Jailbreak - Back when I was in middle school, I'd say around twelve years old, I would watch a lot of MTV and VH1 with their best of shows and their nostalgia recaps. In a time where a twelve year old couldn't find every bit of information ever created I took to the TV, like most of my generation, and was glued to the drama of reality shows and pop culture. AC/DC fell into the nostalgia shows and the countdowns of the best rock and roll bands that I watched over and over again.
It just so happens that VH1 used to play live concerts as well and you know that Patty likes himself some good live music. It's a wonderful surprise when a band kicks ass in the studio and kicks even more ass on stage in front of thousands of people. In their second live album, AC/DC laid down some of the most gut punching rock and roll this middle schooler had ever seen.
It's been so long since I've heard these songs and seen the concert video that I was thoroughly surprised and pumped to stumble upon the original version of "Jailbreak" during my work week. I immediately looked up the live version and threw it on my phone. From then on I couldn't stop singing the title in the low down Aussie style of the AC/DC backing vocalists.
I look forward to creating these playlists because they bring me back to listening to the music I love and discovering new music to soon fall in love with. This track brought me down memory lane and got me amped to finish the rest of my work day. No matter how you feel about AC/DC they bring the noise and energy to every song they play. Pop this baby on and start your week off on a high voltage note.
Beautiful Strangers - I am constantly delighted and intrigued when I find new music that seems to follow its own formula apart from the normal structure of what a hit song "should" be like. Kevin Morby, in my eyes and through the songs I've sampled, creates music not by formula, but by feel and life experience. The world is vast and unique and ever changing, so why not gather some of that energy, throw it into a song, and hold it tight for the three to five to eight minutes you can contain its vibrance.
"Beautiful Strangers" is one of my comfort songs that I'll throw on whenever I'm in some sort of mood. It has a very calming essence to it and one that works wonders when searching for something to go right for once.
In thinking more about it now I'm realizing the repetition of this track plays into its brilliance and calmness. The simplicity coupled with the gentle vocals of Morby pull me in every time and wash away my sorrows (only for the time being.)
I'm willing to bet that most of you will enjoy this track as much as I do. Give it a couple listens. Hey, maybe even put it on repeat. Have a day and relax.
I Disappear - Being my age in the early 2000's brought access to a large volume of music at my finger tips. With that ability I dove into new music like it was my nine to five job. Mostly influenced by my friends and my brother, I was introduced to music at a rapid clip, but like all certainties, it seems like you're bound to find what's fresh and new before what's come before. That's the case with my relationship with Metallica.
I remember being floored when learning that the Metallica fan base and critics alike weren't so into Metallica's mid 90's and 2000's choices in style and music. Although released three years after I was born (already putting a giant hole in the story I just wrote above,) Metallica's Load album was what got me into the band in the first place. My brother and I would listen to this album in his S10 turned all the way up past eleven.
I attribute the song "I Disappear" with the Load era of the band because of their close proximity, but also because of the way the band took to a more hard rock feel rather than their original thrash metal genre. The pairing of this track with the movie Mission Impossible 2 only made it that much cooler for me. I loved that movie when I was a kid and the contributing track from Metallic blew up my young brain.
Since then I've come to love and appreciate Metallica's early and ground breaking work, but I still fall back on the Load era songs that have a special place in my heart simply because they came to me at such an impressionable age.
Wheels is a song introduced to me by a dear family friend of mine that has impacted my music career and my aspirations to become a beloved and caring friend always there for those he loves. An enigma in my house and around town, my great friend and man of many talents Curt Russel is a man who I share so many interests with, with music being at the forefront.
Ever since I taught myself to play the guitar Curt and I would talk shop and plan out times to jam together. I finally worked my way up to a passable skill level and we got together to play some tunes. I suggested some tracks and Curty brought some great deep cuts and tried and true songs that he had been playing for longer than I'd been alive. With a mutual love for great acoustic guitar playing and simplistic songs that give you goosebumps "Wheels" was brought to the table in a moment that lifted me up out of my body and into a four and a half minute weightless journey.
I quickly learned the song and at the next jam session we burned the wheels off the mother. I had never heard this Foo Fighters song before Curty suggested it, but I fell in love the first time it graced my ears. With every time we performed this magical tune I felt a bigger connection to it and the kind of music that makes you remember all the good things in your life.
Cheers to one of the best men I know and the greatest guitar player and songwriter in my life.
Space Train - This is the kind of shit I'll hear and immediately send to my brother. We share a music taste, a sense of humor, and a love for funkiness so strong that within seconds we know if the other would enjoy something or not. I sent this over in his direction and told him to play it as loud as he could on whatever stereo system was best. He was extremely grateful and complimentary towards my excellent music taste and intuition. Haha.
Spiral Drive comes flying out of the gate in their Space Train in search of good vibes and the stankiest of faces. Remember the formula? Patty likes his music loud and bassy. We have a large helping of bass in this track to get you going and your bones shaking like jello.
Take a trip into space and away from all your intrusive thoughts. Don't jump out of the window, just take it easy and let the vibrations pass through you brother.
If You Should Fall -
Ned Doheny and this album cover gave me such 2010's vibes that I thought this song was younger than my high school diploma. Turns out it's older than my parents middle school diplomas (you know, if that was a thing.)
Anyways, Ned dishes out a youthful and bright track that has my head boppin' throughout and my heart full with sunshine. I don't even know what the song's about, but the music has me whistling with the birds and basking beneath the clear blue sky.
Eskimo Blue Sky - Jefferson Airplane have multiple eerie tracks that make me feel like I'm listening to them in a dark room surrounded my heavy rainfall and thunder and lightning. I say eerie without a better word to describe how these songs make me feel. "Eskimo Blue Day" has a thunderous body of dark feeling oozing from every crevice.
I've resonated with this song because of its overall feel and its overall message. A fellow lover of nature and keeping things the way they are, I know how the Airplane feels about unnecessary destruction of what's beautiful in this world. Much like the ending of this track with the noise of a tree being felled, I recently had to endure the cutting down of a treasured tree in my parent's yard that once stood as one of the tallest in the neighborhood. In its place is a whole the size of my heart and my childhood. Revisiting this track since the felling of my own tree I've come to feel the melancholia and eeriness of this music in Jefferson Airplanes catalog.
"Eskimo Blue Sky" finishes off this week's playlist with that Sunday evening feeling because we all know what days have feelings and what they're like. Now without saying feeling yet another time, have a nice and relaxing Sunday y'all.
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