For volume seven of The Personal Mixtape we welcome Gabbie who publishes New Bands for Old Heads. Thanks so much to Gabbie for joining us!
If you’d like to be involved in this series, please send me a message!
In a feature introduced to The Personal Mixtape after week two, each participant will pose a question for a future participant.
This week, question 1 comes from Steve Goldberg of Earworms and Song Loops.
What song did you initially (and even secondarily) not like at all, but with time, age, and perspective, have come to not only appreciate, but even love (or like a lot)?
There has to be a better example of this, but I’ll go with the first one that popped into my head: Britney Spears’ “Toxic.” When I was in high school and college, I was a devout anti-poptimist (long before that term existed). I really relished being “not like the other girls” when it came to most things, but especially my musical tastes. Patriarchal, toxic masculinity bullshit that I couldn’t recognize or understand back then. Regardless, my whole body tensed up at popular music, and I refused to acknowledge even to myself in private that there was any merit to it.
I remember a year two after this song came out, I would have been a Sophomore in college or thereabouts, a few of my friends and I cut class to drive out to a roller rink in the middle of the day. It was empty (a weekday morning - imagine!) but the jams were pumping. I don’t remember a single song that played apart from “Toxic,” but that’s the day I fell in love with it. YouTube became a thing soon enough, and though in my memory the video for this song has her dancing with a snake on a plane, I now realize I’m mixing up “Toxic” and “I’m A Slave 4 U”, probably because Snakes on a Plane came along not far after that. A lot of snake-filled, pop culture memory associations in the early 2000s.
What song would you want to be remembered for loving?
This is one I’ve explained many times before, but let’s give it another try. Ted Leo’s “Timorous Me” has always been my song. Musically it’s not really typical for me – it’s equal parts Thin Lizzy and Irish funeral dirge. But it’s also about the perfect music fan, and that’s something I can deeply relate to. The actual perfect music fan was a real person. Her name was Timory Hyde, and she died tragically at a depressingly young age. She’s been eulogized by more than just Ted Leo, in fact. As somebody who’s obsessed with music but without any musical talent of my own, it’s a beautiful and relatable thing to hear about Timory, how Ted “watched her sing along with every word/in the prettiest voice that I never heard.” It’s a song about grief and loss, but for me it’s always been a song about loving music first and foremost.
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Because, after all, sharing is caring, right?
What was your favorite song by your first favorite band?
I’m about to break a rule I didn’t realize I had until I read this question: never write about The Beatles. And yet, The Beatles were my first favorite band. Enough has been said about them and my additional commentary is uninteresting and unnecessary, so I’ll be brief: “Hey Bulldog” has always been my favorite Beatles track. It holds up to this day even though it’s not on any of my favorite albums (and I’m a full album girly, so I rarely get to hear it). There’s something so rough and unpolished about it compared to the rest of their work, even their post-touring output. I’d honestly class it as early garage rock. It also doesn’t hurt that it has one of the best bass lines in all of rock’n’roll.
What song instantly puts you in a particular season (summer, winter, etc.)?
I talk a lot about summer music, make a lot of summer playlists… warm weather is what I typically try to curate a musical mood for. But I think that has to do with the fact that it’s the more depressive, wintry music that is more evocative, and I guess I’ve been trying to pull away from it. Nothing puts me more instantly into three feet of snow than Radiohead’s “Just” (and really, all of The Bends). I used to be a top tier wallower and the entire record was full of grade A weep-worthy anthems. I’m just not built for leaning into depression anymore. Does that mean I’m not experiencing music to its full capacity these days? Now I’m worried.
What’s a song you wish more people knew about?
This is a tough question, because I function in albums and artists rather than individual songs most of the time. I’ll pick one I was certain I’ve already talked about:
Everyone considers 69 Love Songs to be The Magnetic Fields’ magnum opus, and for good reason. But 1995’s The Wayward Bus/Distant Plastic Trees is a twee pop icon, shimmery and light and floaty and a total about face from its darkly sardonic descendant. “100,000 Fireflies” – the very last song – is its shining diamond. There’s nothing to it except chiming keyboards, a drum machine, and one ethereal distant voice: “I have a mandolin, I play it all night long, it makes me want to kill myself…”
I dare anyone to name a more haunting, more beautiful, and simultaneously tongue-in-cheek track. It’s perfect.
