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.

Scruffy and "THE MOTHER FUCKING!" Janitors

I remember a long time ago I was at a show at Minibar and I was talking to one of the local DJ's of the newest alternative music station here in Kansas City and I remember telling him my odd theory in regards to the most likely end result of modern music consumption habits within the next 50 years and him only ever referring to local music as “regional music,” and at the time I was sure it was something he'd been told by an A&R executive from one of the many nation wide studios he was apart of and in the process of trying to come up with something to write about the end of day's headliner that conversation still seems to be present for me and I'll expand upon that in a bit but first let's get to talking about Scruffy and the Janitors as a group.

Kind of like The UK's what we have here is a band that's an end product of the garage rock explosion of the early 00's and if I were to simplify these guy's I'd say they're a lot like Cage the Elephant in that they are this kind of dirty mix of blues and punk that's an unapologetic roughhousing track after track after track with their first Major EP Anglo being chocked full of them from the scorching opening track, "Ms. Crucio," and the popular, "Dirtleg," these guy's were a very no nonsense group of mother fuckers that made music that was very invested in it's roots and unwilling to compromise.

Now fast forward 4 years and a host of life changes then we get to Scruffy of today no longer willing to flesh out their set with Cage the Elephant covers they put those years of relentless touring to use and put out Modeling is Hard my favorite album of last year and what is it that made it that way for me?

Well let's go back to the idea of “Regional Music” for a second and kind of take that into consideration when talking about Scruffy because what they are at the end of the day are 3 guy's from St. Joseph Missouri all in their early to mid 20's trying to make it in a world that's unlike that which their parents lived in a town that I can describe as a city with a small town vibe to it's locals because if you ever see these guy's in their hometown you have a very communal experience of a lot of their closest acquaintances rocking out to a local act, singing along every word, and partying it up like it's their last night on earth because for them it's like a means to kind of escape their small town and partake in something larger than the sum of it's parts and it's that effort that kind of seeps through all of Modeling is Hard it's an album that is starting to move away from the more overt Cage the Elephant tones of a tune like, "Dirtleg," and instead you get a wide variety of sounds  from the angry punkish tunes like "The Spins," and "You got hit," the slower more melancholic "Carry Me home," the psychedelic combo of, "Feelings," and "Elephant," and of course the outstanding title track this album reeks of a bunch of guy's that are doing their thing to not only make their own but give a voice to their community of hard working individuals looking to make something out of nothing and this record really brings forth those feelings especially for someone like me that's spent a good chunk of time following these guy's around, talking with them, and kind of inching my way into their community even if I still feel like an outsider looking in.

I can't really overstate just how much this collection of tracks knocks it out of the fucking park people "Flesh and Bone," and "Modeling is Hard," are some of my most listened to tracks last year and they are just some outstanding rift filled rockers that leave me screaming along and banging my head and the combo of "Feelings," into "Elephant," is something to behold whenever they close a set with it just this intense acid trip of a pairing that is like that scene in Dumbo where the elephants are all trippy and cool before things get heavy and fucked up and you find yourself screaming, “FUCK FUCK FUCK,” at the top of your lungs it's quite a god damn hell of a time only to then start all over again depending on how you're listening to this album.

On a more personal note this record is one of those few I've heard in a long time that seemed to fit in a certain place for me that also oddly enough lined up with this story I'd been writing for quite some time as I listened to it I was able to imagine these host of made up characters having intense moments of confrontation to the various tracks of this album and when I hear those songs I just want to put them in motion in some sort of visual fashion so in helping me achieve a goal I've always wanted I can also showcase respect and perspective for a piece of work I find very near and dear and a group of people who I have a lot of respect for their addition to the craft, but alas all I really could do for this project is give it my #1 and 2 year end spots respectively and while that's something that garnered me a whole lot of views I'm not a hundred percent sure if it's even a fraction of a way to explain why you should feel the same way about this collection of tunes and group as I do.

I mean you can go see them on Saturday with me that's a thing that'd be appreciated all around because trust me it'll be a thing for sure and just the way to go out.

Thanks for reading about the 3 chosen acts for my farewell to this blog they're 3 groups of hardworking individuals that I expect to go somewhere in due time and you should come and appreciate them with me because if I'd waited any longer then I wouldn't of been able to have the ability to book them because big things are going to come I can guarantee that for sure.

Oh and on one last note stay tuned for this Valentines day for the last big piece of this website and if a few non-writing related things can fall in place for me I should have something special for after the show but until then have a wonderful day and listen to all these fucking bands!

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.

