Well, I’ve had an eventful couple of weeks. Spring 2009 has ended, and the Summer session has begun. I like my Spanish professor a lot— he’s a young-ish guy and seems more hip than any teacher I’ve had before. I think I’ll do okay in the class. I’m not quick with translating in my head and being able to reply but I can do the work so there’s hope. I’m really looking forward to my next round of classes: History of Rock & Roll and a class on Bowling. Sweet!
I’ve also gotten a twitter account. I got sick of Facebook. You can find me by searching “gregpocalypse.” Micro-blogging is sort of dumb but then the status thing on Facebook is too. I’m a sucker for the dumb.
I wanted to explain a comment from a previous post about the summer activities that Nando and I have planned. You see, summer can be a boring time: you either waste or it drags as a child and you don’t get any real summer vacation as an adult. He and I have devised a scheme to try and enjoy one of the last summers that we’ll have as pre-adults (a term that only implies our continued reliance on our parents for food and shelter and not our level of maturity, which would be infantile to adolescent at best…).
It is currently a list of competitions that we shall engage in over the course of the summer. Each face-off can be placed in one of two categories— the direct challenge or a race to find the best. The list of direct challenges include “The Burger-off,” “The Bartender-off,” an homage to the movie Cocktail (on of the greatest summer movies ever) and “The Write-a-movie-off,” though I doubt we’ll actually get to that one. The second group has more potential (as we’ll have to do less). It pits us against each other as we both search for the best whatever it is the challenge calls for. We have currently best bar, best hot wings and best mixed drink (which is under review as it might be incorporated into “The Bartender-off”).
I’m hoping to keep a scorecard and at the end of the summer (on the Autumnal Equinox to be exact) we’ll tally the points and a trophy of some sort will be awarded. The list is a work in progress as we add things and edit but it will be locked in as of the Summer Solstice, or 5:45am June 21st, 2009. I’ll try and post a list of the challenges and keep you updated as things progress.
On the music front I’ve got a couple of recommendations for any interested parties:
Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
I really liked a song of theirs a couple years back (“Long Distance Call”) but I never got into them as a band until a week ago when I picked up their brand-spanking new album. Wow. Some of the best arranged pop rock I’ve heard since Vampire Weekend blew my socks off. Not that they sound anything like Vampire Weekend… they just have incredibly interesting songs that go together as an album quite well. I’m not sure but I think it’ll be on my list of best Albums of the year. It’s a little early for that kind of talk I know, and they wont win the coveted award but this record should be in the conversation as Mike likes to say…
Sunn 0))), Monoliths and Dimensions
When I buy an album I am usually relatively informed about what I’m getting into, I either know the band or have read a review or two. Not always but a lot of times this is the case. With Sunn 0)))’s latest release I had done both. I got it so that I would have some things to say the next time I found myself in Baltimore talking about music (cause it will come up) and I’ve heard all (or almost all) of their other stuff. I think its cool, interesting but not exactly my thing. This album challenged that to a degree that I wasn’t really prepared for. They had been growing more conceptual and for me more likeable (split with Boris and sound-tracking a Jim Jarmusch movie) but this moves things backwards at least a little. Maybe it was the headphones, maybe my mood, but the vocals, which are rather distinct are too Doom-y. I realize this is a ridiculous argument to make., the guys practically freaking invented Doom but I couldn’t get past the silly overdramatic voice that sounded like a cross between a Viking and an Emo kid ………….who ……………. sings……………………………………. like………………………… this………………… I’m going to hold off on judgment until I listen a bit more but right now it looks like a 6.8 to 7.0.
I’ll try and talk about Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest, Los Campesinos!, and a few singles next post but for now that’s all.
As a brief conclusion I’d like to offer a public service announcement: save yourself from Twilight. Yeah, I read it. Elizabeth was talking about it and I decided that it didn’t sound so bad. Well it was. I read it in two days. It’s horrible. I feel like a twelve-year-old girl… and by that I mean irrevocably in the thrall of Mrs. Meyer and her repetitive bland prose style. While the story is highly entertaining she writes like I talk: way too much of the same phrases repeated over and over. I thought I was reading an ancient Greek epic ready to see “wine-dark sea” or “clever Odysseus.” It isn’t easy to admit that I’m hooked, but like a recovering alcoholic the first step is admitting that you have a problem. The second step is hitting rock bottom I think, so I’ll be reading the three other books over the following three or four days. Then I’ll make amends and all that other stuff….
