Friday, May 04, 2007

Friday CJ Random 11

It's one more random than 10!

Before we begin, a scene from earlier in the week...

The Lovely Becky sits on a couch, doing something on her laptop. Brando enters, carrying plastic guitar controller.

BRANDO
Is it going to bother you if I play Guitar Hero?

TLB
Is it going to bother you if I make fun of you?


And now, the songs!

1) “Yes/No,” The Futureheads. This will give you the flavor for how this song goes: Are we British? YES! Are we terribly original? NO! Do we still rock? YES! Is the rest of the album as good as this song? NO! Does this song have the easiest two-word chorus in the history of music? YES!

2) “Secret Star,” Guided by Voices. It wouldn’t be a Random 11 without them. They manage to provide a full-day’s supply of prog in less than five minutes, with three tempo changes and a nice fist-pumping finish. Not that I am pumping my fist, because that would be so nerdy. I would never do that.

3) “Don’t Stand So Close to Me,” The Police. It’s funny to think of my ten-year-old self walking around and singing a song about a teacher trying—and failing—to not schtupp one of his underage students. Things were so much more innocent then!

4) “Easy Morning Rebel,” My Morning Jacket. Deep-fried Almond Brothers. I saw them live once, and their singer Jim James had this colossal wall of red hair. Imagine the wave hitting the Poseidon, then replace the water with red hair. That’s what it looked like.

5) “This Is the Time,” Lindsey Buckingham. This is the time on Sprockets when we dance without Stevie Nicks! Dance, Lindsey, dance! Touch my Fleetwood!

6) “Walk Away,” Franz Ferdinand. Includes the line I love the sound of you walking away. Back in the day, if I had been breaking up with someone, this is the kind of song I would have put on my breakup mixtape of songs about how I’m better off without her. Just as I would start to feel okay, the auto reverse would flip to side 2 and start playing Journey’s “Faithfully,” because this is the same let's-not-breakup mixtape I gave her the week before she threw it at me during our breakup, and I forgot to finish taping over the second side. I would then commence crying myself to sleep. Sometimes I really miss tapes.

7) “The Unforgettable Fire,” U2. All the good stuff of classic U2: Echoing Edge, Bellowing Bono, Lean Larry, and, uh, Adequate Adam. I still like them, but I liked them better when they were saving the world instead of saving Apple shareholders.

8) “The Rotting Strip,” Crooked Fingers. This is the song that plays after you leave the AA meeting and head straight to the bar on the corner, promising yourself that it’s the absolutely, positively last time that will happen.

9) “The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had to Swallow)”, The Jam. The theme song for us during the Bush presidency.

10) “Jenny and the Ess Dog,” Stephen Malkmus. A little ditty about a teenage girl and her older, trust-fund hippy boyfriend. They drive a Volvo, play frisbie with their dog, and listen to Brothers in Arms. It could have been called, “Scenes From UC Davis During Brando’s Years There.”

11) “All Kinds of Time,” Fountains of Wayne. They should be called The Carpenters because they craft catchy pop songs like they’re making bookcases. Bonus points for using football as a metaphor for life!

I’m off for a few days and may not be back to blogging until later next week, so enjoy yourselves!

11 comments:

TJ said...

Mmm, deep-fried almonds . . .

I'm in partial agreement with you on The Futureheads. The problem is I saw them last summer in Chicago and they were no joke one of the loudest shows I've ever seen. And we were outside. They get lots of props for that. (Do the kids still say "props"? Fuck it. I'm leaving it.)

Brando said...

I bought the Futureheads album because I loved their cover of Hounds of Love from the previous CD -- one of the best covers I've ever heard. I like this CD, just not as much as I'd hoped.

I saw your comment about Ted Leo -- I did have no idea what that final song was, so I'm not surprised it was a cover. Really good show, although Bob and I were distracted by the bass player's Kip Winger hair. Although I did love that the drummer looked like Mick Fleetwood.

TJ said...

Totally Mick Fleetwood. Or Doug Martsch.

I didn't know Hounds of Love was a cover. Embarrassing. ("The youth have no sense of history!" they cried.)

bjkeefe said...

Jeez, you go from dorking out massively with your video game thing (where did you find such a tolerant wife?) to channeling Donald Rumsfeld on the very first song.

Ahhh, not that bad. I laughed. I admit it.

P.S. Typo in #3 ("we" should be "were") if you care.

Churlita said...

I love The Jam. I also liked U2 better when they were young and more moody. The guy I'm dating just saw Lindsay Buckingham in concert in Des Moines. In his defense, he is a disc jockey for the local classic rock station here and gets tickets for free.

Michael Bains said...

Guided by Voices Hmmm... Sounds good. I'll check 'em out.

I really liked My Morning Jacket until I saw 'em live. Either they were really off or I just wasn't in the mood that night. They opened for Pearl Jam and I was totally into that though, so I'm just not sure.

Sometimes I really miss tapes.

LOL! Niiiice.

Anonymous said...

Guitar Hero?! Man, you need to get out more often. At the very least, don't encourage UC to want this kind of stuff. Especially since AG kicked his ass at skee ball yesterday.

Anonymous said...

I have a total love/hate relationship with that Malkmus song, which I downloaded for free something like 10000 years ago. Part of me hates the insipid musicality and plainness of the music. But then I can't get that stupid tune out of my head, which makes me wonder if it's secretly amazing, and I'm just a snob. Anyway, I like your description of MMJ live. Also, seeing them live is way more intense and engaging than listening to their CDs.

Brando said...

I actually am out and not playing Guitar Hero this week! I should be posting again later this week. Maybe tomorrow if I think of anything good on the plane.

Anonymous said...

Notice he does not deny getting his ass kicked at skee ball. AG is going to set one of those lane games up in her home and perfect her game even more for the re-match in Santa Cruz.

BOSSY said...

When Don't Stand So Close To Me came out, Bossy was in seventh grade with a major crush on her math teacher. She so hoped the lyrics would edge Mr Cute toward an indiscretion.