EMPIRE STATE

compilation eleven

1. Fleetwood Mac - Empire State

Oh how I love those wacky Macs. This song is one of their weirdest. Yeah, okay, so its about something, being impressed with New York. But they use the phrase "big apple taking a bite of me" < weird image. Its like the Simpsons' 'hamburgers take a bite of you' but they're talking about Hamburg. Okay. Anyway, the music is weird. More than "Hold Me" there's misplaced yelps in the background. Lindsay really knew how music worked. Yelps, that's the pop key. Its a thouroughly zany song, from the piano thing in the beginning that isn't so much a melody as it is a cat happening to walk over the right keys before falling on the ground cutely.

2. Rezillos - (My Baby Does) Good Sculptures

I don't remember the first part of this song. I remember it suddenly just accenting every beat and then changing but staying the same. Bum Bum Bum Bum. Like that but with distortion. This kind of becomes a theme, loud punk songs that I like. Not that I don't usually like punk, but these are kind of sentimental compilations, not like powerful forceful compilations. Anyway.

3. Yo La Tengo - Stockholm Syndrome

Again, the claves in the chorus, Yo La Tengo = Dorks. The bass player James McNew is singing the song. He sounds like the character Strong Sad. This is hilarious. I did not realize this. It changes everything.

4. Les Lolitas - Bouche Baiser

Group singing, its very normal for the band that would become Stereo Total. I'd say its even normaler than the France Gall it tries to quote. Maybe its just this song though. I like the kind of stopping part that gets more stopping as the song goes.

5. Franz Ferdinand - Darts of Pleasure

I have no idea how the first part of the song and the second part go together. Here's what I think of the second part: I think he's saying Ich Ben Ein Superfantastic. I mean I hope he's saying that. I'll try not to listen too carefully. Here's what I think of the first part: they are ripping off the key part of the chorus from the Tom Tom Club. They have this song, "Wordy Rappington" that tells us everything about words. Words are fun and words are... Anyway, the Ferdinands use that pattern for the chorus "Words are poison darts of pleasure". I don't know what that means, I mean I know what the words mean, but I don't know what that means.

6. Electric Light Orchestra - Last Train to London

This song ich ben superfantastic. Let me translate: This song I am super fantastic. Anyway, the chorus. The bass, the bass is the hero of this song, playing the hook that the strings follow. And how would you feel to be a string player with a disco chart in front of you, that you'd been taking lessons, taking crappy theory classes in college so you could graduate with a degree in Instrumental Music so you could better qualify for the symphony or whatever. And you didn't get into the symphony. Just into the 'string player' phone number list at the recording station, so whenever a band wanted strings in their disco song you were the one to call. And you look at the chart with your superclassical training eyes and think 'mendelssohn, bach, I play that, this is repetitive supershit' and you play it and get your fifty bucks and then you hear it on the radio and it redeems everything. Let me put it this way. I have never heard the San Fransisco Philharmonic, but I have heard this.

7. The Clique - Superman

REM does a cover of this, I've heard it but I don't remember it. I don't believe they could pull it off, and I don't want to hear it. The part where everything gets really bouncy, that's a good part. The first part is a little dull, with the tempo dragging and everything, its kind of a downer after the disco bliss-co of ELO. Also this seems like a response or at least an aside to the Bucks Fizz song on the last compilatin.

8. The Associates - White Car in Germany

Okay, let's try and 'get' this together. Its synth-pop, but it isn't that kind of synth pop. Its more like synth-serious. From the first bit it could be morose Sparks. What do I think of the singing? Its like a less ridiculous Nick Cave. He's being dramatic, but he isn't being dramatic about Gargoyles and stuff. I don't know what's important about the namesake, the white car in germany. I like the backing music in this song and it seems like whatever this guy is singing about he really means it. For some reason, I think it would be really cool to be an Associates fan.

9. TV on the Radio - Satellite

Now these guys I get. I want this song to be louder, but alas, the headphones. They only make things loud that I don't like, Bob Dylan's harmonica, sludgy sixties distortion, etc... If I'm the first person to compare them to Fun Boy Three then I accept my medal of smarts. If I ain't then let me be the first to compare them to New Kids on the Block. What? You say they sound nothing like NKOTB? Well that's how much you know? Seriously though, I don't understand the part with the recorders, it seems like it would have been done better with flutes.

10. Modest Mouse - Polar Opposites

Normally the bass does all the work for this band, but the guitar is doing some of it also here. Actually this is probably the one Modest Mouse song where things aren't grossly (respecfully said) unbalanced. I've always liked these lyrics, I distinctly remember writing "I'm trying to drink away the part of the day that I cannot sleep away" in my French book in tenth grade. It seemed very shocking at the time. I know the lyric is "primer gray" but now it sounds like "farmer gray" which could either be the color of a farmer with a weird tan or it could be like "farmer Gray" like that's his name.

11. The Motors - Dancing the Night Away

The second punk song that goes from 'eh' to 'AH!'. This has a vocal melody that goes chromatic like "Heroes and Villains" but I'm sure it doesn't know it. The fact that they repeat the lyric 'dancing the night away' a zillion times make me think that somebody is actually dancing with the hopes that the moon will move faster away and the sun will come back sooner. It really helps.

12. Meat Puppets - Lost

This has the opening guitar line of "Over the Hills and Far Away" a little bit, which made me really hopeful that this was a song from the sixties, I think he says something about 'living in Nixon's time' or whatever, which made me also hopeful that I had discovered a precursor. See, I didn't know that this was the Meat Puppets. It started to make sense when the song turned out to not have a chorus or any memorable parts. It eventually works out.

13. Fun Boy Three - The Lunatics Have Taken over the Asylum

I like this band. Or I like the idea of this band. Things are very drummy and very vocal. This song is particularly dramatic. '"Go nuclear", the cowboy told us', sounds like a funner lyric than it is. Everything sounds really good, from the lounge-but-threatening vocals to the clear-and-present drums pounding constantly to the flute thing that's, come to think of it, the only other sound than vocals and drums. Wow. That's impressive. Whens the last time you've heard a song scored for percussion, voices and flute?

14. The Turtles - It Ain't Me, Babe

I think I like the Dylan version better. I would call this panning 'heroic', I like the idea of seperating the vocals and the music completely so they both have to be equally good. I thought about doing this to the Jesus and Mary Chain, and boy, would that not work. Ha! That would sound so bad!

15. Wire - Feeling Called Love

There's an offhanded way in which the lyrics are delivered, its not irony. Because its too early for irony. It must be a legitimate question. "Give me Love" Anyway, Wire were a great band.

16. The Zombies - Friends of Mine

Okay. Listen to this song. Isn't it cool? My favorite part is the piano part, where they go 'hup!' and the piano and the drums march together. Or what about the vocal part that pops up in the second verse, its just like 'bah bah bah pah pah pah pah bah' its so pretty.

Now listen to it again. Listen to it ironically. The peppy march is against you. Its the march to celebrate all of the things that you are against. "When I'm with her, she talks about you, the things that you say, the things that you do". Listening to it this way, isn't that a total smack in the face? Listen to it like the singer is saying 'they are friends of mine' like he's forcing it, like he's trying to cement that. Contrast that with all the names. All those pairs. The pitiful listing of friends that are 'mine', like they belong to you, but really you belong to them. Suddenly don't you feel lonely?

But it gets worse.

17. St. Etienne - Only Love Can Break Your Heart

Duh.

18. Lou Reed - Romeo Had Juliette

So Romeo and Juliette, two star-crossed lovers torn between their families. Let's picture Lou Reed, the narrator as not a bystander, but as all members of both families standing by. He's the conduit for the streets, the one(s) in power, their conscience and, their reason for being. Romeo wouldn't have met Juliette if it wasn't for their opposing families. He's the prince at the end telling us what we've done by setting up teams. Okay, blah blah blah, Romeo had Juliette.

Past whatever brilliant interpretation I have of it, Lou Reed sounds like he's taken helium. Plus, everything he says is shit. His misunderstanding of how the story relates to New York, even to the understanding of culture of his postmodern New York is laughable, even insulting. The only important thing is the chorus. He could be going 'nah nah nah nah' through the verses, and it would be better.

19. The Mendoza Line - You Twitch When You Dream

Sometimes I like songs that don't jump out more than I like songs that do jump out. Or maybe its just that they jump out differently, I mean this one JUMPS more than the Mama Cass song that I have the misfortune of having to think of something to write about in a couple songs, but it JUMPS less than ELO. I am really happy about the trumpet. Maybe its that I want certain songs to be mine, and not everyones. That said, I don't particularly love this song, it just reminds me of other songs like this.

20. Electrelane - On Parade

Now here's a band that impresses me. They do the new dance thing for the first part. It helps that its catchy. The lead singer's voice doesn't stick out like a sore thumb, it stays in the background, even though he's someone I want to listen to. Then he starts yelping, and that's the coolest thing ever. And when the voice pops up, 'i've been a liar and a sneak' or 'i've been a liar and awake' whatever he's saying there, that's really great.

21. Generation X - Ready Steady Go

The first time I heard this song it was by a ska band on a ska compilation. I hadn't heard the orgininal version until recently. Anyway, the band that was doing it didn't seem to know what it was about, but looking back, I would want to rerecord this song too. The guitar solos are limp, the only thing that's really worth a whit are some of the lyrics. I was in love with the stones.

22. Sebadoh - Ocean

Now here's another indie song that reminds me of Christmas. Frosty the Snowman. That's what it is. Speaking of the wacky guitar part in the end, it would be interesting to see who ripped off who, M. Barlow or the Pixies with "Gigantic". I'll look em up. Okay, yeah, Sebadoh was way later with this one. Its a bad rip-off. Anyway, still the Christmas part.

23. Dinosaur Jr. - Freak Scene

This is the song that "Mahgeetah" reminded me of. The way the verses are the same but they change, but each time they change a little bit differently. All the times I've heard this song and admired it, I'd never noticed the really shitty part with double tracked voice and acoustic guitars and stuff, or did I just make that up? No, its real. Yeah, that verse is a 'pass'. Anyway, this is the best Dinosaur Jr. song.

24. Mama Cass - Its Getting Better

Eh. Its nice in that 'oh, listen to that' kind of way. The horns and stuff. And Cass sounds vintage and everything. I don't really think its getting better. I think she says 'rocket belts and poetry', which if she's actually saying that, makes the song better. But don't push it.

