I don't usually write. I don't usually write about music. I don't like writing about music. I feel like it's way too subjective, guaranteed to be grounded in way too many personal and historical variables. But this is something I've wanted to write about for a long time, so.
The convenor of Bran Van 3000, James Di Salvio, attended my high school years and years and years before I did. He came back when I was in grade 8, screened a clip of a documentary about the band that I'm not sure was ever completed, and basically told us that we should try to follow our dreams.
A few years later and thanks to the then-countercorporate Napster, (and since then, HMV) I got my hands on their albums. A few songs in particular completely transfixed me. This is one of them - a mainstay on my playlists for about ten years now.
The bits that open the song- the guitar and the answering machine- grab my attention. The guitar feels meandering and inquisitive, and with "end of message" creates a sense of "...so what now?" When Sara Johnston (or Jayne Hill?) sings the first line, "Take me with you" I'm already along for the ride - I want to know what the song will be about, and "my soul is on" lets me know I won't be alone for it. I feel like someone is coming with me for some reason.
Then hands clap over guitar licks, synth and the drums kick in, and for a vocoder tells me to get back on my heart attack, and it doesn't make sense but it feels like it does. The first verses paint pictures - the motorbike, karaoke nights by the sea, the bomber jacket, hyperspace, leather-laced. The chorus takes me into the narrative completely - the water's crashing, the road is turning, and then the drum accents as they coo at me to hang on, to hold on, to take them with me.
Another few drum accents, and it dials back to being asked - can I stay with you - make it easy, for me? a harmonica fades in and out. It evokes movement, but the kind of movement where you're going from place to place but still not finding what you're looking for, or even knowing what exactly it is: you are the most selfish kind - nevermind what they need.
Sara and Jayne are now singing over each other, and sometimes the syllables overlap correctly and you can pick out a word or two, but the tones still evoke. The water's still crashing, the road keeps turning, on and on and on, and then the drum accents and guitar lines take me with them - hold on, they sing, and I will, even as the feedback starts squawking before it all bottoms out and James Di Salvio starts to rap a litany of Bruce Springsteen references over harmonica, alluding to a life he's only heard about in The Boss' songs, the spirit in the night, blinded by the light. A stock crowd cheers as drums punctuate, the pre-chorus fading back in to back him - take me with you, my soul is on, and it's a song about a shared life of escapist freedom.
The next verse -
to be exact, she was her own rock and roll video, Rolls Royce, low riding, speed climbing,
driving by the sea,
Making mad love on other people's private property
While being on the run from the local law for unpaid parking tickets
- is delivered breathlessly, as if he's trying to keep up with his manic pixie Jersey girl- and of course it's parking tickets, you can't have her be on the run for something serious.
And then it's back to Sara and Jayne, asking if they can "stay with you, make it easy for me" and I don't know if they're singing as the girl herself or the guy asking if he can keep up with her, and Di Salvio's back, asking what kind of person you are - are you born to run? as a motorcycle speeds by stereophonic, increasingly disconnected questions as the bike gets faster and louder, and Liquid asks us how we feel out here as fireworks explode and sirens get closer and closer, the drums quicker and quicker, and now there's an accordion, he can't hold back -- and it builds and builds until a crash and the bubbles of something sinking take us to the end of the song.
It spoke to me.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Songs I am Listening to These Days
My music collection recently received a huge influx of tunes. Given that I normally add music slowly and haphazardly to my collection, this surplus of music is sort of weirding me out. As a result, I'm doing what I normally do - that is, ignoring most of it in order to listen to a small selection of songs over and over.
"Heads Will Roll (A-Trak Remix)" - The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Rather than actually attempt to write a real post at 12:30 am, I'm going to share some of the songs that have managed to grab and hold my attention over the past week or so.
I'm not sure how much there is to be said about this one. It's catchy, and has a beat that makes me want to dance. That's really all I need.
