fruit leather skin

Jesus' Birth Day

2009-12-25T15:39:00.000-08:00

Well gosh what kind of Birthday songs would be good for today?

Cibo Matto - Birthday Cake is always a good place to start. I don't really know many other Cibo Matto songs and every time I listen to "Birthday Cake" I wonder if it's for my own safety.

Jens Lekman - Happy Birthday, Dear Friend Lisa - The steel drums are pretty much the most birthday sounding thing in this song. Or maybe they are just birthday chords being played on the steel drums? The same way we've kind of accepted certain Christmas chords, certain Christmas instruments, et cetera. Jens Lekman's voice is coincidentally that of Jesus Christ, if Jesus Christ were from Sweden and was Jens Lekman.

Ween - Birthday Boy - Jesus Christ, Gene Ween says. "Paiiin." Obviously Gene Ween holds some deep personal connective tissue to our two-time coming lord and savior, Jesus Christ. He feels what Jesus goes through.

Speaking of Jesus:

I'll stand
With arms high and hope abandoned
With love
For the one who gave it all.

It's the season for givin' and this is about Jesus, so this is obviously a Christmas song.

Going to talk about something else, now.

The year is ending, and Christmas is almost over. Tiny Mix Tapes has the best list of the top 25 album covers from this year and there are so many good ones I didn't know about on there.

Things are just weird feeling today.

soda claus

2009-12-18T01:44:00.004-08:00

At work "One Christmas Catalogue" by Captain Sensible came on which was kind of weird for my store to be playing.

Also I realized I like "Wonderful Christmas Time" by Paul McCartney more than the overly war-hamfisted "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" by John / Yoko / Plastic Ono Band. "Wonderful Christmas Time" seems like the laziest Christmas song that went farther than originally planned which is a great model for just about anything.

"Last Christmas" by Wham! is pretty great and there are more than 400 covers dang. I was in Quiznos eating Broccoli & Cheese soup and a Steak Melt Sammie and I was thinkin' about collecting a bunch of the covers, isolating the line "once bitten and twice shy / I keep my distance but you still catch my eye" 'cause that's where a bit of a falsetto comes in and I wanted to see how many people changed it or whatever but then I got real angry because I'm frustrated about things like this. I'm kinda tired of themed Tumblrs or videos compiling every usage of a fake computer imaging/magnifying sequence in a TV show or whatever. I shouldn't be, but I've been way too happy lately and it's creeping me out so I'm being irrational and overly opinionated to keep myself on my toes.

"Mykonos" by Fleet Foxes came on during the last hour at work. Nobody comes in during that last hour usually and I was done with everything I had to do for the night so I mimicked with the Green-cheeked Conure for a while and wore a respirator 'cause Timothy Hay makes me super sneezy and I tried to wake a cat up by looking at her and whisperin' her name but I guess she's a heavy sleeper or can't hear whispering in her cat dreams or something.

getting back-to-school feelings

2009-12-11T22:05:00.003-08:00

But really I just have work tomorrow after having two days off. It's kind of the same thing.

Gonna link stuff at you now.

Blue Blue Blues starring Sonic the Hedgehog, by Ed Choy Moorman

Natasha Allegri

Hey some Christmastime for you!!!!

Drawn by Phil Elverum on Fancy People Adventures the last webcomic ever
The Microphones - Silent Night

I've been listening to "Merry Christmas From Yo La Tengo" pretty relentlessly lately.

Yo La Tengo - Rock n Roll Santa
Yo La Tengo - It's Christmas Time
Yo La Tengo - Santa Claus Goes Modern

Now I just feel lazy. I need to do something with all this do-nothing feeling I got building up in my face.

ALTERNATIVE ROCK FROM THE 90S IN NARUTO AMVS!

2009-12-08T21:41:00.008-08:00

Which hit alternative rock singles have been used for Naruto AMVs?

"Father of Mine" by Everclear? Yes.

"Semi-Charmed Life by Third Eye Blind? Yes, but WMG took down the audio. (An embed of the song is below the Naruto video.)

"Closing Time" by Semisonic? Do you think they meant 'whisky' or 'whiskey'?

"Dammit" by blink-182? Dude Ranch was a really good album.

