Songs of the Week #7- Editors Pick
“underdogs, wayward souls, the hardheaded stubborn fools”
JOHN:
“Love Will Tear Us Apart” – Joy Division
I love this video so much, it's the official "promo video" pre-MTV. From the cheesy 80's effects on the door opening and closing, to the same silly effects on the band in their practice space. You can see quite clearly the difference in the energy between the members who would later become New Order to the one who swung. I love the song for being a guiding force through most of my teens and all of my twenties, as well as always being there, just being there, knowing when I need this emotion emoted, or when I felt lonely, reminding me I am not alone in my loneliness. That's what a great song can do, give guiding perspective on the world. Fuck it, it's one of the greatest songs of the era! “Love will tear us apart...again.”
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SHENYAH:
“Anything, Anything” – Dramarama
When I hear this song, I secretly wear my husbands button ups with no pants and playfully dance. The classic air drumming, bed jumping, lip singing, all the while on repeat. It energizes me. I revisit the days of being cool and boys.
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MATTY:
"I'll Wait" -- Van Halen
I don't need this to be kept a secret from anyone anymore. I run around the house in my pajamas as often as possible, like a four year-old version of Rocky on the steps of the museum in Philadelphia, whenever this song comes on. I taunt my girlfriend in the bathroom with as big a smile as I can put on my face, and sing every word of it to her. I can't believe this band started out playing house parties in Pasadena, and that I was way too young to be at any of them. "Are you for real? It's so hard to tell from just a magazine. Yeah, you just smile and the picture sells. Look what that does to me." If you ever wanted to know just how hard life can get, talk to the front man of an internationally famous rock band, whose magazine-model girlfriend gets more attention than he does. It's enough to temporarily kill off anyone's mojo. For serious.
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ROY:
"The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton" – The Mountain Goats
John Darnielle has always written about underdogs, wayward souls, the hardheaded stubborn fools who pursue their dreams or demons despite all odds everywhere being against them. The two high school kids in "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton" are quintessential Mountain Goats' characters -- determined to be famous playing death metal in Texas. They're doomed from the start anyway, but when their elders cut them off at the knees it becomes tragic in a different way. As Darnielle sings, "When you punish a person for dreaming his dream / don't expect him to thank or forgive you." I can rarely listen to this song without choking up a bit -- even writing about it now makes me a little teary. There is irony aplenty here, especially in the end when Darnielle sings "hail Satan!" (and in the live show when the entire crowd pumps our fists and screams along), but there is also a fundamental truth here. It's not hard for anyone who has ever been an outsider, even for a minute, to understand that no matter how improbable, how ridiculously futile, that, fuck yeah, "the best ever death metal band out of Denton / will in time both outpace and outlive you!"
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CARRIE:
"Eleanor Put Your Boots On" – Franz Ferdinand
I like how the same piano chord progression in the beginning of this song gets flipped from contemplative to jolly. This song seems kind of timeless like something from the Kinks. I read that the "Eleanor" of the title is Eleanor Friedberger of The Fiery Furnaces, who was in a relationship with Alex Kapranos, the singer. I like this idea because, of course, The Fiery Furnaces play great music, but more specifically, Eleanor Friedberger has fantastic style. No wonder he wanted her to put her boots on and "come over here."
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