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, at Monday, August 27, 2012, in
Imagine scientists discover that there are latent characteristics ingrained in human DNA that based on sonic microsignatures embedded in common first names, would be triggered slowly over time until they manifested as personality traits towards the end of puberty. So like the DNA would react to the repeated usage of a specific name for a person and cause specific character quirks. Given that reality, would certain names be outlawed due to the violent or psychotic tendencies they would cause in people? Movie idea: a woman struggles to protect an Icelandic boy named Todd (a name identified as infecting recipients with kleptomania) who has somehow out-evolved his namesake. Hunted by the Nafn Logreglu, they attempt to flee the country and escape to Canada, where everybody knows that a name is just a name. Goosebumps should be actual geese that sprout from your pores. They would provide a little bit of comic relief in tense moments, but would be a massive inconvenience when you were actually trying to get into those awe-inspiring moments. Then the goose roundup brigade would have to sweep through and everyone would be slightly miffed. I want to fill my shower with dirt and a couple small patio tiles and plant a smattering of different grasses and weeds in there so that every time I take a shower, I feel like I'm in a fantastical jungle. I'll use environmentally friendly shampoo to protect my shower weeds and use only cold water so it's actually like being a mountain man. And maybe I'll bury some worms and beetles in the dirt so they can skitter and squirm over my feet while I sing booming renditions of Irish drinking songs and old timey gravedigger hymns. I imagine it's something everybody is going to be doing, but I want to have a the-night-before-the-end-of-the-world party on December 20. There will be giving of small gifts just in case we miss Christmas and we'll wear dumb paper hats and sing Auld Lang Syne just in case we miss New Years Eve. And everyone will be very happy and very sad at the same time because they'll be together and imagining what it would be like to never see each other again. And they will be rowdy because it's a party and they will be quiet because they are reflecting. And there will be confessions and revelations and new love and heartbreak...tears and smiles and songs and hugging endlessly. And the next morning, everyone will wake up and say that they knew nothing was going to happen the whole time but their friendships will be amazing because they were together and honest and real for the first time in their lives. Because it takes the end of the world for us to realize what people are worth. My roommates got a new barbecue that they want to break in this Friday and I have nobody to invite to be the friends that I invited to the BBQ. I need to get me some friends. How does one acquire friends? This shit was so easy in elementary school. I got yelled at for forty consecutive minutes last week because I've been understocking the stationary in my building and now we're going to be way over budget this month because we have to order a bunch of stuff so we can overstock all the floors to make up for the lower stocks of stationary last month. When I asked if it was money that was going to be spent anyway, I was told that it's better to spread the spending out over time so that we don't run through all the money at once and make it look like we're over spending. Motherfucker...that's what I was doing! By keeping just enough on the shelves, the client has what they need and I can tend to it as needed, and we order smaller amounts of stationary over time. But here I am being told that I'm providing poor customer service and putting everybody else's jobs at risk. I was literally told that if I didn't keep the shelves overstocked, the entire company would rate poorly on end of the year surveys and everybody would lose their jobs. That falls on me? Fuck your mother if you can find her. Got a little bitter there at the end...sorry, Sad Blogger
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, 25.8.12 at Saturday, August 25, 2012, in
I had a dream this morning--I woke up shortly before noon simply from the fear of having to spend another day slinking around my house wishing I had enough money for food--that I was driving around with two of my favorite radio DJs in a place that looked extremely similar to Edmonton except that everyone was Jamaican. So presumably Jamaica looks a lot like Edmonton. By the way, I paused here for a moment because I remembered I had some smoked turkey and Havarti cheese. So I made a sandwich and I'm good. Don't worry about me. Anyways, we were speeding down hills and past schools and yelling in bad Jamaican accents and laughing our asses off and it was a great time and all that but for the life of me I can't remember why. Like why were the DJs there and why were we driving around in a ridiculous old VW cabriolet? The last thing I remember from earlier in the dream was standing in the foyer of some old house that I think my brother and I had just moved into with my dad. My brother had taken off for some reason and my dad and I were arguing about what the reason was. Then I got a call from my mom saying he was