We're already back!
I've realized that this 10 SONGZ series is a really easy premise to work with. I could be churning these out every 2 weeks. At least until I'm tired of it. I don't know how to make the blurbs more universally interesting, so I could at least make them personally nostalgic.
On that note... I've spent my whole summer in Jerome. I've done this a few times in my adulthood. But nothing has come close to my favorite summer in Jerome. Sometimes I walk outside and get a whiff of the air around me and it takes me back...
The year is 2008! I'm 17 years old, between junior and senior year of high school. I could list off a bunch of self-referential stuff that made this summer stick out to me. The bike rides, the late nights, the backpacking trip, The Laramie Project, the 1984 Honda Civic... To me, music is memory. I decided I'd write about the new music I was into from this time. Maybe this will get you reminiscing over your first time watching The Dark Knight or something.
Here's 10 SONGZ!
R.E.M. Supernatural Superserious
The most accurate bellwether for my music taste at the time is the fact that I bought this CD the week it was released at the Twin Falls Best Buy. Accelerate might be R.E.M's best post-Bill Berry album, but I'm pretty biased.
Beck Modern Guilt
I also bought this CD the week it was released at the Twin Falls Best Buy. I show a little embarrassed smile whenever I talk about Beck. He was my favorite artist when I was 17. I thought he was weird + cool, and I also thought I was weird + cool. I might have been 0 for 2 on that...
Fleet Foxes Blue Ridge Mountains
Just magical times, man. I watched Fleet Foxes play this song on Letterman, then immediately bought the album. Funny to think things used to work that way. The indie folk sound was very much new to me. Didn't know this would go on to influence some of the most annoying music of the 2010s.
The Hold Steady Sequestered in Memphis
I also watched these guys play on Letterman. I really believed there was reasonable anticipation for an event like that. The Hold Steady were definitely part of my transition from scanning alt-rock radio stations to discovering indie acts on the internet. "Subpoenaed in Texas, sequestered in Memphis!"
Santigold L.E.S. Artistes
If you want to know where I was getting all my music recs from, all these first 5 songs were from albums that got 4 stars from Rolling Stone. Santigold was super hyped at the time, like she was the modern day trailblazer for new wave. Didn't know she released that debut album at 31 years old.
Coldplay Lost!
Coldplay was everywhere this summer. This was an album I owned, and a bunch of my friends did as well, so just a lot of shared memories here. I'm still confounded by the song "Viva La Vida" being such a huge hit. "Lost!" was the better single. And "Strawberry Swing" deserved more spotlight.
Lil Wayne Mr. Carter (ft. Jay-Z)
Lil Wayne was everywhere this summer. Rap was still off limits to me at this point. But I basically heard the whole album by way of my friends driving me around everywhere, and they were all listening to Tha Carter III. Learned a lot of new uses for referencing genitalia in a sentence.
Mudcrutch The Wrong Thing to Do
Mudcrutch was a Tom Petty side project that strictly stuck with southern rock. I didn't ask for it, but my high school drama teacher burned me a copy of the album. Honestly, I appreciate it more with age, as a guitarist. And this song is badass.
Love Hӓndel You Snuck Your Way Right Into My Heart
I was never a Disney Channel guy. But here I was, a 17 year-old watching new Phineas and Ferb episodes after work with my 16 year-old sister. The songs never really go away. The Love Hӓndel episode might have been the best. "Goodnight, Tri-State Area!"
Usher Love in This Club (ft. Jeezy)
It took me so long to appreciate pop music. I look back on late-2000s pop fondly, because it feels so blatantly overblown and ironic. "I wanna make love in this club" is a sentiment I'm sure we can all relate to. When Usher played the Super Bowl, I was sad that he didn't bring out Jeezy for his verse here. I needed that. Sexually, mentally, physically, emotionally.
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