washa_way, posts by tag: music - LiveJournal

Yup. September. Ba-di-ya, say do you remember time. How the hell did that happen? Only yesterday it was July, and I was wrapping up a couple of drafts and going to the gym every day and frying whole chickens. Now it's suddenly cold at night and I'm waiting to hear back from a publisher and oh yeah, WORK.

The busy-ness has been a little overwhelming, though I must admit that it's not as bad as the fall term usually is, thanks to my rearranged schedule. For the first time in (number large enough to drive, but not to drink) years, I do not have a fall coaching or directing commitment. I'm still helping with the outdoor program, so I've gotten to do a little hiking in the not-yet-crisp fall weather when one of its directors had a conflicting commitment, but I'm not REQUIRED to go on such trips, and I don't have to do them every single day, which makes all the difference. (As Tom Sawyer noted, "Work consists of what a body is obliged to do.")

Anyway: I'm still doing a lot, but more of it is stuff I want to do (e.g., doing the varsity football team's internet broadcasts, which are fun, if a little exhausting). And yay, good cheer. I'm still too frazzled by the recent manuscript to start anything new at the moment, so I'm mostly checking my email waaaay too often in order to look for possible responses from kindly publishers who want to Buy My Book. Oh, and losing at fantasy football. Badly. And finishing up my new copy of David Abrams' long-awaited black comedy about the Iraq War, Fobbit (which you can check out for a mere 99 cents through that link, if you have a Kindle.)

I also got a new computer, which is great, as it's lighter and faster, but my music files inevitably fail to transfer perfectly from one computer to another, so I am, as usual, loading CDs into my new machine. And considering how many CDs I own, this is not a quick project. For example, this evening I've loaded all the Y and Z discs; X may take all of tomorrow night (I own a LOT of albums by XTC), and W is going to take for freaking ever.

Meanwhile, Thing Two is cranking up for his first role of the season, with the premiere Friday, and Thing One is turning 21 on that same day, and has warned us that he does NOT want to meet us for dinner. We'll feed him on Saturday, by which time we're hoping his innards will be back in their usual configuration, rather than dragging around behind him like the chains of an escaped convict. And of course spuffyduds is pounding out thesis-related stuff at a prodigious rate, which is encouraging in a variety of ways, not least because next semester will be the first time in four years that we haven't been paying at least two people's tuition simultaneously.

And, yeah, that's kinda it at the moment. Updates as warranted, I suppose.

And yes, this too was gacked from likeadeuce:

Comment to this post and I will pick five things I would like you to talk about. They might make sense or be totally random.

Then post that list, with your commentary, to your journal. Other people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself, hopefully for the rest of eternity!

She provided me with five items; my comments are included with each:

5. Van Morrison

Van the Man is one of those performers I should probably like more than I do. His voice is entirely satisfying, and he can pen a soulful tune as well as anyone, and when he involves a horn section in his songs (say, "Wild Night" or "Jackie Wilson Said"), great stuff often results.

That said, I own relatively little of his music. On CD, I've got his "Best of" collection and his album with the Chieftains, "Irish Heartbeat." I've also got "Astral Weeks" and "Tupelo Honey" on my hard drive. I've given the latter two less overall listening time than the former two, but I have tried to get into them, partly because a number of my friends and acquaintances over the years have been huge Van fans. The guitarist in my first serious band was a big one, and it influenced his songwriting to a large degree, giving most of his tunes a shuffling rhythm that I'll admit didn't thrill me. One of the players in my current half-assed band is also firmly in Van's camp, though I haven't yet seen much influence there, and it might be nice if I could see some.