just driving around and thinking and suddenly I was also driving around but it had nothing to do with my brother. The subconscious is weak, man. You give it a small problem, and it just fast-forwards to some goofy far off place where everything is green fields and Jamaican accents. But I remember a lot of details about the house. The house that was apparently my dream house. Because it was in a dream and it was a house. C'mon, people. But I mean there was nothing particularly pretty about it. A lot of the walls were pink and it had gray carpet throughout and where there weren't pink walls, there were cracked and worn wood panels. I don't remember walking into the house for the first time in the dream. We were just kind of all of a sudden settling into the respective rooms that we'd decided were ours. There were already a few select pieces of furniture in the house as well, but I couldn't tell you if it was ours or just already there. Oh! Oh! Oh! Before getting to the house, I remember we were driving in circles around this massive, empty parking lot outside of what I'll assume was a shopping center. We were trying to get to a bridge that was connected to the parking lot. I can't remember who was in the car. I want to say it was my dad because that's who we were with later but the person kept telling me where to go and how to drive so it's more likely it was my mom. Anyhow, we finally got onto the bridge and we were crossing this massive, hardly-moving river to some hilly, grassy island. MAYBE THAT WAS THE JAMAICA PLACE! I dunno. But the bridge turned into this tunnel kind of thing and suddenly, because it was a dream, we were walking instead of driving. It wasn't necessarily spooky...it still felt like the beginning of an 80's adventure flick...but the tunnel had kind of a mid-century military kind of feel. Or maybe older. Kind of steampunk meets art deco. I feel like the walking part didn't last very long though. It's more like we were driving across the bridge, then suddenly we were just standing in this sort of antechamber. There were these two old people there now as well and we were all waiting for this hatch thing to open. Like you see on submarines or whatever. It gets foggier here. I'm sorry. Then I think the hatch opened. Or the dream fast-forwarded again or something and we were gathered in this old shack thing. It looked like the bar from Fawlty Towers except it was like a hundred years old and faded and dingy. And it wasn't a bar. It was like one of those places you see in Discovery series about people who collect weird stuff. An oddity museum, I guess. But we had cream sodas and were lounging around like we were waiting for someone to show up. I don't remember anything after that. Maybe I woke up for a bit and answered a text or something. Anyhow, after returning to sleep and taking a trip back to Dreamland, my brother and Dad and I were standing in our new abode and just sort of looking at each other like well, here we are. I think some time passed, though, between that point and the next part of the dream that I remember. You know? Like it seems weird that some scenes would be connected to other scenes so you have to assume something else happened in between. Either way, they were talking in some room or another about whatever dumb thing (maybe they weren't even saying words...maybe my mind was just making Peanuts-like, muted-trumpet noises to make me think they were talking...WHO KNOWS) and I decided to take a tour of the house. You know, check out my dad's room and all that. And this is why I've decided that dreams are whack. For whatever reason, my subconscious decided that the house had a main entryway thing and then immediately opened into a bedroom on the right. Nothing to the left. Just come in the door, stairs straight ahead, bedroom to the right. That bedroom opened into a dining room and then a kitchen towards the back of the house and had another set of stairs going up from the right wall. Here, I'll make a picture:
That was my impression of the main floor. So coming up the stairs, I'm expecting a similar layout. Sans kitchen and dining room, of course. But it ended up being something more akin to this:
So my question, then, is where the hell do those middle stairs on the main floor go and where do the far left stairs on the second floor go? I mean in the dream, I believe I remember coming down the stairs and ending up in the bedroom on the main floor. But there are no stairs there. So some sort of mind trickery went on in this dumb dream and I want to know why! Actually, I don't really care. I just liked the bizarre layout of the house and the way the entertainment room was considerably separate from the rest of the house. I think living room/watching TV areas tend to be really central and accessible. I like the idea of it being kind of hidden away and private.
Well that really ended with a bang...
Telling other people about your own dreams really is the worst. It always ends with you trying to figure out what the next part or why you thought it was so cool while your friends or family kind of look at each other like does something seem fundamentally wrong with him? Well I tried. I promise not do it again. But I had a lot of fun making the house diagrams, as lame as they are. Whatever. You try it, assholes.
