Chris and Qualler's Top Songs Listulator
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Qualler 45-41
45. "The Tulips"
Bloc Party
Tulips EP [Dim Mak]
"this could be an opportunity if you promise to let it go, cuz you're the one that i love."
A tensed-up high-hat, ringing guitars, and subdued vocals all build together, swirling into a frantic ending. Ah, brit-pop at its finest.
44. "Random"
Lady Sovereign
EVertically Challenged EP [Chocolate Industries]
"well, i'm right thurr', nah tell a lie cuz i'm right there, right hurr', nah, right there, now get off your churr, i mean chair."
That other foreigner chick with the letters in her name may be the easiest comparison, but Lady Sovereign sticks it to crappy American hip-hop and raps circles around Chingy and Nelly and all those other crappy suburbanite craptastic cuh-rappers in this sing-along tune.
43. "The Soundless Dawn Came Alive As Cities Began to Mark the Horizon"
Red Sparowes
At the Soundless Dawn [Neurot]
moment: 1:51.
Literally the sound of the sun rising. Sometimes, as we all know from reading this blog, music can say so much more than words ever can. Here, the simple guitar lick keeps building over a steadily increasing in volume rhythm section.
42. "Gimme Trouble"
Adult.
Gimmme Trouble [Thrill Jockey]
"no apologies, excuses, this is just to be expected."
I absolutely HATED this band the first time I heard them. Then I started grooving to the ultra-creepy-synth that sounds like an evil zombie robot running out of batteries. And hot damn, those echoing vocals scare the crap out of me. But it still makes me want to dance.
41. "Heartbeat"
Annie
Anniemal [Big Beat]
"feel my heartbeat trembling to the beat like a melody."
Norwegian power! And oh how powerful Annie is to the Norwegians. This song absolutely shouldn't be great, but somehow the mournful sounding organs in the background combined with the slow grooving beat just kills me. And if The Blogulator were to do a Smellden-style "hottest chicks" list, she'd definitely show up on it. ¶ posted by Unknown at 4:37 PM 1 comments
Bloc Party
Tulips EP [Dim Mak]
"this could be an opportunity if you promise to let it go, cuz you're the one that i love."
A tensed-up high-hat, ringing guitars, and subdued vocals all build together, swirling into a frantic ending. Ah, brit-pop at its finest.
44. "Random"
Lady Sovereign
EVertically Challenged EP [Chocolate Industries]
"well, i'm right thurr', nah tell a lie cuz i'm right there, right hurr', nah, right there, now get off your churr, i mean chair."
That other foreigner chick with the letters in her name may be the easiest comparison, but Lady Sovereign sticks it to crappy American hip-hop and raps circles around Chingy and Nelly and all those other crappy suburbanite craptastic cuh-rappers in this sing-along tune.
43. "The Soundless Dawn Came Alive As Cities Began to Mark the Horizon"
Red Sparowes
At the Soundless Dawn [Neurot]
moment: 1:51.
Literally the sound of the sun rising. Sometimes, as we all know from reading this blog, music can say so much more than words ever can. Here, the simple guitar lick keeps building over a steadily increasing in volume rhythm section.
42. "Gimme Trouble"
Adult.
Gimmme Trouble [Thrill Jockey]
"no apologies, excuses, this is just to be expected."
I absolutely HATED this band the first time I heard them. Then I started grooving to the ultra-creepy-synth that sounds like an evil zombie robot running out of batteries. And hot damn, those echoing vocals scare the crap out of me. But it still makes me want to dance.
41. "Heartbeat"
Annie
Anniemal [Big Beat]
"feel my heartbeat trembling to the beat like a melody."
Norwegian power! And oh how powerful Annie is to the Norwegians. This song absolutely shouldn't be great, but somehow the mournful sounding organs in the background combined with the slow grooving beat just kills me. And if The Blogulator were to do a Smellden-style "hottest chicks" list, she'd definitely show up on it. ¶ posted by Unknown at 4:37 PM 1 comments
Sunday, January 29, 2006
chris 50-46
i look forward to doing this every year and now that i don't have to deal with the character limit of an aol instant messenger profile, prepare yourselves for the best top 50 songs countdown yet. so without further ado...
50 "empire."
treasure state.
migration.
[woodson lateral].
"why can't we just talk about the things that we don't talk about?"
i find it fitting that we start off this countdown with a take on a subgenre of music that has been following me since my real obsession with music first took hold of me. treasure state are one of the three or four post-midwest-emocore bands in existence today. they're actually from washington, but the sparkling neverending guitar lines that recall joan of arc, the earnest belted-out bassline and vocal anti-harmonies that recall das tpr, all the familiarities are firmly in place...but the difference is, in every breath that recalls hopelessness and giving up, it transcends beyond all of that because as they sing, "we needed it." and now it's time to push the fuck on.
