Tell Me, What's It All Mean?: What You Should Have Heard #55

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

What You Should Have Heard #55

My Mix CDs

I’ve got a lot of music but limited space to hold it in, especially in my car. So I’ve gone the old tried-and-true way of making mix CDs to have access to as many bands as possible while driving. I’m going slightly old-school since I’m a bit backwards and have no iPod.

Most of the songs will be more upbeat, with probably only the occasional ballad or slower song included. I like to sing in the car, and the more upbeat songs are more fun to sing.

I’ll be going in alpha-numeric order with these, so if you’re wanting to argue with me about what Weezer songs should be included, you’re going to be waiting for a while.

My only limitations are that I use 80 min. discs, and I’m only going to use one disc per band/artist. I will make exceptions for only my most favorite bands with huge playlists (Foo Fighters and Self, off the top of my head), but I’d really like to boil everything down to just one disc.

Here’s the list guide:

Track # - Song Name - Album Name [Artist if album is by a different artist]

Motion City Soundtrack Mix CD

Attractive Today – Commit This to Memory
Everything is Alright – Commit This to Memory
When You’re Around – Commit This to Memory
Resolution – Commit This to Memory
Feel Like Rain – Commit This to Memory
Make Out Kids – Commit This to Memory
Time Turn Fragile – Commit This to Memory
LGFUAD – Commit This to Memory
Better Open the Door – Commit This to Memory
Hangman – Commit This to Memory
Hold Me Down – Commit This to Memory
Invisible Monsters – Commit This to Memory
Fell in Love without You – Even If It Kills Me
This is for Real – Even If It Kills Me
It Had to Be You – Even If It Kills Me
Calling All Cops – Even If It Kills Me
Broken Heart – Even If It Kills Me
Where I Belong – Even If It Kills Me
Point of Extinction – Even If It Kills Me
Antonia – Even If It Kills Me
The Future Freaks Me Out – I Am the Movie
Perfect Teeth – I Am the Movie
Capital H – I Am the Movie

A few notes on Motion City Soundtrack:

I blame Fall Out Boy for my brief love affair with pop punk, but if not for them I wouldn’t have found bands like MCS or Say Anything. While my enjoyment for the genre has sputtered out, I still enjoy bits and pieces. MCS stayed on my radar because they had a slightly different sound and didn’t feel the need to name all of their songs after pop culture quotes from the ‘80s and ‘90s.
That being said, you’ll notice a lack of tracks from their last album My Dinosaur Life. There was absolutely nothing on that disc that got its hooks into me, and that’s sad considering the amount of time I spent listening to Commit This to Memory (which I almost had at one point). MCS fell into the same trap that FOB and other pop punk bands fall into: at some point all of their stuff just sounds the same.
I wonder if Boyd Crowder, Walton Goggins’ character on Justified, is channeling lead singer Justin Pierre and his haircut?
As I try and embed the band’s video for “Everything is Alright” from YouTube, I wonder what the rationale is for a record label disabling the embed function. Sharing the video is a great way to get a band’s music spread throughout the Interwebs. Sure, if somebody knows about the band they can search for it on YouTube, but what if they DON’T know and only come across this tiny little blog post? They might not be interested in doing any sort of work to check out this band, but if a video is already embedded, all they have to do is click play. Stupid record label. At least I was able to snag “L.G. FUAD.”