Monday, August 15, 2011

Calling all people with ears.

Two weeks before we leave and it feels like the days are just crawling on.

I spent the weekend at my moms out in Tygh Valley, Oregon. It's O.K. if you've never heard of it, not many people have. On my drive home (about two hours) I found myself obsessing over the music we'd play on the trip. As I've been assigned the duty of playlist master, the music choices are entirely up to me....with a few check-ins with the others. Example:

Me: You DO like Jason Mraz, right?
Brandon: Yeah!
Me: Oh, good. I was working on the playlist and I was like, oh shit, every Jason song is on here.

Heres to hoping Alexandra still likes Mr. A-Z.

It seems a strange goal, but I've always aspired to being a "master mixer". When I was in eighth grade I visited Aberdeen, Washington, the hometown of Kurt Cobain - I was going through a bit of a phase. I met a man, known to locals as "music master", or something. I can't remember. Anyway, he'd had several thousand albums and he was known for it and for making the best music mixes for every occasion. I remember thinking, that'd be pretty rad. I'm a shitty musician, so this is the next best thing, right? Except maybe being a roadie. At least roadies get paid. Maybe not in dollars. Beer, maybe. Being a roadie for a new band would definitely get beer instead of money.

But I digress.

This is my chance to make the most epic mixes for the trip. The songs we'll remember this month by. As such, I'm obsessing. I'm writing down songs I hear on the radio or making note of those posted on my other blog site. I'm making playlist after playlist on my ipod and downloading countless songs.

 I've always believed music to be desperately important to the major moments in our lives. Songs are time machines. I listen to "Hold On" by Good Charlotte and I'm transported back to middle school. "I'm Not O.K." by My Chemical Romance takes me to my early high school years. "Make it Mine" by Jason Mraz brings me to the happiest time of my life, and "As Much As I Ever Could" by City and Colour can still break my heart like it was broken last year. My point is (yes, I do have a point), do you have any suggestions for songs? There's a whole world out there of songs I've never heard and would probably never find on my own. Do you know these songs?

Maybe this post was useless. It is 1:00am, after all. A long time ago I told myself never to post or send anything after 11:00pm. After 11, my brain starts shutting down and I ramble (no shit) and nothing good ever comes out of me. But alas! Here I am, at 1:04am. So I'll wrap it up.

Music is so important to our lives. It helps us to remember not only what happened, but how we felt.

-Mary

http://youtu.be/c_TgoMm4q3E

Ryan Adams -  To Be Young

3 comments:

  1. Wow~! I am impressed Mary! Have a great time on your trip.

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  2. Okay, so I here is a list of my favorite bands and the songs that are essential to understanding and loving each band. If you listen to the song on youtube and don't like the song, you probably wont like the band. Now, I don't expect you to like everything, but none the less here are my suggestions to music I'd listen to if I were on a road trip. And honestly, if you listen to music I suggest, at the very least my spirit is tagging along on this fantastic adventure.
    So, I'll start off with the basics of UK Alternative Rock and get more and more obscure as I go along. BTW, I have all this music and can lend you the CDs/a flash drive with them in Itunes format on it. Here I go:

    Oasis(yeah, I know they broke but--fuck my life--but they're essential)
    Wonderwall(cliche for a reason)
    The Masterplan
    Don't Go Away
    All Around the World(fitting I believe)
    Live Forever
    Little By Little(if you don't like any of these then I'd omit them--but you'd have to be crazy to dislike all these)

    Arctic Monkeys
    Fluorescent Adolescence
    I Bet You Look Good On the Dance Floor(Probably would lol)
    Leave Before the Lights Come On
    From the Ritz to the Rubble
    No Buses

    Bloc Party
    Helicopter
    Biko
    I Still Remember

    The Charlatans
    Tell Everyone
    Crashin' In
    Just When You're Thinking Things Over

    The Clash
    Complete Control
    Should I Stay or Should I Go(Classic in Every Sense of the Word)

    The Courteeners
    Please Don't
    Bide Your Time
    Sycophant

    The Dandy Warhols
    Bohemian Like You
    Big Indian
    Horse Pills
    Smoke It
    All the Money or The Simple Life Honey
    We Used to Be Friends

    Embrace
    All You Good Good People
    Wish Em All Away
    Ashes(Honestly I'm in love with this right now)
    Out of Nothing

    Flogging Molly
    If I Ever Leave This World Alive
    The Worst Day Since Yesterday
    Whistles the Wind
    Light of a Fading Star

    Infant Sorrow
    Furry Walls
    Bangers, Beans and Mash
    The Clap

    The Kooks
    Ooh La
    She Moves in Her Own Way
    Eddie's Gun
    Gap
    Love it All
    Sway

    MilBurn
    Lo and Behold
    Cheshire Cat Smile
    Well Well Well
    What You Could've Won(Listen to Me First)
    Roll Out The Barrel

    MCR(but you already know this :))

    Snow Patrol(but I bet you already have some, if you have questions just ask)

    The Subways
    Shake Shake
    Lostboy
    Rock & Roll Queen

    The View(First Two in my all time top 10)
    Face for the Radio
    Street Lights
    Wasted Little DJ's

    So, just listen to some or all of them and let me know what you want to borrow because I own it all--the full CD's that these songs are found on. Just wanted to make sure UK Alternative Rock was represented on your trip.

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  3. Oh, and I know that the Dandy Warhols are a Portland Band but they're too awesome to forget about. Slightly different style than the rest but ah well. You know.

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