30 DAY SONG CHALLENGE: Day 10 - A song that makes you fall asleep

Well, I still have a job.  It was touch and go there for a while.  I was actually working and stuff to try to "demonstrate value" or whatever. Today is Black Friday. The pink slips went out, and I didn't get one so clearly as a show of solidarity and respect for the job that I got to keep, I should post an inane blog update about music...

I'd rather be lucky than good any day.  Here's to being lucky!  Here, here!

There's not a whole lot of music that actually puts me to sleep.  There is however, music that I can go to sleep to.  I still remember seventh grade, trying to find a comfortable way to sleep on my side while still keeping my earphones on as I pumped in disaffected anthem after disaffected anthem.  The Mallrats Soundtrack with the likes of Weezer, Bush, and Sublime mixed with Silverchair's Frogstomp provided the lullaby's for young emotionally fragile Colin.  Those were the (angsty) days.

Now that I'm a little longer in the tooth, more refined if you will (don't worry, you don't have to), I like my disaffection a little less obvious and a little more sonically subdued.



The National struck a chord with me from the very first time I heard their 2007 LP Boxer. Matt Berringer's tales of love lost and bridges burned sing to my forever awkward teenage soul.  The songs seem to simmer just under the boiling point of screaming.  The quiet desperation of that entire album has rocked me to sleep on many a lonely night, but Start a War and Fake Empire are my favorites.



I recently saw them perform at the Ryman Theater in Nashville, TN.  I convinced a friend to get the tickets directly from the box office so we would get good seats and boy did she come through.  Fourth row for all the glory!  I'll guarantee that no one went to sleep during that show!  They bristled with raw emotion from beginning to end. A bottle of wine may have helped release some of the on stage antics, but the simmer they maintained in the recording studio bubbled over live.  It was incredible to witness. As a final treat, they sent us home with a completely unplugged version of Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks from their newest effort, High Violet. In a word: Priceless.

Luckily, you don't have to take my word for it.  Someone a row behind us captured the whole thing and posted it to the interwebs!  I love technology!!!



Yeah, that's my head in the foreground of the video!