G - H - I

Alphabetical Music Tour

The GHI (pronounced [γi]) portion of the alphabet is very thin in my library. The J’s, on the other hand, are huge. This alphabetical quirk actually hides some interesting linguistic history, which I’ll comment on in the next post.

Garbage is awesome. I liked Garbage without much passion when they were popular in my high-school years (from 1996-2000), but later come onto them with a passion. You have to like Shirley Manson’s deep, bitter voice and they do pop just how I like it: dark, dark, dark. It’s great.

Ghoti Hook: Christian pop-punk. Fun, funny, and harmless. Basically like Blink 182, without the swearing. They put out an all-cover album called Songs We Didn’t Write which is excellent, particularly if you’re looking for a pop-punk rendition of “Walkin’ On Sunshine”.

Grandaddy is sci-fi indie rock. Their songs are about robots and satellites and asteroid miners, and everyone in them is SAD. Lots of (sad) keyboards and (sad) spacey vocals. I have the first two albums–after that they went for more typical pop, which I don’t like as much.

Greg Graffin, yes, that Greg Graffin, the lead singer of Bad Religion. He put out a solo album of folk songs, which basically sound like Bad Religion greatly slowed down. I like it better at the original speed.

Hank Williams III. He calls himself and his style “Hellbilly”, which pretty much sums it up.

Hot Hot Heat, more quirky indie pop. Hot Hot Heat is just fun music. Lyrically they cover the typical indie topics of breakups and self-involvement, but you’ll be enjoying their upbeat, cheery sound so much you won’t even care.

Based on their reputation, I should hate the Indigo Girls. They most get written up as hippie bull dykes, and my antipathy towards hippies is well-known. (Note the absence of the Grateful Dead above.) However, their music is actually really good, so long as their heart-in-hand earnestness doesn’t get away from them. When they make schmaltz, it’s truly awful: Power of Two, for example, or Southland in the Summer. But when they let loose with passion, they rock my soul: Fugitive, Pushing the NeedleToo Far, and the unparalleled trilogy off their first album: Kid Fears, Prince of Darkness, and Blood and Fire.

Iron and Wine. Simply the best country music being made today. He has a quiet, whispery voice that infects and destroys me. Destroys me in a good way.

Also-rans: Ghetto Boys (Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangster), Gob (a weird parody of Mr. Sandman), Goo Goo Dolls (Iris, of course, and don’t tell me you didn’t like it in high school, too), Greenday (SO overrated), Guttermouth, Hanne Boel (schmaltz), Hokus Pick (pop so happy it makes your gums bleed), Honor Society, Human Drama (super-sappy cover of Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart), Iggy Pop (awesome–why don’t I have more of this?), Interpol.

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E’s and F’s

Alphabetical Music Tour

Both the E’s and the F’s in my music collection are fairly thin and lacking in anything superlative, so this should go quickly.

The Eels are supposedly very good, but something about them drives me up the wall. Please tell me I’m not the only one.

Elliot Smith, heartthrob of melancholy indie girls everywhere, and the latest alternative superstar to go into Cobain-style retirement. Unlike the Eels, Smith actually lives up to his reputation, and Figure 8 in particular is an outstanding album. Also, self-inflicted stab wound to the heart? That’s hardcore.

Eminem covers the opposite end of the spectrum. Back when he got popular, I was determined to hate Eminem for all of the obvious reasons. I failed.

Five Iron Frenzy is a Christian ska band that I liked back in the day, and shockingly still like. They have a good mix of silly pop-punk and serious material, and they make the short list of explicitly Christian bands that I still like.

The Flaming Lips are good, but I’m not quite ecstatic about them.

With the Fraidy Cats we are truly stretching the limits of obscure. The Fraidy Cats were a local Christian hardcore-punk band from the music mecca of Greeley, Colorado. Click on that link to get an idea of what we’re dealing with here, then imagine what a bunch of Christian punk rockers raised in that environment would produce. Got that? Fortunately, the Fraidy Cats are way better than what you imagined.

