laurenisms

Well, that didn’t last long. Now that much of my time has been freed up, I might try to catch up with the Month of Undiscovered Music, or I might scrap it and start over again in December.

I wonder why last year’s worked better? I guess the music actually takes longer than the photos.

How did I get so many days behind? Oh right — I had to process 150 chickens last weekend.

“Blindsided,” by Bon Iver, from For Emma, Forever Ago, 2007.

I begged this album off Katie after I became obsessed with the Fleet Foxes and started hearing a lot of people comparing the two. I don’t like Bon Iver as much, though, and I think it’s because the vocals appear to be one person on multiple tracks. I don’t know if Fleet Foxes is one person or multiple people, but it doesn’t sound as much like multiple tracks … I tend to like the technology to be invisible.

But, the song is pleasant all the same; I’ll keep it.

Current play count: 4.

“No One Knows My Name,” by Gillian Welch, from Soul Journey, 2003.

One thing I am finding interesting about this is discovering the albums I don’t listen to, by artists I do listen to. Like this Gillian Welch song. I listen to Time (The Revelator) all the time, and Hell Among the Yearlings sometimes, but although I have Soul Journey and Revival, I have listened to them rarely if ever.

Anyway this song is enjoyable, as hers always are, though a bit sad — also as they often are. I just learned from Wikipedia that she was adopted as an infant; I wonder if this has anything to do with the subject matter of many of her songs? Or else it’s just that that’s what you sing about when you’re singing this type of music.

Verdict: Keep it, obviously.

Current play count: 8.

“Viðrar vel til loftárása,” Sigur Rós, from Ágætis Byrjun, 1999.

Facts! This song is ten minutes long (probably why I never listened to it). Also, the singer is a dude. Apparently the thing that is not a pedal steel is a guitar played with a cello bow, which is cool. And “The band named the song after a quote sarcastically spoken by an Icelandic weatherman during the war in Kosovo: ‘í dag viðrar vel til loftárása’ (meaning ‘today is good weather for an airstrike’).[1]” And — there is an eth (aka voiced dental fricative, aka ð)! I like eths.

The video is somehow shorter than the album track though still 7 minutes long, and apparently was very controversial. I can’t tell if that’s anything to do with the lyrics though, because I do not speak Icelandic, unfortunately. Maybe I’ll learn.

Anyway I like this song. It’s got cool weirdness and difficult-to-identify instruments (the aforementioned guitar with cello bow) and then at the end some “Day In The Life”-esque dissonance. It’s added to the (thankfully) ever-growing list of non-Boards of Canada things I can listen to next time I read Infinite Jest, as well as probably to my “I’m working, leave me alone” headphones playlist.

Verdict: I’ll keep it, for sure. I just wish I knew what he was saying.

Current play count: 5.
Current Smart Playlist length: 2543. Why does it jump around? I don’t understand.

“Affection,” by Zap Mama, from Supermoon, 2007.

Zap Mama is a Belgian group that I saw at my very first concert ever, actually a two-day music festival, in Belgium in 1997. It was overwhelming and crazy and muddy, and I don’t remember much of it (though not for any fun reason). I remember that Zap Mama played, though, and then when they came up in conversation for some reason recently, I got this album on Amazon, just to see.

I don’t know if it’s just this song or not, but I don’t think this is really my style. It might be because it came with the genre “reggae,” historically not my thing, but I’m not really convinced about this song. Maybe it’s the twinkly bits in the music, or the “what are you talking about” portion of the lyrics … I feel like I should like it better, but I don’t, quite.

Verdict: I’ll try other songs on the album, but I think I’ll continue to skip this one when it comes up.

Current play count: 4
Current Smart Playlist length: 2573.

(Yesterday’s song — we had no power last night so there was no listening and no blogging either.)

“Cherry” by Ratatat, from Ratatat, 2004.

This is instrumental! I don’t know what to say about it! There are no lyrics to talk about!

I got this from eMusic on the recommendation of a coworker, and then I proceeded not to listen to it, but that was a mistake. I wish I had known; I wouldn’t have had to listen to Boards of Canada as my default/only music for reading Infinite Jest on the bus.

Verdict: Definitely keeps.

“The Letter,” by Eva Cassidy, from Time After Time, released 2000.

Eva Cassidy’s story is somewhat interesting and sad. She mostly did live performances, I think, in the DC area, and was super shy about it. After her death of melanoma in 1996, her few albums didn’t get much recognition until 2000, when someone one some public radio show played a song of hers and all of a sudden everything exploded with airplay and media coverage everywhere and new recordings being released. My mom heard her on NPR when that was happening and became instantly obsessed. I guess I have had the album(s) since then.

This song is a cover originally (I think) recorded by the Box Tops; watch to their version here. I like the original, but most of the aspects I like — like the guitar part, especially the tiny little riff right at the beginning, and the faster tempo — aren’t in this cover, which has also got that guitar style that rubs me the wrong way somehow (just too 1990s, maybe). On the other hand, her voice is clearly amazing.

I think I might like the cover better if I didn’t know the original. I don’t dislike this cover, but it’s just not really my style.

Verdict: I’ll keep it around, as it is definitely more than listenable, and I have family members with whom I share very little by way of musical taste, so when I find something we overlap on, I tend to hang on to it.

Current play count: 4.
Current Smart Playlist length: 2583. How? Did I get a new album or something?? Unclear.

“Love Shack,” by The Knitters, from Poor Little Critter On The Road, 1985.

Listen on this page (need to allow popups and Flash).

Poor Little Critter On The Road was one of the first albums of the genre that is now alt-country. Interestingly — to me at least — the members are also most of the punk band X; I am told it opened a lot of punk rockers’ minds to the idea and aesthetic of country and country-esque music.

So I can’t explain why I never listened to the album. It seems just a tad too rockabilly for me, maybe, but on the other hand, their name! (Also the singer, Exene Cervenko, used to be married to Viggo Mortensen!) I do know why I never listened to this song, and that is because I thought it was a cover of the B-52s’ “Love Shack” — you know the one. I cannot stand that song. When this popped up this morning I was filled with dread and visions of having to abandon the project on the third day. I figured a country version of the B-52s song would just be worse than the original. BUT! It is NOT a cover of the B-52s’ song! It’s got nothing in common but the title! Hooray!

General notes: Awesome.

Verdict: Awesome.

Current play count: 5*.
Current Smart Playlist length: 2956.

* But, I still get the B-52s song stuck in my head just at the thought of the words “love” and “shack,” so I expect this number will increase as I have to listen to this enough times for it to replace the awful song.