Okay, after a weird day of dreary, low 60s, fall-ish weather and a long drive with several new cd's and then a long rambly journal entry about being lucky enough to be saddened by the passage of time, and then after several hours' deliberation, I have come up with the following list. The urge to do this was planted several days ago by this post.
Also, I must preface this by saying that Top 25 Songs to Listen to and Top 25 Songs of All Time are two separate and different lists for me. What follows is Top 25 Songs To Listen To.
Top 25 Songs To Listen To: (in no particular order)
1 "Jackass" Beck
2 "Get Up" Sleater Kinney
Song #1 from mix tape from guy who turned out to be a HUGE ASSHOLE but admittedly had some good taste in music.
3 "Girls Singing" Mates of State
4 "Crash Into Me" Dave Matthews Band
5 "Anna Begins" Counting Crows
I sang this song to myself, once, when I was very very sad.
6 "Nothing Better" The Postal Service
7 "She Will Have Her Way" Neil Finn
First heard this song on Sports Night and loved it, even though if I'd known of it before, I would have totally been pissed that it had been co-opted.
8 "War on War" Wilco
9 "Jesus, etc." Wilco
10 "Jockey Full of Bourbon" Tom Waits
My favorite opening sequence of a movie *ever* is in Jim Jarmusch's Down By Law, over which this song plays.
11 "Sun on the Moon (Live Version)" James Taylor
My ducks are all in a row.
12 Graceland Paul Simon
The whole album... totally cheating, but god probably won't strike me down for it.
13 "Walk of Life" Dire Straits
14 "Black Steel" Tricky
All of Maxinquaye is melded together with the experience of driving back and forth on I-70 between college and home in the dead of the night.
15 "You Really Got a Hold on Me" Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
Every time I hear or think of this song, I tell Other about the time that Smokey Robinson sang it on Sesame Street and this big U wouldn't leave him alone. That was AWESOME.
16 "We Live Again" Beck
17 "Give You My Lovin" Mazzy Star
18 "Float On" Modest Mouse
Perhaps too recent to seem to have staying power, but there's something about this song that makes me think it has a permanent spot.
19 "Light Up My Room" Barenaked Ladies
20 "The Boy with the Arab Strap" Belle & Sebastian
Asshole song #2, although I've listened to this one so much that it's lost the connotation.
21 "Drive" The Cars
heh. yeah.
22 "In Spite of Me" Morphine
Boggling.
23 "Champagne Supernova" Oasis
So very high school - in a good way.
24 "Crossbones Style" Cat Power
Luckily, though the asshole's mixed tape included a Cat Power song, it was not this one.
25 "Blue Umbrella" John Prine
Although this song commits what is to me the cardinal sin of lyric-writing - it rhymes a word with itself - it is so crushingly beautiful that it makes the list anyway.
So there it is. Just enough indie crap to turn off the mainstreamies, DMB and BNL to destroy any potential indie cred, and enough throwbacks to the California rock of my childhood to confuse everyone else.
Okay, I just got really excited about Sven's Top 25 because it also includes "Anna Begins," and I'm getting all warm and fuzzy because Megan here is also pissed off that "Bohemian Like You" is being used in a damn car commericial. (Aside to any Dandy Warhols reading this post -- you almost made the list, buddy, but not after that stunt. Hope the gazillions of dollars they probably paid you is worth it.)
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