Tag Archives: songs

November Five-Star Shuffle: “Cherub Rock”

Siamese Dream
Siamese Dream

“Cherub Rock”
by Smashing Pumpkins
from the album Siamese Dream
1993
Buy the album on Amazon

Having a Smashing Pumpkins song pop up on one of my five-star shuffles is a sure bet, particularly if it’s from the first two albums.   I was so excited when the “Cherub Rock” video debuted as I was one step closer to listening to their new album.  Their debut, Gish was and still is one of my favorite albums of all times and this new track didn’t disappoint, me at least.  The record company wanted “Today” as the first single, but Corgan strong-armed them into releasing this as the first track.  I’m glad they did – it gave me a little time to adjust to thought of my darling band becoming huge.  You could feel the shift about to happen with the Pumpkins.   Continue reading November Five-Star Shuffle: “Cherub Rock”

November Five-Star Shuffle: “Disconnected”

Big Choice“Disconnected”
by Face to Face
from the album Big Choice
1994
Buy the album on Amazon

In my first year of college, I met my friend Brendan, and in between watching boat loads of horror movies and drinking boat loads of cookies and cream shakes at Village Inn, we listened to and talked about a whole lot of music. We already had some crossover favorites, but he also got me into a bunch of punk (or punk-ish) bands – NOFX, Blink 182, Pennywise, Propagandhi, and, you guessed it, Face to Face. Though there’s certainly a time for the lightheartedness of the first two bands, I always appreciated that Face to Face was more sincere without being super hardcore, and I love the singer’s voice.

Continue reading November Five-Star Shuffle: “Disconnected”

November Five-Star Shuffle: “The Wrong Child”

Green“The Wrong Child”
by R.E.M.
from the album Green
1998
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Sorry to disappointment our adoring fans, because I know I am one day late on my 5-star entry for last week, so getting it in now. And what a punch in the gut depressing entry it is. I think I’ve mentioned before that I was a big R.E.M. fan in my youth, probably up until around Automatic for the People. I don’t remember if Green was their first album I had, and I might argue that Document or Life’s Rich Pageant are better albums, but Green is still the pinnacle of their albums for me. The one that had the most impact and stuck with me the most. In fact, thinking about it now, I should probably do it as an Album of the Month at some point, so let’s get to the song.

Continue reading November Five-Star Shuffle: “The Wrong Child”

November Five-Star Shuffle: “Somebody to Shove”

Grave Dancers Union
Grave Dancers Union

“Somebody to Shove”
by Soul Asylum
from the album Grave Dancers Union
1992
Buy the album on Amazon

Soul Asylum is one of those bands that I never normally think about; they don’t really orbit in my 90s universe of music.  But occasionally a song of theirs will come up on the local 90s station or Pandora/Spotify/iTunes and I gotta give it up to them.  They’ve got some great tunes, and this is definitely one of them. Continue reading November Five-Star Shuffle: “Somebody to Shove”

They Might Be Giants: “Dead”

Flood“Dead”
by They Might Be Giants
from the album Flood
1990
Buy the album on Amazon

This is probably my favourite TMBG song. There’s something about it that’s so simple and so beautiful and so catchy. I actually made Lance try this with me once or twice at karaoke, acapella, looking at the lyrics on my phone, when there was a lull in songs in the queue, because I just want so badly for it to actually be in the book. It never ever will be, but this is one of those songs that we would totally add if we ever opened a karaoke bar, and that if we actually lived in the same city (or country) we would practice together until we could nail it. It’s such a fun song to sing (I can never decide which part I would prefer to do), even if it’s just doing it loudly in the car. If I’m in a place where I’m alone and can sing this, I will almost always do it a few times in a row when it comes on shuffle.

