic ballad “O Children”. A slow, remorseful ballad with a huge climax, this song was relatively unknown, until it found some unexpected mainstream success when in 2010, six years after the song’s release, it was used in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 1”. In fact, it’s the only piece of music used in the entire Harry Potter series, that wasn’t written specifically for it.

The filmmakers were looking for a song that will fit the magical atmosphere, one that was never used in any other movie/TV show ever, and Cave’s otherworldly persona was a perfect fit (and he does look a bit like a vampire, doesn’t he?). The song choice, used in a Harry/Hermione dance scene, was well received and was happily adopted within the Harry Potter fanbase (I’ve even heard some weird theories about how the lyrics are actually about Harry Potter, and “Frank and Jim” actually refer to Neville’s and Harry’s fathers… not sure about that part, personally).

Regardless of Harry Potter, this is just a beautiful song in it’s own right. Lead by acoustic guitar and a distinct drum beat, it has some beautiful piano, as several verses leads to an unforgettable, bitter-sweet, call-and-response climax with the choir: “Hey, little train, wait for me, I once was blind but now I see, I’m hanging in there, don’t you see, at this process of elimination… We’re happy, ma, we’re having fun – it’s beyond my wildest expectations”… It’s an absolute gem.

So that’s all for now! You now have 9 Nick Cave classics available to play with, which is still nothing for his huge discography, but hey, can’t do them all… and if this isn’t enough for you, there might just be another Cave related tune coming sometime soon. But that’s for some other time.

See you next time!

[yaniv297]

2.14 – 11 Songs of Love… and One Song of Disappointment!

A Valentine’s Day pack… with a slight twist.

So let’s start with the songs of love… because of the wall of text, each one of those have a short description, along with a longer one if you’re interested.

Note: some preview videos show errors that were fixed in the final version.

Preview Video

TL;DR – A kickass, female-fronted rock tune, with strong 70’s vibes, brilliant vocals, great drum fills and a nice twin-guitars solo at the end.

If you liked indie music in 2016, you probably didn’t miss Angel Olsen’s album “My Woman”, one of the best and the most acclaimed records of that year. Olsen is influenced by 70’s rock and folk, the like of Fleetwood Mac and Neil Young, and she’s a great songwriter. “Shut Up Kiss Me” is pretty much pop-rock perfection – a kickass tune, a love song with a hint of aggression (as the title implies), it’s so cool and also emotional at the same time. Instruments are all pretty fun – lots of drum fills, cool guitar solo at the end – and it’s a great one to sing along to.

Preview Video

TL;DR – A romantic moment from the iconic indie slacker, “My Kind of Woman” is a touching love ballad that’s also really fun to play, featuring Mac’s signature guitar playing.

If you like indie music, you’ve definitely heard of Mac DeMarco. Combining a goofball public persona with a distinctive songwriting style and production sound, the Canadian rose to the higher reaches of indie fame unexpectedly quickly. While his image projected a charmingly laid-back slacker prone to occasional antics but never taking anything too seriously, his songs ironically often hid mature themes like aging, commitment, and morals under layers of chorus and reverb. “My Kind of Woman” is, in my humble opinion, his best song. A gentle, touching and ultra-relatable love ballad, that’s also brilliant to play in Rock Band and fun in all instruments

Preview Video

TL;DR – Dark alternative country masters 16 Horsepower offers a fresh and surprising take on a lost Bob Dylan tune.

16 Horsepower are one of those small, unknown gems that will blow your mind. The Denver-based alternative country band made its name with music that combined rural backwoods kitsch with edgy, off-kilter country-rock, often with a dark twist, similar to Nick Cave or the Gun Club. Certainly not an obvious fit for a Valentine Day’s pack. But nevertheless, their classic album “Secret South” includes, among all the dark country tales, this sweet gem – a brilliant cover of Bob Dylan’s “Nobody ‘Cept You”, which wasn’t included in any of his albums (but released as a part of the “bootleg series”).

16 Horsepower completely transformed this song, and made it into this huge, positive love anthem. Frontman David Eugene Edwards is also known as a devoted christian, which leaves the song open to interpretation – is it a love song to a woman, or to God/Jesus – but than again, that’s part of the charm. It’s a great addictive tune, I’ve had a lot of fun working on it and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it too.

Preview Video

TL;DR – Brit-pop master Suede delivers an epic, grandiose and absolutely beautiful love ballad that’s an absolute joy to play on any instrument, with a particularly awesome guitar track.

In my humble and somewhat controversial opinion, Suede were the best britpop band of the 90’s. The brilliant British band fused glam decadence with dark romanticism, and left us with a few unforgettable albums. “Dog Man Star” probably sits on top of that list – it’s among my top 20 albums ever. And this is the first song to off this great album to be released in RB – and if it’s up to me, definitely not the last!

