This is it, ladies and gentlemen! The TOP TEN! I know you're all as excited as I am and I'll have more than enough to say about these last ten songs--all of which I would undoubtedly put on a list of top 50 songs of all time--so let's get the ball rolling right away...
10. Funeral Diner - This Truly Is God's Country
Yeah, yeah, more screamo. Hear me out. There was a period a few years ago for a couple of months where I just didn't see any point in listening to any band but Funeral Diner because nothing else measured up. Funeral Diner is one of those bands where no one instrument is the real star of the show because they all mesh together as one so perfectly. However, I will say that Matthew Bajda is one of my top 5 drummers of all time...even now that I don't listen to much Funeral Diner--or screamo in general--anymore. This song, like a lot of the screamo songs on the list, was picked because of the truly special "moments" in the song moreso than the song as a whole--a distinction which is even more apparent in the highest ranked screamo song on the countdown. Don't take that to mean that these screamo songs aren't great all the way through. It's just that screamo songs do tend to rely on dynamics and emotional peaks and valleys and builds and payoffs to carry most of their emotional weight. In the case of this song, these "moments" are not only brilliant musically but lyrically as well. In fact, as hard as it may be to believe, the lyrics may even overshadow the music in some places. When vocalist Seth Babb wails "the holes you dig are always deeper though better informed" I can't help but get goosebumps. And, of course, the song's main climax in which he shrieks "as much as it hurts, they were right when they said: 'change is the only constant'" will always take my breath away no matter how many times I hear this song.
9. The Lawrence Arms - Your Gravest Words
Easily the catchiest, most accessible song in the top 10, The Lawrence Arms get their only nod in my top 50 for a song I've probably listened to more times than almost any song I've ever heard (there might possibly be 2 or 3 that I've listened to more times...if only I'd had a last.fm count my whole life). For a pop punk song, you can't do any better than this. One of the most beautiful chord progressions you'll ever hear begins the song and flows through all the choruses like sheets of rain washing down on your face. Now, for those not familiar with The Lawrence Arms, their music is unique in that guitarist Chris McCullough writes about half of the songs while bassist Brendan Kelly writes the other half. Much like The Beatles did, Chris and Brendan each sing lead vocals on their own respective songs, so their albums are split between "Chris songs"--they tend to be a little on the softer, prettier side--and "Brendan songs"--falling on the harder, more punk rock side of things--which make for an interesting experience. This is probably the perfect embodiment of a "Chris song." Beautiful, powerful, catchy as all hell and dripping with his uniquely low-pitch, smooth, melodic voice (as opposed to Brendan's gritty punk voice). When he croons "I am a satellite, never getting signals right. You are a constellation. I can barely make you out tonight. The city lights are burning too bright." it will melt your heart, I can almost guarantee it.
8. Envy - A Far-Off Reason and Yaphet Kotto/This Machine Kills/Envy - A Collaboration Song
These two songs appear on the greatest split record I've ever heard in my life. For those not "in the know", a split record is a record that features songs by more than one band (usually two bands, three in this case) that is generally a collaborative effort between the two bands, at least to some extent. Some bands cover one or two of each other's songs when they do a split together (as is the case with the Alkaline Trio/Hot Water Music split). I used to own a split 10" by Envy (who are from Japan) and a band called Iscariote who are Italian and they did a cool thing where each did one song in the other band's language with lyrics written by the other band's lyricist. This split is unique in that it features three bands (there are certainly other splits between three or more bands but most features just two) and, moreso, because the three bands collaborated on the final song on the record. This split stands as the best split I've ever heard for several reasons: 1. the three Yaphet Kotto songs on this split are, in my opinion, the best songs they ever wrote, 2. the way this split is organized, with Yaphet Kotto's powerful but more up-tempo songs leading off, This Machine Kills's solid, chaotic, but ultimately least exceptional songs in the middle, with Envy's masterfully powerful contribution and the subsequent brilliance of the collaborative track bookending the record perfectly...the organization reminded me a lot of the way you're taught to write five-paragraph essays in middle school and high school: second best argument first, third best argument second, best argument first, 3. Envy's contribution itself...incredible, and 4. A Collaboration Song. I absolutely, positively had to list both "A Far-Off Reason" as well as "A Collaboration Song" simply because they are two of the greatest songs of this decade respectively. "A Far-Off Reason" is really the song that made me stand up and take notice when listening to the record. I had enjoyed the contributions of Yaphet Kotto and This Machine Kills albeit a bit passively. However, when I first heard the intensely moving chord progression at the heart of this song, my jaw dropped and my eyes started getting misty. Then there's a moment where the music drops out for an extended period of time and all you hear is screaming off in the distance. I don't want to ruin the surprise but pay close attention during this part. When I heard it, I stopped what I was doing and was pretty much frozen in the same position for the rest of the song. "A Collaboration Song?" I can't even describe it. You have to hear it for yourself. It's a religious experience.
7. City of Caterpillar - ...And You're Wondering How a Top Floor Could Replace Heaven
This song is the true embodiment of the statement I made in my Funeral Diner blurb in reference to "moments." This song features some of the best "moments" in any song I've ever heard in my life--and they happen almost one on top of the other. I must warn you not to be deterred by the raucous, somewhat chaotic beginning of the song. The raging tide of the song soon settles some of the most beautiful atmospheric passages ever put to tape. I can sit here and try to describe what these brilliant moments sound like (all the stars falling to earth is one image that comes to mind) but I could never do them justice. All the velvety layers and swirling textures surround your head and immerse you in a warm, starry experience that I highly recommend to everyone. EVERYONE.
6. Radiohead - The National Anthem
I have to say, honestly, if there were to be a national anthem for this decade or even this millenium, you'd have a hard time doing better than this. This isn't really even one of my absolute favorite Radiohead songs--it's way up there but maybe just short of a top ten--but it is a perfect microcosm of not only Radiohead's artistic and musical prowess but of the music industry as a whole: an unsettling, undeniably catchy and yet incomprehensibly chaotic cacophony that snowballs into a most beautifully decimating conclusion. It's sparse and a bit disjointed lyrically but perhaps fittingly for a song so chock full of notes that bite and scratch and clash with each other in a wonderful garbage pile of juxtaposed beauty and ugliness, musicality and amusicality. A perfect way to summarize this song is a quote I used time and time again to describe avant garde black metal band Deathspell Omega's discordant 2007 masterpiece "Fas -- Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternum": Only truly great musicians could create something this amusical.
5. Converge - Heaven In Her Arms
And you thought "The National Anthem" was chaotic. I should warn you all that this is arguably the most abrasive and least accessible song on the entire list. Enter at your own risk. If you do take the plunge, you'll be holding on for dear life for the entire ride. Set partially in a 7/4 time signature that comes off more like a 7/8 with the scathing pace of the song, it features one of the most devastatingly powerful riffs you'll hear in any metal or hardcore song along with Jacob Bannon's trademark bloodcurdling screams and, of course, Ben Koller's ever-transient, ever-mindblowing drum work. A somber tone and a 4/4 time signature kicks in for an epic bridge that sees Bannon shrieking maddeningly: "forgive me for the sadness and the bringing of you down...I just needed a lover and I needed a friend...and there you were, running from forever like all the rest." However it soon becomes clear that all this was just a prelude for an epic conclusion that's as emotionally powerful as it is crushingly heavy: "three simple words bled me dry: I love you."
4. Tool - Rosetta Stoned
This is the one song on the countdown that features an intro that's fairly essential to the experience of the song, especially because the two tracks bleed together. In fact, I really like to start listening to this song with an interlude that sits one track previous to the intro for this song because it serves as a great preface for the "Lost Keys"/"Rosetta Stoned" experience. And "Rosetta Stoned" is certainly a fitting title for this song. It's really only something that obsessive Tool fans--read: most real Tool fans--are consciously aware of but this song has pieces of other Tool songs scattered all over the place. That's not to say they sampled other songs or ripped riffs straight out of old songs and pasted them into this one. However there are certainly very distinct homages to many of Tool's songs hidden within the song. Comparisons can be drawn between parts in "Rosetta Stoned" and parts in songs such as "H." and "Third Eye" that are a frequent topic of discussion on Tool message boards--I would know. In many ways this song really is kind of a "rosetta stone" for Tool's music and a very interesting microcosm of their catalog. Tool has almost become known for these sort of 10+ minute epics that rollercoaster up and down and side to side and upside down countless times and while this is no "Third Eye" it certainly earns its place on the pantheon of Tool epics as well as a spot in the top five of this countdown.
3. Between the Buried and Me - Mordecai
On sheer musicality alone, this song blows every single one on this list away and then some. The opening seconds set the perfect tone for this punishing whirlwind of blinding metal riffing and constantly transitioning tempos. The guitar work here is second to none, all at once technically masterful, totally organic, and melodiously impressive. If all the chaos and noise isn't your cup of tea, I urge you to brave the storm for a little longer because the song closes with a beautifully epic and moving passage that includes a truly great guitar solo that very much serves the song as opposed to the guitarist's ego. I dare you not to get goosebumps during the soaring melody of "from the reciting of the show...from the plip in the shevanel...from the grind that annoys...and the sarcasm they all hate"
2. Converge - Jane Doe
This is the emotional 11+ minute conclusion of the album with the same name...and a fitting conclusion it is. An album as powerful and as challenging as this deserves nothing less than a towering, spiraling, desperate epic. One of the greatest shows I've ever seen was a Converge show where they closed their set with this song and I have to admit that I literally wept seeing them perform this song. Such an overpowering emotional song with Jacob Bannon musing during the choruses "IIIIIIIIII waaaaaaaant ouuuuuuut." The outro is a crushingly beautiful bookend to a magnificent, majestic song. Powerful beyond belief.
AND THE GREATEST SONG OF THE DECADE IS...
1. Thrice - For Miles
I have to admit I feel a little guilty putting this at the top spot because I feel like I probably have an overwhelming bias toward this band but at the same time I just don't fucking care. This song is just achingly, impossibly beautiful. I can't even describe how much this song moves me. The beautiful piano line. Dustin Kensrue's incredibly voice. Ridiculously powerful lyrics. Spacey guitar work in the chorus. A towering bridge with a fantastic guitar riff. And an outro that will make the hairs on your neck stand up. No praise I can give this song is too high. No description I can give can capture its captivating beauty for you. You just have to go buy yourself a copy of "Vheissu" and wait patiently for track 5 so you can experience it for yourself.
Well, that's it...the countdown comes to its dramatic conclusion. I hope it was as fun for you--all two of you reading this--as it was for me.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
Top 50 Songs of the 2000s (20-11)
I know, I know, I've been slacking on this...but look on the bright side, we're now into the top 20. I personally am pretty excited because we're starting to get into some songs that I'm really gonna have a hard time not gushing like a fanboy about. Just looking over the top 10 right now, I can't wait to blather on and on and bore everyone to death about these 10 songs...they really are some of my favorite songs of all time...anyway, on with the show...
20. Mono - Halcyon (Beautiful Days)
I'm convinced that this song is the audio incarnation of falling in love. It really does sound like a song from a movie soundtrack that would be played over a romantic, exhilarating new year's eve scene where two anxious, smitten lovers play out an out-of-this-world first kiss as brilliant fireworks explode over their heads. The great thing is that you can pinpoint exactly where the kiss happens and the fireworks explode at the overwhelming climax of the song. Listening to this song after smoking a little herb and hearing that burst-and-bloom climax explode all around you is the closest thing to a fireworks display literally going off inside your head. It's not particularly complex for the 8 minutes it takes to play out but that's really part of the beauty of it...it's simple but breathtakingly majestic.
19. Baroness - A Horse Called Golgotha
I had to go back and amend my list to allow for this song because I am officially 100% sure that this is the best song Baroness has ever written. It features a majestic intro that serves as a perfect preface and then it launches headfirst into the epic guitar harmonies that line the entire song. The verse features a nice transition into some almost Torche-esque hook-driven heavy psychedelic pop which transitions back into an extraordinarily powerful chorus. I absolutely can't get enough of the guitar solo on this song and the scathing tone with which it drips. There's another solo like this in the song "Jake Leg" but it's nowhere near the brilliance of this solo...one of the best solos I've heard in quite a long time to be honest. And then what puts it over the top is the way it comes crashing to a close with a soaring instrumental outro that will send chills down your spine.
18. System of a Down - Question!
By a long margin, this is the most challenging, creative, and perhaps the best-crafted song in System of a Down's catalog. The haunting picked acoustic intro gives way to a sick riff in 5/4 time which then gives way to a highly complex 9/8 time verse that I had to listen to about 10 times before I could really figure out what time signature it was in, especially the way it's phrased. It also features one of the signature epic choruses of the "Mesmerize/Hypnotize" double album with their best soaring harmonies since the closing moments of "Chop Suey!" It's so rare nowadays to see a band that can challenge listeners with truly unique music that features things like odd time signatures or complex song structures and still garner massive popularity along the way. System of a Down is one of those bands. I can really only think of maybe two other examples of such bands--each is featured twice in the top 15 of this countdown.
17. Mare - They Sent You
I'm sure I don't have to tell anyone that this is probably the most esoteric selection on my list. It is certainly my opinion that Mare is by far the best band to ever record only five original songs and go almost completely unnoticed, even in the underground. I was lucky enough to see this band live--ironically we got there late and missed the first song they played, which was this song, a fact that haunts me to this very day--and they played to a room that would have held about 50 people at capacity and probably held about 20 that night. I guess it's not difficult to imagine this band not being for everyone. Their music is extremely challenging and complex, similar in many ways to the music of Baroness in that they are able to so seamlessly combine so many different elements and push genre boundaries. However, their approach is far more avant garde than that of Baroness, opting for towering, unsettling atmospheres and brooding, restrained rhythms, often not staying on a beat for long if there even is a beat. This song is a mindfuck from the very beginning, leading off with some very eerie programming and singing before nosediving into massive stoner rock riffs with beautifully complex guitar chords that are about as far from power chords as you can get and still be ridiculously heavy--this guitar work has actually been a major influence on my playing and my songwriting as a whole. The most compelling moment of this song comes toward the end as the music abruptly pauses for a very ominous guitar chord that almost sounds like an alarm being sounded, a chord which is then coupled with some distortion and some huge, sluggish stoner riffing to create a truly ominous atmosphere--an atmosphere abandoned as abruptly as it is ushered in as it quickly gives way to a beautiful guitar outro that almost speaks to you, saying: "everything is ok now."
16. At the Drive-In - Invalid Litter Dept.
A far cry from the chaotic assault of the rest of the "Relationship of Command" album, this song showcases the lighter side of At the Drive-In with a beautifully unsettling guitar line as its centerpiece. The verses are noticeably relaxed compared to much of this band's work but they're juxtaposed very nicely with rapid-fire incendiary spoken word vocals to create an interesting urgency among the restraint of the instrumentation. The vocal ramblings are also interspliced with the catchy and haunting melody of "dancing on the corpses ashes." The choruses are catchy and a bit more rowdy but ultimately play into the relaxed atmosphere of the song perfectly. What really puts this song over the top is what happens after the music abruptly stops toward the end of the song for vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala to whisper "dancing on the corpses ashes...dancing on the corpses ashes." You'll see...
15. Dredg - Triangle
Another track that is very much enhanced by being preceded by an interlude that makes for a very fitting preface. Much like Baroness's "Wanderlust", however, it stands up spectacularly on its own. What really made me pick this over other Dredg songs--and there are certainly a number of them I could have picked--is the fact that this song is almost like 2-3 songs put together, abruptly but seamlessly changing gears twice in the first two minutes and even a couple times after that to some degree. After those two minutes the song is truly allowed to settle in and even without all the abrupt pacing changes stands as one of Dredg's greatest achievements in songwriting and melody as well as lyrics. Some brilliantly poignant moments in this song include singer Gavin Hayes soaring through one of my favorite lyrics ever--"and it's not impossible for flowers to bloom and grow next to graves when babies are born in the same buildings where people go to pass away"--as the instruments trail out momentarily behind him and a droning chant of "we live like penguins in the desert...why can't we live like tribes?" in the song's bridge.
14. Radiohead - Idioteque
Leave it to Radiohead to write a discoteque song that is all at once the best discoteque song you'll ever hear and a big "fuck you" to discoteque in general. This is probably the most well-known example of Radiohead's trademark knack for marrying aggressive yet organic sounding techno beats with sometimes-eerie, sometimes-serene, always-beautiful melodies. I can still remember seeing this song performed on Saturday Night Live and Thom Yorke flailing his head around screaming "ice age coming! ice age coming!" An interesting aspect of this song is how much it has been connected with 9/11, with one fan even making a very interesting and relevant music video for the song using some interesting footage and photography. In fact, if you want to go even deeper, there's a whole passage in Chuck Klosterman's book "Killing Yourself to Live" about how he Radiohead might have accidentally predicted the events of 9/11 with their "Kid A" album--not literally, of course, but there are definitely some very interesting parallels.
13. Bright Eyes - Nothing Gets Crossed Out
As is often the case in the music of Conor Oberst, this song is carried predominantly by the power of his lyrics. A solemn, self-reflective, nostalgia-inducing merry-go-round ride of achingly powerful lines like "I know I should be brave but I'm just too afraid of all this change", opening lines "well the future's got me worried such awful thoughts, my head's a carousel of pictures, the spinning never stops", and boyhood laments of how he "fell under the weight of a schoolboy crush, started carrying her books and doing lots of drugs." But as is also often the case with Conor's work, the lyrics are nestled on a solid foundation of beautifully crafted music, including a gorgeous, starkly sweet bridge that gives way to a powerful conclusion as Oberst wails: "So when I'm lost in a crowd, I hope that you'll pick me out. Oh, how I long to be found. The grass grew high. I laid down. So now I wait for a hand to lift me up, help me stand. I have been laying so low. Don't wanna lay here no more."
12. Envy - Chain Wondering Deeply
There's really only one word that inevitably comes to mind when one talks about Envy, there's no avoiding it, it's the only one that lives up to what this band is capable of: EPIC. With songs that sprawl over 6, 7, 8, even 9 minutes sometimes and echo with the majesty and ferocity of Vesuvius, it's hard to avoid using the word "epic" when describing any Envy song--and no song they've written better embodies that than this one. It's not hard to imagine what's about to be unleashed upon you when you hear the haunting opening moments of this track but even then it can take you by surprise. I know I keep using this adjective (among others) but this song is truly one where the music (and specifically the guitars) truly tower over you like skyscrapers. That is, until the harrowing bridge of the song which features a twinkly guitar line that will pluck at your very heart strings--and if I'm being overly cheesy, it's purposefully. The only problem listening to this song is that if you don't have the whole album playing then the ending is awkward since it tumbles immediately into the next track on the album. That aside, though, if you truly love powerful, epic, dramatic music, this song just might change your life.
11. Tool - Right in Two
I have to say it's really a damn good thing that Aenima was released in 1996 otherwise I might have put half that album on the list. Tool's output in this millenium has never really lived up to the sheer brilliance of that album but, to be fair, that would be nearly impossible. Their last album, "10,000 Days" came much, much closer than 2001's "Lateralus" did--I often say that "10,000 Days" is the album I expected and the album Tool was capable of when they came out with "Lateralus" even though I still adore "Lateralus." This song is one of the main reasons why. Lyrically it's definitely one of my favorite Tool songs, to the point that if I were to quote every line I love in this song, I would probably end up covering at least 75% of the song. It also features a breathtaking tabla solo by drummer Danny Carey in the interlude that I had the good fortune of witnessing live and is truly something to behold--actually the tabla solo on the record is not even close to being as amazing as the one he played live. Add in the fact that this song is somehow in 11/8 time and still feels pretty much like a straight up 3 and you absolutely have yourself one of the greatest songs of this decade.
