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
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