Title is from Phoenix’s latest (I thought it seemed appropriate, what with the Summer challenges coming up and all). Listening to “Idumea” by The Sacred Harp Singers at Liberty Church from the Cold Mountain soundtrack and “Hungry Liars (feat. Justin Powers)” by Portland Cello Project from The Thao and Justin Powers Sessions.
Wednesday, June 10
Sunday, May 24
Sweat It Out
Summer Listening Picks
Passion Pit, Manners
Selling Features:
1.) A high-pitched voice that evokes Journey in just the right way. 2.) They’re what MGMT wishes they sound like, and everyone fuckin’ loves MGMT, right? 3.) When you name drop them you’ll sound like a cool kid but the music is actually good.
Standout Tracks:
“Make Light” – Sounds like bulls crashing around a china shop while making pop music.
“Sleepyhead” – Anyone who dislikes this song is at least a little crazy.
“Moth’s Wings” – I’ve heard some people get on this band for its silly/sophomoric lyrics but I really like this song for both the music and the content. You be the judge.
Lady Gaga, The Fame
Yes, it’s been out since last year. Yes, I should have heard this record all the way through a long time ago. Whatever… It’s summer-good-time-dance-music and I’m on board.
Standout Tracks (besides the singles, which rock but are obvious):
“Paparazzi” – One of three slower love songs on the album. This is by far the best.
“Starstruck” – She equates dancing/love-making to the production of music, and not “let’s make some sweet music, baby” but “put your hand on my waist, pull the fader / run it back with original flavor / Queue me up, I’m the twelve on your table / I’m so starstruck.”
“Paper Gangsta” – Great piano throughout, and though it’s slower there is a driving quality to the beat that works its way under your skin. The way she calls out the potential suitor by calling him a paper gangsta is fantastic too.
Fuck Buttons, Street Horrrsing
I’m not a huge fan of anyone that has profanity in their band’s name. It seems needlessly stand-off-ish to me. Fuck Buttons has overcome that knee-jerk reaction, in part because it sort of sounds like a term of endearment and because I love their sound. A mix of noisy pop and out-there electro. Not for everyone but I will be bumping it this summer.
Standout Track:
“Colours Move” – The opener of an album is a hard needle to thead: do start with the barn burner that will be everyone’s favorite but not what the album actually sounds like? Maybe you kick off with the artistic instrumental interlude to show everyone how much Pink Floyd has influenced you (please note: I hate when you do this… you get one instrumental every two releases and they should come at the end or towards the end!) Fuck Buttons does both and it kicks ass!
Summertime Singles
The Whip, X Marks the Destination – “Trash”
I heard this on MTVU the other day and had to download it immediately. Sassy electro-pop that makes you want to strut around like a hipster douche. I love it!
Smashing Pumpkins, Special release for Nissan – “FOL”
Its that song from the Genesis Coupe commercial. Sue me…
Shiny Toy Guns, Season of Poison – “The Future Is Where We Belong”
Found in Gossip Girl’s season finale, when Chuck and Blair get together at long last. The moment was sound-tracked amazingly well with this song. Gauzy production, big slow drums, choral back-up and well executed transitions all come together well to make this song into something worth listening to after the television stops working its magic.
Azealia Banks, Youth Offender – “Seventeen”
Using the Ladytron track by the same name this rapper turns it on its head and makes one of the funniest songs to come out of hip-hop since Lil’ Mama’s ode to lip gloss.
Title from The Dream, Love Vs Money, listening to all of the above.
Passion Pit, Manners
Selling Features:
1.) A high-pitched voice that evokes Journey in just the right way. 2.) They’re what MGMT wishes they sound like, and everyone fuckin’ loves MGMT, right? 3.) When you name drop them you’ll sound like a cool kid but the music is actually good.
Standout Tracks:
“Make Light” – Sounds like bulls crashing around a china shop while making pop music.
“Sleepyhead” – Anyone who dislikes this song is at least a little crazy.
“Moth’s Wings” – I’ve heard some people get on this band for its silly/sophomoric lyrics but I really like this song for both the music and the content. You be the judge.
