1. Favorite Song Right Now
“Look AWAY!!!” I just heard this song for the first time yesterday. It’s quite addictive. Whether or not it will still be number one when I do May’s Top Songs of the Month remains to be seen, but it will probably be on the list somewhere.
2. Favorite Song of All Time
What a horrible question. Maybe some people can pick one song that will always be their favorite, but I know thousands upon thousands of songs, how do I pick one favorite? The answer will probably change, but here, as of right now in the particular mood I’m in, is my favorite song. “My Love Grows in Darkness” by Glaare.
3. Song by your fav (sic) band
What’s my “fav” band? Is that some kind of acronym? What’s it stand for, “farty-ass velociraptor”? Okay okay, I know what they mean. Picking a favorite band is as hard as picking a favorite song. Well as much as I love Glaare who made ONE of my favorite songs, I probably wouldn’t call them my favorite band. Who then? Das Ich? And One? Voltaire? The Kovenant? I don’t know. Maybe I’ll go with my favorite band of the last couple years or so, Slow Danse with the Dead. I have to pick something.
4. Song from your fav album
Enough of this “fav” stuff, please. This is the last one. Anyway, I think still after all these years, even though I don’t listen to metal much anymore, my favorite single album is still Covenant’s In Times Before the Light.5. Good Song for Road Trips
Can’t go wrong with Kraftwerk’s Autobahn album on a road trip. Fun fun fun on the Autobahn. Clocking in at 22 minutes and 43 seconds, it’s good for those really long road trips.
6. Good Song for Studying
Mortiis’ early dungeon synth stuff is great for studying, meditation, or just creating a certain atmosphere. I picked this one somewhat at random but any of it works.
7. Song that you used to like
Ah, now we’re getting into embarrassing cringe territory. A song that I used to like, but no longer do. Well back in my early teens I hadn’t really settled on a favorite genre, and it was the late 90s so all I had was whatever was playing on the radio. The first thing that popped into my mind is something that I am ashamed that I once liked. Eminem. In 1999 to 2000 they would actually play his music on alternative rock stations for some ungodly reason (probably just because he was white honestly, there was some subtle underlying racism involved I think, I mean why else would they play rap on a rock station). I recorded the song on some of my earliest mixtapes, only to of course record over it years later to remove any evidence that I ever liked it. I don’t like singers who only sing about themselves, he’s very egocentric. Okay fine, let me dig it up.
8. Song that your parents like
Interesting question. In my childhood I would listen to whatever my mom and dad listened to. I think something they both liked was Guns n’ Roses, I remember my dad in particular being a really big fan of them in my early childhood. I like them too.
9. Song that you want to see live
10. Song you have seen live
11. Song from the 70s
12. Song from the 90s
Hey why are we skipping the 80s? Well, the 80s has so much good music it would be too hard to pick something, maybe that’s it. Not easy for the 90s either though. Do I pick something mainstream, or something obscure? Do I pick something I actually listened to in the 90s, or something goth or metal that I discovered years later? I could go with a safe pick like Nirvana, but eh, I am going to pick something obscure. Here you go, Switchblade Symphony with “Sweet” from 1995.
13. Song from 2021
Here’s a good one to force those whiney, close-minded “music sucks these days” curmudgeons to answer. There’s a lot of music that came out last year that I like. I’m going to go ahead and pick Pretty Addicted with “Phobia”. A song that now goes through my head whenever I’m at the dentist. Came out in April 2021. That’s just one of perhaps hundreds of new songs I heard last year that I liked.
14. Romantic Song
Here’s one of the most romantic songs of Type O Negative, “Love You to Death”. Proof that a romantic song doesn’t have to be a sappy boy band song or something.
15. Sad song
“It doesn’t matter how hard, you hold on. Everyone leaves in the end.” I can’t think of any songs sadder than “Everyone Leaves” by Mortiis. Nothing lasts forever, and eventually you have to say goodbye. And unless you die young it’s something that everyone is going to have to go through, getting older and watching their loved ones die one by one. It’s the downside of life.
16. Positive song
If that last song knocks you down, this one will pick you back up, dust you off and send you back on your way again, to go feel the wind through your hair and share your story and such. It’s “I’m Still Alive” by the power metal band Stratovarius. At a time when I was into Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir and The Kovenant, one of my darkest periods, I also listened to this band as kind of a counter-balance. Not that I listen to a lot of happy music today either I suppose. It’s hard for me to find a happy song that doesn’t sound like the singer is bragging or telling you to just get over your crippling depression, but this song is innocent enough.
17. A holiday song
As I’ve written about before, I loathe the majority of Christmas music. But this just says a “holiday” song, it doesn’t have to be Christmas. How about a Halloween song then? Here’s a song from 1986 that I discovered last year by the Greek post-punk band Fear Condition, simply called “Halloween”.