But with all this said, Van has never quite grabbed me by the throat. It's not that I dislike his stuff--far from it. But I don't see anything in it that makes me fall into the worshipful haze in which I've seen others wandering about. "Astral Weeks," for example, is a lovely record in many ways, soulful and pastoral and full of interesting instrumentation, but its dreamlike qualities are to some degree what keep me from fully engaging with it; it's like hearing someone else describe his dream, and I think it's a truism that the only thing less interesting than hearing about someone else's dream is hearing about someone else's diet. The songs aren't really structured as songs so much as they're sets of chords over which Van sends his voice sailing, a lone white ship on a wide green sea. Nothing really develops or changes. It's not at all unpleasant, but for a guy like me who values structure (Why, yes, I am an Alan Moore fan!) and rhythm (Why yes, I do listen to Philip Glass!) and harmony (How did you know? I love the Roches!), it's tasty without being filling--a perfectly good soup, but not enough to work as a whole meal.

There's also the issue of lyrics. In terms of vocal style, Van is not a guy who's going to let mere enunciation stand in the way of emotion. As a result, many of the songs of his that I like best fall into that weird category so well staked out by Michael Stipe: Songs I Love to Sing Along With Despite Having No Idea What the Words Are.  (Example: "Oh-oh, Domino... tho me oh ba Romeo... Lord have mercy... oh-oh, Domino... yo be over Obie oh... I said oh-oh Domino...") Sometimes, I'll grant you, Van is singing something like "dang a lang a lang, dang a lang a lang a lang" entirely on purpose, but at other times he seems to be singing it by accident. Occasionally I hear what were probably intended to be English words, but which seem to have lost everything but their vowels. It's not that I dislike this style--I own every single R.E.M. record, after all--but when there's no melodic development, or when there are no other voices at work, it can be a little much. When I can hear and understand them, they're often pleasant enough, but they often seem a bit too abstract to work like Billy Bragg's beautifully observed songs, or come off as lacking in the playful quality that a good Dylan lyric has.

But there are times when Van just nails it--the title song of "Tupelo Honey," or "Queen of the Slipstream," or "And It Stoned Me"--and I find myself tempted to once again put on one of his albums and just lose myself in it. At this point he's unlikely to join my personal pantheon of pop musicians, but I'm glad he's out there, fusing elements that no other musician is fusing, and giving me some places to explore when I eventually head over to the bright side of the road.

In the meantime, if I never hear "Brown Eyed Girl" again, I will be satisfied.

Thanks for the inspiration, deuce! I worry that you may have gotten a bit more information than you really wanted...

The always-inspiring likeadeuce: shared this meme with me a year or two back, and I'm giving it another run for its money:

Put your MP3 player on shuffle.
Write down the first line of the first twenty songs that come up.
Use the first line of the twenty-first as your title.

I've added some punctuation and line breaks, and I've been judicious about where the first lines actually end, but this is how it all turned out, honest--even the strange geographical focus of the early lines:

Loaded Like a Freight Train

We're in the heart of the city, where the alligator roams
In the heat of the day, down in Mobile, Alabama,
I need to feel your heartbeat.

I went down to Houston and I stopped in San Antone.
Isn't it rich?
There's a couple sunbathing.

Sittin' in the kitchen, my house in Macon,
I met a friend of spirit.

Nobody feels any pain,
The love of a woman, a fear of the phone,
You are such a woman to me.

I was born in Chicago, 1971.
Kennesaw Mountain Landis,
Where were you when I needed you?
A strange boy is weaving a course of grace and havoc.

Now the courtroom is quiet, but who will confess?
All it took was the time it takes,
Power, equality, and we're out to get it,
We crossed the line.
The wretched in their millions will overspill their borders.
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For once, I'm making up a meme. That probably guarantees I'll be not only the first, but the ONLY person ever to write on it.

*Pick the size of your tournament. It should be an exponent of two--2, 4, 8, 16, 32, or 64. But the bigger your tournament is, the more you'll have to write about the songs in it.
*Open "shuffle" on your media player.
*List the titles of the first 2 (or 4, 8, 16, 32, or 64) songs that play (in the order that they play--be honest.)
*Match the songs up by their "seeds" (a/k/a their numbers; in an eight-seed tourney, that's #1 against #8, #2 vs. #7, #3 vs. #6, etc.)
*Compare the two songs in the matchup and pick the one you like better, explaining your reasoning.
*On to the next round and repeat until you have a champion song.

