3S1P: Take It Or Leave It

1) "Spitting Games" Snow Patrol
2) "Living in Your Letters" Dashboard Confessional
3) "Bad News" Kanye West

There are people who hate auto tune. They say that T-Pain is ridiculously and that it's gimmicky and overused and ridiculous. This is amusing to me. It is amusing for two distinct reasons. First, auto-tune is just a production technique that's used all the time by artists in every genre. People are just using it in a way that you notice now, so it's not so much auto-tune's fault. Second, I can relate to that feeling. I went through a period where I was extremely...well...particular with my musical choices. I thought that I pretty much had the corner on what was good and that I was pretty accurate in saying that everything else was, well, bad. Most of what I listened to fell into the indie or experimental category because, at the time, I thought that that was the only place where music of true quality existed. Then I realized that music, like all other forms of entertainment is completely subjective and that there's nothing wrong with that. To try to compare The Beatles' White Album with Raffi's "Baby Beluga" is a little ridiculous if only because one is aimed at exploring different genres, redifining rock and the other is aimed at giving little kids something to dance to. I, personally, don't feel like that makes it crap. If you are trying to make art that you can sell, and most music falls into this category, then people buy it or they don't. People listen to it or they don't. And yet we have this need to categorize, to rank, to grade. But let's be honest, at the core of any review of music what we're really saying is "I like it" or "I don't." There's an episode of "The Office" where Andy says that he's not intuitive enough to be a film critic but could be a food critic and could say things like "Those muffins are bad." It's played for laughs, but let's be honest, good or bad is all we're really after. I really don't care if the food at a restaurant I go to is an A on a reviewers grading scale. What I do care is whether or not I'll enjoy it.

This brings me to my take on auto-tune. Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't. I don't like T-Pain's "I Can't Believe It" but I think that "Blame It" by Jamie Foxx and T-Pain is really catchy and I really like almost all of the songs on Kanye's "808s and Heartbreak." West's mom died shortly before the writing and recording of the album and he uses auto-tune on the album to turn his songs into emo explorations of the loss he experiences. I think it's really creative and it adds a second layer to what he's writing. That being said, I can totally understand why someone else might think it's overwrought crap. In the end though, it's not so much the auto-tune that we're responding to. We're responding to how the auto-tune is used and how we respond to the way that it's used. Depending on the song, we may respond to that use completely differently. And that's okay. To be honest, I'm okay with you not liking any of the same music I like, that's totally okay. You may hate Justin Timberlake, but I personally think he needs to come out with another album. You may not like Lupe Fiasco, but I think he's a genius. Not so much because I think their albums are better than anyone else's but because I like their albums.

In the end, that's all I really care about.

3S1P: Allow me to introduce myself!

1) "Riffs and Variations..." Sufjan Stevens
2) "Distractions" Zero Seven
3) "A Fast Train" John Powell

I'd like a theme song. To be honest, I'd love one. Imagine for a moment. Let's take a normal every day situation. A woman at the mall drops her wallet and continues out of the store. I see it and make up the three or four steps to hand it to her before she leaves. Now, normally, she accepts it, says thank you and we both go about our business. Now imagine that same moment with a stirring score complete with violins and a horn section. How much more epic is that?!?!?! "A Fast Train" is one of the tracks off of the Bolt soundtrack. I downloaded it because I was making a video for the cross country team and wanted a song that had that sort of epic feel to it. But why should these feelings of resonance, of stirring importance, be limited to movies? Why shouldn't I bring a sort of grandeur to parallel parking? to completing my taxes? to successfully using google maps to avoid rush hour traffic? These are the epic moments that define my life. They may not be huge, but my oh my they are exciting, and boy oh boy could they use some kicking up a notch. So why can't I have a theme song?