Lady Gaga, The Fame
Yes, it’s been out since last year. Yes, I should have heard this record all the way through a long time ago. Whatever… It’s summer-good-time-dance-music and I’m on board.
Standout Tracks (besides the singles, which rock but are obvious):
“Paparazzi” – One of three slower love songs on the album. This is by far the best.
“Starstruck” – She equates dancing/love-making to the production of music, and not “let’s make some sweet music, baby” but “put your hand on my waist, pull the fader / run it back with original flavor / Queue me up, I’m the twelve on your table / I’m so starstruck.”
“Paper Gangsta” – Great piano throughout, and though it’s slower there is a driving quality to the beat that works its way under your skin. The way she calls out the potential suitor by calling him a paper gangsta is fantastic too.
Fuck Buttons, Street Horrrsing
I’m not a huge fan of anyone that has profanity in their band’s name. It seems needlessly stand-off-ish to me. Fuck Buttons has overcome that knee-jerk reaction, in part because it sort of sounds like a term of endearment and because I love their sound. A mix of noisy pop and out-there electro. Not for everyone but I will be bumping it this summer.
Standout Track:
“Colours Move” – The opener of an album is a hard needle to thead: do start with the barn burner that will be everyone’s favorite but not what the album actually sounds like? Maybe you kick off with the artistic instrumental interlude to show everyone how much Pink Floyd has influenced you (please note: I hate when you do this… you get one instrumental every two releases and they should come at the end or towards the end!) Fuck Buttons does both and it kicks ass!
Summertime Singles
The Whip, X Marks the Destination – “Trash”
I heard this on MTVU the other day and had to download it immediately. Sassy electro-pop that makes you want to strut around like a hipster douche. I love it!
Smashing Pumpkins, Special release for Nissan – “FOL”
Its that song from the Genesis Coupe commercial. Sue me…
Shiny Toy Guns, Season of Poison – “The Future Is Where We Belong”
Found in Gossip Girl’s season finale, when Chuck and Blair get together at long last. The moment was sound-tracked amazingly well with this song. Gauzy production, big slow drums, choral back-up and well executed transitions all come together well to make this song into something worth listening to after the television stops working its magic.
Azealia Banks, Youth Offender – “Seventeen”
Using the Ladytron track by the same name this rapper turns it on its head and makes one of the funniest songs to come out of hip-hop since Lil’ Mama’s ode to lip gloss.
Title from The Dream, Love Vs Money, listening to all of the above.
Tuesday, May 19
Have You Fallen Asleep
Things I have neglected to mention:
1.) My birthday was great! Wolverine, a surprise party, awesome gifts—what more could a man ask for? Well… maybe to be 21 again. So far 23 is okay, though. (See picture)
2.) Star Trek was truly entertaining. Not mind-blowing but solid nonetheless. Scotty and Bones were definitely the highlights.
3.) I got to feed llamas on Mother's Day at a party we went to. (See picture)
4.) I’ve got finals. Stressed but dealing. We’ll see.
5.) Summer school starts at the beginning of June. I seem to remember more time in between last year. Spanish here I come!
6.) Coach is back. Nando and I have plans for a summer full of activities (including a summer cook-off, but more on that in another post). Mike and I are hanging out this weekend. Things are good.
7.) Speaking of Mike, that fucking Lakers fan: the Celtics got kicked out of the finals on Sunday going down to the Heat in game 7 at the Garden. It was sad. KG needs to come back next season. Oh, by the way, I really enjoy watching basketball now…
Listening to “Kids” by Chiddy Bang. Title is by Paper Route from Absence… and no, I haven’t.
Tuesday, April 28
We Can't Read Poetry
So I have to give a presentation on Yeats in about an hour and a half. I’m looking forward to it. I knew he would be someone I’d like: angry, drunk, Irish… sign me up, right? I now understand why everyone like him though. Wow, even the crappy early stuff about fairies is entertaining. I particularly like “Sailing to Byzantium,” “Easter, 1916” and “”Second Coming.” Wish me luck with the thing.
I was hanging out with Mike on Saturday and got tons of new music, which was awesome. I also drank way too much for the first time in a while. Strangely I was sick the day after and not the night of, which has never happened to me before. Scotch and soda, you are a cruel mistress. Seriously, they incapacitated me for all of Sunday.