25. The Magnetic Fields - Long-Forgotten Fairytale

When the banjo struggles a little bit in the chorus, that's the robots winning. Past that, Stephin Merritt is, for me, always between Indie and pop. He makes all these brilliant pop references, but then there's the whole close-singing thing. Or the quintuple tracking of voices, I mean obviously its not five people, but there's that kind of anonymity. It works with some tracks. And hell, it works here, but its a dirty little trick. Its like you don't have to mean it if there's more than one of you singing it. I mean, I don't know if Stephin mean anything he says, but he wrote it, so somebody has to think it.

The last lyric on the CD is key: "I'm caught inside a dreamworld where the colors are too intense, and nothing is making sense." Music is the only thing that can break my heart and then try and put it back together in the same sentence. At least I think its put me back together.

TENNIS SHORTS MADE OF STRIPES

compilation ten

1. Queen - Somebody to Love

I am very happy that this compilation begins with this song. Its so ecstatic to me. Its the broadway, the opera, the grand opera that Queen are meant to be. The build up in every verse is exquisite. Its tragic, but the kind of tragic I could live with.This is always what I want Rufus Wainwright to do, but he never does. You have to be BIGGER, man.

2. David Bowie - Oh, you Pretty Things

I had a dream the other night. I was running from something (as per the usual dream cliche) and I was trying to get into the passenger's side of a car (not the driver's side, I wasn't going to drive it, just hide in it). Anyway, I was wiggling the door handle over and over and for somereason the door handle turned into a eyboard and I started to play this song. I woke up and put this on the playlist.

3. Microphones - Ice

Even though this seems like it would be terribly conflicting with the powerful-but-gentleness of the opening pair, it doesn't. As its been with this song for me usually, I always love the beginning and kind of dread the second part, but when the second part comes I'm always happy with it. Not content, like "oh, I guess you aren't as bad" but content like "yeah, good job".

4. The Magnetic Fields - Promises of Eternity

At this point let me say that if you see a lot of repetition of bands in these compilations it is because I am putting together songs that I like. The rule (except on compilation twelve which was totally an accident) is that I only use one song per band per compilation. Otherwise it would be Queen and Magnetic Fields all the way. But the other part of the compilation is that I have to discover new music. Okay. This is the second Magnetic Fields song I play for people. They love its bombast. So do I.

5. Chuck Bridges - Keep your Faith Baby

This is the sloppiest funk I have ever heard. Sloppy not necessarily good. Like the instruments are tripping over themselves. Constantly. Like the main horn riff is cut off by the drums which start a new portion of the song. Maybe its what the forcing it thing sounds like to someone who isn't doing it. No, I don't think so. The song works together, but if I focus on particular passages, it is a mess. The horn part with the 7s and the 8s seems way too 1950s futurist for me.

6. Wanda Jackson - Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad

Again, the lilt in her voice. Hot Dog! It just knocks me out. The ending of this song is a one of my favorites. "He'll hug you... and he'll kiss you... he'll squeeze you and he'll please you... and he'll ask... you.. not... to do it again" with the ask... you... not... being jumped up and down so brilliantly. On the final guitar hit, it fades out or pulls back.

7. Bow Wow Wow - Do You Wanna Hold Me?

More Bow Wow Wow brilliance. The drums, the gang vocals (which are new to this song). The guitars also sound really brilliant. The organ when it comes in for little stabs. The bass, going constantly crazy, even though it isn't wankily obvious. At the end, when the vocals lift up for the 'hold me' part, its great. I always look forward to it. I think these drums were where Conner subconsciously pulled the great parts of Trauma Season and Le Fou out of mid-air for. I'll have to play this for him.

8. Spoon - Cvantez

Spoon was one of those bands that I bought before I heard. I was pleasantly surprised. At first, Britt's vocals were a little overwhelming. Sometimes I have a problem with vocals being overwhelming for me, like they are too expressive or too emotional. Or in indie's case, too close. So once I get past that, this takes the Pixies thing to a logical progression. Where the Pixies took the everyday and made them seem weird, Spoon seems to have mythologized that, like they are even more oblique, and even more aside. This works and it doesn't work. It isn't as immediately effective in that we don't get Black Francis' spaceships and Oedipal obsessions, but it is more permanently effective in that we get these ambivalent personality sketches. Also they sound similar sometimes.

9. Phil Ochs - Cross My Heart

Pleasures of the Harbor is a great album. Its a folk album, like Dylan, but its also weird and psychadelic like the Zombies or the Cowsills. So there's this irritating delay on the harpsichord part that pisses me off, but then there's the horns at the end of the chorus that redeem it. There isn't anything particularly folky about this song.

10. Lee Ranaldo - First Computer Piece

It shows. Keep working at it, Lee. Its a good bridge between songs. Disorienting too.

11. Wesley Willis - Birdman Kicked my Ass

The Casio accompaniment is just so grand. I mean if you picture an actual brass and guitar band playing it, it sounds great. Is he talking about an actual birdman, like a bird that is the size and shape of a man? I really hope so. Also, the advertisement at the end, right after his trademark.

12. Curtis Mayfield - Superfly

The hi-hat sounds filthy. Like somebody took them into the sandbox before this song. The guitar is marvelous, like the Gilberto Gil guitar that I'll talk your ear off about if you let me. This is a far more fluid funk than Bridges'. Also more accomplished. Funk always sounds weird, not weird like 'what's that supposed to be?' like weird in the TMBG sense, like 'oh, wow, that's different!'. Funk is a series of triumphant exclamation points.

13. JJFad - Supersonic

Probably an accident with the two 'super' titles together. This is how this song goes for me. Introduction - awesome. Part with the electronic cowbell comes in, that part - eh. I like how they say 'we are the home chicks that are rocking your world', not will, but are. The lyrics are really great. Okay. But how about the part when they say 'baby dee, go!' and then she does and the saw bass comes in and then everyone starts rapping faster? That's when rapping stops being a novelty and starts being an art.

14. Dark City Sisters - Sekusile

The bounce is where its at. Its all relaxed, but powerful. Like someone is having a picnic on the beach but with a marching band in the background. That isn't what it sounds like, that's just what it feels like. Its sweet and powerful at the same time.

15. Harry "The Hipster" Gibson - Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine?

This song makes me crack up in so many different places. He sounds like Bill Cosby. So when you picture Bill Cosby singing lines like 'who put the Nembutols in Mr. Murphy's overalls?", its hilarious. I always laugh. 'someone found her pantry and tampered with the can... WHAM!' Okay, its hilarious.

16. Chicken Bowels - Fucken Crime

From swing to Japanese thrash? Interesting. That it doesn't clash? Genius. Thank you, thank you. The reason this song is on here is that it doesn't sound like swearing. I like the fact though, that they are saying 'fucking crime' like they are angry neighborhood parents blaming things secretly on kids and using the term 'crime' to cover their own innocent kids.

17. Fun Boy Three - Our Lips are Sealed

Fun Boy Three are a very distinct band. This song was in my head for a good portion of the day yesterday. Try singing it to someone, though, it doesn't have the same power. I think singing along is better. It says this song was in the Trainspotting soundtrack. I should probably go and watch that movie. I like this version better than the Go-gos (or the Bangles, should I learn to distinguish them?) version. By the way, I think that's Bananarama singing in the background.

18. Chantal Goya - I don't know the name of the song

I thought I would like this song more than I do. The guitar sounds really thin and bleak. The horns sound small, eighties. This is the sixties by the way. I hadn't noticed the background vocals before, I'm saying that like its a negative thing. I like this guitar solo that seems like someone interpreting how American guitar solos go, but not quite getting the danger or anything down.

19. Os Mutantes - Panis et Circensis

After the Goya mishap, this doesn't sound as grand as it does as the opener of the first Mutantes album. Maybe the Mutantes just sound better in their own little world. The great thing about the Mutantes is the sheer number of new and strange sounding things they use in one place. There's this weird organ sound that's like, drunk or something, this wacky bassoon thing that's just bonking around, and then a trumpet playing these staccato notes faster than they should be able to go. Anyway, its a little harshly mono. Probably not the best listening for headphones.

20. The Shins - Saint Simon

The opening of this didn't provide the release that I thought it would from the kind of assult that the two fake endings of Panis et Circensis was. Anyway, the faux-soul vocals sound really great. These lyrics are a little condescending. Still, the Shins are miles ahead of similarly minded bands like Death Cab for Cutie, they understand that music isn't just about the people that have to hear them out of obligation, that other people will eventually hear, and they want to be in on the secret also. There's a part in the build up, where James sings something high pitched and its supposed to be triumphant or something, but it doesn't come off like that to me, it seems a little bit tacked on.

21. Big Star - September Gurls

I don't think I'll ever like Big Star. None of their songs strike a chord with me, chord is the operative word as they are always playing bad-sounding ones. Maybe something just needs to click with me. No, but that contradicts that statement I made: "ever" as in never. I keep trying though. Honestly, I really want to like this band. I even bought one of their cds. "Ooh when she makes love to me", I know this was sung after Brian Wilson sang it, so it isn't as powerful. The drums I like in the middle though.

22. Roy Orbison - Only the Lonely

The vocals in the beginning are a girl in the year 2002 getting ready for work. She's stumbling trying to eat a croissant and put on her jacket at the same time. I'm sure that's a connection that I've made from a commercial or something. I still like it. Orbison has a really good vocal range. It feels like he stumbles with a couple notes. Man, what a range though.

23. Bucks Fizz - Land of Make Believe

A while ago there was a review of 69 Love Songs condemning it for the lyrics of the song "All my Little Words" I wonder if the reviewer had been aware of their inclusion in this song. I wonder if the reviewer would care. It seems like I'm the only person I know that would appreciate this song, that is, forgive the way it sounds. And the smack-yourself-in-the-head-with-a-hammer cheesiness of the lyrics. It takes a lot, people.

24. Wire - Start to Move

I wonder if this transition is really as okay as I remember it. If you read down just a couple of compilations, I'm really hard on transitions. It seems like the transition between soft rock radio reggae to punk would be jarring, but I don't remember jarring. Maybe its the fading. By this time you know wire is brilliant. At least early Wire, I'll have something to say about 154 Wire in a couple reviews.

25. The Human Beinz - Nobody but me

Its the bass, how its playing the same thing in the beginning for a long time and then slides down to the sixth of the scale. That's brilliant. And then the song changes and the bass is happy rather than monotone. But its the change in personality that makes this so worthwhile. Just the bass. The rest of the song is great too. But this is just about the bass.

