Day 13

Well hello there, Gimmick Blog! Would you like me to update you? It'd be my pleasure!

Song 61: Of Montreal - "Erroneous Escape Into Eric Eckless"
Do you remember when Of Montreal was like a regular old indie pop band? It's been a damn while. This song could be confused for a lively Belle & Sebastian song. I know a lot of people pine for this era of the band (and really, Satanic Panic... really did signal the end of the simple pop band Of Montreal) but I can't imagine listening to many more songs like this one. Pass.

Song 62: The Pixies - "There Goes My Gun"
I accidentally typed "There Goes My Gum" for a second up there. That would make for a much less interesting song, probably. Not that the gun really livens this particular ditty up. I don't mean to be so snarky, because I do love The Pixies, but this is not one of their better efforts. Boring verse, boring chorus, boring song. Coincidentally, I think there is a song on The Wrens' Silver that has that weird guitar noise in it.

Song 63: Of Montreal - "Touched Something's Hollow"
I don't like to write about the same artist on back to back days, much less in the same update, but the juxtaposition is too great not to point out. This somber piano ballad filters some sad sack lyrics through a T. Rex/David Bowie glam piano that is perfect. The lyrics are simple to great effect. The song skips a chorus to go with two variations on a single 'verse': "Why'm I so damaged, girl? Why'm I such poison, girl? I don't know how long I can hold on / if it's gonna be like this forever." It's worth noting that this downtempo song goes seamlessly into one of the happiest songs on the record. Style points for that.

Song 64: Islands - "Volcanoes"
I don't think I've ever listened to this song with headphones on in a quiet room like I am doing right now, and thus never realized that the creepy talky intro goes on nearly 30 seconds! I'd like to know what that's from. This is a really fun song and very clever for being about...uh...volcanoes. It feels light and airy, like a delicious angel food cake.

Song 65: Liz Phair - "Soap Star Joe"
I don't know if I ever really listened to Exile In Guyville all the way through. At least I know I never did while I was totally paying attention. This feels very "of its time." That is to say, it sounds like mid 90s pop/grunge that could be vaguely dangerous but probably won't hurt you any. The strummed electric guitar is just sparse enough to create an atmosphere, but also loud enough so that this doesn't sound like a campfire song. It's good, but I doubt I 'll remember the tune tomorrow.

Day 12

Song 56: Dizzee Rascal - "Graftin'"
This is a very hard song for me to listen to and concentrate on. It has Dizzee's usual million syllables a second flow, but the beat is like somebody chopped and screwed diz's beat into oblivion. It's so slow and sparse, it's so jarring juxtaposed with the quickness of the rapping. It is actually almost giving me a headache right now, which isn't usual, but still very unwelcome.

Song 57: Ultimate Fakebook - "Wrestling Leap Year"
Power POP! This'll raise the bpm a bit! A very cool sinsiter sounding verse leads into a bit of a herky-jerky chorus here. Thankfully, the chorus is short so as to get back to the pretty cool verse. Hey three people that read this blog, what is a wrestling leap year?

Song 58: Liz Phair - "Johnny Sunshine"
This is, if nothing else, a very cool name for a song. Admittadly, I have maybe listened to this cd once or twice ever, so I don't have a strong inclination to Liz Phair at all. It's not bad though. The mild wall of distortion that the song sits in front surprised me. If the song wanted to, it could really explode at the end with some huge wall of sound collaging. Too bad it wastes the last 45 seconds slooooooowly fading out.

Song 59: Teddybears - "Punk Rocker (Featuring Iggy Pop)"
Yes! I first heard this, or parts of it, in some commercial. Unbeknownst to Luke, I had wanted to hear the real thing for awhile, and he ended up putting it on my Christmas 2006 mix cd. Maybe my favorite song from that mix, too. This was a perfect song for Iggy Pop to sing, sort of like how Johnny Cash doing all of the covers of 90s alternative hits was really cool because the age of the vocals just changes so much about the message, Iggy Pop turns the song into sort of an aging lament on being a punk rocker. The whole thing fits so comfortably opposite the cheerful synth-driven backing music. I love it. "See my die on Bleaker Street. / I'm bored with being god."

