Music Mumbo Jumbo
I always try to link to free & legal MP3s on this site. I don't post stuff I don't like, so if you like it pay for it. Artists gotta eat too. If they can't eat they'll stop making music & I'll be very upset. (I'm selfish that way). Anyway if you're an artist & I post something you want me to take down, send me an email at watsinaga at yahoo.com. I'll be so excited you sent me an email, I'll take the link down immediately, save the email forever and probably ask you for an autograph.Note: I wrote this post in March (when the disc actually came out) & never finished it. I can’t remember everything I was going to say, so I’m just going to say that I still listen to this CD at least once a week. With the amount of music I listen to, it should tell you how much I like this CD… So enjoy the review below – 4 months late.
Yesterday I got the Decemberists new CD ‘The Hazards of Love‘ in the mail yesterday. I buy very few physical CDs anymore, and I forget how great it is to open up the CD, read the liner notes, slide the disc in the player, hear it spin up & wait for the first notes to play. As an added bonus, I was one of the first 750 to order The Hazards of Love through the Decemberist’s website & got a signed copy of the liner notes. See picture below:
Actually, I never got it scanned, so you’ll have to use your imagination – (ooh, ahh).
I’m not much of an autograph hound, but I was really excited to get this one. Even cooler, they signed an extra copy of the liner notes so that I can keep a copy in the CD case without damaging the autographs. The best part is, the music is better & more exciting than the autographs are.
One thing’s for sure, this is not a disc you listen to on shuffle. The critics are calling it a ‘rock opera‘, but it was originally written to be a musical. I have never been a fan of musicals, but if The Hazards of Love was, I’d watch it. You can get the basic story arc from Wikipedia – here. I just want to focus on the music.
Like I said, it’s a CD that must be listened to straight through. It starts out with Prelude, a true prelude that runs about 3 minutes. A couple of other reviews I’ve read don’t care for the song because starts very quietly, has no vocals & is just a Hammond organ. I love the song because it sets the mood for the rest of the music.
There are lots of great songs & you can listen to snippets of on Amazon here.
As most people people who know me are aware, I really like soccer (even though I was late to the party) & love coaching it even more. It’s been a revelation to me how much fun it is. I wish I’d figured that out sooner, I might have done something with my life.
Anyway, I’ve been coaching my daughter’s team for about 5 years & it’s been quite the learning experience. Most of the girls have been on my team for several years (since 1st grade) & I know them really well. They all really love soccer and are pretty good, but none of them have wanted to play in a more competitive league, they just want to have fun (cue Cindy Lauper). This year we played in a U12 league – 12 years old. All of my girls are all U10. Man, most of those 12 year old girls are huge. They’ve all hit their growth spurts. We played one team didn’t have a girl less than 6 inches taller than my tallest girl. We struggled a bit, but had a lot of fun.
So, back to the story. I work really hard to find ways to keep the girls interested in soccer practice & teaching them skills by playing games. We do lots of fun stuff, but at least once a practice I end up giving a crying girl a hug. Somebody gets hurt either feelings or legs, hears someone making fun of them, or thinks they can’t learn the skill we’re working on. It’s very different than coaching boys. If you’re coaching boys, most of these issues are not a problem, in fact, I motivate the boys by making fun of them & most of the time it works.
Here’s a perfect example of what I’m talking about:
One of the places we practice is an amphitheater near my house. It’s surrounded by trees & has a great big patch of flat grass. In the spring & fall, it’s protected from the wind, during the summer, the trees shade it pretty well. It’s a great place to run drills & play small games, even if there’s no soccer field or goals.
There’s only one problem. BUNNIES! There are lots of rabbits living in the woods & even I have to admit they’re pretty cute. Mommies & babies in lots of different colors abound (hahaha). The girls like to take off & chase the bunnies whenever they get the chance.
‘They’re so cute’
‘I want to hold it’
‘Do you think we can catch it’
‘My mom told me I could have a bunny, so if we catch it, I’ll get to keep it.’