Tune in tomorrow for the TOP TEN. I keep staring at the top ten as I write this and drooling all over myself at the prospect of discussing these songs. Since I can barely contain my excitement, I'll give you guys a little teaser: 6 of the top 10 slots are occupied by bands who have already had at least one song on the countdown, one of which appears in the top ten twice...and yet doesn't even hold the top spot. Excited? I AM!
20. Mono - Halcyon (Beautiful Days)
I'm convinced that this song is the audio incarnation of falling in love. It really does sound like a song from a movie soundtrack that would be played over a romantic, exhilarating new year's eve scene where two anxious, smitten lovers play out an out-of-this-world first kiss as brilliant fireworks explode over their heads. The great thing is that you can pinpoint exactly where the kiss happens and the fireworks explode at the overwhelming climax of the song. Listening to this song after smoking a little herb and hearing that burst-and-bloom climax explode all around you is the closest thing to a fireworks display literally going off inside your head. It's not particularly complex for the 8 minutes it takes to play out but that's really part of the beauty of it...it's simple but breathtakingly majestic.
19. Baroness - A Horse Called Golgotha
I had to go back and amend my list to allow for this song because I am officially 100% sure that this is the best song Baroness has ever written. It features a majestic intro that serves as a perfect preface and then it launches headfirst into the epic guitar harmonies that line the entire song. The verse features a nice transition into some almost Torche-esque hook-driven heavy psychedelic pop which transitions back into an extraordinarily powerful chorus. I absolutely can't get enough of the guitar solo on this song and the scathing tone with which it drips. There's another solo like this in the song "Jake Leg" but it's nowhere near the brilliance of this solo...one of the best solos I've heard in quite a long time to be honest. And then what puts it over the top is the way it comes crashing to a close with a soaring instrumental outro that will send chills down your spine.
18. System of a Down - Question!
By a long margin, this is the most challenging, creative, and perhaps the best-crafted song in System of a Down's catalog. The haunting picked acoustic intro gives way to a sick riff in 5/4 time which then gives way to a highly complex 9/8 time verse that I had to listen to about 10 times before I could really figure out what time signature it was in, especially the way it's phrased. It also features one of the signature epic choruses of the "Mesmerize/Hypnotize" double album with their best soaring harmonies since the closing moments of "Chop Suey!" It's so rare nowadays to see a band that can challenge listeners with truly unique music that features things like odd time signatures or complex song structures and still garner massive popularity along the way. System of a Down is one of those bands. I can really only think of maybe two other examples of such bands--each is featured twice in the top 15 of this countdown.
17. Mare - They Sent You
I'm sure I don't have to tell anyone that this is probably the most esoteric selection on my list. It is certainly my opinion that Mare is by far the best band to ever record only five original songs and go almost completely unnoticed, even in the underground. I was lucky enough to see this band live--ironically we got there late and missed the first song they played, which was this song, a fact that haunts me to this very day--and they played to a room that would have held about 50 people at capacity and probably held about 20 that night. I guess it's not difficult to imagine this band not being for everyone. Their music is extremely challenging and complex, similar in many ways to the music of Baroness in that they are able to so seamlessly combine so many different elements and push genre boundaries. However, their approach is far more avant garde than that of Baroness, opting for towering, unsettling atmospheres and brooding, restrained rhythms, often not staying on a beat for long if there even is a beat. This song is a mindfuck from the very beginning, leading off with some very eerie programming and singing before nosediving into massive stoner rock riffs with beautifully complex guitar chords that are about as far from power chords as you can get and still be ridiculously heavy--this guitar work has actually been a major influence on my playing and my songwriting as a whole. The most compelling moment of this song comes toward the end as the music abruptly pauses for a very ominous guitar chord that almost sounds like an alarm being sounded, a chord which is then coupled with some distortion and some huge, sluggish stoner riffing to create a truly ominous atmosphere--an atmosphere abandoned as abruptly as it is ushered in as it quickly gives way to a beautiful guitar outro that almost speaks to you, saying: "everything is ok now."
16. At the Drive-In - Invalid Litter Dept.
A far cry from the chaotic assault of the rest of the "Relationship of Command" album, this song showcases the lighter side of At the Drive-In with a beautifully unsettling guitar line as its centerpiece. The verses are noticeably relaxed compared to much of this band's work but they're juxtaposed very nicely with rapid-fire incendiary spoken word vocals to create an interesting urgency among the restraint of the instrumentation. The vocal ramblings are also interspliced with the catchy and haunting melody of "dancing on the corpses ashes." The choruses are catchy and a bit more rowdy but ultimately play into the relaxed atmosphere of the song perfectly. What really puts this song over the top is what happens after the music abruptly stops toward the end of the song for vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala to whisper "dancing on the corpses ashes...dancing on the corpses ashes." You'll see...
15. Dredg - Triangle
Another track that is very much enhanced by being preceded by an interlude that makes for a very fitting preface. Much like Baroness's "Wanderlust", however, it stands up spectacularly on its own. What really made me pick this over other Dredg songs--and there are certainly a number of them I could have picked--is the fact that this song is almost like 2-3 songs put together, abruptly but seamlessly changing gears twice in the first two minutes and even a couple times after that to some degree. After those two minutes the song is truly allowed to settle in and even without all the abrupt pacing changes stands as one of Dredg's greatest achievements in songwriting and melody as well as lyrics. Some brilliantly poignant moments in this song include singer Gavin Hayes soaring through one of my favorite lyrics ever--"and it's not impossible for flowers to bloom and grow next to graves when babies are born in the same buildings where people go to pass away"--as the instruments trail out momentarily behind him and a droning chant of "we live like penguins in the desert...why can't we live like tribes?" in the song's bridge.
14. Radiohead - Idioteque
Leave it to Radiohead to write a discoteque song that is all at once the best discoteque song you'll ever hear and a big "fuck you" to discoteque in general. This is probably the most well-known example of Radiohead's trademark knack for marrying aggressive yet organic sounding techno beats with sometimes-eerie, sometimes-serene, always-beautiful melodies. I can still remember seeing this song performed on Saturday Night Live and Thom Yorke flailing his head around screaming "ice age coming! ice age coming!" An interesting aspect of this song is how much it has been connected with 9/11, with one fan even making a very interesting and relevant music video for the song using some interesting footage and photography. In fact, if you want to go even deeper, there's a whole passage in Chuck Klosterman's book "Killing Yourself to Live" about how he Radiohead might have accidentally predicted the events of 9/11 with their "Kid A" album--not literally, of course, but there are definitely some very interesting parallels.
13. Bright Eyes - Nothing Gets Crossed Out
As is often the case in the music of Conor Oberst, this song is carried predominantly by the power of his lyrics. A solemn, self-reflective, nostalgia-inducing merry-go-round ride of achingly powerful lines like "I know I should be brave but I'm just too afraid of all this change", opening lines "well the future's got me worried such awful thoughts, my head's a carousel of pictures, the spinning never stops", and boyhood laments of how he "fell under the weight of a schoolboy crush, started carrying her books and doing lots of drugs." But as is also often the case with Conor's work, the lyrics are nestled on a solid foundation of beautifully crafted music, including a gorgeous, starkly sweet bridge that gives way to a powerful conclusion as Oberst wails: "So when I'm lost in a crowd, I hope that you'll pick me out. Oh, how I long to be found. The grass grew high. I laid down. So now I wait for a hand to lift me up, help me stand. I have been laying so low. Don't wanna lay here no more."
12. Envy - Chain Wondering Deeply
There's really only one word that inevitably comes to mind when one talks about Envy, there's no avoiding it, it's the only one that lives up to what this band is capable of: EPIC. With songs that sprawl over 6, 7, 8, even 9 minutes sometimes and echo with the majesty and ferocity of Vesuvius, it's hard to avoid using the word "epic" when describing any Envy song--and no song they've written better embodies that than this one. It's not hard to imagine what's about to be unleashed upon you when you hear the haunting opening moments of this track but even then it can take you by surprise. I know I keep using this adjective (among others) but this song is truly one where the music (and specifically the guitars) truly tower over you like skyscrapers. That is, until the harrowing bridge of the song which features a twinkly guitar line that will pluck at your very heart strings--and if I'm being overly cheesy, it's purposefully. The only problem listening to this song is that if you don't have the whole album playing then the ending is awkward since it tumbles immediately into the next track on the album. That aside, though, if you truly love powerful, epic, dramatic music, this song just might change your life.
11. Tool - Right in Two
I have to say it's really a damn good thing that Aenima was released in 1996 otherwise I might have put half that album on the list. Tool's output in this millenium has never really lived up to the sheer brilliance of that album but, to be fair, that would be nearly impossible. Their last album, "10,000 Days" came much, much closer than 2001's "Lateralus" did--I often say that "10,000 Days" is the album I expected and the album Tool was capable of when they came out with "Lateralus" even though I still adore "Lateralus." This song is one of the main reasons why. Lyrically it's definitely one of my favorite Tool songs, to the point that if I were to quote every line I love in this song, I would probably end up covering at least 75% of the song. It also features a breathtaking tabla solo by drummer Danny Carey in the interlude that I had the good fortune of witnessing live and is truly something to behold--actually the tabla solo on the record is not even close to being as amazing as the one he played live. Add in the fact that this song is somehow in 11/8 time and still feels pretty much like a straight up 3 and you absolutely have yourself one of the greatest songs of this decade.
Tune in tomorrow for the TOP TEN. I keep staring at the top ten as I write this and drooling all over myself at the prospect of discussing these songs. Since I can barely contain my excitement, I'll give you guys a little teaser: 6 of the top 10 slots are occupied by bands who have already had at least one song on the countdown, one of which appears in the top ten twice...and yet doesn't even hold the top spot. Excited? I AM!
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Top 50 Songs of the 2000s (just missed the cut)
I thought it only fair to do a little side feature about the songs that would have been on the list if I only had the energy to do a top 100 instead of a top 50...but uh...fuck that...so here's a look at the tracks that just missed the cut:
Sigur Ros – Untitled Track 1
Converge – You Fail Me
Converge - Plagues
Queens of the Stone Age – First It Giveth
Queens of the Stone Age – No One Knows
Queens of the Stone Age – Feel Good Hit of the Summer
The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (Pt. 1)
dredg – Of the Room
Mastodon – Sleeping Giant
Mastodon – March of the Fire Ants
Streetlight Manifesto – A Better Place, A Better Time
Deftones – Passenger
Deftones – Change (In the House of Flies)
The Mountain Goats – No Children
System of a Down – Toxicity
System of a Down – Lost In Hollywood
System of a Down – Soldierside
The Weakerthans – Reconstruction Site
The Weakerthans – Psalm for the Elks Lodge Last Call
The Weakerthans – Presience of Dawn
Ben Folds – Still Fighting It
Propagandhi - Mate Ka Moris Ukun Rasik An
Propagandhi – Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes
Propagandhi – Purina Hall of Fame
Thrice – Hold Fast Hope
Deathspell Omega – Bread of Bitterness
Funeral Mist – Circle of Eyes
A Perfect Circle - Judith
Circle Takes the Square – Interview at the Ruins
The Hold Steady – First Night
Talib Kweli – Get By
Majority Rule – The Sin in Grey
Aphex Twin – Vordhosbn
The Bouncing Souls – Night Train
The Bouncing Souls – Anchors Aweigh
Bright Eyes – Haligh, Haligh, a Lie, Haligh
Dr. Dre – Forgot About Dre
Dr. Dre – Still D.R.E.
Eminem – Kill You
Green Day – Jesus of Suburbia
Green Day – Wake Me Up When September Ends
John Mayer – Slow Dancing in a Burning Room
John Mayer – The Hurt
Kelly Clarkson – Since U Been Gone
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Stadium Arcadium
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Slow Cheetah
Thursday – Paris In Flames
Thursday – Standing On the Edge of Summer
Thursday – How Long Is the Night?
Thursday – War All the Time
Sigur Ros – Untitled Track 1
Converge – You Fail Me
Converge - Plagues
Queens of the Stone Age – First It Giveth
Queens of the Stone Age – No One Knows
Queens of the Stone Age – Feel Good Hit of the Summer
The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (Pt. 1)
dredg – Of the Room
Mastodon – Sleeping Giant
Mastodon – March of the Fire Ants
Streetlight Manifesto – A Better Place, A Better Time
Deftones – Passenger
Deftones – Change (In the House of Flies)
The Mountain Goats – No Children
System of a Down – Toxicity
System of a Down – Lost In Hollywood
System of a Down – Soldierside
The Weakerthans – Reconstruction Site
The Weakerthans – Psalm for the Elks Lodge Last Call
The Weakerthans – Presience of Dawn
Ben Folds – Still Fighting It
Propagandhi - Mate Ka Moris Ukun Rasik An
Propagandhi – Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes
Propagandhi – Purina Hall of Fame
Thrice – Hold Fast Hope
Deathspell Omega – Bread of Bitterness
Funeral Mist – Circle of Eyes
A Perfect Circle - Judith
Circle Takes the Square – Interview at the Ruins
The Hold Steady – First Night
Talib Kweli – Get By
Majority Rule – The Sin in Grey
Aphex Twin – Vordhosbn
The Bouncing Souls – Night Train
The Bouncing Souls – Anchors Aweigh
Bright Eyes – Haligh, Haligh, a Lie, Haligh
Dr. Dre – Forgot About Dre
Dr. Dre – Still D.R.E.
Eminem – Kill You
Green Day – Jesus of Suburbia
Green Day – Wake Me Up When September Ends
John Mayer – Slow Dancing in a Burning Room
John Mayer – The Hurt
Kelly Clarkson – Since U Been Gone
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Stadium Arcadium
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Slow Cheetah
Thursday – Paris In Flames
Thursday – Standing On the Edge of Summer
Thursday – How Long Is the Night?
Thursday – War All the Time
Top 50 Songs of the 2000s (30-21)
Sorry for missing a day or two but now is the time to start getting excited cuz we're starting to get into some songs I really, REALLY like a lot. Once we start getting into the top 20 I'm gonna start really gushing uncontrollably about some of these songs. Well let's get started already...
30. Mono - 16.12
A few years ago a friend of mine told me there was this band from Japan who were kind of in the same style as Explosions in the Sky and Mogwai and that I should check out their (at the time) newest album entitled--brace yourself--"Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined." I'm always up for some good epic ambient post-rock type stuff so I checked out the album. This is the first song on that album. It's a long journey, clocking in at over 10 minutes, but when the 10 minutes are over it will seem all too soon and you'll be anxiously awaiting the rest of the album. It starts with the soothing sound of waves crashing on a shore, soon joined by some solemn violin harmonies, both of which eventually give way to the quiet first of many layers of sound that lay one on top of the other gradually as the song progresses. The driving force of the song soon becomes apparent in a perpetually ascending delay-soaked tremolo-picked guitar line climbing to towering heights before exploding into a beautiful climax which eventually trails off back into the subtle tones of the intro of the song.
29. The Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
Another fantastic opening track of an album that really impressed me when I heard it. The Arcade Fire has a really great sense for making music that is at once memorable, accessible, unique, compelling, dramatic, and interesting, something exceedingly hard to do. This song is such a joyful explosion from the very first note, it's no wonder they made it track 1 on their breakthrough "Funeral" album. At times this band actually tends to remind me a little bit of Jimmy Eat World with their use of sweet, twinkly indie rock moments, however Win Butler's wild wailing vocals lend the music a captivating, almost At-the-Drive-In-esque exuberance and does so much to make their sound truly their own.
28. The Weakerthans - Aside
If you've ever seen the movie Wedding Crashers, chances are you've heard this song without even knowing it--it's the song that plays over the closing credits. I can remember walking out of the theater after seeing the movie and being taken by complete surprise when I heard John K. Sampson's unmistakable voice over the end credits of a "Frat Pack" movie. Sampson is undoubtedly one of the least well-known great songwriters of this generation and you don't have to listen to very many Weakerthans songs to figure out why. His undeniable wit and charm shine through not only in his brilliant lyrics but in the songs themselves. This is probably one of the more simple but also more powerful songs in The Weakerthans' catalog and is, of course, chock full of amazing lines including a fantastic bridge--"Circumnavigate this body of wonder and uncertainty armed with every precious failure; an amateur cartography. I breathe in deep before I spread those maps out on my bedroom floor"--and an unforgettable chorus--"and I'm leaning on this broken fence between past and present tense...and I'm losing all those stupid games that I swore I'd never play...but it almost feels OK."
27. Outkast – B.O.B.
In the Pitchfork Media feature I cited as my inspiration for this little article of mine, this song was given the honor of being the #1 song of the decade. The reasoning is sound enough, specifically when you factor in popularity and social relevance more heavily. As Pitchfork says, "'B.O.B.' is not just the song of the decade--it is the decade" going on to note that with Bombs Over Baghdad, Outkast "effectively craft[ed] a fast-forwarded highlight-reel prophecy of what the next 10 years held in store." It's hard to argue considering that the very title of the song was eerily prophetic but the power of this song goes so far beyond its title and subject matter. It's such a glorious onslaught of danceable but incendiary bombast that its universal appeal should be no surprise and the soulful choir makes this song almost a religious experience.
26. Envy - Color of Fetters
The first (and certainly not the last) Envy song on my countdown. Envy is an epic screamo band from Japan and when I say epic I mean...EPIC. The great thing about this song is that it doesn't waste any time, it grabs you right from the get-go and doesn't let go. Characteristically of Envy, this 7 minute ride is wrought with dynamic contrast and powerful moments from the swirling opening to the desolate middle refrain and so, so much more. I can't do much to describe the roller coaster ride you embark on when listening to an Envy song, you're just going to have to take the ride for yourself.
25. Tool - The Grudge
As much as I love everything Tool has ever done, I've always felt like Tool was capable of much more with the "Lateralus" album. It's still an incredible record but I felt like it was a bit weighted down by its own self-conscious arty-ness and that a few of the tracks were weak by Tool standards ("Schism", "Parabol"/"Parabola", "Ticks and Leeches"). Still it did offer some typically brilliant moments that Tool can always be counted on for, such as "The Patient", the epic prog-driven suite of "Disposition"/"Reflection"/"Triad", and this immensely powerful opening track. Set in the challenging time signature of 5/4 with a sort of 3ish feel to it, this song features some of the best songwriting Tool is capable of such as the fleeting pounding riff with the bass drum doubling in speed under it every measure and then giving way to a beautifully desolate bass line which builds (with the help of the drums) and carries over into the verse. It also features one of the great ending climaxes of any song in Tool's catalog and that's a major compliment because that's really Tool's modus operandi.
24. Baroness - Rays On Pinion
I vividly remember the first time I heard Baroness's "Red Album"--of which this is the opening track. I smoked a huge bowl and put on this record as I packed another one. When those opening guitar tones hit my stoned ears it was like biting into a filet mignon you can cut with a butter knife...and it was only going to get better. The lead-off track of "Red Album" is a much more raucous one than "Wailing Wintry Wind", much heavier on the heavy stoner riffage and classic rock guitar noodling with the exception of the intro, however there is no shortage of Baroness's impeccable sense of melody.
23. Converge - Thaw
This may be one of the hardest songs for most people reading this to get into for many of the same reasons I named it one of my top 50. This song is just one serious mindfuck--sonically it just sounds to me like a person in the depths of a serious mental breakdown. And you'll know when they snap as this is one of the most powerful moments on the entire "Jane Doe" album--very lofty praise, well deserved. If you're one of the few who is actually interested in checking out the songs I'm talking about on this list, definitely keep a very open mind when going into this one (and also make sure to listen to it all the way to the end or you might miss the best part).
