02 Apr 2012
I-76 - G. Love & Special Sauce
The first time I heard G. Love I wasn’t ready for it. Despite the title Yeah, It’s That Easy was not an easy album to relax into. I know that Jessica tried to start me on “Willow Tree”, but I didn’t connect with that song. She was trying to pick a track with fewer of the hip-hop elements. But for me the pace didn’t feel right - it left too sloppy to me (at the time). The same idea is done better on the album in “Lay Down the Law” and “Take You There”, which are both great songs.
It took some warming up, but I did eventually fall for G. Love. It wasn’t a vocal style I was accustomed too, and at first it sounded abrasive. But over time I could really feel how much fun they were having with the music and I started having fun too.
After some deliberation I chose “I-76” to represent my entry point into G. Love. But it was hard, because this album is all over the place. This song does a good job of introducing a number of the musical styles without overwhelming you. It’s got the rhythmic vocals, but also the dude harmonies, and a general overall playfulness. It was part of the bridge I needed to get into the album, and the band in general.
Reckoning - Ani Difranco
Ah, at last an Ani album to fit in with the rest of what Jessica and I were listening to. This one has such a strong point of a view, a deliberate feeling. And it really comes across in this, the title track (well, one of the two title tracks) of Reveling/Reckoning.
The horns. Oh my god the horns. When they come in it completely changes the character of the song. It jumps from melancholy to uplifting immediately. The guitar and vocals sound cold and alone in the beginning, but there’s this undeniable warmth that the horns bring that transforms everything at 1:13.
Those parts later where the horns are walking up the scales really remind me of Bar Kokhba. And then there are parts where I can hear a bit of Chicago in this. I didn’t think about these connections at the time; this is something I say now listening to it in close proximity to the rest of my musical journey. It’s nice to see the context compressed like that and understand why I had particular affinity for certain songs.
This album changed Ani from something just Jessica listened to into something we would really listen to together. It’s a magnificent collection of sound and feeling.
So Far Away From You - Dire Straits
Every summer Jessica was away for one reason or another. Road trip, camp, whatever. This was of course on top of the fact that we lived far apart in the first place. We needed an anthem to get through it all, and this song was it. “Tired of making out on the telephone…” Yep, this was the one.
Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag - James Brown
I hit college at the same time as the likes of Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament. It was a new era, where multiplayer gaming was becoming so important that developers were releasing games with no singleplayer component at all. This was happening at the same time that I moved off of a dial-up modem and onto the blazing speed of college ethernet. Mind. Blown.
Some other kids in the dorm were playing this game Half-Life, so I decided to check it out. In addition to its own multiplayer, Half-Life also had a vibrant mod community. After sampling many of them I eventually stumbled across one called Science & Industry.
But first let me back up and explain something. There was nothing like a centralized gamertag back then, so whatever name you were known by was whatever you typed in. There was nothing to prevent you from changing it as much as you wanted. You could pick a name that matched your mood… or whatever song you were listening to at that particular moment.
At the time I was starting to listen to a lot of James Brown. And on one fateful day while I was listening to “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag”, I popped down the in-game console and typed “/name PapasNewBag”. That same day, on that particular server, I met two guys (Whiplash and Cadaver) in charge of development of this mod. Turns out they had inherited it from the original creators, and they were in a bit over their head. In particular, they badly needed programming help. We talked some then, and more later after I’d earned their trust, and before too long I had taken over primary development of the mod. It was a turning point in my life.
Getting to know a new community meant I needed to keep a consistent face. So my habit of constantly changing my name had to stop right then and there. It stuck at the song I was listening to at that one point in time.
Good times
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger - Daft Punk
I started listening to Daft Punk during that same summer when I first started working on Science & Industry. Functionally and thematically the music was perfect suited for the large amount of programming I was doing. You need something driving, light on distracting vocals, and maybe even slightly repetitive. You know, like Daft Punk.
This song in particular was perfect. One of the things I was working on for the game was a new cybernetic implant system. I wanted to flesh out that part of the fiction to give new alternatives to weapons or device development. I wanted players to be able to become faster and succeed through raw agility. I wanted them to become stronger and overwhelm with in-your-face melee proficiency. For me this song, that development time, and the end product are all completely intertwined.
| When the development team played against the other clans we called ourselves the “Six Million Dollar Men”. So, in tag form, I was “-smdm |
papasnewbag-“. Except when we were being inclusive of our UK members, and wore it as “smpm”. Anyway, I think you can see how this song was such a good fit. |
30 Mar 2012
Neon - John Mayer
I discovered John Mayer as a guitarist first. Yes, he was a singer/songwriter too, but for me it was his acoustic style that initially caught my attention. I scoured Napster for all sorts of bootlegs of his guitar work. Some of them were live recordings, some were apparently from this album. On Napster the metadata was always screwed so it was hard to know these things.
