Youth Lagoon: “17″
I’m late to the party here, but last year’s debut album by Youth Lagoon pretty shamelessly manipulates all my nostalgia triggers – namely, feeling young and timeless and lonely and horny and hopeful and stupid, all at the same time. I’m not sure if I enjoyed being that age more than I enjoy remembering it, but either way, this song is exactly how I felt when I was 17, turned into music.
There is, of course, a whole argument/discussion/whatever to have about the value of nostalgia, and I’m not immune to that kind of navel gazing either, but this is the navel gazing I’m choosing at the moment. I’ve been playing it (and the rest of the album) incessantly. Hopefully you feel the same.
Seam: The Problem With Me (favorite albums of all time, pt. 12)
When I broke up with my girlfriend in 1995 and fell in love with someone else, I needed a soundtrack for driving around late at night feeling elated/sorry for myself/whatever. Because it’s downbeat and beautiful and lonely, but still driving and melodic, that void was filled by Seam’s Am I Driving You Crazy, but that’s not my favorite Seam album. That title belongs to The Problem With Me, about which, I have often thought to myself, “I don’t understand how anyone could not like this album.” Read More…
The Spring Lull, or, I’ll be glad when that Handsome Furs record comes out already
I'm looking at you, June. Don't let me down.
The middle of the year, you guys. Am I right? January comes roaring out of the gate with all those records they probably could have released in November except that no one buys indie rock records for Christmas or whatever, so why bother. And so as the first three months of the year roll by, we’re buried by awesome albums that spoil us for what’s about to come – the spring lull.
This (definitely) isn’t scientific or anything, but I feel this year just like I felt last year – the year kicked off with Vampire Weekend and Titus Andronicus and Spoon and Miles Kurowsky, and by May it’s all sub-par New Pornographers and Broken Social Scene records. Read More…
limesix: “Sovereignty” (Japandroids cover)
Hopefully, I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know if I inform you that Japandroids rule. The first time I heard “Young Hearts Spark Fire,” I was instantly transported back to my mid-20s, when intensely stupid things seemed very very important and music pretty much ruled my life. But youthful nostalgia certainly isn’t all Post-Nothing has going for it – it’s fiery, loud, fun, and doesn’t let up until the final song on the record, at which point they’ve said pretty much everything they’ve needed to say about girls, friends, being young, and feeling old. Every 25 year old should have a soundtrack like this – mine just came 10 years late.
Anyway, this is a slow, quiet, acoustic cover version of one of the highlights of Post-Nothing – the moment right before “I Quit Girls,” when vocalist/guitarist Brian King is consumed by romantic notions of disappearing into the night with his paramour. It’s a beautiful song at high-volume and low – enjoy:
Ned’s Atomic Dustbin: “Spring”
Yeah, I said it. NED’S F’ING ATOMIC DUSTBIN. And not even the first record that anyone older than 30 would know – a deep cut from the SECOND record. Came up on iTunes DJ today and I rated it 5 STARS, and I stand by that rating. Test of time: passed.
EMF can suck it, though.
A Word Concerning Xmas Music
(you can listen to Songs for Christmas in its entirety here, which is an activity I’d recommend. merry christmas, all.)
I don’t think I’ll be making any bold proclamation if I say that Christmas music is uniformally pretty lame. There is, of course, a nostalgic/comfort factor to the old classics, but they were designed (I assume) to be universally appealing, and I’d say that anything that is designed to be universally appealing will be pretty lame as a rule. The lowest common denominator is not a bastion of tasteful creativity.
However, over the 10+ years that I’ve been having Christmas outside of my parents’ house, an interesting thing has happened – we still listen to some of the old classics, because we’re not robots, and nostalgia can be a valuable emotion. But also, we’ve started playing a lot more of things that, I hope, will become classics for our kids – Sufjan Stevens, Low, David Bazan, Aimee Mann, The Boy Least Likely To, etc. Read More…
