None of the bloggers I follow seem to have been keeping up with their music diaries. I'll be the first to admit it's pretty tedious and chore-like after the first week, but I thought I'd post a "wrap up" of sorts:
Ten most played albums for May:
1. The Weakerthans - Reconstruction Site
2. Rufus Wainwright - Out of the Game
3. Nina Simone - Little Girl Blue
4. Ryan Adams - Rock 'n' Roll
5. Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
6. Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
7. Johnny Thunders - So Alone
8. The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
9. Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
10. The New Pornographers - Mass Romantic
There it is. I have pretty standard taste for an aging rock fan, I think. May's playlist is representative of what I listen to as background music for writing, or working out -- what I listen to when no one's looking.
I write a lot about pop music, it's social relevance or whatever, but it's rarely what I listen to at home. And I don't know if I'm supposed to feel a certain degree of guilt because of it. Growing up in an era where the schism between pop and not pop was definitely wider than it is today colored my perception of what "good" music is. I can intellectualize it, but at the end of the day, this is what's in my ear.
Top ten songs for May:
1. Nina Simone - "Plain Gold Ring"
2. Rufus Wainwright - "Out of the Game"
3. The Weakerthans - "Benediction"
4. The Weakerthans - "Plea From a Cat Named Virtute"
5. Rufus Wainwright - "Jericho"
6. The Weakerthans - "Reconstruction Site"
7. Ryan Adams - "This Is It"
8. The New Pornographers - "The Bleeding Heart Show"
9. The New Pornographers - "Letter From An Occupant"
10. Johnny Thunders - "You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory"
Showing posts with label music diary project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music diary project. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Music Diary Project: Sad Boys with Acoustic Guitars
(Full song lists at Tumblr )
Music Diary Project, Day 6:
I heard the Style Council’s “My Ever Changing Moods” in the supermarket earlier this afternoon. This is the same store that regularly plays Wilco, Rufus Wainwright, Rilo Kiley, and a whole bunch of other Triple A (do people even use this term anymore?) artists, which is simultaneously comforting and making me feel old and irrelevant.
Right now I’m listening to some sort of neighborhood sing-a-long which is annoying the fuck out of me. I have no idea what’s going on outside.
Okay, now they’re singing Gaga’s “Edge of Glory.” Like, a fourth grade choir of little monsters.
Music Diary Project, Day 7:
More unexpected background music: this time it was the Kinks in Shop ‘n Save. Maybe this is just indicative of my age, but most of the supermarkets around here have been transitioning from the usual Lionel Richie-esque, adult-contempo rock to something dare I say hipper?
Music Diary Project, Day 8:
This is pretty typical of my daily “background” music — nothing too incredibly jarring or progressive: just a lot of “aging hipster” rock, or something. Recently I added back to my music library a bunch of stuff I deleted in a fit of self-righteousness. I know the Stones are problematic, but damn it, I like them. (Even if Mick looks like Don Knotts and sings like that old joke, ‘hold your tongue and say ‘I was born on a pirate ship.’” )
Music Diary Project, Day 9:
I tend to respect singers above all else. And that doesn’t necessarily mean technical proficiency as much as means some kind of connection to the lyrics, whether you wrote them or not. (This is one of my primary issues with shows like American Idol.) Okay, I joke about the Cher love, but she is ridiculously consistent. Paul Weller has long been one of my favorite vocalists, too. His vocal attack is unique in that it’s simultaneously soulful and brash. Merrill Garbus I’ve written plenty about already, but I love that she doesn’t try to “pretty up” her voice, and that’s it’s not one I’ve heard before, though I have echos of it in everything from reggae to jazz.
Music Diary Project, Day 6:
I heard the Style Council’s “My Ever Changing Moods” in the supermarket earlier this afternoon. This is the same store that regularly plays Wilco, Rufus Wainwright, Rilo Kiley, and a whole bunch of other Triple A (do people even use this term anymore?) artists, which is simultaneously comforting and making me feel old and irrelevant.
