Chris of Mixing Memory claims that you can make accurate personality assessments about a person just from listening to ten of their favorite songs. OK, let’s play that game. Here are ten songs I like.
-
Excitable boy, Warren Zevon
-
Us, Regina Spektor
-
Coming in from the cold, The Delgados
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Ravnen, Sorten Muld (actually, my favorite by this band would be Tor af Hafsgaard, but it isn’t on YouTube)
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In your eyes, Peter Gabriel
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Raspberry beret, Prince
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Little fluffy clouds, Orb
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Shine on you crazy diamond, Pink Floyd
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Lullaby, The Cure
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Put your hands where my eyes can see, Busta Rhymes
That wasn’t an easy list to assemble. Only ten? It can’t be very representative. There ought to be some David Bowie and Annie Lennox and Tori Amos and Björk and Patti Smith on there, and some days I feel like Flogging Molly or Pearl Jam or Kraftwerk or Lords of Acid or even, dare I admit it, Enya … but for that moment when I skimmed through my iTunes library, those up there jumped out as pretty darned appealing.
I’m not sure what anyone can determine from that list, though — it looks like it’s largely the “Intense and Rebellious” category in Chris’s list, with a little of the other three categories tossed in.
The thought of a fifty-year old (happy belated birthday by the way, sorry no poetry from me today ;) ) listening to Busta Rhymes, Pink Floyd and Lords of Acid warms my undergraduate heart.
I’m a few years older than PZ, so all I can say about his list of songs is … “Who the heck are those people?” and “Do you know where my warm shawl is? And my mug of hot cocoa?”
Very good choices, I’d be lucky for you to be my professor.
Picking favorites is the hardest thing in the world, especially when there are so many choices, and when what one likes can change on a whim because of mood or other things. It’s like asking to pick a favorite television character. At first one might say Boomer/Athena/Sharon/Model Eight from Battlestar Gallactica but then on remembers the entire Firefly-verse and the main characters are all good, but then Scully from the X-files is awesome in her own right, as is President Josiah Bartlett, and 30 Rock’s Liz Lemon is quite amazing.
Point is, picking favorites of such a large pool shouldn’t be done.
Strictly speaking, Chris cites research that indicates you can make accurate personality assessments about a person just from listening to ten of their favorite songs.
I’m a Morrissey fan. We don’t care how we fit into someone’s idiotic matrix. I listen to him because the lyrics are fun and it’s good music and he has a lot of integrity.
(Yes, I try to ignore the fact that Morrissey is not an avowed atheist.)
You used to be cool, man. Now you are dead to me. Elvis Costello didn’t make your top 10.
The rest is pretty cool, though.
I got my first two traffic tickets (driving on the wrong side of the road and driving around a police barricade) while listening to The Cure’s “Lullaby”. Good times.
If you swapped the Prince track for Mary Prankster’s “Mercyfuck“, PZ’s list would describe me pretty well too.
My iPod is currently full of “Weird Al” Yankovic, Tripod, Gilbert & Sullivan, Jonathan Coulton, The Nylons, George Winston, and Keiko Matsui. I don’t know what that says about me, but it can’t be anything good …
PZ, eat your heart out! I just went to a Roger Waters concert a week ago… Although I prefer Comfortably Numb, but “Shine on…” is close behind it.
Anyway, don’t you think that the “personality descriptions” do look, at least on the surface, like cold reading?
all the cool kids listen to Tool.
Personally I’m a Red Hot Chili Peppers freak.
Scott:
Don’t feel too bad; my daughter’s ‘Pod has plenty of Weird Al, and she’s the coolest kid I know.
Of course, my own iPod is loaded with podcasts and audiobooks, so what do I know?
No Jimmy Buffet??? Heretic!
I could make a top 200 just from his playlist in iTunes.
But here goes Ten songs I like a lot right now:
10) Beauty of the rain – Dar Williams
9) Cows with Guns – Dana Lyons
8) Southern Cross – CSN, though Jimmy Buffet’s cover seems more authentic
7) Wish You Were Here – Pink Floyd (Better than Shine On, imo)
6) Bah-Ree-Bah – Laika and the Cosmonauts (Great Finnish surf-rock band)
5) Brothers in Arms – Dire Straits
4) Corazon Espinado -Santana (Supernatural is one of those “If I were Exiled to a desert island” albums.)
