User Name Karaoke

I keep forgetting to post this, though I've had it figured out for awhile. Lizalou had this posted in her blog (and actually did it twice, the silly girl--one for general music and one for V6 alone).

Here's how it works: Open your playlist, pick songs that start with each letter of your username, but, the songs have to mean something to you. Don't just pick a song because it starts with a letter in your username.

Y Yoru wo Kakeru - Spitz

This is one of my favorites. Don't know why. Something about the angsty sound of it, Kusano Masamune's voice and the way it was used in Honey & Clover--which is where I first discovered it, of course.

E Endless Rain - X Japan

This song brings back some memories from Life Drawing class. Lizalou and I would sit through the long, four-hour class twice a week drawing naked people with charcoal and listening to music. At the time, I had only recently discovered X Japan, and I recall that this was one of the songs in particular that I enjoyed listening to and turning to look at lizalou with weepy eyes. X Japan always makes me weepy. Unless I'm listening to Desperate Angel.

L Libera Me - Fauré

Well, this is the namesake of my fanfiction... We sang Fauré's Requiem Mass at St. Lawrence when I was in college and I fell in love with it. This is one of my favorite movements. MPOD sang the solo, though I think we did this requiem the year before he was our director. Either way, I have good memories of it. I love the contrast of flowing haunting melodies against powerful themes in this piece in particular.

L Look Up! - Michael Bradley

Ah, good old Michael Bradley. His rendition of We Will Win almost made it into the "W" category. This one has to do with my screen name itself--how many of you can find a song really associated with your screen name, huh? That's right. I don't believe that this is a song Yellow Dancer actually sings (though it's been too long since I've seen Robotech all the way through if I can't remember) but I remember it was somehow associated with him. It's a great, overtly environmentally friendly song.

O Outpost 3J - Unreal Tournament & Overworld Jerky - Chrono Trigger

I was torn between two nice video game songs on this one. I decided to label them by game rather than composer for some reason. Anyway, Outpost 3J was one of my favorite levels in Unreal because of the music alone. It's a lot of fun. I have fond memories of decapitating aliens in this game while trying to ignore my crappy roommates, so this song is significant for me. The other song is not actually titled "Overworld Jerky," but I occasionally like to title the songs on my playlist that are unknown or in Japanese so that I can recognize them. This is the theme that plays in the 600 A.D. overworld in Chrono Trigger. I really love it. It's got a little bit of that happy angst I love so much. If you must know, I titled it after the jerky that fed a whole army.

W Werewolves of London - Warren Zevon

This song was my first encounter with Warren Zevon. That man writes some crazy lyrics, but I love them. They're so conversational and bizarre. I believe I discovered this song with Brandi, didn't I? I think my favorite line is, "I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's... and his hair was perfect." Or maybe it's actually, "A little old lady got mutilated late last night," which despite the gore is a lot of fun to say.

D Do I Have to do Another Eulogy? - Alias Soundtrack - Michael Giacchino

Michael Giacchino is an awesome composer, but I especially love the titles of the tracks on the Alias soundtrack. This one is right up there among my favorites for some unexplainable reason. I think it's mostly because of the first thirty seconds. I can never listen to it just once. There's something about the notes repeated in octaves through the orchestra with the beat behind it that I absolutely love. Plus, the title cracks me up and brings me back to when I was watching this series the first time with thecallowqueen and her roommate. Poor Emily. Like a number of people in that show, she had to die twice.

A Amazing - Poe

The House of Leaves is one awesomely scary book, and Poe's Haunted album is equally awesome and haunting. This is one of my favorite tracks because the lyrics really captured me. It's hard for me to pick a favorite from this CD though because I love them all! The subtlety of Poe's lyrics blows my mind.

N Nonstop to Tokyo - Rip Slyme (Pizzicato Five cover)

This song is so much fun! And soon (less than two weeks!) I will be on my way to Tokyo myself!!! I discovered Pizzicato Five on my last trip to Japan, and though I hadn't heard this song, I really enjoy Rip Slyme's remake. I picked up P5's CD at random, mostly because I've always liked the term pizzicato and because the packaging was a lot of fun. And the Rip Slyme boys are just so much fun.

C Curse of the Bloody Puppets - Devil May Cry - Masami Ueda

This one's just to pay homage to my Devil May Cry obsession. This track is from early in the first game and I love it's eerie ambience. The track is mostly echoey repititions of bass chords and howling sorts of noises over top, but at certain spots snatches of what sound like ghostly organ music break through. It has a perfect creepy feel for the castle on Mallet island where the game takes place.

E Eternal - Evanescence

This is an instrumental track I came across when I was looking up Evanescence music a long time ago. As is often the way with music found online, I can't be certain that it is attributed to the correct person, but it certainly sounds like Evanescene's stuff. It's pretty cool and dark, but my favorite part is the thunderstorm in the middle. I love thunderstorms! And the way it changes tones completely in the middle is pretty cool too.

R Red Hair is Better - Michael Giacchino

I wasn't going to put another track from the Alias soundtrack on here but I couldn't not use this one. I totally agree here; red hair isbetter. This is from the pilot episode and has a fun wildcat sounding thing in the middle (that's when she's stealing the car). She has the most fun awful red wig in this episode and it reminds me so much of Leeloo from Fifth Element.

2 25 or 6 to 4 - Chicago

These numbers were a bugger. I've always liked this song, even if it is all about doing drugs. We used to play it in pep band in high school and I remember I was always so impressed that the guy who played guitar could play the solo from this song exactly. It's a pretty fun solo, by the way, and my favorite part of the song.

1 1812 Overture

This number was super hard. But this is a great piece of music and it's significant to me because we would always play it during the week of the Midwestern Music Camp that fell on the 4th of July. I remember that they had bass drums (instead of cannons) and huge bells (instead of church bells) up in the balconies of the Lied Center during the part at the end.