In this Discussion
- bell8square August 2006
- chin3beggar August 2006
- jedi_grrlie August 2006
- kissteam1 August 2006
- mexico39taiwan August 2006
- roofing844 August 2006
- sherib August 2006
- The End Has No Jen August 2006
- thephantommilk August 2006
- women60banana August 2006
The Day the Music Died
THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED
LOVE BREAKS HEARTS; WORSE, IT
RUINS SONGS
By MANDY STADTMILLER
August 24, 2006 -- WE all have one. That song you can't listen to because it's the one that was playing when she broke your heart, or during that summer job you couldn't stand, or during the dental operation you'd prefer to forget. Now there's a Web site devoted to the concept of the "can't listen."
"People have lots of creative ways of ruining music for each other," says writer Mary Phillips-Sandy, 29, who with boyfriend Bryan Bruchman created the aptly titled Ruinedmusic.com to document such harrowing tales. "The idea is that you love music and then something happens to alter your appreciation. We think of our site as a way for people to get the story off their chest so they can listen to the song again."
So we asked musicians - from the legendary Paul Anka to electronic pioneer Moby to, well, Candlebox - to share their own stories of Ruined Music to accelerate the healing.
And if just one multiplatinum recording artist or 17-year-old pop wunderkind can find it in his heart to listen to that permanently banned mix tape again, our work here is done.
JUST LIKE EX-ILE
"In 1994, I was living with my girlfriend at the time. We were out one night and we heard 'Just Like Heaven' by the Cure, and she drunkenly mentioned that this had been the song that was playing when she first met the boyfriend whom she had been with before me. So whenever I've heard this song I've thought of the good times, which were invariably better than the times that she and I had together, that she had with her ex-boyfriend. It's a beautiful song, and it kills me that it's been ruined for me for 12 years."
- Moby, whose best-of collection will be released Oct. 24
GUESS THAT'S WHY THEY CALL IT THE BLUES
"I can never listen to 'Blue Suede Shoes.'
"When I started out, I used to do impressions of Elvis Presley and other singers. One night I drove out to the Glenn Lee Nightclub, in Hull, Quebec, where they were holding amateur contests, and I wanted to do an Elvis Presley impersonation that night. So I bought a blue velvet suit, and went out to the nightclub - took my mother's car without her knowing it, got to the club, changed into the suit. I went on stage with my fake guitar and velvet suit, and at 15 years of age, started gyrating and doing all the Elvis moves. In the middle of the song, I gyrated right out of the suit - pants split all the way up the ass. I ran out and never went back. And, when I drove home in my mother's Austin Healey, there was a snow storm. I couldn't get the car out of second gear, blew the piston right through the engine roof. The car broke down. I then got picked up by the mounted police."
- Paul Anka, who is in the midst of recording "Rock Swings 2"
STAR-CROSSED FLING
"When I was 16 and in high school, my girlfriend and I thought (like every other couple in high school - surprise, surprise) we were the modern-day Romeo and Juliet because our families didn't want us dating. We always related to Pavement's song 'Silence Kit' and the line '. . . don't listen to your grandmother's advice about us.' This song became our motivation and salvation. Then we went to college and never spoke again."
- Gabe Saporta, of Cobra Starship, which plays the Knitting Factory on Sept. 19
COVER BLIND
"I met this girl backstage at one of our shows. Later that night we were hanging out on the tour bus when 'Knocking on Heaven's Door' came on. The moment had the potential of greatness - chilling with a beautiful girl, Dylan's throaty voice and sweet melody filling the room. Instead, five seconds into the track, she turns to me and says, 'Oh my God, who is this? I didn't know someone did a cover of Guns N' Roses.' When I explained that Bob Dylan originally wrote the song, all she would go on about was how Axl and Slash were gods. Needless to say, she was off that bus before the chorus. Now, every time I hear it, I'm reminded of a level of musical ignorance I didn't think possible."
- Peter Klett of Candlebox, which recently reunited
THE FORCED 'OUR SONG'
"My first boyfriend thought he was a poet. Wait, it gets worse. My first boyfriend thought he was a poet but he dreamed of becoming a mime. He also had a long blond ponytail. Henry was willing to drive me anywhere, so off we went, sans map or directions, just heading south with the assumption that we'd find a scenic coastal spot - you always do, if you head south in Maine. As is usual in driving situations, I wanted to listen to a tape. 'Oh yeah,' Henry said, fishing in the glove compartment. 'Um, I made a tape. We can listen to it.' The first song was Simon and Garfunkel singing 'Cecilia.' He took one hand off the wheel and grabbed my hand off my lap. 'This is our song,' he announced. His palm was sweaty.
