Barry asked me to send on a list of my top five songs and why I liked them. I genuinely couldn’t even think of one, I change my mind so much when it comes to music that I reckon no matter what I write I’ll be listening to something I enjoy more than that tomorrow or the day after. In fact I could well hate all these songs by next week. I suppose all I can do is tell you what my top five songs are right this minute, at three minutes past nine on the twentieth of February, while sipping on a dutch with a cramp in my gut from my mam’s spag bol. She used the cheap sauce again, I dunno why she does it, it tastes bland as fuck and she knows it tears my insides up. Suppose she’s the author of her own demise, she’s the one who cleans the jacks.
Between The Buried And Me – White Walls
Colors has been a favourite album of mine for a while now, not that all the BTBAM albums aren’t all fantastic. I’m just a sucker for a lovely melody in an otherwise disgusting song and Colors has more of that sort of thing than their other albums. Well I’m a sucker for it when it’s done tastefully anyway. I think these lads do it pretty tastefully but then again I may in fact be a little emo shite. As good as the whole album is it really feels like it’s just building towards this song. That first riff gets me fairly pumped. Once while in a state of extreme pumpage/egg frying in my kitchen I accidentally stomped on my dogs leg, he’s really sound so I felt fucking awful. I genuinely may never forgive myself for that. Not even that awful memory can ruin this song for me though. It’s a beautifully heavy belter.
Deftones – Change
One of my favourite albums and bands of all time but make no mistake, if we’re ever hanging out and I casually throw on this song I do intend on sexing you. That’s the closest thing I have to a move, turn the lights down, lob this on and look at you like I’m concentrating on squeezing out what I’m sure will be a very amusing fart. Not that it works.
Limp Bizkit – Get A Life
This is a weird one because I have no idea if I love it or hate it. It’s either absolute shite or a masterful work of genius. I can’t stop listening to it though, from what I can gather the lyrics make fuck all sense and the little sense I can get from the verse seems to have absolutely nothing to do with the chorus, which seems to be Fred Durst telling people to “get a life” or he’ll stab them. The highlight is the second verse though, “I don’t ride in limos, cos limos make me car sick”. Bear in mind Durst is in his 40s now. What a retarded and brilliant man.
Mastodon – Blasteroid
My favourite album from 2011. Kinda something here for everyone, some really heavy songs and some really chilled out ones. Blasteroid is my favourite though, rare enough that Mastodon attempt anything this upbeat and more’s the shame. It’s some cracker, doesn’t let up at all and it puts a smile on my face every time I hear that intro which seems to be 3 or 4 times a day at least since I bought the album. Can’t help but skip on to this song. I’m sure Mastodon purists would tell me it’s not as good as anything on Leviathon but they can all go fuck themselves. I likes what I likes.
The Chariot – The City
Apparently these lads are chronic Jesus freaks. Doesn’t really bother me though, live and let live and all that shit. They can fill their days quoting the bible to music journos all they want. As long as they keep making music this frantic and heavy I couldn’t care less. I’m in a band called Slugbait ya know? Whenever we play a gig I usually end up skipping dinner to get gear or sound check or whatever and then 3 or 4 hours before we go on I’m starving so myself and Seb end up eating some shitty fast food, then immediately go back to his room with cans and go song for song on his computer. Problem is we both have dodgy guts, real dodgy. So we get really sluggish and sick and play really mellow stuff while feeling sorry for ourselves. Probably some gay folk music Seb is pretending to be in to or whatever. Eventually as the greasy bullshit makes it’s way through to our eager bums and we start feeling better the music gets heavier and heavier until inevitably one of us throws this on. We both get very excited at the idea of playing a gig, forgetting completely that we’re in a fairly soft screamo band and we have these mad notions of us playing a mental gig with everyone just pucking the heads off each other and shitting in their empty pint glasses. I wish that’s what Cork gigs were like, in actual fact it’s usually a bunch of nice lads nodding happily away to us. Sure that’s grand too I suppose.
Ian ‘Mini’ O’Callaghan screams in Fat Actress and Slugbait and also runs Cork gigs as part of Very Short Men
http://www.facebook.com/Fatactress
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Slugbait/125691640807050
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Very-Short-Men/203150426450797
