So, ok. The rule is: "No soundtracks. (Unless the album is completely composed by and performed by a single artist, and clearly also functions as a standalone piece of art.)" And I believe the parens can be deleted.
While I enjoy the idea of this soundtrack in theory, listening to it with no context of the movie made it unenjoyable as a whole. I believe track for track, there are songs that stood on their own to me, like "My Reminder" and "Dying for You." Yet, as a whole, a 35-minute album felt like it took 90 minutes to get through. This is coming from a woman who commutes 90 minutes a day on the Schuylkill Expressway. What listening to this soundtrack does is make me want to watch the movie and see it all together as a whole. I believe that soundtracks are just missing too much without the movie to truly enjoy it as a stand alone piece of art.
2.5 out of Big Brens (maybe I'll see the movie and revisit!)
I've come out of retirement to tell you that this album is good. Really groundbreaking stuff from an old voice in the back of your head. I have only known Brandi Carlile by name, I don't think there are many songs I know off the top of my head, so that made it very nice to go in so blind to the album. What surprised me was the genre of music. Felt very indie rock / country / aughts singer-songwriter vibes. I'd like to know who Carlile was in love with in 2009? Might it have been her current spouse Catherine Shepard? I only say this because multiple times I was like "damn she's got it bad for someone, I can feel that." Which is a lovely way to go through listening to an album. Hearing the full intent of the artist.
Welcome to Monday Morning Mixtape, a PoYB Contributor-curated playlist of songs, made just for you at the start of each week.
"The PoYB Official Mixtape About the Number 69!!!!"
Yes! That's right! It's Week 69 for MMM! Let's celebrate with some songs that make you think of 69! Which is a sex act! Or maybe you have some other interpretation, who gives a shit! 69, baby!!!!!!!!!
The joke only works because it's Hilary Duff. It was someone way less innocent (or, ya know, "innocent" according to early-aughts PR people, or whatever, you know what I'm trying to say), then I would not be hearing a reference to *69 on a phone and thinking "ha ha, she's singing about 69 the sex act." But because it's Duff, I'm absolutely thinking that. I don't think I'll ever forget it. As we as a society move beyond the concept of *69, then this is all that remains. The children hear this 23-year-old song and assume that Duff must be singing about two bodies turned 180 degrees so as to better perform oral-genital contact simultaneously. —Joe
"The Book of Love" by the Magnetic Fields
from 69 Love Songs, 1999
I had this on my list of songs for the "the" playlist and moved it off when I saw this week's theme was 69, since this is my favorite love song on the Magnetic Fields' 69 Love Songs album (with close seconds being "All My Little Words" and "I Don't Want to Get Over You"). I'm so curious if more songs from that album will end up on this playlist. The concept for this album came to Stephin Merritt when he was sitting in a gay piano bar listening to a pianist cover Sondheim songs. It made him feel like he could get into theater music, and he decided on the following: "I'd write one hundred love songs as a way of introducing myself to the world. Then I realized how long that would be. So I settled on sixty-nine. I'd have a theatrical revue with four drag queens." My favorite Sondheim song is "Being Alive" from Company, and I think that plays nicely with the same themes of this song. The idea of love being shown in the mundane moments of life, and not really knowing things, but figuring them out. I also love the idea of introducing yourself through 100 love songs. —Gloria
"What's Your Fantasy" by Ludacris ft. Shawnna
from Incognegro, 1999
This is a song that I had no business knowing every word to. It came out in 1999, which means that I was likely ten or eleven when I was singing every word to this song. This is also a song that made my mom switch the radio station immediately. Years later, we'd add "Candy Shop" and "Magic Stick" to that list. To this day, I think I've only listened to the radio edit. I don't know if I feel ready to listen to the explicit version. Will report back. —Sara
I've never actually had sex while listening to Hilary Duff. That's more of a joke. I have had sex listening to Erika de Casier. I chose this de Casier song because I thought it would be funny to choose another song that's about calling on the phone. I wonder what it would be like to know that the audience for your art is having sex while engaging with that art. I don't think there's an appropriate way to convey that to the artist, unless they asked. I would not walk up to Erika de Casier, say if I recognized her at a bar or airport, and be like, hey Erika, I have had sex to your 2019 classic Essentials. Though maybe she would prefer that over hearing me explain to her what Record Club is. —Joe
"69 Année érotique" by Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin
from Jane Birkin - Serge Gainsbourg, 1969
This week, I was thinking about 69, not just as a number or bodies intertwined, but as a philosophy. I was thinking about it in relation to the karmic promise that what you give, you receive. But that doesn't really sit right with me. What you give isn't necessarily what comes back to you, but rather what you give is who you are. Generosity is not meant to be transactional. You are generous because that's who you are. You love because love flows through you. You are safe because you know how sacred safety feels in another person's arms. There is nothing more beautiful than a person who gives without keeping score. Who loves not to be loved in return, but simply because they are, at their very core, someone who loves. —Gloria
"All the Things You Get" by Frog
from Frog for Sale, 2026
This song is not about calling people on the phone, it is about sex. Specifically, getting drunk and having sex with coworkers. They don't mention the sex act of 69 at all, I don't think, but for the purposes of this mixtape, it can be implied. I try to explore boundaries as often as I can, but I think that "having sex with coworkers" is probably a line I'm not willing to cross. It's just too complicated. Not that any of the amazing women I work with would ever want to, I'm just saying. Probably about ten years ago at this point, my boss was retiring, and I got loaded at her retirement party at Manayunk Brewery. This story is not headed in the direction of "and then I tried bangin' my boss," because she was a very nice person but also, like, an elderly woman. But I did hit on her daughter a little bit. Her daughter asked me to buy her a drink, and it ended up being a $17 drink or something. I bought it, but that snapped me out of it. Something about an extremely expensive drink made me realize that I was not headed down the right path. Where was I going with this? I forget. —Joe
"Head" by Prince
from Dirty Mind, 1980
McKnight's is a long-term care news publication. I usually read their weekly updates, and one of the articles this week was "The keys to supporting safe sexual expression in long-term care." They interviewed a psychologist who talked about how intimacy and sexual expression are fundamental aspects of the human experience across a person's lifespan. But when a person enters an LTC facility, sexuality and intimacy are often ignored, since it's assumed that aging lessens a person's desire and ability for sexual expression. I can tell you from personal experience that so many nursing home residents are inappropriately horny and touchy to the point that I always wore shorts under my skirts and dresses at work. It's such a balancing act, talking about sexual expression in this setting, especially when you are dealing with differing cognitive abilities. But the folks in this article are trying to institute new guidelines that aim to prepare staff to promote boundaries and respect, assess consent, and prevent harm, all of which are very good things. —Gloria
"Summer of '69" by Bryan Adams
from Reckless, 1984
I read something recently—and by "recently," I mean "when I chose this song for the 69 mixtape"—that Bryan Adams has claimed that this song is NOT about the warm months of the year 1969 and all the nostalgia that thinking about that time in one's life might entail, but is in fact literally about the sex act of two bodies turned 180 degrees so as to better perform oral-genital contact simultaneously. Adams' songwriting partner Jim Vallance has rebuffed those claims, and I am going to go out on a limb and say that Vallance is the voice of reason here, and that Adams is just trying to start shit online. It's still pretty funny, though. The number of 69 can be funny in so many ways, including as an antidote for overwrought nostalgia. —Joe
"Doot Doot (6 7)" by Skrilla
a single, 2025
