#3 Tomahawk – “You Can’t Win,” from Mit Gas.

This was a surprise to everyone. If you haven’t heard of Tomahawk, perhaps you’ve heard of its co-founder Mike Patton, the man of many bands (including Faith No More, Fantomas, Mr. Bungle, Lovage, and more).


“You Can’t Win” has a funky fresh bass line coupled with a slowly droning guitar, a swinging syncopated drum line, and a crooner half-rap that all boils down to a fantastic frenzy. On top of it’s rhythm and disparate attitudes, the song contains the memorable lyric “We are the police and now we’re gonna start a riot.” While this lyric could be interpreted in a dozen different ways, Patton’s political leanings are always ambiguous. Yet Tomahawk has been known to dress in police uniforms for their live performances, and especially for promotional photos. According to Patton though, it sounds like he’s just playing dress-up: “Yeah the cop thing has been fun. Not sure what we are going to do next. It has been cool having cops give us things to add to the uniforms. The billy club comes in handy. It is mostly to amuse ourselves. It gives us power!” (Counterculture)


#2 AFI – “Bleed Black,” from Sing The Sorrow.

This was also slightly surprising, though when you hear the track perhaps not. “Bleed Black” has elements of rock, pop punk, and grunge. AFI stands for “A Fire Inside” (though it’s rumored that in their early days, it stood for “Another Fucking Idiot”). The song certainly has fire, as it slowly builds momentum more and more for its four-plus minutes. The band joins in with a full energetic sound and harmonic chorus, which later are shattered by the angelic vocals of the lead singer turning harsh, almost screaming. Their biography on DreamWorks Records calls it: “…imbued with alternately brooding and celebratory lyrical imagery of rebirth, resurrection, apocalypse, all somehow deeply personal – in other words, classic AFI.”


#1 The White Stripes – “Ball And Biscuit,” from Elephant.

While we all expected (and it’s no surprise) that this particular band would have a slot, most likely a #1 slot, we never expected it to be this particular song. Yet the fact remains that while it crept up behind the other singles, almost everyone on the staff found a place for it in their own personal top 5 lists.


This Mississippi-Blues influenced song is simple, old-fashioned, and just plain good. The song seems to pay homage to veteran blues-man Willie Dixon’s “The Seventh Son.” While the lyrics are ambiguous, Spin Magazine claims, “The ‘seventh son’ line refers to the folkloric notion of such offspring having the gift of ‘second sight’.” However White’s persona seems more inclined to use his status as seventh son to get a girl into bed, rather than foresee any future events.


One writer stated: “I’m really not into the White Stripes that much, but damn this is just a cool song. A nice bluesy feel with some screamin’ solos. Badass.” And badass it is, as Jack White himself takes on another, less modest, persona: “I think [“Ball And Biscuit”] is going to be popular on the tour…I’m experimenting with that cocky asshole persona and that was an adventure for me. But it should be seen as like a scene from a movie. It’s not me. I don’t consider myself cocky.” (Q)



The List:

1. The White Stripes – “Ball And Biscuit”

2. AFI – “Bleed Black”

3. Tomahawk – “You Can’t Win”

4. Radiohead – “There There”

5. Audioslave – “Like A Stone”


Resources:

Audioslave

Counterculture

Green Plastic Radiohead

MTV.com

Rolling Stone Magazine

Spin Magazine

The Unofficial Tomahawk Website

Triple Tremelo