Right now I’m listening to some sort of neighborhood sing-a-long which is annoying the fuck out of me. I have no idea what’s going on outside.
Okay, now they’re singing Gaga’s “Edge of Glory.” Like, a fourth grade choir of little monsters.
Music Diary Project, Day 7:
More unexpected background music: this time it was the Kinks in Shop ‘n Save. Maybe this is just indicative of my age, but most of the supermarkets around here have been transitioning from the usual Lionel Richie-esque, adult-contempo rock to something dare I say hipper?
Music Diary Project, Day 8:
This is pretty typical of my daily “background” music — nothing too incredibly jarring or progressive: just a lot of “aging hipster” rock, or something. Recently I added back to my music library a bunch of stuff I deleted in a fit of self-righteousness. I know the Stones are problematic, but damn it, I like them. (Even if Mick looks like Don Knotts and sings like that old joke, ‘hold your tongue and say ‘I was born on a pirate ship.’” )
Music Diary Project, Day 9:
I tend to respect singers above all else. And that doesn’t necessarily mean technical proficiency as much as means some kind of connection to the lyrics, whether you wrote them or not. (This is one of my primary issues with shows like American Idol.) Okay, I joke about the Cher love, but she is ridiculously consistent. Paul Weller has long been one of my favorite vocalists, too. His vocal attack is unique in that it’s simultaneously soulful and brash. Merrill Garbus I’ve written plenty about already, but I love that she doesn’t try to “pretty up” her voice, and that’s it’s not one I’ve heard before, though I have echos of it in everything from reggae to jazz.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Music Diary Project: Week One
(Individual entries posted at Tumblr )
Music Diary Project 2012, Day One:
I said I wasn’t going to do Cher. I lied. I really hadn’t planned on including any incidental music, but hearing this 25-year-old song blaring from someone’s car speakers this afternoon in a library parking lot, I mean, I had to. It’s so unexpected. I honestly, unironically, love Cher, even 80s, Bagel Boy-era Cher, so I love that there’s someone out there unafraid to look uncool, playing a desperately uncool song, in public.
Music Diary 2012, Day Two: Shaking off the flotsam of my early thirties
For whatever reason, I’ve been listening to a lot of the music I loved in my late twenties/early thirties: New Pornographers, The Weakerthans, Ryan Adams, plus The Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique since hearing about Adam Yauch’s death, and the new Rufus Wainwright record. Jury’s still out on the latter, which is disappointing as I really wanted to like it. Some of the songs read like disjointed diary entries, though I’d like to know the story behind Rashida.
Music Diary Project, Day Three: Acid Tongue & Androgyny
Jenny Lewis’s Acid Tongue and Rilo Kiley’s Portions for Foxes The former I’d completely forgotten I owned. Jenny Lewis is undervalued as a songwriter among my male music geek friends. Her voice, sure. Her looks, absolutely, but no one really talks about her words. And she’s such a smart lyricist — sometimes with a hint of meanness. Which I like, a lot.
The Replacements’ “Androgynous” The Replacements are the only band for whom I’ve managed an unhealthy obsession for more than two decades. I keep wanting to find fault with this song, given it addresses the topic of gender expression, but it’s written by and sung from the point-of-view of a straight, cis guy. The “something meets girl/something meets boy” part is pretty problematic. Even with that, there’s a still a genuineness lurking beneath the surface.
Music Diary Project 2012, Day Four: Fall Out Of The Window With Confetti In My Hair
Tom Waits - “Tango Till They’re Sore” A long time ago Gina Arnold about the Replacements: ”It was like being captured midair in a swan dive off a cliff. The landing might be a disaster — in fact it was sure to be. But those moments while you were flying, suspended in that beauty with the sea still such a long way down, it was pure, pure bliss.” Tom Waits songs are a lot like that, this one especially — that bliss before the crash sort of feeling.
Barbra Streisand - “Woman in Love” I maybe don’t have the greatest musical acumen, but I always hear this song in Britney’s “Oops I did it again.” Tell me I’m not crazy.
