Hello all! This is my first entry to my series of posting about what songs I've been loving and frequently listning each month, and my thoughts about each.
Right around Halloween I finally decided to listen to Geese and they blew me away like I was afraid they would. I had known about them since 3D Country (the album) came out, and they were often mentioned among Squid, Black Midi, Black Country New Road etc. which I all loved, but the demographic of annoying critic-parroting music nerd seemed to flock around Geese. Alas, there was a reason critics loved them, and now I am late to the train when I could've easily been ahead of the curve. Regardless, I'm glad I've found them at all because listening to their two latest albums this month has been a delight. When the first track of 3D Country blew me away and got me hooked, the second track, the title track, solidified that this is a really unique, versatile, creative and talented group. Its various catchy 70s influenced sections immediately wormed their way into my head. This song feels like it has the offbeat but sentimental lyricism and delivery of Jonathan Richman with a soundtrack of all kinds of sounds from the 70s (soul, pop, and classic rock particularly).
Also around Halloween the dining room radio in the chipotle I work at changed their ever constant mix of music only for the few days leading up to Halloween. This Halloween mix was miles better than the normal one and was full of songs I love (which made me think maybe all the music I love is considered Halloween music by most, but I digress.) One of the songs featured was one I had sort of forgot about, which was The Blood. I mostly associated it with Dead Cells, which I was playing the first time I heard The Head on the Door, but the Spanish guitar sounding part and the chorus, "I am paralyzed by the blood of christ" were a lot more captivating and catchy than I had remembered.
This has always been one of my favorites, sort of a MOBO deep cut thats packed full of fantastic songwriting and emo passion from the great Jake Ewald. It's been in my rotation for a while, but its risen in my favor recently for a couple reasons. I have indeed been drinking more than usual, and a couple different nights I'd been drinking vodka and a huge can of Steel Reserve 211, which is referenced in the lyrics "watching a grown man drink a 211 at 11 am." This has in then made me think of it and compelled me to listen when I've drank. I also had paid more particular attention to the lyrics of the song. Belting out these words while drunk is a lovely experience and the lyrics are so unique and well written. Listening to the live acoustic version sort of made the structure of the song and Jake's lyrics shine brighter for me.
Michael Cera Palin has always been one of my favorite emo bands, and seeing them live and meeting Elliott Brabant set off a non-stop obsession with their music for a while. This was one of the last of their songs to really grow on me and become one of my favorites, and now that I've fully seen how fantastic it is its been one of my absolute favorites. The lyrics of the entire song are absolutely beautifully written and particularly the lines "and if you're not living you're dying they say, so stand outside my bedroom, watch me waste away" and "cause pessimism keeps me cold at night, so here's to 12 more hours illuminated by my laptop screen's light."
Camping in Alaska was for a while one of the bands I felt more of a personal connection to. The album of theirs that I really clicked with was a demo album called fuck shit up. The recording sounded somewhat amateurish but very human, it felt like I was in the room with Austin Davis or like it was something a friend sent me. Having been familiar with c u in da ballpit (courtesy of my wonderful bf) and having heard the rest of please be nice once I decided to give it another shot a while back, and why can't I be snowing really stuck out to me. I frequently listened to this track and a lot of other camping in alaska stuff over the summer when I'd go outside to smoke weed at night. I paused listening to it after the summer for a while but this month returning to it hit like a truck.
This song is an absolute classic. I've been again really loving camping in alaska and this song's riff and structure are so genius and catchy despite it being written really hastily with extra studio time. I also made a new Valorant account (this month I think?) under the name "cu in da ballpit."
I do not remember what exactly brought Daniel Johnston into the front of my mind this month but I remember it happened during a nighttime drive around with my boyfriend. I remembered being really struck remembering how wonderful this song is and how much of a sense for songwriting Daniel Johnston had.
My good friend and former bandmate Enzo returned to town after being off at college 3 and a half hours away for a few months, and it was fantastic to see him. We talked, smoked, drank, watched Smiling Friends and spun records. Elvis Presley's self-titled debut album has been one of his favorite albums of all time for about as long as I've known him, and at this record fair he sold at and I bought at, he got another nice original copy for cheap. We were reminded of that and he pulled out my dad's original copy of the album and spun it.