“The Wild Ones” is a particularly epic and beautiful love song from that record, and considered a favourite among fan. Singer Brett Anderson has said on numerous occasions that he regards this song as not only the high-water mark of his writing partnership with Bernard Butler, but his favourite of all Suede songs. It’s a song of absolute beauty.

But even more, it’s an amazing custom. My personal favorite of this pack – it’s really one of those “shine on every instrument” song. Just look at the preview video! Guitar has almost constant beautiful licks and riffs, bass is melodic and great, lots of drum fills, and the melody is amazing to sing. There’s even a great harmony voice too! Seriously, check this one out.

Preview Video

TL;DR – The beautiful baritone voice of Richard Hawley, reminiscent of Scott Walker and Frank Sinatra, delivers an upbeat, beautiful and uplifting romantic anthem.

With a melodic baritone anguish that falls somewhere in the neighborhood of Scott Walker and Frank Sinatra, Pulp touring guitarist and former Longpigs member Richard Hawley is a songwriter, guitarist, and producer whose responsible for a line of beautiful and critically acclaimed solo albums. He has been nominated several times for the Mercury Prize as well as a Brit Award, and collaborated with the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Manic Street Preachers, Elbow, and Paul Weller, among others.

‘Tonight the Streets are Ours” is among his finest moments, a beautiful, elegant and uplifting romantic anthem, with a slight Christmas-like feel. It was chosen as the title track for the Oscar nominated 2010 Banksy film “Exit Through the Gift Shop”, and now it marks Hawley’s RB debut – it’s a joy to sing and play on any instrument.

Preview Video (Note: the video includes an issue with the harmonies in the chorus, it is fixed in the final version).

TL;DR – A beautiful piano ballad reminiscent of the Beach Boys, it was named “the most romantic song I’ve ever written” by singer Michael Stipe.

Legendary band R.E.M. surely needs no introducing. This particular song comes from their 1998 album “Up”. The chord progression reminded the band of the Beach Boys, and songwriter Michael Stipe, whose used to write more cynical or “clever” lyrics, has challenged himself to be “fearless” and write a straightforward, honest love song. It wasn’t an easy task – he came up with the opening line (“I found a way to make you smile” – another homage to the Beach Boys “Smile”), but it took him an entire year to write another lyric for the song, as he struggled to follow up the line.

Once he did, it was delightful – “At My Most Beautiful” is a honest, romantic and well, beautiful song – unlike anything he’s ever written. Musically, instead of shying away from the Beach Boys influenced, the band embraced it, by making a Pet Sounds style arrangement, including some famous harmonies. It’s just an absolutely lovely song, and while some of the charts are kinda basic, I’m sure key players, singers and anyone who likes R.E.M. will enjoy this custom.

Preview Video

TL;DR – a sweet britpop anthem about fate and the randomness of meeting your romantic partner.

Britpop legends Pulp with yet another hit from their legendary 1995 album “Different Class”. After “Common People”, “Mis-Shapes” and “Disco 2000” – “Something Changed” is a lovely, romantic tune about fate and how our life would be entirely different if not for random events. What would happen if you’ve never met the love of your life? “I could have stayed at home and gone to bed/

I could have gone to see a film instead/You might have changed your mind and seen your friend” – and everything would have been different.

Musically it’s just a sweet song, great strings charted to kiss, nice guitars and drums, and a joy to sing. A lovely tune and a great fit for Valentine’s Day.

Preview Video

TL;DR – Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner delivers a dramatic, old-school 50’s-style love ballad, with a brilliant vocal performance and great arrangement.

I don’t even like the Arctic Monkeys that much. I don’t listen to their albums, I’ve seen them live once and I was pretty bored. So Alex Turner doing a big, ambitious Sinatra-like 50’s love ballad? Sounds like exactly something I’ll hate. But this song is so damn good, it broke into my heart and stayed there.

The Last Shadow Puppets are the side project of Turner and Miles Kane – though in this particular track, Kane isn’t really doing much, it’s all Turner. In my opinion, they’re a hundred time better and more interesting than the Arctic Monkeys. “Sweet Dreams, T. N.” is the pineapple of their latest album, “Everything That You’ve Come to Expect”, and in my humble opinion, the best song Alex Turner ever wrote. And he delivers it with a huge vocal performance that shows his great singing qualities. Instruments are all great, maybe other than guitar which is repetitive – but drums are full of marching beats and snare rolls, bass is melodic and keys include an entire string arrangement. It’s a gem of a song and hopefully a great custom!

Preview Video

TL;DR – A huge festival anthem from Elbow, a bright, beautiful, optimistic love song with a tricky drums pattern and an Hey-Jude style singalong at the end.

