Marc
Random Thoughts About Things That Don't Matter
That song, "Rocket Boy", on the new Jets to Brazil album: Much to my suprise, I find myself listening to that song quite a bit lately. Maybe because it's so basic, and so long, and so boring. I don't know. It's hard to explain. I kind of look at it like a Thomas Pynchon-type effort, where he's almost challenging you not to like the song, and not to finish listening to it. Listen to the silence between the last guitar and vocal notes, and the ridiculous drum hit at the end. Why put it in if you're not trying to push someone else's buttons? Not to mention the fact that the whole song follows the same basic chord progression for nearly nine and a half minutes. I dig it, but I didn't know why until yesterday.
The Ben Folds Live recording that I've recently acquired: He actually explains, during a performance, that "Brick" was a song about he and his girlfriend in high school having to go through an abortion together, which I'd always heard speculation about, but had never actually heard confirmed. He plays "Fred Jones Part 2", which is one of his more haunting tunes, and then follows it up with that announcement and breaks into "Brick". Plus, there's no back up band. Just Ben Folds and his piano. I think it's great. The guy, no matter if you like him or not, is truly a great piano player, and is able to carry every song with no problem. I don't know why I still have this undying devotion to this guy. It probably has something to do with the fact that I've always kind of been into those goofy, kind of inside-yet-outside the mainstream type characters, like Weird Al. I had all of his tapes as a kid, and can honestly say that he influenced some of the first songs I wrote as a sixteen year old with a crappy acoustic guitar. One was about bleachers, aliens, and teachers, and it was god-awful. The band consisted of myself and this guy, Stephan, who worked with me during the night shift at McDonald's. We called ourselves Snatch Rabbit, and would always burn the name into the stoves at work before we would take off and write really bad music together. But, I guess that really has nothing to do with Ben Folds. He also covers "Tiny Dancer" on this shit. It's amazing. I have no idea if it's going to be released as a live album or not. It should be.
Travis Morrison's Article over at Pitchfork: He talks at length about a lot of shit that I know nothing about, but he mentions two things that I found intersting. One, Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music, which I was able to download over the summer, and have spent many a night falling asleep to. He's right when he says that it's nice to fall asleep to. For me, it's able to drown out the living room activity going on over the other side of my wall, without the distractions of me getting interested in vocals and melodies and so forth. I have trouble falling to sleep to lots of albums because I end up laying in bed, in the dark, listening to them. Like intently, trying to decipher exactly what's going on. For example, that Interpol record, which I think is fucking outstanding, kills me every time I think I can put it on before I go to bed. I love trying to decide what they're doing. Not so with Metal Machine Music. To me it sounds like noise. But good noise. Kind of hard to put into words. I definitely don't think it's the best album of all time, like Lester Bangs rambles on and on about. I just like to sleep to it. Two, Travis talks about the Bosstones, which is a band that I still enjoy listening to. It doesn't get much better than listening to songs like "Someday I Suppose", "Where Did You Go?", and "Royal Oil" as far as ska-core goes. I mean, even without the ska-core label, those are still fucking fantastic songs. It's kind of like calling the Smoking Popes pop-punk. They have elements of it in the way they put songs together, but to me it all sounds like aggressive pop. Whatev, right? The Bosstones and the Popes fucking rule. I immensely enjoyed reading that article yesterday, mainly because I really, truly respect what Mr. Morrison has to say about music in general.
Okay. I'll stop bugging you for now. Have a pleasant day.
Random Thoughts About Things That Don't Matter
That song, "Rocket Boy", on the new Jets to Brazil album: Much to my suprise, I find myself listening to that song quite a bit lately. Maybe because it's so basic, and so long, and so boring. I don't know. It's hard to explain. I kind of look at it like a Thomas Pynchon-type effort, where he's almost challenging you not to like the song, and not to finish listening to it. Listen to the silence between the last guitar and vocal notes, and the ridiculous drum hit at the end. Why put it in if you're not trying to push someone else's buttons? Not to mention the fact that the whole song follows the same basic chord progression for nearly nine and a half minutes. I dig it, but I didn't know why until yesterday.
The Ben Folds Live recording that I've recently acquired: He actually explains, during a performance, that "Brick" was a song about he and his girlfriend in high school having to go through an abortion together, which I'd always heard speculation about, but had never actually heard confirmed. He plays "Fred Jones Part 2", which is one of his more haunting tunes, and then follows it up with that announcement and breaks into "Brick". Plus, there's no back up band. Just Ben Folds and his piano. I think it's great. The guy, no matter if you like him or not, is truly a great piano player, and is able to carry every song with no problem. I don't know why I still have this undying devotion to this guy. It probably has something to do with the fact that I've always kind of been into those goofy, kind of inside-yet-outside the mainstream type characters, like Weird Al. I had all of his tapes as a kid, and can honestly say that he influenced some of the first songs I wrote as a sixteen year old with a crappy acoustic guitar. One was about bleachers, aliens, and teachers, and it was god-awful. The band consisted of myself and this guy, Stephan, who worked with me during the night shift at McDonald's. We called ourselves Snatch Rabbit, and would always burn the name into the stoves at work before we would take off and write really bad music together. But, I guess that really has nothing to do with Ben Folds. He also covers "Tiny Dancer" on this shit. It's amazing. I have no idea if it's going to be released as a live album or not. It should be.
Travis Morrison's Article over at Pitchfork: He talks at length about a lot of shit that I know nothing about, but he mentions two things that I found intersting. One, Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music, which I was able to download over the summer, and have spent many a night falling asleep to. He's right when he says that it's nice to fall asleep to. For me, it's able to drown out the living room activity going on over the other side of my wall, without the distractions of me getting interested in vocals and melodies and so forth. I have trouble falling to sleep to lots of albums because I end up laying in bed, in the dark, listening to them. Like intently, trying to decipher exactly what's going on. For example, that Interpol record, which I think is fucking outstanding, kills me every time I think I can put it on before I go to bed. I love trying to decide what they're doing. Not so with Metal Machine Music. To me it sounds like noise. But good noise. Kind of hard to put into words. I definitely don't think it's the best album of all time, like Lester Bangs rambles on and on about. I just like to sleep to it. Two, Travis talks about the Bosstones, which is a band that I still enjoy listening to. It doesn't get much better than listening to songs like "Someday I Suppose", "Where Did You Go?", and "Royal Oil" as far as ska-core goes. I mean, even without the ska-core label, those are still fucking fantastic songs. It's kind of like calling the Smoking Popes pop-punk. They have elements of it in the way they put songs together, but to me it all sounds like aggressive pop. Whatev, right? The Bosstones and the Popes fucking rule. I immensely enjoyed reading that article yesterday, mainly because I really, truly respect what Mr. Morrison has to say about music in general.
Okay. I'll stop bugging you for now. Have a pleasant day.
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