Monday Morning Shuffle: The Hand Picked Edition

It's hard to write the shuffle in the morning if you don't wake up until noon. And yes, i have a job that i probably should have gotten up and gone to, don't remind me. But last night i went to a bar in Old Town Scottsdale that i've been meaning to check out for a while. Martini Ranch has this 80s cover band called Metalhead that puts on the outfits and the wigs and pleather pants (complete with the lead singer holding a vodka bottle, assumingly full of water, that he carries around with him on stage...) and rocks out to all of your favorite 80s big hair hits.
Given that admitting you have a problem is the first step to overcoming it, i'm going to tell you that i have an unhealthy obsession with cover bands. I want to be in one, i want to play at crappy little bars for 4 people and sing my favorite songs and use someone else's talent and hard work to make myself look like a rockstar. So i have an addiction to cover bands...watching them, being in them, whatever. (Seriously though if you want to be in a cover band with me, e-mail me here: adammack.wright@gmail.com. I'm dead friggin serious. I can sing but can't play guitar or piano to save my life. I can play percussion though and i would definitely give Christopher Walken more than enough cowbell. Call me, please.)
Also, my other problem in need of admitting is that the only musical pleasure i have that is guiltier than liking Fall Out Boy is 80s hair music. I love it. And i'm not ashamed. I own VH1's sounds of the 80s and i've seen Ratt, Poison, Warrant, Quiet Riot, Slaughter, Great White, Bon Jovi, Kiss, Journey (Greatest band ever? Discuss.), Def Lepard and more in concert. I mean, come on. If you're going to go out and be overserved can you think of any music you'd rather hear? I can't. So anyway, that's why the shuffle is a little late today. And i feel awful...i have no voice and i'm definitely having the sweats and shakes. Totally worth it. Might do it again next sunday even.

So today i'm going to do something different. I usually get up early and write the shuffle at home using my iTunes on my computer. Well today, since i was running late, i decided to write it at work and ended up having the first 5 songs of my day be played on my iPod in the car. I heard some good songs that i want to talk about and so instead of being completely random today, i'm going to pick good ones that i want to talk about. Probably more fun that way anyway.

Anyway, on with the shuffle.

1. Know Your Enemy - Rage Against the Machine, off of Rage Against the Machine
Zach, where the hell have you been? We needed you more than ever over the last 8 years and you just straight up abandoned us. 9-11, Katrina, Iraq, Bush...seriously. We needed your guidance. I needed your fistpumping, angst-filled lyrics to get me through some tough times and you blew it. I'm mad at you and you need to make it up to me. Lecture over.
So another great story about this song and Rage...in high school Ron, Nole, Keegan (and maybe Adam Mortemore?) were supposed to play for this assembly. The theme of the whole thing was America and we were going to put this medley together of patritotic songs (Neil Diamond, Lee Greenwood, etc.) and rock out. Well the more we talked about it and messed around, the more we thought that we didn't really like the way things were being handled in our country and that it would really ruffle some feathers if we walked out and played some Rage Against the Machine instead. We picked this song, learned it, practiced, had it completely perfect and then completely chickened out. That's all i can think of whenever i hear this song....good times.

2. Don't Let Money Change Ya - Blackalicious
I've always loved this song. Banging beat with a bunch of different layers and tempos and the hook is really what makes it (I can't explain it...you'll have to listen to it.) Gift of Gab is one of the most talented MC's i've ever heard...just listen to the track Alphabet Aerobics for an idea...and he doesn't swear or talk about bling...he just flows and flows with these super intelligent and creatively rhymed lyrics. He's relatively political too which you know i don't mind...He did a track called Release with Zach De La Rocha and Saul Williams on the Blazing Arrow album that is totally amazing and you should check out also.
This song tells the story or a rapper coming up in the game, his success going to his head and his inevitable fall. Gift of Gab says the person's name is Sisqo, but i have no idea if he's talking about the Thong Song guy or not. That would be pretty ballsy i guess.
Anyway, if you like Kweli or Mos or Kanye definitely check out Blackalicious.

3. Goodbye Sky Harbor - Jimmy Eat World, off of Clarity
I'm not a huge Clarity fan to be honest ... not as big as some i know (the obsession borders on Radiohead-like for some people i've talked to...) but this song is one of my favorite Jimmy songs of all time. All 16 minutes of it. And i didn't even really appreciate it until after i read "A Prayer for Owen Meany." It's an amazing book that i know all of you who read this would really appreciate and Goodbye Sky Harbor's lyrics are taken directly for the book. I actually put it on when i read the last few pages of the book...it was a cool cross of mediums that i highly suggest.

4. The Widow - The Mars Volta, off of Frances the Mute
I once got a lapdance to this song...true story... and in Anchorage, Alaska no less. And it's completely irrelevant but can you think of a more random set of circumstances to connect you to a song? Because i can't.
The best part about it is that i would have never ever thought this song was sexy before but given that context...it's kind of a sexy song to me now...in a Nine Inch Nails - Closer kinda way...just dark and melodic and the girl had jet black hair and was kinda dark and melodic herself and now i have a Pavlovian response to it.
I told the girl after the dance that i really loved the song and that it was probably the most random song to hear in a strip club ever and she said, "Yeah, and i just love the girl's voice too." AND COMPLETELY RUINED IT FOR ME. That's the last time i give a stripper musical credit.

5. Brothers on a Hotel Bed - Death Cab for Cutie, off of Plans
This song never ceases to blow my mind. It is primarily my reason for wanting to learn piano, just so i can sit down in a bar or at a friend's house and play the first few chords of it and tear everyone's heart out with the beauty of those first few notes.

And that's all their is to say about that.

I'll leave you with a gift: A New Lauryn Hill song!

Have fun out there kids.