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09.01.06
Random Quote from The Big Lebowski Random Quote Generator to get us in the mood:
Bunny [in “Logjamming”]: This is my friend Shari. She just came over to use the shower.
On to the FRT. To play, put your digital music player on shuffle, click play, and list the first ten songs that show up. Leave your list in comments or trackbacks. If you click past the bad or embarrassing songs, I’m gonna throw you in the shower with Bunny Lebowski — and let Brandt watch for free.
Here’s my list:
1. “I Don’t Blame You” — Cat Power (You Are Free)
2. “Hearts and Daggers” — Espers (Espers)
3. “It Ain’t Me Babe” — Bob Dylan (Another Side of Bob Dylan)
4. “Suite No. 6 in E-Major” — J. S. Bach played by Glenn Gould (French Suites, Overture)
5. “True Faith” — New Order (Substance)
6. “Belle” — Jack Johnson (In Between Dreams)
7. “Stormy Weather” — Spaniels (Bob Dylan Theme Time Radio Hour)
8. “I Pity the Poor Immigrant” — Bob Dylan (John Wesley Harding)
9. “Suite 1 in G Major - Sarabande” — J. S. Bach played by Pablo Casals Suites for Cello
10. “Hungry Heart” — Bruce Springsteen (The River)
Favorite Song: “It Ain’t Me Babe”
Least Favorite Song: “I Pity the Poor Immigrant”
Favorite Album: Another Side of Bob Dylan
A Bob Dylan sweep. I hope to put up a post about his new album soon.
Random live mp3: Cat Power, “Wonderwall” (Peel Sessions) [mp3]
And, hey, as long as we’re talking music, take a look at this inventive stop-motion video for the song “Oh Mandy,” by The Spinto Band (via The BM Rant; video after the jump):
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08.18.06
Random Quote from The Big Lebowski Random Quote Generator to get us in the mood:
Walter: Were you listening to the Dude’s story?
Donny: I was bowling–
Walter: So you have no frame of reference, Donny. You’re like a child who wanders in in the middle of a movie and wants to know–
Dude: What’s your point, Walter?
On to the FRT. To play, put your digital music player on shuffle, click play, and list the first ten songs that show up. Leave your list in comments or trackbacks. If you click past the bad or embarrassing songs, I’m gonna sic the two-headed snake on your ass.
Here’s my list:
1. Billy Bragg, “The Myth of Trust” (Back to Basics)
2. Brian Eno, “Over Fire Island” (Another Green World)
3. Brad Paisley, “Cornography” (Time Well Wasted)
4. Billy Bragg, “It Says Here” (Back to Basics)
5. The Beatles, “You Never Give Me Your Money” (Abbey Road)
6. Benny Goodman and Peggy Lee, “Winter Weather” (The Complete Recordings 1941-1947)
7. Ben Gibbard, “They Don’t Know” (live cover, Crocodile Cafe, Seattle — here’s the mp3)
8. U2, “Paint It Black” (live cover)
9. Les Negresses Vertes, “Tous Des Ouvriers” (Green Bus)
10. The Beatles, “Help” (One)
What an utterly boring Random Ten.
Favorite Song: “Help!”
Least Favorite Song: “Cornography”
Favorite Album: Abbey Road
The eleventh song selected by iTunes was “Figure” by Richard Buckner. Devotion + Doubt is an album that has remained a favorite of mine ever since my friend Brady — an intelligent and accomplished songwriter himself — recommended it to me.
Buckner’s stark album is girded by his intensely poetic lyrics and what allmusic.com describes as his “husky” singing voice. On Devotion + Doubt, which Buckner wrote after a divorce, the songs coalesce and disappear like tendrils of smoke, leaving behind them only a faint, acrid trace of the flame that bore them.
Writing in The Guardian, Sylvie Simmons summed up Buckner’s appeal:
There are three kinds of American folk artist: those who sit, contented, on a back porch contemplating America’s landscape and ways; those for whom its landscape and ways are something to stand against or move boldly through; and those whose America is a shadowy, impressionistic place that moves inside of them.
Listening to Buckner’s music, one catches glimpses of that internal country; it’s that old weird America again, but Buckner makes you feel as if you’re seeing it for the first time.