Nando and I watched “How I Met Your Mother” on Friday. He too has caught the horrible disease. I mean… CBS… really!?!? It’s just so damn entertaining. They banter well; it doesn’t seem forced like in so many sitcoms these days. It isn’t just actors waiting to say their next line. I’m not trying to defend it… I just think if you were to try and justify watching it in your head that would be a good point to make.
On the new music front (which does not include the old hardcore and emo stuff Mike and I got this weekend) I have a few notable finds, but I’ll try and keep it brief, just one quick one before I go:
Harlem Shakes – Technicolor Health (Album)
Great band, fun album, cool artwork, sentimental rocker songs (not rock going sentimental, rock that happens to be sentimental, there’s a fine distinction but an important one). They’ve got an all-over-the-place sound that I have been digging lately but they keep it from getting stale or too over-the-top. Four out of five stars…
Listening to “Niagara Falls” by Harlem Shakes, the title of this post is brought to you by Piebald, from Barely Legal/All Ages. The picture is from a couple days ago outside McKeldin Library, I put it in as I am enjoying this taste of summer a lot right now.
Thursday, April 23
Don't Talk About My Music
So Elizabeth told me about this thing: you gather up the twenty-five most important albums of your life and turn this list over to your peers. I guess so they can see what it is you listened to when you didn’t know them.
I’m going to try and do that here, if only because I’m bored and feel like making a list. I think the result will be rather strange. I entirely dropped the person that I was when I went away to school. It was a reinvention but because I went away with four good friends who I hung out with all the time and who call me on my bullshit it didn’t quite work as completely as one might have expected. There are also some truly embarrassing moments here. Please remember that I went through most of my early musical development in a white-breed cultural wasteland.
Anway… here is the list in chronological order as best I can remember (autobiographic not release date):
1.) Genesis – The Best of Genesis
I can remember dancing around to this while my parents cleaned the house in the summer. I was maybe five. I would make them play it over and over again until I was too tired to move anymore. Phil Collins is a genius.
2.) Madonna – The Immaculate Collection
This was the other CD I thought worth busting a move to while they cleaned up. I can still vogue with the best of them.
3.) Elton John – Mad Man Across the Water
“Indian Summer” was the first song that I actually listened to for lyrical content. The music had been around for a while but I think I was seven and suddenly realized that there was a story to the song. I believe this is why I love “Dances with Wolves” as much as I do. And you can’t beat the line: “The New York Times said God was dead, and the war’s begun, Alvin Tosteg has a son today!”
4.) Moody Blues – Moody Blues Greatest Hits
My mom was a huge fan and I really like the sound of violin mixed with pop music. Why she never played me more Beatles when I was little I’ll never understand but this was my first foray into “classic rock.”
5.) Enya – In Memory of Trees
My mom bought this CD for my dad thinking that it had the radio hit “Sail Away” on it. When it turned out that it didn’t contain the single I started playing it. The first three songs still make me feel like I’m eight.
6.) Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
I got my first CD player for Christmas in 3rd grade. I had begged my parents for it since October (when my cousin Terri got her Walkman). The huge 3 CD boom box was awesome but I had no CDs of my own to play. I had recently been allowed to start listening to DC101 (though not in to morning since my mom objected to Elliot’s crude humor) and “Bullets with Butterfly Wings” was everywhere. I thought I sounded awesome and heavy so I asked to go to Tower Records and a sales clerk helped me find the CD. Two discs of mind blowing music later I was sold on the whole grunge thing. I must admit that I also bought the Lisa Loeb debut album and Weird Al Yankovic at the same time but still I think I get points for liking the Pumpkins at age eight.
7.) Green Day - Insomniac
“Basketcase” from Dookie was all over my school in 5th grade so on another trip to Tower (man, I miss that place) I looked for it. All they had was the new release, “Insomniac” so instead of leaving empty handed I went for it. I couldn’t believe how weird it was but I thought it was awesome anyway. “Babs Uvula Who” is a great name for a song… Still one of my favorite punk records.
8.) A Perfect Circle – Mer De Noms
A Perfect Circle was the first band I was truly obsessed with. I bought this CD because I liked “Judith” in (I think) 7th grade. I listened to it non stop. “3 Libras,” “Sleeping Beauty,” all of them. For a kid who thought he was never going to kiss a girl APC was full of the longing and lonely anger that I craved. I still think it has some great orchestration.
