CDs of the week, in no particular order:
1. Travis, The Invisible Band
2. Beck, Odelay
3. The Decemberists, The Crane Wife
4. Rilo Kiley, More Adventurous
5. Modjo, "Chillin'" single
I tried something a little different this week with the picking--I let O pick the last CD. Now, the way I've been picking is basically reaching in the drawer with most of my CDs while looking away and grabbing one at a time, or going to a pile in another room and closing my eyes and picking one. This time I thought it might be interesting to see what Oliver picked out. His approach was to look through and find one that he thought "would have a good story," so he picked out Beck's Odelay. Funny thing is, I don't really thing I have a story for it. Nothing too memorable, anyway. That's not to say that it wasn't a fantastic album. With "The New Pollution", "Where It's At", and "Devil's Haircut", that's a fact that's hard to deny. Plus there are a lot of other great tracks on the album. But I have no real memories, no crazy stories associated with it. I loved listening to it again (and again), but I thought it almost weird that there was nothing that I felt like I HAD to write about Odelay. I guess that, in itself, is a story. We make all sorts of associations with songs, albums, sounds and smells and tastes with some time in the past, but then there are things that just don't really do much to jog a memory. Is that a bad thing? I don't necessarily think so. There are still memories to be created, and even though a album came out 14 years ago, that doesn't mean it couldn't create new memories. Also, holy cow! Odelay came out 14 years ago?!?!? I had just finished my first year of high school! I think I need a minute to get over how old I'm feeling right now...
...Okay, that's better. Onward we go!
The Crane Wife was an album I picked up at Repo Records on South Street one summer weekend, I believe while I was hanging out with the lovely Heather when she graced the city of Brotherly Love with her presence one weekend. Both of us being music connoisseurs (albeit maybe with slightly different tastes), we HAD to stop in any record store we came across on our journey up and down the street where all the hippest meet. I don't even think I was going to get anything, but I happened upon the CD in the racks, and it was shortly after it was released, so with every purchase they were giving out posters promoting The Crane Wife. Who's going to pass up a free poster, right? It just sweetened the pot for me. I made the purchase and then had to deal with carrying the poster around for the rest of the afternoon without it getting wrinkled or torn. There's a downside to everything. The CD itself is, in my opinion, some of their better material. It's definitely better-produced than their previous works, and I feel that they better explored the melding of old-world sea shanty-esque stories with modern music. My favorites are probably "Sons & Daughters", "O, Valencia", and "The Perfect Crime". Listening to it a few times this past week reminded me how much I enjoyed listening to it in the first place as well as how many songs on the album I really like. Sometimes, that kind of reminder is needed, and appreciated. Oh, and the poster? Still never put it up on the wall, but I do still have it!
Another South Street buy was Rilo Kiley's More Adventurous. No, I didn't get it at the same time as The Crane Wife, but I remember being in a small record store looking through shelf upon shelf of CDs and finding that. I can't remember exactly why I wanted to get it--I don't know what song it was that I had heard and the reasons I wanted to get it, but I was happy I picked it up. The song I keep finding myself belting out is "Does He Love You?"--it's catchy enough on the first listen to find youself singing it afterward. Also, I couldn't believe that two of the band members were one of the girls from Troop Beverly Hills and the guy who played Pinsky in Salute Your Shorts.
I picked up Travis' The Invisible Band not on South Street, but on Haight Street in San Francisco. I wandered over to Amoeba Records with Jonah one of the days I was there and grabbed a few CDs--their used CD section is stellar. There were a few songs on The Invisible Band I was familiar with, most notably "Sing" and "Slide", and overall I think this whole album is pretty solid. The video for "Sing" was pretty memorable for me, watching a room full of upper crusters getting into a food fight, complete with a monkey dancing around! That's my kind of dinner party!