Also extremely funny? The number 67. But only in a way that is at least two levels more ironic than 69. With 69, the joke at first was that it was funny because of sex, and then one level of irony is that I am acknowledging that it's a dumb joke but leaning into it here on the mixtape by taking it seriously. With 67, it started out as a joke because [insert mysterious origins of the number 67 here]. The first level of irony is old people (my age and above) saying the numbers "6 7" as a way of making fun of the young kids (my oldest child's age and below) who think it's funny. The second level of irony is that people my age saying it in a jokey way is, in itself, not funny at all, and actually pretty cringey, because, like, whatever, just let the kids have their own dumb inside jokes that don't mean anything, okay? But then the third level of irony is saying "6 7" in a serious way, as a way to rebuff my peers who are attempting to be ironic with it. And look, if you think there should be more ironic layered on top of the number 69, then that's gonna be up to you, in this very mixtape. I don't have the capacity to do it. I can't make fun of myself any more than I already do. —Joe
"Why Are We Sleeping?" by the Soft Machine
from The Soft Machine, 1968
"It begins with a blessing, it ends with a curse / Making life easy, by making it worse / 'My mask is my master,' the trumpeter weeps." All these lyrics feel very appropriate for a playlist about 69 as a position, haha. It is something that should be hot, but in reality is cursed, in my humble opinion. It's too hard to focus on both receiving and providing pleasure in a not ideal position for either. Is it better for men? Let me know in the comments! —Gloria
"End of the Line" by Traveling Wilburys
from Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1, 1988
That Erika de Casier blurb above should ring a bell in your mind about something that I wrote about a few years ago, deep in the blogging archives: Joe's Top Five Things That He Can't Do While Listening to Music. Sex is listed at #1, and yet here I am, claiming that I had sex while listening to music. You're right to point this out. I have indeed been exploring the act of listening to music while having coital relations. It's been hit or miss at this point. I feel like I need to hone the art of choosing the right music for the occasion. I don't like trusting the algorithm to take the task seriously, too much bullshit in any "making love" playlist you might find on Spotify or whatever. But it's also tough to keep my own collection of homemade playlists consistent when I keep breaking my iPod. This means that I'm usually just putting on the same ol' not-necessarily-"sexy" playlists. Which means that, yeah, sometimes I finish to the sound of "End of the Line" by Traveling Wilburys. And yeah, that also means that I'm slowly getting Pavlov'd into getting horny while listening to songs that should by no means make me horny, but you can only bang so many times to non-sexy classic rock tunes before your brain starts getting warped. Ah well. As the 69-joke-loving internet-dwelling dweebs love to say: doesn't matter, had sex. —Joe
NEXT WEEK: "Dancing on My Walk Home" — Songs that make you want to dance, even after a shitty day (chosen by Gloria)
No deeper meaning this week meant by the MMM theme. I was just under the gun to choose something before the email got sent last week, and the cat was sitting right next to me, so she's getting a mixtape. Not to say that this mixtape is for Lulu specifically. It could be for any cat. I'm sure there's a few others out there. I wouldn't say I have affection for any cats, including my own. But we've definitely come to an understanding, me and the cat. Neither of us bother each other anymore. We peacefully coexist. I'm okay with that. —Joe
"Longcat" by Hiatus Kaiyote
from Love Heart Cheat Code, 2024
"Loooonnnnnnnnggggg cat! He's the longest cat in the world." I sing this to my cats all the time, haha. I sing a lot of silly stuff to the cats, most of it's made up. My spouse actually thought I made up this song too and was shocked when I put on Love Heart Cheat Code in the car one day, haha. One of the best things is when you pick up a cat, and they do a big stretch of their whole body. It looks so satisfying. I want to experience that once in my life, but I don't think I ever will. —Gloria
"cats in the cold" by mage tears
from cats in the cold, 2022
Our cat growing up was named Ori. He was an outdoor cat, when it was still legal to have outdoor cats. He brought lots of gifts to our front door: birds, squirrels, you name it. He was a stone cold killer. I don't think we were the best cat owners. We didn't neglect him, but we didn't care enough about him, didn't show him enough love. We were never such big animal people, anyways. I still love cats, though, and I hope to have one someday. —Zach
"Cat's in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin
from Verities & Balderdash, 1974
This song has an insane chokehold on me as a child. Like my brothers and I would walk around the neighborhood singing it. I also remember my dad not liking it because he thought that the dad in the song is a little bit of a deadbeat. Maybe less of a deadbeat and more of someone who isn't understanding the fleeting time you have with your kids. —Sara
"Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor
from Eye of the Tiger, 1982
I'm definitely allergic to cats. I can go into my one friend's house and within 20 minutes I'm crying and sniffling. Sad. But it's not all cats. In Baltimore, I had a roommate for a bit who came in with three black cats. Luna, Cleo, and Lara. Luna was very affectionate, Cleo was stereotypical black cat, and Luna would destroy everything. What surprised me was I wasn't allergic, and to this day I cannot figure out why. Despite that house being 100% mouse free during that six-month period, I probably won't get a cat. —Sunny
"Fast Kitten" by Albert Hammond Jr.
from Melodies on Hiatus, 2023
I really am allergic. But it's just more mildly than I had assumed. I think I was under the impression that I was allergic because my aunt used to have a cat in her unventilated basement bedroom and maybe it just got stuffy with cat debris in there. I don't sneeze around Lulu. But whenever she sleeps in my spot on the bed during the day, I can tell at night, because it gives me a really bad itch in my throat that I can't get rid of no matter how many times I cough. Not the greatest feeling in the world. —Joe
"Meow Meow Lullaby" by Nada Surf
a single, 2017
I watched my friend's two cats when she was in the U.S. in early 2024. They started acting strangely the minute she left, even though the cats knew me; I'd watched them before. The male cat (Ollie) meowed horribly nonstop, while the female cat (Luna) would disappear for hours, only to eventually return. One day I came home, ready for my Zoom therapy appointment, and the glass door to the roof where the cats hung out during the day had been smashed. To this day, I still don't know how that happened—the wind? an act of God?—but from that minute on, Luna was never seen again, even after hundreds of flyers were posted around the neighborhood and my friend spent months calling the cat's name on the street. Who knows where Luna is now? My friend got a new cat to replace her. Thankfully, we are still friends, although the relationship isn't an easy one, but for other reasons, not cat-related ones. —Zach
"Big Milk" by Dan Deacon
from Spiderman of the Rings, 2007
I learned well before owning at a cat that you weren't supposed to give cats milk, because it gives them diarrhea. So we've avoid milk-based shitting incidents. But we have not avoided shit-based incidents overall. Shit and piss all over my house. I said I wasn't going to clean it up because I didn't want a cat and didn't want to take care of a cat, but what, am I just gonna let the piss sit there and soak into the floorboards? Am I going to wake up Pam on the day she's supposed to be sleeping in? No, I'm going to mop up the shit. They got me!!! —Joe
"A Fan's Mail (Tron Song Suite II)" by Thundercat
from Drunk, 2017
I'm hanging out with the cats on the patio as I type this. They are purely indoor cats but are allowed "patio time," where we hang out with them in a contained area. It's the highlight of their day, but they are painfully shy, so they don't want to be out here if we have guests. As I am writing this, I'm thinking about the time Joe was over here last summer, and my cat ran outside. When she saw him, she panicked and backed up, like a tiny car reversing, to get back into the home. —Gloria
Back when I had a dating profile (it's been a hot minute), I started to test out the theory of getting more matches if I included a picture of the cat. I think it's probably pretty off-putting to hear that a guy you might be interested in doesn't like cats. I have been accused of my cat-dislike being akin to a serial killer's disposition. So I let that particular piece of information slowly come out over time. Yes, I have a cat, and if that makes me more endearing, then please, continue thinking that. Six months later, I'm gonna lay a hard truth on you. I don't like cats. —Joe
"Indoor Cat" by Silver Scrolls
from Mind Lines, 2024
An indoor cat / drinks a martini / as it sits by the ocean / finally free / of its ruthless owner / who didn't care about its freedom / who really cares about freedom anyways / except for the ones who really take to the streets / the suburbs are quieter than that / they are already free / and don't want to be disturbed / catnip for the ones / who sit on the comfortable chairs / and dream of heaven / even when they have no right to / they don't deserve happiness any more / than the ones who will never get it. —Zach
