The Not-Pop Jukebox

Due to a misremembered lyric this evening, I found myself following a trail of songs that included the phrase "red hands" in the title. Since I've all but abandoned you all I thought I'd bring you the whole, sloppy mess, dripping with indie goodness via Walk off the Earth and Harlem Shakes, angry post-grunge from Calling All Cars, and even some classic Melvins death grind.

Now, I'll grant you some of these aren't fantastic songs. The point of these lists, however, is to point out the wide variations artists can come up with on a theme, in this case being red-handed (as in guilty). Some of them take the red a wee bit more literally than others. I did actually nuke one song from the list that was painfully bad but I left things like The Bravery, which sounds like a bad Cure cover band, because it's not my thing but Red Hands and White Knuckles takes the concept in a different direction and so still rates a listen.

The Builders and the Butchers come at things from yet another side, doing an Americana song that's almost bluegrass. Their Red Hands brings some classic storytelling and instrumentation to the table but manages to stay far enough on the not-painful side of the twang line that it remains enjoyable. So there you have it, my dears: seven songs about people guilty of something to one degree of violence or another. Have a listen and tell me which is your favorite or if you have a Red Hand Song I've missed!