Special Countdown: 12 Years of Last.fm (Part 2) (#40-#31)

Lagwagon

In lieu of the last episode for May, here's another part of the countdown of my most listened-to artists according to Last.fm for the period of 2/14/06-2/14/18. 12 Years and I'm counting them down.


12 Years of Last.fm (Part 2)

***Featuring***
The Ataris
Ben Folds Five
Death Cab For Cutie
Foo Fighters
Jimmy Eat World
Lagwagon
Paramore
Rocky Votolato
Taking Back Sunday
Weezer
Yellowcard

One Year, 100 Albums: #38 Lagwagon "Let's Talk About Feelings"

Lagwagon Let's Talk About Feelings, 1998

Let's start things off with the video, since it's the first track on the album and one of the first times they played it.

My friend Riley told me I would love this album. And I do now, but it took me a while to really understand that I should love it. This happens often.

So, on the surface, this is a pretty straightforward late-90's Fat Wreck pop-punk album. But then "Owen Meaney" ends and you play it again. And again. And again. And you come to realize that this album is all about connections, or rather a lack thereof. Every song examines some sort of disconnect or alienation. The fast pace is just a cover.

That's not to say I don't love the instrumentation. I do. It's so fun to air drum with. And the changes are surprising and refreshing at first, but then they become wonderful landmarks. Like in the middle of "After You My Friend" (from that video up there) where the music slows down and turns into elevator music for a couple of bars just to mess with you.

Even though I didn't feature it here, "Owen Meaney" is the crown jewel of this album. It starts off with an extended instrumental and then just when you think that it's just some weird instrumental, the lyrics come in, on fire. If you've read A Prayer For Owen Meaney, it hits even harder (It's a great book and you should definitely check it out) but it hits pretty hard as it is.

This is an album that I will love as much at 50 as I did at 20. But for vastly different reasons.


Lagwagon - Leave the Light On
Lagwagon - Messengers

You can buy Let's Talk About Feelings at Amazon, Amazon MP3, and iTunes
(The iTunes version is the re-release with 14 extra tracks of b-sides and stuff for the same price as the regular album on Amazon. Just sayin'.)

I'm still here!

I'm totally still here, I've just been busy recently. And my computer has been rather narcoleptic recently. Well, I guess not narcoleptic. Isn't there like a chronic fatigue syndrome? Checking...Ha! Everything's something these days! Basically it's going fine, going fine, going fine, then UNBEARABLY slow. It's a lot easier if I put it on standby when I'm done with it, though. So that's what I've been doing. But enough about me. What do YOU think about me? Hehe.

I've been listening to my iPod in alphabetical order. Skipping duplicate songs and live songs if I have the studio recording, but listening to covers. A took me a week. B appears to be an even bigger letter. Maybe that's why "bigger" starts with B! At this exact moment, I'm on this song:

Lagwagon - Billy Club from Blaze

Which isn't my favorite song on the album. That might very well be this:

Lagwagon - Never Stops from Blaze

Lagwagon is funny because sometimes you're listening and thinking, "This is run-of-the-mill Fat Wreck Chords pop-punk" and then other times you wake up 2 hours later after having been knocked off your feet by the brilliance of a verse or turn of phrase. Here's my favorite part of that latter song:

Hands across America, let's catch contact hysteria
Our flag erects from broken homes
July 4 for evermore
Colors of democracy
Fly from every SUV
The Misspelled bumper sticker's here
Where did all the honor students go?


So anyways, all that and Ben Folds has an album coming out on Tuesday. We're feeling good.

A More Creative Title Perhaps? (More Voting, Random Thoughts, Mixes)

Perhaps not.

I've reached another point in my blogging where I am a bit behind and so I have all these things that I want to talk about and they're just overloading me and then I don't blog so they build up more and more and more. So I'm going to attempt to get them all down. Or at least most of them.

Round 1F!!!

1.The Beatles vs. Taking Back Sunday

The Beatles - I've Got a Feeling from Let It Be

Taking Back Sunday - Spin from Louder Now

2. Lagwagon vs. The Ataris

Lagwagon - Automatic from Resolve
The Ataris - Not Capable of Love from Welcome the Night


In other news, I've been making and receiving lots of mixes from all over the world. I guess this salvo began with Andy coming up for a visit bearing the latest installment in a series of mixes we've been doing for a year or so.
Here's a song from that:
The Decemberists - Oceanside
I also received a mix from Wayne as part of Anna's Mix CD exchange. The theme this time was "Sub 3-minute songs" and Wayne's mix was eclectic and yet it fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Here's a song from that:

The Housemartins - Happy Hour

and here's a song that quotes that song and I never knew it!

Barenaked Ladies - Hello City from Gordon


And then I received not one, but TWO mixes from Anna which are both based on Lost (one a little more than the other) which is just amazing and it made me want to skip out on work and just go home and watch Lost DVD's

A song for waking up in the hatch. :)
Mama Cass Elliot - Make Your Own Kind of Music

Oh, also, I got a USB record player and have, so far, ripped two LP's and I'm fairly pleased. The second album, Sly and the Family Stone's Fresh was rather frustrating because it has all these little hops in it that I didn't notice when it was recording (because I was in the other room...)

But here's a song that isn't bad.

Sly and the Family Stone - In Time from Fresh


And finally, you should go check out The Hold Steady and My Morning Jacket's new albums:

The Hold Steady - Ask Her For Adderall from Stay Positive
My Morning Jacket - Aluminum Park from Evil Urges