Sometime when I was home from a break in college my freshman year, I was up late watching MTV (maybe MTV 2, when either one of them were still playing videos), and I saw the video for French duo Modjo's "Lady (Hear Me Tonight)". I loved the sound of it, and I hadn't heard of the group before, so I thought I'd check out Best Buy next time I was there to look for their album. But lo, they didn't have it. Weeks later, no dice. A year might have passed, and while I wasn't obsessed with it, I still checked whenever I went into a CD store, just in case I could find it. Fast forward to the summer of 2001, and Becky and I took a day trip to New York City just to walk around and enjoy ourselves when we strolled into an HMV store, and I thought about checking, just one more time, to see if they might have anything by Modjo, and BINGO! They had CD singles for both "Lady" and "Chillin'", another song that I had heard by then. I was so giddy and bouncing around about the find. Those songs are so great to put on when you want to dance a little or need a little pump-you-up music. Both singles also have acoustic loungy versions of the songs, you know, for those moments you want to chill out instead of dance.
This post is going up a little later than I normally plan for, and I'm a bit tired tonight, so hopefully there aren't too many typos on the original posting--I'll make any edits in the morning when I'm more awake and my eyes are refreshed. Until next week, happy listening!
Battery Tally: Only one set this week. Total for project: 4 sets.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
5 CDs a Week, week 2
CDs of the week, but not in listening order:
1. Jamiroquai, The Return of the Space Cowboy
2. They Might Be Giants, Here Come the ABCs
3. The Cardigans, First Band on the Moon
4. Snow Patrol, Final Straw
5. The Bro Code, disc 1, as read by Neil Patrick Harris
I was really excited when I pulled out this week's CDs. And then I opened up the Jamiroquai case...and the wrong CD was in there.
Back in the day I had a nasty habit of taking CDs out of my player and putting them into the cases of the ones that were replacing them. This made for a very disorganized collection. I don't think it ever got too far out of hand, but I did spend some time one day trying to rearrange everything and get them in the proper cases. Of course, it wasn't a completely thorough job, as I found out last week. It was about 11:30 at night when this happened, and that's about the magical time that if I'm on a mission, I turn incredibly stubborn and become determined to see it through before I go to bed. I went through every single case in the largest pile of CDs in my apartment in hopes of finding the disc...to no avail. O went to bed in the middle of my search--he wasn't about to get involved in telling me to go to bed and give it up for another day, because I probably would've growled (or whined) at him that I'd find it soon. At least he knows me well enough. I eventually became really frustrated and really tired, and tired won out, so I sadly crawled into bed and left the mission of finding the CD for another day. The thing that I hadn't checked that night was a collection of discs that reside under the bed -- there isn't enough room in the living room for them, unless I want to make the place look incredibly cluttered. So I moved some things out of the way, took out the zippered case that holds the CDs, and just grabbed a handful to start through. Luckily for me, case #2 had the CD! Sweet joyful day! I probably would've taken some time to dance around a bit, but I had to get ready for work.
The one thing I'm noticing about listening to the CDs on my portable player: I have to keep turning the volume down. Whenever I've had to switch batteries, or whenever I put in a new CD, the volume level automatically starts at 10 (out of 20, I believe). I usually have to turn it down to 5 or 6 before it feels comfortable coming through the headphones. All the CDs I've listened to on the portable thus far have been actual albums and not burns or mixes, but I'm curious as to whether or not I'll have to turn the volume up on those.
I should say that for all the parents or parents-to-be out there, TMBG's Here Come the ABCs would be a great addition to any kids music collection. The songs were all catchy, informative, and above all else, fun. My favorite is still "L M N O", a funky quirky song to remind kids that L M N and O are four letters, not one. Simple enough, but I kept finding that it gets stuck in my head--not really a bad thing in this regard. While it's perfect for the kids, I think the adults would also find it entertaining.
I got The Cardigans First Band on the Moon not too long after my family first got a CD player stereo (and a computer with a CD-ROM drive). I distinctively remember listening to it on the computer the night I got it being asked immediately by my brother, "Why are you listening to THAT?" Clearly, we had some differences of opinion when it came to musical choices (This also popped up with Jamiroquai--go figure), but I didn't really care about his opinion, though--I liked the music. Of course, the most popular track is "Lovefool" due to the juggernaut of a soundtrack to the mid-90s film version of Romeo and Juliet, but I think there are a few other gems on the album. "Your New Cuckoo" and "Great Divide" are two of my favorites. As I was telling O when we were listening to this over the weekend, I love the fact that the music is so poppy, yet the lyrics tell a different story, one that says, basically, "You're psychologically ruining me!" It's so easy to sing along happily and then have to check yourself when belt loudly, "Baby I was your whore." Whooops. Then the hook brings you back in and you don't care anymore. That's what I always felt, anyway.
