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!