Groove On 23

Groove On would like to apologise to regular listeners for what is about to happen, when Episode 23 gets a little carried away with loud guitars. It starts at the tackiest and most obvious place, with ’We Will Rock You’ by Queen, before getting seriously into it with The Stooges’ stunning ‘Loose’, from their essential 1970 album Fun House. That’s followed by ’New Radio’ by Bikini Kill, is a hard core Riot Grrl blast.

Things get deeper with ‘The Omen (Ave Satani)’ by heavy metal supergroup Fantômas, from Director’s Cut, an album of film soundtracks, followed by Soundgarden’s 1994 single ’Spoonman’ and then, deepest of all, the masterful ‘South of Heaven’ by thrash metal legends Slayer.

Recorded in the same year as the last track, ’You Made Me Realise’ by My Bloody Valentine contains a wonderful moment where the band drop the beats and get into a one-chord grind, something they would memorably do in concert, sometimes for disconcertingly long periods of time. The following year, 1989, Nirvana recorded ‘School’ for their debut album, Bleach.

Next we step back into the seventies for three tracks. They begin with the rock ’n’ roll classics-quoting ‘Speed King’ by Deep Purple, followed by the down and dirty delight of ‘No Class’ by the mighty Motörhead from their legendary album Overkill and ends with the immortal/immoral ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’ by AC/DC.

After that somewhat thematically dubious song, ‘Female Trouble’ by all-female band Thee Tsunamis is a real palette-cleanser. That’s followed by ‘Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine’ by The White Stripes, another song with some glorious guitar tones.

From the famous to the obscure, with ‘4,5,6 Casino’ by Klaus and Can-d. That’s followed by some early and early-ish heavy metal. First, the classic ‘Sweet Leaf’ by Black Sabbath from their monstrous album Master of Reality, which is followed by one of the hardest moments in NWOBHM, Venom’s ‘Angeldust’. Next is the wonderfully-titled ‘Crash Course In Brain Surgery’ by Budgie, a 1971 Welsh hard rock track that was famously covered by Metallica in 1988.

Another band with links to eighties heavy metal is Hawkwind, from whom sprang forth Lemmy. Their track appropriately narcotically titled track ‘Valium Ten’ is from 1979.

Moving out of the past, while still paying homage to it, is ‘Army Of Ignorance’ by Samsara Blues Experiment, a Sabbath-like riff-o-rama from their brilliant album Long Distance Trip. It’s followed by another recent track, ‘She’s Gone’ by PyPy, from their 2014 album Pagan Day.

The episode ends with one of Mudhoney’s classic album finales, ‘Dead Love’ from their self-titled 1989 full length album.

Comments (5)

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  1. Martin Meteyard says:

    Whoa, that was a bit much even for these receptive ears! Though while we’re in that area (broadly defined), how about some Gogol Bordello?

    1. Stewart Bremner says:

      Aye, I had a feeling I went a wee bit far. At least I got it out of my system for now. There will definitely be some Gogol Bordello at some point.

  2. The Barrastinian says:

    Great stuff again Stewart thank you, love it when you rock out! On a different note just found out there is a posthumous Jason Molina album coming out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZLrnk0h8nE

    1. Stewart Bremner says:

      I doubt I’ll ever go that far out again. At least, not for so many tracks.

      Thanks for the link. I’d never heard of him before.

      1. The Barrastinian says:

        Stewart life can be a blessing but when it isn’t JMo helps soothe the curse

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSHNITpnuPY

        Check out Songs: Ohia and The Magnolia Electric Co.

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