Tag Archives: music

Aug

4

2011

Things I Learned From My iPod Shuffle Challenge

In the two weeks since I finished my iPod shuffle challenge, during which I listened to a complete shuffle of all the songs on my iPod without skipping any, I’ve been restless about music. New shuffles bore me, my music seems stale. It feels like I’ve “just” heard all of it. So I’ve been listening to albums in their entirety, mostly because it feels different and because I can. I found that Abbey Road is almost exactly the length of one way of my commute. Listening to that album was one of the first things I felt like doing. Hearing side two Abbey Road songs during the shuffle felt wrong, as I explained in week 1.

So what did I learn from the iPod shuffle challenge?

* I have more patience than I thought. I did it. I listened to 2,724 songs without skipping a single second of any song.

* Since I have now given every song a chance to wow me, it’s completely OK to delete songs I don’t like very much. I erred on the side of inclusion when I originally ripped my CDs, but I don’t have to store my entire CD collection on my iPod. Good lord, no.

* The key lesson is my desperate need for some new music. Both new to me, since I feel like I’ve totally lived my current collection of songs at the moment, as well as new as in not old. Most of the songs I highlighted during the challenge were released prior to the current decade. I’ve had trouble finding new bands I like for a long time now.

Suggestions are most welcome. Please, for the love of all that is holy, share any great new artists you love. I need a music freshening.

I was excited to get an invitation to try the free version of Spotify. It’s pretty cool, basically in exchange for putting up with the occasional ad, I can listen to almost any song I want whenever I want, without paying for it.

But there’s a catch…your own imagination. I don’t know about you, but being able to search for anything I might want to hear but don’t already own makes my mind go totally blank. I keep using Spotify to listen to the same two songs, because they are the only ones that come to mind. The first is Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep,” which is one of the very few new songs I’ve been exposed to and liked since starting the shuffle challenge. It’s fun to sing.

Then there’s Katie Costello’s “Stranger,” which I heard on “Switched at Birth,” and was pleased to find on Spotify. It’s one of those songs that you like, even though listening to it evokes feelings of melancholy that make you want to jump off a cliff. Wait, just me? Since I think about the issues I believe she’s covering in this song a lot anyway (how well can we ever really know another person?), I find it compelling. Go ahead and listen. It’s sort of a cathartic sad. Really.

* The last thing I learned during the shuffle challenge is that my iPod is missing stuff. Some songs I love never made it onto my iPod and I need to fix that. These songs include:

Steppenwolf “Born to Be Wild” This song, as well as “Magic Carpet Ride,” were part of the soundtrack to my post graduation trip to Niagara Falls with friends. I was not particularly wild, but I had the opportunity to be wild, so there you go.

Ace “How Long” There’s definitely a cheesy 70s lite rock vibe to this, but I love it anyway. I already expressed my love of Paul Carrack’s voice when Squeeze’s “Tempted” came up in the shuffle. I would listen to him sing the phone book (and I sort of feel like I have…Mike + the Mechanics).

Marshall Crenshaw “Someday, Someway” I don’t suppose anyone has ever before compared this to Buddy Holly? I love that I found a video of his performance on Letterman, so that’s what I embedded.

Elvis Costello “Veronica” For the longest time, this was the only Elvis Costello song I liked. More of his songs have since grown on me, but this one is still my favorite, especially now that I’ve known a Veronica (Dave’s Mom).

When I went to see Paul Simon in concert a couple of months ago, I was shocked to realize that although I have Simon & Garfunkel’s whole catalog, I didn’t have any of Paul Simon’s solo music. Not even my favorite song. Not sure how that happened. So I listened to “The Obvious Child” on You Tube 500 times before and after that show.

The Cranberries “Dreams” Maybe everyone can point to a song that perfectly explains what it feels like to fall in love, but my song is a particularly good one, no? This song was released the month I met Dave. Our favorite radio station played it incessantly while the lyrics were happening to me. Somehow this CD never made it onto my iPod.

Mazzy Star “Fade Into You” This song has been on my “to buy/download” list for 17 years. Oops. Need to get on that.

Wedding Present “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” I don’t think the Watusi album was very well received. It’s even out of print, even though earlier albums are not. I think it must have been a rare happy period for David Gedge, and perhaps that turned off his hard-core fans, who like him full of angst. But I thought the songs were goofy and charming. There is just something extra compelling about a bitter guy in love.

Of course, all of these songs are at least 17 years old.

Jul

31

2011

I’m Still Yawning

I’m not in the best frame of mind to write a post, particularly about the sleep experiment. But I’ll start with the positives of week 1:

The first two nights, I turned off all screens by 11pm and was in bed before midnight.
My average bedtime (12:39am) was about 40 minutes earlier this week than last week.
I was generally more aware of the time at night.
I got out of bed before 8am (considerably so except for Friday) every day except today.

