Ok I'm going to post some more Fields videos from their string sessions at Kore Studios so I can easily watch them over and over again another hundred times.
If this band doesn't make it big, there is no justice in this world.
So what am I listening to now? Fields! They're like an anglo shoegaze version of Arcade Fire except from the UK. Their songs are filled with lots of acoustic and electric guitars layered upon synths and vocal harmonies with melodic sensibility. I was supposed to see them a couple weeks ago in Los Angeles at the Hammer Museum but apparently they cancelled. Hopefully, they'll come to LA soon.
Anyways, they released their debut album this year called Everything Last Winter. Stand out tracks include Songs for the Fields, You Brought This On Yourself, The Death, Feathers, and Parasite. All in all, a great album for the summer from start to finish. Here is a video of them playing You Brought This On Yourself:
So there I was. Walking into one of the last record stores in Pasadena, CA not expecting much. Then I saw it hanging on the wall. Blonde Redhead's latest album 23 on vinyl. Just look at it.
Nothing on the cover informs you it's a Blonde Redhead album besides the cherry red sticker slapped on the side. (It also acts as a tamper proof seal.)
And I'm not exactly sure why I'm so drawn to this album considering I'm not the biggest Blonde Redhead fan. It could be the album art. Or maybe because one day me and my cohort once joked we would wear Blonde Redhead tshirts to a Long Blondes concert and procede to make a scene by claiming we went to the wrong concert. We never did, but the thought of it always breaks a smile on my face. Or maybe because the music is that good. Whatever! I know what I like. And I like.
So why am i up 12:32am on a Saturday evening in bed lights off writing this? Just rediscovering a song that I hated before but now I love. It only took me a good year to fully understand and appreciate this song. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's Jenny Lewis's agnostic lyrics, the innocent casio-like drum beat, the Watson twins' haunting vocals, the three minute long drum exitlude. Who knows. Not me.
All I know is I can't stop listening.
Born Secular
Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins
I was born secular and inconsolable
I heard that he walked, he walked the earth
God goes where he wants
And who knows where he is not
Not in me
It's the way mothers greet their sons
When it's a moment too late
It's the law of the land
That sometimes the dam just breaks
God works in mysterious ways
And God gives and then he takes
From me
So... looking at these cymbals at a recent "rock show" (no. I'm not 40) made me think: Why are the brands on these cymbals all like Armenian last names? I looked into Zildjian and Sabian. Seems they are credited as being Turkish. But hey, we all know what the Turks did to the Armenians and how they stole their coffee, women, wealth, and cymbals! So anyway, apparently their story is much like that of Adidas and Puma: same family forks into different companies. The two are in a feud. Read more about it here:
http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Zildjian
Also I Like to Rock is the name of the series of new band shows at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. The phrase seemed syntactially misarranged to me. I would have said "I also like to rock," but then realized why. For years now, since 1990 to be exact, I have mis-sung the lyrics to "Humpty Dance" and I just found this out! I thought he said:
Also told ya that I like to bite
Well, yeah, I guess it's obvious, I also like to ROCK.
All ya had to do was give Humpty a chance
and now I'm gonna do my dance.
I'll eat up all your crackers and your licorice
Hey yo fat girl, come here are ya ticklish?
Mike Patton is an asshole. Actually he's not. He's just honest and talks shit and I think it would be great if he contributed to this blog. This interview is REALLY OLD but it's hilarious. I'm following Darrenster's last entry. Check this out:
Since this blog's become highly music-oriented, I have to rave about my new fave album that lets me look at the sunny sides of Pink Floyd and Radiohead-- 2 of my favorite bands. Easystar Allstars are a group that covered a bunch of Radiohead songs in an album called Radiodread. They also covered The Darkside of the Moon by Pink Floyd and called it Dub Side of the Moon. Very clever.
I am happy I can now listen to my favorite songs in Dub Reggae and enjoy a drink or two without weeping. I can play these in the sun without too many "are you depressed" looks! Yipeee!!
Watch "Let Down" here:
I love Edith Piaf's music. And now that I've seen La Vie en Rose (Called La Mome in France), I love her even more. She came from humble beginings. Not just humble, but destitute. She was raised by her alcoholic street-singing mother for some time while her father was a contortionist in the circus. Then she lived with her Berber grandma Aicha, then in her paternal grandma's brothel, went blind for a few months, had every disease known to man, and died at 47. She found true love once but the guy died in a plane crash on his way to visiting her. Her "Papa LePlee" was killed by a mob member she knew... She was said to have brought bad luck to people. But she, herself, survived numerous car crashes and near-death experiences. Her daughter, Marcelle, died at age 2. She had nobody but her few loyal cohorts at the end. She sang with so much emotion and gusto that it blew people away. If you visit her grave a Pere Lachaise in Paris, you will see people there, even in the rain... Those who saw her perform will never forget her. All this, and she was only 4'8".
