2004: THE YEAR/THE MIXTAPE
1. The High Party, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists: So, when we first moved into the house, we drank like crazy. Every night we would watch Mr. Show or go to the bar or just sit around having weird conversations and bonding like mad. Also, we all fell crazy in love with Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. This song is about the way drinking to absurdity is treated as an expected side effect of being an artist and how fucked that is. It was very appropriate at the time, although we didn't know that until a lot later.
2. Head Over Heels, Tears For Fears: Okay, this song represents a very serious romance I carried out last summer and I still find myself trying to get over it. Still one of the best love-lorn songs there is, I think. And it's got a crazy orchestral intro. And, like, synthesizers. And Donnie Darko symbology.
3. Venus, Television: There was a period of about a month when I was at home for winter break, and I kind of flipped it. I don't know if it was the isolation of being in the country for such a long time, or the exhausting weight of having to keep my smoking secret, but it got pretty bad. But I bought this album around then and felt it lent me a little grace for smoking on the back porch in my snow boots (and that's the kind of grace everybody needs). AND I FELL (DIDJA FEEL LOW?)
4. Oh, You Pretty Things, David Bowie: Megan, Carolyn, and I took a hilariously ill-fated trip to Toronto this winter, but that's not the point, exactly. See, we ended up turning around and coming back within a few hours of getting there; about 24 hours were spent in that car with very little break in scenery or setting. You might think that such an awful amount of time spent together would make us want to avoid each other like hell for the next few days, but we couldn't seem to separate ourselves. Instead, we drove around and listened to "Hunky Dory" in the car. Simultaneously, it started snowing, this song came on, and the light at Atwood and Fifth turned red. For a month you could hear it blasting from everybody's bedrooms in the morning.
5. Combat Baby, Metric: According to my iTunes,this is the most often-played song on my computer. I guess the good stuff rises to the top, right? The gist of the song describes a relationship built on constant argument, and therefore reminds me (bittersweetly, for sure) of Megan. It's funny that I listen to it so much because I'm oh-so-non-combative. Dancey music is slowly but surely creeping into my record collection. I don't know whether to see this as a positive thing, a negative thing, or just a thing.
6. Wolf at the Door, Radiohead: Were you around in the summer of 2003? If you were, this song (and the entire album, probably) figured greatly into your life. It doesn't always happen that everybody I know gets so into a new record that you hear it in everybody's car or at every house party, but that's the way it was. There are a lot of great tracks on the album, but this is the one that everybody seems to know the words to, the one that everybody feels compelled to sing.
7. Academy Fight Song, Mission of Burma: Unbeknownst to me I had downloaded this song in 10th grade and loved it, but Napster mis-labeled it as an Alkaline Trio song. So, for a few years I would look around for other Alkaline Trio songs that sounded as good, but much to my confusion I hated everything else of theirs that I heard. Only this year did Andrew solve the mystery for me (and consequently get me interested in Mission of Burma along the way). Six months later and I have three Mission of Burma albums. I find this song to still be a favorite because it reminds me of a lot of relationships/friendships I've had that revolve around learning and ideas in a sort of confusing way-- I mean, confusing for both parties. BECAUSE I'M NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT YOUR ACADEMY!
8. Sleep the Clock Around, Belle & Sebastian: Right around Valentine's Day I fell into a depression that lasted for roughly two and a half months, and I listened to this song on repeat for most of that time. The idea of sleeping around the clock appealed to me a lot. I thought I could see ghosts and read everybody's thoughts. Downtown Pittsburgh in late winter at five in the evening. Coming back from the airport. Also, the song had certain connections with a certain boy, and that's all I will say about that.
9. Burnin' For You, Blue Oyster Cult: When you take the 28X from the airport into Pittsburgh, it takes you down by the parts of the river that nobody in Pittsburgh ever sees. There are burned-out office buildings with glowing vending machines looking out of their second-floor windows. I always try to listen to this song while I'm on that ride because it seems like my kind of Pittsburgh. BURN OUT THE DAY. BURN OUT THE NIGHT. I CAN'T SEE NO REASON TO PUT UP A FIGHT.