Whenever they see a bunny, they’ll all run after the bunny & then it takes me 10 minutes to get them focused on soccer again.It got pretty frustrating & I almost got mad & yelled (and I never do that). So I figured out how to get around the bunny problem. I usually give the girls a couple of water breaks during practice, so I just started calling them ‘bunny breaks’. I told them if they stayed focused on what we were doing, I’d give them a chance to chase the bunny during the break. It worked great! In fact, they got more running done during practice than they did before we started taking bunny breaks.
The best part is I didn’t have to be mean! I love bunnies!
The internet is flooded with new music every day. I love to sit at my desk working, listening to new stuff (and deleting most of it). I keep anything that forces me stop & listen. I try never to keep anything I’d skip if it came up on my Clip. If I’d skip, it’s gone. Here are four or five songs (and artists) that have caught my attention in the last few weeks:
Tulsa – Rafter (mp3) – I haven’t heard much about Tulsa. It’s basically a guy, (Carter Tauton) whose been making music for a long time. Originally from Boston, he moved to New York to get more exposure. After a gig where no one showed up, he started busking (playing in the subway), refining his performances. Since I always loving listening to someone play in the subway, I had to give their music a try. His voice floats in and out above the great keyboard riff, the rolling drums & bass are farther back in the mix. I hope the rest of their music is this good.
Cage the Elephant – Ain’t no Rest for the Wicked (mp3) – Cage the Elephant are from Kentucky, but are big in the UK. Weird how that happens sometimes. It’s a short little song, full of great music & the lead singer has a great voice. He sings about meeting people doing bad things, asking them why & it ends up they’re just trying to survive, no rest ’til they close their eyes for good’. Great lyrics + great music = great song!
I guess that this song isn’t free. My bad. Cage the Elephant is still super cool in my book.
Mystery Jets – Hand Me Down (mp3) - Mystery Jets fall right into my weakness for all things British. I love it when the British accent comes through on a song. This song is from their album 21. The record’s been out for about a year, but I just heard this song a few weeks ago. The song has a familiar story – boy likes girl, girl likes other boy(s), boy(s) treat her like crap & her heart is ‘like a hand me down, something to be passed around & around’. I’m glad there’s suffering in the world, otherwise where would the good music come from?
Animal Collective – My Girls (mp3) – Animal Collective is a collection of avant-guarde musicians from Baltimore, Maryland (Wikipedia’s words, not mine). I’ve known about them for a few years, listened to their stuff, but could never get into it. I suppose they must have sold out now that they are reaching a wider audience. This song is probably considered electronica, but I just call it good. Not a lot else to say about the song, except I have started listening to their older stuff & I like some of it. Maybe they didn’t sell out after all.
Other Lives -Black Tables (mp3) – Other Lives used to be a band called Kunek & before this song I hadn’t heard of either. Seems the band just decided to change names, because they still have all the same members. This is another slower tempo song (maybe I’m getting old), held together with a great piano riff. The lead singer has a really smooth voice & a cello completes the mood. There’s lots of space in this song, letting all of the great parts of this song get noticed.
These are all great songs, but if I had to play favorites, try Ain’t no Rest for the Wicked &… nevermind, try them all!
Last fall I started playing indoor soccer at Timp Soccer in Lindon UT. I started coaching soccer about 5 years ago, even though I’d never played before. Nobody would coach my daughter’s team so I stupidly volunteered. I learned the rules on the fly & started having a lot of fun. In fact, it’s something I really look forward to every year.
I started playing soccer indoors because I thought I’d be a better coach if I played the game (weird, I know). I’ve learned a lot, like realizing it’s really hard to focus on technique under pressure (especially if someone’s yelling at me). I told my daughter she could come to my games & yell at me if she wanted to seek revenge, but she hasn’t done it yet (if she did I might start crying & that would be bad). Luckily, it’s been incredibly fun to play & great exercise too. I’ve landed on a team that puts up with my crappy skills & snappy comments. I seem to fall down trying to kick the ball at least once a game. Once my son came down to the bench and reminded me that I shouldn’t fall down when I kick the ball. Great advice I’ve tried to take to heart. I usually play sweeper (the last line of defense before goalie), because I do the least damage there & my incredibly poor skills are hidden from the other team.