But:

I didn’t really get more sleep this week. I got up earlier for work, to run, etc… than usual. So I averaged 6 hours per night this week, the same as last week.
By Friday morning, my body revolted and I got up an hour late for work. So I had to stay late on Friday, which I hate doing.
I took a big step back last night. It’s tempting to blame it all on Dave, so I will! He was three hours late in getting home and didn’t call (bad Dave!) and I was worried. And the later it gets/more tired I get, the harder it is to stop picturing him in a ditch somewhere. So I didn’t get to bed until past 3am, after he was safely home (and I’d killed him).
I couldn’t drag my ass out of bed until after 10 this morning and I was starving, so Dave and I went out for breakfast, in lieu of my official “Happy Fun Time.” Going out was pleasant, but I hate the (oh so familiar) feeling of having burned so many daylight hours sleeping. And I’m upset with myself for screwing up my frigging Happy Fun Time the very first week (the irony of being so irritated over something I call Happy Fun Time is not lost on me).
Worst of all, my eye pressure/cluster headache isn’t gone, and I was more aware of feeling tired this week than I’ve been in a while.

Disturbingly, I also almost passed out at work on Thursday. I was standing for awhile at a retirement party (during which it took all my strength to stop from grabbing my soon to be ex-colleague’s pant leg and begging her to take me with her) and in the middle of a conversation with my boss, I got that tingly, hot (and not in a good way), light-headed feeling I’ve learned from embarrassing past experience means “sit the fuck down right now.” So I had to interrupt my boss to say I didn’t feel well and needed to sit. Smooth. Later when I tried to make light of it by saying “I’m a delicate little flower,” my boss’ response was “you look pretty sturdy.” If she’d said that 15 pounds ago, I probably would have cried.

In summary, I’d rate my sleep performance this first week as in need of improvement. I definitely think I can do better next week. I’d like to average 7 hours of sleep this week. Wish me luck.

Jul

24

2011

Playlist Weeks 27-28: I’m So Glad, I’m So Glad, I’m Glad, I’m Glad, I’m Glad

In January, I challenged myself to get through a whole shuffle of the music on my iPod without skipping any songs. And I did it. On Monday, July 18th I listened to the last song (#2,724) in the iPod shuffle challenge. I originally thought it would take me four to five months to complete. It took just over six months. Six months in which, for the most part, I didn’t hear the same song more than once and I didn’t hear much of anything that wasn’t already on my iPod. So what new music have I missed so far in 2011?

Here is the playlist summary for week 27 and the one day of week 28:

* Songs listened to: 109

* Completed: 100% (!!!)

* Number of double shots: 5 (The Police, Splashdown, Sting, The Beatles, Interpol)

* Number of triple shots: 1 (Genesis)

* The last song: Genesis “Hearts on Fire” (this is really embarrassing and not a little anticlimactic)

Now for songs worth highlighting:

* I was disappointed when the Beatles’ “The End” came up in the shuffle several weeks ago. There went my brilliant idea for a title for the last week. So the title of the last shuffle challenge post comes from Cream’s “I’m So Glad,” which seems like a pretty strong second-best title. Although I really am glad, whereas Cream doesn’t seem to be.

* Splashdown “Paradox” / “Games You Play” The Splashdown double shot was cool, since it was essentially the same song twice. The older version (“Paradox”) was first, followed by the reworked version (“Games You Play,” for the album Blueshift, which sadly was never released). I prefer “Games You Play,” so that’s the video below. The link to “Paradox” is above if you want to hear the difference. The lyric I like best is:

“So if your past approaches you
Preaching comfort
Don’t be fooled into a war you’ll lose”

Sort of fitting given my memoir-writing proclivities…

* LL Cool J “The Boomin’ System” “C- to the O- to the O- to the L- to the I- to the N- to the F- to the R- to the O- to the N- to the T- to the I- to the N, that means I’m chillin’. This song also is generous with its use of the word “Funky,” which always amuses me since I can’t help but imagine it refers to my favorite stuffed animal. Around the 20 second mark, LL says:

“Funky
For all the cars out there
And all the brothers
That like to front in their rides”

And the way he says it makes it sound like he’s talking to someone named Funky. And I must say that my Funky does enjoy frontin’ in his ride.

* Nicole McKenna “Take Me Over” I can’t really remember where I was introduced to this song, but it’s so lovely. It’s also fun to sing, even though it’s about drug addiction.

“She’s aware in her own little way
Fading in and out of the day
As she sits there in shame, and she wonders
Can you take, can you take, can you take me lower?
Can you take, can you take, can you take me over?”

“Fading in and out of the day” speaks to me. I don’t think you have to be addicted to drugs to have trouble being fully present during the day. I’ll just check Facebook one more time…

* Holy Fuck “Super Inuit” This was one of the songs on Dave’s unmarked 2010 Christmas mix. It came up on the shuffle towards the very end and while I knew I wanted to highlight it, all I knew is that it was “Track 1” on the mix. Soundhound to the rescue…and now I know the name of the song and the band. The band calls themselves “Holy Fuck,” which I rather like but is certainly not a good idea. Listening to this song makes me frantic. When I looked up the video, I found this live version that really impressed me. They seemed to be doing it all live. Their Wikipedia page says they intended to make electronic music without looping, programming, etc…

* Frazier Chorus “Cloud 8” Here’s a song Dave introduced me to early on in our relationship. It’s very cute and it’s also got some motivating lyrics even though the singer sounds like he’s trying to make you fall asleep.