9.) Lincoln Park – Hybrid Theory
There is no accounting for this radical shift from grunge to rap-metal, I can only say that it was on the radio a lot and I thought it sounded angry, which at 13, seemed a prerequisite for my music—the longing sadness having turned to being pissed off at the world.
10.) Bush – Sixteenstone
I had, without my knowledge, been listening to Bush for a long while on the radio. When I finally figured out how many singles this CD had on it that I loved I bought it sophomore year. I could not stop listening to it, on road trips that summer, on my new portable CD player, everywhere. “Glycerin” is such an amazing song.
11.) Jimmy Eat World – Bleed America
My first “discovery.” I was watching MTV late one night and an ad came on for the Real World or something and I liked the song that played in the background. Well the ad kept on popping up and the song had this catchy guitar and plaintive vocals. I finally looked up what it was on the internet and bought this the next day. I’m still in love with this album.
12.) Flogging Molly – Drunken Lullabies
My friends in high school listened mostly to techno. I didn’t put any of that on here because it was all via mixes one of them made. Drew (the mixologist) also burned me a copy of this since I was Irish and he thought I would like it. I did… a lot! These guys are still the only band I’ve seen more than twice.
13.) Brand New – Deja Entrendue
While I could try and play this one off like I did Lincoln Park (damn you Shinoda!!!) I stand by this. I bought it my junior year and I credit it and Jimmy Eat World for my love of emo. Without “I Believe You But My Tommy Gun Don’t” I’m not sure if I would have been ready for Braid or the Get Up Kids… “Sic Transit Gloria” is also the encapsulation of how I left about girls. I can still remember singing it at the top of my lungs with John Hogan after we had taken over the music one night at a party in St. Mary’s. Good times.
14.) International Noise Conspiracy – A New Morning
Jimmy Streeter threw this at me while we were looking in a record store one afternoon and said: “Hey bitch, this looks like something you would like.” He was very right. Lyrics about philosophy, Guy Debord and breaking the system… I hearted anarchy.
15.) The Clash – London Calling
Senior year saw some pretty big changes in my listening. The ground work had been laid by INC, Brand New, Flogging Molly and Jimmy Eat World in the preceding two years but it wasn’t until someone, and I can’t remember who, told me I might like The Clash that it really happened for me. I bought London Calling and was converted. Everything from “Lost in the Supermarket” to “Hateful” to “Spanish Bombs” blew my mind. I went on to The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, Stiff Fingers, all of it but The Clash was my first true punk rock love (despite loving Flogging Molly they can’t qualify as my first since punk died in 1981).
16.) The Mars Volta – De-Loused In The Comatorium
Watching music videos on Yahoo one day this band came up as a suggestion based on what I was watching before. The song was strange, the singer’s voice was too high-pitched and I couldn’t figure out if the lyrics were awesome or too pretentious even for me. Having listened to the album probably a gazzilion times since that fateful day the music is strange, the singer is too whiny and the lyrics border on un-listenable. But I learned of At The Drive-In because of it and when I told Mike Musser that I liked them a lot he told me of the wonderful world of GSL (which the band members had partial stake in). For that I’m eternally indebted.
17.) Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures
Here we being the story of my collegiate music experience. It was just another night at St. Mary’s and had climbed up to the third floor of Caroline dormitory to partake in 40s Forties night, in which we dressed up like we were from the 1940s and drank Old English forties. I met Mike that night as he hit on my then girlfriend’s roommate. He made an off hand joke about Joy Division I went back to my room and found it on the network of shared music and have never been the same since. I later claimed that I knew about Ian Curtis and Martin Hannet’s production and all of it before I had come to college but that was me trying to be cool. I sat and listened to Unknown Pleasures all the way through that night and cried my eyes out while the world seemed to crumble around me. (Side note: that was not the first or last time that forties made me emotionally unstable… its worse than red wine)
18.) Party of Helicopters – Please Believe It
As Mike took me under his musical wing the first thing I picked up and really liked was this band. “Good Punk” really spoke to me. I wanted to be all the things I thought a punk should be but couldn’t get behind the fashion. “They’ve got a unicorn on the album over, but I think I’ve been a good punk” was how I made peace with myself.
