[MUSIC] THE SAVAGE ANIMAL "The Playlists of New Year’s 2013"
01.02.13
BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
It’s 2013. New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are past us. It’s now time to face to the cold hard reality. The holidays are over, the Mayans were wrong, and oh shit we’re right in the middle of winter. We have to take down the decorations, get those gift returns out of the way, get back to work, and clean up the left over mess from New Years.
Don’t fret folks. “DJ Mike” is here. To make your transition into forever I’m going to take a look at a few different types of playlists. Hopefully there’s something for everyone here. I’m pretty sure we all fit into at least one or two of these seven categories. If not, give me a break. I’m hung over.
[Music To Be Hung-over To…]
1.] “Another One Bites The Dust” by Queen
2.] “Everybody Hurts” by R.E.M.
3.] “Thursdays Child” by David Bowie
4.] “Ain’t No Sunshine” by Bill Withers
5.] “The Whisper Song” by Ying Yang Twins
6.] “The Sound of Silence” by Simon & Garfunkel
7.] “Hotel California” by Eagles
It sucks being hung-over. You feel uneasy, lights are too bright, sounds are too loud, and the weight of a thousand greasy blankets hold you down. I realize that a hangover victim would not want to hear ANY music at all. You just want to hear the warm fuzzy silence of your pillow and a warm coffee or tea. Have no worries. There is some music for you.
If you’re hung over you don’t want to hear shit, but maybe a little background noise will help you transition from the hangover hell to normal life. I think the opening with Queen’s “Another One Bites The Dust” is just right. It’s abrasive and loud enough to be a mild but pleasurable punishment. After that, we deal with the pain as much as we can. Everything else is quiet, painful, and almost serene in its torture. Especially, “The Whisper Song”.
[Music To Puke To…]
1.] “Bangarang” by Skrillex“
2.] “Smack My Bitch Up” by Prodigy
3.] “Blue” by Eiffel 65
4.] “Hot In Herre” by Nelly
5.] “Save A Horse (Ride A Cowboy)” by Big & Rich
6.] “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” by Jet
7.] “It’s the End of the World As We Know It” by R.E.M.
Sometimes you push your limits to the limit. That’s why they’re called “limits”. When someone has a little too much alcoholic fun they’ll find themselves in the unfortunate position of getting sick. At this point your head is spinning and music really doesn’t compute. I think we’ve all had this experience before or have seen this phenomenon. As one “blows chunks” they can still hear things. A light thud of background music for the sounds of retching isn’t a bad idea.
If history serves me correct the dull thuds of electronic music is the worst thing in the world to puke to. This is why you should. It’ll build character. Start off with some Skrillex. I went with “that one song”. Then Prodigy because of the crazy video and the puking in it. The rest is just me being cruel. I don’t even need to be drunk or hungover to want to throw up while listening to “Hot In Herre”, “Save a Horse”, and the Jet song. If you’re going to spew, spew to this.
[Music To Clean To…]
1.] “Final Countdown” by Europe
2.] “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey
3.] “Can’t Stop Until You Get Enough” by Michael Jackson
4.] “Whip It” by Devo
5.] “Beautiful Day” by U2
6.] “Everybody Walk The Dinosaur” by Was (Not Was)
7.] “So Fresh and So Clean” by Outkast
The party is over and the dry heaves have been cured by a nap and a random caffeinated beverage. Now there is that puke smell to get rid of, trash to gather, and a life to pick the pieces up from. A little musical motivation won’t hurt. Even if you didn’t host the party, there is no reason not to clean up. You don’t need anything too crazy, but a nice little playlist to enjoy while disinfecting yourself of 2012.
To get in that cleaning mode you just have to go for it. You start cleaning, put on music and just clean your mess up. This will result in you hearing one or two songs you want to hear and then a lot of randomness that you have to make the best of. Isn’t THAT when you listen to Journey? I know I only listen to them when I have no other choice or control over the situation. I wanted to put a list together of inspirational and motivational tunes, but also make it a bit random. Mission accomplished!
[Music To Be Indifferent To…]
1.] “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen
2.] “Porcelain” by Moby
3.] “Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd
4.] “OK Computer” by Radiohead
5.] “Red Red Wine” by UB40
6.] “Bittersweet Symphony” by The Verve
7.] “Go With The Flow” by Queens of the Stone Age
It’s 2013 and 2012 is over. So what? The numbers at the end of the meaningless date changes for another 365 days. There is no reason to really get all that excited. Maybe you don’t have anything of relevance to do. Just because you’re a bit jaded to the Holiday events doesn’t mean you have to have nihilistic ears!
This is a pretty cool playlist. I’m not going to lie. On any normal random Thursday in May this would be a great listen. But we’re talking about New Years. This is a pretty uneventful list. It’s one of those mixes that’s just easy to drift away into. The most theatric this mix gets is with “Bohemian Rhapsody”, but even that is calming and blends nicely into Moby. Remember Moby? That dude made some great chill-axed music and “Porcelain” is probably the best. I include Pink Floyd and Radiohead because it just makes sense. These aren’t upbeat songs, but they are great audio odysseys that leave us different after each trek out. “Red Red Wine” is just random. It’s a nice and soothing song that I randomly thought of while putting this list together. The Verve’s best song is easy to include and the closer of “Go With The Flow” makes me realize I don’t listen to enough Queens of the Stone Age as I should.
[Music To Remember 2012 To…]
1.] “Gangnam Style” by PSY
2.] “Blood” by In This Moment
3.] “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen
4.] “Lonely Boy” by The Black Keys
5.] “I Will Wait” by Mumford & Sons
6.] “2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted” by 2Pac featuring Snoop Dogg
7.] “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston
2012 was a pretty eventful year in music. There was a lot of bullshit, but it was eventful bullshit nonetheless. Pop music and country did great on the charts while hip hop went more commercial and rock music fought for any spotlight it could. There is some stuff you don’t want to hear ever again. I get that. I don’t want to hear some of this stuff either. I think the fly-by-night singles and fads need to be acknowledged so we can learn from our mistakes. At the same rate, there was some decent stuff. Like any year, it’s a mixed bag.
