K :: Music - life as sound

//Inside the mind of K while listening to Janet Jackson's latest, __20 Y.O.__//\n\nTrack 2, less than 60 seconds\n<<<\nI really dislike Jermaine Dupri. And could that 80s album scratching in the background be anymore obnoxious?\n<<<\n\nTrack 3, 60 seconds\n<<<\nI've been talking shit about Janet Jackson for a really long time": \n//Janet dun fell off\nJanet should be making the albums Xtina and Mariah are making// \netc. \n\nIt's possible my predisposition will flavor my opinion of this album. \nIt's also possible that this track is one of the worst tracks I've heard in my life: \n\n"You got to s-h-o me..." \n"Can you b-a-c-k-i-t-u-p boy u-p boy?"\n<<<\nTrack 5, 70 seconds\n<<<\nThis track isn't bad. Jermaine Dupri clumsily executes on an idea that's unoriginal but conceptually strong enough to withstand Dupri's pedestrian treatment of it.\n<<<\nTrack 8, less than 90 seconds\n<<<\nEven though the production sucks ass (that guitar not-a-melody is really pissing me off), this might be the first song on the album where Janet is actually singing and Janet actually sounds like Janet.\n\n>Track 8, side note\n>People should use complete words and not phonetic replacements. "u" should not be a substitute for "you", "2" for "to", "ur" for "your", etc.\n<<<\nTrack 9, //is that Nelly?// Skipped.\n\nTrack 10, 105 seconds\n<<<\nWTF? How long is this song? 4:21?? Skip.\n<<<\nTrack 12, less than 30 seconds\n<<<\nWhy does this song remind me of R. Kelly? I feel like I should be in a purple suit, stepping on the south side of Chicago. I don't like it but I at least respect this song... not enough to listen to the whole thing, though. (//Not enough 2 listen 2 the whole thing, tho//?) Especially after the kids start singing:\n"En-joy la-la-la-la-la." \n\nSkip.\n<<<\nTrack 14, less than 15 seconds\n<<<\nNo album will ever live up to the glory of Janet. Even Janet has some weak tracks in the middle of it. Really if you want Janet, you should go through her albums and pull the songs you want. There are always 2 hot dance tracks and 2 hot slow jams on each release. Grab 'em and you have yourself a nice Janet compilation. This is my advice.\n<<<\n

I can usually tell how fucked up my life is based on how much it reminds me of High Fidelity. This is for two reasons: \n\n1. It says something bad about the character of a person when he feels the need to compare his life to a particular movie/television show. It is worse if that need is uncontrollable.\n2. No one in High Fidelity is really keeping it together. There are no good models for life there.\n\nHaving said that, High Fidelity speaks to me. That bit about living with an artist? Being in the liner notes?? Totally. (see: BeforeSunset)\n\nI watched High Fidelity for the first time at my alma mater's Weekend Movie Screenings™ in the science building. Watching the movie was first priority, however, as would be the case on a college campus full of college students in various states of inebriation, funny commentary was appreciated. It's said that during the screening of the first Matrix, the entire auditorium said "Whoa." at the same time. Anyway, the first time I saw Rob pull away from //girl #2 on the all time top five breakup list//, throw his hoodie hood over his head, and walk away saying, "What's the point - it never goes anywhere," I leaned over to my friend and uncontrollably blurted out, "That's ~HardCore!" This sole, inadvertent attempt was my first and only audience laugh at my alma mater's Weekend Movie Screenings™ in the science building. \n\nI've watched the movie at least once or twice since then, and each time I become a little less enamored with it and a little more intrigued by it. I do think about it every time I reorganize my music collection, though. Or, anytime someone conspicuously uses the word "Yet."

So [[Prince]] is someone I've never really been into. This is in part because //1999// was on the radio when a van I was in spun around and rolled over a few times before coming to a less than graceful stop on an interstate. Since then, listening to Prince hasn't really made my Top 10 List of Things to Do.\n\nThrough some happenstance or another, I suddenly find myself surrounded by people who love Prince. I've had no recourse but to check him out. Listening to //How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore//, I think to myself... //someone has covered this... who's covered this? Where have I heard this?// In a flash, I think "D'Angelo!" and check __Voodoo__. Nada. After more brain racking, I decide to google it and find the following list:\n*//How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore?// by Prince (1982)\n**//How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore?// by Stephanie Mills (1983)\n**//How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore?// by Joshua Redman (1998)\n**//How Come You Don't Call Me// by Alicia Keys (2001)\n\nI found this to be very depressing - I was hoping it was D'Angelo. Without getting to up ons the story, Alicia Keys and I have beef. She's cocky as all shit, and it pisses me off. Some people might call me a hater for this... they might be right. If she didn't come off as arrogant and entirely self-absorbed, she'd probably be one of my favorite artists. As it is, we have beef. One small example: at the beginning of her first album, she whines about how it took her "like maybe two years and shit" to get her album or break or whatever. \n\nShe's whining about //2 years//? I'm calling bullshit. In 1999 or 2000, musical wizard [[Clive Davis|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Davis]] left Arista Records (which he founded) to found J Records. Before he founded Arista, Clive Davis signed the following: Janis Joplin, Santana, Bruce Springsting, Chicago, Billy Joel, Pink, and Earth, Wind, & Fire. Arista Records has had the following artists on its roster with Clive in charge: Barry Manilow, Dionne Warwick, Whitney Houston, Monica, Sarah ~McLachlan, Aretha Franklin, Toni Braxton, The Grateful Dead, TLC. When he left Arista to found J Records, he basically said to Alicia, "Come with me and I'll make you a star." 2 years later, she has a record that [[sells 50,000 copies on it's first day|http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:5xk9kebtaq7c~T1]]. That's not struggling to make it - that's called the Golden Brick Road.\n\nHate Hate Hate.

These are the songs that top my personal love list.

One of the best things about living alone is the ability to control the sound of my apartment. At all times, my apartment sounds exactly how I want it to sound, and apparently this is something about which I'm very particular. So particular, in fact, that I'm not sure I'll be happy living with anyone ever again.\n\nNow, I know that roommates and significant someones are all about sharing space and being respectful and negotiating, etc. It's even about making sure styles don't clash horribly before you throw yourself into a shared living situation.\nHow.Ever... This whole quiet when I want quiet, Mozart when I want Mozart thing - I don't know how that's gonna play out.\n\nI have a feeling that at some point in time in my life, I'm going to have a question to ask myself - my home my sounds or shared home shared sounds?

My three stand-out musical moments from Before Sunset:\n# The opening credits.\n# //A Waltz for a Night//.\n# Nina Simone.\n\nI was able to view Before Sunrise and Before Sunset mostly as a single unit, and I find this to be very fortunate. There was a day or two in between viewings, which was a smart move, but I'm glad that I saw them both mostly at the same time. I had no idea who Julie Delpy was before these two movies, however, if she's reading this right now... \n\n//Please Marry Me. I don't know if you're actually French, and I don't know if you actually like Nina Simone, and I don't know if you have that shirt you were wearing in the movie... doesn't matter. I have a great imagination.//\n\nNow that that's out of the way...\n\n''One''\nI don't actually remember the music from the opening credits (which is also the music for the DVD's main menu), but I do remember wishing I could listen to it for hours.\n\n''Two''\nI believe it was my cohort O who once said [[you should always end an album with a waltz... Always.|http://kvoweb.com/132]] I think the same may hold true for movies. \n\nI'd like to say that //A Waltz for a Night// was a standout musical moment because it was a good song or a touching song or because it revealed Celine's feelings toward Jesse and those feelings were exactly what I hoped Celine felt toward Jesse. \n\nI'd like to say any of those things. However, I have a very strong hunch that most of the moment's appeal is linked to what I like to believe is a not-uncommon fantasy among people - one which I happen to have: a significant someone who's a singer-songwriter. While it could be moderately cool if someone wrote a great book about me or used me as their muse for a beautiful picture, I'd probably feel very "meh." toward the whole thing. The thought of someone writing a song about me, though... \n\nI've already got the whole thing planned out. She'd need to compose songs about her immediate, imperfect, incomplete, always changing love for me. The songs would have to be very unassuming but have melodies that will stick in your head for days. When performing them live, occasionally she'd have to blush a little an say something cryptic to most but meaningful to us like, "Hey... 17". She would also have to look into my eyes while she's performing - not the whole time... just right after the second verse, as she's singing a bridge into the chorus.\n\n(//[[Sandalwood|http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=117683264&s=143441&i=118283946]]// by Lisa Loeb is, perhaps, my favorite "song I wish had been written about me". Coincidentally... Lisa Loeb's career took off when her first hit single //Stay// found its way onto the soundtrack for Reality Bites, due to a little assistance from a neighbor who knew the director of the film. \n\nWho was Lisa Loeb's neighbor? Ethan Hawke - Jesse in Before Sunset.)\n\n''Three''\nI've been trying to figure out Nina Simone for quite some time. It's been tough until very recently. I think what's finally worked is that I've gotten into Nina Simone as a person and not necessarily Nina Simone's music. \n\nAt the end of the movie, there is an extended Nina Simone moment that's fairly awesome. It's tough to describe, but the moment is definitely about Nina Simone more than Nina Simone's music. I was talking to someone last night who told me that she thought the last scene in Before Sunset was, perhaps, one of the best scenes in the history of scenes. I can't say that she's wrong - I can't think of a scene that's indisputably better.