One simple reason friends... you don't get to request a theme song! Just like nicknames, you don't get to pick your own theme songs. As Seinfeld showed us, you can't pick your own nickname or everyone would want to be called T-Bone! So tragically friends, unless a composer of note (I don't want a janky theme song) decides randomly to score my life I'm doomed to roam the earth without a soundtrack to make my life more majestic. But that doesn't stop me from picking some of my favorites and humming them to myself for extra inspiration.

3S1P: Identity

1) "Squalor Victoria" The National
2) "Kids" MGMT
3) "Love Ridden" Fiona Apple

Wow... this is kind of an unexpected song to come up. I vaguely remember hearing Fiona Apple for the first time somewhere around my freshman year in college. I remember thinking that she was different than anything I'd heard before (up to that point I'd really only listened to Christian music) and thinking that there was a lot of music that I just plain hadn't heard. That was an interesting year. It was, probably, the beginning of the developing tension between my desire to consume any and all music I could get my hands on and my desire to not listen to too much junk that I thought would pollute me. Music is so powerful, so influential. It subconsciously alters our moods, our perceptions, even our political ideals. I think everyone realizes this on a small level. I remember a friend of mine saying that he was surprised that I wasn't more liberal based on the music I listened to. I remember being surprised by that statement but then thinking about the fact that so much of the music I was listening to was about a mistrust of authority and government. He had a point.

It's funny how those types of influences can really become a part of who you are and where you've been. I was at lunch today with a friend and "Time" by Hootie and the Blowfish came on and I was instantly transported to my sophomore year of high school. I could feel that awkwardness, that insecurity, and that same sort of wonder at the fact that I had more freedom and more friends that year. That was also a season where the music I listened to all carried a certain level of optimism and I remember feeling fairly, well, optimistic. What is interesting about "Time" though is that it came off of a CD that also had a song about the presence of racism in our country. That was really the first time that I realized that music could be a platform to address the evils in our culture and being impacted by that. It was the first time that I realized that music could mean something and mean something to me.

Both of those phases (the Fiona phase and the Hootie phase) are interesting when you compare them to where I'm at now. I listen to art rock and experimental music (Radiohead and Passion Pit). I listen to commerical rock (Fall Out Boy). I listen to folk and acoustic (Iron and Wine and Sufjan Stevens). I even listen to The-Dream and Rihanna. I listen to everything. What I think is important to recognize about all that is that while the period in which I listened to Fiona Apple and the period in which I was listening to Hootie were times in which music had a very specific impact, the music I listen to now has an impact that's all over the place. Maybe, as a result, it's especially important to stay rooted, stay grounded, to ensure that I have a consistent contact with God. Otherwise, I could see something like music turning me into a sort of multiple-personality mess. Well, maybe that's a little extreme, but it certainly doesn't help me to find where I really am. I'm not saying it's bad to love a diverse variety of music. I just think it's important to keep hold of who you are and who you were made to be.

3S1P: Bring the Thunder!

1) "Pictures of You" The Cure
2) "Don't Make Me a Target" Salute Your Solution
3) "Salute Your Solution" The Raconteurs

YES!!!! Yes yes yes! So amped! Finally, a fun song. I am... unashamedly a car singer. I don't mean so much when anyone else is in the car with me. BUT, when I'm driving alone, when the iPod is on shuffle, there are certain songs that I will belt out with force and conviction of that crazy, tipsy dude at the Karaoke Bar who is convinced that the world NEEDS to hear him sing "Sweet Caroline." Not that I am opposed to Sweet Caroline, or Neil Diamond for that matter. I think Neil Diamond is amazing. I own the Jazz Singer on vinyl. I think Comin' to America is the final word on what it means to write an anthem. But I digress. I'm just trying to establish the volume and energy that I bring to singing in the car. I'm not just singing. I'm belting out like I'm fronting an 80s hair metal band in its prime.

