Friday, March 18, 2011

Why the Jukebox Matters

Matchbox Lounge, March 3, 2011 - 11:20pm

    First of all, they have a couple of Ween albums - one of which is "12 Golden Country Greats", so I can tell this jukebox was put together by someone willing to say "fuck off" to the faint of heart.
    But I'm not in the mood for "Help Me Scrape the Mucus Off My Brain" tonight.
Instead, from this small - but varietal jukebox, I'm going to pick 4 songs. The following:
2. Rolling Stones  -  "Tumbling Dice"
3. Brian Eno  -  "Here Come The Warm Jets"
4. Sonic Youth  -  "Teen Age Riot"

    You can tell a lot about a bar by its jukebox.
    The particular type of bar I like will usually have a jukebox that has its share of 90's rock music and old punk albums from the late 70's; with a third of the selections being straight-forward pop albums that most everyone recognizes, (i.e. the first Van Halen album, or an Oasis album, etc.)...
    The rest will be the harder to find classic albums from various eras, and a few oddball music-snob choices, (i.e. Pavement's "Wowee Zowee", or David Bowie's "Lodger", etc.)...
    As far as the decor... It doesn't matter a whole lot to me. Most places can have a dive-bar element to them that I can appreciate. But, (having said that), there is a fine line between a "dive-bar element" and actually just being a dive-bar.
    It seems that beers on tap are a good way to distinguish which side of the line you're on. I mean, we live in Portland - and if your only choices are Miller, Budweiser, PBR, and, (at it's most exotic), Widmer Hefeweizen - then it should be pretty clear where you are.
    Back to the jukebox....
    The idea of having a jukebox with a limited amount of selection is enticing to me. And here is why it's better than bars who have a digital downloading jukebox device, (or whatever the hell you would call it).
The ability to pull up any damn song you like and have it blast all over the establishment has a major downside. If I'm in a bar that I enjoy, (with it's dive-bar element), the last thing I want to hear is a Lady Gaga song or, (God forbid), anything by Kenny Chesney. Not only would that type of music not fit in with the "essence", (if you will), of the bar - it some cases it can actually be aurally offensive to music aficionados...
    A place like the Matchbox Lounge works well on multiple levels, but the jukebox shows that someone, (maybe the owner, maybe the bartender, who knows?), has sat down and taken the time to make musical selections that mean something.
    Whereas, the internet-connected, digital jukebox will never have that kind of soul.
    So, maybe I'm a bit pissy, and old-fashioned about this... But if I'm going to go out and get a drink, I need a place that has some care put into it. I want a place with a list of drinks that are all individually named after the titles of Buzzcocks songs from "Singles Going Steady" - where Motorhead plays over the room.
    I want a place I can remember.... Cause otherwise, what's the point of going out and getting a drink?


Song Of The Week:

    Now, while there are a huge amount of other Stranglers songs that would qualify, this song is still amazing. It doesn't have any inclination towards the new-wavey punk stuff these guys were doing in their previous albums, (the song "Peaches" comes to mind). But I think that makes it all the better.
    Yes, it's quite possibly about heroin.
    Yes, it's in 3/4.
    Yes, the first time I heard it was in a movie in 2001. Which means I was only 20 years late in appreciating it. So, listen to it now, so you don't make the same mistake.

3 comments:

Josh Shamoon said...

When were you at Matchbox? And why didn't you let me know? The jukebox was put together this way. When it first opened, the majority of it was put together by the owners with the remaining slots being filled in by employees. Those are all CD's actually purchased by people who worked there, which makes it extra awesome in my opinion. My contributions were Morphine, Morcheeba, Murder City Devils and Social Distortion.

BrianV said...

How true--the jukebox says a lot about a place--I bet you make some pretty educated guesses on other aspects (clientele, food and drinks available, etc) based on the jukebox.

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