Gotham is cold and windy today, and with a day of grunt work ahead I have three sources of salvation for my bored brain:
Brownbird Rudy Relic www.myspace.com/brownbirdrudyrelic I had the pleasure of seeing Brownbird for the first time last night and was not disappointed. He's a one man hollerin' blues performance piece, playing archtop guitar and kazoo while acting as his own percussionist with taps on the bottoms of his dayglo green shoes. Upon first sight he is a compact person with slick hair but the stage transforms him into a raucous presence with a giant mouth. I don't think his music has the same impact in the crude recordings posted on his myspace page, but if you get the opportunity to see him in person, it's worth the trip.
Mark Ronson, Version www.myspace.com/markronson I missed the boat on Version when it came out, but I really enjoy this album of covers from the UK producer probably best known for his work with Amy Winehouse on Black on Black. Perhaps my favorite track is the version of Radiohead's "Just" but I'm still working my way through the album. It deserves a listen!
Yeasayer www.myspace.com/yeasayer I have a hard time describing this Brooklyn based band, but I got their album a few weeks ago and have listened to it a lot since then, somewhat unconsciously. Sometimes when I get new music I force myself to listen to it over and over again right away but with All Hour Cymbals I've been drawn to put it on without thinking. I believe they describe themselves as "Middle Eastern-psych-snap-gospel," but I have no idea what that means; what I hear is a lot of layering of vocal harmonies and unexpected sounds (phones ringing, kids yelling, etc) and I like it.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Tim Fite
This blog was not meant to be a place to review live music, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention a show I saw last weekend at Joe's Pub by Brooklyn iconoclast Tim Fite. You won't be able to hear the show as I heard it, but you can go to his website and download two albums for free. http://www.timfite.com/. you won't regret it.
Tim Fite is impossible to categorize. When we sat down in our seats not ten feet away from the stage he was setting up his gear, which included an oversized boombox made of unpainted plywood embedded with flashing leds, a digital projector, apple laptop, and slide projector screen. He and his "brother" were dressed in blue coveralls, and his shaved head with tiny rattail and huge plastic rimmed glasses betrayed a concerted effort to look like a mental patient. Tim is nothing if not deranged. When the show started, Tim was dressed in a seersucker suit. By the second song it was apparent by his profuse sweating why that particular fabric was chosen, but the effect was more John Goodman in 'O Brother where art thou', as Tim exploded into each song with such fury and passion that it seemed he must have been possessed by some holy spirit. Several times I thought of tent revivals and televangelists as he careened around the stage, herky jerky, stumbling, deliberately making himself appear the part of a yokel, a lunatic. This is all for effect: when the songs come out of him (especially his more political rants) its akin to the mad street preacher suddenly becoming coherent.
I was introduced to Tim Fite through his album 'Over the Counterculture', which is a hip hop album that revels in delicious satire, political sermonizing, and a direct slap in the face to modern American culture in it's ultra-hyped violence-driven consumerism and the societal acceptance of the lowest-common-denominator media/political establishment. Tim samples expertly (and pays a dollar or less for each sample). When he plays these songs live, the music is mostly canned (he raps and sometimes plays guitar along) but he projects video of himself (often sitting in a white padded room in a wheelchair) playing the other instruments, spinning on the turntables, harmonizing, or dancing. Other songs are acoustic folk numbers that he plays on the acoustic guitar. Still others are blues, power pop, grunge, country, all of which he plays with abandon, and between which he transitions by telling stories accompanied by rudimentary animations, childrens books, small props, and the rapt attention of everyone in the room. Its not easy to pull all this off, and the only reason he is able to do so is that his personality is completely wrapped up in every song and story. In other words, he is a chameleon; at one time acting as eye doctor as he administers an eye exam to everyone in the room ("cover your left eye and read along - NO ONE IS TOO COOL FOR THIS!"), at another time stealing a front-row seated bewildered teenager's eyeglasses as he intones a funeral dirge about theft. One telling moment was during a transition from a rap song called "In your Hair" (sample lyric: "a king is not a president, a roof is not a residence, the truth is not self-evident when youth is on the line. the boss is not the boss of them, the cross is on the cross again, a crime is not a government, a crime is just a crime.") to a song called "No Good Here". As soon as the song was over, Tim's "Brother" (the projection operator) said "that was serious, this isn't", and they launched into a synth and guitar driven dance pop so sugary sweet that when it devolves into crunchy guitar and Tim screaming, "your money's no good here" it all makes sense, because HE GIVES HIS ALBUMS AWAY FOR FREE! With that kind of marketing strategy, he can say and do what he wants. And He does.
The standout track from "Over the Counterculture" is "Camoflage" where he starts with a simple question: why is camoflage a reasonable fashion statement? From there he connects the dots in a truly astonishing manner.
"the neck bone's connected to the head bone
and what's your head bone got on itself, a cap made for stealth?...
wanna blend in?....
what you wanna look like, like you're ready for war?"
From there, war itself becomes the fashion statement
"vietnam, korea, even better desert storm,
and if you really wanna pop put this new shit on."
The buyer is convinced and buys in:
"has anybody got a bag for this?
body bag for this? body body bag? body bag.
I just paid a lot for it I think I deserve a fucking bag,
a big plastic one with a zipper down the front,
that's the kind of bag I want."
You can see where it goes from here, as the selling of the war becomes a celebration in and of itself, and a new kind of consumerism emerges.
"camoflage looks good with everything,
especially capitalist, colonial commemorative pinky rings.
oh my god, oh my god.
I got this defending a barrel of gasoline."
From there the gloves come off:
"it seems like this camoflage is camoflaging kings,
posing as presidents, camoflaging the evidence
that the patriot act is tapping every phone in your residence,
every home in your settlements, every bone in your skeletons,
bone in your skeletons, bone in your skeletons..."
It's an amazing song, switching narrators on a dime, sneaking in snarky barbs amid bursts of stilted electric guitar and beats that wouldn't seem out of place on a kanye west album, and for me it's one of those masterpieces that demands reverence for songcraft even if you don't appreciate hiphop.
If you have a chance to see Tim Fite live, do it at (almost) all costs. If not, download his albums.
Tim Fite is impossible to categorize. When we sat down in our seats not ten feet away from the stage he was setting up his gear, which included an oversized boombox made of unpainted plywood embedded with flashing leds, a digital projector, apple laptop, and slide projector screen. He and his "brother" were dressed in blue coveralls, and his shaved head with tiny rattail and huge plastic rimmed glasses betrayed a concerted effort to look like a mental patient. Tim is nothing if not deranged. When the show started, Tim was dressed in a seersucker suit. By the second song it was apparent by his profuse sweating why that particular fabric was chosen, but the effect was more John Goodman in 'O Brother where art thou', as Tim exploded into each song with such fury and passion that it seemed he must have been possessed by some holy spirit. Several times I thought of tent revivals and televangelists as he careened around the stage, herky jerky, stumbling, deliberately making himself appear the part of a yokel, a lunatic. This is all for effect: when the songs come out of him (especially his more political rants) its akin to the mad street preacher suddenly becoming coherent.
I was introduced to Tim Fite through his album 'Over the Counterculture', which is a hip hop album that revels in delicious satire, political sermonizing, and a direct slap in the face to modern American culture in it's ultra-hyped violence-driven consumerism and the societal acceptance of the lowest-common-denominator media/political establishment. Tim samples expertly (and pays a dollar or less for each sample). When he plays these songs live, the music is mostly canned (he raps and sometimes plays guitar along) but he projects video of himself (often sitting in a white padded room in a wheelchair) playing the other instruments, spinning on the turntables, harmonizing, or dancing. Other songs are acoustic folk numbers that he plays on the acoustic guitar. Still others are blues, power pop, grunge, country, all of which he plays with abandon, and between which he transitions by telling stories accompanied by rudimentary animations, childrens books, small props, and the rapt attention of everyone in the room. Its not easy to pull all this off, and the only reason he is able to do so is that his personality is completely wrapped up in every song and story. In other words, he is a chameleon; at one time acting as eye doctor as he administers an eye exam to everyone in the room ("cover your left eye and read along - NO ONE IS TOO COOL FOR THIS!"), at another time stealing a front-row seated bewildered teenager's eyeglasses as he intones a funeral dirge about theft. One telling moment was during a transition from a rap song called "In your Hair" (sample lyric: "a king is not a president, a roof is not a residence, the truth is not self-evident when youth is on the line. the boss is not the boss of them, the cross is on the cross again, a crime is not a government, a crime is just a crime.") to a song called "No Good Here". As soon as the song was over, Tim's "Brother" (the projection operator) said "that was serious, this isn't", and they launched into a synth and guitar driven dance pop so sugary sweet that when it devolves into crunchy guitar and Tim screaming, "your money's no good here" it all makes sense, because HE GIVES HIS ALBUMS AWAY FOR FREE! With that kind of marketing strategy, he can say and do what he wants. And He does.
The standout track from "Over the Counterculture" is "Camoflage" where he starts with a simple question: why is camoflage a reasonable fashion statement? From there he connects the dots in a truly astonishing manner.
"the neck bone's connected to the head bone
and what's your head bone got on itself, a cap made for stealth?...
wanna blend in?....
what you wanna look like, like you're ready for war?"
From there, war itself becomes the fashion statement
"vietnam, korea, even better desert storm,
and if you really wanna pop put this new shit on."
The buyer is convinced and buys in:
"has anybody got a bag for this?
body bag for this? body body bag? body bag.
I just paid a lot for it I think I deserve a fucking bag,
a big plastic one with a zipper down the front,
that's the kind of bag I want."
You can see where it goes from here, as the selling of the war becomes a celebration in and of itself, and a new kind of consumerism emerges.
"camoflage looks good with everything,
especially capitalist, colonial commemorative pinky rings.
oh my god, oh my god.
I got this defending a barrel of gasoline."