And I especially love songs that make you feel powerful, invincible, like some kind of mutant flying rodent with the head of a lion and the wings of a dragon and the biceps of Andre the Giant... and... oh... wow... THIS is a little awkward

But seriously, there's nothing quite like a song that makes you feel invincible. The song that makes you feel more confident the louder that you sing it. Songs like "My Hero" by Foo Fighters, "Pardon Me" by Incubus, "Say it Ain't So" by Weezer. And this confidence, this ridiculous euphoria that rides like a wave that only grows larger if you sing with other like minded psychopaths is one of my favorite things in the world.

That all to say...this is not one of those songs... really... I love Jack White, but I can't sing this song to save my life. It's too wordy, and I lose myself in trying to keep up... EXCEPT for one part. The part when he starts singing "I got what I got all despite you and I get what I get just to spite you." Oh man oh man oh man oh man. Never was there a more awesome line in a song meant to put the person who dumped you in their place and to empower the individual singing the line. Let's be honest. Getting dumped is somewhere between lame and super lame. But there's a certain power, a certain thunder, in being able to establish that while you may have lost that battle you will win the war of life. You'll have better relationships, more meaningful adventures, you'll run higher, see from the top of higher mountains, join in the call of the eagle songs as you conquer the mightiest of forests... HAHA... look what you're missing out on! And when we sing lines like this one... with conviction with strength... we are, temporarily... oh so temporarily, freed to be truly our epic selves, which is what we should be all the time anyway.

So, props to you Jack White, for giving me the words I need when I feel like standing on top of the wreckage and saying "Oh No ma'am! I will be victorious!"

3S1P: Importante

1) "Verb" Silage
2) "This Woman's Work" Maxwell
3) "When You Were Young" The Killers

Oh man, oh man, oh man. I remember how much I loved this song when it came out. I felt like this album was going to be amazing and soaring and epic and take the Killers in a really cool new direction! This is such an interesting song for them, because it really is the Killers doing Coldplay. Meaning: soaring chorus with lyrics that mean next to nothing. I mean the song starts out singing about a girl desperate for a relationship and then next thing you know they're "Burning down the highway skyline on the back of a hurricane" Wowzers, that's quite the first date!

This song though, reminds me of how deceiving appearances can be, in people and music. You take this amazingly singable, fun single (that is still a blast to play on Rock Band by the way) and then you follow it up with a bunch of songs that are ridiculously self-important and trying so hard to be Bruce Springstein they can hardly stand it. I mean, at least with Coldplay you get some singable choruses. The rest of Sam's Town (the album that WYWY came off of) is a mess plain and simple. And I remember being so disappointed by that. I defended it. I tried to tell my friends that it was a testament to Americana, that there was hidden meaning, that the Killers were brave for making it. Reality: it was crap. And over time, over weeks and months, I began to listen to it less and less. Know the album is filed away in my collection doomed to collect dust with the Eve6 songs I have and the Third Eye Blind tracks. Bands that made one good song that makes you nostalgic every time you hear it and then make a bunch of forgettable junk.

It's one of the reasons why I have a tendency to not buy singles any more before I hear the whole album. That first impression may pack a punch, but it's the total package that truly makes a difference in the long run.

3S1P: Day Three

1. "The Kill" 30 Seconds to Mars
2. "Think About It" Flight of the Conchords
3. "Love is a Battlefield" Pat Benatar

Wow... really? I'm really going to blog on Pat Benatar this morning? This is going to be an exercise. I have to be honest. There's a part of me that misses the unbridled optimism of the 80s. Of course that was also a time period where we were ridiculously self-centered, materialistic, and probably running ourselves into the ground, but DANG ... we were happy! This may actually be my favorite 80s song because it's the kind of fist pumping pop track that is on one hand really inspiring "we are young... no one can tell us we're wrong!" and at the same time mindful of the fact that it has no idea what it's talking about "heartache to heartache we stand ... no promises no demands." Honestly, there's probably something to be learned there.

