llorar y llorar

theory: the best songs are about crying

method:

pop songs that acknowledge the schizophrenia that occurs when one goes from an actual person to a pop icon

marvelling at their godhead image, yet never digging as deep as they could:

another christmas-soundin' motown-soundin' song

it's almost christmas...it's *almost* christmas

i KNOW you guys are tired of christmas music. but maybe you're like me -- you like christmas music, you like all the elements of christmas music (bells, strings, warm inflection, cherry as hell), but oh my god you just can't hear those standards anymore. so after you've heard "all i want for christmas for you" 50 times and it's just* starting to lose its magic, what do you do?

here, i've made a comp of music that has nothing to do with christmas, but sounds sorta like christmas.

1. isao tomita - the girl with the flaxen hair
2. johnny ace - pledging my love
3. koes bersaudara - rasa hatiku
4. francoise hardy - pourtant tu m'aimes
5. saint etienne - the birdman of ec1
6. aislers set - "christmas song"
7. au revoir simone - take me as i am
8. white apple tree - passed out
9. the townhouses - pray (tina cousins cover)
10. the originals - the bells
11. bob b. soxx - the bells of st. mary
12. richard and the young lions - you can make it
13. milton banana trio - vou deitar e rolar
14. jens lekman - maple leaves
15. the impressions - i'm so proud
16. sam hopkins - needed time
17. jon richman - oh moon, queen of night on earth

48 min total, >> DL here <<


stay in the christmas spirit without hearing one more lyric about santa or sleighbells! how is this possible?? well baby i made it possible ;)


*note: it is very hard for that song to lose its magic
**ps: have you seen mariah's new christmas song? pretty neat

existential garage

mixtape time! i'm reading up on philosophy and theology, trying to make sense of brevity, lack of permanence, trying to figure out the world and my head. here's a soundtrack to that

1. the fabs - that's the bag i'm in
2. brute force - nobody knows
3. bob morrison - i looked in the mirror
4. honeycombs - eyes
5. episode six - only lonely people
6. gnomes - the sky is falling
7. the ravens - this i know
8. the trespassers - living memories
9. los ovnis - cuando era nino
10. the pleasure seekers - what a way to die
11. the sparkles - i want to be free
12. the merry-go-round - live
13. lollipop shoppe - who's it gonna be
14. the colony - things on my mind
15. tucker zimmerman - another normal day
16. the beau brummels - tomorrow is another day

43.2 min total, DL >>here<<

i tried to veer away from garage-psych. it's so easy to be existential when you're vibing on psychedelics, but i think it's adorable when garage punk or pop or "fuzz" or whatever you want to call it, simple little tunes, incorporate lyrics like, "my shadow's grown, and my die is cast."

besides, you can find plenty of existential garage-psych in this other compilation, 30 seconds before the calico wall!


shh, don't tell nobody, but if you click the album art...well, you might just get two compilations for the price of one*, ya dig?

*the price of mine being: $0


note: other good 60s/70s pop songs that deal with mortality and brain drains:
the faces - ooh la la (1973)
paul simon - run that body down (1972)
emitt rhodes - someone died (1969)
peggy lee - is that all there is? (1969)

land of a million drums

oh goddamn, blast from the past


back in the "middle ages" of the internet, i would go to outkast.com and click on the "videos" page and watch their music videos over and over again. they only had a few; i believe they were "hey ya," "roses," "bombs over baghdad," "miss jackson," and this one, a tie-in to the scooby doo movie. but oh my lord how do they take this stupid millennial remake of a stupid 60s cartoon to a whole new level?

this song sounds like a panic attack

pulse quickening, neurons stalling

teengirl fantasy (2010)

i have been woefully out of touch with new music (this past year)

but this is a pretty good track/video. shannon funchess is mesmerizing.

thanks to teenagejesus for the rec

marlena shaw - "woman of the ghetto" (live)

beautiful beautiful beautiful

winter mix

mostly 60s music, garage and a bit of folk, with some 80s indie pop popping in to say hello


1. the microphones - "my warm blood (humming)"
2. bridget st. john - "autumn lullaby"
3. flying karpets - "winter song"
4. choir - "it's cold outside"
5. ultimates - "autumn wind"
6. sites n sound - "the night is so dark"
7. the explosive - "cities make the country cold"
8. the moguls - "ski bum"
9. five by five - "apple cider"
10. the soundbox - "warm your mind and soul"
11. episode six - "i will warm your heart"
12. vashti bunyan - "winter is blue"
13. dolly mixture - "winter seems fine"
14. st. christopher - "it's snowing on the moon"
15. tucker zimmerman - "the wind returns into the night"
16. sunforest - "and i was blue"
17. liverpool five - "let the sunshine in"*
18. spanky wilson - "sunshine of your love"

