I kind of got out of the habit of posting here, because my parents found my other blog. But really there's no harm in it. I doubt they would even care about my various meanderings RE: Ben Folds anyway, so have probably not read it. So unless I am like, "THIS SONG IS SO GOOD FOR FUCKING DEAD BABIES TO" it probably can't hurt me.

Anyway, I used to do "mix tape OCD" because I have this thing where when I think of a group of songs I want to be together, I would go and do it, even though on cassette it didn't work that great, and all the time I would record over them or something because I didn't end up liking them like I thought I would.

So anyway....... now that I have a decent computer, I now have PLAYLIST ocd which is even more fun. Anyway, this first playlist, I call "Free to Be Me," because all the songs are about not giving a shit what other people think or conversely, the bad things that happen when you do care too much, and various facets of the idea, "just be yourself." Anyway, one funny thing I have found is that some bands really like the idea (Incubus has 3 songs on Make Yourself alone by that, Ben Folds also has three on the list, the Cribs had several songs I considered).

Anyway, let me know if there are any I should have that I have left out! I want Free to be Me as complete and awesometastic as possible!

1) Ben Folds Five - Best Imitation of Myself
"Last night I was east with them/And west within/Trying to be for you what you wanna see"

2) Saves the Day - Through Being Cool For the first 1,000 times I listened to this song, I thought it meant he was through trying to be cool/trendy. But I actually think now that he is through being cool actually means he through keeping his cool/temper. But since I have listened to it with the first interpretation so much, I couldn't resist putting it on here.
"Why can't you just marvel in the hopes that make up this reality?/Your world is what you made it/And I don't want a part of it."

3) Simon - Lifehouse absolutely gorgeous song, by the way. I feel bad that the pseudo-Creedish vocals make no one take this great band seriously.
"You lost yourself in your search to find something else to hide behind"

4) Butterfly Boucher - Different
"born with ten toes/or even born with nine/where there is love then who I am is fine"

5) Audioslave - Be Yourself this song is actually more depressing than happy or uplifting like most of the others, it is more like, you can't escape being yourself, whether you like it or not. It literally is all that you can do.
"To be yourself is all that you can do"

6) Say Anything - Admit It!!!
-"you adhere to a set of standards and tastes that appear to be determined by an unseen panel of hipster judges"
-"I'm proud of my life/and the things that I have done/proud of myself/and the loner I've become"

7) Incubus - Drive
"So if I decide to waiver my chance to be one of the hive will I choose water over wine and hold my own and drive?"

8) Cake - Sheep Go to Heaven
"Sheep go to heaven/goats go to hell"

9) Ben Folds Five - Jane
"jane be jane/and if sometimes that might drive them away/let them stay there,
you don't need them anyway"

10) Jimmy Eat World - Believe in What You Want
"Do you believe in what you want?"

11) Incubus - Privelege Hoo, boy, if you've ever read any Sartre, this song is his entire concept in a small, 4 minute nutshell. If I can condense it even further: "Extistentialism is awesome because it says you could achieve anything, anything in the entire world, the possibilities are endless and you could have anything you wanted, if you play it right." "existentialism sucks because it says there is no one to hold you back, ALL your failures are entirely on you and no one else. The burden of making these decisions for yourself is enormous and depressing."
-"Isn't it strange that a gift could be an enemy?/Isn't it weird that a privilege could feel like a chore?"
-"The day you were born, you were born free./That is your privilege."

12) Saves the Day - This Is Not an Exit This is kind of like the Audioslave song, in that it is all, "hey, what's done is done you are you and you can't change it," but in a happy way. It's like, "hey, we know you did your best, and that is all anyone can do. Stop worrying about it."
"The despair can ravage you if you turn your head around to look down the path
that's led you here, cause what can you change? You're a vessel now floating down the waterways. You can take your rudder and aim your ship, just don't bother with the things left in your wake."

13) Semisonic - FNT
"I'm surprised that you've never been told before/That you're lovely and you're perfect/And that somebody wants you/I'm surprised that you've never been told before/
That you're priceless and you're precious/Even when you are not new "

14) Jimmy Eat World - Your New Aesthetic I always took this to mean pressuring media, or even on a smaller scale, your friends, to fight the homogenity and shallowness in popular culture.
"Make them open the request line and let selection kill the old. Turn off your radio."

15) Incubus - Pardon Me
"Pardon me while I burst into flames/ I've had enough of the world and it's people's mindless games"

16) Red Hot Chili Peppers - Soul to Squeeze
"Where I go I just don't know/I got to, got to, gotta take it slow/When I find my piece of mind/I'm gonna keep it for the end of time"

17) Ben Folds - There's Always Someone Cooler Than You
"I might just get up and dance or buy some acid wash pants/When you don't care then you've got nothing to loose"

18) The Offspring - Smash
"I'm not a trendy asshole/I do what I want, do what I feel like./I'm not a trendy asshole/I don't give a fuck if it's good enough for you/Cause I am alive."

