OPE!

For the record I don't think the phrase OPE! hasn't really been an actual thing until the last few years people just act as if they've done it forever like Elf on a shelf or gender reveal parties there's some weird group think mentality that is forcing a fake sense of nostalgia on something that never really was a thing and it's especially a thing here in the Midwest considering we don't have much to get hype about when the thing most often coming from here are basic white folk and racist pieces of shit which I know someone out there is asking what's the difference to which i respond....uh....

SO one year ago today I announced the end of Song of the Day and in one years time things honestly didn't change in terms of the worlds impact at the leaving of my blog life went on and a lot of local acts I covered broke up, went into hiding, or just kind of been stalled out with a couple deciding to really hit the grind and as for the national music scene....it's a thing but this isn't really about all of that instead we have a case of what am I gonna do with this project.

I am starting to think that the hosting site for this has deleted some of the post I've made on here without warning due to something likely covered in the fine print that I didn't notice which is kind of shitty but when you don't post on here for around a year you kind of can't complain too much but with that in mind I'm just posting on here to say that while I'm here and I've made a post I can't one hundred percent say that Song of the Day is completely back because I still need to redefine what I am writing about and I'd kind of prefer this thing move onto a more creator controlled medium with possibly a group of people to help with the load which would mean leaving this medium and moving onto another platform but that's kind of dependent on a host of factors that need an effort to be made to actually do something.

Those things are irrelevant right now because it's Christmas eve and I got shit to do so I just wanted all of you to know there's gonna be one kind of lost in the shuffle post I was going to put on the year end list but it couldn't be included because a top 5 made more logistical sense in the week structure I use on here and the song covered came out in some mystery point in 2018 so yeah that's a thing but with that in mind happy holiday's, stay tuned for that post a little later today, and see ya'll next year when I try to go through a back catalog of cool songs you need to hear.

Don't Call it a comeback.....

Life has a weird way of making you have to reassess it all whenever you decide to quit things and that's where I am with this whole writing thing. I basically had a host of anxiety and depression lead me to have to end a thing I was doing because the lack of proper fulfillment was a real son of a bitch and a half that's for sure and after being such a narcissist  that had to end his personal project in a the most self fulfilling way that was throwing a show completely on my own dime with enough people awkwardly patting me on the back for what I kind of wasn't sure was really all that special I was kind of left in an awkward state of being relieved that I wasn't trying to write something substantial anymore but at the same time crushed in the knowledge that I had completely lost a personal connection to listening to music or going to shows so much so to a point that I may have grown to personally detest going out and listening to live music in general.

I have nothing to really add to the discourse and nobody around me has any essence of an idea of what I am trying to express in this passion of listening so many individuals are just overly dismissive or numbed to a point of just making a meme out of it all that I don't honestly see a fucking point to even trying to do this thing anymore that's kind of why I just ended up taking my ball and fucking going home there was no reason for me to even put an effort in anymore.

The thing about life is that it goes on and even if I'm not covering things there's places and people who are doing things there's local podcast doing their thing to expose local acts who are putting out great stuff and there's plenty of online critics gaining headway in some capacity and I get this feeling the sonic landscape has changed....the only thing that doesn't change is every dickhead that want's to tell me that it's alright to like what you like because we all have different taste to which I say with the most gleeful expressiveness I can conjure up to shut the fuck up, let people who know some iota of what they're talking about do the discussions, or at the very fucking least provide an interesting point that's not you just being an internet troll otherwise I kind of don't really care to deal with those things in my life I'm getting on in years and I already deal with my fair share of dumb non-intellectually stimulating discussions on the daily.

Unlike politics entertainment has a certain aspect to it where you can disagree and argue but you're not actively putting the lives of millions at risk for thinking some band/film/video game/ect. Are good, great, shit, or trash you're just simply expressing some level of passionate discourse that helps provide some sense of purpose in giving a flying fuck all about these things and a the end of the day we all need some sense of worth and validation otherwise we're just shell's walking on by listening to fluff.

I don't have anything to achieve anymore so fuck it let's just say something ya bunch of fucking assholes strap on in and give me something to talk about otherwise it's not like I ain't use to nobody paying attention to me anyways.

