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April 4, 2007

for now it sounds like heaven

friday i'm packing up the car to head out of town for the easter weekend. this year i'll be winding my way north and then east toward the fecund hills of asheville, nc. question? can mountainous regions also be fecund? i'm thinking the answer to that question is probably no since fecunidty is most often associated with marshes and swamps. misused adjectives aside - the trip will take approximately 4 hours which means i'll get to go through the painstaking process of picking out just the right music for the trip.

i remember growing up my grandparents lived in haines city, fl which was approximately 4.5 - 5 hours by car (step-pop driving time) and it seemed like such an eternity. but anymore i average 4 hours in the car several times a week. but when i am traveling for work i rarely get to zone out to sweet tunes because i have to be mindful of the ever present cellphone and work related whatnot is always at the forefront of my mind. as a result i usually end up listening to npr or whatever talk radio i happen to be able to tune in.

but friday should provide me ample opportunity to listen to music at unreasonable volumes as i traverse the miles at mostly reasonable speeds. and you might think picking out music for such a road trip would be a difficult task but it's not. because no matter how many cd's i bring in the car with me invariably i will listen to many of the same albums that i've been listening to for much of my driving life. so after this lengthy, superfluous prologue we arrive at the point where we should have started with not so young christopher offering up what he deems to be essential road trip albums. i'm going to try to confine myself to 5 - we'll see how it goes.

1.) trace ~ son volt. this album more than any other defines
the term road trip for me. something about it just begs to be
played on the open highway with the windows rolled down.
i came upon this album after purchasing wilco's a.m. and completely
fell in love with it. not only is it my all-time favorite driving record
it's easily one of the top five albums of my lifetime.

2) *fizzy fuzzy big & buzzy ~ refreshments. for all intents and
purposes this album should occupy the number two spot as
it is - in addition to being a fun raucous record - an album
that is really meant to be enjoyed in a car. and enjoy it i did.
until 1999. i was listening to this album on the way back to
school in the fall of '99 when powderpuff started overheating.
the same thing happened while listening to this album returning
from fall break that same year. and - while i'm not ordinarily a
superstitious person - i've never listened to this album in a car
again.

2) summerteeth ~ wilco. anyone who knows me knows that being
there is my all-time favourite wilco record. but this album
always went on road trips with me because it is such a great
pop record with killer track after killer track. and when you
have no air conditioning you need something that you can
really crank up until your speakers threaten to give out.

3) new miserable experience ~ gin blossoms. i don't know if it's
become embarrassing yet to have been a gin blossoms fan
but this record is essential. it was one of those records that
came out and nobody knew about it for a couple of years
and then suddenly it was everywhere. i remember hearing
hey jealousy on a college radio station and bought this one
(on cassette tape) and absolutely wore it out before giving it
to a friend - which i sort of regret because once the band
started taking off the artwork changed - i know every single
word to every single song by heart.

4) john henry ~ they might be giants. criminally underrated band.
this was their first album with all live musicians in the studio and
it totally rocks. i own most of tmbg records but i come back to this
one more often than any other because it contains the sweltering
guitar licks of the voidoids robert quine and also because of
the inclusion of two of my favourite tmbg tracks sleeping in the
flowers and the end of the tour.

5) louder than bombs ~ the smiths. this one is a more recent entry
and i should probably be embarrassed that i don't own any actual
smith's albums. but for my money this is almost the greatest
album of collected singles ever produced. if this disc included
"there is a light that never goes out" it might qualify as the greatest.
the smiths are just one of those bands that were so prolific in such
a short span of time it's mind boggling. and yes the lyrics to many
of their songs are terrifyingly dark but i love them still.

plan b's: kerosene hat ~ cracker; whatever and ever amen ~
ben folds; weezer ~ the blue album and pinkerton;
old 97's ~ satellite rides; greatest hits ~ the cars/journey
heartbreaker ~ ryan adams; pyromania ~ def leppard


| By young_christopher | 7:20 PM

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Comments

Um, the Smiths' "Singles" is better than "Louder than Bombs". And it has "There is a Light That Never Goes Out". It's funny that you mention Summerteeth. I've had the song "How to Fight Loneliness" stuck in my head all afternoon. My perfect "road trip" moment came while driving alone cross country to California. I was listening to the 11 minute M83 epic "Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sun", cruising through the West Texas mountains at sunset. At that moment I was the protaganist in an adventure movie, or the lone survivor of the apocalypse. The confluence of song and scenery was transcendent. I was no longer driving west in an old Camry, I was an explorer in the ancient world. Sometimes driving alone is nice. Weezer's blue album should be higher on the list.

Posted by: Nick at April 5, 2007 4:59 PM

Fantastic list. I would add "Lullabies to Paralyze" or "Songs for the Deaf" by Queens of the Stone Age. Also "The Number of the Beast" by Iron Maiden, which has two songs (tangentially) about travel: "Invaders" and "Run to the Hills." They're not exactly happy tracks, but who else but Bruce Dickinson can sing with such conviction about rampaging Vikings? I can listen to the Blue Album by turning on the radio.

Posted by: No Man Is an Island at April 7, 2007 9:27 PM

yes niche, but singles does not contain please please please let me get what i want, unlovable, half a person, or you just haven't earned it yet baby

Posted by: young_christopher at April 8, 2007 8:34 PM

"I can listen to the Blue Album by turning on the radio." Correction: you can listen to "Buddy Holly" any time you turn on the radio. I, on the other hand, can listen to Iron Maiden any time I take a dump. And Chris, you're right, though I still think Singles is better (it also has "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore"). Really, the only way to put together a great Smiths' singles album is by mixed cd. In other news, I'm thinking about getting tickets to go see Morrissey when he rolls through town. Heard he's playing a lot of the oldies.

Posted by: Nick at April 9, 2007 1:15 PM

You must have some serious gastrointestinal issues...

Posted by: No Man Is an Island at April 9, 2007 8:05 PM

You should hear it when I pee--it sounds like Gwar.

Posted by: Nick at April 10, 2007 4:59 PM

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