The Seven Best Godzilla Songs NOT by Blue Oyster Cult

It's that time again. The King of Monsters is back on the big screen, and I plan to see it at the absolute first opportunity because if there's anything I love more than giant monsters destroying things it's GIANT MONSTERS DESTROYING THINGS! Can't help it. It's the four-year-old in me that refuses to believe any film can be better than Godzilla 1985.

Brief aside...if they'd made that film one year earlier they could have had Godzilla attacking the Big Brother government, and you can tell me that would be stupid all you want but I should warn you I go completely deaf with wrong people talk.

So, OK. Godzilla is now in theaters, and I'm on my way to see it. We need some tunes to accompany the drive, and to that end I present you a list of Godzilla songs that are not that one everyone knows by Blue Oyster Cult. Nope, we're going to celebrate properly with deep cuts on this one. Strap in.

REWIND: A Fond Look Back at 1998's Godzilla: The Album

The Creatures, "Godzilla" Let's open with the best. I got to see Siouxsie do this number in Austin as part of her Evening With Siouxsie tour. It was bar-none the best concert I have ever seen, being the perfect combination of technical prowess, innovative musical performance, and connection with the audience.

During the show, a fan in the front gave Siouxsie a small Godzilla toy when this song started she literally jumped up and down and squealed like a teenage girl. Yes, Siouxsie Motherfucking Sioux, and I swear on my life it happened. Man, I miss The Creatures.

The Flaming Lips, "Godzilla Flick" Not to bring the mood down much, but have you ever noticed just how many Flaming Lips songs are all about how we're going to die and there is nothing we can do about it? That's the underlying message of "Godzilla Flick." Basically, a giant force of nature is going to stomp out our lives eventually.

M.O.D., "Godzula" Ahhhhh....that's better. You know it's dark when Method of Destruction is a mood-lightener. Coming of 1989's Gross Misconduct, "Godzulla" was a great example of a less-controversial turn for the band into more accessible material. It certainly plays well to footage of the monster that inspired the song.

Pharoahe Monch, "Simon Says" There was probably no better cure for the horrific things we were subjected to on the soundtrack of the 1998 American Godzilla attempt than Pharoahe Monch's masterful sampling of Akira Ifukube's "Gojira Tai Mosura" from the original 1954 film. It is literally the opposite of that Puff Daddy/Jimmy Page train wreck version of "Kashmir," even and up to the line "Girls, rub your titties." Just what 1999 needed.

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Sepultura, "Biotech Is Godzilla" We don't talk about Sepultura nearly enough on Rocks Off, and for my money Paulo Jr. has never gotten the credit he deserves as a near-perfect metal bassists. This track is fairly typical, comparing the all sorts of the corporate industry to the destruction of the King of Monsters, but it's fun all hell on top of that.

Ballboy, "Godzilla vs The Island of Manhattan (With You and I Somewhere in Between)" Let's take it down a notch. Ballboy is the sort of band you listen to as you drive to buy a rope to hang yourself, but are hoping you see something life-affirming to keep you going a little longer on the way. "Godzilla" is the touching tale of two lovers trapped in New York as a monster makes landfall and begins destroying everything. It's a testament to love in the face of long odd, and the odds don't get longer than giant atomic thunder lizard.

Finally, as we head off to the movie theater please remember one thing... even if Godzilla isn't all you hope for it could always be worse. Godzooky worse.







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