Mark your calendars Monday December 16th 2019 I got some stuff to cover more specifically the best of this quiet year.

 

Song of the Day 4-13-19

Well it happened folks the showcase to end all showcases Song of the day is officially done and last night after much delay due to mother nature not being able to accept the fact of the matter I had the farewell show happen over at Minibar KC.

It was a hell of a showcasing of 3 exceptionally good acts starting with the Fiction Department finally coming out of hiding to rip through a well balanced host of what I feel could be the signs of the next great American emo band from the rip roaring "20 Minutes," to the debut of their exceptional "Nervous," these guy's really put forth a fantastic effort.

Following them in an incredibly timely and efficient matter was The UK's who fucking tore the god damn house down with a well crafted set of mostly newer jams that have really come into their own and become a whole other beast of their own from the fantastic cuts off their newest release American Way of Death to some newer cuts my favorite being Motor City Blackout which is this fucking fantastic rocker of a track that I'm sure will be a fucking banger when they release it sometime in the next century and a half be sure to be on the lookout for that when you can because it's fucking tight.

After that whirlwind of awesome you're wondering what could possibly come next well then we have the Saints of St. Joseph, the men, the myth's, THE LEGENDS OF MODERN DAY Scruffy and "THE MOTHER FUCKING!" Janitors who to put it bluntly brought this to the best kind of finish playing through a host of some of Modeling is Hard's best cuts as well as a new tune that fucking killed it these guy's proved just why they had to headline this bitch for sure.

This night was a weird experience for me because that's it I'm fucking done with this little website of mine and the whole concept of writing a song of the day and looking at this footage it's strange because ever since announcing this I've been asked by a host of people what is next and that I can't really answer for ya I got 9 years of post to use for a resume if I wanted to and maybe if I'd of played my cards a lot better I could be doing some part time work or something but in the process of setting up this show and figuring out how to end this blog I just kind of needed to step away from that and reconsider things and what I can do with my creative energy.

If there's one thing I really can say it's that this night humbled the ever loving fuck outta me because as I'm writing this I'm still having a difficult time coming to grips with the fact that this actually happened like I can watch the videos that I recorded and hear my awful singing along to all of these tracks but it's hard to really grasp the fact that it all happened just because I didn't want this bastard to just die the way as all pet projects with nothing more than a written farewell.

At this point I've said most that I needed to say in regards to the state of Sam's Song of the Day and I just wanted to do one last post to commemorate the end show thanks to everyone who read the years of post and to anyone wanting to know what's next give me a while and I'll be up to something all of the love I have gotten is more than I could honestly ever expect to be deserving of and from the folks at x105.1 shouting out the show twice, to the various bands expressing their appreciation for the nice words, to the bands who played all of the show's I've put together, and of course to all of the people who've ever read song of the day and thought, "You know that is a pretty good fucking song," I thank you all for making this worth it.

Life, The best love song of all time, and the end of day's 9 years of Sam's Song of the Day

You know world I'm an incredibly bitter person that seemingly hates anything and everything that makes people happy if you were to ask the various people I work with because if I'm to be honest with you I don't much care for things that are fake and disingenuous to me which is why I most often express that these things people like are trash like country music or the topic of this article Love Songs.

You know as well as I know Sam's Song of the Day is coming to an end and with that path of self wanking that is my series of ending articles I'm taking the time to go back over all the topics, songs, and what-not to kind of put 9 years of bullshit into perspective and really come to end this thing on an honest note and in the years I've been doing this there's an article I wrote back in 2015 about my top 5 love songs of all time (Original Post) and while at work talking mad shit to my coworkers about how people don't just want songs that make them happy or that make them feel good I thought about this article and figured since the end is after Valentines that it'd be about the best time to go back and look at that list and kind of react to it in a way.

Looking at it in retrospect after the relationship I was in at the time came to an amicable if not bitter end for me at least and as of the time of this writing I've been getting over yet another failed relationship you can only imagine that I'm most certainly not feeling the love these day's and that's just it I can't help but wonder to myself why does that particular article stick with me so much then so I did what anybody would do I read the mother fucker and in the process of going over the list and for the most part still believing it I was taken back by the post I'd linked to from 2011 where I coincidentally wrote about a person that very much affected my thoughts on romance in such a way that it's crazy to think I was able to realize then that I had desperately needed to move on and the fact that I'd had a guest spot from the guy who fucked that up from me is just a hair funny in a god damn it kill me now kind of way.

