1. Laura Cantrell - Big Wheel
2. Johnny Cash (w. Joe Strummer) - Redemption Song
3. Charlie Peacock - No Place Closer to Heaven
4. Soul Junk - Set You Free
5. Woven Hand - Bleary Eyed Duty
6. Kelly Wingate - Thousand Circles
7. The Clash - Brand New Cadillac
8. The Violet Burning - I'm No Superman
9. Demon Hunter - Fire to My Soul
10. Damien Jurado - Big Deal
Wow, tougher than I thought. I could pick 3 or 4 of those as my favorite of the group, but I think I'll go with #2. I love Johnny Cash, and a pairing with the Clash's Joe Strummer is too hard to resist, especially on a classic song like Redemption Song. What a great sound.
Runner-up would probably go to #6, because Kelly Wingate was one of my favorite bands from the Oxford, MS music scene, and "Thousand Circles" is one of my favorite songs from their only full CD release. Wonderful slo-core kinda sound. Hard to find CD, but find it if you can.
Your turn. Hit me with your list and which is your favorite and why...
Posts
20 comments:
1. The Beatles - Let It Be
2. The Stone Roses - This is the One
3. Band of Horses - Window Blues
4. Bob Dylan - Simple Twist of Fate
5. You Are the Sunshine of My Life - Stevie Wonder
6. Modern English - I Melt With You
7. Radiohead - Bulletproof... I Wish I Was
8. Flaming Lips - the W.A.N.D.
9. Franz Ferdinand - Tell Her Tonight
10. Phish - the Inlaw Josie Wales
This is actually pretty easy for me. Dylan's Simple Twist of Fate is easily my favorite of this list. It's a lesser-known track from Blood on the Tracks, but important to the fabric of the album and Dylan's overall catalog. He writes political songs, some romance here and there, and some knock-down, drag out bitter songs - but he captures the depth and intensity of brief relationships with people in a way that really intrigues me.
Almost all of us have been victims of a simple twist of fate at least once in our lives, and we don't often stop and think about the supporting characters.
Runner-up would be Let It Be... because it's the Beatles and just one of the best songs ever.
01. Muse - Stockholm Syndrome
02. Copeland - What Do I Know?
03. Poor Rich Ones - Happy Happy Happy
04. Death Cab For Cutie - Summer Skin
05. Elliott Smith - New Monkey
06. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Suck My Kiss
07. Pearl Jam - Nothingman
08. Rogue Wave - Bird On A Wire
09. The Shins - Gone For Good
10. Tears For Fears - Elemental
I pretty much knew from the start that the first track was going to win. Stockholm Syndrome is one of the most rocking Muse songs off of Absolution. The lead-in to the chorus is just freaking HUGE!!! I contend that Muse is easily the best rock band of this decade. Not since Sunny Day Real Estate has rock music stirred me up so much. I think going to one of their concerts would feel like a lightning bolt crammed down my throat (but in a good way).
But tied for a close second are Pearl Jam's Nothingman and Tears For Fears' Elemental, with The Shins' Gone For Good following.
1. Grapevine Fires Death Cab for Cutie
2. Satan's Bed Pearl Jam
3. This is Not the End The Bravery
4. Ten Speed Coheed and Cambria
5 Man and Wife, the Former (Financial Planning) Desparecidos
6. Prince of Spades Dispatch
7. 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover Paul Simon
8. Leaving so Soon? Keane
9. Tiny Little Fractures Snow Patrol
10. On Peak Hill Stars
iTunes was not all that kind to me this morning. This list kind of sucks, but I reeeeaaallllyyy like On Peak Hill. Usually listening to Stars makes me feel like I just ate a whole bag of M&M's, but this song is such a nice little pop song. It's odd that this came up, because I was just thinking about this song earlier in the week.
Nice list Mandy, though I think I might have gone with either Stevie Wonder or Modern English...but LOVE Dylan...
