Grunge Music, Vol. 1

Here's a miniseries of posts that I can certainly relate to – and I'm sure I'm not the only one! This is the first set in what will be a four-part retrospective of some of the best, most influential, and most memorable songs from the "grunge rock" era of music. Which was both not that long ago and ancient history, depending on your perspective. Before we get started, I will concede that we're not all going to agree 100% on whether or not certain songs herein are legitimately "grunge," "post-grunge," punk, pop, or something else entirely – and that's okay. Let's just jam to some good music and don't waste time fighting about the genre ascribed to the songs (by myself or others). Ready...set...enjoy!  ~  JH

1)  Nirvana  ~  “Smells Like Teen Spirit”

2)  Pearl Jam  ~  “Animal”

3)  Soundgarden  ~  “Black Hole Sun”

4)  Alice In Chains  ~  “No Excuses”

5)  Stone Temple Pilots  ~  “Vasoline”

6)  Mudhoney  ~  “Touch Me I’m Sick”

7)  Screaming Trees  ~  “Nearly Lost You”

8)  L7  ~  “Pretend We’re Dead”

9)  Paw  ~  “Couldn’t Know”

10)  Veruca Salt  ~  “Seether”

11)  Silverchair  ~  “Tomorrow”

12)  The Smashing Pumpkins  ~  “Today”

13)  Hole  ~  “Miss World”

14)  Bush  ~  “Everything Zen”

15)  Candlebox  ~  “Far Behind”

16)  Sponge  ~  “Molly (16 Candles)”

17)  Our Lady Peace  ~  “Superman’s Dead”

18)  The Presidents Of The United States Of America  ~  “Lump”

19)  Blind Melon  ~  “No Rain”

20)  Days Of The New  ~  “Touch, Peel, And Stand”

21)  Babes In Toyland  ~  “Bruise Violet”  (It's almost scary how much the lead singer of this group looks like a crazed Reese Witherspoon.)

22)  Melvins  ~  “Honey Bucket”

23)  The Gits  ~  “Second Skin”  (There's a very sad-but-true story about the untimely demise of this band's lead singer. I won't rehash it here, but you can Google it.)

24)  Hum  ~  “Stars”

25)  Local H  ~  “Bound For The Floor”

“Hit” & “Run” Songs, Vol. 1

As some of you may already know, I love baseball. Love watching it on TV, and  enjoy catching a couple of games or so live each year. In light of that fact, here begins a four-part series (groan!) featuring songs with baseball-related words in their titles. First up, two posts of "Hit" & "Run" Songs. After that, two "Catch" & "Throw" Songs posts. Batter up...and enjoy!  ~  JH

1)  Ray Charles  ~  “Hit The Road, Jack”

2)  The Rolling Stones  ~  “Before They Make Me Run”

3)  Hole  ~  “He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)”

4)  Sheryl Crow ft. Eric Clapton  ~  “Run, Baby, Run”

5)  Joe Bonamassa  ~  “Takin’ The Hit”

6)  Hoobastank  ~  “Running Away”

7)  Marmozets  ~  “Hit The Wave”

8)  Carly Simon  ~  “Let The River Run”

9)  George Strait  ~  “Her Goodbye Hit Me In The Heart”

10)  Steve Miller Band  ~  “Take The Money And Run / Rock’n Me”

11)  Scorpions  ~  “Hit Between The Eyes”

12)  for KING & COUNTRY ft. Andy Mineo  ~  “Run Wild”

13)  Haley Reinhart  ~  “Hit The Ground Runnin’”

14)  The Allman Brothers Band  ~  “No One To Run With”

15)  Scott Stapp  ~  “Hit Me More”

16)  Epica  ~  “Run For A Fall”

17)  Def Leppard  ~  “Hit And Run”

18)  Bee Gees  ~  “Run To Me”

19)  The Sounds  ~  “Hit Me”

20)  Collective Soul  ~  “Run”