SO what is it that I got 8 fucking years ago that sticks with me so much today I'm a grown up now that persons moved on, the guy who contributed unfriended me YEARS ago, and I've all but abandoned the whole not revealing more information about myself that what be necessary because I guess it's just some overall lack of fucks that come with the territory of needing to paint the necessary picture when trying to give you the reader an idea into the mindset it takes for me to come up with these types of pieces.

What the fuck does any of this have to do with love songs? Well here's the deal I still after all these years still have people tell me that I seem to lack the ability to be happy or understand what a god damn love song is and that's fucking wrong because I've written about it multiple times and the string of telling people that the root of all quality music isn't what makes us happy and feel good but rather to understand a complex series of emotions far beyond happiness is truly what qualifies a good song in comparison to a terrible tune in the opinion of a guy that's spent 9 fucking years trying to describe to people these things is rather annoying and in the process of proving this point I'm going to look at the most basic of songs and explain to you what really is a good love song.

First off I literally wrote about it already looking back that top 5 list is still pretty accurate for the most part and reading over all the post on it I kind of concluded that it's more than happiness that need be encapsulated in the best of these tunes but rather the full spectrum of emotions you don't want emotionless overwrought tripe like Justin Timberlakes Mirrors that's a shit song that tries too damn hard to not look like a shameless cash grab of a track from a former boy band extra that lucked out and figured out how to do a discount MJ but with all the sanitized whiteness on 11.

Love isn't sitting on the side of a mountain exclaiming to the world that the super model you banged last night is the pride and joy of your life ala insert 80's hair metal band's mandatory second single ballad no those coke fueled romps of trying to let a stripper give you a special slip of the tongue in the area's you're too ashamed to tell your band mates you enjoy having done to you isn't the foundation of a good love song it's yet more fake ass garbage that leads me to write such mean stuff as such, it's not a matter of trying to be something more than you really are but rather you need to present a certain level of honesty that for me at the very least has only really been done on a handful of occasions.

Yeah I'll say there's a few more tunes since I originally visited this topic that can bring a certain warm feeling like Kimbra's, “Two Way Street,” (Song here) but in all honesty as much a lovely and warm fuzzy filled jam as it is that's a song that for me at least could be amplified by the fact that for lack of a more tactful way to put it is done by my forever number 1 celebrity crush and as great and genuine a musician she is and as ethereal her performance is on that track it's still kind of the required ballad in a way and while it's a damn great one it doesn't quite reach that level of being what I think of when I think of a love song.

Being that I live in Kansas City Missouri I'm also inclined to mention a little ol' group known as the Greeting Committee and their breakthrough track, “Hands Down,” (Song Here) which I truly believe could very well have been the next great modern love song it's a simple tune by a group of kids still trying to figure out this whole being a rock star thing and it's under produced aesthetic and genuinely amateur lyrics give you this idea that they didn't know just what they were doing instead they just felt like doing whatever they felt like and for the most part this song has resulted in some truly outstanding times especially when you yell 1,2,3 for Brandon, but even with that in mind this song has an unfortunate stigma to it because aside from this paragraph and when I saw these guy's perform for a sold out crowd I don't willingly listen to this song because for lack of a more tactful way to say it 96.5 the Buzz overplayed this song to a point of no return and turned what once was a lovely track into an eye roll and a station change.

That song is still a good song and it has a host of great memories I wouldn't give up for all the riches in the world and I truly love the fact that the Greeting Committee are a thing they deserve it for being good people who made a band and did something but that song is the past and they've moved on from it and are in a better place and I don't mind that because well that's every failed relationship in a nutshell you loved it once but you don't anymore and you have to separate yourself from that because clinging onto those memories does more damages than you need to do to yourself and the only way to still feel the good is to just move on, and as far as I'm concerned when a song makes you feel like you're getting over a break up that doesn't really qualify it to be a great love song now does it?