10. Grey Motorcycle, the Make-Up: On the first few listens, I thought the Make-Up were ridiculous post-psych bullshit. And I was right. But I still ended up really liking them somehow. This is one of the songs blissfully unmarred by too many effects pedals, thank goodness. If you know any nihilistic boys who like eurodance and talk about Vespas all the time (but you can tell they are secretly dying of broken hearts), this song is for them.
11. New Teen Anthem, Les Savy Fav: It took me a long time to like this band, but this song was the beginning. I don't really understand the Fake French thing they've got going on, but it's undeniably cute. This marks the beginning of the end of my depressive period, somehow. Maybe it's the chorus: ALL HAIL THE MEMORY ARCHITECT! CAPITAL! CAPITAL! AMPERSAND! UNDERSCORE! PERIOD! PERIOD! I'M HOOKED ON THE SOLO I'M HOOKED ON THE GRAMAPHONE! Don't you feel better now?
12. Sweet Jane, The Velvet Underground: Okay. Any song that starts off with that line, STANDING ON THE CORNER/SUITCASE IN MY HAND has to be pretty good. Oh, Lou Reed. If you had any idea how many times I've sung along with this song on roadtrips, in my attic, and at parties, even you would probably blush. (For those interested in such statistics, this is the second most-often-played song on my computer.) It just means the whole damn world to me. I think Loaded is my favorite Velvet Underground album because you can kind of tell that they've kicked heroin, that everything is gonna be alright now, it's alright now! Oh baby! Oh baby! Every song is revelatory. This will always remind me of Andrew, Megan, Rachel, and Paul, in all of the somewhat questionable places we've sung it.
13. I Think I Need a New Heart, the Magnetic Fields: The Magnetic Fields embody one of my favorite pop idioms: that is, relentlessly depressing lyrics and poppy melodies. (See also: Pulp, Belle & Sebastian, etc.) This is an ultimate example of said idiom, pretty much about somebody whose heart is so exhausted that it does all the wrong things all the time. If you're wondering, I'm definitely one of those.
14. Caring Is Creepy, the Shins: I know, the Shins came out with this one a while ago, but I first heard it on a mixtape from Zach. Consequently, it (and all the poppier Shins songs on Chutes Too Narrow) remind me of him. But I think I like the Caring Is Creepy Zach the best. I could describe some early winter snowfall scene here, or Zach's resplendent hair and corduroy coat, but um, caring is creepy. So I'm told.
15. Ghostwriter, RJD2: One sad night Ben Macken asked me why I didn't have any music downloading software, and, mopey as usual, I said, "I don't know. I just want to listen to the Magnetic Fields, so who cares?" But Ben wouldn't let me fall into such danceable depression. Instead, he downloaded Poisoned onto my Mac and set me up with a lot of Braintax, RJD2, Atmosphere, and Non Phixion. This is wonderful balm for the beast what ails you. (That's my undercover way of saying it has a HORN SECTION!)
16. Where Eagles Dare, the Misfits: This was the thing we listened to in Megan's car when we drove to parties in the fall. This seems like the ersatz Wightman House anthem, left over from the days when we rolled deep, man. The days of driving to NYC at two in the morning and getting all lost in the Bronx somehow. WE WALK THE STREETS AT NIGHT/WE GO WHERE EAGLES DARE!/I AIN'T NO GODDAMNED SON OF A BITCH!/YOU'D BETTER THINK ABOUT IT BABY! (P.S. There is nothing like the crazy magic of dancing with Adam Atkinson, especially to this song. Boy, does he have moves. And gym shorts. Whoa.)