49 "reunite on ice."
blood on the wall.
awesomer.
[the social registry].
"you gotta learn how to whisper before you shout, then you can be alone."
musical onomatopoeia is way better than actual onomatopoeia. the guitar actually sounds like it's on ice. there's ice fucking encapsulating it. constantly encapsulating and then the breakdown feels like it's getting crushed, cracking, and then freezing back into one piece again. and his voice sounds like he's the victim of all this tortured coldness. but as jigsaw has less subtly taught us, sometimes the victim is the one hurting himself, isn't he?
48 "the negatives..."
hood.
outside closer.
[domino].
"reassure me that life won't leave me behind, that songs aren't dead inside."
if qualler can make up genres, then so can i. this is dramatronica. there is dying and there is dancing. and i want to do both at the same time, and not in the same kind of way that i dance to the killers. with a quartet of strings knitting together broken beats and a broken body, falling and rising faster than waves at a seaside funeral. if we must die unhappy, we must die unhappy and pounding the earth with resistance.
47 "so begins our alabee."
of montreal.
the sunlandic twins.
[polyvinyl].
"i never want to be your little friendly abject failure."
you know that muppet babies episode where they shrink themselves with their imaginations and travel through scooter's body to try to figure out how to cure his cold? i mean when i was little, i used my imagination but never to such a degree that expressed my love for my friends such as the muppet babies did. they loved him and did not want to fail him as much kevin barnes loves and doesn't want to fail whoever he's singing to here. the "wuh-oh"s are the chorus of muppets calling out in solidarity and the bouncy skittery keyboards and electric drums propel the crew through the body to beat that fucking sickness.
46 "everybody sings."
supersystem.
always never again.
[touch & go].
"everyone cannot connect to each other."
if you got hit upside the head with a big chunk of plastic, would you think, why plastic? or would you just reel in pain and not think twice about the source of the pain? probably a little of both, depending on the velocity of the chunk of plastic. and the brightness/boldness of the plastic's coloration would probably come into play, as would the degree to which you could see the plastic before it came in contact with your skull. was it in your periphery? right smack in front of your dumb ass? were you in the dark? all of these are factors to consider when being hit with a synthetic bombshell (both figuratively and literally).
don't forget to talk to us on aim if you want to hear these songs!
¶ posted by chris at 10:06 PM 0 comments
50 "empire."treasure state.
migration.
[woodson lateral].
"why can't we just talk about the things that we don't talk about?"
i find it fitting that we start off this countdown with a take on a subgenre of music that has been following me since my real obsession with music first took hold of me. treasure state are one of the three or four post-midwest-emocore bands in existence today. they're actually from washington, but the sparkling neverending guitar lines that recall joan of arc, the earnest belted-out bassline and vocal anti-harmonies that recall das tpr, all the familiarities are firmly in place...but the difference is, in every breath that recalls hopelessness and giving up, it transcends beyond all of that because as they sing, "we needed it." and now it's time to push the fuck on.
49 "reunite on ice."
blood on the wall.
awesomer.
[the social registry].
"you gotta learn how to whisper before you shout, then you can be alone."
musical onomatopoeia is way better than actual onomatopoeia. the guitar actually sounds like it's on ice. there's ice fucking encapsulating it. constantly encapsulating and then the breakdown feels like it's getting crushed, cracking, and then freezing back into one piece again. and his voice sounds like he's the victim of all this tortured coldness. but as jigsaw has less subtly taught us, sometimes the victim is the one hurting himself, isn't he?
48 "the negatives..."
hood.
outside closer.
[domino].
"reassure me that life won't leave me behind, that songs aren't dead inside."
if qualler can make up genres, then so can i. this is dramatronica. there is dying and there is dancing. and i want to do both at the same time, and not in the same kind of way that i dance to the killers. with a quartet of strings knitting together broken beats and a broken body, falling and rising faster than waves at a seaside funeral. if we must die unhappy, we must die unhappy and pounding the earth with resistance.
47 "so begins our alabee."
of montreal.
the sunlandic twins.
[polyvinyl].
"i never want to be your little friendly abject failure."
you know that muppet babies episode where they shrink themselves with their imaginations and travel through scooter's body to try to figure out how to cure his cold? i mean when i was little, i used my imagination but never to such a degree that expressed my love for my friends such as the muppet babies did. they loved him and did not want to fail him as much kevin barnes loves and doesn't want to fail whoever he's singing to here. the "wuh-oh"s are the chorus of muppets calling out in solidarity and the bouncy skittery keyboards and electric drums propel the crew through the body to beat that fucking sickness.
46 "everybody sings."
supersystem.
always never again.
[touch & go].