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, 22.8.12 at Wednesday, August 22, 2012, in
For the sake of easier subject-verb agreement in writing this, I'm just going to be referring to bluegrass, Americana, and old timey music as bluegrass. But as I have mentioned down in the description of Deer Tick's "Easy", I'll also be including rockabilly. So maybe we'll just call everything in this post. "American music that leans toward the folkier side of country but can also be a little louder and groovy". Anyways, BLUEGRASS was another one of those genres that really got me back into exploring music. I dunno if I've relayed the specific circumstances of how it came about with alt-pop and folk and all that jazz (except not jazz jazz because that was a different process), but that story coincides with my conversion to bluegrass fanaticism as well. A friend of mine had mentioned a couple of songs that she couldn't get out of her head and me being deeply (without ever having mentioned it, of course) in love with her, I enthusiastically logged into Last.fm and put together some mix CDs with songs that sounded like the two she liked. One being more folk-popish and the other being very bluegrassy. And since then, I've fiendishly scoured Last.fm, imeem when it existed, IndieFeed, 8tracks, the Hype Machine, and the Sixty One for whatever newest undiscovered (or discovered, whatever) artists I could get my ear-hands on. So I guess what would be about six years later now, I'd like to present you with some of my favorite bluegrass tracks. 1. The Low Anthem - The Horizon is a Beltway
And of course the first three songs I pick would end up not even being bluegrass. I know I said it was going to be an umbrella term, but just considering referring to this masterpiece of Americana as bluegrass is making me uncomfortable. Maybe I should just call it the ol' timey playlist. Whatever. I started listening to the Low Anthem for their softer, poetic folk ballads, but this song and Home I'll Never Be (an Americana-ized rendition of a Tom Waits adaptation of a Jack Kerouac poem) have turned out to be the songs that I associate with this band. I mean you can hear their obvious virtuosity with the variety of instruments they employ in this song and it translates into the even wider range of instruments they use in their slower songs and I think it's for that reason that they're known for said slower songs. But I think they deserve more credit for the power and originality of these gorgeous specimens of old timey caterwaulin'. 2. The Avett Brothers - And It Spread
I think the Avett Brothers are more widely considered a folk band. And yeah, all their more popular songs are a bit slower and more reflective...but I mean look at those outfits. And there's a fiddle in the studio recording. So we're calling it old timey. Like I and Love and You is a great song...and the Ballad of Love and Hate...and Kickdrum Heart...and all the Pretty Girl songs...they're brilliant, beautiful songs. But I've always been drawn to the reckless abandon of Seth's yelling in the chorus and the imagery of her love being this narcotic that spreads through his body: You took my hand and held it up And shot my arm full of love and it spread and it spread into the world It's just a goddamn lovely song, yo. 3. Old Crow Medicine Show - Wagon Wheel
I was going to say that this was the song that started it all for me. But the more I've thought about it, the song that really started it all off was Man of Constant Sorrow as performed in O Brother, Where Art Thou. Actually, it was probably The Road to Nash Vegas by Dan Tyminski. ANYHOW, this is the song I referred to in the intro that my friend couldn't get out of her head. I do believe it's a Bob Dylan song, but I can't be bothered to confirm that. But she mentioned it and I eagerly hopped at the opportunity to put together aMIX TAPE!!! (although it was technically a mix CD) full of similar songs. But in spite of the charming compilation of tunes I put together, this has continued to be my favorite of the bunch. I've referenced it in a couple of posts I've made on here. Actually, I referenced it in the travelogue I composed during my tour of the States last year...and I haven't posted those on here...so never mind. But it's a gorgeous song full of gorgeous harmonies and you should listen to it. In a previous post, I know I described "Million Dollar Bill" by Dawes as being the perfect rolling-down-a-highway-at-night-and-staring-at-the-moon-and-missing-a-gal song, and I think this makes for the perfect rolling-down-a-highway-during-the-day-and-staring-at-the-surrounding-hills-and-missing-a-gal song. 4. Devil Makes Three - Old Number 7
The video that I wanted to post for Devil Makes Three is no longer on YouTube so you can settle for Old Number 7. I mean it's still a good song, but what I really wanted to get across was how just barebones and cool their shows look. There are few things as thrilling to me as watching someone just doing their thing to an upright bass. And it doesn't hurt that in this case it's a chick. 5. The Cramps - The Way I Walk
I adore this song. That's all that matters. People don't make music like this anymore and they should. They almost overkill delay effect on the guitars and the screams in the background and the ridiculous cool guy, monster vocals. The Cramps deserved to be stupid famous. But whatever.
