I am insanely passionate about music, and so I will probably geek out all over this blog entry. (Like, what else is new?) Alas, the only job that pays worse than "environmental journalist" is "music journalist".

(I originally thought I would upload the actual songs, but as we've got about 10MB of upload space, this is not to be. Instead, I went hunting around on YouTube for videos and live performances. As a result some of the songs are not as clean as I'd like them to be, but they are fun on a whole 'nother level.)

1. Everything Hits At Once - Spoon

One of my favorite songs from one of my favorite bands. It's my opinion that Spoon is a criminally underrated modern rock bands. If the world were a just place, Spoon would get at least as much airplay as Fall Out Boy (who I actually like) and Panic! at the Disco (who I despise). This song in particular is very moody and quite evocative - perfect for late-night solitude.

2. Cha Cha Twist - The Detroit Cobras

I love music with a rockabilly feel - Southern Culture on the Skids, the Cramps, Reverend Horton Heat, stuff like that. The songs smell like gasoline, the smoke from Marlboros and spilled beer. I feel like wearing red lipstick, tightly rolled jeans and a polka-dot scarf tied 'round my neck when I hear them. This one is no different, plus it ramps up the 50s juvenile deliquent attitude by riffing on Chubby Checker. Excellent.

3. Haiti - The Arcade Fire

The Arcade Fire makes beautiful music that compels me sing along at the top of my lungs in a release of emotional catharsis. Listening to an Arcade Fire song has the clarifying feel of a really good, body-shaking cry, but without the runny nose, raw eyes and actual suffering. I love this song especially because it is about the civil unrest in Haiti, as sung by the angelic voiced Regine Chassagne, whose family is from the tiny country. She sings half the song in English and the other half in French, from the point of view of people fleeing from soldiers and hiding in the forests. It's a stunning song.

4. Mississippi Goddam - Nina Simone

Originally I had "Hard Enough" by garage-rock band the Gore Gore Girls, but evidently no one on YouTube knows who they are. So I opted for this version of Mississippi Goddam, a song that never fails to cover my body in goosebumps. Nina Simone was a warrior in the fight for civil rights, and this song is her stinging indictment of segregation-era politics.

5. Damaged Goods - Gang of Four

I'm of the opinion that years between 1977 and 1983 were some of the most exciting times in modern music. Between New York City, Los Angeles and the United Kingdom, we were given the Ramones, the Clash, the Sex Pistols, X-Ray Spex, X, the Misfits, the Slits, Talking Heads, Television, Wire, LiliPUT, the Au Pairs, the Fall and about a million other excellent rock bands. My favorite of the bunch is a group of art school punks from Leeds who wrote quasi-socialist songs and set them to funky rhythms and angular guitar riffs and called themselves Gang of Four, as in the leaders of China's Communist Party during the Cultural Revolution. This is my favorite song of theirs - I never get sick of it.

6. Farewell Transmission - Songs: Ohia

The clip says this song is performed by Magnolia Electric Co., which is the band Jason Molina started after he started Songs: Ohia. This elegy contains the best use of mixed gender vocals and slide guitar, and is best listened to at night. I think this clip is especially great because of the big furball-lookin' guitar player smoking his cigarette with gusto. He's like an R-rated Muppet.

7. Last Goodbye - Jeff Buckley

I still get sad when I think about Jeff Buckley, how he was so insanely talented and how one stupid action - swimming in a swift river at night - cost the world so much. This song was his "hit", I suppose, but he had some other really great songs, like "Lover, You Should Have Come Over" and his cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah". His music was tremendously sexy and moody, in a really sad, lonely way.

(Aside: Am I the only one who used to watch 120 Minutes on MTV? I remember rejoicing when I finally got cable in my room in high school, which let me stay up late on Sunday nights so I could spend two hours blissing out to the best in alternative rock. Oh, sure, I had to get up the next day at 5:45 a.m. for early morning seminary - yay, Mormon adolescence! - but it was so worth it. This clip is especially great because the two girls who are evidently hosting the show were members of Luscious Jackson. I got into Luscious Jackson when I read a review of Natural Ingredients in the now-legendary and now-defunct teen magazine Sassy back when I was 13 or 14, in the early 90s. I bought a copy of the CD at a local used CD store, and fell in immediate love with their laid-back white girl funk. Man, I loved them so much.)

8. Rock Your Body Rock - Ferry Corsten

Ignore the video - it's not much different from your standard Windows Media Player visualization. The track itself kicks much ass. If you don't feel like dancing - or at least tapping your toes - when you hear this song, then you need to check your pulse. I got to see Ferry Corsten spin last October at Sunset '06 in Vinoy Park, and the crowd went nuts when he played this track.

9. My My My - Armand Van Helden

This track was flagged as 'inappropriate', and as it does contain a lot of chicks in bikinis and suggestive uses of Super Soakers, you might want to make sure kids (as well as those of a constitution that is easily offended) are not in the room. The video is really funny, though, and I love this song. It's got a kickin' beat, and the vocals recall early Michael Jackson, back during his Off the Walls days, when his nose was still intact and his skin was still dark. (Junior Senior's 'Move Your Feet' has the same sort of vocal effect. Me amo mucho!)

10. I Disappear - The Faint

Someone in the YouTube comment thread for this clip referred to the Faint as Duran Duran ripoffs. As if that is a bad thing! These guys make dance music that owes a lot to post-punk and hard rock. I've heard it described as 'dance punk' before, which I think is dead-on. I especially like the combination of hand claps and the pounding rhythm section.