“You were saying nothing, didn’t say a word. You said if you shut up for long enough, the more you heard. But you hear nothing, didn’t hear a word, and you soon get bored, because if you shut up for long enough you just get ignored.”

Jul

10

2011

Playlist Weeks 24-26: A Flannel For My Face

I’m challenging myself to get through a whole shuffle of my music collection on my iPod without skipping. Then I write about what I heard. I only have 109 of 2,724 songs left, so I think this should be the last week of the iPod shuffle challenge.

Here is the playlist summary:

* Songs listened to in weeks 24-26: 327

* Completed: 96%

* Number of double shots: 10 (Genesis * 4, The Police * 3, The Beatles, The Innocence Mission, Interpol)

* Number of triple shots: 1 (Genesis)

* Number of quadruple shots: 2 (The Ocean Blue, Genesis)

HIGHLIGHTS:

* The Producers “What’s He Got?” A song from my youth in the 80s, so infectiously catchy I never forgot it even though I never hear it anymore. Every once in a while, it would pop into my head and I had no way to satisfy my desire to hear it. Amazon Marketplace to the rescue, compilation CD purchased for one song. “Hey!”

* The Cars “All Mixed Up” My older brother loved the Cars, and I kind of had a crush on Benjamin Orr. I missed the Cars when they played here a couple of months ago. I was bummed to miss out, but it wasn’t really the Cars without Ben Orr. I know Ric Ocasek wrote all the music, creative genius, blah, blah, blah. But all of my favorite Cars songs were sung by Ben Orr. Lovely voice. I’m glad Ric Ocasek wrote this, but I’m even more glad Ben Orr was there to sing it.

* Bonus: Before I moved to D.C., my favorite radio station in Rochester played a song by the Red House Painters that haunted me. I knew I was already familiar with it, but I couldn’t put my finger on who did the original until it was almost over. All of the sudden, “the Cars” hit me and then I realized just how brilliant this cover is. I should have highlighted it when it came up on the shuffle in week 11, but my long discussion of “Mama Said Knock You Out” that week (which I’ve just noticed is now supported by a You Tube video that’s been removed, but I’m not bitter) precluded it.

* Squeeze “Tempted” The title of this post comes from this song. I love Squeeze, although since this was the first of their songs I ever heard, I think they engaged in some false advertising, since Paul Carrack doesn’t sing on any other Squeeze songs (to my knowledge anyway). Paul Carrack’s distinctive voice kicks serious ass, so when I heard other Squeeze songs, I remembering thinking what the hell? As much as I love Squeeze and the songs Glenn Tilbrook sings, “Tempted” will always be my favorite Squeeze song. In preparing this post, I uncovered a Sting cover of Tempted, which blew me away, and I’m not sure in a good way. I’m mostly just baffled I didn’t know about Sting’s version before and even more impressed by Paul Carrack’s vocals.

* The Police “O My God” I adore the Police. I went to Catholic school, and after Synchronicity came out, my school brought in a local Christian rock band to entertain us one day. At least I assume they were local, because they sucked. They were really pissed about this song. They provided some tsk-tsking to the Police, and I wondered if they’d ever really listened to the song, or were perhaps just really dense. Sting sings over and over about God, “take the space between us and fill it up some way.” I can’t pretend to know exactly what Sting meant, but blasphemy doesn’t sit high on my list of explanations. Imagine my horror as I sat in my school’s gymnasium and had no choice but to listen to this awful band butcher a great song by 1.) attempting to perform the music and 2.) reworking the lyrics. I wish I could remember their name, so I could see if there is any internet evidence of their useless existence.

* The Grand Candy “Made a Devil” This is one of Dave’s very talented guitar teacher‘s songs. This video was from the Grand Candy set preceding Dave’s “jam class” show in December.

* Slow Runner “Rainy Face” I only know about Slow Runner because the Grand Candy played a show with them last summer (although by now I would have heard this song in a KIA car commercial). I don’t like seeing bands I don’t know, so I checked them out first. While most of the songs I previewed didn’t do it for me, their bio melted my cold, dark heart. So charming. If you ever need to know how to write a good bio, check out their website. Their show was pretty charming too–just two guys sitting on the stage. The instruments involved a little old Casio keyboard that looked like a toy. They have a song called “She Wants to Wrap Her Legs Around the World.” The audience, including me, could not help but snicker, but they really seemed earnest about the song. Strange. Here is my favorite Slow Runner song.

* Lords of Acid “Rough Sex” This song cracks my shit up. I don’t know if that’s what they’re going for or not, but if they were going for sexy, it doesn’t work for me. This is a key example of my theory of Euro bands, which is simple. The men in those bands should not sing (Lords of Acid, Hooverphonic, Komeda, I’m talking to you).

* Interpol “Success” This is the first song on Interpol’s latest album and it spoke to me immediately. There seems to be some disagreement about the lyrics, but I love the lyrics at least as I understand them. “I have succeeded, I won’t compete for long…I’ve got two secrets, but I only told you one…” And my favorite part:

Somebody make me say no, no

Somebody make me say no, no

Somebody make me say no, no

Somebody make me say no, no, no

Yes

* Coldcut “Colours the Soul” When I first got Sirius, I systematically listened to each channel in genres that appealed to me for ten songs to see which ones I liked (have I mentioned I’m anal?). On the Chill channel, I heard this and it definitely helped me to chill. I should listen to this and to Sirius Chill more often, since I clearly need to chill (even God said so).

