Rock

No self-respecting guy will admit to liking soppy girly pop by artists such as Mariah Carey. But it was with some happiness that TIL that a long-"loathed" favorite of mine, Mariah's Without You is actually a rip-off of a 1970 song by Welsh rock group, Badfinger (whose own story is pretty shocking (two of its band members committed suicide)). So I can now openly admit to liking the song :)

The Song of the Day (as if I'm holding to my promise of updating this every day :S) is a rather simple but entrancing instrumental by Aerosmith. It's the last track on their Get a Grip release, titled "Boogie Man". I believe that it's based on a Fleetwood Mac song which I've never heard. But it's got lovely atmosphere and I dig the backing bassline muchly.

Today's song of the day is off Jeff Beck's 1975 album Blow by Blow. Titled "Scatterbrain", this track is one of my favourite all time tracks.

It starts off with a jazzy drum intro which subsequently builds up into this high speed rhythm into which is merged Beck's intense driving verse riff... a series of pressure-building scales that are just about to take you off into space. The second repeat also sees the keyboards being introduced, playing the same scales.

Today's Song of the Day is off the latest (better late than never) album by The Gunners - Chinese Democracy. I'm still listening to the album. But, in my first few listens, the song that has grabbed the attention of these ears of mine has been one the first singles off the album, titled Better.

Today's SotD is by Kiss of their 1992 release, Revenge. The song "Unholy" is, funnily enough, one of the first Kiss songs I ever heard and I still recall it leaving an impression on me of Kiss being a "heavy" band, what with its metal-esque riff, pinch harmonics and what not.

Today's SotD is the OP from Over Drive. For the last couple of days, I had the vocal melody and palm-muted chord section running through my head continuously and it was breaking my head in half. But, a couple of hours ago, I finally nailed its source and here we are!

The Song of Today is Def Leppard's Bringin' on the Heartbreak off their sophomore release High 'n' Dry. The song was the first hit rock ballad for the band and probably was fit the blueprint for rock ballads of the time - high octave vocals, melodious chorus, harmonies and piercing guitars, a format of which I'm an inveterate admirer / sucker.

Today's Song of the Day is by the legendary German band Scorpions. While I am quite familiar with most of their tracks, I've not listened to many of their earlier albums in their entirety and going by the general popularity of tracks off their later albums, I was quite certain that I'd find some gems out there.

I've been listening to Steve Vai's latest album - Sound Theories and have fallen in love with the song Brandos Costumes (Gentle Ways), one that I first heard in his Alive in an Ultra World release. The first time I heard it, I thought that it was a good song, but sounded a little flat or even artificial (with respect to the general ambience in the song).

Today's Song of the Day is the aussie band Wolfmother's big hit - Woman. It and much of the other Wolfmother songs harken back to the glory days of the 70s and they are apparently heavily inspired by Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Moreover, for a three-piece band, they sound fucking tight, and the vocalist, though he looks like a nutter, has a very Plant-sy voice.