Also-rans: Eddie Izzard (hilarious), Edward McCain (sappy), Elton John (horrid), Eve 6 (meh), Farofa Carioca (in Portuguese), Fiction Plane (who?), Filter (excellent; it’s a shame I only have one song), Frank Sinatra (classic; also a shame that I have only one song).

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Every D

Alphabetical Music Tour

I’m so far behind on my music blogging that I forced myself to give up new music today so that I could catch up. Therefore, let us quickly go through the D’s so that tomorrow I can listen to something new.

1. I have always thought of Damien Jurado as a poor man’s Pedro the Lion. That’s not entirely fair, as Damien is an excellent musician in his own right, but first impressions die hard.
2. Dandy Warhols sing the line I never thought you’d be a junkie because heroin is so passe, one of the best song lines EVAR.
3. Darrel Evans. CCM “worship” pop, back from my days as a megachurch drone. I almost skipped this, but then I thought, “If I can listen to Cradle of Filth, one album of Darrell Evans won’t kill me.” It did bore me, though.
4. Dave Matthews Band. Where did this come from? I swear I have no memory of ever buying or downloading this album. Honest.
5. David Bowie is, once again, so superlative that I can’t find much to say about him. Ziggy Stardust is one of rock’n'roll’s great albums.
6. Deftones rock. They were my favorite band for a long time, and I’m yet to hear anyone pull of melodious hardcore as well as they do.
7. Denali is a local Seattle band whose album I picked up after attending one of their shows. It’s sort of Portishead-ish, with a little harder edge. Good stuff.
8. Dido makes my heart melt. I usually hate sugary pop, but Dido is just bittersweet enough for me to adore it.
9. Dixie Chicks. I like the Dixie Chicks, despite being a (hold nose in the air in contempt) country band. Traditionally, I despise country, but we all have to make exceptions.
10. The Doors are also good (of course), but whenever I listen to them I can’t help but think that they would be much better if I were stoned.

And the also-rans, contributing one or two songs that I don’t have time to comment on: Danny Elfman, Dead Milkmen, Delirious, Deltron 3030, Descendents, Disciple, Dismember, Dolour, and Dr. Dre.

Tomorrow, on to the E’s.

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The Last of the C’s

Alphabetical Music Tour

I’ve gotten behind on my music blogging. This post will take care of the last two C’s, Crooked Fingers and The Cure.

I first saw Crooked Fingers at the Paradox in one of the most auspicious lineups I have ever chanced upon: Suffering and the Hideous Theives, Rainier Maria, Crooked Fingers, and Bright Eyes. I came primarily for Bright Eyes, having just become infatuated with Fevers and Mirrors, but was blown away by every band that night. I especially remember Eric Bachmann (Crooked Fingers’s lead), sporting a full beard and backed only by a bass and a cello, smoking a cigarette while playing his guitar and singing at the same time. Smoking isn’t allowed at the Paradox, but we were all so impressed that no one tried to stop him.

The Cure: what can I say? It took me a day and a half to listen to all of my Cure albums, a day and a half of pure joy. The Cure lies somehow at the heart of my musical tastes: if you take what I like about the Cure and translate it into death metal, you get Zao, if you translate it into singer-songwriter, you get Cat Power, if you translate it into indie synth-rock you get Xiu Xiu. Even though I came to The Cure somewhat late, I immediately recognized that it was precisely what I listen for. Unfortunately, I have no idea what to call that cureness that makes me like these very different bands for basically the same reason.

Last for this letter is Cursive. Indie rockers from the Midwest. They are good, but they don’t inspire me to superlatives.

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Oh Say Can You C

Alphabetical Music Tour

Forgive me, for I have punned.

I have listened to so much C music in the last two days that I hardly know where to begin. Therefore, I think my commentary will be a bit shorter.

