Casey's mixtape

• Subdivisions – Rush

Everyone who knows me knows that Rush is my favourite band of all time, so there's a whole lot of songs that I could choose from to be my favourite. But this song means a lot to me. As a kid who never really fit in, this song really spoke to me. Musically, it's smart, progressive but not obtuse, atmospheric and moody.

• Synchronicity II - The Police

What a brilliant song. Perhaps a touch pretentious thematically, but it works perfectly. It manages to juxtapose a certain light whimsy with extreme darkness and spookiness. It's aggressive but still very melodic and accessible, and the lyrics are very clever and literate.

• Fascination Street - The Cure

I actually love the whole record this song is on, Disintegrate, but this is just the one that has my "fascination" right now. Ugh, I hate me. Anyways, this song is hella spooky and ethereal but manages to stay grounded in this amazing bass line and rock solid drum part. Awesome.

• Purgatory - Iron Maiden

Hard to pick a favourite song in their catalogue, but right now I'm into this one. It's raging, has all the brilliant Maiden hallmarks: harmony guitar, high energy, powerful vocals, good melodies...and it's almost punk in it's delivery. Love it!

• Pep Talk - The Descendents

Melodic. Energetic. Intricate. Descendents.

• Sunless Saturday – Fishbone

I love this band so much. And this song is arguably their best...it's uplifting and oppressive all at the same time. The musicianship is astounding and it always charges me up whenever I play it

• I Want To Conquer The World - Bad Religion

Perfect punk rock. Defiant, sardonic, intelligent, fast, aggressive, uncompromising. It's what I love about Bad Religion in a nutshell

• The Deadly Rhythm – Refused

I kind of overkilled myself on this album about 15 years ago, and stopped listening to it for awhile, but I listened to this track again recently and was immediately raging and headbanging to it. Absolutely lethal.

• Over My Head - King’s X

Most of my friends don't really get why I like this band so much. That's cool, though. They're a combination of a lot of things that I like: metal, soul, pop...they smash it all in there, and I've never really heard another band that sounds like them. That's tough to find nowadays. I don't know if this is my favourite ever King's X song, but I've listened to it a bunch lately.

• The Pretender - Foo Fighters

 Pretty damn near a perfect rock song, I think. A lot of movement, a lot of ebb and flow, aggressive and powerful. The chorus is epic.