Shortly after this he released Room for Squares, which was so overproduced compared to what I had heard from him so far that it made me sick to my stomach. It wasn’t until he redeemed himself with his next album that I was truly able to forgive and return to Room for Squares to pick out the goodies.
“Neon” is a great track to demonstrate what initially caught my ear. The riff in this song is incredibly powerful. And it comes across far stronger here than it does with the full wall of sound from Room for Squares.
When Will I - Monte Montgomery
It was definitely Dan that pointed me to Monte. We were playing a lot of guitar together, and sharing recommendations of awesome artists we came across. He said something along the lines of “OMFG, this will blow your mind”. I’ll probably never find the bootleg live recording of “When Will I” that did exactly that. I remember that it ended with a stunned silence and then someone saying “holy shit” before the recording cut out. The album recording doesn’t do hit the same highs, but it’s all I’ve got after my hard drive with all those Napster MP3s failed. And it’s still pretty damned good.
Gravel - Ani Difranco
So Jessica listened to a lot of angry female vocalists. It’s similar to how she loves books and movies where everything ends in beautiful tragedy. Later I would be exposed to many other different sides of Ani Difranco, but in the beginning it was mostly just the angry stuff.
I have two memories related to Jessica’s Ani mix tape. The first is her singing along to this song in the car, a bit too emphatically for my tastes. I mean, you really don’t want your girlfriend singing “I abhor you” in the car with lots of ambiguous pointing. Sure, it also turns into “I adore you”, but that whole love/hate blend wasn’t exactly what I was looking for.
The second memory is an argument. She’s not wearing her seatbelt, and is refusing my pleas to put one on. I now have a vested interest in her safety, and mild discomfort is not an acceptable excuse. She’s not budging, so I escalate. I take this cassette tape, her Ani mix, out of the stereo and threaten to throw it out the window if she doesn’t put her seatbelt on. She tries to call my bluff, and I chuck it. It’s lost forever.
I don’t think I’ve ever lived that one down. It was one of her favorite mixes. But I did eventually get her to start wearing her seatbelt.
I was really conflicted about what track to nominate here. I had a pretty intense reaction to “Fuel” as well. It’s this crazy rhythmic poetry… something. It’s music, but not in any conventional sense. And it’s very powerful. But in the end the image of that mix tape laying in the gravel somewhere won out.
White Ladder - David Gray
I had gotten so used to Jessica introducing me to female artists that when she first played “Babylon” by David Gray I thought it was a female vocalist. She made fun of me for quite a while after that.
We went to see him at Bumbershoot. We don’t go anymore, because it turns out all the other people at Bumbershoot are colossal pushy assholes. But I do remember that David Gray evening show fondly.
I love the B-side of this album. Basically from “Silver Lining” on there’s this lovely cohesive stretch. I don’t know why they felt the need to include a second version of “Babylon” at the end of the album, because otherwise the close would be perfect. When you can finish off with an album that has “Goodbye” in the title, you should.
Into The Mystic - Van Morrison
There’s something about this song that seems to capture the maturing relationship between Jessica and me. We were relaxing into the more serious thing we’d arrived at. I was getting along better with her parents. For some reason this song sounds like that time to me, but I can’t pinpoint any specific reason why. It’s sure a great song though.
28 Mar 2012
Top Floor, Bottom Buzzer - Morphine
I discovered Morphine through my dad, of all people. Although at pretty much the exact same time Jessica also came across it too. To this day I’m a little fuzzy on the details, but what I know is that me, my dad, and Jessica were all grooving on this at the same time. My mom couldn’t stand it, but she was outnumbered.
The entry point was The Night, and at least for me the first song was “Top Floor, Bottom Buzzer”. It was the sort of song that really worked for my dad, a real foot tapper. I remember sitting at the dining table listening to it with him and Jessica.
It’s actually really striking how perfect an introduction this was for me. It’s not an entirely representative Morphine song, but it was the right one for the journey I had been on. The beat, the organ, the horns, the nonsense lyrics, a deep earthy bass-y feel. Looking back at my path, this song had so many elements that my receptors were perfectly tuned for, waiting. And once this song hooked me, I delved into Morphine deep.