17. Therefore, I Am, Jim O'Rourke: That Jim O'Rourke is a mean guy. I mean, he's one bitter cookie. My favorite line from this song is, SORRY, BUT I'VE FOUND SOMEONE NEW/TO SPEND TIME/INSTEAD OF YOU/I'LL SPEND IT WITH ME/WE ARE ON A SINKING SHIP/OH YEAH/BUT I'D LIKE TO STAY ONBOAD AND SHOOT THE CANNONS AT YOU. This is good for coming off of those bad crushes (see below), and also general lonliness. Believe me, there's nothing like a little smarmy cannon-shooting to make you feel better about yourself.
18. Bull In the Heather, Sonic Youth: This has been the soundtrack to almost all of my crushes this year. If I've ever crushed on you, I'm very sorry to lump you in with all the others, but I guess I just couldn't think of anything particularly new to put on your mixtapes. This is a seriously angsty song. TEN TWENTY THIRTY FOURTY TELL ME THAT YOU WANT TO HOLD ME/TIME TO TELL A DIRTY STORY etc etc etc. Yeah, I think you get the picture. (P.S. If I gave you a mixtape with this song on it over the past year, you might want to check with me now to see if I'm still feeling all impassioned. The line forms to the left, please!) Also, I hate to take credit for things like this, but I think Rachel's Sonic Youth MANIA! started with this song, so I'm pretty proud of that.
19. Jesus, Etc., Wilco: This song makes me cry. I hope you use this knowledge wisely (and never attempt to use it against me.) Needless to say, there have been a lot of times I've curled up on my bed and listened to this, but I think it would be a little overwhelming if I described any of those to you. I know, blogs are public and everything, but you don't need to know about the whole 100%.
20. Jellybones, the Unicorns: I realize that I keep on referencing this "brief period of depression that I fell into around Valentine's Day," but I reference it all the time. Oh boy. Well, this is from the end of that period, right around spring break. We had an unseasonably warm blast of pre-spring, and we Wightman girls got dressed up and drove to Bloomfield and the park. I bought the Unicorns album on a whim, and it became the spring soundtrack (rather unsurprisingly). There are lots of bleeps and songs about dying, and it really suited my frame of mind at the time (that is to say, manic and also morbid). Rainbows and skulls. CHECK MYSELF INTO EMERGENCY URGENTLY/DROVE UP IN MY BONE CAMARO THINKING ONLY ABOUT YOU. And then it got bitter fucking cold again.
21. Gossip Folk, Missy Elliot: This was my JAM last summer. I'm not going to lie. I danced to it at so many parties that I practically had a choreographed set of moves ironed out by the middle of June. Yes, this includes pantomimed coke-sniffing and a really great move for that STEP TO ME GET BURNED LIKE TOAST line. And for those of you in the know: PHIL STEPHENSON.
22. Are You a Hypnotist??, the Flaming Lips: Have you ever noticed how much some kinds of electronically-inclined pop music can make you feel a little better about driving through gray, rainy post-industrial landscapes? Well, I have. It must be all of the subdivision, or the synthesizers. Music along these lines is very useful in Pittsburgh, where you can stumble across a terribly depressing post-industrial landscape on your way to the mall (or AT the mall). If you ever have to drive to the Waterfront in late October, don't go unarmed.
23. Party Girl, Elvis Costello: In winter we tended to hibernate in the attic, especially in the room we had laboriously painted red before winter break. There was a record player up there, and copius ashtrays, so I guess we just got a little bit too holed up in the house but we spent so much time up there doing homework and listening to the radio and playing cards. (Damn, it sounds so romantic in hindsight!) Sometimes I played this song and ceased talking to anybody else except to get all worked up emotional about it. Sometimes I think Elvis Costello understands me really well, but that's kind of creepy because . . . well, you know it is. Maybe I aspired to be a party girl at one time. Maybe I was. But, as Elvis says, you always have to leave when the party's over.
24. Sleeping In, the Postal Service: It could only be 2004. This song is about global warming melting all of the oceans, but everybody's happy about it because they can swim whenever they want to. They think they're being rewarded for doing all of the things they would do anyway. Okay. I think that's a good note to end on.
