|
|
|
|
|
|
HOME | ABOUT | BIOS | EMAIL |
|
 |
| |
Monday, March 31, 2008
For today's experiment in aleatoric mp3 blogging, I'm going to be posting in REAL TIME. This means that everything I'm writing about will occur within the same time frame during which the writing occurs. Like, right now, I'm sitting at my desk, or rather kind of perched (I have a weird habit of perching in my chair when I write), it's raining outside, I just reached up a straightened a stack of CDs so that it's flush with the corner of the desk, I can hear a bird singing intermittently and rainwater washing through the gutters.
I'm writing in REAL TIME because to do otherwise would compromise the experiment, which pertains to my relationship with my iPod's shuffle function. You see, I've gotten into the habit of putting my iPod on shuffle while I drink my coffee in the morning. Only recently have I realized that in doing this, I've started to view my iPod shuffle as kind of magical, part lottery, part oracle. I count on it to offer me the song that I absolutely need to hear, and when it doesn't, this seems to bode ill. Right now, Hot Chip's "Ready for the Floor" is the song that I have to hear at least once per day (and usually, twice in a row), and while I could always dial it up myself, it's somehow more satisfying when my iPod chooses it from the - hold on, let me get it out - from the 8,965 songs it contains.
When I spin the wheel of fate and "Ready for the Floor" comes up, I feel like it's gonna be a good day. Likewise, sometimes my iPod shuffle will produce nothing I want to hear, which usually signals a bad day (this makes sense - when music isn't turning me on at all, it's likely that I'm having a bad day already). On particularly bad or good days, I find that my shuffle seems to be trying to tell me something - some warning or premonition - and this is when my iPod becomes something oracular, mp3s cast into a shallow pool like bird bones.
Today - in REAL TIME - we're going to put my iPod on shuffle, listen to the first five songs that come up, and think about what they might mean through an oracular lens. I'm pledging to you right now - no re-shuffles, no omissions. I hope this doesn't wind up embarrassing for me.
*crosses fingers* noKennyChesneynoKennyChesneynoKennyChesney...
Actually, hold up - I'm realizing that we're going to have to impose a few conditions for this to work. They are as follows:
1. Sometimes, shuffle gets lazy and places two songs from the same album in close proximity. Since Moistworks never posts two songs from the same album in one day, if this should occur, the second song from the same album will be skipped, and the one following it will take its place.
2. A great deal of music on my iPod is watermarked or otherwise copy-protected. If I share this music, the FCC will send ninjas to my house to shove jewel cases under my fingernails. Any watermarked songs that come up in the shuffle will be skipped.
3. After doing Moistworks for a couple years, I've posted an awful lot of songs, and there is a chance that something I've already posted will come up in the shuffle. As this experiment does not wish to compromise end-user satisfaction with the Moistworks brand, these songs, too, will be skipped.
4. I'm torn as to the question of whether to omit skits and short interludes. I was going to say yes, but these things are often important in the oracular sense, and so I think we'll allow them.
OK! That's all settled. Let's get down to the experiment. I'm pressing the shuffle button... now.
GET OUT THE STATE
Spoon
Soft Effects EP
Matador : 1997
[Buy It]
Hmmm...this is a sweet song, although bitchin' fuzz guitar isn't exactly what I'm after first thing in the morning. Listening to Spoon also makes me feel a distant twinge of anxiety now - I was lukewarm on their most recent album, which everyone else seemed to love, and while I think about half the songs on it are really good, I never came around on the other half, which I thought cheesy and overcooked. Whenever I fall drastically away from consensus like that, I wonder if my taste is malfunctioning or something. This wasn't a divisive album, it was roundly adored. Whatever, though - as an oracle, this is spot on, as getting out of the state is something that occupies my mind more and more often lately. "I've been waiting here for so long / And I'm on the curb with everyone." I have to be careful about listening to songs like this in the morning - nothing can pull me out of the moment, all day, like thinking about where I'm going instead of where I am.