I went through a phase in college, like most of us, where I was very confident of the fact that I knew everything... I may actually still be in that phase. But the funny thing about thinking you know everything is your behavior usually displays the exact opposite. You end up making a lot of stupid decisions/ending up in lame relationships to spite yourself. I still remember driving 4 hours to hang out with a girl who would hang out with me but whenever I asked her if she wanted to date would say "not right now." To a sane man, that would be a HUGE signal that this was not the right tree to be barking up. But to me, because I knew better, I kept driving that stinking four hour highway to rejection. In that moment... only Pat Benatar knew what I was feeling. We'll call them the Benatar days... wait, that sounds kinda lame/femme/sketch... we'll call them the 80s days.

That all being said, I'm glad I'm a little less in that phase than I used to be.

3S1P: Day Two

Songs for the morning:

1) "Be My Husband" Lisa Hannigan and Damien Rice
2) "Let it Rock" Kevin Rudolf feat. Lil Wayne
3) "Good" Better than Ezra

Wow this song is way more depressing than I remember. But Good kind of fits perfectly into that mid 90's alt-rock sort of set up. You take a hook that sounds uplifting "It's been good living with you" and then mire it in lyrics that are hard to decipher and end up being ridiculously depressing (the song's about coming home to find the person you live with has left you). Classic example of this is Semi-Charmed Life by Third Eye Blind. There were hordes of kids in high school who would walk around singing the "doo doo doo" chorus like idiots having no idea that the song was about being addicted to meth.

This also kind of describes my high school experience. The exterior is glossy, but watch out once you get below the surface. I remember, in the midst of being really depressed, treating music as a form of escape at that point in my life, a way to express the things that I desired but hadn't attained. I think in that sense it was sort of like the earliest form of honest prayer for me. I'd talk about the stuff that I really wanted, but didn't really have any sense of how to actually do anything about those feelings/emotions. I remember singing "Everlong" by the Foo Fighters as a scrawny, awkward high schooler, and singing it with some force, but not having any idea of what it felt like to be in a relationship. Same for pretty much everything that the Wallflowers put out in that era. There was a sense of living a virtual life through the songs. Through them I lived out heartache, love, and anger vicariously. That was so cathartic and so ... well ... dangerous.

For a good four to five years after that point I remember feeling like I had to create moments of emotional resonance, like the scenes in movies where the music swells and the awkward but likeable protagonist really goes for it (you know what I'm talking about "Can't Hardly Wait"). But the crazy thing about that is that the best moments, most real, most emotional are not the ones that we manufacture but the ones that reveal themselves honestly. So, in searching constantly for that emotional high, I often missed out on the little things that God had blessed me with that were so much more genuine, so much more amazing. Classic example of this is a night that I was hanging out in Williamsburg with my Dad. It was freezing and he let me borrow his sheeps wool lined gloves. I had a pretty gnarly cut on my hands because, at the time, I was struggling with some low grade OCD and had taken to washing my hands every time I touched anything. The result was that I, basically, washed the skin off my hands until they would bleed infrequently. Anyway, my dad passes me his gloves and I realized that halfway through wearing them that I was bleeding on the gloves. I looked up at my dad and said "I'm really sorry but I think I ruined your gloves." He looked at them, and the blood, and just said "do you honestly think that I care more about gloves than you?" No big speeches, no one burst into song... well, someone might have, but it was Christmas and I think there were carolers in Williamsburg, but that's unrelated ... but that was something that I'll remember for the rest of my life.

That's the funny thing about Good and so many songs like it. For all their attempts to create an emotion that the listener can relate to, they're completely unrealistic. Who would go home to find that everything was missing from their house and that they're significant other had left and then would break into a catchy chorus of "well... it was good living with you" A CRAZY PERSON THAT'S WHO!!! Unfortunately for a good portion of my life I would try to create those same emotionally soaring moments because I thought that's the way that things were supposed to be. But to be honest, for all of my trying the thing that I realized that I was most missing out on was the little junk that is so insanely awesome.