22. Bright Eyes - From a Balance Beam
Another one of the Bright Eyes catalog that is overflowing with potent imagery and powerful lyrical lines. This song became something of a rallying cry for me personally in the months leading up to last year's election and with lines like "so I wait for the day when I hear the key as it turns in the lock and the guard will say to me 'oh, my patient prisoner you've waited for this day and finally you are free...you are free...you are freezing." One of the more powerful Bright Eyes songs in Oberst's catalog with some scathing but beautiful songwriting and absolutely incredible lyrics.
21. Thrice - Daedalus
On Thrice's "The Artist in the Ambulance" album they had a song called "The Melting Point of Wax" that was written from the point of view of Icarus. Icarus was the son of Daedalus and they were both imprisoned by the Minotaur in the Labyrinth so Daedalus constructed wings for the two of them to escape using wax, string, and feathers from nearby birds. Where "The Melting Point of Wax" is full of the youthful exuberance of Icarus wanting to "touch the sun" flying on "secondhand wings", "Daedalus" has a mournful tone of a loving father worrying for his son, a very potent metaphor for fatherhood. Singer Dustin Kensrue soars on a desperate bridge: "Oh Gods, why is this happening to me? All I wanted was a new life, for my son to grow up free. Now you took the only thing that meant anything to me. I will never fly again. I'll hang up my wings." When I say this is one of the most powerful and one of the best songs Thrice has ever written, you should know I'm not fucking around here.
30. Mono - 16.12
A few years ago a friend of mine told me there was this band from Japan who were kind of in the same style as Explosions in the Sky and Mogwai and that I should check out their (at the time) newest album entitled--brace yourself--"Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined." I'm always up for some good epic ambient post-rock type stuff so I checked out the album. This is the first song on that album. It's a long journey, clocking in at over 10 minutes, but when the 10 minutes are over it will seem all too soon and you'll be anxiously awaiting the rest of the album. It starts with the soothing sound of waves crashing on a shore, soon joined by some solemn violin harmonies, both of which eventually give way to the quiet first of many layers of sound that lay one on top of the other gradually as the song progresses. The driving force of the song soon becomes apparent in a perpetually ascending delay-soaked tremolo-picked guitar line climbing to towering heights before exploding into a beautiful climax which eventually trails off back into the subtle tones of the intro of the song.
29. The Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
Another fantastic opening track of an album that really impressed me when I heard it. The Arcade Fire has a really great sense for making music that is at once memorable, accessible, unique, compelling, dramatic, and interesting, something exceedingly hard to do. This song is such a joyful explosion from the very first note, it's no wonder they made it track 1 on their breakthrough "Funeral" album. At times this band actually tends to remind me a little bit of Jimmy Eat World with their use of sweet, twinkly indie rock moments, however Win Butler's wild wailing vocals lend the music a captivating, almost At-the-Drive-In-esque exuberance and does so much to make their sound truly their own.
28. The Weakerthans - Aside
If you've ever seen the movie Wedding Crashers, chances are you've heard this song without even knowing it--it's the song that plays over the closing credits. I can remember walking out of the theater after seeing the movie and being taken by complete surprise when I heard John K. Sampson's unmistakable voice over the end credits of a "Frat Pack" movie. Sampson is undoubtedly one of the least well-known great songwriters of this generation and you don't have to listen to very many Weakerthans songs to figure out why. His undeniable wit and charm shine through not only in his brilliant lyrics but in the songs themselves. This is probably one of the more simple but also more powerful songs in The Weakerthans' catalog and is, of course, chock full of amazing lines including a fantastic bridge--"Circumnavigate this body of wonder and uncertainty armed with every precious failure; an amateur cartography. I breathe in deep before I spread those maps out on my bedroom floor"--and an unforgettable chorus--"and I'm leaning on this broken fence between past and present tense...and I'm losing all those stupid games that I swore I'd never play...but it almost feels OK."
27. Outkast – B.O.B.
In the Pitchfork Media feature I cited as my inspiration for this little article of mine, this song was given the honor of being the #1 song of the decade. The reasoning is sound enough, specifically when you factor in popularity and social relevance more heavily. As Pitchfork says, "'B.O.B.' is not just the song of the decade--it is the decade" going on to note that with Bombs Over Baghdad, Outkast "effectively craft[ed] a fast-forwarded highlight-reel prophecy of what the next 10 years held in store." It's hard to argue considering that the very title of the song was eerily prophetic but the power of this song goes so far beyond its title and subject matter. It's such a glorious onslaught of danceable but incendiary bombast that its universal appeal should be no surprise and the soulful choir makes this song almost a religious experience.
26. Envy - Color of Fetters
The first (and certainly not the last) Envy song on my countdown. Envy is an epic screamo band from Japan and when I say epic I mean...EPIC. The great thing about this song is that it doesn't waste any time, it grabs you right from the get-go and doesn't let go. Characteristically of Envy, this 7 minute ride is wrought with dynamic contrast and powerful moments from the swirling opening to the desolate middle refrain and so, so much more. I can't do much to describe the roller coaster ride you embark on when listening to an Envy song, you're just going to have to take the ride for yourself.
25. Tool - The Grudge
As much as I love everything Tool has ever done, I've always felt like Tool was capable of much more with the "Lateralus" album. It's still an incredible record but I felt like it was a bit weighted down by its own self-conscious arty-ness and that a few of the tracks were weak by Tool standards ("Schism", "Parabol"/"Parabola", "Ticks and Leeches"). Still it did offer some typically brilliant moments that Tool can always be counted on for, such as "The Patient", the epic prog-driven suite of "Disposition"/"Reflection"/"Triad", and this immensely powerful opening track. Set in the challenging time signature of 5/4 with a sort of 3ish feel to it, this song features some of the best songwriting Tool is capable of such as the fleeting pounding riff with the bass drum doubling in speed under it every measure and then giving way to a beautifully desolate bass line which builds (with the help of the drums) and carries over into the verse. It also features one of the great ending climaxes of any song in Tool's catalog and that's a major compliment because that's really Tool's modus operandi.
24. Baroness - Rays On Pinion
I vividly remember the first time I heard Baroness's "Red Album"--of which this is the opening track. I smoked a huge bowl and put on this record as I packed another one. When those opening guitar tones hit my stoned ears it was like biting into a filet mignon you can cut with a butter knife...and it was only going to get better. The lead-off track of "Red Album" is a much more raucous one than "Wailing Wintry Wind", much heavier on the heavy stoner riffage and classic rock guitar noodling with the exception of the intro, however there is no shortage of Baroness's impeccable sense of melody.
23. Converge - Thaw
This may be one of the hardest songs for most people reading this to get into for many of the same reasons I named it one of my top 50. This song is just one serious mindfuck--sonically it just sounds to me like a person in the depths of a serious mental breakdown. And you'll know when they snap as this is one of the most powerful moments on the entire "Jane Doe" album--very lofty praise, well deserved. If you're one of the few who is actually interested in checking out the songs I'm talking about on this list, definitely keep a very open mind when going into this one (and also make sure to listen to it all the way to the end or you might miss the best part).
22. Bright Eyes - From a Balance Beam
Another one of the Bright Eyes catalog that is overflowing with potent imagery and powerful lyrical lines. This song became something of a rallying cry for me personally in the months leading up to last year's election and with lines like "so I wait for the day when I hear the key as it turns in the lock and the guard will say to me 'oh, my patient prisoner you've waited for this day and finally you are free...you are free...you are freezing." One of the more powerful Bright Eyes songs in Oberst's catalog with some scathing but beautiful songwriting and absolutely incredible lyrics.
21. Thrice - Daedalus
On Thrice's "The Artist in the Ambulance" album they had a song called "The Melting Point of Wax" that was written from the point of view of Icarus. Icarus was the son of Daedalus and they were both imprisoned by the Minotaur in the Labyrinth so Daedalus constructed wings for the two of them to escape using wax, string, and feathers from nearby birds. Where "The Melting Point of Wax" is full of the youthful exuberance of Icarus wanting to "touch the sun" flying on "secondhand wings", "Daedalus" has a mournful tone of a loving father worrying for his son, a very potent metaphor for fatherhood. Singer Dustin Kensrue soars on a desperate bridge: "Oh Gods, why is this happening to me? All I wanted was a new life, for my son to grow up free. Now you took the only thing that meant anything to me. I will never fly again. I'll hang up my wings." When I say this is one of the most powerful and one of the best songs Thrice has ever written, you should know I'm not fucking around here.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
And the Nominees Are...
I thought it would be fun if I made a list here of all the albums I'm currently considering for my customary list of the top 10 records of the year...here are (some of) the nominees for 2009 (there could certainly be new contenders arising between now and December 31st):
Thrice - Beggars (likely will be #1 barring some sort of miracle)
Converge - Axe to Fall
Baroness - Blue Album
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion
Mastodon - Crack the Skye
Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
Amorphis - Skyforger
Kylesa - Static Tensions
Isis - Wavering Radiant
Dredg - The Pariah, the Parrot, the Delusion
Mono - Hymn to the Immortal Wind
Buried Inside - Spoils of Failure
Propagandhi - Supporting Caste
Wilco - Wilco (The Album)
Coalesce - OX
Thursday - Common Existence
The Mars Volta - Octahedron
Minsk - With Echoes in the Movement of Stone
...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of the Dead - The Century of Self
Poison the Well - The Tropic Rot
Wu Tang Clan - Chamber Music
Lucero - 1372 Overton Park
Between the Buried and Me - The Great Misdirect
Russian Circles - Geneva
Flight of the Conchords - I Told You I Was Freaky
Thrice - Beggars (likely will be #1 barring some sort of miracle)
Converge - Axe to Fall
Baroness - Blue Album
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion
Mastodon - Crack the Skye
Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
Amorphis - Skyforger
Kylesa - Static Tensions
Isis - Wavering Radiant
Dredg - The Pariah, the Parrot, the Delusion
Mono - Hymn to the Immortal Wind
Buried Inside - Spoils of Failure
Propagandhi - Supporting Caste
Wilco - Wilco (The Album)
Coalesce - OX
Thursday - Common Existence
The Mars Volta - Octahedron
Minsk - With Echoes in the Movement of Stone
...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of the Dead - The Century of Self
Poison the Well - The Tropic Rot
Wu Tang Clan - Chamber Music
Lucero - 1372 Overton Park
Between the Buried and Me - The Great Misdirect
Russian Circles - Geneva
Flight of the Conchords - I Told You I Was Freaky
Monday, August 31, 2009
Top 50 Songs of the 2000s (40-31)
40. Deftones - Knife Prty
I have to admit that I have a pretty heavy bias when it comes to this album--as the old cliche goes, "this album got me through some tough times." I have a lot of very emotional memories attached to this disc but I promise that didn't influence me in picking this song (too much). This song is just such an emotional ride and features some impressive drum work by Abe Cunningham. The epic, swirling ending featuring the chilling vocal performance of Rodleen Getsick gives me goosebumps every time. Just such a powerful, epic, haunting, borderline disturbing song by one of my favorite bands since high school, I had to give it a spot on the countdown.
39. Dredg – The Canyon Behind Her
To say this is the most epic song in the diverse Dredg catalog is a far bigger compliment than you might even realize. I've always thought Dredg was one of the most underrated bands I had ever heard. Every time I show this band to someone they're always blown away by how beautiful, unique, and moving their music is and yet they never really seem to garner the audience they deserve, never really fitting into a particular niche or scene. The title of this song is very fitting because as soon as it kicks in you can feel the sensation of standing at the edge of a great canyon looking over the scenery. The epic, flowing melodies of the guitars blanket you like a massive waterfall and then drop you into outer space with a characteristically (for this album, anyway) quicker-paced spacey verse before letting you fall back to earth into the waterfall. The towering final moments of the song are accentuated by an ethereal choral arrangement that ends up being the last thing you hear before cutting off abruptly, completing the journey.
38. The Mars Volta - Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of)
I often have a hard time deciding whether I prefer At the Drive-In's swan song "Relationship of Command" or The Mars Volta's full-length debut "De-Loused in the Comatorium." Generally it depends on whether I'm in the mood for raw, irrepressible emotion or well-developed melodies and epic prog-rock atmospheres. The Mars Volta also tends to be a band that tries a little too hard sometimes and gets lost in their own sprawling prog sensibilities, especially on the albums that followed their debut full length. This song is The Mars Volta at their best with flowing, dynamic songwriting marked by a towering chorus and some brilliant musicianship in the bridge, especially by drummer Jon Theodore.
37. Baroness - Wailing Wintry Wind
Baroness is a band unlike any other you'll ever hear and, as a result, possibly one of the most accessible and without question one of the most unique metal bands currently in existence. I know some of you might find it hard to believe you would ever like a band that could be referred to as "metal" but Baroness is the furthest thing from your typical metal band. They manage to pack everything from massive stoner rock riffs to beautifully serene melodic guitar harmonies to classic rock noodling and rhythms and more into each song they craft--and I do mean craft. "Wailing Wintry Wind" is compelling for its snowballing progression from the hushed atmospheric tones of the intro to the snare-driven build-up that teases you by dropping into an uneasy sounding plucked guitar line before really going into high gear. Baroness's unique talent for dynamics is especially prevalent throughout this song, which is almost bereft of any scathing metal riffs or guttural growls, opting instead for deep, gravelly, bombastic vocal melodies and atmospheric tones that are as mesmerizing as they are moving.
36. The Hold Steady - Southtown Girls
And so we come to our first repeat offender on the list, The Hold Steady. I saw The Hold Steady live in Orlando in December of 2006 and was kind of blown away by how phenomenal they were live. Full of the energy and exuberance that flows forth from many of the tracks on "Boys and Girls in America"--and it was only fitting that they played almost every song from that album which is so chock full of joyous, anthemic choruses. This was the last song they played before the encore and couldn't have been a more fitting close for their initial set--it also closes out the "Boys and Girls in America album--and when you hear it, you'll understand why. Craig Finn's poignant crooning of "southtown girls won't blow you away...but you know that they'll stay" is impossible to resist singing along to--even if you don't know the words...which you do now. That impeccably catchy line is followed by an equally catchy guitar riff ushering in the verse of the song, however it pales in comparison to the catchy-ness of the chorus which will be stuck in your head for days to come: "southtown girls won't blow you away...but you know that they'll stay"
35. The Bouncing Souls - Gone
The first (and by FAR the best) time I saw The Bouncing Souls live, singer Greg Attonito prefaced this song by saying "this is for anyone who's ever gone through a hard time in life...just remember it gets better and tomorrow the sun will rise...this song is about that, it's called Gone." That's this song in a nutshell; the triumphant closing song of "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" is one of the most uplifting, most powerful, and easily one of the best pop punk songs I've ever heard (there are only two pop punk songs ahead of this one on the list. Attonito's ultra powerful pipes carry the soaring melody of "It was a darkness all my own...a song played on the radio...it went straight to my heart...I carried it with me until the darkness was...GOOOOOOOOONE"--that elongated "gone" signifying one of the most powerful, infectious hooks I've ever heard. If you didn't think pop punk could be beautiful, you need to hear this song.
34. Outkast - Ms. Jackson
Repeat artist #2. Another in a long line of infectious Outkast hits with a ridiculously catchy beat, an even more ridiculously catchy chorus (sang in a weirdly endearing out-of-tune wail) complete with Andre and Big Boi's brilliant, passionate lyrics. This song has a unique soulfulness to it that almost reminds me of Bone Thugs's "Tha Crossroads" and gives the track a timeless quality. When all these elements combine they make for an absolutely unforgettable song.
33. Bright Eyes - Something Vague
Lyrically, it would be tough to find a better song in the Bright Eyes catalog than this, which is really saying something. The vividness of Conor Oberst's storytelling is never so brilliantly accentuated as it is here as the song almost plays out like a miniature film in your head. When he wails "and then the bridge disappears and i'm standing on air with nothing holding me" I can really visualize myself standing, in that moment, on an old medieval bridge that has suddenly disappeared--as a matter of fact, I can't not imagine that. And those flutes. Oh, those flutes. Conor Oberst never fails to disappoint when he decides to take you on a journey through his whimsical mind.
32. Radiohead - Knives Out
Sadly nestled in one of Radiohead's most overlooked albums (and although some consider it a collection of b-sides from Kid A, the band has said the two albums should be considered "twins separated at birth"...and honestly it is a phenomenal album that has some brilliant tracks like "You and Whose Army?", "Pyramid Song", "I Might Be Wrong", and others), "Knives Out" is a song about cannibalism. It's not hard to imagine, with lines such as "So knives out...Cook him up...Squash his head...Put him in the pot." Radiohead's unique talent for unsettling atmospheric chord progressions is very apparent in this song, and perhaps fittingly, considering the subject matter. If Amnesiac really were to be consider a b-sides collection from the Kid A sessions then I would think this would be a song that Radiohead would be kicking themselves for not including on Kid A.
31. Eminem - Stan
I had never even heard the Dido song that this beat was sampled from before I heard this song. When I checked out the Dido song after learning of what song it was, I was pretty disappointed that it didn't live up to the dark, sweet melancholy of that clip from the verse and certainly of this entire song. A very compelling and poignant (if a tad egotistical) concept for this song really accentuated that darkness in the melodies of Dido and made for an extremely powerful song. What really put it over the top was a pretty intense music video featuring a pretty decent performance from Devon Sawa as the crazed fan.
I have to admit that I have a pretty heavy bias when it comes to this album--as the old cliche goes, "this album got me through some tough times." I have a lot of very emotional memories attached to this disc but I promise that didn't influence me in picking this song (too much). This song is just such an emotional ride and features some impressive drum work by Abe Cunningham. The epic, swirling ending featuring the chilling vocal performance of Rodleen Getsick gives me goosebumps every time. Just such a powerful, epic, haunting, borderline disturbing song by one of my favorite bands since high school, I had to give it a spot on the countdown.
39. Dredg – The Canyon Behind Her
To say this is the most epic song in the diverse Dredg catalog is a far bigger compliment than you might even realize. I've always thought Dredg was one of the most underrated bands I had ever heard. Every time I show this band to someone they're always blown away by how beautiful, unique, and moving their music is and yet they never really seem to garner the audience they deserve, never really fitting into a particular niche or scene. The title of this song is very fitting because as soon as it kicks in you can feel the sensation of standing at the edge of a great canyon looking over the scenery. The epic, flowing melodies of the guitars blanket you like a massive waterfall and then drop you into outer space with a characteristically (for this album, anyway) quicker-paced spacey verse before letting you fall back to earth into the waterfall. The towering final moments of the song are accentuated by an ethereal choral arrangement that ends up being the last thing you hear before cutting off abruptly, completing the journey.
38. The Mars Volta - Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of)
I often have a hard time deciding whether I prefer At the Drive-In's swan song "Relationship of Command" or The Mars Volta's full-length debut "De-Loused in the Comatorium." Generally it depends on whether I'm in the mood for raw, irrepressible emotion or well-developed melodies and epic prog-rock atmospheres. The Mars Volta also tends to be a band that tries a little too hard sometimes and gets lost in their own sprawling prog sensibilities, especially on the albums that followed their debut full length. This song is The Mars Volta at their best with flowing, dynamic songwriting marked by a towering chorus and some brilliant musicianship in the bridge, especially by drummer Jon Theodore.