19) Switchfoot - Company Car
"I'm half baked/I'm fake/But see I've got hotels on Park Place and Boardwalk and 200 bucks/I pass go, but oh, life's taken it's toll/Have I won Monopoly, to forfeit my soul?"

20) Incubus - Make Yourself
"If you let them fuck you/there will be no foreplay. Rest assured, they'll screw you complete/till your ass is blue and gray."

21) Idlewild - El Capitan I only recently realized this song was actually about suicide. But I guess that's still free-thinking.
"I'll choose my own way to use my life up"

22) Stroke 9 - Kick Some Ass
"I used to be a nerd/grew up in the suburbs/nothing there ever went wrong/I made it up in this song/I talk about the hood/I say stuff like "it's all good"/tell people I'm down with all the cool kids downtown/when I've never even been there"

23) Cribs - Martell
"How hard can it be to get a slap on the back from a room full of morons? So you hate my sunglasses? Well your precious Leeds is dead, just so long as you know "
posted by DJ Jazzy Phoe @ 8:24 PM  | 

 

posted by DJ Jazzy Phoe @ 8:48 PM  | 

 
So.... Stadium Arcadium. I've been meaning to post about it. But first, I'm going to get a couple little things off my chest:

First off, I take back about half the bad things I've ever said about Built to Spill on here. Their new album, You in Reverse, is AWESOME (at least so far). This one has a lot more of a mainstream sound, though, than the other album of theirs I own, and I've heard they kind of switch styles every other album. The old album of theirs I have sounds like they're trying too hard to be quirky, the instruments sound out of tune on half of the songs. So they're not bad songs, necessarily, but they are intentionally cerebral. I have a friend, though, who says it's a great album, so to each his own, I guess. But anyway, I think they deserve credit for not sucking, to some extent.

Second: I'm having trouble really loving anything right now, and I'm terrified this will continue. Yeah, I like You in Reverse and Stadium Arcadium, but will I in a week from now? That's how short my attention span's become. And if I get tired of a band like Fall Out Boy in a week, I don't feel that bad about it. Some bands ARE the candy & junk food of music, they're not supposed to stick with you. But there have been some pretty good albums/bands lately that I put in a lot of work to get to like them, they are dense and should last me at least a year.... and I like them a week. I feel cheated of time and money, and I miss how I used to be.

Which brings me to Stadium Arcadium. It is GOOD. I can TELL, and if that wasn't enough, a lot of other people agree too. But I can't feel it in my bones that it will stick with me. I like it alright, but not in that deep down way that you should love your favorite music. Which is sad.... I want the album to be like an old friend like Californication or By the Way. I can't tell if it's just too soon, or I've peaked with the album, and can only get tired of it from here.

If my short attention span with albums lately, wasn't bad enough, I've always had a short attention span with bands, usually getting tired of them by the third album.

My coworkers are liking Stadium Arcadium, though. I've been bringing it to work a lot. I thought I would start getting backlash because 1) it is not indie enough, and 2) I've gotten complaints when I bring in things (Such as Ben Folds) far less than this. But everyone likes it, and that's a diverse group of musical interests. One day I brought in something else and I got a complaint that it wasn't Stadium Arcadium.

It's selling well, though not as well as that damned Dixie Chicks album. Rick Rubin, I understand you have diverse tastes, but wtf? The Dixie Chicks don't deserve your help. Stick to the RHCP's, old guys making comebacks, and... I don't know, anyone who isn't the Dixie Chicks. Though I might be biased towards hating them, because I have known a lot of jerks who listened to them.
posted by DJ Jazzy Phoe @ 8:44 PM  | 

 
So I just got the soundtrack to "Over the Hedge," for FREE, thank you very much! First decent promo I've ever seen in there. And actually, technically, I didn't see it, Sista found it and pulled it for me, for which I am very grateful.

I put my initial thoughts on it up over on my regular blog, and they weren't that charitable. I would like to revise that first impression and put it up here, because basically I had only listened to it one time, on the way home from work late last night.

Anyway, I've decided I like it better, at least. "Still" and "Still (Reprise) are pretty good, as is Heist. I haven't decided whether or not I like "Family of Me" or "Lost in the Supermarket" (a Clash cover, it even has the phrase "over the hedge" in it, which makes me wonder if the makers of this movie were subversive enough to name their movie after a line in a Clash song... I'm thinking so, given the fact some of the lyrics in the Clash song and some of the others on here are hugely depressing and/or protest the suburban lifestyle). The new version of Rockin' The Suburbs is no huge prize, but I can't decide if I just don't like it or just like the original so much that changing it is not my cup of tea. I do find the little part Bill Shatner does in it kind of funny. And the lyrics are somewhat amusing, though not hilarious. They're also really depressing, though. Whereas the original lyrics kind of playfully mocked the music industry and Ben himself ("I'm rockin' the suburbs/I take the checks and face the facts/and some producer with computers fixes all my shitty tracks"), this version goes right for the jugular in terms of attacking the kind of rat race suburban life and pop culture a lot of people are trapped in ("We're rockin' the suburbs/we feed the dog and mow the lawn/watching Mommy bounce the checks/and Daddy juggle credit cards"). At least one of the other songs on here is a milder version of that. Which leads me to think: man, how depressing (and even more, a grown up version of depressing) of a soundtrack for a children's movie! I wonder how many of the lyrics actually make it into the film.