RAINBOWARRIORS
Cocorosie
The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn
Touch and Go : 2007
[Buy It]
Aw, I love this song. The lyrics are ridiculous but supremely oracular; they actually sound like pronouncements from Delphi at times. Again, though, this is a dangerous morning-song for me on days when I have a lot of work to do. If I was doing my normal morning reading-and-shuffling thing instead of this post, I'd probably be reading my Carlos Castaneda book while I listened to this, a combination bound to abstract me to the point where writing about music would be impossible. Music like this can pull me out of the routine order of the day, which is a great place to be, but is not conducive to getting "stuff" done. Right now, hearing it, I'm getting that feeling of, "well, maybe I could just finish this post tomorrow, plug the guitar into the sampler and drone out for awhile right now." This transaction is what I call "losing the thread," and while it's probably more like finding one, it's not the thread I need to find to produce work and make money. Better move on quickly.
THE MORE YOU IGNORE ME THE CLOSER I GET
Morrissey
Greatest Hits
Decca : 2008
[Buy It]
I'll be honest - by this point, I'd normally be rapidly scanning through my shuffled queue, looking for some nice rap or techno. Or maybe I'd give up on shuffle entirely and put on some ambient music. This song might hold my attention for a couple minutes on a bright spring day, but today it's gray and chilly and wet. It hits my ears with a clunk - it's fine, but I've never particularly loved it, and it has no real traction in my life at this moment: happily partnered up, the situation Morrissey describes seems very remote to me. I feel a little betrayed by my iPod right now, a little let down - iPod, don't you know me at all? After all these years?
DON'T WANNA BE ALONE
Devin the Dude
Waitin' to Inhale
Rap-a-Lot : 2007
[Buy It]
Two things happen in rapid succession here - I get excited that it's a Devin the Dude song; I'm disappointed that it's this one. This soppy R&B jam plays fine in the context of the album, but doesn't do much on its own. It seems a logical follow-up to the Morrissey song, and, as such, I can't really identify with it right now. But wait a minute - is there a message here? A lesson? Should I be preparing to be alone? Is that what you're saying, iPod? Can't say I like where this is going. Let's see if things look up with number five.
FROM BLACK TO BLUE
Yo La Tengo
And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out
Matador : 2000
[Buy It]
Oh, goddamn it.Labels: brian, ipod
posted by Brian
LINK |
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
JESSICA
Adam Green
Friends of Mine
Rough Trade : 2003
[Buy it]
I WILL FOLLOW YOU INTO THE DARK
Video
Death Cab for Cutie
Plans
Atlantic : 2005
[Buy it]
CAROLINA IN MY MIND
Video
James Taylor
James Taylor
Apple : 1968
[Buy it]
LOLA
The Raincoats
The Raincoats
Rough Trade : 1979
[Buy it]
Way back when, I wrote about getting an iPod, a pink mini. Unlike then, I'm not embarrassed to tell you about this week's purchase, a shuffle. Have you seen this thing? It's basically the size of a breath strip. My three-year-old nephew thought it was a piece of chocolate; tried to unwrap it. Beyond the size, it's an odd thing, having to choose my 100 favorite songs. I was so cautious as I scrolled through my iTunes to fill it up, that by the time I got to the Zombies I still only had 48 songs on there. I left it that way and now have had the pleasure of walking around with only songs I really, really want to hear. These are a few of them.
The Adam Green track was brought to my attention by a French friend who had in on a Les Inrockuptibles compilation. We were sitting around one day and his nine-year-old daughter ran into the room, saying "Daddy, play that Jessica Simpson song!" I looked at my friend, aghast. How could he be corrupting his beautiful daughter with such garbage. Then he put on this song. His daughter knew every word, and giggled/sang all the way through.
Death Cab for Cutie: I originally heard them when they played on The OC and thought they were terrible (particularly in the context of SUCH a brilliant show). I promptly erased them from my consciousness, till recently when my brother mentioned this beautiful acoustic song of theirs. I found the song, found the video. (I just discovered YouTube. Hey, I never said I had my finger on the pulse.)
Oddly, part of the new obsession is with watching old James Taylor footage over and over again. This is the earliest I could find; it's from a BBC show in 1970, making him twenty-two years old. I've never seen JT looking so hot, so young, so nervous. The whistling, the insanely pretty girls in the audience. The sweater vest. At this point he'd fled New York for London in 1968 to try to quit drugs, failed (but managed to record his first record on Apple), returned the US, kicked in the hospital, and, by time of this footage was back in London and a massive success because of "Fire and Rain." The man worked fast.