Jeremy I might have picked either Copeland or Death Cab from yours, but now I know I need to try out some Muse.
Justin...that IS an interesting list. If I knew the songs better I might have gone with Snow Patrol...but hard to say.
So much music out there that I need to listen to!!!!
I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain - Jeff Buckley
Motion The Eleven - Cornershop
Lost - Sarah McLachlan
Heartbeat & Sails - Augie March
Ain't No Sunshine - Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Andvari - Sigur Ros
She's A Jar -Wilco
Always Love - Nada Surf
Donkey Riding - Great Big Sea
Stuck In A Moment (Acoustic) - U2
Nada Surf is one of my favorite underrated bands, and "Always Love" is...well, just as good as the rest of Nada Surf's stuff!
Stuck In A Moment (Acoustic) comes in a close second, though. I much prefer the acoustic version of this to the album version.
I see what you're saying, Ken. I am a HUGE Stevie Wonder fan. If Signed, Sealed, Delivered came up, or Superstition - I would have had to given the "favored" status to Stevie. But Sunshine of My Life, while a classic - doesn't have enough staying power to take my attention away from Dylan.
1. John Mayer - City Love
2. Zap Mama - Nostalgie Amoureuse
3. Women of Mambazo - Vimba
4. Django Reinhardt & Stephane Grappelli - Limehouse Blues
5. John Prine - The Moon is Down
6. Bob Dylan - Nettie Moore
7. James Taylor - Sweet Baby James
8. David Gray - Babylon II
9. Band of Horses - No One's Gonna Love You
10. The Get Up Kids - Sympathy
Hmm...this is tough. I think I'd have to say Sweet Baby James. I definitely have a soft spot for James Taylor...could listen to his voice for hours. Still, there are some other good ones here, including one about "Lydia". :)
I love this...
1. Lynard Skynard - Sweet Home Alabama
2. The New Pornographers - My Rights Versus Yours
3. The Felice Bros. - Saint Stephen's End
4. Coldplay - See You Soon
5. Eddie Vedder - Setting Forth
6. U2 - Walk On
7. The Carpenters - Close To You (Seriously. Don't ask)
8. Jace Everett - Bad Things
9. Frank Sinatra - They Can't Take That Away From Me
10. Wilco - Impossible Germany
Has to be U2 -Walk On. Just because most any U2 song will invariably top any list for me. If not for that one on this list, Sinatra would win.
Something in me recently woke up to Sinatra....
1. Run DMC - Rock Box
2. Blur - Song 2
3. U2 - With or Without You
4. Bruce Springsteen - Racing In The Streets
5. Counting Crows - Angels Of The Silences
6. Counting Crows - Goodnight L.A.
7. Patty Griffin - Up To The Mountain
8. Sufjan Stevens - Joy To The World
9. Sufjan Stevens - Jacksonville
10. Gogol Bordello - Through The Roof 'n' Underground
Ken, "Angels of the Silences" is the kind of song you miss out on because you feel oversaturated with other Counting Crows songs with similar moods. "Angels" is about giving away your innocence and getting nothing in return, but in a much deeper way than the typical causal-sex-followed-by-regret meaning.
In the lyrics, Duritz struggles with the tension between a desire for intimacy and a desire to hold his chin up. He is willing to "pay for [all my sins] if I could come back to you" (that is, to try to recapture his innocence), but he doesn't have the resolve to avoid wasting his innocence on "the dead and dreaming" in the first place. He won't even take responsibility for having been the one to waste his innocence--he phrases it passively, "all my innocence is wasted," rather than the more accurate, "I waste all my innocence..."
This is a song of a dreamer--and not a lame, tooty-fruity dreamer, but rather one who dreams of Michelangelo, of intimacy, of being real and making real connections. And yet any resolve he is able to muster is misplaced into resolving not to be a strong individual--"I will not be an enemy of anything | I'll only stand here | waiting for you." The only thing he won't be a pushover about is his conscious choice to be a pushover... because only by wasting his innocence (trusting people who mistreat, neglect, and leave him) does he believe he can get close to anyone.
