Geekier than thou

Okay, despite being at least as geeky as Yelladog and Norbizness, Yella tagged me for this one. (By way of explanation, Yelladog's post starts: "Norbizness does what the geeky guys like us who always get picked last for kickball do. We just say 'Fuck it, no one has to tap me for this quiz. I tap myself.'")

A. Top Five Lyrics that Move Your Heart:

1. Famous Blue Raincoat--Leonard Cohen
It's four in the morning, the end of december
I'm writing you now just to see if you're better
New york is cold, but I like where I'm living
There's music on clinton street all through the evening.

I hear that you’re building your little house deep in the desert
You're living for nothing now, I hope you're keeping some kind of record.

2. Don't Go Back to Rockville--REM (A natural for anyone who grew up in Rockville)
At night I drink myself to sleep and pretend
I don’t care if you’re not here with me
'Cause it's so much easier to handle
All my problems if I'm too far out to sea

3. Fourth of July--X
On the lost side of town
in a dark apartment
we gave up trying so long ago

4. Just Like Anyone--Aimee Mann (the whole damn album has great lyrics really)
So maybe I wasn't
that good a friend
but you were one of us
and I will wonder
just like anyone
if there was something
else I could've done

So maybe it's true that
your cry for help
was oh, so very faint
but still I heard
and knew something was wrong
just nothing you could put your finger on
and I will wonder
just like anyone
just like anyone

5. Wish You Were Here--Pink Floyd
And did they get you to trade
Your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange
A walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?

How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl,
Year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found?
The same old fears.
Wish you were here.

B. Top 5 Instrumentals:

Oy, I can't even really answer this one. How lame is that. I like the Cocteau Twins and Killing Joke and some other bands that are more music than words (Felt, etc.). I love the soundtrack to Betty Blue. But you know, for the most part I'm a rock and roll kind of gal. And a word person.

C. Top 5 Live Musical Experiences:

1. The show that most changed my life was my first real punk show in a club: the Dead Kennedies and Half Japanese at the 9:30 club in Washington, DC, December 1980 (or thereabouts). That was when I realized "hey, I'm not depressed--I'm angry!" Within a month I had a skinhead girl hairdo and was wearing private schoolgirl kilts, combat boots, and homemade band tees all the time.

2. Sharing a joint with Ranking Roger at the English Beat show at the Ontario (1981? 82? somewhere in there).

3. Seeing Iggy Pop at Hammerjacks in Baltimore (a club immortalized in John Waters' Serial Mom where L7 played as the fictitious band Camel Lips). Hammerjacks is a total Baltimore heavy metal club and the women's room at the Iggy show was astonishing to me--a sort of anthropological experience. More aquanet (and vinyl hipboots) than you can imagine. If you'd lit a cigarette in there, the whole place would have gone up in flames.

4. Hunters and Collectors at the 9:30 club. I don't remember when this was--maybe 1984. They were a huge band playing in a club with a tiny stage--horns, more than one percussionist and a found object "drum" set that included an automobile exhaust system.

5. Okay, I know this is the one that's going to make all of the hipsters stop talking to me. But I admit seeing Hole, Veruca Salt, and Mazzy Star (sometime in the late 90s in Madison, WI) was one of the most notable shows I've been to. Watching Courtney Love punch a fan in the eye and then bring him on stage to apologize for grabbing her tit--what can I say--it was memorable. As a runner-up I offer the 1980 or 81 punk rock show at Arlington's Branding Iron Beef House (the bands I remember are Madhouse and No Trend, but there were others). This one was notable because they called the cops on us--I think because it was a straight edge show and they weren't making alcohol money. Multiple cop cars, a paddy wagon and a K9 car all came to break up a show that was only one step up from a party in someone's parents' house basement. Pretty funny.

D. Top Five Artists You Think More People Should Listen To:
Yes, I know--I am old. These are pretty much all defunct bands. What can I say? They are still worth listening to.

1. Scrawl. Three women from Ohio. I like 'em a lot. They just aren't well known.

2. Hunters and Collectors

3. Unrest

4. The Go-Betweens (who are the one band actually in existence on this list). What can I say--I love pop music. Anyway, I didn't realize they were touring until finding their link. Come to realize they're coming to the Troubadour next month. Fun.

5. X-Ray Spex. Okay, I know a lot of people do listen to them, but more people should. How can you not love little Polystyrene singing "Oh Bondage, Up Yours" with braces on her teeth.

E. Top Five Albums You Must Hear From Start to Finish:

1. Okay, I know this one will probably surprise some of you, but Quadrophenia is definitely one of the five.

2. Faith--The Cure (music to slit your wrists by, I know)

3. Closer--Joy Division

4. White Light/White Heat--Velvet Underground

5. The Fan and the Bellows--The Chameleons

F. Top Five Musical Heroes:

1. David Bowie. Anyone who can inspire my ardor/crush consistently over a 25-year period deserves hero status.

2. Lou Reed. I just love him, okay?

3. Iggy Pop. He wins my survivor award. That he could still have so much energy and be so buff after living the life he's lived is pretty incredible.

4. Ian MacKaye. What can I say--I'm from DC.

5. Exene. Because she's just so fucking cool.

I'm tagging Prof. B and Elise and Chris--that is unless they've already been tagged--an unfortunate possibility when you are the last kid to get picked for the softball team.