83 posts tagged “music”

This evening a music theme popped into my head, and I realized it was from this past Sunday's episode of Mad Men, "The Fog."  I knew when I heard the music I recognized it, so I assumed it was some famous classical-something-or-other I'd heard in school or on NPR.  A little research, however, revealed that in fact it's called "Me voy a morir de amor" from the score of the movie Lucía y el Sexo.  If I recall correctly, I think I saw this movie three times in a one month period (which is not as pervy as it sounds)--I watched it a second time to try to understand it better and a third to show it to Brian.  (I gave a brief review after the first time I saw it--you can read here.)  I found this video someone made featuring the music, and it reminded me how beautiful the movie was... I suspect I'll be seeing it a 4th time soon.  Hey-o!

 

Haven't done one in ages!  I realize the day's only just started, but if I don't do one now I won't remember later!

Things I Loathe:

• Being so cranky.
• Bad dreams, likely resulting from crankiness.
• Hatred and ignorance. (Well that's kinda a big one, no?)
• My lack of familiarity with carpetless floors, which have now nearly killed me twice in a two week period.  Sheesh.
• Unpacking.  Can't... find... motivation...
  

Things I Love:

• Coffee.  Coffee, coffee, coffee.
• The song "Movies" by Alien Ant Farm, a recent rediscovery.  If all my CDs weren't still in boxes, I'd find this one and have to take it to work today.

How delighted was I to visit my parents this weekend and find on my bed the special edition of Ben Folds's new album Way to Normal?  EXTRAORDINARILY DELIGHTED, I would venture.  So far I've only listened to it in its entirety about 4 times (...which seems like a lot, but shut up, it's very short), so I can't give any in-depth opinions just yet.  (Ben Folds songs, like so much that is good in the world, requires time and sincere evaluation before one can truly and fully appreciate them.)  But I'm too excited to wait to talk about it, so here's a short l'il summary o' opinions for the .084 people in the world who give half a crap.

First of all:  The album, she's short, and this is my main complaint (40:21, which perhaps isn't terribly short, but I hoped for more).  One song, "Free Coffee," features some strange electronic business which sounds like your speakers are crackling and frankly, hurt my ears!  But aside from these two complains--and the first one doesn't even really qualify as a legitimate complaint--I have little negative to say about this album so far.  Imatjen was kind enough to point out to me several weeks ago the release of "You Don't Know Me," the album's current single, which just happens to be one of my favorite songs on the album.  It's definitely one of the catchiest.  "Hiroshima" and "Effington" are two of my faves as well, although the title of Absolute Favorite currently goes to "Cologne," which, along with "Kylie from Connecticut," most definitely hits you square in the feelgoods.  ("Kylie from Connecticut" is a really good song imho, but I'm not sure how I feel about it being the last song.  Jury's still out on that one.)

The other songs are also quite good, but those 5 are the ones that immediately stuck out at me.  More details to come!  (Also, as you'll notice, this album got the old Parental Advisory.  It's not that bad--and in any event it doesn't bother me--but there are several songs with profanity, even if it is generally intended to be ironic.) 

I should be cleaning my disaster of an apartment.  Instead, I think it's time for a little Vox action!  It's been awhile since I've dedicated an entire post to one artist I feel you should know about, so let's go that route today with Hotel Lights.

These guys have probably made it into at least my Top 15 artists/groups, which is saying something considering how relatively new they are.  (Furthermore, they made it into my Top 10 Most Memorable Musical Performances.)  Formed in 2004 (I think? maybe shortly before that) by Darren Jessee of former Ben Folds Five fame, their sound is a supremely mellow one.  I'm not sure which impresses me more:  Jessee's incredible songwriting or the unique combination of acoustic and synth they've got going on.  (Okay, I do realize that quite a few indie bands attempt that sound, but very few do it this well, imho.)    If you're a fan of BFF, don't expect to hear any of the quirky attitude epitomized in so much of their music, but I know you'll recognize that melancholic style from BFF songs like "Brick" (cowritten by Jessee, I might add) and "Missing the War."  (I find the song "Wandering" off Ben Folds's 2003 EP Speed Graphic to be especially forward looking for Jessee, who cowrote it; you can definitely hear the kind of
style he would later embrace with Hotel Lights.)

*infomercial voice* But don't take my word for it, hear for yourself!  (And yeah, I have yet to figure out how to make the album art appear with the audio track, so... sorry.)

First, two songs off the band's eponymous first album:  "A.M. Slow Golden Hit," which believe it or not is about as upbeat as they get on this album, and "Small Town Shit," which is just a terrific example of the slow, mellow, borderline-depressing sound that I love about them.  (Side note:  I'm a little bummed that my original Hotel Lights got stolen in the Great Theft Fiasco of March 2008.  I ordered that bad boy the week it came out.)

A short music post!

What I'm listening to right now:

I always enjoy telling myself that I'm starting a new "segment" on my blog, so let's go ahead and say this can be a new segment--knowing I will probably never make another post like this again.