"When I finally called it quits in the fall, he was so upset he began mailing me drawings of bursting eyeballs - no notes, just sketches of popping veins and detached retinas. Then he started calling my radio show every week, anonymously, to request Tool songs. (This was to let me know that in addition to being upset, he was angry). Ever since then, the sunny intro of 'Cecilia' has made me cringe."
- Mary Phillips-Sandy, co-creator of Ruinedmusic.com
GOT TOOTHBRUSH?
Blondie's 'The Tide Is High' was ruined by a single kiss. I was 13, and she was perfect in every way, as 13-year-old girls tended to be at the time. I had spent an eternity, possibly my entire life up to that point, plotting and planning my approach; I schemed and angled and carefully wrestled with the awkward geometry of courtship until we miraculously wound up in the darkened hall outside the school dance. Even muffled by the doors, the bouncing optimism of Blondie was soaring and anthemic, the perfect soundtrack for the universe to converge on this glorious moment. And then I kissed her, and she tasted of spoiled milk. My pubescent world imploded, and the song has never been the same."
- Damian Kulash, of OK Go, whose "Here It Goes Again" video - featuring the band dancing on treadmills - has been downloaded more than 5 million times
TIP O' THE JIG
"I used to play violin in Renaissance fairs every weekend when I was 19 and 20, and my job was to walk around in a floppy hat, pantaloons, a blousey shirt and some Vans that I had to spray-paint black. One day they decided I had too much freedom so they gave me a little Post-it Note that said, 'Privy Lines: 2 o'clock,' and insisted that I play Irish jigs and reels for two hours for all these Dungeon & Dragon enthusiasts waiting in line for the bathroom. I was fairly into Irish music at the time, but it kind of ruined it for me after that. Then I got tendinitis and was in a lot of pain."
- Andrew Bird, whose current album is "The Mysterious Production of Eggs"
OK, FREAKOUT
"When I was a senior in high school, we got to make these political campaign commercials that were supposed to be as if we were having one of our classmates run for president. For whatever reason, I decided that the opening chimes of Radiohead's 'No Surprises' would be a good music sample (I was also obsessed with the song), so I decided to use a loop of that with my commercial. I spent hours and hours doing the commercial and got into a fight with myself over the editing process, and eventually it was a mess. Now, every time I hear that song I'm reminded of the panic attack that happened at 4 a.m. the day the project was due. Good times."
- Sarah Lewitinn, deejay and writer of Ultragrrrl.com
YOUR OWN PERSONAL FLOOR MIX
"With post-breakup vengeance schemes on my mind and several crates of records at my disposal, I created Liz's Triple Threat, a three-song set that I would play whenever I saw them [ex-boyfriend and new girlfriend] enter the club. It started with New Order's 'Bizarre Love Triangle,' second only to 'Blue Monday' in terms of post-Joy Division floor-packers. The title of the song alone said everything. We were three points of a geometrical figure connected by a string of events that could, at best, only be described as bizarre. Next was 'Always on My Mind' as covered by Pet Shop Boys, played to remind him that I was in the booth, hovering above like a spectral reminder of a relationship that neither of us could shake. The set concluded with Kon Kan's sample-heavy 'I Beg Your Pardon (I Never Promised You a Rose Garden),' all sappy lyrics and beats that pulsated through the floor like a telltale heart.
"Eventually we got back together and, six years later, remain a couple. Meanwhile, [the new girlfriend] disappeared, hopefully falling prey to a quicksand-like pit of mothball-scented secondhand clothes. Liz's Triple Threat is now permanently retired."
- Liz Ohanesian, Los Angeles deejay and writer
GUILTY BY ASSOCIATION
The song 'Konstantine' by Something Corporate gives me one of those great ex-girlfriend memories. I was really getting into piano when I was listening to that record and I wrote a lot of songs inspired by that sound. I was also hanging out with my ex every day. So as you can guess, it's still pretty hard to listen to that song."
