There's not much to say about this one. I don't like the artist, I can't say I really like the song, but if I hear it on the radio while I'm driving, I'll crank up the volume and sing along. You guys... I'm sorry about this...it's "Pokerface" by Lady Gaga. You can stop being my friend now, I'll understand.
But since no one wants to hear that, here's Christopher Walken.
Fortunately, I keep finding out I don't actually know any of the words to this song, except for the chorus. I discovered this first when I tried to do the vocals for it on Rock Band in a friend's basement last summer (miserable failure ensued). So I'm not too far gone, right? Right?
I don't know that I like the word "hate." But I do know of a band I can't stand. There's a radio station back home that I had to stop listening to because they played this band too often. But it's not hatred, really. I just think they're annoying. And what I think was even more annoying was that one of their songs ended up as our "class song" my senior year in high school. I'm pretty sure the voting was rigged somehow. I was in choir that year (okay, I was in choir every year in high school. Sometimes multiple choirs in one semester), and for whatever reason we had to sing the class song at graduation. Actually, I found that slightly more bearable than the band's version, though I still never saw it as an appropriate song for a graduating class of high school students. But that's in the past. Anyway, the band is Green Day, and the song is "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)"
This one is easy for me, for some reason. Ask me to name my favorite song, I can't do it. Ask me for my favorite book, I'll struggle. But my favorite band? Panic! at the Disco. Almost no hesitation.
You guys, I love this band. I almost can't even explain why. I'm just crazy about them. I think part of what helped me was I started listening to both of their first CDs at around the same time. Most people who heard the first CD and really liked it were probably a little turned off by the second album because it was so different. They probably thought to themselves, "Well this isn't even the same band" and gave up after that. And who could blame those people? Technically it wasn't the same band. But I knew both albums at the same time. To me, A Fever You Can't Sweat Out was Panic, but Pretty. Odd. was also Panic. The albums each have their own distinct sound, and I appreciate both.
Because the three albums represent three different sounds, I'd like to share one song from each album.
From A Fever You Can't Sweat Out, you've probably heard "I Write Sins, Not Tragedies" or one of the other singles. But you may not have heard my favorite, "There's a Good Reason These Tables Are Numbered Honey, You Just Haven't Thought of It Yet." This is one of my driving tunes. I especially enjoy singing along word-for-word. It's good fun.
From Pretty. Odd. perhaps you've heard "Nine in the Afternoon" or maybe even one of my favorites, "Northern Downpour." I'm crazy about :"Northern Downpour." But maybe you're not familiar with "When the Day Met the Night." Also on my driving playlist, I listened to this one Tuesday night while driving towards the sunset. Absolutely beautiful.
And now for Vices and Virtues, the last CD I bought. I don't buy CDs very often, because I'm a broke college student and before that I was just broke. But I was excited about this one, and I went out to buy it the week it came out. It's different from both of the previous albums, but it's great. I'm not sure which songs from this album made it to the radio, but I'll just assume you haven't heard any and then share one I think is probably more obscure anyway. I used to think this one was beautiful. Sadly that magic has faded, but I do still love it. Here's "Trade Mistakes."
So there's a little sampler of my favorite band. Their sound has changed over the years, but my love for them has not.
I had to get a little creative with this one, because I honestly don't listen to music at night very much. There have been times when I listened to music to help me sleep, but white noise works so much better. Music just distracts me and keeps me up longer. So I'm sharing a lullaby my mother used to sing for me when I was little.
First I'm going to define, "can dance to." I'm not making any claims to a dancing ability here. I learned the Electric Slide in elementary school and thought I was pretty good at it, but that's the extent of my skill and I have long since forgotten that one anyway. So I'll be talking about a song with a beat that I can move to, not about something I can "dance" to and look good while doing so. That one doesn't exist.