From there the gloves come off:
"it seems like this camoflage is camoflaging kings,
posing as presidents, camoflaging the evidence
that the patriot act is tapping every phone in your residence,
every home in your settlements, every bone in your skeletons,
bone in your skeletons, bone in your skeletons..."
It's an amazing song, switching narrators on a dime, sneaking in snarky barbs amid bursts of stilted electric guitar and beats that wouldn't seem out of place on a kanye west album, and for me it's one of those masterpieces that demands reverence for songcraft even if you don't appreciate hiphop.
If you have a chance to see Tim Fite live, do it at (almost) all costs. If not, download his albums.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
masckedman's 15
1. "Beautiful Noise" from Beautiful Noise. Neil Diamond, 1976.
My earliest musical influences came from my parent's vinyl collection. I remember dancing around to this album, and this song in particular, so energetically the needle bounced off the record. This is not a particularly well regarded Neil Diamond album (are there any?), but it has a unique sound, it could have been a Broadway soundtrack...
2. "Ridin' on the City of New Orleans" from Judith. Judy Collins, 1975.
Another from my Mom and Dad. This is an amazing number, I can visualize my dad singing along to this while standing in the kitchen of our house on South Orchard. I must have played it thousands of times. When I hear it today, I'm still blown away by her vocal quality.
3. "The Mayor of Candor Lied" from The Road to Kingdom Come. Harry Chapin, 1976.
The last of the songs on this list from K. and K. Very long, narrative song, about a guy who falls in love with the mayor's daughter, only to learn that the mayor was his father too. I remember the moment of realization about what all of that meant, I was shocked. It is sad and weepy, about lost love and growing up. Haven't heard it in a long time.
4. "Thriller" from Thriller. Michael Jackson, 1982.
We were on a ski vacation, probably the winter of 1984, we had rented a chalet with 4 or 5 other families. The Lund twins were much older, probably 9 or 10 to my 6 years, they were impossibly hip. They had this song on tape. We listened sprawled out on the red shag carpet while playing "Hungry Hungry Hippos". That weekend, I think we also watched "E.T." either on Cable TV or Beta...
5. "I Think We're Alone Now" from Tiffany. Tiffany 1987.
Instantly, I'm at Skate World. It is the Eastern Elementary Skate Night, I'm wearing dorky rented roller skates, skating in circles under orange fluorescent lights and a mirror ball. I probably didn't have the courage to actually ask Megan M. (or Megan S., or Lindsay P.) to hold my hand and skate with me, but I'd like to think that we did...
6. "We Didn't Start the Fire" from Storm Front. Billy Joel, 1989
106KHQ did an all-request countdown every weeknight, the "Northwest Nine at Nine". If you called in and recited the previous night's list, you won a free tape. I called in (long-distance!) and won, Halloween night 1989. This song was on the countdown, and this was the tape I picked. One of my dad's students had to pick it up, since we didn't live near a Tape World store. I remember spending a dollar at the Copy Plus to enlarge the lyrics large enough to read. Then I spent a happy afternoon with the World Book Encyclopedia at the library, looking up everything. Still a favorite song, the first of many favorite "litany songs".
7. "Notes/Prima Donna" from The Phantom of the Opera. Original Cast Recording, 1987.
The Phantom. Imagine something changing your life as much as this show changed mine. Crazy. We went to Toronto to see it, and this continues to be my favorite song. Not one of the hits, but lots of words, and a little look at life "backstage." I was hooked from then on...
8. "Overture" from Jesus Christ Superstar. Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, 1973.
I don't remember when I heard this the first time, definitely long before I ever saw the movie. I know it was the first time I heard (and recognized) a Moog synthesizer. It is an amazing piece of orchestration, rock and roll meeting the musical, really and truly.
9. Appalachian Spring Suite, Aaron Copland, premiere in 1944. Conducted by Leonard Bernstein/NY Philharmonic 1962.
My friend Larissa was much cooler than I. She was also a fantastic musician. She shared this CD with me when we were in 9th grade or so, I had never heard something as beautiful. Parallel 4ths sliding into each other in the first movement. Of course I had no idea who Aaron Copland was, or Martha Graham or what any of this meant, I just knew I liked it.
10. "Merrily We Roll Along (1961-1960)/Bobbie and Jackie and Jack" from Merrily We Roll Along. Original Broadway Cast, 1982.
I'd like to take this moment to write a thank-you note to whatever librarian at the Traverse City Public Library bought CDs. They had a phenomenal collection, music of all kinds, and show music was no exception. I didn't know what it meant to be a confused teenager growing up in the Northwoods, mostly because I could get all kinds of musicals from the Library. This is another "litany song", Sondheim rhyming internally, amazing. It necessitated another trip to the World Book Encyclopedia.
11. "Ants Marching" from Under the Table and Dreaming. Dave Matthews Band, 1994.
In High School, everyone else had heard this during the previous summer. I missed it totally (see above). Joey D. had a T-shirt, and I recall being embarrassed after asking what it was. The snapping snare at the beginning drops me right into high school angst.
12. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" from Joshua Tree. U2, 1987.
Similar to the experience above. I was working at Interlochen, during the summer of 1997. Hot hot P. Eberhard had just been to see U2's "PopMart" tour. I had no idea who U2 were, but I knew that if Parker liked them, I should too. He shared generously. I think I stole his copy of Joshua Tree when the summer was over.
13 Symphony #9 "From the New World", Antonín Dvořák, premiere in 1893.
Another Interlochen experience. We worked late frequently, hanging lights, loading out shows. I was awakened early one morning, just hours after going to sleep, with the World Youth Symphony Orchestra outside my window, playing this. I didn't go back to sleep. The recording that I bought later was some obscure Eastern European Orchestra, it hardly matters anyway.
14. "Super Trouper" from The Abba Generation. The A*Teens, 1999.
So I'm at the University of Michigan. Still not out. I don't think I knew who Abba were, actually. Of course I knew what a Super Trouper actually was, having spent months running one at Interlochen. Super Trouper was the name of my 1993 Ford Escort, and this was the theme song. Those Swedish teenagers took me a long way down the road to who I am now. When I met Court, he not only knew who the A*Teens were, he had the DVD too.
15 . "When My Boy Walks Down the Street" from 69 Love Songs. The Magnetic Fields, 1999.
Sarasota Opera, Sarasota, Florida. The incomparable Elicia C. introduces me to 69 Love Songs, as well as many other amazing artists and ideas. This was one of the first actual gay love songs I'd ever heard. It made me think that good things were possible, and they were generally right...
My earliest musical influences came from my parent's vinyl collection. I remember dancing around to this album, and this song in particular, so energetically the needle bounced off the record. This is not a particularly well regarded Neil Diamond album (are there any?), but it has a unique sound, it could have been a Broadway soundtrack...
2. "Ridin' on the City of New Orleans" from Judith. Judy Collins, 1975.
Another from my Mom and Dad. This is an amazing number, I can visualize my dad singing along to this while standing in the kitchen of our house on South Orchard. I must have played it thousands of times. When I hear it today, I'm still blown away by her vocal quality.
3. "The Mayor of Candor Lied" from The Road to Kingdom Come. Harry Chapin, 1976.
The last of the songs on this list from K. and K. Very long, narrative song, about a guy who falls in love with the mayor's daughter, only to learn that the mayor was his father too. I remember the moment of realization about what all of that meant, I was shocked. It is sad and weepy, about lost love and growing up. Haven't heard it in a long time.
4. "Thriller" from Thriller. Michael Jackson, 1982.
We were on a ski vacation, probably the winter of 1984, we had rented a chalet with 4 or 5 other families. The Lund twins were much older, probably 9 or 10 to my 6 years, they were impossibly hip. They had this song on tape. We listened sprawled out on the red shag carpet while playing "Hungry Hungry Hippos". That weekend, I think we also watched "E.T." either on Cable TV or Beta...
5. "I Think We're Alone Now" from Tiffany. Tiffany 1987.
Instantly, I'm at Skate World. It is the Eastern Elementary Skate Night, I'm wearing dorky rented roller skates, skating in circles under orange fluorescent lights and a mirror ball. I probably didn't have the courage to actually ask Megan M. (or Megan S., or Lindsay P.) to hold my hand and skate with me, but I'd like to think that we did...
6. "We Didn't Start the Fire" from Storm Front. Billy Joel, 1989
106KHQ did an all-request countdown every weeknight, the "Northwest Nine at Nine". If you called in and recited the previous night's list, you won a free tape. I called in (long-distance!) and won, Halloween night 1989. This song was on the countdown, and this was the tape I picked. One of my dad's students had to pick it up, since we didn't live near a Tape World store. I remember spending a dollar at the Copy Plus to enlarge the lyrics large enough to read. Then I spent a happy afternoon with the World Book Encyclopedia at the library, looking up everything. Still a favorite song, the first of many favorite "litany songs".
7. "Notes/Prima Donna" from The Phantom of the Opera. Original Cast Recording, 1987.
The Phantom. Imagine something changing your life as much as this show changed mine. Crazy. We went to Toronto to see it, and this continues to be my favorite song. Not one of the hits, but lots of words, and a little look at life "backstage." I was hooked from then on...
8. "Overture" from Jesus Christ Superstar. Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, 1973.
I don't remember when I heard this the first time, definitely long before I ever saw the movie. I know it was the first time I heard (and recognized) a Moog synthesizer. It is an amazing piece of orchestration, rock and roll meeting the musical, really and truly.
9. Appalachian Spring Suite, Aaron Copland, premiere in 1944. Conducted by Leonard Bernstein/NY Philharmonic 1962.
My friend Larissa was much cooler than I. She was also a fantastic musician. She shared this CD with me when we were in 9th grade or so, I had never heard something as beautiful. Parallel 4ths sliding into each other in the first movement. Of course I had no idea who Aaron Copland was, or Martha Graham or what any of this meant, I just knew I liked it.
10. "Merrily We Roll Along (1961-1960)/Bobbie and Jackie and Jack" from Merrily We Roll Along. Original Broadway Cast, 1982.
