Inspired by several different sources, I've decided to put my iPod on shuffle and write about the first 10-15 songs that come up. The two rules to this game are: #1, No skipping, even if its embarassing or "what the hell is this?" (but really- who doesn't know every single song on their iPod? uhhhhhhh...I don't.) And rule #2: I don't have to follow rule #1 if I don't want to. So, without further ado:
#1 Sig Transit Gloria, Wide Open Window
Oh yes! This is why my iPod and I love each other. This band made me love Keyboard-Rock before it was cool (the second time around: post-Duran Duran, pre-Killers). When I think of the Fireside Bowl, Sig Transit Gloria immediately comes to mind (they both are also probably responsible for any hearing loss I have suffered over the years). This song still makes me full of joy and wanting to sing at the top of my lungs- and I don't care who hears me. You hear me? I don't care!
#2 Dashboard Confessional, The Good Fight
When Chris Carabba decided to start being happy again, his music suffered greatly. But The Swiss Army Romance and The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most were and still are, in my opinion, a great display of pure, raw emotion. This begs the question of does an artist's latter day sins negate earlier brilliance? I don't know, I really don't. But I can tell you this: when someone has broken my heart, there is no better therapy than turning The Swiss Army Romance or The Drowning EP and SCREAMING the words. Feels sooooo good.
I distinctly remember sitting in Frank/Colin/The Bern's apartment in college and saying, "I need to smoke," and Frank responded with, "Not in here you're not." I went out on the back porch and in the distance I could hear a chorus of drunk college kids, "Your (Bern's) hair is EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVERYWHERE, screaming infidelities...." Totally Epic, my friends. (And for Frank, "I don't think that I'm getting any better, Eddie Veder.")
#3 Incubus, Glass
Ahhhhhhh....Incubus. Haven't heard from them in awhile. S.C.I.E.N.C.E. definitively reminds me of two things: 1) Being in college and 2) Being high (synonymous, no?). If I want to feel like I'm high, all I need to do is listen to S.C.I.E.N.C.E. This was the album I listened to during the hottest and most humid summer I've ever experienced- when I still thought it was socially appropriate to smoke and then go to Philosophy class for three hours.
#4 Morrissey, Irish Blood, English Heart
Morrissey, you sly dog, you. I should start by saying, I like the Smiths. I haven't heard Morrissey's latest CD, but I think J.Abdou gave me You Are the Quarry a few summers ago. Its very Morrissey. I do like this song though.
#5 Cibo Matto, About a Girl
I go back and forth on Cibo Matto a lot. But I adore this Nirvana cover. In my opinion, a good cover song takes the original song and reinterprets it while staying true to the original meaning of the song. They took this song that I so very closely identify with my angry, angry junior high years and have reinterpreted it as this jazzy, lounge song. I would play this at a dinner party.
#6 Walter Wanderly, One Note Samba
Oooooooh, another loungey jazz song. This is from the Out of Sight Soundtrack which was introduced to me by Mark M. Love it. The year that movie came out, MTV did a series of commercials for the Movie Awards with Jason Schwartzmann (as his character, Max in Rushmore) re-enacting movies. His version of Out of Sight was awesome. "You wanna tussle?" "There. We tussled."
#7 Mates of State, Think Long
How adorable are Mates of State? I'm in love with their cuteness. This is one of my favorite songs from their new album, Bring It Back. Mates of State, you make me happy, I love you. The end.
#8 Madonna, Dress You Up
The gay man trapped in my body forces me to love Madonna. And I do. This song reminds me of my best friend in high school, Liz. Those series of Gap ads that had all the kids in tech vests singing songs was great. And she loved that commercial with them singing Madonna's Dress You Up. I loved that commercial too. And this song. And I still love those things: the commercial, the song. I even kind of love Madonna's new ABBA disco thing she's doing- it makes me want to rollerskate. Old school Madonna: could there be any better music for dance parties in my undies? I think not.
#9 Amadou & Mariam, La Paix
Man, I love this crazy African poppy music. Amadou & Mariam are hardly what I would call pop music, but I find them incredibly infectious. Its a dude and a lady and they are blind as bats. And they make "world" music that reaches so far beyond the limits of that genre. Not quite friendly enough for radio airplay, not quite indie enough for college stations, but I'm convinced there must be an audience for them. This is music I cook to, music I wash dishes to, music for chillaxin with my friends.
#10 The Postal Service, We Will Become Silhouettes
Ben Gibbard, Jenny Lewis, and that Dntel guy need to make another Postal Service album- RIGHT.NOW. So basically, anything Ben Gibbard creates I am completely smitten by- even All Time Quarterback. Death Cab for Cutie, Postal Service, All Time Quarterback, even just Ben solo, makes me so happy- don't ask me how because most of its pretty downbeat music, but it does.
I distinctly recall being quite sad one day, and my friend L. turned Postal Service on as loud as possible from his car stereo and we had a dance party in the Peter Pan parking lot in Northampton. And everything felt so much better than it had before. Because Postal Service does that to me.