19.) Xiu Xiu – Fabulous Muscles
That scream in “I Luv the Valley, OH!” haunts my dreams still. “Brian the Vampire” still makes me shake uncontrollably when I hear it sometimes. Xiu Xiu was the most out-there thing I had ever heard but when Mike played it for me and Ricardo at 3am one morning after long bouts of drinking and talking I just got quiet. It reminds me more than anything else of St. Mary’s.
20.) Her Space Holiday – Manic Expressive
When I left St. Mary’s I had fully expected never to see any of my friends ever again but Mike called me up one day and we hung out and he played this for me. I credit “Ringing in My Ears” for getting me through the depression that went along with getting kicked out of school, even though Manic Expressive is maybe one of the most depressing albums ever.
21.) Indian Summer – Science: 1994
I had enjoyed “Angry Son” when it was shown to me freshman year but it took until the Autumn of 2005 for me to figure out that this was among my top 5 all time favorite albums. The blues sample, the crescendo, Indian Summer is why I’m an emo kid.
22.) The Locust – Plague Soundscapes
They are Mike’s favorite band but it wasn’t until I was making fun of them with Shah one night out on the town in 2006 that I really gave them a chance. I went home and played the 23 minute cluster-fuck of an album twice. My head spun, my ears hurt but I liked it. I got, at long last, what Mike saw in them. It isn’t for everyday listening but I love the Locust!
23.) Braid – Frame & Canvas
I can’t really describe how it was that this came into my life. It took me a while but when it happened I was not the same after. It is my favorite album.
24.) My Bloody Valentine – Loveless
See the very first blog post I made on this site for my introduction to My Bloody Valentine. I am fairly sure this is number 2 on the list of all time favorites.
25.) Orchid – Gatefold
Number three. Every song should be a radio single. This is bar rock for kids with white belts. I have never heard lyrics like these. I’ve never wanted to start a band more than when I first heard this record. “Sex sells more records than rock / So let’s fuck and forget / The background hum.” “Buy a book / Read up / I’m on every page.” “And in 1999 all the kids stood in line / And our party’s a bore / And we don’t care / We’ll take Brooklyn over Manhattan any day of the week / Our party’s mystique will be our capability to think.” I get weak in the knees.
So that took too long. I told way too many stories. I had fun though. There is something deeply satisfying about taking stock of your life. For me, my life since turning 16 has been about music. Making this list and listening to all these records again (yes, even Lincoln Park… and I still can’t figure that one out) was like seeing the spot on the wall where your parents would measure how tall you were getting. I’m not saying it was a linear journey but at almost 23 these songs are my lines on the wall—there for all to see how I’ve changed.
The post title is from The Violent Femmes off Viva Wisconsin (Live), and you should feel free to talk about my music... I just thought it worked well as a title.
I’m going to try and do that here, if only because I’m bored and feel like making a list. I think the result will be rather strange. I entirely dropped the person that I was when I went away to school. It was a reinvention but because I went away with four good friends who I hung out with all the time and who call me on my bullshit it didn’t quite work as completely as one might have expected. There are also some truly embarrassing moments here. Please remember that I went through most of my early musical development in a white-breed cultural wasteland.
Anway… here is the list in chronological order as best I can remember (autobiographic not release date):
1.) Genesis – The Best of Genesis
I can remember dancing around to this while my parents cleaned the house in the summer. I was maybe five. I would make them play it over and over again until I was too tired to move anymore. Phil Collins is a genius.
2.) Madonna – The Immaculate Collection
This was the other CD I thought worth busting a move to while they cleaned up. I can still vogue with the best of them.
3.) Elton John – Mad Man Across the Water
“Indian Summer” was the first song that I actually listened to for lyrical content. The music had been around for a while but I think I was seven and suddenly realized that there was a story to the song. I believe this is why I love “Dances with Wolves” as much as I do. And you can’t beat the line: “The New York Times said God was dead, and the war’s begun, Alvin Tosteg has a son today!”
4.) Moody Blues – Moody Blues Greatest Hits
My mom was a huge fan and I really like the sound of violin mixed with pop music. Why she never played me more Beatles when I was little I’ll never understand but this was my first foray into “classic rock.”
