A future favourite?
Le beau logo est par Sarca @ caughtmegaming
Nice thing #264 about blogging: when a line from a fellow blogger inspires a post of my own.
In his Canadian Rawk post, Mike Ladano included the seven-word sequence, “you may miss a future favourite record.”
Which I find quite intriguing for a pair of reasons:
1. I’m forever fascinated with the Sliding Doors phenomenon, how a seemingly insignificant event could cause you to ‘miss’ something, theoretically sending you on an entirely different timeline.
2. You never know where you may encounter a new favourite.
Case in point: A Very Murray Christmas.
Like Dave Foley’s Christmas special (and likely Christmas specials in general), it could be classified as hit & miss. But when the hits are direct hits, all is well.
If I’d turned off the special before the halfway point, I would have missed this splendid selection:
.
I promptly looked up the identity of the ‘chefs’ and learned they were a French Rock band (le Rawk Français?) from Versailles named Phoenix.
The other Phoenix tunes I’ve since explored have all been agreeable & I can definitely see this particular track being a fixture on future underplayed Christmas songs lists.
Will they be a future favourite group?
If so, I’ll remember where I was when I first heard them, and what a strong first impression they made (I suppose it didn’t hurt that it was a Beach Boys cover & they had Bill Murray/Jason Schwartzman/David Johansen/Paul Shaffer accompanying!).
If not, I’m at least glad I didn’t miss the opportunity for Phoenix to become one.
1001albumsin10years 
I really liked their album “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix” (great name for an album) but thought “Bankrupt!” left something to be desired. It’s fun to look back at how you discovered bands, especially in the days before the Internet when things we’re a bit more difficult in that regard.
That is a splendid album name – and I believe I have you to thank for the introduction to many bands, Alvvays and Elbow are two that come to mind!
I’m glad to share. When the bands are that good, it would be a sin to keep them a secret.
Hear hear!
One of the very few highlights of A Very Murray Christmas, I thought (the best thing being Bill and George Clooney’s funky Santa Wants Some Loving). Haven’t really checked out any of their stuff on account of the fact that it might just have been a case of a very dull star among a whole sky of even more dull stars. Good to hear that both you and JP like enough of their other stuff, though!
So far so good at least with Phoenix, we’ll see if AVMC improves on the 2nd viewing this Christmas!
Well, at least there’s Santa Wants Some Loving if it falls short. That’s three minutes or so worth revisiting!
I haven’t seen AVMC, and I haven’t heard any Phoenix. Wowzers I have nothing to add to the content of this post except to say that I totally agree with the sliding doors thing. I think that all the time. What if… The bread and butter of fiction writers everywhere.
Great post, Geoff. As always!
THanks Aaron – AVMC might not be an annual tradition, but it was nice to see this track & the Pogues’ Fairytale of New York make appearances!
Thanks for the blog love!
Thank you Mike for the post inspiration – to borrow an Aaron-ism, Community!
If I had a dime for every graph, chart or word you posted that inspired me, well, I’d have a shitload of dimes!
Haha, my thanks!
That’s the way it should be I think, where a phrase/visual triggers an idea in a totally different context.
I don’t think anything I do is 100% original (I don’t know if anyone could possibly claim that) – but my hope is that the repackaging of ideas & inspirations, with some new thoughts & graphs, makes it seem fresh!