A Day In The Life

I had an epiphany the other day. No, I'm not gay. No, I didn't find Jesus. But I did realize the profound effect my iPod has on my life. It has turned some of the most uninteresting moments in my life into much more manageable ones. Days otherwise spent soundtracked by chirping birds, honking cars, and farting buttholes, are now enriched by 20 Gigabytes of my choice tuneage.

I don't know what I would do without you, iPod. I like you so much more than most human beings. You're reliable... handy... rechargable... and you don't press charges regardless of how much I touch you.

Well, because of myPod's (you get it?) continued impact on my life, I've decided to give it a little shout out on the blog. So today, as a little experiment, I chronicled (Narnia-like) each moment of the day I was listening to music. I also intentionally attempted to pick a moment-appropriate song from myPod to really soundtrack my day. Give it a shot and see if your day isn't slightly less shitty:

8:00 A.M. - I wake up to Andrew Bird's "Sovay." Waking up to music usually isn't my thang, but then again, waking up to a huge hit of meth usually isn't my thing either.
8:15 - After a quick shower, I make myself some breakfast to "Mushaboom" by Feist. This song is just the pick-me-up to go with my Cocoa Puffs and coffee. That's right, I pour coffee - instead of milk - into my cereal.
8:35 - I sit in my house in Manayunk, waiting for my roommate to take me to the Ivy Ridge train station. "Bluish" from the new Animal Collective is just the right "waiting for my roommate to take me to the Ivy Ridge train station" song.
8:55 - I wait for the train to "The Pain" by L.A. underground rapper MURS. Diagonally in front of me is a good-looking girl. I can see the outline of her nice, round tush through her jeans. She turns around, and I discover she is actually a man. I get his phone number - just in case.
9:09 - The train arrives - 11 minutes late, of course - to "Helicopter" off M.Ward's Transfiguration of Vincent. Ironically enough, "Helicopter" is a good song to ride the train. If I had to guess, it's probably also a good song to listen to when flying a jet pack.
9:30 - Walk to class to a few tracks from Ratatat Remixes Volume II - in particular "Allure," a Jay-Z feat. Biggie remix. Rap tends to make me feel tougher than I really am (which if you can guess is fairly untough). It almost feels like a bulletproof vest when walking through the ghetto of North Philadelphia (a bulletproof vest that unfortunatlely is incapable of saving my life if I was to ever get shot).
11:30 - After class, I walk over to Temple University's Student Center to get some grub while listening to Modest Mouse's "Heart Cooks Brain." Then, when I get there "A Friendly Black Lady Cooks Fried Chicken with a Side of Macaroni and Cheese."
12:10 - More walking to class and thus more rap; Dangerdoom - "Crosshairs," Blu & Exile - "Simply Amazin'," Devin The Dude - "What A Job"
3:40 - Class is over, and I'm looking forward to getting home and napping. At Temple's train station a crackhead kindly asks me for a cigarette. I kindly tell him to "fuck off you one-toothed freak." I go with "Gila" by Beach House, "Westfall" by Okkervil River, and "Painter in Your Pocket" by Destroyer for my commute back to Manayunk. Riding trains are a good time to reflect on your day, and these songs are the perfect reflecting music. Riding trains are also a good time to make funny faces at babies.
6:15 - Wake up from a nap and make myself dinner - and by make myself dinner, I mean look for scraps of French fries in McDonald's dumpster. Stars' "What the Snowman Learned About Love" is perfect dumpster-diving music.
7:00 - I spend the next fews hours watching tv, as well as some youtube videos and SNL Digital Shorts. (FYI: This is usually the point in my night where I duct tape a 40 to each one of my hands and put "Break Stuff" by Linkin Park on repeat. I guess tonight happened to be my off-night)
10:30 - I listen to some background tunes as I do my homework: Antony & the Johnsons - "My Lady Story," Tapes 'n Tapes - "Manitoba," Wilco - "Radio Cure," and Elliott Smith - "Angeles." For the record, I do my homework naked to make things a little more interesting.
12:15 - After a long day, I go to sleep (I unfortunately traded in my bed for a love swing so I sleep entangled in that - at the time it seemed like a good idea).