37. Baroness - Wailing Wintry Wind
Baroness is a band unlike any other you'll ever hear and, as a result, possibly one of the most accessible and without question one of the most unique metal bands currently in existence. I know some of you might find it hard to believe you would ever like a band that could be referred to as "metal" but Baroness is the furthest thing from your typical metal band. They manage to pack everything from massive stoner rock riffs to beautifully serene melodic guitar harmonies to classic rock noodling and rhythms and more into each song they craft--and I do mean craft. "Wailing Wintry Wind" is compelling for its snowballing progression from the hushed atmospheric tones of the intro to the snare-driven build-up that teases you by dropping into an uneasy sounding plucked guitar line before really going into high gear. Baroness's unique talent for dynamics is especially prevalent throughout this song, which is almost bereft of any scathing metal riffs or guttural growls, opting instead for deep, gravelly, bombastic vocal melodies and atmospheric tones that are as mesmerizing as they are moving.
36. The Hold Steady - Southtown Girls
And so we come to our first repeat offender on the list, The Hold Steady. I saw The Hold Steady live in Orlando in December of 2006 and was kind of blown away by how phenomenal they were live. Full of the energy and exuberance that flows forth from many of the tracks on "Boys and Girls in America"--and it was only fitting that they played almost every song from that album which is so chock full of joyous, anthemic choruses. This was the last song they played before the encore and couldn't have been a more fitting close for their initial set--it also closes out the "Boys and Girls in America album--and when you hear it, you'll understand why. Craig Finn's poignant crooning of "southtown girls won't blow you away...but you know that they'll stay" is impossible to resist singing along to--even if you don't know the words...which you do now. That impeccably catchy line is followed by an equally catchy guitar riff ushering in the verse of the song, however it pales in comparison to the catchy-ness of the chorus which will be stuck in your head for days to come: "southtown girls won't blow you away...but you know that they'll stay"
35. The Bouncing Souls - Gone
The first (and by FAR the best) time I saw The Bouncing Souls live, singer Greg Attonito prefaced this song by saying "this is for anyone who's ever gone through a hard time in life...just remember it gets better and tomorrow the sun will rise...this song is about that, it's called Gone." That's this song in a nutshell; the triumphant closing song of "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" is one of the most uplifting, most powerful, and easily one of the best pop punk songs I've ever heard (there are only two pop punk songs ahead of this one on the list. Attonito's ultra powerful pipes carry the soaring melody of "It was a darkness all my own...a song played on the radio...it went straight to my heart...I carried it with me until the darkness was...GOOOOOOOOONE"--that elongated "gone" signifying one of the most powerful, infectious hooks I've ever heard. If you didn't think pop punk could be beautiful, you need to hear this song.
34. Outkast - Ms. Jackson
Repeat artist #2. Another in a long line of infectious Outkast hits with a ridiculously catchy beat, an even more ridiculously catchy chorus (sang in a weirdly endearing out-of-tune wail) complete with Andre and Big Boi's brilliant, passionate lyrics. This song has a unique soulfulness to it that almost reminds me of Bone Thugs's "Tha Crossroads" and gives the track a timeless quality. When all these elements combine they make for an absolutely unforgettable song.
33. Bright Eyes - Something Vague
Lyrically, it would be tough to find a better song in the Bright Eyes catalog than this, which is really saying something. The vividness of Conor Oberst's storytelling is never so brilliantly accentuated as it is here as the song almost plays out like a miniature film in your head. When he wails "and then the bridge disappears and i'm standing on air with nothing holding me" I can really visualize myself standing, in that moment, on an old medieval bridge that has suddenly disappeared--as a matter of fact, I can't not imagine that. And those flutes. Oh, those flutes. Conor Oberst never fails to disappoint when he decides to take you on a journey through his whimsical mind.
32. Radiohead - Knives Out
Sadly nestled in one of Radiohead's most overlooked albums (and although some consider it a collection of b-sides from Kid A, the band has said the two albums should be considered "twins separated at birth"...and honestly it is a phenomenal album that has some brilliant tracks like "You and Whose Army?", "Pyramid Song", "I Might Be Wrong", and others), "Knives Out" is a song about cannibalism. It's not hard to imagine, with lines such as "So knives out...Cook him up...Squash his head...Put him in the pot." Radiohead's unique talent for unsettling atmospheric chord progressions is very apparent in this song, and perhaps fittingly, considering the subject matter. If Amnesiac really were to be consider a b-sides collection from the Kid A sessions then I would think this would be a song that Radiohead would be kicking themselves for not including on Kid A.
31. Eminem - Stan
I had never even heard the Dido song that this beat was sampled from before I heard this song. When I checked out the Dido song after learning of what song it was, I was pretty disappointed that it didn't live up to the dark, sweet melancholy of that clip from the verse and certainly of this entire song. A very compelling and poignant (if a tad egotistical) concept for this song really accentuated that darkness in the melodies of Dido and made for an extremely powerful song. What really put it over the top was a pretty intense music video featuring a pretty decent performance from Devon Sawa as the crazed fan.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Top 50 Songs of the 2000s (50-41)
The other day I saw that Pitchfork Media did a staff list of their top 500 songs of the last decade so I decided it would be fun to make my own (much more esoteric) list. As with most lists like this I make, while it is not merely a list of my favorite songs and I do make these lists with a degree of objectivity, it is also very much a biased list. I also put far more emphasis on sheer musicality and songwriting than I do on popularity or "social significance" and therefore don't expect many people to agree with my choices...but that's why it's fun, right? Anyway I'll be posting a series of five entries in the next five days counting down my own person top 50 songs of the last decade in increments of 10...starting with 50-41:
50. System of a Down - Tentative
When I started getting into more underground/DIY (and, thus, better) music, I sort of wrote this band off. Even though they were still one of the few "nu metal" bands I thought had some merit, I didn't much care for them anymore. One day not too long ago I decided that a lot of the music I'd written off as I became more immersed in the DIY scene was music that I had been convinced didn't matter as opposed to deciding it didn't. Shameful indeed. So I decided to...you know...write it back on, I guess? Whatever. The point is that during that time I discovered that System of a Down's Mesmerize/Hypnotize double album--an album I never really bothered to check out since it came out when I was all DIY holier than thou--was actually the best thing they had ever done...and it wasn't even close. Well, actually maybe it was kinda close but only because the two albums had a lot of...I don't want to say "filler" because they're good, listenable songs; but songs that don't measure up at all when compared to brilliant tracks like "Revenga", "Violent Pornography", "Question!", "Sad Statue", "Lost In Hollywood", "Attack", "Dreaming", "Hypnotize", "Lonely Day", "Soldierside"...or this song. The first time I heard the haunting bridge of this song my jaw literally dropped and I had to listen to it like 10 more times in a row. The chilling relevance of Serj Tankian crooning "where do you expect us to go when the bombs fall?" fell on my chest like a cinder block and left me gasping for air under its emotional weight. Accompanied by a raucous, vintage SOAD verse and a characteristically (for this double album) epic chorus, this is perhaps the most shining example on either disc of guitarist Daron Malakian's growth as a songwriter...and that's saying a lot.
49. Ben Folds - Zak and Sara
No one does quirky piano pop like Mr. Folds himself and you'd be hard pressed to find as exhilarating a romp in his catalog as this. From the second that exhuberant piano line kicks off the song, you can't help but wear a big, shit-eating grin. As he muses about "Sara-spelled-without-an-H...getting bored on a Peavey amp in 1984" and how "Zak-without-a-C tried out some new guitars, playing Sara-with-no-H's favorite songs" you feel yourself start to wish that you were there in this mythical guitar shop with Zak and Sara. The whole song just feels like a "becoming good friends/falling in love" montage from a romantic comedy and drips with heartfelt nostalgia--complete with la-la-la's and ooo-ooo-ooo's. Ben Folds is a pop music messiah.
48. The Hold Steady - Chips Ahoy!
Much the same as Against Me!'s "As the Eternal Cowboy" album, there's a part of me that feels like The Hold Steady's "Boys and Girls In America" could have been better served to have this song open the album. As great as "Stuck Between Stations" is as an opener, this song really has a lot more of a "kick things off" feel to it, especially as the keyboard swings the track from warm-up mode to first gear. One fantastic opening line ("She put $900 on the fifth horse in the sixth race...I think his name was Chips Ahoy") kicks it into second gear just as fast. Before you know it the song is at full speed ahead with a joyous, anthemic chorus that becomes somewhat of a theme with this album. Craig Finn croons "how am I supposed to know that you're high if you won't let me touch you...how am I supposed to know you're high if you won't even dance" over an exuberant chorus of whoa-oh-oh's that you just can't help singing along to. Bar rock has never been this much fun.
47. Neil Perry - Fading Away Like the Rest of Them
Ah, so we come to the first of many very esoteric selections on my little countdown. HEY, STOP SKIPPING AHEAD. Neil Perry is a very unheralded, largely unknown screamo band (that's REAL screamo...as in Funeral Diner, Circle Takes the Square, City of Caterpillar...bands you've probably never heard of...NOT My Chemical Romance or Hawthorne Heights or whatever new shit band is doing that style on MTV6 now) whose lifespan was a mere five years (1998-2002) and who produced a great number of songs during that time--40 in total, all of which fit on one disc of their discography entitled "Lineage Situation", about seven of which are actually really good...at least in my opinion. This is the best of those seven without question. Definitely the least disjointed and complex of the first seven songs on "Lineage Situation", "Fading Away Like the Rest of Them" relies less on piercing screams than any of the others and more on haunting melodies and a straight-forward time signature. It also has some of the most breathtaking drum work you'll ever hear and one of the most epic breakdowns as well. Seriously, go download this song and tell me you don't get goosebumps when that spellbinding drum solo comes crashing into the soaring vocal harmonies of "the same wayyyyy."
46. The Assistant - Training Wheels or No Hands
Another highly esoteric track out of the screamo genre by a band with an equally short lifespan (1999-2003). This one, however, is far less accessible than the Neil Perry entry. It relies a lot more on disjointed, complex timing but don't let that fool you because there is a healthy dose of melody here as well, including a beautiful recurring keyboard melody (played in piano mode, so it's not cheesy or anything). But really the star of the show any time you're listening to The Assistant is drummer Ross Olchvary, one of the great technical drummers that no one has ever heard of. What makes him such a great technical drummer (and a great drummer in general) is his tremendous feel for tempo, his impeccable, innate, subconscious internal metronome...a crucial and rare trait in a drummer, especially nowadays. You'll see what I mean when the pretty, melodic opening minutes of the song run head-first into...well...you'll see...
45. A Perfect Circle - 3 Libras
Now we jump from two largely unknown bands back into the mainstream full force with a hit single from A Perfect Circle. OK, maybe it's not a hit single but it's certainly one of the most beautiful songs that's ever made its way onto the radio waves. To me this song sounds like a sailboat sailing off into the sunset. I can recall listening to this song in my headphones on the metrorail ride home from high school on friday afternoons and how perfectly it captured the peaceful joy I felt looking forward to the weekend--especially long weekends. I also feel a special affection for this song because it's about unrequited love--"difficult not to feel a little bit disappointed and passed over when I've looked right through to see you naked but oblivious and you don't see me" Maynard James Keenan sings in his flawless trademark croon--which is a subject very close to my heart.
44. At the Drive-In - One Armed Scissor
I have to admit that when I first heard this band they weren't really my cup of tea. The guitars were kind of weird and not that heavy (this is when I was all into Korn and Limp Bizkit and all that bullshit). But the more chances I gave it, the more I loved the intricate guitar work and the irrepressible urgency of this band, no better packaged in any song than this one, complete with an ultra-catchy chorus. I can recall seeing a video of the band performing this song on the Conan O'Brien Show some time after they had broken up and wanting to kill myself for never having seen them live. I guess I still have a chance to see The Mars Volta but that could never possibly be the same.
43. Thrice - The Earth Will Shake
In the liner notes of Thrice's 2005 magnum opus "Vheissu", singer Dustin Kensrue cites a CD of old chain gang songs as the main influence for this song (although I think Isis might have had something to do with it as well...specifically the chorus). You can really hear that bluesy influence shine through in this song, especially vocally. Obviously it's most evident in the "call-and-response" style passages in the intro and bridge of the song but you can hear it in Dustin's voice through the whole song. The roaring Isis-esque 7/4 time chorus is so achingly powerful you almost forget that Kensrue is screaming in your ears: "heartbroken we found (a gleam of hope) harken to the sound (a whistle blows) heaven sent reply (however small) evidence of life (beyond these walls) born and bred (in this machine) wardens dread (to see us dream) we hold tight (to legends of) real life (the way it was before)."
42. Eminem - Guilty Conscience
No, it's not "My Name Is." No it's not the song that put Eminem on the map. It is, however, a much better song, conceptually as well as lyrically. It's also, in my opinion, the song that put Eminem over the top. "My Name Is" is, in spite of its lyrics, a very poppy song, much like "The Real Slim Shady"...and it's songs like this that kept Eminem on MTV and radio waves. However this song better established his credibility as a real MC with some scathing lyrics and a guest appearance by Dr. Dre. The proverbial "angel and devil on the shoulders" storyline of this song is compelling and creative...and who doesn't love the surprise ending that MTV had to censor due to its obvious negative moral turpitude.
41. Andre 3000 - Hey Ya!
This song was a phenomenon unlike anything we've seen this decade, even if it wore out its welcome before long. No one song of the 2000s became such a sensation so immediately. For what seems, in retrospect, like a week tops, this song was absolutely EVERYWHERE. And why shouldn't it be? It's also probably one of the 10 catchiest songs of this decade as well...and certainly one of the most quotable (go ahead and try to find someone who actually goes out of their house and can't correctly answer the question "What's cooler than being cool?"). Not only is it catchy but it's brilliantly written and overwhelmingly fun and accessible...a combination Outkast have shown time and again they have a very unique talent for.
tune in tomorrow for 40-31
50. System of a Down - Tentative
When I started getting into more underground/DIY (and, thus, better) music, I sort of wrote this band off. Even though they were still one of the few "nu metal" bands I thought had some merit, I didn't much care for them anymore. One day not too long ago I decided that a lot of the music I'd written off as I became more immersed in the DIY scene was music that I had been convinced didn't matter as opposed to deciding it didn't. Shameful indeed. So I decided to...you know...write it back on, I guess? Whatever. The point is that during that time I discovered that System of a Down's Mesmerize/Hypnotize double album--an album I never really bothered to check out since it came out when I was all DIY holier than thou--was actually the best thing they had ever done...and it wasn't even close. Well, actually maybe it was kinda close but only because the two albums had a lot of...I don't want to say "filler" because they're good, listenable songs; but songs that don't measure up at all when compared to brilliant tracks like "Revenga", "Violent Pornography", "Question!", "Sad Statue", "Lost In Hollywood", "Attack", "Dreaming", "Hypnotize", "Lonely Day", "Soldierside"...or this song. The first time I heard the haunting bridge of this song my jaw literally dropped and I had to listen to it like 10 more times in a row. The chilling relevance of Serj Tankian crooning "where do you expect us to go when the bombs fall?" fell on my chest like a cinder block and left me gasping for air under its emotional weight. Accompanied by a raucous, vintage SOAD verse and a characteristically (for this double album) epic chorus, this is perhaps the most shining example on either disc of guitarist Daron Malakian's growth as a songwriter...and that's saying a lot.
49. Ben Folds - Zak and Sara
No one does quirky piano pop like Mr. Folds himself and you'd be hard pressed to find as exhilarating a romp in his catalog as this. From the second that exhuberant piano line kicks off the song, you can't help but wear a big, shit-eating grin. As he muses about "Sara-spelled-without-an-H...getting bored on a Peavey amp in 1984" and how "Zak-without-a-C tried out some new guitars, playing Sara-with-no-H's favorite songs" you feel yourself start to wish that you were there in this mythical guitar shop with Zak and Sara. The whole song just feels like a "becoming good friends/falling in love" montage from a romantic comedy and drips with heartfelt nostalgia--complete with la-la-la's and ooo-ooo-ooo's. Ben Folds is a pop music messiah.
48. The Hold Steady - Chips Ahoy!
Much the same as Against Me!'s "As the Eternal Cowboy" album, there's a part of me that feels like The Hold Steady's "Boys and Girls In America" could have been better served to have this song open the album. As great as "Stuck Between Stations" is as an opener, this song really has a lot more of a "kick things off" feel to it, especially as the keyboard swings the track from warm-up mode to first gear. One fantastic opening line ("She put $900 on the fifth horse in the sixth race...I think his name was Chips Ahoy") kicks it into second gear just as fast. Before you know it the song is at full speed ahead with a joyous, anthemic chorus that becomes somewhat of a theme with this album. Craig Finn croons "how am I supposed to know that you're high if you won't let me touch you...how am I supposed to know you're high if you won't even dance" over an exuberant chorus of whoa-oh-oh's that you just can't help singing along to. Bar rock has never been this much fun.
47. Neil Perry - Fading Away Like the Rest of Them
Ah, so we come to the first of many very esoteric selections on my little countdown. HEY, STOP SKIPPING AHEAD. Neil Perry is a very unheralded, largely unknown screamo band (that's REAL screamo...as in Funeral Diner, Circle Takes the Square, City of Caterpillar...bands you've probably never heard of...NOT My Chemical Romance or Hawthorne Heights or whatever new shit band is doing that style on MTV6 now) whose lifespan was a mere five years (1998-2002) and who produced a great number of songs during that time--40 in total, all of which fit on one disc of their discography entitled "Lineage Situation", about seven of which are actually really good...at least in my opinion. This is the best of those seven without question. Definitely the least disjointed and complex of the first seven songs on "Lineage Situation", "Fading Away Like the Rest of Them" relies less on piercing screams than any of the others and more on haunting melodies and a straight-forward time signature. It also has some of the most breathtaking drum work you'll ever hear and one of the most epic breakdowns as well. Seriously, go download this song and tell me you don't get goosebumps when that spellbinding drum solo comes crashing into the soaring vocal harmonies of "the same wayyyyy."
46. The Assistant - Training Wheels or No Hands
Another highly esoteric track out of the screamo genre by a band with an equally short lifespan (1999-2003). This one, however, is far less accessible than the Neil Perry entry. It relies a lot more on disjointed, complex timing but don't let that fool you because there is a healthy dose of melody here as well, including a beautiful recurring keyboard melody (played in piano mode, so it's not cheesy or anything). But really the star of the show any time you're listening to The Assistant is drummer Ross Olchvary, one of the great technical drummers that no one has ever heard of. What makes him such a great technical drummer (and a great drummer in general) is his tremendous feel for tempo, his impeccable, innate, subconscious internal metronome...a crucial and rare trait in a drummer, especially nowadays. You'll see what I mean when the pretty, melodic opening minutes of the song run head-first into...well...you'll see...
45. A Perfect Circle - 3 Libras
Now we jump from two largely unknown bands back into the mainstream full force with a hit single from A Perfect Circle. OK, maybe it's not a hit single but it's certainly one of the most beautiful songs that's ever made its way onto the radio waves. To me this song sounds like a sailboat sailing off into the sunset. I can recall listening to this song in my headphones on the metrorail ride home from high school on friday afternoons and how perfectly it captured the peaceful joy I felt looking forward to the weekend--especially long weekends. I also feel a special affection for this song because it's about unrequited love--"difficult not to feel a little bit disappointed and passed over when I've looked right through to see you naked but oblivious and you don't see me" Maynard James Keenan sings in his flawless trademark croon--which is a subject very close to my heart.
44. At the Drive-In - One Armed Scissor
I have to admit that when I first heard this band they weren't really my cup of tea. The guitars were kind of weird and not that heavy (this is when I was all into Korn and Limp Bizkit and all that bullshit). But the more chances I gave it, the more I loved the intricate guitar work and the irrepressible urgency of this band, no better packaged in any song than this one, complete with an ultra-catchy chorus. I can recall seeing a video of the band performing this song on the Conan O'Brien Show some time after they had broken up and wanting to kill myself for never having seen them live. I guess I still have a chance to see The Mars Volta but that could never possibly be the same.