"Outdoor Cat" by No Thank You
from All It Takes to Ruin It All, 2018
Our cat is an indoor cat. I've seen her outside twice so far, and both times, she ran back inside as fast as she possibly could, so I'm assuming the outside thing was an accident, confusion on her part. There are a few outdoor cats in the neighborhood. One that looks like a bigger Lulu, I don't know that one's name. Our neighbor four houses up has an outdoor cat named Tré, named after the fact that he only has three legs. We joke about Tré and Lulu hanging out when we're all asleep, but that isn't actually true. They've never met. One is an indoor cat, one is an outdoor cat, and never the twain shall meet. —Joe
"Peace Train" by Cat Stevens
from Teaser and the Firecat, 1971
The only Cat I know is Cat Stevens. I would assume that all cool cats love Cat. Here is his most famous song, "Peace Train." It's my Easter blessing to all of you. Easter still has a very deep pull on my former Catholic heart. So much so that I watched the Pope's homily today. Please don't tell my dad. I don't want to get his hopes up. —Sara
"Lucifer Sam" by Pink Floyd
from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, 1967
A song for Syd Barrett's cat, Lucifer Sam. The beginning of this song has almost a surf-rock kind of vibe. It's cool. I love Piper at the Gates of Dawn, but it's so different than the rest of Pink Floyd's discography. But I guess a lot of that has to do with Syd Barrett being replaced; he has such a distinct voice and energy. —Gloria
"Plea from a Cat Named Virtute" by the Weakerthans
from Reconstruction Site, 2003
When I think about dogs, I realize how much I appreciate cats. Cats are assholes but they can eventually become our assholes. Dogs are vicious monsters who could snap at any moment. There was exactly one good joke on a pretty annoying standup comedy special that me and Pam watched recently and it was about dog owners' reactions to the dogs biting someone: "I swear it's never happened before!" The joke being that every time is the first time, and that dog owners' are obsessive about ignoring the very strong probability of their being a first time at all. The dog that bit my aforementioned aunt's nose off is still alive. They should've snuffed that fucking thing out of existence by the time the doctor plucked her nose out of the ice bucket to reattach it. Cats 4ever. —Joe
"Flustered/Hey Tomcat!" by Death Cab for Cutie
from You Can Play These Songs with Chords, 2002 (reissue)
Today I am 40. I've been prepared for this day for some time now. I definitely feel sad today, the day before 40. I don't know why, exactly. Perhaps it is uncertainty. Perhaps it is feeling unfulfilled. Perhaps it is feeling like I should do something, and I'm not. Perhaps it is feeling like the time is counting down and I don't want to have another decade fly by. Perhaps it is the ease of sitting in the suburbs. Perhaps it is the blue sky. Perhaps it is all the television shows I haven't watched that people tell me I need to watch. It could be any one of those things. Ultimately, I think I just want to feel loved, effortlessly, like most of us do. But these things take work and mistakes and hurting other people's feelings, and I don't always feel up for that. —Zach
NEXT WEEK: "Your Mixtape Summons in the Mail" — Songs for jury duty (chosen by Gloria)
Welcome to Monday Morning Mixtape, a PoYB Contributor-curated playlist of songs, made just for you at the start of each week.
This blog does not condone violence in any way, shape, or form. Anything that might typically read as "violent" in the below mixtape blurbs should be taken as satire.
"Calling All Etsy Witches: This Mixtape Is a Curse"
Songs that have "dead" or "death" or "die" in the title, all of these songs put together on this mixtape, on President's Day, as we think about our current president, though there's not really any connection between the theme and the president, no, no, there is not
Here's how it's gonna happen. He's gonna be sick for a while. We won't know about it, but his family will. They'll be prepared, medically and financially and emotionally. All his loved ones will surround him as the machines beep quickly and then go silent. His loved ones will cry. They love him, and they will miss him. The man that will have died in that room is pure evil, one of the worst, most despicable human beings that has ever walked the face of the earth, but there will be other people in that room, also pure evil, who love him, love because or despite it really doesn't matter. We, those who hate the man, and will hate him long after his heart stops beating, we will party in the streets, but we will be forever denied the satisfaction of knowing that he died unloved. He is loved. Hate can love hate. Remember that as we try to combat that hate, and don't get distracted by it. —Joe
"Nobody Dies Anymore" by Tweedy from Sukierae, 2014
Today I found out that my landlord died and that someone from my improv class lost their baby. I wonder if I've come to the end of the amount of words I have to say about life. That I shouldn't worry about the trivial things when so many worse things in the world are happening. But I feel like I've written about this so many times before, and I don't know how long I can keep beating the same drum. —Zach
"Die Young" by Kesha
from Warrior, 2012
In a strange turn of events, I have been praying more. I guess it's really just creature comfort at this point. Maybe speaking to the universe in some way. Getting the thoughts out of my head so I can fall asleep. Some of the prayers are just thankful for where I am. Some are for health and the future. And a lot of the prayers are for people to die horrible deaths very soon. I'll let you all decide who those people might be. These are likely going nowhere, but it sure is helpful. —Sara
"Death" by Computerwife
from Computerwife EP, 2020
I just want to be part of this mixtape, haha. Not saying that I necessarily believe the Etsy witches, but I love listening to the collective tarot readings that I come across while scrolling on social media. (Cord cuttings, too, absolutely mesmerized.) There is something oddly comforting about how these creators can offer insight and guidance that resonates with so many people without knowing any of us. I think that it speaks so much to the human condition that you can make some pretty specific statements, and people will see their own reality reflected in it. Maybe we* are all just walking around needing the same advice and reassurance. —Gloria
*the type of people that get tarot readings via the almighty algorithm
"Over My Head (Better Off Dead)" by Sum 41
from Does This Look Infected?, 2002
I've been pretty flippant toward death in my lifetime. If you stop to think about it for a little bit, then you can probably see that it's a defense mechanism. If I don't take death seriously then I won't have to be scared of it. This thought didn't occur to me until Van and Brock died every day for an entire summer and then Pappy died too, the thought that I don't take it seriously, and the uncertainty over whether I should. I still don't think I should. I think that precautions need to be made so that you don't die a stupid, preventable death, but beyond that, maybe we should stop treat death like some precious thing that can't be handled. We can make jokes about death. We can make light of the fact that some fucking pedophile is going to die real soon. We can celebrate when that person dies in the same week we make a mixtape about it. —Joe
"superdeadfriends" by Yungblood
from Weird!, 2020
I heard that Yungblud would be a future candidate for the Super Bowl halftime. This is the first Yungblud song I've ever heard. I tried to get into Bad Bunny before the show, but I couldn't. Then I watched the halftime show and loved it. There's something about live performances that can get you into something, much more than listening to an album. —Zach
"Waiting Around to Die" by Townes Van Zandt
from Townes Van Zandt, 1969
We need to normalize death, I think. There is a certain type of human being who is squeamish about death, and can't bring themselves to see that there is another certain type of human being who brings about great death and destruction to all of humankind themselves, and that maybe their own death (the bringer of death and destruction, I mean) might be a net positive for our society. If someone's policy decisions kill millions of people, do they deserve to die? If you can't bring yourself to even consider the question, then you have some catching up to do. —Joe
"Deathly" by Aimee Mann
from Magnolia: Music from the Motion Picture, 1999
I was still in love with my high school ex-girlfriend in 2007. We had rekindled our romance in the winter of 2006, only to see it fade, once again. We made plans to hang out over the summer, and I drove over to her house in Chevy Chase. Her mom answered the door, surprised. My ex wasn't home. There had been a miscommunication about the night we would hang. I don't remember if we rescheduled. I think we did? But that was when I knew it was really, truly over between us. I went home and watched Magnolia, a movie I had never seen. It is a good movie for sad people and for Aimee Mann lovers, many of whom are probably sad people. A few weeks later, I saw her at a bar, and the familiar pangs came back. But by the following summer, I was over her, and I was able to attend her wedding in 2015 with very little extraneous feeling. —Zach
