So it seems there's a new trend going around Facebook. It's called 30 Day Song Challenge . Basically the idea is that you post a video every day according to the list of songs you're meant to select (found by clicking on "Rules"). As I was reading this list, I felt remiss at the idea of posting these videos and not offering any explanation as to why each fits into its given category. There are plenty of good stories behind more than a few of these songs, at least for me. For the purposes of this blog entry, I tried to, whenever possible, avoid boring videos of just the song over some pictures. Many of them are live versions, some music videos, a few special versions, and a couple of the aforementioned boring videos. Some I didn't bother posting videos for for what should be obvious reasons. day 01 - your favorite song - Thrice - For Miles It wasn't long ago that I'd have had a hard time even putting a four-minute song with a pop song structure i...

What I Will by Suheir Hammad (sue-HEAR HA-mud) I will not dance to your war drum. I will not lend my soul nor my bones to your war drum. I will not dance to your beating. I know that beat. It is lifeless. I know intimately that skin you are hitting. It was alive once hunted stolen stretched. I will not dance to your drummed up war. I will not pop spin break for you. I will not hate for you or even hate you. I will not kill for you. Especially I will not die for you. I will not mourn the dead with murder nor suicide. I will not side with you nor dance to bombs because everyone else is dancing. Everyone can be wrong. Life is a right not collateral or casual. I will not forget where I come from. I will craft my own drum. Gather my beloved near and our chanting will be dancing. Our humming will be drumming. I will not be played. I will not lend my name nor my rhythm to your beat. I will dance and resist and dance and persist and dance. This heartbeat is louder than death. Your war drum ain...

As much as I love the System of a Down double album Mesmerize / Hypnotize , I really could have done without a number of the songs from both records. Most double albums probably should have never been double albums. I think SOAD had it right with the process they went through for Toxicity where they recorded somewhere around 30 songs and then whittled that down to 14. However, with the positive response to Steal This Album! , I think they felt like this time they could just leave those songs in and make an epic double album. Unfortunately, they had it right the first time because there's a lot of filler on both albums that doesn't fit in and interrupts the flow of the album. So what did I do? I removed them and reorganized the tracks the way I would have had them in a playlist. I call it "IZE." 1. Intro (Soldier Side) 2. B.Y.O.B. 3. Attack 4. Dreaming 5. Revenga 6. Violent Pornography 7. Kill Rock N' Roll 8. Question! 9. Tentative 10. Lost In Hollywood 11....