Continue reading They Might Be Giants: “Dead”

November Five-Star Shuffle: “Why Would I Want to Die”

Concrete Dunes“Why Would I Want to Die”
by Grandaddy
from the album Concrete Dunes
2002
Buy the album on Amazon

I love the idea of a monthly theme based on shuffling, and not being able to skip, but the problem is for me my 5 star playlist is only has 122 songs on it (vs. 2448 4 stars), so all of them are going to be things I love and almost never skip. I’m very restrictive about what makes 5 stars, whereas there are plenty of moments of potential embarrassment (if that’s what Lance was hoping for) in the 4 star list (I’m not entirely positive Lance and I use the same criteria for our rating system). But, this month is about the best of the best, so onward.

Continue reading November Five-Star Shuffle: “Why Would I Want to Die”

November Five-Star Shuffle: “Lake Shore Driving”

Okay, here are the rules for the November theme, Chris.  Open up iTunes (it has to be a fresh open).  Go to your 5-Star playlist and hit shuffle.  Write about the first song that comes up.  No skips allowed, unless by some crazy circumstance, you hit the same song on your next post.  So here goes.  Wow…

Big Thing
Big Thing

“Lake Shore Driving”
by Duran Duran
from the album Big Thing
1988
Buy the album on Amazon

I’ve been in love with Duran Duran for years.  I came a bit late to the party, missing their early-80s works when they were crazy popular.  Big Thing was probably the album that first got me into them but I quickly added their more popular and poppier albums to my collection.  Big Thing is kind of an odd album coming off the pretty funky turn they took with 1985’s Notorious which saw the once quintet reduced to a trio.  If Big Thing is odd, then “LSD” is an accurate acronym for this weird-ass, but wonderful track. Continue reading November Five-Star Shuffle: “Lake Shore Driving”

October Soundtracks: Until the End of the World

Until the End of the WorldUntil the End of the World
1991
Buy the album on Amazon

It’s been a long time since I saw this movie, and I don’t really remember it at all (confirmed by just watching the trailer), but I do remember I really liked it. I might have seen it in the theater when it was first released, though 1991 – I may not have entered my big Wim Wenders phase by then, ignited by Wings of Desire. I think I probably had though, because I remember the soundtrack coming out, and though not all of the songs made an impression, there have been a few that have stood out ever since I first heard it.

Continue reading October Soundtracks: Until the End of the World

October Soundtracks: Romeo + Juliet

Romeo + JulietRomeo + Juliet
1996
Buy the album on Amazon

I was a big fan of this movie when it came out and (though I still for some reason haven’t seen Strictly Ballroom) it made me an ongoing big fan of Baz Luhrman. It was the coolness and fun and frenetic energy of it, it was Leonardo DiCaprio, fresh from The Basketball Diaries, and the totally cute MSCL-era Claire Danes, and a great cast all around, like Harold Perrineau in drag and John Leguizamo being bad-ass, and it was the music (2 new Radiohead songs!), etc. On a personal level, I also really enjoyed it because in my sophomore year of high school, our theater department put on this play, and I was the Friar, and quite frankly, I didn’t really understand everything that I was saying. Seeing the masterful Pete Postlethwaite at work, it all became totally clear to me.

Continue reading October Soundtracks: Romeo + Juliet

Orphan Songs: “The Ballad of Winnie”

Pearls Before Swine
Pearls Before Swine

“The Ballad of Winnie”
by Tribe after Tribe
from the album Pearls Before Swine
1997
Buy the album on Amazon

Scattered throughout my digital library are lonely orphan songs which contain the only appearance from that particular artist in my collection.  Most of these come from a time when file-sharing was new and exciting.  You’d search for a bunch of random stuff you had heard about but had never seen in a store, or maybe had a jonzing for that catchy track you heard on the radio.  Every search was an attempt to fill up the empty hours at night and the megabytes on your hard drive.  Most of these songs have been lost to time,  played once and forgotten.  Most are missing key pieces of metadata.  But every now and then one of those songs will stick out.  It’ll make the move from computer to computer.  You might even end up buying a higher bit rate version later on iTunes or Amazon.  And if when it comes on shuffle, which is rare in a sea of complete discographies and ever-increasing collections, you’ll listen to it and remember. Continue reading Orphan Songs: “The Ballad of Winnie”