The Bro Code spawned from one of my current favorite sitcoms, How I Met Your Mother. Written from the perspective of Neil Patrick Harris' character Barney, this is a collection of rules for "bros". For example: "Article 34: Bros cannot make eye contact during a devil's three-way (two dudes)." It's actually pretty funny to hear it being read out loud. The Bro Code is referenced often in the show, and I'm glad they actually produced a book (and an audio version!) to put all the rules in one place at one time. I was a little late coming to HIMYM, but I think it's very creative in how much they've done outside of the show, including both the audio book and a slew of websites created just because they were mentioned in passing by one of the characters on the show. And, you know, I love the story of the show and the characters created. If you're into some humorous audio books, this one is worth a listen.
I picked up a double-CD set of Jamiroquai's Emergency on Planet Earth and The Return of the Space Cowboy my junior year in college at the semi-annual record and CD sale in Ithaca held at the Holiday Inn. I had just purchased A Funk Odyssey a few weeks before, so finding the double-album box was like finding the diamond in the rough. I nearly flipped my lid! With that purchase, I had in my possession all five Jamiroquai albums (at the time). I believe it was in October of that year when I got it, and I remember going back and hanging out at Isaac's apartment on Cayuga being extremely contented with my find. Sometime that semester I used both of the CDs from the box in an assignment for Advanced Audio in which I analyzed their sound. I love the instrumentation on Space Cowboy. It's a great album to listen to when you want to mellow out, need something a little funky, or have just a slight hankering for some didgeridoo. Listening to it today reminded me of listening to it the October I got it 9 years ago. I can even remember the smells of my dorm room, and how quiet it was on my floor during fall break, aside from the group of friends who also stuck around. It's amazing how a sound, a taste, a smell can trigger so many other sensory memories and instantly transport you to somewhere else. I'm fascinated by it every time and always do what I can to take in the moment, and hope the memory doesn't fade away too easily.
I was thinking today on my walk to work that Snow Patrol's Final Straw seemed to be a perfect fall album. The music starts off very poppy--sunny and happy and hopeful, and as the album progresses it takes a darker, slower, somber turn. Nothing too dark, mind you, but still something there to make you think it's progressing just like the fall--going from warm to cool in a manner that seems to naturally flow. I've always liked listening to the album and remember having it on many times as I stood at the train station waiting to catch the R5 to work in the mornings--it's a funny memory since because I've been getting to work earlier these days, my walk has taken me by the station around the time that the train I used to take is pulling in. Again, I'm being driven by the memories!
I'm beginning to realize that's going to happen a lot during the course of this project. I'm traveling back in time to encounter things I've left long ago. Yes, I'm listening to my CDs, but I'm also bringing back to the front of my mind everything that was going on around me when I had those CDs playing more often. Of course it won't be the same for all of them, but there are plenty in my collection that will jog some pretty interesting memories for me. I'm enjoying delving into it all, and I can't wait to see where next week will find me.
Happy Listening!
Battery tally: Two sets put in this week. One died rather quickly when I found out they were in an incorrect charger to start. That problem's been fixed. Total tally for the projet: 3 sets of rechargeable batteries.
1. Jamiroquai, The Return of the Space Cowboy
2. They Might Be Giants, Here Come the ABCs
3. The Cardigans, First Band on the Moon
4. Snow Patrol, Final Straw
5. The Bro Code, disc 1, as read by Neil Patrick Harris
I was really excited when I pulled out this week's CDs. And then I opened up the Jamiroquai case...and the wrong CD was in there.