Via YouTube, a bunch of Ewa Podles videos Full disclosure: I’m not all that knowledgeable about opera, but she has the most amazingly deep, resonant contralto I’ve heard. She can even easily hit notes in the baritone rage. I hate when any female singer with a voice that isn’t light and trebly is labeled a “contralto.” Most of them aren’t. Yeah, pop singers really don’t have vocal types the way classical ones do, but still… this is what a contralto sounds like.
Music Diary Project 2012, Day Five: Mixtape
You know you're old when you refer to a collection of songs in any medium a mix "tape." Technically this is a mix CD I got in an online trade years ago, but people don't really don't do those anymore either. This one is mostly indie or rock acts from the early 00s -- the Hives, Ben Folds... with some classic thrown in for good measure (Elvis Costello, B-52s). It's almost embarrassing in its averageness, but I've made many of the same mixes for other people, and am in no place to complain.
Music Diary Project 2012, Day One:
I said I wasn’t going to do Cher. I lied. I really hadn’t planned on including any incidental music, but hearing this 25-year-old song blaring from someone’s car speakers this afternoon in a library parking lot, I mean, I had to. It’s so unexpected. I honestly, unironically, love Cher, even 80s, Bagel Boy-era Cher, so I love that there’s someone out there unafraid to look uncool, playing a desperately uncool song, in public.
Music Diary 2012, Day Two: Shaking off the flotsam of my early thirties
For whatever reason, I’ve been listening to a lot of the music I loved in my late twenties/early thirties: New Pornographers, The Weakerthans, Ryan Adams, plus The Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique since hearing about Adam Yauch’s death, and the new Rufus Wainwright record. Jury’s still out on the latter, which is disappointing as I really wanted to like it. Some of the songs read like disjointed diary entries, though I’d like to know the story behind Rashida.
Music Diary Project, Day Three: Acid Tongue & Androgyny
Jenny Lewis’s Acid Tongue and Rilo Kiley’s Portions for Foxes The former I’d completely forgotten I owned. Jenny Lewis is undervalued as a songwriter among my male music geek friends. Her voice, sure. Her looks, absolutely, but no one really talks about her words. And she’s such a smart lyricist — sometimes with a hint of meanness. Which I like, a lot.
The Replacements’ “Androgynous” The Replacements are the only band for whom I’ve managed an unhealthy obsession for more than two decades. I keep wanting to find fault with this song, given it addresses the topic of gender expression, but it’s written by and sung from the point-of-view of a straight, cis guy. The “something meets girl/something meets boy” part is pretty problematic. Even with that, there’s a still a genuineness lurking beneath the surface.
Music Diary Project 2012, Day Four: Fall Out Of The Window With Confetti In My Hair
Tom Waits - “Tango Till They’re Sore” A long time ago Gina Arnold about the Replacements: ”It was like being captured midair in a swan dive off a cliff. The landing might be a disaster — in fact it was sure to be. But those moments while you were flying, suspended in that beauty with the sea still such a long way down, it was pure, pure bliss.” Tom Waits songs are a lot like that, this one especially — that bliss before the crash sort of feeling.
Barbra Streisand - “Woman in Love” I maybe don’t have the greatest musical acumen, but I always hear this song in Britney’s “Oops I did it again.” Tell me I’m not crazy.
Via YouTube, a bunch of Ewa Podles videos Full disclosure: I’m not all that knowledgeable about opera, but she has the most amazingly deep, resonant contralto I’ve heard. She can even easily hit notes in the baritone rage. I hate when any female singer with a voice that isn’t light and trebly is labeled a “contralto.” Most of them aren’t. Yeah, pop singers really don’t have vocal types the way classical ones do, but still… this is what a contralto sounds like.
