I can’t get Rilo Kiley’s, 15 out of my head. It’s very Jolene-ish. Which makes it super fun to sing. That’s pretty much my only requirement for a song. Is it fun to sing to? Can I sing it? Perfect.

When I listen to music I am hyper aware of whether or not my mom will approve of it. Unfortunately, I developed my musical tastes just as Tipper Gore decided rap was a blight on American culture and turned a whole generation of parents on to monitoring the lyrics their children listened to. For my 14th birthday I asked for 40 oz. to Freedom, having already confiscated Sublime, she didn’t even answer me. But one of my friends got it for me anyway. I won this battle, Mom. When she found it’s hiding spot and got rid of the cd with nary a mention of it, she won the war. Stealth work, Mom.

Around the same time I asked her to pick up the Reel Big Fish album for me on her way home from work. She agreed but came home empty handed. She explained that she checked the cd out and didn’t agree with the album artwork. No deal. She told me there was a girl chained up and she didn’t want that in her house. Years later I saw the offending artwork. I have to say, it wasn’t as offensive as she made it out to be. But I’ve never had a 14 year old daughter so I guess I don’t have room to talk. I see where she was coming from, I don’t like women being unnecessarily objectified anymore than I should. But goddamn was I pissed.

Ha ha. Once, we were cleaning the house and I put a mixed cd on. Goddamn those half Japanese girls! echoed off the tiled floors. She THREW the mop down with a loud clap, slammed the radio off and yelled, “What the hell? I taught you better than that!” I was startled by her use of hell. I tried to explain Rivers Cuomo’s persistent feeling of loneliness and unfortunate Asian fetish. I tried to convince her to listen to the rest of the song, “It’s a good thing, he LIKES the half Japanese girls! He thinks smart women are cool!” All my adolescent pseudo intellectualism couldn’t convince her. We cleaned in silence.

Every time I sing along to 15, I think about how offended my mom would be. 15 refers to the age of the girl the 25 year old man is having sex with. Of course, my favorite line is, Does your daddy have a shotgun? It’s not just the ridiculousness that I love, but the tune of it. She sings it like a lullaby. The whole song is totally fucked up but I maintain that it’s being facetious. No one is actually promoting statutory rape, are they? No, that would be terrible. But we can sing sarcastic songs about it and have a good time.

The Millionizer wonders why Mama Millz doesn’t really have a problem with drug references though

[tags]Rilo Kiley, Weezer, Reel Big Fish, El Scorcho[/tags]