Well, I think that's quite enough, don't you?
1. The High Party, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists: So, when we first moved into the house, we drank like crazy. Every night we would watch Mr. Show or go to the bar or just sit around having weird conversations and bonding like mad. Also, we all fell crazy in love with Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. This song is about the way drinking to absurdity is treated as an expected side effect of being an artist and how fucked that is. It was very appropriate at the time, although we didn't know that until a lot later.
2. Head Over Heels, Tears For Fears: Okay, this song represents a very serious romance I carried out last summer and I still find myself trying to get over it. Still one of the best love-lorn songs there is, I think. And it's got a crazy orchestral intro. And, like, synthesizers. And Donnie Darko symbology.
3. Venus, Television: There was a period of about a month when I was at home for winter break, and I kind of flipped it. I don't know if it was the isolation of being in the country for such a long time, or the exhausting weight of having to keep my smoking secret, but it got pretty bad. But I bought this album around then and felt it lent me a little grace for smoking on the back porch in my snow boots (and that's the kind of grace everybody needs). AND I FELL (DIDJA FEEL LOW?)
4. Oh, You Pretty Things, David Bowie: Megan, Carolyn, and I took a hilariously ill-fated trip to Toronto this winter, but that's not the point, exactly. See, we ended up turning around and coming back within a few hours of getting there; about 24 hours were spent in that car with very little break in scenery or setting. You might think that such an awful amount of time spent together would make us want to avoid each other like hell for the next few days, but we couldn't seem to separate ourselves. Instead, we drove around and listened to "Hunky Dory" in the car. Simultaneously, it started snowing, this song came on, and the light at Atwood and Fifth turned red. For a month you could hear it blasting from everybody's bedrooms in the morning.
5. Combat Baby, Metric: According to my iTunes,this is the most often-played song on my computer. I guess the good stuff rises to the top, right? The gist of the song describes a relationship built on constant argument, and therefore reminds me (bittersweetly, for sure) of Megan. It's funny that I listen to it so much because I'm oh-so-non-combative. Dancey music is slowly but surely creeping into my record collection. I don't know whether to see this as a positive thing, a negative thing, or just a thing.
6. Wolf at the Door, Radiohead: Were you around in the summer of 2003? If you were, this song (and the entire album, probably) figured greatly into your life. It doesn't always happen that everybody I know gets so into a new record that you hear it in everybody's car or at every house party, but that's the way it was. There are a lot of great tracks on the album, but this is the one that everybody seems to know the words to, the one that everybody feels compelled to sing.
7. Academy Fight Song, Mission of Burma: Unbeknownst to me I had downloaded this song in 10th grade and loved it, but Napster mis-labeled it as an Alkaline Trio song. So, for a few years I would look around for other Alkaline Trio songs that sounded as good, but much to my confusion I hated everything else of theirs that I heard. Only this year did Andrew solve the mystery for me (and consequently get me interested in Mission of Burma along the way). Six months later and I have three Mission of Burma albums. I find this song to still be a favorite because it reminds me of a lot of relationships/friendships I've had that revolve around learning and ideas in a sort of confusing way-- I mean, confusing for both parties. BECAUSE I'M NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT YOUR ACADEMY!
8. Sleep the Clock Around, Belle & Sebastian: Right around Valentine's Day I fell into a depression that lasted for roughly two and a half months, and I listened to this song on repeat for most of that time. The idea of sleeping around the clock appealed to me a lot. I thought I could see ghosts and read everybody's thoughts. Downtown Pittsburgh in late winter at five in the evening. Coming back from the airport. Also, the song had certain connections with a certain boy, and that's all I will say about that.
9. Burnin' For You, Blue Oyster Cult: When you take the 28X from the airport into Pittsburgh, it takes you down by the parts of the river that nobody in Pittsburgh ever sees. There are burned-out office buildings with glowing vending machines looking out of their second-floor windows. I always try to listen to this song while I'm on that ride because it seems like my kind of Pittsburgh. BURN OUT THE DAY. BURN OUT THE NIGHT. I CAN'T SEE NO REASON TO PUT UP A FIGHT.
