Song of the Day 1/31/19

Blow Up the Outside World-Soundgarden

It's difficult to really explain what made me so drawn to this song because if I'm going to be honest as good as these guy's are I never really held this band on a level compared to their contemporaries regardless of how solidly good their music was it just never clicked with me but this song has always been something and in thinking through the various songs I've ever discussed this one has it's own special place because it's the song that eventually lead to me starting this blogger site and in order to understand that I have to post the original archived post I'd made to the song because it's kind of eerie to me the fact that I had almost the same exact feelings as the day I'd originally written this(Ignore the spelling errors):

 August 4, 2010 

Blow Up the Outside World-Soundgarden 

You know I'm going to be honest with ya world, I just wasn't really into anything today, I'm not too sure what it was but I just had a very moody little day that left me really unable to do much of anything, so like all great adults I took a nap. Yeah REAL mature of me wasn't it, but surprisingly enough it actually worked that and a nice chicken salad, and now I'm in tip top shape to present to all of you the song of the day. HELL YEAH!!! lol 

Well I remember reading that Soundgarden are releasing some new song that something like 4 people are excited for, and I dececided to give them a listen, becuase while most of the bands that Chris Cornell seems to be in are usually pretty decent, as a whole he just seems to bring down most of them and kinda make them result in only a handfull of really any listenable tracks, and for some reason or another this one is one of the few Soundgarden songs I can actually dig. I'm not really sure as to what it is cause normally I'm not too into tripped out psychedellic jams that like to start slow and quiet only to soon become a lound noisy bomb of feedback and confusing drug addled lyrics with simple yet slightly disturbing chorus'.......wait a minute I actually can dig on some of that this is just the one time they seemed to have actually been able to do that right. Eh better late then never I say but really this song is just surprisingly good and that's saying something considering I don't really like Chris Cornell but hey everyone's gotta have a moment of brilliants, don't they?  

Yeah that's  an interesting thing for me to read back but what makes this post stand out is the fact that I remember at the time I had a woman in my life that was a bit of an internet friend/facebook ex wife...hey I was young and awkward don't fucking judge, REGARDLESS this person was a bit of a creative muse for me and even though she'd long since deleted herself from internet existence I can still vividly remember her commenting that I need to start a blog already and in all my infinite wisdom I did and I guess you can say the rest is history.

THE GREATEST SONG EVER.

Of all the questions I can recall hardly ever being asked it's been on my mind for some time to talk about something I think every critic at some point in time needs to cover and since I'm near the end of this thing I figured WHY THE FUCK NOT RIGHT?!?!?!

So since 2011 I've done this series of articles where I try to discuss the greatest song of all time in theory and I guess that's a topic that's more difficult for me to do since I've only done it 4 times with the last one being posted on April Fools Day 2015 and being about Prince and my unironic but comical love of Purple Rain which in retrospect is awkward because he passed on just a little over a year after I'd posted that article and the rest of the world realized I was right.

In preparing for this article like everything I'm doing on here I've been going over some of the older post and looking at what I said back then and comparing it to what my thoughts are now on top of trying to come up with an accurate way to say what is the greatest song ever and before I get into what is the greatest song ever and what made me think this I feel there has to be some precedence laid because with a statement like that as much as every dick head armchair critic is going to take every chance to inform me of how wrong I am there's still a means of taking that away from them by laying some form of groundwork to make it less of an opinion piece and to lend some more weight to my thoughts that's immediately dashed away by my vocabulary but fuck em it's better than nothing.

Alright so if you're going to say that a song in question is the greatest song ever I'd say it has to follow some criteria of being both a critical and commercially successful piece of media because while sales aren't shit in retrospect for critics it's a lot harder for your average Joe listening to music as nothing more than background music to argue these things with you  when you can show them some numbers and figures to help prove a point that the track at the very least has some clout in terms of being worth considering with critics polls serving as one more nail in their uninformed coffin of invalid opinions.

Now with that in mind and looking back at the songs I've covered on top of a cursory Google search to see what comes up when you type in the greatest song ever I came to a realization that the first song I ever covered under this umbrella is in fact still without reservation the greatest song of all time and what song is that?

Billie Jean-Michael Jackson 

#1 for 7 weeks, winner of 2 of the 8 Grammy Awards he won that night, an American Music award, half a billion views on Youtube, certified over 5x platinum as a single, and apart of one of the most watched and talked about television events of the millennium it's safe to say the second single from the top selling album of all time has a pretty good claim in terms of charting success to have the title of the greatest song of all time no doubt about that.