26. Meat Puppets - Oh, Me

Near the end, when they are 'jamming out' when the singer says 'Let's take it way out there' or something, I really hoped they would. They did. Not way out like 'Press the flange button', but way out like really you know they are stoned when they are playing this. But its a really on top of it stoned. And its great when he hits like three notes that are nowhere near the key as if thats part of the 'way out there'.

27. Spacemen 3 - Come Down Softly To My Soul

I couldn't remember who this was at first. It seems like its from the sixties from the voice, but everything else feels 80s. Anyway its very romantic. Its a good companion to the Puppets in that its regaining itself all the time, but moreso and more definately.

There are a couple great moments in this compilation. Certainly a lot of great songs. It kind of seems all over the place, but not detrimentally so. I'm going to say B - anyway. It just didn't light my fire. Also, there's less repetition of artists in the next ones I think. I'm going to go listen to "Empire State" right now and come back with a brilliant report.

I WANT WIND TO BLOW

compilation nine

1. Magnetic Fields - If you Don't Cry

My favorite part of Merritt's arrangements are how things recall other things. The synth sound that stabs at you can either be a trumpet synth or a violin synth, the ambiguity really helps. Bottom line is its synth, but what kind of synth is up to the listener. Its either very real fake music or very fake real music. The lyrics are a beat also, 'an hour goes by... she doesn't' and then the synth squonks in agreement as if its been waiting there in vein also.

2. ? and the Mysterians - 96 Tears

I don't think I noticed this song on classic rock radio before this year. But every single time it has come on this year, I listen intently. The Mysterians seem like a more polite precursor to The Fall. The almost-insulting-of-our-intellegence repetition, the stream of consciousness rambling 'you're way on top, now, since you left me'. Why 96 tears? Why not a hundred? That's a much more round and noticably higher number. Anyway. The song is noteworthy.

3. Yo La Tengo - Center of Gravity

I like how this song, as well as "Stockholm Syndrome", which I'll talk about in a while, are defined for me by their use of auxilary percussion. YLT seem like an auxilary kind of band to me. Like they always use organs and other kinds of instruments. Georgia sounds like a flute when she's responding, that's a kind of geeky thing to do. They are always second banana, backing up David Kilgour in concert, etc... Also they're second banana when it comes to writing songs, but this one's pretty.

4. Starlight Mints - Submarine #3

This was the song that first endeared me to the Starlight Mints, and probably my favorite of theirs. Its so tiny and perfect. The string duet that we all assume is a quartet, the adorable running time. The sounds that everyone makes, the defiant 'HEART!!!' right after the chorus has ended like the singer is showing up late, its a great great great terrific song.

5. Thee Headcoatees - Swallow My Pride

I like the backing vocals. I always have a problem with the distorted side of 'power pop', the blocky chords never sit that well with my head, which doesn't maybe make sense because I generally like shoegazer, which is like this but slower. Well, not like this... But. I think my favorite part of this is the backing vocals, who are down the hall in the bathroom when the rest of the band is recording the actual song.

6. The Exploding Hearts - You're Black and Blue

The Exploding Hearts really did do a good job of trying to sound like eighties power pop. My fault that this is the second of three or four (depending if you count the Rapture) of distortion songs in a row. This effect doesn't always sit well with me and my headphones, especially in their loudness. Even when I turn them down.

7. Dan Melchior's Broke Revue - Hungry Ghost

Even distorteder. The singer seems like he is saying something interesting, but he's either drunk or british, so I can't tell. The drums are half the power.

8. The Rapture - The Coming of Spring

The first part of the song becomes a little boring after a while. But when the drums come in and it seems like there are two drummers switching off on one part, that's pretty genius, I like that. That gave me the idea of a three person band that switches between instruments, but at the same time. Like the first song would start with the lead singer singing and playing guitar and the bassist and the drummer both playing the drums at the same time. And then for another song, the bass player and guitarist could both be playing guitar and the drummer could be playing bass. That would be cool.

9. The White Stripes - There's No Home for you Here

This was my favorite song on Elephant for a while. It probably still is. The thick vocals, there's the money (for some reason, even though they are the same as My Morning Jacket's, they seem completely different, probably because MMJ is doing it in a Beach Boys context, where WSs is more Stones). Anyway, that part and the Electric piano are the money parts. I could do without the chord progression being an exact rehashing of "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground".

10. Wanda Jackson - Fujiyama Mama

I really like her voice and how she sings. "Foojiyama yama Foojiyama" the way she jumps around in the register, an almost-yodel. For me, this is more effective than Peaches, because its subtle. The other Jackson song I have is even better, maybe. I like the phrase 'smoke dynamite'.

11. Queen - Your My Best Friend

Again with the electric piano. For some reason, I capitalized it to read "Electric Piano" like I was talking about the concept of electric piano, the perfect electric piano. The bass work here is remarkable. Freddy takes a backseat to the band, which is an interesting change of pace. Sometimes they feel like Queen the band, not Queen the Freddy backing band. The lyrics are a little cheesy, even by Queen standards, I think the bass player or guitarist wrote this for their wife.

12. Johnny Cash - A Boy named Sue

When Sue confronts his father in the saloon, the way he says "my name is SUE, HOW DO YOU DO!!???!!??", the rage, the humor, its all really great. I'm happy the audience responds happily to every line. There's a big beep when he says fuck or something near the end.

13. David Bowie - Sound and Vision

The way the snare hits hard and then pulls back. Its so powerful, needlessly maybe, like someone hitting a criminal that just mugged them and tripped while running away. This song for me confirms Bowie's "Visionary" status, above mere mortals. It sounds a little like "Dancing Queen" for a little bit. I like the way the low and medium vocals go together.

14. Daft Punk - Digital Love

Always a favorite of mine. I love the 'D C# A Em' or whatever part, you know, the break. And the guitar solo. Its the last guitar solo ever. It beats guitar solo. I pictured them in the studio, thinking 'okay, now right here, we're going to play the best guitar solo ever, now let's think of it'. Because dance music isn't spontaneous, or is it? Could that have been improvised?

15. Operation Ivy - Bombshell

Is it wrong that this song is romantic for me? These lyrics for me are key to seperating my punk self from my pop self. You see, the protagonist is a punk, because he's the singer and its a punk band, but he's completely fallen for this girl, and while everyone else is sitting around posing on the corner or looking for someone to buy them beer, he's the lovesick fool asking everybody for this girls name that he met at a party once. He isn't punk anymore, he's grown up into a puppy with a crush. "6am outside and the bums are praying", there's a nifty lyric if there ever was one. Everybody I see wearing an Operation Ivy shirt, I think 'track six, dude, there's your salvation'.

16. Dismemberment Plan - Girl O Clock

And maybe this is the opposite, the punk who is done with crushes and just wants to get laid. The 'successful' hipster who just has to point for the girls to fall into his lap. The break where they get all mathy is a little irritating and will always date this to the nineties despite the aughties disco it predicted. The "Tick tock you don't stop" also is a good predictor of the 'pop, we forgive you' indie stance.

17. The Jesus and Mary Chain - Head On

"Second hand living, it just won't do" great lyrics. I'd like to dance to this sometime. Another, more sincere, love song. Its about doing something with love, its about the one you love making you a better person. "The world could die in pain", but not the singer. This song is really beautiful.

18. Primal Scream - Movin on Up

Of course there's the joke what with Bobby Gillespie no longer the drummer for JAMC, and 'movin on up' to his own band. Once again, Primal scream impress me with range. Somehow this is analogous to the Spaceman Three::Spiritualized situation. In that the former, a better band, spawned a forward thinking, more ambitious younger sibling.

19. Faust - Spot

Eh. An interlude. The Oh at the end is a good transition to

20. Beach Boys - Surfer Girl

My favorite memory of the year so far includes sitting in Conner's Maxima outside of Longs on a weekend morning drinking an entire jug of orange juice to wake myself up. This song was playing. The sun was up enough that it was it was warm.

21. The Archies - Sugar, Sugar

Of course one of the best pop songs ever because of the self-referencing. Get it? Sugar, sugar, like the content of the song. Its so sweet. "I just can't believe the lovelyness of loving you" wouldn't you laugh at someone who said that to you? Even if they meant it? The soul backing vocals at the end when they come in seem inappropriate, but are still awesome.

22. Bob Dylan - Girl from the North Country

I like the Joe Cocker version better. Cocker treats the words with more whimsy, opposed to Dylan's absolutely serious level of gravity. The harmonica also is a bit of a pain, especially at the end. I can listen to Jesus and Mary Chain on full volume, but I had to take my headphones off to survive the piercing blast. Dylan's voice is comforting if nothing else.

23. Bad Manners - Special Brew

He loves her because she loves him? I don't know if that makes sense. Maybe this is ironic. I like the ska texture. There's a certain problem that the void of a rock guitar has to be filled, sometimes ska bands do it with organ, sometimes with horns, its an interesting puzzle. If the guitar is playing the upbeats, who is going to do the melody. Besides the vocals.

24. The Mojo Men - Dance with Me

A good transition. The lyrics are sassy. The pulsing rhythm is interesting, the drums, tamborine, and the organ providing an almost martial feel to the song.

25. Jacques Dutronc - Mini, Mini, Mini

Which is interesting that I chose to put this here. Dutronc was all about a similar 'martial' battery. That's what I love about Dutronc, a certain timelessness, but at the same time a certain disposability. You know he could just go back into the studio and make another pop hit up in five or six minutes. And he did.

26. Saints - Wild about you

This is my least favorite song on this compilation. Too much distortion, too blocky. Have I talked before about the white-ness of distortion? Well, I've thought about it plenty. Think about the lack of bass in these kinds of songs. Maybe not bass as in the feeling, the tone, maybe bass in the sense of instrumentation.

27. Shins - Fighting in a Sack

One of my favorite parts on the new Shins record is the part in this song where the music does the IV-V thing and then everyone goes 'WOO' and then there's the harmonica part. This part is very exciting to me, and the first time I heard it it reminded me of something exciting that I had heard somewhere previously, but have not yet found out what that could be. Also the bum bum bum part is the bridge between indie-baroque like Beulah and TMBG.

28. Microphones - I want Wind to Blow

A terrific song, and more complicated than I think. The guitars aren't playing the same notes there at the beginning, as much as I would like it to be that simple. The percussion is truly genius. Pitchfork or someone reviewed a Matmos-produced Bjork album once and talked about the ingenuity of turning playing cards into percussion, well with that its more of a background thing. When it really happens here (if it isn't cards its the best snare roll ever), its amazing. It knocked my socks off. And somehow my shoes were still on.

So this is a good'n, there are a couple problems like all the punky songs next to each other at the beginning. But otherwise, B.