I'd like to take this moment to write a thank-you note to whatever librarian at the Traverse City Public Library bought CDs. They had a phenomenal collection, music of all kinds, and show music was no exception. I didn't know what it meant to be a confused teenager growing up in the Northwoods, mostly because I could get all kinds of musicals from the Library. This is another "litany song", Sondheim rhyming internally, amazing. It necessitated another trip to the World Book Encyclopedia.
11. "Ants Marching" from Under the Table and Dreaming. Dave Matthews Band, 1994.
In High School, everyone else had heard this during the previous summer. I missed it totally (see above). Joey D. had a T-shirt, and I recall being embarrassed after asking what it was. The snapping snare at the beginning drops me right into high school angst.
12. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" from Joshua Tree. U2, 1987.
Similar to the experience above. I was working at Interlochen, during the summer of 1997. Hot hot P. Eberhard had just been to see U2's "PopMart" tour. I had no idea who U2 were, but I knew that if Parker liked them, I should too. He shared generously. I think I stole his copy of Joshua Tree when the summer was over.
13 Symphony #9 "From the New World", Antonín Dvořák, premiere in 1893.
Another Interlochen experience. We worked late frequently, hanging lights, loading out shows. I was awakened early one morning, just hours after going to sleep, with the World Youth Symphony Orchestra outside my window, playing this. I didn't go back to sleep. The recording that I bought later was some obscure Eastern European Orchestra, it hardly matters anyway.
14. "Super Trouper" from The Abba Generation. The A*Teens, 1999.
So I'm at the University of Michigan. Still not out. I don't think I knew who Abba were, actually. Of course I knew what a Super Trouper actually was, having spent months running one at Interlochen. Super Trouper was the name of my 1993 Ford Escort, and this was the theme song. Those Swedish teenagers took me a long way down the road to who I am now. When I met Court, he not only knew who the A*Teens were, he had the DVD too.
15 . "When My Boy Walks Down the Street" from 69 Love Songs. The Magnetic Fields, 1999.
Sarasota Opera, Sarasota, Florida. The incomparable Elicia C. introduces me to 69 Love Songs, as well as many other amazing artists and ideas. This was one of the first actual gay love songs I'd ever heard. It made me think that good things were possible, and they were generally right...
Thursday, January 17, 2008
rockitscientist's 15 Most Influential Songs
I have to let this list go. I've been working on it for months and will never stop editing it unless I post. I'm happy with my choices for the moment and don't feel as embarrassed as I expected. I am feeling very self-revelatory releasing this onto the internet, but I hope you enjoy it.
1 – The Beatles - Octopus’ Garden
All I have to hear is that opening guitar riff to be transported back to age 6 with my brown FisherPrice record player. At some point my parents figured I should graduate from Bert and Ernie’s hit “Doin’ the Pigeon” (as heard on “Sesame Street Fever”) and gave me a copy of The Beatles 1967-1970 (the blue album) on vinyl. So began a lifelong appreciation of the Fab Four. Octupus’ Garden was my favorite track and I remember sitting on the floor with the record sleeve singing along. Surely I was exposed to the Beatles in other ways at that age but singing along to this track was probably my first experience with non-kiddie music, and the first time I discovered a song that I liked without being told that I must like it!
2 – The Monkees - (I’m Not Your Steppin’) Stone
Christmas 1987: my cousin and I receive matching pink radio/tape decks. As I remember, we both get one tape: she Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and I The Monkees Greatest Hits. I am at the age where fictional Barbie/Ken relationships are acted out during after school playdates. This song was the first adult-themed song that I actually listened to the lyrics of and somewhat “got” the message of. Ken wasn’t going to be Barbie’s stepping stone anymore after this song… or vice versa. “Barbie, those clothes you’re wearing are causing public scenes!”
(I almost didn’t include this, mostly because even I admit that the Monkees are cheesy, but I have to own up to my love of this song and the doors it opened.)
3 – Janis Joplin - Mercedes Benz
The St. Louis radio station that my parents listened to had a Saturday morning classics show that, looking back, was really phenomenal. It exposed me to Jackson Browne, Elton John, the Allman Brothers, and a wealth of other 60s and 70s rock legends. At the end of each show they played a Janis Joplin cackle and this song is a really strong childhood memory for me. Mom, Dad and I hanging out in the house or driving in the car. It was years and years before I knew who Janis Joplin was and I was stunned to see a big crazy haired white woman was the person who created that unique vocal sound.
4 – Ben Folds Five - Kate
Driving to a swim meet in a white Volvo station wagon with some girls who were, admittedly, infinitely cooler than me, I heard this song for the first time. It’s not a great song but I really liked it and it opened me up to Ben Folds Five and made me realize that not all of a band’s fun or good or interesting songs make it onto the radio. I was tired of hearing their Brick song played incessantly by radio DJs, and had written them off to some degree. I didn’t buy much music in high school – I depended on crappy radio stations for music. This was the beginning of the end between radio and I.
5 – Daft Punk - Da Funk
I had a lame pseudo-boyfriend for a short time in high school who had pretty bad taste in, well, everything. But I was too excited by the fact that I actually had a cute guy to stick up for the fact that I thought the things he liked were lame. However I have to give credit where credit is due and admit that he introduced me to Daft Punk. He went away to school and I didn’t listen to Daft Punk again until maybe a year later when I realized that unlike the rest of his music, Daft Punk was actually really interesting and cool. Around the same time I came across a track from Air, and as I see now they aren’t all that similar, but they’re also French and I like them.
6 – Liz Phair - Supernova
The first time I experienced belligerence of the drunken sort was at a festival concert I attended with a bunch of my friends. We were a bunch of naive sixteen-year-old private school girls being bullied by two 30+ year-old assholes who wanted the sound guy to turn up the volume during the Liz Phair set. And when they gave up on that they decided to start yelling obscenities at my friends and I because we were ignoring their attempts to hit on us – to the point of being really afraid of them. So I don’t remember much about seeing her live, I remember the faces of those two assholes that said all of those nasty things. I was completely turned off from anything having to do with Liz Phair. Now I don’t think she has put out anything worth listening to in the last 9 years, but when I finally listened to her Whip Smart and Whitechocolatespaceegg albums a few years later, I realized how fitting it was to have had that experience with bad men at her show. And I loved that that female angst could be expressed in a snarky strong intelligent manner through music. I think that has a lot to do with how much I enjoy Lily Allen today.
7 – Beck - Where It’s At
It was early 1997 and Beck was on Saturday Night Live as the musical guest, promoting Odelay. My dad and I were the only ones still awake, and we were laughing hysterically at his look and this silly song; it remains an inside joke between us. Two turntables and microphone, dad. A few years later I had several Beck albums in my collection when he was driving me back to college and I played some for him. Surprisingly, he actually appreciated it! Good times.
8 - Apples In Stereo - 20 Cases Suggestive Of
Being introduced to the Apples In Stereo in 1999 had an important impact on my musical tastes. Listening to this album (The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone) led to discovering fellow Athens, Georgia band Of Montreal and making the connection to the Athens sound with REM (helped along by this blog’s owner, illgomine). I also really noticed and picked out some of the more electronic sounds in their songs (for instance, the main melody in the beginning of The Bird that You Can’t See) and soon after found myself revisiting Daft Punk, Underworld, and exploring the groups featured on the Trainspotting soundtrack. Coincidence? I think not.
9 – Paul Simon – Graceland
This song reminds me of falling in love, even though it’s about the opposite. Or maybe it’s just about looking for something and having faith that you are going to find it. Faith is just believing in something for which there is no proof, and I had no proof that love was going to work out. Regardless, I was headed towards my own Graceland. The whole album recalls images of rural Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas and we still pull it out as required listening on any road trip, however few and far between they are these days.
10 - Badly Drawn Boy - Shining
The warm sound of this song still makes me melt. I don’t listen to this album much anymore, but in making this list I dusted it out of my iTunes and this song remains one of the most affecting tracks I own. It was the end of 2000 and I was bored with school and my dismal music collection. Looking at some random UK blogger’s list of top albums of the year, Badly Drawn Boy stuck out and I downloaded (think Napster’s big days) the tracks. Love at first listen. Early on I really only enjoyed the first half of the album, more melodic, less stream-of-consciousness. But as I embraced the sound of the second half, those tracks became some of the first trance-like musical feeling driven (as opposed to primarily lyrically driven) tracks that I came to truly love.
11 – Belle & Sebastian – The Boy With the Arab Strap
Not recalling which Belle & Sebastian track I enjoyed first is dismaying, but the Boy With the Arab Strap and If You’re Feeling Sinister albums were the first ones I owned and they remain in heavy rotation. Growing up sheltered in Catholic schools and suddenly having homosexual friends in college wasn’t a difficult transition for me but I loved the unabashed boy-to-boy love themes of Belle & Sebastian. A breath of fresh air after a childhood filled with sexuality courses that told us people would go to hell for those sorts of things.
12 – James Brown – The Payback
I love James Brown; rest his dancing bones. After hearing “I Feel Good” my entire life I was re-introduced to him via the Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels movie soundtrack. He is the reason I find myself drawn to soul and funk and lot of African popular music. Which leads to a general love of a lot of world pop music like Konono No 1 and Kid Albeha. While those genres make up only a very small portion of my music collection it is a portion I plan to expand.
13 – Wanda Jackson – My Big Iron Skillet and Wilco – Pick Up the Change
I’m cheating with two songs here, but I think I have a legitimate reason. First, Wanda Jackson made it OK for me to like country music. She was one of the first female rock and rollers in the 50s (touring with Elvis) and also sang country tunes. I am not the world’s biggest country fan today, and I abhor 99.9% of all popular country music, however without laughing at Wanda’s songs about cheatin’ husbands I strongly feel that I would still be adverse to all country today. Second, Wilco made it OK to like a contemporary alternative-country band and opened the door to others like the Jayhawks, Granddaddy, Ryan Adams, and more recent discoveries like the Amity Front and the Avett Brothers. Additionally, I feel confident saying that Wilco is the best live band touring today and I just could not bear to leave them off of this list.