The sheer bull-headedness of the singer is amazing. He recongizes that he is a waif, who will soon lose any sense of distinct identity and dissipate, but he stubbornly refuses any other track, so profoundly does he desire connection and acceptance. The tragedy is that real connection and acceptance is there to be found but he doesn't see it. So he resolves to keep letting silent angels watch him as he wastes his innocence, and he defiantly declares himself "gone, I'm gone, I believe today I'm gone, I'm gone, I'm gone, I'm gone."
1. Steve Taylor - Guilty By Association
2. The Muppets - Cuanto Le Gusto
3. Over the Rhine - Fever
4. Jars of Clay - Blind Frail (Hidden Track)
5. The Dandy Warhols - We Used To Be Friends
6. Billy Joel - Vienna
7. The Flaming Lips - A Change at Christmas
8. Barenaked Ladies - Easy (Simlish version from The Sims)
9. The Wallflowers - One Headlight
10. Duran Duran - New Moon on Monday
Wow: Eclecticism rules! As far as my favorite of the bunch... Today, I'm gonna have to go with BNL's Simlish take on Easy. It's such a great song to begin with, another one of their soft & mellow tunes that straddle the line between a love song and an stupid-head ass-kicker. Then you amp up the feeling of the song by replacing all the words with semi-words that sound almost like the originals (the chorus changes from "[You] make it easy..." to something like, "Bake a wheezy...") adding a dose of absurdity to it. So there's now this whole other level to the song of, "Either this is fun and silly, or I don't even respect you enough to use words you can understand to tell about what a jerk you are." Ahh...
Here is mine:
1. Breathe- Anberlin
2. My Heart- Paramore
3. Better- Dashboard Confessional
4. Damn Girl- Justin Timberlake
5. When the Sun Goes Down- Kenny Chesney
6. Young- Kenny Chesney
7. Can't You Just Adore Her- Mandy Moore
8. Novocaine- Little Big Town
9. Green Eyes- Coldplay
10. Mayfield- Augustana
My favorite out of that mix is definitely Anberlin's Breathe. Its on the New Surrender album. They took their traditional electric sound and kind of knocked it down to an acoustic anthem. Its a pretty sweet song.
Some of these songs I did not even know that i had.
1. Here's A List - Half-handed Cloud
2. Lullaby - James
3. The Worst Things Beautiful - Ours
4. Sleepwalk - Will Stratton
5. Bite Your Lip - The Ocean Blue
6. Hole In Time - Sam Phillips
7. The Youngest Was the Most Loved - Morrissey
8. See The Lights Go Out - Andy Bell
9. Cast It At The Setting Sail - Danielson
10. No Long Journey Home - Cowboy Junkies
Definitely had to choose the Ours song as my favorite, probably since it is the newest song that came up & I just love this whole album. I like the "blessing in disguise" type of message in the lyrics, plus the song rocks & Jimmy Gnecco has an amazing voice.
Trivia: I got my username from another song on the album that "Hole In Time" is on.
Heather...I think we would get along. Half-handed cloud, Danielson, Ocean Blue, and Sam Phillips. Now you're speaking my language!
Try not to make fun of me k? Thanks!
1. Katy Perry - I Kissed A Girl
2. Beyonce - If I Were a Boy
3. Joe Jackson - Is She Really Going Out With Him
4. Sugarhill Gang - Rapper's Delight
5. Pink - So What!
6. Tina Turner - Proud Mary
7. Ray LaMontagne - Trouble
8. Prince - I Wanna Be Your Lover
9. Herbert Stothart - Over the Rainbow, the Wizard of Oz
10. Janis Joplin - Me and Bobby Mcgee
Wow, it's sooo tough to choose my favorite because a few of these tunes are favorites for different reasons.
Joe Jackson because it takes me back to a time in my life when life was sooo good and sooo uncomplicated.
