This month's submission for the Crabwalk.com mix of the month. Some great songs and some okay songs here, representing a VERY wide variety of styles. This is one of my better true MIX CD's, since I mixed it up so well.

1. Kenny Rogers "Long Arm Of The Law" - My brother used to play Kenny's records a lot. I've always liked his smooth voice. This one is conspicuously missing from the "Greatest Hits" collection I have on CD, so I put it here. A little diddy about the challenges of love.
   
2. The Ataris "Song 13" - High-energy post-punkers. I forgot how I discovered these guys, but I think they had a fairly big hit at one point. This song reminds me of old Minutemen with it's time changes and alternating between singing and screaming.
   
3. Dangerous Toys "Here Comes Trouble" - DT is an awesome down & dirty Texas blues-rock band. Their debut album, Dangerous Toys had the coolest cover art and I bought it on that alone. I was pleasantly surprised by the content, though. This is a nice mid-speed blues-rock tune reminiscent of AC/DC type lyrics like "Nervous Shakedown" or "Problem Child."
   
4. Souls At Zero "I Against I" - I liked this band better when they were called Wrathchild America back in the late '80's. Simple, straight ahead thrash metal that gets repetitive fast.
   
5. Digital Underground "Dowutchyalike" - 2 Pac's first "posse," this isn't their top-notch work, but it's a good old-school rap song. I love the little break for "Station Identification" and the "fade-out" at the 3 minute mark which fades back in.
   
6. Alabama 3 "Woke Up This Morning (Sopranos Theme Extended)" - I loved the TV show so much I HAD to have the theme song. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't just looped beats over a chorus like in the beginning of the show. A great T.V. theme song will stand on it's own (think "Good Old Boys" by Waylon Jennings) and this one more than accomplishes that.
   
7. ConjureOne "Redemption (Album Version)" - Rhys Fulber's post-FrontLine Assembly/Delerium project. The other mix of this song is the first one I had heard that Rhys did without Bill Leeb. It's a little too trancy for me, but a solid techno song with nice chanting lyrics.
   
8. Damn Nation "Rap of the Edmund Fitzgerald" - I love Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald," and when I saw this cover on Damn Nation's website, I had to hear it. The lyrics are exact, with a DAT backbeat and some nice scratching work. They left the haunting guitar work intact for effect. Altogether it works perfectly. These guys are quite good, but are unfortunately written off as a parody band. You can hear it at the above link.
   
9. Neurosis "Souls At Zero" - Goth/metal is about the only way I can describe this song which is VERY reminiscent of early Celtic Frost. The guitar work is awesome and the drumming is superior. There is a rather long instrumental intro that could actually be another song but I like this song quite a bit.
   
10. Christy Moore "Back Home In Derry" - My wife told me about this song when I got my hands on "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald." She told me the Irish singer Christy Moore had used the music in a song. I later got a hold of this and was much impressed. Although the music is exactly the same, the lyrics are about the deportation of Irish freedom fighters in the early 1800's by the English goverment to Australia.
    
11. Eazy E "Real Muthaphukin' G's" - I love the post-N.W.A. squabbles between Eazy and just about everybody else who was in the group. Eventually, they made up but they made some great diss-raps toward each other. This one's aimed at Dr. Dre when they were feuding.
    
12. D.R.I. "Beneath The Wheel" - D.R.I. completed the crossover from a skate-punk band to a thrash band with the album Thrash Zone, which I really loved. This is one of the best songs on that album. Hard and fast, just the way thrash should be. The album is no longer available, but you can download this song and many others at the Mp3.com page I linked.
    
13. Gorgeous Girl "Make Love to Analog (Essential Mix)" - Nice techno song. I put the original mix on another disc but I like this one even better. It's heavier and faster.
    
14. Minutemen "Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs" - Minutemen/Black Flag was one of the first shows I ever saw in a grimy club. I LOVE these guys but unfortunately have all records and tapes of their stuff. Since I don't listen to records or tapes much anymore, I started getting the better songs and putting them on mixes.
    
15. J. R. Zgorski "Departing L.A.X." - Nice little electric blues piece. I believe I found it on Mp3.com but it's no longer available there. It should be downloadable at the above link.
    
16. Ice Cube "No Vaseline" - Ice Cube was pissed at N.W.A. for "selling out" which made for a great diss-rap. You just don't find this kind of righteous anger in rap anymore, it's too big of a business. I just found out that the remaster of Death Certificate, from which this track came, is due out on February 25th.