I have to take time out to shout out //Dreamchaser// from __Murray's Revenge__. You should really listen to it. It ==might be== is probably the best song on the album.

When I got home today, there was a box waiting for me outside my door. Five minutes later, my feet were strapped into a brand new pair of black Salomon in-line skates. After a brief stint testing them out in my bathroom, I realized that my kitchen was a larger non-carpeted area of my place. I then spent the next 15-20 minutes skating up and down the tile in my kitchen. I'll likely repeat the process tomorrow. \n\nIf I had hardwood floors, I'd probably sleep in my skates - roll around my house until I passed out somewhere. Unfortunately, with 12-18 inches of snow in the last week, things aren't looking good for a quick return to skatin' season. \n\nOne of the best things about skating is the sound of skating. At some point last year, I unexpectedly fell in love with the sound of my wheels on the pavement. It's like dancing in reverse - instead of sound dictating motion, motion dictates sounds. How you feel at any given moment inspires your movement, which creates the sound.

I really love this song - I don't care what anyone says. If I'm ever at a karaoke bar and drunk enough to think I can hit the highs in the chorus...\n\nWhile catchy, one of the best parts of this song is that if you ever take the time to really check the lyrics, you'll find that it tells an amazingly evocative story in an very short span of space and time. It's impressive writing.\n<<<\n//We've got to hold on, ready or not\nYou live for the fight when that's all that you've got//\n<<

At some point in time, and I have no idea where, when, or why, O said to me, "You know... Frederick Fucking Chopin?" This is, apparently, a line from a movie that I have not seen, yet. Regardless, Chopin has been on my mind. Recently, I decided to scratch my lingering itch to get more classical music into my collection with Mr. Chopin. Choosing the right album was tricky, but I went with a complete collection of his nocturnes as performed by Maria João Pires. \n\nI downloaded the songs this morning, gave it a listen in my apartment, threw the album on to [[Mork]] and gave it another listen as I skated to my bank. My bank is about 45 minutes away on my skates, so I had plenty of time to take in the ~C-Man. I thought that at some point in time, I would get tired of my nocturne collection. I did not.\n----\nWhen skating, I have very strong instincts to chase and not be passed. If someone passes me who doesn't appear to be a speed skater or a hardcore biker, I //will// catch the person or damn near collapse trying. When skating, if I see someone ahead of me who is slow moving, I //will// catch the person or damn-near collapse trying. These are not conscious choices that I am making; it's just the way it is. (Similarly, I always skate faster when there are pretty women around. Go figure.)\n\nOn my way back form the bank, still listening to Chopin, a slowly moving biker passed me and I did nothing. It was then I realized that I hadn't chased anyone for the entire time I was outside. Something about the Nocturnes had brought a very powerful amount of peace and contentment into my life. Watching the person slowly move farther away from me, I asked myself, //what do I gain?// In that moment, I realized that there might be more to life than chasing down people on my skates.\n\nMore to life today, that is. Tomorrow's another day.

After a detour that lasted about an hour, I'm finally at Caribou for the single, express purpose of working on Life as Sound and ~KvOWeb. It's not until I'm situated that I realize I left my flash drive, Nigel, at home, which contains all the files I'd hoped to edit for the upcoming (April 4) issue. Awesome.\n \nWhat this means for you, kind reader, is that instead of me editing and polishing what I've already written, I get to write more content, all of which won't be edited as well as it could have been. Oh well.\n \nHere are some random thoughts about music, as thought while at a coffee shop near where I live.\n[[Rage Against the Machine]]\nStevieWonder\n[[Chopin::Nocturnes]]\n[[Nas::One Mic]]\n

Two days ago I get a lunch time message from Swza. The conversation pretty much proceeds as follows-\n\nHim: What are you doing tomorrow?\nMe: Nothing.\nHim: Common is in town.\nMe: Oh\nMe: Shit.\n\nThese are the highlights.\n# This is actually a lowlight, if there can be one. Before the show, the DJ was spinning some tunes, with the crowd singing along. The highlight was, by far, //Shimmy Shimmy Ya// by Ol' Dirty Bastard - may his soul rest in peace... Wu Tang is most certainly for the kids. Then... the intro for //I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)// by ~Jay-Z comes on. I, for one, am pumped, as any loyal Jayhovian would be. And you know what happened? The DJ blueballed me. It was, in a word, bogus. For the record, earlier in the night, he played //There it Go (The Whistle Song)//, # 11 on Swza's [[Worst 20 Hip Hop Songs of 2005|http://kvoweb.com/167]] list.\n# During the concert, Common says, "Whose phone is that? Oh... that's mine?" Gets on the cellie, starts talking, and says - "Hey - y'all may know who I'm talking to... y'all know... Talib Kweli?" I think //Dear God... please let Talib be backstage. Please let Talib be backstage.// He continues talking and says, "Y'all may know who this is, too - y'all know... Mos Def??" They totally weren't there, but he covered a Black Star song, and that was pretty cool.\n# The concert started with a slow groove. Once the band was nice and situated, the music popped, the lights flashed, and Common came running onto stage like a madman, rocking //Be//. It was pretty hot.\n# Anyone see the Chappelle Show where he and Kanye performed //The Food//? The DJ that he had on the show is the same DJ that tours with him, apparently. Dude is awesome.\n# Common took off a few layers and did some breakin'. I believe this was during one of a few J Dilla tributes. In other news, he grabbed a piano and jammed out with the band for a while. Weird, right?\n\nAt some point in the past, I got pretty upset with Common. I think he's the juice, but an under-achiever. At least, that's what I thought - he's more impressive on stage than in the studio. There's a fire lacking in his studio sessions that was present in his live show. Songs that are very flat emotionally on his studio album (//Be, Faithful//) take on depth in regards to execution and meaning when performed live. \n\nUnfortunately, I don't have much recent experience with his older stuff. I used to have copies of __Resurrection__ and __One Day It'll All Make Sense__, but I've lost them. So while I can't speak to his earlier work, __Like Water for Chocolate__ and __Be__ both have a style of production that could be too glossy for Common's lyrics and temperament. I'd like to see him hook up with some more grimy, 4 elements, underground producers (the sound of the [[Definitive Jux|http://www.definitivejux.net/]] label is the only example I can think of currently). I feel if he had production that was a bit rougher around the edges, it could, ultimately, result in more depth in his music, specifically allowing his lyrical content a better opportunity to flourish.

