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by Afrobutterfly
5 comments
A Playlist for Gainesville Thursdays
The vibe we're aiming for.
Use to impress friends, enemies, ladies.
Most of you need context for this post, so here’s context: Thursday is far and away the best night of the week in that bastion of sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll that is Gainesville, FL… downtown G-Ville, that is. I can’t speak to the rest. It probably shouldn’t exist in the first place.
Mondays thru midweek are pretty brutal: lotta heat, lotta academics, lotta bickering about BCS standings. But come Thursday, 10ish – aka “the weekend” – the heat dissipates (untrue, but go with me), your papers decide to write themselves, and football for a few hours takes a back seat to hanging with smokin’ hot girls (and maybe a few chill bros).
It’s important to do Thursdays right. Obviously. If your bffs only drink good beer, buy them good beer, dammit. If they’re feeling underdressed, change into your rattiest t-shirt. And most importantly, always have stellar tunes on the stereo. Good vibes are won and lost in the 10 to 11 hour. After that, you’re out the door – your chillwaves are in the hands of the DJs.
The following playlist is a first organized attempt based on previous spur-of-the-moment attempts. As you can see, it’s heavy on garage jams, electro-pop and dance punk. In other words, it’s awesome, but I’m willing to revise. Send me suggestions if you’re under 30.
Here we go.
10:00 PM Just Couldn’t Tie Me Down, The Black Keys – Funkier than Sly Stone’s ‘fro and three-day-old gym shorts combined. Deceptively danceable groove and slow burn… ‘Cuz you can’t just throw on the Stooges right away.
10:03 PM Vanishing Cream, The Fresh and Onlys – A 60′s flavored, best coast pop nugget from a band your friends haven’t heard of. Establishes indie cred right off the bat. Plus, you can talk about when you saw them in a smoky dive in San Francisco. Score one for conversation starters.
10:05 PM Car Thief, The Beastie Boys – Throwing a bone to your hip-hop people… with like the greatest synth riff ever. If you have a lot of black friends, might want to consider flipping this out for something off of “Paid in Full,” lest they think you’ll only listen to rap made by white people. Unchill.
10:09 PM Mystery Girl, Yeah Yeah Yeahs – A slinky little badass groove song from hipster princess Karen O. Highly danceable, especially with socks on a wood floor (hint, hint)… A song that makes you cooler just by saying its name. Try it.
10:12 PM Ex Lion Tamer, Wire – Shouldn’t have to justify the inclusion of a song this great. And won’t.
10:14 PM What Goes On, The Velvet Underground – At 4:55, this one barely makes the 5 minute limit (aka The Buzzkill Mark), but I might have let it slide anyway. Very possibly the greatest groove song ever written. Just three chords over and over. Three perfect chords over and over. Last two minutes make you want to smoke something.
10:19 PM Deceptacon, Le Tigre – Now we’re getting somewhere. The product of Riot Grrrl beating the hell out of Electronica in a grimy back alley. That and John Cassavetes worship. Obviously.
10:22 PM I Took Your Name, R.E.M. – For four minutes, R.E.M. was the trashiest glam rock band in the world. Really. Here’s the proof… Stipe doing Sonic Youth doing T-Rex, only with the biggest, fullest, nastiest guitar tone you’ve ever heard. Opening riff is massive.
10:26 PM Anything ‘Cept The Truth, Eagles of Death Metal – A shit-hot slab of fuzz rock from QOTSA’s freakier little bro. Sounds like black leather and red velvet had a baby.
10:30 PM Hey Bulldog, The Beatles – “Every playlist must include The Beatles” is a law in 36 countries. This is my pick. But beware: your bound to walk into one of those “Who is this?” “The Beatles.” “The Beatles? Really?” conversations with somebody who doesn’t know her stuff. No worries, she’s smokin’ hot every time.
10:33 PM Queen Bitch, Davie Bowie – The great thing about Bowie is you could replace this track with anything from his early to mid ’70s catalogue to the same effect. I pitted this one against “Panic In Detroit.” You wouldn’t believe the internal struggle… Before he started screwing around with electronic music and sadness.
10:36 PM Jonathon Fisk, Spoon – A badass punk rocker from a bunch of wimpy, clean cut emo boys. Feel like that’s the core of the indie ethos, no?
10:39 PM Always The Same, The Legends – It’s a fact of life that obscure Swedish garage bands make the best power pop tunes. Even the wallflower fiddling with her extensions starts nodding to this one. That’s rock power, holmes.
10:41 PM No Hope Kids, Wavves – a ’60s-tinged noise-pop jam about having no girlfriend and no money (aka a song for solidarity). Feel free to replace this with The White Stripes’ “Fell in Love With a Girl.” They’re the same song. But this one tells your peeps your down with what the kids listen to… Also, don’t say “peeps” around cool people.
10:43 PM Perfume-V, Pavement – Try to pick up a live version if you can – the upbeat tempo reflects your mood if you’ve spent your first 43 minutes wisely… A track about cheap perfume and girls who listen to the radio i.e. The Top… Makes me want hair that covers my eyes for some reason.
10:45 PM Pressure Zone, Beck – Laced with oooh-la-las and crunky synths hellbent on groove-stepping your party out the door. Hold on, we’re not there yet.
10:48 PM Barely Legal, The Strokes – Believe it or not, playlists existed before Julian Casablancas. I know, hard to believe… If you’re in a pinch for time, just play “Is This It” front to back. It’s just 36 minutes of chill-vibing rock ‘n roll. I mean have you ever smelled the cover? It smells like New York. Seriously.
10:52 PM Disco Infiltrator, LCD Soundsystem – Somebody woke up one morning and said, “I’m going to write the most danceable song in the history of music.” That man was James Murphy. This is the song.
10:58 PM Shake Appeal, The Stooges – So you want to go out with a bang, leave an impression, maybe even force a few people out. Check. Check. Check… Substitution for Red Bull/buzzsaw.
Top time. Say something if the mp3s don’t work. Happy foolishness.
- Robbie
I’m quite confident that your tour of East Asia has made you even cooler. This is a good omen.
3 of us checked out playlist. nothing touched Bulldog. don’t care how SH – can’t recognize John’s voice- get out my house and don’t come back.
Not gonna disagree with you. Their most underrated tune IMO. Uncle Mike doesn’t like it, though… And thanks for writing. First Sirlin comment=momentous occasion.
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This is delightful. It looks like we are all ready to get back on the dance floor.