43. Thrice - The Earth Will Shake
In the liner notes of Thrice's 2005 magnum opus "Vheissu", singer Dustin Kensrue cites a CD of old chain gang songs as the main influence for this song (although I think Isis might have had something to do with it as well...specifically the chorus). You can really hear that bluesy influence shine through in this song, especially vocally. Obviously it's most evident in the "call-and-response" style passages in the intro and bridge of the song but you can hear it in Dustin's voice through the whole song. The roaring Isis-esque 7/4 time chorus is so achingly powerful you almost forget that Kensrue is screaming in your ears: "heartbroken we found (a gleam of hope) harken to the sound (a whistle blows) heaven sent reply (however small) evidence of life (beyond these walls) born and bred (in this machine) wardens dread (to see us dream) we hold tight (to legends of) real life (the way it was before)."
42. Eminem - Guilty Conscience
No, it's not "My Name Is." No it's not the song that put Eminem on the map. It is, however, a much better song, conceptually as well as lyrically. It's also, in my opinion, the song that put Eminem over the top. "My Name Is" is, in spite of its lyrics, a very poppy song, much like "The Real Slim Shady"...and it's songs like this that kept Eminem on MTV and radio waves. However this song better established his credibility as a real MC with some scathing lyrics and a guest appearance by Dr. Dre. The proverbial "angel and devil on the shoulders" storyline of this song is compelling and creative...and who doesn't love the surprise ending that MTV had to censor due to its obvious negative moral turpitude.
41. Andre 3000 - Hey Ya!
This song was a phenomenon unlike anything we've seen this decade, even if it wore out its welcome before long. No one song of the 2000s became such a sensation so immediately. For what seems, in retrospect, like a week tops, this song was absolutely EVERYWHERE. And why shouldn't it be? It's also probably one of the 10 catchiest songs of this decade as well...and certainly one of the most quotable (go ahead and try to find someone who actually goes out of their house and can't correctly answer the question "What's cooler than being cool?"). Not only is it catchy but it's brilliantly written and overwhelmingly fun and accessible...a combination Outkast have shown time and again they have a very unique talent for.
tune in tomorrow for 40-31
Friday, March 6, 2009
Radiohead...A Prelude...
In the next couple days I'll probably cook up a nice, LONG, pontificating entry about the unparalleled genius of Radiohead but right now it's 3am so for now I'll leave you with these:
Radiohead Mix (1995-2000)
1. Optimistic
2. Just (You Do It to Yourself)
3. Everything In Its Right Place
4. Lucky
5. Bullet Proof...I Wish I Was
6. Exit Music (For a Film)
7. How to Disappear Completely
8. Planet Telex
9. The Bends
10. High and Dry
11. No Surprises
12. The Tourist
13. Idioteque
14. Morning Bell
15. Paranoid Android
16. The National Anthem
17. Street Spirit (Fade Out)
Radiohead Mix (2001-2008)
1. Bodysnatchers
2. Myxomatosis (Judge, Jury, & Executioner)
3. You and Whose Army?
4. Nude
5. Knives Out
6. There There (The Boney King of Nowhere)
7. Pulk-Pull Revolving Doors
8. 15 Steps
9. 2 + 2 = 5 (The Lukewarm)
10. Where I End & You Begin (The Sky Is Falling In)
11. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
12. House of Cards
13. Pyramid Song
14. Like Spinning Plates
15. We Suck Young Blood (Your Time Is Up)
16. All I Need
17. Dollars & Cents
18. Videotape
and, well, what the hell, since I made all these tonight...
Danielle 1 (a.k.a. "homework 2"...this one is easier...)
1. My Bloody Valentine - Only Shallow
2. Isis - Wrists of Kings
3. Jedi Mind Tricks - I Against I
4. Baroness - Cockroach En Fleur
5. Baroness - Wanderlust
6. Russian Circles - Death Rides a Horse
7. Jesu - Old Year
8. Down - Ghosts Along the Mississippi
9. Floor - Tales of Lolita
10. Mastodon - The Wolf Is Loose
11. Torche - Charge of the Brown Recluse
12. Kayo Dot - A Pitcher of Summer
13. From Autumn to Ashes - Chloroform Perfume
14. Thursday - How Long Is the Night?
15. Gregor Samsa - Makeshift Shelters
16. Grails - Burden of Hope
17. Lightning Bolt - Forcefield
Danielle 2 (a.k.a. "homework 3"...even easier...)
1. Of Montreal - Good Morning, Mr. Edminton
2. Bright Eyes - Bowl of Oranges
3. Piebald - Long Nights
4. The Plastic Mastery - Before the Fall
5. Cursive - The Recluse
6. Modest Mouse - Teeth Like God's Shoeshine
7. Pygmy - Nous Vehement Sans D'hiver (sp?)
8. Dredg - Bug Eyes
9. Sunny Day Real Estate - Seven
10. Jawbreaker - Jet Black
11. Mineral - Parking Lot
12. Elliott Smith - Between the Bars
13. Rio de la Muerte - I Just Want to Breathe
14. Rumbleseat - Walk Through the Darkness
15. Lucero - What Else Would You Have Me Be?
16. Hot Water Music - Translocation
17. Down Home Southernaires - Seashell
18. The Hold Steady - Chips Ahoy!
19. Heavens - Another Night
20. Denali - Lose Me
Reinier I
1. Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road
2. The Hold Steady - Chips Ahoy!
3. Jawbreaker - Jet Black
4. Against Me! - Problems
5. Dillinger Four - A Jingle For the Product
6. Cursive - The Recluse
7. The Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
8. Modest Mouse - Teeth Like God's Shoeshine
9. Brad Mehldau - Paranoid Android (Radiohead cover)
10. Sarah McLachlan - Climbing Up the Walls (Radiohead cover)
11. Bright Eyes - If the Brakeman Turns My Way
12. The Decemberists - The Infanta
13. Jimi Hendrix - Red House (Live @ Woodstock)
14. Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
15. Jedi Mind Tricks - I Against I
16. M.C. Chris - Fett's Vette
17. Thrice - For Miles
Reinier II
1. Mono - Halcyon (Beautiful Days)
2. Kayo Dot - Marathon
3. Gregor Samsa - Makeshift Shelters
4. Russian Circles - Death Rides a Horse
5. Isis - Wrists of Kings
6. Floor - Ein (Below and Beyond)
7. Baroness - Cockroach En Fleur
8. Baroness - Wanderlust
9. Tool - Right In Two
10. System of a Down - Tentative
11. A Perfect Circle - The Package
12. Thrice - Broken Lungs
Reinier III
1. Vaster Than Empires - (destroy/rebuild/repeat)
2. Vaster Than Empires - Foundation
3. Cult of Luna - Eternal Kingdom
4. The Assistant - Training Wheels or No Hands
5. Limp Wrist - Limp Wrist v. Dr. Laura
6. Shai Hulud - Scornful of the Motives and Virtues of Others
7. Between the Buried and Me - Mordecai
8. Deathspell Omega - Bread of Bitterness
9. Meshuggah - Combustion
10. Kylesa - The Scarab
11. Coalesce - Cowards.com
12. Mastodon - March of the Fire Ants
13. Thrice - Hold Fast Hope
14. Mare - They Sent You
15. Back When - We Giveth and We Taketh
16. Mouth of the Architect - Hate and Heartache
Against Me!
1. Pints of Guinness Make You Strong (R.A.R.)
2. Cliche Guevarra
3. Joy
4. Holy Shit!
5. What We Worked For
6. Tonight We're Gonna Give It 35%
7. T.S.R. (This Shit Rules)
8. Those Anarcho Punx Are Mysterious (R.A.R.)
9. Reinventing Axl Rose (R.A.R.)
10. Walking Is Still Honest (Crime)
11. Pretty Girls (The Mover)
12. I Still Love You Julie (Holding On For a Scam) (Crime)
13. The Disco Before the Breakdown
14. How Low
15. Jordan's First Choice (s/t)
16. Sink, Florida, Sink
17. Problems
18. Violence
19. Impact
20. Mutiny On the Electronic Bay
21. Turn Those Clapping Hands Into Angry Balled Fists
22. Burn
23. Baby, I'm an Anarchist!
24. Beginning In an Ending
25. We Laugh at Danger (and Break All the Rules
26. 8 Full Hours of Sleep
11.04.08
1. Bill Hicks - The Elephant Is Dead (Bush)
2. Thrice - Image of the Invisible
3. Darkest Hour - The Sadist Nation
4. Bob Marley & the Wailers - Redemption Song
5. Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone
6. Bright Eyes - From a Balance Beam
7. Bruce Springsteen - The Ghost of Tom Joad
8. John Lennon - Imagine
9. The Beatles - Revolution
10. Foo Fighters - My Hero
11. Bouncing Souls - Letter From Iraq
12. Propagandhi - Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes
13. Green Day - American Idiot (yeah, whatever, shut up, this song rules)
14. Jawbreaker - Save Your Generation
15. Jimmy Eat World - Futures
16. Against Me - Impact
17. Leftover Crack - Super Tuesday
18. Refused - Protest Song '68
19. Rage Against the Machine - Take the Power Back
20. System of a Down - Sad Statue
Jimi Hendrix
1. Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
2. Purple Haze (Live @ Woodstock)
3. Bold as Love
4. May This Be Love?
5. Are You Experienced?
6. The Wind Cries Mary (Live @ Monterey)
7. Hey Joe (Live @ Monterey)
8. Like a Rolling Stone (Live @ Monterey)
9. All Along the Watchtower
10. Killing Floor (Live @ Monterey)
11. Foxy Lady (Live @ Woodstock)
12. Fire (Live @ Woodstock)
13. Manic Depression
14. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Live In Stockholm)
15. Woodstock Improvisation (Live @ Woodstock)
16. Red House (Live @ Woodstock)
17. Star Spangled Banner (Live @ Woodstock)
and while we're at it, why not some that I didn't make tonight...
Alkaline Trio
1. Private Eye
2. We've Had Enough
3. This Is Getting Over You
4. This Could Be Love
5. Queen of Pain
6. Cringe
7. My Friend Peter
8. Armageddon
9. One Hundred Stories
10. San Fransisco
11. '97
12. Maybe I'll Catch Fire
13. Message From Kathlene
14. Stupid Kid
15. Goodbye Forever
16. All On Black
17. I Lied My Face Off
18. Clavicle
19. My Little Needle
20. Southern Rock
21. Bleeder
22. Radio
The Beatles
1. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
2. Eleanor Rigby
3. Because
4. Strawberry Fields Forever
5. Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds
6. Across the Universe
7. Something
8. Happiness Is a Warm Gun
9. Dear Prudence
10. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
11. And Your Bird Can Sing
12. Blackbird
13. You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
14. Hold Me Tight
15. When I'm Sixty-Four
16. Penny Lane
17. Here, There, and Everywhere
18. Girl
19. All My Loving
20. I've Just Seen a Face
21. With a Little Help From My Friends
22. In My Life
23. Let It Be
24. Golden Slumbers
25. Carry That Weight
26. The End
27. All You Need Is Love
Foo Fighters
1. In Your Honor
2. All My Life
3. Big Me
4. My Hero (Skin and Bones)
5. Next Year
6. I'll Stick Around
7. Monkey Wrench
8. Breakout
9. The Pretender
10. Walking After You (Skin and Bones)
11. Hey, Johnny Park!
12. Best of You
13. Up In Arms
14. Alone + Easy Target
15. Times Like These
16. No Way Back
17. Learn to Fly
18. February Stars (Skin and Bones)
19. Everlong (Skin and Bones)
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
1. Lift Yr Skinny Fists, Like Antennas to Heaven (from "Storm")
2. She Dreamt She Was A Bulldozer, She Dreamt She Was Alone In An Empty Field (from "Antennas to Heaven")
3. The Dead Flag Blues (Intro) (from "The Dead Flag Blues")
4. Steve Reich (Live VPRO Radio Session)
5. Motherfucker=Redeemer (Part Two)
6. World Police and Friendly Fire (from "Static")
7. 09-15-00 (Part Two)
8. Dead Methany (from "Providence")
9. Moya
Metallica
1. The Ecstacy of Gold (S&M)
2. The Call of Ktulu (S&M)
3. Master of Puppets
4. Blackened
5. Seek and Destroy
6. Ride the Lightning
7. The Unforgiven
8. Turn the Page
9. Fade to Black
10. Nothing Else Matters
11. One
12. Battery
Side One, Track Ones
1. Converge - Concubine
2. Converge - Fault and Fracture
3. Crestfallen - Nine to Five R.S.V.P.
4. Darkest Hour - The Sadist Nation
5. Baroness - Rays On Pinion
6. Deftones - My Own Summer (Shove It)
7. Every Time I Die - Emergency Broadcast Syndrome
8. Modern Life Is War - The Outsider (a.k.a. Hell Is For Heroes, Pt. 1)
9. Lucero - What Else Would You Have Me Be?
10. Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road
11. Jimmy Eat World - Table For Glasses
12. The Ergs! - First Song, Side One
13. The Ergs! - A Very Pretty Song For a Very Special Young Lady (Part 2)
14. Radiohead - Planet Telex
15. Give Up the Ghost - (It's Sometimes Like It Never Started)
16. Give Up the Ghost - Love American
17. Against All Authority - All Fall Down
18. Propagandhi - Mate Ka Moris Ukun Rasik An
19. Thrice - Image of the Invisible
20. At the Drive-In - Arcarsenal
21. City of Caterpillar - ...And You're Wondering How a Top Floor Could Replace Heaven
System of a Down
1. Intro (Soldierside)
2. Prison Song
3. Know
4. Question!
5. Spiders
6. Mind
7. Toxicity
8. Violent Pornography
9. Deer Dance (demo)
10. Suite-Pee
11. Science
12. Attack
13. Revenga
14. Chop Suey!
15. War
16. Forest
17. Tentative
18. Aerials
19. Sad Statue
20. Hypnotize
21. Lost In Hollywood
22. Lonely Day
23. Soldierside
Tomas Kalnoky
1. Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution - Here's to Life
2. Catch 22 - Sick and Sad
3. Catch 22 - Walking Away
4. Streetlight Manifesto - Point/Counterpoint
5. Catch 22 - Keasbey Nights
6. Streetlight Manifesto - That'll Be the Day
7. Catch 22 - Giving Up, Giving In
8. Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution - Dear Sergio
9. Streetlight Manifesto - A Better Place, a Better Time
10. Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution - It's a Wonderful Life
11. Streetlight Manifesto - A Moment of Silence
12. Catch 22 - Kristina, She Don't Know I Exist
13. Streetlight Manifesto - Everything Went Numb
14. Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution - They Provide the Paint For the Picture Perfect Masterpiece That You Will Paint On the Insides of Your Eyelids
15. Streetlight Manifesto - Failing, Flailing
16. Streetlight Manifesto - The Big Sleep
17. Catch 22 - 1234, 1234
18. Streetlight Manifesto - Here's to Life
Bright Eyes (another band I'll probably blog about at some point)
1. Soul Singer In the Session band
2. Road to Joy
3. The Difference In the Shades
4. Arienette
5. Nothing Gets Crossed Out
6. The Calendar Hung Itself
7. First Day of My Life
8. Make a Plan to Love Me
9. Bowl of Oranges
10. Something Vague
11. Contrast and Compare
12. Lua
13. If the Brakeman Turns My Way
14. Haligh, Haligh, a Lie, Haligh
15. If Winter Ends
16. Method Acting
17. Touch
18. Clairaudients (Kill or Be Killed)
19. From a Balance Beam
TOOL (super-fucking-hardcore-epic ditto for this band)
1. The Grudge
2. Jambi
3. Disposition
4. Eulogy
5. Vicarious
6. Ænema
7. Intolerance
8. H.
9. Prison Sex
10. Swamp Song
11. Forty Six & 2
12. Right In Two
wow...what is that...mmmmm...twenty mixes...wow...I need to seriously go to bed...
oh and if anybody wants a copy of ANY of these, I'll absolutely make you one (I mean literally if you want a copy of every single one of these I'll do it for you...it would be nice if you contributed some blank CDs if that's the case and it might depend how much I like you but I'll probably do it)
Radiohead Mix (1995-2000)
1. Optimistic
2. Just (You Do It to Yourself)
3. Everything In Its Right Place
4. Lucky
5. Bullet Proof...I Wish I Was
6. Exit Music (For a Film)
7. How to Disappear Completely
8. Planet Telex
9. The Bends
10. High and Dry
11. No Surprises
12. The Tourist
13. Idioteque
14. Morning Bell
15. Paranoid Android
16. The National Anthem
17. Street Spirit (Fade Out)
Radiohead Mix (2001-2008)
1. Bodysnatchers
2. Myxomatosis (Judge, Jury, & Executioner)
3. You and Whose Army?
4. Nude
5. Knives Out
6. There There (The Boney King of Nowhere)
7. Pulk-Pull Revolving Doors
8. 15 Steps
9. 2 + 2 = 5 (The Lukewarm)
10. Where I End & You Begin (The Sky Is Falling In)
11. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
12. House of Cards
13. Pyramid Song
14. Like Spinning Plates
15. We Suck Young Blood (Your Time Is Up)
16. All I Need
17. Dollars & Cents
18. Videotape
and, well, what the hell, since I made all these tonight...
Danielle 1 (a.k.a. "homework 2"...this one is easier...)
1. My Bloody Valentine - Only Shallow
2. Isis - Wrists of Kings
3. Jedi Mind Tricks - I Against I
4. Baroness - Cockroach En Fleur
5. Baroness - Wanderlust
6. Russian Circles - Death Rides a Horse
7. Jesu - Old Year
8. Down - Ghosts Along the Mississippi
9. Floor - Tales of Lolita
10. Mastodon - The Wolf Is Loose
11. Torche - Charge of the Brown Recluse
12. Kayo Dot - A Pitcher of Summer
13. From Autumn to Ashes - Chloroform Perfume
14. Thursday - How Long Is the Night?
15. Gregor Samsa - Makeshift Shelters
16. Grails - Burden of Hope
17. Lightning Bolt - Forcefield
Danielle 2 (a.k.a. "homework 3"...even easier...)
