Tape Deck Tuesday Playlist: Meowsic Makes Me Lose Control

Created By: Nicholas Pjevach

Beyoncé–Imma let you finish, but New Kids on the Block, Disney characters, Warren Moon, 2000 local children, and an audience card stunt had the best Super Bowl (XXV) halftime show of all time—has claimed that girls run the world, but we all really know it is cats. From Grumpy Cat, to a (sadly fake) crying confession of feline love, to woo potential soul-mates, to joining Homo Sapiens on two legs, to the Walker Art Center’s Internet Cat Video Film Festival, to Caturday, it is clear dogs are not really man’s best friend, at least on the Internet. To honor all of this, my roommate Nichole and I have created the amazing playlist below. We hope you purr in delight.

Shouts out to Hobbes, Garfield, Mr. Bigglesworth, CatDog, Puss in Boots, Figaro, Crookshanks, Salem, Stimpy, Thundercats, Snowball, Aristocats, Cat in the Hat, Pink Panther, the Sphinx, Tom, Snagglepuss, Josie & the Pussycats,  Felix the Cat, Tigger, Cat Stevens, Sylvester, Hello Kitty, Cheshire Cat, Simba, Si and Am, Heathcliff, Sagwa, Mr. Jinx, Meowth, and KEKE THE BASED CAT FOR MAKING HISTORY WITH HER PROUD FRIEND LIL B #tybc

Tracklist:

1. BASED ANIMALS THE LEGEND LIL B’S BASED KAT “KEKE”
2. KeKe The Adopted Tabby Cat MAKES HISTORY! FIRST ANIMAL IN HIP HOP! FEAT LIL B !!!
3. Lick Yrself Clean – LCD Catsystem
4. Cat People (Putting Out Fire) – David Bowie
5. Cat Daddy – Rej3ctz
6. Opposites Attract – Paula Abdul
7. Orion’s Belt – Kitty Pryde and Riff Raff
8. KiTTy CaT SoNG
9. Tommy The Cat – Primus
10. Cat Scratch Fever – Ted Nugent
11. Cat’s in the Cradle – Harry Chapin
12. What’s New Pussycat – Tom Jones
13. Boots and Cats
14. Crystal Cat – Dan Deacon
15. Meow – Anamanaguchi
16. Play Him Off, In This Club (Usher vs. Keyboard Cat) – The Hood Internet
17. Nyan Cat 10 hours (original)

Monday Feature: What POP ETC has taught me about true love

When POP ETC, formerly “the morning benders”, announced a name change, they paired it with a complete overhaul of their sound, alluding to a philosophy of organic development as both people and musicians. Fans of the morning benders were inevitably polarized, many welcoming the band’s new sound and image with arms outstretched. While others clamored in disbelief, accusing the band of “selling out” and becoming just another carbon copy of existing bands marked by an electro-pop sound, the use of synths, and rhythms best attributed to the ’80s. But despite the backlash they encountered, POP ETC did nothing to compromise their new image; there were no apologies, no catering to nay-sayers, nothing that showed any sign of wanting to take two steps back to make everyone happy. For a lot of people, the love affair they’d had with the morning benders was over. But the beauty about not being able to please every single person is that no matter where you end up or who you become, someone’s going to share your happiness anyway, and those people become your champions, the ones who don’t yank you backward through the threshold but who nudge you forward in the direction of where you want to go next. True love is a lot like that, from start to infinity.

Falling in love with a band is just like entering into the formation stages of a romantic relationship. The novelty grips you, you fill your waking hours with revolution upon revolution of your favorite record, waiting for the needle to drop, signaling another chapter of your love affair. In almost no time at all, you’re joined at the hip – just you and this record and every song whose melody lulls you to sleep or invokes a sentimentality you’re too smitten to shake. Every lyric is a reassurance, every crescendo becomes carnal, and every fadeout another promise. Whether or not you recognize it, this record, this snapshot of where this band is at this point in time, has already marked you, and you ease into the comfort of believing in something long lasting, if not eternal. And in a lot of ways, what you have with this music is permanent, because what is true love anyway if not timeless and steady?

This summer I woke up one morning and listened to POP ETC’s Yours Truly Session in which they presented a very stripped rendition of “Keep It For Your Own”, only to affirm the notion that less can really be more if you know which parts are worth keeping and which are better left out. In prefacing this performance and expounding on the band’s transition from the grittiness of the morning benders to the electronic vibrancy of POP ETC, front man Chris Chu declares with a soft-spoken earnestness that being able to make this kind of music is the only way he can be honest. He looks to the success of 2010’s Big Echo, in particular to the immortality of the song “Excuses”, and embraces everything it’s brought him and the band. But he’s quick to remind us that though such a remarkably lush track enabled listeners to identify so strongly with the morning benders’ music, it was never the be-all and end-all of their career or of their self-fulfillment. It comes down to change – the need for change and the need to recognize that even if you’ve found a really good thing and it works for you, there’s no reason to stop growing or to throw in the towel and say, “Alright, let’s call it a day.”