Back in the day I had a nasty habit of taking CDs out of my player and putting them into the cases of the ones that were replacing them. This made for a very disorganized collection. I don't think it ever got too far out of hand, but I did spend some time one day trying to rearrange everything and get them in the proper cases. Of course, it wasn't a completely thorough job, as I found out last week. It was about 11:30 at night when this happened, and that's about the magical time that if I'm on a mission, I turn incredibly stubborn and become determined to see it through before I go to bed. I went through every single case in the largest pile of CDs in my apartment in hopes of finding the disc...to no avail. O went to bed in the middle of my search--he wasn't about to get involved in telling me to go to bed and give it up for another day, because I probably would've growled (or whined) at him that I'd find it soon. At least he knows me well enough. I eventually became really frustrated and really tired, and tired won out, so I sadly crawled into bed and left the mission of finding the CD for another day. The thing that I hadn't checked that night was a collection of discs that reside under the bed -- there isn't enough room in the living room for them, unless I want to make the place look incredibly cluttered. So I moved some things out of the way, took out the zippered case that holds the CDs, and just grabbed a handful to start through. Luckily for me, case #2 had the CD! Sweet joyful day! I probably would've taken some time to dance around a bit, but I had to get ready for work.
The one thing I'm noticing about listening to the CDs on my portable player: I have to keep turning the volume down. Whenever I've had to switch batteries, or whenever I put in a new CD, the volume level automatically starts at 10 (out of 20, I believe). I usually have to turn it down to 5 or 6 before it feels comfortable coming through the headphones. All the CDs I've listened to on the portable thus far have been actual albums and not burns or mixes, but I'm curious as to whether or not I'll have to turn the volume up on those.
I should say that for all the parents or parents-to-be out there, TMBG's Here Come the ABCs would be a great addition to any kids music collection. The songs were all catchy, informative, and above all else, fun. My favorite is still "L M N O", a funky quirky song to remind kids that L M N and O are four letters, not one. Simple enough, but I kept finding that it gets stuck in my head--not really a bad thing in this regard. While it's perfect for the kids, I think the adults would also find it entertaining.
I got The Cardigans First Band on the Moon not too long after my family first got a CD player stereo (and a computer with a CD-ROM drive). I distinctively remember listening to it on the computer the night I got it being asked immediately by my brother, "Why are you listening to THAT?" Clearly, we had some differences of opinion when it came to musical choices (This also popped up with Jamiroquai--go figure), but I didn't really care about his opinion, though--I liked the music. Of course, the most popular track is "Lovefool" due to the juggernaut of a soundtrack to the mid-90s film version of Romeo and Juliet, but I think there are a few other gems on the album. "Your New Cuckoo" and "Great Divide" are two of my favorites. As I was telling O when we were listening to this over the weekend, I love the fact that the music is so poppy, yet the lyrics tell a different story, one that says, basically, "You're psychologically ruining me!" It's so easy to sing along happily and then have to check yourself when belt loudly, "Baby I was your whore." Whooops. Then the hook brings you back in and you don't care anymore. That's what I always felt, anyway.
The Bro Code spawned from one of my current favorite sitcoms, How I Met Your Mother. Written from the perspective of Neil Patrick Harris' character Barney, this is a collection of rules for "bros". For example: "Article 34: Bros cannot make eye contact during a devil's three-way (two dudes)." It's actually pretty funny to hear it being read out loud. The Bro Code is referenced often in the show, and I'm glad they actually produced a book (and an audio version!) to put all the rules in one place at one time. I was a little late coming to HIMYM, but I think it's very creative in how much they've done outside of the show, including both the audio book and a slew of websites created just because they were mentioned in passing by one of the characters on the show. And, you know, I love the story of the show and the characters created. If you're into some humorous audio books, this one is worth a listen.
