Tag Archives: Spoon
Kyle’s Favorite 100 Songs: 100-91
Here’s the start of my list where I countdown my favorite one hundred songs, starting with numbers 100-91.
100. The Shins- New Slang
“Gold teeth and a curse for this town/ Were all in my mouth/ Only I don’t know how/ They got out dear”
I don’t like how this song gets automatically associated with “Garden State” even if it did get exposure due to it. It’s not really a song that will change your life like that character promises, but it still does a great job to capture the mindset of Mercer as a complete indifferent who still hopes to find love, and that’s why I like it. Everything else that occurs is just like the new form of slang, it’s just not worth even keeping track of at this point.
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99. Frightened Rabbit- My Backwards Walk
“I’m working on my faults and cracks/ Filling in the blanks and gaps/ And when I write them out, they don’t make sense/ I need you to pencil in the rest”
I’m mid-process of falling for The Midnight Organ Fight, and it felt fair to include this track because it spoke to me so immediately while being stuck in my head. It’s wonderful to hear how dead set he is on undoing everything possible, but he knows he will still end up with his trousers on her floor. It’s inescapable and that’s killing him, but he’s trying hard as hell to leave the cycle.
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98. M83- Raconte-Moi Un Histoire
“I heard about this frog.”
It’s hard to say what new songs will last the test of time, in fact I usually have a rule of thumb to wait ten years before calling anything a classic. “Raconte-Moi Un Histoire” is actually the second most recent track that gets placed on this list, but I feel safe placing it on the list because of how different it is from the average song. Nothing is here to trick you into liking it, it’s just a pretty melody with the vocals being a little girl’s imagination. It’s gorgeous.
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97. The Postal Service- The District Sleeps Alone Tonight
“You seem so out of context/ In this gaudy apartment complex”
I love this track because of the mood that it sets for Give Up to be a substantial album. I’ve always respected Gibbard for not settling to just make pop music but also having meaningful songs that are surprisingly well written. This one captures a sad point of view where he went to visit his ex, and when he got there he felt so out of place that he was forced to understand why she had left him in the first place. Tamborello couldn’t have found a better person to add vocals in my mind.
Continue reading Kyle’s Favorite 100 Songs: 100-91
Kyle’s Favorite 100 songs: Honorable Mentions
I’d like to state before anyone tries to declare anything wrong in these posts that I’m not trying to tell you what the 100 best songs of all time are. I’m not qualified to do that despite being familiar with a lot of music, I’m just trying to come up with a list of my 100 favorite songs and share that. This needs to be mentioned so that you understand that any time I talk about a song’s meaning or an artist’s intention, it could be completely against what is commonly thought of as what the artist intended to do. I don’t expect this situation to arise to often, but understand that all the writings are about how I’ve chosen to interpret the song and what it means to me (which is truly the only sensical way to approach the task).
With that being said, I do welcome conversation if you disagree with my interpretations, placement, inclusion or omission. I actually really hope that people provide continuous feedback, so that the process is a worthwhile endeavor, just don’t take any of my choices personally.
There will be updates every Monday featuring the next batch of songs, but for now I’m glad to start off with the Honorable Mentions, or the songs that I considered but didn’t land in the top 100.
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The Beatles- Norwegian Wood (The Bird Has Flown)
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The Beatles- With A Little Help From My Friends
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Daniel Johnston- Funeral Home
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Death Cab for Cutie- The Employment Pages
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The Decemberists- Raincoat Song
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The Decemberists- The Rake’s Song
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The Flaming Lips- Waitin’ For A Superman
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Fleet Foxes- Blue Spotted Tail
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Frightened Rabbit- The Modern Leper
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The Hold Steady- How A Resurrection Really Feels
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The Hold Steady- You Can Make Him Like You
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The Long Winters- Cinnamon
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Los Campesinos!- The Sea Is a Good Place To Think About the Future
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The Mountain Goats- The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton
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The National- Green Gloves
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Neutral Milk Hotel- In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
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Portugal. The Man- Do You
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The Postal Service- Such Great Heights
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Ryan Adams- To Be Young
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Spoon- You Got Yr Cherry Bomb
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The Strokes- Someday
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The Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Modern Romance
Essential Albums: Spoon- Kill the Moonlight
A lot of the albums that I’ve given the “essential” label represent a sound that’s proven to be influential and innovative, so that knowing their place within alternative music is important for the sake of understanding the genre. By this definition Kill the Moonlight by Spoon doesn’t fit in with the category because it didn’t change much of anything; but it’s still a must-listen album because of how easily lovable it is and it’s role of representation for a band that doesn’t get enough love in my opinion. Metacritic named Spoon the top artist of the 2000’s because of how consistently great their records were, and I still firmly believe that Britt Daniel has the coolest voice that you’ll find in the genre, but Spoon is rarely mentioned among the elite alt-rock bands from the past decade for some reason. That’s why Kill The Moonlight is extremely important, within a terrific discography this is the album that has an iconic claim to it and will likely define the career in the future of a band who deserves to be remembered.
Continue reading Essential Albums: Spoon- Kill the Moonlight
DJ Survey: What’s Your Favorite Summer Album
We’re in Finals week here at SUNY Albany, and with summer approaching we decided to check in with our DJs before they bolted to see which albums they think they’ll be playing during the upcoming months!
DJ Milky [Alt-Rock]- “DJ Milky’s Music Hour for Dumb Babies” Monday 4am-6am
I generally like listening to jangly stuff like the Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Anything that would be a good soundtrack to riding a bike in shorts while drinking a slurpee.
Metal Tony [Metal]- “The Metal F’n Show” Saturday 10pm-midnight
For me, it would have to be For the Sake of Revenge by Sonata Arctica. The music is very upbeat, plus the live aspect of it reminds me that summer season is concert season.
DJ HEAT [Alt-Rock]- “Let the Good Times Roll” Monday 6pm-8pm
Jay Reatard Blood Visions: CRANK THAT with the windows down and you will feel like you drank 10 cups of coffee in a good way (R.I.P. Jay Reatard)
Bruce Springsteen – All 3 parts of the Live at Passaic bootleg from 1978. Also… I think “Thunder Road” by Bruce Springsteen is the quintessential summer song
Sleater-Kinney All Hands on the Bad One
1 CURRENT song that is a definitely summer song is “Quotidian Beast” by Phosphorescent
Continue reading DJ Survey: What’s Your Favorite Summer Album