Song 60: Architecture In Helsinki - "Fumble"
Architecture in Helsinki are almost just a bit too cute for their own good, but that doesn't detract here. The stop-start horns and guitars are pleasent and give the song a bit of mystery, because it's not entirely clear where the chorus will appear. Neat song, AIH.

Day 11

Does anyone think I'll finish this thing in less than 5,000 real days? I hope so, but i guarantee nothing.

Song 51: The Clash - "Spanish Bombs"
I hated "punk rock" as a kid. When I say "punk rock" I guess I'm mainly referring to the punk-pop my friends listened to a lot. bands like Millencolin, The Ramones, stuff like that. I don't really like those bands now, either, but I lumped The Clash in with these bands for reasons I don't remember. Anyway, this led to me experiencing London Calling far later in life than I should have, when i purchased it for a cheap price at a Camelot Music going out of business sale. Thanks, Camelot Music! This is a fun song, and I like the seamless transition into a Spanish chorus. That's fun for everyone (who speaks Spanish or English!)

Song 52: Spoon - "The Agony of Laffitte"
This is a cool bonus cut off the copy of A Series of Sneaks that I downloaded off of Luke way back in the carefree Soulseek days. Spoon does sparse rockers really well, but when they strip down (no homo) for an acoustic ditty, they're pretty damn good, too. The xylophone at the end of this one isn't that neccessary, but it's a cool touch. Probably the only instrument I could ever play with any consistency besides the recorder.

Song 53: Modest Mouse - "Steam Engenius"
One of the more 'classic Modest Mouse' sounding songs on We Were Dead... which is probably why I enjoy it so. The megaphone-boosted chorus isn't any special but it sounds right. And while the ringing guitar sounds during it are good, it's the percussion during the bridge that makes the song. It's the kind of paranoid soundscape background stuff that Modest Mouse is so good at when they apply themselves.

Song 54: Battles - "Snare Hanger"
The drums on this are just ridiculous. It's a quick two-minute track, so it's busy all over, but the drums are just wild. It actually sounds like a Wolf Parade song near the end, but Wolf Parade's percussion never reaches this frantic a pace. It's like unleashing a rubberband wind-up toy.

Song 55: Devin Davis - "Sandie"
Kind of a middling ballad here from Davis. This might be just poor circumstance, because I'm pretty jazzed from the Battles song, but I think there are A) better slow jams on this album and B) Davis is much better when he's rocking out anyway. The horn adds some depth to the track near the end, but I've never been very into this one.

Day 10

Wow, ten days! According to my math, that leaves only 990 days left to go! Live it up while you still can!

Song 46: Akron - "Interlude: Ak Ak Was The Boat They Sailed In On"
Again, probably not a "song" I should really be blogging, but this is like the best version of Ocean Sounds there is! I don't need calm, relaxing seagulls and mild surf. I want ratchey tractor noises and an uneven sea! I want an ominous sound of a person walking in the brush, just out of my eye-sight. I want to not watch the Cardinals win this football game...oh wait.

Song 47: Pavement - "Coolin' The Sound"
I hesitate to say Pavement had a bad ear for their best songs, because aside from a few clunkers per album, it's not like they ever released a record that was one big shit sandwich, but their b-sides are sometimes equally listenable. I always liked "Coolin' The Sound," which is maaaaaybe poooosssibly the one song sung by Spiral Stairs that I really, really enjoy out of the Pavement catalogue. I install such a caveat to that because A) I'm not even entirely sure that's Spiral singing and B) because there might be one other song somewhere of his that I like. Whatever, the guitar is so easy going and fun in this track.

Song 48: The Dresden Dolls - "The First Orgasm"
I'm feeling a little too shy to blog about this song, so instead i'll post the lyrics and just say that I probably can't ever include this on any mix cd I ever make, ey?
It is a Thursday
I got up early
it is a challenge
I’m usually lazy

I make some coffee
I eat some Rice Chex
And then I sit down
To check my inbox

I only read a word or two
I stare across the street and see the churches and the blue

The first orgasm of the morning
Is cold and hard as hell
There wont be any second coming
As far as I can tell

I arch my back cause
I’m very close now
It’s very cold here
By the window

There are some school kids
Yelling and running
They barely notice
That I am coming

The first orgasm of the morning
Is like a fire drill
It's nice to have a little warning
But not enjoyable

I am too busy to have friends
A lover would just complicate my plans
So I will never look for love again
I’m taking matters into my own hands
I’m taking matters into my own hands

I bet I could last at least a week without someone to hold me
I bet I could last at least a week without someone to hold me
Won’t you hold me?
Won’t you hold me?
Won’t you hold me?

