Diversion 2.0 Thirty Day Song Challenge -- Day 29: Your Favorite Song By Your Favorite Artist

Fall Out Boy – “Grand Theft Autumn (Where Is Your Boy)”

Like I said in my first post, I’m a man of few favorites, but I feel confident in saying Fall Out Boy is my absolute favorite band. A winning blend of punk rock simplicity, hardcore-influenced intensity, and soaring pop melodies, Fall Out Boy is an absolute beast of a group, and perhaps one of the most influential bands of modern pop-punk and emo. Their style is often imitated, but never duplicated, with acts like The Academy Is, Panic at the Disco, and many others capturing only a portion of their appeal.

If I were to guess why, I’d say that Fall Out Boy’s distinct and exciting sound comes from the band’s individual members. Bassist Pete Wentz’s ironic, clever-for-clever’s-sake lyrical styles have been done by other acts, but married to vocalist Patrick Stump’s straight-ahead delivery, they manage to sound witty without the smirky edge that drag down my enjoyment of other emo groups. Guitarist Joe Troughman adds flair to the usual four-chords-to-freedom pop punk structure, and drummer Andy Hurley gives each song a massive punch of energy through airtight drum lines and spaz-fills.

“Grand Theft Autumn” is from Fall Out Boy’s major label debut, Take This To Your Grave, and was my very first FOB song, which I found on a sampler I got from the 2004 Warped Tour. Other Fall Out Boy songs are more aggressive, have catchier melodies, or have more interesting instrumentation, but “Grand Theft Autumn” has the best combination of everything I like about FOB in one neat little package. Everything about this song is wonderful to me: the earnest, not-super-clever lyrics, the small guitar bits that paint the corners of the song’s sound, and the infinitely singable chorus.As an introduction to the group, it’s phenomenal, and one of my favorite songs to date.

Diversion 2.0 Thirty Day Song Challenge -- Day 28: Your Favorite Song This Time Last Year

Lady Gaga – “Alejandro"

I know what you must be thinking: “Andrew, what the crap is up with all of this Gaga?” An excellent question, and one that I ask myself nearly every day. I can answer this one, though: around this time last year, I was still coasting on my “Out for life!” mindset, and wanted only to rock all night and party e-va-ry day. What a fortunate time, then, for Lady Gaga’s brand of heedless, European dance music to be dominating the airwaves.

Also during this time last year, an amazing kerfuffle was starting to surround Lady Gaga’s next music video for “Alejandro.” Since “Paparazzi,” Gaga’s music videos had exited the typical “song intercut with a story” structure of music videos and had, instead, started to tread the ground of “Thriller,” where the actual song is ancillary to the visages and general weird s@$# that happens during the eight-to-ten minutes of running time. “Telephone” absolutely drove this notion home, and since the entire nation seemed to be going gaga (ha) over the young New Yorker, anticipation for her new video was reaching a fever pitch, including an appearance on Larry King where Gaga teased a small clip from the upcoming phantasmagoria of sight, sound, and other things that kids consider while waiting in bed on Christmas Eve.

The video, of course, was a bit of a letdown, but it was during this need for more info that I fully started to appreciate “Alejandro”’s sonic subtleties. Things like the off-time, pulsing synthesizers, or the three different competing melodies during the chorus. To top it all off, I had discovered a sweet mashup of “Alejandro” and Ace Of Bace’s “Don’t Turn Around,” which I adored both out of novelty and because it was rather well put-together.

To be honest, I can’t remember the exact favorite song I had at this time last year (though I had a list), but “Alejandro” was probably the closest I can come to guessing.

Diversion 2.0 Thirty Day Song Challenge -- Day 27: A Song You Discovered After Everyone Else

As I’ve mentioned in numerous previous posts, prior to just a few years ago, the world of classic rock was one big enigma to me. I’d hear a little INXS here or some Boston there, but, in general, I was ignorant of any guitar-based music older than grunge. As such, most rock “staples” from the 70’s and 80’s went largely unheard by me, leading to more than a few instances of excitedly telling my friends about a song they had literally grown up with. Today’s entry is about one such song.

Journey – “Don’t Stop Believin’”

There are times when you’re late to the party, and there are times when it’s just damn embarrassing. I discovered “Don’t Stop Believin’” during my freshman year of college during a play rehearsal. The play in question was a musical, and a piano was kept onstage as accompaniment for the cast members. During a bit of downtime, one of the actors showed off a bit by playing a few songs, to the general delight of the rest of the cast. I knew the first song he played—“Piano Man”—but was absolutely baffled at the next, piano-heavy tune he started, and was even more shocked when literally everyone in the house started singing along. “Just a small town girl,” shouted the men and women to my side, as though this song had somehow usurped the national anthem and they were singing along out of patriotism, “living in a lonely wo-orld!” I was frozen to my chair, bewildered at how so many people could know the lyrics to what obviously must be a rather obscure song, because I certainly hadn’t heard it before.

Later, I found out how borderline infamous the song was, and felt a bit silly.

