Before I get started on this super-fun new feature, I want to follow-up on a song I mentioned in my last Dunce Cap post (and featured prominently in this week’s mix). I’ve been listening to Ben Kweller’s excellently catchy “Hospital Bed” pretty much on repeat, and I keep getting caught up in the chorus:
(boy) “You be Betty!”
(girl) “I’ll be Betty!”
(boy) “I’ll play Joe!”
(girl) “You play Joe!”
Okay, innocuous enough, right? A bit about pretending to be someone else, or perhaps a cute li’l reference to Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al,” right? But that’s not what really strikes me.
Maybe I’ve been watching waaaay too much “Mad Men,” but every time I hear this song, all I hear is Kweller yelping,
(boy) “You be Betty!”
(girl) “I’ll be Betty!”
(boy) “I’ll play Joan!”
(girl) “You play Joan!”
and I love it. But, y’know, I don’t know which of the two to be on any given day. It’s like this: Betty gets to be married to Don Draper, the sexiest man with a false identity, well, ever, while Joan Holloway gets to be fucking Joan Holloway…and Roger Sterling and that (formerly Jewish) doctor with some fairly questionable jealous tendencies. Joan’s sultry and sharp in all the ways that Betty behaves as an immature dolt. So, yeah, you, the other in this song I’m belting out – you be Betty. I’ll definitely be Joan.
—
Okay, so, I’m debuting a new feature tonight called “A Modern Love Affair.” It’s a bit like the “No Brainer” series I did awhile back, which currently features a breezy piece on John Hodgman and an as-yet-unposted adoration column about Suri Cruise. It differs slightly in that it’s not about an individual. “No Brainer” pays tribute to a someone, while “Open Season” is an open letter to a person. “A Modern Love Affair” is about a something. And, boy, is it going to be fun.
The Dunce Cap, Vol. 32: I wanted to control it. But, love, I couldn’t hold it. (click on link to listen to mix via 8tracks)
1. “The Things That You Say That You Do” – Dressy Bessy
2. “Gold Soundz” – Pavement
3. “French Navy” – Camera Obscura
4. “Everyday” – Vetiver
5. “Don’t Carry It All” – The Decemberists
6. “Seaweed Song” – Passion Pit
7. “The Hill” – Bombay Bicycle Club
8. “Never Forget You” – NOISEttes
9. “Your Ex-Lover is Dead” – Stars
10. “Fair” – Ben Folds Five
Hey, pals. This one’s actually pretty good! Happy April, my favorite month of the year for so many reasons. For instance, my 21st birthday is impending; the weather in Evanston was 80° and perfectly sunny; shit is feeling manageable. It’s one of those times when I want to wake up and do a little shimmy.
This mix is a mish-mash of songs catered to my mood: happy songs with a dark center. If you’re looking for nougat, maybe look elsewhere. Mmm. Nougat.
There’s not much else to say, not really – except love. Just love. In its most platonic and romantic forms, it’s what’s keeping me going. May your life be replete with love and lovers and loved ones.
Happy listening.
Michael: You’re just jumping right into this, huh?
Buster: That’s what you do when life hands you a chance to be with someone special. You just grab that brownish area by its points and you don’t let go no matter what your mom says.
The Dunce Cap, Vol. 17: The room is on fire as she’s fixing her hair. (listen to mix via 8tracks)
1. “If You Find Yourself Caught In Love” – Belle & Sebastian
2. “Congratulations Smack and Katy” – Reggie and the Full Effect
3. “I Met a Girl” – Wheat
4. “Spitting Games” – Snow Patrol
5. “Down” – Blink-182
6. “Reptilia” – The Strokes
7. “Naive” – The Jealous Sound
8. “So Says I” – The Shins
9. “Amsterdam” – Guster
10. “Chicago is so Two Years Ago” – Fall Out Boy
11. “California Waiting” – Kings of Leon
12. “Mexican Wine” – Fountains of Wayne
13. “The Sound of Settling” – Death Cab for Cutie
14. “Shiny” – The Decemberists
15. “Toxic” – Britney Spears
16. “My Favorite Accident” – Motion City Soundtrack
17. “Shakin’” – Rooney
18. “Such Great Heights” – The Postal Service
19. “So Long, Astoria” – The Ataris
20. “My Coco” – stellastarr*
Four score & seven years ago…
The year is 2003. Ariel Sharon is the newly elected Prime Minister of Israel. I am only nominally Jewish. The war in Iraq has just begun. 100 people have lost their lives in The Station night club fire, as pyrotechnics from Great White’s stage show set the insulation foam ceiling alight.The O.C. premieres on Fox.