Here's my eight-song tournament

1. "Funeral for a Friend (Love Lies Bleeding)" by Elton John 11:07
2. "Hungry Freaks, Daddy" by the Mothers of Invention
3. "Spellbound" by Poco
4. "Skinhead Stomp" by Camper Van Beethoven
5. "Streams of Whiskey" by the Pogues
6. "Strawberry Fields Forever" by the Beatles
7. "Expresso Love" by Dire Straits
8. "She Makes Me (Stormtrooper in Stilettoes)" by Queen

ELITE EIGHT
GAME ONE: Elton vs. Queen
We're talking about the massive opening salvo from Sir Elton's best album, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, against a minor Brian May composition whose title seems utterly detached from its actual rather sluggish sound (which may be why it's buried on side two of Sheer Heart Attack.) It's not even close.
GAME TWO: Mothers vs. Dire Straits
The opening track of the Mothers' startling debut, Freak Out!, is a high seed for a reason (other than the whole shuffle thing): it's a slap in the face of social convention as well as a great tune. "Expresso Love" not only misspells the name of the beverage, but it falls short of the three songs on side one of Making Movies to boot.
GAME THREE: Poco vs. Beatles
There's really no way this pleasant but minor Poco hit should have been seeded this high, and the Beatles aren't the kind of guys to play down to the opponent's level--well, maybe Paul (see "The Girl Is Mine"). "SFF" in a walk.
GAME FOUR: CVB vs. Pogues
A tough battle between two tracks from the artists' early days. "Skinhead Stomp," from Telephone Free Landslide Victory,  is an energetic enough instrumental, but the joyous chorus of the Pogues' take on the traditional pub singalong (from Red Roses for Me) takes them to victory.

FINAL FOUR:
GAME ONE: Elton vs. Pogues
Elton catches a break against a Pogues squad that really hasn't gelled at this point in their career, while he's at the peak of his powers as a glam-rocker with pop appeal and keyboard chops to die for. Elton puts it out of reach early on.

GAME TWO: Mothers vs. Beatles
A shame they had to meet in the semifinals, isn't it? The snarky individualism of Zappa against the hippiest trip in Lennon's catalogue. I hate to have to pick one, but the marvelous complexity of George Martin's production gives the Fab Four the edge here.

CHAMPIONSHIP
Elton vs. Beatles
The size of Elton's canvas works to his advantage here; he has eleven minutes to throw in sound effects, synthesizers, a tasteful piano meditation, a guitar-driven power-ballad instrumental, and a galloping introduction before he even gets to the first verse--and then we get a terrific riff and a chorus that spikes you right through the head. If you want a lesson in rock-and-roll transitions, this is where to learn it. Really, this is one of Elton's best opportunities to win against one of the best squads in the game. Unfortunately, that squad is bringing their A-game as well--no "Honey Pie" or "You Like Me Too Much" here. No, it's a fully-fit Lennon behind the mic, backed by some of Ringo's most varied and expressive drumming--sometimes sensitive, sometimes muscular. With backward masking, pulsing mellotron, droning strings, and the legendary "I buried Paul" finale, there's really as much to listen to in these four minutes as there is in Elton's far longer song. The Mersey Sound takes the title!

That'll teach people to give the Beatles a six seed.

Yeah, I just got a BUNCHA CD's.

OLD SCHOOL, biotches!

Okay, the American Aquarium discs (Dances for the Lonely and Small Town Hymns) are actually fairly new, but I got them AT THE SHOW FROM THE LEAD SINGER.

Because THAT IS HOW I ROLL.

But Earth Wind & Fire's Spirit, the Soft Boys' A Can of Bees, and Kirsty MacColl's Tropical Brainstorm are HERE IN MY HANDS. With ALBUM COVER ART and LINER NOTES and shit. None of that DOWNLOAD thing. Well, except for the ordering from Amazon.com part.