Upon pasting that, I'm actually fairly impressed at the mix of odd puns and sad desperation near the end. I also just probably make some young kid's google searching very irritating. Sorry, bro!

Song 49: Magnetic Fields - "Roses"
One of the shortest Magnetic Fields songs that I am aware of, at 27 seconds, it reminds me of a church hymn. Not that I go to church very often, but the heavy echo on the vocals sung in a choral manner leads me to that very wise statement.

Song 50: Jack Rose - "Dark Was The Night"
Ha ha! Very funny, iTunes! A fine song to end our day on, this instrumental country ditty reminds me of a time when I said, "Yeah I like classic country, not that new stuff." And this is the sound I meant, basically. It's all slide guitar and sounds like it was made by an hombre in the middle of a desert. Cool song.

Day 9

Song 41: No Age - "Ripped Knees"
It's difficult to talk much about a song like this, because it's such a messy punk-rock song. The focus is definitely not on a central hook. There's a cool power in the guitars, though, and the feedback is unbelievable. Heavy feedback for some a light song. The outro that is 1/3 as long as the song is slightly perplexing.

Song 42: Old 97's - "Blinding Sheets of Rain"
I love how lazy this song feels. It just seems like a quiet day on the ranch. I tend to romanticize any song that I can imagine song in a half empty bar of dudes who are just totally beyond grizzled. Guys that just spend all day on the land. Plus, who doesn't love a little lap steel?

Song 43: Hatchmatik - "Burn it Down (Hatchmatik's burn down the club remix)"
This track comes courtesy of Luke again, who sent it to me as part of some electro comp. The intro makes it a little tough to listen to if you're just sitting at your computer hanging out, but if the rapped verse brings a little more of a straight hip-hop vibe to it. Even still, probably can't play this unless you gotta bunch of club kids around, or you're really, really drunk.

Song 44: The Unicorns - "Tuff Luff"
So much of The Unicorns album sounds like it was made it about 2 minutes, and this is a good example. There's some sort of cheap sounding organ thing, and a bass line, and that's about all that's happening here. The rapping part, "Hey nuclear war & a hotbed of trouble / make with the penance, repent on the double." was always my favorite part.

Song 45: Sondre Lerche - "Track You Down"
What a terrible sad and great song. Lerche's song crafting has gradually improved on each album, but the simplicity in this arrangement go perfectly with the lyrics. "I take it you are afraid afraid / of everything I am and of some things I am not / A fear I share before I go to bed."

Day 8

Song 36: Company Flow - "Definitive"
I love EL-P but I really haven't listened to this that much. Nothing particular special. It's interesting, to me, because it has much more of a standard dark hip-hop beat than EL's solo stuff. I also appreciated the reference to 'sucking the cookie out the pussy,' though I'd guess anyone that knew Company Flow probably thought that was cooler when they heard it on Fantastic Damage.

Song 37: Eels - "Teenage Witch"
The keyboard line in the verse of this song reminds me so much of War's "Lowrider," but not in a particularly good way. Amazingly, when it drops out for the chorus, the song gets worlds better. I'd even call it sexy, or at least as sexy as an Eels song can sound.

Song 38: Bloc Party - "Sunday"
This is way better than the Nick Drake "Sunday." The pretty boring verse also gives way to an adorable chorus that I can get behind all the time: "I love you in the morning, when you're still hung over." Bloc Party was definitely better when they were banging out some claustrophobic jams, but this song isn't bad at all.

Song 39: Obie Trice - "Hoodrats"
What do Craig Finn and Obie Trice have in common? Both have songs about hoodrats! Finn's characterization of hoodrats is a little more vivid, but I don't doubt both artists have run into hoodrats from time to time. Plus Obie raps his take on them, which is a bit more fun.

