In this edition of Shuffled we've stumbled upon a bunch of music that I originally stumbled upon in interesting ways, only to be pleasantly surprised. I'm really enjoying this feature now that I've taken to telling personal stories instead of trying to regurgitate random factoids about the band. Are you? Would you like this feature more as a podcast? You know, in case I ever wanted to do that. Let me know, and enjoy the music.
Alkaline Trio - One Hundred Stories
From Good Mourning
Buy the MP3 or the whole album.
My cousin was dating a girl for quite awhile who liked some overly-poppy music. Eventually, he took to liking some of it as well, and shared the CDs with me. I'd previously written Alkaline Trio off completely, because in high school you tried your best to fit in. But at that point I was taking classes in community college and no one really gave a shit what you liked there.
There is some amount of a horror element to them that initially appealed to me, but honestly, I never became very attached. I haven't listened to this album in years, though I can admit it's got some good songs on it now. Because when you're an adult you can like any music you want and not give a shit if it's cool or not. It's one of the perks.
Mindless Self Indulgence - Faggot
From Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy
Buy the album.
I knew nothing about Mindless Self Indulgence when I saw them the first time. My friends and I ate at an Old Country Buffet before the show as they regaled me with tales of Little Jimmy Urine's insanity. The show that was playing in my head was so much crazier than the actual concert turned out to be.
Funny thing was, the opening band -- Tub Ring -- blew MSI out of the water. Even so, both bands were great and my friends and I returned for a repeat the following year. I think I wasn't as shocked as I expected to be because even back then I realized they were putting on a bit of a show. Just look at song titles like this very one; shocking! Maybe he meant to write a deep and meaningful song about his struggles as a gay man in our society, but it's still filtered through the over-the-top nature of the band.
I like to think of this song as an early version of the movie Bruno -- intended to make homophobes as uncomfortable as possible. I respect it and find the concept amusing, but nowadays I don't crave that sort of shock value like I did back in high school.
Kashmir - The Curse of Being a Girl
From No Balance Palace
Buy the MP3 or the whole album.
I think I found Kashmir using Pandora forever ago. This was back when I'd use the 10 year old computer with a 2GB hard-drive that I got from my parents when they bought a new one to load my Sony PSP with music. I'd listen while during morning clean-up type stuff at Arbys. Yeah, I was a tad behind the times. Don't worry, I have a laptop and iPod now.
They have some very Radiohead-esque songs on this album, and a guest vocals from Lou Reed. If those two things don't sell you then I'm not really a huge fan of Radiohead and I still like Kashmir quite a bit, and Lou Reed just does a weird spoken-word thing on one song. There, now everyone should give it a chance. Oh, and there're boobs in this video for a little bit. Not sure why that wasn't edited out, but I won't complain.
Refused - It's Not Okay, and Crusader of Hopelessness
From Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent
Buy the MP3 - MP3 or the whole album.
I first heard Refused when Summerholidays vs. Punkroutine was on a mix CD my cousin burned for me. I loved the song and tracked down more of the songs from that CD, only to find all of them were much heavier. Yet, despite the fact that I wasn't big on metal or hardcore, I recognized that Refused was doing something much deeper than I'd heard from those genres before.
I heard the elements of jazz and electronic mixed in, and began analyzing the politics behind the lyrics. When I brought it up to my cousin he said he only really liked that one song. I think that was probably the first time I knew my musical tastes were evolving beyond the punk him and his brother helped introduce to me.
Of course, that description was all about their last and easily their best album, The Shape of Punk to Come. These two tracks are from the release that preceded that, but it's a pretty good CD as well. If you want to listen to some of their really amazing stuff, try Poetry Written in Gasoline or Refused Are Fucking Dead.
Broken Social Scene - Ungrateful Little Father
From Forgiveness Rock Record
Buy the MP3 or the whole album.
I honestly don't have much to say about Broken Social Scene given I only started listening to them this year when Forgiveness Rock Record came out. Since Shuffled is about why I have the music in my library and my experiences with it, I can't say much more than, "I got it for a Music Wrap-Up."
I should have contacted Cerebral Pop contributor Kyle Saunders to write about growing up with the band as I know he loves them. Oh well, next time.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment