9/23/08

...this is a great song.


I roll the window down
And then begin to breathe in
The darkest country road
And the strong scent of evergreen
From the passenger seat as you are driving me home

Then looking upwards
I strain my eyes
And try to tell the difference
Between shooting stars and satellites
From the passenger seat as you are driving me home

"Do they collide?"
I ask and you smile
With my feet on the dash
The world doesn't matter

When you feel embarrassed then I'll be your pride
When you need directions then I'll be the guide
For all time
For all time
-Death Cab For Cutie, Passenger Seat
Transatlanticism


Ben Gibbard--maybe one of the 21st century's best pop music lyricists? Death Cab reaches the ears of enough of the majority. What I love about this song is how well it captures a moment. There's a pleasant ambiance, and it sounds like it could be sad song, but it's not. It can describe so much--those simple moments with friends, or the careful moments with a more-than-a-friend. The times when you're really seeping in the atmosphere around you.

I'm pretty sure you never can get enough of those.

9/23/08

Wtf mate?
Apparently this was for a week in August, and then went away...but now, again, you can purchase your own Say Anything song.

Max Bemis Song Shop....what a concept. THAT is something new. How interactive is music going to get? I wonder how it would feel to hear a song written JUST about you. And not by a musician you know, who is involved in your personal life, but a total stranger or one of your favorite musicians.

Let's see how far this goes. Not gonna lie, if I had $150 to throw around right now I'd so do it just to hear what it sounds like.

9/17/08

If you like folk singer/songwriters....
Buy this.

Then listen to it on a pensive drive when it's sort of gray and rainy, and it sounds really fucking good. "Thin Blue Flame" kind of blew my mind at first, it was like a cross between Death Cab and, i don't know, a smarter Ryan Adams. And upon second listen, it was still pretty resonant. Good sign. Third, too.

But you have to be into this kind of sound to appreciate it, i think. His lyrics are powerful in their own right, and he does have some equally powerful moments. Beautiful songs, but simple. A song like "Idaho," well, you just have to like folk music. I needed something new to dig my ear into in that genre, so I'm glad this full length came my way.

Also, Ritter majored in the self-created study of "American History Through Narrative Folk Music," according to Wikipedia and thus he is my academic hero.

9/17/08

Exclusive Lovedrug songs:
available here.


I do like them! They're so subtle sometimes, always little ringings or whatever in the background. Less than a month!

9/17/08

Now we take our time

so nonchalant

And spend our nights so bon vivant

We dress our days in silken robes

The money comes

The money goes

We know it's all a passing phase

We light our lamps for atmosphere

And hang out hopes on chandeliers

We're going wrong

we're gaining weight

We're sleeping long and far too late

And so it's time to change our ways

But I've loved these days

Now as we indulge in things refined

We hide our hearts from harder times

A string of pearls

a foreign car

Oh we can only go so far

On caviar and cabernet

We drown our doubts in dry champagne

And soothe our souls with fine cocaine

I don't know why I even care

We get so high and get nowhere

We'll have to change our jaded ways

But I've loved these days

So before we end and then begin

We'll drink a toast to how it's been

A few more hours to be complete

A few more nights on satin sheets

A few more times that I can say

I've loved these days

--Billy Joel, "I've Loved These Days"

Turnstiles

Turnstiles was one of the first CDs I owned. I like it a lot better now than I did when I was nine.  And this song is so soothing, so accepting, so satisfied with the good and bad in life. So reminiscent.

9/11/08

New obsessively re-watched video:


I like the sound, I like how authentic it feels. I like how simple it is, just really good elements of music blended together.

Little opened for Robert Plant & Allison Krauss I believe, and I fell in love with that record when I first listened to it. Pretty great stuff--works as background music for doing work, pensive reflection, content cruising or low lit, nighttime conversations.

9/11/08

Kanye can't lose his temper like this or he'll ruin

I really like Kanye. I don't care if he's not a good rapper, I don't care if he's kind of a douchebag. Dude gets what he wants, raps about what he wants and acts how he wants. He's kind of a hero of mine *sniffles* though the random acts of violence thing definitely makes him lose a few points.

I feel like I was just told the tooth fairy isn't real. Kanye IS just like every other celebrity.

9/10/08

This deserves to be shared.
I like it when they're funny

9/10/08

What career will they NOT do a reality TV show about?



The search for the subway superstar?

Kind of fascinating, kind of weird. I really don't know who is going to watch this show other than me. It's appeal to musicians seems redundant--why would they want to watch a competition of people just like them? Some might even say it's hypocrisy since the winner gets a chance to perform at an MSG event, a far cry from an underground subway.

One performed said he loved the opportunity because it was like a "Woodstock of subway musicians" while they were all auditioning for the competition.

