I’ve said before that music is the surest way for me to be pulled into the past. It’s like a wormhole–one minute I’m minding my own business, listening to one of my Pandora stations and creating endless wishlists on clothing sites working hard, then suddenly a song grabs me by the stomach and pulls me years, decades into the past. So I wanted to play a little game to see how good my music memory really is. I can’t promise this will be interesting to anyone but me, but maybe you have stored an unnecessarily detailed amount of information about every artist and song you’ve ever listened to as well. Play along. Or maybe you’ve filled your head with more useful information, like calculus, or when to use effect vs. affect (I will never get that one). Then skip this altogether, I promise you won’t hurt my feelings.
The game: I’m going to hit shuffle on my iPod and see how much I can remember about the first 8 artists that come up. (I was going to do 10 but I’m le tired.) I’m cheating by not playing in my iTunes library, because I’m convinced My Music file is a portal wherein all manner of random music flocks to frolic and live out their days in peace. I just don’t know how some of that stuff got in there. Here we go…
1. Hypnotise, The White Stripes: One night I was finishing up my closing shift at WTIU, switching to the midnight program which was Charlie Rose. He had The White Stripes on as his guests, which I thought was interesting because in my mind, The White Stripes were sort of a goth band and I didn’t think Charlie rolled like that. I associated them with Rob Zombie and White Zombie for some reason, and was therefore really surprised when Jack and Meg started to play something from Get Behind Me Satan. It was awesome. I ran home and turned the TV on to see the rest of their interview/performance. It’s been love ever since. <3 I love Jack in The White Stripes, I love him in The Raconteurs, I love him in Cold Mountain and wish he’d come to Bean Blossom to play some bluegrass for us. <3 I’m very sad to hear about the band’s breakup, but I’m sure they’d like to move on with their lives.
2. Killing Lies, The Strokes: The Strokes are a recent find for me, getting repeated thumbs ups on one of my Pandora stations. Probably the one that started out as The Shins radio, which has since been renamed to “The” Bands radio because that seems to be a requirement of the artists invited to this party. The Shins, The Strokes, The Kooks, The Fratellis (who now have their own station), etc. That’s not a very interesting story…but then I found $5.
3. The Only Way, Glass Halo: Oh hey! I know these guys! Glass Halo is an excellent band from Indy, the guitarist of which was in the QC department at Finelight off and on for the past few years. I think he started shortly after me, or maybe shortly before me? It’s hard to tell, that whole period is a blurry area of my memory purposefully erased by strategic alcohol consumption. They play in B-town a bit if you’re around here, and they consistently win Battles of the Bands. Check their immaculate grammar and spelling and also their songs: http://www.glasshalo.net/ Stalker Girlfriend is excellent, and they covered Bang Bang by Cher at a Bear’s Place concert to my utter delight.
4. Where Would I Be, Cake: Indeed, where would I be without Cake? Ok, I can’t actually remember the moment we met, but I’m going to guess it was a CD-swap party and they were probably swapped from Ms. Pitt. This song is on Prolonging the Magic, which was my first album of theirs and is still timeless. One time I was eating dinner in a cafe in Belgium when the restaurant’s string band played Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps. Which is probably a very old song, but was pretty surprising to me at the time. Do you like how I dropped in some international travel without any introduction like it’s totally No Big Deal? Like, on any given day I might be having dinner in Belgium, so there’s no need to make a fuss.
5. The Christmas Waltz, Harry Connick Jr.: He’s so talented. I was excited at first because I thought this was going to be Sinatra, but I’ll forgive Harry what I cannot forgive Buble. Harry can sound like Frank Sinatra anytime he likes. All of my Harry music comes from my dad, who had a mild obsession with the man for most of the 90’s due to his unique New Orleans jazzy jazz. I’m not a superfan, but he’s quite easy on the ears. K that was boring too…but then I landed a triple lutz.
6. Cologne (Piano Orchestra Version), Ben Folds: I only started listening to Ben to study for a summer concert I bought tickets to around 2005. I was going for the two other co-headliners, Guster and Rufus Wainwright, but wanted to know some of Ben’s songs too beforehand. And OMG. Love again. I love anyone who features the piano. And he’s funny and a nerd. And I think we’d be best friends in real life, because wouldn’t you know he’s one of the judges on The Sing Off and released an a capella album of his songs. This is my least favorite album (Way to Normal), and this song is so sad I sometimes have to skip it. But I forgive him. Because he does awesome things like cover KeSha for a good cause (even gooder than just trying to make crap sound less like crap).
7. Turn It On, Franz Ferdinand: I definitely found Franz in a CD-swap, care of Ms. Winter, and I definitely only picked the band up because they named themselves after one of my ancestors, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. That’s right, I’m obsessed with royals because I always should have been royalty. Damn that Hitler.* But it turns out I love the music of this Welsh band, even if this album (Tonight: Franz Ferdinand) is a little far out in the electronica space for me.
I mean how can you not love Take Me Out?
I should be in this photo. Right next to his mustache.
8. The Dynamo of Volition (From an All Night Session), Jason Mraz: Oh Jason. I can’t even…sometimes you just…I think you’re so…hearts. I get a little heady sometimes listening to Jason. I’ve seen him at the Murat in Indy with my best friend comma Gay Geologist category and best friend comma Chinese Lady category, as well as at the Indiana State Fair with my best friend comma Met Through Habitat category. I must’ve gotten his first album from a CD-swap as well, and I haven’t missed one since. I get choked up every time I try to sing along to A Beautiful Mess (because that song is like, totally about me, you guys). His blog is funny and poignant and he seems to be a genuinely wonderful, inspiring person. I hope to meet him in Hawaii so we can be straw-fedora-hat-wearing friends.
So that was fun. For me. If you read all of that, thank you. Look, here’s a cute puppy for your troubles:
*Note: I found while looking for that photo that it was a Serbian who assassinated poor Franz. Figures. 🙂
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