In an overly-dramatic angelic sort of way, as if some sort of proverbial cloud dissipated around me, like some sort of zen nirvana, more like an inner warmth the ice of discontent in which I’ve been trapped for the past month melted away. Somewhere between over-focusing on the two sites and the typical heaviness that comes as the imminent onset of winter begins to fall I can barely even express how gray and low and burnt-out I’ve been feeling every time I sat down in front of my computer to listen to some new music.
Even worse was the feeling that it wasn’t temporal. I was beginning to fill with a fear I’ve never known before, a fear that the passion I’ve had for music since my first memories finally had faded away. And as the back-log of new music grew and grew I had that rare feeling of love dying. Is this over-dramatic? These are real thoughts of mine, these are honest feelings.
Then Sunday night while at work pretending to be optimistic but not feeling that way. The bar was filled with loud obnoxiousness and was just busy enough to be annoying, it reached the point where I was holding tight to the thought that “at least things can’t get any worse.” I’d spoken too soon, in walked my arch-nemesis, the black cloud of despair that threatens its presence nightly. Anyone who works in the service industry has some customer that comes in and is everything you don’t like about your job, this guy is the worse; he tips poorly, thinks that since he comes in three nights a week that he is somehow entitled top priority, ALWAYS stays in the bar until the last legal minute we can stay open (knowing that the second he walks out we get to lock the door and go home) and for-fucks-sake he always plays ICP on the jukebox and I’m not talking just one song I’m talking two albums worth of their completely un-artistic garbage. And I’ll be damned if he didn’t go straight to the jukebox before even ordering a drink…. I could have lit the entire bar on fire!
So forty minutes later, everyone whose not a white south-sider with a size 4x hoody and a cabinet full of Faygo has now cleared out of the place, I was left with one choice to keep from beating someone to death. I had someone cover the bar and made my way to the jukebox, skipped three of the guys songs and put on what may likely be my number one of number ones “Konstantine.” I rarely sing along with a song anymore, more often I let the artists do the work while I just passively enjoy, but Sunday was one of the rare times where I was singing in public and DID NOT CARE. And as I was matching every note, every breathe (That’s the way it sounded in my head anyways) I felt the veil being torn, literally I felt lighter and positive and good. It feels good to feel good especially when it’s lasting.
I sat down at the Heycoolkid! studio (ie my bedroom) at around four-thirty in the morning and, as I do every night, hit play on some new song from some new band, only this time it was real again, it was art once more, the passion was back. I’ve been shuffling through my backlog of yet-to-be-listened to music for three days and am beyond content to know that all was not lost forever. I’m alive once again.
This is the reason why I’m finally feeling convicted enough to put this post up. These get to the heart of the thing.
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So outside of having at least a hundred songs to be thrown up in the very near future I’ve been thinking about how I’ve never put my all-time favorite songs up. This list is very fluid and a far (FAR) cry from definitive since if I made this list seven times in a week each time would be different, still here’s the music that I love and that I have a very hard time understanding why other people don’t love as well (unless you like reality-tv, Ed Hardy shirts, Desperate Housewives, Escalades, George Bush Jr, Ho-Ho’s, Nickelback, and/or listening to clear-channel radio stations… in which case I completely understand why you don’t like these songs because your art has no spine, your passions have no flavor, it’s a dull middle class existence of buying things (And buying into things) that define your luke-warm “passions” and I truly hope at some point in your life the veil too is lifted and for the first time you find true meaning in your life that isn’t just recited generic door-mat quote motivation but instead a true invigoration, there may be little hope but it is there)
This IS NOT meant to reflect what songs I think in the whole landscape of “Music” are the most important…. this is merely a list of PERSONAL favorites. These songs may have a very minimal effect in the grand scheme but they are the cornerstone, the backbone, the lifeblood of what is so important in my life (outside of religion).
