This Is Just A Meta Mix On A Blog

Inspired by the return of one of my favorite TV shows, the hyper self-aware Community (whose Abed could be considered the patron saint of meta-humor) and the self-referring “Simple Song” on the new Shins album out this week, I’ve made a mix of my favorite meta-referencing songs. By this I mean songs that specifically reference themselves in the lyrics (stuff like “it goes like this, the fourth, the fifth”, “take it to the chorus” and “Second verse, same as the first verse” are out). I chose 20 of my favorite self-referencing songs for this mix, of which you can download / read each meta lyric below or listen to the mix on Spotify. If you can think of any good ones I missed, let me know in the comments. Cool. Cool cool cool.

MP3 The Shins – Simple Song

Well this is just a simple song / To say what you’ve done

MP3 Belle & Sebastian –  This Is Just A Modern Rock Song

This is just a modern rock song / This is just a tender affair / I count “three, four” and then we start to slow / Because a song has got to stop somewhere

MP3 David Bowie – Five Years

I think I saw you in an ice-cream parlour / Drinking milk shakes cold and long / Smiling and waving and looking so fine / Don’t think you knew you were in this song

MP3 Pulp – Something Changed

I wrote this song two hours before we met / I didn’t know your name or what you looked like yet

MP3 Carly Simon – You’re So Vain

You’re so vain / You probably think this song is about you

MP3 Wilco – Someone Else’s Song

I know it sounds like someone else’s song / From a long time ago

MP3 The Beatles – Only A Northern Song

If you’re listening to this song / You may think the chords are wrong / But they’re not / We just wrote them like that

MP3 Coldplay – Yellow

I came along / I wrote a song for you / And all the things you do / And it was called Yellow

MP3 Neil Young – Borrowed Tune

I’m singin’ this borrowed tune / I took from the Rolling Stones / Alone in this empty room / Too wasted to write my own

MP3 The Magic Numbers – This Is A Song

This is a song / and these are the words

MP3 Steely Dan – Deacon Blues

I cried when I wrote this song / Sue me if I play too long

MP3 Billy Bragg – A New England

I was twenty-one years when I wrote this song / I’m twenty two now but I won’t be long

MP3 The Postal Service – Such Great Heights

And when you scan the radio / I hope this song will guide you home

MP3 Leonard Cohen – Bird on a Wire

But I swear by this song / By all I have done wrong / I’ll make it up to you

MP3 Islands – This Is Not A Song

If this is just a song / then why do I find it so hard to move on

MP3 Okkervil River – Get Big

And once we get to the end of this song / then another will begin

MP3 The Magnetic Fields – I Think I Need A New Heart

‘Cause it all comes out wrong / Unless I put it in a song / So the radio plays / “I Think I Need a New Heart” / Just for you

MP3 Ted Leo & The Pharmacists – Hearts of Oak

I was whistling a new song to myself  / And it went, it went something like this one

MP3 Elton John – Your Song

My gift is my song / And this one’s for you

MP3 Weezer – Across The Sea

I’ve got your letter / You’ve got my song

Spotify Playlist: This Is Just A Meta Mix On Spotify

Boom! Boom boom, cha! (Vol. IV)

Early last year, I posted a mix of songs that used the most iconic and recognizable drum beat in pop music history, the Phil Spector-penned / Ronettes-performed “Be My Baby” intro. That led to two more mixes (which we lovingly call “Boom! Boom boom, cha!” after that striking drum sound) bringing the total up to about 60 songs worth of “Be My Baby” beats. Just when I thought I had exhausted the subject a new crop of songs from this year have started popping up using the beat, whether it be from the indie pop stylings of Cults and Pains of Being Pure At Heart or the dance-leaning Cut Copy and Lykke Li.

For volume IV of this mix, I’ve compiled 20 more songs with “Be My Baby”-inspired drum beats. Some of the tracks here use slightly different variations of the beat or feature the “boom, boom boom, cha!” in the middle of the song instead of the intro. I again have to thank commenters from the last post for pointing me in the direction of some of the tracks that made it on here. If there’s any more “Be My Baby” drum beats out there that I’ve missed, let me know in the comments. Enjoy!

MP3 The Ronettes – Be My Baby
MP3 Cults – Abducted
MP3 The Shins – Phantom Limb
MP3 La Sera – Never Come Around
MP3 The Kills – London Hates You
MP3 Mercury Rev – In A Funny Way
MP3 The Aislers Set – Fire Engines
MP3 Cut Copy – This Is All We’ve Got
MP3 Veronica Falls – Starry Eyes
MP3 Talulah Gosh – Just A Dream
MP3 Lykke Li – Sadness Is A Blessing
MP3 The Clientele – (I Want You) More Then Ever
MP3 Javelin – Mossy Woodland
MP3 Las Robertas – Street Feeling
MP3 The Concretes – Say Something New
MP3 Still Corners – Endless Summers
MP3 Vivian Girls – Tension
MP3 The Positions – Back To Me
MP3 The Legends – Your Song
MP3 The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Anne with an E

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If you can’t get enough “Be My Baby” drum beats, check out the first three mixes!