Because I got 99 problems and BANDWIDTH AIN'T ONE.

Well, actually, our bandwidth sucks. But now I DON'T NEED NO BACKUP.

Except that I don't want to rip all of them onto my hard drive again, so maybe I will back them up.

WORD TO YOUR MUTHA.

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spuffyduds and I went to see the Carolina Chocolate Drops on Tuesday, and since she hasn't gotten around to posting about it, I should note that:

1) Last year's show was one of the group's first performances with Hubby Jenkins, who replaced original Drop Justin Robinson after the latter went back to college. Dom Flemons and Rhiannon Giddens still hadn't had the chance to rework all their earlier material (such as the much-missed "Cornbread and Butterbeans") with Hubby, but they still put on a dynamite show with Hubby playing mostly guitar and beatboxer Adam Matta adding some verrrrry cool moments (including an improvised beatbox/a capella Irish jig with Rhiannon that was one of the most electrifying live performances I've ever seen.)

2) This year Hubby was fully integrated into the band, performing on guitar, banjo, mandolin, bones, and vocals. The man has chops. He also delivered a sterling lead vocal on "Cornbread and Butterbeans" and after the show posed for a photo with the sock Spuffy's knitting. Dom and Rhiannon were, as expected, just great, and they exactly delivered what we'd been hoping for: a combination of energetic jigs, call-and-response singalongs, sorrowful folk songs, twangy R&B (including a smokin' Ethel Waters tune called "I'm No Man's Mama"), traditional negro string band songs, and various stewed and gumbo-fied treatments of music from dozens of different places at once.

3) Matta is not touring with the band at the moment, but New Orleans-based cellist Leyla McCalla is, and oh my. Her cello added some beautiful warmth to many of the songs, as well as a powerful, fat, low end on "Hit 'Em Up Style," but the treat of this show may have been her lead vocal (with Rhiannon adding gorgeous harmonies) on a song in Haitian creole about the sun going to sleep. I hope like hell that's on the new record.

4) They've got a new record coming out on Feb. 28th! It's called Leaving Eden, the title track of which is about the drying up of jobs in the little town of Eden, NC (not Edenton--totally different town in NC). Hubby joines Dom and Rhiannon on the cover as a full member, but Leyla plays on the album as well as on the tour. I look forward to owning it.

5) Dom Flemons remains by equal turns hilarious, earnest, deadpan, and totally music-geeky. And he wears a hat. At one point, he rose from his folding chair in the middle of one song in order to dance. (The whole band mostly performs seated, but members often stand for particular songs, either to sing, play the fiddle, or dance.) Unfortunately, he had stuck his pair of bones in his back pocket, and as he rose, they caught under the back of the folding chair. He was strumming his guitar at the time, so he couldn't just drop it and grab the chair. Instead, he delicately duck-walked upstage, folding chair dangling off his butt, until he could grab his guitar in one hand, grab the chair with the other, swing the chair back into its original position in front of the microphone, and begin a wild guitar-spinning dance across the upstage area.

6) All in all, a wonderful show from a band that really delivers live. And I bought a terrific CCD cap.

7) Oh, Rhiannon. Spuffy may long for a combination of Rhett Miller and Jason Isbell, but you have my musical heart. Then again, you may have Spuffy's, too.

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I'm listening to one of my numerous playlists right now, one whose theme is women's/girls' names. Well, okay, the first song on it is "A Boy Named Sue," but after that it starts out on a nearly four-hour alphabetical exploration of female nomenclature. A few samples:

