Posts tagged "trick or treat"


Trick or Treat

Posted by whitneymcn October 13, 2008
Posted to themes  trick or treat 

As we move into autumn, one’s thoughts naturally turn towards that happiest time of the year: halloween. We stay up late, wearing strange clothing and taking candy from strangers, only to wake the following morning with a sugar hangover and the dull realization that there are another 364 days before the orgy resumes.

What does this have to do with themusic? Fear not, gentle reader, we’ll leave you to find that endless loop of the Monster Mash through other sources, and offer a different sort of trick or treat: songs that have a hidden surprise inside.

Musical or lyrical references to other songs, works of literature, or art—the stuff of music geek annotation. The beautiful “wait, doesn’t that remind me of…” moments, or the discovery of something wonderful and new through a familiar song.

Trick or treat!

Posted by whitneymcn October 13, 2008
Posted to trick or treat 
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
110 plays so far

Okkervil River - Plus Ones

This is a gorgeous song in its own right, but it also knocks this theme out of the park with the lyrical references. There are nine references working off the “plus one” theme (I’ll knock off the most obvious as an example, and point out the 100th luftballoon), in addition to a sprinkling of non-numeric hat tips.

Let’s make this our first interactive post: reblog or comment with a snippet of the lyric and the artist and title of the song that it references. And yes, almost all of the references have been documented online, but no cheating. Eyes on your own work.

Posted by daryn October 15, 2008
Posted to trick or treat 
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
200 plays so far

Built to Spill - You Were Right

Another awesome in its own right song, that rivals Plus Ones for the number of lyrical references contained within. These are a little more overt/obvious, but go ahead and reblog/comment and show us how astute you are.

You were wrong when you said
Everything’s gonna be alright
You were wrong when you said
Everything’s gonna be alright

You were right when you said
All that glitters isn’t gold
You were right when you said
All we are is dust in the wind
You were right when you said
We are all just bricks in the wall
And when you said manic depression’s a frustrating mess

You were wrong when you said
Everything’s gonna be alright
You were wrong when you said
Everything’s gonna be alright

You were right when you said
You can’t always get what you want
You were right when you said
It’s a hard rain’s gonna fall
You were right when you said
We’re still running against the wind
And life goes on long after the thrill of living is gone
You were right when you said
This is the end

Do you ever think about it?
Posted by whitneymcn November 2, 2008
Posted to trick or treat 
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
80 plays so far

Dirty Projectors - Rise Above

One of the things I love about themusic is that while I almost always have a track in mind when I post a theme, I am also almost always overlooking great examples of the theme.

Case in point: if trick or treat is all about “musical or lyrical references to other songs,” how could I have overlooked this one?  Dave Longstreth, working as Dirty Projectors, recreating Black Flag’s album Damaged, from memory.

We’re not talking covers here; there’s just a weird, impressionistic imprint of the original album informing this new work…fascinating and beautiful result.  

If you aren’t already familiar with this one, listen a few times and then pop over to see just how far this goes from the source material.