Cru Jones Society

It’s summer time and we can’t help but to be reminded of our school days when summer meant running free and not giving a fuck. So with that in mind, June has become Guilty Pleasure Month here at Cru Jones Society. As we have stated, but to emphasis it once more, we realize the concept of a guilty pleasure is patently ridiculous. No one should have to feel bad about anything they derive enjoyment from unless that enjoyment comes from pedophilia or something equally as immoral/illegal/fucked up. We’ve decided to kick off Guilty Pleasure Month by asking you what your guilty pleasure music is? As is the custom, Dagger and Hart are up first, followed by your responses. Put another dime in the jukebox and let’s rock.

Hart: I was going to pick a few songs from some quasi emo pop bands, but thought those weren’t diverse enough from my usual musical picks. So I looked through my vinyl collection and the obvious answer was right there. If you’re thinking Herb Alpert, then you have played Beirut with me before, also you would be wrong.

I am talking about John “Sunshine on My Fucking Shoulders” Denver. Listening to his gentle guitar playing and soothing voice gives me a rocky mountain high. About a month ago my work was giving away cheap tickets to the John Denver tribute act at Red Rocks and I thought about asking any of my friends if they would want to go. But I didn’t as I felt shame for wanting to go. But that shame left as I belted out “Thank God I’m A Country Boy” at the Rockies game.

Dagger: I used to be ashamed of listening to the Scissor Sisters, but at some point I just stopped giving a shit and decided I liked them. It’s freaky weirdo dance music that vaguely frightens boring and conservative people. And it sounds cool. What’s not to like?

No, lately my guilty obsession has been of a much more pop flavor. Lady E has endured probably thousands of hours of punk rock in my car, so it’s only logical that she’d remember at some point she has hands too and can pick something out for herself when we drive around. She has an admitted weakness for pop music, so whenever we’re mobbing around town, I get a healthy dose of whatever happens to be popular on Kiss FM, which, in a semi-ironic twist, makes me more up on current music than when I worked at a college radio station. Go figure. And since I’m not a pretentious music asshole anymore I honestly don’t mind most of it except for when Timbaland unironically names a song “The Way I Are.” God, what a dickhead.

Of that lot of songs, the one I unabashedly love most is Kelly Clarkson’s “My Life Would Suck Without You.” Don’t get me wrong, I think the title is retarded. It sounds like something a 14 year-old would think is profound after writing it at the end of a poorly constructed, half-cooked love note scrawled on a torn piece of notebook paper. But the song itself is ridiculously catchy. It’s upbeat, it’s got a good chorus to enthusiastically belt out of an open sunroof after one too many drinks on a patio, and you get to picture cute as a button Kelly Clarkson bouncing around onstage singing it. All things considered, this is a fabulous song to usher in the warm months of summer. Right tone, right energy, right sunshiny singer… I love this song. And now that it’s out on here on the interwebs, I guess I don’t have to love it in secret any longer.

Or maybe I should. Most guys are dicks.

That may just be the most embarrassing guilty pleasure in this week’s Confessional. The rest of the confessional continues to stretch across a broad spectrum. You could even say that anyway you want it, that’s the way you need it. And that’s the way we got it.

Gutter: Dagger probably knows my music guilty pleasure. Last year we met up for a few beers before a Rockies game and some promotion wenches were handing out pieces of paper for a raffle where you could try to win one of three prizes, I don’t remember what the other two prizes were, but the other prize was to win concert tickets to see Journey. When I said that was the one I was putting my name in for that one Dagger gave me a look like I just kicked his dog, it was then I realized that Journey really was my guilty pleasure. I didn’t end up winning the tickets so I guess someone else in the bar liked Journey too. Maybe I like Journey because I am the youngest in my family and my oldest brother was (and still is) a Journey fan or maybe it is because every time I hear “Don’t Stop Believing” I think of The Sopranos and remember about how great a show that was. My wife constantly gives me shit for liking Journey, but I don’t care, every time it comes on in the car I turn it up and slap her hand away if she even thinks about changing the dial. So there you have it, Journey is my guilty pleasure when it comes to music and remember we agreed no more Steve Perry psych-outs.

Augie chimes in and is taking us south of the border. Sorry still not Herb Alpert, didn’t mean to get your hopes up again. South of the Border was a Herb Alpert song/album. Always good when the joke has to be explained. Moving on.

Augie: I listen to country and hip-hop, pretty much everything in between as well. However, when I am driving by myself and no one is around, my guilty pleasure music is………Mexican music. I will turn on the radio, put is on one of the hundreds of Mexican stations we have here in Denver, and when a song comes on with a great beat, I will blast the crap out of it like I was cruising Federal in a Ford F-150 with 4 other people in the cab. I don’t know what it is, it just makes me smile and relax when I do this.

We mentioned how summer always reminds us of our school days. It seems Deuce’s guilty pleasure is what takes him back to those times.

Deuce: My guilty music pleasure is tucked way down on the dial at 88.1. It’s KVOD, Denver’s Classical Music station. Having been in concert band in school for over 7 years, I developed a strong appreciation for classical music. When I listen to it, I try to take time to hear the individual instrument voices then see how they fit in with the entire symphony. It is amazing how often this music, without lyrics, can paint a vivid picture in my mind of some experience and what I think is really cool about it is that the image it creates in my mind is totally different than what it might create in someone else’s. KVOD can really soothe my nerves after a long day of work and it’s fun when I occasionally hear a piece that I played while in high school. I love this music and am not ashamed to like it so that is not why I feel it is a guilty pleasure, I feel guilty because I listen all the time but I never pledge money during the funding drives.

With last week’s drinks, and this week’s music we are gearing up to have an awesome CJS BBQ where we can all get drunk and sing a long to that embarrassing song, except for those ones that don’t have lyrics, but I’m sure enough booze and we’ll all be playing air tubas, cellos, and clarinets.

But what if it rains on BBQ day? Well then, maybe the next Confessional question will help us out if we have to huddle inside. Continuing with guilty pleasure, send in your responses to this question: What guilty pleasure movies do you enjoy watching? And hell, let’s expand this one a little bit. You can talk about what movies you feel a bit embarrassed about watching, or you can talk about the TV shows you watch when no one else is home. It’s time to unburden your soul, and that’s why we have the Confessional. Go ahead and queue it up on Netflix and let us know at staff@crujonessociety.com, and we’ll put them up next week.

Dagger and Hart