J Mascis– A Little Ethnic Song, [Guitarrorists]

I first heard this in what must have been around 1991 when the late great John Peel played it from the just released and rather patchy Guitarrorists compilation. Like many of my friends back then we used to tape the shows (Friday night was for drinking!) and edit them down to compilations of the stuff we really liked or couldn’t find in the local indie store.

This is a very simple picked acoustic piece which has Mascis basically practising simple scales which builds layer by layer into a perfect Young / Mascis solo and a blast of noise. If you get the chance try and grab Steve Albini’s contribution “Nutty About Lemurs” too.

[visit Mascis’ website here, buy Guitarrorists here, read Scott’s Top Ten Guitar Solos feature here]

Eminem & Royce 5.9– Renegades (Original Version)

Em recycled this track from his vaults for the much overrated and unimaginatively titled The Blueprint where he replaces the original Royce appearance with the much more famous Jay-Z (the track that Nas refers to on “Ether” as the one where Slim Shady “murdered on you on your own shit”). Here in its original glory is the version with his best friend when he was coming up, Royce da 5’9’’. Here Royce spits better and harder than Jay did underneath one of Em’s better production efforts to date. Royce’s flow and subject matter is unsurprisingly reminiscent of Eminem’s in general (or possibly vice versa), but here it’s particularly similar to Em’s verse on Biggie’s “Dead Wrong”.

Pop Fact: He didn’t charge Jay any production fees for this track, same goes for Nas’ “The Cross” from Stillmatic.

[visit Eminem’s website here, buy The Blueprint here, read the Stylus review of The Blueprint here]

Malcolm Middleton– Party Eyes, [5.14 Fluoxytine Seagull Alcohol John Nic]

This is one of those bloody annoying US bonus tracks that force us Brits into paying out the arse for foreign import discs. Unlike most bonus tracks these days, this is not a lame demo or something knocked off in a few minutes of spare studio time that wasn’t even up to releasing as a b-side. Addressing an ex girlfriend (very very possibly Lauren Laverne of Kenicke and cute girl on TV fame) with more than a little regret he coaxes a thing of beauty from tambourine, harmonica, guitar and ghostly backing vocals.

[visit the Arab Strap website here, buy 5.14 Fluoxytine Seagull Alcohol John Nic here, read the Scott’s Top 10 Guitar Gods feature on Stylus here]