& ONE DAY I AM GONNA GROW WINGS

DAY 12: NO DOUBT

I was a little kid when No Doubt were in their heyday. Everything that I loved about boy bands and solo artists was nothing compared to my awe of bands who played real instruments and didn’t do choreographed dances. While I still love being able to dance along with a routine, I see the music of bands like No Doubt as much more relevant than “Digital Get Down” (though for many people, DGD is still very relevant). I remember playing some sort of music video game as a kid solely so that I could play along to “Just A Girl”.

Gwen was just starting her solo career when I entered high school, and it was confusing for me. “Hollaback Girl” presented a different side of Gwen that I didn’t anticipate, but many probably did. Funnily enough, I love that. I don’t like being able to predict what an act will do next in their careers, but I do like a good mystery (see exhibit Radiohead).

I also love that she inspired another band that I love even though there are many detractors, but we can’t really have it all.

Favorite Member: Gwen Stefani. When I would imagine being the frontman of my own band I would picture being just like her. Shit, I still do.
Favorite Album(s): Tragic Kingdom or Return of Saturn. I don
Favorite song(s): “Simple Kind of Life”, “Bathwater”, “Don’t Speak”, “Just A Girl”, “Sunday Morning”, “Spiderwebs”, “Hella Good”, “New”, “Hey Baby”
Favorite lyrics:

“Oh I’m just a girl, living in captivity
Your rule of thumb
Makes me worry some”

“Now all those simple things are simply too complicated for my life
How’d I get so faithful to my freedom?
A selfish kind of life
When all I ever wanted was the simple things
A simple kind of life ”
Seen them live?: YES, with my friends Dziko (who has a tumblr, hay gurl) and Jeni (who is like, a superfan). Gwen was so amazing, I couldn’t believe that she was in better shape than anyone I’ve ever seen in my life. She was bouncing off the walls with energy. Even though the venue was the same as the one that nearly flooded out completely and turned people away when Radiohead came in 2008, the performances made up for the shitty parking, waiting, and people who worked there. 

DAY 11: ARCADE FIRE

What the fuck, I didn’t even put them on my list! Sorry for the oversight—they probably were supposed to go where Muse is, but then again, this list isn’t in order. I tried to stagger my absolute favorites on the list but seriously, Arcade Fire should’ve been one of the first few on the list.

Favorite Member: Will Butler. He runs the amazing marcademire tumblog that talks about helping Partners In Health help Haiti in the aftermath of the massive earthquake that happened a year and a half ago.
Favorite Album(s): Funeral is the best, most cohesive, and defining of their albums so far. I find Neon Bible to be the interesting, solidly great brother who has a few quirks, but The Suburbs is what made me a massive fan.
Favorite song(s): “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)”, “Keep the Car Running”, “Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)”, “Rebellion (Lies)”, “Cold Wind”, “HAITI”, “In The Backseat”, “Ready To Start”, “My Heart Is An Apple”, “Empty Room”, “Half Light” (1&2), “Wake Up”, “My Body Is A Cage”, “Old Flame” etc. Can you tell that I fucking love this band?
Favorite lyrics: “I have no feeling for you now, now that I know you better”

“My body is a cage.
We take what we’re given.
Just because you’ve forgotten, that don’t mean you’re forgiven.”

“My family tree’s
Losing all its leaves
Crashing towards the driver’s seat
The lightning bolt made enough heat
To melt the street beneath your feet”
Seen them live?:  I saw them right after The Suburbs came out, which was funny because my show was the day after the two day residency at Madison Square Garden. I’ve never seen so many people go apeshit together in such a peaceful way.

DAY 10: THE SMITHS

Favorite Member: Steven Patrick Morrissey or Johnny Marr. Really, I’d like to choose them both, but I’d probably go for Moz more because he has some really epic quotes: “Artists aren’t really people. I’m actually 40 per cent papier mache.”