So when things start veering off in another direction, it’s not necessarily a cause for alarm. This band made this record for you as much as they made it for themselves. They offered up a piece of themselves so someone like you could learn to love what they’ve created, but when you fall in love (and maybe this is it), whatever it was you fell in love with in the first place is no guarantee of what’s to come in the future. With music, as with love, you have to accept that everyone has their time to change, and ultimately, to grow. We’re all just trying to do the best we can with what we have in a valiant effort to become more ourselves, to be as honest as we can possibly be to the kind of person we are, the kind of person we want to be. If we can give ourselves that, the kind of happiness we’re looking for won’t have to come in the form of validation from someone else, be it a stranger or someone more; it comes from within, and when shared, it comes back twofold.

It’s useless and tiresome to try to cling too tightly to something, denying its propensity to change, because you gain more from loving openly and unconditionally than from being restrictive. The transformation POP ETC have undergone has shown me how to love someone better, be it a band or a relative or even a soul mate, and how to stop being so resistant to the kind of change the person we love needs. If anything, that person will have you to thank, will think of you in the brightest light, and will keep you even closer. It’s worth the risk, the push out the door and in the right direction, because for every person who walks out after you refuse to apologize for what makes you happy, there’s someone trailing close behind who applauds what you do and who loves you all the better for wanting to be someone better.

Mood-O-Meter

I was trying to use an app on spotify that makes playlists for you based on your mood. They’re bad obviously (personally I don’t want to listen to Cher when I’m feeling romantic), so I thought I can maybe do this better. Of course I only have a few, you’ll notice angsty, depressed, trippin b*llz, rainy, shame spiral, and many others are missing so feel free to leave an emoticon with a corresponding song.

MOOD: I want something soulful, no synthy bleepy bloops or bass drops for me today

Alabama Shakes- Hold On

MOOD: I want synthy, bleepy bloopy electronic awesomeness

STS9- Scheme (From the EP When the Dust Settles)

MOOD: It’s winter so I wanna chill with some instrumentals but it’s still gotta be jazzy so I can be upbeat while I’m writing in my moleskine

Ljones- ArtOfficial Strawberries (download the album Soul Below for free from Bandcamp)

MOOD: I’m super/semi/relatively happy today and I want to dance and sing to myself in the mirror

Surfer Blood- I’m Not Ready

MOOD: Why am I so behind on new music?!!! What’sthekoolbuzzbandIHAVEtoknowbeforeEVERYONE?!!

Night Moves- Headlights (They’re from MN and just signed to Domino Records!)

Justin Vernon IS NOT from MN

If you read about my shame spiral earlier in the week, shame spiral no more my friends. However, I did spend another sleepless night writing a TV criticism paper. This also happens to be the week I discovered I picked the wrong major.

Anyway, despite the sleeplessness and some other somber events this week, I’m grateful it’s Friday and I’m here to enjoy it and wanted to share some happiness with you too.

• Thought Catalog. If you’ve never read it before it provides comic relief and mutual understanding for stressed, dysfunctional 20 somethings. When you read it you actually LOLZ because you totes relate to what they’re talking about. Good reads this week include: 10 Things 90s Kids Will Have To Explain To Their Children, What’s Happening To My Body? Book For Girls, and The Unfit For Social Interaction Generation.
• Just discovered Fraggle Rock is on Netflix Instant Play and Clone High is on Project Free TV- Nostalgia BOMB
• Franzia in a can? I’m pretty sure my friend lied to me on this one. Can anyone confirm or deny this?
• BON IVER! Uploaded simply breathtaking videos on YouTube to accompany the songs on the self titled album. Hollywood Reporter BTW inaccurately cited JV as being from MN. What’s up with that doods?!! ;{D

 

Shame Spiral? Climb Out Now!!

After having an unusually unproductive holiday weekend, I retreated into my bed turned desk to finally crank out a paper. Consequently, waiting until the last possible minute caused me to pull an all nighter and produce a ridiculously horrible film analysis. So to overcome suffering through an immense shame spiral (seriously, I got nauseous thinking about it today) I’ve been indulging in some music finds to ease the pain/embarrassment.

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