5 Songs to Get You Through the Week #150

5 Songs to Get You Through the Week is a feature I run on Young Ears, Fresh Perspective on Sundays/early hours of Monday morning where I pick out 5 tunes that I think are notable and tell you a bit about them. The point is to give you some rocking music to help you deal with your weekday blues. You can either listen to one each day, listen to them all at once, or any other combination that you feel. As long as you can get through the week without the man getting you down, that's all I care about. Without further ado, here are the 5 tracks I've picked out for this week:

1. Baby Got Back, by Jonathan Coulton

One of the things I've always been rather amused by is when someone will take a well known classic rap song and turn it into a soulful, melodic ballad. Especially when it's one that is not meant to be that way. This song does exactly that. If anything, the singing makes this song in particular that much funnier than the original. If you're feeling kind of blue and need a good chuckle, this song is definitely what you need.

2. Walking in the Shadow of the Blues, by Whitesnake

This is classic old school pre-hair metal Whitesnake at its finest. David Coverdale puts real passion and soul into his lyrics and performance and guitarist Micky Moody plays one hell of a mean slide guitar. This is blues on some serious steroids. Definitely something worth cranking through the stereo. This sounds nothing like the Whitesnake most people are used to hearing, but it's definitely worth checking out. You might even like it better.

3. Ride the Sky, by Lucifer's Friend

If you ever wondered what it would sound like if Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin somehow managed to have a four-way love child together, look no further. Lucifer's Friend is exactly that, at least in their 1970 debut album anyway. Why they never got more big and famous than they did is beyond me, though of course the name of the band could have had something to do with it. Regardless, it's some great music to go back and revisit.

4. Catbot, by Joe Satriani

Satch put out a new album recently and it's pretty damn cool. I like this tune in particular because it showcases his charming eccentricity in some of the best ways I've seen it done in years. It really does sound like a song being made by a robotic cat. I get that picture so clearly in my head whenever I put it on. Honestly, I would love to see what would happen if you put this on in the vicinity of a real living cat.

5. The Threat is Real, by Megadeth

After quite a few albums that I felt were rather sub-par Megadeth came roaring back a couple years back with a brand new album chocked full of fantastic new tunes with a brand new lead guitarist and drummer. Honestly, I think this is probably the best line-up that Megadeth has had since its classic 90's Rust in Peace line-up. It's still not quite on the same level as that, but it's certainly not all that far behind. Hopefully this second wind of theirs carries on for a while.