3) Pacing the cage – Jimmy Buffet
2) Get Up, Stand Up – Bob Marley
1) Bad Moon Rising – Creedence Clearwater Revival
Yes I’m an old fart, another ’57 baby, like PZ.
Excellent choices! Good to see Regina Spektor getting da props (and some mainstream success lately. Woohoo!). Here’s my list. I had a hard time not including Bowie on my list as well.
The Decemberists, Grace Cathedral Hill
Gotan Project, época
Ladytron, Light and Magic
Sleater-Kinney, What’s Mine is Yours
Faithless, Mass Destruction
Belle and Sebastian, Your Cover’s Blown
Mary Timony, On the Floor
Regina Spektor, On the Radio
Goldfrapp, Paper Bag
William Orbit and Beth Orton, Water from a Vine Leaf,
Heh, between Bach, Ravel, Debussy, Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Dave Brubeck, Pink Floyd, Yes, Traffic, Rick Wakeman, Jean Michel Jarre, Steeleye Spam, Tangerine Dream, David Grisman, Barrage, a plethora of movie soundtracks, and plenty of comedy albums ranging from Spike Jones to Weird Al, I hit just about every catagory on the list.
I don’t know that you can draw any personality traits from that list.
I think it simply means I like music.
Cheers!
While I was trying to tell someone that evolution is fact in her blog, somebody else suggested that why should anyone tkae me seriously as a 30 year old male, Celine Dion fan.
BruceJ:
A great song on a great album; thanks for reminding me of it.
And since you’ve made it safe to admit loving Jimmy Buffet, let me note that “A Pirate Looks at 40” seems a good choice for this crowd (though 10 years late for PZ!). Everyone knows Buffet’s “songs you know by heart,” but among the less obvious choices, one of my favorites is his cover of “Stars Fell on Alabama (Last Night).” Romantic schmaltz, yes, but really good romantic schmaltz.
I suppose I’d be run out of Pharyngula on a rail if I mentioned anything by Yes (“All Good People”) or Jethro Tull (“Aqualung” or “Thick as a Brick” or anything from the Songs from the Wood album)? What can I say? I went to high school in the 70s: It was either ProgRock or [shudder] disco.
Thanks to BruceJ for rreminding me about what should be PZ’s favorite Buffett song:
My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink, and I Don’t Love Jesus
and fo the perfect belated birthday present, this t-shirt from e-bay.
Zevon: From the “Excitable Boy” album, I rather prefer “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner”, “Tenderness on the Block”, and “Lawyers, Guns, and Money” to the title song, good as the title song be.
Why would I run anyone off for liking Tull or Yes? I like ’em myself.
I also grew up in the 70s. Shall I mention my fondness for CCR? Even Led Zep?
What!? No Marilyn Manson? No Nine Inch Nails? No Led Zeppelin?
No Jethro Tull and nothing from Aqualung?
What kind of atheist are you?
Now watch an Itunes/ Match dot com/ Myspace merger. And isn’t it about time for another Dr. Phil book?
King Crimson rules.
Oh, by the way… is nobody here a Tom Lehrer fan?
“There’s antimony, arsenic,
Aluminum, selenium,
And hydrogen and oxygen,
And nitrogen and rhenium…
…
These are the only ones
Of which the news has come to Harvard,
And there may be many others,
But they haven’t been discahhhvard.”
;^)
“What!? No Marilyn Manson?”
“What kind of atheist are you?”
One with taste, apparently.
Poisoning Pigeons in the Park
The Old Dope Peddler
Lobachevsky
Smut
Classics
maybe some Zappa too
I’ve got a fair amount of NIN in my iTunes library, too.
Zevon’s Excitable Boy resonates a little more with me. I had this roommate, once, who I nearly drove into a nervous breakdown because of my little cat, Snowball.
Didn’t you know, Bill, that Roy Zimmerman is the new Tom Lehrer?
Well, at least there’s no U2 or Creed on the list.
‘Be Prepared, that’s the Boy Scout’s marching song!
Be Prepared, as through life you march along.
Be prepared to hold your liquor rather well…
Don’t write naughty words on walls if you can’t spell.’