I am in seventh grade. I no longer have braces, and my hair is just growing out of its yield sign phase. I carry a tin Weezer lunchbox to school, and I still listen to Good Charlotte mostly unabashedly. This is the summer of my musical discontent, and it is, in response, the spring of my musical awakening.
Seven years ago,I was in seventh grade. I had just recently discovered that all music did not come from boy bands and teen queens, and I had also become incredibly engrossed in Josh Schwartz‘s The O.C. I was obsessed with Weezer. My taste in music was rapidly expanding, and 2003 was certainly the year my music repertoire really took shape. It was the heyday of pop-punk and my real transition into indie. In the hopes of avoiding sounding even sappier than I do now, this should suffice: 2003 was the first year I really, truly started to love music. Music by musicians with musical talent. And, man, the new material that came out of 2003 continues to astound me and occupy my iPod with some regularity. It may be a bit melodramatic to say that 2003 was the year I came into myself, as that’s an exaggeration, but it was certainly the year I began a great passion for music.
I started to make mixtapes for friends and boys, and these artists really became staples of my playlists. There was The Postal Service’s Give Up, Belle and Sebastian’s Dear Catastrophe Waitress, Death Cab’s gorgeously lush Transatlanticism, The Shins’ Chutes Too Narrow. There was the catchier-than-the-common-cold Yellowcard, a maturing Fall Out Boy, an aging Chris Carrabba in Dashboard and an Alkaline Trio album that was just melodious enough to shout out loud. There were two hilarious videos for Motion City Soundtrack’s “The Future Freaks Me Out” and Reggie and the Full Effect’s “Congratulations, Smack and Katy.”
There was a White Stripes album that nearly overshadowed the brilliance their fans had come to expect with De Stijl and White Blood Cells. There was a disappointing Saves the Day follow-up to an album (Stay What You Are) as they drifted away from a record label, Vagrant, that would come to define my early interactions with music. That’s not to mention The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Stills, The Long Winters’ brilliant photograph of adolescence, When I Pretend to Fall, or even The All-American Rejects eponymous first album, a CD I bought the day it was released.
The Long Winters, “The Sound of Coming Down”
So much of who I was in school was defined by my ownership of these and other albums. I had a fervent passion for music, and 2003 was really the year that fueled my musical ravenousness. So this is an epic tribute to the year 2003, to seven years ago, to the music of the year and the efforts that would come subsequently.
Not as interactive as the last Dunce Cap, certainly, but a fair tribute to a year that changed music – for me, at least.
The Dunce Cap, Vol. 13: Turns out I was a vampire myself in the devil town. (mix via 8tracks)
1. “Devil Town” – Tony Lucca
2. “Your Hand in Mine” – Explosions in the Sky
3. “Muzzle of Bees” – Wilco
4. “I Made a Resolution” – Sea Wolf
5. “Carmensita” – Devendra Banhart
6. “Sci-Fi Kid” – Blitzen Trapper
7. “September Gurls” – Big Star
8. “Political Scientist” – Ryan Adams
9. “Gene Autry” – Beulah
10. “Rewind” – Stereophonics
11. “The Light” – The Album Leaf
12. “Eyes” – Rogue Wave
13. “Hard Rain” – Shout Out Louds
14. “Walk Over Me” – Dirtie Blonde
15. “Bang a Gong (Get it On)” – T. Rex
So, to be fair – the photo with this mix has nothing to do with this mix. Really, it’s just a launch pad for me to talk about Terry Richardson and Matthew Gray Gubler, as well as to complete my weekly trifecta of pin-ups. Now, this isn’t a gossip blog. It’s not the springboard for me to coo and fawn over the foxy celebrities of network television. Two weeks ago, The Dunce Cap celebrated freaks and geeks alike, and this week’s edition has a decidedly different theme.
