IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?
Opening Credits:
Omaha - Tapes and Tapes - "The Loon" - I was hoping for something mellow for the opening credits, "I've been waiting a while" "You shouldn't wake me awhile" are some chill, lilting choruses, with "I've been aiding my fall" as a nice summation of my semblance of an existence thus far. Good stuff!
Waking Up:
Birdie Brain - The Fiery Furnaces - "Blueberry Boat" - The indie run continues, with a sweet opening couplet, a plaintive sing-song from the twisted mind of Eleanor Friedberger "I hate the steam train that whistles woozy my bird brain / That sends my spaniel insane". Opens up like a syrupy-synth dream...I don't know if it's perfect, but it's damn close. Off my fave Furnace album to boot!
First Day At School:
2 Kindsa Love - JSBX - "Now I Got Worry" Ok, still all indie, and while I fuckin' love the scuzzy blues-punk of Jon Spencer (with a
theremin breakdown!), this is one qweird First day at school track. Fun fact... actual first day of kindergarden ended with some plucky local photographer snapping a picture of me and my new bff (what, I was 4!) on the way out. Friendship didn't last the year, maybe he was teh Dumbledore?
Falling In Love:
One Dub - Bob Marley - "Songs Of Freedom (Disc 4)". Well, if you just use the beat, it could go along with the awkward fumbling that accompanied the actual falling in love. Or...OR...could be my eternal love for the ganga! Could work in the background for a first time I got blazed scene, though in truth I think we were watching "Yellowbeard".
Fight Song: HAHAHAHA! oh, this is priceless!
Interjections! - Essra Mohawk - The Best of Schoolhouse Rock - "Hey! That smarts! Ouch! That hurts! Yow! That's not fair givin' a guy a shot down there!" HAHAHAHAHA!!! Could also work in a comeback to a brawl inducing SNAP. Love it. No one, to my knowledge, has ever thought of setting a fight song to this!
Breaking Up: emo before it got all, well, EMO!
Parthogenesis - Lungfish - "Talking Songs for Walking" SOOO many Lungfish songs could really work as a breakup mosh-mope, this one, well, the lyrics don't quite do it, but damn if the steady thrum of bass in the Ian MacKaye produced, (circa 1992 all ye' whippersnappers!) strobbing hardcore funk-thrash doesn't simulate heartbreak in all it's wanton wretchedness.
Prom:
Deep Inside - Fishbone - "Truth and Soul" - Hey, subversive thrash from one of my most cherished adolescent acts, a band I saw twice in a span of a week in HS. The hazy prom memories I'm able to recall...Limo, NYC, The Plaza, grindin' with my girl in the middle of the dancefloor, winning Prom King (ugly, ugly school), limo, party boat, breakfast, fucking, collapsing on the bed at 7:30am don't really mesh with this get the crowd moshing anthem. At all.
Life is good:
Collarbone - Fujiya & Miyagi - "Transparent Things" - Essentially one of those lyrics-is-a-list-of-bones, but goddamn if they don't pull of appropriating the funk strut of seminal Krautrockers Can and Neu! to an eerie degree. Japanese, by way of Germany. I think you can find this on
Pitchfork's Ultimate Mix-Tape dealio, and if you don't have it yet I couldn't recommend it enough. "Got to get a new pair of shoes to kick it with her". Life is good, or at least infinitely more tolerable, with this pumping in the background. That bass line is fucking dope!
Mental Breakdown:
Sekou Story - Nas - Street's Disciple - Good track, but taint for buggin out. Tho' Nas does sing as Scarlett, the chick in the track, perhaps a twinge of sexual ambivalence as I suck dick for weed money? Best to leave that thought alone...
Driving: heh.
Rock With You - Michael Jackson - "Off the Wall" - Say what you will about Jack-O, he was the King of Pop for good reasons. Might make some random disco-dancey type of mix, would work if I'm headin' to a club and turned on the local "Dumbledore Dance Party" or "Urban Dance" station, 'cuz it's sure to be the best thing on the radio at that given moment.
Flashback:
Don't Get Lost in Heaven - Gorillaz - "Demon Days" Ahh, the halcyon days of yesterday (2k5) when I was less gray, less embittered , more full of...oh, who am I kidding. Tho' if the question is about an acid flashback, it actually works kinda well. "Put me in a cab to suburbia I just took a line but it wasn't with you / There was more of it there, when I got back home / But you had left me,you don't know my soul..." Would induce only mild paranoia, and that's WAY better than a full on flashback...
Getting Back Together:
Hello - Lyrics Born - "Later That Day" - "If you gotta dolla' you better save it for tomorrow it's a love thang..." I could see myself pumping this all Lloyd Dobler-esque from a Boombox. Not that it works, lyrically, sonically, emotionally. I can just see myself doing it.
Wedding: oh man...
Recipe for Hate - Bad Religion - "Recipe for Hate" - oh man, she LOVES Bad Religion, and this is one blazing 'lil pub-punk burner, but unless we're tying our bonds over our mutual hatred for all things not us...say wait, THIS IS PERFECT! Love may tear us apart, but our mutual hatred for all you boring gentlemen will keep us in Holy Matrimony forever! Plus, hey, slam-dancing at the Wedding, how cool would that be! Great, great band, sure it's message music, but Greg makes the medicine easy to swallow with bombastic, robust choruses.
Final Battle: O.S.T (Original Soundtrack) - The People Under the Stairs - "O.S.T." Yes, named from THAT Wes Craven flick, PUtS spit braggadocious rhymes over some sick, slick, soul-funk samples crate dug by one of the finest diggers in the biz. They've never been popular, never blew up, not known for singles (which in the rap biz means no one hears of ya') their albums work, and work well, as a cohesive whole. I've put it in for folks as background music and always, at some point, 'bout halfway through the album, I'm inevitably asked who these cats are, why haven't they heard of 'em, blah blah blah. Good act, a dime a dozen, sure, but professionalism is a trait I admire in my hip-hop heads. Workmanlike competency.
Death Scene:
Jimmy - Tool - "Ænima" - I know someone else put this on my i-tunes, 'cuz while I know I purchased this album, I also know I sold it back, a standard practice of mine with Tool albums until I stopped caring for Maynard's worldview alltogether. I always LOVED the albums on first listen, but quickly grew bored with them. Not a bad band for a death scene, and while the track is solid, not the one I'd of chosen for my death...that would be
Opiate, still my fave Tool track ever, and one they never really moved beyond.
Funeral Song:
Had a Dad - Jane's Addiction - Works, and may work well at my funeral...if coming from the perspective of my children (also would work at my biological dads funeral, the fucker). Gotta say, haven't heard this for a long time but it still holds up. They coulda had the world, and their breakup contributed immensely to my jaded and cynical outlook on life. You broke my heart Perry.
End Credits:
Choking on a Wishbone - Atmosphere - Se7en - So many better Slug verses to end this. Would've preferred Nothing but Sunshine or Shrapnel or Always Coming Back Home to You from Sluggo & Ant, but random rules is random rules.
Personally, I'm an atheist in the voting booth and a theist in the movie theatre. I separate the morality of religion with the spirituality and solace of it. There is something boring about atheism.