I picked up a double-CD set of Jamiroquai's Emergency on Planet Earth and The Return of the Space Cowboy my junior year in college at the semi-annual record and CD sale in Ithaca held at the Holiday Inn. I had just purchased A Funk Odyssey a few weeks before, so finding the double-album box was like finding the diamond in the rough. I nearly flipped my lid! With that purchase, I had in my possession all five Jamiroquai albums (at the time). I believe it was in October of that year when I got it, and I remember going back and hanging out at Isaac's apartment on Cayuga being extremely contented with my find. Sometime that semester I used both of the CDs from the box in an assignment for Advanced Audio in which I analyzed their sound. I love the instrumentation on Space Cowboy. It's a great album to listen to when you want to mellow out, need something a little funky, or have just a slight hankering for some didgeridoo. Listening to it today reminded me of listening to it the October I got it 9 years ago. I can even remember the smells of my dorm room, and how quiet it was on my floor during fall break, aside from the group of friends who also stuck around. It's amazing how a sound, a taste, a smell can trigger so many other sensory memories and instantly transport you to somewhere else. I'm fascinated by it every time and always do what I can to take in the moment, and hope the memory doesn't fade away too easily.
I was thinking today on my walk to work that Snow Patrol's Final Straw seemed to be a perfect fall album. The music starts off very poppy--sunny and happy and hopeful, and as the album progresses it takes a darker, slower, somber turn. Nothing too dark, mind you, but still something there to make you think it's progressing just like the fall--going from warm to cool in a manner that seems to naturally flow. I've always liked listening to the album and remember having it on many times as I stood at the train station waiting to catch the R5 to work in the mornings--it's a funny memory since because I've been getting to work earlier these days, my walk has taken me by the station around the time that the train I used to take is pulling in. Again, I'm being driven by the memories!
I'm beginning to realize that's going to happen a lot during the course of this project. I'm traveling back in time to encounter things I've left long ago. Yes, I'm listening to my CDs, but I'm also bringing back to the front of my mind everything that was going on around me when I had those CDs playing more often. Of course it won't be the same for all of them, but there are plenty in my collection that will jog some pretty interesting memories for me. I'm enjoying delving into it all, and I can't wait to see where next week will find me.
Happy Listening!
Battery tally: Two sets put in this week. One died rather quickly when I found out they were in an incorrect charger to start. That problem's been fixed. Total tally for the projet: 3 sets of rechargeable batteries.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
5 CDs a Week, week 1
CD List of the Week:
1. Modest Mouse, The Moon & Antarctica
2. Music from the Motion Picture The Talented Mr. Ripley
3. Padraic, My Playlist, a mix by John Vettese
4. Mother Redcap, All This Nothing
5. Live, Throwing Copper
My blind grabbing of CDs for this week turned up a few I was excited to listen to again, along with one that, I'll admit, I hadn't yet listened to. I even tore through one of the rooms in my apartment looking for my portable CD player. Yeah, that's right, I'm giving the iPod a periodic break and going old school for this project. I probably won't be carrying it around every day, but I'll bring it with me for my walk to work more often now, so I can get more listening done. I should keep track of how often I go through the rechargeable batteries I'm using too. I really can't remember how often they need to be changed with this thing. I won't be using the portable player exclusively, but I'll still keep a tally going of battery changes for my own amusement.
The first CD I popped in was Modest Mouse's The Moon & Antarctica, which made me so incredibly happy to pick out first among my entire collection. It also must've been one of the last CDs I listened to on the portable before it got locked in the closet prison, because it auto-recalled to track 15 when I turned it on--fun to note. I got into Modest Mouse not too long after I started interning at the studio, and so listening to this album is a bit of a time-traveling event for me. Not all of it was happy memories, though. Even though I was starting up something really truly awesome, I was terribly lonely, dealing with moving back home from college and having virtually none of my friends in the area anymore--some were still up in Ithaca, others across the country with new jobs or starting grad school, so I had a lot of fish out of water moments. But I also remember being up at the front desk at the studio listening to different Modest Mouse songs with Matt and really liking what I heard. Around the same time I got "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes" on a mix, and I knew even more that I liked the band's style. This was before "Float On", before the band had so many of their songs showcased in commercials, before they were getting a ton of radio airplay (at least on major stations). There's something about catching a band just before they blow up big that's just so...neat to be a part of. Don't get me wrong--I'm not trying to be of the mentality of "Ohhh, I knew this band before they got big," but more of "Oh, I know this band, and they're getting big--cool!" I loved the sound of the album, from the cool mellow of "Gravity Rides Everything" to the driving strings on "The Stars Are Projectors". I think a lot of these songs really stand up years after I first heard them, and it was refreshing to get another listen.