14 – David Bowie – Suffragette City
This is an AH HA! moment. Fellow blog member Total Blam-Blam introduced me to David Bowie and when I was looking for a song to represent the importance of Bowie on this list, I realized where the pseudonym comes from. This song! How very appropriate. Exiled for a few years in eastern Connecticut, I had a long commute to and from work every day. This being pre-iPod days, I had CDs in my car but was notorious for not rotating the selection; for perhaps as much as a year there were at least 3 Bowie albums in my 12 CD visor case: Diamond Dogs, Ziggy Stardust and Space Oddity. I still go back to Bowie when I need a pick-me-up in the morning… he’s as good as coffee, I swear. And to top it off, he’s still sexy at 60. What more could you want?
And finally, a recently influential song that I may regret including but...
15 – LCD Soundsystem – All My Friends/Yeah
Seeing this band at Randall’s Island Summer 07 was pretty much a music-life changing experience. I wasn’t listening to much electronic music prior to the show and when a fellow music friend introduced me to LCD a few months before the concert, for some reason I wasn’t motivated to listen. And then they played these two songs back-to-back live, going into an extended freeform trance inducing techno love fest on Yeah. And hello electronic dance music, rockitscientist is back and loving you. Where are my friends tonight? Let’s dance.
1 – The Beatles - Octopus’ Garden
All I have to hear is that opening guitar riff to be transported back to age 6 with my brown FisherPrice record player. At some point my parents figured I should graduate from Bert and Ernie’s hit “Doin’ the Pigeon” (as heard on “Sesame Street Fever”) and gave me a copy of The Beatles 1967-1970 (the blue album) on vinyl. So began a lifelong appreciation of the Fab Four. Octupus’ Garden was my favorite track and I remember sitting on the floor with the record sleeve singing along. Surely I was exposed to the Beatles in other ways at that age but singing along to this track was probably my first experience with non-kiddie music, and the first time I discovered a song that I liked without being told that I must like it!
2 – The Monkees - (I’m Not Your Steppin’) Stone
Christmas 1987: my cousin and I receive matching pink radio/tape decks. As I remember, we both get one tape: she Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and I The Monkees Greatest Hits. I am at the age where fictional Barbie/Ken relationships are acted out during after school playdates. This song was the first adult-themed song that I actually listened to the lyrics of and somewhat “got” the message of. Ken wasn’t going to be Barbie’s stepping stone anymore after this song… or vice versa. “Barbie, those clothes you’re wearing are causing public scenes!”
(I almost didn’t include this, mostly because even I admit that the Monkees are cheesy, but I have to own up to my love of this song and the doors it opened.)
3 – Janis Joplin - Mercedes Benz
The St. Louis radio station that my parents listened to had a Saturday morning classics show that, looking back, was really phenomenal. It exposed me to Jackson Browne, Elton John, the Allman Brothers, and a wealth of other 60s and 70s rock legends. At the end of each show they played a Janis Joplin cackle and this song is a really strong childhood memory for me. Mom, Dad and I hanging out in the house or driving in the car. It was years and years before I knew who Janis Joplin was and I was stunned to see a big crazy haired white woman was the person who created that unique vocal sound.
4 – Ben Folds Five - Kate
Driving to a swim meet in a white Volvo station wagon with some girls who were, admittedly, infinitely cooler than me, I heard this song for the first time. It’s not a great song but I really liked it and it opened me up to Ben Folds Five and made me realize that not all of a band’s fun or good or interesting songs make it onto the radio. I was tired of hearing their Brick song played incessantly by radio DJs, and had written them off to some degree. I didn’t buy much music in high school – I depended on crappy radio stations for music. This was the beginning of the end between radio and I.
5 – Daft Punk - Da Funk
I had a lame pseudo-boyfriend for a short time in high school who had pretty bad taste in, well, everything. But I was too excited by the fact that I actually had a cute guy to stick up for the fact that I thought the things he liked were lame. However I have to give credit where credit is due and admit that he introduced me to Daft Punk. He went away to school and I didn’t listen to Daft Punk again until maybe a year later when I realized that unlike the rest of his music, Daft Punk was actually really interesting and cool. Around the same time I came across a track from Air, and as I see now they aren’t all that similar, but they’re also French and I like them.
6 – Liz Phair - Supernova
The first time I experienced belligerence of the drunken sort was at a festival concert I attended with a bunch of my friends. We were a bunch of naive sixteen-year-old private school girls being bullied by two 30+ year-old assholes who wanted the sound guy to turn up the volume during the Liz Phair set. And when they gave up on that they decided to start yelling obscenities at my friends and I because we were ignoring their attempts to hit on us – to the point of being really afraid of them. So I don’t remember much about seeing her live, I remember the faces of those two assholes that said all of those nasty things. I was completely turned off from anything having to do with Liz Phair. Now I don’t think she has put out anything worth listening to in the last 9 years, but when I finally listened to her Whip Smart and Whitechocolatespaceegg albums a few years later, I realized how fitting it was to have had that experience with bad men at her show. And I loved that that female angst could be expressed in a snarky strong intelligent manner through music. I think that has a lot to do with how much I enjoy Lily Allen today.
7 – Beck - Where It’s At
It was early 1997 and Beck was on Saturday Night Live as the musical guest, promoting Odelay. My dad and I were the only ones still awake, and we were laughing hysterically at his look and this silly song; it remains an inside joke between us. Two turntables and microphone, dad. A few years later I had several Beck albums in my collection when he was driving me back to college and I played some for him. Surprisingly, he actually appreciated it! Good times.
8 - Apples In Stereo - 20 Cases Suggestive Of
Being introduced to the Apples In Stereo in 1999 had an important impact on my musical tastes. Listening to this album (The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone) led to discovering fellow Athens, Georgia band Of Montreal and making the connection to the Athens sound with REM (helped along by this blog’s owner, illgomine). I also really noticed and picked out some of the more electronic sounds in their songs (for instance, the main melody in the beginning of The Bird that You Can’t See) and soon after found myself revisiting Daft Punk, Underworld, and exploring the groups featured on the Trainspotting soundtrack. Coincidence? I think not.
9 – Paul Simon – Graceland
This song reminds me of falling in love, even though it’s about the opposite. Or maybe it’s just about looking for something and having faith that you are going to find it. Faith is just believing in something for which there is no proof, and I had no proof that love was going to work out. Regardless, I was headed towards my own Graceland. The whole album recalls images of rural Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas and we still pull it out as required listening on any road trip, however few and far between they are these days.
10 - Badly Drawn Boy - Shining
The warm sound of this song still makes me melt. I don’t listen to this album much anymore, but in making this list I dusted it out of my iTunes and this song remains one of the most affecting tracks I own. It was the end of 2000 and I was bored with school and my dismal music collection. Looking at some random UK blogger’s list of top albums of the year, Badly Drawn Boy stuck out and I downloaded (think Napster’s big days) the tracks. Love at first listen. Early on I really only enjoyed the first half of the album, more melodic, less stream-of-consciousness. But as I embraced the sound of the second half, those tracks became some of the first trance-like musical feeling driven (as opposed to primarily lyrically driven) tracks that I came to truly love.
11 – Belle & Sebastian – The Boy With the Arab Strap
Not recalling which Belle & Sebastian track I enjoyed first is dismaying, but the Boy With the Arab Strap and If You’re Feeling Sinister albums were the first ones I owned and they remain in heavy rotation. Growing up sheltered in Catholic schools and suddenly having homosexual friends in college wasn’t a difficult transition for me but I loved the unabashed boy-to-boy love themes of Belle & Sebastian. A breath of fresh air after a childhood filled with sexuality courses that told us people would go to hell for those sorts of things.
12 – James Brown – The Payback
I love James Brown; rest his dancing bones. After hearing “I Feel Good” my entire life I was re-introduced to him via the Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels movie soundtrack. He is the reason I find myself drawn to soul and funk and lot of African popular music. Which leads to a general love of a lot of world pop music like Konono No 1 and Kid Albeha. While those genres make up only a very small portion of my music collection it is a portion I plan to expand.
13 – Wanda Jackson – My Big Iron Skillet and Wilco – Pick Up the Change
I’m cheating with two songs here, but I think I have a legitimate reason. First, Wanda Jackson made it OK for me to like country music. She was one of the first female rock and rollers in the 50s (touring with Elvis) and also sang country tunes. I am not the world’s biggest country fan today, and I abhor 99.9% of all popular country music, however without laughing at Wanda’s songs about cheatin’ husbands I strongly feel that I would still be adverse to all country today. Second, Wilco made it OK to like a contemporary alternative-country band and opened the door to others like the Jayhawks, Granddaddy, Ryan Adams, and more recent discoveries like the Amity Front and the Avett Brothers. Additionally, I feel confident saying that Wilco is the best live band touring today and I just could not bear to leave them off of this list.
14 – David Bowie – Suffragette City
This is an AH HA! moment. Fellow blog member Total Blam-Blam introduced me to David Bowie and when I was looking for a song to represent the importance of Bowie on this list, I realized where the pseudonym comes from. This song! How very appropriate. Exiled for a few years in eastern Connecticut, I had a long commute to and from work every day. This being pre-iPod days, I had CDs in my car but was notorious for not rotating the selection; for perhaps as much as a year there were at least 3 Bowie albums in my 12 CD visor case: Diamond Dogs, Ziggy Stardust and Space Oddity. I still go back to Bowie when I need a pick-me-up in the morning… he’s as good as coffee, I swear. And to top it off, he’s still sexy at 60. What more could you want?
And finally, a recently influential song that I may regret including but...