The Good Feeling Music of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele

I've decided to add a new dimension to Rather Be Pogging. It's fairly simple. From now on whenever I discuss an album, I'm going to create a new genre for it. If "shoegaze" can be the name of a genre, I don't see why I can't make up my own stupid names of genres. For example: this next album falls under a little genre I like to call "Sensitive Rock."

The Good Feeling Music of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele

Dent May is trapped in the 1950's, and I'm reaping all the benefits. Equipped with creepy molester glasses, a tuxedo, and a ukulele, Mr. May's debut LP just might be the easiest thing to fall in love with since Furbys. And not only is it easy to fall in love with, but it's easy to fall in love to (I have to assume it's easy to fall in love to since no girl will fall in love with me; maybe I should stop doing this... and this).

But seriously, I can completely imagine The Good Feeling Music playing in the background of some cheesy movie's falling-in-love montage. It's the kind of music your parents will slow-dance to once you're away at college. In fact, I can't recall the last time there's been an album packed with so many sha-la-la's and shooby-doo-wop's. If that doesn't spell out L-O-V-E, I don't know what does.

Maybe it's appropriate this album comes out only 11 days prior to Valentine's Day - a day I will spend drinking whiskey, eating Cheez-Its, and crying alone in my bedroom. The album is a 35 minute daydreamy stroll through the clouds. The euphoric mixture of the ukulele and baritone voice, complimented by charming background doo-wops just makes me want to fall in love (and this time with a real girl instead of an internet-girl). Dent May just might be the "softest boy in Mississippi." He certainly is the Mississippi version of Jens Lekman (he's also that episode of "Friends" where Rachel and Ross fall in love).

This album feels like hugging a teddy bear. It tastes like chocolate. It reeks of flowers. It's web address might just be eharmony.com. Personally, it reminds me of the 7 girls I fell love with (5 of those 7 didn't even know who I was - thus my rating).


Listen to Dent May's lovespace here.

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

"Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me/ I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed."

-

Just some Smash Mouth lyrics that are forever etched into my brain. I didn't even have to google "smash mouth all star lyrics" to ensure the lyrics were right. I knew they were. I haven't heard that song in probably four years, yet I could have perfectly typed every single lyric to that song if I wanted. I can sing the melody note-for-note. I'm not bragging. It's just the way it is. You probably can too.

(Rather Be Pogging Fun Fact #2: it is rumored that all the money Smash Mouth made off the song "All Star" was spent on cocaine and prostitutes)

Though I didn't really understand what music was back in the 4th grade, I knew I liked the song "All Star" by Smash Mouth. Back then, I considered it "The Best Song Ever," and I was certain it would never grow old (and I was right). Listening to it was like doing some sort of awesome, addictive drug (a drug that appeared on Shrek's soundtrack) that every 4th grader in the United States also enjoyed doing (my drug dealer: Best Buy). Like most drugs, this one required a process - singing along with the song and knowing every lyric - in order to experience the high - feeling cool.

(other things that made me feel cool in 4th grade: chain necklace, chain wallet, Old Navy tech-vest, a fresh bowl-cut from the barber, a shirt with dragons on it, having a crush on a girl, writing a note during class that said "do you like me? circle yes or no," passing that note to a girl I had a crush on, her circling yes, being the starting running back on my recess football team, telling my crush to watch me play football at recess)

(things that made me feel uncool in 7th grade: chain necklaces, wallets, tech-vests, dragon shirts and bowlcuts all going out of style, my crush hitting puberty and no longer being worth crushing on, being too fragile to play for my middle school's football team)

When people consider a song or an album "poppy," I always think back to "All Star" by Smash Mouth - a song so lovable that most of us are not even capable of forgetting the melody and lyrics. I think that's what makes good "pop" music good. Hooks that you can't get out of your head. Refrains that you wake up singing. Even your farts start sounding like the end of the second verse. And the only way to stop from going crazy is to go listen to the song again, and again, and again.

Recently, I've been listening to the new album Animal Collective (not Smash Mouth) has just released. Merriweather Post Pavilion. An album that people are calling "Animal Collective's pop album." Immediately, I'm looking for comparisons to "All Star," and, though there's probably never been two works of "pop" farther apart, I do see some underlying similarities: 1) I enjoy both "All Star" and Merriweather Post Pavilion 2) both provoke(d) some feeling deep within 3) both are things people listen to 4) both are what my dad calls "crunchy-ass tunes brother man."

