An estimated 92% of us experience earworms. Despite the annoying times we can’t get a chorus or a hook of an overplayed pop song out of our heads, getting a really good earworm stuck can be one of the best things, ever. We here at Nerdist are dead set on bringing you those types of songs—even if only for the weekend. So shove this into your grey matter!
Alright, so I still can’t figure out how to get any sort of new music into my brain so we’re just going to have to deal with more from the memory stores. Until the world invents some sort of music library that’s available to anyone with some sort of computerized data transferring technology, this is the way things just have to be. [Editor’s Note: Remind me to tell you about something later, Blake.]
If you’ve frequented this column at any given point within the last year, you may have noticed that I don’t shy away from oversharing about how I feel I’m an old man at the age of 32 and how I loved music in the ’90s and early 2000s. They were simpler times full of hair gel, chain wallets, and an inexplicable wardrobe comprised of a lot of surf company t-shirts despite no knowledge or intention of ever surfing. The songs in today’s installment of Weekend Earworms aren’t really connected beyond popping into my head after hearing this first one.
Head Automatica – “Beating Heart Baby”
Now, you’re absolutely right. I probably should have gone with a Glassjaw song and part of me is ashamed that I didn’t. It’s just that this song – for reasons that rhyme with “Blad Blemories of a Blex Blirlfriend” – will always stick with me. Hey, there are worse catchy things than a song to stick with you after a relationship so I’m ultimately fine with having this in my brain forever. I can’t say that I know another song by Head Automatica than this infectious power pop tune so maybe I really should have gone with a Glassjaw song. Sorry about that, here’s Siberian Kiss to make up for that. Anyways…
Piebald – “American Hearts”
I’m not so sure the level of recognition Piebald got outside of New England way back when – but man they were great! They were a band from Massachusetts that I ended up seeing a lot almost by accident. I’d go a show of theirs and then a few weeks later buy tickets to a different show only to find out Piebald was, pun alert, a “part of it.” With a crowd participation lyric of “Hey! You’re part of it”, songs like this are impossible to fully forget and therefore will always be earwormy to some degree. And hey, since we already touched on a band not everyone would know, lets end with…
The Benjamins – “Wonderful”
Together for only a few short years (1998-2001), Milwaukee’s The Benjamins had everything a pop-punk-loving and slightly emo-leaning 18 year old could ask for. Their album The Art of Disappointment was released on Drive-Thru Records in 2001 and never got the steam it deserved. To be fair though, Drive-Thru Records put out so many great records in the 2000s maybe it was just hard for everyone to keep track.
Since this installment was more stream of consciousness song association than anything else, I’d love to hear the songs they remind you of. Let’s chat in the comments below!
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Blake Rodgers writes for Nerdist from Chicago, IL where he lives happily with his Guinness World Record for High Fives. Be his pal by following him on Twitter (@TheBlakeRodgers)
