As you might have read here previously couple of my work and I buddies have started a music exchange. Each person had to come up with 20 songs from different musicians and genres, burn a cd and give it to the other members. The idea is to edutain others about the music that you like.

From my previous list Emm Gryner and Cibo Matto got the most votes and Belle & Sebastian, Liz Phair, Tegan & Sara and Laibach got honourable mention. Only the White Stripes got chewed up.

The next challenge is to come up with songs that are associated with emotions. As I like to complicate things, I’ve tried to include some “classics” since my co-workers are into different types of music and have not had too much chance to hear some of the musicians that I think have had a big influence. For your browsing pleasure here is my preliminary song list with annotations:

When I was coming up with the following list I had hard time distinguishing “Dancey” songs from the “Emotions” songs. I had made a point of choosing as many “Dancey” songs for all categories. Also, I have decided to focus on what I call “Classic Rock” bands. Unlike Led Zeppelin, these bands might not be in constant rotation on the CHEZ 106.1 or the Bear but have substantial following within their respective genres. Some of the songs on this list have a nostalgic significance to me. If they sound like teenagey songs, that that is probably because I danced to them as a teenager.

Happy
§ “Kiss Factory” by Miss Kittin from “I com”, 2004.
§ “Perfect Day” by Lou Reed from “Trainspotting Soundtrack”, 1996 (Classic, Dancey)
Bulk of Lou Reed’s music that I’m familiar with is from his Velvet Underground days. He continued on with successful music career after that and is still releasing records. This song was originally released in the early 70’s (don’t quote me on that though). Chris and I picked it as our wedding song.

Funny
§ “Know your Chicken” by Cibo Matto from “Viva la Woman”, 1996
Cibo Matto are back by popular demand. The video for this song is funny too.
§ “Chicken Song’ ? by Grandmaster Chicken & DJ Duck ? ?
I don’t actually have a copy of this song. I could not find it on iTunes either. I’ll try and find it, but I’m not making any promises. I can’t even get the full name of the song because of the CBC strike. I think I will replace this entry with the “I bet you they won’t play this song on the radio” by Monty Phyton.
§ “The Bob Dylan Song” by Brendan Nolan from Southern Sunset, 1996
Brendan Nolan used to be the house musician at the Old Dublin in Montreal. This song is written by another chap, one Eric Bogle, with whom I am not familiar.
§ “Canada Song” by MST3K cast from an episode
This is a sorry excuse for lack of Canadian content in this edition of the “Music Challenge”. Though not Canadian this song is taken from a TV show skit. The TV Show “Mystery Science Theatre 3000” is about a guy and two puppets in front of a movie screen showing straight to video release or B movies. The guy and puppets add commentary to the goings on in the film and do sketches before and after commercials. In this particular episode, they’re watching an independent Canadian film where a kid hides in the back of a pick-up to find and destroy an evil cult. In the skit, one of the puppets is dressed as a mountie and wants to honour Canada, but the other, more sinister, puppet derails him. Hopefully it is still funny without seeing the show.

Angry
§ “Let’s Lynch the Landlord” by Dead Kennedys from “Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables”, 1980 (Classic, Dancey)
Dead Kennedys are the key 80s political Hard Core Punk band. Soundtrack to my teenage years would have a hole the size of Mac truck without them. I still see kids on the street wearing DK badges. Besides, if you’ve ever lived in the apartment building and required repairs, or hot water, you can at least somewhat appreciate the song.
§ “Ocean”by Sebadoh from “Harmacy”, 1996 (Dancey)
This song is more brooding and accusatory than angry, but I still feel that it fits into this category. It also fits into the 90’s indy music category. I downloaded the video to this song by fluke a few years ago and could not stop playing it over and over again.
§ “Clash City Rockers” by The Clash from “The Clash[US]”, 1979 (Classic)
Alongside Sex Pistols, The Clash is THE British Punk Rock band of all ages.

Sad
§ “There is a Light That Never Goes Out” by The Smiths from “The Queen Is Dead”, 1986 (Classic)
If it is sad and it is music it must be the Smiths. The quintessential British band (80’s indy) that single-handedly captured all the loneliness, alienation and angst of growing up in this modern world.
§ “Marian” by The Sisters of Mercy from “The First and Last and Always”, 1985 (Classic, Dancey)
The Sisters of Mercy are as 80’s Goth as they get. Their single “Temple of Love” is still overplayed at seedy Montreal Goth clubs, or at least it was when I was frequenting these gloomy establishments in the late 90’s. Though I was always more interested in Industrial than Goth “Marian” makes me want to dance no matter what the circumstances are. At least until about the middle of the song at which point I get bored and wonder off.
§ “Hey That’s No Way to Say Goodbye” by Leonard Cohen from “The Songs of Leonard Cohen”, 1968 (Classic, Canadian)
It is difficult to pick a single song from Cohen’s flawless debut album, or a single song from any of his albums but I love the lines about the shoreline and the sea so it’s decided.