15 – LCD Soundsystem – All My Friends/Yeah
Seeing this band at Randall’s Island Summer 07 was pretty much a music-life changing experience. I wasn’t listening to much electronic music prior to the show and when a fellow music friend introduced me to LCD a few months before the concert, for some reason I wasn’t motivated to listen. And then they played these two songs back-to-back live, going into an extended freeform trance inducing techno love fest on Yeah. And hello electronic dance music, rockitscientist is back and loving you. Where are my friends tonight? Let’s dance.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Frugal's Top 15 Influential Songs
Compiling this play list was enjoyable, it brought back many memories of angst ridden teenage years when I started developing my own taste in music. Although I rarely listen to these songs lately, many of them were gateways into artists who I have grown to love (NIN, Tori, Bjork, Imogen Heap). My greatest challenge in creating this list was cutting it down to 15 songs. It may suffer from extreme editing.
Songs are listed chronologically based on when I discovered them.
#: Title - Artist - Album
01: King - Belly - King
02: Hand In My Pocket - Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill
03: That's what I get - Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine
04: Cast No Shadow - Oasis - (What's The Story) Morning Glory
05: Army Of Me - Björk - Post
06: Vow - Garbage - Garbage
07: Paranoid Android - Radiohead - OK Computer
08: The Perfect Drug - Nine Inch Nails - Lost Highway Soundtrack
09: Children - Tilt - Ministry of Sound , Ibiza 99 The Year Of Trance D1
10: Better Off Alone - Alice Deejay - Who needs guitars anyway?
11: Spark - Tori Amos - From the choirgirl hotel
12: Angry Angel - Imogen Heap - i Megaphone
13: Frozen - Madonna - Ray of Light
14: Machinehead - Bush - Sixteen Stone
15: Trip Like I Do - The Crystal Method - Vegas
Songs are listed chronologically based on when I discovered them.
#: Title - Artist - Album
01: King - Belly - King
02: Hand In My Pocket - Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill
03: That's what I get - Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine
04: Cast No Shadow - Oasis - (What's The Story) Morning Glory
05: Army Of Me - Björk - Post
06: Vow - Garbage - Garbage
07: Paranoid Android - Radiohead - OK Computer
08: The Perfect Drug - Nine Inch Nails - Lost Highway Soundtrack
09: Children - Tilt - Ministry of Sound , Ibiza 99 The Year Of Trance D1
10: Better Off Alone - Alice Deejay - Who needs guitars anyway?
11: Spark - Tori Amos - From the choirgirl hotel
12: Angry Angel - Imogen Heap - i Megaphone
13: Frozen - Madonna - Ray of Light
14: Machinehead - Bush - Sixteen Stone
15: Trip Like I Do - The Crystal Method - Vegas
Monday, December 31, 2007
Patrick's Favorite Albums of 2007
I'm rationalizing this as a list of my favorites, which isn't necessarily a list of the "best" albums. Basically, which ones would I take to a desert island with me? Alas, there are probably some albums out there that I would love... but they just didn't make it into my hands this year. Like Sissyneck, I'm not including soundtracks, compilations, and live albums. Though, if you want some recommendations on that front, check out the I'm Not There soundtrack and the Elliott Smith New Moon double disc.
25- Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
24- The New Pornographers - Challengers
23- Rufus Wainwright - Release The Stars
22- Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? (The most abstract song titles ever)
21- Peter, Bjorn, & John - Writer's Block (Young Folks is still a kick-ass song)
20- The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
19- Federico Aubele - Panamerica (Argentinian chill music)
18- Travis - The Boy With No Name (Does Travis' music ever evolve?)
17- Norah Jones - Not Too Late
16- Steve Earle - Washington Square Serenade
15- Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
14- Rilo Kiley - Under The Blacklight
13- Amy Winehouse - Back In Black
12- Harry Connick, Jr. - Oh My Nola (Who am I? 50 and female?)
11- Polyphonic Spree - The Fragile Army (Their live show is an experience)
10- Rocky Votolato - The Brag And Cuss
09- Band Of Horses - Cease To Begin
08- Radiohead - In Rainbows (My favorite Radiohead since Kid A)
07- Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
06- Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights (coolest bonus disc ever)
05- The Avett Brothers - Emotionalism (bluegrass with punk-rock energy)
04- Josh Ritter - The Historical Conquests Of Josh Ritter (a poor man's Bright Eyes)
03- Bright Eyes - Cassadaga + Four Winds EP
02- Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala (Clever lyrics win me over)
01- Feist - The Reminder (A surprising choice for me, but I can't knock this record)
Some classics I picked up this year: Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True, Sam Cooke - Portrait Of A Legend, Simon & Garfunkel - Old Friends
25- Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
24- The New Pornographers - Challengers
23- Rufus Wainwright - Release The Stars
22- Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? (The most abstract song titles ever)
21- Peter, Bjorn, & John - Writer's Block (Young Folks is still a kick-ass song)
20- The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
19- Federico Aubele - Panamerica (Argentinian chill music)
18- Travis - The Boy With No Name (Does Travis' music ever evolve?)
17- Norah Jones - Not Too Late
16- Steve Earle - Washington Square Serenade
15- Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
14- Rilo Kiley - Under The Blacklight
13- Amy Winehouse - Back In Black
12- Harry Connick, Jr. - Oh My Nola (Who am I? 50 and female?)
11- Polyphonic Spree - The Fragile Army (Their live show is an experience)
10- Rocky Votolato - The Brag And Cuss
09- Band Of Horses - Cease To Begin
08- Radiohead - In Rainbows (My favorite Radiohead since Kid A)
07- Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
06- Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights (coolest bonus disc ever)
05- The Avett Brothers - Emotionalism (bluegrass with punk-rock energy)
04- Josh Ritter - The Historical Conquests Of Josh Ritter (a poor man's Bright Eyes)
03- Bright Eyes - Cassadaga + Four Winds EP
02- Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala (Clever lyrics win me over)
01- Feist - The Reminder (A surprising choice for me, but I can't knock this record)
Some classics I picked up this year: Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True, Sam Cooke - Portrait Of A Legend, Simon & Garfunkel - Old Friends
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Once
I watched a movie last night called Once, which I really loved. It's a folk-rock musical which came out this year and stars Glen Hansard (the frontman of the Irish band The Frames) and Marketa Irglova a czech pianist. Neither of these two had ever acted before, and I found the performances to be completely believable and captivating. But I think the real story is the music.
It's not the typical musical where the songs move the story forward, rather it's a musical about two musicians coming together and writing love songs to each other and other people. The songs that punctuate the action of the movie are used more to set the emotional tone, and they are some of the most heartfelt songs I've heard in a while. Glen Hansard (who i'd never heard of but who I will be looking into) has a singing and songwriting style very much like Damien Rice, and his songs are just as bombastic.
The two of them have been touring together singing the songs from the movie under the name The Swell Season. You can download or stream a beautiful live concert by them free here http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12100950.
Hope you enjoy as much as I do
It's not the typical musical where the songs move the story forward, rather it's a musical about two musicians coming together and writing love songs to each other and other people. The songs that punctuate the action of the movie are used more to set the emotional tone, and they are some of the most heartfelt songs I've heard in a while. Glen Hansard (who i'd never heard of but who I will be looking into) has a singing and songwriting style very much like Damien Rice, and his songs are just as bombastic.
The two of them have been touring together singing the songs from the movie under the name The Swell Season. You can download or stream a beautiful live concert by them free here http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12100950.
Hope you enjoy as much as I do
Friday, December 21, 2007
Joe's Top 15 Influential Songs
This list is a bit strange is the sense that some of the songs on it are a bit low brow. When I was making this list I tried to think of the songs that had enough raw energy to jolt me onto a different musical path, and that usually didn't happen with very deep, introspective songs. In fact, some of the songs and artists on this list I can't stand anymore, but I owe a lot to them for directing my musical taste or my behavior.
1. Rave On, Buddy Holly. I remember when I was about 5 or 6 my mom
gave me a mix tape. This was the first song on it. I loved the tape,
but I'd listen to Rave on over and over and over again. My first step
towards my taste in music.
2. Simply Irresistible, Robert Palmer. I didn't have a record or
tape of this song, but it's on this list because of the music video.
Once I saw Palmer surrounded by all of those stoic women, I remember
being aroused for the first time.
3. The Devil Went Down to Georgia, Charlie Daniels. In 1994 I bought
an alarm clock and was setting the radio alarm before I went to bed on
night. I was scanning the stations when I came upon this song and I
was hooked. I listened to this radio station for the next several
years and it is the seed for all of the music that I listen to today.
4. You Don't Know how it Feels, Tom Petty. I got "Wildflowers" for
my birthday and heard the lyric "...let's roll another joint." It was
the first time I'd heard any kind of drug reference. I was listening
to VERY tame country music, and this song caused me to being pulling
away from country.
5. Something to Talk About, Bonnie Raitt. She's the first female
artist who I grew to respect. I heard this song at a friend's house
and was blown away that Bonnie was the one playing the slide guitar.
6. Why Should I Cry for You, Sting. I remember this song was the
first time I really paid attention to lyrics. The context of the song
is about a guy at sea who's in love with a woman on the mainland. In
the middle of the song, Sting sings "Why must I, why should I cry for
you?" The difference between MUST and SHOULD really made me think
about what the character in the song was experiencing.
7. Cream, Prince. By far, not my favorite Prince song, but I
remember the guy who taught me how to play guitar recommending that I
listen to Prince. I was very hesitant, but I finally got his 3-disc
hit collection. I put them all in the CD player on shuffle, and when
Cream came on I froze. I couldn't get enough of the album, and his
explicit songs opened even more doors that I'm sure never would have
been touched otherwise.
8. Tea in the Sahara, The Police. Another song by Sting, I know, but
this song did me a great service. I realized that Tea in the Sahara
is the title of a section of a book by Paul Bowels called "The
Sheltering Sky." This song made me want to read this book as is often
the case with songs based on literature now.
9. Come Pick Me Up, Ryan Adams. I had lost faith in country music.
I found out about studio musicians and the fact that the performers
hardly ever write their own lyrics or music. The industry had lost
all of it's sincerity and it pissed me off. I hadn't listened to
anything the slightest bit country until a friend of mine told me
about Adams. I respected his country edge and the fact that he wrote
it all, so I guess he but me back on track.