Download “Boom! Boom boom, cha!”
Download “Boom! Boom boom, cha! Redux”
Download “Boom! Boom boom, cha! (v3.0)”

Note: Okkervil River’s “Rider” from their new album I Am Very Far also uses the beat, but I didn’t want to include it prior to the album’s release.

50 Albums of the Decade

(photo by dcdead)

I told myself I wasn’t going to do a decades album list. I mean how can you really rank all your favorite albums over a period of ten years that isn’t even completed yet? Over the last couple of months though, I found myself slowly beginning to compile a list of my albums from the 00’s that I loved and I then I began chiseling the list down to around 50 albums. I guess my love for making lists got in the way of the logic and reasoning I had for not making a list. Also since, I started this blog around the middle of the decade I thought only fair that I share this list to acknowledge those great albums that I wasn’t around to write about or put into a fancy EOY list.

A few words of about this list, firstly, these are my personal favorites of the decade and not the end-all be-all of decade-end lists. I realize that some genres (ahem, hip hop) are being woefully underrepresented because of this. Secondably, I would have liked to do full-scale reviews for each album but life kept getting in the way so instead for each album I’ve linked reviews that I feel capture the spirit of the album (click the album cover to go to there). Scroll all the way down to see some albums that “just missed” and some per-year stats (if you want to know which year is best, it’s between ’02 and ’05). So without any further ado, here’s the top 50 albums of the decade according to me. Feel free to dispute or agree with my choices in the comments. Enjoy!

music for kids who can’t read good presents: 50 Albums Of The Decade

Key track: “Beautiful Dreamer”

Key track: “Two Weeks”

Key track: “Postcards in Italy”

Key track: “Hotel Yorba”

Key track: “Consolation Prizes”

Follow the jump to see the rest!

Beatles-esque Mix

It’s hard not to get caught up in Beatlemania this week. The complete set of Beatles Remastered albums are being released (stereo and mono) as well as the much-awaited game, Beatles: Rock Band.  There’s even rumors of the band finally being added to iTunes at tomorrow’s Apple music event. I think it goes without saying that The Beatles had a huge impact on my music development growing up. I was 14 years old when The Beatles 1 was released and I think that was the only album I listened to for an entire year. Eventually, I acquired all the Beatles albums and grew to love their entire body of work. To this day I can put on any of their albums and have a wave a nostalgia rush over me as I revisit some of the greatest songs every put on record.

Obviously, the Beatles’ influence on music has been extraordinary and their influence can be felt everywhere from the biggest pop artists to the most obscure of indie bands. Some tracks stand out to me though as having an instantly recognizable Beatles-esque sound. I’ve collected some of my favorite of these songs (with necessary context) for this mix. I know there’s hundreds more songs that could easily go on this and I encourage you to also list some of your favorite Beatles-sounding songs in the comments. If I get enough good suggestions I may even make a part two. Enjoy!

MP3 Belle & Sebastian – Step Into My Office, Baby

The Lads from Liverpool are an obvious influence on Belle & Sebastian and this is one of their most overtly Beatles-sounding songs. You can especially hear it in the harmonies on “my place at 9”.

MP3 The Shins – Saint Simon

This track is reminscent of a Paul McCartney composition from the strings (think “Yesterday”), to the harmonies, to the guitar part during bridge.

MP3 Oasis – Don’t Look Back In Anger

Oasis have long been accused of Beatles-copying, a fact which they haven’t tried to hide. Noel was quoted as saying that this song is like “something the Beatles might’ve done”. The opening piano chords are almost identical to “Imagine” and even some of the lyrics (“start a revolution from my bed”) reference John Lennon.

MP3 Wilco – My Darling

This track is, in my opinion, Wilco’s homage to the Fab Four. The drums are right out of “Hey Jude”, the mellotron has “Strawberry Fields Forever” written all over them, and the “ba ba ba’s” seem like their nod to the Beatles’ early work.

MP3 The Polyphonic Spree – Hold Me Now

In the press release for this song the band claimed that “‘Hold Me Now’ is like a condensed ‘A Day In the Life’ had the Beatles managed to fit in a profound romantic declaration for a jittery age.” I’m not sure about all that but the trumpets do sound straight out of the Magical Mystery Tour era.

