Top 10: Songs to cheer you up- Part 2

And now, the long-awaited top 5 songs to cheer you up! I'll pause for applause. (You can find part 1 here.)

The Format- "The First Single (Cause A Scene)"
I don't know how popular The Format are (were?) outside of Arizona, but I do remember seeing a fat, presumably lesbian chick in Indiana (because Indiana is populated largely by fat lesbians. That's such a well-known fact that I feel like I just insulted your intelligence by mentioning it) wearing one of their shirts when I was there one time. Regardless, The Format was a fucking awesome band, and if you've never listened to them, you really should stop depriving yourself. Anyone who knows this song knows that it will instantly cheer you up; it's one of those songs that you can put on at a party and have everyone singing along to in minutes, sort of like the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" theme song.

Bebop has a fucking sword on his back. I can see it. Why didn't he ever use it?!?

Of course, as the parenthetical title implies, this song does instruct its listeners to "cause a scene", which can be confusing for first-time listeners. I'm not a fan of songs explicitly ordering me around to begin with, but as it turns out, The Format's idea of causing a scene- "clap your hands and stomp your feet"- is distinctly different from mine. See, when I need to cause a scene, I generally whip my dick out and do the "flying squirrel" (and no, I'm not gonna tell you what a "flying squirrel" is...use your imagination). And I will say this: if you think that the end result of "causing a scene" should be getting arrested at Warped Tour and being put in the sex offender registry, then I fucking win.


Passion Pit- "Little Secrets"
Ian Cohen over at Pitchfork said it best in his review for this album when he stated: "What happens when you're scrambling to think of why a record is worth hearing and you keep coming back to 'it makes me happy'?" Listening to this song is like basking in the glow of Julia Roberts' smile while cuddling that teddy bear from the Snuggle Fabric Softener commercials and baking cookies for all the toothless orphans from Oliver Twist (but not for Annie; instead of baked goods, you're forcibly feeding her numerous knuckle sandwiches, delivered directly to her creepy, soulless, ginger face). Incidentally, the previous sentence was probably the most accurate description of anything in the history of both descriptions and things.

Passion Pit is what would've happened if Micheal Jackson was a hipster. In fact, obvious musical influences aside, Passion Pit may have a bit more in common with ol' Thriller than is at first apparent. Observe, the chorus of "Little Secrets":

Singer: Let this be our little secret, no one needs to know we're feeling...
Chorus of Children: Higher, higher and higher!

Um... huh. That's... hm. Well, despite the beating these guys are probably about to receive at the hands of Elliot Stabler, I stand by what I've said here today.


MGMT- "Kids"
I have to say, it still amazes me how popular Oracular Spectacular got when it came out- not because it isn't good (it's actually very good), but because it sounds almost nothing like the other stuff that gets radio play, or it didn't at the time anyway. Not to mention, the album itself switches back and forth from high energy pop masterpieces sporting monster hooks like "Kids", to psychedelic experiments in mind-fuckery.

I saw them play a free show at Tempe Marketplace one time, and because of their surprising amount of radio play, the frat boys were out in full force. MGMT responded to this by opening with one of their catchy popular tunes, and then proceeded to fuck with the audience for the next hour and a half in the single greatest instance of a band alienating their fans that I've ever witnessed firsthand. If memory serves, it was pretty much just one long, droning jam session that made Iron Butterfly look like N*SYNC. At one point, there was a drawn-out flute solo that came out of nowhere. A fucking flute solo! I have to admit, even I didn't see that one coming.

Pictured: Jethro Tull, the grandaddy of flute-based rock.

Piebald- "American Hearts"
Sometimes, we all need to feel like we belong to something that's bigger than ourselves. It's a basic human need; it's what makes people do seemingly illogical things like join cults and/or college fraternities. And it's also what gives this song the ability to cheer you up: the anthemic choruses of "Hey! You're part of it!"

But to what, specifically, is this 'it' that we are supposedly indeed a part of? That's open to some interpretation; personally, given the rest of the lyrics, I gather that it is about at least one, if not all of the three following things:
1. It is a retort to the types of people who blame all of the evil and suffering and general malaise in the world on "society". Kid shoot up his school? "I blame society." Religious zealots commit mass murder? "I blame society." Nickelback continues to somehow sell albums and continue their epic quest to ruin everything that anyone has ever liked about music? "I blame society." This is Piebald looking at those people and saying, "You can blame society if you want, but hey- you're part of it."
2. On a narrower scope, it is about American society, and the discrepancy between the idea of the "American Dream" and the reality of life faced by many Americans, particularly those who are born into poverty. Racism still exists, albeit in a much more institutionalized rather than blatant form. Socioeconomic and sociocultural biases only seem to be less prevalent in modern society than they were in the past because it's gotten easier to ignore it. And, because most people don't even realize this, much less actively do anything to change things for the better, we're part of it.
3. A zombie apocalypse.

Guy Getting Eaten: "Man, this zombie apocalypse sucks."
Piebald: "Hey, you're part of it."

Whatever the case, it's delivered in such a cheery way that it's sure to bring a smile to your face.


The Rocket Summer- "So Much Love"
Confession time: I have absolutely no idea what the hell is going on in the first verse of this song. I used to think it went "Hats need a C like a rake needs some leaves". I just looked it up, and that's not the case, which is kind of disappointing, because I took that as evidence that Bryce Avery had finally completely lost his mind.

Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, this is the mother of all happy, cheer-up songs. It's so cheesy, so over the top, that it's impossible not to smile at the level of enthusiasm and joy with which Avery delivers the lyrics about someone having "so much love" in them. And just when you think it can't possibly get any more joyous, BAM! In comes the saxophone solo to punch what's left of your sadness in the gut, and then crotch-stomp it over and over again until it chokes to death on a mixture of its own blood and vomit.
...I was going to include a picture here, but after Google Image searching "crotch-stomp", I think I'll just go cry in the corner instead...


And one more for the road:
Onelinedrawing- "Smile"
All the feel-good twang of the Gin Blossoms, minus the depressing alcoholic imagery, and featuring a guest solo from intergalactic plot device and jambot R2D2. Bonus Fact: all you hard-core punk kids out there can feel safe listening to this song, as the singer/sole member of Onelinedrawing also fronted such seminal post-hardcore bands as Far and New End Original! Of course, if you were really a hard-core punk kid, you would have already known that...