Baseball walk-in songs

Let's take a small detour and discuss something that is relevant and topical(to me at least).  I'm sitting at the Braves game a week ago, and notice the lack of good walk-in songs among Braves players (For the non-baseball fans: Walk-in music is the music that is played when a batter steps into the box.  Each player picks their own unique walk-in music).  As the Braves team batting average plummets to the depths of the National League, I know what's missing.  Great walk-in music.  It's ok Bobby, I'm here to help.  I've got some suggestions for the guys.  First let's break down what makes great walk-in music:
 
1.  Something badass.  You need a song that is going to alert the pitcher that his worst nightmare just stepped into the box.  Something that will strike fear into the opponents heart.  Don't underestimate this part of the game.  You need a song that's going to make you feel like you're 10ft tall if you're going to face a nasty back-door breaking ball.

2.  Crowd involvement.  You're in Turner field.  The Braves are down by 1 and there's a man on base, suddenly, Ozzy Osbourne comes blaring through the speakers "Alllllll aboooooaaard ha ha ha ha!!" and "Crazy Train" kicks in.  You know what's coming.  Chipper Jones is up to bat.  The crowd is on their feet, everyone is going nuts.  The local hero is up to the plate, and the pitcher is squirming.  A crowd that was dead a minute ago just came to life, and all because of Ozzy.  Good walk-in music gets people on their feet and brings the stadium to life.

3.  Originality.  Part of the reason the "Crazy Train" moment works is because that song has become synonymous with Chipper Jones.  A good walk-in song is specific to the player, and when the song comes on, everyone in the stands should know who is stepping up to the plate.  So now that we broke that down, let's take a look at some my personal favorites: (Note: this isn't necessarily a judgment on song quality, but a judgment on how the song works as a walk-in song.  There are a lot of good songs that make terrible walk-in music.)


Rage Against the Machine- Bulls on Parade.  Even as Kelly Johnson's batting average dipped below .200, I still defended him.  Why?  Because he used Bulls on Parade as his walk-in music.  To this day I still think it's the best walk-in song I've heard.  It's super aggresive, badass and gets everyone pumped up.  The "Go with it now!" opening makes it a perfect walk-in song.  By the way, when Kelly changed from Bulls on Parade to The Outfields "Your Love" I was screaming for him to be traded.  That's on the wall of shame for walk-in music.


Alice in Chains- Man in the Box.  The opening riff is a monster.  Plus the "singing over the guitar" part makes this one instantly recognizable and undeniably awesome.  If you want a song that will scare small children, this might be it.


50 Cent- In the Club.  An instant crowd pleaser.  Not as in your face as some of the rock songs, but it gets everyone on their feet.


Green Day- Brain Stew.  Long before Green Day made really bad pop-rock songs about the post-apocalyptic world, they were a punk rock band.  And while Billy Joe Armstrong may be on the short list for "Famous Guitarists Who Barely Know How to Hold a Guitar Correctly" Brain Stew is awesome.  It's a little slow for a walk-in, but it would definitely strike fear into the hearts opposing pitchers.

Matchbox 20- If You're Gone.  Kidding!  That would be terrible and you get booed out of the state.

I'm sure there are others that I'm missing, but those are probably my top 4.  FYI, if you think of one you could post it in the comments.  It is legal to comment on the blog.  You will not be punished for it, I promise.

Jamie Cullum- Wheels

What?  A song that is actually on the radio?  You mean Jay is going to actually write a blog about a song that someone other than him has heard before?  Damn straight.  Although it's not getting the uber-repetitive play of a Black-eyed Peas song, I'm really digging "Wheels" at the moment (and using dated hipster speak phrases such as "dig" apparently).   

Jamie Cullum is one of those artists who I keep hearing songs that I like, but I've never actually put my money where my mouth is and bought one of his albums.  I like Jamie Cullum though.  He's got a smooth jazz voice, rocks the piano, and does really cool jazz versions of hip-hop songs (he's covered Pharrell's "Frontin" and Rhianna's "Please don't stop the music").  If I were to go all SAT on you, I would say that Jamie Cullum : Jazz :: John Mayer : Blues.  He's a talented songwriter, who has mastered his instrument in the traditional musical sense (Mayer is a master blues guitarist, Cullum a master jazz pianist).  He's like Harry Connick Jr. only more brash and British.