The next CD I popped in was the soundtrack to The Talented Mr. Ripley. I remember watching the movie and loving the jazz songs that played throughout, but the pieces composed by Gabriel Yared were haunting, taking you to places of beauty but with a sense of unease. While I was listening to some of this on my walk home last night, it was easy to imagine myself as someone in a film being followed by a suspicious man. Thankfully, that wasn't actually happening, but I love that the music could take me to that place and let my imagination run wild. On top of all that, there were also some great vocal performances. Sinead O'Connor's performance on "Lullaby For Cain" gave me chills, and John Martyn's singing on "You Don't Know What Love Is" is slow, sad, and about as close to what the human voice can do to combine howling and singing. I'd go out on a limb to say that in the past, he convinced me that I didn't know what love is. Then again, maybe I didn't.
"Padriac, My Playlist", was a great mix put together by my friend John. He had an iTunes gift card and didn't know what to spend it on, so he decided to ask his friends to suggest songs that he didn't already own, and, in the order of the suggestion, he'd put them together on one CD. I thought this was a great idea, so I made my own suggestion of "At Last" by Etta James, which made it in at track #3. I love the fact that 20 people were able to suggest such diverse songs, and I think it turned out as a very successful mix; John did as well, because he did it one more time (and you might see me write about that in the near future). For some examples of diversity: Mark Mothersbaugh to Big & Rich, Harry Nilsson to 2Pac and Dr. Dre. It really spanned the gamut and was worth another spin.
"Selling the Drama", "I Alone", "White, Discussion", "Lightning Crashes", "All Over You"--five great songs on one great album. Listening to Throwing Copper took me back to eighth grade, and it was nice to step back into '94-'95, thankfully only for a short time. Sometimes you listen to an album and you forget how many good songs come from it. I don't think I need to be reminded twice with this one.
I had to unwrap Mother Redcap's All This Nothing--I won't lie about it. Sometimes I get CDs fresh from clients who have recorded them, bring them home, and then promptly forget to open them up and give them a listen. Bad Pattae! I wasn't sure exactly what I was in for--I'd only heard bits and pieces of it over the course of the many months that the guys were in the studio working on it, but I was surprised. There were a few good tracks on it--the Jersey guys can do rock alright, and I think their hard work showed.
That wraps up my first week of listening. I'm sure as I go through this project I may change up format, decide I want to post about every CD on a different day (which will get me to post more often BUT will likely be shorter than this one), or figure out a way to do this better, but I'm going to continue. I've been getting a lot of positive feedback already, and I hope that I can live up to the hype. Then again, I want to do this for myself. With luck, others will find this just as entertaining. So, until next week, happy listening!
Battery Tally: 1 set of rechargeables went out this morning on my way into work. Set 2 will start tomorrow.
1. Modest Mouse, The Moon & Antarctica
2. Music from the Motion Picture The Talented Mr. Ripley
3. Padraic, My Playlist, a mix by John Vettese
4. Mother Redcap, All This Nothing
5. Live, Throwing Copper
My blind grabbing of CDs for this week turned up a few I was excited to listen to again, along with one that, I'll admit, I hadn't yet listened to. I even tore through one of the rooms in my apartment looking for my portable CD player. Yeah, that's right, I'm giving the iPod a periodic break and going old school for this project. I probably won't be carrying it around every day, but I'll bring it with me for my walk to work more often now, so I can get more listening done. I should keep track of how often I go through the rechargeable batteries I'm using too. I really can't remember how often they need to be changed with this thing. I won't be using the portable player exclusively, but I'll still keep a tally going of battery changes for my own amusement.