10. The New Style, The Beastie Boys. My household HATED rap and hip
hop, so I didn't even bother listening to it until I got to college.
A guy I really looked up to was a huge Beastie Boys fan, and I think
the only CD he had was Licenced to Ill, so I heard a lot of it. This
song, was just fun to rap along with and knowing the lyrics reinforced
my bond with this kid.
11. Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen. This one seems a little
unremarkable, but I remember not liking the Boss before, and I think I
saw some MTV special that qualified this song as the 5th greatest of
all time. I hoped on the band wagon and bought the song, and I'm glad
I did.
12. Woke up this Morning, Alabama 3. I was watching The Simpsons and
they were spoofing The opening credits of The Sopranos. Alabama 3's
song is used there and I wanted to learn to play that song on my
guitar. I only heard about 30 seconds of it, but it caused my to
order the CD from England because none of the stores in Columbia
carried it. Awesome fucking band. One of my top 5 favorite.
13. Attitude Dance, Tower of Power. Horns, man. I never really
listened to the horn arrangement in any song until l heard this song.
Everything from Maceo Parker, Prince songs with a horn section, and
Lyle Lovett's Large Band, it didn't sink in until TOP, for some
reason.
14. Big in Japan, Tom Waits. This was the first Tom Waits song I
heard and I liked the beat, lyrics, instrumentation, everything but
his voice. I thought though that if the rest of the song was so
appealing to me that Waits must have some good in him. I searched the
rest of "Mule Variations" and I loved the way it sounded on "Take it
with Me" and "Come on up to the House." Having nurtured my enjoyment
of Tom Waits I now consider him one of my all time favorite artists as
well.
15. Jesus Of Suburbia / City Of The Damned / I Don't Care / Dearly
Beloved / Tales Of Another Broken Home, Green Day. Finally, another
recommendation from a friend caused this song to be one of the most
influential. I never liked Green Day, they just bored me. In 2004
when American Idiot came out one friend came to me with the disc and
insisted that I burn it. I took it and later laughed about it to
another friend, Paul, who's musical talents and opinions I respect
very much. I chortled about this album when Paul said, "You know,
Joe, it's actually pretty good." I was surprised, but I trust Paul.
So I gave it a shot and I fucking loved it. Going from 2 minute
bursts of songs on Dookie to a 10 minute song that tells a story, not
to mention how it fits into the album as a whole made me take back
every bad word I said about Green Day.
1. Rave On, Buddy Holly. I remember when I was about 5 or 6 my mom
gave me a mix tape. This was the first song on it. I loved the tape,
but I'd listen to Rave on over and over and over again. My first step
towards my taste in music.
2. Simply Irresistible, Robert Palmer. I didn't have a record or
tape of this song, but it's on this list because of the music video.
Once I saw Palmer surrounded by all of those stoic women, I remember
being aroused for the first time.
3. The Devil Went Down to Georgia, Charlie Daniels. In 1994 I bought
an alarm clock and was setting the radio alarm before I went to bed on
night. I was scanning the stations when I came upon this song and I
was hooked. I listened to this radio station for the next several
years and it is the seed for all of the music that I listen to today.
4. You Don't Know how it Feels, Tom Petty. I got "Wildflowers" for
my birthday and heard the lyric "...let's roll another joint." It was
the first time I'd heard any kind of drug reference. I was listening
to VERY tame country music, and this song caused me to being pulling
away from country.
5. Something to Talk About, Bonnie Raitt. She's the first female
artist who I grew to respect. I heard this song at a friend's house
and was blown away that Bonnie was the one playing the slide guitar.
6. Why Should I Cry for You, Sting. I remember this song was the
first time I really paid attention to lyrics. The context of the song
is about a guy at sea who's in love with a woman on the mainland. In
the middle of the song, Sting sings "Why must I, why should I cry for
you?" The difference between MUST and SHOULD really made me think
about what the character in the song was experiencing.
7. Cream, Prince. By far, not my favorite Prince song, but I
remember the guy who taught me how to play guitar recommending that I
listen to Prince. I was very hesitant, but I finally got his 3-disc
hit collection. I put them all in the CD player on shuffle, and when
Cream came on I froze. I couldn't get enough of the album, and his
explicit songs opened even more doors that I'm sure never would have
been touched otherwise.
8. Tea in the Sahara, The Police. Another song by Sting, I know, but
this song did me a great service. I realized that Tea in the Sahara
is the title of a section of a book by Paul Bowels called "The
Sheltering Sky." This song made me want to read this book as is often
the case with songs based on literature now.
9. Come Pick Me Up, Ryan Adams. I had lost faith in country music.
I found out about studio musicians and the fact that the performers
hardly ever write their own lyrics or music. The industry had lost
all of it's sincerity and it pissed me off. I hadn't listened to
anything the slightest bit country until a friend of mine told me
about Adams. I respected his country edge and the fact that he wrote
it all, so I guess he but me back on track.
10. The New Style, The Beastie Boys. My household HATED rap and hip
hop, so I didn't even bother listening to it until I got to college.
A guy I really looked up to was a huge Beastie Boys fan, and I think
the only CD he had was Licenced to Ill, so I heard a lot of it. This
song, was just fun to rap along with and knowing the lyrics reinforced
my bond with this kid.
11. Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen. This one seems a little
unremarkable, but I remember not liking the Boss before, and I think I
saw some MTV special that qualified this song as the 5th greatest of
all time. I hoped on the band wagon and bought the song, and I'm glad
I did.
12. Woke up this Morning, Alabama 3. I was watching The Simpsons and
they were spoofing The opening credits of The Sopranos. Alabama 3's
song is used there and I wanted to learn to play that song on my
guitar. I only heard about 30 seconds of it, but it caused my to
order the CD from England because none of the stores in Columbia
carried it. Awesome fucking band. One of my top 5 favorite.
13. Attitude Dance, Tower of Power. Horns, man. I never really
listened to the horn arrangement in any song until l heard this song.
Everything from Maceo Parker, Prince songs with a horn section, and
Lyle Lovett's Large Band, it didn't sink in until TOP, for some
reason.
14. Big in Japan, Tom Waits. This was the first Tom Waits song I
heard and I liked the beat, lyrics, instrumentation, everything but
his voice. I thought though that if the rest of the song was so
appealing to me that Waits must have some good in him. I searched the
rest of "Mule Variations" and I loved the way it sounded on "Take it
with Me" and "Come on up to the House." Having nurtured my enjoyment
of Tom Waits I now consider him one of my all time favorite artists as
well.
15. Jesus Of Suburbia / City Of The Damned / I Don't Care / Dearly
Beloved / Tales Of Another Broken Home, Green Day. Finally, another
recommendation from a friend caused this song to be one of the most
influential. I never liked Green Day, they just bored me. In 2004
when American Idiot came out one friend came to me with the disc and
insisted that I burn it. I took it and later laughed about it to
another friend, Paul, who's musical talents and opinions I respect
very much. I chortled about this album when Paul said, "You know,
Joe, it's actually pretty good." I was surprised, but I trust Paul.
So I gave it a shot and I fucking loved it. Going from 2 minute
bursts of songs on Dookie to a 10 minute song that tells a story, not
to mention how it fits into the album as a whole made me take back
every bad word I said about Green Day.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Sissyneck's Top Ten Albums of 2007
As I was contemplating this list, I decided this was actually kind of a disappointing year for music. I enjoyed each album on this list immensely, but none would break into my top ten albums of all time. In fact, only one of these is the best album by a band who I've heard other music from (Okkervil River). That said, there are some amazing moments here. The first three tracks from kings of leon are possibly the best start to an album ever. Antichrist Television Blues from the Arcade Fire is a Bruce Springsteen song as good as any song Bruce Springsteen ever wrote. Tim Fite's Over the Counterculture is an astonishing indictment of consumerism, the record industry, violence, addiction, and the bush administration. He manages to connect the dots of each of these seemingly disparate things and then backs it up by offering the entire album free on his website. get it here http://www.timfite.com/songs.html.
Oh, and there's Radiohead. I'll write more about that later.
10. The White Stripes - Icky Thump
9. Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
8. Dana Falconberry - Paper Sailboat
7. Rilo Kiley - Under the Blacklight
6. Tim Fite - Over the Counterculture
5. Kings of Leon - Because of the Times
4. Okkervil River - The Stage Names
3. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
2. Bright Eyes - Cassadega
1. Radiohead - In Rainbows
I've disqualified live albums, soundtracks and other compilations from this list, or the Soundtrack to I'm Not There would probably be on there. But I was thinking - for my purposes, what does it matter what albums were released in 2007. There are a lot of great albums that I heard for the first time this year that didn't come out this year, and isn't this supposed to be about what music I was loving this year? Yes it is.
So This is Sissyneck's revised top ten list for 2007:
10. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
9. My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves
8. Kings of Leon - Because of the Times
7. Okkervil River - The Stage Names
6. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
5. Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope
4. Bright Eyes - Cassadega
3. Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous
2. Cat Power - The Greatest
1. Radiohead - In Rainbows
Oh, and there's Radiohead. I'll write more about that later.
10. The White Stripes - Icky Thump
9. Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
8. Dana Falconberry - Paper Sailboat
7. Rilo Kiley - Under the Blacklight
6. Tim Fite - Over the Counterculture
5. Kings of Leon - Because of the Times
4. Okkervil River - The Stage Names
3. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
2. Bright Eyes - Cassadega
1. Radiohead - In Rainbows
I've disqualified live albums, soundtracks and other compilations from this list, or the Soundtrack to I'm Not There would probably be on there. But I was thinking - for my purposes, what does it matter what albums were released in 2007. There are a lot of great albums that I heard for the first time this year that didn't come out this year, and isn't this supposed to be about what music I was loving this year? Yes it is.
