Welcome to another installment of All Work and No Playlist. This week’s victim (we really do feel bad stealing all these iPods) is Taking Back Sunday drummer Mark O’Connell (far left, kneeling, in photo below), whose band has reformed with the lineup from their Tell All Your Friends days and will release a new self-titled album June 28. Says Mark: “We couldn’t be more excited about it.” Perhaps these 10 songs will provide some insight into the sound of the new record. Or perhaps not. He did put a Billy Joel song on here, after all, and we don’t see the band making the next “Tell Her About It” anytime soon.
“Battery,” Metallica
I remember the first time I heard this song, I couldn’t believe what was happening. I had no idea music like that existed. They are the pioneers of thrash metal.
“The Downeaster – Alexa,” Billy Joel
I am from Long Island — Billy Joel is from Long Island. He has Long Island pride — I also have long island pride. I want to meet that guy so badly, it hurts.
Playing drums is much harder than it looks. Playing Green Day songs is even harder than playing most other songs, because Tre Cool is tre fast and tre good. So how awesome is it to see a 6-year-old boy named Kyle tear up the 21st Century Breakdown track “Peacemaker” – left-handed on a righty set, no less – like it ain’t no big thing? We need to get him in a band with that Japanese guitar prodigy. They’d rule the world.
Happy Friday, everyone. If you’re reading this within 72 hours of when it posts, then we’re standing somewhere in Chicago’s Grant Park, caked in dust from the softball fields the south stage bands are playing on. We’ll give you one guess which band we’re most excited to see. (Note: There is no official video for this song, so we settled for this Rock Band recording because it’s the most visually interesting YouTube clip of the song available.)
Oh, and for the people who made this clip, if you’re looking for a new singer, drop us a line. Ciao.