If it weren’t for Jesse Lacey’s obsession with this man, I wouldn’t have heard their music when I did and my path in life might’ve been quite a bit different. The lyrics are just incredible. Scathing, witty, sad, uplifting, and just flat out awesome all within themselves. If he had no interest in music, he would still be an excellent writer. I will always admire him for his words, even if they piss people off.
Favorite Album(s): The Queen Is Dead always and forever.
Favorite song(s): “The Boy With the Thorn in His Side” is a perennial favorite, but I also love “I Know It’s Over”, “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want”, and I love the way “Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others” dances around. It’s pretty fab.
Favorite lyrics:

“If you must write prose and poems, the words you use should be your own
don’t plagiarize or take “on loans”
there’s always someone, somewhere with a big nose, who knows and who trips you up and laughs when you fall”

“It’s so easy to laugh
it’s so easy to hate
it takes guts to be gentle and kind
it’s over, over, over”
Seen them live?: No, because I wasn’t alive & I doubt they’ll get back together ever again. Sucks, but I definitely accepted this when I was like 15 or whatever, haha.

I’m gonna start just doing them all at once and putting them in the queue. I can’t keep up since I’m going to be in school for the rest of the month!

DAY 9: PORTISHEAD

Favorite Member: I don’t know enough about Portishead to pick one of them as a favorite, but I do love the way they all work together to create that hauntingly cinematic sound. They’re one of those bands who I just prefer to know next to nothing about because their music is enough to fulfill me. I like the suspicion and the mystery of their music, so why not let their music speak for them?
Favorite Album(s): Third and Dummy. I like Portishead but not the way I love the others.

Favorite song(s): “The Rip” by far is my favorite, but second and third honors go to “Nylon Smile” and “We Carry On” from Third; “Roads”, “Mysterons”, “Sour Times”, “Wandering Star”, and “Numb” from Dummy; “Cowboys” and “All Mine” from Portishead.
Favorite lyrics:

“Oh, can’t anybody see
We’ve got a war to fight
Never found our way
Regardless of what they say
How can it feel, this wrong
From this moment
How can it feel, this wrong”

“I can’t see nothing good
and nothing is so bad
I never had a chance
to explain exactly what I meant “

“Through the glory of life
I will scatter on the floor
Disappointed and sore
And in my thoughts I have bled
For the riddles I’ve been fed
Another lie moves over”
Seen them live?: Unfortunately not yet. But I will!

DAY 8: TEGAN AND SARA

Favorite Member: SARA! I love Tegan, though since Sainthood came out I’m a Sara girl. :) She’s a lot more calm and clearly focused than Tegan is. Tegan has an energy that is great and exciting, but it can lead her to frustration… Sara comes off as much more collected in general. I admire that. I’m more like Tegan in the energy, but I try and channel Sara. Though, I do own the special edition Macbeths that were designed by Tegan…

Favorite Album(s): THE CON. Before I listened to Radiohead, this was by far my favorite album of 2007. It’s still one of my favorites ever because not only is it musically interesting, it also has some great stories attached (though sad), and it really was their musical (not commercial, that was So Jealous) breakthrough. I still haven’t heard much of anything like it in the pop realm, which is pretty awesome, but I wish more people would actually listen to T&S rather than just writing them off as those lesbian twins. I played The Con for my Dad and he bought me The Recollection as a surprise gift.

Favorite song(s): “The Con”, “Floorplan”, “On Directing”, “Living Room”, “Downtown”, “Walking With A Ghost”, “Knife Going In”, “I Bet It Stung”, “Night Watch”, “Paperback Head”, and so many more.

Favorite lyrics:

“What rushes into my heart and my skull, I can’t control
I feel you in my bones
You’re knocking on my windows
You’re slow to letting me go
And I know this feeling oh, so
This feeling in my bones”

“Might write something
I might want to say to you some day.
Might do something
I’d be proud of someday.
Mark my words,
I might be something someday.”

Seen them live?: ugh no :( I had tickets but no way of getting there and then I couldn’t sell them in time… :( next time, hopefully. I refused to see them open for Paramore and New Found Glory, though. That would’ve been ridiculous.

DAY 7: MUSE

Yes tumblr, I am ~secretly~ a Muse fan. But I’m definitely not srsbsns like so many are.

