chris 15-11 15 "as far as forever goes."
i'm not a gun.
we think as instruments.
[city centre offices].

moment @ 3:15

as much as i love songs that build and build and build and build, because usually the payoff is so insurmountable and godly, but what blew me away about this song was its anti-climax. the pressure and tension rises and rises and rises as plastic drums blend effortlessly into smack-dabbing snare punches and the fragile guitar noodling fills itself with more and more swells and angry slides and hammer-ons. yet when we get to the last 45 seconds of the song, back to nothing. it was all a set-up. nothing's that rewarding. i realized the non-traditional arc of this song on my way home from student teaching earlier this spring after having heard it once before on my way to student teaching. depending on how you listen, it can either told pump you up or completely destroy all of your ideas of self-worth, doing things that matter, etc. i'm not a gun put the realism into pretentious instrumental music like none other.

14 "in my arms."
mylo.
destroy rock & roll.
[rca].

"is my heart beating? yeah."

for someone that doesn't dance unless it's at a wedding or a !!!/out hud show (RIP BTW), it definitely takes a lot for a true dance track to get under my skin (in a good way) and make me boogey on down physically and cerebrally. there are fluorescents on the album cover for a reason - you cannot ignore this AND it's the post-ironic mid-late 00s, so cheesy-to-the-extreme is cool again. at first sure, just let the ignorable 2-step multi-layered keyboard riffs sit in the back of your head, but like lemon jelly at their best, a loop slowly rears its head and gets all up in your business until your ears become your world. but what lemon jelly don't do is audio pulsations, gyrations, sweat nations, groove salutations. your smile is so bright it's blinding my eyes, so i will drop down and bust a worm on your asses as i inwardly celebrate life, loss, and being ridiculously crazy in love.

13 "i'm moving on."
human television.
look at who you're talking to.
[gigantic].

"i've got sand in my eye."

i usually never wait so long for a song to get going. at least not a power-pop song. and especially not a power-pop song that recalls a lo-fi mashing of gin blossoms and the band from the adventures of pete & pete (they're called polaris, if you were wondering). and usually when songs take this long to get going i recommend that listeners make sure to observe and absorb the ambience that the song requires you to endure before getting and funky in the pants once it finally peaks all over your face. but this song...this flawless flawless song...you've got to turn up your stereo/headphones as loud as they'll go and LEAVE IT THERE. i know i know, that sounds very detroit rock city of me, but when the steady yet depressed snare leads you through a valley of reverb and squiggly bass, you will follow blindly. there's no better song to listen to with your eyes closed than this one in 2006. you will know when to open them. trust me. OPEN.

12 "this harness can't ride anything."
chin up chin up.
this harness can't ride anything.
[suicide squeeze].

"we are one-night stands that can't walk away."

this song and this band in general so often glide swiftly between the categorizations of "competent yet un-noteworthy" and "mind-blowingly introspective and literally makes life more worth living" that it's really worthless trying to decide which one they fit into the most. the fact is, on the best of days, this song was there for me to put on repeat and go back and forth on over and over and over again. and no matter how mediocre i ever decided it was, it still had everything i've ever wanted in a pop band: a cacophony of pretty guitar and keyboard sounds, strings coming in at just the right time, perplexing lyrics that are more worried about sticking out than fitting in with the music, and an overall sense of overwhelming joy and fuck-it-all-i'm-gonna-rejoice-regardless-ness.

11 "long distance call."
phoenix.
it's never been like that.
[astralwerks].

"your capital letters keep me asking for more."

if you ever were enough of a white sissy to listen to new radicals (or hell, even worse innocuous skinny arms-rock like jason mraz), there is finally a song that you can love and still be considered a hipster. and while i have no idea why pitchfork would put their stamp of approval on a song so loaded with priss you can literally feel the faux-hawk forming on your head, i do know that this song is too immaculate to ignore. the crispness of every sound so carefully placed into its little spot, it almost makes you think maybe this guy doesn't miss this chick as much as his words suggest. but while the afore-blogged boat song is the most fun to sing along to throughout the whole song, this song boasts the most belt-along-able CHORUS, and if you get yourself to go along with his croon, you'll find that even the most immaculate of humans can feel on the edge, but as implied, poise is always more important. keep yourself together and you won't fall apart. simple, right?

qualler should DEFINITELY be coming in with his pre-written blog post on his top 10 songs and a re-cap of his list from last year. FOR SERIOUS THIS TIME. and #s 10-6 are coming up soon soon soon...

p.s. today's cat picture comes as a suggestion courtesy of mr. harry bram stroker's spankula  ¶ posted by chris at 5:31 PM