So This is Sissyneck's revised top ten list for 2007:
10. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
9. My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves
8. Kings of Leon - Because of the Times
7. Okkervil River - The Stage Names
6. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
5. Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope
4. Bright Eyes - Cassadega
3. Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous
2. Cat Power - The Greatest
1. Radiohead - In Rainbows
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Sissyneck's Top 15 most influential songs.
This is a project my friend and I decided to do. We each made a cd for each other of the songs that most shaped our musical taste and our lives because we’re music nerds and that’s what music nerds do. The idea is that the songs come in chronological order as we discovered them. They aren’t necessarily the best songs or our favorite songs. They’re songs that led to other things. They’re songs without which I wouldn’t listen to the things I listen to today. Thinking about and writing this list led me to the idea of beginning a music blog. It will be a place for people to share their thoughts on music, and hopefully create a community based on a common love for music. You and I can come here to read reccomendations, have a place to share our thoughts, reviews of albums, new and rediscovered, compare tastes. My hope is that this will gather at least a few interested parties who regularly log on and write about whatever they're loving. This will not be a blog that reviews every album that comes out, or that feels it neccesary to mention everything that happens in music - just the music we love! The idea is that hopefully people will start by sharing their own list of where their musical taste came from. If you feel so compelled, make a cd of your own, send it to me (email me for an address if you don't have it) along with a little blurb about each song. If I love it enough, I’ll give you a password to log into the blog and start posting your thoughts (and of course, I'll send you a copy of my cd). So make a fucking great cd!
Enjoy!
REM – country feedback.
This was maybe the first alternative rock song I ever truly heard, and definitely the first song I noticed with slide guitar. But actually, what I loved about this song was the vocal delivery, and especially the lyric. My dad bought this cd when I was in 6th grade, when it first came out. I loved the whole album from the word go, but part of that was that my parents were actually listening to something on modern radio (which I had recently discovered, having finally switched from catholic school to public). I went on later to be completely obsessed with REM, and especially the next album automatic for the people, but I rediscovered this song in high school, at a time when I thought myself very depressed (just a romantic notion for angsty). I realized I could listen to what people are saying and get some kind of feeling from the words even if, as in this case, the words don’t seem to mean much. Stipe’s lyrics are anything but straightforward, but the overall emotion they convey is right on. Pre-nirvana grunge bliss.
Nine Inch Nails – kinda I want to.
My brother had a tape with pretty hate machine on one side and nirvana’s nevermind on the other. I would listen to it on his walkman when I was mowing the lawn. This is one of those songs where you truly notice the stereo mix, and the production in general. Definitely a headphones record, and this song is so dark and now seems to me to be kind of juvenile. Of course at the time, it was SCANDOLOUS, and at the same time, said everything my repressed Christian conscience didn’t ever want to hear. But the sounds are fantastic, and I love the drum machines, the goat/animal noises (do those mean he kinda wants to fuck a goat?), and that freakout guitar. The end with all the layers of the song playing at once was pretty mind-blowing for a seventh grader who had been listening to Eric Clapton and the Tom Petty most every day of his life. Of course, at the time, i didn't recognize that the Beatles did it first and best. Prog rock for goth teenagers.
REM – there she goes again.
After my angry alternative rock phase, I went back to REM. My brother had always listened to them, and owned most of their albums. In early high school, he tired of REM and decided to trade me his REM collection for my nirvana and Stone Temple Pilots cds. I had never listened to most of them, but I discovered a lot, and I went about finding their entire catalog. One of the cds he didn’t give me was dead letter office, and I went out and bought it. I read the liner notes about this cover of the velvet underground, and how they were the only band that everyone in REM counted as an influence. My curiosity was piqued, but it took me several years to actually listen to the velvet underground, which was a watershed, and led to so many things; belle and Sebastian, the strokes, patti smith, lou reed. The velvet underground and nico is still in my top five albums of all time. This song was the start of that, and I still love this cover version possibly better than the original, which is saying a lot. Sounds like The Byrds singing about the slut everyone knows.
Beck – Sissyneck.
I remember when Beck’s loser came out, I thought for sure he was a one hit wonder. My brother had the cd , and I thought it was just boring. Then odelay came out and devil’s haircut was all over the radio. I bought odelay and put the cd on in my room at home. I listened to the whole album all the way through, and this song stood out. I was really into finding the diamond in the rough songs that wouldn’t make it on the radio, and this was definitely one of those. The slide guitar with hip hop beat combo is so cool, and you can’t possibly beat that whistled intro for pure unabashed innocence. Danceable country without the line.
Ben Folds Five – Don’t change your plans.
As a junior in high school, I was dating a girl who went away to college. We tried to stay together, but when I wanted to start seeing someone else, I told her to listen to this song as I broke up with her if she wanted to know how I felt. God, what an asshole! Coolest pianist since Elton.
Moby – Porcelain.
I thought this was techno. I thought I was ready to go to raves and twirl glow sticks. But this song is actually kind of just peaceful. When I listen to it now I don’t think of dancing, I think of floating. And the words don’t mean anything!! He just says hey a lot. Before this song, I thought a song had to have a meaningful lyric to convey anything aside from empty emotion, but this song is anything but empty, or if it is, it’s that kind of emptiness that feels like freedom. Freshman year of college in a nutshell.
Elliott Smith – Son of Sam.
This was the first Elliott Smith song I ever heard, and I couldn’t stop playing it immediately. My friend in college lent me the cd, and said she didn’t think it was his best work(it’s not), but I should try it out. I think I freaked out the first time I heard that fuzz guitar with the paul mccartney honky tonk piano in the bridge. And the drumming is amazing – I think probably one of the first times I ever really noticed drumming. This was the essence of everything the beatles meant to the 60’s for my generation. Vocal bliss, beautiful melody, great drumming, must be the beatles!
Ryan Adams – To Be Young.
I was hanging lights for a T-Bone Burnett concert when I first heard this song. It was honestly the first time I heard something that I recognized as country and liked it. There is definitely a rock edge to it, but the twang is undeniable and beautiful. This was the start of my love for Ryan Adams, and while I wish he were more consistent, he’s definetly written some of the best songs of the last 10 years. I finally went back to his first band whiskeytown several years later and saw where this came from. By that time I listened to a lot of country music, and there’s no way I would have responded to it if I’d heard it when I heard this, but what an amazing wealth of music and talent.
Johnny cash – The Man Comes Around.
This was the first Johnny cash song I knew. When I heard this, shortly after he died, I had no idea what his back catalog sounded like. I only knew what people were saying about him, that he was an incredible talent, and that he sang about death and drugs and darkness and jail and truth unlike most of modern country music. This song could not have fit better into the picture I had in my head of this man, who I would never appreciate while alive. Now probably in my top ten artists. Just haunting.
Wilco and Billy Bragg – Hesitating Beauty.
I saw Wilco open for REM in 1999 in support of their summerteeth album. They had already put out this album, and several before that, but I didn’t know them. I loved their sound live and went out and bought summerteeth my freshman year of college, and I liked it but it didn’t sound like the live stuff I remembered. Then I passed a record store advertising the 2nd volume of the mermaid ave. discs with Billy Bragg. I listened to that record nonstop for probably 2 months, then found the first volume. How could it possibly be better? This song is not my favorite from the collection, but I love the idea of the lyric that Woody Guthrie wrote here. This was also around the time I was falling in love, and this song was so comfortable and safe and said everything I wanted to say. “by the stars and clouds above, we could spend our lives in love if you’d quit your hesitating, nora lee.” (sigh)
The White Stripes – Fell in love with a girl.
I hated this song when I first heard it. I never would have listened to the ramones or the clash without this song. I never would have gotten the led zeppelin/blues connection without this song. I never would have thought that such an amazing burst of bubble gum could have such deep roots. In my world, there would be no Bob Dylan without there first being a Jack White. Also, Meg is cool like a caveman.
Bob Dylan – Simple Twist of Fate.
Soon after I returned from a year abroad, Rolling Stone put out an issue cataloguing the 500 greatest albums of all time, and there is no telling how much music I have listened to and loved because of that issue. There were something like 3 Dylan albums in the top 12 of all time, but the problem was I hated Dylan. But the issue came with a sample cd with this song on it, and I put it on in my car in the parking lot of the store where I bought the magazine. The first thing I noticed was that you can hear his fingers strumming the strings before you hear the resonant sound of the guitar. I had never noticed that before, and acoustic guitar rarely sounds this good. How much has this song influenced my life, my love of music, ultimately my feelings on just about everything? Immeasurably.
Bob Dylan – It takes a lot to laugh, it takes a train to cry.
This song has maybe the best title of any song ever. Again, not my favorite bob Dylan song, but I had at least heard the first two tracks on highway 61 revisited before I listened to it. after like a rolling stone and tombstone blues, I thought he couldn’t keep it up. He did. It was the first Dylan album I owned, the first one I loved. The part that cemented it for me is the line where he says don’t the sun look good going down over the sea, then that guitar comes in that sounds exactly like the sun going down over the sea. It’s a love song like most of dylan’s best love songs, guarded, lashing out, a spurned lover recollecting how much he loved someone in spite of their faults. The ultimate kiss-off, you’re-not-good-enough-for-me-anyway hindsight. The song doesn’t end, it just fades out like the brave face he’s putting on. I wish I could say this was his finest hour, but I’m still optimistic that – like Johnny cash – his is yet to come, and of course, there were his country years.
Bruce Springsteen – Open All Night.
As Jack White is to Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan is to Bruce Springsteen. I know that’s backwards, but that’s the order it came in chronologically for me. Bruce is one of those artists that I fought adamantly not to like. He’s so overdramatic, so lyrically ridiculous, so cliché. But the Nebraska album is different, and this song has an amazing sound that somehow captures how we all feel about America, even if you’re not into cars, or cruising, or from jersey. It, like all bruce’s greatest songs, is about escape, and that’s why he can get away with being overdramatic and cliché. I learned that you have to judge bruce on his own terms. He sets the rules, and if we’re to believe that he knows what it’s like to be the common man on the run from the law, from his boss, from his life – well, he sells it so well. And I’m now buying it enthusiastically.
