“Stuck Between Stations,” by the Hold Steady
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnPgegu1EeE
The Hold Steady are a garage/indie/pub rock band that emerged from Brooklyn, New York that released its first album, Almost Killed Me, in 2004. The group fuses classic hard rock jams with humorously “vague,” yet at times sinister lyrics to create a sound that is simply like no other rock band out there. “Stuck Between Stations” is probably their most famous song to date, having been released on Boys and Girls in America, the group’s third effort, in 2006. The Hold Steady’s music connects with me because of its raw, down-to-earth feel and its stories of unchecked teenage angst in a big(ish) city with nothing to do.
I particularly like “Stuck Between Stations” because of the happy, melodic piano superimposed over the edgy, grunge-esque guitar riffs and driving rock drumbeat. The song is “me” because no matter how many times I’ve heard this song, I can still rock out like a dork every time it comes on. The Hold Steady’s songs tend to read like stories. Lead singer Craig Finn even uses reoccurring fictional characters that are used as themes that send specific messages. “Stuck Between Stations” is about those times in your life when you feel as though you’re just coasting on autopilot, without any strong emotions one way or another about how life is going. The title of the song stems from the chorus, which reads, “Most nights are crystal clear but tonight it’s like it’s stuck between stations on the radio.” I think everyone can identify with this sort of “blah” feeling that we get when school, work, stress, etc. exhaust our supply of happy. The line that reads, “he was drunk and exhausted and he was critically acclaimed and respected,” is a reminder that people from all walks of life, and not just hormone-crazed teens, can get this feeling every once in a while. I also like “she was a pretty cool kisser and she wasn’t all that strict of a Christian/she was a damn good dancer but she wasn’t all that great of a girlfriend/he likes the warm feeling but he’s tired of all the dehydration,” because it feels like a play on how teens react when experiencing life’s more worldly aspects for the first time. I included this song in my playlist because it brings me back to simpler times of the early high school years when the whole world was new and exciting. I have a lot of specific memories that I attach to this song, and hearing it just makes me smile and remember a lot of laughs I’ve had with my friends.
“Prince Charming,” by Jim’s Big Ego
(I couldn’t find a site to listen to this song, as they’re not very famous)
Jim’s Big Ego is the best band you’ve never heard of. They’re a 3 piece from Boston, Massachusetts that describes their music as “unpop.” If you listened to some of their music, you might wonder why it wouldn’t be classified as pop, but the unpop label comes more from a songwriting/lyrical meaning standpoint than simply one of musical characteristics. Jim’s Big Ego songs feel homegrown because they are, and the result is that their music feels more real, like it could have been written for you by one of your friends or significant others. I just happened to discover the band when my friend’s mom bought their album at a record store solely because she liked the cover art.
“Prince Charming” is about how our fairytale fantasies about how life should go for us will never become reality because that is how life is. The song begins with, “I think you better cut all that hair off/throw it out the window/climb down from that tower/flip the wicked witch the finger.” I love this line because where there’s thousands of songs that tell us we can do everything and life is perfect, “Prince Charming” says that life isn’t perfect and that we should get over it and start to appreciate all the beautiful things around us that are good in a cruel world. The words really speak to me because I have a terrible habit of getting caught up and stressed out in life’s details, without seeing the bigger picture.
“Public Pervert,” by Interpol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyqzpXAJ3SA
Interpol are a New York City based indie rock group that formed in 1997 that released their first full length album, Turn on the Bright Lights, in 2002. The band likes to combine harmonized guitar melodies with somewhat “pop-sounding” beats with lots of hi-hat and snare drum that results in a sound that is difficult to categorize, somewhere on the indie side of the line where pop and indie mix. In “Public Pervert,” soft chords interrupt running guitar lines, and the clean sound yields to distortion and a harder drumbeat in the chorus. This song is one of those love songs that isn’t a love song, which is something I like in a strange way. The song opens with the line “If time is a vessel then learning to love might be my way back to sea.” Romantic lines are always going to be cheesy for the spectator, but somehow Interpol’s lyrics feel more real to me, like it’s a conversation between two people and not a song. My favorite line is in the powerful chorus that reads, “So swoon baby starry night, may our bodies remain.”
I chose this song for my play list because I discovered Interpol during the year or two period when I started becoming the person I am today, and I feel a lot of different emotions when I hear “Public Pervert.” I don’t necessarily have specific memories I associate with this song, but I get a vague feeling of nostalgia whenever I hear it. We all have songs that bring us back, and this is one of those for me. I like how the words are real and powerful, yet they aren’t lame and corny like a lot of songs can be. This song is “me” because of its down-to-earth feel and its unique approach to expressing the most difficult emotions.
“Never Ending Math Equation,” by Modest Mouse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R38Pe-8l9M
A lot of Modest Mouse fans talk about the old days being the best years of Modest Mouse. You hear a lot of things like “their new stuff is good, but it’s just not the same.” Regardless of your opinion on the matter, “Never Ending Math Equation” is an amazing song that came out of the “old” Modest Mouse era. Modest Mouse formed in 1993 just outside of Seattle. This particular song comes from a collection of material that was recorded for their first album but didn’t make the final cut for the release, but was released later in 1999.
