Tuesday, June 12, 2007

pt. 4 soundtrack from Mega McCardle's suggestion

format courtesy of Megan McCardle, who got it from. . . who knows.
On shuffle, no skipping tracks.

Movie Soundtrack
Opening Credits: "Greenville," Paul Curreri, from Songs for Devon Sproule
Waking Up: "Darlington County," Bruce Springsteen, from Born in the USA
First Day At School: "A Chicken With It's Head Cut Off," Magnetic Fields, from 69 Love Songs
Falling In Love: "Solid Iron Heart," Chris Whitley, from Rocket House
Breaking Up: "99 Problems," Jay-Z, from The Black Album
Prom: "Departure," REM, from New Adventures in Hi-Fi
Life's Okay: "Barfly," Ray Lamontagne, from 'Til the Sun Turns Black
Mental Breakdown: "Don't Confess," Tegan and Sara, from If It Was You
Driving: "If I Only Had a Car," Golden Smog, from Weird Tales
Flashback: "This Kind of Day," the Autumn Defense, from The Green Hour
Getting Back Together: "Redemption's Son," Joseph Arthur, from Redemption's Son
Wedding: "Walking With a Ghost," Tegan and Sara, from So Jealous
Birth of Child: "Have You Seen Me Lately," Counting Crows, from Live On a Wire
Final Battle: "Brilliant Disguise," Bruce Springsteen, from Tunnel of Love
Death Scene: "La Cienaga Just Smiled," Ryan Adams, from Gold
Funeral Scene: "Mr. Robinson's Quango," Blue, from The Great Escape
End Credits: "I Never," Rilo Kiley, from More Adventurous

Well. . .it was fine until the Joseph Arthur song, afer which nothing fit at all.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

pt. 3 "I was born in an abundance of inherited sadness"

"Jacksonville Sklyline", by Whiskeytown, from Pneumonia
Probably one of my favorite songs ever written, and definitely one of Ryan Adams' most vulnerable. It's even, it's honest, and the line in the title never fails to conjure up thoughts of me, and my father, and my aunt, and generations of our family who were crippled by demons that nobody else could see.
Some of us were lucky enough for it to be a temporary thing.

I always like songs about small-town America. It always feels like the place where I come from, even though I came up in a college town, which makes no sense at all.
I've always wanted to be like my dad, and his brothers too, the small-town boys who were smarter than everyone else, who knew their politics and literature, and who wanted to drink a cold can of beer while talking about it.

Wow, that went off track fast. The point is that this song is an honest, and moving depiction of small-town ambition and change, and some regret.
Importantly, to me, I was a huge fan of this record during the summer of 2001. I was working at Skinnyguy.com, sweating and smoking and drinking shitty wine all summer, Libby was off in Paris for the first half, and I started to figure out, just a little bit, what kind of man I wanted to be someday. It took, and is still taking, a long time to get there, but that summer, and in a weird way this song, gave some shape to what I knew in my heart was important, and what I wanted to be the important things in my life, then and in the future.


"somewhere the night sky hangs like a blanket, shoot it with my capgun just to make it seem like stars"

Monday, April 16, 2007

pt. 2

Waste of Paint, by Bright Eyes, from Lifted
-
Okay, I really like this record, but this song bores the living hell out of me, and doesn't remind me of anything or make me feel anything. Sorry.

Stolen Car, by Springsteen, from the River
-
This album always seemed to be pretty hit and miss given its length (double LP), kind of like the Lucky Town/Human Touch double release. One disc of a solid 12 tracks would've done it. This song's about a "little girl" from a small town and the Boss loves her and things go bad. The music is actually perfect for background music, building up slowly, the piano part getting a little louder, the strumming guitar getting a little harder.
I never got into the River as much as any of the other Springsteen albums. I just don't quite relate to it as much as the rest of them.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps, by the Beatles, from the White Album
-Clapton does, in fact, play this part better than Harrison would've. These lyrics are banal, and frankly it's one of my least favorite songs on the White Album, mostly because I've somehow heard it more than a lot of the rest of them.

It's a Crime, by the Magnetic Fields, from 69 Love Songs
-synthy goodness from the album that helped make freshman year freshman year. Paul Fitzgerald got me into this heavily, and it has held up for seven years. Not one of the best songs on it, but part of the whole.


Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Pt. 1

Junk, by Paul McCartney, from McCartney
-I first heard this on one of the Beatles anthologies, and then there was a sweet instrumental version ("singalong junk") in Jerry Maguire after they first go out to dinner at that Mexican restaurant and then kiss on the front porch. It's really very sweet. Very McCartney, acoutic-y.

Narc, by Interpol, from Antics
-anything by Interpol makes me feel like something from an action movie is about to happen, and I get vaguely nervous. I don't know why. I saw them at the Belmont and Sheffield street festival back in the summer of '03 with Zack and Jessica, and, maybe Alan Bailey? I am certain that O'Holleran was with us, because he liked that band with the Japanese girls that I didn't care about. I don't remember it well. Only that I had invited Kelly Doodeman and she didn't come, and that I really liked Interpol live much better than their record, and that it was a great summer. It really was. I think it was the best summer I've ever had.

Tampa to Tulsa, by the Jayhawks, from Rainy Day Music
-This used to be a song that I listened to in the spring of '03 when Libby Ford had dumped me and I got super dramatic and blah blah blah. I bought the album in D.C. when O'Holleran and I were at a "leadership conference", running up $200 bar tabs for three nights in a row. We had a really good time that weekend. The memory seared into my head about this song is taking a long, long walk in the early morning down to the parking garage on Harrison after staying up all night, and being all "woe is me, time to super-brood".

The Electric Version, by the New Pornographers, from Electric Version
-My God! The summer of '03 is a recurring theme here! This album was played nonstop during shower-time in both bathrooms of our apartment above Francesca's, along with Rilo Kiley and Postal Service. Another song that reminds me of being reborn in that summer, playing catch in the park with Nicholas and Kevin and Jay, being sweaty and happy and drunk and having absolutely no clue what was going to come next, only that it would be exciting. And it was.
This never has never, ever, failed to excite me.

There Goes the Fear, by Doves, from the Last Broadcast
-Nate Luman and Amanda Winterroth: if those two as a couple had a theme that I immediately relate to them, it's this song. They were visiting one weekend and Nate kept talking about what an amazing record this was, and he was right. Usually I can forget who reccomended an album, but this is eternally the album that is Nate and Amanda.
When were they visiting, you may ask?
The fucking summer of '03!
What the hell? My iPod may be possessed.

Lonesome Day, by Bruce Springsteen, from The Rising
-What to say about this one, except that I love almost everything that Springsteen does the same way that die-hard Tom Waits fans feel about him, or that Dylanologists do about him. Got the record from Nathan when he was visiting (with Amanda!), and listened to it constantly; he even gave me a promo poster that I put up on my wall when we first moved above Francesca's.
"House is on fire, viper's in the grass, a little revenge and this too shall pass". . . .goddamn.

Sense, by Pete Yorn, from Music From the Morning After
-The summer of 2001 I was working at Skinnyguy.com, and a few nights Tyler would come over and we'd get drunk on the stoop and listen to his label's artists. The new guy was Pete Yorn, and I was in love with this album that summer. It's one of the lesser songs, but still reminds me of sangria Boon's Farm wine and throwing up with Tyler on Mixon and Hartrich's bathroom floor, switching off who got to put their head into the toilet after smoking massive amounts of pot, drinking tequila, and smoking cigarettes all night.
Yuck.

Beside You, by Van Morrison, from Astral Weeks
-I never think of this album in terms of songs, just a threaded-together string of sections of one big song. This one is where he kind of yells a bit with sparse acoustic guitars and some flamenco picking.
Obviously, not one of my emotionally connected songs.

The Queen of England, by the Mendoza Line, from Lost in Revelry
-"So you thought you were in love just 'cause I bought you pancakes."
Great lyrics, boring song, sorry to my friend Zack who loves it. I like this album a lot, mostly because of the six or so songs that are outstanding. But it doesn't hold up on its own, at least not right now.

Soul Meets Body, by Death Cab, from Plans
-Everyone knows this song, it sounds like the Postal Service covering an REM song, which I mean as a compliment. And I now always think about the episode of How I Met Your Mother when Ted sees the cupcake baker girl at the wedding, because maybe they play the first part of this song there?