Willo O'Brien

Awesome that you guys are so into these questions! They are definitely hard and bring up a lot of questions, especially if – like me – music is a huge part of your life and potentially a big part of deciding if someone is right for you!

Thanks again to my friend Chris who sent these to me initially. Honestly his email’s been sitting in my inbox for a few months now, and I figured the only way I’d answer them was to do it this way, so it’s fun to have you guys answer along with me!

Now, without further adieu, music snob question #2:

“You’re going through a phase where you are going out and hooking up with people. You don’t like doing that, you’re in a stage where you want it to change, but one morning you wake up in a strange bed. You’re woken because the person you’re next to is getting up in the morning and you feel ashamed for going back on your word to yourself. You hear the person starting the shower, hear the blinds open, hear some rattling in the kitchen…and you’re looking at your phone for the time, plotting on how to leave…but then you hear the person put a record on the turntable (the hiss sound prior to the music) and then the song that starts playing actually makes you change your mind about wanting to get out of there. What song could make you change your mind about a perceived mistake? (remember, it would have to be on vinyl, and more likely than not, the first song on one of the sides)”

This one’s pretty tough for me personally, as honestly I have never owned a record player, and I’m so into the latest music (last 2-5 years) that I couldn’t even be sure the album I am selecting was even released on vinyl… but in the interest of spitting out an answer, I’ll at least list the first song on an album that would make me think twice and want to get to know this person better.

My answer is: “Fairlee” from Matt Pond PA’s The Nature of Maps (2004) – iTunes link

oy.. that was hard! Honestly all the first tracks on Matt Pond PA CD’s are good, especially “Halloween” off of Several Arrows Later… but Fairlee is one of my favorite songs.

Runners up for me were:
– Cloud Cult (except the first song on Advice From The Happy Hippopotamus is called “Intro”, so technically it’s #2 that I’d need to hear, called “Living on the Outside of your Skin”)
– The Wrens’ “The House that Guilt Built” off of The Meadowlands (2003)
– Band of Horses, appropriately titled “The First Song” off of Everything All The Time (2005)

Added 8/29: I knew my kick ass music snob friends would have some badass answers… and most of them have selected stuff they know would be on vinyl. Awesome. I’m delighted to be put to shame by the musicphiles around me! You guys rule. :p

So, I left this comment on Ali’s & thought it was worth posting here, too. For my answer I tried to pick songs that made me think, “wow, this guy knows good music” in a “wow, he’s into awesome new music and would be into going to shows, too, probably” kind of way. Most classics like Steely Dan – or more slightly mainstream accessible stuff like Elliot Smith & Wilco, I feel like anyone might have layin around, ya know? That said, (one of) Ali’s selections, Jeff Buckley, is a great choice because his fan base are pretty true, appreciative music fans (and fans of his work). Anyway… it’s interesting to see what angle people approach this… so just thought I’d illustrate out my thought process behind my selections.

OK, your turn!

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Related posts: music snob question #1

I’m going to be posting a series of music questions my friend Chris posed to me recently. You don’t have to be a music ‘snob’, per say, I was just trying to think of a name for this series since there’s about 10 of them, and that’s what came to mind. :)

If you want to participate (meme!), please post your answer in the comments – or post your answer on your blog & provide a link to it in my comments.

“If you were just starting to date someone that you felt had real potential – he/she’s nice, he’s funny, seems at ease, shares general sensibilities with you…and one day early in the relationship, you check out his cd collection (I’m excluding the iPod dilemma for this question) and you discovered that he has pretty decent taste, but you’re on the fence about whether he is someone you’d like to continue with…what combination of three artists in his collection would make you say, “um, no.”?”

Hmm, this is tough because when you have a collection as large as mine, and assumably someone’s been collecting music for a good 15 years at this point, there can be some seriously questionable titles in the collection. But, for sake of answering this – and considering it’s a combination of three, here’s my answer:

Backstreet Boys, Nelson and John Tesh.

OK, your turn. :)