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20s Playlist

I've neglected the hell out of this blog.  Somehow, summer happened, then almost ended?  I still think its June.  So- I can confidently say that I've let the last few weeks of my 20s slip by unnoticed and uncommemorated (not that anyone but me cares.)  But...since its my blog, I DO WHAT I WANT!  And what I want is to talk about MEEE!
Duh.

On that note- I'm excited and scared to hit the big 3-0 landmark.  My greatest fear about getting old is losing touch with popular music- which has essentially been the driving force of my life since adolescence.

My 20s marked a time when appreciating and sharing music music switched from hobby to livelihood.  Music was the way I met friends, made money, networked.  It was how I started my mornings and fell asleep (and occasionally how I showered).  It was the crux of every social outing and the reason for most of my travels.  My twenties were angsty and weird and full of adventure and pretty damn rock and roll.

Let's share:

SARA's TOP SONGS OF HER MELODRAMATIC 20s

"El Scorcho" - Weezer

At UCSC, Weezer was a way of life. We camped out all night in front of Streetlight Records in anticipation of the Green Album hitting shelves (how quaint!), and everybody pogo'd to Pinkerton in their indie rock power sweaters.  This song became the song for me and Dylan (two nerds that finally found twue lurve**).
    ** And later mawwiage, where this was our 1st dance

"The Test" - Chemical Brothers

"The Test" is also a UCSC/ Monterey memory- the album hit KZSC a few weeks early- where I, RPM director extraordinaire, got my grubby mitts on it in studio B.  It then became my anthem for traipsing about and tripping balls through the creepy marsh forests of Monterey.

"In The Aeroplane Over The Sea" - Neutral Milk Hotel

This set the standard for how I hear /feel /love Indie rock love songs forever and ever and ever.

"Wasted & Ready" - Ben Kweller

This song was coming home to LA for summer vacation and making friends with the group.  It was driving in the Focus to mop up blood in Dr. Lipin's office.  It was going back to school and flopping down on my twin bed being lovesick and missing Dylan.

"Fight Test" - Flaming Lips

Listened to this on repeat in the dark when my eyes got lasered, witnessed them play THE BEST Hollywood Bowl show of all time, and was there to first see Wayne in his hamster bubble at Coachella '05.  Most important - this is the song I sang to the marlin that I slaughtered (unintentionally...) as it died on the back of our boat in Cabo.  When a sport-fishing-obsessed grandfather says you're going to release the fish..... its a lie.

"Welcome To The North" - The Music

Soo. I don't actually like this song at all, but its definitely an important memory.  Its flying to NYC and meeting Annalisa (then a stranger, now a dear friend) and setting out in a van to follow The Music and Incubus for a fall tour of the northeast and midwest.  Tour was cold as balls, Ann Arbor is awesome, its hard to buy liquor on the eastern seaboard, Brits don't know what granola bars are, and I accidentally spooned AL on the first night I met her.  The Music are now broken up.

"Feel Good Inc" - The Gorillaz

This song is Virgin Records NYC and meeting Ramona.  This song is being tortured daily by evil bosses with hearts of darkness.  This song is Sparks-fueled all night parties, being 23 and insane, meeting new people, meeting new artists (hello Damon Albarn and Dangermouse), being broke as fuck, being silly as hell, learning how to work hard with no reward, and finding out who we were and who we'd never be.

"Fix You" - Coldplay

Freedom from tyranny and starting at Capitol NYC.  This song was standing in the Video VP's office watching the just-finished master tape play on her floor-to-ceiling screen while MTV was frantically arranging a courier to get the tape to TRL.  Goosebumps...redemption... and fire juggling?  Weird.

"Apply Some Pressure" - Maximo Park

"What happens when you lose everything?  You start again.  You start all over again."

Being very sick, moving home to LA, starting over at Capitol LA, being scared and alone.  This song saw me through my late 20's too- leaving Capitol for HW, leaving HW to start fresh at Sony.  

"All These Things That I Have Done" - The Killers

Road tripping to Vegas with Tammy- reconnecting.  Road tripping to Vegas and beyond with Capitol - disconnecting.

"Modern Love" - Bloc Party

Starting life with Dylan, starting my new job in Film & TV at EMI, and being happy- yet missing NY every day and feeling so lonely without my friends.

"We Are Your Friends" - Justice

So many dance parties.  NY to LA to Indio.  Getting married and still being a crazy 25 yr old.  Remembering when Simian was a rock band, and we worked their album at Virgin.

p.s. Hey Dave- We're visible in the 2nd Coachella crowd shot. Look for John's green shirt.

  

"We Share Our Mother's Health" - The Knife

Best show of my life.  One of the anthems of the A-Team all-weekend drinking crew.  Downtown party apartment, free shows, art parties, finding out that I really love scarves and high heels.  This song is hearing magical music first, repping what Pitchfork deemed the 'best' album of 2007, and not wanting to be an adult.

"Hurry Up And Wait" - Nocando

Low End Theory changed everything all over again.  Heavy bass and LA sounds.  Stopped missing NY, started feeling LA pride.  Shifted from rock to almost exclusively electronic music.

  

"Kim and Jessie" - M83

This was the end of my time at EMI.  It was sadness to stay and total heartbreak to leave.  This song sounds like unrealized expectations, other people's expense accounts, changes sweeping Hollywood, and busted release parties in abandoned bookstores.

"Walking On A Dream" - Empire Of The Sun

This song sounds like 2010-2011 and the great friends I made at EMI.  The group reunited for this show after we had all moved on, friendship endured new jobs, new priorities.  This song never stops being ridiculous and completely amazing.  Kind of like our friendships.

"Mr. Saxobeat" - Alexandra Stan

This sounds like 2011 pep rallies at Harvard-Westlake and not giving a fuck.  It sounds like the adventures in travelling with David.  It marks my steep, steep descent into the pop world and giving up on actively thinking when I listen to songs.

"Give Me Everything" - Pitbull, Neyo, Nya, Afrojack

This song is my new livelihood.  I license Pitbull daily, and I am happy to do it.  It makes me want to move, but in a reserved, skeptical way.   My first day of work involved a Pitbull show- and party music is now inseparable from work.  Most of what I hear on the daily is pop music- and it makes me feel old.

"Mercy" - Kanye West, 2 Chains, Big Sean

Which takes me to right now's top song.  It sounds like the past 10 years in a blender.  Kanye, LOW END BEATS, music biz flashiness, pop mu$ic, David and his hippin-and-hoppin', inside jokes  -- and FISH FILLETS!   I am so thankful to feel as connected as I do to Dylan, David, and Ramona and EMI people and the music biz.  And for some reason- Butt metaphors, drug references, Kanye bragging about his private jet and someone's girl trying to grab his junk symbolizes this.  

  

Rock.