So here's how I'm going to fight the musical cabin fever.

Two times a week concerts at the Porter cafeteria during breakfast.

I make up songs that people suggest.

I have done this twice already.

Steve, the cashier and I performed "Oh, Little Brother"

Also I get to mock hippies and and pre-med students Berkeley and people laugh.

I have a real problem with compilation eight. I don't think I'm going to talk about it, and I don't know if I'll listen to it again.

There's nothing weird or personal about it, it is just a disappointing failure. Rarely anything connected, the best moments were like the worst moments of other compilations, the songs that I really liked were encoded shittily. I'll probably scrap this compilation for songs and leave behind the playlist as a grim reminder of what happens when I stop thinking and go on auto-pilot.

The good songs (12/29 is NOT a good ratio!):

Beach Boys - Our Prayer
Starlight Mints - Submarine
Bow Wow Wow - Do you Wanna Hold Me?
Christina - What's a Girl to DO
The Nerves - Working too Hard
Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine - Do Re Me So Far So Good
The Human Beinz - Nobody but Me
Operation Ivy - Hoboken
The Clean - Tally Ho!
Petula Clark - Where Do I go From Here?
Zombies - Care of Cell 44
Nightblooms - Crystal Eyes

This one had by far the largest number of songs that I wasn't only not familar with, but didn't like. The opener, which I will not name, was just disasterous. Other songs I decided to go with the 12" versions, which turned out to be too long. Several transitions went laughably bad. I'd say that any 29 songs randomized would have done better than this. F -.

RAINING IN THE NORTH COUNTRY

compilation seven

1. The Strokes - Under Control

So here's the Strokes playing at "Back in time" Night at the high school prom. The Strokes are the great High School dance band. The band that formed to play school dances. But they are playing EVERY school dance. And they are all the cool guys. I don't think that anybody in high school that listens to the Strokes thinks that the Strokes are a high school band though.

2. Kleenex Girl Wonder - Wait for Me

There's charm here, and that's more than enough to make up for the not-perfect singing. There's a part right before the final verse where the entire song pauses, not really, but you can hear everything waiting for a microsecond like Graham (the guy playing all the instruments) is taking a final breath before he finishes his obligation to the form. There's more high school here - Am I corrupting you? are you corrupting me? I don't know... This is supposed to be a fidelity song, what's with the talk of corruption?

3. Family Fodder - Sunday Girls

This song cracks me up through its entire duration. Would the singing the wrong notes on purpose work if this wasn't a cover? I mean its a fun song, and it should be performed funly, not that Blondie doesn't deliver with this, but this version is just so kooky. It feels like a family also. Like your weird youngish female french teacher and her adorable three year old daughter singing in front of all these kids (and the dad is playing bass I bet.) "Still.. I WAIT???"

4. Swell Maps - Raining in my Room

One has to wonder how it came to pass that there exists punk piano interludes. Not pianos played punk-ly, but punk pianos played politely.

5. Joe Cocker - Girl from the North Country

I love this song. The piano part especially, its so expressive and simple. The weird part of this song is at the very end, when the crowd is going bonkers, you hear two people speaking in the left channel, and it sounds exactly like the end of Captain Beefhearts "Hair Pie", there's a certain tone to their voices. Wouldn't it be great if it was the same kids?

6. The Chills - This is the Way

Two things I like about this band. 1. The lead singer's voice which CAN hit notes, so when he doesn't, it seems like he is doing it intentionally. 2. The instrumental interplay. There aren't any blocky chords, so we have to concentrate on specific melodies rather than a wall of guitar.

7. Eddie Jefferson - Psychedelic Sally

The saxophone is key to this song. There are three musical pauses in the middle of the saxophone solo. If all you pay attention to is what the saxophone is doing in the middle of these breaks, you will notice an exponentially increasing craziness. It is a thing of beauty then, to listen to it progress from dusky crooning off a bridge to post-Parker bop (as the piano spelunks around in the background) and then it becomes a thing of pure joy during the final break.

8. Beastie Boys - In 3s

I never think of this as a Beastie Boys song. The good part is of course at the end when things pick up from rock to funk and become a pounding tribal rhythm.

9. The Meters - Hand Clapping Song

I'm surrounded by people but not necessarily scared of them. The guitar and bass work wonderfully together. The hand clapping certainly isn't as uniform as I'd like it to be. When the voice mimics the guitar there, that's a thing of beauty. Especially the gasping, each gasp seems like its planned out and calculated, a far cry from Roger Millers kind of just running down the voice at the termination of each line.

10. Guided by Voices - My Valuable Hunting Knife

The exciting things here: the drums which are just an echo. The second guitar which is really out of control. The voice which is rock under control.

11. Super Furry Animals - Ymaelodi'r Ymylon

Falls somewhere between hilltop mountain romp ala the sound of music and a claustrophobic opium den. Welsh is a very inviting language to me, I keep on hearing english words in it. It sounds like 'hurry up, we've had a lot of dust for breezing in' and then it sounds like variations of someone forgetting that lyric. I guess this would sound less experimental if you knew the language, but still there's noises at the end.

12. Green Day - 2000 Light Years Away

An anomaly you say? I think Green Day are one of the few bands I owe discovery of to someone else. In 6th grade I was a big fan of lame funny stuff like They Might be Giants and the Ren and Stimpy cassette. Chris Austin told me if I liked crazy stuff like that then I would like Green Day. I don't know where that reccomendation came from, but I heard them and they didn't sound funny and they didn't sound interesting. Conner got a copy of the Dookie tape later and I probably have it memorized just by walking down the hall from my room to the bathroom. Anyway, good songs. Not as derivative as you think.

13. Electric Light Orchestra - Xanadu

This entire song is shifting chords to avoid any real progress. Do you know what I mean? Its like the song is squirming uncomfortably in order to not have to write itself. It feels like its alive in that respect. It helps that the ELOs are perched above it. It also helps that at this point in the walk I'm right at the point in Santa Cruz where I can see all the lights of the city below.

14. The Telescopes - When Nemo Sank the Nautilus

Okay. Here's a tip. If you are a boring shoegazer band with dumb lyrics and want to avoid sounding like all other boring shoegazer bands with dumb lyrics, redeem yourself halfway through the song with a saxophone. It doesn't have to even be that crazy. You don't even have to pay the guy playing it.

15. Supertramp - Breakfast in America

The thing I like about Supertramp is their backing vocals. Not their harmonies, but their conversational backing vocals. You know, 'Right? RIght! Your bloody well right!'. There's a tuba in this song and something that's both a slide guitar and a clarinet at the same time. Gershwin and Nashville in one, brilliant moment.

16. Echo and the Bunnymen - Back of Love

When I heard this band's name a long time ago I thought "Alright! That's an awesome name!" cause I pictured you know, a big robot and then normal guys in rabbit costumes. I'm sure when I heard something by them that it must have been a typo. Just like when I heard the Pharcyde and disappointed beyond belief that it had nothing to do with the comic strip. Also I don't remember the horns or the craziness from the album version, but maybe that's because I'm lame.

17. Inspiral Carpets - This is how it Feels

This song makes me want to hear the Proclaimers really badly. Also what the hell is up with that organ sound? Its there in the beginning of the Super Furry Animals song, but there it feels in place feeling out of place? Did this band just have a keyboard player they couldn't bare to silence, even for one chorus? Why would the keyboard player chose this sound? I mean it sounds okay as a little melody device between things happening, but no good as a chord machine.

18. The Jackson 5 - I Want you Back

Ecstatic. That was me when I heard the opening strains of this song. Ecstaticer. That's how I grew as the song progressed. There's an overwhelming glee coming out of every second of this song, from the strings, where you know there's twenty guys playing them and they aren't at all sad that their years of formal training is relegated to slight stabs in a pop 7". The rhythm! The very notion that all of these complicated parts could play together! This is the kind of thing I envisioned when told of Mozart and Bach and masters of orchestration.

The backing vocals are just about the best thing in this song. HOw about the breakdown where someone takes the bassline with the vocals and then the real bass comes in. And michael is crooning, 'All i neeeed!'. And then new parts keep on popping up and its just the best thing ever. Every instrument sounds perfect. BEST SONG EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

19. Prince - Housequake

And if there's anything like an opposite to the J5 while still being the same thing, its this. The space, everything spaced out just perfectly. The breakdown that doesn't really do that. Headphones on, this door-slamming beat sounds just as good if not better than the Neptunes. Several points during this I just want to break into dance.

The realization while listening to this last night. In terms of being impressed with people's musical knowledge, I would say that I envy funk and soul knowledge above say, new wave knowledge.

20. Gang Starr - Dwyck

When I think of rap production, I think of a room full of people saying 'that would sound good here'. It seems like each moment of the song gets as much attention as any other, as opposed to rock production, where people are more focused on where the song's going than what it sounds like at any given second. I think this is why I like hip-hop more in theory.

21. Steely Dan - Showbiz Kids

This has one of those repetive things where I don't know what they are saying, "Only lost wages, she only wages?" That's what I'm going to assume, even though I could be wrong. This song is about ten years ahead of its time in its narrative structure, and even furthur in its disobedience of said structure. I think Walter Becker is my new favorite guitar soloist.

22. Yma Sumac - Bo Mambo

Nowhere in this song do I feel like I'm listening to an authentic island kind of singer. I always feel like I'm listening to the hollywood approximation of it. The horns are too big, things happen too incidentally. Of course I dig the bouncing timpani. I think the timpani is the funnest sounding instrument. Drumwise, its the biggest and most ridiculous sound, and boing wise it connotes all sorts of things, like jumping high, or getting punched by a really big dude.

23. Wesley Willis - Steve Albini

Or headbutted. I really want to hear some of his casio stuff, I'm sure its better than this. I like him in this song though, 'you are my bes friend', 'you are my favorite man with the midas touch'. It feels like the music in the background is too condescending. Really the only reason I put this song in is for the thing he says at the end.

24. The Replacements - Can't Hardly Wait

My less favorite version of my favorite Replacements song. I don't like the Replacements the rock band, which is funny because they are a rock band. So when people say 'do you like the replacements?' I say 'no', because I know they are referrring to this Replacements and not the Replacements of the other version. The Replacements that are careful, sensitive, and hell, even use horns. I think they do something different here, like drop a chord somewhere, yeah right there, that's the difference.

25. Primal Scream - Star

I like how unwieldy Primal Scream is. I don't like it that I have to readjust myself for nearly every new song of theirs that I hear. This song is no exception.

