Do You Remember When?

Think of your top 5 favorite bands. Do you remember the first time you heard them? Describe it. What song was it? When was it? Etc.

Alkaline Trio
What was the first song you heard by them? “Cooking Wine”
When was this? High school, 1998
How’d you hear it? I downloaded it off of some web page but it was legal. They were promoting the band
Did you like it? Yes, that bass line rocks. Which is kind of weird because I don’t think Alkaline Trio normally has bass-driven songs like that.

Jimmy Eat World
What was the first song you heard by them? “Claire”
When was this? High school, 1996
How’d you hear it? This girl made me a mix tape and this song was on there.
Did you like it? Yes, it’s a slow song but it’s definitely good. At the time, high school me thought it sounded like Smashing Pumpkins.

The Lawrence Arms
What was the first song you heard by them? “An Evening of Extraordinary Circumstance”
When was this? High school, 1999
How’d you hear it? I bought the CD and put it into the Discman
Did you like it? Not at all, I was fan of the Broadways but this song just left me disappointed but I like it now for some reason.

Hot Water Music
What was the first song you heard by them? “Difference Engine”
When was this? High school, 1997
How’d you hear it? It was on this Blindspot Distribution CD Sampler.
Did you like it? Yeah but it was kind of weird. The bass line does rock though. It definitely wasn’t like any of the music I was listening to at the time. I got the sampler at a Less Than Jake show if that provides any context.

The Get Up Kids
What was the first song you heard by them? “Coming Clean”
When was this? High school, 1997
How’d you hear it? I bought the CD and it’s the first track so yeah.
Did you like it? Yeah, it was good. I definitely liked this band from the start. High school was filled with lots of Get Up Kids.

[Note: I adapted this from an old Facebook note circa 2008, thanks timeline.]

Random Music Thoughts – March 31, 2010

Lollapalooza is playing hangman with it’s lineup teaser this year. There is a pretty good guess as to what the actual lineup is here. I’d really like to see Phoenix and Arcade Fire but I am still undecided on whether I’ll go or not. I have mixed feelings from my experience last year but maybe I should give the fest a second chance. Last year, the Beastie Boys had to cancel and the weather was horrible on the first day. Things have to go better this year, right?

I didn’t get to see them at SXSW but maybe I’ll see them at the Vic, Broken Bells are going on tour with the Morning Benders.

AV Club has Alkaline Trio covering Archers of Loaf and it’s awesome.

Stereogum has some items for download, including one of the Tegan & Sara “Alligator” remixes and the Das Racist mixtape.

And finally, here’s a video of Joe Pug at the Guest Apartment.

Random Music Thoughts – March 26, 2010

I simply cannot get enough of the Middle East this week. They have replaced Vampire Weekend as my wake-up song on my alarm. I came across this good post on Muzzle of Bees about them. This guy does a much better description of them than I could ever do. But yeah, check them out, they are great.

I decided to go to the Tegan & Sara show tonight. I think they’ll be good. They were pretty amazing the last time I saw them. They are also one of those bands that have enough personality to make their on-stage banter nearly as entertaining as the music. I kind of neglected their latest album, Sainthood, but I have given it a few listens this week. There are a lot of good songs on there but the one that sticks out to me is Northshore. It is punkest Tegan & Sara song I’ve heard and it’s really good and catchy. The song is actually consistent with my image of them. However, I think my view is slightly skewed because my first glimpse of Tegan performing live was with Against Me! at ACL 2008.

Speaking of punk and Tegan & Sara, this gives me an excellent opportunity to post the Alkaline Trio cover of “Wake Up Exhausted.”

Finally, Lin told me to check out Warpaint. I had heard of them before but never gave them a listen. Their music sounds very good although it’s a little depressing, somewhat similar to the xx. I don’t know if they would be good live but I can see myself listening to more of this.