You know what that sound means. College Football is here! With the institution of "Seven Nation Army" as America's official sports chant & "Enter Sandman" serving as a chill-inducing entrance for both baseball and college football, and the song "Zombie Nation" forever associated to Penn State, I've come to think about what other songs could make for an electrifying and fear-inducing college football entrance, going into the holiday weekend. Here's a few alternative choices that sprang to mind.
For a chill down your spine: Steel Dragon- Blood Pollution. This song was Izzy Cole's first song as a heavy metal frontman in "Rock Star", and seeing him come out with this bass line and threatening guitar gave me chills. "Stand Up and Shout" from the same movie is now a stadium staple.
Teams it could work for: Any team whose color is red and black, or anything that resembles blood. Hearing a crowd of 60,000 kids yelling "Gimme Blood!" & wilding out is not something I want to see as an opponent. First teams that come to mind are Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns and Houston Cougars.
For "Fear the Mascot": Dinosaur Jr.- Sludgefeast
Dinosaur JR? I know they're not the most intimidating-looking guys, but listen to this opening series of riffs and tell me it doesn't make you feel a little bit of menace, like skies threatening to drop a tornado on you or something really big and scary coming closer. I can easily see a team coming out to this.
Team it could work for: The most obvious one would be UMass, since all members of Dinosaur Jr. are from Amherst, and basically anywhere in the mountains/with crazy mountain hicks (West Virginia, Appalachian State, Western Kentucky, Utah State) Who wouldn't be scared of those opening power chords at 0:11?
For "Yew Don't Wanna Mess Wit' Those Crazy Rednecks": Pantera- Walk. This for me would be an obvious choice for a Southern powerhouse with an intimidating crowd. Pantera came roaring out of Texas in the early 1990s looking like deranged truckers and playing metal so ass-kicking that radio programmers had no choice but to sit up and listen. Surprised this song isn't a football staple along the lines of AC/DC.
Teams it could work for: A school deep in Texas, Alabama, Missisippi, and the like. Some that come to mind are Troy, UTEP, Baylor, Rice, South Alabama, Miss State. The college kids would go absolutely apeshit with the tough-as-nails sound of Phil Anselmo's voice.
For "Random Techno Song That Somehow Makes The Kids Go Crazy": The "Zombie Nation" phenomenon has hit schools such as Penn State hard, and South Carolina kids have a similar tradition with the "Sandstorm" rave party. For a new one, I nominate "Move Your Feet" by Junior Senior, a song that was annoying at the time and made one of the first IPod ads. As random as some of these "rave parties" are at college games, this random early-2000s rave out has a bass line which I can easily see drones & college kids singing along too as easily as Zombie Nation or 7 Nation Army.
Teams it could work for: Usually the Big Ten and smaller conferences in the Midwest adopt these cheesy techno songs, so I'd say someone along the lines of Eastern Michigan, Indiana State, Drake, Illinois
For "Black People Go To College Too" Hip-Hop Dance Party: A few years back, the UCF football team went viral by rocking out to "Crank 'Dat" much to the delight of the student body. Similarly, every college team seems to have a hip-hop dance fad every season. This year I nominate "2Pac Back" by Meek Mill/Rick Ross- it is a very scary and official-sounding beat.
Teams it could work for: Temple (since Meek Mill yells out "Philly!"), UMiami or USF since Ross is a South Florida guy, Georgia Tech, Maryland, or basically any other football school in the middle of a major city with a sizable black student base.
For "The Ultimate Rock-Out Moment": "Aces High" by Iron Maiden"
Why Iron Maiden hasn't caught on at sports games is beyond me, but if an up and coming football team comes out with Iron freakin' Maiden, and has a crowd of 50,000 rocking out to "Aces High", doing a crazy dance for this superfast headbanger, that's some rock n' roll bliss whether or not the team wins.
Teams it could work for: Something having to do with flight, maybe Air Force, Bowling Green, Dayton, Eastern Washington. Or maybe Colorado State, cause half the state IS high.
For "We're From The Streets, You Country Bitches": "Down on the Street" by Iggy & The Stooges. One of my favorite montage clips, was used for a gun battle in "Smokin' Aces" & in several other films. You can feel the grit in this song, and that will work well for any program that takes raw urban street kids and turns them into football players.
Teams it can work for: Eastern/Western/Central Michigan (the Stooges came from Ann Arbor), Northwestern (because Iggy makes several animal noises near the beginning), Cincinnati, Pitt.
For "This Isn't Going To Be Close. We Have The Power!"- Rage Against The Machine- Wake Up. For college students especially, Rage Against the Machine is the recipe for turning a party into a riot, for turning a "casual hangout" into an all out mosh-fest. Similarly, Rage's music could be the recipe for an all-time great intimidating college football entrance.
Teams it can work for: UCLA, USC, Fresno State, Hawaii, Clemson, Arizona State, New Mexico
For "We're From The Middle Of Nowhere, All We Know Is Football!": Soil- Pride A similar-sounding song, Rev Theory's "Hell Yeah" is the theme for Blue Mountain State, a great TV show about a team from the middle of nowhere that parties hard, kicks ass, and takes names. When you hear that beat & guy screaming; that hard, metallic testosterone crunch, something about a song like this just SOUNDS like football.
Teams it could work for: North/South Dakota, Montana (Home of the Snow Rave), Idaho, Kansas St, Wyoming, New Mexico St
For "That's What I Do! I Lay. People. OUUUUUTTTTTT!": Marcy Playground- It's Saturday
Quoting Thad Castle from BMS there, and this is basically a category for the real blue-collar bruisers, the meat & potatoes manly man football that makes grown men drool over these guys' balls, both in college and at the professional level. This song doesn't exactly scream football, but every Saturday you know these guys are gonna be there for you punishing their opponents & making them wish they'd never been born.
Teams it could work for: Alabama, Wisconsin, Boise State, Oklahoma St, and the school with the best pump-up videos in the nation, Nebraska!
Are you ready for some fooooooottbbbballlllllllllll!?????
