SSC: Joe's Thoughts, Week 4

some classic fifth-grade flash animation humor

Thanks for hanging tough and getting me the songs on time, folks. Definitely made for a smoother week, both as editor and as someone who was trying to navigate the playlist around my mother-in-law's music proclivities at eight in the morning.

These thoughts are gathered from songs posted on Saturday, June 17 through Friday June 23.

WEEK 4 FUCK YEAH

1) I've been thinking about what keeps these daily playlists fresh, and I think a big part of that is how certain prompts keep things broad, and certain prompts keep things narrow, forcing various people to sometimes choose a song that's literally the only song they know of that fits that prompt, and allowing others to maybe choose their favorite within that framework. Whatever the case may be, I've really been enjoying how wildly all over the map these fucking songs are, and each of you are doing a really good job doing your part and contributing in varied ways.

2) Here's more of a philosophical question than anything: did anyone detect any noticeable difference between songs that had their ellipses at the beginning of the song title, and songs that had their ellipses at the end? Maybe the former felt like a culmination of certain ideas, and the latter felt more open-ended? And what about the songs with the ellipses in the middle? WHAT IS BRITNEY SPEARS TRYING TO TELL ME ABOUT LIFE AS SHE SINGS THE SAME SONG TO ME THREE TIMES IN ONE DAY???

3) Total length of the "songs over seven minutes" playlist? Two hours, four minutes, 43 seconds. And that's after I chose to post just Part I on the Jethro Tull song instead of the whole album like Walter wanted me to post. I have to assume that that will be the longest playlist we have throughout this process, unless someone is a huge asshole and choose like an hour-long song at some point for some reason.

4) I'm really liking how I can find value in some of these songs when they are isolated from their albums like this. I've always been an album guy, but this summer I'm making an effort to find value in just a song by itself, or on a playlist, and it's working. A great example is "Pyramids" by Frank Ocean, a song from an album that I was never able to understand or appreciate in any capacity. But I really liked listening to "Pyramids" this week, among the other long songs. Is that enough to get me to try channel ORANGE again? No, most likely not. But it definitely made listening to Frank Ocean easier than it ever has been for me before.

5) Plenty of semantics to dish out for the artist names and song names. The prompt for songs was "more than eight words," and I counted two songs that had exactly eight words in its title. And for the artist names, you could make a case for a couple of the "___ and the ___" bands that the artist is mostly known as the name of the frontperson, and the backing band isn't officially in the artist's name, per se. Like I said, semantics. As editor-in-chief, I'm not going to tell anyone that they can't pick a song for any reason, even if I know for a fact beforehand that it doesn't meet the exact specifications of the prompt. It's all in fun. Pick your song with eight words. Pick you question mark song without a question mark. Pick your rapist emo dude whose song was already chosen earlier in the summer. I don't care! Let's have fun with it.

6) Dude, the video for that Four Year Strong video was awesome. I was kind of taken aback by how much I enjoyed it. I personally haven't really been focusing so much on the videos that are embedded each day, more so just the music, but I might have to take extra care in featuring some more videos in the future. But on the other hand, you might end up with a scenario like "Hey Ya!", which is a great song, but whose video really annoyed me (twice) with all the added audience screaming sounds on top of the (excellent) song. I should've just embedded the audio-only video for that one. It's hit or miss, I guess is what I'm trying to say.

7) The unexpected places: The streets of Port Richmond, Brunswick Zone bowling alley, a John Early concert, the dentist's office, church, a hotel in Dublin, the Roslyn Giant, a LSCHS prayer service, the movie Shrek, the TV show 13 Reasons Why, an Uber in NYC, and Peaquad's gym I guess.

8) He would never advertise it, so I'll say it here: Nate, who is using his PoYB space this summer to write a novel (which is, as far as I know, called PeaQuadrophenia), is also back on the horse over on Fatter, Older, and is adding some additional context to some of his song choices. So make sure to check out the other blog if you don't feel like Puke is giving you enough content this summer.

9) Songs that make me want to explore: "Hello? Goodbye!" by Lake Street Dive; "...And Justice for All" by Metallica; "Well... Do They?" by Crass; "The Decline" by NOFX; "Field Song" by ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead; "Lump" by the Presidents of the United States of America; the aforementioned "It Must Really Suck to Be Four Year Strong Right Now" by Four Year Strong; "Stereo" by BoomBox

9b) Song that makes me want to do whatever the opposite of explore is: "Cheesecake Truck" by King Missile (same reaction when I had to listen to it for this review) (that being said, a couple very specific PoYB contributors should definitely check out this other song by King Missile, called "Gary & Melissa")

10) Worst songs of the week, chosen by some really swell people: "You Make Me Feel..." by Cobra Starship ft. Sabi; "Restarter" by Torche; "God Bless America – and All the Beautiful Women in It" by Lana Del Rey; "Future Dad (Platinum Edition)" by Super Mash Bros.; "Hallelujah" by Rufus Wainwright

10b) Worst song by far but probably not the artist's fault, more so a generation of children's comedy movies using it ironically: "Bad to the Bone" by George Thorogood and the Destroyers

11) Best songs of the week (that I didn't choose, for the record): "25!" by Bomb the Music Industry!; "Chop Suey!" by System of a Down; "When the Levee Breaks" by Led Zeppelin; "The Mariner's Revenge Song" by the Decemberists; "No One Knows" by Queens of the Stone Age; "The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth" by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah; "Black Cab" by Jens Lekman; goddamn what a strong showing this week, good job all.

11b) Tossing around the idea of finally buckling down and making a Top 100 Songs of All Time list. At least two of those songs are locks, and at least three more have a fighting chance.

12) This is Summer Song Challenge, not Record Club, but regardless: shout out to Dave for finally fulfilling his Record Club destiny with that Tilly and the Wall pick.