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mg

lethargy ensues

by mg at 09:36 PM on November 21, 2001

Feeling so unmotivated right now. Got a lot of things on my mind, yet I’m unable to make the effort to express them. I don’t know why, but hopefully it passes. But, to ensure that something happens here (seeing as the rest of the staff is suffering through a similar malaise, or us just taking an early Thanksgiving break), I was looking through my folder of stuff I wrote but never posted. I happened upon this list of five songs I can’t live without, a meme started by Ipse Dixit way back on October 16th.

I actually wrote this list on October 19th, but I’m not sure why I never posted it at the time. Probably because every time I finalized my list of five songs, I thought of another one to add to the list. Kind of like that scene in High Fidelity when Cusack keeps calling back the hot indie chick who interviewed him to change the list of the list of five songs he can’t live without. Or maybe I never posted it because it sucked. Either way, here it is.

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Everyone is doing one of these five songs lists. I don’t normally jump on the meme bandwagon, but here goes:

I want to marry Liz Phair. Unfortunately, she is already married. Which is a shame, not just because I want her all for myself, but because her music was better (and more frequent) before she got married, back in the days she was living in her parent’s basement, depressed, alone, and prolific.

I guess it’s a sign of growing up and she is a couple years older than me (though I wouldn’t mind getting with that). It’s just, I can’t relate to her anymore. When Liz sings Everything you say is so obnoxious, funny, true and mean / I want to be your blowjob queen she is obviously singing it to me. When she sings about her kid, I know I’ll never have her.

Those lyrics are from Flower, a song I like a lot. But Divorce Song is a much better, uh, song. I don’t know why I like it, other than because in the ten years since I’ve first heard it, I still can’t decide if it’s a love song or a break up song.

Not enough bands, outside of West Virginia, play the singing saw. And not enough bands, outside of the 1,001 Arabian nights, play the wandering genie. And not enough bands, period, use the zanzithophone. The point I’m trying to make is that Neutral Milk Hotel is not your normal band. You’ll never see them on Total Request Live and for that, I love them.

If these list were about the five albums you couldn’t live without, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea would definitely be on it. But for some reason, the list of five songs I can’t live without doesn’t include a song from that album. Instead, my choice is Engine, one of the B-sides. Everything these guys have released is brilliant but this song is just a cut above; the lyrics are poetry and the melody is simple and haunting.

Franklin Bruno, lead singer of Nothing Painted Blue is a professor of Philosophy at UCLA. When NPB works, they can write really melodic, indie pop gems. When they don’t, well, it sounds pretty much like the music you’d expect from a college philosophy teacher’s band. Can’t f(x) is one of the songs that works. I mean, the title of the song is a math joke [f(x) = function], and the song is about premature ejaculation, Christ, brilliant is that?

Normally, I hate Christian music. I loathe it. For some reason, no matter what the style music it is, and even if I can’t hear the lyrics, I always KNOW I’m listening to a Christian band. I can’t put my finger on what it is, exactly, that differentiates Christian bands from, you know, good music, but there is something, and you can always tell.

But, see, Pedro the Lion are actually really good, so you wouldn’t know that they loved god and stuff. But they do. Even more importantly, they rock out pretty damn hard. Oh, I shouldn’t have said damn. Anyway, I could have picked just about any damn song off any of their albums, but Big Trucks is just about their most upbeat song and its about driving and patience, two things that don’t often go together.

Built to Spill are from Idaho. I don’t know why, but that makes me happy. I heard about BTS via a cover of their song Twin Falls by Ben Folds Five. Folds wrote about the song and said he’d happily spend his career as a BTS cover band. If I had any musical talent at all, I’d say the same thing. Twin Falls is a good song, but it’s not my favorite.

As with every other damn song on this list, I need to preface my choice by saying I could have chosen any one of a dozen other of their songs. But, the song I choose, You Were Right, is better, if only because it manages to cram quotes all of your favorite Classic Rock songs over a melody that’d have Neil Young and Mick Jagger rolling over in their graves.

That wasn’t so much a list as an essay. Did I ever mention I’ve got a problem keeping things short?

comments (8)

You know, I was actually thinking of posting something today, or soon, or something, because I figured that everybody else would be taking a break (something I wouldn't know how to do, or I would), so I would do in a pinch. Lethargy ensued. It's still on my mind though, and eventually I will come up with something...

by kd at November 21, 2001 10:42 PM


lethargy? general malaise? what is *it* exactly? it definitely seems to be going around...

glad you wrote, mg.

by miss b at November 22, 2001 12:31 AM


A very interesting list, too. And now a part of the archive. Thanks.

by C. Dodd Harris IV at November 22, 2001 1:45 AM


I'm amazed at the list actually. Considering the participants are webloggers (which, even though a pretty big community, it is small and specialized when compared to the rest of the world), the list hits so many different genres, artists, songs, and time periods. I didn't notice the same song popping up on more than one list. Really an interesting meme. Good job Dodd.

by mg at November 22, 2001 1:55 AM


I tried to think of something to write last night and hit a brick wall. Maybe I'll come up with something wildly witty later today when I have no access to a pc. Of course, I'll forget what I planned to write by the time I get home.

Awesome meme, Dodd. I'll have to jump on myself, I think. :)

by skits at November 22, 2001 11:48 AM


MG- I heard a few months ago that Liz Phair was single and in L.A. finishing up album number four.

Fret not, my lad.

by tori at December 8, 2001 8:51 PM


how is this a best of?

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by jeffrey chapman at October 9, 2005 8:11 PM