::Lasties Week:: Of Montreal - Authentic Pyrrhic Remission

Of Montreal are one of the weirdest bands out there. If you have not heard of them and like trippy, soul, pop, dance, art-rock, erotic disco music then I would check them out. Kevin Barnes is the creative force behind them writing and recording most of the instruments himself. He enlists the help of about 8 friends for support and live performances, which by the way are just as weird and trippy as the music.

This song is from their upcoming album Paralytic Stalks out on February 7. It is a 13 minute closer starting off with a funky, upbeat carnival of sounds. Then five minutes into it or so, it starts to morph into something else. There is a bridge of feedback and ambient noise and it finally dies out to a vocal and piano part that is just beautiful. It ends the album with a sigh, either of relief, relaxation or depression, I'm not quite sure. Nevertheless, an awesome closer.

I can't find any lyrics yet, since this isn't out yet so you'll have to get out a pen and paper and write them all down. Then send them to me. Do my work for me.

::Lasties Week:: Incubus - Aqueous Transmission

This one goes waaayyyy back for me. This is like a Brandon Musical Time Capsule, so if it seems out of place that's why. Gotta represent my roots I suppose. Incubus used to be one of my favorite bands and I have to admit that every now and then I listen to a few of their songs.

This one is from Morning View. This album signified a change for them into a more mellowed out sound and this song is a perfect example of mellowing out. Relaxing, Japanese-themed music sends you adrift down a river made of pillows, blankets and sleeping pills.

I'm floating down a river
Oars freed from their holds long ago
Lying face up on the floor of my vessel
I marvel at the stars
And feel my heart overflow
Further down the river
Further down the river
Further down the river
Further down the river
Two weeks without my lover
I'm in this boat alone
Floating down a river named emotion
Will I make it back to shore
Or drift into the unknown

Further down the river
Further down the river
Further down the river
Further down the river

I'm building an antenna
Transmissions will be sent when I am through
Maybe we could meet again further down the river
And share what we both discovered...
Then revel in the view

Further down the river
Further down the river
Further down the river
Further down the river

I'm floating down a river
I'm floating down a river
I'm floating down a river
I'm floating down a river

::Lasties Week:: Portugal. The Man - 1989/Our Way

Well since last week was Firsties, this week'll be Lasties. Seems logical, yeah? Anyway, these songs wrap up albums like a big fat punctuation mark. Be it a period, a comma, an exclamation point or some made up form of punctuation, they leave you with a satisfied sense of culmination and completion. It makes you feel like you accomplished something (but in actuality you just spent 30 minutes to an hour eating Cheezits and listening to music).





I'm going to start this week off with one of my favorite bands and the band that I just realized is the best band when it comes to closing albums. I had a hard time with picking a PTM song for this list because almost every album ends on the most perfect song. I ended up picking this one because I think its from their most artistic album, their magnum opus so to speak.

"1989/Our Way" is from Censored Colors and every time I listen to it I get the sense that I've just returned from some journey and am reliving it with a group of friends and family. Sort of retelling the tale and breathing a sigh of relief around a campfire. And for some reason there are a bunch of circus animals shooting off fireworks and giraffes blowing on those little party whistle things. Also there are bikini-clad women doing backflips. Hey its my fantasy, leave me alone.

I was born in nineteen eighty-nine
All we could do
No shakes or coughs or burst relief
Or lists of all our things
Just minutes making minds
I was born in nineteen eighty-nine
All we could do
But the making never made
The comers never came
But I still felt the awful news

It was patience that we had
And the miles we had left
That held us there
Until we could let go

I was born in nineteen eighty-nine
And it'll be over soon
No moon children or peoples sun
Or ringing in my ears
When I felt that awful news

But we found that we were always lost... in space
And we will never find our way
We felt that we would always find our way
If our minds ever come around

I was born in nineteen eighty-nine
All we could do
Not in birth or body
But only in our minds
I was shaking to through my eyes
And living through each breath
I still felt that awful news

::Firsties Week:: The Decemberists - The Infanta

The Decemberists are a band that refuse to exist in one time. They're songs touch on themes of rastabouts, wayward ship captains and Victorian love affairs and each one seems to be pulled right out of a dusty old classic novel. Needless to say they're unique.

"The Infanta" is from the album Picaresque and starts it off with a grand parade, celebrating the birth of a royal child. The song begins with a low rumbling and a horn signifying the approaching "folderol." And then the parade enters and excitement, confetti and cannon-fire fill the air. The music is middle-eastern, grand and adventurous sounding. You gotta hand it to Colin Meloy's vocabulary. I'm almost certain this is the only song ever that uses the lyric "among five-score pachyderm each canopied and passengered, sits the duke and his duchesses luscious young girls."

Here she comes in her palanquin
on the back of an elephant
on a bed made of linen and sequins and silk
all astride on her father's line
with the king and his concubines
and her nurse with her pitchers of liquors and milk
and we'll all come praise the infanta
and we'll all come praise the infanta

Among five score pachyderm
each canopied and passengered
sit the duke and the duchess' luscious young girls
within sight of the baroness
seething spite for this lithe largesse
by her side sits the baron
her barrenness barbs her
and we'll all come praise the infanta
and we'll all come praise the infanta

A phalanx on camelback
thirty ranks on a forward tack
followed close, their shiny bright standards a-waving
while behind in their coach-and-fours
ride the wives of the king of Moors
And the veiled young virgin, the prince's betrothed
and we'll all come praise the infanta
and we'll all come praise the infanta

And as she sits upon her place
her innocence laid on her face
from all atop the parapets blow a multitude of coronets
melodies rhapsodical and fair
and all our hearts afire
the sky ablaze with cannon fire
we all raise our voices to the air
to the air...

