20-minute playlist #3

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The extra videos are for you to listen to the music before you actually download the mp3s. Enjoy.

Jay Reatard - See/Saw (3:01min)

It's a shame this bro is gone. This track reminds me of the type of 'underground' pop some smart marketing exec would buy up to put into a commercial for some hip new company. Except thankfully this didn't happen and the pure fun of listening to the song remains intact without any force fed images of 'happy times' clouding your vision. I want to play this song for all my friends, real loud, and I want us to party to it. Let's do it.



You Say Party! We Say Die! - Laura Palmer's Prom (4:44min)

As much this song uses big elements- Bernard Sumner-y simplistic guitars, church organ synths, fat mid-tempo drums- the whole thing is held together and in check by some sweet vocals. It's great when a group knows how to hold the best part of a song just out of reach of the listener....until midway the song breaks out for 30-40 seconds then goes right back to that restrained feeling. Then in the final minute they give you the coda and you just feel like listening to the whole song over again. As the lyrics suggest this song is about striving, needing, reaching out. If you love someone, play this for them and sing the lyrics loud and clear. Tell them how great it feels to be with them.



Yuck - Georgia (3:40min)

When it starts you might think you're in the late-80's-early-90's again. Great male/female dueling vocals. The perfect amount of fuzzy distortion and then a perfectly singable chorus about a girl named Georgia. Whoever she is, this song makes me love her too. I have no doubt this band would be great to see live. Don't be tricked by their less than appealing name though.

Jonquil - Pillow Quest (3:50min)

I really noticed this song while reading a blog about graduate school. I'm patiently waiting to hear back from grad schools and right around the 2:20 minute mark this song goes into a build up so triumphant and transcendent that I could feel the utter happiness of receiving an acceptance letter from my top choice programs. It truthfully brought me to tears. If this song can estimate the emotion I would have about feeling so blissfully accomplished then I know it's good. You feel me?



Girls - Solitude (3:45min)

It makes perfect sense that this was the b-side to Album's best track. It has all the emotional depth of Hellhole Ratrace and it's even more listenable than that epic 7 minute love letter. What I picture here is a woodsy bar, middle aged people around smoking cigarettes and drinking beer. And in the middle of it all a young couple escaping it all, slow dancing their troubles away. They're poor and have nowhere to go but some day - "I'll settle down with you".



(18:59min)