Get PSYCHED!

A few notes:
1) This mix is inspired by a TV series called How I Met Your Mother. If you've never seen it, go see it. One of the characters insists that a great mix should be "all rise, all the time". While I do not 100% agree with this, it has spawned the collection of songs you are now experiencing.

2) I made this as a mix for my sister, so no judging me on the Katy Perry or N'sync!

3) ARE YOU READY?!?!?!?!?!?

Tracks:

You Give Love A Bad Name
Carry On My Wayward Son
Don't Stop Believin'
Hot N Cold
Mr. Brightside
The Middle
Somebody Told Me
Jamie All Over
I Woke Up In A Car
19-2000
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Digital Get Down
Harder To Breathe
The Boys Of Summer
I Want You Back
I Believe In A Thing Called Love
Grace Kelly

Right, so other than that, I'm not sure what else there is to say about this group of songs. If you want to experience it properly, you will begin AND end it with Bon Jovi, because...well...why not?

For "Carry On" I have but this to say: My favorite experience with this song was when Rock Band 3 (I think) came out. I held up the expert mode bass part while a group of somewhat drunken friends performed (quite accurately) the vocals, guitars, and drums. Picture, if you will, a 300 pound man belting this song at the top of his lungs into a tiny fake microphone...

No pump-up mix would be complete without Don't Stop Believin'. You better sing along in your car.

Hot N Cold. Yeah, I know, Katy Perry, I'm a dude, how can I? Well, get over it.

I know I've broken some very dearly held mix rules by including two Killers songs. But they are both great, and they both get your heart going.

Pop-Rock, Arena Rock, Pop, Techno, anything with a ballin' beat and some screamin' lyrics, and it's all set for a "Get Psyched" mix. If anyone ever reads this, shoot me a comment with a track listing of what YOU would put on an ALL RISE ALL THE TIME mix!!!

Comfort music

A couple months ago, Michelle Branch was playing at a city event near me. I got really excited, but when I told my friends, their reactions ranged from indifferent to condescending. I can't blame them. Michelle Branch writes her own songs (or at least did originally) and is, I think, an at least relatively talented musician, but she's definitely a producer of radio hits, pure pop and country. Wikipedia tells me that she opened for Hanson in 2000. In 2001, I had no regard for Hanson one way or the other, but I loved Michelle Branch.

"The Spirit Room" wasn't the first CD I ever received, but it was probably the first one that wasn't a "NOW" volume or a Spice Girls album (the Sailor Moon soundtrack is its own entity, not subject to normal rules of classification). "Everywhere" was certainly the first music video I ever saw all the way through. I listened to it with my friend Jenn. She and I tried to record a cover of "Everywhere" together, sitting on the floor of the back room of my house singing into a boom box's tape recorder. But playing it back, our voices sounded thin and desperate without instrumental backing, and we abandoned the project. Her favorite song was "Something to Sleep To," whereas I liked the two singles, "All You Wanted" and "Everywhere," with "Sweet Misery" coming in third even when I couldn't understand the lyrics.

My most vivid memory of "The Spirit Room" is listening to it on my best friend's Walkman on the way back from the fifth grade trip to historic Williamsburg. We were on a charter bus, and I leaned against the window. The rainbow specks on the grey seats, no seatbelts, the wide aisles, and the chatter of everyone else; and I sat alone and happy, listened to the whole thing through twice.

Years later, I bought and listened to her second album, "Hotel Paper." I liked the story in the liner notes that she had written some of the songs on hotel stationery while touring. And I loved certain songs, with "Tuesday Morning" and (again) the single "Are You Happy Now" being my favorite.

But it doesn't touch me as much as "The Spirit Room" does. When I hear the first chords of "All You Wanted," I am comforted, I am safe. It might not be "good" music, and her lyrics might be a little trite. But it's the music that first introduced me to music, that led to the passionate love I have for music today and indirectly to so much else, including my having any interest in Ben in the first place, and the creation of this blog. And it's the music that introduced me to songs about love, which is an important detail in its own right.

You're everywhere to me, and when I close my eyes it's you I see.

You're everything I know that makes me believe I'm not alone,

I'm not alone.

Love,

Sarah

5:00 on a ... what day is it?

I am sitting here at 5 pm on this wednesday in a pool of gray light as the day ends. I am typing one-handed because Sarah is asleep on my arm. Currently the soundtrack of our lives is the achingly beautiful soundtrack for the game Braid, which Nathan (my oldest and best friend) is playing across from me on the couch. One might call this a perfect moment.

I don't have any particular songs today. I am not inspired to go single-handedly (literally) find an example of Braid's soundtrack. I have been trying to listen a bit less and write more. (I write songs) I am sure tomorrow or the next day or next week Sarah will have a thousand new songs to write about and love. I am just here to reflect on this moment, because it feels significant.

A few sidenotes: if by magic you find this, the original blog is over on wordpress; we are working on moving it over here. http://skepticatfirst.wordpress.com/

Also, this is a music blog, we write about what we listen to and love, so if you love music, check in occasionally and see if you find something new.

EDIT: the soundtrack to braid can be found here