It was O's poignant [[review|http://kvoweb.com/31]] of __August and Everything After__ that turned me on to the album. [[Anna Begins|http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=364936&s=143441&i=364918]] has to be one of my favorite songs on the album, and one of my favorite songs in general. I love how there is a parallel between the key of the music and optimism/pessimism of the lyrics.\n\n>//when kindness falls like rain it washes me away, and Anna begins to change my mind.//

My boy WG sends me an email which has the following random line in it: \n>"I think Paris Hilton's album is better than Danity Kane's." \nRather apropos, considering that I was writing [[In Defense of Paris]] when I got the email, but I sort of glossed over the comment because... well... Who the //Hell// is Danity Kane?\n*It might be worth mentioning that I don't own a television, in part because [[I dislike television|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danity_Kane]].\nOut of curiosity, I look up Danity Kane's album on iTunes, if for no other reason than to figure out who they are. It turns out that the group Diddy made is averaging 4.5 stars on almost 600 reviews; Amazon has it at 4.5 on just under 100. The reviews are RAVING. \n\n//The winner for best review title is://\n"Thank You Jesus!!!!!!" by [[Diamond Princess|http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewUsersUserReviews?personaId=27786]].\n\nNow I, for one, always judge albums by their cover: you can't find a good album this way, but a good album never has a bad cover. Danity Kane has a bad album cover... worse than Paris', for those keeping track at home.\n\nAt the moment, having quickly scanned through a good chunk of the album and doubled back to the beginning, I'm less than 2 full songs into the album and I feel pretty comfortable saying the following:\n\n//Danity Kane// is not better than //Paris//. While both albums have their strengths and weaknesses (more weaknesses than strengths in both cases), I'm also confident saying the following: Paris Hilton's album has more soul than Danity Kane.\n\nAs such, (now in the 3 full songs into the album,) I feel pretty confident saying the following: I would rather listen to //Paris// than //Danity Kane//.\n\nParis' album, for all its weakness, is a sincere album. You may think that she's shallow, hollow, etc., but she is whatever she is, she believes it, and she put alot of her potentially shallow, hollow, or whatever self into the album. The first three songs on Danity Kane sound... what's the word? Contrived? Affected? Emotionally defunct... bankrupt... deficient... one of those words.\n\n(4 songs in, and it's no better.) I'll also say this: //Paris//, with it's rock and disco influences, is sonically more interesting than //Danity Kane//.\n\nSo where are the Paris Haters on this album?? A group of 5 women who think they are the shit, with vapid lyrics and processed voices?\n\nNot sure.

[[Instructions]]\n[[All-Star Songs]]

I really like Nirvana's unplugged version of //Dumb//. It sounds great and has a tenderness that the studio version forgoes (probably intentionally). I listen to it and think - "What an amazing love song for people who think love is bullshit". \n\nIt captures, fairly simply, a sort of cautious response to something good in life by someone who's mostly skilled at responding to bad and is unsure how to handle "good". This is done lyrically (e.g. "I'm not like them, but I can pretend"), musically (e.g. careful, conservative bass line during the verses which occasionally blossoms into fuller orchestration), vocally (e.g. it sounds like a rocker trying to sing a love song and not quite knowing how to pull it off). It's sort of endearing.\n\n<<<\nMy heart is broke but I have some glue\nHelp me inhale and mend it with you\nWe'll float around and hang out on clouds\nThen we'll come down and have a hangover \n<<<\n\n

I found this song while at a coffee shop with J. We both went to the bathroom, where we both had an unobstructed listen to what was playing on the shop stereo system. We both came out and commented that the song playing was really good.\n\nEveryone likes Louis and Ella - not sure why. If you were to buy own a single Ella Fitzgerald song, this might be the one to own. If you were to buy own a single Louis Armstrong song, this might be the one to own.

I declared a while ago that I would never, ever buy another real CD as long as I lived. I am a huge proponent of digital music downloads because I think it will, ultimately, increase the quality of the music being released for mass consumption. It's also cheaper and easier.\n\nI could rant indefinitely about why I hate ~CDs and "the industry", but for now let's just say that I feel very strongly about never buying another CD ever again.\n\nProblem: Some music doesn't come any other way.\n\nMy music pusher of choice is the iTunes Music Store, and they do not carry the following:\n\n__[[Aretha Franklin::The Great|http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000TAPH4/ref=ord_1cl_log_ydet/002-9419410-7821643?n=5174]]__\nThis is a 3 disc import that I want for one song. I respect Aretha enough that I'm tempted to pay $19 for one song, and hope that the other 44 are decent.\n\nGarth Brooks:://Friends in Low Places//\nI've had this stupid song in my head for weeks. I definitely would drop a dollar on it, but I //refuse// to go find it on a single or compilation.\n\nSoundtrack::__Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights__\nThere is a fabulous rework of an Orishas song on this album that I covet.\n\n__[[Bebo Valdés::Bebo de Cuba|http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BFH2U0/ref=pd_bxgy_img_a/002-9419410-7821643?%5Fencoding=UTF8]]__\nFrancis Davis from the [[Village Voice|http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0604,davis,71879,22.html]] called this one of the four best jazz albums of 2005. I'm fairly interested in getting a copy of this album for the following two reasons:\n\n1. __[[In My Time|http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=100962516&s=143441]]__, which was another album lauded as one of the four best jazz albums in 2005 in the same Village Voice article, is a pretty solid album and definitely a worthwhile purchase.\n\n2. __[[Lagrimas Negras|http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=21913109&s=143441]]__, by Bebo Valdés and Diego Cigala, is also a solid album and worthwhile purchase. \n\n(continued in TheRussians)

(see: [[dig it least]])\n\n//Here are a few examples of Chinese landscape from Kansas City's ~Nelson-Atkins Museum's permanent collection//\n[[Mountain on the Other Side of the River|http://www.nelson-atkins.org/art/CollectionDatabase.cfm?id=30001&theme=china]]\n[[Fishermen's Evening Song|http://www.nelson-atkins.org/art/CollectionDatabase.cfm?id=12243&theme=china]]\n[[Landscape after Lu Hong's "Ten Views of a Thatched Hut"|http://www.nelson-atkins.org/art/CollectionDatabase.cfm?id=7335&theme=china]]\n\n//Compare the following two drawings by ~Toulouse-Lautrec...//\n[[Jane Avril|http://home.earthlink.net/~andrewterrykeats/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/toulouse.lautrec.jpg]] from [[this web page|http://home.earthlink.net/~andrewterrykeats/id17.html]]\n[[Paula Brébion|http://www.kettererkunst.de/kunst/kd/details.php?obnr=400503185&anummer=295]]\n//...against this one, also by ~Toulouse-Lautrec//\n[[The Hangover (Suzanne Valadon)|http://www.artmuseums.harvard.edu/press/released2002/toulouse.html]]\n\n//Check out the following image by Degas//\n[[ Etude de Danseuse II|http://www.thefineartcompany.co.uk/Impressionists/degas-ta5.jpg]] from [[this web page|http://www.thefineartcompany.co.uk/Impressionists/imp-9.htm]]\n\n//Finally, a compare/contrast in one image by Leonardo//\n[[Study for the head of a girl |http://witcombe.sbc.edu/davincicode/images/leonardo-head-girl.jpg]] from [[this web page|http://witcombe.sbc.edu/davincicode/leonardo-some-pointers.html]]

Things I try to avoid in life:\n# Ignorant hating\n# Spending money on crappy music\nThis puts me in a difficult spot when wanting to hate on (or at least judge) artists like 50 Cent or Fall Out Boy - I have a suspicion they suck, but I won't know unless I buy the albums. Thanks to TheRussians, I no longer have to worry about this. For less than $7 I obtained copies of both of [[Fiddy]]'s albums, as well as Fall Out Boy's latest, __From Under The Cork Tree__. I have no problems dropping a couple of bucks on an album to avoid ignorant hating.\n\nI learned the following one thing about Fall Out Boy:\n# I like Fall Out Boy.\nI like to think that good music is good music and I really like Fall Out Boy. I don't care what anyone else says. I'm amused by their song titles and lyrics, and I think they have catchy hooks. \n<<<\nI don't blame you for being you\nBut you can't blame me for hating it\n<<<\nIt's over-the-top but also self-aware, which equals good writing, in my opinion. The album is, essentially, FOB taking shots at others at their own expense. For example, FOB has the following to say about someone they are //missing to death//...\n<<<\nDouse yourself in cheap perfume it's\nSo fitting, so fitting of the way you are\nYou can't cover it up\nCan't cover it up\n<<<\nYou can't find this sort of self-hating, lashing out just anywhere. Or maybe you can... what do I know? All the same, I can honestly say that this album is one of my favorite additions of the last couple of months.\n----\nAt any given point in time, I have one of 6 Fall Out Boy songs going through my head (one of my current favorites is //7 Minutes in Heaven (Atavan Halen)//). The only other album that had that many songs stuck in my head was __Jagged Little Pill__.\n<<<\nTurn off the lights and turn off the shyness\ncause all of our moves make up for the silence\nAnd oh - the way your makeup stains my pillowcase\nLike I'll never be the same\n<<