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What song would you want playing in the background of your dreams?
There is a type of pop music that I can’t seem to nail down, something I personally call “indulgent pop” – dreamy and sweeping and cinematic – that would be perfect for this. Something like Magdalena Bay or Hatchie. Maybe Deep Sea Diver.
What's your walk-on song?
I recently learned that a walk-on song specifically refers to music playing when athletes enter the field, rather than the song that plays when your character enters a movie scene for the first time. As the world’s least athletic person, I can’t imagine any universe, real or imaginary, where I would have any kind of walk-on song. But if this means theme song, it’s always going to be Viagra Boys, “Punk Rock Loser.” Nothing says “I think I’m cool but I’m actually a complete embarrassment” than this absolute banger. Also the video is a masterpiece (and I want to learn the stupid little dance at the end of it).
What’s a song you love that you were shocked to later find out was a cover?
Okay, I’ll bite, because this is incredibly embarrassing. “Hanging on the Telephone”. I had no idea until maybe 3 or 4 years ago that this wasn’t a Blondie original. Isn’t that insane? The Nerves’ version is fantastic, and I’m always so delighted to make these kinds of discoveries.
[Ed: I had no idea until I read your answer to this question, so don’t be so hard on yourself!!]
What's a song from an album — whether it's appeared on New Bands for Old Heads or not — that is so different from any previous music that you've struggled to (or even been unable to) find a good comparison to an earlier artist?
This happens all the time, but often not because it’s so different from something I’ve previously heard, and more because I’m lacking the necessary vocabulary, and I’m also creating artificial barriers with my own rules.
I can think of a lot of comparisons from, say, 10-20 years ago, but that doesn’t count as “old” for my readers so I have to dig further back. So because I tell myself I have to think of genuinely nostalgic comparison points, I frequently have problems finding RIYL analogues for many new songs.
Other times, I know for certain that I can hear an old influence in a song, something incredibly specific, but it won’t come to me. One in particular has been eating at me for years now – feeble little horse’s “Tin Man”. There’s something in the chorus that sounds unbelievably familiar to me, but I haven’t been able to grasp it. It stopped me from recommending the band wholesale for ages! I have, of course. Several times. But the usual comparisons – Pavement, Slowdive, Sonic Youth – aren’t really hitting the mark. Maybe somebody will finally solve this riddle for me.
The tenth question will always be the same for each participant:
What question do you wish I would have asked?
The idea is for each participant to think of a question that would have prompted a specific song that’s important to them for whatever reason, something they feel would let readers know them better.
I think I would have liked to hear the inverse of your previous question: What older artist do you struggle to find modern analogues for?
The list is endless, of course, but there are a few heavy hitters that I’m disappointed in myself for not finding obvious new comparisons for. R.E.M. is a big one. The earlier, janglier stuff seems doable, but once we get to Monster, I’m out. What new music sounds like “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” This can’t be rocket science; I love R.E.M. but (don’t come for me) they aren’t exactly that novel or out there, musically.
BONUS QUESTION!! Due to a scheduling mix up, I ended up with two questions from prior participants for Gabbie. This one comes from Brad Kyle of Front Row & Backstage.
If you already play an instrument, what's another instrument you'd like to try, and what song might you try to play first? If you don't play an instrument, what's one that you love the sound of, and would like to give it a go (either with lessons, or just playing by ear), and what's the first song you'd try to play? For our purposes here, voice is certainly included!
I never hold back about how talentless I am musically. I played the piano as a kid (in lots of air quotes, because I was lazy and didn’t get far) and I can carry a tune (my voice was made for harmonizing, not to be heard on its own!), but neither of those things count as knowing how to play an instrument. There’s a reason why I write about music, you know? I’ve always had the dime-a-dozen dream about being able to shred a guitar solo or – better yet – lay down a thick, complicated bass line. I even bought a bass a million years ago and I’d plunk out some of my favorite lines by ear. Unfortunately, I subscribe to the Coach McGuirk school of hobbies (“if you’re not immediately good at something, why do it?”), so I gave up almost immediately.
Playlists (Embedded and Hardcoded)
And now it’s over to you! Why not head to the comments to let us all know your thoughts on Gabbie’s picks and what some of your songs would have been.