18. A song you recommend
I have been trying, so far to little or no avail, to bring to the attention of the goth community some of the Armenian gothic music I discovered last year. So here again is the Armenian coldwave duo Jrimurmur with “Anharmar a im Mej” (I am uncomfortable in myself). Listen to it please. There are at least three different versions of the song but this one is my favorite.
19. Song you just found
Every single day new music shows up in my YouTube subscriptions. They’re hit or miss, but every now and then I get one I really like, and it enters my top songs of the month list. Let me pick something from the top of my YouTube likes playlist. Here’s Wisteria with the song “Charon’s Obol” an emotionally-charged brand new post-punk track, just released on April 20th, their debut release if I’m not mistaken. I think I like Wisteria a lot, I’m going to keep listening to this song and see if it grows on me some more, I think it will.
20. An underrated song
Almost everything I listen to is underrated. I know, that’s probably what everyone thinks about the music they listen to. But I think it’s true in my case, unless I happen to be listening to something mainstream. But even every mainstream band has an underrated song somewhere in their discography. Well okay, let’s not make this too difficult. It’s just asking for an underrated song, not the most underrated song in all of human history. Okay, I have a good one. “The Game is Over” by Ministry. This beautiful song is overlooked even by fans of early Ministry, because for some reason it never made it onto an album and only exists as a demo. This song just has such energy to it, it’s like an epic adventure. And that 80s sax. Mind-blowing.
21. Song you know all the lyrics to
I’m better at remembering song lyrics than I am at remembering why I entered a room, it’s true. But most of the time, I have to be listening to a song to remember all the words. What’s a song that I can sing without having to hear the song being played? I’m going to go with a golden oldie, “St. James Infirmary”. The song is so old no one knows who wrote it, but it was famously sung by the likes of Cab Calloway and Louis Armstrong.
22. A song in another language
I shared an Armenian song earlier. So I should pick something in another language. Hm, I feel like listening to Molchat Doma, some good old Russian-language post-punk. Here’s «Волны» by Молчат Дома.
23. Last song you listened to
What, you want me to post «Волны» by Молчат Дома twice? Well YouTube’s algorithm brought me to another song by them which I’m listening to as I write this. Here it is, “Kletka”.
24. A song that’s stuck in your head
Right now, at this moment? Well okay give me a couple minutes to get Molchat Doma out of my head and we’ll see what creeps into my subconscious. Hmmm…still “Volny” right now…you know whenever I try to force a song out of my head, it always comes back to this crazy song I used to listen to in my early teens, “Frontier Psychiatrist” by The Avalanches. It was like my theme song when I was 15. So let’s go with that, shall we? “That boy needs therapy.” It’s kind of fun talking about the inner workings of my consciousness. I wonder who’s going to read it.
25. Popular song you dislike
I dislike all popular music! Too many to choose from. Let me pick one that really irritated me. Luckily I’m not often forced to listen to terrible, manufactured and soulless pop music. But sometimes one becomes so widespread and ubiquitous that it worms its way into my ears, perhaps at a store or during a car trip where I’m not in charge of the radio. Okay, here’s a really shitty song that I hate and had to hear all the time when it was popular because it was everywhere. A song about loving someone for their body alone and not giving a crap about them as a human being, just as an object. That gods-awful “I’m in love with your body” song. What shallow drivel. “Love you to Death” by Type O Negative is a billion times better as a love song.
26. Song you like to dance to
I’m not much of a dancer, mind you, but get a couple drinks in me though and I’ll dance like mad. Let’s see…I’m going to go back to my heritage with this one. “Դոնե Յար” by Gata Band, a perfect fusion of pop and Armenian folk, and an insanely danceable beat. I made sure this was played at my wedding.
27. Song you daydream to
“The Sounding” by The Affordable Floors, from 1986. It’s similar to “The Game is Over” by Ministry, same kind of 80s fantasy feel to it. Truth be told, I meditated to this song once while high, and it took me places, I tell you. Felt like I was flying through the clouds on my way to Neverland. It was a very vivid experience. Ever since then I get that image when I hear it.
28. Song you like to sing
I don’t have the best singing voice really. I’ve sung karaoke on occasion, but they don’t usually have the kind of underground music I’m into for karaoke. But for everything else I sing alone in my room, or while on walks. Anyway, I think I’m going to pick “Fieber” by Das Ich. Somehow, one way or another, I listened to it so much when I was 19 I learned the words. It’s like a German rap almost. It’s a lot of fun to sing. Although I once freaked my mother-in-law out when I was singing it with headphones on. Ah, fun times.
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