So, as you can guess from the title, I scored a goal on Saturday (2/28/09). It’s the first goal I ever scored in a game (and I haven’t kicked very many in the net in practice either). It was actually a good shot too. I was pretty close & got a pass with a defender & goalie on my side. The goalie moved over to guard the other corner & I lifted a soft shot (left-footed) into the corner over the defender! My first goal with my off foot! So, I was pretty excited & decided to give the goal a proper soccer celebration. I ran to the middle of the field & did a cartwheel. Problem was, I had a pretty big shirt on, not tucked in, and it slid down to my arpits & got stuck. So I flashed the crowd my big white belly. How embarrassing!
Someone yelled ‘It’s the great white whale!’ & several others in the crowd started vomiting. I didn’t really care though, because I scored a goal. The guy who assisted the goal told me it was a journal moment & since I don’t have one, here it is.
So there it is, my first goal. The first of many…
I love the internet.
There are lots of things not to like, but for a music lover like me, the internet is incredibly cool. There’s so just so much music to listen to. And you can usually get a taste (or at least a song or two) for free. I love the business model the web created, letting artists release a song to gauge the public’s interest & then go forward with an album. The best part is everyone can find bands & songs that suit their personal tastes. The net enables extreme customization of our music, but there’s a lot more music to sift through if you want to find something you really like. I love it when I find a song (or a band) that make great music, knowing I would never found them without the web. I wanted to share some I found, because I can’t keep something this good to myself. You don’t have to read what I wrote about the songs, just download & listen to them. They’re that good…
The first band is 78 Saab. They’re Australian and have been together for a while. I keep coming back to their song ‘One of these Days’ (mp3). It’s got excellent harmonies & a hook that sticks in your head. I wanted to know more about them, but couldn’t find much, so I became a fan on Facebook. Here’s hoping they’ll send some free music my way.
Another great thing about the web is that you get exposed to types of songs you’d never seek out. Here’s a couple of examples:
First, ‘The Royal Family’ (mp3) by Free Blood. The website tells us they formed in 2003 & nothing else. I know they have two vocalists (one of each) & their music has lots of drums (good), keyboards (better) & horns (best!). This song is really catchy, with lots of sounds to keep you interested. I recognized bongos & castanets, but it’s obvious there was a lot more going on. I don’t care what’s making the noise, just that it sounds good.
The net gives us lot of bands with similar names & it can get confusing. I found at least three bands that use variations of BoyGirl as their band name. The version I like the best uses a forward slash (Boy/Girl). When I first found their website (pleasehate.us -how clever -it’s a dead link now) I knew I loved this band. Luckily, their music really good too. The band describes themselves as ‘a sleazy no-fi art rock band out of New York & New Jersey’. I’d say that’s a pretty good description, because I can’t think of anything better to say or any bands to compare them to. The music is rough, raw & raucous (enjoy the alliteration!). They make a lot of noise for a boy (guitar) & a girl (drums). I was playing their song ‘Heat’ (mp3) in the car when my 13 yr old said ‘What is that crap?’. I’m the one who’s supposed to say that to him! In retaliation, I forced him listen to another song ‘Sick; (mp3). The bummer about Boy/Girl is I’m sure they don’t exist anymore. What a waste of a great URL.
I could go on all day (and I do in my head), but I’ll stop at one more. I found an amazing song called ‘Cannonballs’ (mp3) by Elsinore. Their web page (www.elsinoremusic.com) is dead, but it appears they have a MySpace page. I think very little of MySpace, so I won’t link to it. Cannonballs is an amazing song. It starts out slow & soft with just an acoustic guitar. The lead singer has a clean, clear & beautiful voice with great phrasing. The song makes great use of space in the song, making sure not to overpower the melody with lots of superfluous noise. As the song goes on, organ, piano, bass & drums & even some Ooohs (you can never have enough of those) join in. It’s just a fantastic song. The only info I can find on the band suggests that they are going away from their ‘folky’ sound. Don’t do it. It’s a bad idea.
If you’ve got some great songs you’ve found (new or old), share!