But let me tell you, there are few things as tragic as finally finding your favorite band, and then realizing that the album you hold in your hand is a posthumous release. There will never be any more Morphine, and it kills me. Their music speaks to me in a visceral way, and there’s truly nothing else out there like it.
Souvenir - Morphine
“Souvenir” didn’t hit my radar right away. But hot damn how it worked its tendrils in. The creepy piano. Minimalistic sound. Crippled drum beat. A rumbling darkness. It evokes a dark smoky bar, silent after hours. Or a black swamp. I feel like I’m moving through molasses. And then the horns start to come in, gently at first, and then in full climax. Rolling, unearthing, drudging up… something. So. Hot.
Running to Stand Still - U2
This is an odd choice to place here in the timeline. Let me explain. This was the Napster era. For music discovery, it was a beautiful revelation. Thought could become experience within a matter of moments.
But it was also an opportunity for rediscovery. Songs, ideas that I had been exposed to in the past… I now had a tool with which go back and explore them. This happened with The Joshua Tree. I’m pretty sure my brother had the album while I was still at home, but he wasn’t about to let me hang on to it after I had so thoroughly stolen Rattle and Hum. It wasn’t until the Napster era that I went back and turned those initial glimpses into a real experience. That’s when I really found and fell in love with “Running to Stand Still.” And then I bought the album.
Debra - Beck
The magic of the internet also enabled discovery of new awesome things, including this song. I had heard some Beck back when he put out Odelay, and that sound didn’t really work for me. But this song. Is. Awesome.
It’s funny. It’s groovy. It’s sexy. It made me like Beck, and really see the dynamic and capable artist he is. It takes some serious skill to pull off something like this, and he’s got it in spades. I wouldn’t start processing Beck on album level until Sea Change, but it’s this song that laid the groundwork.
26 Mar 2012
Ever So Lonely - Sheila Chandra
I feel like I’ve been saying this a lot (and will continue to): this song is huddled inside, out of the cold and rain, in bed with Jessica. It sounds scandalous, but even though it’s none of your business I feel like I need to say I’m not implying any impropriety. We just spent a lot of time in bed, cuddled up, listening to music. Let’s be fair, we still do. But those first months were a huge injection of shared musical experiences. Some were new for just me, some were new for both. In this case it was an album from her roommate Erin, so we were processing it at the same time.
It’s noteworthy how not in-line with my style this is. It’s all vocals, and there’s not a lick of rhythm to most of it. It’s more ambience than what I’d usually consider music. But it’s also incredibly beautiful.
Years later, Jessica and I were probably the only two people in the movie theater who perked up to a song in The Two Towers to wonder “Is that Sheila Chandra?”
Almost Done - Morcheeba
I remember “Friction” off of Big Calm being the first Morcheeba song Jessica played for me. But it wasn’t the one that first connected. Naturally, it was the stuff we listened to while laying around: Who Can You Trust?
Apparently the whole time we were listening to it Jessica was a little on edge. I was listening to almost strictly acoustic music at the time. Every time a track had a little record scratch she was worried that I would freak out. I didn’t. I had never heard this whole “trip-hop” thing, but it totally worked for me. Relaxed, but rhythmic? Sign me up.
“Trigger Hippie” is the catchy song that welcomes you in. “Tape Loop” then firmly carries you into a relaxed groove. But the real destination of all of this, the place you hope to elevate to, is “Almost Done”.
I just want to breathe it in and live there. It’s slow enough to leave you eagerly anticipating every next movement. This song is just so damned sexy. It’s like the song is making love to my head.
Shoulder Holster - Morcheeba
After Who Can You Trust? won me over, it was time to delve into Big Calm. The tone of was considerably more up-beat, but still ever so good. Where the previous album was down and gritty, this one immediately lifted me up with the crystal vocals of “The Sea”.
But the song that stood out for me was “Shoulder Holster”. And I couldn’t immediately put my finger on why. It was this crazy blend of all sorts of musical influences, and it totally worked in this way unlike anything I’d ever heard. Deep vocals, a heavy beat, sitar, record scratching, slide guitar… it all melded into some crazy kind of awesome.
Dishonorable mention to the title track, “Big Calm”. Pretty much every Morcheeba album had one truly awful song that never should have happened. How that became the title of the album is beyond me. Skip it, enjoy the rest.
Criminal - Fiona Apple
I had heard Fiona Apple before. I remembered seeing the video for this song on the MTVs, with her all vignetted, emaciated, and red eyed. I also remember her legendary acceptance speech. For as much as the music industry tried to treat her as some weird heroine-chic sex object, there is some serious power in that small frame. Her voice, her piano… so deep.