Music Diary Project 2012, Day Five: Mixtape
You know you're old when you refer to a collection of songs in any medium a mix "tape." Technically this is a mix CD I got in an online trade years ago, but people don't really don't do those anymore either. This one is mostly indie or rock acts from the early 00s -- the Hives, Ben Folds... with some classic thrown in for good measure (Elvis Costello, B-52s). It's almost embarrassing in its averageness, but I've made many of the same mixes for other people, and am in no place to complain.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Music Diary Project 2012
I'm a bit noncommittal, but I'm going to try Sick Mouthy's Music Diary Project again with the caveat that I'm using it more as a writing prompt than an actual log of all the music I've listened to throughout the month. I ran out of steam last year and basically resorted to copying and pasting my workout playlist.
Yeah, I'm cheating, but I really need a writing prompt right now as I'm suffering from a severe case of blog apathy. I'm probably going to be posting these to Tumblr (I've already started here ) and not every day -- maybe two or three times a week.
Yeah, I'm cheating, but I really need a writing prompt right now as I'm suffering from a severe case of blog apathy. I'm probably going to be posting these to Tumblr (I've already started here ) and not every day -- maybe two or three times a week.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Music Diary Project: I'm Done
Call it a near win.
I'm stopping right here, and not logging music this weekend because I'm not the kind of music listener this project is groomed for. And it only took me a week to figure this out.
I came in with good intentions, thinking it would inspire me to write about my relationship with music. But we're not exactly lovers in the throes of passion. We're more like cubicle mates politely nodding hello over morning coffee. I think the biggest lesson I learned, what I touched briefly on yesterday, is that I don't use music in an emotional or sentimental way. It's not something that's always a part of my life, though it is a part of my livelihood. How did this happen? I'm not a professional musician, and I only play at being a music critic online. Theoretically, I shouldn't have such a clinical relationship to music.
I think another big part of it is that music listening is a very solitary activity for me these days. I usually don't have that interaction with other people, and how music is effecting them. This is mostly a product of age, but something I'm not ashamed of. My club days are definitely over, and I rarely go to concerts. I'm not around people who are constantly playing music. I prefer NPR in the car, and I usually leave my iPod at home. I just don't listen to the volume of music I once did. Three of this week's entries came from workout playlists.
So was it a complete loss? Absolutely not, but I'm better equipped for other things besides logging what I'm listening to.
(The rest of this week's music diary posts)
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Music Diary Project, Day Five
9 AM
Mor Karbasi - "Shecharhoret" (youtube)
Culled from my last.fm recommendations. Since I restarted my blog last year, Last.fm has become indispensable tool for discovering new music. I know I plug them a lot, and believe me, they have more than their share of problems from the on-site player crashing to the server being down for days at a time, but I can't imaging not having last.fm. This song is super-pretty, sung in Ladino (Judeo-Spanish.) Might download later.
It was warm enough this afternoon to open a few windows. I love this time of year when it’s warm but not warm enough for air conditioning, and the cool, early days of spring seem to be over. Someone was blasting Eminem out a car window, but I couldn’t identify which song.
3-4 PM (or thereabouts)
The Mountain Goats - “Family Happiness”
Paul Westerberg - “Mr. Rabbit”
The Monks - “Monk Chant”
Richard Thompson - “Keep Your Distance’
I had high hopes for this project. I wanted to use it as a way to get back into writing rather than just linking to other, better writers, but it’s turning out to be nothing more than a log of the music I listened to throughout the week, with maybe a little pithy commentary. I wanted to do something like Rob Sheffield’s Talking To Girls About Duran Duran, where each song is a chapter, except I am neither an emotional nor am I an sentimental music listener. I don’t use music to set a mood, or elevate my own. Basically, I like good songs for the sake of being good songs. And I have very few personal anecdotes to go along with them. As women, we’re expected to write about our lives, or at the very least, how the world at large effects our lives, and I’ve never been able to grasp that. One of the criticisms I’ve gotten over the years is that my writing isn’t personal enough. I’ve had people tell me it “just doesn’t resonate with me.”
David Bowie - "Prettiest Star"
Josh Ritter - "Right Moves"
Freddie Mercury - "The Great Pretender"
John Cale - "Andalucia"
Rufus Wainwright - "Danny Boy"
7 PM
Glee, The Music: Vol. 2
I borrowed this from my mom some time ago, and never got around to playing it. I'm not a huge Glee fan, and listening to the music divorced from the show isn't making me one. I really wanted to like this. because within the context of the show, I actually do like the music. I'm officially adding Glee to the list of "really, really popular things that I just don't get."
