Breakdowns

I'm in the mood again for a good theme post.  Late last week, I received a package from Defgav at Baseball Card Breakdown with some great cards for my Brewers collection. Since I love music and discovering new music, I thought, "hey, I'll see what comes up when I try to find songs called 'Breakdown'".  

There were five cards that I scanned in the envelope, so five songs called "Breakdown" will go with these cards.

Thusly I spake unto him that a card blog theme post was born.  And it was good.

I hope.

1.  Super Junior-M, "BREAK DOWN"

So, who's up for a Chinese-South Korean boy band (a/k/a Mandopop)? This song was released on SJ-M's second studio album also called Break Down.  The Chinese version of the album hit number one on the Billboard World Album chart and number forty-nine on the Billboard "Heatseekers" Album Chart (I think that's the "Top 200 Albums").  

In case you don't listen or watch, it's a strangle melange of Mandarin and English with Korean subtitles that occasionally show up in English too.  It's a super-catchy, poppy song. If you're not careful, you'll get it stuck in your head.  

Its card equivalent?

A Bowman Gold Parallel of Zack Greinke. Why? Well, the gold catches your eye.  It's flashy -- almost catchy -- and having Zack on the Brewers appears to be a strange melange as compared to the current team.  I mean, to have a real pitcher on the team?  Nearly inexplicable.

If you're not careful, the thought of the Brewers being good might get stuck in your head!

2.  Jack Johnson, "Breakdown"

I saw Jack Johnson in concert once. One of my work seminars took me to Palm Springs, California -- I know, tough life, someone has to do it -- and to the incredible La Quinta Resort.  I had been in the Middle East the week before in Dubai (to see if I wanted to move there...two words: Hell. No.) so I was all out of sorts. 

It took until Thursday for me to find out that the Coachella Music Festival was going on that weekend.  If I had known that, I'd have stayed the whole weekend.  Instead, I could go only on Friday.  So, I did.  It was excellent, too -- saw The Verve, The Raconteurs, Serj Tankian from System of a Down...and Jack Johnson.

I remember two things from that concert.  One of my friends got completely baked, and I ended up tracking him -- not babysitting, mind you...just tracking him.  The other thing was the fact that nearly every woman in the crowd knew every word to every song that Jack Johnson sang -- including this one.  To me, they all sounded the same.  

His music is innocent enough.  It's harmless. I don't actively avoid his music, but I don't seek it out either. I just am not that big of a fan.

Sort of like Bowman Chrome and its X-Fractors. It's harmless and innocent enough.  There are a ton of people who just love the stuff. And, as with Jack Johnson, it's not that I actively avoid the cards -- I just am not that big of a fan.  

I was surprised to learn that this Cole Gillespie is the same Cole Gillespie that played for the Diamondbacks a few years ago and continues to play in the Miami Marlins system this year. The dude is Quad-A through and through -- too good for Triple-A, not good enough for the major leagues.

Sort of like Jack Johnson.

3.  Noisestorm, "Breakdown"

I know a lot of people like triphop/dubstep/techno/electro/whatever the hell this is called. I don't mind it, for the most part.  Honestly, it just gets boring to me after a while. 

Then again, I never understood the allure of jam bands until I took a hit of a hippie's pipe at a Bela Fleck and the Flecktones show at Music Midtown in Atlanta.  When I emerged from haze I found myself in, I felt like I'd lost a day -- but I knew Bela Fleck was the coolest act ever.

So, I just haven't taken the right medications, I suppose, to make this make sense.

On the other hand, I'm not sure there are enough medications to make Danny Klassen make sense.  Let's just move on before I roll a spliff.

Not that I could, mind you.

Ahem.

4. Seether, "Breakdown"

I thought I needed drugs for that last one?

Yikes.

Seether is a very earnest sounding alt rock band who have songs that I've thought were decent in the past -- Remedy is pretty catchy and all -- but this one sounds like 2009.  It just does.  

But it has that throwback feel about it too.  It's new, but it feels like mid-90s rock.  

Likewise, the Topps Archives 2001 set were new, but they felt old.  Like this reprinted 1981 Topps Sal Bando, mocking Brewers fans for (at that time) the futility of the 1990s under Bando's watch as the Brewers General Manager (until August 12, 1999, when he finally resigned his position and the equally inept Dean Taylor took over).

Sal was very earnest about his position as well, to be fair. He loved Milwaukee, became a paragon in the business community, and really seemed to want the best for the team.  

But it was like the Green Bay Packers in the 1980s -- only after the team threw off the shackles of past glories (such as, for Green Bay, hiring first Bart Starr and then Forrest Gregg as its head coach) could the team succeed.  

5.  Tom Petty, "Breakdown"

This is a classic off Petty's first album, performed here live in 1978.  I picked this because the versions with the album cut are literally the song playing with a single PowerPoint slide saying "Tom Petty - Breakdown" on it for the whole song.  

This is almost certainly the best known song called Breakdown, at least to me. It is the one that I could sing along with, certainly.  

I actually like it.  I hate to say that about anything from Gainesville (other than Johnny at the Trading Spot), but I like this song.

Nothing, though, can approach this Bronze Topps Clubhouse Relic from 2004 serial numbered to 99.  I had the base of this relic in my collection previously, but I did not have this one.  

Trust me when I say that it's far better than Tom Petty in my book. 

Let me close by saying I echo the thoughts of Defgav's cable company, as set forth on the advertisement to protect the cards enroute:

Thank you, Gavin, for these great cards.  I think some Reggie Jacksons might have to come your way!