"Two Dead Cops" by Parquet Courts
from Human Performance, 2016
The important part to remember about wishing death upon someone is that the wish should be a grand and rare exception to the usual rule of never wishing death upon anyone. You can't actually divide people into two separate political spectrums, but if you could, then it would probably look a lot like one side wishing death upon opponents and the other side fighting hard for life for everyone. I'll just pull a random example: food stamps. Food stamps help people live. If you are for food stamps, then you are for life. If you are against food stamps, then you are wishing death upon those who need it. This is something the "other" side from me cannot understand about people like me. They hear that I believe that all cops are bastards and they assume (or project) that I must want cops to die. That's not the case at all. I want cops to live. I want cops to have fair pay. I would want to protect a cop if they were, say, being beaten to death by republicans on the steps of the Capitol. So when I say that there is a man that I wish was dead, it has to be really serious, and for a really good reason, for that wish to supersede my firm belief in life. —Joe
"Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" by Chris Thile
from How to Grow a Woman from the Ground, 2006
I saw the Punch Brothers in concert twice: once in New York, once in New Brunswick. Those guys know how to put on a show. Their fans go crazy for them. Chris Thile hosted Prairie Home Companion for a while. He won a MacArthur Fellowship. He wrote a song about Greg Maddux's pitching. This song was written during a darker period of his life. I used to spin one of the Punch Brothers' albums in my car, over and over. Now that car is gone. I think my entire current life would feel like a dream if I ever were to move back to the USA, as if it never happened. —Zach
"Death Dream" by Frightened Rabbit
from Painting of a Panic Attack, 2016
Shouldn't that be a wakeup call? If a lot of people wish you were dead? I know almost for certain that if more than, say, twelve people wished that I, Joe K***, was dead, then I would probably want to know why. And I would need to understand that, you know? Wishing death upon someone is really fucking serious. At a certain point, I would hope that I would be humble enough to acknowledge that knowing someone and wishing death upon that someone is actually a really serious thing to say, and that there must be a reason that it's being said in the first place. There would have to be some adjustment I could make, ya know? Not changing my whole being, just tiny changes that acknowledge what those twelve-plus people are saying, just acknowledging that maybe the more people who are thinking about the death of a specific person, the more likely it is that they have a solid reason for thinking it. If I had millions of people wishing death upon me personally, I'd have a problem with it, and I'd adjust. But that's just me. I'm not pure evil. —Joe
"Only the Good Die Young" by Billy Joel
from The Stranger, 1977
Maybe the reason these satanic fucks are still alive is because only the good die young? Heh? Get it? All I know is that whenever I think it's bad, it gets even worse. I'm tired of it all. I'm tired of holding the anger and trying to be at work. Who wants to do these menial jobs while everything burns? I cannot stop writing in rhetorical sentences because this is so hard. They say that we have to find joy as a form of rebellion during all this. So let these posts and mixtapes bring a smile to each other's faces. Continue to talk and joke. Show up for each other. Do something nice for a neighbor. We'll get through it. —Sara
A blogger is one who can use everything around him to trick his enemies. He and fast and he is friendly to his environment. He watches 400 movies he's never seen before. A blogger is honest and good. His mind, body and spirit are one. He has self-control. He has discipline. A blogger loves nature, uh, 'cause he is part of nature. A blogger never blogs a battle if he cannot win.
3 Ninjas
1992
Jon Turteltaub
There's that one meme that is like "kids these days don't understand the emotional connection we had with that one random movie our family had on VHS tape for unknown reasons." I don't have a specific VHS tape in mind for myself or my siblings, but we had enough junk like that lying around that I can understand the sentiment. And it's a theory that bore many fruits throughout the Your Favorite Movie discussions, with many people's "favorite movies" basically boiling down to whatever bullshit they watched when they were younger that just happened to stick.
I love the idea, is what I'm saying. No shade at all directed toward those who wish to sing praises of the art that they arbitrarily fell for in their youth. To prove my love of the concept, I added a few of those nostalgia-tinged movies from other bloggers onto the new Never Seen It list. For example, Sara wrote a nice little blog post a couple summers ago about 3 Ninjas, a movie I had never heard of before she wrote about it (in defiance of the blog's mandate for all-week coverage of the CLASSIC 1993 cinematic experience Super Mario Bros., but I'll let that one slide). But onto the list it went, because she piqued my interest, and so here I am now, watching it, writing about it, and, yeah, texting Sara about it.
I asked her for a question that I could use in a blog post to move some words, a little inspiration for a movie that I clearly don't feel for as much as Sara does, and she delivered. Her text:
"What is the most realistic part of the story, and what is the most preposterous? And did the movie make you want to go to Japan?"
This is actually three different questions, plus another extra question asked separately about whether 3 Ninjas seemed racist as an adult. Let's answer all of the questions! I'll start with the racist one—nope, I thought 3 Ninjas seems to have aged gracefully, and didn't really make me cringe at any racial references (the ninjas' mom explained why three white kids have an Asian grandfather, and it really is as simple as their other three grandparents being white). There was not enough time for racism! Too many cool karate kicks!
For the record, I think my own mother would've probably given the same type of non-answer if I had asked her at age ten why these three little white kids had an Asian grandfather. I'd like to think that this is not a limit of the Boomer generation in terms of empathy or worldview or race relations or whatever, and more a symptom of them not really being all that invested in the art that we were consuming at that age. It wasn't that Sara's mom didn't care about mixed-race families, it was that she didn't give a flying fuck about 3 Ninjas. My parents did not know what I was watching and did not care (fat chance they remember anything about the CLASSIC 1993 cinematic experience Super Mario Bros., for instance).
I am trying to be better about that for my own kids. I like sharing some art with them. They have their own shit, but I want to care. I want Willow to like Talking Heads because Daddy is listening to Talking Heads and ALSO love Taylor Swift because she can share that with her peers and definitely not Daddy (who knows that Swift is maga now, and is slowly backing away before that whole thing collapses). I think it was fun to watch this movie with my own kids on a snow day. You can tell it was a good movie for them because Martha spent a solid 48 hours talking big plans about taking karate lessons.
To these kids, there is nothing preposterous about three ninjas under the age of twelve defeating dozens or maybe even hundreds of fully trained adults. I saw a Letterboxd review that was like "Imagine being a henchman training in ninjutsu while working for an international arms dealer only to get beaten by a fat baby named Tum Tum." Yes, this idea stretches the limits of sanity past the breaking point. But is it preposterous? To watch a fun little family movie that features some kids beating up some adults? No, I don't think so. I think kids need movies like this to survive childhood.
What I think I'll instead say was the most preposterous thing was the thankfully brief subplot in which the kids question the loyalty of their grandfather. "Is grandpa working with the evil villain" was stupid, so stupid. That's not how grandkids' minds work. If my dad was actually working for an evil villain, and my kids found out about it, they would go to great lengths to explain it away in their mind, so true and strong is the bond between grandparent and grandchild. And it's not like this is some random dude, this is their grandfather who they spend every summer with, literally learning lessons that are like "we are family, we have a strong bond." Completely unnecessary for this to be a question hanging over even 30 minutes of the proceedings.