So the end is a bit of a cop out, but the rest is pretty solid. I like several transitions a lot. From Gang Starr to Steely Dan? Who does that? From the Meters to Guided by Voices? Okay. Anyway. So far this is the compilation that has provoked the strongest reaction in me. I'm really looking forward to the next one. I'm not looking forward to writing the thing for compilation six though, so you might not get that for a while. Not that I don't like it, just that I don't like writing about it (I've tried twice before).

I'M IN LOVE WITH A GERMAN FILM STAR

or: compilation five

1. Elliott Smith - A Distorted Reality

Okay, here's what everybody else is saying: 'I'm glad he went back to the four track instead of making another big studio album". Here's what I'm saying: I'm glad he learned from the studio.

2. Jorge Ben - Take it Easy, my Brother Charlie

One of my problems with "Un Pais Tropical" is its length. Jorge's big thing is repetition, which makes his music comforting, in that you know the song's going to go on for a while, and kind of boring, especially out of an album context. "Take it Easy..." (what exactly?) is about two and a half minutes long. This is a good thing. It is one of the few short songs in the Jorge catalog. The music is more spaced out then Ben usually gets, but its not nearly as spaced out as

3. Arthur Brown - Spontaneous Apple Creation

I was really worried putting this on the compilation. It didn't seem to be strong enough, like sure there's Mr. Brown freaking out all over the place, but I always thought that the backing band wasn't composed enough to hold that aspect of it together. I was especially worried about its placing, so close to the beginning. But it represents the trio of modern baroque pop- tropicalia - wacked out psyche, a good beginning.

4. Rolling Stones - Paint it, Black

The bass does a similar thing here as with "Spontaneous Apple Creation", kind of bobbing up and down in the water, not really comitting to a specific rhythm. I don't know if I like that. This song seems unstoppable to me, its always bizarre that it ends. This is a very contradictory song in a way, whenever I listen to it, I want to feel sinister and diabolical and all of that, but I just feel happy. Not a sinful happy either, its like listening to "I Want Candy".

5. Suburban Reptiles - Saturday Night

The roaring guitars are the main focus here. She doesn't want to be alone on saturday night. The band keeps a loose rhythm, much like the Stones. The seemingly accidental guitar breakdown anticipates what Husker Du and Fugazi and their ilk spent a decade trying to doodle with. Placing punk and post punk next to each other, you should consider what a 'real' punk would consider 'punk'. Would a Rancid T-shirt clad youngster consider Tom Verlaine to be a punk guitarist, or would they consider these guitars to be punk?

6. Pavement - Summer Babe (Single Mix)

Pavement were so sweet. Even in Malkmus' layers and layers of irony and scrabble, there's a love song underneath all of this. "Ice baby, I saw your girlfriend", how long would it be until mainstream indie openly quoted mainstrem pop? Come on, innovation people. When he holds the 'aaaaaaaaalllllllllllll' at the end, try and distance him from any of the great old crooners.

7. Sparks - Sherlock Holmes

This of course completely upstages the Summer Babe, which may have been intentional. "Sherlock Holmes" sounds like the T. Rex getting ready for the eighties, in the middle of it. When the guitar comes in, it comes in like the nineties, but we aren't there yet, so don't spoil it for us. The singing is very much Mark Bolan, but with less sex. I think Sparks might be a new favorite of mine.

8. Fleetwood Mac - Rattlesnake Shake

Fleetwood Mac Part One's biggest contributions were in the instrumental realm. Not necessarily instrumental like this song has no words in it, but instrumental like 'we're a blues band that plays blues slightly more unconventionally'. It happens in this song, with a break, where the guitars are pinging about like its ten years later. Only then do you realize that the drums haven't been playing anything near the blues.

9. A Certain Ratio - Do the Du

And here's the ten years later. A Certain Ratio were funny in that they were self aware (check out these semi-parodic lyrics: "My heart is just an open sore"). The bassline reminds me of "New Face in Hell", which kinda makes this two songs in one. This was originally paired with the Haircut 100 song, the rhythm of this song matches really well with that one.

10. Sonic Youth - Kissability

This was reccomended as a Sonic Youth song for people who don't like Sonic Youth. I don't know if I would say that. Kim Gordon's voice is still too-cool-for-you and her lyrics are all still ironic. Whether or not the guitars work in the same way isn't that important (they do), but you can't escape her voice, like you can't escape an airplane mid air. Oh, you can?

11. Zombies - Kind of Girl

As usual, the Zombies create these complicated relationships and all of that. "If it weren't for you... I'd be holding her today" they sing to a farfisa organ. The girl won't stay, she will run away from you before you realize. The song becomes a bit convoluted, we already know she's not the most dedicated girl. But each time we get that great hook, and by the time we don't like it, the songs over.

12. Basement Jaxx - Good Luck

Its "Romeo" down to the breakdown in the weird place/build back up thing, but its bigger. There are more sounds and they are busier, but they aren't necessarily more engaging. The string part seems thinner than it should. The song takes like two or three times to end.

13. The Darkness - I Believe in a Thing Called Love

The first guitar solo feels like its on automatic, like someone in a studio pressed the guitar solo button on the guitar emulator. The second little solo bit right before the end is pretty great though. I would have liked them to do the 'we're RAWKIN METAL' without guitar solos, that would have been impressive.

14. Dave and Ansel Collins - Double Barrel

A nice piano hook which becomes a nice organ hook with somebody shouting in the background the entire time.

15. Silver Apples - You and I

This band is a two piece, with one person playing a bizarre organ contraption and the other playing finely tuned drums. The drums are beautiful sounding, I especially like the cymbal work. The organ is a real wonder, there's normal organ sounds and then there's a weird dying screech going on the entire time, like a sax or something, but its the organ. But I don't know how its doing that. The entire thing sounds like a wacky circus and an awesome drummer.

16. Tony Christie - Avenues and Alleyways

I love how completely bombastic this song is. I picture the people in the studio all sweating and completely into it one hundred percent. Because, folks, Tony is belting it out for the duration of an extended and climactic and powerful chorus. It sounds like the fifties if you were driving through Las Vegas at one hundred miles an hour being chased by three helicopters and six patrol cars all with guns drawn. And then one of the police cars crashes into something and they all have to stop and help him, so you get away. And then the song ends.

17. The White Stripes - The Hardest Button to Button

Listening to this I couldn't help but think about remastered versions of great seventies albums and how people that have memories of real life classic rock when it was still popular rock. Someone would buy the new version of a Led Zeppelin album for example and take it home and put it in their surround sound CD player, and somehow, even though the bass is louder and the drums are more bombastic and the singer sounds better and the guitar solo is presented in double its original speaker shredding splendor, somehow its just not as good.

18. Tommy James and the Shondells - Draggin' the Line

The Blues Brothers must have covered this. The multiple hooks when the chorus kicks in are really neat. But this song is a little too candy.

19. Thomas Dolby - Hyperactive

Now this song I didn't believe. From the barely there acoustic guitar constantly strumming a little bit in my right ear to the obviously pitchshifted vocals, the trombone solo for no reason, the psychologist! There's a psychologist in this song! This song is so exciting, I was smiling and bobbing along on my merry way. Man. The drums don't even work like drums for a long time, its just the bass overreacting about everything. Its unstoppable. I don't even think the song ends, I think God was just trying to spare my neck from snapping. From me bobbing my head.

20. Haircut One Hundred - Love Plus One

The guitar riff that starts it makes it seem more exciting than it is. The group of chromatic percussion though, redeems it slightly. There's also an army of saxophones, is it wrong that some of them are a little on the smooth side? These aren't night time saxophones, either.

21. Otis Redding - Mr. Pitiful

When he lifts his voice up to say "and i want you-oooo", that's the money.

22. Talking Heads - Houses in Motion

Now David Byrne seems to have built his career around the 'you-ooo's, so it made sense to represent him where he wasn't, on this restrained song. Well there isn't much of it, at least. The horns (for the fourth song in a row, hmm?) aren't normal horns, they are strange and reversed or sampled or something.

23. Bow Wow Wow - Elimination Dancing

I am always excited with this band. The drumming is always something. It is a real risk to do a dance song about dancing without a clearly defined beat. There's a beat, but nothing is sticking to it, the drums become a kind of steady gallop after a while if you really concentrate, but it certainly isn't disco. I'll probably print the lyrics and put them on my wall, so everybody knows the rules of elimination dancing. Insist, persist, KNOCK OUT!

24. Spiritualized - Hold On

It seems like Jason Pierce has finally got a hold on what will make him. This feels original. I mean, once you get past the stylized noise intro (which I love). And whether or not the lyrics hold up, I like them. "Cause death cannot part us / If life already has / Hold on to those you hold dear." "Death cannot take / what you've already lost / Hold on to those you hold dear." Maybe the fault is in the refrain, but still it sounds good to my ears.

Here's the compilation two review.

1. Bob Dylan - The Man in Me

Finally Bobby's shut up about politics this and protest that and has made himself a pop song. Its a great atmosphere piece, really good for getting out of the apartment and into the stars.

2. Steely Dan - Peg

This is on my top ten songs of all time list (which doesn't exist yet), its probably three or five. This is certainly the most dangerous (to my appearance) song to walk to, as I go all freaky white boy bobbing my head and probably air guitaring. The guitar solo is fabulous. I'm pretty sure its impossible to actually play it, which should be the point of guitar solos. I mean, as long as we're being rock gods, let's go all Apollo on the proletariat and play stuff that nobody else can play. The backing vocals are very Walt Disney, which is a good thing, or hadn't you heard?

3. Sisters - Kick Your Boots Off

A rollicking march through seventies rock mania. The idea is that people are arriving home for the weekend or whatever, so let's kick our boots off and whatever. This is the precursor to Heaven 17s "Fascist Groove Thing". Except maybe its its opposite, where people are required to, rather than being shunned for partying or dancing or whatever it is that people do whenever they have their boots off, and presumably their party or dancing shoes on.

4. Pink Floyd - Bike

I like this song more than I like any of the Pink Floyd II songs (also to be addressed later, Fleetwood Mac I versus II). There's the obvious I, V thing going on, but its all stretched out in time and all of that. I wonder whats the difference between this stretching time and then the smashing time thing in, I guess its the 5-3 for extending versus 3-5 for the smashing. The lyrics in this song are bloody hilarious. I've got a clan of gingerbread men, take a couple if you wish, they're on the dish. The fact that anbody would sing that. Also the whistling sounds I always mistake for real life bombs.

