All The City Lights

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“Helicopters,” Barenaked Ladies

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Day 9: A song about insecurity

"The Past is a Grotesque Animal," of Montreal

𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘐 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶
𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘐 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘯? 𝘐 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘰
...
𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳
𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘐 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶

Little Big League - "Boyish" (Official Audio) YouTube video by Run For Cover Records

The song has undergone quite a transformation from Zauner's original demo. The imagination it took to envision it as a lush, mournful ballad is all the more impressive when you hear the bitter, noise-rock incarnation she recorded with her previous band, Little Big League.

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Day 33

18. "Boyish"
Japanese Breakfast
2017
single ✅
PC ✅
NKC ✅

Many have attempted to to add a Wall of Sound to modern indie pop, but I'm not sure anyone has done so quite as successfully as Michelle Zauner.

*giving lol

It really is a contender for their best album—and most accessible, tbh!

It’s getting an HM from me (after fining the opening track 10 points).

When I first heard this in the depths of the ‘90s alternative revolution, I had real trouble believing it was 10 years old already.

🙏 👍

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Day 32

19. "I Might"
Wilco
2011
single ✅
PC ❌
NKC ❌

1st time I listened to THE WHOLE LOVE, I thought there was no way Track 2 could meet the high bar set by "Art of Almost", but by golly them Wilco boys did it! When that rubber-band bass kicks in...that's the good stuff.

The movie is technically set two years before Can recorded "Vitamin C," but I guessed something more like 42 years. Sounds more like a contemporary 2010s indie band than anything from the 1970s.

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Day 8: A song that feels ahead of its time

"Vitamin C," Can

When this popped up in INHERENT VICE, I said: "Weird of P.T. Anderson to shoehorn in an obviously anachronistic music cue. Who does he think he is, Tarantino?" But it's hardly anachronistic at all!

Well now I'm going to have to recalculate my full 50 HMs list, because this is definitely going in there. Bewitching in a way I'm not sure anyone since Kate Bush has been.

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Day 7: A song you would play for your younger self

"Starry Eyes," The Records

ME (bounding out of the time machine): There's a genre called power-pop & it's all the stuff you love and you're not gonna know it exists until you're in your 20s for some reason!

Full, by Meat Cube 5 track album

What, no indie rock? No, of course. I got you covered. Here is a slowcore EP by the Berkeley female fourpiece Meat Cube that's giving me "what if Snocaps but also Mazzy Star" for the moment. meatcube.bandcamp.com/album/full

Dogtooth, by Sunburnt Bones 12 track album

On the more freak-folk side of things, here is Oakland's Dogtooth. sunburntbonestgirl.bandcamp.com/album/dogtooth

Where We Go, by Jesse Appelman 11 track album

Oakland mandolinist Jesse Appelman released some progressive bluegrass that is scratching my Nickel Creek fandom itch. jesseappelman.bandcamp.com/album/where-...

Black Magic, by Casual 15 track album

What relatively new releases by #EastBay artists am I thinking about spending my #BandcampFriday allowance on? Glad you asked!

Hieroglyphics mainstay Casual has a new album out, and the preview track is a banger. casual1.bandcamp.com/album/black-...

#EastBayMusic

This one really spoke to me today.

And, really, a shoutout to Robert Sledge and Darren Jessee, who were still bringing it with perfectly fuzzed-out bass, crazy fills, belted harmonies, and a rough-edged magic that Folds just hasn't quite been able to replicate on his solo material.

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Day 31

20. "Michael Praytor, Five Years Later"
Ben Folds Five
2012
single ❌
PC ❌
NKC ❌

Ah, the rare Triple ❌ (my only one). The trio's reunion album is spotty, but about 50% of it is as strong as any of their '90s stuff. This is a classic Folds sad-sack character study.

Famous opening lines to Sonnet 43 from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE: "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways / I love thee to the depth and breadth and height / My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight / For the ends of being and ideal grace. / I love thee to the level of every day’s / Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light."

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“No rules. The only limit is our imagination.”

Read 📚 & Play🎶

English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning (whoever made the image left off the final G, oops), #botd in 1806.

so, the Carnegie Hall presale went kinda bonkers and they said "you guys wanna add a night 2?" which I am still getting my head around this being my life, but it's what happened, so we did. The Mountain Goats have added a second show at Carnegie Hall. Tickets here.

www.mountain-goats.com/tour

Sounds like a job for the Department of Government Efficiency!

This census data is for me the secret decoder ring of so much of what’s been going in the US in the last 20 years.

Downthread Kevin gave this context: “In 2006 and after, new home construction collapsed, and that's what moved it far from trend.”

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Day 6: A song you recognize after 2 bars

"Tougher Than the Rest," Bruce Springsteen

I took this prompt literally. Only after 2 bars! No instant recognition allowed! Bruce here has generic '80s drums for a bar & a half, but that synth pickup is so distinct.

Alan Jackson's Included on Jackson’s 1992 album A Lot about Livin’ (and a Little ’bout Love), the tune was released as a single on May 15, 1993—accompanied by a video of Jackson water-skiing in boots and a cowboy ha...

Source: www.atlantamagazine.com/news-culture...

It seems to confirm that Jackson has hated answering hoochie-coochie questions for 30 years.

CHOTINER: Just how hot is a hoochie coochie?

ALAN JACKSON: That was Jim McBride's line. As I understand it, he was referring to a county fair strip show.

CHOTINER: He told Atlanta magazine that in 2023. Do county fairs in Georgia have many strip shows?

JACKSON: Not on the main stage, certainly.

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Day 30

21. "Call Me Maybe"
Carly Rae Jepsen
2012
single ✅
PC ✅
NKC ✅

The fact that I can unabashedly love a song that contains the lyrics "before you came into my life I missed you so bad" I think speaks to just how wonderfully, joyfully infectious the thing is.

I mean, I had to look up the sheet music. No *human being* could figure out what's going on in those initial measures where it switches time signatures every dang bar.