As promised, my favorite songs of 2012. Some of you may rightly ask, "But Jum, how can you remember what songs you heard for the first time, now that's been over a year ago, and in some cases close to two?" And I would respond, "Because, bro, I keep playlists of all the songs I downloaded for a given year, for ease of reference. We can go back to 2007 and play this game if we want to. Now stop being an asshole and read the blog post."
LCD Soundsystem- Daft Punk is Playing at My House
Everyone
has that fantasy at being at a concert, and the band calls you onstage
from the crowd to play an instrument during one of your favorite jams,
right? That's a totally normal thing that we all do? OK good. One of my
fantasies is that LCD Soundsystem brings me up for the part that starts
around the 2:52 mark of this song, and I rock the shit out of the
cowbell. Actually, I'm not 100% sure that it's even a cowbell, it
could be any number of percussion pieces I'm unfamiliar with....maybe this is why I'll never get
called onstage to play it.
Carly Rae Jepsen- Call Me Maybe
Scene:
2012 College World Series. Sometime in the early evening, after we'd
been boozing most of the day. Gangel, Addy, and I are talking to some
21-year-old-girls, friends of Emily's, and it comes up in conversation
that I'd never heard 'Call Me Maybe' before, even though it had been
taking over the planet for like five months already. Everyone has a good laugh at my expense.
Cut to 10 minutes later. Everyone is still making fun of me. OK guys, I get it.
Cut to 5 minutes later. Someone finally produced the song on their phone, and I'm listening to it.
Cut to 3 minutes later. NOW I KNOW WHAT ALL THE FUSS IS ABOUT.
Cut to 3 days later. I've downloaded the song and listened to it 30 times already.
EPMD- Headbanger
RZA- Grits
I
combined these two because I had the same exact thought during the
first time I heard each of these songs: Welp, time to update my all-time top 100
rap songs list. (For the record, 'Grits' clocks in at #74, and
'Headbanger' shot all the way up to #49. I know you totally care.)
I
picked up the RZA song when I fell in a Wu-Tang rabbit hole on the
internet one day, and I picked up EPMD when I visited Alfonso &
Katie in Chicago. This album was playing basically right when I walked in the door, so
introductions went something like "Heyyy! Good to see you! Hugs all
around, yada yada, meet my friends Jud and CK.....hey, what the hell
song is playing right now? It's FANTASTIC!"
Here's why
this is one of the (many) reasons I love Katie & Alfonso: They
knew they had company coming over, including two people they'd never met
before. Perhaps the introductory mood music would be something classy?
Maybe some light instrumentals? Fuck no, bitch, we got some EPMD fo' dat ass. Keepin' it real.
Animal Collective- My Girls
For me, Animal Collective is like the music equivalent of the movie Eraserhead, or putting peanut butter on hamburgers. Super weird, and not usually my style, but I can dig it.
MC5- Kick Out the Jams
Real
quick, off the top of my head-- and I'd like to hear your thoughts on
this-- the best opening lines to a song in music history:
1. "That's why I fucked yo' bitch, you fat mutha fucka!"
2. "Right now, right now, right now...it's time to.....KICK OUT THE JAMS MOTHER FUCKERS!"
3. "When I met you last night babaaayyyyy....before you opened up yo' gap...."
Pulp- Common People
Whenever I listen to Brit pop/rock, it makes me want to smoke a bunch of cigarettes. I can't be alone on this one. Since we're doing quick top 3 lists off the top of our heads here, here's the top 3 activities that make me want to house a carton of smokes:
1. Watching Mad Men
2. Listening to dirty British music
3. Talking to manly men about manly things, while doing manly activities that require the use of both your hands; like complaining about your wife while working on a car engine, so the cigarette has to balance between your lips and it bounces when you talk. Obviously I don't have much experience with this one, as I never do manly things, but you get the point.
(Side
note: I have never been anywhere close to a smoker, but I was usually
good for at least a couple Donnies a year, during various social situations
wherein I had consumed at least 20 beers and it seemed like the thing to
do. But in this week's edition of "Damn, I'm getting older", I have
absolutely no recollection of when my last cigarette was. At all. And I
remember everything. If I had to venture a guess, I'd say during
Christmas Break 2009, the night we stayed out partying until 6am so I
got locked out of my parents' house and had to sleep on the Zidon's
couch. But I'm really not sure. If anybody can document me smoking a
cigarette since that date, please help me out, this has been driving me
nuts lately.)
Color Me Badd- All 4 Love
I can't
listen to this song without singing along, and I like to think I'm at
least a B+ at knocking out all four parts, but I can't be sure. I'm kinda like the Serpico of singing along to pop songs, in that I get in too deep, until I think that I really am one of the members of Color Me Badd or the Jackson 5 or whoever it may be.
Teens always enjoys my performances, so I told her I was going to sing
this to her at our wedding. Of course this didn't happen, so you could
say that this was technically the very first lie of our marriage.
Here's to the first of many! Cheers!
AC/DC- If You Want Blood (You Got It)
Like
every other 15-year-old white dude on the planet at one point, I owned the AC/DC Live CD,
and I loved every song on it. But at the same time, I didn't ever try to
listen to any of AC/DC's other songs. I wore that CD out....but I never
made a single attempt to expand my library. But ever since then, roughly
once a year or so through various avenues, I'll stumble into a new AC/DC
song, it invariably rocks my dick off, and I'll kick myself for not
having made an attempt to hear it years ago. You keep on rocking to the
live version of 'Who Made Who' though, Jum. Keep fighting the good
fight.
Rose Royce- I Wanna Get Next to You
Lists that this song would make the top 5 of:
- Songs I'd like to make a baby to
- Songs that make me feel like a black guy in his mid-50s
- Songs that make me want to make a baby WITH a black guy in his mid-50s
The Rapture- How Deep is Your Love?
The only thing keeping this from being a great, great song, is the line first heard at the 1:35 mark, and repeated throughout the song. Tell me you don't think of 'The Thong Song' when you hear that. "Let me see that thonnnnnngggggg!" From there, my brain starts thinking about Will Ferrell as Robert Goulet singing Thong Song, and now we're off to the races. Pretty soon three minutes have gone by, and I haven't been paying attention to the lecture at hand. Other than that, it's awesome.
