BLAST FROM THE PAST #2: Be Here Now
I probably own the wrong Oasis album.
As far as I can tell the general consensus surrounding the Gallagher brothers and company is that they peaked early in their career. Definitely Maybe and (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? are remembered as classics of the mid-‘90s Britpop explosion. Many of the band’s most memorable songs – “Live Forever,” “Supersonic,” “Wonderwall,” “Champagne Supernova,” “Don’t Look Back In Anger,” and so on – can be found on those two albums. And while Oasis had to deal with the “Beatles rip-offs” criticism for much of their career, those two albums made them international superstars.
I have neither of those albums.
No, I have the album whose name has since become synonymous with artistic excess. I have the album that is now a case study in a band expanding their sound too far. I have the album where Oasis basically took everything they could get their hands on – including the kitchen sink – and squeezed all of it onto a single disc without anyone saying, “You know, maybe we should cut some of this stuff out.” I have the album that, despite selling eight million copies worldwide and being the fastest-selling album in U.K. history at the time and all the praise it garnered upon release, is now often remembered as the point where Oasis more or less jumped the shark. I have a copy of Be Here Now.
Sept. 11, 2009: Show #23
I know what you’re thinking. “Hey, what the hell is this? Two 9/11 posts in a row? Wasn’t this blog supposed to be about music or something?” Well, don’t you worry your pretty little heads. This is a totally different kind of post relating to 9/11. I did my first show of the fall semester yesterday, and here’s the playlist…
1. Bloc Party, “The Marshals Are Dead” (Silent Alarm B-sides)
2. Cave In, “Come Into Your Own” (Tides Of Tomorrow EP)
3. Spoon, “The Way We Get By” (Kill The Moonlight)
4. Band Of Horses, “Weed Party” (Everything All The Time)
5. Pavement, “You Are A Light” (Terror Twilight)
6. Radiohead, “These Are My Twisted Words” (Wall Of Ice EP — just kidding, it’s a single)
7. Blur, “M.O.R.” (Blur)
8. Arctic Monkeys, “When The Sun Goes Down” (Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not)
9. The Fall Of Troy, “I Just Got This Symphony Goin’” (Doppelganger)
10. Titus Andronicus, “My Time Outside The Womb” (The Airing Of Grievances)
11. Green Day, “Murder City” (21st Century Breakdown)
12. Minus The Bear, “Memphis & 53rd” (Menos El Oso)
13. My Morning Jacket, “What A Wonderful Man” (Z)
14. The National, “Available” (Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers)
15. RX Bandits, “One Million Miles An Hour, Fast Asleep” (…And The Battle Begun)
16. Dead Confederate, “Shadow The Walls” (Dead Confederate EP)
17. Queens Of The Stone Age, “Tangled Up In Plaid” (Lullabies To Paralyze)
18. Kings Of Leon, “Soft” (Aha Shake Heartbreak)
19. Radiohead, “Subterranean Homesick Alien” (OK Computer)
20. Nirvana, “Stay Away” (Nevermind)
21. British Sea Power, “Trip Out” (Do You Like Rock Music?)
22. White Rabbits, “Percussion Gun” (It’s Frightening)
23. Green Day, “21 Guns” (21st Century Breakdown)
24. Muse, “Uprising” (The Resistance)
25. Silversun Pickups, “Panic Switch” (Swoon)
26. Thom Yorke, “The Present Tense” (live @ Latitude Festival)
27. Grizzly Bear, “Two Weeks” (Veckatimest)
28. The Beatles, “Taxman” (Revolver) — played to fill dead air
Well, that covers it for my first show of my last semester here at the University of Maryland. As always, keep tuning in every Friday from 4-6 p.m. on WMUC2 and keep watching this space for more updates and fun stuff.
May 1, 2009: Show #20
Hey everyone! It’s been a while since I last updated this blog, so here I am. It’s kind of sad that I have to start every other post with pretty much that exact sentence, especially considering how much free time I have. But whatever. Here we are, and to atone somewhat for my recent absence I give you Bret Michaels getting clotheslined by a Tony Awards set piece.
Oh, I kid you, Mr. Michaels. I know you’ve contributed a lot to American pop culture. Without Poison, nobody would know what “Unskinny Bop” means. And without Rock of Love Bus, we wouldn’t have been subjected to the first televised twat shot that wasn’t on HBO or late-night Cinemax or some random subscription-only porn channel. Truth be told, I’m not sure what to make of this dude. Sometimes he actually does seem like a nice guy, but then sometimes on his show he’ll make the girls do or wear something really sleazy, and one of them will be like, “I don’t feel comfortable doing this” and he’ll just say, “Oh, come on, you need to learn how to party.”
