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Grave Songs : Lee Gilmore
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 Zoot Woman - "Automatic" Pulp - "Party Hard" The Smiths - "What Difference Does It Make?" Goldfrapp - "Lovely Head" Morrissey - "Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself" Adam Ant - "Dog Eat Dog" Beastie Boys - "Intergalactic" Zao - "Praise the War Machine" Daft Punk - "Around the World" Notorious B.I.G. - "Mo Money Mo Problems" Johnny Cash - "Jackson" Beck - "Nobody's Fault But My Own" |
The scenario: Today's the day you are going to die. You walk into a saloon that contains a jukebox with every song known to man. What would you want to hear on your last day? In no particular order, here are my Grave Songs. [ Download Mix ] [ Download High Res Cover Art ] 01. Zoot Woman - "Automatic" - Album: Living In A Magazine I had only been living in Los Angeles a handful of weeks when a friend of mine showed me a director's reel for Mike Mills. After seeing the video he did for "Automatic" I was pretty much instantly hooked. I love this song because it reminds me of that invulnerable/sky's the limit feeling you get when you move to a new city. 02. Pulp - "Party Hard" - Album: This Is Hardcore I actually remember where I was standing the first time I heard Pulp. I was in my bedroom in Nashville when my roommate, Josh Walker, walked in with Pulp's "This Is Hardcore" album and cued up "Party Hard". They were the sexiest, most blatant, tempting, dangerous thing I had ever heard. In turn they gave me this very new, very bizarre sexual self-confidence. The need to spread the gospel of Pulp to the ladies of Nashville became most urgent. 03. The Smiths - "What Difference Does It Make" - Album: Hatful of Hollow Johnny Marr's opening guitar here just destroys me. It's carries such a teasing, flirtatious, and arrogant vibe which perfectly sums up The Smiths. The cadence with which Morrissey sings the lines "...but still I'd leap in front of a flying bullet for you" is probably my favorite lyrical riff in the entire Smiths catalog. 04. The Lassie Foundation - "Dive Bomber" - Album: Pacifico Lassie was a super group made up ex-members of The Violet Burning, Starflyer 59, and The Prayer Chain. I was at a show in Birmingham when a friend gave me a demo tape of the "Pacifico" album before all the lotion had been applied to it. I listened to it three times in a row on the way back to Nashville that night. It was the only tape I've ever played and passed around so much that it eventually crumbled to dust. One of my top five albums ever. 05. The Proclaimers - "Then I Met You" - Album: Sunshine On Leith I knew of this song for a good many years and never really gave it much attention. After meeting my wife though this song took on unprecedented life and relevance. Lyrically it just sums up every single emotion I felt the minute before and the minute after I met her. 06. Goldrapp - "Lovely Head" - Album: Felt Mountain I was in Chicago visiting my friend Fashion Dave when I randomly bought this on a whim without any idea of who they were. I wasn't able to listen to it though till I was taking off on a plane a few days later. Talk about the perfect timing of music and reality syncing up. If I were to ever be in a band, this would be the one. The haunted fairytale theme of "Felt Mountain" just owns. 07. Morrissey - "Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself" - Album: Vauxhall and I The first time I heard Morrissey I went out the same day and bought seven of his records. Seven. And no I don't have OCD. I don't know what it is about this song, but it so perfectly sums up a such a rough, emotional, intense part of my life during the late '90's. It's completely soothing and dreamlike. Best when listened to while driving at night, preferbly during the fall months.. 08. George Jones - "We Can Make It" - Album: Anniversary My love of this song is based 100% on the fact that I am obsessed with how George Jones belts out his lyrics. He has one of my favorite voices of all time and is the absolute master of heart wrenching, tears in my bear, love songs. 09. Adam Ant - "Dog Eat Dog" - Album: Antics In The Forbidden Zone I really liked Adam Ant's songs, but what made me love them was the man himself. He was a completely over the top, theatrical, new romantic, as well as borderline insane. It felt like his mix-matched persona of equal parts Pirate, Indian, and Road Agent were tailored specifically for my tastes. And those drums! His live version of this song just kills, especially the ending. Watch the video! 