Previously on Adam Riff™:
Before I owned an MP3 player, I burned a spindle full of unmarked CD-R mixes, and I thought it would be fun to randomly re-visit one track by track.
Electric boogaloo!
1. Hilltop Hoods – "1979"
Jonny Nail nominated this song to represent Australia on The Olympic Album. I ended up using another Hilltop Hoods song that he nominated, but penciled this song in for a planned "time machine" compilation of songs with a year in their title. That mix would've also included: Alkaline Trio's "'97," Brandtson's "Circa 1991," and Pedro the Lion's "June 18, 1976."
2. Skumdum – "A Big Disgrace"
I discovered this song on a Europunk compilation that I think Mitch Clem informed me about. I remember wanting to copy the design of its track listing for a future mix.
3. Zebrahead – "Anthem"
When pondering the swaggest guitarist I have ever seen live, I always picture Greg Bergdorf at the El Rey in 2001.
4. HORSE the band – "Anti-Pizza"
Okay, the Pizza EP was fall 2006, two years after I bought my first iPod, but I didn't want to spend money on a device to connect it to my car's stereo during commutes to and from my doomed internship at Hudson, so I burned CD mixes.
5. Bomb the Music Industry! – "Anywhere I Lay My Head (Tom Waits cover)"
Ron Ben-Israel: "Chiptune-y…"
It normally bugs me when a vocalist tries to sound like the vocalist whom he or she is covering. Jeff Rosenstock's Tom Waits is an exception.
6. Sparta – "Atlas"
I completely forgot about this song.
7. Fall Out Boy – "Dance, Dance (RJD2 Remix)"
Imagine if Fall Out Boy formed today, with the quartet's current musical interests – Patrick (funk, soul, rhythm and blues), Pete (reggaeton, electro-pop), Joe and Andy (metal).
8. The Rapture – "Don Go Do It"
Chris Castle so indoctrinated me to Echoes during a trip to his grandfather's cabin in the Puget Sound that I cannot embrace poppier Rapture, or The Rapture A.E. (after Echoes).
9. Brandtson – "Earthquakes and Sharks"
A pop hit that never was. Modest Mouse "Float On" comparisons are apt.
10. The Radical Dudez – "Girls Who Play in the Snow"
Ben forwarded me this song. For reasons unbeknownst to me, Ben attended university in Canada, where he befriended the members of this band. If you only listen to one song about missing Canada while studying abroad in the UK…
11. Plain White T's – "Hate (I Really Don't Like You)"
I am puzzled as to why I included this song.
12. Mark Ronson – "Just (feat. Alex Greenwald) [Radiohead cover]"
Love at first listen. My favourite Radiohead song plus brass instruments? The trumpet solo half of its bridge is sublime.
13. Streetlight Manifesto – "Keasbey Nights"
Did I mention that I love brass instruments?
14. Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly – "Once More with Feeling"
Bands I won't listen to because their name is too stupid: AWOLNATION, Thee Oh Sees.
15. Swollen Members – "Put Me On (feat. Everlast)"
Sometimes I'm embarrassed to enjoy songs by a group that approves album covers like these:
16. Ghostland Observatory – "Sad Sad City"
Someone recorded a drum cover?
17. Saves the Day – "Sell My Old Clothes, I'm Off to Heaven (Acoustic)"
Chris Conley and Vagrant inexplicably wasted the original on a sampler.
18. Patrick Stump – "So Sick (Ne-Yo cover)"
Boy can sing. He's like a young Josh Krajcik.
19. HORSE the band – "T.M.N.T. (animated series theme song cover)"
Keyboardist Erik Engstrom stated that if he could delete anything from Horse the Band's catalog, it would be the Pizza EP. [source]
Aww…
20. Sparta – "Taking Back Control"
Was this song on the Fantastic Four (2005) soundtrack? No, I'm thinking of Taking Back Sunday's "Error Operator." I confuse the two.
21. Bedouin Soundclash – "When the Night Feels My Song"
Ben also attended university with and knows the members of this band.
22. Stars – "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead"
Ben did not attend university with Stars.
I will forever associate this song with Degrassi: The Next Generation's season five finale. It was beautifully incorporated into one of the series' best episodes.