Sunday, March 25, 2012

3/25/12

Oh, wow, this song. It got stuck in my head sometime yesterday around 7 o'clock maybe, as I was waking from an accidental nap and snuggling up to blankets, a cat and the 'Cuse game.


*Unfortunately I can't find a version like the one on my circa-2004 mix CD, acoustic without the rather unsuitable drum loop. Let the record show I do not approve.*

Here I am today, as I was the day before that and will be tomorrow, trudging along through tasks and assignments and life in hopes of some sort of gratification, satisfaction, maybe even a raise someday. Is there really nothing else to be offered right now? Nothing but chances emboldened by memories.

"I don't remember what it used to be like
The things that I'm not proud of
And the only reason I kept coming back to you
Was 'cause I thought I was in love

But I don't think about you anymore
And I wonder what the hell I came here for
When I'd rather just fall right off of your floor
And come beautifully undone"


There is the past, tangible, like pictures of happy times when you were younger. They are there for reflection, inspiration, but you will not find your answer in it.

Why do we look for answers in a time that no longer exists? Why do I think there's growth to be found on lands I've clearly scoured? When did I lose my way, and how do I get it back, and are the keys what I think they are, or are those distractions? These are questions I ask when trying to sleep, and when waking up from accidental naps.

"I don't recall San Francisco at all
It falls right from my memory
And the only place that really exists
Is where you thought you'd found me

But I don't think about you anymore
And I wonder what the hell I came here for
When I'd rather just fall right off of your floor
And come beautifully undone
"

~Beautifully Undone
Lindy

3/25/12



Apparently Look Mexico is into hunting, subject matter suitable for the video to their first track of their 2010 release, which is in my daily rotation. Illuminating the everyman, he who hangs with friends and kisses hounds, it makes the band seem pretty fun. But I think there's more to say for this song than the video says, though.

There's fed-up anger here, and it speaks to me in time signatures.

"When you live out your time/In hope of impossibility/We stripped down lies/We treated you like family/Credit where credit is due/Now the bureau is looking for me/So as you thank us for our patience/Expect something else, not a thing/and I thank you/I'll thank for/Thank you for absolutely nothing"
~You Stay. I Go. No Following
Look Mexico, To Bed, To Battle

Literary worlds are inflamed wtih income inequality tales, academic journals are quick to point out problems and debate each other's solutions. Everyone's talking. But where's the music on this? It's there in a pop track or two, an occasional reference to money or fame ("I Wanna be a Billioniare," that damn song) or escape (think Coldplay's "Paradise"). Fleet Foxes did a pretty good job capturing the feeling of it all on "Helplessness Blues," but commentarywise, the album speaks to the individual far more so than the whole of the culture or its direction.

One of the constant drawbacks of pop culture is it's always trying to define itself into what it wants to be, rather than be what it is. Underground, you find the antidote. Underground, you can call the spade a spade. But I've yet to come across a force inspired recent events in recent years, unless I'm forgetting somebody.

Essentially, where is my Guerilla Radio about derivatives?