Sunday, May 20, 2007

dissecting the elite

i have a playlist on my itunes called 'the elite' that is composed of the songs that i generally never grow tired of; songs that i view as being a cut above the rest. i'm kinda bored and looking for a reason to post a blog this evening, so what i'm gonna do is play 10 or so songs and write as much as i can about them or the band or whatever i want while the song is playing. let the good times roll.

- 'wasted' by stabbing westward. stabbing westward was one helluva band. that 'wither blister burn & peel' cd (where i jumped aboard the SW bandwagon) was fantastic and 'darkest days' was really great as well. then came this cd, the self titled one..where they totallllly flipped the script with everyone. gone were the electronic and industrial noises (and probably some anger), and in was straight up moody rock songs with fantastic musical and melodic hooks but a similar lyrical style..wasted may have been a single from that shit, but if it wasnt it should have been. the song is so awesome, and now its almost over. christopher hall had a great voice, i wonder if his newer band is anywhere as cool as this one was. ah well. i did see these guys live once towards the end of their banddom, they kinda sucked. singer boy hall looked like scott stapp with his white wife beater and poses. i think i got in free though so it's alright. if i did get in free, thanks streetwise!

-'still in love song' by the stills. i don't remember where i first heard this song, but it was probably on m2 or maybe even a radio show called sunday school here in the atl on 99x. this came out a few years ago just before the killers/bravery/interpol/etc frenzy of 04 or so but never really blew up the way those guys did which is kiiind of a bummer, cause the cd this was on ('logic will break your heart') was loaded with quality and this song in particular has a great hook and nice catchy bassline and makes me happy. it's short though, NEXT!

-'carolina' by m.ward. i don't even think i have the cd this is on, but it was a song on his myspace last year when i first started gettin into his stuff and i loved it. i like the double-tracked vocal thing he does a bit on this song. man i love acoustic music, i've turned into such an old man. 3/4 of the music on this playlist is stuff like this. i bet you're wondering why i created this playlist to begin with, aside from the whole favorite songs thing. WELLL it's because i really enjoy taking walks at night and i got sick of having to skip songs everytime something came on that i just didn't have any desire to listen to. sooo i made a playlist of things i'd never want to skip and i'd always want to listen to on said walks. i like the lyrics to this song esp the line 'i'm walking backwards looking forward to getting done, but that ain't enough, no, you want me to run'..that's a pretty relate-able line me thinks. but no time to elaborate. new sONG!

-'brightly' by sleeping at last. geez man i love this band. i love the singer guy's voice. i love the music. i don't really know how to describe how this band makes me feel in any other way than happy. simply happy. lyrically they provide such an emotional and powerful spiritual punch and the music tends to be so uplifting and just helps create a wonderful atmosphere when any of their songs come on. this song is from the cd 'ghosts' and was something recommended to me on amazon way back when that actually turned out to be awesome. i'd say that after the release of their most recent cd, 'keep no score', these dudes are a top 10 band for me. ah happy. NEXT

-'wasted one' by cary brothers. i doubt all that many people out there are familiar with cary brothers for anything other than his amazing 'blue eyes' song that zach braffy used in garden state, and that's ok. he has a few eps out there but nothing released and promoted like it should have been. luckily for him, he's got a full length cd finally coming out this summer. anyway back to this song, it starts out pretty mellow and then he turns on bono mode towards the end of the song. ya know what sucks? the yankees are beating the mets right now. not that i like the mets, but i have more of them on my fantasy teams. this is a song that has lyrics that you can instantly relate to if you've ever been in any type of relationship where you felt like you held yourself back or didn't get/give your best to someone else. NEXT

-'bright lights' by tom mcrae. hot shit! i have some crazy manlove for tom mcrae. he might be my single favorite artist at the moment... for the past few years really. this is what i'd make the first single (maybe it is, i dunno) on his newest cd and marks somewhat of a treading of new grounds for him stylistically. it's actually an uptempo song that doesn't feel as doom and gloom as most of his stuff does and finds tom with an urgency in his voice that i don't think i've heard before. but what really does it for this song is the chorus, that is what makes this song a fantastic single. people need to hear repetition in their pop songs, and with it's simple and repetitive 'run into the bright lights' chorus, this is prolly as close as mcrae is gonna get to making a catchy pop tune. wonderful cd, wonderwonderwonderwonderful. number 1 this year? maaaybe

-'expo '86' - death cab for cutie. i wonder if they have a new cd coming out this year. i bet not, but we'd better get a new postal service cd. anyway, this is the cd that really exposed dcfc to the masses, including me. i didn't exactly love them when i first heard them..i made fun of it quite a bit actually. then i couldnt get the shit outta my head and that new year song video was on m2 a lot and i stopped being able to deny this band. this is one of the more ehh songs on this cd comparitively speaking, but it's still pretty goooood and stuffs.

- 'thank you' by dido. ok i liked this BEFORE it was an eminem song. but i admit the em song wasn't half bad and i'd be lying to you if i said that after the first chorus i didnt expect to hear 'DEAR SLIM...' almost every time. i wonder what dido is up to these days, that last cd of hers was pretty so-so but her voice is so pretty that i still liiiiked it. and she's cute, which is always is plus. the video for this song was also cute, it involved a little housey in the city and some rain..and stuff. i think. i dunno it's been awhile. you'd be surprised to see how little you can actually type in 3-4 minutes unless you're REALLY going at it, because it's now time for...

((3 more death cab songs played next, but for my talking purposes i skipped them))

- 'can i stay' - ray lamontagne. i WISH i had known of this guy's talents sooner than i did, because this would have been a hands down number 2 cd of the year in 2k6. his raspy, weathered voice really draws me in and he keeps things so simple and it's still amazing. i don't think a cd has landed in my elite list AND my sleep list as quickly as this one does. sure this song is basically about sleepin with someone, but he makes it sound so beautiful. but then one might argue that loooove is beautiful anyway, so i guess it's alright. even the album cover is simple yet fantastic. loveee it! i know it's not this song, but my favorite lyric of his is on the song empty (which is full of great lyrics 'i've never learned to count my blessings, i choose only to dwell in my disasters'??!? cmon, that's amazing.) anyway so the lines 'well i looked my demons in the eyes, laid bare my chest and said do your best to destroy me. see i've been to hell and back so many times, i must admit you kinda bore me' are really awesome in my humble opinion but i have got to move on toooo....

- 'on the threshold of eternity' - the snake, the cross, the crown. i saw this band live once and it was really awesome. lots of dudes on a tiny stage playing lots of random instruments and all singing and stuff. cool tim
es. again, great lyrics abound here, and a great sound. i love this folky-americana sounding stuff. they just had a new cd come out a month or 2 ago and it's pretty good. noooot as good as this one really, especially lyrically, but still better than lots of shit that gets released. i wish i were a label guy or something just so i could do more to suppose the bands i really liked and really believed in. hopefully i'll get there one day. so there's a minute left in this song, but it's winding down, so i'll wrap it up.

10 songs, a little over an hour. haha what a waste o'time

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have a playlist on my itunes called 'Slow Goodies' which consists of:

that cool silver mt. zion song Gust of.., Story Board, Wet the Day and Glimmer by TAL
Stay With Me by Clint Mansell Bless This Morning Year by Helios three songs from the Final Fantasy Movie s/t
Iconography, Organum and Flowers for Yulia by Max Ricter
O I Sleep by Sigur Ros
Paradiso off the Wolf's Rain s/t and of course Leaving Hope by NIN.

linderlinder said...

okay, i'll be honest...i'll never read that in it's entirety unless i find the same amount of time that you had to write it. good times, though.