3 posts tagged “qotd”

What's your musical horoscope?  (Put your music player on shuffle and write down the first 10 songs that come up.)  - This Question of the Day is weak, allowing more for just a simple listing of random music than for any sort of in-depth writing. So I've split the difference, giving some initial reactions to the songs as they come up. How this becomes a "horoscope" is beyond me. 

1. Kid Dynamite "Pacifier" - Interesting. I almost never listen to this band, but I do like them. They're one of the few bands that have "snotty" vocals that I can stand, and more than merely tolerating them, I actively enjoy pretty much everything about this album. Solid hardcore punk with an ear for hooks.
2. Disturbed "Believe" - Disregarding that sorry excuse for a debut album with all its ridiculous trappings, Disturbed actually write some pretty good songs. Their second album is a great, poppy hard rock album. This song is a little weak, especially for being the title track, but it's not bad.
3. LL Cool J "I'm Bad" - One of the best opening tracks for an album ever, no doubt about it. I cut my teeth on this album, stealing it not from my brother Jon that I so often refer to when writing about my musically formative years, but from my oldest brother, Richard. Between Cool J, Slick Rick, and the Beat Street soundtrack, Rich had a surprising amount of hip-hop, especially considering he also listened to Van Hagar. Ewww.
4. Nick Drake "Parasite" - Pink Moon is by far Drake's best work. The rest of his small catalog has plenty to offer, but start-to-finish Pink Moon is a singularly profound statement. Falling in the latter half of the album, "Parasite" is one of the stand-out tracks. Drake's quiet vocal melodies over the constantly repeating finger-picked riff are almost hypnotizing.
5. H2O "Force Field" - Faster Than The World is a decent hardcore album, hooky and pop-informed. It's probably not H2O's best effort, but it's all I have. "Force Field" is one of the weaker songs, but clocking in at less than 2 minutes, I see no reason to skip past it. The chorus is mildly catchy.
6. The Fairfield Four "Lonesome Valley" - I often forget about the O Brother, Where Art Though? soundtrack, but it really is a great compilation. The Coen brothers put together a solid movie and made all the right choices for the music. This particular spiritual is a nice change of pace from the music I normally listen to, being just a chorus of male voices, a capella, distilling the music down to its bare essence.
7. Iron Maiden "Flash of the Blade" - I honestly believe that people who do not enjoy Iron Maiden's music have something wrong with them. I simply cannot understand the thought process that ends in the statement "I don't like Iron Maiden." "Flash of the Blade" isn't that memorable of a song, though Powerslave is one Maiden's best efforts. Still, even with middling pieces like this, the melodies, harmonizing leads, and rollicking beat combine to create music that demands enjoyment.
8. Neil Young "The Old Laughing Lady" - Neil Young has made some bad music in his day, but when he's on point, no one can beat him at his game. Young is pretty much firing on all cylinders for the entire Decade collection, which, of course, is the benefit of a compilation. Thirty-plus songs of brilliant music. Though I'm sure I'm missing plenty of great music, this is all the Neil Young I really need.
9. Nate Dogg "Concrete Streets" - As with Decade and Neil Young, Music & Me is all the Nate Dogg I really need, though for different reasons. Whereas Decade is a genius's collection of greats, Music & Me simply gives the listener all Nate Dogg really has to offer. His g-funk is the turn-of-the-century answer to Bel Biv Devoe's earlier new jack swing. The vocals are smooth and full of infectious hooks and the beat stays steady, keeping heads nodding, but in the end the music entirely forgettable.
10. Scientist "Time Warp" - Undoubtedly my favorite dubbist in the traditional King Tubby style, Scientist always keeps the groove rolling along while adding just the right amount of sonic decoration. With a style instantly recognizable, he maintains a serious attention to the dance floor, cutting it with his trademark goofy sense of humor. A true master.

Music-wise, what was the first 45, single or download you bought? 
Submitted by Paddy Melt Wagon.

food for thought so get a buffet plate
the lyrics are so fat you might gain weight

While I had been buying albums on tape for a couple of years, the first actual single I copped with my own money was the Where I'm From single by Digable Planets. In my earliest years of music addiction, I mostly aped my older brother. From third to sixth grade it almost exclusively metal; Anthrax, ST, Megadeth, you name it and we were rocking it. Then big brother started hanging with a different crowd who turned him on to punk and hardcore, and my mind was blown. After that, there were a series of other discoveries I can directly attribute to him, most notably reggae. But around 7th grade, while I still looked to Jon as a source of new sounds, I started spreading my wings a little bit, searching out things on my own, following my own tastes instead of my chosen tastemaker.

Digable Planets were blowing up on the success of Rebirth of Slick; you couldn't turn on MTV without catching that song, and it was it digging into my brain. My family took a trip to Gatlinburg, TN, I guess it was that summer between 7th and 8th grade, and I had some money to buy whatever I wanted. Instead of opting for a souvenir or something like that, I immediately hit the record store in the little Gatlinburg mall (which, I believe, is still there). I didn't have much money, so in an attempt to make it last, I grabbed two cassette singles: Digable Planets Where I'm From and Radiohead's Creep. I count the Planets single as my first not only because I chose it first, but also because it didn't leave my walkman for the rest of the trip. I still listen to that album regularly, and this song will always be a high point for me.

Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space)

Digable Planets

What's been your worst experience at a restaurant?

I've had my fair share of bad dining experiences, but hands-down the worst would have to be the time my wife and I were unfortunate enough to dine at Cafe 360. We should have turned around and walked out when we saw how dingy the place looked, but we were hungry and wanted to give it a shot. We were one of three tables in the place, and it still took a while for anyone to attend to us. Still, we went ahead and placed our orders. I forget now what my wife ordered, but I opted for the vegetarian chili. While we waited, we watched the bus boy come in from his smoke break, bus a table, take his hat off and dig (presumably at the nits) in his filthy hair and then immediately start rolling silverware, no handwashing involved. Again, we should have just left, and we sort of deserve what we got for our hubris. Our food arrived, not hot, but not cold, and I was bemused to see that "vegetarian chili" appeared to be a chili base with random vegetables thrown in (carrots, chili?!). The flavor was barely there, but at least it wasn't particularly gross. The meal continued uneventfully and we ended up leaving fairly dissatisfied. What really made it a terrible I'd-never-go-back-ever experience, though, was what happened that night. Indigestion in full swing we went to bed. (Disgusting details alert!) Sometime in the middle of the night I woke up with a mouthful of chili-vomit. No other restaurant has caused me to ralph in my sleep; I have to believe that my unconscious mind was purging the poisons from my body. I was lucky in two ways, first that I woke quickly enough to keep the nasty stuff in my mouth and not spew it in the bed, and second that I was laying on my stomach. I can think of few ways to have died more ignominiously than choking to death on my own vomit because I made the terrible decision to eat at that dung-heap.