Song 40: The Only Children - "West Virginia"
40 songs into this blog and I've been extremely flip-floppy regarding faux country. I can't get behind this song. It's pleasent enough, but it's like, how do you go from being in a respectable emo-pop band whose last album was sort of challenging, to some straight ahead blues infused country? This is a boring song.

Day 7

(note: I'll be back later tonight or tomorrow to add links to today's and yesterday's songs. Sorry for the delay!)

Song 31: Jimmy Hendrix - "All Along The Watchtower"
I'm not sure when I reached the point where I was unable to hear this song without immediately thinking of war movie montages, but that's where I am now, at least. It's a cool song, obviously, but it's just one that i've heard in so many different places for such a long time that it has certainly lost a bit of its luster. Oh, and when I was 15 or so I was in a band for about three days (I was the singer), and we decided we'd cover this song. We did so at our first practice. Did I mention we didn't have a drummer? Pretty great band.

Song 32: Grateful Dead - "Ripple (Alternate Take)"
I'd be hard pressed to tell you a thing about the original take on "Ripple" so the fact that this one is alternate is a pretty worthless distinction! This is a pleasent enough folk song though. Nothing really remarkable about it. I've always liked the vocal harmonies of the dead, and it kind of irks me that Phish is put on the same pedestial as these guys.

Song 33: Modest Mouse - "Spitting Venom"
This is such a reassuring track to me, because it proves that Modest Mouse can still kick out a song that songs comfortable in their pre-"Float On" discography of jammy 8 minute songs. I also love the phrase "spitting venom" to signify talking shit. Very apropos.

Song 34: The Bens - "Just Pretend"
Hey it's Ben Kweller, Ben Folds, and Ben Lee! In a band! Despite the cheekiness of the name/project, this is a really cute song. It actually has a mood similar to the folkyness and harmonies of that Dead song. Except The Bens have the benefit of Folds' piano work, which livens things up just enough.

Song 35: French Kicks - "This Could Go Wrong"
I love grand album closers. For me, they're a pleasent sign that bands are still taking the album format somewhat seriously and they want to exit your stereo with a bang. This song tries to do that, but much like their former labelmates, The Walkmen, I think they miss the point. This song builds to a point, but it never lets go. It just turns into a moody little tune without a lot of direction. The Walkmen have been doing this on their album closers for years, and it drives me nuts.

Day 6

(Note: I had to shorten the labels, I know how to spell things.)

Song 26: Immortal Technique - "Getaway"
Seeing Immortal Technique live was one of the most intimidating/intense hip-hop experiences I've witnessed. It was so angry and dark, and his between song banter amounted to depressing stories about the street. Not a fun show, really. This song is, by comparison, fairly optimistic. It's mostly a brag track, a mix of braggadocio and hip-hop hope. Side note, someone I know, though I can't remember who now, revealed to me that she loved Immortal Technique, and I was so surprised because the person wasn't into hip-hop at all. You think you know some people!

Song 27: Nirvana - "Where Did You Sleep Last Night"
I hadn't even heard the original version of this until a year or two ago. Popular opinion says this performance stole the show at Nirvana's unplugged performance, and it's not hard to see why. It touches on everything Nirvana was; bare, emotional, and was not; sparse, haunting, and hits both angles spot on. Probably the coolest song I listened to at age 12, besides maybe "Beat It."

Song 28: The Magnetic Fields - "Is This What They Used To Call Love?"
Stephen Merritt is my favorite gay songwriter today, assuming Kevin Barnes is really straight. This song, excepting the cute little bridge, is fairly depressing, especially with the beat poet upright bass that's going on.

(Skipping: Nirvana - "Polly." iTunes shuffle is pretty bad at shuffling.)

Song 29: Sunset Rubdown - "Stadiums and Shrines II"
I guess I'm about to work out, live on this blog, why I dislike Sunset Rubdown but really enjoy Wolf Parade! You know, this song isn't bad, but it just feels so much jammier than Wolf Parade. It's covered in a little too much reverb, and feels too far away to be affecting. I did think that "There's a kid in there/ and he's big, and dumb and kinda scared" was excellently delivered. This blog is winning me over on the music I already own.

