It can be country, state/province, city, neighborhood. What is a song that is about where you live and is it accurate?
Mine is I Hate Winnipeg - By The Weakerthans a local band's song that has had some fame, it really captures the sort of feeling of how it is to live in Winnipeg, at least to me.
Here is an entire album about where I am from: Greetings From Michigan by Sufjan Stevens. -I fell in love with my wife listening to this album with her. I absolutely ADORE this album. I hear it and feel the electricity that sits in the air in Michigan in autumn. Love it.
Sufjan Stevens is an amazing Michigan native artist. I absolutely recommend listening to his other albums as well. Chicago is probably one of my favorites from the album Illinois.
Yep, great album. I'd go with John Wayne Gacy Jr. -Haunting, beautiful.
Loogawa, I've never been to Winnipeg, but my impressions from it are derived entirely from the album Winnipeg is a Frozen Shithole by Venetian Snares. Here's a sampling of some track names: "Winnipeg Is a Frozen Shithole"
"Winnipeg Is a Dogshit Dildo"
"Winnipeg Is Fucking Over"
"Winnipeg Is Steven Stapleton's Armpit"
"Die Winnipeg Die Die Die Fuckers Die"
Stan Rogers - Barrett's Privateers Go to enough Halifax bars and if the crowd is drunk enough most people will be singing this. I no longer live here, but it's where I'm from originally.
Say Shh - Atmosphere. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn6iU_c2cM0 Local hip hop group with an awesome hometown song. "Prince lives here we got ten thousand lakes."
Dixie? More seriously, the LSU Fight Song is the first song I remember besides Do Re Me. Here is a great rendition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v... -XC
I am famous for opening my replies with a request for clarification. In this case, I want to know whether "where I'm from" refers to my home town, my previous cities of residence, or my present city. I'll go in reverse chronological order: West Hollywood/Los Angeles: "Still in Hollywood" by Concrete Blonde. I live two blocks from Hollywood. Walking down La Brea or along Hollywood Blvd always gets me to think of this tune. Boston: "The Ice of Boston" by the Dismemberment Plan. A man from DC realizes he doesn't belong where he wound up, and realizes many other things. I shriek along every time. Binghamton, NY: "Leave a Light On" by Five Eight. The Triple Cities along the Susquehanna River are a shell of what they used to be. The locals resent that IBM and other big business got replaced by a university full of downstaters. Forlorn... Utica, NY (my home town): There is no one song explicitly about Utica. One day I'll have to write that album, much the way James Joyce had to spend a decade in Croatia before he could write about Dublin. The only thing that's close is "The Erie Canal Song (Fifteen Years/Fifteen Miles)," which we all learned in grade school. Rome, Albany, and Buffalo all get name-dropped. Rome is a smaller city about 15 miles away. Filled with lumber, coal, and hay...We've hauled some barges in our day,
Buffalo, NY - Into It. Over It. The song actually doesn't talk about Buffalo at all, except to mention a dearly departed local bar/venue.
Sudbury Saturday Night by Stompin' Tom Connors.
The Face by Kings of Leon is about one of the band member's and his fiancée's relationship. He wants her to move to Tennessee with him from New York where she is a model. "Ride out the wave" means don't give up on the relationship.
Chicago music? Chicago music. Dennehy by Serengeti
King Park - La Dispute This song speaks of an area a matter of miles away from my current residence. It is an incredibly depressing look at what can, and does, happen in large cities.
As a disclaimer, this band might not be to everyone's taste. They're post-hardcore and many of my friends find his voice annoying.
I think that wretched, dissonant scream-rapping is pretty awesome. There's not much like it, Such Small Hands is the only song I've heard of theirs, and it certainly catches attention. That said, I'm a classical pianist who finds operas to be edgy.
Sir T - Invincible Taurus Cres (seen in first few seconds) was my first address in NZ. These are my streets - the mean streets of Auckland's North Shore.
Dave Dobbyn - Welcome Home About coming home to NZ. Gets me every time. under the state of a strange land you have sacrificed much to be here there but for grace as I offer my hand welcome home, i bid you welcome, i bid you welcome welcome home from the bottom of my heart out here on the edge the empire is fading by the day and the world is so weary in war maybe we'll find that new way so welcome home, see i made a space for you now welcome home from the bottom of our heart welcome home from the bottom of our hearts keep it coming now - keep it coming now youll find most of us here with our hearts wide open keep it coming now - keep on coming now keep it coming now - keep on coming now theres a woman with her hands trembling - haere mai and she sings with a mountains memory - haere mai theres a cloud the full length of these isles just playing chase with the sun and its black and its white and its wild all the colours are one so welcome home, i bid you welcome, I bid you welcome welcome home from the bottom of our hearts welcome home, see i made a space for you now welcome home from the bottom of our hearts from the bottom of our hearts tonight I am feeling for you