The next stop will be…

There’s no itch harder to scratch than a brain itch. It’s a little piece of information that hides in your memory driving your conscious mind crazy. Doesn’t matter what it is, could be a certain word that you can’t think of, the name of a character actress you recognize from another movie, the name of that band from Athens, GA, some type of cheese you had in France, or even the name of a shoe store specializing in comfortable shoes for women. The point is, you know the information is somewhere in your mind but you can’t find it and so it itches. Bad.

My brain started itching shortly after waking up this morning. It was six little guitar notes. They were subconsciously looping through my brain and I had no idea what the tune was but I knew that I knew it. It was double itchy because it would play subconsciously then I’d notice it and consciously replay it trying to figure out what the h*ll it was. In a word, torture. I had to scratch that itch but my options were limited.

First I tried the brute force method, consciously playing the guitar riff over and over in my head wishing it would shake something loose. Sometimes this works. I was hoping for just a bit more of the tune so I could place it but the riff just mocked me with its mystery. Not only did it not give anything up but occasionally it would subconsciously play just to remind me of the itch.

The only other method that has any hope of scratching a brain itch is what I like to call the “Don’t pick at it!” approach. This involves distracting your conscious mind with almost anything else while your mental peripheral vision has a crack at it. This method, if it works, results in the “Aha!” moment that we’re all familiar with thereby scratching the itch. Now your brain can go back to more important matters like, “I wonder if my Metrocard has any money on it?”

My “Aha!” moment arrived while I was on the train coming back from Sunset Park this afternoon. I suddenly knew the riff was from a song by Grandaddy. It didn’t totally scratch the itch but it gave me the clue I needed to put that bad boy to rest. Cut to me on the couch with my Macbook playing Grandaddy songs in iTunes. A few song samples later and I had it, the riff was from Collective Dreamwish of Upperclass Elegance off the Under the Western Freeway album. I could almost hear my brain purring.

By the way, my Metrocard does have money on it and that shoe store specializing in comfortable shoes for women? It’s Aerosoles, never mind how I know.

My MP3 player is to my commute what water is to a fish. It’s a balm, or a salve if you will, to my sanity. I’d find it very difficult to negotiate the NYC subway system on a daily basis without it. But it doesn’t end there, if my MP3 player is water to a fish then my earphones would have to be the gills.

Here’s a brief summary of my commute. I walk, ride a train, walk some more, another train, walk again, take the next train, and then a little more walking. Oh and I forgot to mention that there are several staircases and a moving sidewalk that works about as often as Haley’s comet visits the Earth as well. There’s no part of this trip that’s even remotely quiet. Crowded subway platforms are noisy, trains are very noisy both inside and out, and traffic above ground is also noisy. New Yorkers being fond of their car horns and such. (more…)

This morning brought a twofer as both Guster and The Bravery battled for musical control of my waking brain. There’s a slight hiccup though because I can’t quite remember what the two specific tracks were, much less the lyrics.

I think that The Bravery track was “The Ring Song“. Again, as with the earlier post regarding Guster, it’s not one of favorite tracks from The Bravery’s self-titled debut. I think the only reason it popped into my head is because I listened to the whole album at work yesterday. It’s a great record overall that I played to death on my daily commute last year.

As for Guster‘s re-appearance, I think the track was either “The Captain” or “Ruby Falls“. Both are very good songs but I stand by my opinion that “The Beginning of the End” is the best song on the album.

While I’m on the subject of music, I’d like to mention that I’ve created a “Category” for it so my music-related posts will be easier to find. You can now go to the Archives page and scroll down to “Archives by Subject” and click on the “Music” category to see them all.

You ever get the feeling that your psyche is screwing with you? I do. No sooner do I announce the fact that I wake up most mornings with a song in my head, the music disappears. Is this some sort of joke? Did I call attention to something that was better kept to myself? Maybe my brain ran out of quarters for the subconscious jukebox.

I’ve been annoyed with the mental silence over the past few days and feared it was permanent. That was the feeling as I was showering this morning but then I got a little brain tickle. There had been a song in my head when I woke but it flashed through so briefly that I almost forgot it. My brain must have found the change machine and got some more quarters.

Today’s song is “One Man Wrecking Machine” by Guster. The lyric that I remember hearing in my head upon waking is “like true events on movie screens, I am a one man wrecking machine.” I’ve no idea what that means to my subconscious but my conscious mind has a few thoughts.

Like, why was that song running through my head? It’s not even my favorite song on the album, Ganging Up on the Sun. The best song, “The Beginning of the End”, is inexplicably buried next to last on the album. That’s the song that regularly runs through my conscious mind since getting the album. So what’s up brain? Do you secretly like “One Man Wrecking Machine” more but are afraid to show it so you sneakily play it while I’m sleeping? I want answers!

Ps. Apologies for using “showering” and “tickle” in the same sentence. No one deserves that mental image.

El Matador by Los Fabulosos Cadillacs

This track entered my consciousness when I watched the recent Pierce Brosnan film Matador, as it appears on the soundtrack. It’s a kick*ss song that also appears on the Grosse Pointe Blank soundtrack. The band is from Argentina and this particular song is in the style of ska. Odd? Yes, but it totally works.

Ps. Matador, the movie, was much better than I expected. Pierce plays a hit man suffering from an existential crisis about his line of work.

Lump by The Presidents of the United States

One hit wonder from the mid-90′s. Their discography page on allmusic has a photo of them with Bill Clinton. I really miss the good ole’ days.

“Morning Song” is a new feature for the blog that I’m hoping I can maintain. At the very least it should help me post more often in the event nothing else is going on.

You see, I rarely remember my dreams but hardly a day goes by that I don’t wake up with a song in my head. And I thought it would be interesting to start posting them. Maybe I’ll say a little something about each one or maybe not but it’d be nice to have a record. No pun intended.

Today’s Song:
White Lines by Duran Duran

Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five did this originally back in 1983. It’s an excellent song about the dangers of drugs. While I like the original a lot, Duran Duran’s version from their covers album “Thank You” has this vocal hook that goes Dang a Dang Dang ga Dang ga Dang and that’s what was rattling around my head this morning.