If You Also Feel Like The Baseball Team From Baltimore Then You Will Especially Like This Post

Alright, two weeks since I wrote the first (and only) stupid entry on here. I had some grandiose plans to write about Bruce Springsteen and I wrote a bunch of it but stopped. I'm gonna shelf it for the time being EVEN THOUGH I just saw him in concert for the first time and have many things to say. Many, many things. All overwhelmingly positive and heartfelt, damnit.

I know this blog is supposed to be about mental health and smoothies along with music, but I might just make it about music. Maybe where I talk about one song per day? Or one song per however often I write about it? Also because I don't really know what to write about mental health and smoothies. Plus, I just searched the web and there's a ton of stuff about mental health and smoothies already, but hardly anything about music. Guess I'm filling a gap here, so, you're welcome.

Speaking of songs, I just signed up for two free months of Spotify premium, and surprise, its fucking amazing. My iTunes is really massive, over 25k songs, build up over many years, but I might just throw it all away. I can immediately listen to new shit by Kanye, Diarrhea Planet, Pup, Frank Ocean, Frightened Rabbit, Beauty Pill, Dino Jr., etc etc. Why would any reasonably minded individual not want this service? God bless this age of getting everything right away.

But listen, there needs to be a song that I talk about in this blog entry, because thats what this is really all about, isn't it? It is. Songs, people. Spotify gets enough attention. But do you know who doesn't? BUFFALO TOM. Last time, it was an awesome song by Semisonic. I mean, c'mon, great song. This time, similar vein, similarly awesome song, and probably a much better band too. Kitchen Door by Buffalo Tom.

Fuck I love Buffalo Tom. When I was in college I had a hipster girlfriend, we listened to tons of music together, and she made me a mix CD with Late at Night on it. Jesus, that song is unreal, so good. I don't use the word beautiful too often for music (probably since I don't like a lot of music that anyone would use that word to describe), but that song is fucking beautiful. Then, about a year after that CD was made and I was beginning to forget about them, I found a copy of Big Red Letter Day at a thrift store. Big Red Letter Day (or "BRLD" as I've chosen as an abbrev) is the middle of the three-album mid-career run that was damn good. First, Let Me Come Over, then BRLD, then Sleepy Eyed. Let Me Come Over is usually referred to as their best, which I agree with. BRLD, also great. Sleepy Eyed, great too. Scratch that - super great. Its a little bit harder than the previous couple albums, and it works. Starts off strong with Tangerine, which kicks ass. Also: Summer, Your Stripes (on my running mix), Sparklers (possibly also could be described as beautiful), and the closing song, Crueler, are all great songs. But Kitchen Door might be the best. It's the third song on the album, and as we all know, the third song is an important spot. If it sucks then you're all like, I'm out. But if it's good, then its like, shit I'm in! Insert baseball analogy here, right? Cleanup spot? Designated something something? Anyway.

What is it about this song? I don't know. Its simple, which hits me right off the bat. I like that. Its also super catchy with its awesome chorus. What is the song about? I have no idea. But listen. Its sincere, its happy but somber. Its about being a number on a kitchen door. What does that mean? I don't care. Great harmonica solo, followed by a great key change, followed by Bill Janovitz changing the chorus just once to exclaim that he's the baseball team from Baltimore. What fucking sense does that make? I have no idea at all, but I love that line so, so, so much. It seems nonsensical but makes perfect sense. It fits, and it just fits so well.

Alright, I have to work tomorrow and I'm going to bed. Long live Buffalo Tom, fuck organized religion, thank you for reading, be well.

My First Ever Blog Post Is About The Song 'Chemistry' by Semisonic

I'm mainly doing this because I thought of a really good blog name. I actually thought of it 6-7 years ago, swear to gahd, but never made a blog, because I never got around to it. I guess partly because of laziness, partly because the world absolutely does not need another blog. Well, too bad now. For some reason on this very evening I feel inclined to finally make it and write some shit down. If nothing else, at least I'll be able to tell people the name and they might chuckle for a second. So thats pretty cool. 

I've always wanted to write something about this song. For some reason I always thought that if I started a blog I'd put this song in the first entry and just talk about it. Weird, I know. Not really sure why. Maybe because its just a fun song. Its catchy and I've always liked it. I like catchy pop songs. Scratch that, I love them. Holy fuck do I love them. This is a bar rock song thats also a catchy pop song. Its not the one song by this band that everyone knows, so I like that too. Its the first song and lead single off the album after the Closing Time album. Expectations for more catchy bullshit were probably pretty high. But really, I'm not sure if this song is schlocky cheese or not. From what I've gathered as a casual fan of Semisonic, they have some actual substance to them that they don't get much credit for. For shame! 

The video is a bit painful. I just watched it for possibly the first time ever. I'm not sure what happened. I think a lot of chemistry-related things. People were coming together and then getting pissed and one woman almost got hit by a car, that was weird. But the driver swerved and then met this other lady, so, hooray. I'm always down for some Rube Goldberg stuff. I've liked that wackiness since I was a kid. I used to make these crazy drawings of what I wanted my bedroom to look like, they mostly involved creative ways for me to watch TV and drink soda, but they were kinda inspired by Rube Goldberg in retrospect. Semisonic and I must have that in common. 

So, the video, so very 90's-y. Part of me wants to watch it a second time. I won't. Dan Wilson (lead singer, duh) had some embarrassing dance moves. I mean, by this point Semisonic had probably made lots of dollars from Closing Time, so he was like, fuck it, I want to dance like a weiner and thats just what I'll got-damn do. I think he's still writing pop songs somewhere, right? This is the type of question that the internet could answer for me in three seconds, but I'd rather just leave it to mystery. There's no more mystery, you know? Wow that was a profound insight that I was probably the first person to ever make, thats neat. 

Alright, that is more than enough about that. Excellent first blog entry about Semisonic. Surprisingly almost entirely written with very little knowledge of Semisonic. Also, I think I read somewhere that the drummer wrote a book about being a band and touring and managing money and stuff. The few times I noticed him in the video he looked pissed. He was probably busy thinking up business strategies.