Cake tops off the list. I don’t really like Cake, but I somehow managed to get three of their albums onto my hard drive. It’s just good enough that I don’t delete it. Mostly it’s just getting in my way before I get to Cat Power. You Are Free is so good that it’s the only album that I listened to twice on my way through, because I couldn’t let it go after just one pass.

Then Cave In an interesting hardcore-turned-indie band. Their early hardcore stuff is great, and their indie stuff is passable.

Next, however, is one of the crown jewels of my collection: Chagall Guevara. Not because it’s the best album musically (it’s not), but because it was the most ambitious and most ill-fated project of one of my early heroes, Steve Taylor, and is now devilishly hard to find in actual CD form. For the unwashed masses: Steve Taylor was a Christian musician who was effectively thrown out of Christian music for not coloring between the lines, who formed a short lived band with a name no one could pronounce with a bunch of other exiles and put out exactly one kickin’ record. Lyrically, these songs represent Taylor at his best (which is saying a lot, since Taylor was always a better lyricist than a singer), and one of my all-time favorite songs, Violent Blue .

One song by Chris LeDeux that has a long story behind it which I won’t tell here, then The Clash. I don’t know if there is any other band whose individual songs are so good but who grates me so continually in large quantities. I think I skipped more songs here than anywhere else so far, even though I made sure to listen to Rockin’ the Casbah, Rudie Can’t Fail, and Death or Glory.

Counting Crows contribute the next three albums. I never mention Counting Crows as one of my favorite bands, yet there were several songs from August and Everything After that I had to go back and listen to again.

The next band, however, is one that needs a bit of explanation. Cradle of Filth is black metal taken to its most absurd extreme: vocals that alternate between a banshee-like shriek and a gurgled growl, endless guitar riffs, and uber-Goth titles like Cruelty Brought Thee Orchids and Malice Through the Looking Glass. I don’t know if they take themselves seriously, but I mostly enjoy them as self-parody.

At last! The Cranberries finished up my day today, allowing me to finish this post and go home.

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Last of the B’s

Alphabetical Music Tour

I thought that I had finished with the B’s two days ago, but as I was beginning the C’s I realized that something was missing, namely, Cat Power. The lack of Cat Power in my collection reminded me that I still had a folder full of music that had been recovered off of my old hard drive and which needed to be re-named and resorted in my music library, which formed me to add two more B’s that had been tragically skipped: Beck and Bjork. I have little to coment on either of them because they’re good, but in a way that doesn’t inspire any particular eloquence in me.

The other remnants of the B’s were:

Botch, whom I came to late, first hearing them at their farewell show. My ears hurt for two days after that concert. It was great.

Brave Saint Saturn. My friend Jeff defines “space rock” as anything with more than one keyboard, and Brave Saint Saturn is definitely space rock. It’s also a spinoff of Christian ska uberstars Five Iron Frenzy.

Bright Eyes. Adolescent white middle-class pathos! Yesssss! It’s melodramatic and miserable and that’s why I love it.

Bruce Springsteen. I must confess that there were two albums (Born to Run and Darkness On the Edge of Town) here that I had never listened to until this marathon. Boy, was I missing out.

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Still slogging through the B’s

Alphabetical Music Tour

I went through a lot of artists over the last couple of days, all without getting out of the B’s. This is mostly because I had a whole bunch of artists with only one song in my collection, stuff I got from compilations and mix tapes and isolated downloads. So Ben Folds Five, Billy Idol, Blink 182, Bloodhound Gang, Blur, Bob Marley, and Bon Jovi all get short shrift. The only one of those that I miss not having more of is Ben Folds, since I really like what I’ve heard from him, but never made the effort to get more. Meh

Chris Jones is appalled that I don’t like the Beatles. I would point out that Jeremiah, who knows more about music than anybody I know, kind of agrees with me, but I don’t think it would do any good. My best defense is probably a full retreat: listening to Sgt. Pepper’s yesterday morning, I continued to enjoy it more than I thought I would, so perhaps I’m coming around.

