Forgotten albums of days past…
By Matt Baker July 29, 2009
Recently, Roz and Nelson (mostly Nelson) decided to leave behind their paleolithic mp3 player and join the cult of the iPod. Roz may have made the transition kicking and screaming (I know I did, way back when), but now her silhouette can frequently be seen dancing on a bright pink background. Inspired by her newfound ability to carry around more music than she could ever hope to listen to, Roz began proposing a cd exchange whereby we could all vastly increase the number of songs we are not listening to.
Last week Eva spent a few days in the field, sitting in a boat and slaving over fish traps through the midnight hours. Consequently, I suddenly found myself with much more time on my hands than usual (and many fewer quality meals – thank god for chips and dip), so I began to think about Roz’s cd exchange and decided to blow the dust off my collection. As I rummaged through my old cds I realized just how many albums I have not listened to in a long, long time. I’d forgotten how much fun The Apples in Stereo are, or all my good times with The Coral, not to mention relaxing to Mum and Sigur Ros. Really, I highly recommend everyone going back and digging up a lost album. This also works with movies, although I find that it backfires more often than with music. Apparently my younger taste in movies was much worse than my taste in music. I guess I should have expected that, considering I fell in love with Pink Floyd’s The Wall in grade 4, around the same time I loved watching Who’s Harry Crumb? (if you liked that movie as a child, preserve your memories and never even contemplate watching it again).
The most prominent of these forgotten albums was Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips. Somehow this album got deleted from my digital music library when I upgraded computers and just never made it back in because that would have required an archeological expedition through the hinterlands of my tv cabinet. Anyway, suffice to say that upon relistening it is a pretty friggin’ amazing album.
A second realization was that Yoshimi would make the greatest Manic Pixie Dream Girl movie ever! (If you are unfamiliar with the concept of MPDGs, check out the AVClub). Essentially, the album is an exploration of a relationship wherein Yoshimi teaches our emotionally damaged narrator how to love again (the basic plot of pretty much all MPDG movies). But, and here is the awesome part, the story is told through the allegory of battling enormous pink robots. Imagine how much better Garden State would be if, instead of playing The Shins, Natalie Portman had beaten the shit out of forty foot high evil robots. Now that’s a movie I can get behind.
On a similar note, how about a movie where MPDGs battle each other? I’m thinking Felicia Day versus Natalie Portman in an epic cage match for the love of Scarlett Johansson. /drool