Hate's a strong word, but it's safe to say that I seriously dislike Nickelback.
In fact, here are ten things I would rather do than sit down and listen to Chad Kroeger cry about photographs or about how some girl reminds him of not making it as a wise man, or cutting it as a poor man, or whatever it is he sings about in that awful single:
Eat a spoonful of sawdust
Have a pineapple thrown at my face
Drink a warm glass of goat's milk
Re-watch the Lakers lose to the Mavs in the 2011 NBA Playoffs
Tumble down a short flight of stairs in front of a group of strangers (think: Tai/Brittany Murphy in Clueless)
Step in a pile of steaming dried dog poop (No one wants to step in hot poo; that's the worst.)
Get caught in a 14th Street - Union Square train stop turnstile during rush hour
Sit through an awkward sex scene in a movie with either of my parents
Get my feet run over by a group of kids racing to class with their rolling backpacks
I'll admit that I'm a little bit of a comittment-phobe and that I have several favorite bands. I've already talked about a couple of them (Death Cab for Cutie and Paramore) in my 30 Day Song Challenge, so I thought I'd post about another -- Tegan & Sara. The Con is is the title track to my favorite album from the Quin sisters and perhaps one of my favorite albums ever. I'm not sure if it's just by sheer coincidence that I'm normally a larger fan of Sara's songs than I am of Tegan's, but I found and still find myself connecting a lot more to Tegan's share of songs off of The Con, than Sara's.
I don't remember the first time I heard The Con, but I do remember the countless times I used to play it on repeat, and the chills that ran down my spine and knots that formed in my chest every single time I heard the song live during Tegan & Sara's promotion circuit for the album -- at a capacity-filled acoustic session at Amoeba, at an un-airconditioned but completely intimate acoustic session at Fingerprints, at the beautiful and lovely Performing Arts Centre in Malibu, on a cold New York City winter's night at Webster Hall, and finally at the breathtaking Gorge for Sasquatch 2008. There's something incredible about a song that floods you with emotions and memories every time you hear it, and for me, that song is The Con.
I listened in Yes, I'm guilty of this You should know this I broke down and wrote you back Before you had a chance to Forget forgotten I am moving past this, giving notice I have to go Yes, I know the feeling Know you're leaving
When I fall asleep to music, it's usually to the same few bands or musicians: Death Cab for Cutie, Tegan and Sara, Snow Patrol, the National, and Bon Iver. Justin Vernon just has one of the most lovely, unique, and soothing voices, and on many songs, it's perfectly paired with his slow and steady acoustic guitar compositions. Needless to say, a lot of Bon Iver's music is great to put on before going to bed. One of my favorites is Blindsided off of For Emma, Forever Ago. I don't think anything I could say about this song would do it justice, so I'll just leave you guys with the track, and my thought that it's one of the most beautifully bittersweet songs I know.
I can and will pretty much dance to anything and everything, but this is a song that I've been particularly obsessed with lately. I don't like to set expectations for setlists when I go see a DJ spin or a band/musician play, but I went to HARD Summer last weekend already knowing that I would go freaking bananas if Skrillex decided to drop his remix of Benny Benassi's Cinema. He ended up teasing us with the first verse at the beginning of his set, and then closing his set with the full version. Needless to say, I was one happy camper. (And I'm assuming the hundreds of other people with their hands in the air were, too.)
I'm a much larger fan of Skrillex's remix of Cinema than I am of Benassi's own version, partly because I just don't think Benassi's by itself is that catchy or engaging, but mostly because Skrillex takes the song to an entirely different level. If a song could be both beautiful and filthy at the same time, this would be it.
Get up, get down. Lose that sound. D-d-d-d-d-drop the bass.
I guess it would be impressive if I could say that I knew all of the words to that really obnoxious but catchy song Blue that was all over the radio when we were in middle school, but I can't. Sorry. (Ok, fine. I might have known the song by heart at one point.)
Honestly, though, in the well-spoken words of Beckie Tran, "Come now. How many songs do I know all the words to? A thousand? Two thousand? More? I'm sure all of us know a zillion songs by heart. What a curious subject."
Last Tuesday marked the 6th year anniversary of the release of All We Know Is Falling, Paramore's debut album -- an album that meant and still means the world to me -- so I thought it would be fitting to choose a song off of AWKIF for this post. It's both a little funny and a little sad to me that some people will look back at the music they listened to in high school, and feel embarassed. Our taste in music may change as we get older, but that doesn't mean we should forget or feel guilty about the music that we loved as kids, or the music that might've helped shape our lives as teenagers. On that note, I'm not embarassed to say that I know every single lyric to every Paramore song ever released.
Here We Go Again isn't a particularly complicated song; it doesn't take many cycles to know the lyrics from beginning to end. But I know this song so well, that I also know every addition the band's made to the song during the final instrumental breakdown in the live version. For a while, during this breakdown, Hayley would sing a line from Panic! at the Disco's Camisado -- "You're a regular decorated emergency." This later changed to a verse from At The Drive-In's One Armed Scissor -- "Well I'm a million miles away. Will you get this letter? A jagged pulp runs through my veins, I write to remember" -- an outro that Hayley sang (and still sings) with so much intensity, that it became a core part of the song for me, and I crossed my fingers for the track to make it onto the set list of every show I got to attend.
