The Tam Diaries: Video Edition

A few years ago, I completed what I consider to be the definitive compilation of classic pop music songs post-Nirvana and pre-Britney Spears; my middle school years, the raw material that eventually formed my musical tastes. It is called The Tam Diaries. The compilation spans 15 CD-sized playlists and totals 240 songs. The first album contains the 16 tracks that I judge to be the most essential, most defining pop tunes of the later-mid-90s era. Here they are, without commentary.

1. Everclear, Santa Monica
2. Beck, Where It's At
Beck |MTV Music
3. No Doubt, Just A Girl
No Doubt |MTV Music
4. The Presidents of the United States of America, Peaches
5. Oasis, Champagne Supernova
Oasis |MTV Music
6. Green Day, Brain Stew/Jaded
Green Day |MTV Music
7. Puff Daddy & Foo Fighters, It's All About the Benjamins
Diddy |MTV Music
8. La Bouche, Be My Lover
La Bouche |MTV Music
9. LL Cool J, Doin' It
10. Puff Daddy, I'll Be Missing You
Diddy |MTV Music
11. Tony Rich Project, Nobody Knows
Tony Rich |MTV Music
12. The Smashing Pumpkins, 1979
13. Alanis Morrisette, Ironic
Alanis Morissette |MTV Music
14. Bush, Glycerine
15. Sublime, What I Got
16. Blues Traveler, Hook
    

Pit Stereotypes

• The Cute Girl: You don't have any business being in the pit, but you survive because every guy follows his instinct to protect you. Always safe from bodily harm of a violent nature, but a prime target for sexual advances.
• The Jock: You definitely don't care about the band but only about running into other people at maximum speed. Distorted guitars are an excuse for knocking down some geeks.
• The Needless Stage Diver: Dude, you're 275 pounds - don't jump from there, we won't be able to catch you. Ouch, you totally smacked me in the head with your shoe. So don't blame me if I take it off of your foot and toss it at the other side of the stage.
• The Guy With Glasses: Okay, so ethics demand that I try to make some space for you while you scour the ground for your glasses which are already probably smashed beyond all recognition, but that doesn't mean that I have to like it.
• The Fat Girl: So you're probably smashed up against the front of the stage and really like the band, but just because you push backwards doesn't mean that I'm going to respect your personal space any more than anyone else.
  
• The Supertwins: Yes, if you interlock your arms and spin around, you'll gain enough momentum to clear the pit. Good job. I'll be looking out for an opportunity at a kidney shot later.
  
• The Skinny Kid: I admire your moxie, but I'm only going to lift you off of your back a few times before I give up.
• The Indignant Edge-Guarder: The pit grows and shrinks at its own pace. You are not entitled to your spot even if you're standing completely still.
• The Legit Punk: I could really feel the Knox Gelatin when your spike poked under my eyelid and I think your bracelet might have pierced my skin that one time. I'm definitely too scared to run into you on purpose.
• The Bouncer: Dude... nobody's bleeding yet... everything's fine.
• The Eight Year Old: You'll be a scene legend someday, but I heard you kids still have a soft spot in your skull or something, so please stay out of my way.
  

Weird Qualities of Video Game Music

What makes some video game music so beloved? Why are there numerous bands that exist only to cover songs from video games made over two decades ago? I suspect the answers to these particular questions have at least as much to do with adolescent psychology as it does with the quality of the music, but video game music does have a number of weird characteristics that make it inherently different from regular pop music, which might partially account for its fandom.

Video game music is designed to play in endless loops. There isn't really a beginning, middle, and end like pop songs because a level could last an eternity. These songs are made to be listened to over and over and over. On the other hand, video game music is designed to make an instant impact in a short period of time. This is kind of the flip side of the first characteristic. It might only be heard for about thirty seconds at a time, or you might hear the game's song for as long as you're playing it. This was also caused by the memory limitations on early games.

