30.6.11

20 epic albums while i was in high school...

...and my favorite song from each album.

My personal criteria were as follows:

1. Album should have been released sometime between 1993 and 1997. I generally think that any album that was still very popular during that time counts, even if they were released before 1993. But I stuck to "released" to make it easier to narrow down. Also, the individual songs on the albums could have been released previously as is the case with many soundtracks, greatest hits or other compilations.

2. I had to have been impressed with more than half of the songs on the album.

3. It doesn't have to be "my kind of music" as long as I think it's just a good album.

4. It has to immediately bring me back to high school.

5. Popularity or "number of hits" is the last and least important factor.

6. In picking my favorite song off of the albums, specifically those off of compilations, the song had to instantly remind me of that album.

In no particular order...

2pac - All Eyez on Me



Sublime - Self-titled



Soundgarden - Superunknown

*"Black Hole Sun" is my favorite video



Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang Clan (36 Chambers)



Massive Attack - Blue Lines



Bjork - Post



Nirvana - MTV Unplugged in New York



Snoop Doggy Dogg - Doggystyle



White Zombie - Astro Creep: 2000 - Songs of Love, Destruction and other Synthetic Delusions of the Electric Head



Pantera - Far Beyond Driven



Tool - Undertow



Stone Temple Pilots - Purple



A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders



Bush - Sixteen Stone



The Wallflowers - Bringing Down the Horse

*
"Bleeders" is actually my favorite song off of this album, now. But A: "One Headlight" was my favorite song off of this album back then and B: They don't have a decent YouTube of "Bleeders" anyway.



Nine Inch Nails - Downward Spiral



Singles - Soundtrack



Judgment Night - Soundtrack



Trainspotting - Soundtrack



The Crow - Soundtrack





19.6.11

better soundtracks - empire records edition - volume 1

In 1995, a wonderfully crappy movie filled with some of the worst performances of its various cast-members' careers emerged as a representation of a generation. Empire Records cannot in any way be considered a "good" movie. But ask the MTV/boomerang/generation-Y crowd and they'll tell you that this cult classic was a big part of the 90s.

The movie was ridiculous but the soundtrack was stellar. Except when drones of teenage girls ran to the stores to score the album, they discovered, as with many other movies, that many of the best songs from the movie were not actually on the official soundtrack.

And with that, I bring you the first installment of my new blog project. I'll be looking up songs from movies that sadly did not make the soundtrack and post what videos are available on YouTube. Finding the songs isn't particularly difficult but the objective is to get them all in one spot and with a description of the scene in which the relevant song played. In an effort to keep each entry short, each movie will likely take up several posts spanning several days.

Some songs you might recognize from Empire Records, in no particular order:

1. Seems by Queen Sarah Saturday

(Where Corey, A.J. and Mark play the M&M game led by Gina to determine who gets to pick the first song to play while they open)



2. Hey Joe by Jimi Hendrix

(When Joe first arrives at the store right before he finds out that the previous night's deposits never made it to the bank)



3. Saddam A Go-Go by Gwar

(The video Mark is watching while he eats the special brownies from Eddie)



4. Rock n Roll/Ega by Daniel Johnston

(Same scene as before, during the end of the Gwar video)



5. Plowed by Sponge

(When they are preparing for the Save the Empire party)