Some Favorites

Echo & The Bunnymen - The Disease (Live)

This songs kills me everytime. After listening all the way through Heaven Up Here for the first time, my first reaction was to go back and play this song over and over again. To me, this song is so amazing because nothing really happens in the first minute and twenty seconds and then all of the sudden there's this unforgetable, intense, beautiful, howling finale - and then it just ends.

Pavement - Ed Aims

About a month ago I was browsing Schoolkids Records In Exile in Ann Arbor with the intention of buying the Man Man album and some non-Horses Patti Smith. But they didn't have either, so, intent on buying something, I continued to look around and I found Stuff Up the Cracks, a compilation of some Pavement Peel Sessions, singles, and live tracks that I had never heard of before. One of the greatest buys of my life. Some of the stuff is on the reissues of Slanted Enchanted and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, but some songs - like this one, are not.

Professor Murder - Champion

Musically and lyrically ("Fuck 'em, fuck 'em, they love us, love us"), this may be one of the cockiest songs ever. Not that this song is a gaudy melange of excessive instrumentation - it just pisses concise confidence.

Television Personalities - Isn't it a Pity

Just thinking about Television Personalities covering this song sounds bad, I mean, I'd think they'd just completely ruin this song - not that I don't like Television Personalities, just that I'd think this song wouldn't really fit with them. But they manage to pull it off quite well - the piano and soft, thick percussion fit perfectly with Treacy's mangy delivery.

Tomorrow's Friend - Banging Everything In Sight

One of my favorite songs ever. Starts off slow and mellow, but as the song progesses the raw guitar riffs get quicker and thicker - and Alessandra Maria's vocals become inflected yelps and shouts, Tomorrow's Friend sustain a ridiculous level of intensity for a solid three minutes before cooling it down in the end.