Daily Jam - November Rain

It might be a tad schmaltzy, but Guns n' Roses' "November Rain," both the song and the music video, were a huge part of my childhood.  I was 12 when the "Use Your Illusion" records came out, and those two albums along with Ozzy's "No More Tears" were kind of like the last vestiges of big '80s rock before the success of Nirvana changed the whole scene.  Anyway, there's forever a soft spot in my heart for it.  Check it out below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - God Bless the Children of the Beast

6 - 6 - 26.  Not quite the number of the beast, but good enough for today i guess.  Here's some Motley Crue.  Listen to "God Bless the Children of the Beast" below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Another Rainy Night (Without You)

Queensrÿche's "Empire" will forever transport me back to the 6th grade.  It, along with a handful of other records from that era, both good and bad, basically serve as a goddamn time machine going straight back to 11-year old me.  Here's a tack from it.  Listen to "Another Rainy Night (Without You)" below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Lay Your Hands on Me

Bon Jovi's "New Jersey" was one of my favorite albums when i was in grade school.  I think i was in the 4th grade.  It still rocks.  Here's the album opening "Lay Your Hands on Me," our Daily Jam.

Blackwater Holylight

Portland's Blackwater Holylight make a kind of shoegaze-tinged stoner rock (stoner-gaze?) that plays simultaneously like a punch to the eardrums and an ethereal haze.  Heavy riffs and daydreams.  The band's new album "Not Here Not Gone" dropped today.  Grab the LP here from Suicide Squeeze and listen to "Bodies" below.

Daily Jam - Home Sweet Home

Some days it's hard to write this blog.  There's just too much awful shit going on out there to feel anything good about writing an inconsequential music blog.  But then i think that one of the reasons i compulsively post stuff here is the same reason i listen to music the way i do...to escape the harsh realities of life for just a brief moment or two.  So i'll keep posting even as skies continue to darken, hoping for that silver lining to eventually break through the storm clouds.  Here's some escapism, for me at least as the track takes me back to being a kid, from Motley Crue.  Listen to "Home Sweet Home" below, our Daily Jam.

And in the event i haven't said it enough: Fuck ICE!

Daily Jam - Play with Me

I heard Extreme's "Play with Me" the other day and had no idea it was an Extreme song.  To me, it had always been that song from the Mall scene in "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure."  It's kind of silly, but it's fun.  Listen below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam (Cheese Week) - Wind of Change

I love the theory that the Scorpions' "Wind of Change" was actually a CIA psyop to help bring down the Soviet Union.  There are a lot of convincing arguments in favor of it.  And it's so weird and stupid and wonderful, i hope it is the case.  Anyway, let's listen to the cheesy classic below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam (Cheese Week) - Big Talk

I was an impressionable grade schooler during the height of hair metal's popularity, so i pretty much listened to the shit out of it.  And i was particularly fond of that first Warrant album which i borrowed (stole) from my older sister.  Here's a track from it about being tough, lol.  Listen to "Big Talk" below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Youth Gone Wild

Here's one of my favorite songs from when i was a little kid, Skid Row's "Youth Gone Wild."  I remember dubbing it onto many a mixtape in 5th and 6th grade.  Check it out below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Peace and Love

Probably one of the musical pairings that made the most sense ever was Neil Young utilizing Pearl Jam as his backing band for the 1995 album "Mirror Ball."  It was just a bunch of pieces that seemed to naturally fit together.  Here's a track from said album for your Saturday.  Listen to "Peace and Love" below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - (Don't Fear) The Reaper

While certainly funny, in a lot of ways the SNL "Cowbell Sketch" kind of ruined Blue Oyster Cult's "(Don't Fear) The Reaper."  And that's really a shame, but it's an all-timer of a track.  So we're taking it back.  Listen below, our Daily Jam.

Goat & Graveyard

I have yet to see it on any official Record Store Day list for the US, but evidently Swedish psych rock band Goat and fellow Swedish hard rock band Graveyard have teamed together for a one-off collaborative 7" single on the UK release list from Rocket Recordings.  Here's hoping some of those managed to trickle across the pond before the Trump Tariffs went into effect.  Cross your fingers and look for the "A Ship of Fools / Light as a Feather" 7" on Saturday.  In the meantime, check out the classic psych rock of the B-side "Light as a Feather" below.

