Two things happened this month. The first had to do with Ammunition Radio on IsGoodRadio.com. I, along with my guest co-host for January Ms. Amanda Jones (and our special guests Mista John Montgomery and Sarah Longueieul) decided to revisit the music that we grew up with. Recalling the stories associated with different bands and songs and at what points we were in our lives was fun. The second thing which you won’t really see reflected in this list since I figured you were probably sick of those artists and songs since most are getting pretty frequent airplay, was that I decided to finally listen to most of the albums that were released in 2009 in their entirety, or as much of their entirety as I could tolerate (from bands including Atlas Sound, Beach House, Brakes, Camera Obscura, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Slow Club, Wilco, We Were Promised Jet Packs, The French Semester, Letting Up Despite Great Faults, The Dodos, Fanfarlo, Girls, Happy Hollows, etc. etc.).
Once again, I listened to way too much music to list, but here’s some of what I fell asleep to and some songs that there was no way I was going to fall asleep to.
What I Fell Asleep To in January
Coconut Records – “ Easy Girl”
The Cranberries – “When You’re Gone”
Ok, this all started with me dog-sitting for Lady Di’s new adorable puppy. I got home kind of late from the Pu$$y Cow double cd release party/show (congratulations guys!) and found the doggy watching a horror movie (True story. No wonder the puppy ate that lamp shade earlier…although I’m still convinced the puppy thought the lamp was Lady GaGa, and was trying to rid the world of it/her/him). So, I took the puppy out to do her business (btw if any of you live near Lady Di and you were the guy tapping on your window from inside your apartment trying to get my attention, here’s some advice: don’t do that to girls at 1 or 2 am, it’s a little scary…UNLESS there’s a really good reason like an axe murderer is standing behind her and she has no clue.). Alright, so less about the puppy and more about Jason London, err uhmm I mean The Cranberries…but first Jason London, so when we got back inside I alternated watching the Chris Isaak hour and one of those made for TV movies from the 90’s starring Shannon Doherty and Jason London who are in a band together and a crazy girl tries to become Shannon Doherty, I think it was called Friends ‘Til the End (but I’m not going to look it up). I’ve had a crush on Jason London since I was little from The Man in the Moon and Dazed and Confused movies (funny enough, even though they are twin brothers I never had a crush on Jeremy London, despite the fact that he was in Mallrats one of my favorite movies). Ok, ok back to The Cranberries, well this song by The Cranberries played during the opening scenes of that Friends ‘Til The End movie and I hadn’t heard it in so long, so the next day I had to pull out my Cranberries cd’s to revisit songs like “Zombie,” “Linger,” “Salvation,” and “Dreams.” When I was young I imagined Dolores O’Riordan must have been really cool.
Eloise – “Kill You”
I just saw this local LA band last week for the first time when they shared the stage with our friend’s bands (The Shakers and Underwater City People). I found them to be a nice change of pace. It took me forever to remember the name of the band, but this song stayed in my head. It actually reminded me of some of the bands from the early 90’s. If you have a chance to catch them, you should.
The Last – “This Kind of Feeling”
Led Zeppelin – “Going to California”
My favorite Led Zeppelin song is actually “Misty Mountain Hop,” but this one is a good one to fall asleep to.
The Nerves – “When You Find Out”
For those of you familiar with Blondie’s version of “Hangin’ on the Telephone,” The Nerves were who put that out originally. Out of the three band members Paul Collins went on to form The Beat (who you’ve seen on my previous playlists) and frontman Peter Case went on to form The Plimsouls (who you’ve also seen on my playlists). I don’t know why I’m telling you this, but I’m guessing you might prefer this trivia over hearing more about Jason London?
Boys Next Door – “Shivers”
I just re-discovered the Dogs in Space soundtrack. I promise this isn’t a subliminal message I’m sending, so no need to worry. I just like this song and love Nick Cave.
Wilco – “California Stars”
What I Didn’t Fall Asleep To in January
AC/DC – “Thunderstruck”
We actually had some thunder here in LA with all of the rainy weather. We’ve been through this, I am really not a good rainy weather type of person. I find it depressing, and I tend to go into hibernation mode. I like it when I’m home, but even then I only like it for one or two nights. Those two weeks of rainy weather we had were no exception and I kept promising everyone I would hang out as soon as “the Northwest took its weather back.” A lot of the music that was released in 2009 was actually a good soundtrack for this type of weather. Nothing, however, was more perfect than “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC. I like loud music, I like AC/DC and this is honestly the only song I wanted to hear when it was practically hailing.
Saint Motel – “To My Enemies”
An entertaining local LA band. As you all know by now, I am a very visually driven person, so I judge videos a little more harshly than most other people. With a video I don’t want to just hear your song, I want more creativity. Believe me I know all about budgets and I myself constantly have to put out product on zero budget. However, I believe artists and bands should be creative and entertaining with their videos, there are lots of ways to do this and many people who would love to help you. We’ll cover this in the Ammunition section at some point. This band has some videos I approve of, just check out their videos for “Butch” and “Dear Dictator.” Alright, back to the band, I know I always say that everyone is nice (most everyone is!), but once again, these are a nice bunch of guys.