We’ve all heard a comedian tell a story about their kid getting in trouble & hearing ‘Get in here & see what your child did!’ I always thought it was just a joke (and a a good one), but never happened in real life. Well it does happen in real life & this is how I know:
Friday afternoon (the 13th, coincidence? I think not.) I was enjoying my forced vacation, playing Madden on the Wii. My wife was watching her cousin’s daughter (18 months) & my three year old was playing in her room (warning – foreshadowing), or so we thought. My wife was following the baby down the hall & then I heard ‘Aryl, get in here & see what your child has done!’
I dropped the controllers (after pausing the game – priorities) & ran to see what was happening. What I found was an ‘artist’ hard at work on her masterpiece. Amber was using toothpaste as her medium & the mirror as her canvas. She created a beautiful abstract piece I christened ‘Holy crap! How did she get so much of the mirror covered so quickly?’ The family sized tube was completely empty & the mint smell was nearly overpowering. She was standing on the counter admiring her work when Angie grabbed her.
Angie immediately set to work cleaning her up, and I started on the bathroom while silently cursing her. I turned on the fan to make sure I didn’t pass out from the fumes & set to work on the toothpaste. It’s amazing how sticky & thick the toothpaste is. It’s obvious that a dab will do ya. She used a section of the counter as a palette, to make sure she got the right consistency & color. As I cleaned, started laughing. About half way through, I was wishing I’d take a picture of her & the painting for posterity.
All in all, it turned out alright. I asked Angie later why she yelled ‘Your child!’ & she said she knew I’d have done the same when I was little & karma was paying me back for it.
She’s right, (as always)…
After I finished Open to Interpretation – Kicking off the Covers v1 I immediately thought of several other covers I wanted to post. Here they are:
One of my very favorite covers that is completely different that the original is Petra Haden’s cover of the Journey song ‘Don’t Stop Believing’. I don’t mind admitting that I really liked this song when I was younger. It’s just a great song. Petra covers the song for a compilation called Guilt by Association.Basically, a bunch of indie artist covering songs they consider guilty pleasures. The song is an amazing a cappella cover. I can’t believe how closely she can mimic the keyboards & other instruments in her version. I usually cringe & think of barbershop quartets when I hear the word a cappella, but I just cant stop listening to this song. Hearing the song puts big smile on my face. Download & listen to it & you won’t be sorry – MP3.
How would you interpret the BeeGee’s song ‘Staying Alive’? Speed it up? Add lots of cowbell? If you are The Rosebuds, you slow it down, add a couple of really cool keyboard riffs, drum machines, and a soft vocal track. The original is excellent & this is a complete rework I may like a little better – MP3.
One of my favorite bands of all time is Spoon. They’re from Austin Texas & churn out great music on a regular basis. ‘I Summon You‘ from the album Gimme Fiction is one the best songs they’ve ever done. Its got a great acoustic rhythm track, cool lyrics & Britt Daniel’s voice. Oh yeah, I should probably get to the cover. It’s a live recording of the song at KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic studios by the Watson (fantastic name, unfortunately no relation) Twins. Twin girls (surprise, surprise), who sing gospel tinged songs. Their version of I Summon You is pretty faithful to the original, but the girl’s vocals are incredible – MP3.
The last cover for today is the Supergrass version of Beat It by Michael Jackson. I loved this song when it first came out. I’m not much of a Michael Jackson fan, but this song & its Eddie Van Halen guitar solo made me a fan (at least of this song). This version of the song was recorded in the BBC studios in London. Lots of bands record great cover songs in their studios, and this one is no exception. From the moment they start to count the song off, you know it’s not Michael Jackson’s Beat It. It’s a fast, loud & fantastic song & you can tell the band is having a blast playing it. Rock On! – MP3
So keep an open mind & let me know if you find any other covers you like…
This one may set off a firestorm, but I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit lately…
To start off, I greatly admire anyone who has decided to dedicate their lives to the armed services of our country, it’s an amazing undertaking, takes lots of courage and I’m grateful for their sacrifices.
