I put this one on the mix for two reasons.
First, I thought it was appropriate to start the New Year off with a classic. Frankly, they don’t get much more classic than this one.
Second, just before New Year’s, I met this incredible woman. So incredible, in fact, that I realized it was probably a bit too good to be true. Having spent 29 years trying to strike a balance between my natural optimism and my learned skepticism, the line “I know my luck too well and I’ll probably never see you again…” seemed relevant. More on this at the end of the post…
Yelawolf is a dude from
03. The Get Up Kids – Action & Action
As I’ve mentioned dozens of times before, I grew up on a lot of emo stuff and I never quite got over it. You know how that goes. From those ages 14-19, everything just sticks in your head. You may outgrow it, but you’re never able to let it go entirely. The Get Up Kids are one of those bands, to the point where I finally went out and tracked down a copy of their album Something To Write Home About, a classic within the world of turn of the century power-pop-emo-punk.
This song specifically made me want to track down the record. I mean, a great pop music “fuck you” transcends time and, “Every mistake that I made I couldn’t have made without you…” is a pretty great “fuck you.”
Sidenote: I remember watching the video for this song with Sarah Elise on 120 Minutes way back in the day. I’m sure she was rolling her eyes the entire time, but I couldn’t get enough of the guy singing into that dangling phone. Oddly, she and I have debated whether that phone scene was from this song or a Promise Ring song.
04. Cory Grindberg – This One Goes Out To
Cory Grindberg is one third of a
However, I discovered Cory Grindberg semi-randomly via Twitter (through the other TC hip-hop musicians I follow). I was not prepared for what I was getting into when I started following him. Highly, highly entertaining stuff. If you like tweets about how lame Northwestern is, how much fun it is “going ham,” or how terrible Wale is, I definitely suggest you follow him (@CoryGrindberg).
05. Electric Light Orchestra – Sweet Talkin’ Woman
You all know how much I love pop music with a good hook. It doesn’t get much poppier or hookier than ELO. I know a lot of people dismiss their music as kind of cheesy & empty, but I also know a lot of aspiring musicians who would kill to be able to write the type of earworm hooks that Jeff Lynne routinely produced.
Sidenote: Always thanks to Ms. Palmquist (a sweet talkin’ woman herself) for turning me on to ELO.
Sidenote II: There is a fantastic ELO tribute band that plays around MPLS all the time known as ELnO. I caught their show back before I owned an ELO record and still enjoyed it thoroughly. Check them out if you’re in my city.
06. Company Flow – Blind
I put this one on for the Doomtree fans who read my blog. To quote Murs, “If you don’t know your history I know you’re fake…”
07. Justin Timberlake – LoveStoned/I Think She Knows
For more than a decade, poking fun at Justin Timberlake was like shooting fish in a barrel. Obviously, the ‘NSync seemed pretty brainless in its time and hasn’t stood up particularly well. His first solo album Justified seemed to reinforce his the perception that he was a brainless white dude with “next Michael Jackson” aspirations. Even the “Cry Me A River” fuck off to Britney Spears came off as convoluted.
However, hooking up with Timbaland for this FutureSex/LoveSounds album was a stroke of genius. Obviously, Timbaland’s record as a producer speaks for itself. His bizarre beats have made stars of those who could keep up (Missy Elliott, Aaliyah) and made jokes out of those who couldn’t (Chris Cornell). Viewing a teaming with Timbaland as a test of his artistic credibility, Timberlake passes with flying colors. This 7 minute jam, with it’s souped-up beat boxing and guitar was outro is the perfect example that Timberlake may have been worthy of all those “next great pop star” proclamations.
Sidenote: Listening to this album all the way through, it’s clear that the only real difference between Har Mar Superstar and Justin Timberlake is very, very small. Evidently sllightly better beats and slightly less graphic verses are the margin between niche-indie star and international superstar.
08. The Verve – Sonnet
As the second song on The Verve’s Urban Hymns album (immediately following the mega-hit “Bittersweet Symphony), it probably goes down as the 90’s all time leader in “song that got played for 10 seconds before a different record was put on.” That’s a damn shame. With the possible exception of “Lucky Man,” this is my favorite song on what has stood up as one of the classic British albums of the last 30 years.
09. Shad – Keep Shining
I was listening to the K as I was shooting down 94E a few weeks back when this song came on. The beat seemed good and the first line of the song was, “I roll with clever broads, with goals like Federov.” As you can probably imagine, I was willing to buy whatever Shad had to say after that. I got home and tracked down a copy of his TSOL album. It’s quickly become one of my favorite hip-hop albums ever. I highly suggest everybody check it out.
10. Metric – Stadium Love
Metric has always kind of bothered me simply because they always seem to be trying soooo hard. The guys in the band look like they could be any three hipsters from any band in
That’s kind of why I like this song so much. I’m sure they called it “Stadium Love” for a reason. This one was meant to be turned up really, really loud. It would sound immaculate in a stadium (unless that stadium was the
11. Doomtree – A Rickety Bridge
Pretty much the only recorded work released by Cecil Otter since his Rebel Yellow album came out a couple years ago. I love Cecil’s style. After star turns from P.O.S., Dessa, Paper Tiger, Lazerbeak, and, just this month, Sims, it must be about time for Cecil to step back into the spotlight. Hopefully this is just the tip of the iceberg.
13. The Hood Internet – Stuntin’ Like Black Rock
You all know what a fan I am of mash ups. If you haven’t checked out The Hood Internet, you’re missing some of the finest mash ups out there. This one, obviously is a mash up of BlackRock & Lil’
14. Chin Chin –
I really like Chin Chin because they seem to have stolen a lot of their sound from Steely Dan. Hell, if you’re gonna steal
Sidenote: I downloaded their Go There With You EP for free. You know what label was giving it away? Def Jux! I love the internet.
15. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Let Me Know
Alright, as I mentioned earlier, I met this incredible woman back around New Year’s. Now, the balance between “natural optimism” & “learned skepticism” is indeed a tough one to walk. As the line, “I know my luck too well…” implied, I had talked myself into skepticism regarding this woman. By the time I got to the end of the playlist, the pendulum had swung back to “natural optimism.”
I had hopes that, since I had told her about these playlists I put together on my blog, she would take the time to download it and listen to it. Now, as any mixtape junkie knows, the last song on the tape is the most important. Obviously, my hope was that the lingering sound of Karen O “calling out” to “let me know” would be a not so subtle message.
Well, let’s say that within the last few weeks the pendulum has, inevitably (I mean, it IS a pendulum) swung back to “learned skepticism.” Not only did she not download the mix, she didn’t even read the blog. Actually, that part is kind of funny. I’m assuming that means she’s probably not reading this either. I wonder if people are typing blogs about me that I’m ignoring… Wait, I’m getting off point. The lesson, as always: I’m an idiot.