1. Of Montreal - Good Morning, Mr. Edminton
2. Bright Eyes - Bowl of Oranges
3. Piebald - Long Nights
4. The Plastic Mastery - Before the Fall
5. Cursive - The Recluse
6. Modest Mouse - Teeth Like God's Shoeshine
7. Pygmy - Nous Vehement Sans D'hiver (sp?)
8. Dredg - Bug Eyes
9. Sunny Day Real Estate - Seven
10. Jawbreaker - Jet Black
11. Mineral - Parking Lot
12. Elliott Smith - Between the Bars
13. Rio de la Muerte - I Just Want to Breathe
14. Rumbleseat - Walk Through the Darkness
15. Lucero - What Else Would You Have Me Be?
16. Hot Water Music - Translocation
17. Down Home Southernaires - Seashell
18. The Hold Steady - Chips Ahoy!
19. Heavens - Another Night
20. Denali - Lose Me
Reinier I
1. Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road
2. The Hold Steady - Chips Ahoy!
3. Jawbreaker - Jet Black
4. Against Me! - Problems
5. Dillinger Four - A Jingle For the Product
6. Cursive - The Recluse
7. The Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
8. Modest Mouse - Teeth Like God's Shoeshine
9. Brad Mehldau - Paranoid Android (Radiohead cover)
10. Sarah McLachlan - Climbing Up the Walls (Radiohead cover)
11. Bright Eyes - If the Brakeman Turns My Way
12. The Decemberists - The Infanta
13. Jimi Hendrix - Red House (Live @ Woodstock)
14. Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
15. Jedi Mind Tricks - I Against I
16. M.C. Chris - Fett's Vette
17. Thrice - For Miles
Reinier II
1. Mono - Halcyon (Beautiful Days)
2. Kayo Dot - Marathon
3. Gregor Samsa - Makeshift Shelters
4. Russian Circles - Death Rides a Horse
5. Isis - Wrists of Kings
6. Floor - Ein (Below and Beyond)
7. Baroness - Cockroach En Fleur
8. Baroness - Wanderlust
9. Tool - Right In Two
10. System of a Down - Tentative
11. A Perfect Circle - The Package
12. Thrice - Broken Lungs
Reinier III
1. Vaster Than Empires - (destroy/rebuild/repeat)
2. Vaster Than Empires - Foundation
3. Cult of Luna - Eternal Kingdom
4. The Assistant - Training Wheels or No Hands
5. Limp Wrist - Limp Wrist v. Dr. Laura
6. Shai Hulud - Scornful of the Motives and Virtues of Others
7. Between the Buried and Me - Mordecai
8. Deathspell Omega - Bread of Bitterness
9. Meshuggah - Combustion
10. Kylesa - The Scarab
11. Coalesce - Cowards.com
12. Mastodon - March of the Fire Ants
13. Thrice - Hold Fast Hope
14. Mare - They Sent You
15. Back When - We Giveth and We Taketh
16. Mouth of the Architect - Hate and Heartache
Against Me!
1. Pints of Guinness Make You Strong (R.A.R.)
2. Cliche Guevarra
3. Joy
4. Holy Shit!
5. What We Worked For
6. Tonight We're Gonna Give It 35%
7. T.S.R. (This Shit Rules)
8. Those Anarcho Punx Are Mysterious (R.A.R.)
9. Reinventing Axl Rose (R.A.R.)
10. Walking Is Still Honest (Crime)
11. Pretty Girls (The Mover)
12. I Still Love You Julie (Holding On For a Scam) (Crime)
13. The Disco Before the Breakdown
14. How Low
15. Jordan's First Choice (s/t)
16. Sink, Florida, Sink
17. Problems
18. Violence
19. Impact
20. Mutiny On the Electronic Bay
21. Turn Those Clapping Hands Into Angry Balled Fists
22. Burn
23. Baby, I'm an Anarchist!
24. Beginning In an Ending
25. We Laugh at Danger (and Break All the Rules
26. 8 Full Hours of Sleep
11.04.08
1. Bill Hicks - The Elephant Is Dead (Bush)
2. Thrice - Image of the Invisible
3. Darkest Hour - The Sadist Nation
4. Bob Marley & the Wailers - Redemption Song
5. Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone
6. Bright Eyes - From a Balance Beam
7. Bruce Springsteen - The Ghost of Tom Joad
8. John Lennon - Imagine
9. The Beatles - Revolution
10. Foo Fighters - My Hero
11. Bouncing Souls - Letter From Iraq
12. Propagandhi - Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes
13. Green Day - American Idiot (yeah, whatever, shut up, this song rules)
14. Jawbreaker - Save Your Generation
15. Jimmy Eat World - Futures
16. Against Me - Impact
17. Leftover Crack - Super Tuesday
18. Refused - Protest Song '68
19. Rage Against the Machine - Take the Power Back
20. System of a Down - Sad Statue
Jimi Hendrix
1. Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
2. Purple Haze (Live @ Woodstock)
3. Bold as Love
4. May This Be Love?
5. Are You Experienced?
6. The Wind Cries Mary (Live @ Monterey)
7. Hey Joe (Live @ Monterey)
8. Like a Rolling Stone (Live @ Monterey)
9. All Along the Watchtower
10. Killing Floor (Live @ Monterey)
11. Foxy Lady (Live @ Woodstock)
12. Fire (Live @ Woodstock)
13. Manic Depression
14. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Live In Stockholm)
15. Woodstock Improvisation (Live @ Woodstock)
16. Red House (Live @ Woodstock)
17. Star Spangled Banner (Live @ Woodstock)
and while we're at it, why not some that I didn't make tonight...
Alkaline Trio
1. Private Eye
2. We've Had Enough
3. This Is Getting Over You
4. This Could Be Love
5. Queen of Pain
6. Cringe
7. My Friend Peter
8. Armageddon
9. One Hundred Stories
10. San Fransisco
11. '97
12. Maybe I'll Catch Fire
13. Message From Kathlene
14. Stupid Kid
15. Goodbye Forever
16. All On Black
17. I Lied My Face Off
18. Clavicle
19. My Little Needle
20. Southern Rock
21. Bleeder
22. Radio
The Beatles
1. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
2. Eleanor Rigby
3. Because
4. Strawberry Fields Forever
5. Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds
6. Across the Universe
7. Something
8. Happiness Is a Warm Gun
9. Dear Prudence
10. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
11. And Your Bird Can Sing
12. Blackbird
13. You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
14. Hold Me Tight
15. When I'm Sixty-Four
16. Penny Lane
17. Here, There, and Everywhere
18. Girl
19. All My Loving
20. I've Just Seen a Face
21. With a Little Help From My Friends
22. In My Life
23. Let It Be
24. Golden Slumbers
25. Carry That Weight
26. The End
27. All You Need Is Love
Foo Fighters
1. In Your Honor
2. All My Life
3. Big Me
4. My Hero (Skin and Bones)
5. Next Year
6. I'll Stick Around
7. Monkey Wrench
8. Breakout
9. The Pretender
10. Walking After You (Skin and Bones)
11. Hey, Johnny Park!
12. Best of You
13. Up In Arms
14. Alone + Easy Target
15. Times Like These
16. No Way Back
17. Learn to Fly
18. February Stars (Skin and Bones)
19. Everlong (Skin and Bones)
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
1. Lift Yr Skinny Fists, Like Antennas to Heaven (from "Storm")
2. She Dreamt She Was A Bulldozer, She Dreamt She Was Alone In An Empty Field (from "Antennas to Heaven")
3. The Dead Flag Blues (Intro) (from "The Dead Flag Blues")
4. Steve Reich (Live VPRO Radio Session)
5. Motherfucker=Redeemer (Part Two)
6. World Police and Friendly Fire (from "Static")
7. 09-15-00 (Part Two)
8. Dead Methany (from "Providence")
9. Moya
Metallica
1. The Ecstacy of Gold (S&M)
2. The Call of Ktulu (S&M)
3. Master of Puppets
4. Blackened
5. Seek and Destroy
6. Ride the Lightning
7. The Unforgiven
8. Turn the Page
9. Fade to Black
10. Nothing Else Matters
11. One
12. Battery
Side One, Track Ones
1. Converge - Concubine
2. Converge - Fault and Fracture
3. Crestfallen - Nine to Five R.S.V.P.
4. Darkest Hour - The Sadist Nation
5. Baroness - Rays On Pinion
6. Deftones - My Own Summer (Shove It)
7. Every Time I Die - Emergency Broadcast Syndrome
8. Modern Life Is War - The Outsider (a.k.a. Hell Is For Heroes, Pt. 1)
9. Lucero - What Else Would You Have Me Be?
10. Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road
11. Jimmy Eat World - Table For Glasses
12. The Ergs! - First Song, Side One
13. The Ergs! - A Very Pretty Song For a Very Special Young Lady (Part 2)
14. Radiohead - Planet Telex
15. Give Up the Ghost - (It's Sometimes Like It Never Started)
16. Give Up the Ghost - Love American
17. Against All Authority - All Fall Down
18. Propagandhi - Mate Ka Moris Ukun Rasik An
19. Thrice - Image of the Invisible
20. At the Drive-In - Arcarsenal
21. City of Caterpillar - ...And You're Wondering How a Top Floor Could Replace Heaven
System of a Down
1. Intro (Soldierside)
2. Prison Song
3. Know
4. Question!
5. Spiders
6. Mind
7. Toxicity
8. Violent Pornography
9. Deer Dance (demo)
10. Suite-Pee
11. Science
12. Attack
13. Revenga
14. Chop Suey!
15. War
16. Forest
17. Tentative
18. Aerials
19. Sad Statue
20. Hypnotize
21. Lost In Hollywood
22. Lonely Day
23. Soldierside
Tomas Kalnoky
1. Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution - Here's to Life
2. Catch 22 - Sick and Sad
3. Catch 22 - Walking Away
4. Streetlight Manifesto - Point/Counterpoint
5. Catch 22 - Keasbey Nights
6. Streetlight Manifesto - That'll Be the Day
7. Catch 22 - Giving Up, Giving In
8. Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution - Dear Sergio
9. Streetlight Manifesto - A Better Place, a Better Time
10. Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution - It's a Wonderful Life
11. Streetlight Manifesto - A Moment of Silence
12. Catch 22 - Kristina, She Don't Know I Exist
13. Streetlight Manifesto - Everything Went Numb
14. Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution - They Provide the Paint For the Picture Perfect Masterpiece That You Will Paint On the Insides of Your Eyelids
15. Streetlight Manifesto - Failing, Flailing
16. Streetlight Manifesto - The Big Sleep
17. Catch 22 - 1234, 1234
18. Streetlight Manifesto - Here's to Life
Bright Eyes (another band I'll probably blog about at some point)
1. Soul Singer In the Session band
2. Road to Joy
3. The Difference In the Shades
4. Arienette
5. Nothing Gets Crossed Out
6. The Calendar Hung Itself
7. First Day of My Life
8. Make a Plan to Love Me
9. Bowl of Oranges
10. Something Vague
11. Contrast and Compare
12. Lua
13. If the Brakeman Turns My Way
14. Haligh, Haligh, a Lie, Haligh
15. If Winter Ends
16. Method Acting
17. Touch
18. Clairaudients (Kill or Be Killed)
19. From a Balance Beam
TOOL (super-fucking-hardcore-epic ditto for this band)
1. The Grudge
2. Jambi
3. Disposition
4. Eulogy
5. Vicarious
6. Ænema
7. Intolerance
8. H.
9. Prison Sex
10. Swamp Song
11. Forty Six & 2
12. Right In Two
wow...what is that...mmmmm...twenty mixes...wow...I need to seriously go to bed...
oh and if anybody wants a copy of ANY of these, I'll absolutely make you one (I mean literally if you want a copy of every single one of these I'll do it for you...it would be nice if you contributed some blank CDs if that's the case and it might depend how much I like you but I'll probably do it)
Saturday, February 28, 2009
25 Most Important Albums of My Life
inspired by the facebook trend thing but I spruced mine up a bit and turned it into a blog entry...I put these in as much chronological order as I possibly could...
1. Nirvana - Nevermind (cliche, I know, but it's the first real rock record I ever liked/owned)
2. The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (my mom would play this all the time when I was a little kid and I fell in love with it at an early age...to this day it's one of my top 5 records of all time)
3. Limp Bizkit - Significant Other (yes, I'm ashamed of this, but I can't deny that this record marks a very definitive beginning to me being truly passionate about music...considering I heard it when I was starting freshman year of high school...)
4. Slipknot - Slipknot (I had never heard anything that heavy before...blew my mind)
5. Deftones - White Pony (part 1 of 3: The Always-Resonant Soundtrack to Summer 2000)
6. Stone Temple Pilots - Purple (part 2 of 3: The Always-Resonant Soundtrack to Summer 2000)
7. Stone Temple Pilots - No. 4 (part 3 of 3: The Always-Resonant Soundtrack to Summer 2000)
8. Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine (meet the band that introduced me to politics)
9. Metallica - ...And Justice for All (meet the band that introduced me to THRASH)
10. Tool - Ænima (I had this album for a while and never really got past the first song--or at least paid attention. Then one day I decided to lay down on my bed and listen to it in my headphones. By the time "Third Eye" was through, my life had been changed...they've been one of my top 5 favorite bands ever since)
11. Mudvayne - L.D. 50 (I don't care what anyone says this album is pretty decent...for nu metal, it's brilliant. Not only did this band introduce me to Terence McKenna but they did a lot to pique my interest in the "deeper" more melodic, unique, interesting side of not just heavy music but eventually all music)
12. Weezer - Pinkerton (I never related to an album the way I related to this one my first couple years of high school)
13. Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape (Popping this on can STILL immediately rocket me back in time to high school)
14. Poison the Well - The Opposite of December (this album is how I got into hardcore)
15. Converge - Jane Doe (this album completely obliterated my concept of what "music" is...the first time I listened to it I could only think: "Am I supposed to feel like this right now?")
16. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity (see above)
17. Jimmy Eat World - Clarity (for a while, I hated Jimmy Eat World...well what do you want, all I knew of them was the music video for "The Middle" on MTV2. Then my friend Matt demanded that I buy this album and refused to burn it for me because the songs bleed together--which I'm glad he did. MAN did this album blow me away...the most beautiful, intricate, twinkly, breathtaking journey through pop music I've ever heard. It's pretty much been my soundtrack to love and heartbreak ever since...sure there are other albums but none hold up to this opus. I'm so, so, SO happy I own it on vinyl. I'm gonna listen to this right now actually.)
18. Bright Eyes - Lifted -or- The Story Is In the Soil, Keep Your Ears to the Ground (another one Matt introduced me to...when I asked him once what Bright Eyes album was his favorite--as research to see which one I would buy--he said it "would be like choosing his favorite limb." Once I became immersed in the music of Conor Oberst, I completely understood that statement. This album was where that started. It was also a step in the right direction as far as less accessible, more off-tune vocals by people that can't necessarily sing particularly well...a big, huge paradigm that I'm glad I broke.)
19. Against Me! - Reinventing Axl Rose (one more to attribute to Matt--if he or anyone else who KNOW who they are are reading this...shut up. Where Bright Eyes bent the barrier between me and more "punk" sounding vocals,--punk in spirit, in the sense that they can't necessarily sing well, not literally "punk sounding"--Against Me! broke it. I think the first time I actually heard it was at our friend's house while she was making us breakfast and I didn't particularly care for it. But after that he burned me a copy and I gave it a few more chances and eventually my love for it grew and grew to a wonderful climax with the now-legendary Against Me! show that Matt booked and which was mentioned in a few earlier posts.)
20. Catch 22 - Keasbey Nights (I hated ska before I heard this album. Thank you OT.)
21. Blind Guardian - Nightfall In Middle-Earth (sooooo many college memories come rushing back when I listen to this album. It really blew me away when I first heard it because I was amazed that cheesy power metal could be SO well done and so...well...powerful. When I showed it to friends of mine and they laughed I knew I had busted through another paradigm :D)
22. Yaphet Kotto/This Machine Kills/Envy split CD (this one is incredibly specific. I first heard this album on Valentine's Day of 2004 and as I was hearing it for the first time so too was my good friend Rudo. Eventually when the two of us came to the Envy portion of the split, both our lives were changed forever. I can't speak for him but I know personally I have NEVER, EVER been that deeply affected by a piece of music on first listen in my LIFE. It was otherworldly, really. We could hardly believe that human beings had made these songs. And when we heard the collaboration song that closed out the album...forget about it. We knew we'd never be the same.)
23. Bestial Warlust - Vengeance War 'Til Death (back to Rudo: the story of me getting into this album is that Rudo decided he wanted to do an "experiment" on me. He sent me the last song on this record, "At the Graveyard of God" and told me to listen to it and see if I liked it. I did, so he sent me the rest of the album which I also liked. This was the beginning of the difficult process of me getting into black metal and while I don't listen to most black metal bands I used to like anymore, there certainly was an important and well-worth-documenting period of time while I was in college where I listened to a great deal of black metal.)
24. Kayo Dot - Choirs of the Eye (this album did kind of the same thing that Jane Doe and Calculating Infinity did for me but in an even bigger way--although less impactful since it was later on in my life. This unclassifiable record flies in the face of everything you think you know about music and everything you think music is.)
25. Thrice - Vheissu (I never used to think very much of Thrice until I heard this album in a friend's car one day and deemed it worth checking out--amid accusations of devolving into "Thrisis"--Thrice meets Isis. Personally I get the Isis comparisons but this album is sooo beyond that. It touched me in a way that no album has in a very long time, which, after hearing so much and evolving in my tastes so much in the last 10 years, is not so easy anymore.)
1. Nirvana - Nevermind (cliche, I know, but it's the first real rock record I ever liked/owned)
2. The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (my mom would play this all the time when I was a little kid and I fell in love with it at an early age...to this day it's one of my top 5 records of all time)
3. Limp Bizkit - Significant Other (yes, I'm ashamed of this, but I can't deny that this record marks a very definitive beginning to me being truly passionate about music...considering I heard it when I was starting freshman year of high school...)
4. Slipknot - Slipknot (I had never heard anything that heavy before...blew my mind)
5. Deftones - White Pony (part 1 of 3: The Always-Resonant Soundtrack to Summer 2000)
6. Stone Temple Pilots - Purple (part 2 of 3: The Always-Resonant Soundtrack to Summer 2000)
7. Stone Temple Pilots - No. 4 (part 3 of 3: The Always-Resonant Soundtrack to Summer 2000)
8. Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine (meet the band that introduced me to politics)
9. Metallica - ...And Justice for All (meet the band that introduced me to THRASH)
10. Tool - Ænima (I had this album for a while and never really got past the first song--or at least paid attention. Then one day I decided to lay down on my bed and listen to it in my headphones. By the time "Third Eye" was through, my life had been changed...they've been one of my top 5 favorite bands ever since)
11. Mudvayne - L.D. 50 (I don't care what anyone says this album is pretty decent...for nu metal, it's brilliant. Not only did this band introduce me to Terence McKenna but they did a lot to pique my interest in the "deeper" more melodic, unique, interesting side of not just heavy music but eventually all music)
12. Weezer - Pinkerton (I never related to an album the way I related to this one my first couple years of high school)
13. Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape (Popping this on can STILL immediately rocket me back in time to high school)
14. Poison the Well - The Opposite of December (this album is how I got into hardcore)
15. Converge - Jane Doe (this album completely obliterated my concept of what "music" is...the first time I listened to it I could only think: "Am I supposed to feel like this right now?")
16. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity (see above)
17. Jimmy Eat World - Clarity (for a while, I hated Jimmy Eat World...well what do you want, all I knew of them was the music video for "The Middle" on MTV2. Then my friend Matt demanded that I buy this album and refused to burn it for me because the songs bleed together--which I'm glad he did. MAN did this album blow me away...the most beautiful, intricate, twinkly, breathtaking journey through pop music I've ever heard. It's pretty much been my soundtrack to love and heartbreak ever since...sure there are other albums but none hold up to this opus. I'm so, so, SO happy I own it on vinyl. I'm gonna listen to this right now actually.)
18. Bright Eyes - Lifted -or- The Story Is In the Soil, Keep Your Ears to the Ground (another one Matt introduced me to...when I asked him once what Bright Eyes album was his favorite--as research to see which one I would buy--he said it "would be like choosing his favorite limb." Once I became immersed in the music of Conor Oberst, I completely understood that statement. This album was where that started. It was also a step in the right direction as far as less accessible, more off-tune vocals by people that can't necessarily sing particularly well...a big, huge paradigm that I'm glad I broke.)
19. Against Me! - Reinventing Axl Rose (one more to attribute to Matt--if he or anyone else who KNOW who they are are reading this...shut up. Where Bright Eyes bent the barrier between me and more "punk" sounding vocals,--punk in spirit, in the sense that they can't necessarily sing well, not literally "punk sounding"--Against Me! broke it. I think the first time I actually heard it was at our friend's house while she was making us breakfast and I didn't particularly care for it. But after that he burned me a copy and I gave it a few more chances and eventually my love for it grew and grew to a wonderful climax with the now-legendary Against Me! show that Matt booked and which was mentioned in a few earlier posts.)