So OK you're aware that there's good love songs and there's bad ones and you got an idea of some songs that I think get close but why they fail what is the best love song, what do I Sam consider the best love song of all time? And most importantly WHAT IN THE FUCK MAKES IT SO GOD DAMN GOOD? Well if you didn't read any of the links I left in this article nor have you been a follower of Sam's Song of the Day for these 9 years let's finally get to the fucking point just like I said all those years back this song right here is the best love song of all time give it a listen then continue reading because in order for it all to make sense you have to hear this song, form and opinion, and then proceed to have me explain to you my opinion I hope that was clear and you just haven't skipped over all the wall's of text leading up to this part of the article.

Love is a complicated emotion that brings upon it a certain level of anxiety that constantly leaves you on the edge wondering if it's all worth it at the end of the day, when you are starting a relationship or establishing something with someone you'll constantly be in this mental bind of trying to figure it all out you'll obsess and constantly worry if your next move could end it all you'll get to a point where you obsess over them and have a difficult time imagining what life without them.

It's an anxious ugly feeling of wonder where you and another person can't possibly believe that someone so seemingly beautiful and perfect could enter your life you'll put them through a series of test and you'll act in such a way that makes you wonder what in the actual fuck is wrong with you a certain cheeky sense of wonder and playfulness that's constantly testing the waters of the person in question to ultimately answer this nagging question so perfectly stated at the very end ever so abruptly, “the question is do you?”

Genius borders on 2 and a half minutes it's a statement I made up a long ass fucking time ago and it's been my biggest takeaway from all of the songs I've ever enjoyed in life while a complex musical arrangement that takes the time to really make a listener think and truly find more and more to any given piece of art sometimes in life you gotta just fucking cut to the god damn point this is that it's not a happy song it's anxiety personified Brian Molko and company are leading up every scenario with this nagging question of whether or not they want to say I do he hit the nail on the head bringing forth the fact that things are a total fucking mystery and you're never quite the same person when you're in or done with a relationship it changes your life forever I've been in love I've asked that question do I wanna be with this person for the rest of my life to which all of them decided to answer that for me and for those not in the know they all said no and yes that shit fucking hurt.

I'm not the happiest person in the world that's very true but just because I am that way doesn't mean that I don't feel happy ever and the thing is what I want in a love song isn't just an artificial level of happiness that gives a fake feeling of joy but rather a tune that is kind of weird, ugly, a bit on the simple side but with an understated level of complexity that isn't immediately apparent on first listen I want a non traditional take on things that gives just the right amount of information to get you wanting to hear more just to see what you missed the first time and this song does that in a way most other songs of its nature doesn't.

I don't want happy and upbeat that isn't a good song what I and many other people want is to have all of our emotions satisfied in a way that brings a certain level of comfort and reliability and sometimes you don't know these things unless somebody introduces them to you I've always had an interest in telling people about songs I think are good because things like this wouldn't have ever of been found if I didn't hear something ask the question of who or what and then went on to give it a chance what my thing with this is I was tired of seeing the same meaningless garbage getting shared over and over again because people are machines that don't want to experience something new but rather they want to hear the same garbage over and over so I tried to fix that by telling people about a new song every day because maybe just maybe somebody was going to hear it and have the same experience I did because all it took for me to discover this band was hearing one of their tracks on a cassette tape to get me to eventually listen to their catalog of material and become a life long fan.

The first person I ever fell in love with I showed her this band and her expression of wonder and amazement was something I can't put into words she was the first person I ever felt truly felt the same thing I did and I've yet to ever have that level of closeness again but I know deep down inside it's out there somewhere and that person is a thing of the past kind of like the only other woman who told me outright start a blog already and buy a copy of Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd the memories are there but the people are long gone and time has taught me that it's not the end of the world that they're gone and have moved on with their existence and like I told myself 8 years ago it's time I about do the same thing I'll admit I feel like I am going a bit overboard with my ending this little old blog of mine and the whole throwing myself a show thing but you know what I have to let it end with something because I need some validation for all the efforts I ever put into doing this so I can know that moving on was the best decision.

Catharsis, the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions that's what this piece is that is the best love song all time it's not spilling your guts, it's not screaming on a mountain top, and it's not saying that the other person is your one and only it's saying that somebody is a certain level of discomfort and wonder that you can't possibly come to understand on your own and you want them to help you come to make sense of it all and possibly be with them for the rest of your life it's more than happiness it's a cathartic release you chose to share with the world and hope that they feel the same.