Since my fateful run-in with Journey’s anthem to streetlights and people living just to find emotion, “Don’t Stop Believin’” has apparently taken the fast track to latter-day popularity, gaining a large following in the late 2000’s due to digital downloads and its use in various movies and TV shows. So much the better. “Don’t Stop Believin’” is a tremendous song, and perhaps one of the best group sing-along songs I’ve had the privilege to hoarsely shout along with.

Diversion 2.0 Thirty Day Song Challenge -- Day 26: A Great Song You Just Discovered

Discovering new music has always been tricky for me. Mostly it’s because I’m picky; I have certain types of music I enjoy, and it’s tough to find a bunch of bands that play the exact shade of energetic pop punk or slightly old-school hip hop that scratches my sonic itch. Not only that, most of my Bozeman friends are into heavier music and don’t think much of the power pop thing; I certainly can appreciate new material from As I Lay Dying or A Day To Remember, but they’re not what makes up the bulk of my CD wallet. I try to gather my newest findings into my Testermix series of compilation albums (which I will probably have to write about at some point), but most of the roster is made up of material I discovered at least one month ago from today.

That said, this entry is about a song that I’ve heard before, but only really registered with me a few days ago.

Lady GaGa – “Yoü and I”

Back in late May, I was underwhelmed by the material released from Lady GaGa’s forthcoming album, Born This Way. “Born This Way” never showed in charms to me in a non-club setting, the melody for “Judas” is a bit out there for me (though the “Ju-DAS, Ju-DA-AH-AH!” is still relentlessly fascinating), and “Edge of Glory” only slightly recaptures the magic of “Alejandro,” “Telephone,” and “Monster.” I still had hopes, though, and decided to buy it before road tripping to Idaho for a friend’s wedding. The album had a few too many self-esteem-boosting tracks for my liking, and I wasn’t able to find any further bangers during my time with it.

Fast-forward four weeks. I got off of work to receive an unpleasant surprise: my bike had contracted a flat tire, and I needed to walk the three miles back home. On the way home, I decided to play Born This Way again, just to see if my opinion of it would improve. Perhaps it was because my house was in sight, or because it was so different from anything else GaGa has ever done, but I was absolutely taken by “Yoü and I” in a way that I do not remember from my initial listen nearly a month ago.

There are a few reasons why this song is digging me like a backhoe right now. I love the bluesy feel to this song, and the Southern rock-inspired guitar licks that give the song its edge. I also like the lyrical content of “Yoü and I”; it’s a straight-up, twangy, Southern rock song, about a woman who had a dysfunctional but working relationship with a guy she calls Nebraska, and how she’s come to get him back. Most of all, though, I love the soaring melody that comes during the bridge. GaGa stays pretty low key for most of the song, making her mid-song shot for the moon all the more satisfying.

“Yoü and I” is fairly atypical for Lady GaGa, and I would be rather surprised if it turned into a single (though it did chart at number 36 for one week in June due to digital downloads), but fans of blues, Southern rock, or songs with great melodic release should give it a chance.

Diversion 2.0 Thirty Day Song Challenge -- Day 25: A Cover Song That Ravages the Original

In today’s modern, self-aware music scene, song covers are running rampant like never before. YouTube provides a soapbox for more homegrown attempts, and some record labels have even developed a whole series based on bands covering other bands. Some are fun twists on old favorites, while others go to great lengths to remain faithful to the original.

Then there are some like this.

Nickelback featuring Kid Rock and Dimebag Darrell – “Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting)”

I will give them this: conceptually, Nickelback and Kid Rock, two of America’s most proudly white trash songwriters, are pretty faithful to Elton John’s original intent of a working class good time getting rowdy at the bars. But criminy, we all know how I feel about Nickelback, and I’ll be damned if Kid Rock doesn’t sweeten the pot with his patented brand of sweat-stained wife beaters and tobacco juice.

As always, the main buzzkill for this song is Chad Kroeger and his weird, snarly, almost-singing voice. It’s definitely a personal problem on my part; after all, lots of people actually like the sound of this big doofus. For me, though, I can’t get past his throaty, yelp-y style of singing, which is reminiscent of someone tearing a sheet of paper in half at about 120 decibels.

The instrumentation in this song is reasonably appreciable, and certainly sounds more aggressively like a bar fight than EJ’s, but I’m not a fan of the key Nickelback chose to play it in. The whole song sounds higher than it should be, especially since Kroeger comes off as singing way higher than he’s comfortable with, and the track never quite settles into any sort of groove. Kid Rock is also here to lend his vocal talent… moving on.

Like I said, I’m generally at odds with the southern-fried, blue collar styling of both Nickelback and Kid Rock, so the notion of them graffiti-tagging over one of my favorite recently-discovered songs doesn’t sit well with me at all. Fortunately, this rendition of “Saturday Night” was only found on the Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle soundtrack and certain copies of Nickelback’s The Long Road, making hearing it in the wild rather unlikely.