THE GRUNGE MATCH - 004

Match 004:

Alice In Chains "Bleed The Freak" (1990)
Nirvana "School" (1989)
Pearl Jam "Why Go" (1991)
Soundgarden "Nothing To Say" (1987)

"Bleed The Freak" is harder than I remember.  I think I had it mentally confused with "Love, Hate, Love", and maybe only remembered the intro, which has that brooding clean tone to it backed by an acoustic guitar.  The acoustic comes back in the middle, which is surprising given this song is just about 4 minutes flat.  The verses are particularly tasty with Layne's hushed melody over the jagged crunch of the riff. 

"School" may only have literally three lyrics: Verse: "Won't you believe it?  It's just my luck. (x4)"  Chorus: "No recess (x4)"  Bridge: "You're in high school again (x8)", but that shit WORKS.  Don't ask me how.  It rocks, it makes you scowl and nod your head, and who the hell in their right mind doesn't hate school?

"Why Go" is sort of an odd bird.  It's kind of a mash up of "Once" and "Even Flow" as far as how it sounds.  Lyrically, it's about someone who's mentally ill, so the imagery on display is fitting but a little hard to relate to.  It's always been a decent song, but it's an album track for a reason.  But that fucking DRUM intro needs to get sampled, man.  That's the definition of a phat beat (from a time when "phat" was still in usage).

"Nothing To Say" is the first really slow song from Soundgarden, reminiscent in pace and attitude of "Slaves & Bulldozers" from "Badmotorfinger".  It's a prototype of that style of Soundgarden song, except with more hopeful sounding guitar melodies in the verses.  But I get the vibe from it that I'd rather be listening to "Slaves & Bulldozers" instead, so I guess it's something they perfected later.

Here's the points for today:

"School": 4
"Why Go": 3
"Bleed The Freak": 2
"Nothing To Say": 1

TOTALS:

Pearl Jam: 14
Alice In Chains: 12
Nirvana: 8
Soundgarden: 6

Match 005 tomorrow!

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