Must get songs out of head

April 11, 2008 1:04 PM

Two songs from "This American Life" have been gnawing at my brain for a week now. Help me find them!

Both are from Episode 229: Secret Government. The first can be heard at 16:42 and the next is at the very end, 57:30. Both of them sound like Mark Robinson, but I've listened to his Amazon albums, and none quite match up.

Help me hive mind! If I don't stop humming these something bad is going to happen!

posted by aheckler to media & arts (11 comments total)

I guess the first step is to go with the obvious. :-) Did you check that the songs listed on the page aren't the ones you're thinking of?
posted by sascha at 1:20 PM on April 11, 2008

I didn't check beforehand, but I just did, and of course neither song listed is one of the two I'm looking for. I didn't think Dion and the Belmonts did instrumental electric guitar pieces anyway. :-P
posted by aheckler at 1:26 PM on April 11, 2008

Have you examined this previous thread? Some of the links no longer work, but it may help you track down some of the songs more commonly used on the show.
posted by zachlipton at 1:32 PM on April 11, 2008

Could it be something by Lineland? I couldn't find the right song, but I know he's done music for them.
posted by The corpse in the library at 1:35 PM on April 11, 2008

That is actually how I found Mark Robinson's music. His stuff sounds so similar to the tracks I'm looking for I have a sneaking suspicion that it's his music, but based on Amazon, I cannot confirm it.
posted by aheckler at 1:35 PM on April 11, 2008

FYI, that's a sample they use all the time, so it may be one of these: http://www.thislife.org/About_FAQ.aspx#music
posted by muscat at 1:58 PM on April 11, 2008

Sounds terribly close to Bexar Bexar, a TAL favorite - but I just skimmed the whole Haralambos album and I can't find it. So listen to that (though I'm pretty sure it's not one of those) and definitely look at his other work.
posted by phrontist at 2:04 PM on April 11, 2008

(I'm referring to the music at 16:42)
posted by phrontist at 2:06 PM on April 11, 2008

I know TAL has been using a lot of music from the BOARDS OF CANADA over the last year - check out Music Has the Right to Children and Campfire Headphase.

Unfortunately, I cannot listen to the TAL track while at work in order to confirm/negate my suspicion....
posted by cinemafiend at 2:12 PM on April 11, 2008

Not able to take a listen to the tracks right now. Have you tried a service like Midomi? Sometimes they can come up with a match.

Would it work in this situation?
posted by smersh at 1:42 AM on April 12, 2008

I've been working my way through this page, but haven't found anything yet.
posted by aheckler at 4:23 AM on April 12, 2008