Downloads:
Richard Buckner, Lil Wallet Picture [mp3]
Richard Buckner, Figure [mp3]
Lyrics for “Figure” after the jump.
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08.12.06
Frequent commenter and former TC contributor Rod sent me this Stereogum link, which announces a series of listening parties for Bob Dylan’s next album, Modern Times (release date: August 29).
The Philly session will be held on Sunday, August 20th, at 7pm. If you want to attend, send an email to listen@bobdylan.com with “RSVP Philadelphia” in the subject line.
Stereogum informs us that Columbia Records, which is sponsoring the listening session, will provide “free food and beverages.” Would some country pie be too much to ask?
As for the drink, well, Columbia Records should heed these words of wisdom [mp3].
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08.11.06
So much of life, it seems to me, is determined by pure randomness.
– Sidney Poitier
To play: put your digital music player on shuffle, click play, and list the first ten songs that show up. Leave your list in comments or trackbacks. If you click past the bad or embarrassing songs, I’m going to visit your house bearing a travel bag full of liquids and gels.
Here’s my list:
1. The Flaming Lips, “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 2,” Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
2. The Magnetic Fields, “I Wish I Had an Evil Twin,” i
3. Vic Chestnut, “Independence Day,” Little
4. Ghostface Killah, “The Splash,” (mixtape / download)
5. The Arcade Fire, “Haiti,” Funeral
6. The Beatles, “Ticket to Ride,” The Beatles 1
7. Feist, “Secret Heart,” Let It Die
8. The Go-Betweens, “Too Much of One Thing,” Bright Yellow Bright Orange
9. Sebadoh, “Dreams,” Bakesale
10. Jurrasic 5, “Quality Control,” Quality Control
I don’t know that I’m capable of picking favorites among this group, but if I were, “Haiti,” “Ticket to Ride,” “Secret Heart,” “Too Much of One Thing,” and “Dreams” would all be in the running.
The Feist track is a cover of a Ron Sexsmith song from his 1995 self-titled album. It’s a great song, and Feist does a wonderful job with it. But it’s not my favorite Ron Sexsmith tune.
No, that title goes to the gorgeous Seem to Recall [mp3] — the last track on his 1999 album Whereabouts. Mired in autumnal regret, this wistful, mournful paean to lost love and lost dreams hits me hard every single time I listen to it.
Here are the lyrics, via Ronsexsmith.com:
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08.05.06
This blog has been bereft of the FRT for far too long. In its absence, pretenders to the throne have arisen. No matter. They wilt in the face of my more-stupefying randomness. Anyway, it’s Friday night, I’ve got a beer in my hand, and I’m ready for some tunes. So away we go.
To play: put your digital music player on shuffle, click play, and list the first ten songs that show up. Leave your list in comments or trackbacks. If you click past the bad or embarrassing songs, then you deserve another few years of George W. Bush.
Here’s my list:
1. Nina Simone, “Here Comes the Sun,” Blue For You
2. The Gladiators, “Rude Boy Ska,” Dreadlocks, the Time Is Now
3. Calla, “Overshadowed,” Collisions
4. Paul Anka, “Jump,” Rock Swings
5. Man or Astro-man?, “Message from the CD,” Made From Technetium
6. Low, “Heartbeat,” A Lifetime of Temporary Relief: 10 Years of B-Sides & Rarities
7. The Gladiators, “Chatty Chatty Mouth,” Trenchtown Mix Up
8. Ella Mae Morse, “Forty Cups of Coffee (with Bob Dylan intro),” Bob Dylan Theme Time Radio Hour (Vol. 1: “Weather”)
9. Clearlake, “Come Into the Darkness,” Cedars
10. Billie Holiday, “Lover Come Back to Me,” Fine & Mellow
Favorite Song: “Chatty Chatty Mouth” — Summer was invented for reggae. And if you don’t know The Gladiators, your summer is incomplete. My favorite albums are Back to Roots and At Studio One: Bongo Red.
Least Favorite Song: “Here Comes the Sun.” — funny thing about that sun — it burns those who get too close to it, especially when they approach with harpists in tow.
Favorite Album: No clear favorites, honestly, but I’ll go with Dreadlocks, the Time Is Now for the aforementioned reasons.
PLUS!
A BONUS! FREE! LIVE! MP3!!!!!
