VAGUE S P A C E
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • VAGUE SPACE BLOG
"Remember saying things like 'we'll sleep when we're dead'
And thinking this feeling was never gonna end.

Remember that night you were already in bed, 
Said 'fuck it' got up to drink with me instead
" Younger Us - Japandroids

RSS Feed

Top 300 Songs of All-Time (Part 2)

2/22/2019

 
Continuing with the countdown.... 200 to 101 below the fold...
200.  Some are White Light - Caspian
199.  Half a Person - The Smiths
198.  Boys Don't Cry - The Cure
197.  Like a Forest - Low
196.  About Today - The National
195.  The Crystal Lake - Grandaddy
194.  Awful Bliss - Guided by Voices
193.  Too Pure - Sebadoh
192.  Alone Down There - Modest Mouse
191 - Heartbeat in the Brain - The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die
An awesome article on the 20-year anniversary of the release of their (first) final album The Sebadoh appeared last week on Noisey, and yeah, you should check it out.  My history with Sebadoh is falling deeply and madly in love with Bakesale upon its release (Skull, Rebound lighting up what was then Modern Rock radio in its heyday-is heyday -- 106.3 Modern Rock at the Jersey Shore!) and its follow up Harmacy.  I remember being in Deptford (my long-forgotten hometown), visiting my parents I guess, and shopping at something called a "record store," which was popular back in the late 90s and stumbling upon the whole catalog of pre-Bakesale releases from the band including Smash Your Head on the Punk Rock, III, and of course, The Freed Weed.  I may have owned the others but I remember buying The Freed Weed and getting a "cool man" comment by the pothead working at the store and it's weird the memories we keep.  Anyway, Sebadoh came back with reunion tours and I've seen them a couple times in the past decade and they are amazing and so is this song.  From Harmacy (1996).  

190. Drag - Day Wave
189. Purr - Sonic Youth
188. Tractor Rape Chain - Guided by Voices
187. The Left is Right - Desaparacidos
186. Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie - Joanna Newsom
185.  Stadiums and Shrines II - Sunset Rubdown
184.  Date with IKEA - Pavement
183. Notorious Lighting - Destroyer
182. Empty Room - Arcade Fire
181.  A.M. 180 - Grandaddy

It's an unfortunate fact of my indie rock fandom that the vast majority of singers on this countdown are male.  It really has only been recently that I've fallen hard for female-fronted bands - Middle Kids, Slothrust, Hop Along, Girlpool, Half Waif, Camp Cope, St. Vincent, Diet Cig, Julien Baker, Vagabon, Sharon Von Etton, etc.  But because of the breadth of history fueling this listing, very few female artists will appear higher than this (only a handful are left).  It's unfortunate and maybe when I revisit in 10 years there will be greater diversity, but for now, here's Regine singing her heart out at #182 and the amazing Joanna Newsom at #186 with her harp and that voice.  "Well just look around, that's why I love this town.  Just see me serenaded hourly, celebrated sourly, and dedicated dourly, waltzing with the open sea.  Clam, crab, cockle, cowrie.  Will you just look at me?"

180. Seven - Sunny Day Real Estate
179. Two French Sisters - Pants Yell!
178. Moya - Godspeed! You Black Emperor
177.  Charlotte Sometimes (Live) - The Cure
176.  Wake Up - Arcade Fire
175.  Blanket and Crib - Okkervil River
174.  Silence Kit - Pavement
173.  Derailed - Joyce Manor
172. Shut Up I am Dreaming of Places Where Lovers Have Wings - Sunset Rubdown
171.  The Stars of Track and Field - Belle and Sebastien
Oh, Spencer.  Definitely the most influential artist in my indie rock fandom over the past decade and a half (with apologies to Mr. Darnielle, Mr. Bejar, Mr. Boeckner... and Mac, who is still #1 all time), and I like to say that I finally started to live the life I've always wanted by moving to Hoboken some six years ago, but really the life I've always wanted - going to shows in the city in tiny clubs, reveling in the music, writing about the experiences and turning those writings into novels (my first novel features a concert appearance prominently), it all came together for me this past decade and a half when I started attending shows again (after probably a decade of lapse) and the first show I saw in the 2000s was Sunset Rubdown - who I got to see at the First Unitarian Church basement in Philly circa 2006, where this video is shot (but not by me).  Spencer would go on to release my favorite albums of 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013 (yes 7 straight years) but it's this one, Shut Up I Am Dreaming (which came in 2nd to Mogwai's Mr. Beast in 2006) that started my true love for the artist and the music and everything that would be a huge part of my life for the next decade plus (OK, yes, Wolf Parade's Apologies to the Queen Mary probably started it a year earlier but this was my first Spencer live experience).

