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.