Jul

5

2011

Playlist Weeks 21-23: My Whole Life Has Been A Constant Ailment, You Can Provide A Simple Remedy

I’m challenging myself to get through a whole shuffle of my music collection on my iPod without skipping. Then I am supposed to write about what I heard each week. I’m five weeks behind. I started getting sick the day before my day trip to NYC, and I went anyway because I really didn’t want to miss my opportunity to see The Book of Mormon. I’m glad I went, the show was really good, but the 18-hour day really knocked me out. The virus took hold and wouldn’t let go for a week. So there wasn’t any progress on the shuffle challenge at all during week 22 because I didn’t go to work.

Five weeks worth of songs is too unwieldy, so I’m just going to cover the first three of these weeks, and catch up on weeks 24-26 next week. Then I should be back on schedule, and almost done (at 92% as of today)!

Here is the playlist summary:

* Songs listened to in weeks 21, 22, and 23: 200

* Completed: 84%

* Number of double shots: 6 (The Innocence Mission, The Police * 3, Stereolab, Simon & Garfunkel)

* Number of triple shots: 0

Now is the time in the iPod shuffle challenge when I think “Didn’t I hear that already?” a lot. These weeks were also annoying because my beloved/hated noise-cancelling headphones finally died (again). I spent over $50 to have them repaired/replaced by Sennheiser for the second time in a few years. Since that process takes weeks, I had to use the ear buds for awhile. I am NOT an ear bud person.

Just going to highlight a few songs this time:

* The title of this post comes from Kevin Gilbert’s “When You Give Your Love To Me.” I’ve mentioned him before. I first heard of him in Toy Matinee and then lost track of him. I was saddened to learn he died way too young. I managed to find a copy of his CD Thud (released about a year before his death) in a used record store a few years ago and I’m ashamed to say that “When You Give Your Love To Me” was the only song that really stood out on first listen. The other songs were somehow just beyond me at first. I’m always impressed by his lyrics, which are so clever and often biting. It took me longer to warm up to the music. But I did. This song is still my favorite though. It’s sarcastic, funny, yet hopeful and (I hope Kevin wouldn’t mind me saying this) adorable.

I found a series of videos on You Tube of Kevin supporting Thud outside a record store in Colorado. I was so happy to find these, but they depress me a little too. He deserved more success. Why Sheryl Crow became so successful while Kevin Gilbert had to play on the sidewalk to support his album, I’ll never understand. Here’s a link to the album version of the song.

* Mew “The Zookeeper’s Boy” This is the first Mew song I ever heard, courtesy of the Sirius channel formerly known as “Left of Center.” Hearing a new song I like enough to buy the whole album has become very rare for me. But I bought And the Glass Handed Kites and did not regret it. The album is meant to be heard in one sitting. I listened to it on repeat while cleaning our new house in 2006. I keep linking to live Mew videos because I’m so impressed at how they sound live. I’d love to see them one day. Maybe a trip to Denmark is in order?

* Craig Mack (featuring everybody and their brother) “Flava in Ya Ear” I love everything about this song. I love Puffy mumbling “You know we had to do a remix, right?” I love the irony of having so many featured rappers that Craig Mack isn’t that involved. I love that LL Cool J’s involved. I love the weird off-beat quality to the last “I’m kicking new flava in your ear” part of each chorus. This song reminds me of visiting Dave in Syracuse during grad school. Syracuse had shitty radio stations, so we ended up listening to the R&B/rap station most of the time. Dave’s car during grad school was the biggest piece of shit. He painted over the rust in geometric shapes. He installed a radio that had no knobs. There was no air conditioning. He eventually wore a hole straight through the floor of the driver’s side through which you could watch the ground go by at highway speeds. That was always a thrill.

* The Innocence Mission “The Lakes of Canada” I try not to highlight songs without a You Tube link, but I have to make an exception since this is one of my favorite songs ever. The Birds of My Neighborhood album came out right before my wedding, which we had in Canada. Hopefully my old boss isn’t reading, because hearing this song reminds me of the hours I spent daydreaming at work about finally being in the same city as Dave after so many years waiting for him to get his ass down here.

* Tuscadero “Nancy Drew” You know how parents get antsy to clear their house of your stuff the second you move out? That’s what this song is about. She’s pissed that her parents threw out her Nancy Drew books, etc…

My favorite line of this song is:

“I collected all fifty-six
And you threw them out
You’re both such pricks”

In the years after I left home, Mom and I had protracted negotiations about when I’d go through the attic and several times a year she threatened to throw out my stuff. Luckily, nothing was lost…except something extremely precious that, ironically and tragically, I had purposely given back to her for safe keeping.