"No Children" - The Mountain Goats
For all that this song is unrepentantly bitter, shouting gleefully along to it is oddly satisfying. John Darnielle, the main force behind the Mountain Goats, writes lyrics that regularly make me catch my breath, and this particular song is a masterpiece. The album version, from "Tallahassee", feels strangely comforting, between the lilting piano and the remarkably restrained vocals. Listen to the live version, above, for the full-on rage experience.
"U Should Know Better" - Robyn
It's hard not to love a song that includes the lyrics "You know when in Rome / I sat down with the Romans / Said "We need a black pope and she better be a woman" / There'll be no more celibacy / Even the Vatican knows not to fuck with me". Moreover, this song makes Snoop Dogg tolerable - no small feat, given how entrenched he was in my bad books after "California Gurls". Finally, dancing around the apartment singing "Even _______ knows not to fuck with me!" with a badass swagger is practically the definition of good times.
"Camp Out" - An Horse
My dear friend K. dragged me to see An Horse play when we were both home for the summer. They were phenomenal. "Camp Out" in particular is a great mix of up-tempo instrumentals with the kind of contemplative lyrics I've been driven to find, lately. That probably explains my Mountain Goats obsession too, come to think of it. And Mumford & Sons, who I'd be remiss not to include.
"White Blank Page" - Mumford and Sons
Not actually my favorite Mumford and Sons song, but I adore the Bookshop Sessions they did, and - as much as I love them both - neither "The Cave" nor "Roll Away My Stone" have really been drawing me in lately. I've been obsessed with Mumford and Sons since I first heard "The Cave" nearly a year ago, and when I can't quite figure out what I want to listen to, more often than not they're my go-to band. The vocals on this nearly break my heart every time I hear it; lead singer Marcus Mumford manages to pack so much raw emotion into every word that it's almost hard to listen.
Well, there's five to tide you over. Next time I promise I'll bring something more substantive.
The Big Crunch
I have a love-hate relationship with The Big Bang Theory.
On love, I feel like someone out there gets me. Many of the conversations on the show echo conversations I've had with friends - I quoted Picard one weekend, and the next week's episode used the same quote. I felt the same twinges of familiarity when the characters discussed whether or not they would be willing to use a Transporter. I can't cite other specific examples right now, but there are many of them and they cover many more areas of geeking than Star Trek. I like how the show depicts people eating so much - it makes them seem more relatable and acts as a story reason for the characters to all be in the same place.
But I have a lot of hate. I think it might be the most representative tragedy of our time.
I feel like it's a show about getting worn down.
I feel like it's a show that will do damage to the long-term image of scientists.
I feel like the show is fundamentally about how great it is to disengage from broader society when you have the company of other outcasts, even as it recognizes the good they could do for society as a whole. While it's a free choice, it's one that hurts a lot of people in a lot of little, insidious ways. It's a mode of belief I've been fighting, and I think I'm better and a better person for doing so.
I feel like the show tells the people who inspire it - the nerds, geeks, outcasts - that they have two possible lives: perpetual frustration at the world, like how Leonard was, even when he was with Penny, or like how the guy who owns the comic store hates his life, as he works 70 hours a week for $1.65 an hour doing something he ostensibly loves, and ultimately, that staying in that comfortable place full of resentment and entitlement to something better by virtue of your intellect is OK... or that you can try to move beyond it, but the only alternatives we see are a classist presentation of the service industry like Bernadette and Penny and the unhappy comic store guy.
But by far the most troublesome thing about the show is Penny's narrative arc. In early seasons, Penny's shock and anger at what the boys do is played as being unreasonable - that she should accomodate their ignorance of basic social norms, that *she* is in the wrong for being angry at their late-night rearranging of her appartment as she sleeps. This is victim blaming.
But now, as the show gets into later seasons, it gets worse. It's difficult to read Penny's slow-burn reignition of her relationship with Leonard, and more broadly, her growing accomodation of the rest of the cast, as anything but Penny settling - and validation for Leonard's every-episode creeping presence and mean-spirited, dismissive snarking. Leonard is a 'nice guy' and he'll probably win. Being a 'nice guy' is not a good thing. This show seems like it's saying it is.
and of course, that the show spends a lot of time laughing at someone with pronounced traits correlating to Aspergers and OCD.