170. Obstacle 1 - Interpol
169. Stop Me if You Think You've Heard this One Before - The Smiths
168. Randy Described Eternity - Built to Spill
167.  Two-Headed Boy Part 2 - Neutral Milk Hotel
166.  He Woke Me Up Again - Sufjan Stevens
165.  That's Entertainment - Morrissey
164.  Apistat Commander (Xiu Xiu cover) - Sunset Rubdown
163.  God Bless Our Dead Marines - A Silver Mt. Zion
162.  Rubies - Destroyer 
161.  Kim You Bore Me to Death - Grandaddy
There's fresh meat in the club tonight, god bless our dead marines.
Someone had an accident above the burning trees.
While somewhere distant peacefully, our vulgar princes sleep.
Dead kids don't get photographed, god bless this century.
​

When the world is sick, can't no one be well.  But I dreamt we was all beautiful and strong.

160.  I'll Be You - The Replacements
159.  Cemetery Gates - The Smiths
158.  The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton - The Mountain Goats
157.  Death with Dignity - Sufjan Stevens
156.  Graceless - The National
155.  Wasted Days - Cloud Nothings
154.  The Ledge - The Replacements 
153.  Letting Go - The Rural Alberta Advantage
152.  Burn Girl Prom-Queen - Mogwai
151.  Skull - Sebadoh

The National are one of the bands that I keep coming back to, sort of like Superchunk, in that they maybe don't quite reach the heights of someone like Spencer or old school Arcade Fire but all their albums are great, there's such a consistency, such a wonder in their music, both mellow and pumping at the same time, and they are incredible live.  They are one of the most successful indie rock bands of the past decade and somehow (unlike Arcade Fire or Death Cab for Cutie) they kept their sound the same but the music fresh and I still love everything they do (unlike umm... yeah what the hell happened to Arcade Fire).

150.  Shallow End - Superchunk
149.  Should Have Known Better - Sufjan Stevens
148.  Your Ex-Lover is Dead - Stars
147.  The Chuckler - Protomartyr
146.  The Happiest Place on Earth - Desaparacidos
145.  Stamp - The Rural Alberta Advantage
144.  Headache - Frank Black
143.  Mountains Made of Steam - A Silver Mt. Zion
142.  The Mistress Witch from McClure - Sufjan Stevens 
141.  Quiet - This Will Destroy You
In 2003 and 2004, right after I fell in love with a "new wave" of indie rock bands that had been making amazing music in the late 90s under my radar, my favorite artist in back-to-back years (for the first and only time in chart history) was Bright Eyes.  Some 15 years later, only a single Bright Eyes song has made this list, way down near the bottom.  But four (4!) songs by Conor Oberst's side project punk band Desaparacidos are here.  I'm not sure what that says about Conor, or me, I just know this song from 2001 has stuck with me more than any other song Conor has ever written, possibly because of the state of the country in the last 15 years.
I want to pledge allegiance
To the country where I live
I don’t want to be ashamed to be American
But opportunity, no, it don’t exist
It’s the opiate of the populace
We need some harder shit now
The truth is getting around
And each public school is a halfway house
Where huddled masses sober up and up and up

