After a relatively brief (on a cosmic timescale) hiatus, we’re back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Pearl Jam – Off He Goes
Genre: Acoustic-led alt-rock
Feeling: Reconnection
Friends come and go. It’s a common motif of our lives, so we tell ourselves. Eddie Vedder apparently (according to wikipedia) wrote this song as an apology for being a “shit” friend, coming and going out of his friends lives as he saw fit. I’m sure there’s a deeper element to this story, but if I’m one of his friends, I’m going to give the guy a pass–”I was on a world tour selling out stadiums” is a valid excuse in my book for missing a birthday party.
…
I love every line of this song. The lyrics drive the tune as much as the poignantly picked acoustic and electric guitars:
“Know a man his face seemed pulled and tense
Like he’s riding on a motorbike in the strongest winds
So I approach with tact
Suggest that he should relax”
…
“And now he’s home, and we’re laughing, like we always did
My same old, same old friend
Until a quarter-to-ten“
The Mattson 2 – “Give Inski’s” (feat. Tommy Guererro)
Genre: jazz-indie instrumental progressive jam (JIIPJ for short)
Feeling: fleeing from something gnarly
Riding a bike is dangerous. Riding a bike in a congested city is more dangerous. Weaving through traffic in Boston is down right sublime. I’m not saying I’ve done that while listening to this exhilarating instrumental from identical twins turned jazz-rock jam group The Mattson 2, but I think it would be the ideal soundtrack for showing your rump to disgruntled commuters stuck in the perpetual standstill of a colonial city’s clogged arteries.
Lyrics: N/A
Allah-Las – “Polar Onion”
Genre: bodysurf rock
Feeling: looking across the sands of time, and guess what? it’s lookin’ right back
I share a spotify playlist with my brother called “Rustic and Incoherent”–songs that would belong in another era were it not for the unintelligible lyrics mumble-sung by the lead singer. “Polar Onion” by these LA surf rockers fits squarely in the playlist. If you are able to decipher the lyrics, I think you’ll be even more hard pressed to figure out the psychedelic maze that is their meaning.
Deciphering aside, the song has both drive and a laid back feel–one can rock their head while stretched out on the couch listening to this tune. It has all the makings of a great driving song; it allows you to engage your surroundings in that grainy, sepia-splashed vision that we use to color America’s vast ex-urban landscapes.