And above all this folderol
on a bed made of chaparral
she is laid, a coronal placed on her brow
and the babe, all in slumber dreams
of a place filled with quiet streams
and the lake where her cradle was pulled from the water
and we'll all come praise the infanta
and we'll all come praise the infanta

::Firsties Week:: Radiohead - Everything in its Right Place

It was hard to pick a Radiohead track because almost every one of their opening tracks are solid. My brother actually recently pointed out that OK Computer opening track "Airbag" serves as a bridge between the final track "The Tourist" making the whole album a continuing loop!

However I chose "Everything In Its Right Place" because I've recently discovered something about the album that its from. Radiohead has always been a band shrouded in mysteries and conspiracies, and I highly doubt any of them are true most of the time, especially this one, but there's a theory that says that Kid A foretold 9/11 and that its a perfect musical interpretation of that fateful day and the months following it. Once again, I don't believe it was intended to be that way and in fact, neither does the author of this theory Chuck Klosterman. Just a crazy coincidence. Intentions aside, it gave new meaning to this album for me.

Anyway. The song. It paints a perfect picture of the album's feeling. The feeling I get from this album is a feeling of numbness and complacency that has a twinge of creepiness and a sense dread that slowly wells up in the pit of your stomach. This song is supposed to (according to the completely made up, yet interesting theory) symbolize the morning commute on 9/11 in New York. You get the image of people going about their business but deep down there is a feeling that something isn't right. Yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon.

Kid A, Kid A, Kid A, Kid A
Everything, everything, everything, everything..
In its right place
In its right place
In its right place
Right place

Yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon
Yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon
Yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon
Yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon

Everything, everything, everything..
In its right place
In its right place
Right place

There are two colours in my head
There are two colours in my head
What is that you tried to say?
What was that you tried to say?
Tried to say.. tried to say..
Tried to say.. tried to say..

Everything in its right place

::Firsties Week:: The Shins - Sleeping Lessons

"Sleeping Lessons" is the opener to the Shins third album Wincing the Night Away. This one made the cut mainly because I love James Mercer's lyrics and have a man-crush on him. The album seems to have an insomnia-fueled, nocturnal, dreamlike feel to it, and what better way to start it off with this song.

It doesn't explode like the Lips' song... at first anyway. It kind of lulls you into the album with fuzzy arpeggios and odd noises. As your eyelids begin to droop slowly down, the song slowly begins to build up subtly and then unleashes a barrage of banging electric guitars, feedback and drums. It reminds me of falling asleep and entering the land of dreams where anything is possible and you can ride on unicorns made of Toblerones that shoot fireworks out of their nostrils. What? No one else has that dream?

Go without,
Till the need seeps in
You low animal,
Collect your novel petals for the stem.

And glow.
Glow.
Melt and flow.
Eviscerate your fragile frame.
And spill it out on ragged floor.
A thousand different versions of yourself.

And if the old guards still offend,
They got nothing left on which you depend.
So enlist every ounce
Of your bright blood.
And off with their heads.

Jump from the hook.
You're not obliged to swallow anything you despise.
See, those unrepenting buzzards want your life,
And they got no right.
As sure as you have eyes,
They got no right.

Just put yourself in my new shoes.
And see that I do all I do.
Because the old guard still offends.
(Their pudgy hearts and slimy hands)
They got nothing left on which we depend.
So enlist every ounce
Of your bright blood.
And off with their heads.

Jump from the hook.
You're not obliged to swallow anything you despise,
That you despise.

::Firsties Week:: The Flaming Lips - Race for the Prize

Well folks. It's a new year. 2012. And its been a while. I'm starting a new semester and it kind of feels like I'm on the brink of something in many aspects of my life right now. I feel as though good things are about to happen. Or maybe I'm just hungry. Either way, to celebrate this feeling of starting something new, or hunger, take your pick, this week is going to be devoted to the best opening tracks on albums. Songs that just start off with a punch and drag you in. Songs that ease you in to an album like dipping toes in a hot bath. Songs that sum up the entire album like a capital letter. Or just plain cool opening tracks. So enjoy, and start something new this week, for god's sake. You know that thing you've always wanted? Well get up and go get it.



This song man. What a good get up and go song. This is a song that aurally explodes. The moment those sticks hit the drums it just instantly fills you up with a sense of excitement and joy and continues on full force party mode. Funny that it's a song about two scientists racing for a cure.

"Race" is from the Flaming Lips shining gold work of art Soft Bulletin an album that has been declared their version of Pet Sounds. It gained this comparison due to its grandiose orchestration and overall "big" feeling it evokes. This song is a great representation of that feeling and is also a great way to start this year. Let's make it explosive and awesome. Explawesome!


Two scientists were racing
For the good of all mankind
Both of them side by side
So Determined

Locked in heated battle
For the cure that is their prize
But it's so dangerous
But they're determined

Theirs is to win
If it kills them
They're just humans
With wives and children

Upwards to the vanguard
Where the pressure is too high
Under the microscope
Hope against hope

Forging for the future
But to sacrifice their lives
Both of them side by side
So determined

Theirs is to win
If it kills them
They're just humans
With wives and children

Theirs is to win
It will kill them
They're just humansWith wives and children