My grandmother made quilts and because I was a girl, she made me a pink quilt when I was little. When I got older and asserted my love of green, she finally made me a new quilt. A beautiful quilt, a green quilt. I loved that thing. It got to where I couldn’t sleep without it. I took it to college. I even carried it to Dave’s room when I slept over there. It came with me when I moved into my first apartment in D.C. Years of use started to take their toll. Tears and holes started to form. My Mom’s cousin who can sew patched it a few times, but the situation was becoming too dire for patches. With regret, I stopped using it to protect it from further damage. Dave was moving here and I didn’t have room in my apartment to store anything we weren’t going to use. I asked Mom if she’d keep it for me until we had a bigger place. I begged her not to throw it out. I was clear about wanting it back.

Sometime later, when I visited home, I noticed a flash of green in the back of my brother’s minivan. Under the Cheez-It crumbs and the other detritus of small children was my beloved green quilt, lining the back of the minivan. It was ruined. I felt ill. My Mom insisted she hadn’t given my brother the quilt. I dropped the subject. But every time I think of that quilt my stomach still catches with the sense of loss.

Jun

17

2011

That Time I Almost Killed Andy Summers

Today I read this post by Derek Powazek (via Schmutzie’s Five Star Friday).

Derek’s disappointment about his negative Twitter interaction with a “personal hero” really resonated with me, although I did find it ironic that part of the post was about his hero’s aversion to online commenting and after scrolling up and down and back again so I could comment about feeling his pain, I realized comments aren’t enabled on Derek’s blog. As a new blogger, I would love to have more comments and online discussion, but perhaps this is a case of being careful what I wish for?

So here is an expanded version of what I would have said in Derek’s comments.

My favorite band is the Police. A few months ago, Dave and I went to see the guitarist, Andy Summers, give a talk about his photography. Andy recounted a story about almost getting arrested on one of his photography trips. He was looking through a window when he felt a tap on the shoulder. It turned out to be a police officer tapping him, but Andy said his first thought was along the lines of “it’s probably a fan,” the word fan said in a tone indicating contempt, as if Andy felt like fans were a disease. When he said that, there was some laughter from the audience. Nervous laughter, the kind that involuntarily comes out when you realize that an unflattering remark resembles you.

At that moment, I was grateful I hadn’t tried to talk to him during my almost brush with greatness in 2007. I managed to snag front row seats to a Police reunion tour concert in Vancouver. Dave and I spent a week there, and in the days before the concert, I kept my eyes peeled. Maybe Sting, Stewart and Andy were already in Vancouver. Maybe we’d just bump into them. Maybe I’d win the lottery and be able to quit my job. Yeah, none of that happened.

In the days after the show, I was completely over the notion of running into members of the Police walking down the street. So when Andy Summers actually was walking down the street towards us, I did not notice. But Dave did notice and subtlety tried to point out that Andy Fucking Summers was walking towards us. I was being dense, so he ended up sort of forcibly turning my head to show me what the big deal was and I was so taken by surprise at Dave’s manhandling that I cried out in pain. Then I noticed Andy and it seemed to me he noticed us and our ruckus. As I turned around to watch him walk past, I saw him step into oncoming traffic trying to cross the street (presumably to get away from us). The person Andy was with had to pull him back so he didn’t get hit by a car.

There are probably people who are healthy enough not to assume Andy’s actions had anything to do with them and who still would have thought this encounter was a good opportunity to meet Andy Summers. I am not one of those people.

I did not get the sense Andy would have been pleasant. And I knew a negative interaction would have bothered me for a very long time. It’s possible that Andy is gracious with fans and that my instincts were wrong and that he didn’t even see me and Dave and didn’t cross against the light because of us. And a part of me will always regret how close I was to meeting him and not doing anything about it.

But just because I like someone’s work or think they are talented doesn’t mean they will be nice or want to talk to me. What if the people I admire are actually assholes? Do I really want to know that? To have to remember a negative interaction with a personal hero for the rest of my life? No, I do not.

May

29

2011

Playlist Weeks 19-20: I Wanna Ride The Big Wave

I’m challenging myself to get through a whole shuffle of my music collection on my iPod without skipping. Then I write about what I heard each week (or so!).

Here is the playlist summary:

* Songs listened to in weeks 19 and 20: 168

* Completed: 77%

* Number of double shots: 3 (The Beatles, The Police, Sting)

* Number of triple shots: 1 (Genesis)

With 77% complete, I’m beginning to see the end of this thing. Good thing too, because while I’m still enjoying the actual listening, my original thought about this being an “easy way to get a weekly post” was a load of crap. These playlist summary posts take just as long to compose as my other posts, usually longer.

I’m taking a day trip to NYC next week so I’m hopeful I’ll get a lot of listening done given the nine hours I will be trapped on a bus. I’ve never done this DC to NYC bus thing before, and it’ll be a long (18 hour?) day, so please pray for me.

The past two weeks didn’t produce a ton of noteworthy songs, and some of those didn’t have You Tube videos available, so I only have six songs to highlight this time. I know there’s some sentiment that the 90s sucked for music, but five of the six are from the 90s. Thank god for the Interpol song, otherwise I’d look even more nostalgic than usual.

