John Nolan is playing a solo show, on Long Island, the night of Amanda's wedding.
They're all plotting against me, and I don't like it one bit! This is what I get for skipping a Straylight Run show in May and the Kev Dev show in June . . .
the five most perfect songs ever written (as of 9/5/08)
I change this list fairly regularly. But with the realization today that SMOCIOTH is one of my top five favorite songs of all time, it got me thinking about what other tracks make the cut. It would probably be a lot easier to do a top 10 list, but most people reading this probably won't know any of these tracks anyway, so why overwhelm you with even more songs you don't know? =P
5. "Pints of Guinness Make You Strong" by Against Me. This song isn't typical "Kerri music" and this band, as amazing as they are, isn't a typical "Kerri band." But I'm glad I gave them a chance because this band is amazing, and this song even more so. I didn't appreciate it as much as I should have until I heard an acoustic version and was able to listen to the words, and then I found out it was about the lead singer's grandparents, and then the first time (the only time) I saw Against Me! live and I saw them play this song and I saw the names "James" and "Evelyn" tattooed on Tom's chest . . . this song is a beautiful song, and every time I hear it, I wish that some folksy non-punk non-screamer would cover it (i.e. the whole "Ben Lee Covers Against Me!'s New Wave" album) so that more people would give it a chance. Every St. Patrick's Day, I think of Evelyn and James. "In all the years that went by, she said she'd always love him. And from the day that he died, she never loved again . . . she said 'if I would have known just how things would have ended up, I just would have let myself die.'" Heartbreaking. "If we're never together, if I'm never back again, then I swear to God that I'll love you forever . . . " GOD I love this song. Maybe pints of Guinness are the way to go.
4. "A Slow Descent" by Straylight Run. Straylight Run had six demos on their website before the release of their debut album. Of the six, this song was one of two that did not make it onto the album. I'm not sure what the reasoning was; it was eventually on their E.P. that followed the debut, and it's one that they continue playing at all of their shows. I don't know if it was left out in an effort to distance themselves from Taking Back Sunday, as I always assumed (and maybe even read somewhere that planted that seed in my head) that this song was about them. Regardless of what it's about, this is without question my favorite Straylight Run song. I wish I had an mp3 available of it to link here; the video clip that I took from Warped Tour last year is only an excerpt and it doesn't do it justice. I think no matter what the context is, this song rings true. It's obviously about the souring of a relationship -- whether it's a band relationship, a friendship, or more -- that's just not working anymore, "a slow descent from unique to routine." It's sad, and it really gets me every time I hear it, from the opening lines: "I'm tired, cynical, and broken, but wiser, heavy with a sense of resentment, but I used to be so much different, I used to have so much faith" to the closing lines: "We drove for what seemed like days, over roads and four lane highways, we said all we had to say, and I realized in time that it didn't mean anything." It happens to everyone, all too often, and it hurts like hell when you realize you've invested time in something or someone and for whatever reason, it's just not there anymore. And it's not anyone's fault and it's not anything you can help, it's just how it is. And you wonder why you even bother because it's not going to end well. "I knew it but as soon as it began it was ruined." "It's only a matter of time." God, I can't even write about this song without crying.
3. "Sell My Old Clothes, I'm Off To Heaven" by Saves the Day. I found out today that this song's title is a line from John Irving's "The Hotel New Hampshire" - of course one of my favorite songs of all time would be titled by one of my favorite author's books. That makes it even more special. I first heard this song at a horrible time in my life, just about two years ago. I saw Chris Conley of Saves the Day open up for Straylight Run, and I didn't know any song that he played, but I looked this one up as soon as I got home and downloaded it from iTunes because I knew that it was perfect. It fit how I was feeling PERFECTLY - that sense of caring about someone so much that you would do anything for them ("what's he got that I don't have? is it his brown eyes? I know blue eyes get boring but I'll wear dark glasses all the time! or hey, if you want me to, I'd take a knife to my own bright eyes") to struggling with the fact that they basically treat you like shit but you still can't stop caring ("now you put me through hell, you break me up, yeah I should hate you, but I can't replace you in my heart") to being able to say "to hell with you." This is one of those songs that I can forget about and go months without listening to, but as soon as it randomly shows up on my playlist, I can't listen just once. I think I'll always associate this song with the same person, despite how far I've come since that first time I heard it. I could write a whole other blog post about that though -- maybe I will sometime. Anyway. Listen to the lyrics. It's great.