The first CD I popped in was Modest Mouse's The Moon & Antarctica, which made me so incredibly happy to pick out first among my entire collection. It also must've been one of the last CDs I listened to on the portable before it got locked in the closet prison, because it auto-recalled to track 15 when I turned it on--fun to note. I got into Modest Mouse not too long after I started interning at the studio, and so listening to this album is a bit of a time-traveling event for me. Not all of it was happy memories, though. Even though I was starting up something really truly awesome, I was terribly lonely, dealing with moving back home from college and having virtually none of my friends in the area anymore--some were still up in Ithaca, others across the country with new jobs or starting grad school, so I had a lot of fish out of water moments. But I also remember being up at the front desk at the studio listening to different Modest Mouse songs with Matt and really liking what I heard. Around the same time I got "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes" on a mix, and I knew even more that I liked the band's style. This was before "Float On", before the band had so many of their songs showcased in commercials, before they were getting a ton of radio airplay (at least on major stations). There's something about catching a band just before they blow up big that's just so...neat to be a part of. Don't get me wrong--I'm not trying to be of the mentality of "Ohhh, I knew this band before they got big," but more of "Oh, I know this band, and they're getting big--cool!" I loved the sound of the album, from the cool mellow of "Gravity Rides Everything" to the driving strings on "The Stars Are Projectors". I think a lot of these songs really stand up years after I first heard them, and it was refreshing to get another listen.
The next CD I popped in was the soundtrack to The Talented Mr. Ripley. I remember watching the movie and loving the jazz songs that played throughout, but the pieces composed by Gabriel Yared were haunting, taking you to places of beauty but with a sense of unease. While I was listening to some of this on my walk home last night, it was easy to imagine myself as someone in a film being followed by a suspicious man. Thankfully, that wasn't actually happening, but I love that the music could take me to that place and let my imagination run wild. On top of all that, there were also some great vocal performances. Sinead O'Connor's performance on "Lullaby For Cain" gave me chills, and John Martyn's singing on "You Don't Know What Love Is" is slow, sad, and about as close to what the human voice can do to combine howling and singing. I'd go out on a limb to say that in the past, he convinced me that I didn't know what love is. Then again, maybe I didn't.
"Padriac, My Playlist", was a great mix put together by my friend John. He had an iTunes gift card and didn't know what to spend it on, so he decided to ask his friends to suggest songs that he didn't already own, and, in the order of the suggestion, he'd put them together on one CD. I thought this was a great idea, so I made my own suggestion of "At Last" by Etta James, which made it in at track #3. I love the fact that 20 people were able to suggest such diverse songs, and I think it turned out as a very successful mix; John did as well, because he did it one more time (and you might see me write about that in the near future). For some examples of diversity: Mark Mothersbaugh to Big & Rich, Harry Nilsson to 2Pac and Dr. Dre. It really spanned the gamut and was worth another spin.
"Selling the Drama", "I Alone", "White, Discussion", "Lightning Crashes", "All Over You"--five great songs on one great album. Listening to Throwing Copper took me back to eighth grade, and it was nice to step back into '94-'95, thankfully only for a short time. Sometimes you listen to an album and you forget how many good songs come from it. I don't think I need to be reminded twice with this one.
I had to unwrap Mother Redcap's All This Nothing--I won't lie about it. Sometimes I get CDs fresh from clients who have recorded them, bring them home, and then promptly forget to open them up and give them a listen. Bad Pattae! I wasn't sure exactly what I was in for--I'd only heard bits and pieces of it over the course of the many months that the guys were in the studio working on it, but I was surprised. There were a few good tracks on it--the Jersey guys can do rock alright, and I think their hard work showed.
That wraps up my first week of listening. I'm sure as I go through this project I may change up format, decide I want to post about every CD on a different day (which will get me to post more often BUT will likely be shorter than this one), or figure out a way to do this better, but I'm going to continue. I've been getting a lot of positive feedback already, and I hope that I can live up to the hype. Then again, I want to do this for myself. With luck, others will find this just as entertaining. So, until next week, happy listening!
Battery Tally: 1 set of rechargeables went out this morning on my way into work. Set 2 will start tomorrow.