The Dunce Cap, Vol. 13 features 15 tracks (it’s an edition and a half!) about football. Good ol’ rough n’ tough Southern football. Each of these tracks is from the soundtrack of NBC’s television drama, “Friday Night Lights,” from the first season and a half (of which I have watched 27 episodes in the last 48 hours). “Friday Night Lights” follows a high school football squad in the fictional small town of Dillon, Texas, where football reigns supreme, but it’s more than just a show about football. It’s a show with heart and with a killer cast – the characters exude charm and genuineness that extends past the petty fights and forlorn heartbreak of adolescence. The realistic nature of the show even survived the melodrama of a terrible murder subplot.
The show is fantastic. And what surpasses even the show’s eye candy, the plot twists, the characterization and the pretty awesome athleticism is the music. Yup, it all comes full circle. The soundtrack is replete with instrumental post-rock from – where else? – Texas, courtesy of Explosions in the Sky, and Tony Lucca‘s cover of the Daniel Johnston‘s eerie and haunting “Devil Town” appears multiple times throughout the first season and in a fairly titillating season three promo. Coach’s daughter Julie is an indie fangirl, convincing boyfriend Matt Saracen to see the Old 97’s and The Decemberists, and the music taste her fictional character boasts translates into a really well-rounded and interesting soundtrack.
Check out a small slice of the music from the series, and watch the rebroadcast of season 4 (originally shown on DirecTV Channel 101) on NBC Friday nights (when else).
And, for your eyes’ delight, check out two of the show’s original stars, Taylor Kitsch as fullback/running back Tim Riggins and Northwestern alumnus Zach Gilford as quarterback Matt Saracen. I apologize in advance for my salacious behavior, but yummy.
Taylor Kitsch of "FNL"
“I apologize to everyone here, and if you can find it within yourselves to let me make it up to you in the showers, I’d appreciate it.” – Tim Riggins, Season 2
Zach Gilford of "FNL"
“You don’t have to worry about me, in a fight I just kinda stand in the back and just yell stuff. ” – Matt Saracen, Season 1
Happy listening.
Oh, and p.s. Matthew Gray Gubler portrays the nerdily inept Dr. Spencer Reid on “Criminal Minds.” Terry Richardson is an allegedly handsy (but very talented) celebrity photographer. FTR.
The Dunce Cap, Vol. 10: I command you to dance. It’s such a sweet sensation. (mix via 8tracks)
1. “July, July!” – The Decemberists
2. “Stole My Heart” – Little and Ashley
3. “Gone Daddy Gone” – Gnarls Barkley
4. “Good Vibrations” – Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch
5. “Airplanes” – Local Natives
6. “Home” – Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
7. “Map of the World” – Monsters of Folk
8. “Shiny Happy People” – R.E.M.
9. “Kiss” – Prince
10. “Girl” – Beck
Look at that little girl. Yes, it’s Suri Cruise, and yes, it’s already been established that I am kind of obsessed with her, but seriously. Just look at the joy captured on her face. So, sure, she’s cute, but why is she the new Maybelline maven of The Dunce Cap?
Well, frankly, I’m tired of my simple explanations that these mixes are brimming with happy songs, blah blah blah. I’m letting Suri say it instead. Try to look at that face without grinning. Really. I dare you. Triple dog dare.
This mix is fist-pumping (yuck) with hip-shaking, high-fiving tracks from artists like The Decemberists and Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch (so much yammering love about to happen in the coming days). There’s a really great Violent Femmes cover from, of all people, Gnarls Barkley (Cee-Lo!) and my favorite Prince track ever. There’s even a reminder of home, a track from Athens’ own R.E.M.
So give it a whirl, and I hope your face lights up like Suri Cruise. And if you really do cheese that much, please send me photos.
coco keevan 