After the Beatles we come to Blindside. I have the first two albums, as subsequent albums went in a direction I didn’t care for. Of them, the second is good, but the first is excellent, particularly if you like Swedish garage-band hardcore.

And the Blood Brothers. I have loved the Blood Brothers ever since I saw them open at Botch’s farewell show, and since then they have only gotten better.

Following that I have an album by Blues Traveler from back when “Run Around” was a hit single, which mostly just shows that you shouldn’t buy an album for a single song.

I finished up today with Bob Dylan, that other guy that I’m supposed to like but don’t. Except that I’m making a more serious revision of my opinion here than I did with the Beatles: there are some really good songs here. I only own one album in its entirety (Hard Rain), but that might need to be remedied.

That’s all for today. Tomorrow we hit Botch and Bright Eyes, which I’m looking forward to.

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Music: A’s and B’s

Alphabetical Music Tour

Continuing the alphabetical trip through my music collection from last week, today we start off with Atom and His Package. To understand it you should probably just listen to it: quirky punk-rock done on a synthesizer by a guy with a high, slightly squeaky voice. All of the songs are funny, but unlike a lot of novelty music Atom’s tunes are actually catchy and clever.

Then I sat through way too much Bad Religion. Bad Religion has many very good songs (Infected is, in fact, my favorite punk song of all time), but listening to five albums back to back is a bit monotonous.

Quickly through a few songs by Bauhaus that I picked up somewhere along the way.

And now the Beatles. I traditionally don’t like the Beatles, and all of the albums I have are bootlegs that Beatle-loving friends pushed on me. However, as I’m listening to Abbey Road right now, I’m enjoying it much more than I thought I would. Perhaps there’s something to the Fab Four that I haven’t grokked until now. Hrm.

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An Alphabetical Trip Through My Musical Collection: Zeroes and A’s

Alphabetical Music Tour

I recently decided to listen all the way through my music collection in alphabetical order. This may take a while, since my music collection has something like 300 hours of music in it, and I can only listen for about 6 hours a day. Nonetheless, it should be interesting (to me, at least), especially since there is a lot of music that I’ve gathered over the years that I don’t really listen to much anymore. Plus, my tastes have always been diverse and have wandered all over the map at different times. The result is an interesting mix.

We’re listening to all of this off of my computer, because almost every CD I’ve ever bought has been ripped to my drive, and I have lots of music that I own only in electronic form.

So here’s where I am:

Yesterday:

ASCII sorting means that non-alphabetic characters rise to the top, so the first on the list is 10,000 Maniacs MTV Unplugged. I’m not a huge fan of the Maniacs, but this is a beautiful album (their last with Natalie Merchant) hits all their high points. This earns its place on my hard drive.

Then A Perfect Circle Mer de Noms. It looks like I’m not putting “a” and “the” after the title, so A Perfect Circle comes here. And my “t” section will be very large.

Finally, a single song by Aerosmith and Abra Moore.

Today:

Lots and lots of AFI and Anti-Flag. They’re both decent punk bands, but I was never a great punk fan. I picked up most of these songs in college from my punk dormmates, who had hard drives stuffed full of this stuff and happily passed it around. At present it doesn’t get played much, but I don’t mind if these come up on shuffle.

And for the rest of today and tomorrow I’ll be soaking in Archenemy. Sweet, glorious death metal with long, complicated guitar solos and cookie monster vocals. Plus, the singer on many of their albums is a girl. That’s hardcore.

UPDATE:
I guess I underestimated how much music I could get through in a day. Archenemy is done, and I just finished Archers of Loaf. ::dreamy sigh:: I love quirky indie rock. Alas, my Archers collection is limited to a single mix CD an acquaintance made for me long ago, a situation which I hope to remedy soon-ish.

But next is Arvo Pärt. I enjoy everything about Arvo Part. His trancendental melodies. His liturgical themes. His beard. The umlaut in “Pärt”. If you aren’t yet listening to Pärt, you are a philistine. A philistine, I tell you!

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