"Come As You Are" by Nirvana? "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was too obvious.

"Loser" by Beck? It's just a slideshow but I fuckin love narutos so who caers soy un peridor

"Brick" by Ben Folds Five? No, which is kinda weird. I guess Naruto doesn't touch much on abortions. There's a video for "Best Imitation of Myself" though:

"Song 2" by Blur? Damon Albarn just sounds like Gorillaz to me, now.

"Everlong" by Foo Fighters? I feel pretty bad for the Foo Fighters, having to play this song so dang much. And they don't really modify it a whole bunch; they usually just play it with a few tweaks here and there. Seems pretty draining to me.

"Undone (The Sweater Song)" by Weezer? This is totally a great choice for an actiony anime!!!! Rivers Cuomo was apparently dead serious when he wrote this song. Sorry for misunderstanding, Rivers.

"Flagpole Sitta" by Harvey Danger? NO. WHAT.
WHAT.

"Popular" by Nada Surf? NO?

"Inside Out" by Eve 6? Yeah. Big whoop.

Okay, that's it. Basically almost every mainstream song from the 90s was used in a Naruto AMV.

On a somewhat related note, the weirdest AMV/Video Game MV I've seen is this one for Sebadoh's "Brand New Love" with clips from the game "Kingdom Hearts 2", which may or may not be an inside joke. It's basically a video trying to make it look like two video game dudes love each other.

And what the hell is this Deadsy cover? Who hates a band so much to cover an innocent song like this? I'm not linking it, it doesn't exist. Geez.

crusties

2009-12-08T00:26:00.003-08:00

It's pretty dang cold now. I mean you go outside and basically it's cold out, and it probably won't get any less cold. It will probably keep being cold outside. I'm on the lookout for icy sidewalks and winter beards.

What if people started posting icy sidewalk warnings on Twitter? That seems like a wrong idea but it would give Twitter some more purpose. I'm not going to write about Twitter anymore.

I got a few zines today. The one I really really liked was Ariadne Auf Naxos Vol. 2 by Julia Gfrörer.

I picked up the second volume on accident but there doesn't seem to be an issue with continuity or whatever. You can buy the first and second volume on her Etsy for ten bux which is a good plan.

Supercar - Highvision

2009-12-06T21:41:00.007-08:00

I'm listening to "Highvision" by Supercar all the way through for the first time. I don't think I should be drinking beer for this but I've already started and I can't really stop.

I just got to "Storywriter" and I really love the way I can barely remember the first two tracks and this song just came in with its awesome hook. The first two songs weren't bad, I just don't quite remember them. Another album I can think of that works this way is "I Can Feel the Heart Beating as One" by Yo La Tengo which basically has a short instrumental for the first track, then a long jam for the second track, then a single for the third track. I'm excited about this way of starting out an album.

I'm also drinking Olympia beer. (ADVERTISEMENT)

Basically "Highvision" by Supercar is an incredible collection of all the best emotions a person can feel recollected with synths and ambience. A good album to listen to when you really need to figure out where you're at in life.

Also holy crap the textures going on in "I"; it's like my head is a popsicle and this album is lickin' me.

Advantage Lucy

2009-12-06T17:32:00.011-08:00

I've been a fan of Lucy Van Pelt's EP "Advantage Lucy". It's an EP of nice '90s indie pop from Japan. The last song on the "Advantage Lucy" EP ends with "love is in the sky" and I smile out of awkwardness whenever I hear it, but I'm realizing that whole awkward twee feeling is something I'm missing in life.

After that EP, Lucy Van Pelt turned into Advantage Lucy. I found a video of two of their videos on YouTube and I got real excited.

I frantically searched for the two albums these songs were on and they turned out to be somewhat easy to locate. I'm going to repost the albums here to keep them easy to find.

"Goodbye" (「グッバイ」) comes from the 1999 album "Fanfare" (「ファンファーレ」)

「風にあずけて」 comes from the 2000 album "Station".
(This is a repost from http://gyeeker.blogspot.com !)

This music totally makes me want to get a melodica and sit under a tree. Instead I'm probably going to walk in the cold and buy some beer.

