something corporate

The Dunce Cap: Week of July 16, 2012

in: heavy rotation

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 48: I can’t wait to say all the things you can’t see, all the things that make you better. (click on link to listen to mix via 8tracks or play above)

1. “Sunlight” – matt pond PA
2. “Like U Crazy” – Mates of State
3. “I Saw You Blink” – Stornoway
4. “Chloe” – GROUPLOVE
5. “You Wouldn’t Like Me” – Tegan & Sara
6. “Ten-Twenty-Ten” – Generationals
7. “I Won’t Spend Another Night Alone” – The Ataris
8. “Laura” – Girls
9. “Jack-Ass” – Beck
10. “Wicked Game” – James Vincent McMorrow

YES!, middle of July, summer swelter. I’m at a loss for words, mostly, about these ten. I think I’ll let them speak for themselves, though I’ll point out a few key things:

– Aw, yeah, matt pond PA. “I wish you would say/when I fuck up that it’s okay.” 
– Same with Mates of State. I really wanted to include, “Help Help,” but I thought “Like U Crazy” was more appropriate.
– I’m on a Tegan & Sara kick currently, and I refuse to apologize.
– I saw Generationals (and Pet Lions!) open last year for Magic Kids at Tomorrow Never Knows. They were incredible live, and I picked up a cool 3D poster (with glasses!) from the show. Got into the music a little later.
– I’m also rediscovering my love for the pop punk of my adolescence. My current gym playlist is a mix of The Ataris, Fall Out Boy and Something Corporate. I still adore The Ataris album, Blue Skies, Broken Hearts…Next 12 Exits. It’s replete with pitch-perfect pop culture references (Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure in “San Dimas High School Football Rules!” and “I’d rob a Kwik-E-Mart for you!” from this one) and soaring, rough sing-alongs.
– And, hell, I saw James Vincent McMorrow last week at SPACE here in Evanston. The venue – my home away from home – is an intimate one, which lent itself perfectly to McMorrow’s haunting, booming, Bon Iver-esque vocals (sorry for the oh-so-obvious comparison). McMorrow’s been performing and recording awesomely unexpected covers, like John Hiatt’s “Higher Love” and this, Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game.” I remember the video for Isaak’s original from when I was a kid; it was, and remains, one of the sexiest things I’ve ever seen in my whole life. And it was, if possible, sexier with McMorrow’s timbre.
– Finally, count the handclaps. I dare ya.

As always, happy listening.

The Dunce Cap: May 3, 2010

in: heavy rotation

Image courtesy of brandonbird.com

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 6: On the carousel so around I spun (spun). (mix via 8tracks)

  1. “Bennie & the Jets” – Elton John
  2. “Elenore” – The Turtles
  3. “Someone I Can Be True With” – Sloan
  4. “Girlfriend” – Phoenix
  5. “House of Cards” – Butch Walker & the Black Widows
  6. “The Beach Song” – Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin
  7. “Straw Dog” – Something Corporate
  8. “Nothing on You” – B.o.B.
  9. “Electric Feel” – MGMT
  10. “Lost in Yichang” – Hilotrons

Another Thursday, another mix!
As you all probably know, I’m a sucker for anything that can make my hips swing!, and I think this playlist is full of ’em. Not all of them are intentionally dance-a-billy, but they’ve got a great beat, and, hell, they make me wanna cha cha. The mix kicks off with two of my favorite throwbacks, Elton‘s classic “Bennie and the Jets” and The Turtles‘ “Elenore” (almost as good as “Happy Together*” and surely less sappy), and moves onto a slew of solid tracks from modern artists, including Phoenix, Butch Walker (playing H.O.B. Chicago Sunday!), SSLYBY, B.o.B. (who butchered “Build Me Up Buttercup” when he sampled it for his “Don’t Break My Heart“) and MGMT. And the Butch track, “House of Cards”? Total shades of The Cars. Digging the track and the new album.

“Nothing on You,” B.o.B.’s track which was recently used in an ode to Betty White, is a cheerily sweet dedication to a one n’ only. The video, featured below, is wonderfully simplistic, and I especially love the shout-out to my fair city (and the poor, tornado-maimed Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel, where I had my senior prom). In a similar vein, I’ve definitely noticed a rebirth of the music video, an art form I have long appreciated. My family didn’t have cable as a kid, and I distinctly remember attempting to adjust the antenna to get a static-y music video station, and my earliest memories of music television were not of Carson Daly and MTV but of the edited version of Juvenile’s “Back That (Thang) Up.”


“Nothing On You” [The Adventures of Bobby Ray, 2010]

So check it out, and if you’re feeling a bit nostalgic, maybe even revisit “Bye Bye Bye,” one of my favorite music videos from youth. I’m thinking about making next week a “Best Music Videos” playlist, so keep an eye out for that.

As always, happy listening!

(*editor’s note: This video is so trippy. It’s astronauts in jumpsuits, 80s shoulder pads, psychedelia and general weirdness. Very amusing, definitely worth a watch, but bizarre.)

Book Club: May music

in: on queue

So technically, I guess, this should be put into April‘s Book Club, as the album was released last week, but I’m including it in May’s edition. Music may not usually be a facet of Book Club, but this time around, I’m profiling the album for nostalgia’s sake.

Pretty melody:

Played in Space: The Best of Something Corporate
From grades six to eight, I listened to Something Corporate‘s “Leaving Through the Window” on repeat. I had this compact Sony boombox, blue and round and futuristic looking, and I played that album to no end. I would belt out every line from start to finish, imagining a future in which I were someone’s punk rock princess.


“Punk Rock Princess” [Leaving Through the Window, 2002]

In 2003, the band’s second album, “North,” dropped, and, while there were a few tracks with lyrics I doodled on TrapperKeepers and pocket folders, the album lacked the great appeal of the first full-length SoCo endeavor. Even today, when “Fall” or “Straw Dog” comes on shuffle, I’ll make no move to change tracks. Don’t get me wrong – “North” is good. It’s still one of my favorite albums, despite it all, but even with my love for both albums, particularly the band’s debut, I expressed a good bit of doubt upon hearing they would be releasing a greatest hits compilation. Do they really have enough hits to warrant a full-scale retrospective? And, if so, what does the release provide that I cannot get from their previous albums?

The answer to that question, simply, is very little. Sure, there’s a second disc with “Played in Space” that includes some “unreleased” tracks, but, in truth, there is no new track whatsoever, as even “Letters to Noelle” and “Wait” date back to the last decade (though these were both rerecorded for the 2010 release). So, sure, the album’s track listing is replete with singles I love and adore (and, finally, a release of “Konstantine”), but there’s little to no point in purchasing the album if you already own the majority of the discography.

According to Wikipedia, the title “Played in Space” is a reference to the fact that NASA control on Earth played the song “The Astronaut” as a morning “wake-up call” to space shuttle astronauts a few years ago. It’s cool and all, and I am certainly happy to see SoCo even re-releasing material, but what I really want is less reissues and more of Andrew McMahon‘s raw and emotional voice. It’s been too long (2004! I was barely in high school!) since I’ve heard Andrew in his SoCo capacity, and he’s finally returning to the band after his battle with leukemia. McMahon suggests there will be no more new Something Corporate material in the foreseeable future, but there are certainly live reunion shows in the works, including a mid-May date at Bamboozle Chicago. Long live piano rock!