20. Catch 22 - Keasbey Nights (I hated ska before I heard this album. Thank you OT.)
21. Blind Guardian - Nightfall In Middle-Earth (sooooo many college memories come rushing back when I listen to this album. It really blew me away when I first heard it because I was amazed that cheesy power metal could be SO well done and so...well...powerful. When I showed it to friends of mine and they laughed I knew I had busted through another paradigm :D)
22. Yaphet Kotto/This Machine Kills/Envy split CD (this one is incredibly specific. I first heard this album on Valentine's Day of 2004 and as I was hearing it for the first time so too was my good friend Rudo. Eventually when the two of us came to the Envy portion of the split, both our lives were changed forever. I can't speak for him but I know personally I have NEVER, EVER been that deeply affected by a piece of music on first listen in my LIFE. It was otherworldly, really. We could hardly believe that human beings had made these songs. And when we heard the collaboration song that closed out the album...forget about it. We knew we'd never be the same.)
23. Bestial Warlust - Vengeance War 'Til Death (back to Rudo: the story of me getting into this album is that Rudo decided he wanted to do an "experiment" on me. He sent me the last song on this record, "At the Graveyard of God" and told me to listen to it and see if I liked it. I did, so he sent me the rest of the album which I also liked. This was the beginning of the difficult process of me getting into black metal and while I don't listen to most black metal bands I used to like anymore, there certainly was an important and well-worth-documenting period of time while I was in college where I listened to a great deal of black metal.)
24. Kayo Dot - Choirs of the Eye (this album did kind of the same thing that Jane Doe and Calculating Infinity did for me but in an even bigger way--although less impactful since it was later on in my life. This unclassifiable record flies in the face of everything you think you know about music and everything you think music is.)
25. Thrice - Vheissu (I never used to think very much of Thrice until I heard this album in a friend's car one day and deemed it worth checking out--amid accusations of devolving into "Thrisis"--Thrice meets Isis. Personally I get the Isis comparisons but this album is sooo beyond that. It touched me in a way that no album has in a very long time, which, after hearing so much and evolving in my tastes so much in the last 10 years, is not so easy anymore.)
Friday, February 20, 2009
Top 10 Encores I've Ever Seen
10. Dredg – Nothing particularly special about this one other than the fact that they closed with the combination of “Yatahaze”/“90 Hour Sleep” which couldn’t have possibly been a more perfect way to close the show.
9. Andrew W.K. – This whole set was one big fucking party and I’ve never felt so much positive energy at any show I’ve ever been to, easily the most joyful set I’ve ever seen and the most inspirational with some amazing words from Mr. W.K. Just seeing him close with “Party Hard” and seeing the most amazing circle pit open up would have been enough but this guy was somehow able to get fans rushed onto the stage at fucking Warped Tour! What an amazing site, he even had one kid riding around on his shoulders. What a guy.
8. Eric Clapton – I got to see “Layla” live. That’s all I have to say about that.
7. Radiohead – Radiohead scores major points for having TWO encores. Not only that but after ending their first set with “Videotape” (wow.) they opened their first encore with fucking “Optimistic” and then went straight into “Just (You Do It To Yourself)”…fucking AMAAAZING. Then, after a beautiful version of “Faust Arp” with just Thom and Jonny on acoustic guitar sitting across from each other on two stools, they played “Exit Music (For a Film).” Oh my god, you guys. I remember hearing my boy Robby say “this is about to get really fucking good” right before the epic explosion at the end of the song. It really did. If that wasn’t enough they closed out the first encore with Thom playing a second drum set on “Bangers and Mash” and then came back out with “House of Cards.” Then the close the whole deal, they did something I only used to be able to imagine I would see. Ended with “Street Spirit (Fade Out).” Wow. WOW.
6. Bright Eyes – There’s something poignant about ending the set, coming back for an encore and going right into “A Song To Pass the Time.” Really a perfect way to open the encore and then it went straight into a really fun, rockin Tom Petty cover that I really wish I knew the name of. The very last song was Conor Oberst all by himself in one spotlight singing an adorable acoustic ballad which he introduced as “a love song.” I can’t be certain but I want to say the song he played was “First Day of My Life” but I don’t remember the song especially well and it was way before that double album even came out.
5. Converge – They ended their set with fucking "Jane Doe." I fucking cried.
4. The Hold Steady – This one is probably the best closing/encore song choice ever for me. For starters they closed their original set with “Southtown Girls” which would have been a perfect closer in its own right. But then they came back and opened their encore with “First Night”…absolutely spellbinding. Then to top it all off they closed the whole deal with a wonderfully joyful rendition of “Killer Parties” in which a whole mess of people (myself included) joined them on stage. I actually danced with the keyboard player.
3. Reggie and the Full Effect – This show would probably rank 3rd on my list of most fun shows I’ve ever been to (which is really high because the only ones ahead of them are Andrew W.K.’s set at Warped Tour and GWAR). So…they played their last song and pretended they were done or whatever, blah blah blah yeah right. Then “Reggie” comes out in this British Parliament getup and does this really bouncy techno-ish song with really cute vocals/lyrics. Then they did another pretty anthemic song if I remember correctly...actually it might have been vice versa. I think it was. Anyway, when he finishes, Reggie says "Common Denominator is up next."
Oh...shit...
Without warning, a man with an incredibly distorted bass, black cape, and a fucking rubber skull mask comes on stage playing this DIRTY bassline. After a few minutes of this intro, the rest of the band emerged...and then...KLAUS (Reggie...with death metal make-up). He had this WEIRD pointy had and a wand of some sort and a vile of blood that he drank and smeared all over the skull guy's...skull. They did Dwarf Invasion and it was nuts. Everyone screamed "DWARF INVASION!" and shit. Good god what an amazing encore.
2. Against Me! – (taken from the excerpt posted below): I had been…imagining them closing with "We Laugh at Danger (and Break All the Rules)" [for months]...so Against Me! is wrapping up their amazing set and they say "this is our last song" and after a few moments of anticipation i flip my lid as Tom announces the final song as:
"WE LAUGH AT DANGER (AND BREAK ALL THE FUCKING RULES)"
as soon as the singing part kicked in, myself and a few others (Matt included) launched ourselves onto the stage and sang along. But then when the chorus hit...WHAM! The stage was fucking RUSHED. It was a sight to see. Kids were on the stage dancing with each other, singing to each other and just having so much fun. We even got the whole crowd clapping along to the little breakdown chorus and then we all let out the loudest WOOOOOO! we could muster as we brought the song to its crashing close. We all thought it was over then. Even as shouts of "BABY, I'M AN ANARCHIST" peppered the venue, people were beginning to file out...when suddenly...the motherfuckers BUSTED RIGHT INTO FUCKING "BABY, I'M AN ANARCHIST!!!!" What an AMAZINGLY PERFECT moment that was. Everyone was just on stage singing along in a circle around the band and it was so beautiful that it made me want to cry. What an ending to an amazing show.
1. Weezer – I feel so very privileged to have been able to see the once-mighty Weezer JUST before (or maybe slightly after) the beginning of their decline. It was just before the Green Album was coming out so, other than a small 4-5 song stretch of songs from that (including "The Christmas Song" which I maintain to this day should have been on the Green Album and is better than any song that was on it), every song they played was from Blue Album or Pinkerton. Truly an amazing show I’ll never forget but the encore cemented it in my mind forever. While they stood off stage with the crowd still begging them to come back, a blue light came up from the darkness. After a few seconds the band slow walk back on stage…and begin playing "Only In Dreams." Witnessing this might rank somewhere in the top 25 experiences of my entire life…they even extended the build-up/solo portion in the middle of the song to this incredible explosion that was just perfect. Then to cap it all off they closed with "Surf Wax America." Incredible.
honorable mention: Mastodon – they closed their set at The Fest 2 with two Ramones songs…that was rad.
9. Andrew W.K. – This whole set was one big fucking party and I’ve never felt so much positive energy at any show I’ve ever been to, easily the most joyful set I’ve ever seen and the most inspirational with some amazing words from Mr. W.K. Just seeing him close with “Party Hard” and seeing the most amazing circle pit open up would have been enough but this guy was somehow able to get fans rushed onto the stage at fucking Warped Tour! What an amazing site, he even had one kid riding around on his shoulders. What a guy.
8. Eric Clapton – I got to see “Layla” live. That’s all I have to say about that.
7. Radiohead – Radiohead scores major points for having TWO encores. Not only that but after ending their first set with “Videotape” (wow.) they opened their first encore with fucking “Optimistic” and then went straight into “Just (You Do It To Yourself)”…fucking AMAAAZING. Then, after a beautiful version of “Faust Arp” with just Thom and Jonny on acoustic guitar sitting across from each other on two stools, they played “Exit Music (For a Film).” Oh my god, you guys. I remember hearing my boy Robby say “this is about to get really fucking good” right before the epic explosion at the end of the song. It really did. If that wasn’t enough they closed out the first encore with Thom playing a second drum set on “Bangers and Mash” and then came back out with “House of Cards.” Then the close the whole deal, they did something I only used to be able to imagine I would see. Ended with “Street Spirit (Fade Out).” Wow. WOW.
6. Bright Eyes – There’s something poignant about ending the set, coming back for an encore and going right into “A Song To Pass the Time.” Really a perfect way to open the encore and then it went straight into a really fun, rockin Tom Petty cover that I really wish I knew the name of. The very last song was Conor Oberst all by himself in one spotlight singing an adorable acoustic ballad which he introduced as “a love song.” I can’t be certain but I want to say the song he played was “First Day of My Life” but I don’t remember the song especially well and it was way before that double album even came out.
5. Converge – They ended their set with fucking "Jane Doe." I fucking cried.
4. The Hold Steady – This one is probably the best closing/encore song choice ever for me. For starters they closed their original set with “Southtown Girls” which would have been a perfect closer in its own right. But then they came back and opened their encore with “First Night”…absolutely spellbinding. Then to top it all off they closed the whole deal with a wonderfully joyful rendition of “Killer Parties” in which a whole mess of people (myself included) joined them on stage. I actually danced with the keyboard player.
3. Reggie and the Full Effect – This show would probably rank 3rd on my list of most fun shows I’ve ever been to (which is really high because the only ones ahead of them are Andrew W.K.’s set at Warped Tour and GWAR). So…they played their last song and pretended they were done or whatever, blah blah blah yeah right. Then “Reggie” comes out in this British Parliament getup and does this really bouncy techno-ish song with really cute vocals/lyrics. Then they did another pretty anthemic song if I remember correctly...actually it might have been vice versa. I think it was. Anyway, when he finishes, Reggie says "Common Denominator is up next."
Oh...shit...
Without warning, a man with an incredibly distorted bass, black cape, and a fucking rubber skull mask comes on stage playing this DIRTY bassline. After a few minutes of this intro, the rest of the band emerged...and then...KLAUS (Reggie...with death metal make-up). He had this WEIRD pointy had and a wand of some sort and a vile of blood that he drank and smeared all over the skull guy's...skull. They did Dwarf Invasion and it was nuts. Everyone screamed "DWARF INVASION!" and shit. Good god what an amazing encore.
2. Against Me! – (taken from the excerpt posted below): I had been…imagining them closing with "We Laugh at Danger (and Break All the Rules)" [for months]...so Against Me! is wrapping up their amazing set and they say "this is our last song" and after a few moments of anticipation i flip my lid as Tom announces the final song as:
"WE LAUGH AT DANGER (AND BREAK ALL THE FUCKING RULES)"
as soon as the singing part kicked in, myself and a few others (Matt included) launched ourselves onto the stage and sang along. But then when the chorus hit...WHAM! The stage was fucking RUSHED. It was a sight to see. Kids were on the stage dancing with each other, singing to each other and just having so much fun. We even got the whole crowd clapping along to the little breakdown chorus and then we all let out the loudest WOOOOOO! we could muster as we brought the song to its crashing close. We all thought it was over then. Even as shouts of "BABY, I'M AN ANARCHIST" peppered the venue, people were beginning to file out...when suddenly...the motherfuckers BUSTED RIGHT INTO FUCKING "BABY, I'M AN ANARCHIST!!!!" What an AMAZINGLY PERFECT moment that was. Everyone was just on stage singing along in a circle around the band and it was so beautiful that it made me want to cry. What an ending to an amazing show.
1. Weezer – I feel so very privileged to have been able to see the once-mighty Weezer JUST before (or maybe slightly after) the beginning of their decline. It was just before the Green Album was coming out so, other than a small 4-5 song stretch of songs from that (including "The Christmas Song" which I maintain to this day should have been on the Green Album and is better than any song that was on it), every song they played was from Blue Album or Pinkerton. Truly an amazing show I’ll never forget but the encore cemented it in my mind forever. While they stood off stage with the crowd still begging them to come back, a blue light came up from the darkness. After a few seconds the band slow walk back on stage…and begin playing "Only In Dreams." Witnessing this might rank somewhere in the top 25 experiences of my entire life…they even extended the build-up/solo portion in the middle of the song to this incredible explosion that was just perfect. Then to cap it all off they closed with "Surf Wax America." Incredible.
honorable mention: Mastodon – they closed their set at The Fest 2 with two Ramones songs…that was rad.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Just Noise
I was just having an argument with a friend of mine (one that's fairly common between us) about "screamy" music or "hardcore" music...the kind of stuff that's not very accessible at all and most people would say is "just a bunch of noise." My argument to her was that I feel like there are certain kinds of music or maybe just certain bands that you might need to...well...try to like. They just require some effort from you because they exist so far outside of paradigms most people have about music that the first time they hear such sounds and such an absence of the normal ingrained structure and rhythm of mainstream music that it's just kind of a shock to your system and your immediate response is to reject it. I can't tell you how many bands in my iTunes playlist right now are bands that I didn't really like or wasn't sure if I liked the first time I heard them. Wait, actually I probably could do that. Anyway, my point I made to her is that I feel like people do themselves a disservice by spurning music like this without really giving it some effort because some of these bands (SOME) are really brilliant musicians and songwriters and are truly doing something unique and interesting with their music rather than what most people are doing with it. I also feel like when you're able to put that kind of effort into liking a band even if at first they don't necessarily rub you the right way that it can be rewarding in a way that no music can be which is immediately and innately pleasing to the ear. If I hadn't given certain bands 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 17th chances then I would never have gotten into:
Against Me!, Alkaline Trio, American Nightmare, ANY Black Metal (a true case study in what i'm talking about), At the Drive-In, The Beach Boys (you'll see how in a lot of ways this whole argument kind of works in reverse for me), Blink 182, ANY Ska (thank you Catch 22), Coalesce, Converge, Dillinger Escape Plan, Foo Fighters, Gorillaz, Gnarls Barkley, Incubus, Jimmy Eat World (though I guess if I heard Clarity first instead of The Middle it would have been different), John Mayer, King Crimson, Lightning Bolt, ANY hip hop (thank you Eminem and Outkast), New Found Glory (THAT'S RIGHT), ANY Death Metal (thank you Opeth), A Perfect Circle, Poison the Well, Radiohead (that's right...my favorite band in the entire world and I didn't like them the first time I heard them...didn't like Thom's voice...true story), Shai Hulud, Smashing Pumpkins, Sublime, Weezer
So in conclusion, I'm making a mix CD for my friend in the spirit of this argument that's titled "Just Noise (a.k.a. Homework)" and this is the tracklist:
1. Shai Hulud - Scornful of the Motives and Virtues of Others
2. Coalesce - What Happens On the Road Always Comes Home
3. Dillinger Escape Plan - 43% Burnt
4. City of Caterpillar - ...And You're Wondering How a Top Floor Could Replace Heaven
5. Funeral Diner - End On 6
6. Circle Takes the Square - In the Nervous Light of Sunday
7. Ampere - Woodlawn
8. Neil Perry - Nine Minutes of Non-Fiction
9. Off Minor - The Transient
10. The Assistant - Training Wheels or No Hands
11. Poison the Well - Slice Paper Wrists
12. Cave In - Juggernaut
13. Between the Buried and Me - Mordecai
14. Mare - They Sent You
15. Botch - To Our Friends In the Great White North
16. Converge - Heaven In Her Arms
Against Me!, Alkaline Trio, American Nightmare, ANY Black Metal (a true case study in what i'm talking about), At the Drive-In, The Beach Boys (you'll see how in a lot of ways this whole argument kind of works in reverse for me), Blink 182, ANY Ska (thank you Catch 22), Coalesce, Converge, Dillinger Escape Plan, Foo Fighters, Gorillaz, Gnarls Barkley, Incubus, Jimmy Eat World (though I guess if I heard Clarity first instead of The Middle it would have been different), John Mayer, King Crimson, Lightning Bolt, ANY hip hop (thank you Eminem and Outkast), New Found Glory (THAT'S RIGHT), ANY Death Metal (thank you Opeth), A Perfect Circle, Poison the Well, Radiohead (that's right...my favorite band in the entire world and I didn't like them the first time I heard them...didn't like Thom's voice...true story), Shai Hulud, Smashing Pumpkins, Sublime, Weezer
So in conclusion, I'm making a mix CD for my friend in the spirit of this argument that's titled "Just Noise (a.k.a. Homework)" and this is the tracklist:
1. Shai Hulud - Scornful of the Motives and Virtues of Others
2. Coalesce - What Happens On the Road Always Comes Home
3. Dillinger Escape Plan - 43% Burnt
4. City of Caterpillar - ...And You're Wondering How a Top Floor Could Replace Heaven
5. Funeral Diner - End On 6
6. Circle Takes the Square - In the Nervous Light of Sunday
7. Ampere - Woodlawn
8. Neil Perry - Nine Minutes of Non-Fiction
9. Off Minor - The Transient
10. The Assistant - Training Wheels or No Hands
11. Poison the Well - Slice Paper Wrists
12. Cave In - Juggernaut
13. Between the Buried and Me - Mordecai
14. Mare - They Sent You
15. Botch - To Our Friends In the Great White North
16. Converge - Heaven In Her Arms
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Top 10 Records of 2008
This is something I've done every year for the last five years and only now has it found a proper venue (rather than simply being relegated to my livejournal). You'll find out soon enough--provided you read this blog--that I am sort of in love with making lists...in fact come to think of it I bet I'll be posting a shit ton of track lists for mix tapes/CDs I make in this blog...anyway listed below is my top 10 for 2009 and if you're interested at all here are links to top 10 lists from previous years:
2004
2005
2006
2007
and now...2008...