(dissimilarities: thirteen-year-olds won't ever grind to "My Girls" at their middle school's Valentine's dance)

Alas, Merriweather Post Pavilion is a difficult album to listen to by most people's standards. The "pop" Animal Collective creates is a much less-listenable "pop" than the kind Smash Mouth creates. Either you'll greatly enjoy Merriweather Post Pavilion or you'll be greatly confused why I ever called it "pop" (for the record, I will continue to put the word "pop" in quotation marks). Smash Mouth and Animal Collective have different artistic values and musical abilities (and haircuts and weight issues) and that's reason enough that their music is nothing alike. But whether or not you like what Animal Collective has done in the past, I recommend checking out Merriweather Post Pavilion and see if you can't fall in love with a new definition of "pop."

"Sick and tired of hearing all the people talk about what's the deal with this pop life and when's it gonna fade out. The thing you got to realize is what we doing is not a trend. We got the gift of melody, we gonna bring it til the end."

- Justin Timberlake (21st century philosopher)

*I used some form of the word "pop" in this post 10 times. Thus, my rating of this album is a 10 out of 10.

1. Fleet Foxes - Sun Giant EP/ Fleet Foxes

Ahhh...(the "Ahhh" sound you make when you're feeling relieved about something) finally we (I) have reached the end of this long countdown road. It's been some good times. It's been some bad times. Frankly, it's been way too fucking long. But today, finally, is my last post for this "First Annual Rather Be Pogging Countdown of My Favorite Albums and Songs of the Year." I feel kind of like the last kid to hit the button on the top of the Aggro Crag on Nickelodeon's GUTS (except Mo isn't keeping score). At this point, everyone has been long done with their year-end-lists, and yet I'm just finishing in the middle of January. Just another testament to how fat and lazy I am (another testament would be the fact I use two doughnuts in place of a hamburger roll).

As I promised, below is a list of my favorite 25 (actually 30) songs of 2008:

30. Why? - Good Friday
29. Fleet Foxes - Your Protector
28. Dodos - Red & Purple
27. The Hold Steady - Constructive Summer
26. Born Ruffians - Little Garcon
25. Ben Folds (ft. Regina Spektor) - You Don't Me
24. Estelle (ft. Kanye West) - American Boy
23. Blitzen Trapper - Furr
22. Beach House - Gila
21. Okkervil River - Lost Coastlines
20. She & Him - Sentimental Heart
19. MGMT - Kids
18. Born Ruffians - Hummingbird
17. TV On The Radio - The Stork and Owl
16. El Guincho - Palmitto's Park
15. Lupe Fiasco - Little Weapon
14. Vampire Weekend - Walcott
13. Passion Pit - Sleepyhead
12. Why? - The Hollows
11. Joel Alme - The Queen's Corner
10. Department of Eagles - No One Does It Like You
9. Lil Wayne (ft. Jay-Z) - Mr. Carter
8. My Morning Jacket - Highly Suspicious
7. Animal Collective - Water Curses
6. Bon Iver - Lump Sum
5. Fleet Foxes - Mykonos
4. The Hold Steady - Slapped Actress
3. Dodos - Fools
2. Sigur Rós - Gobbledigook
1. MGMT - Electric Feel

Now, before we (I) get to my favorite album of 2008, let's take a gander at some of my favorite albums from 2008 that didn't make the list:

My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
Okkervil River - The Stand Ins
Sigur Ros -Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
Why? - Alopecia
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
Passion Pit - Chunk of Change EP
El Guincho - Alegranza!
Lupe Fiasco - The Cool

And now...my favorite album of 2008...

1. Fleet Foxes - Sun Giant EP/ Fleet Foxes

Coming in at #1 and winner of the prestigious "First Annual Rather Be Pogging Countdown of My Favorite Albums" are Fleet Foxes and their EP/ self-titled album.