Having listened to both of 50 Cent's album, I'm happy to conclude that I still don't like his music. //What Up Gangsta//, track one from his first disc, is the only song I listened to with any regularity after initially listening to his albums. I'm happy to say that even that song pisses me off - I present to you the opening of the first verse:\n<<<\nThey say I walk around\nlike I got an S on my chest\nThat's a semi-auto <awkward pause>\nand a vest on my chest.\n<<<\nFor those not in the know, "semi-auto" is a shortening of semi-automatic. Also for those not in the know, during the song there is an awkward pause after "semi-auto" (noted above). This is mostly because there aren't enough syllables in the line to fill out 8 counts. You know what would solve this problem? Using "semi-automatic" instead of "semi-auto" with an awkward pause after it. All 50 had to do to not mess up his flow was not abbreviate semi-automatic - i.e. all he had to do was nothing; making it wrong takes more effort than having it be okay. Dammit.\n\nAll in all, I can't say that 50 is "bad". He does craft catchy hooks. My biggest beef with 50 is that I can't create a thematic or lyrical differentiation among his 40+ songs. Many rappers, such as Mos Def, The Streets, Felt have songs that are distinctly about something or the other (e.g. //Ms. Fat Booty, Two Nations, Woman Tonight//, respectively). A line or series of lines from one of their songs wouldn't really make much sense in another one of their songs (e.g. a line from the above list placed in //Mr. Nigga, Empty Cans, Dirty Girl//, respectively). Current research shows this is not the case for a high percentage of 50 Cent's songs. A line from any of his songs (e.g. "We reload them clips and come right back" from //Heat//, "I walk around gun on my waist, chip on my shoulder" from //Many Men//, "Got them macs, got them nines, got them tecks all the time, hollow-tips and them extra clips" from //This is 50//) could easily be dropped into any of his other songs (e.g. ... take your pick). This is lame.\n\nAlso, listening to the gunshots in //Heat// made me physically ill the first time I heard it.\n\nPeople may say that //A Baltimore Love Thing// is a very good song - this amounts to giving 50 a medal for trying. It's only okay... maybe even really okay, but not amazingly great. A whole album that was conversation between heroine and an addict... now that would be impressive.

I went and saw Fiona live a week ago, which was //amazing//. Every song she sang was like someone giving me an unexpected gift that was something I never realized I couldn't live without. Before she sang this song, she prefaced it by saying, "This is a song I started writing when I was 15 after a boy I had a crush on made fun of me." Then, she wrapped herself into a vertical fetal position - on her knees, sitting on her heels, forehead on the stage - and began singing. Fiona's show is certainly a spectacle of sorts, so it's no small statement when I say //watching her sing this song was her most compelling performance of the night//. It's odd that track 5 off a disk that's 3 albums/10 years old remains one of my favorite songs of Ms. Apple (and of anyone, really). Now, listening to //Slow Like Honey// and her other songs is bittersweet; after seeing her live, her studio tracks seem flat and emotionless.\n\nStill, this song a) sounds great, b) is performed well, and c) is mysterious as all shit. All of which is amazingly hot.

I have a friend who is famous (at least with me) for saying "I write to know what I think and I sing to know how I feel". I've since extrapolated that into using my music listening trends to gage what it is I'm feeling at any given time in my life.\n\nWhat's new is that I've been using music to //influence// how I feel... maybe. It's a tricky area... if I'm using music to "influence" how I feel, isn't that just a reflection of an already present feeling that I need to alter how I'm feeling? That works, as long as one accepts the notion that there is a realm of feeling that can exist beyond other realms of feeling and display a certain sort of authority over those other realms.\n\nStill, artists like Eminem, Arcade Fire, The White Stripes, Fiona Apple, Fall Out Boy (who never really went away) are starting to take ipod minutes away from D'Angelo, The Beatles, Mozart, John Mayer, Radiohead. This isn't because I don't want to listen to the second group - it's because I don't want to be the sort of person who's listening to the sort of music in the second group. Right now. I can feel myself getting soft, gooey, and complacent and the music certainly isn't helping.\n\nFuck complacency.\n\nAs such, I've opted for a mixture of anger, tragedy, nerdiness, bitterness, and angsty self-deprecation, respectively.

Ghostface Killah recently released a new album called __Fishscale__. None of the reviews said "This album is ''great''!". However, all of the reviews said, "Finally, the best artist of ~Wu-Tang has delivered a solid album that's worthy of his name."\n\nI bought the album and notice that I only downloaded 15 tracks and not the full 24 tracks. This is, clearly, a problem... a problem also known as //downloading __Supreme Clientele__ instead of __Fishscale__, because, apparently, I wasn't paying attention when I ordered the album.//\n\nLuckily, __Supreme Clientele__ is also a decent album. In fact, it's the ''ALBUM'' that people use for __Fishscale__ comparisons when they say, "Not since ''INSERT ALBUM'' has Ghostface Killah displayed the ''INSERT DESIRABLE QUALITY'' that's seen on __Fishscale__." In short, if there were an album to accidentally download, __Supreme Clientele__ was that album.\n\nOne of the cool things about Ghostface Killah is that he tells stories in his songs. It's something that I can only compare to Jean Grae's //Chapter One: Destiny// from __Bootleg of the Bootleg__ (which is a fucking amazing song, for the record) at the moment. Where 50 Cent vamps endlessly about... whatever, and even where Jay-Z delivers short snippets of life and scenes to create an overall feeling or impression, Ghostface starts at point A and proceeds unbroken to point B. His style was called "Stream of Consciousness" by someone, and while I don't think those are the words I would use, I don't have anything better.

It started out mostly as a side note to another conversation I was having with J:\n\n>"Yeah - I've never been able to get into the Beatles. I know they're supposed to be awesome and made a sort of music that no one had made before, but I just think they're sort of over-rated."\n\nJ asked me what exactly I'd heard of the Beatles and I told her that I'd only heard a few songs here and there and the only album I'd been exposed to was the __White Album__. Apparently the __White Album__ is a bad album to begin with. __Revolver__ and __Rubber Soul__ - this is where one should start... or so I'm told. I tried to find out which songs were the good songs. Apparently, they're //all// "good songs".\n\nI listened to the Beatles for the first time while I was doing something else and it was vaguely uneventful, but definitely not unpleasant. Once the two albums end, I didn't feel like finding new music, so I just started the two albums over.\n----\nAt some point in time I'm back in J's car and a Beatles song comes on. After declaring my undying love for the song I turn the volume up and start singing along. After she stops laughing (which was quite some time later), she said, quite proud of her conversion, "and you thought they were over-rated." This is how I became a Beatles fan, and is just another of the many reasons why I always listen to J.