I'm actually going to talk about couple of songs. So for the first one, does anybody remember Savage Garden? I was a fan of the band when I was younger, and then several years ago I learned the lead singer, Darren Hayes, had a solo career. I think the guy is actually still making music, which seems crazy to me. I haven't heard any of his recent stuff, but I like some of the older songs. Here's one I can't quite sit still to.
"Spin" by Darren Hayes
It's just fun, in my opinion. I listened to this one today while driving across Kansas, and I danced as much as possible while remaining in my seat. You guys get that, right? That's not just a me thing?
I heard this next one during my drive too. The lyrics aren't quite as light and enjoyable, but it does have a good beat. I believe my finger danced to this one today. Don't ask...
"Capital G" by Nine Inch Nails
(Use headphones at your own discretion; the lyrics aren't entirely clean)
This will be a kind of two-for-one, because this was the the song I had planned to use for my day 7. I forgot about it, of course, until several hours after I posted about "Crazy Train" instead. So here's a song that I know all the words to, but that also reminds me of a certain forbidden spring.
Freshman year, second semester. My roommate never went to bed before 2 or 3 in the morning. She stayed up watching television shows on her laptop without ever turning the light out. I had wanted to switch rooms after winter break, but I was too lazy to move all my stuff out and didn't know where I'd move to anyway, or who I'd room with. Then, just before spring break I heard about the empty room right next door. It sounded perfect. I could have a room all to myself, and I would still have to move my things out of the current room, but they wouldn't be going very far. I talked to my RA and she promised to talk to the RE for me. It looked very much like I would be getting that room.
Days passed. I spoke to my RA again, and she said one of the girls had never signed out of the room, though she was clearly living at home and had not been back to the dorms for quite some time. The room was abandoned, but not officially available. Spring break came and went, and I told myself it wouldn't be worth it now. Why move into another room for only a few weeks, even if it was just next door? I told myself to give up on the idea. But I couldn't.
One day I found out the empty room was unlocked. I moved some bedsheets and a pillow into the room in secret and began to sneak in every night to get to sleep at a decent hour, always remembering to wake up and sneak back to my own room at four or five so my roommate would only think I had been out late. Through a series of events that would take too much time to explain, the room became locked and I borrowed the key secretly so I could take my sheets back and give up my routine. Again, I could not. I kept the key and continued sneaking into the room until someone caught on and my RA confronted me.
I somehow discovered this song around that time, and now when I hear it I can almost feel that fleeting sense of freedom, the thrill of my secret, empty room. I called it my Room of Refuge.
"Paper Walls" by Yellowcard
Empty rooms tend to echo like crazy, so I would listen to music to shut out the noises from the hall. Most nights I just listened to this CD, and the title track was by far my favorite. It's a beautiful tale about breaking free from all the nonsense and getting back to the music, the reason the band started playing in the first place.
I loved that, but it meant something even more to me, I think. "Let's burn a hole so we can climb out of these paper walls and this empty house." I listened to this song during a time of escape, and I think my own dorm room felt more empty than my precious Room of Refuge. The Room of Refuge was the hole I had burned to get out. And I think that's why this song really stuck with me, and why I still know the lyrics to this day.
I was raised a Chiefs fan, with the exception of the one day we played the Dolphins during my "I'm going to be a marine biologist when I grow up" phase, in which case I rooted for Miami to the dismay of my mother. This year I'm also a fan of the Packers, mostly because I believe in Aaron Rodgers. But no matter who I'm rooting for (and it's usually my Chiefs), football has become an important part of my life.
There was a song I always heard parts of when I saw the games on television, and I never knew what it was. It was "that football song" to me and nothing more until Guitar Hero: World Tour finally washed away my ignorance. Someone played this song in my basement and I thought, "Hey, hey! It's that football song!"
"The Song they Always Play at Football Games"
Yes, that's the one. "Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne. I apologize sincerely for my 18-year ignorance. The effect is essentially irreversible. Though I now know the title and artist of this song, and that it's plenty popular without the help of football, I will never be able to hear this song without thinking of football. And that's okay with me, because football is America.