It’s not really a secret, but I just never talk about them… everyone irl knows though. I like to roll around on the floor and sing their songs obnoxiously. Like my friend Laura did one time… if she reads this: HI, I REMEMBER THAT AND YES I DO IT TOO EVEN THOUGH I LAUGHED AT YOU.

Radiohead doesn’t really give me this opportunity. I take their music in a different direction… more gyration involved.

Favorite Member: Um, Dom, of course. Matt is too over-the-top for me to enjoy him for very long. He’s really talented, yada yada, but some of the outfits he wears need to be burned. Chris is cool forever, but for some reason Dom > Chris > Matt. -shrug- I think Chris is a little too cool for me. I’m intimidated by him.

Favorite Album(s): I like Absolution, Origin of Symmetry, and BH&R a lot. My last.fm does not reflect this because I’ve only just realized that I don’t have the first two on this computer. I don’t have Showbiz because I always forget about it. >:D That’s it, that’s all the Muse albums that exist. -nods-
Favorite song(s): I love me some “Take A Bow”, “Time is Running Out”, “Map of the Problematique”, “Bliss”, “Plug In Baby” and “Citizen Erased”… I think that’s it? Oh, and “Starlight” because it’s a good karaoke song. “Knights of Cydonia” was my intro to Muse. :D  SHIT, AND “HYSTERIA” I thought I wrote it. fixed now.
Favorite lyrics: I love singing along to like… all of their songs. They’re so dramatic! If they were a spoken word band or a rap group, it would be really, really funny/awesome.

“There’s no justice in the world
And there never was “

“How can we win when fools can be kings?
Don’t waste your time or time will waste you
No one’s going to take me alive
The time has come to make things right
You and I must fight for our rights
You and I must fight to survive”

Seen them live?: No, because my friends are either lame or poor. SERIOUSLY, one of my best friends in high school legitimately does not like them and my other friend and I just don’t get it. Muse came through with U2 once, and then another time they had two nights and I couldn’t go to any of them because I didn’t have a way there. 

DAY 6: JACK’S MANNEQUIN.

Favorite Member: Andrew McMahon. I fucking loved this man well before I listened to Radiohead, and that love still has not ceased. This guy beat the crap out of his cancer and still performs like every day is his last. My shirt on my profile picture icon says “Andrew McMahon is a friend of mine.” ‘Cause he is.

Favorite Album(s): Everything in Transit
Favorite song(s): “Bruised”, “I’m Ready”, “Caves”, “American Love”, “Bloodshot”, “Annie Use Your Telescope”, “Drop Out-The So Unknown”, “Into the Airwaves”, “Kill The Messenger”… and so on.
Favorite lyrics: “As I’m swimming through your stereo, I conduct a symphony of sound”, “But if you left it up to me
Every day would be a holiday from real
We’d waste our weeks beneath the sun
We’d fry our brains and say it’s so much fun
Out here”
Seen them live?: Thrice. One time was an acoustic show, a full two hours. We were in a synagogue and it was beyond awesome.

DAY 5: Animal Collective

Favorite Member: Avey Tare. I’m drawn to the songwriters more often than anything.
Favorite Album(s): I’ve had Merriweather Post Pavilion the longest, so it would have to be that. Plus, local venue! It isn’t the greatest place in the world to hear live music, but it certainly is the most awesome around here for a variety of reasons. I’m not even going to pretend like the title of the album wasn’t why I got it, cuz it totally was.
Favorite song(s): “Bluish”, “What Would I Want? Sky”, “Leaf House”, “Brother Sport”, “The Purple Bottle”
Favorite lyrics: “JUST AAAAAAAAAA SEC MOREEEEEE IN MY BEEEEEED”
Seen them live?: Not yet! Hopefully this summer at Merriweather. :)

DAY 4: BRAND NEW

Look at these BSB mofos. All of my favorite bands have ridiculous pictures of themselves floating around the internet from their early careers. If it wasn’t for Brand New I wouldn’t be into half of the music I’m into, like The Smiths/Moz, Neutral Milk Hotel, and even Radiohead. (People call them ‘The American Radiohead’ every time they release a new album and I want to smack them in the face, tbh.)