There are a lot of people out their hating on Paris Hilton's new album. I'm here to defend her.\n\nWho knew that Paris was making an album? I didn't until I ran across it on iTunes. It's averaging less than 2 stars on over 3500 reviews. Wow, right? Over 3500 people felt they needed to get something off their chest, and most of them wrote insipid reviews.\n\nParis Hilton's album is as good as or better than the following:\n\n1. //Hollaback Girl// and \n\n2. //Hollaback Girl part 2// (aka //London Bridge//)\nNow if we're talking about whom I'd rather see naked, the ranking is fairly straight-forward: Fergie, Paris, Gwen. (I know we've all seen Paris, but I'd still take her again over Gwen, based entirely on Gwen's post-No Doubt musical decline.) Musically, it's a wash. //Hollaback Girl// and //London Bridge// are nothing more than well engineered, musical marketing scams with catchy beats, vapid lyrics, and women who may or may not have vocal talent using their assets and titsets to sell albums. \n\n3. Anything Janet Jackson has done since __The Velvet Rope__.\nJanet can probably out-sing Paris Hilton, but if you wanna talk about under-achieving, you wanna talk about Janet Jackson. Janet done fell off and she done fell off hard. It's a god damn shame that artists like Mariah Carey (weakly) and Christina Aguilera (with a bullet on __Back to Basics__) have been pushing the boundaries that Janet started and should still own if she weren't so busy... so busy... ... damn - I don't even //know// what the fuck she's doing. To quote O: "The Jacksons have never been accused of being sane."\n\nRegardless, considering this is Paris' first album and Janet is coming from a) at least 20 years of recording and b) one of the most musical families in the world, pound-for-pound Paris out performs Janet. In fact, I may take this album straight-up against __Damita Jo__.\n\n\n4. ... I'll come right back to 4.\n\nNow, I'm not saying that Paris' album is good, but these people aren't being critical - they're hating. The main criticisms of the album are:\n*lyrics (bad)\n*singing (bad)\n*Paris Hilton is ugly, smells, and thinks she's the shit but really isn't. \nConsidering that so much of pop music is production and beats, the songs on this record are as good as \n\n4. Anything else that's on the radio, MTV, or BET.\nMost of the pop music scene features bad singing and bad lyrics. If you listen to that shit, there's no reason that you shouldn't listen to this shit too.\n\nAnd, on a personal note, her cover of //Do Ya Think I'm Sexy// (Track 11) is ''Awesome''. Don't let anyone tell you any different. \nIf you're looking for other tracks to check: 1, 4, 10\n\nP.S.\n5. Who the //Hell// is [[Danity Kane]]?

The timeline to the right has links to posts. Feel free to go out of order.\n\nAny words that LookLikeThis are links to other posts.

comments to versus@kvoweb...

Check out [[All-Star Songs]]

Eminem's songs, //Love You More// in particular, display a self-loathing, menacing, venomous aggressiveness, which, in my opinion, is fairly complex and dynamic. While the twisted music box melody certainly helps, this song is fairly lyrically driven, both structurally and emotionally. And it's tight. And it's much more evocative than, say, any 50 Cent lyric ever.\n\n<<<\nThe more you put me through\nThe more it makes me wanna come back to you\nYou say you hate me, I just love you more\nYou don't want me, I just want you more\n\nI buy you flowers, you throw 'em at me\nI know it's sad but it's making me happy\nThe more that you slap me, the more that it turns me on\nBecause you love me and I love you more\n<<<\n\n

I loves me some Ludacris. \n\nThis ain't about hate; I'm just callin like I'm seein: Ludacris' albums have never been as good as __Back for the First Time__. While Luda has some awesome tracks on subsequent albums, his focus has been more on making hot songs than making good songs.\n\nWhat is a song that's trying to be a "hot song"? The best example of this was pointed out to me by my boy WG - //Breathe, Stretch, Shake// by Ma$e (lame$t name ever). It tries really hard to be a hot song, and, really, has everything you need:\n*Hot Beat\n*8 measure musical cycles\n*16 measures to a verse\n*Chord progression between cycles\n*Catchy hook, complete with someone breathing in the background\n*Diddy randomly screaming unintelligible shit in the background\n*A rapper who doesn't fuck up the above 6 things.\nYou do this correctly, you have a hot song.\n\nExample 2: //Can I Have It Like That// by Pharrell, featuring Gwen "//I should have never broken away from No Doubt//" Stephani\n*Hot Beat\n*8 measure music cycles\n*16 measures to a verse\n*Percussion riff to transition cycles\n*Catchy hook, complete with Gwen Stefani singing breathily in the background\n*Pharrell randomly saying slightly intelligible shit in the background\n*A rapper who doesn't fuck up what the above 6 things set up.\n\n//Can I Have It Like That// has a bit more to it than just the elements of the Hot Song Formula™, unlike //Breathe, Stretch, Shake//. //Can I Have It Like That// also happens to be a better song than //Breathe, Stretch, Shake//. //Breathe, Stretch, Shake// is a song that follows the Hot Song Formula™ but, upon close examination, isn't really a hot song. Too many of Luda's later songs have little to offer beyond being generically good Hot Songs™.\n\n__Word of Mouf__\nGood Songs: //Keep it on the Hush, Get the Fuck Back//\nGenerically Good Hot Songs™: //Rollout, Move Bitch, Saturday Night (Oooh! Ooooh!)//\n\n__Chicken and Beer__\nGood Songs: //Hoes in my Room// (what it lacks in execution it covers in Awesomeness)\nGenerically Good Hot Songs™: //Stand Up, Teamwork//\n\n__Red Light District__\nGood Songs: //Virgo// (too bad it's the last track)\nGenerically Good Hot Songs™: //Number One Spot//... maybe every song after Number One Spot. (It seems like the older Luda gets, his hooks get shorter and repeated more often.)\n---\n__Back for the First Time__\nGood Songs: //U Got A Problem// (no hook), //1st & 10, What's Your Fantasy, Ho//\nHonorable Mentions: //Southern Hospitality// and //Phat Rabbit//\n\nOn __Back for the First Time__ Ludacris sounds hungry and grimy. Everything past that sounds complacent and produced. And lame. Except if he's guesting on someone else's track. Then it'll be hot.

[[Instructions]]\n[[All-Star Songs]]\n[[Wise Words]]\n[[Opening Lines]]\n----\n[[KvOWeb|http://www.kvoweb.com]]

1. Recently, I realized I own a lot of mediocre hip-hop... acts that are talented, but not without qualification. Acts like...\n*Aesop Rock. I loves me some Aesop Rock, but at the end of the day he's just a rapper with an interesting voice, an interesting sound, and a few hot tracks... and most of the time I can't quite understand what he's saying. \n*Kanye West: I haven't listened to either of his albums in ages. Why? They aren't tight. He's got talent, but he's an underachiever. \n*Common: see Kanye West. Or, see [[Concert::Common]].\n\n2. I know squat about jazz. I didn't realize this until I tried to re-org my itunes library. I didn't think I was well versed in jazz, but I didn't consider myself a jazz novice, either. I was wrong. While I own Coltrane and Miles Davis, I have no idea where they fit in the jazz world. I have no Dizzy, no Charlie Parker. A single Thelonious Monk album that I either dislike or (and more likely) is just way over my head. No Basie. No Duke. No Goodman. No Armstrong.\n\nFaced with my shame, I did what any good lib-arts student would do: research. A few hours with wikipedia and I can now successfully differentiate between (I think) modal jazz, bebop, and the music that predates bebop. I still have an embarrassingly small collection of artists, but I did pick up some Mingus a few days ago. It's good.\n(Mingus at Antibes).

I downloaded [[Menos el Oso|http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=76219934&s=143441&i=76219783]] by Minus the Bear about an hour ago. In fact, I //just// restarted the album, having gone through it once. I don't know if I like it, but I like listening to it right now - it's really satiating a jones. The sound is very melodic and light... not light like whipped cream, but light like an apple.\n\nI discovered Minus the Bear via the [[KEXP podcast|http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=76030848&s=143441&i=1626063]] of live, in-studio performances.\n\nI've been in search of music like this for a few weeks - music like an apple, so to speak. For some odd reason, I associate this sort of music with being downtown at night, standing on the balcony of an apartment that's stories above the ground, looking out over the city, looking at all the lights.\n\nMy recent purchase of __Menos el Oso__ was spurred, mostly, by a viewing of BeforeSunset, (which was a necessary follow-up to a recent viewing of Before Sunrise). The two aren't really related - it's just the way things worked out.

Mork is my iPod Nano, named after [[Mork from Ork|http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077053/plotsummary]] on the hit television show, [[Mork and Mindy|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mork_And_Mindy]].

<<<\nScene three: weeks of datin, late night conversation\nIn the crib heart racin, tryin to be cool and patient\nShe touched on my eyelids, the room fell silent\nShe walked away smilin, singing Gregory Issac\nLike - "If I don't, if I don't, if I don't"\n<<<\n

One of the most dangerous things for me and my music collection is mixing music I like with people I like. \n\n//Danger for me//: Good music becomes unlistenable in the unfortunate event that I am other-than-happy with the person connected to said good music. \n\n//Danger for my music collection//: I add mediocre music to the collection because of the strong connection with a person. \n\nFortunately, I have no good examples of either phenomenon, because I'm very protective of my music collection. Once upon a time, I made a mix CD - an incredible collection of songs: D'Angelo, The Spinners, Aretha Franklin, Bee Gees, Roberta Flack, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, et al. It was fantastic stuff, but the person receiving said CD hated on it so much, I haven't been able to listen to it since.

