Q101: 2003

How did we get here?

2003 (Or, the year I really wanted to date a girl named Stacy with a hot mom and my radio could seemingly do no wrong…yes, even including OutKast)

5. “Swing, Swing” – The All-American Rejects

Wish cast into the sky / I'm moving on / Sweet beginnings do arise / She knows I was wrong / The notes are old / They bend, they fold / And so do I to a new love

As you’ll see even more in subsequent years, I’m kind of a sucker for songs with non-traditional rock elements in them.  I mean, who opens a song with a church organ?  All-American Rejects - that’s who.  These guys put out a lot of solid stuff back in the mid-2000s and this is the song that started it all.  The sports guy in me wanted to tie the “swing, swing, swing” lyric to baseball.  In my head, when I hear the song, there’s a crack-of-the-bat sound in the background during that part of the chorus.  I’m weird, I know. 

4. “Hands Down” – Dashboard Confessional

My hopes are so high that your kiss might kill me/ So won't you kill me / So I die happy / My heart is yours to fill or burst / To break or bury, or wear as jewelry / Whichever you prefer

It’s debatable whether or not Dashboard Confessional should be allowed on this list.  Chris Carraba’s emo-driven lyrics of despair and hope are perhaps best suited for teenage girls, so my inclusion of this song may also be questionable.  And yet, Q101 played it, and I liked it, so here we are.  We’ve all got some guilty pleasures and I guess Dashboard is just one of mine.  (It’s like he’s singing everything my blog is trying to say.)  Anyway, the song is about Carraba’s best date ever, hands down.  He means it.

3. “Send The Pain Below” – Chevelle

I liked having hurt / So send the pain below / So send the pain below / Much like suffocating

Ok, good.  I redeemed myself, right?  The brothers Loeffler gave us several alternative staples from their debut album Wonder What’s Next.  It left us all pondering the same question.  Chevelle was never a group I got fully behind but I did enjoy their singles.  This song works on so many levels.  I can use it to suppress that sickening feeling which emerges after my body decides that it’s had enough running for one day (usually after 30 steps or so).  I can use it to fend off the lingering feelings of rejection when I’ve been ignored yet again at a social function.  Last weekend was not one such time, however.  At my buddy’s wedding, I met someone I’m never going to see again.  That’s a good thing though because it gave me the courage to practice faking some confidence.  After a night of conversation, wacky photo booth pictures, dances, and drinks, I’d call the experiment a success.  Thank you, Chevelle, for helping me send the pain below and do some things I would have never done otherwise.

2. “Buried Myself Alive” – The Used

I think I made it a game to play your game / And let myself cry / I buried myself alive on the inside / So I could shut you out / And let you go away for a long time

The Used’s self-titled debut album gave us a few hits and they’ve been reasonably solid players in the game since.  The lead singer’s tendency to wail in their songs works in this case because it makes you believe he really is buried alive and trying to get out.  We can all probably sympathize with shutting someone out to get them off of our minds.  I think I much rather prefer my fortress of solitude as opposed to an earthy, underground dwelling with limited oxygen, but hey, to each his own.

1. “Fine Again” – Seether

It seems like every day's the same / And I'm left to discover on my own / It seems like everything is gray / And there's no color to behold

Back in the days of the JJC car rides, this may have been the song I looked most forward to hearing on the radio.  Even now, I have no problem letting “Fine Again” bear the flag for that period of my life.  The song’s intro flashes me back and generally puts me into a satisfied state of mind when I hear it.  Like anybody in a rut, I could identify with the lyrics.  However, they’d have more meaning a few years down the road.  The song was included in the soundtrack for Madden 2003, which was pretty damn solid if I recall.  This won’t be the last we hear from Seether on my countdowns.