“Never Ending Math Equation” is “me” because of its message. Even without the lyrics, however, I really like this song for the music. The song is slow almost until the end, when it picks up with vigor into a grooving jam. In the verse, singer Isaac Brock writes that “I’m the same as I was when I was six years old/and oh my God I feel so damn old/but I don’t really feel anything.” This expresses a feeling of looking around and wondering where the time went. This song poses a lot of questions about the nature of human beings. Do we change over time, or are we the same as when we were born? Are we just numbers plugged in to a never-ending math equation? My favorite lines are those that read, “On a plane, I can see the tiny lights below/and oh my God they look so alone/but do they really feel anything.” This song is in my play list because it makes me feel better when I feel like I don’t matter, or when I feel detached from everyone else.
“Drain You,” by Nirvana
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKTRJZkNoSo
Nirvana are one of my all-time favorite bands. I have been listening to Nirvana since I started listening to music. It takes a special kind of person to create music from the heart and perform it in front of millions of people, and Kurt Cobain was one of those people. His life and career have fascinated me since I began listening to them. “Drain You” is a song of Nevermind, the band’s second album which was released in 1991. This is the album that features “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” arguably the group’s most famous song.
“Drain You” is on my play list because the strange combination of mysterious lyrics, a driving guitar riff, and an upbeat drumbeat blend perfectly to create a feel-good song. I have to sing along when I hear this song, and I have no idea why. One of my favorite lines is the first, which says, “One baby to another says ‘I’m lucky to have met you’/I don’t care what you think unless it is about me.” I love how you have to listen to Nirvana songs over and over to try and figure out what is really being said. The edgy guitar combined with Cobain’s haunting voice make this song part of me.
“Elder Misanthropy,” by the Black Dahlia Murder
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQiKdaVkEWs
Metal, in any of its various forms, is all about the music. Musicianship is the name of the game. If you don’t have the sickest, fastest guitar riffs or the craziest drumbeats then chances are you won’t get too far in the genre. In all true modern metal, vocalists scream, or try to emulate some animal growling sound, instead of singing the words like in other genres. You can rarely understand what they are saying, and it’s very loud, just like all other aspects of metal music. Why? To put it bluntly, no one really cares what the vocalists are saying, but society for some reason has deemed that straight instrumentals just aren’t cool enough. In the 80’s, before metal had taken its current form, bands like Metallica tried to combine regular hard rock style vocals with the instrumental onslaught of the music. Old metalheads would prefer this style, but the metal that caught my eye was the kind with blazing guitar riffs and crazed individuals screaming their lungs out.
“Elder Misanthropy” made my play list because one of its riffs is basically the main reason I picked up a guitar. In middle school, I wanted to be a drummer. After being turned on to a few hardcore bands by my friends, however, it was guitar or nothing. To me, metal is about creating energy out of the music. When I listen to my favorite metal songs, the hair on my neck stands up and I get this feeling I can’t explain. After a less-than-ideal calculus test grade or a terrible Monday, when I feel like taking a brick to the next nice car, I listen to metal and I almost instantly become cool and relaxed, as if the music channeled my anger and frustration into something positive. When I hear the main riff in “Elder Misanthropy,” I can’t help but play air guitar and rock out, mainly because I am lame but also because of the energy that it creates. For this reason, “Elder Misanthropy” is me.
“Wailin’,” by Outkast
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGZQ64uWmNQ
When I was a freshman in high school, I hated rap because the only “rap” I knew was the Top-40 version of hip-hop that you hear on the radio. As my friends gave me albums from artists that were doing the real thing, I began to appreciate the art of storytelling that is inherent in good rap. Outkast are one of my favorite rap groups because they represent the south and their lyrical technique is amazing to me. The way Andre “3000” Benjamin and Antwan “Big Boi” Patton work of each other is uncanny. Their unique styles and approach are perfect for each other, which is why they have been so successful. Outkast combines elements of soul, funk, jazz, blues, pop, and many other genres to create a sound that is unique among the rap artists of the late 80’s and early 90’s.
“Wailin’” in particular makes my list because the funky bass line used in combination with a jazzy guitar riff makes for a killer beat, not to mention the slick reference to The Usual Suspects. This is a pretty short song, as Andre and Big Boi have only one verse apiece, and the chorus is only some soulful humming with no “hook.” I like that these aspects result in a very atypical rap song. The combinations of different types of rhymes as well as a sharp vocabulary showcase the lyrical talent of the two Georgia-based rappers. As a senior, I put an edited version of this song on my school’s soccer team warm-up. This song always got me pumped up to stop shots and make the goal box my territory. For all of these reasons, “Wailin’” is me.
“This Velvet Glove,” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVcaArHvj0c
The Red Hot Chili Peppers are easily my favorite band of all time. Californication, released in 1999, was the very first CD I owned. Few artists are able to create music for as long as RHCP has with so much success. RHCP formed in 1983, and released their 9th full-length album in 2006. They have written more songs that I like than any other group.
“This Velvet Glove” makes my play list because I think it is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard. Both acoustic and electric guitars are heard in the melody, and their sharp contrasts accentuate each other perfectly. Singer Anthony Kiedis’ pushes his voice to the limit in this song, and you can hear the emotion in his singing. Listening to “This Velvet Glove” relaxes and calms me down. One of my favorite lines reads, “It’s such a waste to be wasted in the first place/I want to taste the taste of being face to face with common grace/To meditate on the warmest dream/And when I walk alone I listen to our secret theme.” I really like how the verses are laid back and in the chorus everything picks up and gets more aggressive. This is my favorite song ever, and it had to be included in my play list.
No comments:
Post a Comment