30 Day Song Challenge - Day 30

30 Day Song Challenge: day 30 - your favorite song at this time last year

Joanna Newsome - Monkey and Bear

I guess this was one of my favorites a year ago. I got this album around the time it came out and it didn't really click until last year. The music is so dense and the lyrics are so involved, but it's pure poetry.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 29

Day 29 - a song from your childhood

Peter Schilling -  Major Tom (Coming Home)

This was probably the first song I liked that wasn't part of my dad's record collection. I didn't find out the name of it until maybe 15 years later. I just found out it was supposed to be a retelling of David Bowie's "Space Oddity".  Also I just realized that the theme song from Heathcliff and Friends ripped off the vocal part from the end of the song.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 28

Day 28 - a song that makes you feel guilty

 Minor Threat - In My Eyes

I'm sorry, Ian, ok? I'm sorry! Is that what you want to hear Ian? I'm sorry!

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 27

30 Day Song Challenge: day 27 - a song that you wish you could play

I can't play jazz guitar at all, even with four fingers. 

Django Reinhardt - J'attendrai Swing

Somehow Django Rinehardt was able to be the best jazz guitarists using only two.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 26

Day 26 - a song that you can play on an instrument

 The Chantays - Pipeline

This was the first song I learned to play on guitar, maybe 1991 or so. I hadn't figured out any non-power chords yet, so "Jane Says" wasn't an option, and the easiest non-chord based songs - "Hunger Strike" and "Nothing Else Matters" - hadn't been released yet. Maybe they were, but I hadn't heard them.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 25

30 Day Song Challenge: day 25 - a song that makes you laugh

John Spencer Blues Explosion - Full Grown

The purest troglodytic stupidity of rock and roll packed into one song, this.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 24

Day 24 - a song that you want to play at your funeral

Laika and the Cosmonauts - Theme from the Endless Summer

I want my funeral to be a beach party, all Beach Blanket Bingo style, with a surf band and everyone doing the twist, and I want my ashes launched into Lake Michigan with a water balloon launcher for the finale. And this song is as maudlin as it's allowed to get. There will be no wailing or gnashing of teeth, there will be no rending of garments or dressing in sackcloth and ashes, and if there is any of that, I will haunt the shit out of you.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 23

Day 23 - a song that you want to play at your wedding

Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

This is a trick question, because I am already happily married and don't want to get married again, so I don't officially want to play a song at my wedding. Pedantry aside, we played this song at our wedding. We also had Cathy and Corey play "We Belong Together" by Daniel C, but there doesn't seem to be any version of this song on the internet.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 22

Day 22 - a song that you listen to when you’re sad

Neutral Milk Hotel - Oh Comely

Sometimes I'll listen to the whole album, but this is the one that sticks out.  Sometimes I listen to this song when I'm happy, too, along with the rest of the album.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 21

Day 21 - a song that you listen to when you’re happy

Leslie Gore - Sunshine Lollipops and Rainbows

On the first nice day of spring when it's warm enough to ride my bike to the beach I put this song on while I have my coffee.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 20

30 Day Song Challenge: Day 20 - a song that you listen to when you’re angry

Killdozer - Working Hard or Hardly Working

I put this song on when I am stuck in traffic on my way home from work. Especially on bad days at work. It just keeps going on and on, it's so ridiculous. If it's bad enough traffic, I'll repeat it a few times. By then the traffic jam has cleared or I am home. Then I am happy.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 19

30 Day Song Challenge: Day 19 - a song from your favorite album

I have a lot of favorite albums so this is a difficult one.

Old Time Relijun - Mystery Language

"Witchcraft Rebellion" by Old Time Relijun is one of my favorites, and this is my favorite song off that album. It competes with "Deep In The Woods" as one of my favorite songs. It's almost perfect, to the point that I wonder why anyone would bother writing another song. This video is really weird. Looks like it was put together by a Frenchman, based on the Youtube comments.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 18

Day 18 - a song that you wish you heard on the radio

Fun Ender - The Touch

I wish I hear any Fun Ender on the radio. In fact I wish I could hear any Fun Ender at all. I have their first cd, but they never released their second, which is fully recorded. I've been told they have recorded their third as well, which is all keyboard instead of guitar. But the keyboard is tasteful - think Six Finger Satellite rather than Hipster Collective's Casio Portasound Review Insert Animal Name Here. And I have been told that they will release the second album at the same time as their third, so I am patiently waiting. I love these guys.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 17

Day 17 - a song that you hear often on the radio

I don't listen to the radio much, but I have a muzak speaker above my desk that plays the same vapid crap every day. On the few times I've listened to commercial radio in the recent past, I've heard this song, which also gets played on the muzak system.

Black Eyed Peas - I Gotta Feeling (?)