Heh, I grew up with Tom Lehrer songs sung to me…
‘… poisoning pidgeons in the park!’
PZ:
I guess I was being overly defensive. Over the years, I’ve gotten tired of hearing sneering comments about “dinosaur rock” from people who imagine themselves (probably correctly) hipper than I. I should’ve realized that here, of all places, “dinosaur” anything would be welcomed with open tentacles.
As for Led Zep, was there a high school dance anywhere during the entire decade that didn’t end with “Stairway to Heaven” (and/or “Freebird”) as the final number? The classic slow-dance/fast-dance/too-sweaty-to-dance-anymore finale. Then off to the cars for beer and heavy petting. Ah, youth!
The new Shins (Wincing the Night Away), Arcade Fire (even though it’s called Neon Bible) and Peter Bjorn & John (Writer’s Block) are all great.
How could anyone speak of U2 and Creed in the same sentence…
At least U2 has 3 or 4 great albums.
Creed makes me want to literally nail Scott Stapp to a cross.
I’ve been remiss in not mentioning that, between the Zimmerman post a few days ago and Chris Smithers a while back, Pharyngula has become my best source of New People To Listen To.
Thanks!
They have one thing in common, their lead singers are explicitly Christian. But you’re right about quality, U2 is better by a long shot.
I’m not actually using quality as a guide. Manson, NIN and Tull are explicitly atheistic. Page from Led Zeppelin was into Aleister Crowley.
This is from the Aqualung album cover:
In the beginning Man created God;
and in the image of Man
created he him.
2 And Man gave unto God a multitude of
names,that he might be Lord of all
the earth when it was suited to Man
3 And on the seven millionth
day Man rested and did lean
heavily on his God and saw that
it was good.
4 And Man formed Aqualung of
the dust of the ground, and a
host of others likened unto his kind.
5 And these lesser men were cast into the
void; And some were burned, and some were
put apart from their kind.
6 And Man became the God that he had
created and with his miracles did
rule over all the earth.
7 But as all these things
came to pass, the Spirit that did
cause man to create his God
lived on within all men: even
within Aqualung.
8 And man saw it not.
9 But for Christ’s sake he’d
better start looking.
Enema…I mean Enya?
I’m almost as geezer, but “Sail Away” is a true mental laxative. Get some David Byrne on…
I have no problem with U2’s stance when it comes to religion.
Bono would clearly rather do good then pretend to be good because of his faith.
Boy, War and the Unforgettable Fire are amazing albums.
These are the lyrics to NIN, Trent Reznor’s “Heresy”:
Heresy
he sewed his eyes shut because he is afraid to see
he tries to tell me what I put inside of me
he’s got the answers to ease my curiosity
he dreamed up a god and called it Christianity
your god is dead and no one cares
if there is a hell I will see you there
he flexed his muscles to keep his flock of sheep in line
he made a virus that would kill off all the swine
his perfect kingdom of killing, suffering and pain
demands devotion atrocities done in his name
your god is dead and no one cares
drowning in his own hypocrisy
and if there is a hell I will see you there
burning with your god in humility
will you die for this?
Stuff like this is disturbing. Is music just some sort of identity extension, or do any of you appreciate it as art anymore? As for my last 10.. well, I’ve been previewing albums, so it would hardly be representative of my listening habits. Instead, here’s my last playlist, and a link for downloading the broadcast. I figure I owe PZ for the blogroll add, eh?
Here’s the download link for this show: here
Phil Hargreaves, Glenn Weyant — Do Not Sing
Kylie Minoise — Hot Teens Hooked on Cosmetic Surgery
Kylie Minoise — Torn By Jaws and Claws
Kylie Minoise — Fear Swept the Poolsides
Kylie Minoise — Automatic Incineation
George Korein — Quiet Now
George Korein — Writhe, Sally, Writhe
George Korein — Squelch the Whelp
Costes — Avis aux Imitateurs
~Ore~ — Modular II
The Painful Leg Injuries — In the Haze, You Can See So Much Everything It’s Nothing
Chie Mukai — Untitled
Mystified — Hot Hot Heat
Rabbit Girls — Vespers
Mystified — From Deep
Ctephin — Nimitta
Mystified — Trolls on a Wire
Mystified & Plexus Instruments — Never Left
Tom Nunn — Skatchmat
Tom Nunn — Skatchrod
Jeff Sampson, Eric Wallack, Bret Hart — Res Cogitans Uber Des Extensa
Jeff Sampson, Eric Wallack, Bret Hart — The Map Is Not the Territory
Dimitri Voudouris — Praxis
Nihilist Spasm Band — Hesitation
Nihilist Spasm Band — What About Me
Nihilist Spasm Band — Indecision of the Night
Nihilist Spasm Band — Function
FLEX you should give a try to Telemann, Biber and Buxtehude. I bet you are going to like them (if you don’t already).