140. Procession - New Order
139.  Velvet Waltz - Built to Spill
138.  Summer Here Kids - Grandaddy
137.  Freak Scene - Dinosaur Jr.
136.  Younger Us - Japandroids
135.  Vidrar vel til loftarasa - Sigur Ros
134.  Winged / Wicked Things - Sunset Rubdown
133.  On the Rocks - The Rural Alberta Advantage
132. For the Widows in Paradise, for the Fatherless in Ypsilanti - Sufjan Stevens 
131.  Shine A Light - Wolf Parade
Despite the presence of the song (lyrics) featured at the top of this blog in this grouping - plus two Spencer tracks - there's only one choice for the video to highlight here.  This video came out in 2001 and even though I was an adult at the time, it was the single greatest piece of visual art I'd ever seen about coming out.  It's shocking that in 2019 what is shown in this video just casually appears on regular TV and movies all the time, but it wasn't like that when I was young.  At all.  It was barely like that five years ago.  Just an amazing song and an amazing video that means the world to me.  And that look on the actor playing the father's face in the end -- that should be the poster for the evils of toxic masculinity (and Trump voters).

130.  Lovely Allen - Holy Fuck
129.  How Soon is Now? - The Smiths
128.  Secret of the Easy Yoke - Pedro the Lion
127.  Teeth Like God's Shoeshine - Modest Mouse
126.  High to Death - Car Seat Headrest
125.  Bushels - Frog Eyes 
124.  The Sad Mafioso - Godspeed! You Black Emperor
123.  Terrible Love - The National
122.  The Weather - Built to Spill 
121.  Up On Your Leopard, Upon the End of Your Feral Days - Sunset Rubdown  
Godspeed's music are like anthems for your soul, just swirling guitars and percussion and stringed instruments of  shock and inspiration, sweeping over your mind and body until you lose yourself in the explosions of grace and wonder and joy. Let yourself be enveloped by one of the suites from "East Hastings" below... "The Sad Mafioso".  

120.  Blinders (fast version) - Superchunk
119.  Animal Life - Shearwater
118.  Unless it's Kicks - Okkervil River
117.  Head On -The Jesus and Mary Chain
116.  BlindBlindBlind - A Silver Mt. Zion
115.  Westfall - Okkervil River
114. Hand in Glove - The Smiths
113.  Six Days at the Bottom of the Ocean - Explosions in the Sky
112.  Us Ones in Between - Sunset Rubdown
111.  Range Life - Pavement
Talk about toxic masculinity ... part of a series of songs by Will Sheff depicting horrible men and their horrible deeds, which culminated in Black Sheep Boy , his high point as an artist still, but this track from an earlier album not only blows me away live all the time's I've seen it, it really gets into the mindset of a certain set of men - far too many men - who think of women as lesser than them, in this case taken to its logical extreme... 

We went out one night, and took a flashlight, out with these two girls Colin knew from Kenwood Christian.  One was named Lori, that was the story, the next week in The Guardian.  And when I killed her, it was so easy.  That I wanted to kill her again.  I got down on both of my knees, and she ain't coming back again.
Evil don't look like anything. Evil don't look like anything.

110.  The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades - Sufjan Stevens
109.  Lola Who? - Plants and Animals
108.  Just Like Honey - The Jesus and Mary Chain
107.  Alexander the Pretty Good - Be Still, Cody
106.  Drunk Drivers / Killer Whales - Car Seat Headrest
105.  Rebellion (Lies) - The Arcade Fire
104.  Gouge Away - Pixies
103.  Skip Steps 1 & 3 - Superchunk
102.  Still Flat - Built to Spill
101.  Available - The National
We are really getting into the best of the best here, with a bunch of tracks that just missed the top 100.  But since there's been a depressing / angry / desperate vibe through many of the selected videos on this post, I thought we'd end on an up note.  And you can't get more up than Superchunk.  My favorite artist of all time.

Comments are closed.
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • VAGUE SPACE BLOG