Happy Halloween

So it's Halloween and I didn't go overboard on yearly spooktacular cuts like I've done in previous years but I sure as hell wasn't going to miss out on posting something today and in thinking of just what to post I realized I get to see one of the best new bands to come along in quite a while today and they also have a fondness for the horror punk deities known as The Misfits so with that in mind here's a fucking bad ass cover they did a few months back Happy Halloween people....

Sam's Best of 2015 #20

So ignoring the fact that this is the most horribly updated year yet it's been a pretty great year musically for me I've been to a shit load of shows and I've heard so many great songs and it being December means it's time for my favorite article of the year my choice for the Top 20 of 2015 and oddly enough this year's Number 1 will be on Christmas so that's convenient now isn't it but with that in mind you know how this works every weekday I'll be telling you guy's the best songs of the year also when it comes to some of the songs Ill post videos from whenever I saw these bands live if available which will vary in terms of audio quality but hey it's my list and my memories, so without further ado or much back story as to why this year was so underwhelming in terms of post numbers let's get to it with this bad ass cut:

#20: Dark Black Makeup-Radkey

You know I made it a thing to myself this year to give more local acts a chance and it's been a pleasant experience that my fine local alternative station 96.5 The Buzz has made quite easy and they've managed to really showcase a fine variety of acts that I'll be mentioning later in this list but I figure one of the best way's to kick off this years best of is with one of those tunes and acts in the form of these new age Misfits in the form of Radkey.

Like I've said before this band sounds exactly like an even more badass Danzig but with twice the punk and their album Dark Black Make Up is a fine collection of songs indeed, and I found myself kind of sticking with the Title cut because it's not only a solid blend of punky aesthetics but it showcases that these guy's can really craft a quality hook and it's just fucking bad ass seriously give it a listen.... 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Ok people it's Halloween and if you thought for one damn second I wasn't going to post one of my legit picks for one of the greatest pieces of music ever recorded you'd be a damn fool but still seems appropriate to just wait and of course here you go people the tradition continues Happy Halloween from Sam's Song of the day....

Song of the Day 9/10/15

So I've been doing my best to cover as many things as I can and there's a band from Missouri that I've wanted to cover for a minute now but it took until them releasing their debut album to finally get some official audio up on Youtube and with that I'd like to present to thee Radkey.

So this band sounds like what would happen if Danzig and The Misfits kind of decided to just play each other at the same time and kick even more ass because it's this kind of broody gothic sound with some deep menacing vocals and a real do it yourself punk ethic that you can't help but find to be so awesome and if you get a chance I'd advise giving their Dark Black Makeup album a listen it's a pretty choice album that's only real flaw is that some of the recordings are a  bit slowed down and not every song is a pure thrash em and leave em banger but minor complaints aside this band is like what Glenn Danzig wishes he could have been...

Song of the Day 3/21/15

Helena-My Chemical Romance

OK let’s be real here you damn well knew that one of the big 3 emo acts had to be mentioned at some point this week and in asking around what to cover it occurred to me that this week should end with probably the more semi consistent of the big 3 which for those unfamiliar would be Fallout Boy, Panic! At the Disco, and of course My Chemical Romance.

Now what always surprised me about that time frame in retrospect is how of all the bands to just kind of break out these guys were one of them and that of all the songs they did this song in particular was the one that broke them really into the mainstream and it’s not that I’m discrediting the song itself but it’s just kind of interesting to think that while I’m not OK kind of got them recognition this song got MTV rotations and people to go pick up Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge which is really a solid album but it also did eventually lead to the vastly superior Black Parade album which was the real commercial and creative peak for this band because like their contemporaries they had to expand their songs to be something more than slopped together rockers and they did which sadly that didn’t go to Danger Day’s which was the, “oh Shit our fans moved on and now we’re playing to young kids that don’t get it,” album and like their contemporaries things just kind of moved on.

All that critique aside this song still has an oddly amusing charm to it that hasn’t been to diluted to terrible follow up records like Panic! or Fallout Boy’s  more recent records though there’s a charm to going back to this semi knock off Misfits inspired act every once in a blue moon because they actually crafted plenty of good tunes that you forget just how good they actually are and it’s the fact that they just kind of said fuck it split up and have been doing there own musical adventures with Gerard Way making a semi alright solo record that’s knocking off glam rockers instead of Billy Corgan and Frank Lero is making music from his garage this band didn’t go some odd electronic direction which I can more then appreciate.

