My 15 (+1) Favorite Songs of 2009: 3. Pinback, “Loro” (1999).
3. Pinback, “Loro”
- Official website.
- From the 1999 album Pinback.
Hmmm. I suppose I can continue writing about why it’s so much easier to write about movies than it is to write about music: for the former, the lazy, fallback option is to simply answer the question “So, what is the movie about?” (And yet: writing a movie synopsis is probably the most challenging and quite frankly burdensome part of the process.)
For something like Pinback’s “Loro” –- well, it’s clear that “What’s the song about?” is the wrong question, and even the folks on the bulletin boards have their theories about what “49531” might mean, but again: wrong question. I can tell you, at least, that further listenings don’t exactly reveal much, not that it truly matters: those simple (maybe even simplistic) ascending and descending guitar figures, the electronic twinges that surface in the first minute and are never heard again, the voices mixed just barely above the instruments, a vocal progression from the individual to the collective.
So here’s my fallback option: I can tell you exactly when I first heard it — July 26, 2009, 6:06 pm. (I’m apparently the last person in the world – well, between myself and my brother, anyway – to know about “Loro”; I played it for my brother in the Philippines, who recognized it immediately after the first few notes.) I was driving home from a bar, waiting at a traffic light on Telegraph and 51st in Oakland. It was a warm evening, and still early; the ironing boards were in the process of being folded up in front of Bakesale Betty’s. I had just popped into the stereo a mix CD given to me by my anthropologist concert buddy, who had just taken off for fieldwork in Buenos Aires via Mexico City (hi Xochitl!).
And it was one of those “who is this?” moments, when you punch the eject button on the cassette player and pull out the tape to squint at the label and figure out what the hell you just heard. I don’t know how many times I listened to this mere wisp of a song this year, immersed in something like bliss. Bubbles floating and disappearing in air. Early-morning sunlight winking behind leaves.
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The rest of the list so far:
4. Quantic and His Combo Bárbaro, “Linda Morena” (2009)
5. Passion Pit, “Folds in Your Hands” (2009)
6. Ximena Sariñana, “Vidas Paralelas” (2008)
7. Thomas Tantrum, “Work It” (2008)
8. The Zombies, “I Want Her She Wants Me” (1968)
9. Ben Kweller, “Old Hat” (2009)
10. Ida Maria, “Oh My God” (2007)
11. Anna Fermin’s Trigger Gospel, “How Do You Judge Me” (2003)
12. The Phenomenal Handclap Band, “15 to 20″ (2009)
13. Speech Debelle, “The Key” (2009)
14. ComaR, “I Want You D.A.N.C.E.” (2008)
15. Michael Jackson, “Happy” (1973)
16. Wonder Girls, “Nobody” (2008)
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