For today's Audience Participation we are going to dig deep into the back catalog. The deeper the better really.
The theme is Top 10 "Obscure" TMBG Tracks. You can of course pick out a different number if you want but the point is to pick out your favorite lesser known tracks. The definition of obscure in this case may be a little relative since many of us here are the sort of uber-fans to whom no track is too obscure to be familiar with. You can pick from EPs, bonus tracks, Unlimited, Dial-A-Song, Venue Songs, podcasts, McSweeney's, demos, Clock Radio, soundtracks, pretty much anything except the studio recordings. With any luck we'll expose each other to some long forgotten tracks and probably drive a few people mad, gushing about our favorite track that actually isn't available anywhere anymore.
If my list is lacking in the truly obscure it's because I came into the fandom too late and have not yet tracked down some of the really hard to find stuff. I've listed where I got the songs from though many of them are available (or were) in other places as well.
Ready? Here goes....
10. Too Cool Girls - TMBG Unlimited - I really wanted to get an instrumental onto this list but had a really hard time choosing. This is my favorite at the moment. Sounds like a swing band.
9. Love Is Eternity - Venue Songs CD - The line "Remember love's a verb" is one of the best pieces of advice I have ever heard and one of my all time favorite lyrics.
8. Mrs. Train - Back to Skull EP - I love how this song actually sounds like a train. No, I mean I really LOVE it.
7. Leeds - Venue Songs CD - I could have filled this entire list with venue songs but I went for my favorite of the not quite so well know ones. Being a bit of a fan of The Who, this one appeals to me.
6. Miniature Sidewalk Whirlwind - tmbg.com - A funny, silly song that makes me smile. Come on, you know you've been there.
5. I'm Your Boyfriend Now - Cast Your Pod to the Wind - This song goes onto my great collection of stalker songs I am someday going to make (along with Every Breath You Take by The Police). For now I will continue to sympathize with the poor delusional main character.
4. Other Father Song - Love the movie, love the song. I even have a Coraline lunchbox! For a tiny little song this has the most wonderful piano part. I could listen to it over and over (and have!)
3. Renew My Subscription - Venue Songs CD - Just a wonderful song. So perfectly Linnellian.
2. Sensurround - S-E-X-X-Y EP - This song rocks. End of story.
1.Am I Awake? - Indestructible Object - This song perfectly describes how I feel every Monday after I've gotten home from work at 11:30 the previous night and have to get up again at 5:45 the next morning to go back again. Also the "is it that time again" lyric reminds me of one of my favorite scenes in Spaceballs. You know the one I mean.
There we go. Now remind me of all the fantastic things I forgot.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Hooray! I love Other Father Song and I'm Your Boyfriend Now. Am I Awake? is another favorite; I think it was one of the first TMBG songs I heard, because I loved watching Resident Life when it first aired.
ReplyDelete10. Rocket Ship - TMBG Unlimited. "Messed up my face when we fell off the sofa, I injured my hair when we fell from the plane."
9. Sensurround - S-E-X-X-Y EP. Love this song.
8. Sally Boy Candy Bar - TMBG Unlimited. I am so sad that there's no studio version of this song.
7. Maybe I Know - Long Tall Weekend. This is one of my favorite Leslie Gore songs, and a cover by my favorite band? Love love love.
6. Towson (In Situ) - Venue Songs. Partly because I DO know what it's like in there but also because it's a fun song in general.
5. Pittsburgh - Venue Songs. This is my ringtone, actually, because I love it so much. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's the tongue-twisty lyrics.
4. Mrs. Train - Back To Skull. I never understood the love for this song until I listened to it a few times. Then I couldn't stop.
3. Ondine - Back To Skull. Again, this whole EP is great but these two songs especially.
2. Hey, Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had A Deal - Purple Toupee EP. I would kill to hear this song live. I would actually kill another human being to hear it. (Well, not really. Maybe. I haven't decided.)
1. Brain Problem Situation - Cast Your Pod To The Wind. General drunken antics get an A+ from me, and the idea of the band in the drunk tank all by themselves trying to talk to the officer that arrested them makes me laugh. A lot.
First of all, I must say that I'm very excited I've actually heard a few of these! Woohoo for MySpace music, YouTube, and the wiki with its podcasts. :D
ReplyDeleteI don't know that I can really make a list other than ones I like that either of you have mentioned, because I'm not sure what's considered "obscure" (relative definition, as you said) and I still haven't heard a lot of TMBG songs or have maybe only heard them once or twice when I was somewhere with high speed internet. Anyway. Rambly ramble, as always..
I guess I'll list the ones you've listed that I've heard, just for the heck of it.
1. Love Is Eternity -- courtesy of MySpace Music. It's been a long time since I've heard it, but I remember also really liking the line "remember love's a verb". Doesn't it start out like they're talking to a guy and girl? Laura and somebody?
