Minimix: Something about a deserted island and your only five bands

First and foremost:

Tune in to the show tomorrow from 5-6pm for your weekly indie salvation.  It's 91.1 FM for locals, wrvu.org for anyone else.  The realplayer is kind of squeamish, so if she doesn't work, give her a few tries.  And give me a call at 322-ROCK or 421-ROCK (ROCK = 7625) if you want to hear something, or IM me at wrvuradio or annieweisner during the show and harass me and keep me company.  

Tonight at the Yo La Tengo show (yeah, more to come on that tomorrow, but it was great so thanks again to the stranger who made sure I got my ticket on time) I remembered being asked a lot of ridiculous music-limiting questions in high school to the tune of "If you were stuck on a deserted island / were the last person on earth / got locked in a cellar and could only listen to three albums / ten songs / five bands, what would they be?"

The album and song limitations I still have a hard time with, but I've mostly got my five bands sorted out and solidified.  I return to the ones that have stuck it out with me, that have reemerged at crucial points in my youth, 

So since you probably already own a bit of music by the following five bands (and if you don't, you should reassess your life and see if there's an ache of unfulfillment, since clearly you've been missing out) I'm going to try to give you a song by each that you  may not already have your hands on.  Enjoy:

To the left is me, around age sixteen, in Dragon Park, with something like fruit-rollups stuck to my head.  Charming.

1) Built to Spill, "Girl" (from The Normal Years)

Itty bitty newborn Built to Spill gets a little stripped down and teenage in a way they won't really ever return to.  There is in fact no percussion of any sort in this entire song.  The Normal Years is also notable since the original version of "Car" appears on this album after showing up on There's Nothing Wrong With Love and claiming its spot as potentially my favorite song ever.  

2) Yo La Tengo, "Upside-Down"

From 1992's May I Sing With Me, which I in fact do not own, but I grabbed this single at an outdoor Grimeys sale when I was seventeen or so, little knowing the gem I had in my hands.  What fool would not bring YLT on a deserted island with them?

3) Luna, "City Kitty" (from Pup Tent)

Classic dark sexy Luna.  Pup Tent has become a recent favorite of mine after grabbing a used copy for five bucks and having nothing but a CD player from the early nineties hooked up through an adaptor in the cassette deck of my car for five weeks.  It restarts every time you hit a bump, so it's good the beginning of the album's so damn good.  But really, this song proves, in case you had any doubt in your mind, that Luna do in fact know how to break it down.

4) Cinerama, "Tie Me Up" (from Torino)

So my Cinerama catalogue is not that impressive, but since every one of David Gedge's songs is about sex, I went for one that was excessively so.  Do not play this track for your children.  Do play this track for your girlfriend.  Follow it with "Lollobrigida".  You won't even need roses and candles.  David Gedge--best wingman ever.  "Anything that you want to do, I'll do it."

5) The Who, "We're Not Gonna Take It (Alternate Version)" (from Tommy)

Six minutes of somewhat reshaped goodness from the rock opera that I thought I was so cool to know about.  I bought cassettes of The Who in high school because they were ungodly cheap and I was the only person around who still had a cassette deck, and my copy of Tommy got an upgrade a few Christmases ago to the brand new DELUXE edition.  I still kind of think disc two of the deluxe edition is kind of a stretch.  Some of the alternate versions are little more than longer, instrumental takes on the originals, so unless you're a die-hard, its probably not worth the extra cash.  

BONUS!

Luna, "Ihop" (from Pup Tent)

I was only going to give you "Kitty City", but I just really need you all to revel in the first fifty-three seconds of this song with me.