More Tom Lehrer:
Do whatever steps you want if
you have cleared them with the pontiff
everybody say his own
Kyrie Eleison
doing the Vatican Rag
Other than that, this whole discussion has me thinking of Nick Hornby’s book High Fidelity, where the guys in the record store are constantly making lists of music…
No Radiohead? That’s disappointing. My favorite Radiohead song (There, There) has “Just ’cause you feel it, doesn’t mean it’s there” as the chorus. What better ode to reason and nontheism could there be?
To tie this conversation to the other ongoing “list” thread — SF books — I’ll mention that last December, as a birthday present to my daughter, my family attended a Harry Potter-themed “Yule Ball” concert at a club in Boston. Would you believe there’s a whole subgenre of “wizard rock” based on the Potterverse?
The top two bands, called (imaginatively enough) Harry and the Potters and Draco and the Malfoys, are typical teenage garage bands (actually, I think Draco and the Malfoys are 20-somethings, but they’re teens in spirit) and the music is about on the level of what you’d hear coming out of a suburban garage. The worst of the lot, OTOH, is The Hungarian Horntails, two kids (6 and 8 years old, IIRC) who simply scream at the top of their little lungs (and not in a good way).
I spent the whole show teetering on the boundary between scorn and bemusement… but I ended up charmed by the sheer effrontery of the “movement.” None of this music will replace anything currently on your iPod, but if you’re curious, check out the Malfoys’ “My Dad’s Rich (and Your Dad’s Dead).”
Flogging Molly Rocks. So I’m guessing in you’re a fan because of the lyrics to “Cruel Mistress” right?
“Next time out to sea
Bring enough soil to bury me
For I don’t want my final jig
In the belly of a squid “
Radiohead “You And Whose Army” is brilliant. Very intense live.
Come on, come on
You think you drive me crazy
Come on, come on
You and whose army?
You and your cronies
Come on, come on
Holy roman empire
Come on if you think
Come on if you think
You can take us all on
You can take us all on
You and whose army?
You and your cronies
You forget so easily
You ought to know
You ought to know
Oh so sad
Oh so sad
Oh so sad
You ought to know
You ought to know
I’m so sad
I’m so sad
I’m so sad..
An interesting take of the song… Video taken from Kingdom of Heaven
Live: opening their show at Berkeley last year
How about a list of favorites heard live in concert? Different from the all-time favorite list, but probably as significant (or insignificant). Off the top of my head, not definitive –
The Weight and It Makes No Difference; by The Band
Elizabeth Reed, Stormy Monday, Whipping Post, the Allman Bros (w/ Duane)(could name both concerts, and the one above, entirely as peak experiences)
Heroin, the Velvet Underground
Caravan, The Way Young Lovers Do, Wild Night; Van Morrison
A Case of You, Joni Mitchell
Chestnut Mare, Roger McGuinn
Blowin’ in the Wind, Dylan
Helpless, Neil Young
You Can’t Resist It, Lyle Lovett
Masters of War, Don McClean
Three Days, k d lange
Where Have All the Flowers Gone? Pete Seger
I Fall to Pieces, Linda Ronstadt
Our Lady of the Well; Jackson Browne
Sweet Baby James; James Taylor
Serves You Right to Suffer, J. Geils Band (pre recording career)
Many more.
Yup, I’m an old fart, these were mostly in the late 60s/early 70s. But I still remember many in great detail. (Don’t recall jacque shyte from yesterday, though) Some of these concerts, just about any song would do as a favorite experience.
When I suggested y’all check out “My Dad’s Rich” above, I didn’t mean to be obnoxious by not providing a link: I was at work, and unable (because of blocking software) to go to the band’s page. Now that I’m home, here’s a link to the mp3. Enjoy!