Yeah back in 2011 when I first wrote one of these I said that this was the best song of all time because it was this oddly dark and ominous tune that stepped out of Michael's territory of well crafted light radio friendly dance ready pop tunes and instead went about showcasing his ability to be more that meets the eye while also proving that you can be different and people will still buy it so in some case he opened the floodgates for a host of musically inclined people being able to maintain artistic integrity while also having commercial viability and that's a thing that's really important in the grander scheme of things because we can only have so much sugar coated garbage being shoved down our throats.

Jackson was a genius of sorts because he was a cold and calculated businessman that knew the vast majority of his decisions well in advance and released what was the most meticulously crafted things he could that would leave people talking for a long time and it worked more often than not even at his most over bloated he still did stuff that was of a level of quality that his contemporaries maybe minus Prince could really match and the thing that's always made this song stand out in comparison to everything else was the somewhat simplistic and straightforward nature of it because it's not a happy and upbeat tune it's a very somber and depressive tune that mixes just the right amount of disco production with a kind of funk groove and showcases a more held back side of Jackson he never really chose to do that often and it's this kind of strange direction that leads me to go back to it time and time again and really find myself thinking that it really is the best pop song to ever be made bar none.

It's after repeated listens still maybe one of the most fantastic songs I've ever heard and after all these years of asking myself what is the greatest song ever I think I've come to a point where if you were to ask me I'd probably have to say this song bar none.

Also it was in GTA Vice City which had the best soundtrack ever fight me fuckers!!!!!

Song of the Day 1/24/19

You know I'm really mad that these guy's became such corporate sellouts because that first album was a fucking banger and their second record still holds as something I more appreciate rather than enjoy in retrospect but that's irrelevant because even so there's one track they did that lead to the eventual sellout that I conveniently still remember as something special.

Out of My League-Fitz and the Tantrums

So I had to look back at my older post to remember just what it was about this track that had any relevance for me and looking back it's because this was a bit of a difference maker for this band they went from just being a throwback act to making more modernish indie rock affairs with killer melodies and great vocal harmony courtesy of the immensely talented Noelle Scaggs and this song is a good example of those properties in effect and even after the mass commercialization it's still a solidly great track that I still remember just randomly seeing uploaded onto YouTube at some random ass hour of the night giving a listen and just being blown the fuck away that I just had to make a random shot in the dark post that until I started covering more local acts was the most viewed post on this entire website so I've always had an interesting connection to this tune because it made me think maybe just maybe I may know my shit.

Now that's not so much the case anymore but for a brief moment in time I thought so...

Song of the Day 1/23/19

So we're at less than a month until the end and in that time I got a few things cooked up to post on here hopefully and one of those things is to cover all the songs that I give the most fucks about because they hold some special place for SOTD and with that in mind I think I should tell ya about what's probably one of my favorite songs ever.

Wolves(You Got Me)-DREAMERS

You know who fucking rules this god damn band and you know what got me into them? THIS FUCKING SONG!!!!

I remember at the time I covered this on that particular year end list I remember mentioning how this song reminded me of a song called Demon Dance with it's kind of throwback alternative tone and a set of lyrics that are simple but that impact me in a way that give it this explainable level of quality and hype that reminds me why I like these kinds of songs so much and over time it's really only continued to not only maintain that but have a host of positive memories attached to it.

These guy's where the first band to ever respond to one of my post about them on facebook when I first randomly made a post about how awesome this song is, I remember the first time I ever saw them live I was singing along to it front row and the lead singer gave me his pick, at that same show they signed my set list and wrote thanks for the kind words, and every subsequent time I've seen them this fucking song just hits me every single time especially the line, "You got me drugged up, you got me undone, falling in love like you do," at the end of the song it's just a fucking fantastic piece of music that doesn't often get the credit it deserves.

Yeah I love this song and you should to the guy's who perform it are swell dudes and will take all the fun selfies with ya...

Song of the Day 1/19/19

Pynch-Dreamgirl

SO there's this band from here in KCMO called Dreamgirl and when you look them up on Spotify their top song has over 5 million streams which is insane for a local act so I'm wondering why is that the case?

3 minutes and 54 seconds later....

OH that's why they're fucking great!

