7 posts tagged “music”

I've recently become enamored with the music vlog Concerts à Emporter ("Take Away Shows") from the French music blog La Blogotheque. And I feel compelled to share it with you.

The concept behind the show is simple: catch up with musicians passing through Paris (for the most part, amongst other major cities) and have them perform live... impromptu, on the streets, wherever they may be. There is something quite zen and calming about many of these performances. Take, for instance, the latest video, featuring Andrew Bird strolling leisurely along the stone streets of Paris with his guitar, attracting the attention of nary a traveler:

This performance from The Shins on a bright sunny day makes me feel warm and ready for spring. I love how they  break out with Alone Again Or as they stroll to find a place on the Paris streets to perform.

I haven't too much to say at the moment, but thought you'd like some rainy day music for this rainy Monday.

A cold and rainy day lends itself to mellow music that you can space out to. I think I lean towards dream-like music when it's rainy out, for the most part. Here are a few selections that I think are good for the rainy day mood (that I happen to have their MP3s on me at the moment).

For your enjoyment, I include in this post:

• Into the Sea - The Album Leaf
• Choir Vandals - Ben Gibbard (an American Analog Set cover)
• Remember Me As a Time of Day - Explosions in the Sky
• To Bring You Back - The Black Heart Procession

Actually, pretty much everything by The Album Leaf, Explosions in the Sky and AmAnSet are lovely rainy day tunes.

Other good ones that I couldn't post here (protected AACs, blah):

• Syracuse - Pinback
• Slow Company - American Analog Set

Also, anything and everything by The Radio Dept., good dreampop/shoegazer stuff makes for good staying in music.

Any more suggestions? I feel like making a mix.

Tonight, I think I may wrap myself in comforter and sip on a hot toddy while spacing out to said music :)

Woo, last.fm meme (soon to be x-posted on my last.fm journal, but vox deserves it first)!

• Name your top ten most played artists:

1. Death Cab for Cutie
2. The Decemberists
3. They Might Be Giants
4. Pinback
5. Ben Folds
6. Elliott Smith
7. The Shins
8. Weezer
9. The American Analog Set
10. Belle and Sebastian

• Now answer the questions according to the numbers:

• What was the first song you ever heard by 6?

"Needle in the Hay".

• What is your favourite album of 2?

Her Majesty the Decemberists. If an EP counts, I'd say Five Songs.

• What is your favourite lyric that 5 has sung?

It varies a lot, but these words amuse me:

You get smaller while the world gets big
The more you know you know you don't know shit
The whiz man'll never fit you like the whiz kid did
So why you gotta act like you know when you don't know?
It's okay if you don't know everything

-from "Bastard". Ben Folds seems to write a lot of songs that have to do with the little guy, and putting down those know-it-alls, closed-minded pretentious people.

• How many times have you seen 4 live?

Three times. Once at The Fillmore, next at Coachella, and then at Bimbo's.

• What is your favourite song by 7?

"Saint Simon"

• What is a good memory you have considering the music of 10?

I have a lot of good B&S-related memories. One of my especially fond recent memory was during a jam session at our listening party and we all broke out into singing "Judy and the Dream of Horses", complete with my trumpet vocals.

• Is there a song of 3 that makes you sad?

"The End of the Tour". It actually reminds me a lot of my late friend, Joe. But in itself, it is a terribly tragic song. TMBG is quite good at songs that sound nothing indicative of the lyrics within.

• What is your favourite lyric that 2 has sung?

Oh, adhere to me
For we are bound by symmetry
And whatever differences our lives have been
We together make a limb.

-from "Red Right Ankle"

• What is your favourite song by 9?

This is a tough one. "Punk as Fuck" is a popular one, but for good reason.

• How did you get in to 3?

I think I was 10 years old and saw the video to "(She was a) Hotel Detective".

• What was the first song you heard by 1?

I'm pretty sure it was "Bend to Squares".

• What is your favourite song by 4?

"The Yellow Ones"

• How many time have you seen 9 live?

None, unfortunately.

• What is a (good) memory you have concerning 2?

Seeing Colin Meloy solo at GAMH. He played a wonderful acoustic set.

• Is there a song of 8 that makes you sad?

"Butterfly"

• What is your favourite album of 5?

• What is your favourite lyric that 3 has sung?

"Son I am able", she said, "though you scare me."
"Watch," said I, "Beloved", I said "Watch me scare you though."
Said she, "Able am I, son".

-from "I Palindrome I". The above lyric is a palindrome (in words).

• What is your favourite song of 1?

A toss-up between "Styrofoam Plates" (because it was awesome live) and "Passenger Seat"

• What is your favourite song of 10?