MP3 of Montreal – Your Magic Is Working

The Beatles are one of Montreal’s most constant influences and you can especially tell on tracks like these that they were moved by the Beatles’ early work. The bouncy melodic pop is similar to many of the bands work circa ’64-’65 and the harmonies have a subtle “Here, There and Everywhere” feel to them.

MP3 Elliott Smith – Say Yes

Elliott Smith is another artist that was heavily influenced by the Liverpool quartet and the closing track on Either/Or is one of his most Beatles sounding songs. Notice how Smith holds out the line “and you see how it is” which is almost exactly like John Lennon does on “I am the Walrus”.

MP3 Franz Ferdinand – Eleanor Put Your Boots On

Franz Ferdinand seemed to be conciously aiming for a Beatles sound on this song, with a title that nods at “Eleanor Rigby” and a pretty piano melody similar to some of McCartney’s ballads.

MP3 The New Pornographers – The Bleeding Heart Show

The New Pornographers have always excelled at their multiple part vocals which is Beatles-esque in itself, but the end of this song in particular with it’s “hey-la’s” seems to be directly influenced by the coda of “Hello, Goodbye” (listen to them sequentially, you’ll see what I mean).

MP3 Midlake – Balloon Maker

Midlake’s first album draws from the warbly, psychedelic side of the later-era Beatles, and this song with it’s trumpets and marching drums, in particular, sounds like it could have been a Sgt. Pepper’s b-side.

MP3 Spoon – Black Like Me

This is one of Spoon’s prettiest and best songs. The symphonic chamber pop of the track feel can be linked to much of the Fab Four’s work and the drums, piano, and spiraling string crescendo of the climax are very reminiscent of “A Day In The Life”.

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Don’t forget to add your favorite Beatles-esque song in the comments. Happy Labor Day!

Best Music Videos of 2007

Here listed before you are hands-down the 22 best music videos of the year 2007. I’m not saying I watched every music video in 2007, but I’m just going to assume that all the other ones completely suck (for purposes of this list). I’m estimating it would take about an hour and a half to watch all these videos, but seriously, do you have anything better to do today? To make it easier though, I’ve embedded them all below. Also, except for the five at the end (which are the best) the order is completely random.

As you can tell by the list I like videos that use stop-motion, videos all done in one take, bright colors, interesting effects, Wes Anderson nods, changing t-shirts, ridiculously high drum cymbals, etc. As always, If you have any favorites videos from the year that you think I missed, make sure to leave it in the comments. I provided MP3s for some of the songs that you might not already have. The first three are embedded below but you will have to click through to see the whole list.

The Shins – Australia

Noah and the Whale – Five Years Time MP3

Patrick Wolf – The Magic Position

Click the link below to see the whole list including my top five!

The Thanksgiving Day Eve Mix (Gobble, Gobble)

Since tomorrow I’ll be dedicating most of my time to eating as much food as I can, I’m making a mix today that is so good it could last you even longer than all that leftover turkey and be just as satisfying. There’s a caption that explains what each song has to do with Thanksgiving, if you’re the curious type. Side note: my family decided that we’re all going to see Stranger Than Fiction tomorrow. Any good?

MP3 Azure Ray – November
MP3 The Shins – Young Pilgrims

Lest we forget the first thanksgiving when the Indians gave the Pilgrims corn and the Pilgrims introduced the Indians to Yellow Fever.

MP3 Talking Heads – Thank You For Sending Me An Angel
MP3 Ben Folds – You To Thank

Self-explanatory (Thanksgiving is all about being thankful and stuff.)

MP3 Green Day – Macy’s Day Parade

What’s Thanksgiving without marching bands and a giant inflatable turkey float.

MP3 Belle & Sebastian – Meat and Potatoes
MP3 Adam Sandler – The Thanksgiving Song (I love to eat turkey)

Food! This is by far the best part of Thanksgiving. Team Dark Meat!

MP3 The Decemberists – The Sporting Life

Cowboys or Buccaneers? “Oh, how they love the sporting life”

MP3 Flogging Molly – Black Friday Rule
MP3 The Beatles – Can’t Buy Me Love

The friday after thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year, named Black Friday because it would bring businesses out of the red (losses) and into the black (gains). I’ll be lining up at Circuit City this year, I hear that the first season of Entourage is only 15 dollars.

MP3 Sufjan Stevens – Hey Guys! It’s Christmas Time!

After Thanksgiving Weekend is over lights/wreaths/plastic snowman go up. It’s Christmas Time!

There you have it. I’m taking a short blogger vacation but check back in a few days. In the meantime, visit anyone on my sidebar, they’re all good. I’ve been reading Chromewaves a lot lately and they have a brand new design that looks pretty amazing. Make this thanksgiving a good one!