- Teddy Geiger, performing at the Arthur Ashe Kids' Day presented by Hess on Saturday
SEA OF MISERY
"As a kid, Abby (Amanda's bandmate) used to listen to the Everly Brothers with her dad. We both like their music, but since our label made us cover 'Bye Bye Love' on our new record 'Moon Over the Freeway,' we can't listen to it without cringing."
- Amanda Barrett of the Ditty Bops, playing Spiegeltent Theatre on Wednesday
HOTEL HUMILIATION
"It all happened in college. My last chance to be in a musical at Fordham University. 'Pippin' was being cast . . . I had to get into the show. 'Desperado' by The Eagles was a song I loved and identified with. I decided to audition singing that song. I sang it out loud on that big empty stage and waited to see how I would be cast. I wasn't. Flung my dance shoes out the window into the pachysandra. I had given up on performing for good. Yes, very dramatic. And every time that song came on the radio, I was furious. I used to love that song. Now when 'Desperado' comes on the radio, it just reminds me of my dismal, dreadful failure. As well as my dance shoes that I had left behind in the bushes."
- Valerie Smaldone, 106.7 Lite-FM deejay, the No. 1 rated radio host during the midday
mandy.stadtmiller@nypost.com
http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/the_da...stadtmiller.htm
LOVE BREAKS HEARTS; WORSE, IT
RUINS SONGS
By MANDY STADTMILLER
August 24, 2006 -- WE all have one. That song you can't listen to because it's the one that was playing when she broke your heart, or during that summer job you couldn't stand, or during the dental operation you'd prefer to forget. Now there's a Web site devoted to the concept of the "can't listen."
"People have lots of creative ways of ruining music for each other," says writer Mary Phillips-Sandy, 29, who with boyfriend Bryan Bruchman created the aptly titled Ruinedmusic.com to document such harrowing tales. "The idea is that you love music and then something happens to alter your appreciation. We think of our site as a way for people to get the story off their chest so they can listen to the song again."
So we asked musicians - from the legendary Paul Anka to electronic pioneer Moby to, well, Candlebox - to share their own stories of Ruined Music to accelerate the healing.
And if just one multiplatinum recording artist or 17-year-old pop wunderkind can find it in his heart to listen to that permanently banned mix tape again, our work here is done.
JUST LIKE EX-ILE
"In 1994, I was living with my girlfriend at the time. We were out one night and we heard 'Just Like Heaven' by the Cure, and she drunkenly mentioned that this had been the song that was playing when she first met the boyfriend whom she had been with before me. So whenever I've heard this song I've thought of the good times, which were invariably better than the times that she and I had together, that she had with her ex-boyfriend. It's a beautiful song, and it kills me that it's been ruined for me for 12 years."
- Moby, whose best-of collection will be released Oct. 24
GUESS THAT'S WHY THEY CALL IT THE BLUES
"I can never listen to 'Blue Suede Shoes.'
"When I started out, I used to do impressions of Elvis Presley and other singers. One night I drove out to the Glenn Lee Nightclub, in Hull, Quebec, where they were holding amateur contests, and I wanted to do an Elvis Presley impersonation that night. So I bought a blue velvet suit, and went out to the nightclub - took my mother's car without her knowing it, got to the club, changed into the suit. I went on stage with my fake guitar and velvet suit, and at 15 years of age, started gyrating and doing all the Elvis moves. In the middle of the song, I gyrated right out of the suit - pants split all the way up the ass. I ran out and never went back. And, when I drove home in my mother's Austin Healey, there was a snow storm. I couldn't get the car out of second gear, blew the piston right through the engine roof. The car broke down. I then got picked up by the mounted police."
- Paul Anka, who is in the midst of recording "Rock Swings 2"
STAR-CROSSED FLING
"When I was 16 and in high school, my girlfriend and I thought (like every other couple in high school - surprise, surprise) we were the modern-day Romeo and Juliet because our families didn't want us dating. We always related to Pavement's song 'Silence Kit' and the line '. . . don't listen to your grandmother's advice about us.' This song became our motivation and salvation. Then we went to college and never spoke again."
