We recently had Easter and then the pope died, so I thought it appropriate to acknowledge that before Elvis Presley and rock n' roll were a thing, there was the rock gospel of Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Tharpe was the first popular musician to use heavy distortion on an electric guitar. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, the term "rock", as applied to music, originated with her 1938 song Rock Me. Thus I present to you arguably the original rocker. Here she is in one of her later, better-preserved performances explaining how Noah's ark kicked ass.
Also, what better way to mourn a loss than with Rancid? Stylistically, this song's a little bit of ska fused with punk. It's about a good friend of the band who was murdered by Hell's Angels for sleeping with one of the gang member's wives.
This seems like a good follow-up. I was inspired to choose it by that recent article in The Atlantic, What Porn Taught a Generation of Women, and its premise that porn is our culture.
Keeping on our (for now) theme for this post, here's some fun kid punk in the form of a video game trailer (for a sweet and heartfelt game about childhood loneliness that I recommend) that also makes for a nice music video.
Alright, moving on. This next song's on the personal side for me. It's about that painful feeling of emotional distance from someone you love. Something I went through pretty heavily earlier this year.
Here's a violin cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. "Kurt smells like Teen Spirit" was something Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hanna wrote about Kurt Cobain on a wall while drunk, referencing a smelly deodorant called Teen Spirit and Cobain's band, Nirvana, used the reference to describe a feeling of being trapped in adolescence despite being older. It became a generational anthem. It was also the first rock song I ever heard, so more than any other example it really defined what rock music was to me. There happened to be a story on the news, which my parents were watching, about the song's popularity. Anyway, here is a pretty awesome violin cover of that legendary jam.
Speaking of violins, let's try something a little different next. In the video below, this dude is challenged by a violinist to a pirate metal duel and it's one of the greatest things you'll see ever! 
Be forewarned that this is a longer video. It goes on for 15 minutes. It's worth all of them though. I enjoyed it thoroughly and think you will too.
For anyone who hasn't noticed, I also enjoy many neurotic tunes. (Example 1. Example 2. Example 3. Example 4. I won't embed those because they're not rock songs.) And I share traumacore memes. And shop at Plushie Dreadfuls. And own a discerning collection of Alice in Wonderland media and merch. And I think I just generally give people the shivers. This is because there is nothing wrong with me. Anyway, some of the aforementioned tunes I enjoy are the bipolar sugary pop and metal combo stylings of satirist Poppy and I feel like sharing a couple of those now.
Shifting over to Asia, as I'm often want of doing, here is Taiwanese folk metal about the joys of drunkenness.
Here's one of the newest concert videos posted by the Lovebites, whom I think you guys are liking so far based on the responses to other songs of theirs I shared earlier. This one's pretty good! A lot of energy in the delivery.
Finally, here is the cute and weirdly awesome Band-Maid. This is video posted just a few weeks ago from a 2023 concert.
Hope you has enjoyed!
