the ‘all my friends’ olympics

I had planned on writing a post today about a certain type of song that really pisses me off: The Lament of the Trappings of Fame and Fortune.  I have your predictable everyman’s kneejerk reaction to this particular brand of song, despite the fact that artists I love and admire are some of the primary offenders.  Pearl Jam (see “Not For You” or, more accurately, Vitalogy in its entirety), Wilco (“What Light”), Elliott Smith (“Pictures Of Me”) and even Broken Social Scene (“All My Friends”) have all broached the theme.

These songs don’t really say that fame and fortune are inherently terrible (though some do– I’m looking in your direction, Mr. Vedder), but rather that they pose huge questions about one’s identity and ownership of one’s artistic self.  Fine.  But, really, if you’re getting all introspective about those issues, whisper the song to your god damned self in your bedroom as you strum it without a pick on your $3,000 guitar and sob into your 390 thread count Egyptian duvet.  It’s not an issue I can really identify or empathize with.

But in looking for that Broken Social Scene song in my library, I noticed a weird thing: I have FIVE songs– different songs, not reinterpretations of the same one– named “All My Friends”.  So what’s a music lover to do besides rate them?  Yes, that would make a better post than The Lament of the Trappings of Fame and Fortune.  People love lists.

So I give you the “All My Friends” Olympics! In the running, we have entries today from (in alphabetical order) Amos Lee, Broken Social Scene, Counting Crows, The Kinks and Pavement.  The Kinks were kind enough to stand in for LCD Soundsystem, who is still recovering from a pulled hammy and is unable to compete.  The judges have decided to bend the rules of entry to accomodate The Kinks’ sportsmanship (their song is actually titled “All of My Friends Were There”.)  The rankings are to be determined by, well, overall awesomeness of the song as judged subjectively by yours truly.  Instead of medals, the top three will be provided as mp3s.  The results:

5.) “All My Friends” by Amos Lee (from Amos Lee)

While I love Amos’ voice, this song is more or less emblematic of the reasons I don’t listen to him frequently.  Just a tad over the sappiness tolerability line for me.  No medal for Amos.  Back to Philly with your tail between your legs, buddy.  You’ve let everyone down.

4.) “All of My Friends Were There” by The Kinks (from The Village Green Preservation Society)

I don’t now whether to laugh at this song’s goofy verses or to feel inspired by it’s awesome chorus.  This confusion wreaks havoc on the scoring process.  No medal for The Kinks, despite their sportsmanship.

3.) “All My Friends” by Counting Crows (from This Desert Life)

See this?  This is me doing my best to shed whatever instinct it is that tells me to not share the fact that I really, really love a lot of the Counting Crows’ music.  I don’t know what that comes from.  Maybe it’s Adam Duritz’s lay-it-all-out-there melodrama.  Maybe it’s the fine line the band walks between mainstream, romantic comedy soundtrack music and genuine heartbreakers and rockers.  Maybe the fact that I worry about being seen as a dirty white university hat wearing frat boy if I cop to liking their music.  (Is that stereotype even still relevant or am I dating myself?)  T’hell with it.  “A Long December” will always melt me to my core, Courtney Cox video cameo or not.  This song really speaks to all these misgivings, but, you know what? I really like it.  There.  I said it.

The bronze goes to the glamour weepers of Los Angeles.

2.) “All My Friends” by Broken Social Scene (from EP To Be You And Me)

“WAAAAAAAAAAA!  All my friends and I are famous now, and we never get to hang anymore! WAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

Beautuful song, though.  Really.  Love the false start, though the way Kevin Drew asks “One more time?” at the end makes it sound like they were recording across the room from a sleeping baby.  The silver goes to Broken Social Scene.  Sooo close, but no “Oh, Canada” on this day.

1.) “All My Friends” by Pavement (from Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: L.A.’s Desert Origins)

Whoa!  The Pavement song and Counting Crows song both come from albums with “Desert” in the title!  D’alright that’s meaningless.

Was there any doubt about this one?  Pavement is the Michael Phelps of unnecessary and arbitrary song competitions in my music library.  No matter what competition I could devise, a Pavement song is likely going to be the winner.  And when it’s a competition that allows one of my favorite Pavement songs into the running?  I mean, c’mon… these other tunes don’t stand a chance.  Just listen to how the whole band comes back into the verse at the 1:09 mark.  My God, that is just awesomeness beyond definition. The gold goes to Pavement.  The gold always goes to Pavement.

To all my friiiiiiiiiieeeeeeends!!