Skip to main content

Empty Souls

Songs in my head:
"1985" by Manic Street Preachers
"Empty Souls" by Manic Street Preachers
"I Live to Fall Asleep" by Manic Street Preachers
"Is She Really Going Out With Him?" by Joe Jackson

We're having a theme party/birthday party this Saturday night. I turn 26 on Sunday and at least thirteen of our friends are celebrating birthdays in February. So, that's the birthday angle. The theme is anti-Valentine's: no red clothing can be worn and black clothing is encouraged. Last night, I put together three mix CDs as a "soundtrack" for the party. Here are some of the songs I'm using:

"Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" by the Smiths
"Song for the Dumped" by Ben Folds Five
"Memory Lame" by Jim O'Rourke
"Is She Really Going Out With Him?" by Joe Jackson
"Everything Reminds Me of Her" by Elliott Smith
"Only Lie Worth Telling" by Paul Westerberg
"The First Cut is the Deepest" by the Koobas
"Come Pick Me Up" by Ryan Adams
"Trees" by Pulp
"What Do I Get?" by the Buzzcocks
"What It Takes" by Aerosmith
"Boys Don't Cry" by the Cure
"You Stole the Sun from My Heart" by Manic Street Preachers
"Bad Cover Version" by Pulp
"To Be Young" by Ryan Adams
"Do You Still Hate Me?" by Jawbreaker
"Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division
"Make It Easy On Yourself" by the Walker Brothers
"Anne Arbour" by the Get Up Kids
"Don't Want to Know if You're Lonely" by Husker Du
"Walk On By" by the Dionne Warwick and the Stranglers
"Walk Away Renee" by the Four Tops
"The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine" by the Walker Brothers

. . . and that's just what I remember from the top of my head. I think I have enough songs for at least one more mix CD. Shall be working on that today . . .

Ever hear a song and just love it (and keep loving it after repeat plays)? Well, that's what happened when I listened to "Landed" by Ben Folds last night. Great track and a very strong single.

Jim DeRogatis has this article on his thoughts on the Super Bowl halftime show. He has a lot of good points but ultimately, I thought it was great that timeless songs were played this year, not mechanical/cold songs with no lasting appeal. I know that sounds really arrogant to say, but I feel there is lack of strong, harmonic melody in pop music these days.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Happy early birthday! Mine's coming next month -- I'll hit the quarter century mark.

Popular posts from this blog

Go Where You Wanna Go

It's been a year since I moved away from Lakewood, and even though I could relocate to a new place as a newly-single guy, I've chosen to stay where I am. I enjoy living in North Dallas/Richardson given its central location, being not too far away from places I have enjoyed going to in my fourteen-plus years living in Dallas County. Living in Lakewood for nine years was critical for me, but I am glad I don't have homeless people going through my garbage, my street getting shut down like it's Mardi Gras on Halloween night, and I don't have to answer to the not-so-friendly landlords who bought my old place. I have a new housemate moving in at the end of the month and I have many reasons to be excited as he's been a friend for many years. Couple that with a humongous  new record store opening in nearby Farmers Branch , shows to see, and a quick trip to Los Angeles for something very cool (for which I reveal at a later date) and I'm happy to say fall is sha...

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Catherine Wheel

Originally posted: Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 Despite managing to release five proper albums, Catherine Wheel was one of those bands that always seemed to slip past the mainstream rock crowd. Yes, they got some nice airplay in their day, but people seem to have forgotten about them. You may hear “Black Metallic” or “Waydown” on a “classic alternative” show on Sirius or XM or maybe even on terrestrial radio, but that’s about it. For me, they were one of most consistent rock bands of the ’90s, meandering through shoegazer, hard rock, space rock and pop rock, all while eluding mainstream pigeonholing. Led by the smooth, warm pipes of vocalist/guitarist Rob Dickinson (cousin of Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson), Catherine Wheel featured Brian Futter on lead guitar, Dave Hawes on bass and Neil Sims on drums. They weren’t a pretty-boy guitar band, but they weren’t a scuzzy bunch of ragamuffins either. Though the band hailed from England, Catherine Wheel found itself more welcome on American air...

Socials

 Hey, everyone! You can find me on several other platforms: http:/ http:// themeparkexperience.substack.com http:// Instagram.com/ericjgrubbs http:// TikTok.com/@ericjgrubbs http:// threads.net/ericjgrubbs http:// ericjgrubbs.bsky.social Thanks!