At first I was skeptical about putting this album at #1. The songs on both the EP and album are just seem so simple, and the sound they produce is too 60's folk, I figured their work wasn't worth #1. Unlike some of my favorite albums-of-the-year from previous years (I liked 2004- Arcade Fire Funeral 2005- Sufjan Stevens Illinois or Wolf Parade Apologies to the Queen Mary 2007 - LCD Soundsystem Sound of Silver or Panda Bear Person Pitch) I felt Sun Giant EP/ Fleet Foxes were an old, revised sound, rather than a new sound that pushed the progression of music forward. But after seeing these guys live, it became clear to me that though their sound may be a mountainier version of Beach Boys, their songwriting and talent (especially singing harmonies live) are just as deserving as every other year's #1.

It's hard to say exactly what makes Fleet Foxes so worth listening to. Maybe it's their angelic harmonies. Maybe it's their obscurely ruggid yet romantic lyrics. Maybe it's their hippyness. Maybe we should ask Bill Nye the Science Guys (science rulez) why it's so enjoyable. But whatever it is, Fleet Foxes have made me realize one thing about music; a lesson most hipsters could use:

Music does not need to be progressive to be liked. Kind of an obvious statement, but still one many of us look past. It often seems like people in general want to like whatever is most cutting edge (this is probably why more and more rappers are using that weird synthesizer voice). Music will make it's progressions (just think of how each decade has it's own "sound"), but good music will always be good music, regardless of what era it came from. Fleet Foxes' are the anti-cutting edge. And by being the anti-cutting edge they have become cutting-edge (I've lost my mind).

Good-bye 2008. Hello 2009. (8 days late)

2. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

If there is anything less exciting than finishing a list of my favorite albums from 2008 in 2009, it has to be including an album that technically came out in 2007. Let's be honest, does anyone even remember 2007? The only thing that really comes to mind is the premier of "The Big Bang Theory" on CBS. Other than that, pretty much nothing happened. Oh yeah, Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago was self-released in the Fall of 2007. So I guess that makes two interesting things that happened in 2007.

But it wasn't until the album was re-released through Jagjaguwar in February of 2008 that I actually heard the album. And to be honest, the album feels so wintery that I have to consider it's February 2008 release as it's official release. So fuck off Wikipedia (c'mon baby you know I don't mean that - your facts are the best).

2. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

Coming in at #2 and winner of the "Henry David Thoreau Walden Pond" Award is Bon Iver and For Emma, Forever Ago.

Mostly recorded over three months of seclusion in a remote cabin in Wisconsin, For Emma, Forever Ago feels (and sounds) like isolation. In fact, I can't imagine this album ever being created without his Thoreau/ Alexander Supertramp-like self-isolation. If an artist has ever captured the feeling of walking alone into a cold snowy, woods at sunset and chopping down a tree for firewood, it would have to be Bon Iver (there's no word on whether or not he knew how to properly conserve moose-meat).

Perhaps Wikipedia says it best (or whoever edited this page): "Solitude is a state of seclusion and isolation, i.e. lack of contact with people or love." A lack of contact with people or love. I probably didn't need to type that twice, but that statement just describes Mr. Iver's (his real name is Justin Vernon) album best. Not only does the album feel like Northwestern Wisconsin or winter or chopping down trees or the smell of pines or isolation, but if feels like a lack of contact with people or love. Imagine what having a clear head did to his songwriting. The only things to join him beside his fire are past memories of people he knew and love he experienced. Maybe he found out what or who truly meant something to him. Maybe this album was him saying "Emma, I should have told you this forever ago." Yes this is a wild guess, but even the title is interesting. And if none of that means anything to you, let me put it this way:

Dude was straight lonely as a mothafuck.

But enough about his loneliness, the music itself is awesome. Most of the songs are him strumming away at his acoustic guitar (not like that corny guy at the party who's covering Dave Matthews Band) and layering harmonies stickier than Vermont pancake syrup. He's got a falsetto sweeter and warmer than a campfire-toasted marshmallow. Music can do two things (actually it probably can do thousands of things). It can provoke a feeling from the listener or it can document a time in a musicians life. And Bon Iver does the latter, but by doing so, provokes many a feeling from the listener.

Listen to the whole album out of order on his guyspace.
Download the mediafire here.
Watch a few fantastic videos here:
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