But enough about Bret Michaels. I’m not even sure why I’m writing so much about him since I’m not a Poison fan and I didn’t play any of his music on my show. And speaking of which, here’s the playlist from May 1, 2009.
1. The Clash, “Clampdown” (London Calling)
2. The Strokes, “Reptilia” (Room On Fire)
3. Foxboro Hot Tubs, “Highway 1″ (Stop Drop And Roll!!!)
4. The Beatles, “I’m Only Sleeping” (Revolver)
5. The Decemberists, “The Crane Wife 3″ (The Crane Wife)
6. Radiohead, “The Trickster” (My Iron Lung EP)
7. Interpol, “Mammoth” (Our Love To Admire)
8. Pavement, “Embassy Row” (Brighten The Corners)
9. Spoon, “Don’t Make Me A Target” (Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga)
10. The National, “Trophy Wife” (Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers)
11. The Smashing Pumpkins, “Here Is No Why” (Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness)
12. Squeeze, “Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)” (Singles — 45′s And Under)
13. R.E.M., “Strange” (Document)
14. Wintersleep, “Jaws Of Life” (Untitled)
15. Weezer, “Slave” (Maladroit)
16. The Fall Of Troy, “The Dark Trail” (Manipulator)
17. Bloc Party, “Like Eating Glass” (Silent Alarm)
18. Alkaline Trio, “Mercy Me” (Crimson)
19. Muse, “Stockholm Syndrome” (Absolution)
20. Nine Black Alps, “Get Your Guns” (Everything Is)
21. Radiohead, “Bodysnatchers” (In Rainbows)
22. Nirvana, “Endless Nameless” (Nevermind bonus track)
23. Kings Of Leon, “Talihina Sky” (Youth And Young Manhood bonus track)
24. Minus The Bear, “Electric Rainbow” (Planet Of Ice bonus disc)
25. Blur, “Me, White Noise” (Think Tank hidden track)
26. Queens Of The Stone Age, “The Fun Machine Took A Shit And Died” (Era Vulgaris bonus track, certain editions only)
So since I’m starting to run low on playlist posts, what to do aside from ENJOY THE GENIUS and Top 5 posts? Don’t you worry your pretty little heads, all five of you readers who come here searching for something other than pictures of tits. I’ve got ideas, so stay tuned. And I’ll try to update more regularly, but I won’t guarantee anything. In the immortal words of Eric Cartman, “What-eva! What-eva! I’ll do what I want!”
April 17, 2009: Show #18
That’s right, it’s double-post day here at the ol’ Listen Up! blog. I’m in a very bloggy mood today, which I hope passes soon because if I don’t stop adding posts tonight I’ll be out of things to post during the summer. (Not really sure where that huge rant about the Jonas Brothers came from, but hey… if it makes someone laugh, it’s all worthwhile.)
Anyway, here’s the playlist from my April 17, 2009 show on WMUC2.
1. Queens Of The Stone Age, “Monsters In The Parasol” (Rated R)
2. Blur, “Bugman” (13)
3. The Fall Of Troy, “Cut Down All The Trees And Name The Streets After Them” (Manipulator)
4. Kings Of Leon, “Slow Night, So Long” (Aha Shake Heartbreak)
5. Titus Andronicus, “Arms Against Atrophy” (The Airing Of Grievances)*
6. Radiohead, “Blow Out” (Pablo Honey)
7. The Whigs, “I Never Want To Go Home” (Mission Control)
8. Muse, “Bliss” (Origin Of Symmetry)
9. Cymbals Eat Guitars, “Wind Phoenix” (Why There Are Mountains)*
10. Interpol, “Leif Erikson” (Turn On The Bright Lights)
11. Have A Nice Life, “Bloodhail” (Deathconsciousness)
12. The Drones, “The Minotaur” (Havilah)
13. Pavement, “Stereo” (Brighten The Corners)
14. The Sword, “Maiden, Mother, & Crone” (Gods Of The Earth)
15. Others May Fall, “Napoleon”
16. Mastodon, “Oblivion” (Crack The Skye)
17. Deerhunter, “Never Stops” (Microcastle)
18. The National, “Green Gloves” (Boxer)
19. My Morning Jacket, “El Caporal” (Dark Was The Night compilation)
20. Radiohead, “Go To Sleep (Little Man Being Erased)” (Hail To The Thief)
21. Minus The Bear, “Guns And Ammo” (Acoustics EP)
22. Mountain, “Mississippi Queen” (Climbing)
23. Guns N’ Roses, “Nightrain” (Appetite For Destruction)
24. Queens Of The Stone Age, “Little Sister” (Lullabies To Paralyze)
25. The Rolling Stones, “Honky Tonk Women” (Forty Licks)
26. Blue Oyster Cult, “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” (Agents Of Fortune)
27. Vampire Weekend, “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” (Vampire Weekend) — you won’t hear this in the show MP3 because I had to go long to fill dead air
Kind of strange how I seem to have made Vampire Weekend my go-to band for filling dead air.