PJ Harvey, “Water” (mp3)
Parades de Coura Festival , Portugal, 2003
(song appears on Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea)
I’ve seen PJ Harvey live only once, at Madison Square Garden in 2000, when she opened for U2. It was a show that Hinton Als later wrote about in a New Yorker profile of Harvey:
. . . and her particular brand of rock remains just that, her own, inaccessible to many of the U2 fans who flock into stadiums every night after her opening set. Where Harvey, in knee-high patent-leather boots that look like two exclamation points, introduces nastiness, wit, and isolation, U2’s recent work cooks up communal comfort of a kind that asks less of the audience. “It’s a challenge, certainly,” Harvey said when a radio interviewer asked her how the current tour was going. “You know, it’s difficult to play in front of an audience that isn’t there to see me. And that can be a good thing as well. It makes me play — makes us all play — in a different way. And, you know, sometimes the audience really seems to be enjoying what we’re doing, and other times they don’t. It’s a good discipline.”
I don’t mind telling you that those boots have taken on an epic, almost talismanic, presence in my memories of the event. There was little PJ Harvey, looming large at the top of the stage, confronting a half-empty arena with fierce, leather-clad majesty. As she let loose her pounding Big Exit (mp3) — surely one of the most kick-ass pieces of music ever recorded — she looked like she had all the firepower she needed.
But if you really want to hear PJ Harvey at her most raw, her most intense, you’ve got to listen to 4-Track Demos. My favorite off that album is this version of Rid of Me (mp3), which I first heard via my friend Jim.
At the end of that 2001 New Yorker profile, Harvey spoke about the sorts of musicians she preferred to see live:
“All my life, when I’ve been to see bands play, this is what I look for — I want to watch someone who’s going to shock me, stun me, make me feel scared, make me feel happy, just set me alive. I want to see someone who’s going to make the hairs on my arms and neck stand up, and when I see an artist like that it’s unbeatable. So that’s always been what I’ve aspired to, to be able to set people alight in some way.”
Mission accomplished, Polly Jean — mission accomplished.
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07.27.06
You may have heard that Bob Dylan has been hosting a show on satellite radio. But you may not have heard it, because you don’t have satellite radio. Redemption is now at hand: visit White Man Stew to download archived versions of the show, which is organized around themes such as “Weather,” “Drinking,” “Baseball,” “Coffee,” “Jail,” and “Divorce” (via Philebrity Reader).
Once you’ve heard Bob Dylan introduce music by Lonnie the Cat, Blur, and L.L. Cool J, you won’t look back.
Here’s a sample mp3: Staple Singers, “Uncloudy Day” (with Dylan intro)
Dan Rubin asks why the left has been silent on the conflict in the Middle East.
I’ve said my piece about the war here and here, and I’ll say more about it when I have more to say. Plenty of liberal bloggers on my blogroll have been writing about the war; I think that the assertation that the left has been silent about it is a bit of a canard.
Speaking of war in the Middle East, Terry Gross hosted an excellent program about the subject today on Fresh Air. She interviewed Georgetown Professor Daniel Byman, who provided a remarkably even-handed, and wonderfully edifying, view of the situation. It’s well worth a listen — Byman presents Middle Eastern history and politics in all of their multi-faceted complexity. He affirms certain points currently being trumpeted by American conservatives (such as the deep connections between Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah) who are calling for more war, but he also says that Israel’s response to the kidnapping of its soldiers was disproportionate (that was the point, he argues), and that an American or Israeli attack on Iran is likely to end badly.
If you listen, please let me know whether you agree that Byman’s views were non-partisan.
Two of my daily reads, Lance Mannion and Dan Rubin, wrote about MyHeritage.com, a site that uses facial recognition software to analyze your photos and tell you which celebrities you most resemble.
I thought the whole thing was a crock until I learned that I resemble Heath Ledger (62%), Johnny Depp (59%), River Phoenix (50%), and Michael Vartan (50%). I am now MyHeritage.com’s biggest fan, even if it also pulled up Alan Alda (58%), Dan Rather (57%), and (gasp) Steven Seagal (48%). Hey — any programmer worth her salt will tell you that every piece of software has its glitches. . .
Update: If you like the Dylan shows above, also check out Down in the Flood, a podcast series by Jason Chervokas. Chervokas also writes a very fine blog called Trickster.
