When I fired the blog back up in December, I warned that I might get the itch to write about things other than sports. The month of March gives me a pretty good opening. We're still a little bit away from baseball, and there's already enough people on the internet writing about bubble teams. Thus, I'll turn my thoughts towards something else I've thought about doing for a while: A countdown of my favorite songs. Without further ado, here's the guidelines:
1. One song per band makes the list. I don't think anyone wants to read 10 blog entries about different Isis songs, so I'll keep it simple.
2. I'm keeping the list to 20 songs. 20 seems like about enough entries to get a good, diverse mix of music without blathering on about a bunch of crap that no one cares about. Of course, part of the goal of this is to write about the music I love, and hopefully expose y'all to a few bands you might not have otherwise heard about (althought you've probably heard of most of the bands). But still, I don't want to overindulge myself.
3. That said, there'll be more than 20 songs. When I went through the primary list of songs, I had entirely too much trouble picking one song for some bands. Hence, I'll probably have a section at the end of each entry about some honorable mentions for each band. While the completely arbitrary rankings will still refer to the songs, each entry will be a sort of monument to the band in question. There'll also be a list of honorable mentions at the end of this post, because there's a few bands I at least wanted to acknowledge, including one which I am a member of.
4. The list will skew towards newer music. Yep, I'm 27. Most of the music will be from my lifetime. It happens. I do have two songs from before 1990 on the list, so that's something.
And that's about it. Four guidelines is enough. Here's the songs/bands that didn't quite make the cut for the top 20, in no particular order:
Everything in its Right Place - Radiohead
When I did the first draft of my list, I was a little surprised that Radiohead didn't make the cut. They've earned every bit of the critical praised that's been heaped upon them with their dynamic body of work. However, as I reflected on what makes Radiohead great, I realized that this omission makes sense. While they've had a few hits, and a few of their songs are singled out as their best, Radiohead seems to care more about crafting complete albums. I suppose you could say that the "whole is greater than the sum of its parts" cliche applies here. After all, this is the band that's sold their last two albums online, in part trying to avoid the trend of people downloading individual songs on ITunes and whatnot. If I did have to pick a song, it would probably be the odd table setter from my favorite of their albums Kid A, just beating out There, There and Exit Music (For a Film).
How Near How Far - And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead
...Trail of Dead's best album, Source Tags and Codes, is an absolute gold mine of fantastic music. There are few, if any, records that find their way into my car's CD player more often. While it's hard to pass up the title track or Heart in the Hand of the Mat for recognition, I think How Near How Far is the band at their sharpest. ...Trail of Dead rarely drag songs on necessarily, but they're also comfortable enough with their work to not rush it. How Near How Far leads in with instrumentals for almost a minute, which pays off when the same theme is repeated in the bridge. ...Trail of Dead knows how to create near-perfect 4 minute songs, and this is perhaps their best example.
Mother Earth - Jesu
Speaking of bands that take their time, here's Jesu. A perfect blend of metal and shoegaze, the Justin Broadrick-led band isn't afraid to explore every aspect of a musical thought. The theme that plays in the first 20 seconds of this song is pretty much the whole song. Of course that description doesn't do justice to what follows. Jesu makes the same progression of notes sounds optimistic, then foreboding, and finishes off with a slow burn into contentment.
Champagne From a Paper Cup - Death Cab For Cutie
This is still one of the best 2 minute long songs I've heard. Unique structure and and simple instrumentation. The quality of Death Cab's more recent albums has declined gradually, but they're generally still worth a listen.
Between the Bars - Elliott Smith
The other awesome two-minute long song on this list. It's a tragedy that the Omaha-born Elliott Smith ended his life so soon, but at least he left a great library of music behind. I'd have loved to see what he would have come up with nowadays.
PDA - Interpol
Turn on the Bright Lights is another CD that finds its way into my car pretty often. PDA is probably my favorite song on the album, but you could make a good case for Obstacle #1 as well.
Teen Age Riot - Sonic Youth
The mandatory song from the 80's on my list. Sorry, Toto.
Misunderstood - Wilco
Wilco is a band much like Radiohead where even though I would consider them one of my 20 favorite bands, it's tough for me to justify putting one of their songs in my top 20. If I had to pick one, I'd probably go with my and Adrienne's song, Misunderstood, but Hell is Chrome off of A Ghost is Born would also be a worthy pick. Fun fact: This song is from the one album on my computer that iTunes lists as "Country."
Your Woman - White Town
Unfortunately, DJ Drew does not have this song on his Backer playlist. One of the great shames of our time. If you want to blow your mind, here is the song from which the main sample of the song is taken:
Wait (You Guys) - Bing Bong Brothers
You can probably tell I'm to the "joke" part of the list. This makes the list over roughly 20,000 songs that are better than it because it is perhaps the only thing that will make me laugh every time I see/hear it. To prove it, I'm giggling as I type this.
Money - Donut Hymen
That's right, no caps no caps no caps.
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