OK I'm going to be honest I've known about these guy's for a while now and to say they're the most appropriately named group around is an understatement with some lighter than air vocals and a penchant for making some really groovy indie pop tunes you have a group who makes you feel like you're having a slow dance at a prom with every groovy groove they make and if you get the chance their self titled release from last year is quite a good release and they're making more strives towards a national tour so there's even more chances for people all around to experience the dream for sure.

A rant and Song of the Day 1/18/19

There's a song by a band called Middle Kids called Edge of Town and it's a pretty solidly good track that came out at a terrible time for me, it's this kind of lower end indie rock tune that's dripping in this overwhelming sense of pretentiousness that's made worse by the fact that the other songs on that EP just sounded like a half rate Paramore and I realized this band peaked with this song and I never bothered to listen to them ever again, but it's not honestly their fault when I think about it in retrospect because it was about the time this song came out that I was going through an angry lonely period of time where nothing was very good for me and I was starting to have this weird falling out with the radio because I guess these guy's, Glass Animals, and the most recent Catfish and the Bottlemen record at the time where being rammed down my throat and I got this feeling of not wanting to have to be a drone of what the radio wanted me to be all hyped for and I rejected in such a way that I didn't even really listen to much of anything new or national because I'd honestly gotten sick and fucking tired of being told that those bands as well as the vast majority of mdoern alternative rock wanted me to be into because I'd developed this feeling that it was all a bunch of fucking bullshit that dragged on and on and was only meant for teenagers to say they discovered something and that's awkward for me because I'd come to grips and have been doing this whole being a god damn adult thing and these tracks don't speak to me because they're the same old recycled as fucking garbage that I've been hearing for years it's not being broken because the radio station is wanting you in on a cool little secret it's all corporate telling you this is your band this is what you want and you all need to pretend that these are your songs and that's fucking bullshit because those aren't me or what I want to associate with you bastards haven't broken a god damn thing in years you just are hoping that everybody remains a dumb ass shell of a human not willing to actually have their own fucking taste and that really had tainted me and is why I don't really ever find myself listening to the buzz these days.

Although even with all that vitriol spilled I mention that song because even with the lack of fucks I have for that band there's a part of that tune just one part between 2:20-30 where things kind of awkwardly slow down and stop trying to be this anthem of sorts where she starts asking if some guy has something on his mind and then things just blow the fuck up in this blast of energy that's utterly captivating to me in such a way that it's literally the only thing about the song that I like and will occasionally still remember every now and then and just mark the ever loving fuck out over it's an utterly bombastically awesome way to end what's ultimately a pretentious piece of trash of a tune that at the time I tried my hardest to accept it as a good tune because of that but never could in time.

Cave-Mess

Now what does that rant have to do with this band? Well in all honesty not a god damn thing minus that one sentiment about when a song just comes at you out of nowhere with a sense of bombastic energy because that's kind of this little Kansas City Emo outfit.

Mess are a band with some of the prettiest most lighthearted  vocals I've heard from anyone in this city and those wonderfully dreamy vocals are usually situated over some very not happy lyrics that make you wonder how such a down trodden group of people can also manage to be so sad, pretty, and energetic because their live shows are a very energetic affair of a crowd of people who are incredibly into this band and radiate that energy into a group of musicians who surprisingly rock the fuck out way more than you would think they would listening to their releases.

They have an under produced charm to the way they approach tunes that's a good way to showcase their kind of unfiltered efforts and emotions, and if you get the chance you should give em a view they're a real surprise for sure.

Song of the Day 1/17/19

In Your Skin-Shadow Rabbits

So Shadow Rabbits are an alternative rock act from here in KCMO that have a sound that's what I imagine the coolest band you'd know would sound like. They have a host of tunes that evoke a kind of 60's rock and roll vibe with grooves that are incredibly slick and vocals so alluring that they're damn near hypnotizing in most instances and of the host of quality well constructed songs they've made this one in particular seems to really be something I fancy.

A haunting piano intro leads into what's some retro tuned guitar work that perfectly compliments Ashley Dattola's chilled confident vocals that allure you in and give you this false sense of security as the melody just grows in intensity leading you down a spiral before things calm down and guitarist Jon Ulasien comes in and perfectly compliments Dattola as they lead the song out echoing, “as you wait now.”

This song fucking owns in a way that is more than the sum of it's parts for me and it's something that occurred to me one random show I remember seeing them play where they did it in front of a white sheet just letting their silhouettes be all you see and every subsequent time I've gotten to hear this song live has been fan-fucking-tastic in such a way that I think more people need to get around to listening to it.