Gah, this is super hard. Of course, "Judy and the Dream of Horses" has to be in there, and too many from the new album (maybe it's just a phase)... "Funny Little Frog" and "Another Sunny Day" for starters... both of those tracks put me in a great mood.

• How many times have you seen 8 live?

Once. I don't like big venues, and that's all they play.

• What is your favourite album of 1?

Toss up between Something About Airplanes and Transatlanticism.

• What is a great memory you have considering 9?

Multiple rainy days, staying in and doing nothing while AmAnSet plays in the background

More with the OMD, whee! This song was the last song I heard offa my iPod in my car during this morning's commute, and it's stuck in my head.

It makes you want to skip along under the stars, donnit?

I'm entertaining the idea of making a mix CD of my favorite pop songs. I have a feeling it'll be filled with a lot of 80's tunes, but I'll try to mix it up. I'm pretty lame when it comes to current pop, but maybe that's a good thing.

What albums are in heavy rotation for you right now?

I can't refuse a post about music, so I had to answer this one. And true to form, I can't make it simple.

When I purchase an album, I tend to listen to it ad nauseum, to form a good opinion on it. So most of my heavy rotational albums tend to be ones I purchased recently. Observe:

Pet Grief - The Radio Dept. (not on Amazon, but hey, it's on Emusic): This is the newest album from this Swedish shoegazer/dreampop band. Also recommended, the artists similar to Radio Dept. radio on Last.fm.

For a taste, here's a track from said album...

Others that have been filling up my last.fm profile as of late:

• Black Heart Procession
• Camera Obscura
• Charmparticles
• Cut Copy
• New Order (a given anyway)
  
• OMD
  

Hmm, seems that lately I've been returning to my music roots... new wave, shoegazer, synthpop and electro (mostly thanks to Buzz, Jess and Robert). I seemingly suppressed that side of my musical taste for a while there, for it seemed that no one else I knew listened to that stuff. It seems to also go along with my more low-key nature as of late. You could prolly tell what kind of teenager I was just by this music. Ah, to be 18 again...

I remember when my sister and I were kids, and my dad had a white four-door Audi of some sort, which had an 8-Track player in it. We argued over who would get the car when we turned sixteen, not because of the stylish burgundy interior or sun roof, but for the 8-Track player.

Time went on, the Audi got old, and eventually sold by my father. We weren't crushed or anything. My dad continued to drive us to school in his Sixties-era Beetle, while we listened to the Osgood Files on KCBS. Music wasn't ever really a part of our school commute, just the news.

When I turned 16, I didn't get my license right away. I lived two blocks from my high school, which didn't facilitate the need for a car. Once I started working more frequently (and therefore increasing my cash flow), and was able to afford a nice used car, that only had a radio.

I've gone through a good share of cars since beginning my driving career: a dinky Hyundai compact, a Pontiac Grand Am, a Dodge Neon (my first in-car CD player!), a Nissan Sentra and finally, my late Acura Integra.

Music has been a big part of my commute, and it keeps me sane. My Nanovan has one thing that my Integra did not: a cassette player.

I have unfortunately rid myself of most of my cassette tapes, save a few mixtapes given to me by friends. I have been listening to NPR since owning my Nanovan, which of course, is not a bad thing, but I started missing my music. I finally dug out my old mixtapes and started listening this morning.

Funny how music can bring you back sometimes. When it started playing, the tape immediately brought me back to the days when I lived with a bunch of good friends in a house in the East Bay. These songs reminded me SO much of being with these people, and made me miss them.

It's also shown me how my music taste has evolved a bit. I think I'll save the playlist for another entry. :)

We were laughing about what this might be, but, holy crap, that IS what they say!

For the price of a cup of tea

You’d get a line of coke
For the price of a night with me
You’d be the village joke
For the price of a pint of milk
I’ll tell you all I know
About the state of the world today
Sit down, enjoy the show

She had several hours to find a place to stay
Try the coffee shop, but somewhere on the way
She heard about a place, somewhere she could go
Walked a couple of blocks to her destination

For the price of a cup of tea
You’d get a seven inches
Soul black vinyl to stop your tears
You can use my stereo
You might be the village joke but
Don’t listen to the gossip of the other folk

She just wants to be accepted in this place
There’s something in her face
She will always seem exotic and aloof
If you want to know the truth
Her friend the stars dripping from the jewelled sky
When she was passing by
Would keep her calm
There was people that she knew, at least she thought she did
Be easy on the kid!

She took her winter coat from her plastic wrapper
Pushed back her fringe, see her birthmark
She can finally be the person she wanted to be

BTW, this album has put me in a really good mood today.