And as always, join my Facebook group if you have a Facebook account and keep watching this space. Now that the semester’s over, I won’t be doing any more shows until the fall. I’ll be sure to update you all on any changes to my schedule. Since I don’t have any classes scheduled for Fridays next semester, it may not even have to change at all. I can’t say I’d mind having an FM gig, though…
*denotes albums I’ve been looking for but haven’t found anywhere
Buying music will save the economy
…And I’m doing my part. Here’s a list of albums I’ve added to my collection this semester just to show you all that I haven’t forgotten about this blog.
Mastodon: Crack The Skye
Thrice: Vheissu, The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II: Fire & Water
The Decemberists: The Crane Wife
Interpol: Turn On The Bright Lights, Our Love To Admire
The Roots: Game Theory, Phrenology
Between The Buried And Me: Colors
Blur: Blur, 13, Think Tank
Also, I find it immensely amusing that linking to ONE picture of Keeley Hazell can get me so many hits even though I haven’t updated this blog in a while. Check out this list of recent search terms people have used to find my blog…
- Boobs
- Baseball boobs
- Deux alpes boobs
- Girl boobs
- Big boobs
- Nice boobies
- Boobs thrust
- Pretty girls with nice boobs
- Hot boobs fuckin
- Huge boobs
- Public boobs
- DJ girls boobs
- Boob lady
- Girl+boobs
- Boobs hot
- Keeley Hazell boobs
I’ve learned my lesson well, folks. From now on, EVERY post on this blog will be tagged with labels relating to boobs. Yes, I know it’s a dishonest way to increase traffic to my site. But who knows? Maybe someone who comes here searching for boobs will end up being so impressed by my blog that they’ll forget all about the boobs and read my posts and tell all their friends what a kickass writer I am.
And maybe Keeley Hazell will pay a visit to my apartment some time this weekend because she’s totally turned on by guys who host radio shows and write blogs about music and have been known to take pictures like this of themselves:
Yeah, that's me. This picture's a couple years old, but it's still me.
Hey, as long as I’m dreaming, I might as well dream big. And it’s a big dream. Big like a nice pair of boobs.
Feb. 27, 2009: Show #14
Here’s the playlist for my Feb. 27, 2009 show on WMUC2. No lengthy introductions this time, but as always, join my Facebook group if you have an account there (and haven’t already joined), keep listening every Friday from 6-8 p.m. on WMUC2, and keep watching this space.
1. John Mayer Trio, “Who Did You Think I Was” (Try! John Mayer Trio Live)
2. We Are Scientists, “Altered Beast” (Brain Thrust Mastery)
3. Snow Patrol, “Whatever’s Left” (Final Straw)
4. Nine Black Alps, “Unsatisfied” (Everything Is)
5. Muse, “The Small Print” (Absolution)
6. TV On The Radio, “Crying” (Dear Science)
7. Spoon, “I Turn My Camera On” (Gimme Fiction)
8. Kings Of Leon, “The Bucket” (Aha Shake Heartbreak)
9. At The Drive-In, “Napoleon Solo” (In/Casino/Out)
10. Burning Brides, “Arctic Snow” (Fall Of The Plastic Empire)
11. Alkaline Trio, “Private Eye” (From Here To Infirmary)
12. Dead Confederate, “Goner” (Wrecking Ball)
13. The Sword, “How Heavy This Axe” (Gods Of The Earth)
14. Mastodon, “Hunters Of The Sky” (Blood Mountain)
15. Opeth, “Coil” (Watershed)
16. Minus The Bear, “Dr. L’Ling” (Planet Of Ice)
17. My Morning Jacket, “I’m Amazed” (Evil Urges)
18. Nirvana, “Breed” (Nevermind)
19. The Whigs, “Production City” (Mission Control)
20. Bloc Party, “One Month Off” (Intimacy)
21. The Fall Of Troy, “Act One, Scene One” (Doppelganger)
22. Foo Fighters, “But, Honestly” (Echoes, Silence, Patience, & Grace)
23. Blur, “The Universal” (The Great Escape)
24. The Beatles, “Let It Be” (Let It Be)
25. Sigur Ros, “Starálfur” (Ágætis Byrjun)
26. Radiohead, “How To Disappear Completely” (Kid A)
Feb. 20, 2009: Show #13
Hey everybody. Sorry I haven’t updated much this week. I’ve had approximately 10,642 papers to write. Ah, the joys of becoming an English major this late in your college career…
Anyway, here’s my playlist from last week’s show. I’m going to try to post some new download files too, but I haven’t been able to get the two-hour shows up yet. And don’t forget to listen to my show on Friday at 6 p.m. — shameless plug, I know, but then again that’s kind of the purpose of this blog, isn’t it?
