Galen's 30 Day Song Challenge

[Galen]

day 07 - a song that reminds you of a certain event

Kors K - Heaven Above




I could probably do the next four days in a single song, but I’m gonna be nitpicky and divide it up as much as I can.

This song takes me back to Bowlmanifest ‘08. For those of you (most if not all of you) who don’t know what that is, Bowlmanifest was a big (small) music video game meet-up in Winchendon, Massachusetts. I’d never heard of Winchendon before, and neither has anybody else in the world, but it had a fucking amazing music arcade. It was really the center of music gaming activity in the US until it got flooded and was forced to close in ‘09; rest in peace .

One of the big things they did was bring in an actual producer from Japan who wrote music for these games and have him hold a concert. Both times they got this guy Kors K, and he’s by far my favorite music game artist so I had absolutely no problem with this. In ‘08 he actually wrote an awesome Schranz remix of the Simpsons theme, which I can’t find anywhere anymore. But this song in specific reminds me of that whole event because I got to sit and cuddle while it played. Good memory that was.

[Galen]

day 06 - a song that reminds you of somewhere

The Beatles - Hey Jude




Uhm, there are a couple places this song reminds me of. The second one is something I’m nowhere near prepared to talk about, so I’ll just go with the first.

I first went to Japan in my senior year of high school as part of a school trip. We all stayed in Kyoto for a couple days, and during our stay there we all went to a trip to a karaoke tower. In the bigger cities they tend to have giant structures filled with the one thing you want instead of just having one floor dedicated to it. Karaoke is a popular commodity anyways, so they’d easily benefit from renting an entire building.

Anyway, we stayed there for what I think was a couple of hours. I only sang one song because I was a *shy-boy* or some shit, and one song was a big enough accomplishment for me. At the end of the night the main chaperone guy suggested that we all sing Hey Jude. I had never heard the song in full before, but I knew the naaaaaaanaaanaaanananaanaaaanaaaananananananaanaaa a part so I just did that. It was a nice way to round out the evening, getting everybody involved.

Then on the last day of our stay, down in Hiroshima with our host families, we all went to this buffet-style Shabu-sen restaurant (best food I’ve ever eaten btw, really have to get shabu-shabu sometime soon). There just so happened to be a karaoke machine there; not sure if it was lugged in just for our being there, but we took advantage of it nonetheless. We sang some of the basics: the ABCs (in a really stupid rhythm because the Japanese don’t understand rhyme scheme and just make shit up as they go along), Oh Suzanna I think was in there, maybe something like Sekai Wa Hitotsu Dake No Hana, or something at least as popular as that. But one of the last songs we sang was Hey Jude, which surprised me because I had no idea it was such a popular song in Japan.

I’ve since made it a habit to sing this song whenever I go to Karaoke.

[Galen]

day 05 - a song that reminds you of someone

Dashboard Confessional - Stolen




Ugh, I really don't want to tell the story behind this. You can ask me one-on-one if you'd like, but this is too personal to tell everybody.

[Galen]

day 04 - a song that makes you sad

Above and Beyond - Can't Sleep




This is the song I was talking about before that could satisfy today as well as the other three days.

I remember first hearing this at Lovefest '06, which I think was the first electronic music festival I'd ever been to. An internet friend was in town and he wanted to go, and it sounded like fun so I hopped along. I had no idea what I was getting into: floats with naked old guys (parade in san francisco, I should have seen it coming), the same happy hardcore measure over and over again, etc etc. Then this song came up, and I was blown away. I think this made the trip totally worth it.

In my head, this song has become an ode to all the fears I had about my first relationship. There was one particularly terrible breakdown in march '07 where I thought everything was going to fall apart, so I broke down and told my mom everything and just sat in my room, listening to this song over and over again. Even today, listening to this song reminds me of all that bullshit I put myself through for him.

[Galen]

day 03 - a song that makes you happy

Jethro Tull - Moths




As everybody on the internet probably knows by now, Ian Anderson is one of my favorite people. If only I could have been a woman in the early 70s, we would have done so many amazing things with each other's bodies. That is essentially why I chose this song: any song that even so much as implies sex with Ian Anderson (which as it turns out constitutes a good percentage of his discography) is gonna make me a happy camper.

[Galen]

day 02 - your least favorite song

Tomboy - Who's The Man




After hearing the first line of this song, I literally screamed and fell out of my chair. I have never been more offended by a single piece of music than I have by this song, not to mention everything this "artist" has ever done. I don't care if this is a joke song or what, I cannot fucking stand it. It's essentially everything about the gay community that makes me want to run away from it as fast as possible: terrible dick jokes, assertion that homosexuals are inherently different from heterosexuals, appeal to gay stereotypes, Tomboy's entire image. I don't know much about tomboy, but he seems to be the kind of guy who thinks that homosexuality is always correlated with being faggy; even if that isn't what he believes, that sure as fuck is the impression I get from him. God this song makes me so fucking mad, I have to stop.

[Galen]

day 01 - your favorite song

あさき (Asaki) - 空澄みの鵯と　(Sorasumi no Hiyodori To, Hiyodori of the Clear Sky)




The reason I wanted to do this whole challenge thing backwards is because I wanted to weigh all my options about what my favorite song of all time ever is. It was really down between this and there other songs: K by Bump of Chicken, Bedshaped by Keane, or C'est La Vie by Jean-Michelle Jarre. I think ultimately I always knew this song would come out on top, but I just wanted to make sure.

It's been so difficult making myself not post any Asaki songs throughout this whole challenge. Radwimps is my favorite band, as said before, but Asaki has some of the most overwhelmingly amazing tracks I've ever heard. There's really not much I can say about this song other than that it's perfect. Everything about this just works so well for me: the drama, the instrumentation, the vocals, the style, the layering. The only bad thing about it is it doesn't have a proper ending, as I've never liked it when songs just fade out at the end. But I mean, that's a triviality as far as I'm concerned. I fear I've said too much. Oops.