Mor Karbasi - "Shecharhoret" (youtube)
Culled from my last.fm recommendations. Since I restarted my blog last year, Last.fm has become indispensable tool for discovering new music. I know I plug them a lot, and believe me, they have more than their share of problems from the on-site player crashing to the server being down for days at a time, but I can't imaging not having last.fm. This song is super-pretty, sung in Ladino (Judeo-Spanish.) Might download later.
It was warm enough this afternoon to open a few windows. I love this time of year when it’s warm but not warm enough for air conditioning, and the cool, early days of spring seem to be over. Someone was blasting Eminem out a car window, but I couldn’t identify which song.
3-4 PM (or thereabouts)
The Mountain Goats - “Family Happiness”
Paul Westerberg - “Mr. Rabbit”
The Monks - “Monk Chant”
Richard Thompson - “Keep Your Distance’
I had high hopes for this project. I wanted to use it as a way to get back into writing rather than just linking to other, better writers, but it’s turning out to be nothing more than a log of the music I listened to throughout the week, with maybe a little pithy commentary. I wanted to do something like Rob Sheffield’s Talking To Girls About Duran Duran, where each song is a chapter, except I am neither an emotional nor am I an sentimental music listener. I don’t use music to set a mood, or elevate my own. Basically, I like good songs for the sake of being good songs. And I have very few personal anecdotes to go along with them. As women, we’re expected to write about our lives, or at the very least, how the world at large effects our lives, and I’ve never been able to grasp that. One of the criticisms I’ve gotten over the years is that my writing isn’t personal enough. I’ve had people tell me it “just doesn’t resonate with me.”
David Bowie - "Prettiest Star"
Josh Ritter - "Right Moves"
Freddie Mercury - "The Great Pretender"
John Cale - "Andalucia"
Rufus Wainwright - "Danny Boy"
7 PM
Glee, The Music: Vol. 2
I borrowed this from my mom some time ago, and never got around to playing it. I'm not a huge Glee fan, and listening to the music divorced from the show isn't making me one. I really wanted to like this. because within the context of the show, I actually do like the music. I'm officially adding Glee to the list of "really, really popular things that I just don't get."
Friday, April 8, 2011
Music Diary Project, Day Four
7 AM-ish
Turned on my cable's MusicChoice all 90s station instead of watching the news this morning. (Sorry. I've had my fill of tea-party talking heads and talk of the looming government shutdown.) I didn't write down what was played, but it was pretty standard 90s "commercial alternative" rock along with random bits of information like, "The lead singer of Eve 6 was once arrested for walking around nude in a hotel lobby." These cable "radio stations" remind me a lot of early internet radio before last.fm's and pandora's personalized ones: not a bad alternative to MTV or commercial radio -- given the time-- but not a lot of variety either.
Later in the afternoon:
Rufus Wainwright - "Greek Song"
Luna - "Malibu Love Nest"
Edith Piaf - "La Vie, L'Amour"
Robyn - "Dancing On My Own"
Yes, this is my workout music. I really didn't want to post seven workout playlists, but unless I absolutely have to hear something, this is what I use music for most days. When I run outside I don't bring my iPod, but indoor dancing around is always set to music. Oh, and I lip-sync while I work out. I thought I'd share that. I fear one of these days will be my Sue Sylvester moment, and someone will inadvertently record me and my silly, middle-age rock 'n' roll fantasies will be posted to youtube. Oy.
Tift Merritt - "Write My Ticket"
The Mountain Goats - "There Will Be No Divorce"
Owen Pallett - "Oh Heartland, Up Yours!"
