What song makes you feel like you're part of something bigger?

It's wild to me that this song is older than I am. I would have guessed this was a 90s song, but it came out at the tail end of the 80s.

Civilization? Ha!
I call it as I see it
I call it bullshit
You know, I still cannot believe it
Our evolution now has gone the way of hate
A world evolved, resolved Into a stupid fate

Stop hate.

What's your favorite song about friendship?

Oh what's that sound? The brass horn? The chant of Football Head's name? Sure, it's a TV show theme song, recreated by Skatune Network to be more ska-y, but if you know your ska, covers of TV themes has always been a fun thing that ska bands love to do. (Primarily Less Than Jake, even way before their "TV/EP" EP.)

I think Hey Arnold is often overlooked. It's not really the same kind of whimsical absurdism that the 90's cartoons were known for. It's more grounded in reality, it's focused on city-life, and, yes, friendship. I did a rewatch a few years ago. The last half of the first episode is a real kick to the gender dysphoria teeth where Arnold's secret admirer Helga deals with being misgendered brutally for 10 minutes. This show has a lot of sincerity where many other cartoons would have been nihilistic for laughs. A lot of the show could be boiled down to: everyone is weird in their own weird way and you should have empathy for them. That's not unique to Hey Arnold, for sure, but damn does it still hold up pretty well decades later. It's truly something special.

What song do you associate with your favorite book or movie?

The Aquabats are such an interesting ska band and I'm happy they're still around today. If I recall correctly, this debut album features a lot of references to the movie Repo Man (1984) by Alex Cox starring Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton. It's the kind of movie that captures a lot of the absurdity of the American people, the punk scene, and sure, aliens.

There's this quote from Roger Ebert's review that is sticking out to me today, after having just watched Paris Texas that also came out the same year:

Repo Man comes out of left field, has no big stars, didn't cost much, takes chances, dares to be unconventional, is funny, and works. There is a lesson here.

— Roger Ebert, January 1, 1984

While I agree that this is typically the best formula for making a good movie, it's funny to hear that Harry Dean Stanton was not a big star. That might be true, but looking at his filmography I'd hardly say his resume wasn't pretty impressive as he was in Cool Hand Luke, The Godfather 2, and Farewell My Lovely. And that's just the movies I've seen that he was in prior to 1984. I also couldn't tell you that I remember him from any of those movies though, but it's been a minute since I've seen them too.

Ugh. Fuckin' death. Don't die ok?

What's a song that makes you want to learn an instrument?

I've practiced a lot of stringed instruments, but i think it would be cool to learn the software now. A few years ago I picked up Logic. Probably around the same time I got really in to 100 gecs. Probably. No coincidence there... or is there? I also have Hatsune Miku V4X and NT versions (which just got a big free update I need to check out). In 2019 I was making Hatsune Miku sings Streetlight Manifesto songs. Making Miku sound natural is a fucking talent! That I do not have! But it was fun. Then comes depression and all that fun stuff so… oh well.

So you'll never really know, know-know-know, know-know-know Anything about me, me-me-me, me-me-me No, you'll never really know, know-know-know, know-know-know Anything about me, me-me-me, me-me-me-me-me

Share a song that perfectly soundtracks your commute.

Ugh, I think I'm sick. My ideal commute would be to continue sleeping today but I guess I gotta walk to the other room to show up for work.

What song makes you feel nostalgic for a time you never lived through?

A time before chemical bombs. A time where the only one causing mass destruction was whatever god you believed in, which was good when they did it, I guess. (That's right, I'm not going to assign a gender to your god. Shout out to your god. You picked the correct one. Or ones. Maybe your god is plural, which is totally valid!)

What's your go-to song for getting ready in the morning?

You too can be the punk rock girl from The Dead Milkmen song if you want!

Share a song that sounds like your favorite weather.

Not a lot of songs in my library called "San Francisco hoodie weather" unfortunately.

It's out of my hands
These too heavy times
No matter the weather
I'll never waver

The context of which this song was released, early 2017, says a lot. What the fuck even happened to get to yesterday? Is nuclear winter even hoodie weather?

Share a song that captures the moment when seasons change.

Simutaniously seasonless and seasonful all at once. Some may say this is a non-seasonal season. Others might say I'm trying to force this song to meet the prompt and I already said I needed to feature songs from this album. They would be right, but I am being sincere.

What song makes you feel like you're floating?

Maybe I'm just pulling from the music video's vibes. I can't believe I've not posted a Porter Robinson track before. I need to post some songs from the album Nurture sometime. Finding songs from your library can be hard.