The Manchester-based alternative band is known for their socially relevant lyrics, steeped in the British experience, over atmospheric, epic rock. But “One Day Like This” is different – it’s one of those special, just plain beautiful and happy songs. It’s shamelessly huge and anthemic, it’s been made for stadium singalongs – and it just nails it. If you’ve been to an Elbow concert, you know this song is always a special moment.

It starts off as a beautiful, optimistic and uplifting tune, with dominant strings echoing Guy Garvey’s voice, who repeatedly sings “It’s going to be a beautiful day”. The song explodes and builds, with Garvey famous “Holy cow I love your eyes” line, before becoming a huge, Hey-Jude like repeated singalong of the outro. It’s fun to play and quite tricky on drums (no it’s not overcharted – check out live performances of the song to see the drums) and great on most instruments. And of course, to sing along!

Preview Video

TL;DR – Folk lost legend Nick Drake, possibly the man with the most beautiful voice in music history, with this beautiful romantic masterpiece, with some insane piano by John Cale.

Nick Drake is one of the saddest stories in musical history. The genius guitarist and songwriter, with an unbelievably beautiful voice, was also a shy, quite men who suffered from depression and possibly schizophrenia. He died at the age of 26 from an overdose of antidepressant, still unclear if by suicide or accident, a complete unknown with his 3 records all complete flops. His music was somehow discovered after his death, at first by other musicians (The Cure were actually named after one of his lyrics), and slowly gained popularity. He’s now regarded as a folk legend, and his three albums are all regarded as masterpieces – particularly his last, “Pink Moon”, which is my 4th favorite record of all time.

Most of Drake’s songs were solo acoustic pieces, sometimes with strings or a piano, and would not work in RB. However, his second record “Bryter Layter” was a full band effort, and this is where this gem is for. “Northern Sky” is an absolutely beautiful, heartwarming love song. It was described by NME’s magazine as the “greatest English love song of modern times”. Lead by Drake’s beautiful voice and guitar, it is produced by Velvet Underground legend John Cale, who also added a brilliant piano part – which means keys on this custom are brilliant (and were very difficult to chart!). Drums and bass are also entertaining and more complex than they seem.

Honestly, this is the one song that made me start this whole project. It’s a magical song from a magical artist that deserved to be in RB. Hopefully my custom does it justice.

Preview Video

TL;DR – A Springsteen classic, originally written by Tom Waits, and a beautiful love ballad with entertaining instruments by the legendary E-Street Band.

It’s weird when two of your favorite musicians collide, but sometimes it yields wonderful results. “Jersey Girl” was a Tom Waits song on his 1979 album “Heartattack and Vine”. But you’ll be forgiven if you didn’t know that – because Springsteen’s version has completely taken over the original, and with his association with New Jersey, many people are shocked to learn it’s not a Springsteen original. This, despite the fact that Springsteen never recorded it in the studio – it was only played live. The 1981 performance from New Jersey was chosen to close the live triple-album, “Live 1975-85”, is the only version Springsteen ever officially released, and is the one charted here (complete with crowd cheering for every mention of New Jersey).

The song is an absolutely beautiful romantic ballad. Springsteen’s version has added additional verses, where the love interest is revealed to be an hard-working single mother, which ties in to his usual interest in the working class. The E-Street Band performs it beautifully, and with 2 guitars and 2 key players, charts are varied and fun to play. And of course, enjoy singing this classic tune!

So that’s it! 21 beautiful, sweet and romantic love songs were performed. But I kept thinking… what about all the singles here? What about the ones who currently can’t relate to this sickeningly-sweet celebration of love? And besides, I promised one song of disappointment, didn’t I? So step forward…

Preview Video

TL;DR – Nick Cave’s noisier, garage side project deliver an amusing and yet relatable song of sexual frustration and rejection, with the most ridiculous guitar chart I’ve ever done.

Grinderman are Nick Cave dirty, experimental and noisier side-project. With heavily noise-based, mostly improvised song, this is Cave recapturing his early wild trouble-maker self. They’ve released two brilliant albums, but “No Pussy Blues” is probably the single most representative tune of what they’re all about.

A noisy song about sexual frustration (as the title implies), it tells the tale of the narrator’s attempts to convince a girl to have sex with him – which includes, but aren’t limited to doing her dishes, writing her songs, cursing her and even “petting her revolting little chihuahua” – only to be told, time after time, that she “simply didn’t want to”. It’s a song full of humor, but also probably quite relatable to many. Musically, it’s lead by a bass and drums groove, before exploding into huge, noisy instrumental sections, with extreme guitar noise, here charted as a solo – which makes it quite a ridiculous, and extremely difficult, guitar chart. It’s probably the weirdest and most out-there custom I’ve done – and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.

So that’s it! We hope you’ve enjoyed tonight’s show! Have a great Valentine’s Day, and see you next time!

[Author]

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