David Bowie - "Fashion"
Turned on my cable's MusicChoice all 90s station instead of watching the news this morning. (Sorry. I've had my fill of tea-party talking heads and talk of the looming government shutdown.) I didn't write down what was played, but it was pretty standard 90s "commercial alternative" rock along with random bits of information like, "The lead singer of Eve 6 was once arrested for walking around nude in a hotel lobby." These cable "radio stations" remind me a lot of early internet radio before last.fm's and pandora's personalized ones: not a bad alternative to MTV or commercial radio -- given the time-- but not a lot of variety either.
Later in the afternoon:
Rufus Wainwright - "Greek Song"
Luna - "Malibu Love Nest"
Edith Piaf - "La Vie, L'Amour"
Robyn - "Dancing On My Own"
Yes, this is my workout music. I really didn't want to post seven workout playlists, but unless I absolutely have to hear something, this is what I use music for most days. When I run outside I don't bring my iPod, but indoor dancing around is always set to music. Oh, and I lip-sync while I work out. I thought I'd share that. I fear one of these days will be my Sue Sylvester moment, and someone will inadvertently record me and my silly, middle-age rock 'n' roll fantasies will be posted to youtube. Oy.
Tift Merritt - "Write My Ticket"
The Mountain Goats - "There Will Be No Divorce"
Owen Pallett - "Oh Heartland, Up Yours!"
David Bowie - "Fashion"
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Music Diary Project, Day Three
Just before 7 AM
Paul Westerberg - "Mr. Rabbit" (In a Payless Shoes commercial of all things)
Absolutely the last Paul Westerberg song I'd expect to hear in a national ad. Actually, I never thought I'd hear any Paul Westerberg song in an ad. I'm not an indie purist, and I've never believed in the theory that music is art and art alone, and should never be used to shill antacids or bargain-priced sneakers, but in the "never sell out" indie-rock world of 80s and 90s, this would have been anathema. Gen-X is aging. And it has families to feed and mortgages to pay.
3 PM-ish
Patrick Wolf - "The City" (via youtube)
This video is adorable -- a big ol' ball of cheesy fun. I like Patrick, but sometimes he comes dangerously close to appropriating the pop music from my childhood. I haven't decided wether this is a good thing or not.
Jasmin Levy - "Porque"
Rufus Wainwright - "April Fools"
Beth Ditto - "I Wrote the Book"
The Mountain Goats - "There Will Be No Divorce"
One thing I've noticed myself doing since I started this project is consciously varying what I listen to. Usually I get stuck on one album, or even one song, for a few days and play the hell out of it until I get bored and move on to something else. I haven't been doing that this week. Probably an easier, more authentic, way of keeping a music journal would be to just pick any random week, and do the write up later. I mean, by going back through my iPod or my last.fm playlists. There would be lots of repeat plays, sure, but that is how I listen to music.
Rufus Wainwright - "Dinner At Eight"
Jasmin Levy - "Hallelujah"
Grandpaboy - "2 Days 'Til Tomorrow"
Tift Merritt - "Shadow in the Way"
John Lennon - "Working Class Hero"
"Working Class Hero" is one of the few songs that always takes me back to the first time I heard it. Ten or eleven-years-old, it was the first "adult" song I ever loved and instantly understood. (Plus it was the first time I'd ever heard someone drop the "F-bomb" in a song uncensored.)
Paul Westerberg - "Mr. Rabbit" (In a Payless Shoes commercial of all things)
Absolutely the last Paul Westerberg song I'd expect to hear in a national ad. Actually, I never thought I'd hear any Paul Westerberg song in an ad. I'm not an indie purist, and I've never believed in the theory that music is art and art alone, and should never be used to shill antacids or bargain-priced sneakers, but in the "never sell out" indie-rock world of 80s and 90s, this would have been anathema. Gen-X is aging. And it has families to feed and mortgages to pay.
3 PM-ish
Patrick Wolf - "The City" (via youtube)
This video is adorable -- a big ol' ball of cheesy fun. I like Patrick, but sometimes he comes dangerously close to appropriating the pop music from my childhood. I haven't decided wether this is a good thing or not.
