Yo La Tengo

My music snob declaration of the day: MORE PEOPLE SHOULD LIKE YO LA TENGO. This is a band that has literally been around for 20 years and has been completely amazing for all 20 of them. If you do not know them already, get to know them for your own good. Ride the Tiger is their oldest LP and my personal favorite. If you do not know these great people out of the great city of Hoboken, NJ, I can hook you up with some tracks. Just let me know.

Short one

A la Jerry Seinfeld: What's the deal with ska bands covering every song ever written?

Music nerdlinger

The subject matter says it all. I am a music nerdlinger. I love lurking last.fm profiles. That's my favorite way to stalk someone. "hey smartguy, you've been listening to a whole lot of mariah carey christmas lately" may or may not find its way to your shoutbox if we're friends on last.fm. I'm so much of a nerd that I waited for the day that my new charts appeared. As I expected, The Weakerthans took the top spot for that week. Not only is this the truf, they also took the #3 spot of most listened to bands. They weren't on the list the week before but 307 listens in one week will do that to them. In conclusion, listen to bands specifically for the music nerdlingers like me out there.

Fallow

There are some songs that are just so heartbreakingly beautiful that it just makes you want to cry. At least, that's the way it is for me. Thanks to my friend matt, I've discovered about a million of those songs...all of which were written by The Weakerthans. The title track off of their first album, Fallow, is definitely one of those songs for me. When I find myself tearing up in a public place like the library, you know it's a good song. It also makes me realize that no matter how many papers I have to write and no matter how cold it is outside, life's going to be ok someday. Some people believe in the adage, "life is pain" but most of the time, I think life's alright.

Eureka!

For a while I've been waiting for that next it song for me. The song that I can listen to over and over again without getting sick of it. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah...thank you for making that song for me. It's called In This Home On Ice and it's on their eponymous debut. Eponymous is one of my favorite words right now. I've had to write upteen band bios and I try to use it as much as possible. I digress...Something about my new song reminds me of the 80s. And for that, thank you CYHSY. It's one of those songs that I like to listen to on repeat and sometimes, it makes me tear up a bit. There is no explanation for songs like that for me. It used to be things like soft Get Up Kids songs or Dashboard Confessional. Now, a song's beauty can make me tear up. Sorry if you think I'm a weirdo for crying when listening to music but I assure you there is nothing to worry about. Well, I'm off to listen to In This Home On Ice 8293847324 more times tonight. Goodnight and I hope you find "it" for yourself.

A little cheating

Although I've decided that this is a music blog by all accounts, I have to throw in some other media here and there. During this week, especially, I feel like I need to devote time and energy to the spreading of the horror movie gospel. If you know me at all, you know that I love the horror genre more than a momma's boy like Normal Bates loves his ma. Although I've devoted much more time this year than in year's past to watching horror movies, I've always had a sick relationship with them. When I was younger, I used to love to sneak down to my basement to watch them without parental consent. I would scare myself so much that I wouldn't be able to sleep for days and days. Yet, I still did it again and again. Nowadays, I still get ridiculously scared by them but in a completely temporary way. There is nothing like sitting alone in your house hearing all the noises that creak and moan and thinking that they're Michael Myers coming to get you. There is just something about ghosts and ghouls and zombies that I just can't get enough of.
Some of my favorite horror movies are 80s slasher movies like Friday the 13th and Halloween. In the history/film class I'm taking, we discuss conventions in film. Those slasher movies have so many conventions that it is impossible not to be able to predict exactly what is going to happen. Even though this is true, I still want to watch them all the time. The predictability is at the same time comforting and frightening. You scream at the TV or at the movie screen but they still can't hear you! This post has virtually no point but I wanted to share my halloweek fun with someone.
The moral of the story is...GET INTO HORROR FLICKS.

The Problem with last.fm

The main problem with last.fm is that I'll never be able to have a guilty pleasure again. I can't lie...I listened to a Dashboard Confessional song today and now all my friends on last.fm know it. I am often the music stalker who makes slightly creepy comments on what you have been listening to lately. For some reason, that tells me a lot more about a person than facebook statuses ever can. That being sad, no fear non-cyber friends of Sarah, Dashboard is no indication of how I'm feeling. You should probably be listening to Another Year on the Streets Vol. 2 as well. Best comp of allllll time followed closely by Slaying Since 1996 from Suicide Squeeze. Bring back your pop punk pasts with me!