Thursday, May 4

The Meme of Ten

Life is random, at least for the next ten tracks. Here we go.

1. The Zutons - Moons and Horror Shows

Oh thank heavens I got the one good Zutons track. I'm a big Album Person - I prefer to listen to whole albums in one sitting rather than one single at a time. Who Killed the Zutons? is on my iPod in its entirety despite the fact that I only like one or two of its tracks. This is one of them. Catchy!

2. Tea Party - Shadows on the Mountainside

Edges of Twilight. Now there is an album. Fraxas and I had an interesting conversation about it a while back, which I'll quote in the comments.

3. The Chromatics - Doppler Shifting

I have always been a huge fan of science-themed acapella. Finding it is tough. Thanks, Jeremy!

4. RJD2 - Since We Last Spoke

Is this Rock? hip-hop? Dance? Electronica? Who cares. I like it.

5. Cello Suite I in G Major by J.S. Bach, Edgar Meyer, Unaccompanied Cello Suites on Double Bass

As a lapsed bass player, I enjoy listening to ridiculous acts of virtuosity that hardly sound like they could have been performed by a human being. Oh wait, no, that only depresses me.

6. Leonard Cohen - Everybody Knows

Hey, there's Bono of U2 covering a Leonard Cohen song in a trailer. Leonard Cohen is probably the only buddhist monk to ever write a song that Bono covers, which is a strange distinction indeed.

7. The Odds - Domesticated Blind

Finally, my iPod takes me to a song I've never really listened to before, which is odd (no pun in ten did!). I'll pay attention now.

Hmm. Clever lyrics, jangly retro tune, what's not to like? Next.

8. Boards of Canada - ROYGBIV

The bright, sinuous airiness of this track is what launched me on a Boards of Canada obsession. It's a perfect 2-minute morsel of music that solidly anchors rest of the album Music has the Right to Children, which otherwise consists of fleeting, fragmented melodic structures that play patty-cake with your brain.

9. The Roots - Distortion to Static

Okay. This is from a playlist that a friend put together for me. I have only recently started to discover hip-hop, so I'll try to sound off on this track without sounding maximally lame. It is - how you say? Fresh. Its qualities are not what you would call "whack" at all, as far as I can tell.

10. Rondellus - Rotae Confusionis

This is from this album, a bunch of very authentically delivered medieval-style latin-language covers of Black Sabbath songs.

1 comment:

Pharaohmagnetic said...

Fraxas: jesus CHRIST I can't get over how fucking good Edges of Twilight is.
Pharaohmagnetic: I'd say that of all bands, the Tea Party have the highest spread between best-and-worst album, solely because EoT is as awesome as it is.
Fraxas: haha
Fraxas: 4/10 7/10 4E12/10 7/10 2/10 2/10
Pharaohmagnetic: I'm serious. Can you think of a band with a higher spread?
Fraxas: song-to-song, Live
Pharaohmagnetic: are those song ratings?
Pharaohmagnetic: oh yeah, Live. Good example.
Fraxas: no, those are whole-album ratings for Tea PArty
Fraxas: with the 4 billion out of 10 being Edges of Twilight
Fraxas: talk about an unsurpassed masterwork
Pharaohmagnetic: That's actually 4 trillion - but it's still correct.
Fraxas: whatever
Pharaohmagnetic: wait! unless you mean BRITISH billion
Pharaohmagnetic: because they call a billion a milliard
Fraxas: uh...yeah
Pharaohmagnetic: yeah. a 4-trillion-to-2 spread. Unbe-fucking-lievable.
Fraxas: it's like listening to Bach
Fraxas: even the lyrics aren't that dumb
Pharaohmagnetic: Yeah. You know that the lyrics are okay if an image from the song *reminds you of the song itself.* I'll explain.
Fraxas: now. are there any other bands that managed to sustain high-calibre output for more than one album? I understand
Pharaohmagnetic: Like, sometimes you hear a melody fragment on the radio from a song you like - and for the rest of the day, you're humming that song to yourself.
Fraxas: sometimes, on my walk home, I sing Coming Home to myself
Pharaohmagnetic: EXACTLY
Pharaohmagnetic: Or when I see a shadow on a mountainside?
Fraxas: haha
Fraxas: yeah
Pharaohmagnetic: I start singing shadows on the mountainside to myself.
Fraxas: frightened by change
serenity clings to my sleeve
and wonders remain
their world will inherit its meek
Pharaohmagnetic: See, those lyrics aren't embarrassing at *all*.
Fraxas: so wicked's the taste
you feel when the mysteries arise
I've fallen from grace
because of her treacherous eyes
Fraxas: you don't know
Fraxas: so alone
Fraxas: so alone
Fraxas: so alone
Fraxas: and that's
Fraxas: why
Fraxas: I
Fraxas: am
Fraxas: coming home
Pharaohmagnetic: that part freakin kills me.
Fraxas: in beauty's disdain
(her?) tends to these virtuous lies
she tries to restrain
the ardent and amorous eyes
so wicked's the taste
you feel when the mysteries arise (yeah)
I've fallen from grace
because of her treacherous eyes
Fraxas: because you can tell it's coming
Fraxas: it's like the release at the top of the pyramid in that Dire Straits song
Fraxas: money for nothing
Fraxas: and you're right. it's fucking Awesome.
Pharaohmagnetic: It's like the way Achilles and the Tortoise describe the Tonic. It's the best thing in the world.
Pharaohmagnetic: In that way, it's very much like Bach.
Fraxas: well
Fraxas: Bach is more complex, for sure
Fraxas: probably more deeply layered
Pharaohmagnetic: well yeah, with melodies that upon self-transformations, still harmonize
Pharaohmagnetic: Ocassionaly, you do hear a modern pop or rock song that has multiple voices that interact in that way.
Pharaohmagnetic: It's often very surprising when it happens.
Fraxas: but I'd argue that both Edges of Twilight and one of those incredible fugues, I'll let you decide which, both have that quality of total mastery of the form
Fraxas: and *that*'s what's so pleasureable about them.
Pharaohmagnetic: I would agree entirely.
Fraxas: the experience of total mastery of the form.
Fraxas: in any form, really.
Pharaohmagnetic: A very simple example of that multiple-voice complexity in a pop song would be... hmm... let me think. I know I was noticing this before. I should write this kinda thing down.
Fraxas: that's the pleasure in a spectacularly written program.
Fraxas: that's the pleasure in the quadrature of the lune.
Pharaohmagnetic: YEAH. Holy crap, eh?
Fraxas: yeah.
Pharaohmagnetic: You should blog this. And with that . . .
you don't know
so alone
so alone
so alone
and that's why
Pharaohmagnetic: I'M COMING HOME