Guilty Pleasure Cred Liquidation: Everything Must Go!
posted by on December 28 at 15:52 PM
Mountain Con came up in conversation the other night, Seattle Times writer Andrew Matson telling me exactly how bad, bad, irredeemably bad they are. I stood by my affection for the band’s lab-crafted electro pop (I’m still humming “Ophelia”) and offered Eels and Cake as similarly styled bands unworthy of the derision they receive. This Matson could not fuck with.
Then I blew my conversational advantage by mentioning my fondness for this song:
The fondness is situational: 1999, 24 years old, a perfect summer romance with a beautiful homecoming queen from South Carolina, slow dancing on the back porch of her parents’ river house (actually a trailer by a canal, but “canal trailer” lacks a certain ring). The story is longer but that’s the highlight. She wore A&F and had a sultry drawl and I was smitten. A month later I moved to San Francisco to start the rest of my life.
To which Matson replied, “That lends credence to the argument that there are no bad songs, only bad DJs.” I like that idea—any song has merit if associated with the proper memories. Put on a crap record at a crucial moment and that crap record is cannonized in the soundtrack of your life, like it or not.
It’s been eight years since that LFO song infiltrated my consciousness, and now that it’s there, it earns a reluctant smile. It’s bad, bad, irredeemably bad, but good for one particular memory.
PS. Also, Sugar Ray, “Every Morning.” Please kill me now.
I'm sorry, but you lost me at Cake.
im aware of your antipathy towards cake. humor me on this one, eric.
For what it's worth, I'm with you on Eddy Grant and Eels.
Grandy beat me, word for word.
Except I wasn't going to apologize.
Lyrically, Summer Girls is the worst song of all time. But I'm with you on lousy songs being tied to good moments. I have a similar tale with a fucking 10,000 Maniacs song.
BTW, who the fuck is that "Summer Girls" band? Thank god I missed that one.
the band is LFO and "summer girls" is indeed one of the stupidest songs ever recorded. the video is also a towering accomplishment of stupidity. paulus, theres no reason you should know anything about them. ill be the martyr here; thats part of my job description.
Hey, what do I know? I like Van fucking Halen.
Well I'm a member of the Hells Yeah Angels!
a friend of mine was recently professing the brilliance of this song. i told him he was a fucking idiot. it was horrible then and is even more horrible now.
A Mount Vesuvius of douchebaggery, that video.
Maybe if you weren't so concerned about being cool, it wouldn't be such a problem in the first place. Seriously, grow a pair!
Flattered. That's how I remember it.
"boogaloo shrimp and pogo sticks" - what the fuck?
JZ, I get your point about a bad song at the right time, but come on, LFO? You dissapoint me sir.
What about Soul Coughing? Zwickel, when are you going to start riding for them?
Mountain Con = D Bags
@15--ah titty, you know i dont wanna be predictable. instead of soul coughing ("super bon bon" w00t!) ill throw out that song "rockabye" by that guy who sang it.
things to learn from 'summer girls':
* a&f = boners.
* chinese people cannot be trusted.
* naming your band with the same name of an early 90's british intelligent techno group will not anger any then 19-year-old college students.
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