I can’t resist a top 10 list-
1) Led Zeppelin – Since I’ve Been Loving You
2) The Clash – Brand New Cadillac
3) Elvis Costello – Pump it Up
4) Pink Floyd – Echoes
5) Talking Heads – Once in a Lifetime
6) Devo – Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA
7) They Might Be Giants – Particle Man
8) Rolling Stones – Satisfaction
9) David Bowie – Suffragette City
10) Peter Gabriel – Mercy Street
The content and order of the list varies from minute to minute, though.
I recall seeing Ronstadt in Houston. IIRC, she was the opening act, though I can’t remember for whom (and I may be mistaken). Anyway, she covered “Tumbling Dice” (apparently Jagger suggested she sing it), and she frickin’ nailed it. From country-rock to Mexican folksongs to American standards to Gilbert and Sullivan to the Stones… is there anything this woman can’t sing?
I saw a lot of great shows — Elvis Costello (the Armed Forces tour), The Clash (Combat Rock), Queen (Night at the Opera), Yes (3 times), the Eagles (Hotel California), Jimmy Buffet (twice, once opening for the Eagles) — but it’s hard to remember specific performances. One that stands out is Tull playing “Locomotive Breath”… but my joy was due more to the effect it had on my date than to the performance itself!
I guess my favorite concert-going moment was at the Jones Beach amphitheater, at one of the last shows of Paul Simon’s Graceland tour. It was a perfect summer evening, Simon was in good voice and enjoying himself, and the band (which included Hugh Masekela and Ladysmith Black Mambazo) was cookin’. They ripped through a great, really high-energy version of “You Can Call Me Al.” After they finished (and received several minutes of wild applause), Simon looked at the crowd, looked at the band, said “wow, that was fun; let’s do it again,” and launched right into a second full playing of the song (not as an encore, mind you; this was in the middle of the show). The crowd, including me and my wife, went absolutely insane… the coolest live-music moment I can recall.
I recently discovered The Delagados, and love them. Oddly enough, I encountered one of their tunes while watching the anime series “Gunslinger Girl”. Their “The Light Before We Land” from the album “Hate” is the title sequence tune. I was also chuffed to learn they’re also from Scotland; so I confess, as a Glaswegian, to being biased in their favor.
“Is music just some sort of identity extension, or do any of you appreciate it as art anymore?”
Well, a lot of the motivation behind making art is striving to communicate with other humans. Whatever you may have been taught growing up, ‘real artists’ do not express themselves in a vaccuum- a lot of the joy in art is affecting someone else, even if it only ends up being a few people.
It makes a lot of intuitive sense that music made by a specific type of person will strongly affect certain people, and that these people will share characteristics and be bonded together from love of similar music. We like shared experience.
Hah, thanks for reminding me of Yes (I literally wore out my cassette of “Tales from Topographic Oceans” in HS. Was astonished listening to it n CD a year or so ago…how much more detail and high notes were in it…), THE anthem of my HS graduation summer “Hotel California” and my favorite Tom Lehrer song “So long Mom! I’m Off To Drop the Bomb!”
But my absolute favorite ever live performance ever EVER!!! was during a Dead show in the summer of ’83 iirc, up in the outdoor concert stage at Six Flags in Phoenix.
During the drum solo, by sheer coincidence a thunderstorm rolled up some miles directly behind the stage, wind, lightning and thunder like they’d drummed it right into existence. Fortunately it mostly dissipated by the time it reached us.
THAT was so cool. Still want to know how they arranged it :-)
What? No Ozric Tentacles? 8-)
Regina Spektor! Woohoo.
I only get something in common if I mix two – Warren Zevon doing Raspberry Beret on Hindu Love Gods (with Berry, Buck and Mills from REM). Maybe it’s that I’m exactly one year older to the day.
I tried to make a list of 10 but can’t get it under about 30, even by the metric of ‘Won’t get up to change it if it is on repeat and it’s already played a dozen times’.
Bill D.: Simon has had his cool moments. 1965 Simon & Garfunkel at the Berkeley Community Theater. Really bad sound system makes Simon clearly annoyed and the goofy spotlight guy was flipping through various colors. Simon flips off the spotlight guy to thunderous applause. One more song with the bad sound and he tells everyone to come back for a free concert the next night. It was great.