Final Fantasy VIII--FFVIII, for us cool kids--came out shortly after I'd gotten my Playstation and fallen in love with Final Fantasy VII.  FF7 I loved, but 8... 8 was something else for me.  It remains probably my favorite game of all time (perhaps even trumping the classic NES, Sega, and SNES games I love so much!), and although my gaming days are mostly over, I still can't think of FF8 without getting all squishy inside.  (For you other gamers, I know, I know--FF7 is apparently infinitely better, but I can't help it.  Nothing ever moved me the way 8 did.)  My most memorable moment of the game is the scene I'm about to post.  Now YouTube has made it convenient for me to watch whenever I want; back in the Day, however, I reserved a precious memory card spot for this video alone so I could watch it whenever I wanted.  (And I'll never forget the nice/nerdily cute guy who worked at Electronics Boutique who confessed he had done the same thing.)  Aside from the fact that this was just gorgeous animation (especially at the time; I think it still is), I love love loved the music, and the music of Nobuo Uematsu continues to remain that nagging inspiration in me:  "Don't score films; score games!"  Mmmph.

This song basically epitomizes everything I love about Ben Folds Five.  I'd love to upload it for you, but I can't seem to locate the CD that has it--to the best of my knowledge, it was only released on a CD called No Boundaries:  A Benefit for the Kosovar Refugees.  I bought the CD for Pearl Jam's version of "Last Kiss," then a few years later after my musical tastes had broadened I discovered rare tracks from a lot of artists I had grown to enjoy over, including BFF.  This song remains one of my favorites from the band and for whatever reason, it's just one of those songs that always gets me. 

If you care to hear it, check it out here; just search "Leather Jacket" and make sure it's by Ben Folds Five.

Had a dream that you were in
The leather jacket that didn't fit
Until we split in two

Half of you turned into glue
And half of me latched onto you
Under the summer moon

All for a leather jacket,
We were so indecisive
We hadn't really thought it through
'Cause we were so in love and,
And things like that don't happen,
And things like that don't slip away...

But sometimes they do.

The only course keeping me from graduation is piano--I'm making up for the three semesters of piano lessons that were spent on guitar instead.  A summer of piano, and then BAM!  I have a music degree.  Exciting, yes?

Except I has a battle, and it is not a battle I'm winning.  (And I'm not talking about my battle with the urge to use lolspeak all the time.)  It's called Chopin's Ballade No. 3 in A-flat, and it's mostly destroying me.  I'm about 6-pages into the total 13-pages, and out of those six pages I can play 1/2 of one decently. 

Sight-reading is my serious weakness, which makes the process of working through a piece as massive as a ballade even slower and more laborious than it is already.  Because of this the good news is that most of those 6 pages are already memorized; the bad news is, I pretty much can't play anything till it is memorized.  This is why my piano lessons are typically characterized by really weak starts in the semester followed by surprising bursts of progress towards the middle of the term.

Here's a video I love of the Chopin Ballade No. 3--if nothing else, because the man's adorable and knows how to choose a coat (seriously, nothing is sexier on a man than tails).  But you know, also because he's amazing.  Home boy should be a conductor--look at those facial expressions!  He's into it!

If you enjoy that video, you'll find all four of Chopin's ballades as performed by this cat are posted (and were played back to back?  omgwtfbbq mental endurance).  No. 4 is quite possibly one of the most impressive compositions for piano of all time, in my not-so-expert opinion (but I'm pretty sure most people would agree).

Alright, I've watched some Chopin, I've chowed down on the local gas station's chicken sandwich ("Clux Delux--More Clux for Your Bucks!"), I've blogged... all that's left to do is--gulp--practice.

Hey!

I've been reading!

It's that delightful time at the library when ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAPPENS and one is able to spend the better part of a shift reading.  ...I LOVE IT SO MUCH.

So, as if you cared, and as if I was actually maintaining what started out to be a music-and-literature-themed blog, here's what I've been reading.

Since I've heard only good things about this book and I knew they were making/had made a movie, I decided to check this book out to myself upon checking it in from someone else.  Excellent choice, me!  I loved the storytelling in this dark and heartbreaking book.  Some of it--a lot of it--can be very upsetting to read, but I would recommend this to anyone.
I saw this book dominating Amazon's #1 seller spot for a long time and thought it odd that I had no idea what it was, but after reading The Kite Runner I knew I had to check it out (uh, literally).  As it turns out, I enjoyed this one even more--I literally just finished it ten minutes ago.  As with The Kite Runner, this can be tough (as in, disturbing) to read, but just demonstrates what I consider to be some fantastic storytelling.  Even more so with this book, though, I connected with the characters, deeply cared about them, hurt for them.  Another book I'd strongly recommend.
I saw this ages ago at Barnes and Noble, was intrigued by it--and then forgot all about it until my mom surprised me with it a few days ago (way to go, Mom!).  Absurdly silly cover featuring a picture of the author aside, I'm really enjoying it so far.  The book consists of different sections, each of which discuss similar case studies of people who have had unique psychological (and physiological) experiences with music.  I've only made it through the first section so far (which deals with people haunted by music--blargh, some scary stuff in there, especially for a musician... imagine hearing the same loud, high note, over and over and over all day long), but this book makes my inner psych-major-wannabe happy.
Since my only experience with Kurt Vonnegut so far has been through a short story ("Harrison Bergeron")--and uh, since this book was conveniently at the circulation desk when I got to work--I thought, what better way to become more familiar with the author than through a collection of short stories and whatnots?  I haven't started this yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

(In other news, I've learned that reading multiple books from multiple genres rather than focusing on one book at a time silences that nasty habit my brain has of narrating my life in the voice/style of whatever writer I'm reading.  ...Someone wanna do a case study on that crap?)

I have three books lined up to read next, assuming the library doesn't yield some other distracting treasure--which, of course, it will.  Coming soon!

Because I bought the book at a garage sale and it's been sitting in my car for two months...