Artist: Weezer
Song: The Greatest Man That Ever Lived
Album: The Red Album
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Why this song is awesome:
This is Weezer’s Bohemian Rhapsody. ‘Nuff said.
Artist: The Dear Hunter
Song: In Cauda Venenum
Album: Act III - Life and Death
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This song makes me feel like running around and destroying things, like a caged ape. In fact, it literally turns me into a caged ape. Like werewolves do with full moons.
Oh no, my palms are sprouting fur! I’m getting a huge craving for bananas. I’m beating my chest for some reason.
Ah, I can’t stop it from ksajfdfjsj ooo ooooooo oooo EEEE OOOOOOO OOOOOOOOO EEEEEE OOOOOO
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Kickass lyrics:
In the cradle we’re helpless, but on our feet we are fatal / How we evolve and grow into twisted beasts with a desire for disorder.
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Check out another one of their great tracks, Mustard Gas, done acoustically. It shows of how intimate, but powerful Casey Crescenzo’s voice can really be.
Artist: Queen
Song: Don’t Stop Me Now
Album: Jazz
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Why this song is awesome:
I don’t want a funeral. They’re too sad. Instead, I plan to have my dead body dressed up like Superman and thrown out of a plane into the Atlantic. Nevertheless, if I did have a funeral this is the song that’d I’d have them play.
Freddie’s opening sentiment is so uplifting, it’s hard not to smile when I hear it:
Tonight I’m gonna have myself a real good time / I feel alive / and the world is turning inside out / I’m floating around in ecstasy / So don’t stop me now / ‘cause I’m havin’ a good time
These lines perfectly capture those fleeting, wonderful moments in life where you’re on top of the world and nothing can touch you. Not even death. When Freddie wrote these lyrics, he had no idea he would eventually die of AIDS. But I’m sure he appreciated how precious life was, and the only thing worth doing with it is enjoying it while you can.
That’s why when the manager of my local buffet starts to yell at me “Sir! Sir! You’ve had twelve helpings, please leave”, I just say “don’t stop me now’ and skip my ass back down to the hot plates. I’m sure that eventually they’ll have my picture up in their security office under the word ‘banned,’ but until then, I’ll keep having myself a real good time.
Band: Silverchair
Song: Those Thieving Birds (Part 1)/ Strange Behaviour / Those Thieving Birds (Part 2)
Album: Young Modern
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Why this song is awesome:
Songs are special for the same reason that people are special: they surprise you. This song sounds like nothing you’d expect from Silverchair. A haunting melody, an enormous echo on the bass drum, and harmonies that still give me chills.
Remember when every girl in grade 8 went nuts for Daniel Johns? I was jealous then, and I’m jealous now. I wish I could write a line as beautiful as “Those leaving words / Hang strong from an emptiness.” That’s the kind of shit that keeps pre-teen girls up late at night.