As a result, there's a strange tension where, for the best songs, the melody is immediately identifiable and doesn't contain that many complexities, but you aren't annoyed if you have to hear that song forty times in a row. On top of this weird structural characteristic are the technological limitations of video game music. Now, music in a video game can basically be anything. But the most well-remembered music comes from the original 8-bit era, where composers were limited to four instruments at a time. Taken all together, these requirements led to a very different kind of music whose influence can definitely be felt on popular music today. I think there's a certain purity to video game music - when you are forced to strip a tune down to its most basic elements and squeeze it into a very tightly restricted space. Limitations can be liberating, in a way.

Emo Diaries: The Anniversary - Your Majesty

This album came out at the very tail end of the underground emo phenomenon in January 2002 and exhibited almost all of the qualities of the transitional emo-indie album. The very first thing you'd notice once you got your hands on the CD is that it was packaged in a paper case, immediately recalling the packaging of other completely legit albums like Something to Write Home About or Four Cornered Night. Once you opened it, you knew that the Anniversary had higher aspirations than your local bands who would never release a CD in anything other than a broken jewel case or maybe those flimsy paper/plastic envelopes that really fledgling bands give out. It was also on Vagrant, which still kind of meant something at the time.

The music also belied a deep desire to be an indie rock band. The prior Anniversary album, Designing a Nervous Breakdown was a confection-laden treat with synthesizer bursting from every crevice in the synth-emo style of Ozma or the Rentals (but less straight-up rock than Ozma and less Weezer-cred than the Rentals). Your Majesty eliminated the exploitatively catchy and blip-bloop-y synths for "majestic" organ tones and the tempo of ballads or dirges. Along with these changes, the lyrics also moved up in class. The Anniversary wanted a more literary tone than your average emo band, but ended up with generic poetry-ish lyrics that never really resonated with me, though I did think that the song Devil on Your Side was kinda badass... yeaaa.

I once saw the Anniversary open for Get Up Kids and then once headlining. The differences between those shows parallel the differences between the albums. The first time they were a goofy, hook-y emo band with a really cute keyboard player. The next time I saw them, the lead singer was wearing a fighter jet pilot's helmet like he was Maverick or something. That about sums it up to me.

Of course, in retrospect, The Anniversary is just one of several emo bands from Kansas to have more than a passing dalliance with indie. It could contribute this to Saddle Creek's Nebraskan influence, and on some level I kind of believe it to be true even though I have absolutely no basis for doing so. A hybrid band like the Anniversary is required to show restraint and taste to build up credibility as an indie band, but lack of restraint is pretty much the foundation of all emo. Yet, I still really enjoy the Anniversary even though I never became an enthusiastic fan at the time. Yet, their songs are still solid at their base and definitely worth listening to anytime I want to think back to early 2002.


Designing a Nervous Breakdown era



Your Majesty era

A Pedestrian Post-Colonial Observation

Watching Toby Young on Top Chef the other day got me thinking. One common trope in reality television is the use of a panel of experts that judge a contestant's worth, eliminating one person every week. Within that trope, it's incredibly common to see at least one of the judges be English. I think everyone can name a few. This phenomenon isn't restricted to reality television, as television authority figures of all types come in the English persuasion. (A particularly curious sub-archetype often recalls a dominatrix, but that's a digression for another day.) However, English reality judges are the most common.

I think that the prevalence of these characters sheds light on an underlying patriarchal relationship between Americans and English. We've heard since we were born that they used to rule us, we used to be them, and that we broke away to be more independent, more rugged, and more free. But the English still held the mantle of taste, refinement, and pure blood, in contrast to our messy, crass melting pot. (I should note that, of course, I realize this isn't the reality, but just a perception dominant in mass culture. I love multi-culturalism and Britain is almost as heterogeneous as we are anyway.)

In our secondary role, we still aspire to access that thing long lost from our cultural heritage, the link to royalty and aristocracy through the English. They know what's best. They're our cultural parents. Every truly bourgeois family has links via the Mayflower the old country. So who's better to yell at us, belittle us, and show us exactly how short we have fallen from their lofty standards?