The UK's

So The Uk's are a band I've covered quite a bit on here and actually had play at my house 2 times for my own little birthday bash so to get them on this bill was a no brainer if I'm going to be honest with you guy's although in all these years I don't exactly know if I've given them the credit they deserve to explain why they are in such an important spot in the ending day's of Sam's Song of the Day so let's take a second to just kind of look at this band.

If I were to describe this band in a very simple way I'd say they're a product of the post 2000's garage rock explosion that occurred considering they're about the first wave of young musicians that you can clearly hear the influences of bands like The Black Keys, Cage the Elephant, and most prominently The White Stripes this group uses a lot of low end recording qualities to pump out these blues fueled rockers of tunes that take you in a time machine of sorts but with enough modern sensibilities to keep things up to date and relevant for the modern listener which is good because there's a reason those influential acts were such although somethings occurred for these guy's that I've been trying to properly articulate in the build up to this final showcasing for SOTD and it's sitting here playing Tetris Effects listening to their entire currently available discography on Spotify  that things become a bit more clear for me.

Waxwings, Losing teeth, and Bad Seed you listen to these tracks and the Jack White influences are strong as fuck these strong kind of throwback rockers of tracks that are just these bombastic shots of energy and rock that showcase a bunch of hungry musicians that plug their shit in for a reason they rock and that's the point but you can't help but hear them and rock out but there's a certain sense of they got a way's to go and I remember feeling that for a while until their most recent project American Way Of Death came out.

Why Don't You go it's yet another rocker of a track but there's something different in it that you can clearly hear in comparison to all of Bad Seed in that the band had some lineup changes and went on a pretty extensive series of tours to then go back into the studio and pump out a project on their own and the fact that the EP this song is on is about half the tracks shows that they've now decided to take things in a less bombastic direction and it shows because this song is a slower paced cut that has a lot of the familiar elements you'd expect from these guy's but they're presented in a slower paced cut that feels a bit more substantial in a way.

That's the EP as a whole really yes Wake Up and Poison Squad do still showcase a very Jack White approach to Rock and Roll but then you hear AWOD....and yeah these guy's are a fucking thing.

I've explained to one Noah Bartelt but this may in fact be the best god damn song they've ever made because I don't know what got into him to record an almost pop punk tune but god damn does it sound fucking fantastic this song is a surefire standout of a track that has every great element of a song it's a catchy tune with lyrics that are easy to sing along with that also present a sense of reliability when he exclaims that he's a damaged man, a fantastic chorus, a rhythm that has the frantic rock and roll energy that you've come to expect but with a faster pace and kind of punk influence that gives it a sense of personality that's very unlike their earlier material, and of course one bitching fucking guitar solo in the middle of the song this is a sign of things to come in a way from my observation because a lot of their live only tracks at the moment also seem to be going into this kind of amalgamation of tones that they seem to have here where they're clearly garage rock but with a kind of pop punk fuel that I can most certainly get behind.

These guy's got a shit ton of upward trajectory and I very much advise you pay attention especially to the stuff they got to show at this show I'm throwing because I'm pretty sure that they'll sell you just as much as they've sold me and I'm sure the Jack White comparisons will be a thing of the past if they keep going where they are.

 

Fiction Department

So we're a little over 2 weeks until the end and a few day's away from the anniversary of this little thing and with that in mind I should probably have something posted about the wonderful acts playing my farewell show but like I've highlighted depressive spells are a real bitch and a half and it's difficult to really get around to writing things when you don't want to do anything but it's that level of depressive thoughts that got me thinking about what it is I like so much about some of the bands I chose to play my show and the various things they seem to cover and that's where I'm going to go and with that in mind I figure I'd cover a band who describe themselves as modern American Emo The Fiction Department.

I can't lie I've listened to their EP TV Show's a fuck load of times and for some reason I really don't know what brought that up because I only got to see them one time prior to this show and this EP while being fantastic is also an incredibly rough product that you can tell is made by some rather young individuals looking to really get their footing and you can tell that just looking at the track listing which   goes from very upbeat kind of pop punkish tunes like Felt, to the downright early 2000's heart on your sleeve painful youth experience's in 20 minutes as well as the non EP single Bad Idea, to these kind of angsty angry screaming cuts, and even the slow paced closing track this goes through a very youthful set of emotions I've all but been numbed to and I guess what I like about these guy's is there's a certain cathartic release in just throwing aside everything and just kind of pretending to be a shit heel emotionally charged teenager again.

I know they're going through a host of changes in their sound and direction as a group which is why they seemed to of went on a long break but I'm sure seeing them at this show should be an interesting experience for all involved and I'm pretty pumped to see where they've taken themselves.