10 "Awful" Songs

I'd like to tell you that this small collection of "Awful" songs consists entirely of songs which live up to their titles. But, in fact, none of the songs actually qualifies as awful. They range from halfway-decent to just-plain-weird to downright-clever. Enjoy?  ~  JH

1)  Osibisa  ~  "The Coffee Song (They've Got An Awful Lot Of Coffee In Brazil)"

2)  Ray Stevens  ~  "Erik The Awful"

3)  The Almost  ~  "Awful Direction"

4)  Darryl Worley  ~  "Awful Beautiful Life"

5)  From Indian Lakes  ~  "Awful Things"

6)  Hole  ~  "Awful"

7)  Hurriganes  ~  "An Awful Crime"

8)  Frank Sinatra & Betty Garrett  ~  "You're Awful"

9)  Jackson Scott  ~  "That Awful Sound"

10)  Handsome Handsome  ~  "Awful Truth"

Songs About Dresses

While you're obsessing over whether #thedress is white and gold or blue and black, here's a small collection of Songs About Dresses you can play in the background. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, consider yourself lucky! But now that your interest is piqued, you're probably going to go and Google it anyway, so...I'm sorry? Enjoy!  ~  JH

1)  Sylvan Esso  ~  "Dress"

2)  Fleet Foxes  ~  "Bedouin Dress"

3)  Hole  ~  "Best Sunday Dress"

4)  Parachute  ~  "White Dress"

5)  PJ Harvey  ~  "Dress"

6)  Sufjan Stevens  ~  "The Dress Looks Nice On You"

7)  Rosie Thomas  ~  "Pretty Dress"

8)  The Hollies  ~  "Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress)"

9)  Katie Armiger  ~  "Better In A Black Dress"

10)  The Maccabees  ~  "About Your Dress"

11)  Blonde Redhead  ~  "The Dress"

12)  The Dukes Of Stratosphear (aka XTC)  ~  "Your Gold Dress"

13)  Loretta Lynn  ~  "Bargain Basement Dress"

"Skin" Songs

While this isn't exactly an "Opposites" music post, it is a two-parter featuring songs about somewhat-related words. These are songs with "Skin" in the title – its followup will be songs with "Bone" (or "Bones") in the title. While there are quite a few well-known artists here, some of the best tracks here are by bands/artists you may not have heard of before. Enjoy!  ~  JH

1)  Frank Sinatra  ~  "I've Got You Under My Skin"

2)  Hole  ~  "Celebrity Skin"

3)  Rascal Flatts  ~  "Skin (Sarabeth)"

4)  Ellie Goulding  ~  "Salt Skin"

5)  Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band  ~  "American Skin (41 Shots)"

6)  M83  ~  "Skin Of The Night"

7)  Cameo  ~  "Skin I'm In"

8)  Charlene Kaye ft. Darren Criss  ~  "Skin And Bones"

9)  Newton Faulkner  ~  "Write It On Your Skin"

10)  Tilly And The Wall  ~  "Alligator Skin"

11)  Shakey Graves  ~  "Unlucky Skin"

12)  Courage My Love  ~  "Skin And Bone"

13)  Raul Gómez  ~  "Under Your Skin"

14)  Beady Belle  ~  "Skin Deep"

15)  The Mission In Motion  ~  "New Skin"

16)  Emily Danger  ~  "Shed My Skin"

17)  Northern Faces  ~  "Under My Skin"

18)  Natasha Thomas  ~  "Skin Deep"

19)  Boom Crash Opera  ~  "Onion Skin"

20)  The Gits  ~  "Second Skin"

21)  Heartless Bastards  ~  "Skin And Bone"

22)  Jars Of Clay  ~  "Skin & Bones"

23)  The Avett Brothers  ~  "Skin And Bones"

24)  Andrew Bird  ~  "Skin, Is My"

25)  The Temptations  ~  "Beauty Is Only Skin Deep"