Following are more-or-less my five favorite songs. One of them isn’t even sung by a chick!
My daughter has a playlist on my YouTube Channel. If you want to watch it, it’s called Bella’s Superheroes. It’s basically Spider-Man fighting Ryu and so on… screen captures of guys playing Street Fighter.
But I have another playlist of awesome songs that I often watch / listen to at work. My daughter really likes music and has eerily superb taste for a four-year-old. She was rocking out to Portions for Foxes by Rilo Kiley and my wife happened by while Bella was strumming air guitar and leaping from this huge wooden stool onto the living room carpet.
“You know, Mommy think’s that’s Mommy’s favorite song,” she said.
Bella just kept bopping air guitar (she says her favorite song is Into the Groove by Madonna, but I think she likes So What by P!nk the best).
You know… Even the best, closest, couples have rough patches once in a while. But overhearing that thing about Portions for Foxes being K’s favorite song… it was just one of the infinite tiny things that occur, unheralded, in a marriage that remind you you’re connected to the right person.
#1 Portions for Foxes by Rilo Kiley
This song has the absolute best opening line of any song, ever:
“There’s blood in my mouth / ’cause I’ve been biting my tounge all week…”
So good.
#2 Special by Garbage
This is a song that reminds me of my first summer in New York City. We only had like three MP3s back then… This was one of them. Shirley Manson is so hot.
#3 The Touch by Stan Bush
If you don’t know how I feel about this song, I suggest you read this. At the very least it’s the only blog post I’ve ever written whereby my readers have stated that I 1) I restored his faith in humanity, or 2) made a grown man cry tears of joy… Plus you should probably shotgun a tee shirt (I got two for Christmas! Go me!).
#4 As Cool As I Am by Dar Williams
I have only ever bought the album they were playing in the record store two times. The first time they were playing this song. I later remembered that I had heard it before, road tripping up and down New Jersey for a week in-between a family vacation and Pro Tour New York 1997. Dar Williams eventually grew into my favorite solo artist. I still feel like she is the finest songwriter to use the English language. I don’t know if this is my absolute favorite Dar song (probably not, actually)… but it is the one that made me fall in love with her.
I opened that PT with wins over Aaron Muranaka (Top 8 at PT Atlanta earlier that year) and Rob Dougherty (Hall of Fame)… and then didn’t make day two. Typical.
#5 He’s Gone by Leona Naess
I dunno if this one will stick forever, but right now I find myself playing this video over and over and over (just ask anyone walking past my office). I take a fair number of musical cues from Josh Ravitz… He was the one who introduced me to Rilo Kiley (my favorite band), for instance. A few weeks ago at the office he asked me if I knew this song, and… Well one thing led to another and I just run Leona at least four times a day.
Well, there you go.
Don’t forget to read the background story behind my big love for The Touch if you haven’t already.
LOVE
MIKE
9 comments ↓
This playlist has the touch.
Hell yeah it does! It also has “the power.” When all hell’s breaking loose, this playlist will be right in the eye of the storm. It’s got “the heart”, “the motion”, and yes, more than any of those things, “the Touch.”
I tried to listen to the other four songs. Rilo Kiley lasted a minute, and the rest less than 30 seconds before I stopped listening.
But onto The Touch: While I do like it, I think that “Dare” is a better song:
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=nAESo2uv-po&feature=related
Given my unending love for Rilo Kiley (and Jenny in general, actually. I LOVE both of her solo records) I would expect to find myself agreeing with Mike more frequently on music related matters. Somehow, though, Rilo Kiley is the only chick rock band I can really hang with. Leona Naess wasn’t bad, but I won’t be buying any of her records, either.
Is Portions for Foxes your actual favorite, or just your favorite that there is a proper video for? I find myself leaning more towards Does He Love You? personally.
@Grat
You never bend you never break you seem to know just what it takes.
@ReeceP
🙁
I like Dare also but The Touch is better. The video you sent was strangely edited. The velocity of that song in association with the film — in my mind anyway — has so much to do with killing Insectacons and the speed of the chase, and they moved all of that to the Galvatron finale (which is more closely, and correctly, associated with The Touch).
@DavePetterson
Yeah, it’s probably my favorite. The first song I loved by Rilo Kiley was The Frug; I love so many songs by them, from Spectacular Views to Glendora to Silver Lining. The Moneymaker took some getting used to but I loved it after the video – especially the extended version with more time with the [prospective] porno stars.
“Portions for Foxes” is really good, I definitely downloaded that one right after I heard it last night. Shortly afterward I began perusing through many of their other songs and found them to be fairly hit or miss. The lyrics of their songs are always very strong and almost poetic, but sometimes the beat and tempo seems completely abstract and off-kilter. I agree with Dave above, I found “Does He Love You?” and immediately fell in love with the song. (Although it hasn’t supplanted Portions for Foxes.)
Rilo Kiley is so great. You’re missing some Fiona Appple 😛
@dar482
Tell ya what… When I do five favorite albums 🙂
[…] while browsing the store, that I had never heard before] or of course “anything” Rilo Kiley [my favorite band, introduced to me by Josh Ravitz]), so I listened to a bunch of these almost […]
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