DJ Danger Mouse – What more can I say?
I heard about this mashup when it came out and all the controversy it caused, but I never heard it until a couple of years later when I started having music share parties where people brought albums they thought others should hear. Our friend brought this cd, and she played us this song. I guess I never thought it would work befre Id heard it it. But it does more than work. It redefines both songs so completely that I think it transcends any other sampling or mashup I’ve ever heard. That jaunty, challenging piano goes so well with Jay’s ridiculous bravado, it’s easy for me to forget that they were written almost 40 years apart. I now can’t listen to either original song without thinking of this one. What more can I say?
Enjoy!
REM – country feedback.
This was maybe the first alternative rock song I ever truly heard, and definitely the first song I noticed with slide guitar. But actually, what I loved about this song was the vocal delivery, and especially the lyric. My dad bought this cd when I was in 6th grade, when it first came out. I loved the whole album from the word go, but part of that was that my parents were actually listening to something on modern radio (which I had recently discovered, having finally switched from catholic school to public). I went on later to be completely obsessed with REM, and especially the next album automatic for the people, but I rediscovered this song in high school, at a time when I thought myself very depressed (just a romantic notion for angsty). I realized I could listen to what people are saying and get some kind of feeling from the words even if, as in this case, the words don’t seem to mean much. Stipe’s lyrics are anything but straightforward, but the overall emotion they convey is right on. Pre-nirvana grunge bliss.
Nine Inch Nails – kinda I want to.
My brother had a tape with pretty hate machine on one side and nirvana’s nevermind on the other. I would listen to it on his walkman when I was mowing the lawn. This is one of those songs where you truly notice the stereo mix, and the production in general. Definitely a headphones record, and this song is so dark and now seems to me to be kind of juvenile. Of course at the time, it was SCANDOLOUS, and at the same time, said everything my repressed Christian conscience didn’t ever want to hear. But the sounds are fantastic, and I love the drum machines, the goat/animal noises (do those mean he kinda wants to fuck a goat?), and that freakout guitar. The end with all the layers of the song playing at once was pretty mind-blowing for a seventh grader who had been listening to Eric Clapton and the Tom Petty most every day of his life. Of course, at the time, i didn't recognize that the Beatles did it first and best. Prog rock for goth teenagers.
REM – there she goes again.
After my angry alternative rock phase, I went back to REM. My brother had always listened to them, and owned most of their albums. In early high school, he tired of REM and decided to trade me his REM collection for my nirvana and Stone Temple Pilots cds. I had never listened to most of them, but I discovered a lot, and I went about finding their entire catalog. One of the cds he didn’t give me was dead letter office, and I went out and bought it. I read the liner notes about this cover of the velvet underground, and how they were the only band that everyone in REM counted as an influence. My curiosity was piqued, but it took me several years to actually listen to the velvet underground, which was a watershed, and led to so many things; belle and Sebastian, the strokes, patti smith, lou reed. The velvet underground and nico is still in my top five albums of all time. This song was the start of that, and I still love this cover version possibly better than the original, which is saying a lot. Sounds like The Byrds singing about the slut everyone knows.
Beck – Sissyneck.
I remember when Beck’s loser came out, I thought for sure he was a one hit wonder. My brother had the cd , and I thought it was just boring. Then odelay came out and devil’s haircut was all over the radio. I bought odelay and put the cd on in my room at home. I listened to the whole album all the way through, and this song stood out. I was really into finding the diamond in the rough songs that wouldn’t make it on the radio, and this was definitely one of those. The slide guitar with hip hop beat combo is so cool, and you can’t possibly beat that whistled intro for pure unabashed innocence. Danceable country without the line.
Ben Folds Five – Don’t change your plans.
As a junior in high school, I was dating a girl who went away to college. We tried to stay together, but when I wanted to start seeing someone else, I told her to listen to this song as I broke up with her if she wanted to know how I felt. God, what an asshole! Coolest pianist since Elton.
Moby – Porcelain.
I thought this was techno. I thought I was ready to go to raves and twirl glow sticks. But this song is actually kind of just peaceful. When I listen to it now I don’t think of dancing, I think of floating. And the words don’t mean anything!! He just says hey a lot. Before this song, I thought a song had to have a meaningful lyric to convey anything aside from empty emotion, but this song is anything but empty, or if it is, it’s that kind of emptiness that feels like freedom. Freshman year of college in a nutshell.
Elliott Smith – Son of Sam.
This was the first Elliott Smith song I ever heard, and I couldn’t stop playing it immediately. My friend in college lent me the cd, and said she didn’t think it was his best work(it’s not), but I should try it out. I think I freaked out the first time I heard that fuzz guitar with the paul mccartney honky tonk piano in the bridge. And the drumming is amazing – I think probably one of the first times I ever really noticed drumming. This was the essence of everything the beatles meant to the 60’s for my generation. Vocal bliss, beautiful melody, great drumming, must be the beatles!
Ryan Adams – To Be Young.
I was hanging lights for a T-Bone Burnett concert when I first heard this song. It was honestly the first time I heard something that I recognized as country and liked it. There is definitely a rock edge to it, but the twang is undeniable and beautiful. This was the start of my love for Ryan Adams, and while I wish he were more consistent, he’s definetly written some of the best songs of the last 10 years. I finally went back to his first band whiskeytown several years later and saw where this came from. By that time I listened to a lot of country music, and there’s no way I would have responded to it if I’d heard it when I heard this, but what an amazing wealth of music and talent.
Johnny cash – The Man Comes Around.
This was the first Johnny cash song I knew. When I heard this, shortly after he died, I had no idea what his back catalog sounded like. I only knew what people were saying about him, that he was an incredible talent, and that he sang about death and drugs and darkness and jail and truth unlike most of modern country music. This song could not have fit better into the picture I had in my head of this man, who I would never appreciate while alive. Now probably in my top ten artists. Just haunting.
Wilco and Billy Bragg – Hesitating Beauty.
I saw Wilco open for REM in 1999 in support of their summerteeth album. They had already put out this album, and several before that, but I didn’t know them. I loved their sound live and went out and bought summerteeth my freshman year of college, and I liked it but it didn’t sound like the live stuff I remembered. Then I passed a record store advertising the 2nd volume of the mermaid ave. discs with Billy Bragg. I listened to that record nonstop for probably 2 months, then found the first volume. How could it possibly be better? This song is not my favorite from the collection, but I love the idea of the lyric that Woody Guthrie wrote here. This was also around the time I was falling in love, and this song was so comfortable and safe and said everything I wanted to say. “by the stars and clouds above, we could spend our lives in love if you’d quit your hesitating, nora lee.” (sigh)
The White Stripes – Fell in love with a girl.
I hated this song when I first heard it. I never would have listened to the ramones or the clash without this song. I never would have gotten the led zeppelin/blues connection without this song. I never would have thought that such an amazing burst of bubble gum could have such deep roots. In my world, there would be no Bob Dylan without there first being a Jack White. Also, Meg is cool like a caveman.
Bob Dylan – Simple Twist of Fate.
Soon after I returned from a year abroad, Rolling Stone put out an issue cataloguing the 500 greatest albums of all time, and there is no telling how much music I have listened to and loved because of that issue. There were something like 3 Dylan albums in the top 12 of all time, but the problem was I hated Dylan. But the issue came with a sample cd with this song on it, and I put it on in my car in the parking lot of the store where I bought the magazine. The first thing I noticed was that you can hear his fingers strumming the strings before you hear the resonant sound of the guitar. I had never noticed that before, and acoustic guitar rarely sounds this good. How much has this song influenced my life, my love of music, ultimately my feelings on just about everything? Immeasurably.
Bob Dylan – It takes a lot to laugh, it takes a train to cry.
This song has maybe the best title of any song ever. Again, not my favorite bob Dylan song, but I had at least heard the first two tracks on highway 61 revisited before I listened to it. after like a rolling stone and tombstone blues, I thought he couldn’t keep it up. He did. It was the first Dylan album I owned, the first one I loved. The part that cemented it for me is the line where he says don’t the sun look good going down over the sea, then that guitar comes in that sounds exactly like the sun going down over the sea. It’s a love song like most of dylan’s best love songs, guarded, lashing out, a spurned lover recollecting how much he loved someone in spite of their faults. The ultimate kiss-off, you’re-not-good-enough-for-me-anyway hindsight. The song doesn’t end, it just fades out like the brave face he’s putting on. I wish I could say this was his finest hour, but I’m still optimistic that – like Johnny cash – his is yet to come, and of course, there were his country years.
Bruce Springsteen – Open All Night.
As Jack White is to Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan is to Bruce Springsteen. I know that’s backwards, but that’s the order it came in chronologically for me. Bruce is one of those artists that I fought adamantly not to like. He’s so overdramatic, so lyrically ridiculous, so cliché. But the Nebraska album is different, and this song has an amazing sound that somehow captures how we all feel about America, even if you’re not into cars, or cruising, or from jersey. It, like all bruce’s greatest songs, is about escape, and that’s why he can get away with being overdramatic and cliché. I learned that you have to judge bruce on his own terms. He sets the rules, and if we’re to believe that he knows what it’s like to be the common man on the run from the law, from his boss, from his life – well, he sells it so well. And I’m now buying it enthusiastically.
DJ Danger Mouse – What more can I say?
I heard about this mashup when it came out and all the controversy it caused, but I never heard it until a couple of years later when I started having music share parties where people brought albums they thought others should hear. Our friend brought this cd, and she played us this song. I guess I never thought it would work befre Id heard it it. But it does more than work. It redefines both songs so completely that I think it transcends any other sampling or mashup I’ve ever heard. That jaunty, challenging piano goes so well with Jay’s ridiculous bravado, it’s easy for me to forget that they were written almost 40 years apart. I now can’t listen to either original song without thinking of this one. What more can I say?
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