This is also the most realistic part of 3 Ninjas—the emphasis on family. I liked how Sara talked about how she and her two siblings felt a connection to the three titular siblings of the film, and I think that any three triplicate of siblings might be able to convince themselves that they fit the 3 Ninjas archetype (i.e. the oldest one is the leader, the middle child is the tough and justice-minded skeptic, and the youngest is the wild card chaos-creator). Especially how there is constantly conflict between the three but that the bond is way too strong for that conflict to even chip away at. That bond extends outward, to the mentor grandpa, the reasonable mother who acts as glue, the distant father who ultimately feels guilt about that distance. The idea that the grandfather would lay down his own life so that his grandkids could survive is not only realistic, but expected, both in a movie such as this, and in real-life families who put emphasis on such bonds.
The question of "does this make you want to visit Japan" actually makes me think about something else when it comes to movies we loved as a child. The answer to the question is no, because I'm pretty sure none of this movie takes place in Japan. I thought the kids were visiting their Japanese grandpa at his California home. This whole thing takes place over the span of like 48 hours, there's no way they spent twelve of those hours on an international flight. But that's not on a ten-year-old to know or care about. Fine details washed away in the 20 years in between viewings.
That is, if you choose to view it again, as an adult. With 3 Ninjas, I can confirm for Sara and for all those who similarly loved this movie in the mid-'90s on VHS, this is a great family movie that holds up and caused at the very least enough joy to get the kids kicking around the living room to karate tutorials on YouTube. Sometimes, that's all you need from movie magic. You don't need for a movie to mean the same thing to you as an adult. You can just revisit it as an adult and feel that same simple childlike joy once more, just for a little treat.
GRADE: 3.5 pukes out of 5
NEXT TIME: We have some cool kids watching and writing about Tokyo Story, come check it out tomorrow!
Strength, not in the absence of fear, but in reaction to it. Tragedy as a call to action. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated right around the same time he started shifting from racial rights to class rights, when he started to write that they were one in the same thing. We celebrate the man's legacy yearly, not in repeating banal quotes on Facebook, but in continuing the fight that he left on a cliffhanger, his name echoing in our minds every time another cop executes another member of the working class. The fight requires strength of all kinds, even though there is fear in there too. —Joe
"Thieves! (Screamed the Ghost)" by Run the Jewels ft. Tunde Adebimpe
from Run the Jewels 3, 2016
A spectre is haunting America: the spectre of solidarity. I won't say the C word. It's awful out there, I don't need to remind you of that. I don't need to tell you how to think or feel, there are a million such pieces for that. What I see instead is even the most unactivated wine-moms and neet-failsons are getting frothy. I'll take a serving of froth on my drink; where it leads, that's to be seen. —Sunny
"Comment" by the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band
from In the Jungle, Babe, 1969
I find myself today looking at live pictures from a snowstorm. There's a football game on, the AFC Championship Game, and I am watching it while eating dinner. I am pumping up my bike tires for a ride in the morning. If I look closely enough, it feels like 2015 again, when I cared about football and riding. But I haven't watched an NFL game live in years, and I haven't gone for a bike ride since the summer. 2015 was a time when ice was something that accumulated on power lines during winter, instead of a scary, murderous entity. What ICE is now more than exposes the dark underbelly of America. And yet we watch our football, with its commercials for car insurance and various drugs. We listen to Jim Nantz. We take out our bike shorts for the morning, pretending like it's 2015 all over again, trying to distract ourselves from the fact that it's not. —Zach
"Citizen I.C.E." by Dropkick Murphys
live version only, 2025
(not available on Spotify, swapped with original 2005 version, "Citizen C.I.A." on that mixtape)
Fuck ICE. Fuck Donald Trump. Fuck Kristie Noem. Fuck Pete Hegseth. Fuck KKKaroline Levitt. Fuck them all. And ya know what else. Fuck Blue MAGA. Fuck the do-nothing Democrats. Fuck the broken two party system. Fuck Congress for caring more about billionaires than citizens. Fuck people who think you have to be posting constantly online to prove you care about this. Sometimes people want to try to raise their children not in a constant panic!! —Sara
"We Take Care of Our Own" by Bruce Springsteen
from Wrecking Ball, 2012
Trying to write a blurb real quick because I intended to do this earlier but completely forgot until now. Anyone see the Bruce Springsteen movie with Jeremy Allen White and Jeremy Strong from earlier this year? It didn't get any Oscar noms, and reviews seemed mixed, but curious if the PoYB music crowd had any thoughts on it... —Batts
"Friends (You Matter)" by Bird Teeth
from "Turkey Noises", 2017
I try not to branch out too much on these mixtapes, i.e. I'm not out there googling around for songs that fit that prompt that I have never heard of before the googling. But maybe sometimes I need one more tune to fill the space, and feel like there might be room to discover something new, and pass that quickly along. Do I like this song? No, not really. I like the message, but musically, the whole "two people singing the same thing a-harmoniously" thing is grating to me. Still, though, I appreciate the message, and think that it's important to take in other people's stories and consider them, even if the way that story is presented doesn't necessarily fit your tastes. —Joe
"Sound of da Police" by KRS-One
from Return of the Boom Bap, 1993
There's something interesting to the idea that "community building and strength" makes me so often think about the police. Mainly in that the idea of "police" is the very antithesis of community building and strength. They do not exist to protect you. They exist to protect the ruling class. Our communities are worse because of police. Some communities are destroyed by police. There is no strength in presence of police in a community. Police themselves are weak, extremely weak individuals, weak cowards who seek strength by ganging up with other weak cowards to project a false sense of strength. Police officers are little fucking bitches, and our country is designed to allow these little fucking bitches to form a legal gang and murder members of the working class. Then half of that working class puts little signs on their front lawn, saying that they support the little bitches. Defund the police. —Joe
"(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" by Elvis Costello and the Attractions
a single, 1978
One theme I repeatedly pull out of great literature (including this awful yet engrossing Ulysses some of us are dealing with) is that vulnerability, trust, forgiveness, and love are the invisible strings/glue/whatever that bring people together to do great things and feel great. I also pull out the theme that the same entreaty to peace, love, and understanding is awfully corny and cliché. A cliché is just a truth so true it hurts, but such truths are easily screened out through the modern lens. —Sunny
"Eli, Eli (A Walk to Caesarea)" by Sophie Milman
from Make Someone Happy, 2007
The lyrics to this song were famously composed by Hannah Senesh, written as she walked along the beach in Caesarea, Mandatory Palestine in 1939 as an eighteen-year old. A few years later, she traveled to Europe to fight the Nazis. A paratrooper, she was captured by the Nazis in June 1944, and tortured for information (which she refused to divulge) until her death by firing squad in November of the same year. It is a song often heard on Holocaust Remembrance Day. The lyrics translate as follows:
My God, my God, I pray that these things never end,
The sand and the sea,
The rush of the water,
The crash of the heavens
The prayer of Man.
