Categories
Opinion

Ten Songs: One-Offs

In lieu of a more “substantive” blog or a “finished story”, let’s do another music blog. This time, I grabbed ten songs that I really love but which wouldn’t be expected picks if you knew what my favorite bands are. Also, this is songs specifically, not albums; these are times when the album (or artist in general) actually doesn’t click with me that much, but this specific song has a special hold. I know the other music blog was a similar theme; I’ll do “songs I like from bands I like” soon, but for now I wanted to kinda cut down the amount of things I’d have to listen to as prep.

There’s also a bonus eleventh song, which is not really a promise of extra value because this is a blog but it does exist so there’s that. Also, I will be adding links but only for the songs that I listen to primarily on YouTube. The others are probably available but this feels more authentic to me, so this is what I’m doing. I invite you to check them all out however you can, though. Like before, this is in a rough order of how much I like them, but it’s only rough.

Categories
Opinion

Top Ten Mid-Level Big Hitters: Stoner Rock

Finally, here’s a lighter topic: music. I’ve wanted to do something like this for a while but just took the time to start now. I want to talk about songs by lesser-known bands that still really hit for me. That’s the idea behind “mid-level big hitters”: a mid-level band (both in popularity and appeal of their music) who produces a song that’s way better than it has any right to be.

I get that this framing is kind of condescending, but I’m using it because this is how I think about a lot of these. It’s not that it’s a backhanded compliment (remember, the only thing you can really do with the back of your hand is slap someone with it), it’s that I think the fact that these songs are examples of a band kind of pushing past their normal limits. It’s not just that these are the bands’ best song; as I say in the write-ups (which I did before writing this intro portion), these songs are better than the best songs of a lot of more talented bands.