5.) Enya – In Memory of Trees
My mom bought this CD for my dad thinking that it had the radio hit “Sail Away” on it. When it turned out that it didn’t contain the single I started playing it. The first three songs still make me feel like I’m eight.
6.) Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
I got my first CD player for Christmas in 3rd grade. I had begged my parents for it since October (when my cousin Terri got her Walkman). The huge 3 CD boom box was awesome but I had no CDs of my own to play. I had recently been allowed to start listening to DC101 (though not in to morning since my mom objected to Elliot’s crude humor) and “Bullets with Butterfly Wings” was everywhere. I thought I sounded awesome and heavy so I asked to go to Tower Records and a sales clerk helped me find the CD. Two discs of mind blowing music later I was sold on the whole grunge thing. I must admit that I also bought the Lisa Loeb debut album and Weird Al Yankovic at the same time but still I think I get points for liking the Pumpkins at age eight.
7.) Green Day - Insomniac
“Basketcase” from Dookie was all over my school in 5th grade so on another trip to Tower (man, I miss that place) I looked for it. All they had was the new release, “Insomniac” so instead of leaving empty handed I went for it. I couldn’t believe how weird it was but I thought it was awesome anyway. “Babs Uvula Who” is a great name for a song… Still one of my favorite punk records.
8.) A Perfect Circle – Mer De Noms
A Perfect Circle was the first band I was truly obsessed with. I bought this CD because I liked “Judith” in (I think) 7th grade. I listened to it non stop. “3 Libras,” “Sleeping Beauty,” all of them. For a kid who thought he was never going to kiss a girl APC was full of the longing and lonely anger that I craved. I still think it has some great orchestration.
9.) Lincoln Park – Hybrid Theory
There is no accounting for this radical shift from grunge to rap-metal, I can only say that it was on the radio a lot and I thought it sounded angry, which at 13, seemed a prerequisite for my music—the longing sadness having turned to being pissed off at the world.
10.) Bush – Sixteenstone
I had, without my knowledge, been listening to Bush for a long while on the radio. When I finally figured out how many singles this CD had on it that I loved I bought it sophomore year. I could not stop listening to it, on road trips that summer, on my new portable CD player, everywhere. “Glycerin” is such an amazing song.
11.) Jimmy Eat World – Bleed America
My first “discovery.” I was watching MTV late one night and an ad came on for the Real World or something and I liked the song that played in the background. Well the ad kept on popping up and the song had this catchy guitar and plaintive vocals. I finally looked up what it was on the internet and bought this the next day. I’m still in love with this album.
12.) Flogging Molly – Drunken Lullabies
My friends in high school listened mostly to techno. I didn’t put any of that on here because it was all via mixes one of them made. Drew (the mixologist) also burned me a copy of this since I was Irish and he thought I would like it. I did… a lot! These guys are still the only band I’ve seen more than twice.
13.) Brand New – Deja Entrendue
While I could try and play this one off like I did Lincoln Park (damn you Shinoda!!!) I stand by this. I bought it my junior year and I credit it and Jimmy Eat World for my love of emo. Without “I Believe You But My Tommy Gun Don’t” I’m not sure if I would have been ready for Braid or the Get Up Kids… “Sic Transit Gloria” is also the encapsulation of how I left about girls. I can still remember singing it at the top of my lungs with John Hogan after we had taken over the music one night at a party in St. Mary’s. Good times.
14.) International Noise Conspiracy – A New Morning
Jimmy Streeter threw this at me while we were looking in a record store one afternoon and said: “Hey bitch, this looks like something you would like.” He was very right. Lyrics about philosophy, Guy Debord and breaking the system… I hearted anarchy.
15.) The Clash – London Calling
Senior year saw some pretty big changes in my listening. The ground work had been laid by INC, Brand New, Flogging Molly and Jimmy Eat World in the preceding two years but it wasn’t until someone, and I can’t remember who, told me I might like The Clash that it really happened for me. I bought London Calling and was converted. Everything from “Lost in the Supermarket” to “Hateful” to “Spanish Bombs” blew my mind. I went on to The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, Stiff Fingers, all of it but The Clash was my first true punk rock love (despite loving Flogging Molly they can’t qualify as my first since punk died in 1981).