It annoys me when bands don’t publish the lyrics on the CD inserts. What, you’re not allowed to know what the songs you just purchased are talking about? I know that you can just look them up on the Internet, but that’s not the point. I want all my CD inserts to have lyrics inside!!!

I played piano for about 4 years in my pre-teens. I have long fingers and as far as I can tell, that’s the only advantage I had. I could read music all right and had a definitive sense of mathematics. I could not, however, hear a few notes and then repeat them on the piano. Much less could I hum a random tune and then key it into the instrument. This frustrated me very much. Though I was a bit sad when I had to drop the lessons upon our move to Canada, I did not see it as a catastrophe. Do I ever intend to play the piano again? No.

Going to a piano recital is a bit of a blast from the past. I find it quite different than going to a string quartet or a brass band – instruments that I’ve never played. I ended up buying a CD at the Chamber Music Festival.

It is music of György Ligeti played by Lucille Chung with Alessio Bax backing up on the second piano. I am enjoying the CD quite a bit. It is a bit modern but still tons of fun.

* from The Queen is Dead by the Smiths

circa 1978 – Zagreb
Mom dancing with me to “U razdjeljak te ljubim”, Djordje Balasevic’s first single. I don’t remember the event, being quite new to the world at the time, but I do remember choreographing his entire albums in elementary school.

circa 1988 – Zagreb
Dad and I go to pretty much every concert by Zagrebacki Solisti, an excellent string assemble, that season. I was in the classical music phase at the time with particular interest in piano and harpsichord.

1989 – Summer camp in Veli Losinj
I bring my Beatles tapes to the summer camp. Other kids conclude that I have an old fashioned taste in music. I have the last laugh when, two years later, kids around me discover Beatles long after I moved on.

On the way to the beach in Veli Losinj

1993 – French class at Sacred Heart School of Montreal
I give a presentation on how important music is and how much I love listening to music. Mme Habachi is very impressed with my maturity. I am very glad that I kept the speech ambiguous since everyone thought I was talking about classical music when I was really referring to Pink Floyd.

1994 – Sleepover at Maria’s place in Montreal
I get to stay in Maria’s sister Anuska’s room. Anuska is rainbow coloured Political Science student totally into underground culture. I whine about not being able to hear anything other than classic rock and contemporary mediocrity on the radio. She tells me about Brand New Waves and CKUT radio.

1996 – Summer camping on a small island near Murter
My buddies are intrigued with my mixed tapes of Japanese noise, black metal and opera. One of the guys unequivocally declares that the two of us can never agree on music since I don’t think that Freddie Mercury is a stellar artist.

Murter Island

1998 – Playing sink in the snow on Lakeshore in Ste Anne with Luisa, Chris and Jon around 10:30 at night
Out of the blue I say “I was walking down the street around 10:30 at night”**. Chris sais “A lot of people around here go to bed around 10:30 at night.” I knew right away that he’s my man.

Today – Last xmass my wish was to get many CDs spread across the year so Chris got me one of those “buy 10 CDs – get one free” cards from Record Runner. I think this is definitely one of my favourite xmass presents. I’ve been really enjoying the music lately.

* reference to a film about Glenn Gould
** reference to Dead Kennedys

I’ve been raised with certain distrust towards country music. Even today I really just don’t get it. It tends to have simple whiny melodies, dumb lyrics and to not even mention the fashion. So when I listened to one of the albums Chris got me for xmass, The Tigers have Spoken by Neko Case, I was appalled that it was country.

I try to be open minded and I have a rule that I must listen to an album until I irrevocably and definitively decide that I don’t like it and would rather listen to CFRA (an outrageously bad radio station in Ottawa) than to listen to it. So I have been listening to ‘The Tigers have Spoken” over the last week and despite its handicap for being a country music album, it is quite good. It took me a few listens to get over the lyrics. Only in country music would you talk about how you want your jerk ex-boyfriend to come back with a straight face. She has about three songs on this topic and tries out different strategies such as telling him how his new girlfriend is evil, getting a dress maker to make her a very pretty dress and even putting a spell on the guy. It completely eludes her that even if he comes back, she is still stuck with a third rate bum who is liable to ditch her as soon as the spell wears off. Once you get over rolling your eyes at the lyrics it is quite an enjoyable album though.