"Wheels" is more of a pop song than a jazz song, and it's also distinctly modern.  Two things make this song work: the piano riff and the drums.  The drums provide the song's backbone: a constant chugging sound that sounds like it's being played with those drum sticks that are basically wire brooms.  I don't know what they're really called but they give the drums a hushed sound and keep the rhythm chugging along.


The piano riff is still jazzed bassed but it has a really modern sound.  It's almost like if U2 wrote a piano song, this is what it would sound like.  The riff isn't a whole lot of notes and repeats itself a lot (it's almost, dare I say, cyclical...like a wheel...maybe?).  Mix that with the "woooaaaooowoahhhh" chorus and it becomes a pretty infectious song.  Click here to hear the song.  And click here for a live version of "Frontin'" that begins with Jamie playing his piano as if it were a drum. (I found this while I was looking for the video of Wheels, and it blew my mind.  Who knew you could play a piano like that??!)


On a blog related note: I know I have been slack lately, but chalk it up to a busy schedule and a case of writer's block.  More songs to come!  I promise!!

Gomez- How We Operate

This is a song about conflict resolution.  Wow, I just made that sound about as much fun as a mandatory seminar on OSHA regulations.  It's a song about meeting someone halfway, it's about working things out and that's something we all need to hear occasionally.  Maybe you're having a spat with your significant other, maybe someone cut you off on the interstate, maybe your coworker keeps taking your post-it notes off your desk and not returning them, and if they do it again you might lose your mind!  Forgiveness, that's what this is about, meeting someone halfway.  That's something we all need.  Kind of like OSHA regulations, but much more fun to listen to.

Gomez is sort of a British version of Wilco.  Which is to say, they are rock band with roots in blues, country and folk that sometimes get a little weird.  They use programed hip-hop beats, run guitars through all sorts of sound effects and use odd instruments.  Their songs frequently have odd tempo changes and shift keys, but are still catchy enough to fit into the mid-tempo rock category.  This is the long way of saying, they are right up my alley.  Some of you may know Gomez from the song "See the World" which was featured tons of medical shows and dramas.

How We Operate is the title track to the album "How We Operate", and it's one of the more complex songs I've heard in a while.  For those of you keeping track at home this song has:

1) Drums

2) Bass 

3) 2 Electric Guitars

4) Acoustic Guitar

5) Mandolin

6) Banjo

Yup, that's 7 instruments, and it's still only 99 cents on itunes!!  Wow!  What a bargain!  (note: I am not a paid sponsor of itunes or Gomez...but I could be!)  There's also strings towards the end of the song, just to further complicate things.  The song starts out with the mandolin playing the rhythm and the banjo picking the lead.  This creates a really eerie sound.  It picks up when the acoustic guitar, bass and drums come in mid-way through the first verse.  The chorus is all guitars and brings in the full rock sound.  The lead guitar keeps up most of the banjo work for the rest of the song.  One of the cool things that happens later in the song is the lead guitar plays the same notes as the banjo, over the banjo.  It sounds odd, but it creates a really cool sound.  The song goes back and forth from that eerie sounding verse to the guitar rock of the chorus.  The song also ends with a whisper, which is also kind of eerie and weird.  The best lyrics are in the chorus:

Turn me inside out and upside down
And try to see things my way
Turn a new page, tear the old one out
And I'll try to see things your way

That's Gomez in a nutshell, odd instruments, cool changes midway through a song, and a really catchy chorus.  Gomez is one of those bands I listen to and wonder "why are they not a bigger band?"  I have a theory on this: they use 3 lead singers (2 guys do the majority of the singing, but piano/guitar player chimes in every once in a while).  And people identify a band by the voice of the singer, not the instruments.  So if a band has more than one lead singer, people have trouble identifying the band.  More on this theory later as it relates to Van Halen and U2 (U2 is one of the few bands that can be identified through their sound and not the voice of their lead singer...but I'm getting ahead of myself).

Click here to see the video. It's pretty cool Gotta love youtube.  You can find anything.  It's like if MTV or VH1 actually played music videos!

Josh Ritter - The Temptation of Adam

This blog is a lot of things: a way to entertain myself, an elite way to waste time, a way to scratch a creative itch, etc etc. but my high hope is that this blog will help to shamelessly promote the career of one of my all-time favorite artists.  Mr. Josh Ritter.

Josh is a brilliant singer songwriter from Idaho (yup, there are actually people in Idaho.  I know, I was shocked too.)  Josh is known for his story-songs and classic Americana sound.  While most of his songs are outstanding, "The Temptation of Adam" might just be his lyrical masterpiece.  To adequately explain the song, I'm going to break it down like Bill Simmons breaks down NBA games.

