the songs that just stay on Draco
There's a bunch of songs that I find that I just automatically keep on my iPod (which I refresh the songs on at least once a week, sometimes more often - it's only a gig and I never have that many songs on it, ever - on shuffle the same songs come up way too often for that). I was going to do a "top whatever many songs of the year" even though almost none of them actually came out this year. They're just the songs that kicked my ass so hard the first time I heard them, and continue to kick my ass the hundredth time, that I'm always happy when they come up even if I've already heard it today. Most of them I never skip. Wish I was a proper music blog so I could link the tracks.
Gnarls Barkley - "Go Go Gadget Gospel"
No fucking kidding. One of the most devastating album openers I've heard in a while - guaranteed to get the pulse pounding, and Cee-Lo getting his churchin' voice on. After eight months, the BPM isn't as insane as it seemed at first, but it's still crazy.
Cee-Lo - "Closet Freak"
Good lord. Downloaded at random, and I couldn't decide whether to melt, scream, come, or laugh. I settled for a combination of the four. One of the funkiest songs I've heard in my lifetime of seeking out funky songs. Cee-Lo, marry me.
David Bowie - "We Prick You"
Just so many layers - lyrical meanings and double-entendres, freaky sound effects - almost every single note in this song is bent, shattered, twisted, run backwards, etc. Brian Eno must think that making records with David Bowie is like being a kid in a candy shop.
Deee-Lite! - "Somebody", "Bring Me Your Love", "River of Freedom"
The trilogy of the evolution of house music into something... else. My ultimate fantasy soundtrack to my ultimate fantasy gay nightclub - in an orbital space station hotel ballroom. Lady Miss Kier has one of the best voices in the universe and she was going through some weird personal shit when she wrote and performed this. Plus, there's Bootsy Collins, and who doesn't love Bootsy?
The Beta Band - "Assessment", "Life", "Dry The Rain", "B+A", "Space", "Easy"
This is a romance, y'all. Yes, I'm lame and behind the times - I always have been. It took me years and years to finally explore this band after being really turned inside out after hearing "Dry The Rain" in the fucking GARDEN STATE credits. Unfortunately a lot of their music is too low-key to be good as iPod music, when I'm usually trying to keep my energy levels high so I can walk quickly, or keep from becoming psychotically bored while waiting for the bus. And much like the first two entries, this leads naturally into the next.
King Biscuit Time - "Kwangchow"
Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm going to buy this. Right now. This was a preview MP3 on someone's blog and it ties with "Closet Freak" as my favorite new song of the year (I think it's new anyway). So simple, beautiful, and funky. Lacks the weight of the Betas, but that's neither good nor bad.
Bis - "Chicago"
From that album that's so depressing that I only listened to it twice when I first bought it, years ago, and now I'm easing myself back in, a track at a time. It's shockingly awesome, especially since I feel that this album is the younger, sassier sister of Duran Duran's Astronaut. Bis is heavily influenced by Duran Duran; now it seems that Duran Duran is heavily influenced by Bis. It combines to form a shiny, hard disco carapace on complicated sex and longing and alienation. Niiiiice.
Thomas Dolby - "Leipzig" and "Airwaves"
This used to be the troika of "Dissidents", "I Scare Myself", and "She Blinded Me With Science". "Leipzig" is particularly beloved on those gray mornings on my way to work - the song's about looking at the sky and just wanting to take off into it like a gull. Dinner's in the microwave, sweetie is a line as chilling as anything Pink Floyd ever wrote.
Notorious B.I.G. - "Hypnotize"
Watching BIGGIE & TUPAC set this off - when this song came on I actually began to cry a little. It's a rather vapid song lyrically (though I do like the line "Your daughter's tied up in a Brooklyn basement"), but the groove is relentless.
The Good, The Bad, and the Queen project - "Herculean"
Other best song of the year. Tony Allen got me dancin', too - other people use drum machines to achieve what Tony Allen just does. Great Damon Albarn lyric and vocal, too. Simple and wonderful.
Lemon Jelly - "'79 a.k.a The Shouty Track"
I had been waiting for the song that was even more brilliant than "Nice Weather For Ducks" and here it is. Fatboy Slim, gnash your teeth in rage - this is how to do a simple, repetitive dance track without using the exact same structure every goddamn time. Another song guaranteed to get the pulse racing. I wish Lemon Jelly would tour here.