Rocky Road To Dublin

Rocky Road To Dublin is a documentary about Ireland in the '60s that I first saw at a screening during undergrad. It's more than worth watching for many reasons, and essential viewing if you have any interest in Ireland. Not only does it strike at the heart of the romantic Irish myth that permeates culture today, but it uses many techniques of the French New Wave - both interesting visually and substantively. The repression in the country at the time is palpable, and despite some heavy-handed commentary, the theme of forsaken revolution still remains relevant. You've seen the caricature of Ireland - so check out how it really was.

Furthermore, the film was banned in Ireland for 30 years and its screening at Cannes in 1968 was shut down in sympathy with the May '68 strikes. So that's kind of cool. Also, for geek appeal, you've got cameos by John Huston, Truffaut, and Godard. And Godard's the villain. Heh.

Unfortunately, Youtube's quality limitations trashes much of the film's nuance, but it at least gives you a taste of what the film's all about and whether you should take the trouble to import the DVD.

Film Proper:
Part 1/7 - Part 2/7 - Part 3/7 - Part 4/7 - Part 5/7 - Part 6/7 - Part 7/7

Making Of:
Part 1/3 - Part 2/3 - Part 3/3

Sometimes, I take emo too far

So I'm just thinking back this evening about J.D. Salinger. Like many, my first exposure to his work was in sophomore year of high school - the assignment of The Catcher In The Rye. I really took to J.D. and his work immediately, being the severe emo kid that I was. After that phase, I became a serious English major in college and dropped J.D. in exchange for more sophisticated and important authors. Then, maybe about a year or a little more ago, I became more interested in his work than ever.

I don't know what exactly caused it. Certain theories might include concerns about getting older (a common Salinger theme), degeneration of my critical capabilities (something I worry about every single day), or - maybe - a true appreciation of his ability to construct beautiful sentences that resound with truth.

Here're my favorite Salinger moments in my personal history:

• Making a photocopy of the elusive short story Hapworth 16, 1924 from the original copy of The New Yorker from Hesburgh Library for a girlfriend, complete with a rainbow-emblazoned cover made on Power Point. (At the time, I disliked that short story greatly, but perhaps I should check it out again.)
• Writing inspirational messages on my mirror with leftover shards of soap.
• Listening in horror to a friend's story of manufactured hatred toward Salinger - his sophomore year tests included review questions on the number of keys on Holden's typewriter or some other such pedantic bullshit.
• Admiring the dioramas in the Museum of Natural History with more than a little bit of meta-respect.
• Finally piecing together a comprehensive theory of the Glass family.
• Thinking about Salinger every time I think about the name of the degree you get at the end of law school. (J.D.)
  
• Checking out poets almost completely due to recommendations in Seymour: An Introduction.
  

I do adore pith

This guy, who clearly has detailed knowledge of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball franchise, has put together a description consisting of exactly six words on every major player related to the team. Some are better than others, but it's still an impressive accomplishment.

Shoot the Piano Player is such a gem

• It's a ridiculously well-rounded movie that hits every emotional tone while maintaining and overall playfulness and never diving into deep cynicism. There are suicides, murders, and tragedy, but its charm is relentless.
• It really doesn't seem like a movie that's less than 90 minutes long - and that's a really good thing.
• Obviously very new wave, but doesn't fall prey to the worst stereotypes of the genre.
• Lena is a true ride or die girl.
  
• I identify with Eduard Saroyan.
• A film whose villains carry a musical lighter has to be at least okay.
  

Says It All

I was going to write something like this, but I'm lazy and not very witty, while Nostalgia Chick is motivated, smart, funny, and owns video editing software.





I'm becoming increasingly enamored of this woman. Though, I should note that I hate the main guy on the website. And that I've never heard the song "Christmas Shoes."