I took the online version of the test someone linked to, and it didn’t turn out much more accurate than my horoscope.
The list(s) are rather anglo-centric. Doesn’t anyone listen to music in other languages? For example:
-Susana Baca
-Tania Libertad
-Serge Gainsbourg
-Jacques Brel
-Paolo Conte
etc.
Ribozyme wrote, “FLEX you should give a try to Telemann, Biber and Buxtehude. I bet you are going to like them (if you don’t already).”
Thanks for the tip. I’m familiar with Teleman and Buxtehude, and own some recordings of their work. I’m not familiar with Biber, although looking at the list of compositions I may have heard some of his work listening to CBC2. (Which I get in the Detroit area.)
In no particular order:
1. The Cure – End
2. Add n to (x) – Revenge of the Black Regent
3. Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
4. Oneida – Changes in the City
5. Simon & Garfunkel – America
6. Velvet Underground – Sister Ray
7. The Birthday Party – Mutiny In Heaven
8. Pink Floyd – Grantchester Meadows
9. LCD Soundsystem – Yeah (crass version)
10. Animal Collective – We Tigers
Of course, come back tomorrow and it’ll be different.
As has been mentioned, 10 is just way to short, but here is a sample list of some favorites.
Jimi Hendrix: Born Under A Bad Sign (blues instrumental)
Led Zepplin: (too many to choose really)When The Levee Breaks
The Clash: Should I Stay Or Should I Go
Ricardo Mutti Conducting The Philadelphia Philharmonic: Ravel’s Bolero
The Cult: Wildflower
The Doors: Wild Child
The B-52’s: Heroes
Evanescence: Bring Me To Life
Black Sabbath: Luke’s Wall
Poe: Angry Johnny
Rage Against The Machine: Bulls On Parade (must be at max volume to be appreciated)
Oops. That’s more than ten.
Best live experience’s ever, in order: Journey (stadium), Page & Plant (medium size venue), Loverboy (small venue, believe it or not they really are very good live), B.B. King (small venue), Aerosmith (stadium).
Ouch. You said Loverboy.
Best live shows…
Radiohead (august 2001 in liberty state park)
Bauhaus (first reunion tour 97?)
Echo & the Bunnymen (last tour of original members (1990)
Sigur Ros (2005)
U2 (1987)
Depeche Mode (1988) and (1991)
Black Sabbath with Ozzy (1998?)
Arcade Fire (2005 in central park – encore with Bowie)
I gots lots.
Roger Waters – Amused to Death is one of my favorite albums. He’s been a cranky old man for decades now… and he does it musically better than anyone else.. “What God Wants” and “The Bravery of Being Out of Range” are absolute classics… and the Jeff Beck guitar work…
My 10 favorite changes almost daily. I’d be hard pressed to name 10 favorite albums let alone 10 favorite songs.
A couple favorite songs stand out:
Sympathy for the Devil would always be in that list… I’m split between the Perry Ferrel version and the Stones version though.
How could any atheist though not include John Lennon’s Imagine in the list? I love the fact that this is hugely popular and at the same time a complete thrashing of religion. :)
When it comes to music, I can’t help but toss in my two cents (may be less with the Canadian exchange rate):
1) “Embracing Emptiness” – Crowbar
2) “Stinkfist” – Tool
3) “Walk” – Pantera
4) “The Drapery Falls” – Opeth
5) “Judith” – A Perfect Circle
6) “To Live Is To Die” – Metallica
7) “I Am The Highway – Audioslave
8) “Regulator” – Clutch
9) “It’s All About The Pentiums” – Weird Al
10) “Tomorrow Turned Into Yesterday” – Nevermore
“Top ten” songs is so incomplete, however. I could compose a top ten list of Tool, Opeth, or Weird Al by themselves. Then there are days where I’ll listen to nothing but stuff like Strapping Young Lad. Other times I’ll punish myself with mindless crap like CCR, Ra, or KMFDM.
