Music and Memory Lane...

As I sit in my room listening to the new Decemberists' album, "The King is Dead", I find my mind not focusing on the lyrics, but on how their musical style resembles music one might hear on childhood Television favourite, 'The Adventures of Pete & Pete'. 

Yes, Pete and Pete.

Many remember the show for it's eccentric sense of humour, others for it's varied and unique guest stars (Steve Buscemi, Selma Blair, Janeane Garofalo, and even James Robert Rebhorn, just to name a few), but I am among those who remember P&P show for it's truly ecclectic soundtrack and musical guests.

P&P introduced me to the likes of Iggy Pop, Magnetic Fields, Luscious Jackson, Syd Straw (and countless others) at a time when I was so, SO not age-appropriate for any of it..and I can't thank the show enough for helping shape my musical tastes into what they are today.

These groups and artists would lead me to eventually discovering lots of other great artists and bands that are, for the most part, under the bigger industry radars...The Decemberists, Ani Difranco, Jeremy Enigk, Aimee Mann, Fountains of Wayne..the list could go on (..and on..and on..), but if I did, this blog would become more boring than it already is (if you're still with me up to this point, I bow to you in thanks.  :P). 

I love their music is unaffected by worry of sales or popularity; it feels more honest, raw and sometimes even edgier..but I digress.

Getting back on track, all this to ask: If Pete & Pete were still around today, what sorts of music do you think the producers would be throwing into the show's soundtrack now?

Below are my top ten artists/bands/songs that I feel would fit into the P&P universe:

#10:  Jimmy Eat World - Hear You Me



#9:  The XYZ Affair - All My Friends



#8:  Flight of the Conchords - Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros*



(*Maybe not this song in particular, but c'mon: you couldn't imagine these guys doing something pretty amazing on P&P?)

#7:  Chase Long Beach - Pall Mall Price Crisis



#6:  Atomic Tom - Take Me Out



#5:  Freezepop - Get Ready to Rokk



#4:  Nellie McKay - Mother of Pearl



#3:  Save Ferris - Come on Eileen



#2:  Ingrid Michaelson - The Way I Am



And the Number one pick is...

#1:  Band of Horses - No One's Gonna Love You



(SERIOUSLY, couldn't you imagine this song closing out an episode?)

What about you guys out there?  What would your picks be?  Maybe not even necessarily for Pete & Pete...what sorts of music, guests, etc. could you envision for your favourite show?

Choo-Choo!

You know, It's sort of interesting...once I manage to push myself into being productive, I don't have too much trouble staying in the zone...kind of like a really heavy train...a locomotive is hard to stop once it starts to gather speed, right?  Heh, locomotive..never really considered the break-down of the name until just now.

Heh..according to Internet sources, the meaning of loco (in slang) is 'to make insane; craze' and the definition for motive is, 'An emotion, desire, physiological need, or similar impulse that acts as an incitement to action'.  Putting those two words together under these definitions makes for a pretty interesting concept..I wonder if the designers of the Locomotive train had something similar to this in mind when designing it..it could just be due to the fact that I'm crazy-tired right now, but when you *really* think about my hastily Googled-together definition of Locomotive, it's pretty cool; I feel it has a certain passion to it.

...Locomotive.  Hrm.  I think I've found a new role model, lol...

(...and I'm not even that much into trains.  :P)