Despite all this, I'm slightly tempted, depending on how much of Ben's actual music makes it into the movie, to get the movie for the 'phew when it comes out just so that I can subtly brainwash him into likeing Ben Folds. Same for Curious George/Jack Johnson. No, I'm not a particular fan of Jack Johnson, but better him than a lot of the stuff out there *cough* High School musical soundtrack *cough*
posted by DJ Jazzy Phoe @ 11:20 AM  | 

 
First off: I take back everything bad I ever said about the Shins. You guys are alright!

No particular reason. I just remember being very disappointed with the album of theirs I have, but I find I listen to it more and more over time.

Secondly: I want Wolf Parade to have my babies. I really am loving "Apologies to the Queen Mary." If I keep loving them (which who knows, given my short attention span lately), I might have to check out other albums of theirs/the solo project I've heard the singer has.

Right now I'm especially loving their song "Shine a Light." The lyrics are kind of ambiguous, but the actual music is just so damn happy that I find myself moshing in my car to it, completely oblivious to anything but happily rocking out. I also noticed how I will take ANY song I like and forcefully try to make it relevant to my life. Even a song that is patently about something else, and I know it, I'll at least try to make one line about me.

I mean, Brick, the Ben Folds song about getting an abortion? I have related it to myself before! Though... mostly the opening lines:

"6 a.m.
day after Christmas
I throw some clothes on in the dark
smell of cold
car seat is freezing
the world is sleeping
I am
numb"

Because it's just such a vivid image of what it's like whenever you get up early for anything. At least to me.

And I probably have a whole long laundry list of songs I've done that with, mainly Ben Folds songs come to mind, but I know I've done it with the Old 97's, Everclear, Idlewild, etc. etc.

I guess I just thought of mentioning that I do that (which probably a lot of people do it, but eh) because I really am feeling the part of "Shine a Light" that goes:

"I keep my head on tight
I make my plans at night
and I don't sleep I don't sleep I don't sleep 'til it's light"

So... er.. there you go.
posted by DJ Jazzy Phoe @ 10:25 AM  | 

 
I've gotten a lot of free legal downloads off the internet lately, and it friggin' rocks. I've posted about Amazon before, but I have to tell you: I'm surprised at how many bands not only have free songs on their website, but have their MOST popular song at the website. So anyway, checking around is good.

Also, I've found a whole webpage the Vagrant Records website that kicks ass. If you're a fan of emo*, this is the site for you! Because there is a lot of free emo there for me to love. So there you go.

____
* My personal favorite band on this label is Saves the Day, and I will defend them to the death if anyone talks smack about them. The label's most known band is probably Dashboard Confessional, which happens to be the sole emo band in the universe I don't happen to be fond of. Anyway, the majority of this stuff can get a bit homogenous at times, but there are some gems worth looking for. Also... if you just happen to be a hopeless emo addict, regardless of the quality of said emo, like me, that's another good reason to check it out.
posted by DJ Jazzy Phoe @ 11:41 PM  | 

 
So I've decided that not only have I started to like songs with bizarre and/or violent lyrics DESPITE the disturbingness, but because of it.

I remember that I never even used to sing along with songs that had curse words in them. And if anything was even slightly about sex it creeped me out. Then eventually I got into Everclear, and found out how fun it was to scream, "You make me feel like a whore!" or "Yes, I guess I fucked up again!" at the top of my lungs.

Then I started listening to Saves the Day, which I've mentioned before as particularly violent. There's this one line in my favorite song of theirs, "This is Not an Exit," that churned my stomach when I first listened to it that goes, "And if the hook sets in/the bottom of our lungs/we'll rip them out and lick the blood off with our tongues." Now, I don't know why I found this particularly disturbing as compared to other violent Saves the Day lyrics I had no problem with, including one song about nailing someone to a wall and killing them ("As Your Ghost Takes Flight," another awesome song of theirs) and multiple songs involving gauging out someone's eyes, but I did. And now that song is my favorite, and that line is my favorite part of that song!

Now I listen to Coheed & Cambria constantly, my favorite line of many bizarre/violent lines is "I will kill you all!" and "Die white girls!" is not too bad either.

I guess I just got onto this line of thought because I've really gotten into two weird songs in the last week or two, "Little Wet Head," by Minus Story, and "Alive With the Glory of Love" by Say Anything. The former is about being eaten. The later is about having a whole lot of sex while living through the holocaust.

So.... there you go.
posted by DJ Jazzy Phoe @ 4:51 PM  |