the musical fruit: movement #21.

the musical fruit: movement #21.
song: "zombie," the cranberries
fruit: cranberries

a lot of irish music makes me want to smash a fiddle, but ireland's produced its fair share of musicians over the years. u2 is definitely the biggest of them all, but there are a handful of other notable ones out there, from indie acts like my bloody valentine, ash or the divine comedy to older acts like thin lizzy & the pogues. people seem to enjoy snow patrol quite a bit. back in the 90s, there was the pope pic tearing shenanigans of sinead o'connor & there was the cranberries, who rose to prominence on the back of their 1993 single "linger," off their debut album, everybody else is doing it, so why can't we? it came out when i was a senior in high school & believe me, i got a lot of comedy mileage out of reworking the lyrics so it became a song about farts.

their follow up album, no need to argue, features the only song by the cranberries that i can actually stand--"zombie." it's a protest song & whereas most of their songs are totally wussy & the only thing cool about them is lead singer dolores o'riordan's accent, "zombie" is a total rocker. it starts off all slow like but builds into a rocking chorus where she's saying "zom-bay" over & over again & heavy guitars chug along. the video has a bunch of dirty kids in it, which is sort of cool. it all added up to the song reaching #1 on the billboard modern rock charts, which, for comparison, is a title currently held by muse. after a few more albums, o'riordan went solo, but come november 12th, the cranberries are back together & heading out on the road for their first full tour since 2002. they're in nyc the day after my bday, but it's totally sold out. looks like a lot of people still like the taste of the cranberries.

as a fruit, cranberries are pretty cool, but you usually have to do something to them before you eat them like mash them into a sauce or put them in a juice or dry them out or something. i found this box of dried cranberries on the wall next to me whilst waiting in line at the times sq walgreens, so i decided to go the dried route & wait until thanksgiving for the sauced kind. $1? hellz yeah. i can swing that. i'm not sure what's up with the box looking all trapezoid warped in the photo though. in real life, that box has a lot more right angles to it. when i opened the box, it sort of looked like i had a box full of red beetles, but they're moist & sweetened & actually pretty tasty, especially considering that they're the walgreens store brand.

i don't want to get bogged down in the details, but there are a lot of reasons to like cranberries. for starters, cranberry sauce rules. then there's the cool way that they're harvested. rather than just picking them off the vines, cranberry growers flood the cranberry beds & scoop up the fruit. in juice form, cranberries go well with pretty much any other fruit. they have antioxidants & whatnot, so if you're looking to beat a drug test, cranberry juice is your best friend. they're a huge thing in massachusetts, especially on cape cod, where the cape cod cranberry growers' association oversees over 300 cranberry growers. good stuff. in closing, this thanksgiving, i urge you to get totally sauced in honor of the cranberry.