10. Beastie Boys - "Intergalactic" - Album: Hello Nasty I am by no stretch of the imagination a Beastie Boys fan. In fact the only songs I ever like of theirs end up being their singles. But there is something about "Intergalactic" that just does it for me. It is physically impossible for me to listen to this song and not have some part of my body keeping time. 11. Zao - "Praise the War Machine" - Album: The Funeral of God This one sort of sticks out from the rest due it's harder than average nature. Everyone has one song they play when they are either miffed, getting pumped up, or driving on the 101. This is mine. 12. Daft Punk - "Around the World" - Album: Homework This is another song that just can't help but get you moving. There isn't a ton going on musically and yet it is beyond infectious. I have gone entire afternoons with this on repeat. Super fun song. 13. Notorious B.I.G. - "Mo Money Mo Problems" - Album: Life After Death Such a ridiculous song, but just plain fun. This one is permenantly attached to my sophomore year in college. It's the one song that when it comes on all my friends go, "Ohhhhhhh!" and we then make complete fools of ourselves trying to rap along. I just can't turn it off.... "Federal agents mad cause I'm flagrant, tap my cell and the phone in the basement!" 14. MAKE-UP - "Save Yourself" - Album: Save Yourself "Save Yourself" is just plain old aural foreplay. It has this great, intense buildup and then releases with such a great guitar around the 2:19 mark. The one live show I saw them play at The End in Nashville was just unbelievable with singer Ian Svenonius crawling around on top of the audience singing, "...you're my Dr.Frankenstien...oh yeah!". 15. Johnny Cash & June Carter - "Jackson" - Album: Essential Johnny Cash How hard was it to narrow it down to one Johnny Cash song? Sick hard. There is just simply not enough you can say about the guy. I love this song cause it's so obvious it had to have been based on some fight they must have had. It's such an honest feeling song. 16. Beck - "Nobody's Fault But My Own" - Album: Mutations This is one of the saddest songs I have ever heard. The instrumentation is completely beautiful and just throws you into a total head space. It feels like it should be a good twenty years older than it actually is. There are fistfuls of great songs from Beck, but when his name is mentioned this is the first one I think about. 17. The Dandy Warhols - "Good Morning" - Album: Come Down I bought this CD at a Starbucks in Chicago of all places. I was waiting for a friend to get done with school so I had a whole afternoon to kill. I went through the entire album on my discman while walking through the Museum of Contemporary Art by myself. It was an absolute blast. This track kind of summizes all the greatest parts of the Dandys. 18. Jerry Reed - "The Likes Of Me" - Album: Country Legends I have no idea why I even went into the store, but a few Christmas' back I wandered into a mom & pop country music store hidden in a pretty vacant outlet mall in Wentzville, MO aka the sticks. I found a greatest hits record for Jerry Reed. All I knew about Jerry was that he did the "Eastbound & Down" which I really liked in a novelty type of way. Reed completely brainwashed me after purchasing that CD though. I hadn't bought that many CDs by one artist in such a short time since back in the Morrissey days. I listened to nothing but 70's country for about three years after that. Thematically this song just sums up Jerry Reed so well. 19. Boards of Canada - "Kid For Today" - Album: In A Beautiful Place... Many years ago my friend Brett suggested that I should try out Boards of Canada as background music while I was painting. That might go down as the best advice I have ever been given. BOC is the ultimate relaxing, chill musical escape. The EP this track comes off of is just beyond, beyond amazing. 20. The Velvet Underground - "Candy Says" - Album: The Velvet Underground I had never heard The Velvet Underground until I started working on an Andy Warhol documentary while in film school. They just seem to sum up that whole time period so, so well. It was still not till about a year later that I actually purchased a record of theirs. The Velvet Underground was just about the only thing I listened to when I lived in Koreatown. It's just such "I'm living in a messed up city" music. For more mix action, visit The Lantern Waste Company |
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©® 2006 - All copyrights belong to their respective writers / publishers / etc. Used without permission. (but I encourage you to BUY anything you like) - Artists, if you want your song removed I would be happy to contact me at hollowlift at mac dot com. I am not doing this in an encouragement to not buy your music, this is a celebration of your music and a small sampling to show people what they need to buy. This template is straight jacked from yewknee.com. Go say hi to him.
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