This could’ve been a Friday Slide playlist, trademark Jam 88.3, I’m making this bummed out playlist instead. A missed opportunity at work due to some late capitalism assessment tool. Then, I have drive to work for at least two weeks (my carpool friend got himself “sanctioned”). Not that I don’t like driving. It’s the price of diesel, which is now higher than before the last “lockdown” (due to the Omicron/post-holidays upsurge) because, well, the Oil Deregulation Law, which favors ultra-fucking-rich oil companies over the ordinary jeepney drivers, commuters, and us. Anyway, onto the playlist. These are the songs I’d listen to when I’m kinda pissed.
The Old You
Did you ever have a friend / Who did much better than you had planned? It might be a stretch to say this is about the working class instead of guys recalling the glory days, when they were “world-proof,” but I like to think it that way. I mean I know people, friends, relatives, who are stuck doing low-paying jobs because they have not much choice. Man, I wish we are all “world-proof.”
Is She A Sign?
Is this a sign? Well, I was planning to update my resume anyway. Since last year. Before I went home from Iraq. Man, I feared for my life when the US troops killed Soleimani. And Iran fought back by bombing the US (Saddam’s former) base in Iraq. Some said it would’ve blown up into a war had not Covid happened. By the way, the song has nothing to do with all this. It’s about a toxic relationship, I guess.
Cataracts
Take a, take a chance, take a, take a, take a chance / Take a chance when you feel down / Take a, take a chance, take a, take a, take a chance / Take a chance when you feel down. This is probably one of the best unreleased, unfinished songs ever. Why it’s called “Cataracts”? Idk
Nigel
I don’t need you to have a lot a lot a lot of friends / And I don’t need you to have a lot a lot a lot of men C – Am – F – G# – C. Sorry, I only copied the lyrics and forgot to erase the chords. Anyway, I finally realized that this is about that boy bestfriend meme. ‘Yung “ayokong lalabas ka na nakasando na kita yung bra mo, ayokong maggagala ka nang sobrong igsi ng short mo at wala ka pang cycling, wag kang maggagala sa gabi na hindi ako kasama.” Jk. This is Malkmus/Pavement trying to sound British, maybe like The Beatles, that’s why he called it “Nigel,” because it’s a British name. A couple of years later, they would hire Nigel Godrich (the Radiohead producer, yes), to produce the worst Pavement record to date. It was awesome, by the way, Terror Twilight, their last album.
The Sutcliffe Catering Song
I don’t need a timekeeper, I don’t need an interlocutor / And baby, you look a little cuter day by day. Yes, Malkmus rhymes “interlocutor” with “baby, you look a little cuter.” Probably named after the Sutcliffe Hotel, maybe famous for wedding receptions and stuff.
I Will Survive
This is to counter all the defeatist or nonchalant attitude of the other songs.
Open Book
She’s writing she’s writing she’s writing a novel / She’s writing she’s weaving conceiving a plot / It quickens it thickens you can’t put it down now / It takes you it shakes you it makes you lose your thought. Probably the best song written about a writer, a novelist. And it’s probably based on Basic Instinct. You know, the movie most famous for Sharon Stone’s leg-uncrossing scene. One thing most people missed, is that it’s probably the best movie about a writer writing a novel that isn’t based on a Stephen King novel. Just kidding. The writer-murder-mystery part of the movie was fun, but the best part is… The sex scenes, of course.
And Then…
Vultures want to come on down / Run your problems, same old town / Baby I know what you wanna do / Lingerie is melting through your hands. This epic is 7-minute long, it’s mostly guitars, less lyrics, and gets by with a lumbering tempo. So, I Googled “lingerie melting through her hands” just to see if there are other songwriters who have come up with such a beautifully suggestive imagery, and here’s what turned up, edible lingerie for Valentine’s Day. (Well, I don’t know — eat organic, says one blog I read before, a blog about yoga and stuff.) And turns out, no, only Malkmus could come up with such wonderful lyrics.
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