—Zach
"Beach Community" by Joyce Manor
from Joyce Manor, 2011
Part of the plan of the ruling class (the police are a part of this plan) is to break up communities. If we feel alone, then how can we then band together to take on that ruling class? We can't. I think about my parents, and my old block I lived on when I was growing up, and how we were friends with the other kids on the block, how my parents were friends with the other parents on the block. Everyone knew each other. I am grown now and I don't feel nearly as connected to my own block. I know a few people (and horses) on either side of us, and I'd like to think we look out for each other, but I don't know if any of us feel like we know each other enough to pass around the picket signs and stand up for this community together. That's all by design. That's how the powers that be want you to feel. I need to find a way to connect more and align our interests so that we can fight back. —Joe
"I Know Where I've Been" by Motormouth Maybelle (performed by Mary Bond Davis)
from Hairspray: Original Broadway Cast Recording, 2002
The conservative-parent-to-progressive-kid pipeline is pretty strong in my original family unit. An easy way to fast-track these thoughts is to be a theatre kid. Theatre has been and will always be a way to acknowledge and pass on history. Even with a grain-of-salt or a fun song. Being exposed to musicals and movies helped shape my basic thoughts. Being with peers that were in theatre because they felt they had no other place shaped me. It made me an advocate and an ally. The arts are just always worth it. —Sara
"Guerrilla Radio" by Rage Against the Machine
from The Battle of Los Angeles, 1999
It's bizarre to imagine that Rage was so prominent on MTV's Total Request Live back in the day. I guess capitalism wins over all, and people need to eat, too. Plus, TRL had a more campy feel than a corporate one. This was always a classic song. My friend Ben introduced me to Rage. To this day, I still listen to them when I've had a bad day that requires me to release my internal anger. —Zach
"77" by Alice Bag
from Blueprint, 2018
The feeling of being overwhelmed is part of the design too. We're all just scraping by. How do I address the problem of women in the workforce being paid $.77 for every $1 that men are paid? Where do I even start? How do I prioritize that and also the fact that federal agents are executing people in the street in broad fucking daylight? How do I prioritize anything when I am at work all day because I need money too? How do I prioritize thinking about anything when I need to spend the 30 minutes of free time I have per week doing the dishes or cleaning the bathroom? These are normal questions, and no answers are provided, ON PURPOSE. That's the point. They want us to think this way. They want us to be overwhelmed. If we are overwhelmed, then we are too tired to fight back. Instead, we are tempted to sit back and await whatever fresh hell comes to us, and then take it, and take it some more. —Joe
"Lean on Me" by Bill Withers
from Still Bill, 1972
This song's got to be the heart of total treacle and overcloying sentiment. It can almost be eye-rollingly so. But in moments of my life where I let down that veil and let the song hit just-as-it-is, it's hard not to get why it's so memorable. It's in times of weakness the message is able to land. —Sunny
"A Change Is Gonna Come" by Sam Cooke
from Ain't That Good News, 1964
"I think it is necessary to say that what is basic and what is needed in the Middle East is peace. Peace for Israel is one thing. Peace for the Arab side of that world is another thing. Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all of our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity. I see Israel, and never mind saying it, as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land almost can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality.
"On the other hand, we must see what peace for the Arabs means in a real sense of security on another level. Peace for the Arabs means the kind of economic security that they so desperately need. These nations, as you know, are part of that third world of hunger, of disease, of illiteracy. I think that as long as these conditions exist there will be tensions, there will be the endless quest to find scapegoats. So there is a need for a Marshall Plan for the Middle East, where we lift those who are at the bottom of the economic ladder and bring them into the mainstream of economic security."
—Martin Luther King Jr., from words delivered at the Rabbinical Assembly, March 25, 1968 (ten days before King's assassination)
—Zach
"Compton" by Kendrick Lamar ft. Dr. Dre
from good kid, m.A.A.d city, 2012
Pessimistic blurbs today, because that's what I'm feeling. But there also needs to be room to celebrate one's community. I think about the pictures I'm seeing in Minneapolis, the tens of thousands of people taking to the streets to oppose the federal agent thug murderers who have invaded their city. There's connection there, among the marchers. It feels bad because of the circumstances, but it feels good to understand those circumstances together, side by side. I think this is why I feel so much pride in my own city, as I travel through it in different ways throughout my life and career. There is so much pain and decay in these streets, and in the houses lining them. But the competing (or complementing) feeling is that we are all in this together. That's where the pride comes from. We are in a rough spot right now, but we have each other. —Joe
NEXT WEEK: "The PoYB Rolodex" — Songs whose titles are ONLY a first name, nothing else, and ONLY if you know someone with that first name (chosen by Joe)
"Beer for My Horses" by Toby Keith ft. Willie Nelson
from Unleashed, 2002
Sorry, but your resident closeted (not closeted, let's be honest) country fan is never gonna pass up the dangling carrot here. This playlist is begging for country songs. "We'll raise up our glasses against evil forces." I just know TK is talking about ICE!!! There is no way he'd be talkin 'bout a thin blue line or sum shit. —Sara
"The Horse" by Cliff Nobles and Company
b-side of "Love Is All Right," 1968
A return, a return... return to the old arena, which is no more, it's changed, but I return to it in my mind, my mind's eye sees the rickety wooden flap steps that fold up against the wall, feel the creak in each step as I carry a large bass drum up to the top step, where there's a landing, large enough for the drum kit, bleachers surrounding me where woodwinds and brass set their cases down and lift delicate instruments and hold them aloft and play some random-ass number-two smash hit from the late-'60s, a song that no one in the band knows apart from pep band charts, a song that was added to the fraying collection of pep band charts before anyone in pep band was even alive, played for dwindling crowds, no one in the stadium thinking that the basketball team has a whiff of a shot against this opponent, no one in the stands knowing that the song that's playing is about a horse. —Joe
"Daddy Lessons" by Beyoncé
from Lemonade, 2016
Pre-COWBOY CARTER, Beyoncé had me rope-tied with this song. The rhythm feels like the slow movement of a horse and its rider as they enter a town with only one sheriff and a lot of tumbleweeds. I played "Kissing" Kate Barlow in the play adaptation of the book Holes. Kate goes from a lovable school teacher to an outlaw in a matter of seconds onstage. On my way to the theater, I would listen to this song to dig into some outlawishness. Both the woman in the song and Kissing Kate have to make changes (violent and outside their identities) to save themselves from men. As with most badass women, I imagine their best companions were horses. —Melissa
"Chips Ahoy!" by the Hold Steady
from Boys and Girls in America, 2006
There was some mutual regret, last time, a real O. Henry Gift of the Magi situation, in which the two Joes with mutual Joe-like appreciation for the great Hold Steady song about horse track betting was not chosen for the promptabout horses, since each thought that the other was going to pull the trigger, neither wanting to be so obvious as to choose a same-day repeat, even if it was a good song. I guess the general thought that hangs over the proceedings like a puffy nimbus cloud is that no one needs a blog to listen to a song this good, because it's already on repeat elsewhere. Today, though, I'm gonna give it to you. One of the best to ever do it, singing their song about a girl who knows which horse is gonna finish first, pure, fresh, right from the blog. —Joe
"Horse Pills" by the Dandy Warhols
from Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia, 2000
I saw (a headline, didn't care to read too much into it) that the Dandy Warhols rock doc was getting some extended deluxe release or some nonsense, I dunno. You ever see this thing? Dig!? Formative for all the young dude and dudettes attempting to cut their indie rock teeth on something sharp in their adolescent, something to feel cool about, watching a documentary about a band you may have heard of as they hover slightly above an otherwise compact heap of the indie rock landfill, and about another band that you would never have heard of if you hadn't watched this wild documentary about them. My theory is that the Dandy Warhols just had the presence of mind to do all their heroin off screen. Maybe an extended version, complete with extra heroin, is not what the world needs right now. —Joe
"The Horse" by Supermilk
from High Precision Ghosts, 2024
About the song: Not the best Supermilk has to offer. That would either be "Pelican Pete" or "Sweat," two rock songs that have only grown in estimation with time.
About the band: British solo project from some fellah what used to be in some Britpop band of little-to-no renown in American (and possibly also not in the UK neither). Has a sort of brainy Wire / XTC / Dogs Die in Hot Cars / Futureheads thing going on. Lots of harmonizing, lots of slightly-off time signatures, nothing quite in 4/4 but nothing so far out of pocket to cross the dreaded math-rock parallel. Lead fellah in the band was recently diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease and might no longer be with us at time of writing. Sad stuff. Good band.