10. Grey Motorcycle, the Make-Up: On the first few listens, I thought the Make-Up were ridiculous post-psych bullshit. And I was right. But I still ended up really liking them somehow. This is one of the songs blissfully unmarred by too many effects pedals, thank goodness. If you know any nihilistic boys who like eurodance and talk about Vespas all the time (but you can tell they are secretly dying of broken hearts), this song is for them.
11. New Teen Anthem, Les Savy Fav: It took me a long time to like this band, but this song was the beginning. I don't really understand the Fake French thing they've got going on, but it's undeniably cute. This marks the beginning of the end of my depressive period, somehow. Maybe it's the chorus: ALL HAIL THE MEMORY ARCHITECT! CAPITAL! CAPITAL! AMPERSAND! UNDERSCORE! PERIOD! PERIOD! I'M HOOKED ON THE SOLO I'M HOOKED ON THE GRAMAPHONE! Don't you feel better now?
12. Sweet Jane, The Velvet Underground: Okay. Any song that starts off with that line, STANDING ON THE CORNER/SUITCASE IN MY HAND has to be pretty good. Oh, Lou Reed. If you had any idea how many times I've sung along with this song on roadtrips, in my attic, and at parties, even you would probably blush. (For those interested in such statistics, this is the second most-often-played song on my computer.) It just means the whole damn world to me. I think Loaded is my favorite Velvet Underground album because you can kind of tell that they've kicked heroin, that everything is gonna be alright now, it's alright now! Oh baby! Oh baby! Every song is revelatory. This will always remind me of Andrew, Megan, Rachel, and Paul, in all of the somewhat questionable places we've sung it.
13. I Think I Need a New Heart, the Magnetic Fields: The Magnetic Fields embody one of my favorite pop idioms: that is, relentlessly depressing lyrics and poppy melodies. (See also: Pulp, Belle & Sebastian, etc.) This is an ultimate example of said idiom, pretty much about somebody whose heart is so exhausted that it does all the wrong things all the time. If you're wondering, I'm definitely one of those.
14. Caring Is Creepy, the Shins: I know, the Shins came out with this one a while ago, but I first heard it on a mixtape from Zach. Consequently, it (and all the poppier Shins songs on Chutes Too Narrow) remind me of him. But I think I like the Caring Is Creepy Zach the best. I could describe some early winter snowfall scene here, or Zach's resplendent hair and corduroy coat, but um, caring is creepy. So I'm told.
15. Ghostwriter, RJD2: One sad night Ben Macken asked me why I didn't have any music downloading software, and, mopey as usual, I said, "I don't know. I just want to listen to the Magnetic Fields, so who cares?" But Ben wouldn't let me fall into such danceable depression. Instead, he downloaded Poisoned onto my Mac and set me up with a lot of Braintax, RJD2, Atmosphere, and Non Phixion. This is wonderful balm for the beast what ails you. (That's my undercover way of saying it has a HORN SECTION!)
16. Where Eagles Dare, the Misfits: This was the thing we listened to in Megan's car when we drove to parties in the fall. This seems like the ersatz Wightman House anthem, left over from the days when we rolled deep, man. The days of driving to NYC at two in the morning and getting all lost in the Bronx somehow. WE WALK THE STREETS AT NIGHT/WE GO WHERE EAGLES DARE!/I AIN'T NO GODDAMNED SON OF A BITCH!/YOU'D BETTER THINK ABOUT IT BABY! (P.S. There is nothing like the crazy magic of dancing with Adam Atkinson, especially to this song. Boy, does he have moves. And gym shorts. Whoa.)