1. Thrice - The Alchemy Index Vol. III & IV: Air and Earth
(I'd really like to give this consideration as a full album but the first disc came out last year...this one is way better though...the Earth disc is amazingly written and Broken Lungs and Daedalus are two of the most powerful songs this band has ever written...which is saying a lot, trust me)
2. Russian Circles - Station
(jesus the things this band can do without using any words...no other instrumental band is capable of what this one is and that's a hell of a compliment)
3. Sigur Rós - Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
(this band could just keep making records that sound like "( )" and everyone--myself included--would be happy...but for some reason they continue to do different things...when I first heard the romping acoustic intro to this album I was a little iffy but this band really has done it again)
4. Portishead - Third
(somewhere in between krautrock band Can, Bjork, and Radiohead lays this beautiful, catchy, grooving, and above all unique record...I'm now a Portishead fan)
5. Mouth of the Architect - Quietly
(not quite as great as The Ties That Blind, a little more simple, but this band continues to make epic, heavy music that is not contrived as so many slow, heavy, epic bands are nowadays...do yourself a favor and check this band out)
6. Kayo Dot - Blue Lambency Downward
(it's truly a testament to this band's talent that this album really isn't that good by their standards...Choirs of the Eye is so ridiculously brilliant that you can only call this a shadow of that record...even then it's absolutely brilliant and this band is still one of the creative forces in underground music today even after losing and gaining so many members)
7. Meshuggah - ObZen
(this band sure has come a long way from the slow, crushing, off-time brutality of it's earlier work...this is a masterpiece of timing, precision, and ingenuity in the realm of metal)
8. Cult of Luna - Eternal Kingdom
(pretty much the same deal as Mouth of the Architect except that I think this might be my favorite album this band has done yet)
9. Flight of the Conchords - Flight of the Conchords
(it may have lost a few slots because I didn't particularly care for what they did with some of the songs--although rerecording songs is always hard to do without overdoing them cuz you want to make them different but the songs from the show were perfect--but the fact remains that not only are FOTC hilarious but they write great songs too...like Tenacious D but funnier and with better tunes--and I fuckin LOVE the D)
10. Gregor Samsa - Rest
(the most underrated band doing instrumental music right now and maybe the best until GY!BE come out of hiding)
same time next year
I'm sure I'll probably post at least one more entry this week so stay tuned
2004
2005
2006
2007
and now...2008...
1. Thrice - The Alchemy Index Vol. III & IV: Air and Earth
(I'd really like to give this consideration as a full album but the first disc came out last year...this one is way better though...the Earth disc is amazingly written and Broken Lungs and Daedalus are two of the most powerful songs this band has ever written...which is saying a lot, trust me)
2. Russian Circles - Station
(jesus the things this band can do without using any words...no other instrumental band is capable of what this one is and that's a hell of a compliment)
3. Sigur Rós - Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
(this band could just keep making records that sound like "( )" and everyone--myself included--would be happy...but for some reason they continue to do different things...when I first heard the romping acoustic intro to this album I was a little iffy but this band really has done it again)
4. Portishead - Third
(somewhere in between krautrock band Can, Bjork, and Radiohead lays this beautiful, catchy, grooving, and above all unique record...I'm now a Portishead fan)
5. Mouth of the Architect - Quietly
(not quite as great as The Ties That Blind, a little more simple, but this band continues to make epic, heavy music that is not contrived as so many slow, heavy, epic bands are nowadays...do yourself a favor and check this band out)
6. Kayo Dot - Blue Lambency Downward
(it's truly a testament to this band's talent that this album really isn't that good by their standards...Choirs of the Eye is so ridiculously brilliant that you can only call this a shadow of that record...even then it's absolutely brilliant and this band is still one of the creative forces in underground music today even after losing and gaining so many members)
7. Meshuggah - ObZen
(this band sure has come a long way from the slow, crushing, off-time brutality of it's earlier work...this is a masterpiece of timing, precision, and ingenuity in the realm of metal)
8. Cult of Luna - Eternal Kingdom
(pretty much the same deal as Mouth of the Architect except that I think this might be my favorite album this band has done yet)
9. Flight of the Conchords - Flight of the Conchords
(it may have lost a few slots because I didn't particularly care for what they did with some of the songs--although rerecording songs is always hard to do without overdoing them cuz you want to make them different but the songs from the show were perfect--but the fact remains that not only are FOTC hilarious but they write great songs too...like Tenacious D but funnier and with better tunes--and I fuckin LOVE the D)
10. Gregor Samsa - Rest
(the most underrated band doing instrumental music right now and maybe the best until GY!BE come out of hiding)
same time next year
I'm sure I'll probably post at least one more entry this week so stay tuned
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
OLD SCHOOL: Against Me! Live at The Alley in 2003
this is a "review" I posted in my livejournal (one of my first ever lj posts) of the Against Me! show that will forever go down in Miami punk rock history...pretty much everyone I know or knew that was at that show will get a weird, glazed look in their eyes when you ask them about this show as they slip away and get lost in a better time (for DIY music in Miami and definitely for Against Me!)...it's not exactly a great review as I wrote it when I was 17 and a few things in it probably won't make sense to anyone but it's ridiculously exhuberant, substantially embarrassing, somewhat interesting, and kinda fun to read so I figured I'd share...
The first band to play was Stop This Fall, hardcore punk with Pointless singer Johnny. They're a good band, Bane-type stuff but with screaming. They have good energy and some good songs, but nothing to cream your pants over (or get hard nipples over...not to mention any names)
Next up was the band formerly known as Lockjaw in the Locust Valley, who had Andres from Eat Shit on vocals and were replacing that same band on the bill. GREAT grindy metalcore kind of like Adore Miridia but different. Lots of energy, very intense set.
I didn't stay in for Never In Red but they're basically Glassjaw with pop punk parts and mosh breakdowns. A decent band for what they do. They also put on a great show. But from what i heard their set on this night was lacking. Oh well.
After them was Modern Day '84, Grimm's punk band. I didn't expect much of these guys but they turned out to be quite awesome. Good street-ish punk/ska stuff. Grimm dedicated a song to the fordapunx message board which was quite cool. We all humped him after the set.
Then came Revolver. DAMN! These guys are doing something really unique and special in the scene right now. This is beautiful music people. It's like Melodic Rockish Indie Pop with an almost Lounge-like touch. WOW they were excellent. Much respect to Adolfo for putting together such a great band with great musicianship and songwriting skills. The lead guitarist had some gorgeous solos too...not ripping solos but nice, real, soulful solos a la Carlos Santana. GREAT SET!
After them, Pygmy played by MATT's decision, not because they absolutely refused to play. They were hardly being assholes about it so let the rumors end now. They only played for about 20 minutes but in that time they ripped it up in usual Pygmy fashion. Blah blah Pygmy is sheer brilliance, blah, they're the best band in the scene right now, blah, you've heard it all before...tonight was no different.
and then...
AGAINST FUCKING ME!!! Wow, from the opening lines of "Those Anarcho Punx are Mysterious" to the AMAZING anthemic choruses of "Walking is Still Honest" and "Pints of Guiness Make You Strong", these guys were just INCREDIBLE. They played some new songs--one from the new EP and two TOTALLY NEW unreleased songs...all of which were SUPERB--and they blasted through a lot of great songs off Reinventing Axl Rose. The most amazing part of the entire show--and maybe even all the shows i've been to--was the end of Against Me's set. I had been creaming myself for months imagining them closing with "We Laugh at Danger (and Break All the Rules)"...so Against Me is wrapping up their amazing set and they say "this is our last song" and after a few moments of anticipation i flip my lid as Tom announces the final song as:
"WE LAUGH AT DANGER (AND BREAK ALL THE FUCKING RULES)"
as soon as the singing part kicked in, myself and a few others (Matt included) launched ourselves onto the stage and sang along. But then when the chorus hit...WHAM! The stage was fucking RUSHED. It was a sight to see. Kids were on the stage dancing with each other, singing to each other and just having so much fun. We even got the whole crowd clapping along to the little breakdown chorus and then we all let out the loudest WOOOOOO! we could muster as we brought the song to its crashing close. We all thought it was over then. Even as shouts of "BABY, I'M AN ANARCHIST" peppered the venue, people were beginning to file out...when suddenly...the motherfuckers BUSTED RIGHT INTO FUCKING "BABY, I'M AN ANARCHIST!!!!" What an AMAZINGLY PERFECT moment that was. Everyone was just on stage singing along in a circle around the band and it was so beautiful that it made me want to cry. What an ending to an amazing show. Matt, Mambo, TONS of props for putting this shit together, we love you!
The first band to play was Stop This Fall, hardcore punk with Pointless singer Johnny. They're a good band, Bane-type stuff but with screaming. They have good energy and some good songs, but nothing to cream your pants over (or get hard nipples over...not to mention any names)
Next up was the band formerly known as Lockjaw in the Locust Valley, who had Andres from Eat Shit on vocals and were replacing that same band on the bill. GREAT grindy metalcore kind of like Adore Miridia but different. Lots of energy, very intense set.
I didn't stay in for Never In Red but they're basically Glassjaw with pop punk parts and mosh breakdowns. A decent band for what they do. They also put on a great show. But from what i heard their set on this night was lacking. Oh well.
After them was Modern Day '84, Grimm's punk band. I didn't expect much of these guys but they turned out to be quite awesome. Good street-ish punk/ska stuff. Grimm dedicated a song to the fordapunx message board which was quite cool. We all humped him after the set.
Then came Revolver. DAMN! These guys are doing something really unique and special in the scene right now. This is beautiful music people. It's like Melodic Rockish Indie Pop with an almost Lounge-like touch. WOW they were excellent. Much respect to Adolfo for putting together such a great band with great musicianship and songwriting skills. The lead guitarist had some gorgeous solos too...not ripping solos but nice, real, soulful solos a la Carlos Santana. GREAT SET!
After them, Pygmy played by MATT's decision, not because they absolutely refused to play. They were hardly being assholes about it so let the rumors end now. They only played for about 20 minutes but in that time they ripped it up in usual Pygmy fashion. Blah blah Pygmy is sheer brilliance, blah, they're the best band in the scene right now, blah, you've heard it all before...tonight was no different.
and then...
AGAINST FUCKING ME!!! Wow, from the opening lines of "Those Anarcho Punx are Mysterious" to the AMAZING anthemic choruses of "Walking is Still Honest" and "Pints of Guiness Make You Strong", these guys were just INCREDIBLE. They played some new songs--one from the new EP and two TOTALLY NEW unreleased songs...all of which were SUPERB--and they blasted through a lot of great songs off Reinventing Axl Rose. The most amazing part of the entire show--and maybe even all the shows i've been to--was the end of Against Me's set. I had been creaming myself for months imagining them closing with "We Laugh at Danger (and Break All the Rules)"...so Against Me is wrapping up their amazing set and they say "this is our last song" and after a few moments of anticipation i flip my lid as Tom announces the final song as:
"WE LAUGH AT DANGER (AND BREAK ALL THE FUCKING RULES)"
as soon as the singing part kicked in, myself and a few others (Matt included) launched ourselves onto the stage and sang along. But then when the chorus hit...WHAM! The stage was fucking RUSHED. It was a sight to see. Kids were on the stage dancing with each other, singing to each other and just having so much fun. We even got the whole crowd clapping along to the little breakdown chorus and then we all let out the loudest WOOOOOO! we could muster as we brought the song to its crashing close. We all thought it was over then. Even as shouts of "BABY, I'M AN ANARCHIST" peppered the venue, people were beginning to file out...when suddenly...the motherfuckers BUSTED RIGHT INTO FUCKING "BABY, I'M AN ANARCHIST!!!!" What an AMAZINGLY PERFECT moment that was. Everyone was just on stage singing along in a circle around the band and it was so beautiful that it made me want to cry. What an ending to an amazing show. Matt, Mambo, TONS of props for putting this shit together, we love you!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Introduction/Thrice
A friend of mine told me that I "of all people should start a music blog." I thought she might be onto something, so here we are. I'm not exactly sure what this is going to be yet...probably mostly random record reviews, random musings and crap that's on my mind, maybe old concert reviews or whatever else I can dig up...the possibilities are endless really
I think it only fitting to make my first entry about Thrice, a band I've been obsessing over for a few months. "Obsessing? Isn't that a little bit of a strong word." On my last.fm page (this essentially pointless website that catalogues the statistics of what you've been listening to on whatever media player you have it synced up with...one feature of which is creating lists of the top songs and artists you've listened to in the last: 7 days, month, 3 months, 6 months, and year...really that's kind of the only feature...ANYWAY...) in the last 3 months, Thrice is the most played artist with 969 plays...second place is System of a Down with 88...
What really gets me about Thrice is their sense of dramatic structure in their songs. It's clear just from listening to their songs (specifically on the last three albums) that they know exactly where to go with a song and when. They have some of the most dizzying build-ups and most powerful, emotional, melodic releases. Some bands noticeably approach their songs in a very cinematic way and are able to take you on a journey where you can almost form the story in your mind as you listen to the song. The two best bands alive at doing this, in my opinion, are Tool and Thrice.
Vheissu has already cracked my all time top 25 but with their new opus "The Alchemy Index" they really pushed the envelope of what they're capable of. "The Alchemy Index" is a collection of four volumes, in EP form, each of which is "sonically and thematically" centered around one of the four natural elements (Volume I is Fire, Volume II is Water, Volume III is Air, and Volume IV is Earth). To top it all off, the 6th and final track of each volume comes in the form of a sonnet written from the point of view of the corresponding element (they are, however, songs, not readings, with the lyrics being in sonnet form...also the ending couplet of every sonnet is sung in the same melody and progression just in a different key each time). I hope you're beginning to see why I'm so obsessed with this band. Others probably think this is way too complicated and this band is a bunch of art fags. YOU all can kindly leave and never return. :)
One of the coolest things about "The Alchemy Index", to me, is the sonic aspect of the elements concept. The "Fire" disc is full of incendiary, raging, fiery material with plenty of corresponding imagery ("Firebreather", "Burn the Fleet", "The Flame Deluge", etc.). The "Water" is deep, dreamy, watery with songs like "Digital Sea" and "Open Water" (bookended by a dazzling sonnet about minding the power of the sea). "Air" is one of my favorite as it features an opening song ("Broken Lungs") essentially arguing in favor of 9/11 conspiracy theories ("are we fools and cowards all to let them cover up their lies? because we all watched the buildings fall...") with a breakdown so powerful that the first time I heard it my jaw literally dropped. It also features one of my favorite Thrice songs ever, "Daedalus" which is thematically wrapped around the story of Daedalus, Icarus's father, and is a strikingly beautiful metaphor for fatherhood ("oh son, please keep a steady wing, you know you're the only one that means anything to me...").
But nowhere does the elements concept shine through better sonically than on "Earth", the final volume. In a startling turn of Radiohead-like proportions, Volume IV of "The Alchemy Index" is a collection of old-timey, folky, beautifully earthy tunes with titles like "Moving Mountains" and "Digging My Own Grave" that sound like they're straight out of a John Steinbeck novel. There's even a brilliant, grooving cover of a Frodus song called "The Earth Isn't Humming." The last two songs really steal the show though. "Come All You Weary" is a powerful and uplifting song that reflects Dustin Kensrue's feeling about his music--in that he's said in interviews that he wants his music to help people and when he's in a dark place he likes to write about the light and lift himself out of the dark and hopefully be able to do that for other people too--with almost biblical imagery ("I've got a couple of loaves, sit down at my feet. Lend me your ears and we'll break bread and eat."). Then is the final sonnet of the opus, "Child of Dust", written from the point of view of the Earth. This has to be one of the most heartbreaking things I've ever heard. I remember the first time I really listened to the song while reading the lyrics, when I heard the line "And though I only ever gave you love/Like every child you've chosen to rebel" I almost cried. Seriously.
Don't even get me started on their older material, which I'm only recently (the last few weeks) starting to get obsessed with. Not so much "The Illusion of Safety", which is decent, but "The Artist In the Ambulance" has some seriously catchy, fun, heavy songs (the title track is one of the catchiest songs I've ever heard). But anyway, I should wrap this up. Do yourself a favor and go buy Vheissu...if nothing else you need to hear this album at least once. Tracks 5-8 are one of the most unbelievable four song stretches I've ever heard. Also make sure you read their lyrics too because some of them are just beautiful.
I think it only fitting to make my first entry about Thrice, a band I've been obsessing over for a few months. "Obsessing? Isn't that a little bit of a strong word." On my last.fm page (this essentially pointless website that catalogues the statistics of what you've been listening to on whatever media player you have it synced up with...one feature of which is creating lists of the top songs and artists you've listened to in the last: 7 days, month, 3 months, 6 months, and year...really that's kind of the only feature...ANYWAY...) in the last 3 months, Thrice is the most played artist with 969 plays...second place is System of a Down with 88...
What really gets me about Thrice is their sense of dramatic structure in their songs. It's clear just from listening to their songs (specifically on the last three albums) that they know exactly where to go with a song and when. They have some of the most dizzying build-ups and most powerful, emotional, melodic releases. Some bands noticeably approach their songs in a very cinematic way and are able to take you on a journey where you can almost form the story in your mind as you listen to the song. The two best bands alive at doing this, in my opinion, are Tool and Thrice.
Vheissu has already cracked my all time top 25 but with their new opus "The Alchemy Index" they really pushed the envelope of what they're capable of. "The Alchemy Index" is a collection of four volumes, in EP form, each of which is "sonically and thematically" centered around one of the four natural elements (Volume I is Fire, Volume II is Water, Volume III is Air, and Volume IV is Earth). To top it all off, the 6th and final track of each volume comes in the form of a sonnet written from the point of view of the corresponding element (they are, however, songs, not readings, with the lyrics being in sonnet form...also the ending couplet of every sonnet is sung in the same melody and progression just in a different key each time). I hope you're beginning to see why I'm so obsessed with this band. Others probably think this is way too complicated and this band is a bunch of art fags. YOU all can kindly leave and never return. :)
One of the coolest things about "The Alchemy Index", to me, is the sonic aspect of the elements concept. The "Fire" disc is full of incendiary, raging, fiery material with plenty of corresponding imagery ("Firebreather", "Burn the Fleet", "The Flame Deluge", etc.). The "Water" is deep, dreamy, watery with songs like "Digital Sea" and "Open Water" (bookended by a dazzling sonnet about minding the power of the sea). "Air" is one of my favorite as it features an opening song ("Broken Lungs") essentially arguing in favor of 9/11 conspiracy theories ("are we fools and cowards all to let them cover up their lies? because we all watched the buildings fall...") with a breakdown so powerful that the first time I heard it my jaw literally dropped. It also features one of my favorite Thrice songs ever, "Daedalus" which is thematically wrapped around the story of Daedalus, Icarus's father, and is a strikingly beautiful metaphor for fatherhood ("oh son, please keep a steady wing, you know you're the only one that means anything to me...").
But nowhere does the elements concept shine through better sonically than on "Earth", the final volume. In a startling turn of Radiohead-like proportions, Volume IV of "The Alchemy Index" is a collection of old-timey, folky, beautifully earthy tunes with titles like "Moving Mountains" and "Digging My Own Grave" that sound like they're straight out of a John Steinbeck novel. There's even a brilliant, grooving cover of a Frodus song called "The Earth Isn't Humming." The last two songs really steal the show though. "Come All You Weary" is a powerful and uplifting song that reflects Dustin Kensrue's feeling about his music--in that he's said in interviews that he wants his music to help people and when he's in a dark place he likes to write about the light and lift himself out of the dark and hopefully be able to do that for other people too--with almost biblical imagery ("I've got a couple of loaves, sit down at my feet. Lend me your ears and we'll break bread and eat."). Then is the final sonnet of the opus, "Child of Dust", written from the point of view of the Earth. This has to be one of the most heartbreaking things I've ever heard. I remember the first time I really listened to the song while reading the lyrics, when I heard the line "And though I only ever gave you love/Like every child you've chosen to rebel" I almost cried. Seriously.
Don't even get me started on their older material, which I'm only recently (the last few weeks) starting to get obsessed with. Not so much "The Illusion of Safety", which is decent, but "The Artist In the Ambulance" has some seriously catchy, fun, heavy songs (the title track is one of the catchiest songs I've ever heard). But anyway, I should wrap this up. Do yourself a favor and go buy Vheissu...if nothing else you need to hear this album at least once. Tracks 5-8 are one of the most unbelievable four song stretches I've ever heard. Also make sure you read their lyrics too because some of them are just beautiful.
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