Toy Matinee “The Ballad of Jenny Ledge” This came out in 1990 when I was still in high school. Like a lot of the music I listened to then, I think I heard it on the Canadian radio station that I could sometimes tune in, particularly during the summer. I’ve mentioned Kevin Gilbert before, and this is one of my favorite songs from the one album he recorded with Patrick Leonard as Toy Matinee. Kevin’s hair in this video is so frightening, please try to look past it. Also, check out Rosanna Arquette in the video.

School of Fish “3 Strange Days” This came out my last semester of high school and this CD helped me bridge the transition from high school to college. I am having a lot of trouble these days finding bands with more than a couple of songs I like, or who I don’t get sick of after a little while (see Franz Ferdinand). But I’ve been shocked at how much I enjoy School of Fish songs when they come up on the shuffle. This whole CD is really good.

The Pursuit of Happiness “Cigarette Dangles” This is a song that Dave and I used to dig the first year we were together, although I absolutely do NOT share the cigarette fetish. I just love the sound of the backing vocals, which incidentally is where the title of the post comes from this week.

October Project “Bury My Lovely” This song is haunting. I imagine it’s about child abuse and while I feel my childhood experience doesn’t reach the level of that label, this song brings to mind growing up in that house with my Dad. I put this song on a mix for my brother and he thought the singer was a man, baby. I have no such confusion, but Mary Fahl’s voice is something else, eh?

“Something that was left behind
Something in a child’s mind”

Ivy “The Best Thing” This is from the late 90s, after I moved to D.C. to become a gainfully employed adult. I never paid any attention to the lyrics to this until today, and I think they might be sort of depressing, but I’ll just continue to ignore that because the song is catchy.

Interpol “Not Even Jail” And here we have our lone entry from the last decade. NOTE TO SELF: find some new music after this shuffle challenge is over.

This is my favorite Interpol song, which I didn’t even discover until I was preparing for the Interpol concert Dave and I went to see last November. Just go listen to this bad boy. Not sure what to say other than I can’t wrap my brain around how this whole song manages to be both anticipation as well as climax.

May

26

2011

These Songs Are True, These Days Are Ours

God damn Paul Simon.

I saw his concert last night at DAR Constitution Hall and the mother fucker made me cry three times. In public. By myself.

I knew I was likely to lose my shit if he played “The Obvious Child,” but the one-two punch of that song coupled with “The Only Living Boy in New York” knocked me right into a nostalgia sinkhole from which I worried I would not recover.

“The Obvious Child” was big on my freshman hall. We listened to it all the time and I’ll never forget the joy that song brought to my unrequited love.

Paul seems to want to drag you into the nostalgia sinkhole (“Sonny’s yearbook from high school is down from the shelf and he idly thumbs through the pages…”). The Simon & Garfunkel songs about the tenuous bonds of friendship, a la “The Only Living Boy in New York,” slay me. I cried the whole way through that song.

This was the first concert I’ve ever attended by myself. I wasn’t sure if Dave would want to go, so even though I was theoretically able to pull the trigger on tickets right when they went on sale, I waited until that evening to buy, until I could check in with him. By that point, only singles were available. I grabbed one and hoped I’d be able to find another close by, but it never happened.

I do stupid shit like this all the time. I over analyze stuff before committing when I really should be jumping at the chance to do it. Take the spring digital photography class being offered by my County. Improving my photography skills is on my fucking list of goals for 2011. But I still hemmed and hawed about it a good couple of weeks. Even when I sat down to register, I spent 15 minutes Googling the instructor first. Of course, when I was finally ready to commit, I found the class was full…and probably had been the entire two weeks I was thinking about it.

Anyway, being at the concert by myself was fine, particularly after the show started. The two seats next to me were empty during the first 2.5 songs. I started to wonder why the hell Dave couldn’t be there when two girls showed up, beers in hand. They didn’t seem super into it and talked to each other during several songs, including “The Only Living Boy in New York,” which made me ornery.

A cute, overly excited young couple in front of me inexplicably kept checking their phones for texts during most of the show. I know I’m a crotchety old woman, but I seriously don’t understand how people who clearly love Paul Simon so much can be unable to focus on him for two hours. The girl actually responded to a text from her Mom to tell her that Paul was playing “Mother and Child Reunion” at that very moment. Your Mom needed to know that, right now? Really?

Of course, after I got a ticket for this show, I found out Paul was also playing the 9:30 Club two nights later. But I live under a rock so was already too late to get tickets. I’m not sure why exactly, but the 9:30 Club show was the hotter ticket, as evidenced by the fact that Stubhub’s going price for it was $400 yesterday while there were still reasonably priced tickets for the Constitution Hall show available only hours beforehand.

I was a little worried about the venue. On the “I am old and want comfort” hand, Constitution Hall has very comfortable seating and a good view from anywhere in the house. On the “maybe I should want to be a hip music aficionado” hand, the Interpol show we saw at Constitution Hall back in November was kind of lame. The sound was pretty muffled and the crowd, potentially in reaction to this, possibly due to the ass-sucking comfort of the seating, sat the whole time.

No such problems last night. The sound was excellent, crisp and quite a bit louder than I’d anticipated. The crowd was very enthusiastic, but thankfully (I am old!…and inhibited!) stayed seated for a good chunk of the show. But people started getting up and dancing during “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes,” and I must admit the atmosphere became electric and awesome at that point.