Well I guess that wraps up emo week time to bandage your cuts and remember that you’re a grown up now people but maybe in due time I can do this again because it’s kind of fun to throwback and of course there’s a shit load of acts that I didn’t cover but until then time to extra not act my age…

Song of the day 3/18/15

Die Romantic-Aiden

You know every movement produces acts that are just merly place holder carbon copy acts that serve as nothing more than some individuals desperate to cash in on a craze and rush out lame carbon copy music that’s vapid and uninspired in every way and Aiden…well are one of those bands an easily forgotten attempt at Emo kids trying to straddle the line between Emo and Goth with these very terribly sang unoriginal rapid fire horror punk tunes that in all honesty got very obviously terrible with 2007’s Conviction which is best to never be acknowledged, but even with the fact that this band is so fun to unapologetically bash they still managed to actually make a few amusingly charming songs and that’s where this one in particular comes to mind.

IN all honesty I could have also chosen to write about their song, “We Sleep forever,” from the Dead Silence soundtrack but I instead chose to go with this one instead because while that one is amusingly solid a tune this one’s more fun because of it’s short length, small section of half assed screaming that seems like it’s only there to fill a quota, and of course it’s laughably charming lyrics which if you aren’t terribly singing DIE ROMANTIC ROMANTIC!!! then you don’t know what you’re missing…

Song of the Day 1-6-15

SO I was trying my best to come up with methods of making the new year a smooth and consistent thing and realizing that I’m not too good at just posting random tunes that just kind of hit me at the most random points I decided it’d be easiest for the time being to have my week’s all follow a theme because while the scheduled weekly things like Tuesday Two-Fer and all that was good for me I think I got to take this blog in a more consistent direction by at the very least having the first few weeks be these themed series of songs while I start really listening to the newest music and albums coming out and start to really get a feel for things considering I just spent a whole month thinking back of the best songs I’ve heard all year.

Now with that in mind I thought to myself what would I do for my first week what could I possibly cover, and that’s when it occurred to me when I’m at work one of my co-workers enjoys having these light hearted bit’s of arguing about how he seems to think every cover version of a song is better than the original to which I often disagree because he seems to enjoy really shitty covers like Limp Bizkits Behind Blue eyes and Shinedown’s rendition of Simple Man which are both Cringworthingly terrible compared to the acts their poorly imitating.

While I do often defend the original tunes it’s not that I’m completely against covers in fact I’ve spent PLENTY of time covering covers on this blog and since their a pretty amusing topic I figured I’d post some halfway decent to pretty damn great covers that I’ve heard but upon coming up with a list I figured I’d not write about songs that I’ve written about MULTIPLE times when Covers come to mind so sadly I had to exclude both Die Die Die My Darlin and Hanging on the Telephone from this week’s list but even so I still managed to come up with some truly interesting  cuts so without any further adoo I figure I’ll start this week with the shortest cover in the form of this amusing little interpretation of the Misfits courtesy of one Guns N’ Roses…

Attitude-Guns N’ Roses (Originally the Misfits)

So  while I find this bands output after GNR Lies to be pretty junky they still managed to pump out a few interesting tunes here and there and even if I find the Spaghetti Incident to be a REALLY poor album it’s most certainly full of its fair share of interesting cuts namely this snarling little dirty punkish number and it’s true to form speedy no-fucks-given sound that’s pretty much note for note like the original but that’s also why the song is so good because it’s the best example of taking a good thing and not fucking it up…

Tuesday Two-Fer

SO if you have followed this blog for the 4+ years it's been a thing you should know I FUCKING LOVE HALLOWEEN TUNES and like I've written about a few times I have this love for the song of the same name courtesy of the all mighty godfathers of hardcore punk themselves The Misfits and since Tuesday's my covers day normally and Halloween is Friday I could dust off this tune for yet another covering courtesy of a little ol punk group AFI....

Halloween-Misfits(1981) & AFI (1999)

So I was combing my CD collection and came across my copy of All Hallows EP by AFI and forgetting it's 13 minute run time was less than my trip to work I decided to take it and give it a listen and was reminded that they sound a lot like a Gothy Offsprings but that's irrelevant because this CD has their cover of Halloween which is about as faithful a cover you're going to get when you listen to it minus the odd creepy noise at the end I never much cared for but beyond that it's an honest cover that's pretty damn good.

Now if you read the first link above you know I find this song to be a classic so no matter how hard I try nobody's going to beat the Misfits it's just too damn good a track and since I've expressed this for a few years now I'm just going to fucking blast this bitch as loud as I can in celebration folks...

Misfits:




AFI: