Somewhere Hoplessly In-between

Hey folks! My name is Green, and welcome to my music blog! My main blog is Here, but I decided to create a blog solely for sharing music, because I found the music I wanted to share frequently didn't fit in with the stuff I post on my other blog. My music taste is a bit really hard to pin down. I'm a huge fan of folk and folk rock, which is probably my favourite genre, but I'm also into a lot of alternative rock, metal, indie and prog rock, as well as a few punk bands, some ska bands, some grunge, some indie, some country and some other assorted collections of everything. Long story short, I really like music in general, although the folk influence tends to come out a bit more prominently than others. Joel Plaskett has a song called Penny for your Thoughts, which starts with the line "I like Doo-wop and the blues, I like heavy metal songs. Tell me why I have to choose which side of your fence I'm on." I think that this line sums up my approach to music (and life) in a lot of ways, as does my title, "somewhere hopelessly in-between. I like a lot of music, and I intend to share some of the music I like the most here, through song challenges and posting videos and just generally sharing things that I think are great. I hope you like some of the music I share!

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Visit Original Link

https://soundcloud.com/doctorbrixx

WHAT THE FUCKAM I SUPPOSED TO FEEL 

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I feel like this needs to be added

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And in her eyes, you see nothing. No sign of love behind the tears cried for no one... She says that long ago, she knew someone, but now he's gone. She doesn't need him.

-The Beatles could be the most bitter, cynical, biting people in the world and I absolutely love it!

The Beatles: For No One

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Day 30: Your personal theme song.

Matt Nathanson - Little Victories

When I started this challenge, I decided that I didn't want to use the same artist twice at any point, because that would limit the amount of new music I'd be able to share with people. I managed to literally make it all the way to the very last question without using the same artist twice, and now I'm dropping the ball with the last song.

However, there is no song I can think of that would be more appropriate for my personal theme song than Little Victories. So even though I've already shared another of his songs, I'm going to share this one too.

The song is about getting by on the little victories and letting them carry you through the hard times. This song fits my outlook on life very well: no matter how bad things get, I always try to focus on the little victories to get me through it all. When I'm feeling lost or trapped, I listen to this song and remind myself of its message. I then look for something good, no matter how small, to remind myself that there is still some good in my life, and I use that to get me through. So if I had to pick a song to be my "theme song," I think it would be Little Victories.

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Day 29: A song with good advice in the lyrics.

Ben Folds - Learn to Live With What You Are

The advice in this song may seem a bit blunt and nihilistic at times ("There's never going to be a moment of truth for you," "These days that you were waiting for will come and go like any day"), but underneath the nihilism is a loving and rather beautiful message.

It's interesting that this song is on the same album (Sunny 16) as "There's Always Someone Cooler than you," because it gives the album a bit of thematic coherence. Both songs share similar advice, and I really like what Folds is saying. The advice is essentially to stop trying so hard to be someone you're not, and just be happy with what you are. As he says, "I just love you for the things you couldn't change, though you've tried."

I think that if more people followed the advice in this song and just learned how to love themselves instead of desperately trying to change themselves, the world would be a much happier place.

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Day 28: A song that makes you nostalgic.

Sam Roberts - Them Kids

When I was in high school, I used to work at Cineplex Odeon. While I loved the job, most employees agreed that the little televisions over the concession stand were the most irritating things ever. We had a 15-30 minute video loop that would repeat throughout the entire day from open to close, and we would usually only get a new loop once a month (if we were lucky).

What this meant was that every single shift was accompanied by the exact same 30 minutes of audio on repeat for the entire day, and it was at a fairly loud volume. We had 30 minutes of the same movie trailers, and the same promotional music videos for the same 2-3 songs playing on repeat over our heads nonstop.

What made it worse was that the music videos were pretty much always for Disney channel stars. I know all of the words to too many Miley Cyrus and Jonas Brothers songs simply because I would be forced to listen to them 16 times a day every time I worked.

Anyway, where Sam Roberts comes into this story is that one month, we had this song playing on the televisions. After months of Jo Bros and Demi Lovato, we got a Sam Roberts song, and I was so excited! I really like this song, and I finally got the chance to have a song I liked playing on those TVs. It made the month so much more enjoyable to have this song included in the loop, and I was so happy that Cineplex had finally chosen a song I enjoyed to play on a loop.

This song makes me nostalgic for working at Cineplex, and having that shared experience with all of my coworkers of the annoying TV's and that one month we got a good song on them. Listening to this song 16 times a day every time I worked for an entire month made it kind of the soundtrack for the month, so listening to it now still makes me think of that job, those TVs, my coworkers, and all of the good times I had as a teenager.

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Day 27: A song to describe your family.

John Butler Trio - Better Than

My family is unabashedly small-town, and I love that about them. Growing up, we saw St. Catharines as the "big, scary city." Toronto may as well have been China, and anything outside southern Ontario may as well have been the moon as far as my family was concerned. I remember once my mom ate at the Arby's in St. Catharines, and she was super excited that she ate "foreign Arby's" because it wasn't from our town. I recently made the joke that the most exciting news we had in months was that we were getting a Pita Pit, and I wasn't exaggerating.

Since I went off to University, my family's horizons have expanded a bit, but they still have that old, local mindset in a lot of ways. None of them have really left the Falls, or really intend to any time soon.

The reason why I chose this song is because it's about contentment. It's about being happy with what you have, and not trying to compete with others or "keep up with the Joneses." As Butler says, "Life's not about what's 'better than.'"

One of the things I love about my family is that they have never been the greedy or competitive type. They've always been happy with what they have, and don't feel the need to envy others or try to keep up with anyone. They do what makes them happy and are happy with what they have. This is something I admire a lot about my family, and I chose this song because it reminds me about the contentment and humility that my family has.

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Day 26: A song you’d love to slow dance to.

Faye Wong/Nobuo Uematsu - Eyes on Me (From Final Fantasy VIII).

Some people may be hesitant to give a song from a video game a chance, but I would highly recommend letting go of those preconceptions and trying out this song anyway. The Final Fantasy series has produced some of the most beautiful music that I know, and I would highly recommend listening to some of it even if you're not a gamer, as it's fantastic music in its own right.

Final Fantasy VIII is one of my favourite love stories of all time. On the surface, it is the love story of the characters Squall and Rinoa. However, it is also just as much about the past as it is about the present, and therefore just as much about a love story from years prior between Laguna and Julia, and later Laguna and his second love Raine. As the game goes on, all three of these stories intersect and become the same love story, told across generations, which is really cool and also quite beautifully done.

This song is one of the things that connects all three of the stories into one, and it has a lot of meaning in relation to the plot. Its significance to one of my favourite love stories, combined with the fact that it is a beautiful song in its own right, makes it a song that I would really want to slow dance to.

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Day 25: A cheesy/romantic song that you like.

Royal Wood - A Good Enough Day

Royal Wood is interesting because half of his songs are dark, beautiful and mysterious (A Mirror Without, Juliet), and then the other half are cute little love songs like this one. He does both really well, and I love both sides of his music, as different as they may be. 

Of course, there's also On Top of Your Love, which he described as "the most pornographic (he's) ever written" when I saw him in concert. But for the most part, he sticks to either dark and serene, or adorable and cheesy. With one kinda awkward super sexual piano ballad thrown in the mix.

A Good Enough Day is a good example of his cheesy romantic side, and I absolutely love it! A 1-minute long tune with the refrain "It's a good enough day to love," and lines like "though the sun may not be bright, if we look inside our souls there's light," this song captures a beautifully humble and content romance in a simple yet effective manner.

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Day 24: A song you’d choose to perform if you were a famous singer for a day.

Meat Loaf - Paradise by the Dashboard Light

Every time I go to karaoke, I want to sing this song, and most of the time there is nobody with me who knows it well enough to sing it with me, so I don't get to sing it. One of my ideal traits in a friend is someone who is willing to sing this song with me.

If I were famous for a day, I would without a doubt want to perform this song. It's fun, theatrical, and witty: it's one of my favourite songs and probably my favourite duet. I know that I would want to perform a duet; If I only have one day to be a famous vocalist, why would I want to do it alone?

I chose Paradise By the Dashboard Light because it's one of the most fun songs to perform with someone, and I would have the time of my life singing it with someone on stage!

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Day 23: A song that changed your life/outlook.

T.V. Carpio - I Wanna Hold Your Hand (from Across the Universe).

I owe a lot to the Across the Universe. I went to see the movie in theatres when I was 16 and it pretty much changed my life.

Before watching the film, I hadn't been exposed to very much music. Music was still very important to me, as I was a musician and band practice was my favourite part of the week. However, my exposure was limited to the things we played in band, and what my mom listened to (which was a lot of country and worship music).

I wasn't a fan of the music that was popular at the time (it was the mid-2000's, so all of my peers were listening to stuff like Skye Sweetnam, Cascada and Jojo, which didn't exactly appeal to me), and I didn't know how to find much else, so I was just kind of resigned to listening to my mom's music and band music.

However, when Across the Universe came out, I went to see it. I then returned to see it like 8 more times with different people, and had to make sure that everyone I knew saw this amazing movie. It started me on an obsession with the Beatles that would last several years, many inches of hair, and a complete change in the way I approached and sought out music.

After watching the movie, I went out and got every single Beatles album, listened to all of them, watched all of the movies and completely indulged in fandom. After this, I began to realize that I had the power to go out and seek music on my own, and that I wasn't reliant on my family and peer group to introduce music to me. I scoured the internet and record stores looking for new music, and started to find stuff that really fascinated me. I started with other 60's artists like the Beatles, listening to the Doors and Janis Joplin. I then began to expand to other decades, and then to check out the cool stuff that was currently being made. Over time, I grew into the huge music fan that I am now, and discovered all of the amazing music that I love so much now.

The Beatles really started my musical journey, and my interest in The Beatles came from my experience watching Across the Universe, so really I can trace my love for music now all the way back to this one movie that I watched in high school. I think that is really cool!