"everyone cannot connect to each other."
if you got hit upside the head with a big chunk of plastic, would you think, why plastic? or would you just reel in pain and not think twice about the source of the pain? probably a little of both, depending on the velocity of the chunk of plastic. and the brightness/boldness of the plastic's coloration would probably come into play, as would the degree to which you could see the plastic before it came in contact with your skull. was it in your periphery? right smack in front of your dumb ass? were you in the dark? all of these are factors to consider when being hit with a synthetic bombshell (both figuratively and literally).
don't forget to talk to us on aim if you want to hear these songs!
¶ posted by chris at 10:06 PM 0 comments
Qualler 50-46
50. "This Year"
The Mountain Goats
The Sunset Tree [4AD]
"i am gonna make it through this year if it kills me."
A simple piano riff building over the same guitar riff built over the same bass riff. Must be a boring, straight-forward piece of crap, eh? Doh, not at all. Simple, uplifting, and beautiful. Try to make it through this song without letting it kill you.
49. "City of Quartz"
Marianne Faithfull
Before the Poison [Naive]
"evil dancing through fire. whore of babylon. world famous clear ivory tower, longing for something numb."
Brigitte and I heard this song together for the first time sitting in my car, waiting outside Chris' house, drifting into sleep, and we both enjoyed the most peaceful/messed up lullabye of 2005. Marianne Faithfull's sounds like a peaceful witch having visceral sex with a music box while snow falls in the window outside.
48. "Brothers on a Hotel Bed"
Death Cab for Cutie
Plans [Atlantic]
"you may tire of me as our december sun is setting, because i'm not who i used to be."
Although Plans was in a whole as disappointing as we all expected it to be, somehow this song made it through, a mournful coda to the title track to their beloved 2003 breakthrough Transatlanticism. This is one of the few tracks where the lyrics don't make me want to throw up in my mouth a little bit, and the thick and affecting production makes you almost forget that this album is pretty much free of any meaningful guitar work.
47. "Cold as Hell" (ft. Beans)
Gheslian Poirier
Breakupdown [Chocolate Industries]
"with the clarity of a black cat on a white sofa, this shit is over."
Chilly, robotic sounding electro-hop (yes, I think I made that word up) beats are the perfect complement to Beans' jittery, dynamic rapping style. Check that synth and try not to do the electric worm on the dance floor.
46. "Never Win"
Fischerspooner
Odyssey [Capitol]
"if i was not me, i would hate me too."
Man, 2005 was all about the beginning of inDisco (indie + disco! Ha, I'm clever.) Fischerspooner's art-pop-dance-rock song goes down best blasting from your car stereo with everybody singing along the unforgettably catchy chorus and vocal breakdown. Bitter break-up songs have never been so suitable for the dance floor. ¶ posted by Unknown at 7:50 PM 0 comments
The Mountain Goats
The Sunset Tree [4AD]
"i am gonna make it through this year if it kills me."
A simple piano riff building over the same guitar riff built over the same bass riff. Must be a boring, straight-forward piece of crap, eh? Doh, not at all. Simple, uplifting, and beautiful. Try to make it through this song without letting it kill you.
49. "City of Quartz"
Marianne Faithfull
Before the Poison [Naive]
"evil dancing through fire. whore of babylon. world famous clear ivory tower, longing for something numb."
Brigitte and I heard this song together for the first time sitting in my car, waiting outside Chris' house, drifting into sleep, and we both enjoyed the most peaceful/messed up lullabye of 2005. Marianne Faithfull's sounds like a peaceful witch having visceral sex with a music box while snow falls in the window outside.
48. "Brothers on a Hotel Bed"
Death Cab for Cutie
Plans [Atlantic]
"you may tire of me as our december sun is setting, because i'm not who i used to be."
Although Plans was in a whole as disappointing as we all expected it to be, somehow this song made it through, a mournful coda to the title track to their beloved 2003 breakthrough Transatlanticism. This is one of the few tracks where the lyrics don't make me want to throw up in my mouth a little bit, and the thick and affecting production makes you almost forget that this album is pretty much free of any meaningful guitar work.
47. "Cold as Hell" (ft. Beans)
Gheslian Poirier
Breakupdown [Chocolate Industries]
"with the clarity of a black cat on a white sofa, this shit is over."
Chilly, robotic sounding electro-hop (yes, I think I made that word up) beats are the perfect complement to Beans' jittery, dynamic rapping style. Check that synth and try not to do the electric worm on the dance floor.
46. "Never Win"
Fischerspooner
Odyssey [Capitol]
"if i was not me, i would hate me too."
Man, 2005 was all about the beginning of inDisco (indie + disco! Ha, I'm clever.) Fischerspooner's art-pop-dance-rock song goes down best blasting from your car stereo with everybody singing along the unforgettably catchy chorus and vocal breakdown. Bitter break-up songs have never been so suitable for the dance floor. ¶ posted by Unknown at 7:50 PM 0 comments