[There is absolutely zero order to this]
…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead – “Worlds Apart”
Bright Eyes – “Let’s Not Shit Ourselves (To Love and to be Loved)”
Neutral Milk Hotel – “Holland, 1945″
David Dondero – “Living And The Dead”
Belle And Sebastian – “The Boy With The Arab Strap”
The Promise Ring – “Make Me A Mixtape”
The Magnetic Fields – “Saddest Story Ever Told”
Joanna Newsom – “Peach, Plum, Pear”
The Smiths – “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out (Early take from September 1985)”
Something Corporate – “Konstantine”
Buzzcocks – “Why Can’t I Touch It”
Todd Snider – “You Think You Know Somebody”
Ryan Adams – “Oh My Sweet Carolina (Live Denver,CO 2011)”
Red House Painters – “Have You Forgotten”
The Gaslight Anthem – “Blue Jeans And White T Shirts”
Birds And Batteries – “Strange Kind of Mirror (Daytrotter Session)”
Animal Collective – “Summertime Clothes”
The Pixies – “Here Comes Your Man”
New End Original – “Better Than This”
Death Cab For Cutie – “Brothers On A Hotel Bed”
Bob Dylan – “Mr. Tambourine Man”
The Head And The Heart – “Rivers And Roads”
Blake Skidmore – “August Breeze”
Bruce Springsteen – “Highway Patrolman”
Simon And Garfunkel – “The Sound Of Silence”
Neil Young – “Cortez The Killer”
Bob Seger – “Against The Wind”
Bon Iver – “Beth/Rest (Piano Version)”
Ruth Brown – “Mama, He Treats Your Daughter”
Etta James – “Something’s Got A Hold On Me”
Joe Tex – “The Love You Save (May Be Your Own)”
James Brown – “Please, Please, Please”
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tick – “Hold Tight”
The Sonics – “Have Love Will Travel”
The Ataris – “So Long, Astoria”
Cap’N Jazz – “Forget Who We Are”
Misfits – “Die, Die My Darling”
Have Heart – “Something More Than Ink”
Shawn Mullins – “Twin Rocks, Oregon”
Rocky Votolato – “Mix Tapes/Cell Mates”
Dashboard Confessional – “The Sharp Hint Of New Tears”
Her Space Holiday – “Japanese Gum”
The Honorary Title – “Everything I Once Had”
Jesse Lacey – “Upward Over the Mountain (Iron And Wine Cover)”
Jimmy Eat World – “Hear You Me”
John Lennon – “Give Peace A Chance”
The Velvet Underground – “Pale Blue Eyes”
Saosin – “Seven Years (Acoustic)”
Margot And The Nuclear So And So’s – “A Light On A Hill”
Merle Haggard – “Sing Me Back Home”
Pete Seeger – “Bring Em Home (Live)”
Simon And Garfunkel – “America”
Straylight Run – “Mistakes We Knew We Were Making”
Van Morrison – “These Are The Days”
The Smoking Popes – “Pretty Pathetic”
The Replacements – Unsatisfied
David Bazan – “Fewer Broken Pieces”
Third Eye Blind – “Motorcycle Drive By”
The Appleseed Cast – “Fight Song”
Hall And Oats – “You Make My Dreams Come True”
Big Red Marbles – “Make That Call”
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All songs are for promotional purposes only. If you or an artist you represent would like content removed email me at Heycoolkid@yahoo.com.
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Tags: 23, A Light On A HIll, acoustic, Against The Wind, all my teeth, america, And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, animal collective, august breeze, belle and sebastian, Ben Kweller, Beth/Rest, Better Than This, Big Red Marbles, birds and batteries, blake skidmore, blue jeans and white t shirts, bob dylan, Bob Seger, bon iver, bright eyes, bring em home, Brothers On A Hotel Bed, Bruce Springsteen, built to spill, cap'n jazz, Car, cat stevens, Cortez The Killer, cover, damien jurado, dashboard confessional, Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick And Tich, david bazan, david dondero, death cab for cutie, Die Die My Darling, Dizzy, Download, Elliott Smith, Etta James, everything i once had, Fatalist Palmistry, Fewer Broken Pieces, Fight Song, Forget Who We Are, give peace a chance, Greatest Songs Of All-Time, hall and oats, Have Heart, have love will travel, Have You Forgotten, Hear You Me, Her Space Holiday, Here, Here Comes Your Man, Highway Patrolman, Hold Tight, Holland 1945, iron and wine, James Brown, Japenese Gum, Jesse Lacey, Jimi Hendrix, jimmy eat world, Joanna Newsome, Joe Tex, john lennon, konstantine, Leaving New York, let's not shit ourselves, listen, Living And The Dead, Lou Reed, Love Buzz, Make Me A Mixtape, Make The Call, Mama He Treats Your Daughter, Mansions, margot and the nuclear so and sos, Medication, Merle Haggard, mistakes we knew we were making, Mix Tapes/Cell Mates, motorcycle drive by, mp3, Mr Tambourine Man, Mutemath, Neil Young, Neutral Milk Hotel, New End Original, nirvana, Oh My Sweet Carolina, on your porch, Pale Blue Eyes, paul baribeau, pavement, peach plum pear, pete seeger, Piano Version, Please Please Please, Pretty Pathetic, red house painters, Regina Spektor, REM, Reset, Rivers And Roads, rocky votolato, Ruth Brown, ryan adams, Saddest Story Ever Told, Samson, saosin, seven years, Shawn Mullins, shiv hurrah, simon and garfunkel, Sing Me Back Home, So Long Astoria, something corporate, Something More Than Ink, Something's Got A Hold On Me, strange kind of mirror, straylight run, Substitute Angel, Summertime Clothes, ten things, The appleseed cast, The Ataris, The Boy With The Arab Strap, the format, the gaslight anthem, the head and the heart, The honorary title, The Love You Save May Be Your Own, the magnetic fields, The Misfits, The Pixies, The Promise Ring, The Replacements, the sharp hint of new tears, The Smiths, The Smoking Popes, the sonics, The Sound Of Silence, The Velvet Underground, the wind, There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, These Are The Days, third eye blind, Thirteen, To Love And To Be Loved, Todd Snider, Twilight, twin rocks oregon, Unsatisfied, upward over the mountain, Van Morrison, Voodoo Child, why?, worlds apart, You Make My Dreams Come True, You Think You Know Somebody
