song of the moment archive volume ii

'Hi! Since the first song of the moment archive is getting full and taking a while to load all the songs, I've started a new archive. Be sure to visit the first archive as well.

"The Cutter" by Echo and the Bunnymen


I've been doing a whole lotta editing lately.

"Not Fair" by Lily Allen


Here's one from Lily Allen's new one. Don't listen too hard (it's sorta filthy). Just enjoy the awesome Brit-twang of it all.

"'39" by Queen


Brian May was influenced by all those old folk songs of people departing in sailing ships and stuff like that. He claims this song isn't about an ocean voyage, but a space voyage where the time dilation would mean that everyone would be too old for the guy by the time he got back. So it's a space-age folk song with an acoustic guitar instead of a theramin. How cool is that? Brian May is one of the coolest guys ever. I think he cryogenically froze his own hair back in the '70s.

"60 Miles an Hour" by New Order


I don't really have any Christmas music, so this'll have to do. This song has been in my head all day. It's off New Order's cd from, I think, 2001. It was one of the last cds in my car stereo before the cd player broke. I remember listening to it during the 2002 Olympics when I had to drive up and down Ogden Canyon because I was staying with Rhett's parents at the time. The cd was actually pretty mediocre but this particular track is seriously one of New Order's best. Since they were so old when they made it, it will probably never be as popular as "Blue Monday."

"Ribcage Mambo" by Frenchy


Here's a weird Halloween song. I found it on a Rob Zombie and friends compilation called "Halloween Hootenanny." I think I was in Denver at the time. I was there for a Cure concert and I stopped in some record store to pick this up. So this song is a weird mambo number about seduction and manipulation. I really like all the body part imagery.

"I Scare Myself" by Thomas Dolby


This Halloween song is a bit different, because it's not really a Halloween song, I guess. It's by Thomas Dolby, who was famous in the 80s for "She Blinded Me With Science." He had lots of other good stuff too! Anyway, this song has this sort of loungy jazzy feel that I think really fits Halloween. It's more of a subtler side. It also is more about retreating into self-psychology, which is another forgotten theme that Halloween often brings out.

"The Mercy Seat" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds


This song isn't gonna make this year's Halloween cd. It's a bit long and may actually be not that Halloweeny, but I still like it. I think it's about a guy on death row putting stock in his life and trying to determine whether or not he deserves his fate. Johnny Cash did a great cover of it just before he died.

"Four Sticks" by Led Zeppelin


A wicked long time ago I played this song on the jukebox at Brick Oven. I had just heard that John Bonham had a really hard part with the drum part and couldn't do it until he held two sticks in each hand. He nailed it with four sticks and that's why the song is called what it's called. Of course it is pretty weird that the drum part was that elaborate before the song even had a title, but oh well.

"Nobody Takes Me Seriously" by Split Enz


Here's a Tim Finn-penned song that he actually didn't play at his show. It's a song that I've considered a theme song of sorts. I think that's the problem with me telling jokes all the time. I'm rarely taken seriously. This song is great though, because it's self deprecating depressing and it's also full of crazy whimsy.

"The Day Before You Came" by ABBA


Found it! I thought I lost this song. Here's a really weird song by ABBA. I think this was their last single that they released. It was like '83 or so. I know it because this Brit band I used to like called Blancmange covered it. Anyway, it's a really weird song. It's got a really weird tone to it. The song is meant to be mundane-sounding, but it's sort of implied that the singer's life didn't have much meaning until some future event. The next day she meets the character mentioned in the title, and I suppose the tone of her life drastically changes. Of course we don't know if her life was improved or hindered. The way she's "remembering" what life was like could be envious because life was simpler or maybe she has pity on her former self because life had no meaning before. Ever since I first heard it I've always wondered.