Lost Wisdom / Dawn / Black Wooden EP

2008-07-16T16:05:00.005-07:00

Pitchfork just dropped off a bunch of Phil Elverum infos. The dang track listing for Dawn. It's incredible.

Lost Wisdom:

01 Lost Wisdom
02 Voice in Headphones
03 You Swan Go On
04 Who?
05 Flaming Home
06 What?
07 If We Knew...
08 With My Hands Out
09 O My Heart
10 Grave Robbers

Dawn:

01 It Wasn't the Hunting
02 Cold Mountain
03 Moon Sequel
04 I Have Been Told That My Skin Is Exceptionally Smooth
05 I Say "No"
06 Moon, I Already Know
07 With My Hands Out
08 A Show of Hands
09 Woolly Mammoth's Mighty Absence
10 My Burning
11 Great Ghosts
12 Climb Over
13 We Squirm
14 Voice in Headphones
15 Who?
16 Dead of Night
17 See Me
18 Log in the Waves
19 Goodbye Hope

Black Wooden EP:

01 Black Wooden
02 The Bottomless Pit
03 If We Knew...
04 Appetite
05 Marriage
06 Mount Eerie Revealed (version)

"Moon, I Already Know" is on Dawn. Holy crap yes. Lost Wisdom has a 'musicians in a room playing music' vibe. Holy heck. Black Wooden has "Marriage" oh crap. There will be THREE studio recordings of "With My Hands Out" which is fantastic. Could mix tracks from Dawn and Lost Wisdom together. Song soup. Oh man.

Please play these simultaneously

2008-07-14T19:29:00.002-07:00

Elliott Smith / The Softies

2008-07-05T22:16:00.003-07:00

Just finished listening to Elliott Smith's self titled album. After I finished, I put iTunes back on shuffle and it went to The Softies' "Selfish" from their self titled EP. I think this is a good opportunity to post some stuff.

First:

Second:

Elliott Smith - Elliott Smith

Third:

The Softies - The Softies EP

What would be a pretty lengthy and overly literal listening session:

2008-07-04T12:37:00.007-07:00

Starting with Don't Wake Me Up:

1. Ocean 1, 2, 3
2. Florida Beach
3. Here With Summer
---Where It's Hotter, Parts 1, 2, and 3
4. Where It's Hotter Pt. 3
5. I'm Getting Cold
6. I'll Be in the Air
---You'll Be In The Air (before "You Were In the Air" by choice/narrative)
7. Tonight There'll Be Clouds
8. You Were in the Air
9. What Happened To You?
10. It Wouldn't
11. I'm in Hell
12. Don't Wake Me Up
--- Wake Me Up
13. Sweetheart Sleep Tight
14. Instrumental (not putting the other Instrumentals here)
15. I Felt You

It starts working a lot better with It Was Hot, We Stayed In the Water

1. The Pull
2. Ice
3. Sand (Eric's Trip)
4. The Glow
---The Glow, Pt. 2
---The Glow, Pt. 3
---The Glow, Pt. 4
5. Karl Blau
6. Drums
7. The Gleam
---The Gleam, Pt. 2
8. The Breeze
9. (Something)
---The Blow, Pt. 2
10. Between Your Ear and the Other Ear
11. Organs

Onto The Glow, Pt. 2. Going back in time, on this one.

1. I Want Wind To Blow
---The Glow
2. The Glow, Pt. 2
---The Glow, Pt. 3
---The Glow, Pt. 4
3. The Moon
---Moon Sequel
4. Headless Horseman
---Headless Horseman, Pt. 2
5. My Roots Are Strong and Deep
6. Instrumental
7. The Mansion
8. (Something)
9. (Something)
10. I'll Not Contain You (could include the Little Bird version)
---The Gleam
11. The Gleam, Pt. 2
12. Map
--- I'll Be In the Air
13. You'll Be In the Air
--- You Were In the Air
14. I Want To Be Cold
15. I Am Bored
16. I Felt My Size
17. Instrumental 2
18. I Felt Your Shape
--- I Felt Your Shape (with new ending)
19. Samurai Sword
20. My Warm Blood

Not really much to go off from with Mount Eerie, save for the lyrics referencing past songs.

