Bringing it back to the beginning.

I had a theme and then I lost it, not that I needed it in the first place. Considering the nature of an infinitesimally small blog, it was a bit overkill on the thought side to have considered one. I’ve avoided writing beyond my theme though mostly because I don’t think the internet needs more drivel from someone like me or mostly anyone else sort of like me: not much to say but likes to talk anyway. Back to that infinitesimally small blog thing though: if a blogger rambles in the forest, does anyone add them to their RSS feed? That’s the contradiction. It’s mortifying to imagine you are one of those bloggers ranting about nothing for no reason to no one, but considering no one is reading it, who’s to say such a thing to you besides yourself? And there is where the initial theme comes back around I guess. If you did make your way here, most likely you have something better to do, but I appreciate you spending some minutes between coffee breaks reading every other word or so I set down here.

So, hi there.

The Kamikaze Hearts first release just came around on my iTunes. This is, approximately, the 700th time I’ve heard this record, give or take a few listens…that’s awkward, I know. The record (CD-R with Avery labels) was a mix of home recordings (before home recordings meant very proper sounding ProTools mixes) and live performances. First off, the songs are still great. They’re simple, pithy, pretty, and habit forming. Second, like most first recordings, there is a nameless energy running through these seven songs that, while the later songs may have been “more developed” and “better recorded”, for many people, the band never again managed to match. I guess that’s what beginner’s luck is. Before any outside force has the chance to taint your creative energies, you get the purest version of yourself. Surely there is something within child psychology I could analogize this to, so imagine a quickly studied wikipedia regurgitation here.

The first time I really heard this record, in the deeply emotional, reflective way that only really happens in college because you’re an unrefined emotional sponge, I was studying for a biology final in the library sophomore year. I’d borrowed the CD from this guy, who’d gotten it from this guy and was listening to it on my cd walkman (how was that only six years ago?). I listened to it on repeat for about two hours or so. It was just so simple, but, Oh!, what is that sound? That high pitched guitar sounding thing? Mandolin you say? And the drums, they’re so simple! I mean, it doesn’t even sound like he is using the whole kit. And the audience, they’re having so much fun! This is music! I mean, real music, in the culturally important as said by a famous anthropologist I just found on wikipedia (again) kind of way! Exclaim!

This is generally the part where I like to wrap the post up nicely, but I don’t have much else to say that isn’t straight greeting card, so here it is: I’ve been feeling out of it and a bit disconnected recently, but just now, stumbling upon that record, which came well before anything that could even remotely be connected to whatever is getting me down now, I feel like I just got a good pep talk. So hear, hear for music that never gets old, locked up tight in its time and place, ready for recall. Hear, Hear.

Nonspecific

I can hardly fake a Jersey accent and I grew up there.

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In other dicking around the internet news, muxtape has become a new personal time waster: hollerpop.muxtape.com.

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Oh yeah, I released an album digitally.

i’m an ant - What have I done?

I’ve received positive feedback from my friends, which is very nice to hear. Even more so because that was a good portion of the motivation to make it.

Little Ones

“It’s sort of what Wes Anderson would have done if he was directing low-budget videos for indie bands.”

No brandy glass of brown M&Ms here.

The Foo Fighters have a healthy sense of humor.

But we already knew that.

Laura Gibson and her perplexing voice.

Her voice intrigues me. It sounds, at once, both strained and beautiful. Someone find me an adjective for it.

See here play a set at NPR.

Buy her new EP from Hush here.

Cat Power Review

I know talented people…

Cat Power @ The Roseland (PDX) Concert Review
words by Hannah Carlen, photos by Liza Lubell

I watch a good amount of television.

Just after the credits roll and the main theme fades out, if you allow your suspension of disbelief to linger a bit, there is a chance you’ll experience something momentarily interesting. For a little while you’ll surround yourself with the imagery and meaning of the world within the show you just watched. A magazine lying half open on the table isn’t just a sign of a messy room, but a foreshadow or a conscious response by your environment telling you something, perhaps (mayhaps! perbe!) pointing you in a new direction. On TV, the camera only has time to choose a few images to show you (that is, if you discount the rewind button), so most good directors make sure to spend that time on those that are worthwhile, therefore, though that magazine may have been sitting there for a week or more, it becomes something new to you - some sign or wake up call. I see it as a conscious choice to have subconscious removal from our real world, which we don’t know all the rules for or have the benefit of seeing through a third person omniscient perspective. With the cloak of [insert show name here] double knotted behind your head and over your eyes, what was previously misunderstood or totally incomprehensible suddenly has reason and, more important, value. However small they may be, details become foils to provide direction in your story and a sense of external meaning. If you look hard enough you’ll trace order around your confusing little life, even if the plot your id craves has a bit of adventure or the unknown. And for a short while, you may like it.

Perhaps I’ll start walking backwards.

Friends Like These In The Garage

Two conflicting points of view, both valid:

Mobius Band - Friends Like These [buy]

There’s lots of gray shades / But that don’t make black the same as white
You said it feels good / Like that makes everything alright
But i don’t blame you / You were only looking out for yourself
History’s proven / That that’s what we do best

And I don’t need no friends like these, no.

Weezer - In The Garage [come see me sing this]

I got electric guitar
I play my stupid songs
I write these stupid words
And I love everyone
Waiting there for me, yes I do

(now a dr.phil moment…) One note on relationships in general, be it human, animal, or musical. At times we let our expectations run away from us and they don’t need to scurry far to seriously lead us astray. Inevitably, something happens to remind us of the relation’s true nature. For (a silly) example, Weezer or Liz Phair release a new record and I remember I shouldn’t be expecting anything, ever, at all. When you are eventually let down by heightened expectations, don’t get angry or sad, rather respond by leveling your expectations to their new plateau. That’s one reason ‘Friends Like These’ is a new favorite. I can hum Garage to myself at the best of times and now I have descending melody sing in time as my expectations fall.

It’s all about balance.

That which is in the way

…another SWC one-off…

Smart Went Crazy - That Which Is In The Way

I love the whole song, but it’s the outro I really want to talk about. it occurs to me now that it could be seen as a retelling of the song’s story in music. In fact, here’s how it could be seen!

Here, the cello represents the topic of the familiar old debate, which our players, the two guitars, have taken sides. The cello shifts steadily some back and forth, as the melodic base. Any argument, especially one with no conclusion, only more argument, shifts just the same. Back and forth, almost finding common ground, only to find itself again straddling the central divide which got them there in the first place. So stubborn, we are.

So after having a ‘little chat’ for 17 measures, one guitar begins to plead with the other, but to no avail, as the rhythm part stays on the same course till the end. Up and down, some pleading, some sighing, the lead line makes no headway before giving up, just as how the story ends with a wry ‘ha ha ha’ (think singing ‘Sunny Side of Life’ on the cross), the song decides there is no where else to turn, and fades out.