I think this is the song title. Youtube provided at least three different song titles, which makes me believe their fans are dumber than the band. The description of the song on the video is as follows, without correction: "this is there new song thisis the real version it ant chipmonk or anything like tht its the real thing hope u enjoy".
Well, mister illiterate youtube account holder, since you mention it, I do not enjoy. I might actually want to hear the "chipmonk" version, because this is the stupidest song that anyone has ever written or recorded. I can imagine speeding it up to helium voice rpm would at least get the thing over with quicker. I was complaining to a friend about how much I hate this song, and he told me it was the Black Eyed Peas. I never liked the Black Eyed Peas, but I had no idea that they had sunk this low. I almost didn't believe him and had to google it, and sure enough, it's them. These are the worst lyrics ever. Worse than Rebecca Black's "Friday". And even worse, these are grown-ups. Grown-ups wrote these lyrics. Can you imagine a world in which grown-ass men and women, actual adults, not just people above the age of 18, but full-on, older than me adults would write something this pathetic? Well, you don't have to imagine that world, because we are living in that world. I hear this once a day; today I heard it twice. This band is a boil on the ass of music. Welcome to my nightmare, bitches.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 16

Day 16 - A song that you used to love but now hate

Alice In Chains - Would

Give me a break, I was a freshman in high school. I also liked Rage Against the Machine, Pearl Jam, Temple of the Dog, Live, and a couple other bands that embarrass me to admit to. I saw these guys at Lollapalooza 1993. I didn't like their show too much because I though they played too long and I wanted them to finish so I could see Primus sooner. Shut up.  Also when I finally saw Singles I was really let down. Really, those girls would consider seeing an Alice In Chains show to be "going out dancing"? I didn't buy it.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 15

Day 15 - a song that describes you

Dead Kennedys - Well Paid Scientist

I guess I'm a well-paid scientist.  Great song, but the lyrics and video are pissing me off....by the way, Jello, piss off. We can't all own record labels; some of us have to do the grunt work you are so enamored with. Who created the vinyl your records are printed on, who created the tape your bands record on, who designs the factories where the vinyl and tape are made? Scientists, you pathetic fucking Luddite.

30 Day Song Challenge - Days 12, 13, & 14

Busy weekend including a visit to the in-laws means I skipped a few days, and will make up for it now in one post.

Day 12 - a song from a band you hate

I decided I would not go for the easy target of the office intercom bands, no matter how much I hate them. Instead:

Fleetwood Mac - Tusk

Christ, I fucking hate Fleetwood Mac. Can't fucking stand them. I did not enjoy them showing up on oldies or classic rock radio when I was growing up, and their stupid fucking balding ponytail poofy-sleeved shirt and vest reunion tour in the late 90s I certainly did not abide. Friends I trust have told me that this was a great song and I should hold back my hatred of this band until I gave this a chance. I sat through three or four noodly-doodly bullshit live performance videos of this before I could find the album version, and surprisingly it is not terrible. I would go as far as to say that it is very good. That does not forgive anything else they have done. "Landslide" was a crime against humanity. Mussolini made the trains run on time, but that does not forgive Fascism. Yes, I just Godwined my own blog. Shut up.  

Day 13 - a song that is a guilty pleasure

Oh, and what a guilty pleasure:

4 Non-Blondes - What's Up

Good lord, this song is so bad it is just awesome. White chick with dreadlocks and a nose-ring, top-hat adorned with motorcycle goggles, combat boots, flannel every-fucking-where, acoustic loud-quiet-loud ballad that kicks out the sweetened up distortion during the vapidly uplifting chorus and meaningless teen semi-angst vaguely quasi-revolutionary stuff to appeal to the sentiments of the early 90s. I didn't even buy this nonsense when I was 14, but it was played enough that I ended up inadvertently memorizing the lyrics. If you feed me beer and a karaoke machine, I will sing this song before the night is up, I guarantee you that. And you will be moved.


Day 14 - a song that no one would expect you to love

Destiny's Child - Say My Name

It's a damn good song. I love all this late 90s - early 00s jerky-rhythm R&B. This is probably the best song of this style, Aaliyah's "Are You That Somebody" being a close second. I'm not usually a fan of the style of song where the singer tries to hit every single note, but I dig this.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 11

day 11 - a song from your favorite band

Killdozer is the best band ever of all time. So of course they are my favorite band. 

Killdozer - Man vs. Nature

Such a good song.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 10

Day 10 - a song that makes you fall asleep

Black Dice - Endless Happiness

I was pretty big into Black Dice and a lot of that experimental noise stuff a decade ago. This album was a big change from the distorted noise that they were doing earlier. I got this album and put in on while driving at night and it almost made nod off, so it became the late night at home disk after that.

30 Day Song Challenge - Day 9

Day 09 - a song that you can dance to
This is my favorite song to dance to:

Peter Tsotsi - Pole Mula

I first heard this song in college on the radio, and looked for stuff by Peter Tsotsi for a long time but couldn't find anything. Then we got this record as a wedding present. It's on a compilation called Love Is Love. When Renee and I get home from a night on the town and are not tired enough to go to bed, we put this record on and dance around the house.