Portlandia Tuesday

Guys, I've been watching a LOT of Portlandia (Fridays at 10pm/9central) and guess what? Portland is like a whole city of Silverlake. The show is so great because it sort of tenderly mocks all those hipstery, DIY things that people in Portland and Silverlake (and Brooklyn, and Los Feliz, and the Mission, and that cool part of DC I don't know the name of...Clarence Heights?) do/have and sometimes take really seriously. Like composting. And community sports leagues. And "trendy" hotels. And biking. Okay you get it, but the show is hilarious and incorporates a lot of music-related stuff (in one episode, Aimee Mann plays herself and she is working as a maid for Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein and they force her to put on a private concert for them). So I've been getting back to the time period (again) where I fell in love with all things tuneful (the grunge era) and these songs are kind of an homage to that because Portland, flannel, long-haired men, blah, blah, just read:

1) "Black" by Pearl Jam (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs-XZ_dN4Hc) Oh GAWD, you guys, this song makes me cry just about every time I hear it (YES, I am a weepy lady that wears her heart dangling from her sleeve and has been known to cry when telling people about Visa commercials that have made her cry in the past. SO?). This semi-ballad is like RAW-CITY. The beautiful Eddie Vedder is just so sad about this obviously INSANE woman leaving him and his lyrics build to such an EPIC place, I just can't hold it together. The weird thing is that upon hearing this song, I could not WAIT to feel that way. If you haven't seen Cameron Crowe's thorough documentary on Pearl Jam, Pearl Jam Twenty, I highly recommend. There is a scene where Eddie Vedder basically writes all of "Daughter" while riding on a bus between gigs that I can't even type any more about, it's so cool.

2) "Epic" by Faith No More (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERTT_sv8sV0&feature=related) So ALLEGEDLY, this song came out in 1989, but it's so GRUNGE in this sort of hip-hop meets rock meets baggy shorts and plaid kind of way and COME ON GUYS, it's EPIC.

3) "Where is My Mind?" by The Pixies (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrHl0wpagFc) Okay, grunge is so much older than I thought. The Pixies were prolific for a lot of bands coming up in the 90's and this song in particular gets a lot of play in music, music documentaries, and on playlists by girls who have a deep appreciation for anything melodic, but who are a little mainstream when it comes down to it. Wink wink, THAT'S ME.

4) "Touch Me I'm Sick" by Mudhoney (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nGsT_qFMBs&ob=av2n) As a total hypochondriac, this song is my worst nightmare, but I remember thinking I was SO COOL for listening to it in middle school in my Airwalks, JNCO jeans, baby-T, and DOG COLLAR (I also used Sun-In in my naturally BLACK hair and it turned completely orange. I was so, so beautiful). Also, this band apparently coined the term "grunge." But I think they were just trying to emphasize how little they showered.

5) "Seether" bu Veruca Salt (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC9AUR-iTo0&ob=av2e) Okay, I hate this song. I really wanted to incorporate some ladies into this list. I KNOW I listened to some back in the day, but I am blanking right now. Veruca was popular in the early 90's, but I was always annoyed that they considered themselves "chicks who rocked" and then had these gentle lullaby voices and the guitar was muted like they were shy about potentially fucking up, which is the whole point of rock music in the first place. Honestly, HONESTLY, I want to go back to Hole and give Courtney Love some credit for really howling (I know there are SO MANY other women from the grunge era, Melissa Auf der Maur included, but I am REALLY HAVING TROUBLE WITH MY BRAIN TODAY). Anyway here is "Violet" by Hole and it's good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH_rfGBwamc&ob=av2n