Driving through the Costco parking lot earlier today, I noticed people staring at me. \n# A few nights ago I heard a song by Nas and Maxwell called //[[No One Else In The Room|http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=31225308&s=143441&i=31228825]] //that absolutely rocked my world. I went out and bought a copy of the song the next day, and, subsequently, placed it on a mix CD I've been listening to all day. The song starts off with forks rapping against glasses before a big-bodied rhythm track appears out of nowhere. This is the song that's on the stereo when I'm driving, and I, for the most part, like my music as big as it can get, especially in these winter months, when my windows are always up.\n# Today, my window happened to be down - just a tiny bit.\n# I live in the suburbs and don't look particularly suburban. This is especially true while in a Costco parking lot.\n\nI parsed all of this information and finally came to the realization that //I// was "that guy" - that scary man in the car with the loud, angry rap music coming out of it. I tried to switch tracks, but the next one was ~Wu-Tang (//Cash Rules Everything Around Me!//), which led me to just turn off my stereo. You might be thinking, "Why did you do that? Fuck those people." That is, in fact, exactly what I am thinking right now. I suppose it's just a dilemma of life - how do you fight stereotypes when the stereotypes are partially true? How do you feel like you aren't reinforcing those stereotypes, without compromising the truth of your character?

[[One Mic|http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=891866&s=143441&i=1215820]] is currently on my list of all time favorite songs. It's structured nicely, with the mood and music rising slowly and dropping suddenly through each verse/chorus cycle. \n\nI love the imagery-\n<<<\nEverybody gotta die sometime; hope your funeral \nnever gets shot up, bullets tear through the innocent\nNothin is fair. Niggaz roll up, shootin from wheelchairs\nMy heart is racin, tastin revenge in the air\n<<<\nI love, above all, what I see as the take home message of the song: acknowledging what you truly need in life for survival. It's not a self-help song; Nas isn't trying to find what he needs to become "whole". It's a song about finding that one thing you need in order to //kick life's ass//. \n\nThroughout the song, there is a strong sense of urgency and immediacy to the narrative and conflict therein (an example of which can be seen above), no matter how crazy things get, the song always returns to one theme: All I need is one mic to make a difference.\n\n----\n//As I'm writing this entry, a guy walks into the coffee shop and puts his stuff down on the table in front of me. @@font-size:90%;(His stuff = one package of red Twizzlers, 500 sheets of ~MaxBrite multi-purpose paper, and a single pen in his shirt pocket.)@@ We have the following exchange:\n>Him: "Got my supplies..." \n>Me: "Yep - just the essentials."\n>Him: "That's right. All I need is red licorice and some paper - the ideas will come."//

April was a huge month, full of awesomeness and disaster.\n\n''the disastrous''\n*50 Cent::__Get Rich or Die Trying__\n**This album is bad, as discussed at least partially in [[Fiddy]].\n*50 Cent::__The Massacre__\n**This album is bad, as discussed at least partially in [[Fiddy]].\n\n''the awesome''\n*Chopin's Nocturnes as performed by Maria Joao Pires\n**This may currently be, and may remain, one of the best plays of the year.\n*~Wu-Tang v Indie Culture::__Think Differently Music__\n**~Wu-Tang produces and occasionally raps with some of indie and underground hip-hop's hottest ~MCs. This is a great idea. Try Aesop Rock & Del Tha Funky Homosapien on for size.\n*Quantic Presents - __The World's Rarest Funk 45s__\n**Pretty awesome. If you get a chance to check out iTunes Northern Soul essentials list, please do.\n*Fall Out Boy::__From Under The Cork Tree__\n**[[Fall Out Boy]]... still good.\n*The Little Willies\n**The first thing to know about this album is that it's good. The second thing to know about this album is that Norah Jones is one of the artists in the band... and she's actually //just an artist//. It's not the Norah Jones Show. The third thing to know is that, as far as I've heard, The Little Willies just cover old country songs - Willie Nelson, Hank Williams, etc. Independent of things 2 and 3, please refer to thing #1 - this album is good.\n*The Streets::__Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living__\n**TheStreets are awesome - this is no different.

March was a solid month in Musicland. So good, in fact, that the most unique thing about March is what I dislike - only one album: __Show Your Bones__ by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I bought the album in part because __Fever To Tell__ kicked ass and in part in advance of [[Concert::Yeah Yeah Yeahs]]. O's reaction upon the end of the concert, having not heard the album, was "It wasn't a bad concert, but I felt they could have rocked me harder." Having heard the album, my reaction was, "Man... after hearing the album, I was afraid it was going to rock less hard than it did," with an understood parenthetical statement, "(It wasn't a bad album, but I felt that it could have rocked me harder.)" \n\nThe album is pretty good, if you're looking for good music. After an album featuring //Date with the Night// and //Tick//, and after seeing concert footage featuring Karen O methodically smashing grapes one by one, which where scattered about the stage by her, "good music" isn't exactly what I wanted from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.\n\nPast the Yeah Yeah Yeahs is __Felt 2: A Tribute to Lisa Bonet__ and Minus The Bear. MinusTheBear... still good. Felt... pretty damn incredible. Felt is an MC from Cali named Murs and Slug from Atmosphere, representing Minnesota. I've heard only a little bit of Murs and quite a bit of Atmosphere. Songs like //Breaker Down Like a Shotgun// and //Your Mans And Them// are amazingly dirty and hard, respectively, and both are well-crafted.

I don't know what I've been doing with my life, but I should have been spending more time in a bath tub, with a glass of wine, letting Nina Simone sing me into a peaceful stupor. It's gloriously, amazingly self-indulgent in a very self-affirming way to let everything else in your life fall away until all that's left is you, the water against your skin, and the music in your ears. Anyone can cross items off a to do list - who can let go and just be?

O sent out an email with a link to an article about how hip-hop music used to be cool and positive and not all about machismo, degrading women, death, drugs, etc. It's a good article: interesting perspective, interestingly written, and unfortunately true. What's sad is that he only sent the article to 2 people. This would be less sad if it were possible that he only knew two people who listened to hip-hop. It is not.\n\nHip hop is ubiquitous in our society and glamorizes violence, fast money, and the dehumanization of women. Of all the people he knows who are effected by the messages of hip hop (i.e., everyone he knows), he recognized only two of us would actually care enough to read [[this article|http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/13/AR2006101301426.html]], which is sad.

//I'm not a gangsta, but don't push me. Revenge is like the sweetest joy next to gettin' pussy.//\n~2-Pac, Hail Mary\n----\n//Friends for a long time and I think that we shouldn't fuck.//\n~Sheila Nichols, Question\n----\n//I'm sleeping my way out of this one with anyone who will lie down.//\n~Fall Out Boy, 7 Minutes in Heaven (Atavan Halen)

Beyond being a fantastic way to demonstrate [[The Wainwright Experience]], //Poses// is a striking assembly of music, lyric, and emotion. (I mean assembly in the way that the body is an assembly of parts and not so much in the way a car is an assembly of parts.) The musical and lyrical substance of the song, as well as Wainwright's performance of the song, all exist as unique, fully rendered tellers of the same tale of love turned woe.

For some odd reason, I never realized how much people love Prince. Even given my own aversions to listening to His Purpleness (see: [[Alicia is not D'Angelo]]), one would still think I would have noticed how much people love Prince.\n\nOne of the most amazing things about Prince is how I've had to listen to his music. For a few days, my modus operandi was to go flipping through his 3-disc set __The Hits/The ~B-Sides __ and try to find songs that seemed good. I starting surfing and I never stopped - I surfed through every single one.\n\nMy plan B was to put the whole thing on shuffle and just listen to it. I discovered 3 things:\n\n1. Prince is good.\n2. While Prince's songs are amazing, I can't really put into words why. Whatever the glory of his songs, it isn't apparent by track-surfing through them.\n3. All of Prince's songs are good - at least on this album. I've been listening to the album fairly regularly for a couple of weeks, now, and I've yet to develop strong preferences for any of the songs, mostly because they're all equally good, albeit in unique ways.

