Offbeat As Usual

I was listening to Screeching Weasel’s song “Totally” this afternoon and I realized it sums up my love life (or lack thereof) perfectly.  Have a listen:

If you’re feeling especially bitter, try this one on for size.  May I present “Fuck You, It’s Over” by Glasvegas.  It’s from their mini album “A Snowflake Fell (And it Felt Like a Kiss)”, which came out in December 2008.  Considering their debut album came out in September, that’s some serious productivity.

I am disturbingly good at finding frustrated love songs.  Oh well.  I have a much more upbeat post up over at Nothing Wrong With Me.  That ought to make a good antidote.

Or try this:

“And I Love Her” ~ The Beatles

I’m all about the linky love today.  It travels better than chocolate.  But seriously, happy valentine’s day.  Don’t mind me.

Musical Sugar High

It was a gorgeous day outside.  Sunny, incredibly warm for January, the kind of day that’s like a shot of joy to the winter-numbed brain.  It got me thinking.  I love to go on about the meanings of songs and how they connect me to an experience I’ve had.  But what about the songs that just make me feel good?  The ones that make me smile from first note.  The musical version of unexpected sunshine.

• “Shimmy Shimmy Quarter Turn” by Hellogoodbye

In high school I used this to wake up on the way to my first class.  Try to sit still while listening to it, I dare you.  It’s insanely bouncy.  It also has the old Instant Messenger noise, the bloo-oo-oop that used to accompany a new line from whoever you were talking to.  The whole thing is mindless fun.

• “My Brain Hurts” by Screeching Weasel

It doesn’t get much better than that opening riff.  I love the way it flows together, seeming to fold back on itself slightly without being repetitive.  That, and the line “My brain is melting like a chocolate ice cream bar”.  The idea of a puddle of sugary goo replacing my brain is really funny.  I swear it happened once.

• “My Own Worst Enemy” by Lit

An apologetic but entertaining song about what happens when you’re really drunk.  I can just picture the look on the lead singer’s face when he wakes up and sees stuff gone to hell.  “Please tell me why, my car is in the front yard, and I’m, sleeping with my clothes on, came in through the window last night”.  That can’t have been a fun morning, but it makes a great story.  I did what?

• “Honest Goodbye” by Bad Religion

It’s meant to be a melancholy song, but something about the way the guitar and the vocals soak into my brain is amazing.  Bad Religion has a real gift for melody.  Incredible stuff.

• “Redundant” by Green Day

Gorgeous beyond description.  I could go on for pages about how much I love this song, but I won’t do that here.  Suffice it to say there are few lines more poignant than ” ‘Cause I love you’s not enough, I’m lost for words”.

• “Any Time at All” by the Beatles

Cue the “awwww”s.  It’s just a pure, sweet song with a perfectly sung melody.  They earned their title of the Fab Four.

• “Slug” by the Ramones

Another song that probably isn’t meant to be as happy as it feels.  Or maybe it is.  I read somewhere that making light of craziness and turmoil was part of their charm.  One of the tons of things that was special about the Ramones, and still is now.

There you go.  My favorite songs to make me get up off the couch and dance.  Or do air guitar.  Who said that?

Irreverence: The Musical

There was a meme going around a while ago that asked you to create a soundtrack to your life.  They supply the moment, you supply the tune.  The problem is, none of those moments really apply to me.  I’ve always been unconventional.  My parents used to joke that I was born early because I couldn’t wait to get out there and live.  So I decided to create my own kind of soundtrack.  May I present ramble’s Irreverence Spectacular, a collision of life and song.

• When I was born: “Get Off Of My Cloud”- The Rolling Stones

The only Stones song I like.  It’s bouncy and ever so slightly obnoxious, just like me.  I don’t take the proverbial stage often, but when I do I want it to be known.  Otherwise, how I can I yell, “Hi mom!”?

That said, if I do get my own cloud, I’m throwing a party and everyone’s invited.  Gotta spread the fluffy floating wealth.

• Elementary School: “Here Comes the Sun”- The Beatles

The Beatles were one of the first bands I learned to love, and “Here Comes the Sun” is still my favorite track of theirs.  It never fails to make me happy.  Also one of the songs that made me want to learn guitar.

• Middle School: “My Brain Hurts”- Screeching Weasel

I had never heard of Screeching Weasel in middle school, but I wish I had.  It was my first exposure to girls who would not step foot outside without three different kinds of makeup on.  In 7th grade.  I considered it an achievement if I had done my hair.  If that weren’t enough, you were not cool unless you had Adidas shell-toe sneakers with colored stripes on the sides.  I did not, and I can’t believe I still remember that.  Middle school was a minefield.

• Freshman Year of High School: “Sudden Death in Carolina”- Brand New

I learned to love this song because my brother played it almost daily as we drove to school.  He used to go on comic tirades against the other drivers just to make me laugh.  At the end of the year I almost didn’t want him to graduate.

• Sophomore Year of High School: “My Immortal”- Evanescence

I was captivated by this song.  I had never heard anything so sad, so poignant and yet so strangely soothing.

• Junior Year of High School: “Jesus of Suburbia”- Green Day

The beginning of my fascination with Green Day.  Five different tempos in one song, combined with lyrics I could actually relate to, just blew my mind.  It was (and is) in heavy rotation on my ipod.

• Senior Year of High School: “I Wanna be Sedated”- The Ramones

Insanity start to finish.  I was suddenly supposed to know what  I wanted to Do With My Life.  While taking AP tests, making some big changes and coping with the death of my grandmother.  Pass the ketamine, please.

• Freshman Year of College: “Welcome to Paradise”- Green Day (the Kerplunk! version, because I feel like being picky)

I’m free!  Oh crap, what now?  Loads of fun, loads of uncertainty, loads of learning to stand on my own two feet…and do laundry.  I admit it.

• Sophomore Year of College: “Stranger than Fiction”- Bad Religion

I started seriously getting into punk.  I followed a whim way too far and pulled back in the nick of time.  Actually I did it a few times before I learned.  I started to get frustrated with the backwards and convoluted process I call decision-making.  Luckily I tend to end up in the right place in spite of myself.

• This year (junior year so far): “Coral Fang”- The Distillers

Still perpetually confused, though things have been straightening out here and there.  Trying not to be so hesitant about everything.  That and I love Brody Dalle’s voice.

• Personal Theme Song of the Moment (subject to constant change): “Don’t Stop Me Now”- Queen

‘Cause I’m having a good time….I couldn’t resist.  This makes me so happy.

That’s me.  How about you?  What songs would you want on the soundtrack to your life?

Gimme the Juice

I finally got curious and checked out Pandora.  For a music junkie like me, that stuff is crack.  The good thing is I found about 5 new favorite bands.  The bad thing is having to reign in the impulse to go buy stacks of cds.  This is why my version of a dream shopping spree involves being set loose in a record store with a credit card.  Or a very large stack of cash.

Now I’m knee deep in the genius that is My Brain Hurts by Screeching Weasel.  The riff at the beginning of “Guest List” is the kind of thing that makes me want to marry whoever invented the guitar.  I’d forgotten how good plain snotty punk rock can be.  Let this be a lesson to me; too much Bad Religion will make you see the apocalypse everywhere.

I love new music, the way it fizzes through your veins like an electric current.  Between My Brain Hurts and “1,000,000 years BC” (The Misfits) there is happiness galore in my headspace right now.  What history paper?