Outkast - "Chronomentrophobia"
Hanging by a thread - I am so mad at this song, which is poorly structured and not long enough, even though it's obvious that Andre 3000 wrote a groove so devastating that he couldn't think of any more lyrics to croon, and then began to rap about something completely unrelated, and then got bored after twelve lines or so. But the groove - ah, the groove.
Lots of other tracks have come and gone but these ones tend to get stuck on there.
How about you?
Gnarls Barkley - "Go Go Gadget Gospel"
No fucking kidding. One of the most devastating album openers I've heard in a while - guaranteed to get the pulse pounding, and Cee-Lo getting his churchin' voice on. After eight months, the BPM isn't as insane as it seemed at first, but it's still crazy.
Cee-Lo - "Closet Freak"
Good lord. Downloaded at random, and I couldn't decide whether to melt, scream, come, or laugh. I settled for a combination of the four. One of the funkiest songs I've heard in my lifetime of seeking out funky songs. Cee-Lo, marry me.
David Bowie - "We Prick You"
Just so many layers - lyrical meanings and double-entendres, freaky sound effects - almost every single note in this song is bent, shattered, twisted, run backwards, etc. Brian Eno must think that making records with David Bowie is like being a kid in a candy shop.
Deee-Lite! - "Somebody", "Bring Me Your Love", "River of Freedom"
The trilogy of the evolution of house music into something... else. My ultimate fantasy soundtrack to my ultimate fantasy gay nightclub - in an orbital space station hotel ballroom. Lady Miss Kier has one of the best voices in the universe and she was going through some weird personal shit when she wrote and performed this. Plus, there's Bootsy Collins, and who doesn't love Bootsy?
The Beta Band - "Assessment", "Life", "Dry The Rain", "B+A", "Space", "Easy"
This is a romance, y'all. Yes, I'm lame and behind the times - I always have been. It took me years and years to finally explore this band after being really turned inside out after hearing "Dry The Rain" in the fucking GARDEN STATE credits. Unfortunately a lot of their music is too low-key to be good as iPod music, when I'm usually trying to keep my energy levels high so I can walk quickly, or keep from becoming psychotically bored while waiting for the bus. And much like the first two entries, this leads naturally into the next.
King Biscuit Time - "Kwangchow"
Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm going to buy this. Right now. This was a preview MP3 on someone's blog and it ties with "Closet Freak" as my favorite new song of the year (I think it's new anyway). So simple, beautiful, and funky. Lacks the weight of the Betas, but that's neither good nor bad.
Bis - "Chicago"
From that album that's so depressing that I only listened to it twice when I first bought it, years ago, and now I'm easing myself back in, a track at a time. It's shockingly awesome, especially since I feel that this album is the younger, sassier sister of Duran Duran's Astronaut. Bis is heavily influenced by Duran Duran; now it seems that Duran Duran is heavily influenced by Bis. It combines to form a shiny, hard disco carapace on complicated sex and longing and alienation. Niiiiice.
Thomas Dolby - "Leipzig" and "Airwaves"
This used to be the troika of "Dissidents", "I Scare Myself", and "She Blinded Me With Science". "Leipzig" is particularly beloved on those gray mornings on my way to work - the song's about looking at the sky and just wanting to take off into it like a gull. Dinner's in the microwave, sweetie is a line as chilling as anything Pink Floyd ever wrote.
Notorious B.I.G. - "Hypnotize"
Watching BIGGIE & TUPAC set this off - when this song came on I actually began to cry a little. It's a rather vapid song lyrically (though I do like the line "Your daughter's tied up in a Brooklyn basement"), but the groove is relentless.
The Good, The Bad, and the Queen project - "Herculean"
Other best song of the year. Tony Allen got me dancin', too - other people use drum machines to achieve what Tony Allen just does. Great Damon Albarn lyric and vocal, too. Simple and wonderful.
Lemon Jelly - "'79 a.k.a The Shouty Track"
I had been waiting for the song that was even more brilliant than "Nice Weather For Ducks" and here it is. Fatboy Slim, gnash your teeth in rage - this is how to do a simple, repetitive dance track without using the exact same structure every goddamn time. Another song guaranteed to get the pulse racing. I wish Lemon Jelly would tour here.
Outkast - "Chronomentrophobia"
Hanging by a thread - I am so mad at this song, which is poorly structured and not long enough, even though it's obvious that Andre 3000 wrote a groove so devastating that he couldn't think of any more lyrics to croon, and then began to rap about something completely unrelated, and then got bored after twelve lines or so. But the groove - ah, the groove.
Lots of other tracks have come and gone but these ones tend to get stuck on there.
How about you?