I chose I Wanna Hold Your Hand because I think it's an absolutely amazing cover, and it is used really well in the context of the film's plot. The song is completely re-imagined and the meaning is completely changed simply through slowing the tempo and changing the context, and I think that's amazing!

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Day 22: A song you really shouldn’t like but still do.

Alanis Morissette: My Humps (Cover of the Black Eyed Peas).

I decided to take this question in a slightly different direction, because I don't think that anyone should ever feel bad for liking a song. I don't have any songs that I "really shouldn't like" because I don't think that there is anything wrong with liking something, and so there are no songs that anyone "really shouldn't like."

So instead, I decided to share this cover, since I don't like My Humps, but I like Alanis Morissette's cover of My Humps. Therefore, it's a song that I don't like that has been made into a song that I do like because of the cover. So it kind of meets the question's requirements.

A common joke about this song is that it's what happened when Alanis finally learned what irony is. It's one of my favourite parodies, and the song and video together are really entertaining.

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Day 21: A song you and all of your friends love.

Halestorm: Get Lucky (Daft Punk Cover).

This song was difficult because my friends all have incredibly different music tastes. Whenever there is a song that 3 or 4 of us all love, there's usually 1 or 2 who absolutely hate it, so we rarely come across a common artist or song that we all agree on.

I picked Halestorm because they've done a pretty good job of bridging the gap between some of my friends who have the most disparate tastes in music. There are two of my friends in particular who never seem to agree on music ever, yet they both enjoy this song. While I don't want to say that "all my friends love this song," I wouldn't really be able to say that about any song.

I can at least say that a large majority of my friends enjoy this song, and that more of them probably agree on this song than on any other song I could chose. And that's good enough for me!

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Day 20: A song you never get sick of.

Jon Schmidt - Homecoming

I know that I'll never get sick of this song because my mom and I both tried learning it on piano around the same time, meaning that there was a good chunk of time when you couldn't enter our house without hearing someone playing this song.

Despite that experience, I never got sick of this song, and to this day I still enjoy listening to it. It's one of my favourite pieces for piano.

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Day 19: A song that you love but not many people have heard of.

The Black Flies - Taking Time

Well, there's no way to answer this question without the risk of sounding like a hipster, since it's essentially asking you to say "well, you probably haven't heard of it..." So I'm just going to go with it and take that risk!

I decided to go with an amazing band from my hometown, since they're local. They're really big where I live, but I don't think they've seen too much success outside of the Niagara Region, so they'd still fit in the category of "not many people have heard of." Which is unfortunate, really, because they're one of my favourite bands, and I wish more people did know about them. I really hope they get widespread popularity one day, since I think they're a fantastic band and they deserve it!

Taking Time is my favourite song from the album. Really resonates with anyone who grew up in a smaller town/city and has had the experience of leaving, and then feeling the change in attitude that people have towards you whenever you return to visit or stay.

"Taking time to remember who I am,"

"When I'm home, will you love me like a brother?

When I'm gone, will you still call me friend?"

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Day 18: A song that makes you dance every time you hear it.

Letters to Cleo: Awake

When it comes to dancing, I tend to go for the "awkward dad who embarrasses his kids" style, combined with a lot of random jumping and bobbing that I think somehow qualifies as dancing.

Awake is the kind of song where you can jump up and down in random directions while rocking out and being embarrassing, so it works for me! It's also a song that I sometimes listen to while walking, and it makes me kind of awkwardly dance-walk down the street. Awesome song for dancing!

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Day 17: A song you know all of the words to.

The Decemberists - O Valencia!

This was a hard question because I know all of the words to most of my favourite songs. I like to sing along when I listen to music, which kind of forces me to learn the words.

I initially considered posting an ironic response like YYZ by Rush (because everyone technically knows all of the words to YYZ since there are none), but I decided against that.

Anyway, I went with O Valencia! because my URL is taken from the song's lyrics. Since I named my blog after the lyrics from this song, I think it would be fitting to make it my answer to a question about lyrics.

Despite the fact that it's basically West Side Story/ Romeo and Juliet, I still love O Valencia! I really like the way that the lyrics tell the story, and I think that they are beautifully crafted. It is one of my favourite songs, both musically and lyrically, and I really appreciate the story and lyrics of the song.

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Day 16: A song for your mom.

Kim Mitchell - Patio Lanterns

Me and my mom don't have too much in common when it comes to music, but Kim Mitchell is one of the artists that we both love. This song always makes me think of my mom, because she always talks about all of the memories that it brings back for her, and I have always loved hearing my mom tell me stories about her past and her memories.

I remember when I first got into Kim Mitchell, and I found my mom's old Kim Mitchell CD. I was really excited to see that we finally had a music artist that we both liked, and an album we could both listen to together. I enjoyed the stories about the 80's that my mom told me about the song, and I really appreciated the time we were able to spend together because of this song! This song always reminds me of my mom, all of the great times we've had together, and all of the great stories she has shared with me about her past!

I also had trouble picking which version of the song to share, because I actually prefer the Greatest Hits version he released in the 90's. However, this is the version my mom prefers, so I shared this one because it reminds me of her more. But I would recommend also listening to the GH version, it has really fun organ parts in it!