Dead In My Tracks

There's a handful of songs that I have heard where I can picture the exact moment I heard them for the first time. 'No One Knows' by Queens of the Stone Age is the first that comes to mind. I remember everything about that moment - I was making a right turn at a red light off of Bridge St. Not positive why I remember, probably because the song is awesome, but also I remember thinking this was the first song by the new "supergroup" made up of Chris Cornell and the members of Rage Against the Machine. At the time, I had no idea they would be called Audioslave, and no idea what they would sound like. (I thought it was a pretty good guess, because I had never heard of QotSA before.) Turns out they sound like Rage Against the Machine with Chris Cornell singing vocals.

But that's not the point. The point is, some songs just stop you in your tracks.

A few years later I was at my house, having just woken up the day after Easter. I turned on MTV (actually MTV2, so I felt like I was ahead of the curve (alas, I wasn't)) and saw the beginning of a music video - it looked like something out of Wallace and Grombit, it was definitely nothing I had seen before. And when I heard the first line, "I crashed my car into a cop car the other day," I kind of froze. Yes, we're talking about 'Float On,' Modest Mouse. I felt like it was my duty to pass the song along to everyone I knew. I was in college, and I must have downloaded it onto like twenty people's computers.

Let's back it up a couple of years. Down the shore with some family, chilling down on a pier late at night with two cousins. We come back to the house, feeling pretty good, and throw on MTV (again, playing music videos, who'd of thunk?). I see an animated video (always entertaining) and a weird, chilling vocal begins the song. Sounds like something out of...yeah, a Western movie. "I'm happy, feeling glad, I got sunshine in a bag," I'm a group of four cartoon characters singing about monkeys dancing like Michael Jackson. Possibly my favorite video of all time. Gorillaz, 'Clint Eastwood.'

Another one that happens to have been caught on MTV2 was from the summer after my senior year of high school. I remember lying on the floor of my living room, with my sister in the other room typing on the computer, seeing a guy I thought I recognized sitting on a chair in a black-and-white concert video. The song sounded so good I felt like I had heard it before, but I hadn't. Turns out the guy sitting on the chair, playing what I later learned was a slide guitar, happened to be Ben Harper, pals with a then-unknown surfer-songwriter named Jack Johnson. "Please please please don't drag me down." 'Flake.'

I guess the thing about these songs is really the people singing them - I had never heard of Queens, Modest Mouse, Gorillaz, or Jack Johnson prior to that, so it was a new sound. Also, they are four really good songs. This brings me to my next point (or my first point, but who's counting?), which is about two songs that I like - 'Last Nite' by the Strokes, and 'California Waiting' by Kings of Leon. Don't have a pinpointed date on the first time I heard these songs, but I really liked both of them, and was prompted to follow the bands. At this point, their careers are almost mirror images, and that's what I want to get into.

The Strokes, along with The White Stripes, kind of ushered in this new rock and roll that is pretty popular these days. When Kings of Leon broke out, they were called the Southern Strokes. The comparisons don't end there. Coming up next: Geometry Proof wherein I assert that music critics are jerks and Ryan Howard may not have such a sweet season.

1. I go to a Strokes concert, Kings of Leon open for them.
2. I see a picture of Kings of Leon, they look exactly like the Strokes would look if they were from Alabama and not New York. (All the members of both bands dress and look alike).
3. They both release second albums, which can only be described as louder, tighter, faster, and better versions of their original albums. As a result, it's exactly what guys like me, the fans, are looking for.
4. Both second albums are criticized for sounding too much like the first album.
5. (and this is where I'm upset) Both bands release third albums where they try and steer clear of the sound that got them popular in the first place, either trying to "experiment" or to please their critics.
6. Both albums are just not as sweet as the older ones.
7. (where I compare them to Ryan Howard) The junior-year slump is the new sophomore slump.
8. Music critics are jerks.

Oh, and furthermore, Susan, who said geometry was hard?