5. Tommy James and the Shondells - Crimson and Clover

I like this song a lot. There is a bunch of different things going on. If they had stopped at the verse/chorus bit, it would be genius as it were, but that's not all. They have the build up, the bass break, then the guitars semi-funking it up before going back to the verse/chorus but with wacky you-know-they're-on-drugs backing vocals. And then the underwater vocals, those are always pretty cool. I wonder if any radio station back then played these two in a row. That would be a good idea. That's going on the 'to tell the past when i get there' sheet.

6. Sly and the Family Stone - Stand!

This doesn't feel like a funk song so much as it feels like a pop song. I liken the stand... Stand... STAAAAANNNDD bit to the Simpsons sand... Sand...SANND! Its at the end of one of the movie strips either Ms. Hoover or Krabappel make their students watch. On the funk defense, there's a way the chords move, in a more subtley syncopated motion that seperates it completely from just normal pop, but still not completely funk. Oh, until that ending section.

7. Joe Jackson - Is She Really Going Out With Him?

Feels more benign than I thought it would. "Something going wrong around here" doesn't feel like much of a refrain, I mean in the post-chorus sense. The "where?" portion seems like it could have been recorded more hilariously, like panned, or having different people saying it.

8. Nena - 99 Luftbaloons

There are four chords in this song, but you wouldn't know it unless you really paid attention. The music is layered so wonderfully and the vocals sung in so many different ways, and parts repeated so infrequently that it gets away with the repetition. Unlike all guitar radio hits of the 90s, which it seemed wanted to make it clear that that's how music was supposed to go, C E F G, or C F Am G, or C G E Am, there you go. Three brilliant songs there. It goes verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, guitar solo, chorus like four times. Change the lyrics a bit though.

9. New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle

Shut up, this song could make ANYONE love Culver City.

10. Nick Lowe - (I Love the Sound) of Breaking Glass

This song's orchestration impresses me. I like the bass sound like I like all good Costello bass. Yeah, there's the rhythm forcing thing in there. See, it connects. I like how the tambourine is the breaking glass, or well the glass being tapped on or something, obviously its not broken yet. And I LURVE the piano part. So disobedient.

11. Delfonics - La La (Means I love You)

For some reason, I put this on the compilation expecting to regret my decision. I haven't so far. Going back to the Flock of Seagulls thing with the is- it-modal-because-I-don't-know-what-chord-comes-next thing, there's always a way around to the melody. I like the panning a lot. The 00s need more severe panning. Here's something to think about. Panning - Antiphonal music. Mono or monoish - Stadium music. Its the difference between the audience surrounding and being surrounded, it's not enough to put the first guitar in the left and the second guitar in the right, there has to be something to it.

12. The Jam - Start!

Do the Jam have an answer for it? Well, they certainly have some interestinger guitar ideas. And some decent backing vocals. I like the Jam on a song-by-song basis. I love the All Mod Cons theme song, but am bored to tears by the album. Seriously, Conner caught me on the couch crying and asked me what was the matter and I said it was the episode of Family Matters I was watching and he said "don't worry Tyler, Laura will come around'. CONNER. She didn't come around until STeve changed his whole personality and then seperated himself into two parts. What kind of a message is that? That if you love someone but they don't love you you have to split yourself in two and marry the weird girl that always has to have it, but then dies of cancer? That's a pretty fucked up story.

13. The Jesus and Mary Chain - Never Understand

This is the Beach Boys. These guitars will forever remind me of a sea breeze blowing up a hill and through my sweater and into my skin. Its a nice feeling, really it is.

14. The Zombies - Gotta Get a hold of Myself

Misplaced probably. Still an excellent song. Those harmonies are just cutting. The Zombies are always brilliant when it comes to not only writing harmonies as in 'oh yeah, a and c go together' but where to put them and how to sing them. Also I hadn't heard before that the bass is the 'footsteps walking down the hall'. So Zombies > Beatles in musicianship, music writing. If only they could write lyrics like them.

15. Stavely Makepiece - Slippery Rock 70s

Like "Kick Your Boots Off" instead of having rumbling marching guitars it has rumbling march drums and wacky pool parlor piano and then a little guitar and a synth acting as the narrator. Oooh Ooohweooo ooooweeeaaaahh.... Anyway, this was really just put in here to be the kind of introduction to the next set of songs. I wanted to get things into an old west mood.

16. Electric Light Orchestra - Wild West Hero

So the piano right away isn't as wild west as Stavely's. A very nice Beatley ballad. The reason people thought that ELO would be the next beatles or whoever they thought the next whatever, was because they took the rudimentary ideas and put them into a prog context, where stretching out an idea forever was okay. And people liked it, because pop is supposed to be ridiculous, like a mini opera. There's a reason why we still head-bang to Bohemian Rhapsody. Because its ridiculous. Anyway, the vocal part gets a little gorgeous.

17. Kate Bush - Cloudbursting

I think my first really good transition. I like this song just for the string part. Oh yeah, and the gorgeous singing. Not gorgeous in the arrangement sense like ELO at 2:43, but gorgeous like, yeah, she sounds like an angel and she sounds sexy and all of that. If you look at it, its a similar kind of march thing that figures slightly prominently in the rest of the compilation. The snare sounds like not a snare.

18. Sacha Funke - Now You Know

At first, I had some real problems with this song being too spaced out. Normal click pops and stuff don't impress me like they did in 2001, but this song would sound good played by a rock band, in fact, I hope some rock band out there takes it on to cover this song. If only the singer could find something to do. He could like operate the slide machine. I like the thing at the end where the guy comes in with his two lines and then they start repeating it again but cut it off after the first line of the second repetition so it seems like an ABA kind of thing (by the way I have a problem with form of things. Its a combination of two conflicting forces, not paying enough attention and paying too much attention).

19. Supertramp - The Logical Song

Kind of the bridge between the wild west songs and the Kate Bush's violin part. Only if the electric piano (which by the way is one of my favorite tones) wasn't in five, though I guess all of the music is in five or whatever it is. For some reason this sounds older than the Jefferson Airplane, in the way the lady singing treats her voice. I like the saxophone and castanets. I think the saxophone has become a night time instrument for me. Now Paul Desmond sounds like a morning person to me. That would be funny to research. Also the castanets and the whistle. Pop should be ridiculous.

20. B-52s - Rock Lobster

Like this. Fred Schneider's punk rock was being as flamboyant as possible. Those lyrics, those beehives, that music! If this was played at maybe 2/3 tempo by a brass quintet you would say the composer was crazy. There's a lot going on here, which is another important thing. There's the main riff, which is really important for me, the girls 'ski doo ba bop --- whoo!', and then the chorus. The way Schneider holds his voice above the fray, half gulping, half shouting. I love the throwaway second verse. 'it wasn't a rock - it was a rock lobster'. Fuck writing a second verse, here comes the chorus. The dissonance there between the keyboard and the guitar. The kind of breakdown and then the chromatic descent, and then the new riff to usher in the brilliant bridge. And its brilliant.

21. Ricky Wilde - I Wanna Go to a Disco

What was the market for this song? Mommy, I wanna go to a disco? Its a great song. Its weird though. You know when Ricky finally got to go to the disco it was one of those lame condescending fake disco parties where they played stuff like disco duck and maybe the token donna summer and then had cake and the kids just wanted to dance, oh wait, kids never dance when you want them to. You'd hire a DJ and then the kids would cry. They'd request the Walking on Thin Ice 12" but the DJ wouldn't have it and they'd freak. And then somebody would pee.

22. Bay City Rollers - Saturday Night

Anyway, here's your freaking disco. This singing is well-enunciated. And well-hunkified. You can picture their hair cuts. Zow. This is a different version from the one that I fell in love with, but its still the same song. Also the Rollers sound very young. Still, Saturday Night sounds good. So do the voices zooming into the stratosphere.

This CD finishes a bit early, as I'm descending from the Stucco noise of College Eight into the placid portion of ye olde Oakes. I usually replay "The Man in Me" which is a good closing song. I think this CD's problem is being a little too safe. Other than "Bike" and "Never Understand" there's not a lot of craziness going on. I think number five is going to be the zaniest yet, but I'm still finalizing the tracklist. I'll get back to you with how it sounds probably Monday.

Here's the write up for the fourth compilation. It was randomized and sort of resequenced, but I think it does really well, considering.

1. Need New Body - Shark Attack

Its noise, but its not as boring as the Melt Banana. I like how they do the noise-band-breaks-down thing, but then they come back together. I also like the thickness of the percussion. Too often, noise bands are too guitary.

2. Sister Nancy - Bam Bam

This is the song that brought me to Santa Cruz. I like how you can just barely hear the bass in the background before it comes in, like they recorded it along with the song, but then took the part out, but they had already recorded the other parts with it in there, so it seems like a ghost bassline.

3. Martha and the Muffins - Echo Beach

I like the accidental segue from the perma-delay on Sister Nancy's voice to this song. This song is the "Water on Glass" of this compilation, from the lady vocals to the slightly explosive chorus. It isn't quite as good as "WoG" though.

4. Django Reinhardt - Dinah

The first questionable transition. But that's okay, because its a normal transition on any of the other compilations. He rocks. I mean, he plays a mean guitar. And he rocks in a nonobtrusive, bob your head and say 'wow' kind of way.

5. Bronski Beat - Tell Me Why

I thought this song was really inappropriate for the last compilation for some reason. Actually the inadvertant one-two of this and "Promised you a Miracle" was on the last comp before I chickened out and added something else instead. I always wonder about horns in eighties songs, because sometimes they are real horns that sound like synths and other times they are synth horns that sound like crappy real horns. I like how this guy wants to be the Eurythmics.

6. Simple Minds - Promised you a Miracle

Good segue. Like the last 'WHYYYYYY' hangs in the air. and then pinka pink pink plunk. I like how the eighties, or maybe just this song, liked forcing rhythms. I'm sure that's not the technical term. Also, this song and the General Public song, I like how it sounds just like a big chunk of nondescript pop, although you'd be hard-pressed to find any specific culture in here. I'm really impressed by that bass fill, I can imagine the bass player doing that and then everybody clapping and then the engineer having to edit the clapping out.

7. Wire - Marooned

I remember listening to this at Stanislaus Summer '01 and liking it alot. Only when I got home and read the lyrics (i'm really bad at lyrics, let me mention, or the paying attention to them, I mean i've transcribed "Best Friends Arm" but I didn't know what the refrain for "Never say Never" was saying until a couple months ago. Anyway, I love how they play with intervals here, there's another song on here that does it, I'll probably mention it when it comes up.