Alison (Elvis Costello)
Have a Heart, Betty (The Soft Boys)
Cynthia Mask (Robyn Hitchcock)
Denise (Fountains of Wayne)
Europa and the Pirate Twins (Thomas Dolby)
San Francisco Fan (Joe Jackson)
Georgia Rae (John Hiatt)
Helen (Don Dixon)
Iris (Split Enz)
Janie Jones (The Clash)
Kitty's Back (Bruce Springsteen)
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (The Beatles)
Mary Sunshine Rain (dada)
Darling Nikki (Prince)
Ondine (They Might Be Giants)
Polly (Nirvana)
Little Queenie (Chuck Berry)
Walk Away Renee (Billy Bragg via the Left Banke)
Sunny Came Home (Shawn Colvin)
Thumbelina (The Pretenders)
Oh Urania (Andrew Gold)
Venus (Television)
Winona (Matthew Sweet)
Beautiful Zelda (The Bonzo Dog Band)

(I need names for X and Y, by the way)

But anyway, as I sit hear listening to the M's--all eighteen songs, ranging from "Hello Mabel" by the Bonzo Dog Band to "With a Girl Like Mimi" by Kid Creole & the Coconuts--I suddenly thought, "Hmm... I wonder how many songs there are with GUYS' names?"

There are a few, sure, but even those are often paired with a girl's name, such as "Trudy and Dave" (John Hiatt), "Johnny and Mary" (Robert Palmer), and "Jimmy Loves Mary Ann" (Looking Glass).

Here are the ones I could think of:

Richard (Billy Bragg)
Daniel (Elton John)
James (Billy Joel)
James Dean (The Eagles)
Rocky Raccoon (The Beatles)
David Watts (The Kinks)
Jumpin' Jack Flash (The Rolling Stones)
Jackie Wilson Said (Van Morrison)
Making Plans for Nigel (XTC)
Tommy, Can You Hear Me? (The Who)
Run Joey Run (David Geddes)
Young Ned of the Hill (The Pogues)
You Can Call Me Al (Paul Simon)
From Hank to Hendrix (Neil Young)
Bad Bad Leroy Brown (Jim Croce)
Bring Back That Leroy Brown (Queen)
(A Man's Gotta Know His Limitations) Briggs (Robyn Hitchcock)

And of course there are the Johnny songs, which seem to be the most numerous:

Johnny (System of a Down)
Johnny B. Goode (Chuck Berry)
Be Good Johnny (Men at Work)
Johnny Too Bad (UB40 via the Slickers)
Johnny Come Lately (Steve Earle)
Johnny's Far Away (Richard Thompson)
Johnny's Room (The Bobs)
Lonesome Johnny Blues (Cracker)
Hey, Johnny Park! (Foo Fighters)

But the thing is, for every one of those songs, the VERY SAME ARTISTS have often generated multiple songs with girls' names ("Maybellene," "Nadine," and "Beautiful Delilah" in Berry's case, and "Lola," "Victoria," "Susannah's Still Alive," and "Polly" in the case of the Kinks, to name two randomly selected artists.) So now I'm wondering just what the ratio is, and whether it's larger or smaller than the ratio of male performers to female performers.

It is a puzzlement.

It's a meme! (gacked from likeadeuce )

1. Make a list of 5 things that are in reach.
Norton Anthology of American Literature 1865-present; Tim Gallagher's Falcon Fever; laptop case; white UNC baseball cap; 20 oz. bottle of Nestea Red Tea.

2. What is your favorite holiday?
Christmas. Not as much as it used to be, but I have hopes that eventually it will become less of a stress biscuit and more of a time for family and reflection.

3. What is one item of clothing you wish you could always wear?
Big, baggy knit cotton gym shorts.

4. Books, hard cover or soft cover?
Trade paperback.

5. What do you hear right now?
Teenagers preparing for bed.

6. Who was the last person you hugged?
That would be spuffyduds 

7. What random song just popped in your head now?
"Number 13" by the Pixies

8. What did you do today?
Spent the morning in the library working on a query and rethinking the ending of the novel in question. Acted all supervisory during the early afternoon before I was informed I was supposed to be supervisory somewhere else. Oops.

9. What was the last text you received?
I aten't received any cos I aten't a texter.

10. What was the last item of new clothing your purchased?
A heather grey Carolina Chocolate Drops t-shirt featuring a jug plugged into an amp (purchased after Friday night's kick-ass show at the Jefferson in Cville.)