Song 30: Eels - "Bride of Theme From Blinking Lights"
I ordinary wouldn't blog about a song that is less than 2 minutes long and is an instrumental, but Eels have made some of my favorite instrumentals throughout their career. This is right up there. It just feels so innocent and childlike, but maybe all soft songs with xylophones sound that way to me. This is a nice way to end this entry, anyway.

Day 5

Song 21: Yes - "Mood For A Day"
I can actually remember the first time I heard this song. I was either 12 or 13 and I was going to Six Flags Great America with my friend Dan and his two friends Jaron and Jon, and while I was listening to who knows what, Dan was really into classic rock. So the car trip, chauffeured by Dan's dad, was heavy on Zeppelin, Yes, Floyd, and a host of others. The genesis of that car trip later turned into a 4 disc mix Dan made that opened me up to a lot of older music I wouldn't have otherwise known where to begin with. It was also, I believe, the beginning of a list I made of "CDs to own." Pretty important song for me here guys! Also it is cool for the same reasons I wasn't a huge fan of the Nick Drake Song, with a cool Robin Hood feel to it. I need to learn some storytelling tips (Re: brevity) from Luke.

Song 22: Destroyer - "Your Blood"
I know Dan Bejar's voice is really hate it or love it, and this song sort of exemplifies why for me. I love the vocals in this song, but I understand how a nasally, overly verbose approach could make someone turn it off immediately. The line "They were all right / they were on fire" so quickly ups the ante for the subject in question. Sometimes feels like that sort of hyperbole happens a bit too often.

Song 23: Everclear - "Heroin Girl"
"I used to know a girl / she had two pierced nipples and a black tattoo." This, when you're 12-years-old, is the edgiest thing you've ever heard, and you are not prepared to meet a girl like that. It's debatable whether most guys at 22 would be prepared to know a girl like that. I'll admit to still thinking this is a fun song though. Everclear played some pretty boring rock on their last few albums but this song has a little edge going for it, even if the bluntness of the song dims the intensity of the repeated refrain "Just another overdose."

(Skipping: Califone "One". Nothing much to say there.)

Song 24: T. Rex - "Jeepster"
I've always felt like T. Rex was mostly a less interesting Bowie and "Jeepster" proves my point, I think. There's nothing really wrong with the song, but it never builds to anything more than a foot-tapping refrain and a few hand claps. It has the glam flourishes but lacks the intimacy of great Bowie.

Song 25: Amy Millan - "Baby I"
I never thought, based on her BSS output, that Amy Milan would be "the country one," but this works for me completely now. Other than Feist's The Reminder , maybe my favorite solo disc by the collective. "Sometimes I feel my only friend is a whiskey glass / you know it don't stop the time, but it helps it pass." True enough.

Day 4

Note: Before we get started on day 4, I just wanted to make sure that everyone is aware that the titles of the artist - "song" are all going to be links. They'll either be a last.fm page where there's an audio stream of the song or a youtube of a video or performance, just something to give people a chance to hear the song I'm sort of talking about.

Song 16: Nick Drake - "Sunday"
I don't have the stats to back this up, but there has to be more flute in this song than in all of the other songs in my library combined. It's like listening to Sir Robin of Locksley make some elevator music. Also the chorus reminds me of the chorus to David Bowie's "Kooks." Does anyone else hear this?

Song 17: Beck - "Missing"
I haven't heard this song in a long time, but it's sonically a little more interesting than I remembered. The lyrics still get bogged down in Beck's crooner Sea Change style, but the side-to-side panning of the percussion is a fun gimmick. Still, for a song that's nearly 5 minutes long, not a lot happens here.

Song 18: Incubus - "A Crow Left of the Murder"
If I recall, Crow was Incubus' political protest record, but that feels hard to glean from a casual listen. As an aside, I didn't find out until very recently that the word for a group of crows is a murder, so for the longest time I was under the impression that the title was just a bunch of hip posturing. I get it now, Incubus. I get it now.

