You remember that Pete and Pete episode right? A Hard Days Pete? In case you don't have the privilege of being a Pete and Pete fan, I'll summarize it for you quickly. Pete hears what he believes is destined to be his favorite song, but he doesn't know who preforms it. Pete spends the episode trying to track down this mysterious song, his foe being the leaky bucket that is human memory.
I've been in this situation in the past. Sometime around 8th grade I heard a song on 91x that blew my mind. I heard the song, had no idea who it was, but made it my mission from that point on to camp out 91x until I heard it again. About a month went by, and eventually I heard it. Luckily the DJ announced who the band was, but unfortunately I wasn't around a pen and a paper, and had to rely on my short term memory to remember the band name. Well, as I'm sure you can guess, the band name was forgotten, and I never heard the song again.
A sad story thats frustrating for a number of reasons. First and least important, I was disappointed in myself for forgetting. More frustrating however, is the idea that there exists a gold pot of good music out there, most of which I will never even have the CHANCE to hear. In a nihilistic kind of way, you will never hear your true, favorite song. And on top of that, if by star crossed luck you do, theres a solid chance you'll never be able to find it again in the infinitely saturated world of music today.
So. I'm at work the other day, listening to the fantastic satellite radio station we perpetually have on. I'm used to being surprised and impressed by the obscure music they play, but then I heard something that really knocked me off my feet. What started as what I thought was a more standard lo-fi sample based hip hop track, I immediately realized was something so much more. The bulk of this track was made up of samples from The Beach Boy's "Wouldn't It Be Nice", beautifully capturing snippets of vocal harmonies and ethereal guitars, creating something wholly unique and extremely enjoyable. I reveled in the pure bliss of this track for its two minutes, and immediately felt the doom of the thought that I might not ever hear it again.
But then I realized what had changed since the last "one that got away": the emergence of information culture. I set aside a good hour and made it my mission to find this song. Knowing nothing about it other than the fact that it sampled Wouldn't It Be Nice, I knew it wouldn't be an easy task. I searched page upon page of failed search queries, including "Wouldn't it be nice sample", "Beach Boys mash up", and "Wouldn't it be nice sample Beach Boys mash up". I learned that you can sample Beach Boys tracks on Amazon, and that there exists a mash up of Kanye West and Pet Sounds, but still hadn't found what I was looking for. Finally after searching for "hip hop Beach Boys", on the third page I struck oil. I found Bullion's album available for free download, "Pet Sounds: In The Key of Dee".
Besides being extremely proud of myself, I was eternally happy for finding this hidden treasure. I relived the magic of Wouldn't It Be Nice, and enjoyed 12 other fantastic tracks on this collection. It also relieved me that it IS possible to navigate the seemingly endless plethora of music, and truly find your favorite song if you so desire.
And if you're curious, visit and download 8-)
http://www.myspace.com/bullionness
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