En-Raged

At around the same time I started collecting CDs, Rage started publishing its playlists on the Internet ahead of time. This meant that music obsessives could tape various sections of the program when they knew a particular clip was scheduled for play. It was through Rage that I discovered a couple of my current favourite bands.

First of all, Wilco. I don't remember setting out to tape Shot in the Arm deliberately. I think I'd heard Can't Stand It and taped this as one song among many others on a particular night. But it's a great clip- a strange fantasy sequence involving a hospital, one of the nurses being the same person who appears earlier in the clip referred to by the line 'the ashtray says you were up all night'. The version on the album Summerteeth is slightly different, although the single version appears as a bonus track at the very end of the album. I like this version more- it features a stronger background rhythm. It was definitely seeing this clip that led me to buy the album and later Being There and AM. But Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost is Born are superior. Shot in the Arm was a hint of future directional changes from the 'country' part of alt.country.

And of course, the Shins. Again I didn't tape New Slang on purpose. It was mixed up in between other clips, and something about the clip made me turn off fast forward and watch it. After another few viewings I decided that not only did I love the song, I needed to own the album Oh Inverted World. It was released a month or so later and was difficult to find. An alternate version of the clip was released when Garden State came out a few years later, but the original was better... I don't actually remember much about it now though.

By the way, what prompted me to write this entry was seeing the Rage playlist for tonight. Shot in the Arm is on between 12 and 12:30 am and later there's a Shins special of about six songs in a row. Plus, the new Josh Pyke song is being played at about 5:30 am.