11/27/12

So I have been all about acoustic listening the past couple days, it may have something to do with getting amazingly hooked on these live Simon and Garfunkel recordings courtesy of my mom. It's a how-to of harmonies, subtle and deep and full of perfectly contrasted counterpoint. Thinking singing any of these solo would require some melodic tampering  - they don't always sound right alone which makes me fascinated to learn how the parts were found out and written. 

The urgency in this song, it is so palpable. Then I am reminded urgency is a manmade creation. So while I'm sitting here among crazy amounts of notebooks and Word documents fretting over where to begin and what to put in and what to leave out and why should I even bother when I am simultaneously figuring out how to sustain the part of my life that I am fortunate enough to get paid for, all I want to do is play my guitar and figure out how to sing all these songs though really I should just remind myself there's only so many hours in a day, a week, a life, to accomplish all these many things and brain cells need rest when you've been siphoning them every which way you possibly can and oh god I think I just need a dreamless, soundless sleep. 

"Time,time,time, see what's become of me
While I looked around for my possibilities.

I was so hard to please.
Look around,
Leaves are brown,
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter.

Hear the Salvation Army band.
Down by the riverside's
Bound to be a better ride
Than what you've got planned.

Carry your cup in your hand.
And look around.
Leaves are brown now
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter.

Hang on to your hopes, my friend.
That's an easy thing to say,
But if your hopes should pass away
Simply pretend that you can build them again.

Look around you,
The grass is high,
The fields are ripe,
It's the springtime of my life...

Seasons change with the scenery;
Weaving time in a tapestry.
Won't you stop and remember me
At any convenient time?

Funny how my memory skips
Looking over manuscripts of unpublished rhyme.
Drinking my vodka and lime,
I look around,
Leaves are brown now
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter.

Look around, leaves are brown, there's a patch of snow on the ground, 

Look around, leaves are brown, there's a patch of snow on the ground, 

Look around, leaves are brown, there's a patch of snow on the ground..."

~You Remind Me of Home 

Ben Gibbard, Home

11/18/12

Here's a tune that perfectly captures my loneliness/paranoia/commitment issues/penchant for picture-perfect, vivid memories of places and/or dreams, all of which make trying to sleep kind of difficult sometimes:



"A nice heart and a white suit and a baby blue sedan
And I am doing the best that I can
All the eunuchs, they were standing in rows
singing, 'Please stud us out just as fast as you possibly can.'
Sad song, last dance and no one knows who the band was
And Henry, you danced like a wooden Indian
Except this one mattered and I felt it had a spirit
And I shot the story because I didn't hear it that way

And it's hard to be a human being
And it's harder as anything else
And I'm lonesome when you're around
And I'm never lonesome when I'm by myself
And I miss you when you're around

And I miss you when you're around

And I miss you when you're around

And I miss you when you're around

And I miss you when you're around"

~Baby Blue Sedan 

Modest Mouse, Building Nothing Out of Something

11/16/12

This band's gonna blow the hell up, I predict.

What a hook. What tones. Good structure. What an all-too-common story to tell. Like the reference to skinny jeans. A modern sound without sacrificing familiar rock formats (like the layered break), like they do so well in the UK. They're kind of like Kings of Leon, but better singer. I hear some synth I don't see in the video, which is odd, but might just be pedals and my ears are too sleepy to tell. Definitely lots of electric fun in their songs, which is young and sexy and trendy and translucent, like falling.

Anyone signed to Vagrant off an EP, too, gives me high hopes. Please have a full length in 2013, boys.



"And this is how it starts
You take your shoes off in the back of my van
My shirt looks so good
When it's just hanging off your back
She said use your hands and my spare time
We've got one thing in common, it's this tongue of mine
She said she's got a boyfriend anyway....

There's only minutes before I drop you off
And all we seem to do it talk about sex
She's got a boyfriend anyway
She's got a boyfriend anyway
I love your friend when I saw his film
He's got a funny face, but I like that because he still looks cool
She's got a boyfriend anyway,
She's got a boyfriend anyway...

Now we are on the bed in my room
And I'm about to fill his shoes
But you say no
You say no
Does he take care of you
Or could I easily fill his shoes
You say no
You say no

And now we're just outside of town,
And you're making your way down,
She's got a boyfriend anyway,
She's got a boyfriend anyway...
And I'm not trying to stop you love,
But if we're gonna do anything we might as well just fuck
She's got a boyfriend anyway,
She's got a boyfriend anyway...

You've got your tongue pierced anyway
You in your hightops anyway
You in your skinny jeans anyway
You and your fit friends anyway
I'd take them all out any day
They've all got back combs anyway
You've all got boyfriends anyway"

~Sex

The 1975, Sex EP

11/15/12

Certainly I'll never tire of hearing Lindsey Buckingham's magical fingers do things to strings, but his new acoustic album is certainly on my something-buy-for-myself-while-Christmas-shopping Christmas list.

He takes "Never Going Back Again" and rearranges a tiny-but-powerful Rumors cut into something soft, regretful, eerie. It's still forging ahead, with it's great resolving melody, But it's much sadder, deeper, hurt. The interlude is far more somber and what he does vocally in the refrain fuels the heart of the song to the extreme, with whispers crescendoing into a powerful, pained, but perfectly pitched peak.

A pretty damn close to perfect updated arrangement.

Guy knows how to sing, knows how to use tone, and has impeccable timing all around. Just a master. Also he really knows how to write a song -- listen to the chat between tracks at the end of the song where he reminds the audience what the famous line "looking out for love" from the next track really means.

Apparently good things can happen in Des Moines (where this album was recorded live). Still glad I didn't end up living there, though.

"She broke down and let me in
Made me see where I've been

Been down one time
Been down two times
I'm never going back again

You don't know what it means to win
Come down and see me again

Been down one time
Been down two times
I'm never going back again"
~Never Going Back Again
Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, (as re-arranged and performed by Lindsey Buckingham for Lindsey Buckingham: One Man Show)

11/15/12

I have something of a penchant for songs that compare men to alcohol. It's a characteristic that lives in me somewhere next to the part that thinks dark, dingy alleys are romantic. Criticize, roll your eyes, it's true.

Don't listen to this album much anymore. Reminds me of freshman/sophomore year of college - whoa, that was awhile ago. But this hook got stuck in my head somehow this afternoon. Definitely a trendy album at the time that probably won't have much staying power as the years go on (could we say that for anything that was featured in an Apple commercial, maybe?), but it sure set a scene or two. Girl can sing. She's also Canadian.

Yeah. Those boys that are like liquor. Not a bad comparison.

"He's my Brandy Alexander, always gets me into trouble..." ~Brandy Alexander
Feist, The Reminder