The Trip To Pirate's Cove/Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDStHQLSQWQ&feature=related

The best rock n' roll song of the year and one of the greatest rock songs ever written. 

Bluesy Tuesday

3 o'Clock Blues/B.B. King  (His very first release. The video is of a much later performance, of course.)

Travelling Riverside Blues/Led Zeppelin  (Page's riffage is awesome.)

Inner City Blues/Marvin Gaye  (The slickest voice among the motown bunch)

Distortion Therapy

Fly Away/Lenny Kravitz
Empty/Anathema
Join Me (In Death)/HIM

I Love You/Saigon Kick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTgSQuTzMEg

Story of my life.:)
Jokes aside, this song has one of the most beautiful guitar rhythms I've ever heard (4/4 time with the down-stroke muted).

Pale Blue Eyes/The Velvet Underground

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nir4BnNIFmg

The song has a very real feel. I like how the voice falters in some parts. A great example of how controlled imperfection can enhance listenability.

Aubrey/Bread

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwdTcoUHfkw&feature=related

Beautiful chord progression. One of the best guitar bands of their time.

The Guitar Solo

Like A Stone/Audioslave  (After the second chorus. Morello keeps it simple it in this one, with minimal use of the wah-wah pedal.)

Mama I'm Coming Home/Ozzy Osbourne  (After the first chorus. Classic stadium rocker from the Ozzman.)

Have You Forgotten/Red House Painters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmpLdYfphjE

Found this song after a really long search. First heard it in the movie "Vanilla Sky". Beautiful slow tune. Mark Kozelek has an amazing voice.

Distortion Therapy

Sweetness/Jimmy Eat World
Pretty Like Drugs/Queen Adreena
Fever Dog/Stillwater

A Whiter Shade Of Pale/Procol Harum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ma4dsoviNSQ

One of my favourite melodies. The Hammond organ just isn't played enough anymore.

My Man's Gone Now/Nina Simone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKUu_P-wfdQ

The 'High Priestess of Soul', they called her. This song was originally written by George Gershwin in 1935 for the opera "Porgy And Bess". In 1967, Simone blessed the world with her own rendition of it. One of the most beautiful pieces of music. Ever.  

Interesting read (for guitarists)..

This is a great article from the guys at Fender about the various alternate guitar tunings commonly used in rock music. I wasn't aware of most of them myself, apart from the rather nasty sounding 'drop-D' that I learnt in college. Plus, they've also mentioned some of the famous songs associated with each. Sigh, all those hours spent in trying to figure out the tabs for Zeppelin's "Kashmir" on the standard 'EBGDAE' tuning... what a waste of time.

http://www.fender.com/news/index.php?display_article=704&EDID=D4HFTZV-Y1IB-1ERRU-IEQNV-DY0Q-v1

Bluesy Tuesday

Long Train Running/Doobie Brothers  (Gotta love the 'loooooooooove' in the 9th bar.)

Should I Stay Or Should I Go/The Clash  (Brits nailing the 12-bar blues. Priceless.)

Some Day The Sun Won't Shine For You/Jethro Tull  (The vocals hit the spot, blueswise.)

Great Albums (Move Like This/Cars)

Year : 2011

2011 is turning into the year of the veterans. Tom Petty, Foo Fighters, Stevie Nicks and Ray Davies have all released albums this year, but "Move Like This" by The Cars takes the cake. Their first album in 24 years, it sounds so awesome I've been listening to little else the past week. Synth-rock at its finest.

Personal Picks : The poignant "Soon", The club anthem "Sad Song" and the soulful "Take Another Look".

Aurora/Foo Fighters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE8dOSNq7UI

From the same album. Gosh, I'd forgotten how good they sounded on their early albums.

Next Year/Foo Fighters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnEOxEvotHE

Another old favourite. The walking bassline is a brilliant touch.

Anniversary Of An Uninteresting Event/Deftones

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8YvS4w7eo4

Rediscovering this song after six years! Still sounds as awesome as it did then. I used to listen to this band all the time when I was in school.

Thought: Distinctive lead voices

How often have you heard a song for the first time and correctly identified the band/artist simply by the first few strains of the vocals? It's happened to me on so many occasions that I've begun to marvel at this wonderful power that some singers possess - a unique voice. Listed below, in no particular order, are nine belters whose vocal styles are anything but run-of-the-mill.