When Paul started “Gumboots,” he seemed to be having some trouble remembering the words, so a dude (apparently Paul Fournier) from the audience jumped up on stage and helped him sing. Paul was cool about it, and unlike with Rayna took turns singing with this guy. But I don’t think Paul actually invited him on stage until after the guy was already trying to get up there. The front row bouncer tried to stop him, but Paul seemed OK with it, so he let him up. I’m wondering if Paul’s going to be sorry at the audience participation trend he seems to have started. The Rayna thing seemed special, but if people start trying to come on stage every show it could get a little old, for Paul and the audience.

Paul Simon & Paul Fournier – Gumboots – DC

Paul Simon was joined by a fan, Paul Fournier, who did a pretty darn good job singing with Paul. Not clear if he was invited up or just decided he was going, but when security tried to stop him, PS waved him up. Every fan’s dream! Way to go Paul!!

This guy did a good job. I loved it when Paul handed him one of his water bottles and insisted he take a sip. I also loved how the guy’s outfit clearly indicated he had come straight from work. ROCK AND ROLL!

During the first encore, Paul and two of his band members played “Here Comes the Sun,” which was the third time he made me cry. I love the Beatles, and I love this song, and George is dead, and Paul nailed this song. So I cried. Again. Fucker.

At that point I realized this might be the best concert ever. The band seriously rocked, Paul’s voice sounded great, the set list was almost perfect, and even the songs I wasn’t as familiar with sounded really good.

Paul also seemed like he was having a great time. It was inspiring.

May

14

2011

Playlist Weeks 15-18: I’m Climbing Up An Endless Wall

I’m challenging myself to get through a whole shuffle of my music collection on my iPod without skipping. Then I write about what I heard each week (er, yeah…or every four weeks). I planned on combining weeks 15 and 16 due to my Mom’s visit over Easter. But then I started reading a very important work of literature on my commute, which interfered with music time. Then my computer’s hard drive crashed. I am behind…on life.

The title of this post comes from my theme song, “No Time This Time” by the Police. Indeed… “If I could, I’d slow the whole world down, I’d bring it to its knees, I’d stop it spinning round, but as it is I’m climbing up an endless wall…”

Here is the playlist summary:

* Songs listened to in weeks 15 through 18: 201

* Completed: 70%

* Number of double shots: 7 (The Police*2, The Beatles*3, Genesis, The Innocence Mission)

With so many weeks of listening to summarize, I just picked some songs that resonated most with me.

Some might call this a guilty pleasure, but I love April Wine’s “Caught in the Crossfire” too much to bother with that label. Picture 1981. My older brother had just gotten some nifty new headphones when this album came out and he called me over, plopped the headphones over my ears and said “listen to this.” The laser gunfire during the chorus sounded like it was skimming right past my ears, each shot alternating left, right, and back again and it blew my 8-year old mind.

I have fond memories of belting out the do-do-do part of Crosby, Stills & Nash’s “Suite Judy Blue Eyes” back in high school with my friends. Multiple times I have stayed in the car and driven further than I’ve needed to just so I can finish listening to this song. How can you miss the big payoff?

Freshman year of college. I’m dating a guy who has, along with his girlfriend, “agreed to see other people.” She is over 1,000 miles away and I am a naive 19-year-old who is also desperate to get over an unrequited love. Dating this guy starts to seem like an OK idea. But the girlfriend visits over her spring break and although I know about her, she clearly hasn’t been told about me. I am persona non grata all weekend, while they get to monopolize most of my damn friends. One of my best friends is away, but I have access to his room while he’s gone. Luckily, he has a copy of U2’s Achtung Baby, and blasting the shit out of the song “Acrobat” makes me feel quite a bit better about life.

While many songs bring back memories, The Ocean Blue’s “Between Something and Nothing” somehow manages to just feel like my freshman year of college, not a specific event or a specific person or interaction, but the whole damn thing. Before this week, it had been at least five years since I heard this song (and, uh, longer since freshman year itself) but the second it started, a movie of freshman year started rolling in my head.

Chimera’s music bridges the gap between graduate school and my adult life. Their CD Earth Loop was on heavy rotation during my onerous drives from D.C. to Syracuse to visit Dave. I particularly remember one Friday night when I thought it might be a good idea to avoid the traffic on the Beltway by taking 66 all the way to 81, since I needed 81 to get to Syracuse anyway. Um yeah, that was dumb, but at least I had some good tunes, because that was a long drive. “Catch Me” is the song that got the most airplay. Seemingly nothing came of this group and they disappeared just like that after this CD. Too bad really.

I think many people probably only know Massive Attack’s “Teardrop” because it’s the theme song for House. I had the opposite experience. I was obsessed with this song when it came out back in 1998 and listened to it over and over again until I became one with it. Years later, flipping through channels looking for something to watch on TV, I heard “Teardrop” and that was enough to make me stop to see what the heck the show was. A TV show using Massive Attack as the theme song seemed worth watching.