On love, I feel like someone out there gets me. Many of the conversations on the show echo conversations I've had with friends - I quoted Picard one weekend, and the next week's episode used the same quote. I felt the same twinges of familiarity when the characters discussed whether or not they would be willing to use a Transporter. I can't cite other specific examples right now, but there are many of them and they cover many more areas of geeking than Star Trek. I like how the show depicts people eating so much - it makes them seem more relatable and acts as a story reason for the characters to all be in the same place.
But I have a lot of hate. I think it might be the most representative tragedy of our time.
I feel like it's a show about getting worn down.
I feel like it's a show that will do damage to the long-term image of scientists.
I feel like the show is fundamentally about how great it is to disengage from broader society when you have the company of other outcasts, even as it recognizes the good they could do for society as a whole. While it's a free choice, it's one that hurts a lot of people in a lot of little, insidious ways. It's a mode of belief I've been fighting, and I think I'm better and a better person for doing so.
I feel like the show tells the people who inspire it - the nerds, geeks, outcasts - that they have two possible lives: perpetual frustration at the world, like how Leonard was, even when he was with Penny, or like how the guy who owns the comic store hates his life, as he works 70 hours a week for $1.65 an hour doing something he ostensibly loves, and ultimately, that staying in that comfortable place full of resentment and entitlement to something better by virtue of your intellect is OK... or that you can try to move beyond it, but the only alternatives we see are a classist presentation of the service industry like Bernadette and Penny and the unhappy comic store guy.
But by far the most troublesome thing about the show is Penny's narrative arc. In early seasons, Penny's shock and anger at what the boys do is played as being unreasonable - that she should accomodate their ignorance of basic social norms, that *she* is in the wrong for being angry at their late-night rearranging of her appartment as she sleeps. This is victim blaming.
But now, as the show gets into later seasons, it gets worse. It's difficult to read Penny's slow-burn reignition of her relationship with Leonard, and more broadly, her growing accomodation of the rest of the cast, as anything but Penny settling - and validation for Leonard's every-episode creeping presence and mean-spirited, dismissive snarking. Leonard is a 'nice guy' and he'll probably win. Being a 'nice guy' is not a good thing. This show seems like it's saying it is.
and of course, that the show spends a lot of time laughing at someone with pronounced traits correlating to Aspergers and OCD.
The writing model
I think that this will work best as "things that come to mind, but require far more than 144 characters." Devon and I both have a tendency to overthink and overcomplicate, so I'm going to try something like 'two writing sessions and conversations per post'.
Title of the post
This blog used to be called 'Pigeon-Hole'.
Versus Gravity was the 2000-released second album by the Montreal indie-pop-folk quartet Pigeon-Hole, following their debut Natural Descent and preceding their 2002 release And The One They Call Lightning.
The original idea for this blog was to archive their lyrics and songs: the band appears to have dissolved and their music being lost to popular consciousness would make me sad. I thought better of it; I would want their permission to do so.
Instead this is a place where Devon and I will post things. We hope our collaborations will be interesting.
This blog is now called infrequent fliers for four reasons. First, that I still really like the sound of "versus gravity". Second, that we expect to be infrequent posters, third, that we are infrequent clients of airlines, and fourth, that we infrequently affix flyers to things.
Versus Gravity was the 2000-released second album by the Montreal indie-pop-folk quartet Pigeon-Hole, following their debut Natural Descent and preceding their 2002 release And The One They Call Lightning.
The original idea for this blog was to archive their lyrics and songs: the band appears to have dissolved and their music being lost to popular consciousness would make me sad. I thought better of it; I would want their permission to do so.
Instead this is a place where Devon and I will post things. We hope our collaborations will be interesting.
This blog is now called infrequent fliers for four reasons. First, that I still really like the sound of "versus gravity". Second, that we expect to be infrequent posters, third, that we are infrequent clients of airlines, and fourth, that we infrequently affix flyers to things.
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