- Gabe Saporta, of Cobra Starship, which plays the Knitting Factory on Sept. 19
COVER BLIND
"I met this girl backstage at one of our shows. Later that night we were hanging out on the tour bus when 'Knocking on Heaven's Door' came on. The moment had the potential of greatness - chilling with a beautiful girl, Dylan's throaty voice and sweet melody filling the room. Instead, five seconds into the track, she turns to me and says, 'Oh my God, who is this? I didn't know someone did a cover of Guns N' Roses.' When I explained that Bob Dylan originally wrote the song, all she would go on about was how Axl and Slash were gods. Needless to say, she was off that bus before the chorus. Now, every time I hear it, I'm reminded of a level of musical ignorance I didn't think possible."
- Peter Klett of Candlebox, which recently reunited
THE FORCED 'OUR SONG'
"My first boyfriend thought he was a poet. Wait, it gets worse. My first boyfriend thought he was a poet but he dreamed of becoming a mime. He also had a long blond ponytail. Henry was willing to drive me anywhere, so off we went, sans map or directions, just heading south with the assumption that we'd find a scenic coastal spot - you always do, if you head south in Maine. As is usual in driving situations, I wanted to listen to a tape. 'Oh yeah,' Henry said, fishing in the glove compartment. 'Um, I made a tape. We can listen to it.' The first song was Simon and Garfunkel singing 'Cecilia.' He took one hand off the wheel and grabbed my hand off my lap. 'This is our song,' he announced. His palm was sweaty.
"When I finally called it quits in the fall, he was so upset he began mailing me drawings of bursting eyeballs - no notes, just sketches of popping veins and detached retinas. Then he started calling my radio show every week, anonymously, to request Tool songs. (This was to let me know that in addition to being upset, he was angry). Ever since then, the sunny intro of 'Cecilia' has made me cringe."
- Mary Phillips-Sandy, co-creator of Ruinedmusic.com
GOT TOOTHBRUSH?
Blondie's 'The Tide Is High' was ruined by a single kiss. I was 13, and she was perfect in every way, as 13-year-old girls tended to be at the time. I had spent an eternity, possibly my entire life up to that point, plotting and planning my approach; I schemed and angled and carefully wrestled with the awkward geometry of courtship until we miraculously wound up in the darkened hall outside the school dance. Even muffled by the doors, the bouncing optimism of Blondie was soaring and anthemic, the perfect soundtrack for the universe to converge on this glorious moment. And then I kissed her, and she tasted of spoiled milk. My pubescent world imploded, and the song has never been the same."
- Damian Kulash, of OK Go, whose "Here It Goes Again" video - featuring the band dancing on treadmills - has been downloaded more than 5 million times
TIP O' THE JIG
"I used to play violin in Renaissance fairs every weekend when I was 19 and 20, and my job was to walk around in a floppy hat, pantaloons, a blousey shirt and some Vans that I had to spray-paint black. One day they decided I had too much freedom so they gave me a little Post-it Note that said, 'Privy Lines: 2 o'clock,' and insisted that I play Irish jigs and reels for two hours for all these Dungeon & Dragon enthusiasts waiting in line for the bathroom. I was fairly into Irish music at the time, but it kind of ruined it for me after that. Then I got tendinitis and was in a lot of pain."
- Andrew Bird, whose current album is "The Mysterious Production of Eggs"
OK, FREAKOUT
"When I was a senior in high school, we got to make these political campaign commercials that were supposed to be as if we were having one of our classmates run for president. For whatever reason, I decided that the opening chimes of Radiohead's 'No Surprises' would be a good music sample (I was also obsessed with the song), so I decided to use a loop of that with my commercial. I spent hours and hours doing the commercial and got into a fight with myself over the editing process, and eventually it was a mess. Now, every time I hear that song I'm reminded of the panic attack that happened at 4 a.m. the day the project was due. Good times."
- Sarah Lewitinn, deejay and writer of Ultragrrrl.com
YOUR OWN PERSONAL FLOOR MIX
"With post-breakup vengeance schemes on my mind and several crates of records at my disposal, I created Liz's Triple Threat, a three-song set that I would play whenever I saw them [ex-boyfriend and new girlfriend] enter the club. It started with New Order's 'Bizarre Love Triangle,' second only to 'Blue Monday' in terms of post-Joy Division floor-packers. The title of the song alone said everything. We were three points of a geometrical figure connected by a string of events that could, at best, only be described as bizarre. Next was 'Always on My Mind' as covered by Pet Shop Boys, played to remind him that I was in the booth, hovering above like a spectral reminder of a relationship that neither of us could shake. The set concluded with Kon Kan's sample-heavy 'I Beg Your Pardon (I Never Promised You a Rose Garden),' all sappy lyrics and beats that pulsated through the floor like a telltale heart.