Violent Femmes – “Gimme the Car”
The Violent Femmes were one of those bands that I wish I could’ve seen back in the early 80’s unfortunately, as that Poni Tails song goes I was “born too late.”
The Living End – “The End of the World” and “Second Solution”
Both Amanda Jones and I have crushes on the live show this Australian band puts on. Seriously, I’ve never seen anyone else play a guitar with a beer bottle. We both (without consulting with each other) put one of their songs on our playlists for Ammunition. She included “Second Solution” and I included “The End of the World.” Most people know their one hit, “Prisoner of Society.” I couldn’t decide which video to use so here are both.
“E-Boogie” and “Second Solution”
“The End of the World”
The Go – “She’s Never Alone”
I have listened to their cd a lot in the last three years. I owe Don of Don’s Music in Eagle Rock a huge thank you for recommending this one to me. I used to wander in there and just randomly pick up CD’s (before he’d switched to carrying mainly records) from bands I’d never heard of.
The Singles “Can You Go Out Tonight?”
The first song I heard by The Singles was their ’06 single “Hypnotized,” it was on a compilation someone gave me (probably a Filter one), at the time I thought “uh-oh their timing’s off, they missed the bandwagon” as I wrote them off as another version of The Vines/The Hives. Little did I know they’d been around since 2003 so they actually were kind of part of the tail end of that movement. I didn’t really think about them again, until last year when I heard this song, not really realizing it was them, this time around they reminded me of TV show bands like the Osmonds or The Partridge Family, and after watching this video I decided The Monkees would be a more appropriate. I actually like that this band seems to be having fun. This song actually sticks in my head whenever I hear it, as does “He Can Go, You Can’t Stay” from their first album (that song makes it evident why they got attention in the first place). This band did things a little differently than most have lately, instead of putting out a full length cd, they put out four singles on two discs and released four videos, this song and video being one of the four. On another unrelated note, have I ever mentioned how much I love dresses? Yes, I know only a million times, well this video also made me happy because I actually have the dress the girl is wearing in the video, and it reminded me that it’s almost dress season (not that it ever really stopped being dress season)!
The Walkmen – “The Rat”
Every now and again I pull out Bows and Arrows. You know that cliché question, “Which cd’s would you take with you to a desert island?” This is one of mine. “Little House of Savages,” has got to be one of my top ten all time favorite songs, possibly even a top five. For about a year, I didn’t even know what the guys in the band looked like. When I finally saw what they looked like, I was a little surprised, they are all clean cut even good-looking guys and had I ever randomly run into lead singer Hamilton Leithauser, I would’ve never guessed he had that voice. I was expecting some hybrid of The Decemberists and Valient Thorr, with a dash of Arcade Fire sprinkled in., which I guess would have them looking like Band of Horses? Regardless of what they look like, these are a talented group of guys.
Ok, speaking of Valient Thorr…
Valient Thorr – “Tomorrow Police”
I’m cheating and putting this in here. Technically it’s not really cheating since it’s still January right? This is what I am listening to right now. It all started with my Ammunition special guest Mr. John Montgomery last week. He mentioned them and this is actually one of my favorite live shows. If you’ve never seen them live before definitely do it, next time you have the chance. Especially if it’s a venue that has stuff they can climb or hang from. Such a great live band.
U.S. Bombs – “Orange Crunch”
I hadn’t thought about or listened to U.S. Bombs in a long time, probably since I lived in Orange County until this month when my roommate who grew up with some of their band members (as well as members of Angry Samoans) came on Ammunition when we were discussing what we grew up with.
Black Flag – “Can’t Decide”
Alright, I listened to a lot more punk than just this and U.S. Bombs this month while re-visiting music from my youth, but could only include a couple of songs. So I decided to include this one. Can Henry Rollins ever go wrong?
Dead Weather – “Treat Me Like Your Mother”
You know, this video had the potential to be really bad-ass. I like the duel gun-fighting showdown thing that happens, but hate the backdrop. There are so many better locations where this could’ve been filmed. I really like this song still though.
Missing Persons – “Noticeable One”
I’m convinced Lady GaGa must’ve watched a lot of Dale Bozzio/Missing Persons videos growing up.
Metallica - “Whiplash”
Alright, I played this song on Ammunition too. Even though I really grew up during their “Enter Sandman” days, this is my favorite Metallica song. The KROQ like radio station in Bakersfield, where I grew up, KRAB radio used to have (or may still have) mandatory Metallica (sortof like KLOS has “Getting out the Led” with Led Zeppelin) I think it was at 9pm where they played 2 or 3 Metallica songs in a row. So I actually grew up with a lot of Metallica, Pantera, Sepultera, etc. etc. I’m not really a big Metallica fan now, although I did surprisingly like their cover of Thin Lizzy’s “Whiskey in the Jar.”
Waylon Jennings – “You Asked Me To”
And of course my one country inclusion