1. Nirvana, “Scentless Apprentice” (In Utero)
2. Kings Of Leon, “Be Somebody” (Only By The Night)
3. At The Drive-In, “Chanbara” (In/Casino/Out)
4. Dead Confederate, “Start Me Laughing” (Wrecking Ball)
5. The Whigs, “Technology” (Give ‘Em All A Big Fat Lip)
6. Blur, “Death Of A Party” (Blur)
7. R.E.M., “Exhuming McCarthy” (Document)
8. Interpol, “Roland” (Turn On The Bright Lights)
9. Queens Of The Stone Age, “The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret” (Rated R)
10. The Sword, “The Frost-Giant’s Daughter” (Gods Of The Earth)
11. The Dillinger Escape Plan, “Panasonic Youth” (Miss Machine)
12. Mastodon, “Workhorse” (Remission)
13. Slayer, “Criminally Insane” (Reign In Blood)
14. Between The Buried And Me, “Foam Born: (B) The Decade Of Statues” (Colors)
15. High On Fire, “Hung, Drawn And Quartered” (Surrounded By Thieves)
16. The Fall Of Troy, “Chapter IV: Enter The Black Demon” (Phantom On The Horizon)
17. Rancid, “Fall Back Down” (Indestructible)
18. Green Day, “Whatsername” (American Idiot)
19. Alkaline Trio, “Time To Waste” (Crimson)
20. Radiohead, “15 Step” (In Rainbows)
21. Bloc Party, “This Modern Love” (Silent Alarm)
22. Joy Division, “Love Will Tear Us Apart” (Substance)
23. Matthew Sweet, “Thought I Knew You” (Girlfriend)
24. Garbage, “Special” (Version 2.0)
25. Muse, “Falling Away With You” (Absolution)
26. Ben Folds Five, “Song For The Dumped” (Forever And Ever Amen)
27. Coldplay, “The Scientist” (A Rush Of Blood To The Head)
Feb. 13, 2009: Show #12 – Valentine’s Day Special
Hey everyone. In an attempt to lighten the mood of this blog somewhat after the last post’s journey into the realm of scary music (not to mention the darker reaches of my imagination), here’s the playlist from my Valentine’s Day special on Feb. 13, 2009.
1. Jimi Hendrix, “Foxey Lady” (Experience Hendrix: The Best Of Jimi Hendrix)
2. Blur, “Coffee & TV” (13)
3. The Smashing Pumpkins, “Cupid De Locke” (Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness)
4. Spoon, “Finer Feelings” (Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga)
5. Daft Punk, “Something About Us” (Discovery)
6. The Fall Of Troy, “Quarter Past” (Manipulator)
7. The Darkness, “I Believe In A Thing Called Love” (Permission To Land)
8. We Are Scientists, “Lethal Enforcer” (Brain Thrust Mastery)
9. Coldplay, “Yellow” (Parachutes)
10. The Police, “Next To You” (Outlandos d’Amour)
11. Green Day, “Extraordinary Girl” (American Idiot)
12. Queens Of The Stone Age, “In My Head” (Lullabies To Paralyze)
13. Foo Fighters, “Big Me” (Foo Fighters)
14. The Strokes, “12:51″ (Room On Fire)
15. Cake, “Short Skirt/Long Jacket” (Comfort Eagle)
16. Bloc Party, “Sunday” (A Weekend In The City)
17. Minus The Bear, “Pachuca Sunrise” (Menos El Oso)
18. Muse, “Unintended” (Showbiz)
19. Radiohead, “All I Need” (In Rainbows)
20. My Morning Jacket, “Knot Comes Loose” (Z)
21. Garbage, “Milk” (Garbage)
22. The Beatles, “Something” (Abbey Road)
23. Snow Patrol, “Grazed Knees” (Final Straw)
24. Weezer, “Across The Sea” (Pinkerton)
25. The Beach Boys, “God Only Knows” (Pet Sounds)
26. U2, “All I Want Is You” (Rattle & Hum)
27. Peter Gabriel, “In Your Eyes” (So)
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