8. Rolling Stones - Who's Driving your Plane?

I always think I'm going to like this song more than I actually do. I don't dislike it though. For some reason I thought it was different from other Stones songs.

9. Os Mutantes - Tempo No Tempo

But its a good or good-ish segue into this. I love this song. Its all churchy, like Renaissance churchy, not the good kind. Then its all dixieland then its all showtune. Then its more showtune. Then its barbershop for a second. It ends with church bells.

10. Elvis Costello - The Beat

Also I thought this song was called 'The Beach' for a while. The bass tone here is beautiful. Its the sixties. The way the keyboard works though is brilliant eighties. Also when the bass does fills, and especially at the bridge where its complicated but beautifully messy, like a two year old genius who has just found the chocolate pile, that's really great. I've never though that EC was that great of a guitar player. There's a cool surf effect on the guitar for a second.

11. Archers of Loaf - You and Me

The bass provides a good connection for these songs. Okay, here's the part that I connect with Marooned. The singing with the bassline. I dont' need that fancy pantsy counterpoint crap, I just need this to happen once every forty minutes. You hear that albums? Make me proud. Meh, the yelling part, not so great. But I like the part where he hits the fifth lower than the note you think he's going to sing. I like how indie rockers think they are being clever when it just does the bare minimum of what makes a good actual song. Not that this is the bare minimum, this is like a C.

12. Super Furry Animals - Juxtaposed With U

Now here's the opposite of snooty indie rock thinking they are clever by pulling one pop move, snooty indie rock thinking they are brilliant by pulling a couple pop moves. Okay, this is the best song off of Rings Around the World. The harp helps a lot. The vocoders do as well. The percussion and general rhythm complete that. Its a good song. It fits really well. As "You and Me" dies down with the bassline, the harp swoops you awake again.

13. The Fall - Rebellious Jukebox

Its funny how this was one of the Fall's first singles. Mark E. Smith's voice doesn't do that thing for the first two lines. And when it does, it stays. I like the bass being out of tune.

14. Ween - Doctor Rock

I don't really like Ween, but I'm trying something new. The vocal line reminds me of Heroes and Villains, and the shouting along reminds me of the one time I was in Chris Toth's band, Mr. Do. That should have been the proudest moment in my high school career, being a sophmore invited to jam with a senior and his two crazy friends. But no. Rather than having fun and making up songs with horns and kalimba in them, I wanted to be snooty and play keyboards and second lead guitar with the Electric Blue. There's something freeing about this sort of silliness, but not in too big doses. Also, this song isn't funny.

15. Clinic - Cutting Grass

A B-side to distortion. I wish they would just put all of their B-sides on the albums. Then their albums could be like sixty minutes long. I appreciate brevity, but not when its coming from one of the best bands working today.

16. Romeo Void - Never Say Never

A surprisingly short six minutes. "I might like you better if we slept together." That's what it says. I like the progression of the singer's logic in the chorus.

17. Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit

I like the transition between these two. The sixties drugs versus the eighties drugs. Well, the sixties were about drugs, the eighties was like 'drugs? yeah, I know about those, and i'll do some while I Dance". This song doesn't know how to enjoy drugs yet, or enjoy them beyond a level of 'wow, dude, drugs....' 'did you know this song is about alice in wonderland...' I like the singing alot. I'm sure if I had heard this as a kid and then heard it again while taking drugs it would have blown my mind.

18. Swell Maps - H. S. Art

I like the idea of the Swell Maps, and maybe I will like the Swell Maps if they keep on sounding like this. They are big and nice and percussive like the first song on this cd, but they mean something because they came first. Also I can picture duct tape and paint cans and safety pins and bobby pins and a clash of dark and light. I was really obsessed with the imagery of punk as a kid, and I'm really upset now that I never got any of that. STill.

19. Pere Ubu - Navvy

One of the few songs to crack me up AND make me dance upon first listen. Also, it was totally an accident that the chorus of this song is 'boy, that sounds swell'. Dissonance is hilarious if you do it right.

20. Plastic People of the Universe - Dvacet

I am very proud of my idea of punk. And I only get prouder. The violin gets as much space as the distorted guitar. And the saxophone is just happy.

21. Donald Fagen - Walk Between Raindrops

Yes, I am still very proud of my idea of punk. If you think about it you hear a bit of "Navvy" in the keyboards. Certainly you can expand the idea of dissonance. I mean this is jazz dissonance. But most ears don't like it that much.

22. Pretenders - Space Invader

This is the one surprise of the CD. I didn't know this would be an instrumental. Not that I'm completely disappointed. It sounded weird and proggy, I was baffled as to who it might have been.

23. Professor Longhair - Tipitina

His singing is like a less-virtuostic Shooby Taylor in the nonsense parts. The drums are really important in this song. It sounds like somebody from a high school in the nineties is playing it. I mean, there's the funk influence, but it isn't funk. I don't know, it seems really ahead of its time.

24. Bangles - Hazy Shade of Winter

I like how the guitar is panned. I'm pretty sure this is a Blue Oyster Cult song.

25. Josie Cotton - Johnny Are you Queer?

For me, this isn't so much a 'hey, you can't say that!' song, as much as it makes me question the girl. I'm sure she could get him to have sex with her if she wanted. Unless she's really undesirable, and he just likes hanging out with his guy friends. I like the conversational duet at the end. There's more 50s-80s there.

26. A Flock of Seagulls - Space Age Love Song

The guitars blatant ignorance of the chord at any time. There's a certain dangerous feel in modal music, but is that same danger there in pop music? I mean, we need a hook, right? And we get it. And FoS even sound like OMD for a minute. If they used their guitars like guitars and not keyboards. Just kidding, I love you guys.

This is my write up for the third such compilation.

1. XTC - Statue of Liberty

I always have a trouble with XTC in an album setting. For a lot of people, they are an album band, but I seem to hate them after a couple of songs. I don't know what album this song is from, but I'm pretty sure I've heard it and hated it and not gotten this song at all. Its like having a professor that's only brilliant some of the time. You can't pay attention to the parts that he's not. Hoo hoo! That's the best chorus part ever. I totally wouldn't have cared in an album context.

2. Kim Wilde - Water on Glass

This isn't the Kim Wilde song you know, which is kind of an accidental theme of this compilation. I love how the chords on the verse work. Also, the chorus does a similar thing. This is a 'here's the eighties song', like here come the eighties. The production was a little too big for its own good, like the opposite of Joe Jackson's "I love the sound of breaking glass" which is on the second compilation, which I'm sure I'll talk about sometime because I love writing about this stuff.

3. Orange Juice - Rip it Up

The first non reggae reggae song. For me this sounds like Soft Cell and INXS and other sexy bands, even though it isn't a sexy song and it contains the phrase "I hope to God" repeated several times. But I think he says something cheeky after that, like "I hope to God your not as dumb as you make out". I love the 3-1-5 interval, which reminds me I have some composition homework to do. I think I hate the sax solo, or maybe I was listening to it too loud, it hurt my ears.

4. Bow Wow Wow - C30 C60 C90 Go!

This is a very impressive song. I said it was more punk than "God Save the Queen" because 70s punk was kids recognizing the revolution and 80s punk was kids doing the revolution. Taping off the radio = not having to purchase the record. "I carry my collection on my back". Yeah, and when you are finished with it, you can replace every song. I'm sure an analogous song exists about the current downloading situation, I'm also sure it was recorded by someone on NPR.

5. Wire - The 15th

I think this is a song that may have lost the magic for me. I put it on this compilation unconsciously as a kind of bridge between the harsh weird eighties songs and the softer side of the first half, like just because I remembered it a certain way, it would have the same effect every time. I like the little round at the end, only because the guy that starts it can't really sing it, and that's more Wire to me than their new album.

6. The Replacements - Androgynous

I don't like the Replacements very much, for me they are just a boring nineties guitar rock band that came earlier than the nineties. Also they were on the same juvenile as the Dead Milkmen without being nearly as funny. There are a few exceptions to my dislike though, this song and "Can't Hardly Wait". I like the singing a lot in here, I am a firm believer in the power of reverb, it makes a basement a stadium.

7. The Pixies - Ana

She's my fave
Undressing in the sun
Return to sea, bye
Forgetting everyone
Eleven Heart
Ride

I love the Pixies as a gimmick band. Their lyrics don't mean anything, and so don't tons of others. I also love that after their good album they increased the kookiness factor.

8. The Raspberries - Go all the way

I don't think this song is ever appropriate. This seems like a blatant attempt at attention getting, more than a legitimate make-out song. If I don't think about the lyrics, I like this song, but the lyrics are the point.

9. The Velvet Underground - I'll be your Mirror

More harmonic lines masquerading as melodic lines, I still like them. I also like the ridiculously inappropriate backing vocals at the end.

10. Al Green - Simply Beautiful

Whenever I start listening to this song, I'm like, "Oh God, this song is so boring, why did I put this on here" and then there's the chords that change really quick and the lyric "I expect a whole lotta love out of you" and that's pretty great. And then how the song picks up right before the end and then kind of doesn't go anywhere, I mean fades out. Also, its hilarious right at the end when he's like 'there's so many things I could say about you girl... I really loooove...' and then it fades out, like he was making it up in the studio and then forgot what he was going to say, like he had something really good and then just decided, 'yeah, love, that's what I wanted to say'.

11. Tom Waits - Johnsburg, Illinois

This is Tom Waits singing about an octave higher than he's used to. Its from the album I always get confused with Rain Dogs, Swordfishtrombones.

12. The Mamas and The Papas - California Dreamin

Another love-hate song. The harmonies popping up in the verse are really important. Do they say "I pretended to pray"? That would be something. I like the flute solo, I don't usually like flutes, but then again, I do. You get what I"m saying?

13. Fleetwood Mac - Hold Me

The best song of the eighties, when I'm not listening to it. Things I love about it:
1. The vocal resuming the chorus - 'come oN AND (hold me)'. This is from Tusk, probably even the title track.
2. The weird shouting in the chorus - 'hold me hold HEY! me'. More of tusk, the Ledge I think.
3. The guitar solo that's not so much a guitar soloing as it is the song playing with kind of the emphasis on Lindsay, like hey, he's doing three different things, strumming, plunking and guitar solo, but not really, because its all three we're supposed to be listening to.

14. Leonard Cohen - First We Take Manhattan, Then we Take Berlin

With dancing, I think. This song is also too long. I think I'll start editing songs to fit my mood, but the thing is my mood always likes the songs before I hear them. I'll just have to hear them.