There is a lot of cool music on it--just everything, every style, all kinds of people who look all different ways. Some of the musicians who performed at the open call seemed like normal, crazy musicians, others are fantastically unrealistic. Take, for example, the folk duo Dagmar--the woman performed with dragon wings and a pilot helmet a la Amelia Earhart. Sweet.

Then there was the ukulele player who called a stuffed leopard his production manager, and said he loves it when women smile at him. "I like smiles more than money, they last longer." Right on, dude.

Lots of old blues guys too(my personal fave). I especially enjoyed the metal-looking dude who played an electric violin, he was jumpin around all crazy-like.

Lots of cross-eyed lookin' folks as well.

It's interesting, though, to hear the perspective of New York from the eyes of the subway musician. They just love performing, so they perform. An honest lifestyle. Many of them noted the difference between performing in the subways or on a stage--and how the underground setting can make for a better performance.

9/8/08

It's nice to know even Chris Martin has bad days.

Just because I'm losing
Doesn't mean I'm lost
Doesn't mean I'll stop
Doesn't mean I'm in a cross

Just because I'm hurting
Doesn't mean I'm hurt
Doesn't mean I didn't get what I deserve
No better and no worse

I just got lost
Every river that I've tried to cross
And every door I ever tried was locked
And I'm just waiting till the shine wears off...

You might be a big fish
In a little pond
Doesn't mean you've won
'Cause along may come
A bigger one

And you'll be lost
Every river that you try to cross
Every gun you ever held went off
And I'm just waiting till the firing stops
And I'm just waiting till the shine wears off
-Coldplay, Lost
Viva La Vida

Yes, "Viva La Vida" wasn't anything too spectacular, but I like this tune. In both it's arranged and acoustic forms. It's uplifting, in a spiritual-but-not-about-Jesus kind of way.

I get what he says with this song.

There's always gonna be people to keep you down, people who judge you and people who can make you feel like you're nothing--intentionally, or without even noticing. A simple message, a simple lesson, but it's one that hurts a little bit to learn.

I trust that as the years go on, you feel less and less lost. At least, that's what I'm holding out for.

9/7/08

Roger on 'American Dad' is a pretty swell character--so many quirks, so many good lines. On this one episode he has an obsession with Dolly Parton, and they way he sang to her in his car reminded me of me far too much--simply because the look on Steve's face was so confused and that's how most people look when they see me getting into really weird music in my car.

9/5/08

New Lovedrug has more Cursive-like tendencies than anything else. The songs are really meticulously composed and arranged, not scared of weird and ugly chords but fully embracing them. I love themm.

-and they're touring with Copeland!

That'd be a show to catch. Copeland played great live, but I'd LOVE to hear Lovedrug.

I really might just have to figure out a way to go that show in New York with both Lovedrug and Copeland and Lydia, who I've heard of and been told I would like but haven't heard yet. I really want to hear Copeland play off of "Eat, Sleep, Repeat," though, and hear Lovedrug do its new thing with "Sucker-Punch Show." They kind of fascinate me with that record and how sort of off-the-wall it is, how intentionally sounding disturbed. I just want to see how it would sound and if they could play it with as much charm as the records have in their arranged appeal, as with "Eat, Sleep, Repeat."

I've always really liked the song, "The Last Time He Saw Dorie," and I was kind of weirded out when I found this:



though I fiercely wonder if that's how they meant it. If so, Finding Nemo is way weirder that I thought.


Definitely my favorite type of popular music--the really well composed indie or emo or just straight up rock. Sufjan Stevens holds the crown there for me though. He just thinks so huge, but isn't scared to have quiet moments, and just soooo many layers.

9/4/08

Between intense discussion in class and coming across this, i find myself wondering what's happening American perception of rock music. Fall Out Boy is probably one of the most popular rock bands that's around today--certainly they're one of the richest and get a ton of airplay. But their next record's concept is about Pete Wentz dealing with becoming a celebrity?

Come on. Who cares about that? If I'm not becoming a celebrity, how can I listen to his songs and relate to them, or feel connected to them? I guess I'm disappointed to see guys who made their first record crying about girls in their garages keep trying to make statements and be all epic. Stop. Trying. When Pete Townsend played and looked all fucking crazy jumping around a stage, you think he was thinking about how sad he was he couldn't keep up with his fans? Doubtfully. He just looked bad ass. Wentz's pyschological trauma/lyrics like "“I don’t care what you think, as long as it’s about me" just don't say rock and roll to me. Terrible song.

There's these growing divides, these boxes of rock and pop rock that both fall under the huge blanket of popular music. It saddens me when I see artists who belonged in the first catagory transgress to the second. It's not because they're "selling out" or whatever, and I don't care how many fans bands have whether its one or one million. It's just, if you're going to label yourself a rock and roll musician, you need to be that--not some glitzy, Hollywood-ified brat.

I want my rock stars to be just that--on lot of drugs, acting insane on stage, criminal record a plus. That's the way it's supposed to be.