1. Scott Stapp (Creed) : Songs like "Higher", "One Last Breath" and "With Arms Wide Open" wouldn't be the same without his powerful syllable-extending vocals ('yeeeeeeeeeeeaaaahhh', 'meeeeeeeeeaaahhhhhh', 'awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy', you get the drift).
Hide/Creed

2. Dido : When I first heard her, I was struck by how weighty her voice was. The unusually thick vocals make her easily recognizable from a mile away.
Sand In My Shoes/Dido

3. Michael Stipe (REM) : Stipe's singing seems to suggest a man who has a lot to tell but the song is holding him down. I used to imagine (jokingly, of course) him going to the bathroom in the middle of a studio session, screaming in front of a mirror for twenty minutes and returning to finish the recording as though nothing had happened.
Losing My Religion/REM

4. Chester Bennington (Linkin Park) : When he sings, he sounds commonplace enough. Fortunately, he doesn't sing much. He screams. And when your songs are all about heartbreak and the injustice of love, you've got enough reason to scream bloodcurdling screams. Warm water, dude?
Runaway/Linkin Park

5. Anthony Kiedis (Red Hot Chili Peppers) : Okay, am I the only one who thinks he has an accent? He doesn't sound American at all. One of the most distinctive styles in rock music, his jerky vocals have been, er, instrumental in giving the band its niche sound.
Animal Bar/Red Hot Chili Peppers

6. Joel Pott (Athlete) : He has this very singular tendency to overemphasize certain syllables in the song. Often, the preceding word is cut short or partially mellowed for this purpose. Check out the 'every-bbbooody' in the chorus of "Westside".
Westside/Athlete

7. Dolores O'Riordan (Cranberries) : That amazing pitch-modulation in the chorus of "Zombie" is out of this world. If she were a musical instrument, she'd be a shakuhachi.
Dreams/Cranberries

8. Tom DeLonge (Blink 182) : The poster-boy of 21st century emo-punk. Out of the two vocalists in the band, he's the one with the more boyish voice. He has this rather silly, albeit endearing habit of adding an 'o' before an 'i'. Words like 'I', 'nice', 'rice' and 'fight' become 'Oi', 'noice', 'roice' and 'foight'. Whatever rocks your boat, man.
Stay Together For The Kids/Blink 182

9. Colin Meloy (Decemberists) : He sometimes sings like he has the voice range of an octogenarian with a nasty cold. But within that range, he's got one of the most powerful voices I've ever heard. No fancy pitch manoeuvers, just plain vocal delivery.
Calamity Song/Decemberists

Misery (acoustic version)/Maroon 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fua5EtFNteU

These guys rule with their acoustic covers.

There Is/Boxcar Racer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mliF5sGUw4

The snare roll just makes the song even more brilliant.

Easter Song/A Man Called Adam

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzCM-rC3d6Q

Another great driving song.

Spinning The Wheel/George Michael

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JnACEyYZOE

The groove is truly addictive. A classic.

Talk To Me/Blue Foundation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nN-TUViKMo

A great band I discovered a few months back (these guys also contributed to the "Twilight" soundtrack, in case the band name sounds familiar). Kirstine's voice is angelic.

Great Albums (The Unforgettable Fire/U2)

Year: 1984

Having received commercial success with their first three albums, U2 sought a more art-rock sound in their next. For this, they roped in Brian Eno (Talking Heads) as producer. And boy, did he deliver. The album is filled to the brim with ambient textures and guitar-driven atmospheres and marks a major shift in the band's playing. Clayton's straight basslines and Mullen's no-nonsense drumming thankfully step in, however, and keep the listener from going into orbit. The collaboration with Brian Eno, of course, went on to become a hugely successful one.

Personal Picks: Trust me, play this album from the beginning and don't bother about the tracklist. Oh, and it'll help if you're in space.

Time To Pretend/MGMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sArxl4TR8K0

Feel-good synth pop. This song plays in the opening credits of the movie "21".

Crazy On You/Heart

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZuW6BH_Vak

Their songs are marked by awesome riffs and all-out choruses.

Bluesy Tuesday

Good Golly Miss Molly/Little Richard  (One of my first guitar tunes. Also my favourite song for some good old jammin')

Kansas City/Beatles  (One of the most frequently covered blues songs)