About horses: I am afraid of them. —Nate
"Up on Cripple Creek" by the Band
from The Band, 1969
I try to mix it up when choosing these songs. Some off the top of my head, some from a keyword search on the iPod, some from light googling on the subject. The internet is absolutely stuffed with near-useless forums where anonymous members of said forums ask broad questions in like 2006 and are answered over the course of years, all of it stacked up like wet cardboard on the front lawn on recycling day, there for you to pick apart and use as you see fit, if you see fit. If I had sat in deep thought I would've eventually come to one of my favorite songs on one of my favorite albums and remembered that the protagonist bets on one horse to win and bets on another to show, but I don't have time to sit in deep thought and think about anything much these days, let alone the Monday Morning Mixtape. And so I google around, and find something like this, the answer all along, covered shadow in sand, a search engine handing me the shovel and instructing me to dig, but not for all that long. —Joe
Not sure what it is about horses, but kids really fall in love with them quick. So much so that my YouTube search history is "horse videos" and "horse ambiance." Just a way to put on calming music and an hour of b-roll footage of horses running. Sure, whatever works! —Sara
"The Men Are Called Horsemen There" by Sunset Rubdown
from Shut Up I Am Dreaming, 2006
I forget sometimes that there is weird music that I listen to, and that weird music eventually doesn't sound weird, but that takes time. I've had eighteen years with this Sunset Rubdown album and I don't remember thinking it sounded weird, but I guess it must have, at least for the first few go-arounds. And if this is your first go-around and you're hearing Spencer Krug's voice for the first time, yelping (there's no other word for it, sorry Mr. Thesaurus) about how the men are called horsemen there and clarifying that there are no horses, just horsemen, well, then I'd want to say that you are in for a treat, but I'm weary that maybe it's all just a little too weird. IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T HEARD, SPENCER KRUG SINGS ON A ROCK SONG BY HIS OTHER BAND WOLF PARADE, AND THAT SONG WENT VIRAL ON THE ZEITGEIST'S NEWEST STREAMING HIT, THE GAY HOCKEY DRAMA LIMITED SERIES, THAT VOICE IS SPENCER KRUG, HE IS NOT WEIRD, THIS IS NOT WEIRD, YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YELLOWSTONE SPINOFF IS GOING TO FEATURE SUNSET RUBDOWN SOME DAY, YOU JUST DON'T, GET USED TO IT NOW, SPEND EIGHTEEN YEARS LISTENING TO SPENCER KRUG, IT IS NOT WEIRD, YOU ARE, YOU ARE, YOU ARE THE WEIRD ONE, NOT ME, I AM NOT WEIRD, I AM NOT— —Joe
"Judy and the Dream of Horses" by Belle and Sebastian
from If You're Feeling Sinister, 1996
The first morning I woke up at my new house and I didn't know where I was but then I did and then I did some puttering around and I suppose we had breakfast and people came in and out and furniture was reassembled and at a certain point I brought a single beer out onto the back porch/patio and came face to face with a horse. Surreal. Very surreal. But it's not surreal anymore. That was exactly 1900 days ago. I've lived next to horses this entire time. There are full weeks when I don't even think about it. About them. I don't dream about them. I don't dream about anything anymore. —Joe
"High Horse (Part 1)" by Quiet Storm
rereleased on the Virtue Recording Studios compilation in 2017
There was a comment on my favorite non-PoYB website (Stereogum) recently under an article about some new-ish all-girl hardcore band's new album and the commentor was like "this was covered on Pitchfork too, I wish y'all websites would do a better job at distinguishing your voices instead of all covering the same shit," which seems like maybe a discussion that's worthy of happening but maybe not for this particular band? Like, a hardcore band with 544 monthly listeners on the evil streaming site, maybe it's just good and two websites are allowed to talk about the same good band and attempt to get the word out on a good band that most people would have no idea about otherwise? I can see maybe the argument being cut and pasted underneath an article about Grimes or some shit, ya know? I like hearing about new, exciting music (not Grimes, but you get what I'm saying). Not even just new music, more, like, music that I would have no other reason of knowing. I would never in a million years have the capacity to seek out the all-girl hardcore band Slut Intent with their new album Slutworld and their breakout single "Peppa Pig." It's cool knowing them now, and that's because of this website I visit sometimes. I don't remember where I heard about the compilation that "High Horse (Part 1)" is on. I think I wrote about it before? I forget. Maybe hey, maybe this is your website for music! Right here on Puke! And you're discovering something right now! Because of us! Do you think I give a FUCK if Pitchfork also covers the compilation of songs from the old Philly institution Virtue Studios? Just take the recommendation. Just bask in the glory of connecting to something that you never in a million years would've connected to without the dumb stupid internet website. —Joe
NEXT WEEK: "That's Don't Impress Me Much" — Your favorite songs that you are almost certain that no one else on this blog is already familiar with (chosen by Joe)
My feelings about this song are what spawned my desire to make this entire fucking Mixtape, because it's a great song, one of the best, one of the fucking best, but yeah, it's about Jesus, I haven't quite landed on whether it's sincere or ironic or a mixture of both, probably both, but that doesn't stop people from assuming the worst, like if you're sitting in my dining room during a family gathering and you hear the Promise Ring blast out of the iPod stereo and you're spouting some shit about "well Joe was playing JESUS MUSIC at the party," you're not reading the context, you're assuming that it's Christian rock or some shit, but it's not, the subject matter is touched on without being embraced, the figurative language is thick, this is um EMO music by the way, okay?, and I won't stand for this slander of a good song on a good party playlist, 'cause see, look, see, look at this fucking Mixtape, x number of songs, all in the same vein, Jesus mentioned but not Jesus music. —Joe
In this love ballad, Lady Gaga proclaims she'll serve only three men during her lifetime. And those men are her daddy, Nebraska, and Jesus Christ. When gendering things, I wonder if the natural inclination is to choose "man." This is true for me with animals. Like when talking about the woodchuck living under my shed, I said "he's a real chonk." I do find it curious to call an entire state a man, though. Are the vast cornfields of Nebraska masculine? Or just boring? Is she saying men are boring?! No. She's saying she's down for that subservient lifestyle and will serve those manly cornfields. Her whole damn life. —Kait
"Milk and Diesel" by Home Is Where
from Hunting Season, 2025
I wrote this song title down in a phone memo when I heard the word "Jesus" because I knew that this mixtape was coming down the pike. I wrote about this album a couple weeks ago, since it's one of the best of the year. I wrote about the spiritual connection to Bob Dylan in that blurb on the Best Of list. And we just wrote about Bob Dylan in Record Club less than a month ago. But even with all that, it took me till write now to realize that this song (I'm pretty sure, if not almost certain) has an explicit Bob Dylan reference. It's verse 3 that opens with Jesus Christ, but verse 1 opens with Judas saying something to Pat Garrett. Bob Dylan has a song called "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest," and Bob Dylan has a whole album about Pat Garrett (or an album about a movie about Pat Garrett). I don't know if this validates what I was saying about Bob Dylan and emo music or whatever. This is probably the first you're even hearing about that theory, because who the fuck reads a blog. —Joe
"Born This Way (The Country Road Version)" by Orville Peck
from Born This Way the Tenth Anniversary, 2021
I love Orville Peck's cover of Lady Gaga's iconic anthem. I think referring to "capital H.I.M." and "God" counts as "Jesus," right? I am too far removed from my Catholic religious education to know if there's a difference between God and Jesus, or how Jesus is God or how God is the Father, Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit. Not a clue. So let's count it. Praise be to He (Jesus, God, and/or your looovvveeerrrr, let's go gay anthems!). —Kait
"When You Were Young" by the Killers
from Sam's Town, 2006
I hate putting popular songs on these Mixtapes. Popular to me, popular to the general listening public, either one. Or, more like, obvious. This is an obvious one. "He doesn't look a thing like Jesus but he talks like a gentleman"—where were you when you first heard these lyrics? I don't know why that's what I think about when I hear this song. Seriously, comb the archives, it's what I write about every time I write about this song. Why? I'd like to think that it's because I'm trying to illustrate how much of a fucking asteroid this thing was, how much permanent damage it did to my brain that very first time. I'd not like to think that it's simply because I'm a shitty writer. —Joe
"Personal Jesus (Acoustic Version)" remixed by Flood a promo single release for Depeche Mode, 1989
Part 1
It's time again to take you back to my commune days. The year is 2010, and I'm nineteen years old, living with an assortment of artists and characters in a series of previously abandoned buildings we lovingly refer to as "the Castle" when they're put together. The Castle has many things: a stained-glass studio; turntables, records, and countless instruments; a rooftop space filled with contractor-grade buckets of dirt used as a makeshift vegetable and herb garden; an industrial kitchen (with some broken equipment), but the one thing it does not have is hot water.
