Your pretty face is going to HELL (iggy violent mix) – The Stooges

Faiyaz Shah : Let’s start this playlist off with THE MOST VICIOUS of all time. The GOAT. Iggy in his most disgusting, powerful, crude best. You can pretty much smell the hate in his voice. The hostility in James Williamson’s overloaded spank of a guitar sound. NOTHING COMPARES. I pretty much tried to base my sound for our newest single “dead animals” on the Pretty face/death trip sound. The whole screeching cat sound thing. Also sorry bowie, but iggy mix only please!

Down at the rock and roll club – Richard Hell and the Voidoids

This song makes me miss playing and going to live shows. At one point pre-covid I was basically either playing/working or going to a show every night. I loved it! Our music scene can be so comfortable sometimes and that’s how this song makes me feel. I regret not supporting more folks or saying hi or bye to more people hahaha. I gotta say though between Johnny thunders, Robert Quine, Tom verlaine, and Richard Lloyd…Hell sure is lucky. Every single one of those guitarists is a huge influence on me and ridiculously talented/groundbreaking.

Waves of fears – Lou Reed

Speaking of Robert quine, this song also features him as a guitarist. Waves of fear is the most erratic,stuttery, paranoid, cringe clang song ever to grace a drop d tuning. Quine holds nothing back in the crazy jazz, noise, stab you outside CBGBS with a toothpick a million times guitar solo. Lou will always be fighting iggy for that title of most vicious in my books, but on waves of fear or white light white heat lou definitely wins. Lyrically Lou is 100 percent unmatched

We’re coming out – The Replacements

Dyan Guiliano : Hey!!! give me some answers! Damn lead singer always hogging the miq, Anyways…Some of the coolest and most authentic music out there dances right on the edge of falling apart, Which is kind of us as a band. We love to teeter on the edge and come right back to toe tapping, finger snapping glory! This song hits in all the right places for us, explosive guitars, sexy snaps, and perhaps the most beautiful tempo change in any hardcore punk song.

Headmaster’s Ritual – The Smiths (2011) remaster

Faiyaz : Okay I want to preface this with I have no respect for morrissey. Damn Racist prick. Johnny Marr on the other hand, damn. I never knew clean guitar picking to be vicious but if anyone is making that happen it’s Mr.Marr. I take a lot of influence from Johnny’s overdubbing style and arrangement style. Also Stephen Street is one of my fav producers.

Dylan : This charming man over here. pretends to quiff his hair ala morrisey then laughs. Yea screw morrissey

Ratchet – Bloc Party

Dylan : Something that has become a big part of our band over the past few years is the “ratchet” live performances. This song captures the feeling of how we like to play live; loud, silly, and weird.

Faiyaz: I love Bloc Party. Real throwback to being a youngin. Kele is amazing live and I love seeing powerful punk POC frontmen like Denz from The Obgms or Deshaun from Burner kill it. Russell the guitarist of bloc party is also wackily fantastic. Kind of in the great line of 80/90s british guitarists with amazing niche pedal work. Ya know jonny greenwood/ graham coxon/ Kevin Shields/johnny marr/the edge.

Hey Joni – Sonic Youth

Dylan: This is a band, and song, that Faiyaz and I have always bonded over. Wild guitars and a driving beat have always been the soul of the band. Hell we at one point used to always play this before we got on stage with a few brews. I Remember a lot of shakey nights in the horseshoe greenroom hearing the guitar harmonics and being nearly hypnotized for the stage. Come back 40 min later drenched in sweat.

Faiyaz: Its all about Lee Ranaldo for me, this song and eric’s trip are actually my favourite sonic youth songs.

Love City – BURNER

Faiyaz : Gotta keep it local! Well I mentioned them before and it would be rude of me not to include them, especially considering this list is supposed to be about the most vicious. DAMN ARE THEY EVER VICIOUS. I’ve been to so many Burner shows and I don’t think i’ve ever been disappointed. My fav Burner show was for the Exclaims’ ”class of” show. Being in that pit with so many friends along with seeing them at their best was life affirming. If anyone deserves to be compared to iggy its deshaun and Fraiser is also the only person in my immediate music scene that I would declare as a bonafide “guitar hero”.

Things you can’t take back – The Effens

Even a slow song can be vicious. Things you can’t take back is exactly that and it’s all about the strings! I’ve seen The Effens go through quite a bit of lineups over the years and to me seeing this current version release music and do so well is so great to see. Nops works harder than anyone I know, and has always lent a helping hand out to us. The Effens deserve all the attention they’re getting. To me it’s like some weird proud papa feeling, even though I am definitely not any of their daddies. I once goaded Paul to crowd surf during a solo at their release show in the monarch. Ya know more proud papa moments.

Truly one of the best live acts out there.

Everything You wanted – Mother Tongues

Mother Tongues will always have a space in my heart as another one of the best live acts in Toronto. I’ve been to a few great shows they’ve had. My favourite was at Long Winter, at the workmans art centre. I dont think i’ve ever seen a band play and sound that good in a DIY venue setting. The amount of control they all have as musicians and also freedom to improv is incredibly liberating. The sheer number of times I’d come home from a tongues show inspired and trying to nail a lukas solo or tone. I’ve grown as a guitarist just going home jealous hahahah.

Denial – Little Junior

I gotta give the last song of this list to Little Junior because lawd do they know how to make a banger of a song. I actually heard this song as a demo on a Lootbag mixtape. long before it came out. Me and my demoitis believe that to be the best version. Sorry Rane, and Chai but y’all know I like it grimey. That being said, the version on the album is very very well produced. If anyone gets the Buzzcocks comparison it’s the lil jrs. I can’t wait to hear what their newest stuff sounds like.

New Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8mn24T8NpI