1001 7" Records You Must Own No.33 The Bellrays – Fire On The Moon / Stupid Fucking People

In Lisa Kekaula The Bellrays have probably the finest voiced front woman a band could ever have, when on form as she is here on both tracks she was ferocious yet melodic enough to make songs stick in your head for eternity. ‘Fire On The Moon’ sounds like MC5 jamming with Tina Turner in her good days but it’s bb-side ‘Stupid Fucking People’ that makes this single worth every penny a tirade against government and “stupid grins, on their stupid fucking faces”

1001 7" Records You Must Own No.32 Black Flag – Nervous Breakdown / Fix Me / I’ve Had It / Wasted

I’ll never regret being a child of the 90’s it produced some of the best bands and records in my collection, but part of me sure wishes I’d been around for the early US hardcore scene, records like this are a must have and there’ll be a few others later on in the list, kicking off literally with ‘Nervous Breakdown’ two minutes of utter chaos that can’t be matched by any other hardcore band and showing what a fine frontman Keith Morris was before the equally talented Mr.Rollins took over. Then 3 more tracks that clock in at around 1 minute each the ferocious ‘Fix Me’, ‘I’ve Had It’ and ‘Wasted’ while the Sex Pistols were Punk, Black Flag were Hardcore!

1001 7" Records You Must Own No.31 Pearl Jam – Alive / Once

On the intro to ‘Habit’ Eddie Vedder utters the phrase “speaking as a child of the 90’s” well I was a child of the 90’s and Pearl Jam were my soundtrack, I remember borrowing their ‘Ten’ album from my brothers friend on cassette and being blown away by just how good and album I was hearing, they say home taping was killing music, to me it was introducing me to many bands that I would go onto collect a lot of records by. Here we have their biggest single of probably their entire career ‘Alive’ and if you don’t know it shame on you, backed by album opener ‘Once’ which is an understated gem and quite a bit darker and heavier.

1001 7" Records You Must Own No.30 The Strokes – The Modern Age / Last Nite

The world’s first taste of the The Strokes and it might has well have been a banquet, two songs that were definitely a sign of things to come and the quality of songs that would make up their first album. I remember picking this up the week it was released back when NME used to help you discover great bands on a regular basis and review singles, ahh the good old days… So not only do you get the laid back anthem of ‘The Modern Age’ but backing this up is an early version of one of their future singles ‘Last Nite’ which everyone should already know by heart.

1001 7" Records You Must Own No.29 Six By Seven – Candlelight / Young Man’s Stride

Yet another totally underrated band, Six By Seven could change style at the flick of a switch sometimes slow melodic soundscapes sometimes rock beasts and occasionally indie rockers. ‘Candlelight’ falls mostly into the last category and should have made them huge, their contrasting styles probably stopped them obtaining a bigger fan base but something tells me that wasn’t the point. On the flipside you have ‘Young Man’s Stride’ a Mercury Rev cover done in Sx7s own unique style with great use of brass section.

1001 7" Records You Must Own No.28 The White Stripes – Red Death At 6:14

Single sided 7” records only make a few brief appearances on this list and generally only if they’re an exclusive song not on an album. ‘Red Death At 6:14’ makes the list for a few reasons, one it was only on the Sympathetic Sounds Of Detroit compilation and two it was mail order only through Mojo magazine, and three it rocks like a SOB! Jack White is at his best here spitting out lyrics over loud as fuck guitar, showing even his non-album material of that era surpassed all his contemporaries.

1001 7" Records You Must Own No.27 Weezer – Undone (The Sweater Song) / Mykel & Carli / Susanne / Holiday

The first single from Weezer and what a start, you get the best track IMO from their debut album ‘Undone’ which takes quiet loud dynamics to another level but that alone wouldn’t do, on this UK version of the single you get the unreleased b-sides ‘Susanne’ and should have been a single in its own right ‘Mykel & Carli’ these songs are just the best you could expect from a band and for a first single is remarkable. Topping this off you get album track ‘Holiday’ the perfect ending to a literally perfect single!