Jasmin Levy - "Porque"
Rufus Wainwright - "April Fools"
Beth Ditto - "I Wrote the Book"
The Mountain Goats - "There Will Be No Divorce"
One thing I've noticed myself doing since I started this project is consciously varying what I listen to. Usually I get stuck on one album, or even one song, for a few days and play the hell out of it until I get bored and move on to something else. I haven't been doing that this week. Probably an easier, more authentic, way of keeping a music journal would be to just pick any random week, and do the write up later. I mean, by going back through my iPod or my last.fm playlists. There would be lots of repeat plays, sure, but that is how I listen to music.
Rufus Wainwright - "Dinner At Eight"
Jasmin Levy - "Hallelujah"
Grandpaboy - "2 Days 'Til Tomorrow"
Tift Merritt - "Shadow in the Way"
John Lennon - "Working Class Hero"
"Working Class Hero" is one of the few songs that always takes me back to the first time I heard it. Ten or eleven-years-old, it was the first "adult" song I ever loved and instantly understood. (Plus it was the first time I'd ever heard someone drop the "F-bomb" in a song uncensored.)
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Music Diary Project, Day Two
Between 9-10 am, last.fm radio
The Mountain Goats - "There Will Be No Divorce"
Rufus Wainwright - "Not Ready to Love"
The Killers - "All These Things That I've Done"
The Monkess - "You Just May Be the One"
A lot of my music listening, especially in the morning, is background stuff: something to cut the silence while I'm checking email or going through my blog feeds. When I'm actually writing or working, I prefer the silence. My personal last.fm radio is a godsend when I'm away from the computer that stores most of my music, and being able to add songs to a playlist allows me to be a bit more adventurous without actually purchasing them. It functions largely as a glorified iPod shuffle, since they don't really have on-demand listening anymore. I say shuffle though I skip around a lot, so my playlist ends up being a bit more "groomed" than one would think. I've been listening to a lot of Mountain Goats lately (My goal is to write short stories the way John Darnielle writes songs), and The Killers' Hot Fuss is usually relegated to workout playlists. I once got into it with someone on a music forum defending the Killers as a really good mainstream rock band -- which they are, and there's nothing wrong with that. They have all the makings of a good, mainstream rock band: a super-cute lead frontman who sings everything with absolute conviction even when the lyrics are trite, great hooks that stick in your head for days, and just enough major label sheen.
In the grocery store this afternoon:
k.d. lang - "Constant Craving"
Aerosmith - "Walk This Way"
I wasn't going to include incidental shopping music (because I rarely pay that much attention to it), but I thought these two songs in tandem deserve mention, if only because it's a pretty good artistic leap from k.d. lang to Aerosmith.
At home, a few hours later:
Beth Ditto - EP
Gossip - "Standing in the Way of Control"
Grace Jones - "Art Groupie"
My cat will sit mesmerized, staring at the computer screen or stereo, whenever I play Grace Jones. I wish I knew what she was hearing. I'm almost tempted to google any studies on an animal's response to music, but even I'm not that much of a nerd.
I downloaded the new Beth Ditto EP this morning, so this was my first chance to listen to it. So far I like it -- a lot -- but I'm secretly glad she released an EP than a full album of dance tunes.
Nina Simone - "My Way"
Grace Jones - "Nightclubbing"
Nikka Costa - "Push & Pull"
Juanna Molina - "Dar (Que Dificil)
8 PM, RuPaul's Drag Race
Paula Abdul - "Straight Up"
Made exponentially better by being lip-synced by disrobing drag queens.
