AC/DC - T.N.T.

ORIGINATION High Voltage
LAST LISTENED TO mid week
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT not bad
RATING

This is just classic AC/DC. It starts with Bon Scott almost grunting 'oi oi's in between Angus' guitar licks, before the bass cuts in just exactly where it should. That's the thing about AC/DC: their music is very straightforward, almost to the point of predicability. Almost predictable, but not exactly predictable because everything happens (in classic bluesy hard rock) not only where you know it was going to but where you wanted it to and where it had to. Doing things so very straightforwardly can't be at all easy and AC/DC do it very, very well.

T.N.T. is about being generally just hard (and in fact, 'dirty, mean and medium clean'). That's really it. Apart from those great 'oi's and the riffs and that magnicificent rolling AC/DC bass. You just have to love it. It's on their first album which everyone who has ever enjoyed an amplified guitar should own.
Further AC/DC songs: Sin City

Monday morning mess

The shock of an early alarm and a head full of fuzz confused issues too much this morning. I ended up with a big old mess of random snatches of music. The biggest and most continuous snatch was from AC/DC's Rocker, but this was interspersed with a near equally large dose of Public Enemy's Welcome To The Terrordome, both of which would merit a decent mention in their own right. However, there where so many other bits and random pieces kicking around that it doesn't seem fair to pick out just the two. There was bits of the Beastie Boys The Biz Vs The Nuge, for example and even a part from Chris Morris' Pixies spoof Motherbanger which was a real shot from out of nowhere.

Ultimately, there was just too much random noise for anyone's head on a monday morning. No way to start a week.

AC/DC - Sin City (again)

ORIGINATION Powerage
LAST LISTENED TO yesterday
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT very, very high
RATING

Find the frst time .http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifhere

AC/DC - Sin City

ORIGINATION Powerage
LAST LISTENED TO a few days ago
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT good
RATING

There is something pretty primitive about AC/DC. Their formula that they have perfected over more than thirty years is pretty simple: basic 4/4 drums, classic rock-screech vocals and giant, giant chords. Where their particular appeal lies is in how they weave these most basic of rock elements together, which they so do in a way that combines exciting, charged dynamics with space and air.

In many ways Sin City is one of the best examples of that style. It begins with large chords, before turning into a typical mid-tempo AC/DC head-nodder. Soon the guitar cuts back to choppier chords as the vocal comes in and the rolling bass becomes more noticable. There is air and space through this verse, that flows over the dynamic tension of guitar and drums. Shortly, however, this space is lost when the guitar comes back in full, building the the verse to the chorus, which in turn builds to a guitar solo that takes things even higher.

From this height almost everything is stripped away, leaving only the bass, hi-hat and vocals. The space left is great and yet is quite tense as it's certainly only a matter of time before a huge guitar comes crashing back in. Which it does and it is wonderous.

Many other artists have used a similar technique to this in the past, but few with quite as much success as AC/DC had here. They recorded this in '78, on their (depending on who's counting) fourth LP. That they are still at it today is a testament to AC/DC who, in their thirty years, have seen pretenders come and then go, but have never really been challenged as Kings in the land of hard rock.