(for some reason this is also 10.) What websites do you always visit when you go online?
First thing in the morning, Slate.com (for Doonesbury). Then Facebook, BookBalloon.com, the Atlantic blogs of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Andrew Sullivan, LJ, and Yahoo.

11. What is your next big planned purchase?
Trip to the Pacific Northwest

12. If you could afford to go anywhere in the world, where would you go?
New Zealand, or possibly Australia, or possibly both.

13. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
With a different job (and possibly a different career), fewer Things around the house, and a less rural location; the first and third will make spuffy very happy, the second less so.

14. Where's your tattoo/Where would you like a tattoo?
Nowhere/Nowhere.

15. What are you doing this weekend?
Not working, for which !Yay! But I'm pretty sure I'll be watching the UNC-Duke game on Saturday night.

16. If you could play any musical instrument, which one would you play?
Jeez, this quiz assumes both that I DO text and that I DON'T play an instrument? I play guitar, piano, and synthesizer, and can get by on bass, harmonica, percussion, and a little dulcimer.

17. Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?
I've always assumed her base was in San Diego. Hide in plain sight and all that.

18. Are you a creeper?
What, held under the dorsal guiding feathers?

19. What is your dream job?
Writing either the Defenders for Marvel or The Legion of Super-Heroes for DC.

20. What's the last good movie you saw?
In the theater it would be The King's Speech, but at home it would be The Hangover, which we enjoyed with the Things on Saturday night.

21. Recommend a thing.
A terrific non-fiction book for those interested in science, medicine, history, race relations, or people in general: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Really, really excellent, this one.

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If you're a fan of quality pop music, typography, and/or Jonathan Coulton, you should really watch this.

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Well, I think I've gotten all the responses I'm going to get, so now it's time to reveal the tantalizing secrets of my earlier meme:

1 I don't suppose you would remember me/ But I used to follow you back in '63.
"Bell Boy" by the Who > womzilla

2 Softly, softly, in the night/ Well, you can guess the rest
"Standing in for Joe" by XTC

3 I could just pretend that you love me/ The night would lose all sense of fear
"Leather" by Tori Amos

4 Oh, the history books tell it, they tell it so well/ The cavalry charged, and the Indians fell
"With God On Our Side" by the Neville Brothers (and Bob Dylan, and Phil Ochs...) > womzilla

5 Time can bring you down and time can bend your knees/ Time can break your heart and leave you begging please
"Tears in Heaven" by Eric Clapton > likeadeuce

6 Well I got a job and tried to put my money away/ But I got debts that no honest man can pay
"Atlantic City" by Bruce Springsteen > to no one's surprise, likeadeuce

7 There was no light/ I was going to all the wrong places/ Like day from night/ Suddenly I saw a thousand faces
"Another World" by Joe Jackson

8 I can't tell one from another/ Did I find you or you find me?/ There was a time before we were born/ And someone asked "This is where I'll be?"
"This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)" by Talking Heads > womzilla

9 You have been gone for so long/ I felt the lapping of an ebbing tide
"Carrion" by British Sea Power

10 I touch your lips with mine/ But in the end I leave it to the lords
"In the Lap of the Gods" by Queen

11 Double helix in the sky tonight/ Throw out the hardware/ Let's do it right
"Aja" by Steely Dan

12 These are the sounds behind the machine/ These are the voices of modern industry/ These are the voices
"? (Modern Industry)" by Fishbone > spuffyduds

13 You say I'm crazy/ Could it be that I'm not that strong?/ If I leave you/ Would your world stop spinning round?
"Desperate Serenade" by the Jayhawks

14 Well all God's children got their dubious side/ And it's deep and dirty and it's real, real wide
"Over the Wire" by Shriekback

15 I don't want to face a world of disillusion/ I've come to one conclusion that I know you know is true
"Questions of My Childhood" by Kansas

I know those were bothering you.