OK, if we’re doing shows…
The Cure, 1991 Wish Tour
Moe Tucker, 91 or 92
Animal Collective, Bar, New Haven, CT sometime after Sung Tongs came out
Sleater-Kinney, various NY venues, All Hands on the Bad one and One Beat tours
Tom Waits, Orpheum, Memphis, TN 06
Pixies, NY reunion show
Flaming Lips, Toads, New Haven, CT, Soft Bulletin tour
Of Montreal, Tallahassee, FL, Gay Parade Tour; NY, Knitting Factory, Satanic Panic Tour
Mercury Rev with Sparklehorse, Bearsville, NY, Deserter’s Songs era.
Camper Van Beethoven, various reunion shows
Stereolab, NY anytime between 2000 and 2006
Yo La Tengo, Tallahassee, FL, I Can Hear the Heart Beating As one tour (possibly the loudest concert I’ve ever been to)
Pink Floyd, Miami, FL for Division Bell
Oneida, Hi-Tone, Memphis, Tn, 2006. They have, hands-down, the best drummer I’ve ever seen.
Landing, CT, various dates between 2000 and 2006
Le Tigre, Polish Dancehall, NY for Feminist Sweepstakes
The Microphones, tiny little house party, New Haven, CT 2002
Smashing Pumpkins, Saginaw, MI, Mellon Collie tour
I’m much more about entire albums than single songs–I don’t understand the iPod craze of randomly playing songs, or this idea that people don’t “consume” music in album form any longer. Songs are put on albums in a specific order for maximum impact. I can’t imagine splitting up “Rocks Off,” “Rip This Joint” and “Shake Your Hips” off Exile on Main St., for example, or not having the Ramones’ “Cretin Hop” segue immediately into “Rockaway Beach” from Rocket to Russia. This is one of the reasons Greatest Hits collections suck, b/c they remove songs from contexts–lesser songs are made better by being part of a larger piece. All that said, here goes (this is just rock’n’roll, nothing obscure):
“Just My Imagination,” the Stones
“Judy is a Punk,” the Ramones
“Idiot Wind,” Dylan
“I Hope I Don’t Fall in Love with You,” Tom Waits
“White Man in Hammersmith Palais,” the Clash
“Fade to Black,” Metallica
“Lookin’ for a Kiss,” the New York Dolls
“Rock’n’Roll Nigger,” Patti Smith
“Pink Houses,” John Mellencamp
“Union City Blue,” Blondie
Well yes. Yes, I do.
Well stereolab is french and sigur ros is icelandic.
CSS is brazilian but they sing in english.
Weird Al is genius. My kids sing all the parodies and don’t really know the original songs. He is HIGHLY underrated. Get the video collection.
Well, when I’m not in family mood, I am running The Black Parade from My Chemical Romance over and over in the car. I can’t stop. It’s all about death but it’s so darn catchy, every song, I sing it in my sleep.
He’s just so white and nerdy!
He’s just so white and nerdy!
One of my favorite Cephalopodmas gifts I received (other than World Of Warcraft) was the White & Nerdy hoodie!
This is tough. I’ll have to make a selection of all the kinds of music I like, otherwise it might not adequately represent me. It cannot be in any particular order though, that’s impossible.
1. Children of Sanchez-Chuck Mangione
2. Mujer de Novela-Grupo Niche
3. Redemption Song-Bob Marley
4. ’till I Loved You-Barbra Streisand (that was my wedding song)
5. Procura-Chi Chi Peralta
6. After All-Al Jarreau
7. Expendable Youth-Slayer
8. Stairway to Heaven-Led Zepellin
9. Contra la Corriente-Marc Anthony
10. Only the Good Die Young-Iron Maiden
Sorry, meant Led Zeppelin. That should’ve been easy.
From my iTunes, produced by hitting next in shuffe mode 10 times:
Love Theme from the TRON soundtrack, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Star Trek: First Contact from the soundtrack to Star Trek: First Contact, the extended version of ST:TNG’s “The Inner Light” theme, China by Tori Amos, Silent All These Years by Tori Amos, a piano solo by Chopin that has lost its identification somehow, A New Tron and the MCP from the TRON soundtrack, Guardians from the Marathon (the game) soundtrack, and Clair de Lune by Debussy.
Hmm, no Jarre or Vangelis this time …
bernarda: I listen to Enigma and Jean Michel Jarre, both of which sometimes produce somewhat multilingual work … does that count?
40 bones for a Weird Al hoody? The guy’s a genius, for sure, but that price is outrageous.