Through some occurrence or another, I found myself at my friend K's house, listening to Prince. Having told her that all my Prince knowledge was gained in the last two weeks, K promptly grabbed a Prince tape and let ‘er fly - a //tape//.\n\nAfter being impressed that she actually had a tape player in her house, the cassette goes in, the play button is depressed, and furniture is moved aside. As soon as the first song comes on, I'm informed that when one listens to //Pink Cashmere//, one //must// lay on the floor. This doesn't strike me as odd at all, and 30 seconds later we're on the floor, draped in //[[Pink Cashmere|http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=760094&s=143441&i=759847]]//.

These dudes are pissed off and really want to tell you about it. It gives me hope to hear music that is very aggressive and political. My cohort O introduced me to Rage Against the Machine about 4 or 5 years ago. It's taken that long to take his recommendation and start listening, but better late that never, eh?\n \nOne of the things I'm finding to be true with Rage is similar to the phenomenon I'm experiencing with [[Prince]] - it's really hard to pick out a set of "favorite" songs. I do have some songs I've decided are my "favorite" (//[[Ashes in the Fall|http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=466371&s=143441&i=678511]], [[War Within a Breath|http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=466371&s=143441&i=790724]], [[Know Your Enemy|http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=484920&s=143441&i=484917]], [[Guerrilla Radio|http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=466371&s=143441&i=809408]]//), but among their three albums, I could probably pick 5 out at random, make them my "favorite", and be no worse off for it.\n\nThis is not something I've experienced with StevieWonder.

I've played more Sim City this weekend than I've done anything else. At least I think so. It's hard to keep track of the other stuff I've done. With an initial 8 hour Sim City push on Friday night, it's entirely possible that I'm logging more Sim City time than sleep this weekend. There were some other highlights, including Snakes on a (MF) Plane, a weekly visit to see an always fabulous live band, and a trip down to Historic Main Street.\n\nIt's worth noting that at 2 hours, 2 hours, and 3 hours respectively, these "other highlights" come in 1 hour short of my Sim City time on Friday alone.\n\nBeing at my computer for hours on end does present me with the perfect opportunity to, say, listen to the entirety of Rufus Wainwright's studio catalog in chronological order. Once the music stops, I have two important thoughts.\n\n1. //Rufus Wainwright is good. Really good. He's a great composer, he's a great lyricist, he's a great singer, he probably dresses better than I do, and undoubtedly is more entertaining at parties... maybe I could take him in Double Dash... ''Maybe.'' But did he just sing those last to songs in French?? And then thank the crowd in French?//\n\n2. //The music just stopped. Rufus has 4 studio albums... that means that I've been playing for about 4 hours. I wonder what time it is... do I have to go to work tomorrow?? Maybe I should stop playing...//\n\nFor the record, if I didn't have to write this entry, I'm not sure I would have stopped playing. I would have decided that I //should// stop playing, and then I would have forgotten to stop playing.

life as sound

K :: Music

Last night I was about to watch Zoolander and I asked myself, "Do I really want to watch Zoolander?" \n\nIt turns out I just wanted to watch certain scenes from Zoolander. \n\nAnd then it turned out those certain scenes all had music attached to them. \n\nReally, I just wanted to listen to the songs - none more than the song that's playing during what could be considered the opening credits - Nikka Costa's remix of Blondie's already blazing //Call Me//. Unfortunately, neither iTunes nor TheRussians has the soundtrack for Zoolander for sale, which means my only option is to buy the entire CD from somewhere. While the entire CD is decent, with cuts from Rufus Wainwright, two versions of //Relax//, et al., to hell with buying real CDs. (If anyone has a copy, feel free to holla.)\n\nI settled for what I thought was the next best thing - the original shortened Blondie version of the song, which I just finished listening to. At 3 minutes and 32 seconds, however, it just doesn't rock me hard enough. It's time to do what I should have done in the first place... download the full 8 minute version.\n----\nThere - while that's downloading...\n\nThe connection between music and life is a strong one. Movies provide a great example - songs that meant little to nothing to a me previously gain a lot of dimension by virtue of them being associated with a particular moment in a movie. Stevie Wonder's //I Believe (when I fall in love it will be forever)// from High Fidelity, //(I've Had) The Time of My Life// from Dirty Dancing (//Johnny!//), //Earth Angel// from Back to the Future (Also //Back in Time//, //Power of Love//), //Pennsylvania Polka// from Groundhog's Day, the main theme from Pirate of the Caribbean. If you haven't seen the movies, these songs are just songs. They might be good songs, they might be bad songs, but they're just songs. If you //have// seen the movies, though... \n----\nAhhh.... 8 minutes of blond goodness. ''That's'' what I'm talkin' about!\n

I just decided I hate Starbucks.\n\n1. About 5 minutes ago, I ask the cashier for an apple cider:\n<<<\n"Can I have an apple cider?"\n"Sure. //Caramel// apple cider?"\n"... ... No."\n<<<\n\nSo the guy working the register says to the barista:\n<<<\n"... apple cider."\n"//Caramel// apple cider?"\n"No caramel. Just apple cider."\n<<<\n\n2. Why can't I order a large drink? I say "large", because that's what you would do if you wanted the largest of 3 size options (perhaps you could also say "largest"). The guy keys it in, turns to the barista and says:\n<<<\n"Venti apple cider."\n"//Caramel// apple cider??"\n"No caramel. Just apple cider."\n<<<\n\n3. So after being told there's no restroom anywhere nearby (not a big surprise, considering it's downtown), and paying for my ==large== venti ==caramel== apple cider from a guy who seemed quite distraught that I didn't meet some Starbucks hipster dress code, I listen to the crappy speakers they've got taped to the ceiling and think to myself, "Who the hell am I listening to? This is awful."\n\nTurns out it's Dean Martin. This place had made me so crotchety in the course of 5 minutes that I had turned against Deano.\n\n<<<\n"Large please."\n"Actually, it's //venti//"\n"..."\n"It's Italian."\n\n<Five Minutes Later>\n\n"911."\n"Hello?? Hi. I'm calling from Starbucks. An enraged black man just jumped over the counter and shoved a coffee cup up an employees ass."\n"Wow... First time I've heard that one. What size?"\n"Venti."\n"Venti??? That ain't no kinda size I ever heard of."\n"Well that's what we call it - it's Italian for //twenty//."\n"So you have an employee with a 20 ounce cup up their ass?"\n"Actually, the cup is about 22 ounces."\n"I thought you just said 'venti' meant 'twenty'."\n"Well, it does mean 20, but our cups aren't 20 ounces - they're about 22. Venti is just what we call them."\n"That's dumb"\n"Well, whatever. Can you send someone over?"\n" "\n"... Hello? Hellooooo?"\n<<

You know, to be such a talented singer, writer, pianist, Stevie Wonder has made some surprisingly shitty music in his time on earth. Even his good songs can be slightly obnoxious:\n*//Ribbon in the Sky// - just end the damn song already.\n*//Overjoyed// - What the hell is with the babbling brook (synthesized) and chirping birds (synthesized) in the background? And for goodness' sake, why wouldn't you use a real damn piano? \n*//Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing// - I always skip this song, just because the intro pisses me off so, so much. Once you get to the part where Stevie is singing, it's pretty okay.\n\nI'll happily grant him some leeway since he was making music in a time where production was shaky across the board, due to the ubiquitous use of horrible sounding synthesizers. At the same time, I'm sure [[Prince]] had to deal with some of the same issues, and he never came out with shitty songs like: \n*//These Three Words// - The verses are fairly innocuous, especially if you don't pay too much attention to the lyrics. The chorus?\n* //For Your Love// - the synthesized music behind the vocals makes me want to punch myself in the face. \n*//Isn't She Lovely// - WTF? This song is about 6 and a half minutes long, and I've never listened it to it all the way through.\n*//Part-time Lover// - This is a really bad song.\n\nHaving said that, I do loves me some Stevie Wonder. You really can't beat songs like:\n*//I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)//\n*//Too Shy to Say//\n*//Lately//\n*//Superwoman//\n*//Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer//\nNot to mention songs like //Until You Come Back To Me, Creepin, Superstition//, et al., which are also spectacular.