Song 19: Emily Haines - "The Bank"
One of my favorite voices in my iTunes library! This song has a jazzy flourish to it with the brushed (or at least muted) drums, and an understated piano pushing it forward. Plus, Haines' voice has such a quiet flirtyness to it. Absolutely kills me.

Song 20: Weezer - "Simple Pages"
Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. I actually feel like "The Green Album" has aged remarkably well when you consider how truly awful the follow-ups have been, but it's still striking to me how lifeless this sounds. It's just power chords and Cuomo's mic with a chorus effect. I still think Matt Sharp's back-up vocals might be one of the biggest things that totally derailed this band.

Day 3

Song 11: The Slapsticks - "Johnny"
Growing up, I had a pretty small social circle, but each of my friends had pretty disparate musical tastes. One of my friends, Josh, was really into ska and pop punk like MxPx and, well, The Slapsticks. I remember distinctly one day borrowing about 30 or 40 of his cds and copying them for my collection. This was definitely one of them. Josh lives in Hong Kong now and I haven't seen him in years, and all of that is more interesting than this song, which might be the longest three and a half minute song I've ever heard.

Song 12: Pavement - "Box Elder"
Just last night when I was DJing, two girls who I didn't know, after hanging around for awhile, asked me to play some Pavement. I explained that I had lost my iPod earlier in the day so I was sort of out of luck, only able to DJ with the mix cds I brought to the bar, which included not a single Pavement song. They saved the day and gave me their iPod and I played "Cut Your Hair," but the point of this story is that it made me really happy to hear people request Pavement when my plan, prior to losing my iPod, was to play some that night. "Box Elder," I always thought of as a sort of boring song, but the sentiment that, "I've got to get the fuck out of this place" is pretty relatable.

Song 13: Editors - "All Sparks"
I know that this band sounds like Interpol without the funny lyrics, but this song is pretty great. The bass line has a nice slinky groove to it, and even though I hadn't heard it in awhile, I was able to guess that the song was called "All Sparks," just by listening to the lyrics (All sparks will burn out in the end. / All sparks will burn out.) which is always comforting to me. In a fun twist, this song's three and a half minute length feels half as long as that rough Slapsticks song above.

(Skipping: Stephen Malkmus - "Post-Paint Boy" for the same reason I skipped Modest Mouse yesterday)

Song 14: This Is Me Smiling - "Alive in the Chase"
This is actually an un-mastered version of this song that I received from my old roommate Jim (Did I mention how cool I am enough in this entry?), which makes This Is Me Smiling the first local entry onto the blog. I think this song stacks up nicely to the rest of the other 13 songs so far, too. It's a bit schizophrenic, jumping from a down-tempo verse to a piano-aided alternative rock chorus but it fits really well in a Ben Folds niche.

Song 15: The Wrens - "Behold Me"
There are a few good The Wrens stories in my head, but this isn't the time for them. Instead I'll just say that as much as I absolutely love the entire Secaucus and The Meadowlands albums, I have not come around on Silver the album or this track. The Pixies influence is too great of a shadow over the whole thing and the song itself isn't that distinguishable as a blistering punk rock number from countless other bands. I'm so glad they expanded their sound on the follow-ups. Of course, that's what a good band would do, and this is a very good band.

Day 2

Song 6: Broken Social Scene - "Cause=Time"
This is one of the first BSS songs I ever heard, and it is still one of my favorites. The vocals here always reminded me of a very subdued Chris Cornell, so immediately upon hearing it, I had a nice familiarity with the song in a way. The guitar freak outs that gradually work their way into the song and explode near the end are some of my favorite sounds.

Song 7: Modest Mouse - "Other People's Lives"
Another song that I cut my teeth-on when it came to getting into "cool," music, this serves as a good contrast to that Tool song I talked about yesterday. The drums in that Tool song drove me nuts while I listened to it, but I have always loved how Modest Mouse recorded their drums. This song is a nice example of it. Everything percussion-wise in this song just seems to roll along, each hit leading into the other, and the hi-hat crashes are so slow and quiet, it just sounds right for the song. Sorry about the rough youtube, that was all that was available.