6. The Be Good Tanyas - The Littlest Birds
I do believe the first time I ever heard this song was in an episode of Gilmore Girls, but it didn't really appeal or even occur to me that it was an excellent song. A couple years later, this was one of the songs that got put into that hopeful/hopeless mix CD and it really is just perfect. It's simple and pretty and ladies sing it so it's a refreshing reprieve from the slough of male voices represented in this list. If you want to be like me, you can bounce along to it in your chair. 7. Deer Tick - Easy
K so Deer Tick doesn't really fit into my previously stated Actually you know what? I'm going to go back and change the intro now. As well as my fifth selection in the list. Because the one I have there now is kind of lame and I really want to use this song. So I'm adding another genre to the umbrella: rockabilly. Cuz that's the closest thing I can think of to describing Deer Tick. I had planned to link Smith Hill which is more of an Americana ballad, but this song just so perfectly embodies who they are and what their sound is. The raw vocals and hectic layers of fuzzy, twangy guitars. 8. Trampled by Turtles - Wait So Long
There is a comment on this video that says something along the lines of "it would be so awesome if Trampled By Turtles waited several years before they released any other songs or records and then just broke up without having released anything else and this was the only song we ever got to hear by them because it's that good." Now, I disagree. Just because they're awesome and need to make music because I and other people need to hear it. But it is that good of a song. I can and do listen to it at least twice a day. And you should too. This entire paragraph stinks. But please listen to this song. Try to wrap your head around the banjo and the fiddle. THE FIDDLE!!!! Look at that dude attack that thing!!! And the lyrics too. Yeah, Dave Simonett's vocals have that sort of grating, lamenting wail, but they're perfectly suited to the lyrics of this song. I mean it's not a profound song. It's about a dude who's been friendzoned. But that's poignant...right? Whatever. LISTEN TO THE SONG! 9. Frontier Rucks - Dark Autumn Hour
This is a perfect song. It is my favorite song to play on the guitar and it has a melodica and a musical saw solo and a pretty girl singing faint harmonies. And it's in the woods and it's recorded on a single camera mic and sounds amazing. AND THE LYRICS!!! Ugh, the lyrics. I mean not even just the words themselves, but the rhyme scheme and the cadence and everything about all of it. It's beautiful and heartbreaking and poignant and a story I want to live because it's sadly romantic and romantically sad. I have nothing to say about this song, really. Just gurgling noises of envy and affection. 10. Carolina Chocolate Drops - Your Baby Ain't Sweet Like Mine
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, 17.8.12 at Friday, August 17, 2012, in
A lot of the non-journaly stuff that I post here I copy over after having posted on an Irish writing forum that I've been a member of for about a year. Maybe two. It feels like forever. Anyhow, one of the members on that site brought up a contest that Esquire magazine is having for flash fiction. Flash fiction being an extremely short story told with a limited number of words. In this case, they're asking for exactly seventy-nine words with a plot and characterization. So below you can see my first attempt. I'll admit that the idea for the character and his story were transplanted from an idea I've been trying to turn into a short story for a long time but just never really knew how to fully develop.
The pencil dropped from Walt’s hand and rolled to the bottom of the drafting table. His straining gaze lifted to the framed photo of Eleanor. She had supported his dream right up to the end. A mini-golf course meant to tell the story of his tour in Korea. It seemed so much more accomplishable fifteen years ago. And now tears fought to escape his tired eyes as his head bent to the desk and his dream died with him.
I will say that I have almost zero faith in this. I said so on the writing forum and one person was kind enough to express at least a bit of appreciation for it so I guess that's something. But it just feels so generic and stock to me. I mean an old man fighting back tears as he dies with regrets? So bad. But it gave me an idea of what can be done with the word limit so I can at least take that and use it to come up with something a little more fresh and creative. Until then, this is what I offer up. So enjoy it or not. Whatever. Unimaginatively yours, Sad Blogger
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, 9.8.12 at Thursday, August 09, 2012, in
The declamatory dandy, Damien Dartmouth, darts down hill dune and dale, delightedly demanding each drifter and derelict to put up their dukes for a duel to the death. Day-by-day, his dares are declined and his delectation dilatorily deflates. Diminished and depressed, the downtrodden disputant dolefully dawdles down a darkened drag in the dusky dimness of a distinctly demoralizing day. Distracted by his own despondency, the dandy Damien Dartmouth does not discern a disquieting dude descending from the darkness. The deleterious devil delivered a deafening declaration of dissension, disrupting Damien's disheartened daydreaming. Discarding his desolation without deliberation, the dexterous defendant dives diligently into this new diversion. Demonstrating the durability of a demigod, the dandy Damien Dartmouth dances with his daunting dissentient, draining and depleting the demon's drive. Detecting the denouement of the dispute, Damien delivers a debilitating blow, defeating the disquieting dude. Dun-dun-dunnnnn.