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I first experienced this odd phenomenon in J's car. Whenever Rufus Wainwright was on, a few songs specifically, the music just couldn't be loud enough. She'd turn it up, wait, decide it wasn't loud enough, turn it up, wait, decide it wasn't loud enough, rinse and repeat until she reached a point where it still wasn't loud enough, but she decided that she couldn't turn it up any louder. It's an odd yet consistent trait of his music.\n\n//[[Poses]]//, title track of his second album, is a great example of this phenomenon. I'm currently listening to it on my moderately sized Sony headphones. The first time Rufus launches into the chorus - //and you said to watch my head about it// - I feel closer to god, and that's no lie. \n\nI understand fully that Rufus, at this current volume, is probably bad for my ears, which is why I don't turn it up (too much) the third consecutive time I listen to the song. //I know it's probably too loud, but it doesn't feel too loud.// That's the Wainwright Experience.\n\n<<<\n//Baby you said watch my head about it\nMy head about it\nOh no oh no oh no\nOh no oh no no kidding//\n<<<\n

In EthicalDilemma, I talk about songs I want, can't find on iTunes, and refuse to get by means of buying a full, actual, factual CD. (The ethical dilemma is that I don't like stealing music. It doesn't make me feel very good.)\n\nSince then, I've discovered the new hotness (or maybe it's the old hotness - I really wouldn't know), by means of [[a friend|http://lindymovement.blogspot.com/]] - [[AllOfMP3.com|http://www.allofmp3.com/]]. Don't ask me how or why, but somehow this Russian based crew gets me mp3s I need for about a dime a piece.\n\nTen cents for an mp3.

When a friend told me about The Streets, his preface for the music was //It's really good, but initially it will sound like it's really bad.//\n\nThis was was an amazingly accurate description of my Streets experience. The guy who is The Streets interacts with the music in a very interesting way. Most performers vocalize with/on top of the beat, using it both to mark out their own cadence and to set up a rhyme scheme of varying complexity (Eminem is a prime example of this sort of interaction). The Streets thinks about meter and rhyme in conceptual terms, abandoning it outright when it fits his purposes of story telling. When the rhythm and music of his tracks switch from being a help to a hindrance, he just ignores them for a while... in a very conscious manner, though - like choosing to or not to step on cracks in a sidewalk.\n\nThe Street's first two albums are __Original Pirate Materials__ and __A Grand Don't Come For Free__. __Original Pirate Material__ has its high points, and __A Grand Don't Come For Free__ is quite a remarkable album conceptually, hip hop or otherwise. The music itself is good, but the songs on the album more or less blend together to tell a story of a day/week/month in the life of the rapper, culminating in one of the best songs (lyrically, conceptually) that you'll hear from anyone, Empty Cans (it'll be a while before you appreciate the full glory of the song, in part because you need to be acquainted with the rest of the album for background.)

In [[Wainwright::Want Two]] I say //This Love Affair// will become my favorite song within two week of the post. It's been a month to the day since then and //This Love Affair// has not become my new favorite Wainwright song. //Memphis Skyline// currently owns that title. The song is gorgeous, as are most of his songs, but the strength of the song is found in the beginning of the song. Wainwright's piano skills combine with his voice in a way that makes him seem vulnerably close.\n\n<<<\nNever thought of Hades\nUnder the Memphis skyline\nStill, I've come to sing for him\n<<

Another favorite song that I've commandeered from someone else. Another song that displays [[The Wainwright Experience]]. Wainwright's voice is amazing, as normal. This song sounds and feels like spring (especially with the flute - I'm pretty sure that's a flute). Sonically, it's a cheerily, bold, declarative song - not overly passionate, but resolved and bursting with glory and wonder. \n\nLyrically, the song is about watching your life come to a moment of flaming, engulfing disaster, which is so utterly ruinous that said life is reduced to a parody itself.\n\n<<<\nOh Lord, what have I done to myself?\nWhat have I done to myself?\n\nIn this vicious world\nSuch a vicious world\nThere isn't anything you can do\nIn this vicious world\n<<

Almost a week beyond [[Sim City 4]] and I've developed some current Wainwright favorites.\n\nMy new favorite song, taking down //Poses// (for the time being), is //Agnus Dei//, the lead track from __Want Two__. It sounds cool, but it's hard to really figure out what's going on with the song until you think to yourself, "huh... that sort of sounds like Latin." After that things just sort of fall into place.\n\nMy new favorite Wainwright album is __Want Two__. __Poses__ was the de facto favorite for a while, only because it was the first album I had of the four. I have favorite songs from all the albums, but the strength of //Agnus Dei, Little Sister, Hometown Waltz, This Love Affair// (which likely will become my new favorite Wainwright song in under 2 weeks), //The Art Teacher, Memphis Skyline// really places this album as the flagship of the 4.

//We knew from the start that things fall apart and tend to shatter\nShe like, that shit don't matter, when I get home, get at her.//\n~You Got Me, The Roots\n----\n//Choose love or sympathy, but never both.//\n~XO, Fall Out Boy

Way, //way// back when she was rocking the //nice-girl-next-suburb-over// look, I had the following important thing to say about Christina Aguilera: Christina Aguilera is better than Britney Spears.\n\nIn pop music it's important to take sides, even when conflicts are completely fabricated, as in the case of Britney v. Xtina. I'm not interested in "side taking". I do feel, however, that certain things in this musical life are a ''fact'' - this is one of them: Christina Aguilera is better than Britney Spears. She has more talent, more voice, and performance skills.\n\nRegardless of how I've felt about her music specifically, I've always liked Xtina. I respect the path that she's taken through the Industry. At the moment, I'm downloading her latest album and hoping that Xtina finally gets some of the props she deserves. Personally, with the release of __Back to Basics__, I would put her in a class of artists with Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson as far as respect due is concerned. One of the greatest tragedies of life is the falling off of Janet Jackson, in my opinion, and artists are Xtina and Mariah are pushing forward into areas of music that Janet should have on lockdown, if she weren't off putzing about with Jermaine Dupri.\n\nRegardless, the tragedy of Christina Aguilera is that years of pointless bickering among the dull-minded has unfairly placed her at the children's table when she should be eating with the adults.

One question plagues us more than any other... "Is Murs better than your favorite rapper?"\n\n__Murray's Revenge__ is an album built on the following idea: An album created entirely by one good rapper and one good producer will be good. Similar results are seen in the MF Doom/DJ Danger Mouse collaboration, Danger Doom's __The Mouse and the Mask__. It's sofa king good.\n\nThere are a lot of hot songs on the album, including: //D.S.W.G. (Dark Skinned White Girls), Silly Little Girl, L.A.//. However, //Yesterday and Today// has been my anthem for the past few months - I always feel better when I listen to it. It's a good blend of humor, reality, heartbreak...\n<<<\nNow you could call it puppy love cause I got dogged out\nNow in all my notebooks I got her name crossed out\n<<<\nand good advice. \n<<<\nTime waits for no man and tomorrow's not promised\nSo if she's still alive shoot a call to your momma\nCause the fighting and the drama, it's just not worth it\nNobody's perfect, ain't none of us worthless\n<<<\n\nFor the record, Murs probably //is// better than your favorite rapper.

Almost two months later, Mozart has won me over. (That may sound ridiculous.) I've been really feeling him lately. I dig how he creates melodies one note at a time. It's like he took the thing that is the most basic, most fundamental part of the piano - one note, one stroke - and used it to make music. \n\nThis is a talent that many painters and drawers have - the use of a few lines and an awareness of negative space (see [["ma"|http://japanese.about.com/library/weekly/aa082097.htm]]) to create an image more than the sum of its lines. Chinese Landscapes are the first type of painting that come to mind as excellent [[Examples]] of negative space and how it can be used. There are likely others, though.\n\nAnyway, there is something nice about getting down to the fundamentals of any art form and using them to create simple but beautiful art. (I don't mean "simple" in a bad way. Simple like a sunset, not like Jessica Simpson (nothing personal, JS)).