2. "Play Crack the Sky" by Brand New. This song has been my favorite Brand New song for years, but it seems particularly relevant these days. Nothing like a fantastic song about a metaphorical ship wreck to get you all worked up, haha. This song is amazing on like a dozen different levels - I'd love to find an interview with Jesse Lacey explaining it. I've been fortunate enough to hear this song live a bunch of times and it gets better with every listen. Jesse Lacey is truly brilliant and one of the most amazing lyricists ever. "What they call love is a risk 'cause you always get hit out of nowhere by some wave and end up on your own" - could truer words be spoken? I loved Brand New from "Your Favorite Weapon", and when I got "Deja Entendu", I loved every song instantly on first listen. But this album closer is the song that made me realize that Brand New was more than just an awesome band, they were the best around. Another song with a great last line: "I need you like water in my lungs." I know what you mean, Jesse. I hate how much I know what you mean.
1. "Konstantine" by Something Corporate. This song has been my #1 favorite song in the world from the first time I heard it back in 2002, although when I first heard it, I'd only heard the live version, "Constantine". Each has its differences and things about them that make me prefer one version to the other, but regardless of how you spell it, this song is hands down the most amazing piece of music I've ever heard. Ever. There are few songs that could pull off being over nine minutes long without me getting sick of them, but this song fills those nine minutes brilliantly. A haunting piano melody. A reference to the greatest Jimmy Eat World song ever. A "not quite a chorus" chorus that changes each time it's sung. The "did you know I miss you . . . God I miss you" on the live version. The first summer I knew this song, I had a 30 minute commute to my internship, in which I would play this song three times. For a long time, I couldn't hear it without crying. On my worst days, this is the song that I stick on "repeat" on my iTunes. I could easily spend hours playing this song over and over -- and I have. Six years later, it still has the same effect on me that it had the first time I heard it. It's brilliant and it's beautiful and don't just take my word for it, give it a listen.
Pretty much everyone who reads this won't get this, but I got way too excited yesterday when Briton was giving me directions and told me to "turn left on Carman Avenue."
I know "Your Name Here" is actually referencing Carmans Road ("there's no such road as Carmans Avenue, but 'Road' doesn't rhyme with 'you'" . . . thanks, John Nolan), but whatever.
sing me something soft, sad and delicate or loud and out of key, sing me anything
After not going to a single concert for the first eight weeks of 2008, I felt a need to step it up this past week (with a lot of help from Keely, who is awesome).
On Thursday night, Becky, Briton, David and I attempted to go see Ashlee Simpson at Mirage, which I shouldn't have even bothered to link to because I believe if I ever end up in Hell, it's going to be an awful lot like Mirage, or maybe the Crazy Donkey (see below!), and I'll never step foot in that place again (unlike the aforementioned Crazy Donkey, which I just threaten to never go to again, but actually can be persuaded when the right band is playing) and would encourage anyone reading this to avoid it at all costs . . . ANYWAY. After Happy Hour-ing it up at Chrebets for a few hours, we called our chauffeur for the night, Pat, who dropped us off at Houlihans where we drank some more, ate two orders of cheese fries, and almost gave up on attempting to see Ashlee before we'd even headed over. But for some reason I insisted, and we stood in the cold for what seemed like forever (it was probably about 3 minutes), there was a $10 cover for the guys, they forced us to check our coats AND pay for it, and the entire place just oozed of sketchiness. As someone who has lived on Long Island for all but five years of my life, I've definitely seen my share of Long Island sketchiness, but sometimes I forget exactly why I despised Nassau County for the first 25 years of my life until I moved here. Long story longer, we decided pretty quickly that we didn't want to stay, especially when the bartender told us that Ashlee wouldn't be making an appearance until 12:30 or 1, so Becky and I took a scandalous picture with an Egyptian statue that would have been way more scandalous if we were taller
and then we attempted to leave because Pat was on his way to pick us up, but once they gave me my jacket, they wouldn't let me back in to wait without checking my coat again, and David lost his coat check slip and they wouldn't look for it for him, and we got yelled at twice for standing in the wrong place - needless to say, this was as close as we got to seeing Ashlee Simpson:
Which worked out kinda well because shocker! None of us actually like Ashlee Simpson anyway! So she and Mirage can suck it.
Friday night! Thanks again to Keely (who was responsible for the Maroon 5 awesomeness last Sunday), Mary and I headed to the Beacon Theater to see James Blunt with Sara Bareilles. Sara Bareilles was pretty good (I'm admittedly pretty sexist with my music taste - I have been told on a number of occasions that I listen to too much "boy music") and I was pleasantly surprised by James Blunt. I played his first CD to death when I ripped it from Mary back in '05 and aside from a brief period when Mary first bought "All The Lost Souls" and was playing it around the clock, my James Blunt exposure for the past couple years has pretty much been reduced to Mary singing "You're beautiful!" (just that line, or maybe a couple, but never the entire chorus) in a high pitched voice to Sydney at least four or five times a week (that I hear). I recognized more songs than I thought I would, and fortunately, there was no mass suicide during the "Goodbye, My Lover" / "No Bravery" one-two punch. And even though he announced that "Goodbye, My Lover" had topped the list of 'most requested funeral songs' (what an honor), I couldn't help but smile remembering this clip from The Office.