50 min total, >>DL here<<

this one ended up with a neat progression -- it starts off like "jeez is it cold out there or what" and there's a lot of stomping around to warm up. then it gradually gets cozier, like drifting off to sleep in front of the fireplace....and when you wake up you realize that the fire's dead and your small blanket is no longer adequate. and you shift a little bit so you can be in the morning sunbeams, which are not as warm as the fire was but it is nice, in a different way. your toes and nose are freezing but it doesn't matter because when you hear spanky wilson's "sunshine of your love" you are thoroughly heated up, body and soul


the name of this mix is taken from a facebook page that i like; photograph is by anders petersen

__
*not the hit

dabadabada

simple simon & the piemen

i just love reading the titles of these things

simple simon & the piemen is the best 60s garage band name i've heard so far -- and the song ain't too bad neither!!

edit: ok this one gets honorable mention


should i make a mix of good music with stupid names ??

older music that goes hard in the paint

found this today:

c. 1968

found this on "what a way to die:"

c.1966

found this a year or two ago:

c. 1962

my dad showed this to me:

c. 1938

open melody (acrobatics everyday) sampler

ok so i collect old music (for my desk) but i see a lot of new music live! this is because i live next to LA and orange county is a cool place. it has become even cooler in the past few years thanks to my friends who started acrobatics everyday at uc irvine. they invite local bands + touring bands to play in classrooms and trailers. it's neat!

this weekend, acrobatics everyday will put a 2 day festival, and they're pretty stoked about it. sam (a friend) put together this sampler of the bands playing at the festival

tracks included:

DL >> http://www.mediafire.com/?qsjmubfvqrzh80o <<

this is a pretty good mix of under-the-radar bands and buzz bands and orange county shooting stars~

so if you like new music then download it and look into any artists you like, because i'm sure they could use the support

AND NEEDLESS TO SAY if you live in southern california you should attend the fest. open melody. tonight and tomorrow. reasonable prices. fun people. good tunes

no lines

just love

do you want to know the best song you've ever heard that you've already heard

we're just havin a good time ok

i promised jams, and i will deliver jams

1. amory kane - the in-between man
2. richard henry - oh girl
3. the honeycombs - have i the right
4. the whoridas - shot callin' big ballin'
5. the keggs - to find out
6. little flint - pain
7. nino ferrer - cannabis
8. sophy - voy gritando por la calle
9. kano - super extra sexy sign
10. leon haywood - i'm out to catch
11. mary jane girls - all night long
12. trina - single again
13. the traditions - twinkle little star
14. jorge ben - taj mahal

i start you off nice and easy with amory kane, but that's just so that you aren't assaulted by the firme power of funk (+ 60s garage gems). good for listening to while you get ready for a party, or maybe for doing drugs. try it! download here or you can click the pic

cover is graced by the mary jane girls, rick james's girl group (possibly a direct competition for prince's vanity 6). they are so good. i hear the song on this mix all the time on hot 92.3, but if you like it, look them up. they have a lot of sexy 80s funk w/ grrrl power

4/13 EDIT: download link down, youtube playlist available

making this week's mixtape

really excited about it, there's gonna be a lot of jams on it

even though sitting at a desk for so long exhausts me, and i feel like old soft folk songs, i want to feel like a friday night dance party

so that's what you'll be getting

you're a lucky kid

moondog monologue

these lyrics are nowhere to be found, so i typed em up


"no matter where i came from," i say,
"no matter where i go
to me, what matters is where i am on this day"

let me identify myself now
songsters both, and both clad in brown
the hermit thrush and i dwell far out of town

death, when you come to me, may you come to me swiftly
i would rather not linger
not linger

driving with herr doktor one day, for the air,
he would circle the square before he taught me how to square the very same circle

you were opportunist in the worst way
therefore, i pray, let it pay for you to know me

i do not dress as i do to attract attention
i attract attention because i dress as i do

you, the vandal, plunder the village as you will.
the earthworm will pillage you, the vandal, when you are under

i would bow down before just one--
one who bows before none.
i should know who that one might be who could do that to me
i am that one
and i bow down before me

since the hunter is the hunted, surely he knows what it is to lift an ecsatic dread
to some uncoming hunter's tread

such and such as the star that filters through the starry blue alone
a burning star turning in an orbit all of its own
such and such as i

beasts are always/were always trailblazing engineers
modern engineering would do well to do as well today
as well as beasts have done

if on this rock i stand alone
loneliness will turn heel, as he turns to stone

each today is yesterday's tomorrow, which is now
now is all i have
now is all i need
now is all i want
now

better i go, when you would that i stay, that i stay on,
than stay, when you would that i would go
better i go than stay

ebb and flow of the ocean
love and hate of emotion
nothing lasts, is my refrain
as the moon and my feelings wax and wane
i remain calm.

i would adjust everything until i fell
and will adjust nothing
then, worming up pathway, i found with pleasure:
i was just something.

standing at the door of my departure
i observe that your eyes belie all that you have said
for you are still in love with me

then, when recognition comes,
you will take my muse,
take her to his bed of ease
have his will, have his fill,
and strangle her.

my tiny butterfly butters my bread
my briny flutterby keeps me well-fed
why should i mutter?

stung by this last rebuff, i rebound.
on the way back, i hear me saying to myself:
"dwell in your shell"

one thing about life, be it said:
it feeds upon itself over and over
and of itself, is fed.

should i love you as i love myself?
suppose i hate myself.
i would be as free to hate you too

i am never quite educated, never quite so
but i am ever in the painful process of becoming so

you remember me and my song.
only such immortaliity strikes creative sparks from my soul
because of you

who could wear out their welcome there
when there is no welcome there to wear out?
"there is where it is: here on earth."