Song 8: Frank Black - "Tight Black Rubber"
I don't have nearly the experience with this track, so it should be fun to blog about. I've enjoyed a good portion of Frank Black's solo work, and this song is at least fun. The bass sounds thick as a thief. The lyrics are sort of silly and the speak-singing doesn't work that well for the song itself, I don't think, but you could do worse probably.

Song 9: Devendra Banhart - "Tonada Yanomaminista"
I'm still not over how much this song sounds like it was recorded underwater. The sound is so far away and washed out it's like listening to Banhart from beyond the grave. I'm a fan of Banhart and of Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon the album this is off of, but I dislike this song quite a bit. It's not grating, it's not offensive, it's just hard to hear, damn it.

(Skipping: Modest Mouse - "Doin' The Cockroach". I would love to talk about this song but I just covered a Modest Mouse song so hopefully it'll come up again later.)

Song 10: The Libertines - "The Man Who Would Be King"
Each passing year I come around more on The Libertines, and I'm slowly getting to the point where I'm ready to say it's too bad that they'll probably never make another record. This song strikes me as pretty different from a good deal of their catalog - it's up-tempo, sure, but it doesn't have the sort of urgency that a song like "I Get Along," bursts with. That's not necessarily a bad thing, either. A little variety is nice, and this is a good song, although the jazz flourishes at the end are awfully confusing.

Day 1

Song 1: The Coral - "Spanish Main"
Perfect! The first song of 5,000 is a track by a band that I rarely, if ever, listen to. "Spanish Main" is off of The Coral's self-titled 2002 disc and I only know that thanks to trusty details built into iTunes. I'm very excited that this is how this project will begin! The song even functions as a nice intro song, bursting through some static while a steady guitar repetition make it seem like the track might actually be instrumental. It's not, but at just under two minutes, it was over almost as quick as it began.

Song 2: Bright Eyes - "Oh You Are The Roots That Sleep Beneath My Feet And Hold The Earth In Place"
I'm not sure what the general consensus is, but give me whiny, self-absorbed Connor Oberst any day over the boring political, psuedo-country artist. This is one of my favorite Bright Eyes songs from the former category. It is certainly whiny with lyrics like "So when I'm suffering through some awful drive, / you occasionally cross my mind." but I was 16 when this came out, which is the perfect age to hear a sweet sentiment like the titular chorus and apply it to every fantastic romance you've yet to have.

Song 3: Jon-Rae & The River - "Eastern Migration"
My good friend Luke turned me onto this band, and I remember for the longest time I couldn't get into it at all. I can't even remember why now, just that I was not having it in the least. Time certainly provided me some perspective here, because I'm enjoying listening to "Eastern Migration," as I blog on it. I know that a few lines earlier I just shit on Bright Eyes country-posing, but I really enjoy the modern country-fried blues of this song. It builds really well, too, from the somber Johnny Cash paint-by-numbers first half until it kicks into a full-on duet.

Song 4: !!! - "Must Be The Moon"
I was getting a little worried that the first five songs would all be pretty straightforward tracks. so this is a good change of pace. I've been a big fan of !!! since Louden Up Now but this might be one of my favorite songs from the follow-up. It's not too often you hear a song about how a guy was awful in bed. The beat is fun as it is, but I always found the speak-rapped story way more engaging than I should've. Even the chorus, You could blame it on the music
but it wouldn't be right / cause I've gotten lucky to some pretty bad tunes," makes me smile.

Song 5: Tool - "Forty Six & 2"
Ahaha oh wow. I guess now is as good a time as any to bring up this caveat. I have over 16,000 songs in my library. I can therefore skip a good portion of them and still get to 5,000 easily. I'll probably invoke the skip a lot if I've covered a lot of a band's tracks (I'm swimming in Modest Mouse and Pavement over here...) or if I have absolutely nothing to say about a song. I'll also make a note of what I skipped just to play fair. I'm not skipping this though, if only so I can better explain the rules of my game. Having said all that, I never understood Tool. I have Aenima, probably copied from a friend back in the day, and this song doesn't make me want to revisit it at all. The instrumentation on the verse of this song makes it feel like nothing is even happening until the chorus, where a guitar kicks up a little bit. Even turned up, the drums sound hollow. I remember Tool having a few songs I thought were fine, but I guess this isn't one of them.