17. Therefore, I Am, Jim O'Rourke: That Jim O'Rourke is a mean guy. I mean, he's one bitter cookie. My favorite line from this song is, SORRY, BUT I'VE FOUND SOMEONE NEW/TO SPEND TIME/INSTEAD OF YOU/I'LL SPEND IT WITH ME/WE ARE ON A SINKING SHIP/OH YEAH/BUT I'D LIKE TO STAY ONBOAD AND SHOOT THE CANNONS AT YOU. This is good for coming off of those bad crushes (see below), and also general lonliness. Believe me, there's nothing like a little smarmy cannon-shooting to make you feel better about yourself.
18. Bull In the Heather, Sonic Youth: This has been the soundtrack to almost all of my crushes this year. If I've ever crushed on you, I'm very sorry to lump you in with all the others, but I guess I just couldn't think of anything particularly new to put on your mixtapes. This is a seriously angsty song. TEN TWENTY THIRTY FOURTY TELL ME THAT YOU WANT TO HOLD ME/TIME TO TELL A DIRTY STORY etc etc etc. Yeah, I think you get the picture. (P.S. If I gave you a mixtape with this song on it over the past year, you might want to check with me now to see if I'm still feeling all impassioned. The line forms to the left, please!) Also, I hate to take credit for things like this, but I think Rachel's Sonic Youth MANIA! started with this song, so I'm pretty proud of that.
19. Jesus, Etc., Wilco: This song makes me cry. I hope you use this knowledge wisely (and never attempt to use it against me.) Needless to say, there have been a lot of times I've curled up on my bed and listened to this, but I think it would be a little overwhelming if I described any of those to you. I know, blogs are public and everything, but you don't need to know about the whole 100%.
20. Jellybones, the Unicorns: I realize that I keep on referencing this "brief period of depression that I fell into around Valentine's Day," but I reference it all the time. Oh boy. Well, this is from the end of that period, right around spring break. We had an unseasonably warm blast of pre-spring, and we Wightman girls got dressed up and drove to Bloomfield and the park. I bought the Unicorns album on a whim, and it became the spring soundtrack (rather unsurprisingly). There are lots of bleeps and songs about dying, and it really suited my frame of mind at the time (that is to say, manic and also morbid). Rainbows and skulls. CHECK MYSELF INTO EMERGENCY URGENTLY/DROVE UP IN MY BONE CAMARO THINKING ONLY ABOUT YOU. And then it got bitter fucking cold again.
21. Gossip Folk, Missy Elliot: This was my JAM last summer. I'm not going to lie. I danced to it at so many parties that I practically had a choreographed set of moves ironed out by the middle of June. Yes, this includes pantomimed coke-sniffing and a really great move for that STEP TO ME GET BURNED LIKE TOAST line. And for those of you in the know: PHIL STEPHENSON.
22. Are You a Hypnotist??, the Flaming Lips: Have you ever noticed how much some kinds of electronically-inclined pop music can make you feel a little better about driving through gray, rainy post-industrial landscapes? Well, I have. It must be all of the subdivision, or the synthesizers. Music along these lines is very useful in Pittsburgh, where you can stumble across a terribly depressing post-industrial landscape on your way to the mall (or AT the mall). If you ever have to drive to the Waterfront in late October, don't go unarmed.
23. Party Girl, Elvis Costello: In winter we tended to hibernate in the attic, especially in the room we had laboriously painted red before winter break. There was a record player up there, and copius ashtrays, so I guess we just got a little bit too holed up in the house but we spent so much time up there doing homework and listening to the radio and playing cards. (Damn, it sounds so romantic in hindsight!) Sometimes I played this song and ceased talking to anybody else except to get all worked up emotional about it. Sometimes I think Elvis Costello understands me really well, but that's kind of creepy because . . . well, you know it is. Maybe I aspired to be a party girl at one time. Maybe I was. But, as Elvis says, you always have to leave when the party's over.
24. Sleeping In, the Postal Service: It could only be 2004. This song is about global warming melting all of the oceans, but everybody's happy about it because they can swim whenever they want to. They think they're being rewarded for doing all of the things they would do anyway. Okay. I think that's a good note to end on.
Well, I think that's quite enough, don't you?
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