So I first heard this back in ‘96. I almost ended up with the album too. There was one of those CD club things where you could get a couple albums cheap if you then remembered to get out again quick. This album was barely cut from my first draft list, and I didn’t end up getting it.
Which brings us to this time with Jessica, who was smarter than me and had picked up the album. It’s basically impossible to pick a single song to represent it; the album is just too good. And it matched the chill mood that Jessica and I had together. I finally got to my chance to sink into the deep rolling tones of Tidal, and it was so good.
23 Mar 2012
Say Goodbye - Dave Matthews Band
I told you Crash was going to show up a lot on this list. This one’s special though, trust me.
I’m in my dorm room, and it’s raining outside. With me is my new friend Jessica, and we just had an unexpected and delightful make-out session. The sound of the rain… I can still hear it in the song. I swear it’s part of the track.
In that blissful moment we are listening to this song and drinking the lyrical kool-aid. “Tonight let’s be lovers… and tomorrow go back to being friends.” I mean, this diversion was fun and all, but long-term it’s a terrible idea. So we should just stick with the original plan and be friends. This is totally going to work. No problem.
Yeah.
Spoiler: I married her. Not right then and there, god no. We were so young! Years later. The point is, I can’t hear this song without thinking about the beginning of it all. The moment when we first really saw each other and what could be.
Perfect Blue Buildings - Counting Crows
Jessica and I didn’t go to the same school. We weren’t so far away as to make crossing the distance impossible, but we only got to see each other on the occasional weekend. The difficulty was compounded by the fact that I didn’t have a car, so mostly she had to come to me. But there were definitely times when I could make it out to her. And those times are deeply ingrained into me.
Jessica had painted her dorm room blue. This most definitely wasn’t allowed by the school, but that didn’t stop her. It was this beautiful soothing deep blue, with a print of Starry Night on the wall. It was sanctuary.
We spent a lot of time in that room together. Laying around, talking, and listening to music. This entire Counting Crows album is a big part of that. It’s hard to pick out a single song to represent it. In the end I went with “Perfect Blue Buildings”, in memory of her perfect blue room.
On & On - Erykah Badu
This song comes from those early times spent lounging about with Jessica. The Counting Crows weren’t exactly a stretch for my palate; Erykah Badu was. But damn, this album is good. And not just as a collection of tracks, but as an album. It’s got planned book ending with “Rimshot”, which leads you in and out of the sound of the album. It’s got songs in the progression that set up and then call back to each other. It was planned as a cohesive experience. And I love that.
Remember how not so long ago I was paying attention to lyrics? Yeah… don’t think for a moment that that stuck. I was about to select a different song for this album, until I was informed that I had been mis-hearing the lyrics for, um, a decade. I thought the lyric was “still in bed”, apparently it was “still livin’”. Completely changed the song for me. Oh well, I still had “Certainly” and “On & On” as alternates.
Heavy Things - Phish
It was time to ring in a new millennium. Most years I would let the new year drift in without much celebration, but this was a moment worthy of epic party. I ended up going to a show in Portland with Jessica, Kevin, and Billy. Somewhere in a box I have photos from this trip, taken on a commemorative disposable camera.
The headlining band was The String Cheese Incident. I had heard of them before, but never listened to them. They were another jam band in the style of the Dead or Phish. I’m sure their performance was perfectly fine, but there was so much else going on that it didn’t really leave an impression on me. I did pick up an album to check them out, and remember getting a kick out of their cover of “Take Five”.
After the New Year had come I remember seeing a bit on TV about the various celebrations around the world. Of course our little Portland dig wasn’t featured, but they did show a full song from the epic Phish concert. It was weird to see Peter Jennings introduce this band that I’d spent so much time with.
The song was “Heavy Things”, and in no way did I experience that song during my actual New Year’s Eve celebration, but after the fact it became the song I associate with the event.
Brunette - Keller Williams
There were many acts at the millennial New Year’s Eve show: musicians, jugglers, dancers. One single musician really captivated me. He would record little bits with his guitar and voice (mouth trumpet and all), and in real time layer them over each other. It started out simple, but over time created a full rich sound.
He was clearly a very talented guitarist and the act was fun to listen to, but the nature of this type of performance doesn’t really transition to an album recording. He did have albums, but they’re just so different from what he did that night. I think something that at least somewhat captures his one man band sound is “Brunette”. It doesn’t have the layering, but it’s sure a whole lot of sound for just one guitar.