Music To Soothe (or Enrage) The Savage Beast...

So I make it a point of DVR'ing music video blocks on MTV2, VH1 and FUSE because...

(A)...it's always important to be up to date on what "The Kids" are listening to ("Those young whippersnappers with their rock-n-roll, drugs and Facebook!)...

(B)...because the DVR is the best invention since boxer briefs, potbelly pigs and Raspberry Blondes ("It's two...two...two alcohols in one!")...

(C)...usually they wait until 3am to FINALLY start showing a block of videos.

So because a couple of new or "new-ish" songs have crept onto my iPod (and because my Mom always taught me that it was nice to share with others), here's what I'm throwin' at 'ya this time:

CAGE THE ELEPHANT  "Ain't No Rest for The Wicked"

THIS is the kind of song you want playing every time you're walking down a hall or first entering a room.  This will make that walk down the hall to the bathroom the most BAD-ASSED walk down the hall to the bathroom that you've ever had.

GREEN DAY  "Know Your Enemy"

How do you follow-up a modern classic like AMERICAN IDIOT?  By crafting this balls-to-the-wall number as a major "FUCK YOU!" to anyone who thinks the boys are getting soft or that they blew their load with their last album.  Shit, even "Rolling Stone" gave 21ST CENTURY BREAKDOWN four-and-a-half stars out of five.

K'NAAN (w/Chubb Rock)  "ABC's"

I'm always fascinated by songs that can hook you in with a great beat and a solid line, and then after a few listenings you realize that the subject matter REALLY doesn't match up with the beat...and that's a good thing!  It's like when Ronald Reagan used "Born in the U.S.A." as his campaign song and movie studios used Third Eye Blind's "Semi-Charmed Life" in trailers for brain-dead romantic comedies and vomit-inducing family films.  Shit, REALLY listening to M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" got my mind moving in a different direction then when I think about it in PINEAPPLE EXPRESS.

ALL THAT REMAINS  "Two Weeks"

You can't go wrong with a song so intense that on one hand would be great to work out to, but on the other hand would scare the shit out of you if it suddenly came on in the middle of the woods in the middle of the night. VERY intense in a smooth, melodic, Doc Martens-sort of way...great wedding song!