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, at Thursday, August 09, 2012, in
This was originally going to be an entry dedicated entirely to electro-swing. But then I realized that I really do only know a small handful of artists and even then only a scant selection of their songs. So I decided to expand my criteria to anything that could be remotely related to "nu-jazz" and modern swing in general. I should note that out of desperation to include songs that I think will appeal to a wider audience, I'm aware of how not-obscure some of these will be. I know that doesn't really matter, but my aim from the beginning was to bring some awareness to some lesser-know artists and bands. I'm babbling. Ho hum.
1. Parov Stelar - Booty Swing
I couldn't decide if I should start strong and taper off weakly, start weak and build to a bang, or just toss songs in willynilly and hope they're engaging enough to keep everyone's interest. I ended up going with the song that got me into this whole nichey sub-genre. I think a classmate from a poetry course sent me a link to this video and after a few clicks through related vids, I landed on one of him dancing to Booty Swing. And I was permanently sold. I wouldn't necessarily say that this song is any kind of meaningful to me--there are other Parov Stelar tracks that are a lot prettier and captivating--but I've always felt it sort of embodied the sound of what this music is/should be.
2. The Atomic Fireballs - Swing Sweet Pussycat
I know that the first time I heard these guys was on So You Think You Can Dance, and even that was about a decade after this album was released, so I'm not sure how much attention these guys have received in terms of mainstream superstardom. I'll just assume you know who they are. I did you the kindness, though, of linking a song that isn't Man With the Hex. I'd say this is my favorite track on Torch This Place just for how "swingin'" it is. Plus it's fun sexy wordplay. So yeah, yay music.
3. Squirrel Nut Zippers - Stop, Drop and Roll
Another group that I'm pretty sure has attained a respectable level of recognition and fame. Videos for Hell and The Ghost of Stephen Foster have a couple million views on YouTube so somebody out there is listening to them. But I love, luff, lurve Bedlam Ballroom. Back in junior high, when my only source of music was ripping borrowed CDs from the library, it was one of those albums I'd literally tossed into a pile of others with weird names or cool cover art during one of my weekly trips. I immediately liked a lot of the slower stuff on the disc just because it was different from what I was used to listening to and what I knew any of my friends were into. But I was always drawn to this track with its bombastic dance hall piano and sax solo.
4. Waldeck - Addicted
I'm not 100% positive, but I'm mostly certain that the vocalist on this track is Joy Malcolm of Incognito. I start by giving her credit because she really makes this song. It's a decent song, and actually not really one of Waldeck's swingingest tracks, but her voice absolutely makes it a must-hear while dabbling in the sub-genre and its related sub-subs. It calls to mind mysterious ladies in dark dresses and silent gentlemen with nice hats making eyes at each other across smokey speakeasies. Nom.
5. Belleruche - Alice
I really wanted to get a decent quality video of a live performance for this song but just could not find any. I would wholeheartedly recommend watching Kathrine deBoer sing live once or twice or, you know, three or four. Cuz she's amazing. And ya I realize at this point it's more soul than anything else, but wasn't my introduction a clear enough warning of how ambiguous the swing guidelines would be? I wanted this to be the song I featured because I think it demonstrates how the concept behind nu-jazz et al can crossover into other classic genres. So ya, let the fuzzy pipe cleaner-like bristles of her voice stroke your arms and caress your neck.
6. Caravan Palace - Rock it for Me
I'M SUPER 'CITED ABOUT THIS ONE!!!! Actually, I don't think I'd even heard this song prior to putting this list together. Ummmmmmm. Yup, it's not on their self-titled album so I didn't know about it. I was probably going to link Suzy or Bambous. Actually ya, please check out the latter. It`s just too funky and different from most things. But ya, I was looking through their videos for something that wasn't either of those (just in case) and stumbled upon this gem. I was bouncing in my chair and grinning all over the place watching them jitterbuggin' and jivin' or whatever. It's just too fun and enviable. I WANNA DO THAT! I'm done. Just listen to the song, goddammit.
7. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - How Big Can You Get?
Yes, yes, yes. It's technically a Cab Calloway song. But How Big Can You Get was the first BBVD album I ever listened to and I figure this song isn't as popular as say, Minnie the Moocher et cetera. So you're gonna listen to it. You're gonna listen to it, you're gonna ignore the lame slideshow, and you're gonna like it. That's all.
8. Tape Five - Bad Boy Good Man
Alright! Back to some legitimate electro-swing. If you haven't noticed, my captions have been getting shorter and padded-er. It's getting dark and I'm getting lazy and to be honest, the next two tracks are only kind of okay. I just have a compulsion to stay committed to the ten-tracks-per-post thing. So listen to the rest if you want. Whatever.