Some projects seem more urgent than hot water—rotting floorboards, roof issues, etc. Since it's summer, the lack of hot water hasn't been a problem. You can boil a kettle, add it to your bath for warmth, and just use cold water for everything else. But fall is coming, and we'll want hot water then. One of the guys finds a cheap boiler on Craigslist, so we decide to get it. (1/3) —Gloria
"For the Greater Good of God" by Iron Maiden
from A Matter of Life and Death, 2006
It's been more than a few weeks since my previous song submissions for PoYB, so why not stop by with another Iron Maiden song? For those curious, "For the Greater Good of God" comes from the so-called modern, post-2000 reunion era of the band, as opposed to the previous songs I've showcased here that are from their classic era. Anyway, despite not having a single song in my Top 5 Most Listened To for 2025 on Spotify, Iron Maiden was my most listened to musical act, which I suppose is on-brand for me. But I also might have tipped my hand that there were several weeks where I went through my favorite Iron Maiden songs to see if I could sneak them here on to the blog... —Batts
"With God on Our Side" by Bob Dylan
from The Times They Are a-Changin', 1964
One of my favorite exchanges in PoYB history was in the comment section under a Minions post (Minions by way of The Jerk by way of... '80s rap duo EPMD???? Yearlong Song Challenge made us all insane), in which people struggled with the idea of the Minions being, in the official Minions canon, "creatures who always served the most evil entity on earth." They didn't serve Hitler because they were serving, um, an even more evil ice cave monster, or something, don't ask me, you don't wanna get stuck in that conversation. But look, consider this: the Minions exist in our world. Watch Minions and you'll hear all kinds of '60s classic rock. Bob Dylan exists, and he sings this song. So I ask, what do the Minions think about "With God on Our Side"? Do they think that god is on their side? Do they acknowledge the existence of god? Do they pray? Do they think that they are doing god's work by serving evil? Is their god evil? Does their evil god watch over them? Did the evil god warn them to continue to serve Gru instead of switch allegiances to Osama Bin Laden, who, c'mon, let's face it, was definitely more evil than Gru? Oh god, is Stuart the Minion a groyper???? —Joe
"Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America" by the 1975
from Notes on a Conditional Form, 2020
One time, many years ago, in ye olden COVID times, Nate asked me if I wanted to exchange some emails about the new 1975 album, Notes on a Conditional Form. After a few days, Nate's emails started to slow down, and the responses turned into some form of "I will respond to this eventually, I promise." In the years since the regular correspondence about this very specific subject has faded away, I still try to email him twice a year about this album. Once on June 11th, which is the first day we ever exchanged emails about Notes on a Conditional Form, and you know how I love my anniversaries. The other email lobbed in Nate's direction is usually designed to be as inconvenient as possible for Nate. I usually schedule an email for like 4:00 AM on Christmas morning. I also tried to time it so that he would receive an email about Notes on a Conditional Form while he was in the delivery room at the birth of his third child, but I don't think I was quite on the money with that one. Still, it may have still made an impact—just ask Nate's third child himself, little Matthew Healy A**** Jr. —Joe
"Personal Jesus" by Depeche Mode
from Violator, 1990
This song is so sexy, and consistently lands on my "if I were a stripper, here's what I'd dance to" list. Allegedly, Depeche Mode found inspiration for the song in Priscilla Presley's book Elvis and Me, where she talks about Elvis being her personal savior—touching on the idolization of partners and all that. I mean, can this song get aaaany better for the soundtrack to some stripteasin'? —Kait
"Jesus, Take the Wheel" by Carrie Underwood
from Some Hearts, 2005
In high school I had a LiveJournal. I was also an avid American Idol watcher. I wrote a post that said "Go Bo! Carrie is a hoe!" I couldn't even tell you Bo's last name, and I think Carrie proved me wrong whether we like it or not. —Sara
"Jesus He Knows Me" by Genesis
from We Can't Dance, 1991
It's December, so you know that means: Spotify Wrapped time! I don't know if anyone else here has had PoYB affect your Wrapped stats, but both St. Lucia and Phil Collins made it into my Top Five Listened To artists and albums this year thanks to the repeat listens I had for Record Club. Offhand, I don't know if this blog is anti-Spotify or indifferent to Spotify (I cannot see pro-Spotify as a realistic scenario), but I am curious if anyone else has also seen this blog influence the dreaded algorithm in some way. And for what it's worth, both Genesis and Phil Collins made my top listened to artists with a Phil Collins song topping my Most Listened to Song Top Five... followed by a St. Lucia song, of course. —Batts
"Personal Jesus (Holier Than Thou Approach)" remixed by François Kevorkian
from the "Personal Jesus" remix album, 1989
Part 2
I don't know this guy very well, but I agreed to go along on the drive about an hour away to pick up this boiler and load it into his truck. We get in his truck. He only has two CDs with him, both homemade burned CDs. He puts one on, and his favorite band, Depeche Mode, starts playing. "Corrupt." Cool. This still seems normal. "I could corrupt you in a heartbeat / You think you're so special / think you're so sweet." But once it's done, the song starts playing again. "Don't even try me / Soon you'll be crying." The CD you are listening to has multiple versions of "Corrupt." He's an amateur music producer and DJ, so some of these are versions he made himself. He's not talking much. Maybe taking a trip with this man was a mistake? "Watching you suffer / Girl, it would please me." It's a weird playlist for sure. (2/3) —Gloria
"Shaky Jesus" by Dave Hause
from Bury Me in Philly, 2017
I wonder if Jesus was a good carpenter, like I wonder if he put any effort into his craft or if he totally blew it off because he figured that the internship with his stepdad was fated to end eventually and this wasn't what he was meant to do. If I knew that I was only gonna be a social worker for a few years before I became the messiah, I probably wouldn't be working my ass off. I'd probably be slacking. What are they gonna do, fire me? Guess I got an early vacation before I start the preachin'. I think, generally speaking, it's nice to do things that you weren't "meant to do." You can just do them and have fun with it. Imagine Jesus being so proud for making a dinky little birdhouse. And Joseph's like "this isn't that great but it looked like you were having fun, so why not?" And then Jesus is like "the only reason I am a carpenter is because I was gonna be bored in my 20s without it.... and let's not forget the KILLER carpentry metaphors, those are gonna be helpful as I'm out there preachin'." —Joe
"Personal Jesus (Boys Noize Rework)" by Depeche Mode
from Personal Jesus 2011 Remixes, 2011
Part 3
I ask what’s on the other CD; he puts it on. "Reach out an touch faith!" It's the same deal but for "Personal Jesus." Multiple versions back-to-back. So that's what we listen to for the rest of the ride. Different versions of "Personal Jesus." Fuck. It's weird. But it's a little better. We get to our destination, buy the boiler from a toothless farmer in cash, and load it into the truck. It looks basically new. A great score! We will have hot water as soon as we figure out how to install it via YouTube. I insisted that we listen to the radio on the way back. I've never been so grateful to hear Top 40. —Gloria
NEXT WEEK: "Simply Having a Wonderful" — Non-holiday songs that mention the holidays or something holiday-related, i.e. the mixtape that saves Christmas (chosen by Joe)