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By Matt
posted in Books, Movies, Music, Television, Blogs, Internet, Technology, Celebrity and Celebrities, Links, mp3, War, Middle East
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07.20.06
“Sweet Illusions” (mp3)
by Ryan Adams & The Cardinals
from the 2005 album Cold Roses
(buy it on iTunes / Amazon)
A few days ago, Adams caused some controversy on Stereogum when he waded into the comments of the blog to respond (at length!) to those who had criticized him for releasing three albums in the same year. It’s an entertaining read (via The BM Rant).
As long as Adams is making songs like this, I think he should release as many albums as he can.
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07.05.06
 David Rae Morris/European Pressphoto Agency Atoms for Peace (mp3)
– Thom Yorke
The Eraser
“It annoys me how pretty my voice is,” Mr. Yorke says. “That sounds incredibly immodest, but it annoys me how polite it can sound when perhaps what I’m singing is deeply acidic.”
– The New York Times
With Radiohead, and Alone, the Sweet Malaise of Thom Yorke
July 2, 2006
Should such an atomic attack be launched against the United States, our reactions would be swift and resolute. But for me to say that the defence capabilities of the United States are such that they could inflict terrible losses upon an aggressor, for me to say that the retaliation capabilities of the United States are so great that such an aggressor’s land would be laid waste, all this, while fact, is not the true expression of the purpose and the hopes of the United States.
To pause there would be to confirm the hopeless finality of a belief that two atomic colossi are doomed malevolently to eye each other indefinitely across a trembling world. To stop there would be to accept helplessly the probability of civilization destroyed, the annihilation of the irreplaceable heritage of mankind handed down to us from generation to generation, and the condemnation of mankind to begin all over again the age-old struggle upward from savagery towards decency, and right, and justice. Surely no sane member of the human race could discover victory in such desolation. Could anyone wish his name to be coupled by history with such human degradation and destruction? Occasional pages of history do record the faces of the “great destroyers”, but the whole book of history reveals mankind’s never-ending quest for peace and mankind’s God-given capacity to build.”
– Dwight D. Eisenhower
“Atoms for Peace”
Address delivered to the 470th Plenary Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly
Tuesday, 8 December 1953
When nukes kill, who counts? No one counts the victims because the victims don’t count. A step back toward the cold-war-era embrace of the atom is a step away from a world that cares enough to count the dead. And a world that won’t count the dead will never care enough to make every life count.
– Ira Chernus, author of Eisenhower’s Atoms for Peace
“When Nukes Kill, No One Counts the Victims”
No more going to the dark side with your flying saucer eyes
No more falling down a wormhole that I have to pull you out
The wriggling, squiggling worm inside
devours from the inside out
No more talk about the old days
It’s time for something great
I want you to get out
And make it work
So many lies
So many lies
So many lies
So feel the love come off of them
And take me in your arms
Peel all of your layers off
I want to eat your [???] artichoke heart
No more leaky holes in your brain
And no false starts
I wanna get out
And make it work
So many lies
So many lies
So many lies
So feel the love come off of them
And take me in your arms
I wanna get out
And make it work
I want you to get out
And make it work
I’ll be ok
So many lies
So many lies
So many lies
So feel the love come off of them
And take me in your arms
– Thom Yorke
lyrics, “Atoms for Peace”
China, North Korea’s closest ally, issued a statement expressing “serious concern” over the launchings. But the statement also called on all sides to “maintain calm and restraint,” and to avoid moves that would “add to tensions and further complicate the situation.”
[. . .]
The American ambassador to Japan, Thomas Schieffer, said today that the administration is “prepared to take measures to protect the U.S, our allies and our friends.”
– The New York Times
U.N. Council to Address Tests by North Korea
July 5, 2006
More TY . . .
theeraser.net
Dead Air Space
Update: It would demean Thom Yorke’s song to suggest that it is simply a commentary on cold-war politics. Like all good allegories, this one works on several levels, drawing semi-explicit parallels between the negotiations of lovers and those of nuclear states. That it works as well within a political context as it does outside of one is a tribute to Yorke’s artistry.
Bonus points to anyone who can figure out what Thom wants to eat.
Update 2: Props to Agi for divining the missing lyrics.
Those notes that Yorke hits when he sings “I’ll be ok” (~3:48) are just heart-breaking.
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