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, 8.8.12 at Wednesday, August 08, 2012, in
Last weekend I moved out on my own for the first time ever. I say on my own...I have two housemates...but I mean in the sense that I'm now dependent only on myself. As much freedom as I did admittedly have (and why shouldn't I? I'm 21, dammit), there's still the obligation of making sure other members of the household know that you're leaving and when to expect you back et cetera because that's what you do. And there was still the obligation to drive non-driving members of the family to the places they needed to be and put aside time for whatever petty little shit they needed to drag you into. You know? So now there's none of that. I mean the housemates are my friends so if it's a big deal I'll fill them in on "the haps," but for the most part there are no tethers of any kind. I think, though, that it hasn't been long enough for me to feel like anything has changed. I mean I jump on the train north instead of the bus south now. And I wake up an hour later. And I kind of just bum around not having to worry about being in anybody's way after work. But so what? I dunno why I even typed those last few sentences now. I guess just to emphasize my point that I don't feel like much is that different. Maybe my family and I have just been that disassociated with each other for long enough that the transition away from them wasn't as momentous as people make it out to be? Maybe people have never really made it out to be anything and I'm just a sentimental doofus who expected more all my life. Whatever. So ya, now I take the C-Train to work in the morning, just another mope among the horde of mopes ceaselessly battling for a spot near the door so we can all get out when we get to our stops. Worse, though, is the arduous ride back home. I mean it's only four or five stops, but it's to the point that you can't call it a ride. Rides are supposed to be thrilling. Whimsical. Fun. This shit is like a trial, conviction, and sentence all in one. But I refuse to become just another one of the frowning, thousand-yard-stare drones packed onto the train. Like look at this red haired chick here in front of me. I'm impressing the crap out of her with my not-holding-on balancing skills. She's all fluttering her eyes and fanning herself. I'm spectacular. But really, she's just a sad looking Puerto Rican woman mushed up against the sea of unpleasant, tired people. I want to take her picture and send it to my friends so we can all laugh at the miserable grown-ups, but I'm afraid my shiny phone will catch her eye and wake the bloodlust she's been trying to control for the past five centuries. The last thing my poor mother needs to read in the newspaper is that her son incited a public transportation-based vampiric massacre during rush hour. So instead I just smile at another old lady who looks like she has cute stories about recycling bottles in 1943 with her husband. She doesn't smile back. Probably thinks I'm patronizing her 'cuz she's old. I hate old ladies and their attitudes. Anyways, that was all I really had to share about that. Maybe if something particularly nifty and new happens with regards to my living situation, I'll post about that. But I just wanted to blab about riding the train. I'm real fucking exciting. Sad Blogger out. PS- I am still writing things. I have about 13 drafts going that I intend to publish eventually. I haven't been slacking, I swear. Just busy. Why am I justifying myself to you people? Why am I clinging to the delusion that there even is a "you people"? Sigh.
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, 2.8.12 at Thursday, August 02, 2012, in
I was about to start by musing that I couldn't be the only one to feel a certain way about something, but I despise when other people try to introduce their own ideas as though they're completely unique or profound or whatever. So instead we'll begin like this: I know that people listen to different kinds of music for different reasons. I know that some of the most beautiful songs out there have dogshit lyrics (or none at all) and that some of the most insightful or moving lyrics ever written are underscored by music that sounds like a balsa wood airplane being flushed down the toilet. So the songs below aren't really connected by any clever theme or sound, but simply just a collection of songs that either mean a lot to me because of the words, or move me deeply because of the music. Enjoy. 1. Perfume Genius - Dark Parts
This one happens to have a frustratingly superfluous combination of gorgeous music and haunting lyrics. I think that the driving piano and echoing, lifting ohh-oh-ohhs, typically what I'd associate with a sense of exultation and glorification, are an almost disquieting pairing with the pain and sorrow sewn into the first verse. Before the love and protection and safety of the following verses breaks through, it's the saddest thing in the world, calling to mind images of vast, empty cathedrals and violated spirits ascending to infinity. But as I said, the Protector steps in and takes the pain and the corruption and the filth away and the music drops and the lyrics with them and it's just the sound of knowing you're safe. This song rules. 2. Meursault - Another
This one tends to be one of those songs that I just listen to because it's calming and Neil Pennycook's voice is just so ethereal and mesmerizing to me. So I throw this one into the "pretty music", column but giving it a listen and paying some actual attention to the lyrics, this song really does mean a lot more to me than I realized it did. I can relate so painfully to telling myself that "this is the thing" and then tiring of it after a few months. And whether it's days or relationships or passions or ice cream cones. There's always another.
