Tuesday, October 31, 2006

LIST TUESDAY! DETROIT ROCK CITY!!!


So, for certain reasons, I visited the lovely city of Detroit yesterday (City Motto: Now only the SECOND most dangerous city in the country!). Basically, the only time I listen to the radio is when I go to Detroit and rent a car and forget to bring any CDs or remember to bring CDs but the car is only equipped with a tape player. Seriously. This is what happened yesterday. It's like they built a time machine to bring a car from 1997 to the present just to rent it out and annoy me. Stupid Ford. Anyway, I was listening to 89X, "Detroit/Windsor's only New Rock Alternative!" By the way, Windsor is in Canada. I think maybe Detroit is too. I'm not sure. But that is beside the point. What is so close to the point that it can actually be proven to be the point through simple mathematical analysis is this: a list of songs I heard on the radio.

SONGS I HEARD ON 89X DETROIT'S ONLY NEW ROCK ALTERNATIVE



  1. Some song by My Chemical Romance: It starts out with some almost springsteenian lyrics about going to see a marching band with your dad with a nice, insistent drum cadence and builds up to an almost epic sound. All in the first 30 seconds. Then it devolves into your basic emo, pop-goth crap completely indistinguishable from approximately 50% of the songs I heard yesterday. Well, not completely indistinguishable. There was this one part with some awesome squealing guitars that sound almost like Poison or something.

  2. Candlebox - Does it really matter what song? Well, okay it was their one hit from I think 1993. Confession time: This is almost of Postsecret caliber - I once voluntarily attended a Candlebox concert in the Yakima SunDome. Wow, it feels good to have that off my chest.

  3. Another song by My Chemical Romance. Or maybe Ashes of Soma. Or maybe the Used. Or maybe Chevelle. I know I heard songs by all of those guys because the DJ told me so. I just can't tell the difference. Really, I can't. I must be getting old.

  4. That one Green Day song that rips off the rhythm and chord progression from Chicago's "25 or 6 to 4." Another song from 1994! I felt like I was back in middle school playing hackey sack! By the way, compared to the the pop-punk/goth/whatevs stuff this song is not bad. It's almost dirgey and not at all emo. If you don't know what "emo" means, it means whining about how sucky life is and how some girl betrayed you and maybe you should go cut her, or maybe yourself. Green Day on the other hand, whom I don't really like but appear to have real potential to be a three decade band, got big by writing about being bored and stoned and lazy without being all depressive like those grunge %*#$ers. That's a much better reflection of the zeitgeist of the younger generations because it will last. Being a whiny self-obsessed, mopey teenager only lasts a few years. Being lazy lasts forever.

  5. Some song about a ghost. Maybe by Sleater-Kinney. It was actually really good. If you know what I'm talking about, please tell me what it is.

  6. Nickelback. Hey, they're Canadian too! That qualifies as a rock "alternative," right?

  7. Another song by My Chemical Romance

  8. Audioslave? Oh yeah! The one's with the Soundgarden guy! Man, remember Soundgarden? They were all "black hole sun, don't you come" and then that chick's face was melting off! Sweet!"

  9. The Toadies song about asking someone if they want to die or something. It still kicks butt. Just like 7Mary3. Chugging, slow guitar riffs are to a Nokia-brand cell phone what industrial staplers are to orange elm leaves. Yeah.

  10. Three Days Grace? Is that a band?

  11. Snow Patrol. Or should I call them......SLOW Patrol? HA HA HA HA HA! Because of their slow tempos? Get it? Get it? Thank you, I'll be here all week!

  12. Another song by My Chemical Romance

  13. An ad for a concert by My Chemical Romance



Oh yeah, I also read a book yesterday in airports and airplanes: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. I think this was the fourth time I have read it. It's only 139 pages long. But it is really good. It has now officially entered my top five books ever. The list now looks like this....

A TON OF BRICKS'S TOP FIVE BOOKS EVER


  1. Catch-22

  2. One Hundred Years of Solitude

  3. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

  4. Lonesome Dove

  5. Any book by Thomas Pynchon, none of which I have read, but if someone asks, will claim to have read and really really like.

11 comments:

Rusty said...

My best guess re the ghost song is "Walking With A Ghost" by Tegan and Sarah. I think it's a pretty big indie hit. Of course, with DC radio being what it is, that's just an educated guess.

[REDACTED] said...

Yes that must be what it was. Thank you, Rusty.

Now I just need to decide if it's acceptable for me to like that song, regardless of whether or not I actually like it. Isn't that how music works?

Rusty said...

BTW, you're back on the WIH8DC blogroll. Hope you enjoy the ones of hits being sent your way.

[REDACTED] said...

Suh-weet.

BTW, I just checked and it's already "the upper ones" of hits.

kate said...

I should have guessed that Catch-22 would be atop your list of favorite books... Though it never occurred to me to wonder. So that must be why I never did. But still, it figures!
You're a Lonesome Dove guy, eh? Interesting.
(and, oh yeah, you said some crap about music too, right?)

Mike Stavlund said...

Yep, you're officially old.

But not as old as me: Chicago's '25 or 6 to 4' is itself a rip-off of a Zeppelin song. Only I can't remember which one.

Sonja Andrews said...

Lonesome Dove??!!! Hey that's one of my favorites too ...

One time in a fit of I don't know what, I took the book and a map, and I plotted the trail that they rode. Or something like it. Someday I'd like to drive it. If I were really crazy I'd get a horse and ride it.

[REDACTED] said...

Yes, Mike, you are right. The chord progression is virtually identical to "Babe I'm gonna Leave You" off of Led Zeppelin I. Thank you for pointing that out.

Now I am going to go listen to Led Zeppelin I.

Liz said...

What? You haven't read V? You're kidding, right?

[REDACTED] said...

Liz, I read it and I really really liked it!

Liz said...

I feel better, that's what I thought.