But according to a New Yorker article by Judith Thurman, called "French Blues", this movie was not well-recieved in France. Given the time of its release (during elections and national identity issues) it should have done well. BUT the French managed to see their identity lost in the portrayal of Edith... They said the movie had too many American cliches, like the press clips flickering on the screen to denote notable moments. Yes, we've all seen that a hundred times but Marion Cotillard was amazing in this movie. She should get major credit for this, if not an oscar!
In fact I could have almost named this article Marion, Je T'aime if it weren't that I love Edith's music and that is the reason I saw the movie in the first place. She hand-picked her songs and they meant something to her. That is how she conveyed her emotions so well.. she meant what she said. With everything that happened to her, she was an undying optimist though it may not be told that way.
Watch this video and keep these lyrics in mind:
Non ! Rien de rien
No, nothing of nothing
Non ! Je ne regrette rien
No, I regret nothing
Ni le bien qu'on m'a fait
Neither the good, that has been done to me
Ni le mal tout ça m'est bien égal !
Nor the bad, all this is equal to me.
Non ! Rien de rien
Non ! Je ne regrette rien
C'est payé, balayé, oublié
It's been paid, swept and forgotten
Je me fous du passé !
I don't care about the past!
Avec mes souvenirs
With my memories
J'ai allumé le feu
I lit a fire
Mes chagrins, mes plaisirs
My chagrins, my pleasures
Je n'ai plus besoin d'eux !
I no longer need them!
Balayées les amours
wept away the loves
Et tous leurs trémolos
And all their sounds
Balayés pour toujours
Swept away forever
Je repars à zéro
I restart at zero
Non ! Rien de rien
Non ! Je ne regrette rien
Ni le bien, qu'on m'a fait
Ni le mal, tout ça m'est bien égal !
Non ! Rien de rien
Non ! Je ne regrette rien
Car ma vie, car mes joies
Because my life, because my joys
Aujourd'hui, ça commence avec toi !
Today, it starts with you!
Imagine if there was a great flood and you had to rescue one type of each hipster before it drowned everyone in Echo Park. You'll probably end up with a group that looks similar to the band I'm From Barcelona. If you don't know about them, they're an overly enthusiastic pop band with 29 band members. Yeah you heard me. 29 band members. You got the guy with the trucker hat, the nerdy girl with librarian glasses, the cardigan wearing Mr Rogers dude. They're all there.
Now I have no idea why anyone would want to start a band with 29 members, but if it were me, I'd go with a minimalist approach by having one guitarist, one drummer, and twenty-seven maraca players. Yeah I'd totally blow everyone away with my wall of maracas.
Oh here's a video of them playing live if you think I just made all this up.
I was at a friend's birthday party where I met a couple who seemed very well-matched and very close. They had met online. This made me think...is it really possible to date online and meet someone that is actually well-matched and fall in love? We hae all seen commercials but I wanted real, logical proof.
My cousin helped me sharpen my perspective. He said that meeting someone as a blind date or online is always a let-down because things look so much better when displayed as a marketing piece. So for example.. you know those infomercials about the Pilates videos that show someone go from size 18 to size 4 in a few short months, are not actually as magical as they claim. The regimen and the accompanying diet, followed precisely and unwaveringly is what makes them work!
So I got to thinking: if you really WANT to fall in love, can you? They say allowing things to happen is half the battle. So.. if I allow myself to warm up to a stranger that was talked up by a friend or by himself on his internet dating site, then I can fall in love?
This made me think about the process of falling in love, which to me can be described somewhat systematically for me. I think for me, love is like going deep into the forest and getting lost with no way back. I have to be led into this forest gradually.
I think the reason the first time one falls in love is so special is that it just happens without any maps or any intention to navigate or be aware of what is happening. There is no prejudice and no expectations and no benchmarks. You go on about things, have some fun, and before you know it, you've literally fallen into a hole, a well, a pit, and you just fell!
The NEXT time you suspect or anticipate a fall, you are all flexed up... thinking about how you could lower yourself more intentionally than just falling. This is a normal human reflex. It's like when you've say burned your hand a few times, you are going to be very cautious and hesitant around fire.
Anyway, that dorky couple I met last night were sort of funny. They are both extremely nerdy but I think they both find themselves and eachother very cool which is the sign of a good fit. I wonder what they would say about their love. Did it look better from the outside? Were THEY themselves marketing their relationship and I mistook that for love? It's hard to say....