My problem is, we always hear the commentators (especially the conservative ones) talking about these brave people ‘protecting our freedom’. My question is, if our troops weren’t in Afghanistan and Iraq, would lose our freedom? I hate that other countries now see us as a bully, not a protector or peacemaker. I hate the amount of money we are spending & the perceived lack of benefit we are seeing from our investment. That’s really what it is whether or not we to admit it. We are investing in the war(s) our future safety, or at least for our peace of mind.
Another thing that bothers me is the talk of casualties. I used to look at the number of Americans killed (about 4000 compared to 58000 in Vietnam) and was amazed at the incredibly low number of casualties in Iraq. It’s an opinion that gets discussed quite a bit (as a positive thing). The key discussion point missing is the amount of wounded & disabled soldiers that are ’saved’. Even with the advances in prosthetics, these men & women have a pretty poor quality of life regardless of whether they admit it or not. Luckily, most of these wounded soldiers are very strong & committed to overcoming obstacles related to their injuries. I’m just not sure in the end, both in the amount of human casualties (deaths & injuries) & the cost, whether it’s worth it. The current administration keeps telling us it is, but it seems like a lot of CYA (or CYB if you prefer).
We’ll have to see what happens over the next few years. I just feel sorry for all the soldiers being damaged (both mentally & physically).
Los Campasinos (the peasants in Spanish) are a seven peice bad from Cardiff, Wales. The have just released ‘We are Beautiful, We are Doomed‘ (WAB, WAD) a limited release. The package comes with the CD, extensive liner notes & a tour DVD shot by the band. I don’t have the CD, but I got the music online. It’s a great disc filled with quirky music, boy girl harmonies, interesting sounds & more. I really like Brit-pop & Los Campesinos! do it well. The band hasn’t been together very long (since 2005), but has released two CDs & a EP since 2007. Their music is fast paced with lots of shouted choruses. Check out ‘How I Taught Myself to Scream‘. It’s a great example of what I like about the band, but it’s not on any of their CDs.
Another great great song from their first CD is Don’t Tell me to do the Maths(s). The song starts out slowly with some pretty little plinking guitar & quickly revs up. I really like the frenetic verses & the slowed down chorus. It’s probably the only song I know of that calls out the dewey decimal system. If you listen closely, you can hear the violin too. Highly recommended!
The other free song I recommend is the title track from their first album ‘We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives‘. Just a cool song. My favorite lyric is – ‘Those red stains all over the place, they’re not blood they’re Cherryaid’.
Overall, great stuff. Check it out!
Go crazy? Don’t mind if I do! (leave a comment if you get the reference)…
Work has been really busy & incredibly stressful the last few weeks. We’ve been finishing up a high visibility project (CEO asking for updates kind of visibility). I was working 10-12 hr days, coming home & spending another couple of hours later finishing stuff up. I’m so glad I can listen to music at work! Being able to put on my phones & still get stuff done does wonders for me when I’m stressed. I ‘ve been digging Los Campesinos lately as a key stress reliever. They are a welsh pop band with crazy, frenetic songs. (I’ve been working on a review of their albums from 2008 for a couple of weeks – look for it, and sample songs soon).
Anyway, it’s amazing to me how easily listening to music de-stresses me. I have a 30 minute commute to work (that for the most part, I don’t enjoy), but one great thing about it is getting in the car, turnng up the tunes & driving home. By the time I’m done driving, work is a distant memory & I can focus on my other life. It’s not an exageration to say that my Clip is my most prized possession. I try never to go anywhere without it. I can’t think of much that isn’t easier to do listening to music. I even convinced myself I could do math homework listening to music. If I hadn’t, I’m pretty sure I never would have graduated from college (with a math minor no less).
Whenever I meet someone new, I ask them what kind of music they like. It’s an easy way for me to get to know someone,and it’s a rare occasion that we don’t have some common ground there (if you like Manheim Steamroller we’ll have to find something else in common besides music). It always suprises me when someone tells me they don’t really listen to music. It took me a while to believe that people didn’t have at least one favorite artist or song. I just can’t imagine not really caring about music either way. What do people like that do when they exercise, do chores or mow the lawn? I’m sure they do something – maybe take the time for quiet reflection. I’m going to try it, as soon as this song’s over…