Favorite Member: Jesse Lacey, man. I love Vin too but we don’t ever hear enough from him in interviews and the like. Also, My grandfather’s name was Jesse and I was almost named after him. I’m biased.
Favorite Album(s): The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me > Deja Entendu = Daisy=Unreleased Demo Tracks > Your Favorite Weapon. Devil and God just resonates for me on so many levels. I remember waking up early that morning to download it and listening to it for the first time in my English class. I was going through a lot when I got really deep into music (not just listening, but playing) in high school, and this album forced me to deal with the issues.
Favorite song(s): Degausser, Guernica, Luca, Daisy, Noro. In that order.

Favorite lyrics: “Take me, take me back to your bed
I love you so much that it hurts my head
Say, “I don’t mind you under my skin.
I’ll let the bad parts in, the bad parts in”
Well when we were made we were set apart
But life is a test and I get bad marks
Now some saint got the job of writing down my sins
The storm is coming
The storm is coming in”

“Or do I divide and pull apart / Because my bright is too slight to hold back all my dark”

“something dies when you grow older, but you do the best you can”

Seen them live?: Twice, the first time was with my Dad. I couldn’t go in April when they came to Baltimore, or in May when they came back… but now I have a real craving for a concert.

DAY 3: BON IVER

Favorite Member: Sean Carey and Justin Vernon are both brilliant, I couldn’t choose between the two (and I’m sad I couldn’t find a picture of all of them)! But for now, we’ll go ahead and say Justin is my favorite just because he went on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon the other day *and* he’s working with Kanye.
Favorite Album(s): Well, For Emma, Forever Ago is the only LP out at the moment, so that. I haven’t listened to the leak of Bon Iver yet, but I wouldn’t be able to put it against the other one so soon.
Favorite song(s): “Blood Bank” and “Blindsided” but really, every song on the album is SO close that it makes it hard to choose. Also, who doesn’t love “Skinny Love”?

Favorite lyrics: “And I said I know it well, that secret that we know, but we don’t know how to tell…”

“This is not the sound of a new man or crispy realization
It’s the sound of the unlocking and the lift away”
Seen them live?: No, and I probably won’t anytime soon as the tickets for both DC nights sold out in a wink.

DAY 2: Sonic Youth

Favorite Member: Kim Gordon overall, but I love Lee Ranaldo’s songs. So kickass.

Favorite Album(s): Daydream Nation is great, but I have a special place in my heart for Murray Street. That album is full of stories, I love it.

Favorite song(s): “Karen Revisited”/”Karenology”

Favorite lyrics: “Did you get your disconnection notice? Mine came in the mail today”

“I wanted to know the exact dimension of hell…
Does this sound simple?

Fuck you!”
Seen them live?: no :( I started listening to them for real around the time they were here last, which was on their tour for The Eternal, I think… but yeah, I was considering going up to Williamsburg for their show there but I don’t really have traveling money at all right now. 

Day 1: RADIOHEAD

Favorite Member: Thomas Edward Yorke

Favorite Album(s): 

In Rainbows, OK Computer, Kid A

Amnesiac, HTTT, TKOL, The Bends

Pablo Honey
Favorite song(s): “Reckoner”, “Bloom”, “Bodysnatchers”, “Kid A”, “Subterranean Homesick Alien”, “Let Down”, “Myxomatosis”, “I Might Be Wrong”, “Knives Out” …probably in that order… followed by every other song
Favorite lyrics:

“You are not to blame for bittersweet distracters”

“Open your mouth wide, the universal/universe WILL sigh” (I heard it ‘will’ before they announced the newspaper)

“Let’s go down the waterfall, think about the good times and never look back”

“Immerse your soul in love”

“I am fused just in case I blow out”

and all of “The Tourist”
Seen them live?: Unfortunately, no. I’ve seen Atoms for Peace, but that and watching videos of their concerts only give you so much of an experience.