Sugarhill Gang because it reminds me of a special summer in high school and a major boy crush.
Pink because...well, because I am still a rock star!!!!
1. Truckstop Queen - Rachel Sweet
2. Mr. Jones - Psychedelic Furs
3. Break My Body - the Pixies
4. Hound Dog - Elvis Presley
5. Bandages - Hot Hot Heat
6. Panic - the Smiths
7. You Belong - the Middle Class
8. Shake it Up - the Cars
9. Bottled Violence - Minor Threat
10. The Need to Feed - Lydia Lunch
Tough list to pick a fave from. Started strong with Rachel Sweet, Psych Furs and the Pixies; ended strong with the Cars, Minor Threat and Lydia Lunch.
I'm going with Ms. Sweet here, though. She bounced from record label to record label in the late 70s/early 80s, none of which knew exactly how to market her. Her only "hit" was her duet with Rex Smith on "Everlasting Love" which got to #32 on Billboard's Top 40 in 1981. What a voice!
1.) John Mayer - Clarity
2.) Sarah McLachlan - In the Arms of the Angels
3.) Ben Folds Five - Selfless, Cold, & Composed
4.) Jared Anderson - Ready Now
5.) The Fray - All at Once
6.) Death Cab - Transatlaticism
7.) Foo Fighters - Times Like These (Live Acoustic)
8.) Ben Folds - Trusted
9.) Coldplay - Lovers in Japan (Acoustic Version)
10.) RHCP - If You Want Me to Stay
Favorite by default is Coldplay. It probably has to do with the fact that my wife and I spent most of our dating years listening to their stuff. Ended up playing Swallowed by the Sea as our Processional music at our wedding and have seen them twice live. It is kind of a cop out, but I will always love Coldplay.
Maybe I Five for FightingParadise By The Dashboard Light Meat Loaf Fashion David Bowie
Angry People Barenaked Ladies
Low Coldplay
Trees Marty Casey & Lovehammers Misery Pink Feat. Steven Tyler
Lincoln Avenue Train
Beer For My Horses Toby Keith
A-Punk Vampire Weekend
Okay, weird mix of music, but I must say my favorite on this list is probably Trees by Marty Casey - who is he you ask - he came in second on the reality TV show Rockstar INXS - yes i watched and loved every single episode - close second Vampire Weekend - A-Punk
1. Mary Wells - You Beat Me to the Punch
2. Martha & the Vandellas - Dancing in the Street
3. Okkervil River - Pop Lie
4. Bill Monroe - Lochwood
5. Wesley Willis - Jesus Is the Answer
6. Rory Block - Do Your Duty
7. Ben Folds - Effington
8. King Oliver - Tears
9. Jimmy Cliff - Sitting in Limbo
10. Santogold - Creator
This is getting tricky, since I've got over 15,000 songs on my iPod now, and there are a lot I still haven't heard, but I feel that having an iPod filled with all music you've already heard is like having a library filled with books you've already read -- what's to discover?
My favorite track here is the classic "Dancing in the Streets," one of the greatest Motown records ever. Second is probably the late, great, totally insane Wesley Willis, and then Jimmy Cliff. The really old guys are represented by Bill Monroe's great bluegrass instrumental and King Oliver's 1920's jazz.
Dunno why I always comment on this stuff two days after you post it...
it's ok Chet. As we age we slow down a little. Takes us a little longer to respond...
So, I know this is an old post and you have no clue who I am, I just did a web search (again, for the millionth time) and found your blog. In 2003 I was exposed for the first time by the drummer's (Adam White) brother to Kelly Wingate...but at this point, the band was broken up and it just seemed impossible to get an album...but, the few songs I had were incredibly healing at a time of tragedy. SO, long story short-do you have a copy of the 'Are you sleeping, Love?' album? If so, any clue where I can find a copy? Thanks. Libby Sandoz, anenkletos@gmail.com
Post a Comment