web analytics

Pop Rock Nation

Tag: James

  • We Break Easy: Ten Songs I Was Listening to on September 11, 2001

    10 years ago – y’know, before iPods and stuff – it was my general practice to keep a mix CD of my current favorite songs in my car to listen to on my way to and from work. And then, every week or so, I’d make a new CD, replacing the songs I was tired of with fresh new ones. I was listening to one such CD Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001. On my way home from work that day, I was struck by how eerie some of the songs felt in light of the day’s events – the same way the absolutely perfect blue sky of that day took a sinister cast once its perfection had become so abruptly purified of the usual air traffic.

    In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, radio programmers were purging their playlists of songs that, however popular before, suddenly felt insensitive or inappropriate. The nu-metal act Drowning Pool had scored a breakout hit that summer with a song called “Bodies”, a tribute to the joyful violence of a moshpit. The song had been ubiquitous on rock radio and MTV2 all summer, and suddenly it was gone. Similarly, Jimmy Eat World’s then just-released third album Bleed American was pulled from the market, only to reappear a couple months later, euphemistically retitled as Jimmy Eat World. In the place of those “troubling” songs, came Five For Fighting’s “Superman” (at the time, a 6-month old single that had previously fizzled at radio, like it’s superior – and more troubling – predecessor “Easy Tonight”), and a new version of Enya’s “Only Time”, tricked out with 9/11 audio verite.

    In the meantime, I kept my little mix CD, and while I already loved most of the songs on it, the fact is, they’d taken on a whole new dimension for me (in the same way that Five for Fighting song did for so many others). Even now, hearing any one of these songs in any context has a sort of time travel effect, and I’m back on that beautiful, horrible Tuesday morning.

    Eventually Bleed American got its original title back. And “Bodies” would eventually be revived, not only as theme music for professional wrestling, but also as an instrument of torture at Guantanamo. And eventually, my little CD got a little beat-up – CD burning was still a relatively new thing at that point, and my home made mix CDs had pretty short playable lives. But I kept the tracklist, and here are ten highlights, presented with no further comment, in the order in which they appeared on my CD.

    1. “Crystal” by New Order

    2. “Working Girls (Sunlight Shines)” by The Pernice Brothers

    3. “Sometimes” by Ours

    4. “We Need a Resolution” by Aaliyah

    5. “Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box” by Radiohead

    6. “Hellbent” by Kenna


    Kenna – Hell Bent by Kenna

    7. “Blizzard of ’78” by Ida

    Ida's ''The Braille Night''
    [no video available]
    “Fixing an eye on the hopeful in a heartless room / you’ll be done soon /
    Snow is falling down and the whole damn town / is covered in white”

    8. “Broke” by The Beta Band

    9. “Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)” by James

    10. “I Want Love” by Elton John

  • The Daily Awesome – State of the Union Edition: James “Sit Down”

    Who knew, when the six man Manchester band called James released their 1991 single “Sit Down” (a re-recording of a song they’d initially released a couple years earlier), that they had just delivered the perfect theme song for the fledgling 112th U.S. Congress – shell-shocked, grief-stricken and deeply divided – on the occasion of the 44th U.S. President’s third State of the Union address:

    “Those who feel the breath of sadness, sit down next to me
    Those who find they’re touched by madness, sit down next to me
    Those who find themselves ridiculous, sit down next to me
    In love, in fear, in hate, in tears…”

    This is a song that, in its studio version, offered a lot of solace to my financially-desperate, socially-inept, lonely, frightened, freshman-in-college-age self. But seeing this gorgeous live version from a 2001 farewell show, seeing that massive crowd singing its lyrics together like one great, glorious “me too” is at least as uplifting as two congresspeople from opposite sides of the aisle making a point of sitting down next to each other for the President’s speech – as if that’s so damn hard.

  • The Monday Night Awesome: James “Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)” (2001)

    James – Pleased To Meet You (2001)

    In this time of economic uncertainty, high unemployment, pop culture run amok and general mass hysteria, it’s nice to know that there’s always James. Five minutes of James and everything is better. Five minutes of James can balance the national budget, provide jobs and healthcare for all, and inspire Kim Kardashian to go back to school and find the biophysicist within. Don’t believe me? That’s fine. You don’t have to take my word for it. Instead, you can watch the testimonials given by the beneficiaries of James’s healing qualities in this strangely affecting video for their single “Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)”, from the Manchester band’s 2001 album Pleased To Meet You. The cleverness of the video is one thing – getting random folks on the streets of New York City to both “testify” and sing along to a song that I can’t imagine any of them had heard prior to their fateful meeting with a camera crew. But the timing of it – just months before 9/11 – haunts the video; and frankly, everything that’s happened since – the war, the economic collapse, George W. Bush legitimately winning a second term in office – also haunts the video. My personal favorite moment is the old couple on the street at about 0:58 singing happily to each other “We’re insured.” They look so happy! You can’t underestimate the healing power of that moment. I feel frickin’ awesome already. Thank you, James! A thousand times, thank you. All six or seven of you!