Today I continue my ongoing feature showcasing my personal picks for the best songs of the past decade, posting ten songs at a time.
250. Rage Against the Machine – How I Could Just Kill a Man
For most of the decade, 3/4 of Rage were in shitty solo projects or the inevitably dreadful Audioslave. The other 1/4 released a new song every once in a while and lived off his earnings from the 90’s (that one is Zach). There were a few reunion shows – most of which sent people to the hospital – but overall the boys weren’t really raging much in the 2000’s. But at the turn of the century, before the nasty breakup, Rage put out their final studio album Renegades, a pretty kickass covers album. And although this Cypress Hill remake is a pretty straightforward take on the original, it still hits hard, the way these guys always knew how to.
“Lubbock has this way of, while you’re there, making you feel like it’s the most normal place in the world; not until you go away and start comparing your experience there to the outside world do you realize that Lubbock is really one of the strangest places anywhere.†— Joe Ely
“Life in Lubbock, Texas taught me two things: One is that God loves you and you’re going to burn in hell. The other is that sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth. And you should save it for someone you love.â€â€”Butch Hancock
“You either go crazy or play music in Lubbock. There’s not a hell of a lot to do.” – Delbert McClinton
“There was this thing about the horizon in that flat country. When you were out playing, you loved to look and say “Oh, yeah, the earth is round.” And you would be right in the middle of it. I’ve always thought that being in that spot gave you this feeling that you were the center of the universe, that you were really special, and at the same time you were just a speck of absolute nothing.” – Jo Harvey Allen
“Lubbock was just a tiny town, a little oasis in a big old nothingness, and I spent every bit of my waking time just trying to figure out ways of getting out of there. But I really loved all that sky. You gotta fill it up with something, and music is a pretty good thing to fill up emptiness with.” – Joe Ely
Today I continue my ongoing feature showcasing my personal picks for the best songs of the past decade, posting ten songs at a time.
290. Les Claypool – Iowan Gal
Where do I begin? Les is one of my all-time favorites, and his past decade work will be represented well on this list through his Oysterhead project, solo work, and songs from his main band Primus. Needless to say, I’m a die-hard fan; I first discovered Les and Primus back in 1996 when my cousin Joe brought Pork Soda to my house during a Christmas visit.
Claypool’s solo work is weirder and leans toward jam-band noodling sometimes, but “Iowan Gal” is good ol’ Les, mostly just him and his mighty bass guitar slapping, popping, and showing off. It’s funky, humorous, and a return to form from the great weird one.