This was a pretty painful list to put together. Off the top we HAVE to go with the “Macarena” of 2012. The biggest fad in a long long time has to be the horrible dance pop song “Gangnam Style”. It started off being funny in an ironic and catchy way. Before you knew it grandmothers were on YouTube with dumb grandchildren doing this shitty dance. I guess if it makes people happy then there is no harm, but it’s still not good. In ten years people are not going to admit to loving this song and I’m sure it’ll be on every annoying wedding DJ’s playlist for years to come. Another annoying ear dagger was “Call Me Maybe”. I avoided it as much as possible, but could not. It was so cheesy and bad that I think people HAD to repeat it over and over again. There were other big pop releases too. I just don’t want to waste time with them. On the metal front, the coolest thing I’ve heard in a long time was the In This Moment single “Blood”. Rock managed to get out a few albums. Manson, Jack White, and others put out solid albums, but The Black Keys and Mumford & Sons are on fire right now. To close out this playlist is two homage tracks. At Coachella 2012, Tupac showed up via hologram and showed that a digital version of him is still more bad ass than a human version of 99.9% of the rappers we hear about today. And finally, we close with a great ballad sung by the belated pop icon Whitney Houston. She will be missed, but 2012 not so much…
[Music To Prepare For 2013 To…]
1.] “H.” by Tool
2.] “If I Can’t” by 50 Cent
3.] “Fireman” by Lil Wayne
4.] “Pokerface” by Lady Gaga
5.] “Paranoid” by Black Sabbath
6.] “What’s Your Fantasy” by Ludacris
7.] “March of the Pigs” by Nine Inch Nails
With music it seems most fanatics will romanticize the past. Music is “never as good as it was” and “there is nothing new coming out worth out time”. I’m guilty of saying and thinking both of these things more than a few times. We just get comfortable, we latch on, and we make memories with our favorite music. The flip side of this is that music carries on. No matter if you don’t like it, new music continues to come out. Old bands put out new stuff all the time, newer bands are putting out some of their best work, and there is something awesome we haven’t heard being played in a garage somewhere right now. We just never know. 2013 does have some releases of note on the horizon. To celebrate the future, we’ll listen to past songs from artists with new material (supposedly) dropping in the year.
Tool is finally getting out another album in 2013. They had material and was planning to work on it in 2012. Then again, Tool has a track record for making their fans impatiently wait. Trent Reznor had the same problem too, but seems to be pretty consistent with material. Trent announced he is currently working on NEW Nine Inch Nails material. It was like five years between ”Pretty Hate Machine” and ”The Downward Spiral” and then another five years until ”The Fragile” and another five for ”With Teeth”. After that he started cranking out downloadable content all the time until going with the new project. Black Sabbath is also getting a new album out there after a million years. On a hip hop front, a few heavy hitters have releases coming out like 50 Cent, Ludacris, and what is said to be Lil’ Wayne’s LAST album. If he’s a man of his word and never makes another album then this is a reason to celebrate. And finally, Lady Gaga is putting out another album. I’m not a fan, but that will surely be a huge release in 2013.
[Music To Get Keep Partying To…]
1.] “1999” by Prince
2.] “Party Hard” by Andrew W.K.
3.] “Gin and Juice” by Snoop Doggy Dogg
4.] “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” by George Thorogood
5.] “Livin’ On A Prayer” by Bon Jovi
6.] “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice
7.] “Enter Sandman” by Metallica
The party never ends! New Year’s Eve rocked and “they” (alcoholics) say the best way to cure a hang-over is to drink MORE; something-something about “hair of the cat”. If that’s what you want to do, go for it. Just because everyone else is going back to being responsible does not mean you have to. And let’s be honest, if you want to party you don’t need a silly countdown to get sloshed. Good party music is a necessity.
The definition of what is “good party music” is subjective as anything. You’d want to just put on all your favorite songs, but trust me there is a difference between your favorite songs while sober and your favorite songs while drunk. In fact, a lot of the music you hear while drunk is your favorite songs. Well, this is if you’re doing it right. For my list here I’m going with a balance. You have to get into the “theme” of a party so Prince’s “1999” followed up by “Party Hard” by Andrew W.K. should make sure that everyone is in a good and upbeat mood. From there it breaks down to two very different iconic songs of indulgence in Snoop’s “Gin and Juice” and Mr. Thorogood’s rendition of “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer”. From there I would hope you’re good and sloppy. When you’re at this point of intoxication any old song that you’re familiar with is “GREAT!”. For this reason I’m going to sneak in a Bon Jovi song. I don’t dislike Bon Jovi, but I only like them once in a while when a classic like “Livin’ On A Prayer” comes on. You want to hear “Wanted Dead or Alive” and you’ll even sing part of it because you want to hear it. The truth is that the song kind of sucks and the idea of it and the drunken chorus in all of our heads is what’s cool about it. So yeah, “Livin’ On A Prayer”! Every drunken person over the age of probably 25 or so knows the words to Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby”. None of us are listening to this song regularly, but when it comes on at a party it’s like “wigger napalm”. To wrap it up, I’d imagine a drunken person who is at the edge and with eyes that don’t want to fully open. What’s better than drunkenly singing along with “Enter Sandman”? These aren’t songs anyone should listen to every day. Some things are left better for certain situations. In this case, if you’re going to get drunk you might as well embarrass yourself and everyone around you at the same time. Party! Wooo!