"i would advise you not to generalize, as a rule."
(a fool to be: i have just uttered a generalization.
ah, me.)

down is up, and so up is down
because the world is round
there is no such thing as up or down

this one wish is ever so near to my heart
but oh so far away from my tongue

sadness was so mixed with gladness
that she wept for joy
she was so sad
tears filled her eyes but enhanced a smile on her face
she was so glad

think of all of the thoughts that i think
they are naught to me, compared to just one fleeting thought of you

how could i fear for my last day,
when i am dying daily?
and have been since my first day?

thus the clown wore cap and gown
for she lived for degrees while she died by degrees,
with a frown.

voices of spring were in chorus
each voice was singing a song
i could not sing me a chorus until i wrote me a song
i wrote my song and joined the throng

i besiege my liege still further
for my wooing is turning her majesty's royal head
and turning toward me

though i climbed up the highest mountain in view
--yet, contentment was not mine
for beyond, a higher mountain still higher was looming

now is that painful moment of parting we dreaded
saying "goodbye" is plural indemnity, truly
for having said "hello"

the art of the low-budget music video in the year 2010

things will be better tomorrow

bill williams - things will be better tomorrow (1982 funk jam)

we might only exist within a momentary twinkling of another being's creation

made another mixtape!

1. sing hallelujah - the bonds
2. light my fire - driscoll & auger and the trinity
3. some kind of woman - jermaine jackson
4. that girl (feat. snoop dogg) - pharrell
5. i got a feeling - barbara randolph
6. i would rather go blind - etta james
7. the greatest fall - black ryder
8. use somebody - bat for lashes
9. don't know what i am - wipers
10. strawberry shortcake - marmoset
11. heard it thru the grapevine - smokey robinson*
12. non, je ne regrette rien - edith piaf

download link here or you can click on the pic

once again, something old, something new, something borrowed, something...true? (that honor goes to the sailor moon screencap)

*for instance! this version of "i heard it through the grapevine" is the original, but perhaps the least well-known. it's got that familiar-yet-strange vibe i was talkin about earlier. like when you step foot on an old campus, or meet a long-lost twin

indian summer

today (11/3/2010) in orange county, CA, it's 100 degrees.


i actually love it. i love the heat, the sun, our state. i'll write about this in another entry sometime soon hmm

here's a dreamy video from the year i was born (1988):

beat happening - "indian summer"

kudos to donovan, who linked me to it, and paul, who played it on the radio on a hot night in october.

mungo jerry further proves the point re: old music videos

if this video doesn't make you uncomfortable, i don't know what will




some trivia to ensure that you get really uncomfortable, if ray dorset's prolonged eye contact isn't doing it:
1) they are a jug band from england
2) one of them is the dad of the girl from n-dubz

how do you feel

old music videos

i love old music videos. before there was a channel for them, there were no established tropes, so promotional videos for music became this strange no-man's-land medium.
"here be dragons"

here's a favorite:

i've dreamed this before. how did they infuse this simple video with dream logic? maybe it's because they're dutch. or maybe they were high (quite possible)

here's another:

feat. girls dancing on elephants, an unmoving profile shot, a girl who roars, oh and the chorus "daddy, buy me a girl"


both of these are considered "nederbeat." forget the british invasion man. bands started popping up all over in holland in the 1960s, giving the world songs with kooky english lyrics and smart hooks. but the world did not care, and nederbeat bands were nearly buried in the sands of time until a group of avid vinyl enthusiasts uploaded their old promotional tapes to youtube.com.

at which point, an intrepid young explorer named rebecca saw these videos, and favorite'd the hell out of them, and embedded them into a blog so that the world could experience anew what it had missed

some halloween-ish songs

hello

i don't have access to my big ol music library right now. but i think that might be for the best, because this mix only has stuff that really "caught my ear" in the past few weeks. i like that, and i might keep doing it like this.

some of these are very well known, and some are a little less known!


tracklist
1. a fun intro
2. Sandie Shaw - Run
3. The Embers - I Walked All Night
4. The Shamettes - (Hey There) Big Bad Wolf
5. Rev. Chambers - Me And The Devil
6. The Drivers - Dangerous Lips
7. The Ran Dells - The Martian Hop
8. Michael & Jermaine Jackson - Tell me I'm not dreaming
9. The Bees - Voices Green And Purple
10. Dr. Octagon - Halfsharkalligatorhalfman
11. Nina Simone - I put a spell on you
12. Everything is Everything - Witchi Tai To

link (treats)

ps: typography nerds will notice that i used the "giddyup" font. you know what. that font looks perfect for friday, october 29th, 2010. and if it bothers you well then consider that my halloween trick

i've got so many firme tracks comin up

you wouldn't even believe