Though my time in Belgium preceded the release of Mew’s album And the Glass Handed Kites by more than a decade, the song “Louise Louisa” reminds me of my time in Brussels anyway. With the dual-language system used in Brussels, the Louise metro stop is “Louise/Louiza.” Tenuous connection, I know, but the mind makes links where the mind wants to make links. This song came up yesterday and I had it in my head all day today. For the first time in shuffle challenge history, I went back and listened to a song again. After finding this video, seeing them live is now on my life list (preferably in Denmark!).

I have been finding it harder and harder to develop a taste for new music. Land of Talk’s “Some Are Lakes” is an exception. I keep internet radio on very low at work because I don’t want to disturb my colleagues. So a song has to be pretty special for me to even notice it. The lyric “I’ll love you like I love you then I’ll die” really jumped out at me and after several listens, I decided I really loved this song. The rest of the lyrics are harder to decipher, but I have it on good authority that the bit before the part I like is: “We’ve seen how Sick Wind blows, but I’ve got your bovine eyes.” Say what? I’m no poet, so if anyone thinks they can help me understand what the fuck that is supposed to mean, that would be great.

Apr

20

2011

Playlist Week 14: F*ck Me I’m Twee

I’m challenging myself to get through a whole shuffle of my music collection on my iPod without skipping. Then I write about what I heard each week.

I hope it doesn’t come as a crushing blow to anyone, but I’ll probably combine weeks 15 and 16 into a post in a couple of weeks. My Mom’s visiting for Easter and I’m taking several days off, so won’t get much iPod listening in.

Here is the weekly summary:

* Songs listened to this week: 132
* Completed: 63%
* Number of double shots: 6 (Simon & Garfunkel, Genesis*2, Elvis Presley, The Police, Apollo 440)

The title of this post comes from what is only this week’s runner up in the “Best Dave mix song” category, Tullycraft’s “Twee.” I curse like a sailor, but for some reason I could not make myself use the word fuck in the title of a post, even though it’s a quote. Neurotic much?

There is a whole subgenre of music called “twee pop,” but in case you thought I was super hip to the music the kids are listening to these days, I feel the need to point out that I had to look that up. And also that I understand exactly none of the references in this song. Dave is more hip to new music, but I’m sure he put this on a mix for me just because of the word “twee.”

During the time I participated in book clubs, I established a rule. My rule of book club is that I don’t like book club. The last one I was in used book selection methods that were maddening. Every few months, we would engage in a chaotic group discussion during which the most prolific and vocal book suggesters filled up the calendar with books from their list. No one ever wanted to read anything I’d suggested, and the one time they threw me a bone, the rest of the group disliked it so much I wish they hadn’t bothered.

My first encounter with the word twee took place during a book club meeting. Unlike most of the books we read, I’d rather enjoyed reading the selection that month. For once, there was hot sex in it. One of the bookclubbers jumped right in with comments. She seemed to be dissing the book, but it was hard to be sure because the key term she used was “twee.” I found the whole discussion rather irritating, in large part because I had no idea what the hell the word twee meant. Vocabulary day at book club!

I also thought the whole discussion was prissy. Why couldn’t we just enjoy some hot historical fiction? They can’t all be Oprah’s book club material (ha!).

I don’t remember going to book club again after that. When I think back on it, my memory places the book hater in a tweed jacket complete with patches on the elbows, but that almost certainly has to be an embellishment of my imagination, no? Luckily, the memory of tweed (so close to twee!) became a useful mnemonic for my new vocabulary word! Although once I’d looked up the meaning of the word twee, I still wasn’t sure why it was an appropriate way to describe the book. And I still haven’t ever had the occasion to use the word, until now. Fuck me, I’m twee.

* Best Dave mix song AND weirdest coincidence: Juno Reactor “God is God“

I just published this post about my fond memories of watching The Ten Commandments every year and this awesome song came up in the shuffle the very next day. Creepy.

* Song that made me smile the most: LL Cool J “Mr. Good Bar“

Mom recently brought down some old family photos for my photo digitization project. Last weekend, I came across some pictures of my older brother at around 11 or 12 wearing a Hershey’s Mr. Goodbar tee shirt. Then this song came up in the shuffle a couple of days later. The vision of my brother in his shirt adds a whole new dimension of amusement to this song. Each new line made me giggle while out walking Chuck.

* Other random memories: Poi Dog Pondering “Circle Around The Sun“

The year I met Dave, he and his friends (one of whom was my roommate that year) introduced me to “Thursday night,” which was simply a drinking party they habitually held on Thursday nights (duh!). I already liked Dave a lot, so I was very excited about my first Thursday Night hosting gig. But then everyone started to bail and it looked like my special time with Dave would fizzle out. But I turned on the enthusiasm and saved it. I drove Dave and my roommate to Wegmans to get some supplies and I had one of my “Assorted Condiments” mixes playing in my car’s tape deck (I’m old!). Dave liked this song and that made me happy.

But there’s no You Tube video and that makes me unhappy.

* Most situationally-inappropriate song: Wings “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reggae”

This song is on a regular Wings album, so apparently I never marked its genre as “Christmas,” so it wasn’t part of my post holiday deportation of Christmas songs from my iPod. Not being able to skip this was painful.