3. Heartless Bastards - Into the Open
This is kind of an odd one out. There's nothing particularaly special to me about the composition of either the music or the lyrics, I just really love the bluesy guitar tone and the immense power of Erika Wennerstrom's voice.
4. Mono & World's End Girlfriend - Part 5
It goes without saying that the lyrics in this one are nothing to write home about (hehe). But it doesn't need them. In the same post-rock pantheon as Codes in the Clouds, the Album Leaf, Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, Stars of the Lid, etc. Put on some rain sound effects, close your eyes, and just drift along the soundscape this stuff paints for you.
5. Fat City Reprise - Long Gone
This used to be one of those songs in the line of Stars by The Love Language that I mentioned in the last entry. Every time I sat down at my computer or stepped out with the ol' iPod, this song had to be played at least once. How often do you hear those vintage carousel-esque pipe organs in a rock song? The lyrics were never particularly meaningful to me, but with that raspy grate in Frank Pedano's vocals, "thought she was right...she was soooooo wrong" does feel like it's digging into you somewhere personal. Or at least it does for me. Then the piano interlude...so damn good.
6. The Everybodyfields - Aeroplane
This was not the song that I originally intended to link by the everybodyfields. I really, reeeeally wanted to post a link to I Can't Sleep but there are only a couple lower quality live versions on YouTube. Not only are the slide guitars in that song the most mournful you've ever heard, the one line in the chorus:
And I can't sleep 'cause I don't dream of you anymore
is one of the most poignant, tear-jerking, on-the-nose lyrics I've ever heard in a heartbreak song. This song, however, is just as excellent if only for the gentle explosiveness of the loose-strung guitar and the fiddle right at the beginning. The words aren't particularly meaningful to me, but i do love the lines in the (I think) third verse:
You do what you want to do
I will be right here waiting
I dunno. I'm just always drawn to the idea of unconditional patience.
7. The Antlers - Kettering
The entire Hospice album is--to borrow a phrase--a staggering work of heartbreaking genius. It's a concept album that tells the story of the relationship and romance of a hospice worker at Sloan-Kettering and a patient who has terminal bone cancer. This song specifically is about his first encounter with her and his realization of how impossible it will be to care for/watch the death of this woman he just fell in love with. Obviously I can't necessarily relate to every aspect of this song, but I've been a part of those ongoing bedside vigils and I've watched grandparents die in their sleep and I've been in love. So some of the pieces do come together. Even if you can't relate, though, the words are just so moving in their agonizing simplicity. I would quote every last one if I could, but to pick my favorites I would have to say:
'Cause you'd been abused by the bone that refused you
because it sums up so many complicated concepts and realities in a beautiful-yet-chilling visual. And if I had to chose just one more it would be:
And I didn't believe them
When they told me that there was no saving you
just because goddamn. And if the context or the lyrics don't do anything for you, this song has stood out for me above thousands of others just for the mournful fragility of Peter Silberman's voice. Over top of the soft, haunting pulsing of the piano? Shivers and shudders.
8. Songs: Ohia - The Black Crow
I added this one simply for
And it's fading
And it's fading
And it's fading
You really don't need more than that.
9. The Acorn - Lullaby (Mountain)
I mean, c'mon. Just listen to the intro. You can almost see a POV shot moving through foliage up the side of a mountain. It sounds like curious animals flitting across a path. The sun peeking around untouched leaves. Green overgrowth and not knowing what's around the next corner. It kind of reminds me of Little Bird by Lisa Hannigan but that's not important. I haven't really paid any attention to the words, but I do know that Casey Mecija's voice (of Ohbijou fame) is like a tickle in your ear. She really does have the perfect lullaby voice.
10. State Radio - Indian Moon
Lastly, Indian Moon is one of those songs that reintroduced me to music. For the year or so before I happened across it, I was mostly listening to various niche genres of metal, completely ignoring anything else that was out there. I can't remember the specific circumstances of how it occurred, but I believe I was trying to find songs that were similar to Joshua Radin's 'The Fear You Won't Fall' for a friend. I came across Camilo by State Radio and really dug their sound (euch) so enthusiastically dove into their discography. They don't have a single song I dislike, but one of the first few that I listened through during that initial discovery period was this one. And oh em gee did it trigger a landslide in me. The delicate, bell-like tintannabulation of the guitar, how the harmonica sounds like it's staring off sadly into the distance, the power of Chad's tenderly abraisive voice, the strum pattern changes with each verse transition,
You're my chorus my refrain The verse of my first pain Let the voices come barrelling back This song inspired me to immerse myself in beautiful music and has continued to for the past four years. So I would actually like to thank this song and its creators. For whatever that's worth.