"Eventually we got back together and, six years later, remain a couple. Meanwhile, [the new girlfriend] disappeared, hopefully falling prey to a quicksand-like pit of mothball-scented secondhand clothes. Liz's Triple Threat is now permanently retired."
- Liz Ohanesian, Los Angeles deejay and writer
GUILTY BY ASSOCIATION
The song 'Konstantine' by Something Corporate gives me one of those great ex-girlfriend memories. I was really getting into piano when I was listening to that record and I wrote a lot of songs inspired by that sound. I was also hanging out with my ex every day. So as you can guess, it's still pretty hard to listen to that song."
- Teddy Geiger, performing at the Arthur Ashe Kids' Day presented by Hess on Saturday
SEA OF MISERY
"As a kid, Abby (Amanda's bandmate) used to listen to the Everly Brothers with her dad. We both like their music, but since our label made us cover 'Bye Bye Love' on our new record 'Moon Over the Freeway,' we can't listen to it without cringing."
- Amanda Barrett of the Ditty Bops, playing Spiegeltent Theatre on Wednesday
HOTEL HUMILIATION
"It all happened in college. My last chance to be in a musical at Fordham University. 'Pippin' was being cast . . . I had to get into the show. 'Desperado' by The Eagles was a song I loved and identified with. I decided to audition singing that song. I sang it out loud on that big empty stage and waited to see how I would be cast. I wasn't. Flung my dance shoes out the window into the pachysandra. I had given up on performing for good. Yes, very dramatic. And every time that song came on the radio, I was furious. I used to love that song. Now when 'Desperado' comes on the radio, it just reminds me of my dismal, dreadful failure. As well as my dance shoes that I had left behind in the bushes."
- Valerie Smaldone, 106.7 Lite-FM deejay, the No. 1 rated radio host during the midday
mandy.stadtmiller@nypost.com
http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/the_da...stadtmiller.htm
Comments
And Kay: Why the crap are you still up? Don't you have school tomorrow or something?
Blondie's 'The Tide Is High' was ruined by a single kiss. I was 13, and she was perfect in every way, as 13-year-old girls tended to be at the time. I had spent an eternity, possibly my entire life up to that point, plotting and planning my approach; I schemed and angled and carefully wrestled with the awkward geometry of courtship until we miraculously wound up in the darkened hall outside the school dance. Even muffled by the doors, the bouncing optimism of Blondie was soaring and anthemic, the perfect soundtrack for the universe to converge on this glorious moment. And then I kissed her, and she tasted of spoiled milk. My pubescent world imploded, and the song has never been the same."
- Damian Kulash, of OK Go, whose "Here It Goes Again" video - featuring the band dancing on treadmills - has been downloaded more than 5 million times
there.
that's amazing.ly hysterical. in every way possible
And Teddy Geiger's there too, so that makes it even more amazing
I've posted about Ruined Music before, actually....like, here......fyi.....
Pfff, NO! I still have a week of freedom left.
I was listening to the first album on a long car trip with my husband years ago when we had the absolute worst fight of our marriage, hands down. It was the kind of fight that is ridiculous but leaves you wondering who the other person even IS anymore and if you should be married to them (obviously these were absurd thoughts, but at the time, they seemed perfectly rational!) So OKGO was the background to all of this drama, so I popped them out of the CD player and literally COULD not and WOULD not listen to them for many, many months after that. The music just had bad memories. Fast forward a few months to when I sort of re-found the CD and was like "Oh yeah, OKGO!" and started enjoying them all over again...fast forward again to the insane level of fan-love I have for them now and to the fact that both my hub and I have seen them live multiple, multiple times. My hub even gives me birthday cards with Damian's pic on the front, encourages me to get them autographed (prized possession), has held a giant homemade cookie I made for them while I waited to talk to them, and even helps me do fan-covers of their songs, etc. He lovingly calls Damian my boyfriend.
Sigh.
And to think, it almost never would have been for a stupid fight.
But at least my story doesn't involve soured milk-breath, that might have been a true deal breaker
i cant listen to any of greendays new cd.
so i just stay away from certian radio stations.
You can send your story into RuinedMusic.com........and they'll post it or something..........
They're really nice people and they don't bite, either.
I have to send mine in some day soon.....when I get around to it....