EDIT: Since this is sort of related, I just remembered/heard one of my favorite parts of a Phil bootleg:

GUY IN AUDIENCE: "Glow, Pt. 2"?
PHIL: Oh, no. Sorry, I can't.
GUY: Aw.
PHIL: (starts playing "The Glow, Pt. 3")

Cymbals - Anthology

2008-06-15T08:49:00.005-07:00

Cymbals are described a lot as Shibuya-Kei, and in "Hey Leader" they describe themselves as "a band that's naughty and cute, with the spirit of punk," which is kind of funny. But they do have a lot of great songs. Anthology is as varied as band catalog retrospective albums tend to be.

Apologies for having to put this into parts.

Cymbals - Anthology (PT 1/2)
Cymbals - Anthology (PT 2/2)

Songs from the work radio, pt. 2

2008-05-28T18:42:00.004-07:00

Paul Simon - "Run That Body Down": I love songs with this sort of vibe. There's this undercurrent of a troubled marriage, then this sort of minor musical collision at the end. Beautiful.

ABBA - "S.O.S.": God, listen to the synths! From Wikipedia: "The descending chords and ominous synthesizer melody line of the introduction set the tone for Fältskog’s vocals, sounding almost as if she were breaking down in tears." Then the chorus basically contrasts that with synths made of tidal waves and everyone singing out to the waves and oh man yeah.

The Pretenders - "I Go To Sleep": If I go through life without this song coming back for me at the right moment it'll mess me up pretty hard. Maybe not pretty hard, but I guess it'd be disappointing. It's an incredibly rainy and weighted-down song. A night-time-fog-out-your-looking-window sort of song. (The version the work radio played was by the Pretenders, not the original by pre-punk band The Kinks).

B-52s - "Topaz": When I first heard this song it was one of those things I'd obviously like and it turned out I liked it. The vocals seem to intertwine like vines, then flourish out and explore their space during the chorus. The lyrics seem like something I'd write off as a list for song titles or titles for anything, here they bring to mind plenty of colors and images. I think I'm moving sideways on this one, I've written about it a few times so I'm out of steam.

I've got more than enough for you

2008-05-24T21:46:00.001-07:00

"The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)" is the new Weezer album. My prediction is there might be other songs that share the same media as "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived", but it will be merely as an afterthought. Just break this song up into ten tracks. Make the Red Album an EP just short of 6 minutes. It'll be good. Scott Shiner even said "The song 'The Greatest Man That Ever Lived' is a masterpiece that includes ten different styles of music based around a common theme," so there are ten different styles, and certain Weezer albums are borne on ten tracks. It just works! But serious, maybe the actual Red Album is what Weezer likes to do. Maybe the first two albums were the accident.

Anyway, just tried to do a drinking game to "Roxanne" by The Police and hell if I can drink anything that much.

Music from the work radio, pt. 1

2008-05-24T09:50:00.002-07:00

This is something I'll be doing every so often. Sometimes the work radio (more like a single track data CD that we change every so often, but work radio flows better) plays some pretty good songs in between all the kitschy instrumental music and Jon Secada. This is a collection of all the songs I can remember strongly, whether I like them or not. I'll make sure it's obvious.

Sting - "If You Love Somebody, Set Them Free": Sting and Sega CD quality video combine and I do not know how to feel.

The Highwaymen - "Silver Stallion": I love this dang song so much. Incredible lyrics, music that seems to wrap all around you, and there's just this awesome marriage of melancholy in a strong character that I'm all for. I'll admit, I'm all for when some tough guy admits they love the smell of grass in the spring. That is what I am all for. Also: any song that uses "thunder and lightning in her thighs" in such an honest and modest way has more than it knows going for it.

So only two songs right now, but heck if I can remember anything anymore. I make all these posts drunk.

My life: At home everyday, drinkin' coke in a kitchen with a dog who doesn't know his name

2008-05-14T18:55:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a place for me to just spew out a bunch of stuff about music. For starters, I mainly made this because I've been listening to American Water by the Silver Jews while drinking a tall can of Olde English and I realized a lot of what I want to say about music should best be done in an environment fitted for talking about music. Most of my favorite music blogs have been on blogspot, so I'm just going to get into this thing right here.