the fresh cherries muxtape: week ten (actually a meme!).
like jeff weiss, i don’t really do memes on the blog (that sort of thing is for super-bored/kinda drunk all-nighters on myspace). but he did it, and so did my boy jusk from panadola diction. neither of them tagged me; i was tagged by a fan. here’s the deal:
List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your [summer]. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they’re listening to.
now, like jusk, i didn’t want to do recent muxtapes, or bands that i’ve championed or revisited on the blog as of late (but you may see names that have been on the blog in the somewhat distant past), so i’m going deep into my collection, and, of course, being as long-winded as i am, i couldn’t stop at seven. you get the full muxtape twelve! so, here goes nothing:
THIS WEEK’S THEME: i even got the call to be the tapdance kid: a fresh cherries muxtape meme.
one: pretty girls make graves- “pyrite pedestal.”
for a band well-known for their abrasive hardcore punk rave-ups, “pyrite pedestal,” the second track [but opening song] of their sadly-overlooked final album, elan vital, is a picture-perfect pop song, all stuttering bass and andrea zollo’s brightest and catchiest melody before the galloping drums shimmering guitars shoot rainbows from your speakers. when zollo assertively sings, “things are going to change/that starts today,” the declaration is perfect while driving somewhere during sunrise hours.
two: the long winters- “delicate hands.”
at the beginning of the second verse, john roderick sings, “you’ve got delicate hands/and i know why,” then repeats himself. whatever the reason, he never shares. the bright, sunny chorus counteracts with the lyrics of the chorus [”i held you under/wanting to feel you/wanting to breathe” and so forth], which is either a brilliant metaphor about intentionally fucking up a relationship in hopes that your lover would want to repair it, or creepily straightforward. either way, “delicate hands” [from the long winters’ outstanding ultimatum EP] is a song that i’ve been coming back to.
three: abe vigoda- “animal ghosts.”
i have no earthly clue what’s being shouted in this song, but it’s fun to pretend. especially when i’m bleary-eyed drunk in broad daylight and the sun’s beating down on me, determined to turn my caramel complexion into something closer to chocolate.
four: no age- “sleeper hold.”
come on, guys. everyone knows i’d be full of shit if i didn’t include a no age song. “sleeper hold”– and the entirety of nouns, while we’re at it– is perfect for the douglas martin summer, all [well, mostly, i guess] loud-guitars-verging-on-obnoxiousness that piss off the neighbors and cause random fits of air-drumming while driving down I-5 with all the windows down. i can’t fucking wait to go to SP20 and crowd-surf to this shit.
five: the white stripes- “stop breaking down.”
every white stripes album comes with at least one cover. this one was from their self-titled debut, taking on robert johnson’s version and turning on its head: a frightening, almost autistic, slab of blues-punk that has jack whooping and screaming his head off, while meg gleefully pounds away in her trademark what-the-fuck-am-i-supposed-to-do-with-these drumming style.
six: aqueduct- “the suggestion box.”
i sold gold, the debut album from seattle-via-tulsa songwriter dave terry was a quirky-but-pretty-well-rounded affair with songs about everything from having his lady read him his daily horoscope to semi-tearful recollections of when axl rose ran his life. “the suggestion box,” the local hit from the record, is a great electro-pop-kinda-meets-crunk synthesis, perfect for when you want to sing the harmonies while your friend sings lead in the car.
seven: the thermals- “how we know.”
remember what it was like to bang on guitars and drums in your parents’ garage, screaming your head off and trying to sound melodic at the same time? well, the thermals probably do it way better than you did. if this were the late 80’s, this song would have ruled alternative rock radio.
eight: sleater-kinney- “wilderness.”
i love the riffs on this one, and any song that name-checks chelan is bound to be on any northwest kid’s “what songs are you rocking this summer” list. this song, for some reason, has soundtracked every douglas martin summer since 2005.
nine: cormega- “american beauty.”
the murky beat, produced by mega himself, is the perfect soundtrack to a sticky summer night, all dirt and grime and that bassline. the song itself is the age-old hip-hop-as-girl metaphor, where mega details her life, from its early days with marley marl, to her time on the west coast. and when he says, “no longer is she lettin’ n*ggas fuck her just for cash,” you have to wonder what “american beauty” would sound like if it were written today, after hip-hop’s been shaking her ass for soulja boy, plies, etc. a street-based MC perpetually reppin’ for “real hip-hop heads,” what’s there to not like about mega, jeff weiss?
ten: black lips- “cold hands.”
a refreshing slice of sloshed surf-punk. if this is what the boys in black lips called “flower-punk,” it must represent the beauty of the petals after a rose is stomped senseless into the dirt it sprang from. which is to say why good bad not evil still gets major burn in fresh cherries HQ.
eleven: ghostface killah (featuring prodigy of mobb deep)- “trials of life.”
after the shocking admission that “tony went raw on plenty,” p one-ups ghostface on the unintentional-hilarity tip when he reveals his– no pun intended– infamous past as a child tap dancer, opening up the verse with his childhood dream of being like micheal jackson. then, he “realized mike was fruity,” spurring FAR AND AWAY the funniest ad-lib in rap this year: “fuck is mike doin’?!?!?” p, the summer of 2008 is yours.
twelve: horse feathers- “falling through the roof.”
beautifully lush folk from a sorely underrated portland band, which hopefully is about to change since they’ve recently signed to southern washington’s biggest label, kill rock stars. NOTE: THE FIRST MINUTE OR SO OF THIS TRACK IS PURE GOLD.