The Mountain Goats - "There Will Be No Divorce"
Rufus Wainwright - "Not Ready to Love"
The Killers - "All These Things That I've Done"
The Monkess - "You Just May Be the One"
A lot of my music listening, especially in the morning, is background stuff: something to cut the silence while I'm checking email or going through my blog feeds. When I'm actually writing or working, I prefer the silence. My personal last.fm radio is a godsend when I'm away from the computer that stores most of my music, and being able to add songs to a playlist allows me to be a bit more adventurous without actually purchasing them. It functions largely as a glorified iPod shuffle, since they don't really have on-demand listening anymore. I say shuffle though I skip around a lot, so my playlist ends up being a bit more "groomed" than one would think. I've been listening to a lot of Mountain Goats lately (My goal is to write short stories the way John Darnielle writes songs), and The Killers' Hot Fuss is usually relegated to workout playlists. I once got into it with someone on a music forum defending the Killers as a really good mainstream rock band -- which they are, and there's nothing wrong with that. They have all the makings of a good, mainstream rock band: a super-cute lead frontman who sings everything with absolute conviction even when the lyrics are trite, great hooks that stick in your head for days, and just enough major label sheen.
In the grocery store this afternoon:
k.d. lang - "Constant Craving"
Aerosmith - "Walk This Way"
I wasn't going to include incidental shopping music (because I rarely pay that much attention to it), but I thought these two songs in tandem deserve mention, if only because it's a pretty good artistic leap from k.d. lang to Aerosmith.
At home, a few hours later:
Beth Ditto - EP
Gossip - "Standing in the Way of Control"
Grace Jones - "Art Groupie"
My cat will sit mesmerized, staring at the computer screen or stereo, whenever I play Grace Jones. I wish I knew what she was hearing. I'm almost tempted to google any studies on an animal's response to music, but even I'm not that much of a nerd.
I downloaded the new Beth Ditto EP this morning, so this was my first chance to listen to it. So far I like it -- a lot -- but I'm secretly glad she released an EP than a full album of dance tunes.
Nina Simone - "My Way"
Grace Jones - "Nightclubbing"
Nikka Costa - "Push & Pull"
Juanna Molina - "Dar (Que Dificil)
8 PM, RuPaul's Drag Race
Paula Abdul - "Straight Up"
Made exponentially better by being lip-synced by disrobing drag queens.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Music Diary Project, Day One: Leap of Faith, Or a Jump of Stupid
It's rare that I play albums in their entirety these days unless I'm writing about them, and it's even rarer that I go back and listen to an album in its entirety after abandoning it several years earlier. I am a chronic "shuffler." And from my twenty-plus years as a music fan, I've learned you can't force a "Proustian moment." More often than not, the magic the magic is tethered to that first listen.
I made an exception with Paul Westeberg's Stereo and 49:00. Two albums that, I think, that bookend his "basement tapes" era. When I first listened to Stereo, damn, eight years ago, I thought it was desperately sad, but hopeful -- like the beginning of something. And for him it probably was: freed from his label, producing and (allegedly) playing all the instruments himself. The Replacements are the only band I've managed to become unhealthily obsessed with*, and I went in with zero expectations. The solo projects that come after a band's breakup are usually held in contempt by its most inveterate fans. His first three were good, but nothing earth-shattering.
The verdict after nearly a decade? One of the things I loved about Stereo was its ability to read, not like a record, but a series of vignettes or a book of short stories. It still does that, but it's the same story of middle-aged, suburban, white guy angst throughout the dozen or so songs. Granted, he's very good at white guy angst.
49:00 is a different beast altogether. 49:00 released as a single track a few years ago (for the bargain price of $0.49), it's a jumbled mess. I still haven't warmed up to it. There's a lot of good -- maybe even some brilliance -- but my linear brain hates to pick through the mash of songs to find it. The one thing I find interesting is that, buried in the unholy mess, is Paul at his most vulnerable. He said in an interview with Musician magazines decades ago that he often creates characters to allow himself that vulnerability, but here he's almost dangerously close to his own lyrics. Aren't songwriters supposed to be close to their material? Not always, and it's probably healthy to have some fiction involved. I wonder if releasing it in the limited format without a lot of attention allowed him to get that close.
*I even have a goofy fangirl shot of me with Paul. I sincerely remember throwing my arm around him and thinking, "His shoulders feel stronger than I would have expected." I thought he'd be sort of frail, ready to crumble at the slightest poke. (Like Beatlejuice of maybe Keith Richards.) But the picture I have shows my arm hovering awkwardly above his shoulder, and he with a bemused expression on his face.
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