<![CDATA[VAGUE S P A C E - VAGUE SPACE BLOG]]>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 04:13:20 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[#73 (of 365) "Yasmin the Light" Explosions in the Sky]]>Sun, 19 Apr 2026 12:14:48 GMThttps://www.billelenbark.com/blog/73-of-365-yasmin-the-light-explosions-in-the-skyThere are few live recordings in the world of YouTube that are better than this. Live at Reckless Records in Chicago (which still exists!) in January 2006 (20 years ago now!). Just three guitars and drums. Incredible, amazing song and perfect recording (well, the video is grainy and dull but the sound... perfect). The clip I'm including is their entire set but "Yasmin the Light" is the first song. It's the 2nd track off their second album, the ill-fated September 4, 2001 release overshadowed by terrible Explosions in the sky that happened a week later. Incredibly bad timing. But one of the greatest post-rock songs ever made.

"Yasmin the Light" - Explosions in the Sky // Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever (2001)
]]><![CDATA[#74 (of 365) "The Wagon" Dinosaur Jr.]]>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 12:49:41 GMThttps://www.billelenbark.com/blog/74-of-365-the-wagon-dinosaur-jrIf I made this list in 1995, this would easily be a top 10 song of all time. I was obsessed with Dinosaur Jr. at the time and I didn't even really know about their albums from before Lou Barlow left the band. I discovered Lou and Sebadoh around that time too, probably in 1995, but the Bug/You're Living All Over Me stuff I probably learned about in 96 or 97 and then through the years came to appreciate that the earliest stuff (with Lou) was the best version of Dinosaur Jr. Now, 30 years later, I don't listen to any of it all that often. And this song--still amazing--which came off the first post-Lou album is the highest ranked Dinosaur Jr. song on this chart, and it's lower than the highest ranked Sebadoh song (still to come). All in all, though, for this track to still be relevant enough in my music fandom to make the top 75 three decades after I was first obsessed with it is impressive no matter what.

There's a place I know you've been
​There's a wagon, get on in

"The Wagon" - Dinosaur Jr. // Green Mind (1991)
]]><![CDATA[#75 (of 365) "The Ones Who Love You" Alvvays]]>Wed, 15 Apr 2026 11:55:43 GMThttps://www.billelenbark.com/blog/75-of-365-the-ones-who-love-you-alvvaysA song that holds a place in time in my mind. A song that burst to the top of my favorites years after the album it was on was released. A song lost in that album among what I thought were better songs (some have already appeared on this list) but turned out to be the best of them all. And a song with a single line that shines so bright it makes the whole song better.

Back in the never-discussed COVID years, my partner and I moved across the "border" from Hoboken to Jersey City, a literal five-minute walk between our apartment buildings but officially a city away, and we lived in this then new development with a bunch of grassy fields (that would eventually be replaced by new buildings, just before we left there) and in those grassy fields on many, many, many a night and day I would walk my baby girl (our mini schnauzer) in the cold, cold COVID winters, avoiding people, with only the music in my head (my airPods). This song got played on repeat. This line shook me to the core. This music is magical. And this (and Elie and Mike) saved my sanity on those long long COVID winters, in sickness (a lot of it) and health.

When you live on an island
Nothing ever falls in place
The winters are violent
And you can't ever feel your face
You can't fucking feel your face

"The Ones Who Love You" - Alvvays // Alvvays (2014)
]]><![CDATA[#76 (of 365) "I Heard You Looking" Yo La Tango]]>Sat, 11 Apr 2026 14:27:18 GMThttps://www.billelenbark.com/blog/76-of-365-i-heard-you-looking-yo-la-tango​Music critic Robert Christgau characterized Painful, Yo La Tango's 1993 release for Matador Records as "Hoboken's answer to My Bloody Valentine." Hoboken is a city I lived in for 10 wonderful years. I still wish I lived there. I would move back in a second, if my partner wanted to. He doesn't want to. Hoboken is a city that produced Yo La Tengo (among many other things, many other musicians) and because they are so close, they play here (in NYC or in Jersey City) almost definitely more than any other band I love. And they've been around forever, although I don't think I knew of them until the last 25 years or so, so my convert viewing experiences have been more recent. Still, just due to sheer volume of shows they put in, even in their 60s now, I have seen them at least as much as any other band in my life. And lately, or at shows lately, they've been playing this song. It has no lyrics. It only has a title. And it gets me every time.

"I Heard You Looking" - Yo La Tengo // Painful (1993)
]]><![CDATA[#77 (of 365) "Head On" The Jesus & Mary Chain]]>Sat, 11 Apr 2026 12:00:09 GMThttps://www.billelenbark.com/blog/77-of-365-head-on-the-jesus-mary-chainAs soon as I get my head round you, I come around catching sparks off you. Get an electric charge from you, a second-hand living it just won't do.
And the way I feel tonight, oh I could die and I wouldn't mind. And there's something going on inside...
Makes you want to feel, makes you want to try, made you want to blow the stars from the sky
I can't stand up, I can't cool down, I can't get my head off the ground.

Two songs in a row that talking about dying and not minding it, that feeling in your youth of invincibility and pure joy, both songs that came out when I was in high school, that I discovered in college, two songs from the literal 80s that made my top 80 songs of all time in 2026. It would be like if someone my age including songs from the 1940s (!) on a chart they made in 1986. It's insane to think about--did rock even exist in the 40s? Like, that's before even my parents era. But here I am celebrating stuff that the "kids today" wouldn't even consider I'm sure. But fuck it, I can't get my head off the ground.

Oh, also, and this is relevant, this is one of 2 songs in my top 100 that also have cover versions in the chart. The Pixies cover version of Head On appeared at #202. The other song that applies to this "song is so fucking good that even the cover made my all-time list" will appear higher up.

"Head On" - The Jesus & Mary Chain // Automatic (1989)
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