During the last song before the encore, they shot confetti out all over the theater, which was fun - who doesn't love confetti? He took a picture of the crowd at the end of the show, as the big screen at the rear of the stage showed crowd pictures from a bunch of other shows he'd played with the city and date written on them, which was fun. So yay James Blunt! I've had "Give Me Some Love" stuck in my head for the past 24 hours.
Finally, tonight John and I headed to Suffolk County's own hell, The Crazy Donkey, to see Straylight Run. I've been to the Crazy Donkey twice before, to see Nine Days in 2004 (after which I swore I'd never go back) and then to see Dashboard Confessional's solo show in November (where it took them an hour in between each act, including an hour to "set up" for Chris Carabba to literally stand there with his guitar and Kristen and I ended up leaving after an hour because it had gotten so late). So I wasn't planning on even coming to this show, but I'd missed Straylight Run's NY show in December, and I got the tickets for John for his birthday. Needless to say, we didn't know until we got there that Straylight Run wasn't co-headlining - whoops. To the Crazy Donkey's credit, when we called they said that they'd be going on at 6:30, and John Nolan (with out of control hair!)
was on stage and playing "Your Name Here" at 6:26. John and I somehow ended up standing by the bathrooms (which, seriously, could not POSSIBLY be in a worse location - whichever architect thought it would be a good idea to put them immediately to the right of the stage, about ten feet away, should seriously rethink his profession - we had to push through a couple hundred people just to get to the bathrooms, and some woman grabbed onto me and asked me to help her get there because I guess she thought it would be easier than pushing her own way through, and then she told me she was there with her daughter), which was fun during the opener's set when Shaun Cooper, Will Noon and Michelle "will always be Michelle Nolan to me" DeRosa all came by to use the bathrooms before their set, but was not so much fun when we had to move every 30 seconds for bathroom users. I might as well have watched the last few minutes of the show from inside the bathrooms - a group of little kids (I hate all ages shows) pushed their way in front of me and some kid who seriously could not have been older than fourteen MAX was standing next to me and then had the nerve to grin and give me a thumbs up when I blocked some other kid from pushing in front of the two of us. I HATE THAT PLACE. And I also hate the fact that Straylight Run was done before 7:00.
Oddly enough, they didn't play the singles from TNTS, and they played mostly songs from their first cd. I've given up hope of ever hearing "The Tension and the Terror" live again, but I was disappointed that I didn't get to hear "A Slow Descent." Their way too short setlist was:
Your Name Here (Sunrise Highway)
The Miracle That Never Came
Take It To Manhattan
Existentialism on Prom Night
It's For The Best
Mistakes We Knew We Were Making
Tool Sheds & Hot Tubs
Hands In The Sky
So it was a good time - way too short (who goes to a concert on a Saturday night and is home by 8?) but I can't complain. It was the first time I'd seen them since Warped Tour and I've been cheating on them lately with Brand New.
Okay, this post took way too long to write and it kind of sucks, but I'll make up for it in the next couple of days when I implement the new and improved "Person of the Month" award with its first two winners. Boy do I know how to keep them coming back for more =P
I woke up this morning and saw that I had this e-mail in my inbox. Once I got over the initial confusion thinking that it was from Shauna and wondering what she was referencing in that little "e-mail preview" that I get in my inbox, I became so much more excited. (Not that I don't LOVE getting e-mails from Shauna . . . but c'mon . . . Shaun Cooper!)
Hey Kerri,
That's funny about you and your roomate getting mail from the Visitors Bureau in college. I actually hate getting mail, especially because my box just gets filled with bills and stupid supermarket circulars while I'm out on tour. Total bummer! I do enjoy getting mail from friends, and I especially love it when I buy stuff online and get that too. LIke Christmas or something ya know?!
My girlfriend is actually doing post grad at Hofstra as well. She finishes up this fall semester with her masters in teaching. She likes the classes well enough but since she has to go to school at nights she gets frustrated with some of the older slower people in the class. Seems like those old dogs don't like learning new tricks. Do you ever have to deal with that kind of thing?
I remember that show with Rooney well. If memory serves correctly it was the first show of that tour. I'm glad you were there at that show and we won you over. That's awesome to hear. It is so rewarding and flattering to know that we can effect people on some kind of emotional level. I remember the bands that helped me through hard times. I never really imagined I would ever be in a band that could effect people in that way.
Anyway, I hope we do well at Nassau Coliseum. I just worry we won't be able to top the show we played at Irving last month. That crowd reaction was just off the hook. Such a terrific time. Fingers crossed though, I have hope.
Thanks for the tips on TV and that website. I'll look into both.