Posted by
Sad Blogger
, 1.8.12 at Wednesday, August 01, 2012, in
I had lunch with a friend of mine yesterday and she had briefly mentioned that she'd read through the Hunger Games trilogy and how disappointed she was with where it went. I've only seen the movie once, and I think that it was due to the fact I hadn't read any of the books that I actually thought it was an okay flick. Actually, I think it was only because I disliked Jennifer Lawrence's character and didn't buy the connection between her and the Bridge to Terabithia kid that I couldn't get more enthusiastic about the whole thing. But that has less to do with the film making and mostly falls on the construction of the story. So pretty much it would be a wicked movie if the main characters weren't in it. ANYHOW. My friend was saying that the first book was great, but the other two were just kind of perpetuating a plot that had already played itself out. Something about Katniss and Peeta (PeeNiss from now on. I didn't come up with that, but it's awesome so bite me) having to return to the Games because they cheated or something the first time. Which is totally something you pick up on at the end of the movie with Donald Sutherland's Beard being all mad and growling. But I guess as much as it's obvious by merit of the fact there's a third book that the two survive to the end of the second book, it still comes as a massive bummer.
So what I'd like to propose is that instead of letting them live through the second book, Donald Sutherland's Beard (DSB) completely loses composure and as a dull, guttural roar emits from deep inside him, two massive, scabby batwings explode through his goofy wizard robes. As his human flesh ruptures to reveal the scaly, bark-like dermis of his true form and he triples in size, long, hard, obsidian spikes begin to extend from his hairline, up and back down to the base of his neck. His staff frozen in place by their paralyzing fear and the onlooking crowd attempting to flea in a frenzy, the bearded behemoth's jaws unhinge and a bone-chilling squeal erupts from the garrish maw. Lunging forward with nightmarish speed, DSB leaps up and above the crowd and takes wing, effortlessly speeding in the direction of the Hunger Games arena. Within seconds he's there and shattering through the sky barrier (cuz Donald Sutherland's Beard is magic, duh). Ruby-red eyes bulging with the intensity of his bloodlust, DSB soars over the leafy canopy of the expansive war zone, drawn to the warmth and innocence of the resilient teens. Finally spotting them from high above, his hellion wings collapse into his back and DSB hurtles at the heroes in a kamikaze death-plunge. Wings back out at the last second, he pulls an Iron Man and lands physics-defying-ly in front of PeeNiss, beating his gnarled hooves against his knotted, intimidating chest and releasing another supersonic screech. PeeNiss cling to each other and sob their last sweet nothings into each other's necks. Donald Sutherland's Beard abruptly and aggressively pins the two down with a single cloven hoof and slowly draws his mangled demon face to within an inch of theirs, desperate and tear-stained. With a grunt and an impossibly powerful thrust of his hulking body, PeeNiss disappears down the monster's gullet. The camera slowly pans up and away in an emotional crane shot as a quiet, defeated piano score plays over DSB munching and snorting alone. A muted montage of the spectators and citizens rolls, the piano still playing. They are mortified and in awe of what they've just beheld. A mournful violin joins the piano briefly as the montage fades to a shot of Donald Sutherland's Beard back in his human form, squatting naked in the middle of the forest. The camera steadily approaches him as he licks at what is clearly a teenager's shin bone. He turns to the camera as it nears him and wipes his mouth with his forearm. The score fades completely as he peers bemusedly into the camera and says, "The odds may not have been in their favour, but those childrens was sure full of flavour!!!" and beams widely. As unnecessarily cheerful trumpet music fades in, the old naked man rises to his feet and does a merry jig. Cut to the spectators looking on in horror. Cut back to DSB and his jolly, flopping old man penis. Cut to black. Credits.
Something like that.
Leave a comment if you have any ideas for other movies that could use a makeover, Sad Blogger
On behalf of the Happy Blogger and the Sad Blogger, welcome to The In Between... an irregularly scheduled weekly look into our imaginations with the occasional glimpse into our private lives. Each week we will attempt to bring you a little piece of creative thinking, to either brighten your day or cloud it with some heavy thoughts. Either way, we encourage you to check back every so often to read and respond what's on our minds.
We hope you enjoy what we have to say and welcome to The In Between. Regards,
The Bloggers.
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