15. 1000 Violins - Like 1000 Violins

This song does the thing with the sliding guitar that I hoped the Shins would do on the second track of their good album (NOT THE NEW ONE). Speaking of not being able to sing, this song gives me hope. Am I wrong to be indifferent to bad singing? I mean, when I hear someone singing sharp or flat, I don't care, as long as they are consistent. Is it a sin that I just want constancy, not even caring about the target, just the plan?

16. English Beat - Hands Off She's Mine

The other faux-reggae song. I say faux-reggae because all of the parts are there, just not in the right rhythm. Nobody will bob their heads to this. Correctly. I like the group singing thing. The toasting part is probably the weirdest toast part I've heard. Hands off my daughter, eeeeee! That's how it goes.

17. Max Tundra - Lights

I like Max Tundra when he does everything at once. Like this song which is Michael Jackson rapping and then Boys II Men not being able to agree which word to accent in the chorus. The drum and bass/ techno part is negligible, because its only important that Max Tundra is doing pop.

18. They Might Be Giants - Don't Let's Start

I think this song is a brilliant idea. The thing is that most people thought that eighties pop was dumb, (they are wrong). So what happens when a bunch of nerds make eighties pop? Well, its a beautiful thing. "Deputy dog dog a ding ding deppa deppa" How is that not 'dumb'? The video in my mind for this song is someone behaving whimsically, possibly in a park. I love the ending. I always want Johnny Marr to play guitar like that.

19. Adam and the Ants - Cleopatra

I thought I would appreciate this song's texture. I forgot how important the rest of the song is. I don't know if I've ever listened to the whole thing.

20. Clinic - Distortions

I love how this song is completely Clinic and also not Clinic at the same time. I was afraid of this song at first, just how frank Ade sounds, its kind of scary. The organ is a synth pretending to be a church organ, which fits how Clinic work so wonderfully. They are a band that reaches so far. They start Internal Wrangler as Martin Denny, end it as the Beatles. Modern indiewise, what other band can conjure up both Sigur Ros and the Hives on the same album? Now modern importantwise, what other band beat Missy Elliott to Diwali? Answer: none. But you can't get me started on Walking with Thee.

21. Disco Inferno - Summers Last Sound

Whenever I hear about bands that can 'barely play' their instruments, I always hope they can play them as smartly as Disco Inferno.

22. Depeche Mode - Dreaming of Me

The way they hold the backing vocals all together is important. I'm not sure how.

23. Van Dyke Parks - Palm Desert

Whenever Pitchfork reviews one of these soundscape albums (like Manitoba but worse) I always think Van Dyke did it first. Yeah this song has timpani in it, but not the kind of timpani that I dig. I mean not the kind of timpani exploitation that I dig.

24. OMD - Motion and Heart

OMD is another favorite of mine, they always sound like the eighties, but the good exploring eighties. This song has never been a big emotional one with me (like the half of Dazzle Ships with singing, or all of A&M and Crush). "Mo mo mo mo motion and heart" < That's the money line.

As far as compilations go, I think this one gets a C, as in next time I'll 'C' about starting with like thirty really good songs and then whittling them down heartbreakingly.

"Love isn't Easy (but it Sure is Hard Enough)"

That was the Abba song I was talking about earlier. The timpani goes BOM and then they sing the chorus. Since writing last, I have made two more compilations, which I may or may not talk about. I don't think either of them have timpani songs, but one does have Steely Dan's "Peg" which is about as dangerous as walking gets for me.

Following the completion of the greatest compilation CD ever, I have deleted every mp3 from my computer. I will now talk about this CD, song by song. The criteria for inclusion on this cd was that it had to be in my mp3 folder and I had to have listened to it more than other songs.

1. Roger Miller - Dang Me

"Roses are red, violets are purple, sugar is sweet and so is maple syrple"
If I played this for anybody, I would pause the cd and rewind it and make them listen to the line again, until they hilariously laughed.

2. The Clash - Janie Jones

This is punk only by association. Okay, actually, looking at the lyrics, it IS a punk song. I misheard the lyric, 'he's in love with a rock and roll girl'. I'm not going to read the lyrics for fear of ruining this being a love song. ANYWAY. I like this the most of the Clash's early singles. I like London Calling better than the first couple albums, it seems like the "Legend" of punk albums, and not just because it contains reggae, its just a stoned singalong album.

3. The Specials - Nite Club

My favorite part of Washington D.C. was hearing a man drum on garbage cans in the street. This song contains some of that.

4. The Buggles - Video Killed the Radio Star

If you listen to the bass part in the chorus, you can tell why Trevor Horn was Yes' bass player for a brief while.

5. Some buzzy garage band - I don't know the song name either

Okay, its not the perfect mix cd. This is admittedly filler.

6. Roxy Music - More Than This

For the melody on the verse more than the chorus. This seems like a song that people would sit out at the dance.

7. Badly Drawn Boy - I need a Sign

The guitar part reminds me of "Jingle Bell Rock", specifically the version performed by the plastic Santa that Homer starts a blackout with. The drums are really important and I wish more people recorded drums this way.

8. Some band reccomended by Pitchfork - "Mahgeetah"

I don't know this band's name, but this is the opening track from their new album. This is how me listening to it goes: oh! this song, I love this opening, the guitar part. Then, Oh, the wannabe beach boy harmonies that go nowhere. I'm on and off about this song, but when I'm on, I'm ON. The rest of the album is not nearly as good, its just a bunch of by the numbers alt-country (a term which I hate using, so bands that I use this label for, please, stop sounding like each other).

9. Jorge Ben - Un Pais Tropical

The beginning always sounds like "A Minha Menina", but this songs about twice as long and contains probably three bridges where Jorge says some weird things.

10. Some guy off the Burt Bacharach Compilation - (The man who shot) Liberty Valance

Its the timpani in this and some Abba song. They always make my head jump to the beat. This is embarassing for me to be walking to, but still the best thing ever.

11. Young Marble Giants - Credit in the Straight World

I can name two YMG songs that would fit better here and that I would like more. But I've already used them on compilations. The melody in this song isn't supergreat and the lyrics aren't as effective as other YMG songs.

12. Prince - Little Red Corvette

SHEEGODD. This song always makes my day. Its overkill, really. He's doing this all by himself, like Stevie Wonder or Cody Chesnutt, but its the other voices that make it feel full. The only bass I remember in this song happens once, where two electric basses play a different fill in different channels at the same time. That's really great. And then there's always these vocal additions right after the chorus that keep taking the song to another level. And then the buzzy synth part comes in right at the end.

13. Edison Lighthouse - Love Grows (Where my Rosemary Goes)

Another one of those songs with timpani. Fortunately this song doesn't use it as a rhythmic hook, so I'm okay in front of people. The introduction keeps on building up and up, we're thinking, 'hey, its an orchestral pop song' and then 'wow, what a song' and then 'holy crapola, where's the phone, i've got to tell everyone to buy the 45!' And then it goes into the chorus. That's the great thing about some of these songs, short verses, brilliant choruses. My favorite part of this is at the end where the backup singers take the lead lyric.

14. General Public - Tenderness

A great sounding eighties song. The eighties were a great mixemup decade where we got ska, soul, reggae, punk, new wave, and all this other stuff and smushed them all up together (unfortunately, a lot of people dismiss the eighties as a bad drum sound for ten years). This song is a good example of that. If you were asked to define what kind of song this is, you'd say pop, and so would I, but then you'd hear all the styles underlying the pop facade and then you'd say 'I don't know quite what that is... but its brilliant'.

15. Melt Banana some live song, but it doesn't sound live

Eh. Jackhammer guitars and punchy percussion and japanese (or otherwise) vocals. One minute of this is too long. I like the thing the Roots did when they had twenty seconds of this. But it is a good segue into...

16. The Raveonettes - That Great Love Sound

They do some wonderful building from the verses to the choruses. Everything here is good guitar sounds, ferocious, but not focal. Its powerful, but not 'it'. The good kind of distortion finds guitars sounding like hilarious analog keyboards. I was really happy to see this perfomed on some late night television show, Conan maybe, they were like a poppier Luna, or a happier Jesus and Mary Chain.

17. Eric's Trip - Sand

This song is too delicate. I like the melody. The Microphones version seems too disrespectful to have put on this compilation.

18. The Nerves - Hanging on the Telephone

I don't know if I like this song. I like a guitar part in there somewhere.

19. Beach Boys - The Warmth of the Sun

This is to make up for the fake Beach Boys earlier. Boy, those guys really know their stuff. I think my history of western music teacher should be playing us Beach Boys instead of Hildegaard von Bingen to fulfill the 'inspired by God' category of music.

20. Murray Head - One Night in Bangkok

This was recently put on some '100 worst songs' list in Britain or something. I love this song a ton. The main voice, the pop-prog backing vocals, man, the eighties really liked their basslines.

21. Some british punk band with a spanish name - "kill"

mreh, I don't care, its punk.

22. The La's - There She Goes

I keep wanting this to explode and its nice to listen to, but its a lot like the Nerves song. Its weak. It has a good refrain, but I don't think its done well necessarily.

23. Something Tom Ewing Recomended

Slide guitars always sound really official to me. The guy in the airport walking on his way to a business meeting, but its in hawaii or someplace nice, so ha ha work. I like the idea of singing like this. "oh rose, my rooooose marie'. Yeah, I like this song.

24. Madness - Our House

They seem like a less sincere, less good singing Dexy's Midnight Runners. This song reminds me a lot of Come on, Eileen, where the transition into the chorus is a little wacky. Its a good thing for CoE. I'm sure there's some underlying meaning behind this song, like a worker's strike or union meeting, something like that, I don't care. I like the beginning.

25. Bearsuit - Hey Charlie, Hey Chuck

A boy is listening to a Belle and Sebastian song. A girl comes by with the requisite grrl haircut. She sings along for a bit, then messes up his song. They are the two stereotypes of 90s indie and I hate them both but I love this song.

26. Can - Silent Night

The opening melody reminds me of the time Homer and Lisa broke into the Springfield Art Museum and heard the song of the Pharaoh or whatever. I like that the band Can did this song. If you've heard them and then heard this song, you'd know why I like that.

So there's some brilliant songs, some lame songs, and other songs that I like listening to, but am not in love with. This is the third version of this compilation. I'm not ready to make real compilations.

Also, I like Leonard Cohen a lot. Little Red Corvette's guitar solo isn't long enough. I'm going to be writing about this compilation more. I'm secretly taking another music course that I don't qualify for but is actually below me skillwise. The new Strokes album is the best album of 2003. Better than their first. But they can still do better.