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8 comments:
I too enjoy Mates of State. I want to sway my hips and loll my head back back and forth and look cute or hug someone ... or something. (Like U Crazy being a case in point)
Jillian, in the words of Fred Durst, "I think we're all in agreeance [about Mates of State]." Their David Bowie cover of Starman has been one of my jams recently.
oh man, i remember that evening very well. I knew the music (Dashboard) had died long before that evening, but hearing those idiot kids singing it off their porch behind mine really just proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that it was indeed DEAD.
I hate music.
Oh Franky, don't hate me...I realized that so much of the music living on my iPod is pre-2003 and I always wonder why, but you have reminded me: because most music sucks now.
Also, prompted by a drunk dial last week from someone who should know better, at what age should someone stop listening to pop punk music? I mean, seriously, by the time someone is 26 years old, I would think they would have moved on to music that doesn't talk about holding hands with girls or breaking up with girls or basically any music released by Drive Thru records. But, I'm curious what your thoughts on the subject are, Frank?.
Also, Frank, I believe the Music DIED when Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Lou Diamond Phillips died in a plane crash.
The concept of new music being sucky and "when" everything changed is something that I think will happen to everyone who loves music and continue to happen for the rest of time.
I can remember talking to my dad about when Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin and the Who Started to suck when the 70's turned into the 80's. My good friend and tattoo artist, Ed, who is 35 would talk about how when The Ramones and the Misfits started to go downhill in the 80's. My 28 year old cousin bitched in the early 90's with his long hair about how Metallica was starting to suck. Which brings us to me and us, bitching in College that bands we liked in High School are now the radio norm, and they too are starting to suck.
Its an ongoing process really. The hip/indie/underground 18 years olds today are now are into, fuck I dont know, say they are into The Go Team, or Clap Your Hands and Say yeah or the Mountain Goats (for example) they are rocking them like hell, thinking they are the best bands around today. 5 years from now graduating college they are going to be having a beer and hear a song from one of those bands being played on Q101 and shake their talk about the days when they used to be cool and before they startd to suck.
Evertyhing moves in cycles and its nothing new. The same shit happening to us, happend to our parents, and their parents in some form. Not only musically (Elvis goes from country to pop, Beatles go from pop to psychdelic, The Who go from Punk to electronica, Metallica cuts their hair, sad sappy emo goes mainstream) but also politically (WWII to Korea to Viet Nam to Cold War to Desert Storm to whatever the fuck the current war is being called), it happens in the youth (everyone saying the generation under them are wild hooligans/ kids are getting worse)it happens in fashion, film, literature, drugs, everything. We all experience the same things only filling in the blanks with diferent names, like those Mad Libs (I should make my own mad lib). Theres nothing new under the sun.
Back to topic, I agree. How long can you really lisen to songs about that girl in high school who broke your heart? Like you said about break ups and holding hands. It just gets to a point, i.e. when someone is 26, where its not relevant material. Or so thats my thoughts.
You know me, I listen to a ton and mainly old stuff. Thats just what I like and can appreciate and have faith in. But I am not an asshole who will make a blanket comment and say "all new music today sucks, so I only listen to old shit." That statement is 90% true, in my opinion, but there are good bands coming out new today. You just have to work to find them and beat the kids to them because you do run he risk of finding a band, loving them, getting to see them at small 21+ venues and then 2 years later seeing them break out on MTV and being the next TRL lovechild standing next to Fall Out Boy.
I can really only think of a handfull of bands that I listen to enough to throw on my ipod that are currently together and making new music - Brendan Benson, TV on the Radio, Sun Kil Moon, Patty Griffin, Soledad Brothers, The Black Keys, The White Stripes, the Detatchment Kit, Shellac, Soledad Brothers - thats all I can come up with.
So there is some hope in new shit Id say, but I am mainly an old music guy. Regardless of that, yes, hang up the bullshit drive thru records to use the label you referenced.
I decided to do the Ipod shuffle and write down the first 10 songs for shits and giggles and also to see if it would support my previous comments.
No cheating:
1. Big Black - He's a whore
2. Shellac - Prayer to God
3. Bob Dylan - subterranean homesick blues
4. Led Zeppelin - Lemon Song
5. Beatles - Everybodys got something to hide except me and my monkey
6. Dr. Dre - Stranded on Death row
7. Beatles - Blue Jay Way
8. Velvet Undergound - Run run run
9. Red House Painters - Brockwell park
10. Stooges - Raw Power
Ah, yes, Mr. Cuttlas, I can always count on a thoughtful response from you. I believe we've had previous conversations about music and when it stops being good or bad. As you so articulately stated, music is subjective so what is good and when its relevant isn't defined by one person. One idea that has been largely fascinating to me recently is the idea that filesharing programs such as Napster, Audiogalaxy (in their glory days) and Limewire have made music less of a "commodity" as MTV, American Idol, and the music business at large have done. I really don't know where this paragraph is going.
And also, I was just all WTF about that person calling me to play garbled fucking Alkaline Trio to my voicemail. So really, I was just being, "Why would someone in their late 20s listen to this?" But maybe because I don't understand the appeal of Alkaline Trio. That probably makes me a communist, and that's something I'll have to live with.
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