Wednesday, March 08, 2006

This took way too much time to write

A meme-type thing cribbed from the one and only Leptard-type thing.

Pick ten bands and answer questions about them afterwards.

1. Television
2. New York Dolls
3. Wilco
4. Velvet Underground
5. Led Zeppelin
6. Black Flag
7. Sonic Youth
8. Yardbirds
9. XTC
10. Dead Kennedys

What was the first song you ever heard by 6?
Rise Above

What is your favorite album of 8?
Oddly, it isn't Roger the Engineer, but Cumular Limit, a hodgepodge of live tracks, demos, outtakes, and rough mixes from the Jimmy Page era. There's also a neato black and white video included of them playing live circa 1967 on a German TV show called Beat Beat Beat (or something like that).

What is your favourite lyric that 5 has sung?
Zeppelin wasn't exactly known for their lyrics, but I'd have to pick Dazed and Confused which, oddly enough Jimmy Page basically ripped off during the Yardbirds era from a guy named Jake Holmes, but Zeppelin changed the lyrics. Also, on the Yardbirds album above there's an earlier live version of this song with different lyrics than the Zeppelin version. Confused yet? How about dazed?

How many times have you seen 4 live?
None. They basically stopped being relevant when I was one year old after Lou Reed left to go solo. Yes, I could've seen them during their sad reunion tour opening for U2 in some goddamn stadium, but that wouldn't have been enjoyable at all I don't think.

What's your favorite song of 7?
Hey Joni probably.

What is a good memory you have considering the music of 10?
My sister coming home from visiting some college with a friend and their family and bringing home a French import copy of In God We Trust, Inc. It was vinyl (this was 1984) and neither of us had ever seen a 12 inch 45 rpm record before so we just assumed that it would played at 33 1/3 rpm. So we ended listening to it, and totally loving it, at the wrong damn speed for a week probably. We'd play it two or three times a day. But what did we know, we were just a couple of stupid redneck kids listening to BIG CITY PUNK RAWK! Plus everything on the label was in French. Anyway, eventually one of us said, "Hey, maybe this isn't on the right speed."

Is there a song of 3 that makes you sad?
Yes, all of them. Or most of them. Except for a few tunes, Wilco isn't exactly a peppy, happy bunch, which is probably why they appeal to me so much.

What is your favourite lyric that 2 has sung?
It's hard to beat Jet Boy:

Jet Boys fly
Jet Boys gone
Jet Boy stole my baby


Actually, now that I think about it, Frankenstein has better lyrics:

Is it a crime, is it a crime
For you to fall in love in with Frankenstein
Wrong, could it be wrong
Baby, don't you want a friend
Well, Frankenstein, oh, Frankenstein, Frankenstein
You're gonna get it, you're gonna get it
You're gonna get it, from Frankenstein


What is your favorite song by 9?
Probably Senses Working Overtime, but it's just too hard to chose just one XTC tune.

How did you get in to 3?
I was watching Late Night with Conan O'Brien to see a Winona Ryder interview and Wilco, who I'd only vaguely heard of, was the musical guest. They did How to Fight the Loneliness which I really liked, so I got a copy of Summerteeth. For some reason the album didn't strike me as that interesting and for two or three years all I'd ever play was How to Fight the Loneliness. Eventually, because I kept reading stuff about them, I got the CD out and started playing it. For awhile there I played everyday.

What was the first song you heard by 1?
I don't know. For some reason I think it may have been See No Evil.

What is your favourite song by 4?
Heroin, maybe. Or perhaps Some Kinda Love

What is a good memory you have concerning 2?
Nothing comes to mind, except discoving how catchy Jet Boy is.

Is there a song of 8 that makes you sad?
No. Not even Still I'm Sad. Well, maybe some of the studio versions of stuff from the Jimmy Page era makes me sad because it's so inanely produced. It's a shame they didn't have management and producers during that period to capture the loud-ass brutality of their live stuff and BBC session material done during the same time.

What is your favourite album of 5?
The first one.

What is your favourite lyric that 3 has sung?
Either Poor Places or Handshake Drugs.

What is your favourite song of 6?
Again I'll chose Rise Above. Or maybe their debut single, Nervous Breakdown.

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