Favorite Songs, Pt. IV

[Happy Friday, dear readers!  Oh, how we love you! Welcome to today’s give-away: another $15 gift card to your choice of Best Buy, Amazon.com, or iTunes! Get yourself whatever you want – you deserve it, don’t you?  There won’t be any dorky questions we’ll make you answer like in the weeks past.  Just comment.  That’s it – doesn’t matter what.  About this week’s songs, about your weekend plans, about other blogs/websites you check out daily, promote your own blog/website if you’re hip to it – whatever it is, just let us hear from you.  Even if you’ve never commented before, comment now, darn it.  We want to know you’re out there! :)  At 7 p.m. CST tomorrow, June 6th, we’ll randomly select a commenter, so get yours in before then to be eligible.  And as always, thanks for reading.]

109 – “Go Or Go Ahead” by Rufus Wainwright. There are a couple of things I like about Rufus Wainwright that I would hate coming from any other musician. His voice and music are very operatic and showy. Despite that, he has got to be one of the best singers  in pop music today. This song is another one that starts out sort of slow and builds to a couple of different high points, the first at 2:23 and the other at 4:21.  This whole album is great. More Rufus later.

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108 – “At Least That’s What You Said” by Wilco. This is another slow builder, but it is interesting from the second it starts. One of the things I love about Wilco is how frequently they use piano in their songs. Piano seems to be disappearing from rock music recently. This song contains one my favorite Jeff Tweedy lyrics. “I thought it was cute/for you to kiss/my purple black eye/even though I caught it from you.” I love the guitar part that starts at 1:59 and builds for the next three and a half minutes. This is the only song on the list from A Ghost is Born but the rest is pretty good to. Hear: Hummingbird, Theologians, Muzzle of Bees, Wishful Thinking. More Wilco later. Fun fact: This was the song playing when I hit a deer eight days after I bought the car I was driving.

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107 – “I Love Perth” by Pavement. At 1:05, this song is the shortest on my list. Also, it is the debut of Pavement – easily one of my top five bands of all time. This song is off of the Pacific Trim EP Pavement released between their third and fourth full length albums. Looking through songs to come by Pavement, looks like I have just as many b-sides and non-album cuts as I do off of proper albums. Although all of their albums stand up by themselves as masterpieces (a feat not many bands, including Radiohead, can claim), some of the other songs are just as good if not better. One of the best things about Pavement is they don’t take themselves very seriously. Stephen Malkmus was known to make up lyrics on the spot when recording and not care if he sang out of tune. This song was previously available only on the vinyl version of Pacific Trim EP but thanks to the great efforts of Matador Records to expand all of Pavement’s albums into two-disc versions with all the b-sides and rarities, any Pavement fan who wasn’t around to enjoy them the first time (like me) can hear all the great extras. First available on the Wowee Zowee reissue. More Pavement later.

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106 – “Smith & Jones Forever” by The Silver Jews. This is off of my favorite Silver Jews album, American Water. It is so far ahead of anything else I’ve heard by that band. I’m sure some of it has to do with the fact that none other than Stephen Malkmus plays guitar and does the backing vocals for it. I can freely admit that I have a non-sexual crush on SM and, like Radiohead, would say I like anything put out by him. Not to steal any thunder from David Berman though, The Silver Jews are totally his band. The only Silver Jews songs left on this list (spoiler alert!) are from American Water.

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105 – “Atoms For Peace” by Thom Yorke. I don’t listen to the album this song is from, The Eraser, as much as it probably deserves. I just can’t help imagining what all the songs would sound like if they were given the full band treatment by Radiohead rather than Thom Yorke messing around on a computer by himself. This song is sort of in the same vein as Radiohead’s Kid A, which everyone should hear at least three times (because no one likes it the first or second). Dude still has a crystal clear voice at 38 years old.

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104 – “Oh! You Pretty Things” by David Bowie. One night I was having a conversation with my friend Tyler about music. I asked him why, since we shared similar tastes in music, did he not like David Bowie. He asked me, “Do you like musicals?” I shook my head no. “That’s pretty much what David Bowie is” he says. Well, sort of. You could make that argument more for this album, Hunky Dory, than any other. Before the Ziggy Stardust and Thin White Duke eras, Hunky Dory showcases a more theatrical side of Bowie before he really starts to rock in later years. This whole album is great, but other songs I love from it include: “Changes”, “Life On Mars?” and “Queen B*tch”. That reminds me, this song has the word “b*tch in it if that offends you (it’s not in a misogynistic way). More Bowie coming up.

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103 – “Title And Registr
ation” by Death Cab for Cutie. Transatlanticism was the first DCFC album I heard. This whole album and this song in particular remind me of fall. Jessie and I lived in West Des Moines during my last semester of college, and I listened to this a lot driving back and forth to Ames. It’s a song that makes me nostalgic for no particular thing. I wasn’t really very happy at that time in my life, I was tired of college and the group projects and worrying that I could support Jessie and our unborn child when I graduated. I still like this album and I tried to convince my self Plans and Narrow Stairs were good too, but they don’t hold a candle to this one. The whole thing is good, but check out “The New Year” and the title track.

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102 – “Random Rules” by The Silver Jews. This song is David Berman at his finest lyrically. His rhythm and delivery are perfect, too. The best part: “So if you don’t want me I promise not to linger/but before I go I gotta ask you dear about the tan line on your ring finger.” Good guitar playing by Malky, too. One more Silver Jews song to come.

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101 – “All My Friends” by LCD Soundsystem. One of the best concerts I’ve ever been to was LCD Soundsystem and Arcade Fire in Kansas City, September 2007. During LCD’s set, I kept thinking a few things: 1) was the drummer ever going to tire out and 2) this has got to be one of the best live acts on the road today. “All My Friends” for me was the high point of the show and the high point of the album it is on, Sound Of Silver. I think you have to be in your mid to late 20s to really appreciate it. It’s about growing up and trying to reconnect with your friends after getting a real job and not seeing all your best friends very often. Or maybe it’s not, but that’s what it means to me.

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This is a good stopping point for now. The next lists will have ten songs each. Thanks to everyone still reading. Double thanks to those listening to the music, too.