To begin with, I heard via Josh's website that the song was inspired when he heard a story that soldiers stationed in missile silos must be of the same gender.  This is to ensure that nothing romantic develops between them.  You can't have the people responsible for firing ICBMs engaged in a lover's quarrel when it hits the fan.  The song throws all that out the window and gives us the 2 occupants of a particular missile silo: Marie, and the narrator (presumably Adam).  We meet them as they enter the silo, and Adam uses one of the all-time worst pick-up lines:

"If this was a cold war we could keep each other warm"

I said on the first occassion that I met Marie

Ugh, that's just bad...

We were crawling through the hatch, that was the missile silo door

And I don't think that she really thought that much of me

I never had to learn to love her, like I learned to love the bomb

She just came along and started to ignore me

Right from the beginning its clear that Adam likes Marie a lot more than she likes him.  But nevertheless he wins her over, partly out of fear of nuclear winter, partly out of loneliness (fellas take note:  the true way to a woman's heart is through isolation and a fear of the apocalypse).  It doesn't matter to him.  He loves her, and in that moment and in that place, she loves him too.  The song's conflict (read: temptation) comes from Adam's realization that this will not last once they leave the silo.

Oh Marie there's something that tells me things just won't work out above

That our love wouldn't have a half life on the surface

So at night while you are sleeping I hold your closer just because

As our time grows short I get a little nervous

My favorite part of the song comes next.  I love the imagery of what a silo-romance is like:

Oh Marie if you would stay then we could stick pins in the map

Of all the places where you thought that love would be found

But I would only need one pin to show where my love's at

In a top secret location, 300 feet under the ground

Oh we could hold each other close, and stay up every night

Looking up into the dark like it's the night sky

Pretend this giant missile, is an old oak tree instead

And carve our names in hearts into the warhead 

Here is Adam's temptation: does he press the button?  By pressing the button, Adam can ensure that he and Marie will never leave, and that they will stay together forever.  Of course there is the small, tiny detail of destroying the whole world in nuclear winter, but hey, details.  People do crazy things in relationships: they spend way too much money on Italian food, stay in on Friday nights, give up going to basketball games to watch the season finale of "The Bachelor", but they probably don't bring about the end of humanity just to stay in a relationship.  The song ends with Adam admitting that he is tempted.  Not that he does it, because come on, that's crazy, but it's tempting.

It takes some guts to write a love song that takes place in a missile silo, and it takes more than guts to write a song about the moral conundrum of "Do I blow up the world so my girl doesn't leave me?", but it's just a damn good song.  Good writers take risks and that's exactly what Josh does in this song.  He keeps it simple too, no real instrumentation other than the guitar (by the way, I know a little something about guitar playing, and Josh's finger-picking in the song is pretty darn good). Click here to hear the song.


By the way, Josh's new album "So Runs the World Away" comes out on May 4.  So May 5, you can expect another blog heaping obscene amounts of man-love Josh's way.  Mark your calenders!

Ben Folds- You to Thank

On a recent road trip, I was looking through my ipod for something that fell into the category of “things I haven’t listened to in forever”, I decided on Ben Folds. It took approximately 30 seconds into “You to Thank” to realize that someone needs to show Ben Folds some love. Who better than me? “You to Thank” is the second track on Songs for Silverman, Folds’ second solo album. (side note: there is almost no real difference between Ben Folds solo stuff and Ben Folds Five. Sure, on his own Folds uses some more instruments: guitar, strings, horns etc. But by and large the sound is almost identical to the drums, bass, piano sound of Ben Folds Five. There’s almost no drop off in quality either. Folds’ has yet to record an album as good top to bottom as “Whatever and ever amen”, but his first 2 solo records are packed with songs just as good as anything he did with Ben Folds Five.)

“You to Thank” is a great Ben Folds song, and fairly representative of his music as a whole. To begin with, the piano playing is lights out (you’re darn right I just used “lights out” to describe piano playing! Shawn Merriman, if you’re reading this I apologize, please don’t eat me). Ben’s piano licks are lightening fast and he pounds the living crap out of the keys. Few guys own the piano like Ben does. In the same way that Elton John and Billy Joel owned it. Ben is also underrated as a singer, he’s got great range and can hit some really impressive high notes.

