Great Jukebox

Tonight I went to Mickey's, which is an interesting bar with the most interesting (read: not douchebag) clientele I've found in this town. The only drawback, and this is a somewhat substantial drawback, is that it is (I google-mapped it), a little more than 2 miles away. I have a car, but when going on drinking-related excursions, I prefer foot transport. A place that's 2 miles away requires at least an hour and a half of commute time, and that can seriously cut into an evening. Luckily, there's a great pizza place on the way so you can stop for provisions, and when you're with two friends who are utterly exhausted by the working week and don't really care if you do or don't have too much time to spend at the bar you don't really have to worry about there not being a huge amount of time to spend there unless you're also not tired from the working week (or can put up a good front, like I did!).

One of the coolest things about Mickey's, aside from the dirt-cheap beer, is that their jukebox is kind of fucking awesome. After this one girl spent what seemed like (and probably was) an eternity up there, I came back from answering a phone call to find it free and in my control. From sitting at my table earlier and glancing over at the box, I could make out the Exploding Hearts' Guitar Romantic, and from that moment on I knew I had to make a few selections. Little did I know that I'd be in for the Jukebox Selection Session of the Year Award. Holy shit!

I flipped through a bit, and started picking songs. The one thing I knew for sure is that I had to have an Exploding Hearts song within my three, and I knew from the onset that it would be "Jailbird" since I love that song to death. I start flipping through, and I start to get excited. Really Excited. Old 97s! Magnetic Fields! Roxy Music! I've hit the jukebox jackpot here, and with a dollar in my hand, I can't let this opportunity pass me by. Here's what I chose:

1. Brian Jonestown Massacre - Straight Up and Down
2. Exploding Hearts - Jailbird
3. Iggy Pop - Raw Power
4. Love - You Set the Scene
5. Radio Birdman - What Gives?
6. Magazine - My Tulpa
7. Richard Hell and the Voidoids - Blank Generation
8. Belle & Sebastian - White Collar Boy
9. The 6ths - As You Turn to Go
10. Brian Jonestown Massacre - Vacuum Boots

I started with a song from the first "wow" album that hit me from the selections, and Take it From the Man was it. Seriously, from top to bottom this album is wonderful. It's more 60s than most of what you've heard from the 60s, as evidenced by my friend's initial skepticism at its mid-90s release when I told him who it was and when it was released. The Exploding Hearts were necessary, and with the $1/3 credits ratio upheld by the jukebox lords, I saw fit to place this one squarely between the other two cool songs I had taken it upon myself to grace this excellent bar with. On selecting the song, I noticed that I had not 1, but a whopping 8 credits left! First thought: did I accidentally put in a $5 bill instead of a $1? Wallet check: nope! I guess all that time the girl took before me was selecting songs from a fiver she put in, but eventually gave up on satisfying. $5 gets you 20 songs, and that's a lot to have to choose when your friends are drinking and waiting for you to make up your damn mind.

Anyway, all the other songs on my selection plate were just great songs that I felt needed to be heard by the bar. The one exception to this is "My Tulpa", by Magazine, which was not on the Real Life album as would still have been extremely rare and coincidental (as it is a song that I am obsessed with at the moment), but it was the solitary Magazine song on a mix compiled by one of the establishment's proprietors or employees and included in the jukebox. HOLY FUCKING SHIT. You bet your ass I played that song. I also made sure that my two friends who were falling asleep stayed long enough to hear it. We heard all ten of my songs, and they were all awesome. I had thought the 6ths' song was the last and I went to to bathroom during it only to hear "Vacuum Boots" rev up in the middle of relieving myself. I had completely forgotten that I had selected that one, and seeing people in the bar dance to it completely made my night. After that, I walked back home for 45 minutes full of energy and I didn't even give a shit when my shoe with the loose laces decided to fly off my foot at the one point during the entire walk home that I came across other people walking to/from somewhere. Whatever!