16.) The Mars Volta – De-Loused In The Comatorium
Watching music videos on Yahoo one day this band came up as a suggestion based on what I was watching before. The song was strange, the singer’s voice was too high-pitched and I couldn’t figure out if the lyrics were awesome or too pretentious even for me. Having listened to the album probably a gazzilion times since that fateful day the music is strange, the singer is too whiny and the lyrics border on un-listenable. But I learned of At The Drive-In because of it and when I told Mike Musser that I liked them a lot he told me of the wonderful world of GSL (which the band members had partial stake in). For that I’m eternally indebted.
17.) Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures
Here we being the story of my collegiate music experience. It was just another night at St. Mary’s and had climbed up to the third floor of Caroline dormitory to partake in 40s Forties night, in which we dressed up like we were from the 1940s and drank Old English forties. I met Mike that night as he hit on my then girlfriend’s roommate. He made an off hand joke about Joy Division I went back to my room and found it on the network of shared music and have never been the same since. I later claimed that I knew about Ian Curtis and Martin Hannet’s production and all of it before I had come to college but that was me trying to be cool. I sat and listened to Unknown Pleasures all the way through that night and cried my eyes out while the world seemed to crumble around me. (Side note: that was not the first or last time that forties made me emotionally unstable… its worse than red wine)
18.) Party of Helicopters – Please Believe It
As Mike took me under his musical wing the first thing I picked up and really liked was this band. “Good Punk” really spoke to me. I wanted to be all the things I thought a punk should be but couldn’t get behind the fashion. “They’ve got a unicorn on the album over, but I think I’ve been a good punk” was how I made peace with myself.
19.) Xiu Xiu – Fabulous Muscles
That scream in “I Luv the Valley, OH!” haunts my dreams still. “Brian the Vampire” still makes me shake uncontrollably when I hear it sometimes. Xiu Xiu was the most out-there thing I had ever heard but when Mike played it for me and Ricardo at 3am one morning after long bouts of drinking and talking I just got quiet. It reminds me more than anything else of St. Mary’s.
20.) Her Space Holiday – Manic Expressive
When I left St. Mary’s I had fully expected never to see any of my friends ever again but Mike called me up one day and we hung out and he played this for me. I credit “Ringing in My Ears” for getting me through the depression that went along with getting kicked out of school, even though Manic Expressive is maybe one of the most depressing albums ever.
21.) Indian Summer – Science: 1994
I had enjoyed “Angry Son” when it was shown to me freshman year but it took until the Autumn of 2005 for me to figure out that this was among my top 5 all time favorite albums. The blues sample, the crescendo, Indian Summer is why I’m an emo kid.
22.) The Locust – Plague Soundscapes
They are Mike’s favorite band but it wasn’t until I was making fun of them with Shah one night out on the town in 2006 that I really gave them a chance. I went home and played the 23 minute cluster-fuck of an album twice. My head spun, my ears hurt but I liked it. I got, at long last, what Mike saw in them. It isn’t for everyday listening but I love the Locust!
23.) Braid – Frame & Canvas
I can’t really describe how it was that this came into my life. It took me a while but when it happened I was not the same after. It is my favorite album.
24.) My Bloody Valentine – Loveless
See the very first blog post I made on this site for my introduction to My Bloody Valentine. I am fairly sure this is number 2 on the list of all time favorites.
25.) Orchid – Gatefold
Number three. Every song should be a radio single. This is bar rock for kids with white belts. I have never heard lyrics like these. I’ve never wanted to start a band more than when I first heard this record. “Sex sells more records than rock / So let’s fuck and forget / The background hum.” “Buy a book / Read up / I’m on every page.” “And in 1999 all the kids stood in line / And our party’s a bore / And we don’t care / We’ll take Brooklyn over Manhattan any day of the week / Our party’s mystique will be our capability to think.” I get weak in the knees.
So that took too long. I told way too many stories. I had fun though. There is something deeply satisfying about taking stock of your life. For me, my life since turning 16 has been about music. Making this list and listening to all these records again (yes, even Lincoln Park… and I still can’t figure that one out) was like seeing the spot on the wall where your parents would measure how tall you were getting. I’m not saying it was a linear journey but at almost 23 these songs are my lines on the wall—there for all to see how I’ve changed.
The post title is from The Violent Femmes off Viva Wisconsin (Live), and you should feel free to talk about my music... I just thought it worked well as a title.
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