Sam's Song of the Day was my catharsis and it's been a fun 9 years but this relationship is over and I'm going out in style so wont you join me in letting me know that I can do this?

Happy Valentines Day.

Happy birthday SOTD

9 years it's been 9 years since I started Sam's Song of the Day on the Smashing Pumpkins Forums and to think in 8 day's it's all going to be over and done with and that's got me thinking a lot these day's because the anxiety and depression that comes with these things is fucking real people.

This has been quite a wild ride of spending years posting a shit ton of late night random thoughts, trying to come up with a host of songs for various list, telling as many people possible about what I've been doing, and of course 2 house show's that were quite a fucking time and in that time I've done my best to come up with a host of good finishing articles that are to come in the next week where I'll hopefully get a post about Scruffy and the Janitors on Monday and a big Valentines post that is going to be a trip for whoever decides to read.

That's the future though let's talk about now and then because today is SOTD's birthday and while I could post the same song I've been posting the past few years I figured I'd do something different and make note of something else coming to an end.

There's a band I reviewed on here called Goodbye Gravity and they're throwing a farewell show of their own tomorrow and with the ever looming possibility that I won't be able to see their show I figured the next best thing would be to be able to tell you guy's about it and post a song that feels appropriate in a large way to myself and them as a whole and that's their song Strings.

So before I get too into things I can't lie after rediscovering their release Sunday Matinee I can't deny that this group sounds like this old Emo band I love called Nightmare of You and other local KC act Pink Royal had some odd love child which isn't a bad thing because when the songs are just as solidly good as these guy's had a habit of making I don't mind that one bit and that EP has a host of tracks that kind of have a good alternative tone to them that's very reminiscent of that pre-indie douche period where everybody wanted to be Mumford and Sons and actually plugged their guitars in and rocked the fucking house and of all the tunes that I think best showcase this for these guy's it's probably this appropriately themed closing track.

Lyrically this song is a farewell to day's gone by and yet it's also a hopeful view forward into a world of infinite possibilities and things to come and their exclamation of how they, “Found themselves a better roll,” is just so fucking fantastic it's like they wanted to make the best set closer in existence and they not only managed to do that but also made a tune that they better end their time as a band with because that reality is even more so now than I think they ever intended.

It's a shame that life leads us all to a path that requires we end the things we love but at the very least we could leave a soundtrack to eventually go back and enjoy what once was.

Happy Birthday Sam's Song of the Day it's been great so stay tuned because the 16th is going to be special.

New Year New Format

What is up world it is me Sam of Sam's Song of the day here to give all of you the much anticipated update post for this humble little blog of mine.

As the years go by I find myself progressively posting less and less on here which I've complained about that for the past 2 years and constantly say I'm going to fix that and you know I'm not really concerned with that hardly any more because I realized after last year that while there's a shit load of things I need to cover I would rather present to you the reader a quality piece rather than a rushed together series of 150 words about some random ass song that I may eventually cringe over years later and after rereading all of my year end list and realizing that this year's series of post had a good bit more substance in terms of word count and were of a more personal nature I figured I'd take a different path when it came to posting for this little website of mine.

SO with that in mind I'd like to announce today that Sam's Song of the Day it'll still have Song of the Day's those are a thing but like last year they'll be rare and only when I really feel the need to thoroughly describe something and speaking of things to describe the KC showcase it's still going to be a thing and if you go to the Facebook Page you can message me your band or bands in the area you think I should cover and given enough time and interest I'll make sure to write something.

On top of the usual post where in I talk about musical acts or songs I also plan on trying to use Sam's Song of The Day to kind of keep track of the large number of shows I'll hopefully attend this year so expect the occasional kind of terribly photographed series of show covers that I plan on starting most likely next week depending on the weather which in all honesty I'll only be doing so much planning ahead in terms of what shows I'll attend only because Murphy's law is a thing and it's a bitch when you plan something and everything goes wrong.