2. Other Father Song -- Coraline. I did enjoy the movie, though it's not my favorite. But I adored this song, and agree with what you say about it. :)
3. Sensurround -- heard also on MySpace Music. A great song, AND it's in the old Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers movie, which is absolutely fantastic. I was a Power Ranger in elementary school, through and through. The Yellow Ranger, to be precise. haha. :}
4. Rocket Ship -- MySpace Music. I love this one and find interesting the fact that its chorus later became the chorus to Spiraling Shape. This was my MySpace profile song for a long time.
5. Maybe I Know -- YouTube. There's a video of John and John performing this on some television show, and it gets stuck in my head every time I watch it. Or think about it. Which is fine, which is fine, and describes how you're feeling all the time. Sorry.
I may have heard Am I Awake? And Hey, Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had A Deal at some point, but I'm not sure.
P.S. I like the term "Linnellian". :D
In deference to Spinal Tap and also the Doctor Who series that ended last week, this list goes up to eleven.
ReplyDelete11. Ondine - Back to Skull - Never fails to make me want to sing along.
10. Whirlpool - Why Does the Sun Shine? - When I first heard it, I thought it had an incredibly melancholy feel to it. Then I got hold of a computer with different speakers, and suddenly it sounded upbeat without the music having changed in any way.
9. Am I Awake? - Indestructible Object - One of the more artistic TMBG songs, I think. It quickly becomes hypnotic when you listen to it on repeat - which is appropriate, isn't it?
8. Mrs. Train - Back to Skull - Clever like Older is clever, maybe moreso. The last few verses are horrible tongue-twisters, but it's just so catchy!
7. She Was a Hotel Detective - Back to Skull - Compared to "standard" TMBG, it's extremely different and extremely cool.
6. Now Is Strange - The Spine Surfs Alone - Rock! And silly voices! Silly voices are funny.
5. Sensurround (S-E-X-X-Y) - The faster version, obviously. Roooock!
4. I'm Your Boyfriend Now (Cast Your Pod to the Wind) - In my mind this song is quintessentially TMBG, at least as much as some better-known examples. Lovely melody, nice style, creepy but undeniably clever lyrics - it's great!
3. It's Not My Birthday (first heard it as part of Miscellaneous T) - I don't know what this song is about. Neither does anyone else.
2. No Answer (Dial-A-Song) - Beautiful. If it ever got a proper recording, it would rank right up there with Ana Ng for me.
1. Hey, Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had a Deal - first heard it as part of Miscellaneous T - Some TMBG songs are deep, and some are just clever. This one is mostly the latter, but there's lots of social commentary buried in there if you like to think about that kind of thing, and I do. It's also possibly the catchiest tune ever. I wish they played it more often...
Also, because that list was EP-saturated, here are my 3 favourite Unlimited songs! (This is why you need to cap these lists... ;D)
3. Kings of the Cave - I'm not sure what it is about this song that's especially awesome, but it's an ear worm.
2. Kids Are Different Now - It's a typically TMBG topic to sing about as part of a song that rocks harder than most emo teen bands ever manage.
1. Somebody's Body - Prime example of the kind of thing TMBG wouldn't write today.
There are two versions of "She Was A Hotel Detective", right? I think?
ReplyDeleteAnd, just to throw it out there, another possible audience participation topic could be favorite TMBG quotes in a television interview. Of course, the television part is only to make it more specific and could be changed or removed. I only say this because I have a specific one I really like from an interview they did while promoting Flood, which I found on YouTube, of course. :}
Wow, there are a surprising number of repeats in those lists. I guess we all have similar taste :-)
ReplyDeleteI too love Hey, Mr. DJ, but I didn't include it on my list because it's not obscure enough to me. Not to say it doesn't count as obscure, because it certainly fits the definition. It's on the Dial-A-Song collection which is basically all I listened to for the first six months of so of my dive into fandom. I went for stuff that it took me longer to discover.
And Jaime, there are three versions of Hotel Detective. (She Was A) Hotel Detective, She Was A Hotel Detective and She Was A Hotel Detective in the Future (four if you count the last one's commentary which I don't since it isn't an actual song). All of them totally different in both content and style. I must agree with blitzente that She Was a Hotel Detective is my favorite of the three.
And I like the idea of favorite interview quotes a lot. I might just use that on Monday, if I have time between now and then to go back and review interviews to find my favorite quotes.
I just noticed this reply. It'd be nice if there were a way for me to receive e-mail notifications when a comment was posted after mine, like on Facebook. Oh Facebook, you megalomaniacal standard-setter.
ReplyDeleteWait..."subscribe by e-mail", it says down below! I wonder if that would do the trick...
Anyway, yay for the possible future use of favorite interview quotes as an audience participation topic. :D And thanks for clarifying the Hotel Detective quantity. :) I guess the only one I've heard is
"(She Was A) Hotel Detective", as it's on "Direct From Brooklyn". I like that one. I'll have to check out the others, though.