Ben’s songwriting is really what makes the song. Ben has a lot of what I call “pop smarts”. He knows how to write a song that’s very listenable (Is that a word? Never mind, I don’t care. I’m making it one.) It’s poppy and catchy without seeming like its poppy and catchy. Ben also has a style all his own. Very tongue-in-cheek, frequently foul mouthed (which is not something normally associated with piano men), but his songs are almost always emotional. He’s written songs about death, abortion, divorce, heartbreak and so on. But he never comes across as whiny or emo. That’s a fairly amazing feat. Adam Duritz of Counting Crows has spent a career writing about heartbreak, isolation and loneliness and people KILL him for it! If you go too far into deep weighty emotional issues, people hate you for it, but somehow, Ben Folds rises above it. Part of that is because he's so funny. Go back and listen to "Army", that song is basically a comedy sketch. Ben owns the whole, nerdy, foul mouthed, piano genius persona, and that is a winning combination.

But getting back to the song: it's a song about a couple that gets married too fast and runs into early trouble. The piano riff in the beginning is very soft, but as the drums and other instruments come in, that exact same riff becomes loud and raucus. It kind of mirrors the relationship, is sweet and pretty when it starts, but becomes loud and out of control later. One of the interesting things about the song lyrically is that it never really resolves itself. You don't know what happens to the couple. The song ends with the same lines it opened with:

By the time the buzz was wearing off

We were standing out on the sidewalk

With our tatoos that looked like rings

In the hot Nevada sun, and they won't fade

Here's hoping things worked out for them

My Morning Jacket - One Big Holiday

Every good mix should begin with something fast and upbeat. Oh yeah, sure, you can be all artsy and put a slow song first and show off to people "Oh look at how artsy and hip I am, I started a mix Nora Jones!" But be honest, it's not really as satisfying. Deep down we all want something loud and fast to start out. Something that makes us want to roll down the windows and drive 90mph. That's why I'm starting with "One Big Holiday" from My Morning Jacket. Because not only is it an all out rock'n'roll song, but because all out rock'n'roll songs are just better when they're performed by big bearded Kentuckians! I love this song for a number of reasons. 1) I love My Morning Jacket. They are a really really weird band, but they rock just enough to get away with it. I love how they combine country, alternative, blues, funk, reggae and just about every other style known to man (and probably a few that aren't). This is a cut from "It Still Moves" but "Z" is probably my favorite of their records. It's very diverse but all the songs sort of fit together. "It Still Moves" is more guitar and roots driven and doesn't have some of the more out there moments of "Z". Some people (cough, rolling stone, cough) will try to tell you that "Evil Urges" is their masterpiece, and yes, it is a very brave record filled with some interesting and daring songs, but it just isn't as solid as "Z" or as fun as "It Still Moves". But back to the song: 2) I love the song's structure. It's a big bold guitar song that starts off with a killer intro. The opening lick is deceptively fast. There's an urgency to it that makes the song feel like a jailbreak more so than a weekend getaway. It lightens up a little in the verses but the chorus brings it back to that initial rush of the opening and closing jams. There's a nice balance between the joy in the verses and the urgency of the solos and chorus. It's a near perfect driving song. 3) Lyrically, well it almost doesn't matter. It seems to be about the band getting out of Louisville, but who knows. I think it's an escape song, about getting away from whatever it is you want to get away from. That feeling of joy when you leave something behind. It's more about just raw emotion than anything specific. There's a feeling you get from listening to it that has almost nothing to do with the words. It's all about the notes, the beat and chords. Click here to watch a live performance. I want to have videos embedded in the blog, but it's going to take some time for me to figure out how to do that.

What to expect when you're reading...

Hello, My name is Jay and this is my blog. I decided that blogging about the innane thoughts that randomly run through my head on any given day is an awful thing to unleash on the world. I needed a focus, a subject matter, and thus decided on my first love: MUSIC! To say I'm a music nut is like saying that Scott Weiland enjoys an occasional drink (which is to say it's an understatement). My life has a soundtrack in my head that I feel the need to share with the world. Why? Because who else is going to say that 1991-1996 was probably the best 5 years in music history? Who else is going to argue to that Third Eye Blind's career was over when their guitarist left the band? Who else is going to compare singer songwriters to NBA players? Who is going to stick up for Hall and Oats? Who else is going to give you the definitive list of underrated songs? If not me than who?? Who is finally going to settle the Stones Beatles debate? Well, I probably won't do that last one, but the other stuff yeah, I'll handle that. So plug in your headphones, crank your amps to 11 and enjoy the madness.