Yeah Sam's Song of the Day is my pet project and I earn no money from this but if I had one goal it's to basically support my community and let people know what's worth listening to and while I understand I have a few years to REALLY decide to do something big or pack my bags and leave the domain of online public writing I can attest that last year I followed the guidelines I'd said in the year priors post about how I wanted to become more involved in the community and to a degree I did which was fucking awesome and I plan on continuing that with this little blog of mine so here's to more post about show's and the bands that make them up but until then here's a song I've had stuck in my head for a minute.

Damn 6 whole years

So I've very inconsistently been doing this for 6 years as of today and in all honesty it's kind of crazy to think about that especially since I keep the Sam's Song of the Day title but even if I'm not providing the world a song of the day every day I figure I may as well take note that it's been a long strange trip to obscurity.....

Sam's Song of the Day?

So it's the new year and I finally got around to motivating myself to write the first post of the year, and in all honesty it's that word right there that's the central focus to today's post in that I'm not entirely sure just what it is but after almost 6 years of doing this I've seemed to have a more and more difficult time motivating myself to really get into the whole informing the world of a song a day so I've been thinking that it time for now that I retire the Song of the Day format of this little blog of mine and instead put more of a focus on my own musical escapades in the form of more concert, album, and occasional track reviews and opinion pieces.

Now with that in mind expect even less frequent post from me, but hey it's been a year of slowdown and I personally would rather whoever's left reading get something of a decent quality then slopped together 150 word post of a bad ass to decent tune and of course you can always follow my own personal twitter account and like the official Facebook page to stay in the know but as soon as I can get other annoyances out of the way expect something cool but until then have a nice day.

Just a friendly update and Band suggestion from me....

What is up world Sam of Sam's Song of the Day here finally taking the time out of my concert induced coma to actually write something up for this god damn blog here aaaaaaaaaaand what a weekend it was for me I got to see the all mighty CHRVCHES and Misterwives all within two day's of one another, got my picture taken and featured on 96.5 The Buzz's facebook and twitter pages, and as of yesterday have started my very own Twitter which you can follow @samihellam or by clicking this text box but like I've said I got to see two amazing shows and at Misterwives I got to see a pretty bad ass band called Waters open for them and I'd like to make note that if you're really into Grouplove I think you'd adore them and if they come to your neck of the woods you should give em a view they're quite the energetic group of performers.

HAPPY 5 YEARS SONG OF THE DAY!!!!!!!!!!

So February 8^th 2010 I posted on the Smashing Pumpkins Forums my first ever song of the day and oddly enough it was about the song Loves In A Dangerous time the Barenaked Ladies version which in all honesty is an odd thought to really think about because I started it out with a band that wasn’t The Smashing Pumpkins and on top of that it was a cover which is a thing that I’ve actually written quite a bit about on here even so far as to dedicating multiple Tuesdays to which is actually kind of funny when you think about it.

Here I am at the 5 year mark I’ve been spending some time of my day to just bullshit together about some random ass song that I have no clue if anyone actually ever takes the time to really listen to and in all honesty I’ve become increasingly terrible about consistently posting with absolutely no signs of really improving that and in all honesty if it weren’t for random bits of people just mentioning it or giving me small thumbs up I’d honestly of just given things up a long time ago and no this post isn’t going to become a cynical little rant about my disposition in life but in all honesty it’s also not going to be making any promises of significant growth to come Nah I just want to say that even though I’m a very cynical bastard and I have worlds of improvement to really get to there’s at least 5 things I’d like to make note of for you people.

1. Those who comment, share, or in general give me promotion and feedback of my work are the best kind of people and in all honesty I truly need you guy’s to continue to give me that motivation and promotion to really spread the message because…

2. I’m only one guy in fact I’m a fairly normal guy that just has a place to make for myself and this is just one of my favorite outlets.

3. I love covers…it’s an odd fascination really and while I will 95% of the time say the original to be better it doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy giving them a listen.

4.I have no shame for any tune I’ve ever covered on here even all the shitty country music and alternative music will always be my bread and butter.

5. The Smashing Pumpkins are my band people and while I’ve been pretty lacking in giving adequate feedback to one William Patrick Corgans most recent contributions I will say that they are still the most important band that ever came into my life and all the haters can suck my balls.

NOW with all that in mind here’s to another 5 years people also here’ Set the Ray to Jerry the greatest mother fucking song of all time…