Monday, October 4, 2010
A Challenge
As I sit here watching O destroy zombies with terrible might, I decide it's about time to make good on the idea that's been floating around in my head the past couple weeks. It's probably not a unique idea, but I think it could be good for both my listening development and hopefully my writing--with luck, it would be in tandem.
My challenge to myself is to listen to every single CD I own.
Sure, on the face of it, that's no hard feat. I probably have somewhere in the neighborhood of, oh, we'll say 200 discs lying around in various places in my apartment, with a small few still at the Ranch (which I'll pick up next time I go home--I know how much my parents love it when I take more of my stuff out of their house).
I could just throw some into the changer at home every night and spin a few discs while I do things around the apartment, but I want to delve a little bit deeper than passive listening. I know it would be hard to go through in detail about every CD I own (and hell, I already know that, at least with some of them, I don't really WANT to), but I want to take the time give each CD its moment to caress my ears, and let it either teach me something I didn't already know, or remind me of a story that I could relay in this space.
So what I'm going to do is this: each week, I will select 5 CDs at semi-random (semi-random because, as I've mentioned, not all of my discs are in one location) and give them a spin. There will likely be multiple spins of the same disc in one week. And in each group I will find something to write about, be it the music, the lyrics, a fond (or not so fond) memory I've associated with the music, or just my general thoughts on what I've listened to that week. Hell, I may get inspired to write a poem, and I'll use that week's entry to post it here! At the top I'll list every CD I've listened to in that week, along with whatever comes with it. Mix CDs WILL be included because often times those brought with them their own memories, ideas, and stories. I'm sure I'll be embarrassed by some of the previous musical choices I've made (at least I'm happy my Color Me Bad album was on cassette and will NOT be part of this project!), but I think I'll wind up stumbling on some musical diamond in the rough that I've let sit by for far too long.
I started my CD collection in the summer of 1996. Since then, I've gone on buying sprees, buying droughts, and almost given up the CDs in favor of those nifty downloadable files everyone seems to have these days. I've picked up CDs at shows, been given discs by performers and friends alike, and I think it's high time I give them all just a little bit of time to play their hearts out for my ears. Maybe I'll even jog some memories for someone else. Either way, it should be a fun and musical time.
My challenge to myself is to listen to every single CD I own.
Sure, on the face of it, that's no hard feat. I probably have somewhere in the neighborhood of, oh, we'll say 200 discs lying around in various places in my apartment, with a small few still at the Ranch (which I'll pick up next time I go home--I know how much my parents love it when I take more of my stuff out of their house).
I could just throw some into the changer at home every night and spin a few discs while I do things around the apartment, but I want to delve a little bit deeper than passive listening. I know it would be hard to go through in detail about every CD I own (and hell, I already know that, at least with some of them, I don't really WANT to), but I want to take the time give each CD its moment to caress my ears, and let it either teach me something I didn't already know, or remind me of a story that I could relay in this space.
So what I'm going to do is this: each week, I will select 5 CDs at semi-random (semi-random because, as I've mentioned, not all of my discs are in one location) and give them a spin. There will likely be multiple spins of the same disc in one week. And in each group I will find something to write about, be it the music, the lyrics, a fond (or not so fond) memory I've associated with the music, or just my general thoughts on what I've listened to that week. Hell, I may get inspired to write a poem, and I'll use that week's entry to post it here! At the top I'll list every CD I've listened to in that week, along with whatever comes with it. Mix CDs WILL be included because often times those brought with them their own memories, ideas, and stories. I'm sure I'll be embarrassed by some of the previous musical choices I've made (at least I'm happy my Color Me Bad album was on cassette and will NOT be part of this project!), but I think I'll wind up stumbling on some musical diamond in the rough that I've let sit by for far too long.
I started my CD collection in the summer of 1996. Since then, I've gone on buying sprees, buying droughts, and almost given up the CDs in favor of those nifty downloadable files everyone seems to have these days. I've picked up CDs at shows, been given discs by performers and friends alike, and I think it's high time I give them all just a little bit of time to play their hearts out for my ears. Maybe I'll even jog some memories for someone else. Either way, it should be a fun and musical time.
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