Daily Jam - Rocket

I think my three favorite cassettes when i was in 4th grade were LL Cool J's "Walking with a Panther," Weird Al Yankovic's "Even Worse," and Def Leppard's "Hysteria."  The '80s were a wild time man.  Here's a track from the latter to start your week.  Listen to "Rocket" below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Runnin' with the Devil

To me, "Runnin' with the Devil," the opening track of Van Halen's debut album, plays like a mission statement...or at least a mission statement for the David Lee Roth era...the best era.  Listen to it below, our Daily Jam.

Moon Destroys

Moon Destroys is the stoner hard rock and alt-rock project of ex-Torche member Juan Montoya and ex-Royal Thunder member Evan Diprima.  Check out the crunchy, psych-tinged "The Nearness of June" below and pre-order the band's upcoming new album "She Walks by Moonlight" here.

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs

In April, we're getting new music from UK stoner rock band Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs.  Taking a peek at the tracklisting for the upcoming "Death Hilarious," i'm very eager to hear the band's collaboration with New York rapper and producer El-P, but that will have to wait for now.  In the meanwhile, check out the excellent "Stitches" below and pre-order the LP here from the band, out on Rocket Recordings.

Motorpsycho

Next month brings us chugging new music from Norwegian rock n' roll band Motorpsycho.  Listen to "Stanley (Tonight's the Night)" below, chug a beer, pump your fist in the air, and jump around the room with zest and vigor.  And pre-order the self-titled LP here from the band.

Daily Jam - Fire Woman

There are so many bands and artists out there that I will never get the chance to see perform live due to death or circumstance or whatever. I’ve made my peace with that, but there are an equal amount of bands and artists out there right now that, for whatever reason, I just haven’t seen perform either. And it’s a damn shame that one of those bands is The Cult.

Starting in England in the early ‘80s as kind of a post-punk-goth-rock thing under such monikers as Southern Death Cult or just Death Cult, the song stylings of Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy eventually morphed into something more rock n’ roll oriented, a hard rock and metal revival of loud, crunching guitars and pelvic thrust energy. By the time their 1989 album Sonic Temple came out, The Cult were cruising on their stateside success, touring with the likes of stadium acts like Aerosmith and Metallica, and racking up a ton of radio play with their fist-pumping single “Fire Woman.”

I didn’t get to see them back then. I was ten.

The band would eventually break up in the ‘90s, get back together, go on hiatus again, reunite, reassemble, reconvene, and so on, but remained completely off my radar, despite “Fire Woman” holding a place of prominence in the car stereos of my friends and me.

I still didn’t see them. Honestly, I don’t even know if they ever came to Texas.

And then in 2012, they played a free show at the Waterloo Records day party during the South by Southwest music festival.

And I still didn’t get to see them…but it wasn’t for a lack of trying.

Evidently, I was not the only one jonesing for a little Cult action, the trek west through downtown Austin from another music venue I’d spent the early afternoon at allowing way too much time to pass, and way too much valuable space to fill up at Waterloo. The day party at capacity, a fenced in lot of asses and elbows, I was forced to move on, the prospect of listening on the other side of the barrier proving to be too depressing. I ended up going to eat some Cajun food down the street instead.

And rocking “Fire Woman” forever more.

Daily Jam - Cum on Feel the Noize

Sometimes I just like a dumb song.

My feelings for LA heavy metal band Quiet Riot’s 1983 cover of UK glam band Slade’s “Cum on Feel the Noize” have pretty much remained consistent since I first heard the song when I was 4 or 5 years old...and that’s that it rules. The song was featured prominently on an 80’s pop rock compilation cassette I got when I was a kid (possibly the first cassette I ever bought if memory serves), and was the closing track on side A. I played that tape to death, jamming it in my Walkman repeatedly on summer vacation road trips through the south with my family, over and over again from start to finish. My affinity for Duran Duran was born with it, as was probably my penchant for digging on synthesizers. That cassette served as my gateway to a large swath of popular music at the time, much of which would fall out of favor over the succeeding years while all the while I still sang along.

I can’t not sing along to “Cum on Feel the Noize.”

And neither should you. Come on! You know the words!