And this Raincoats cover, well it's just ridiculous how good it is. I always wanted to love them, what with their gorgeous girly-late-seventies-British-ness, but this is the only song of theirs I've been able to get fully attached to. It's a bit all over the place, disorganized, unpredictable, but only in the messy, sexy way that the best girls can be. And the way Ana Da Silva nails the words "electric candlelight" makes Ray Davies sound like a folk singer.
Speaking of the word cover, let's talk about this. I had an argument with a friend about this recently: he took issue with me referring to Cat Power's version of "Sea of Love" as a cover. But it's on The Covers Record! I said. He insisted that it's a misnomer. We looked it up, and alas: A "cover" technically applies to the early usage of the word, which was in the early 20th century. When one record label would release a song and it would become popular, other labels would release the same song by a different artist in an attempt to capitalize on the song's success, either to "cover their bets" or even to cover the other LPs on the shelf in the store. The covers we know and love, as this one, should therefore more appropriately be referred to "versions" or "remakes." Hee ho hum.Labels: ipod, joanna
posted by Joanna
LINK |
Friday, February 24, 2006
ALWAYS ON MY MIND
Pet Shop Boys
Discography: The Complete Singles Collection
Capitol : 1991
[Buy It]
(TAKE ME HOME) COUNTRY ROADS
Toots and the Maytals
Reggae Greats
Mango : 1989
[Buy It]
ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST
Queen
The Game
Hollywood : 1980
[Buy It]
GOLD DUST WOMAN
Fleetwood Mac
Rumours
Warner : 1980
[Buy It]
BONUS TRACK
Cat Power
The Greatest
Matador : 2006
[Buy It]
I've been away again, from Moistworks, from New York, mostly just from MW. Quietly reading my fellow M-Workers as well as the Writers-Weekers. For part of my exile, I was in the northwest.
Seattle, which had I thought I hated, was actually quite fun this time, but I don't have much to say about it, aside from the fact I learned about a delicious new coffee drink called a breve (a latte but with half-and-half instead of milk), that people there get very, very angry with if you come close to hitting them with your rental car even if they're totally jaywalking, and that on the drive from Seattle down to Portland, I heard Fleetwood Mac ELEVEN TIMES. It's only about a three-hour drive. I'm the type who thinks the only worthwhile music played on the radio these days is classic rock, so I was in heaven. There were a couple of other nice moments, which I've posted here. (Remind me to tell you later about the time I saw the Pet Shop Boys in an East German airplane hangar: fists strking the air, shaved heads, the whole thing. Okay, that is in fact the whole thing, so nevermind the reminder.)
In Portland, the radio is terrible. Lots of Christian rock. And my iPod transmitter thing didn't work most of the time, perhaps due to the rain. So I had an idea. Cat Power! I didn't yet have the new record. Plus I was a bit bored, had spent about ten hours in Powell's, had finished with my work obligations, so going to record stores with a purpose seemed a fun errand. But no. The THREE stores I went to were all out of stock. "We can order it for you!" one shaggy cutie said with a wan smile. "I don't live here," I said. They're nice in Portland, so I added "But thanks!" But wow, how disappointing. I did buy the Big Star record from last year (who knew they put one out so recently? Well, Alex probably did, but he never mentioned it). The record store guy even took it out of the plastic for me, something that would never happen in New York. But things didn't go so well when I popped it, gleefully, into the stereo of my rental car. It is perhaps the worst album I have ever bought. Seriously, I would have thrown it out window, but I didn't want to litter in such a clean city. Then something amazing happened. The rain stopped, and the most incredible rainbow I've ever seen arched over Burnside. Strangers on the sidewalk nudged each other: Hey, look. I got completely caught up in the hippie vibe long enough to erase the bad-purchase feeling. They must see rainbows all the time, but still they're nudging and stopping. Not enough to do? Perhaps, but nice nonetheless.
And then there was Mary's later that night, to put another rainbow into my mood. A sort of punk-rock strip club, I think it might be famous; people in Williamsburg wear T-shirts from there. The girls have tattoos and body fat and some have small breasts, and those with fake ones looked like they had cheap/bad surgery, which is tragic but sexy in it's way. And they dance to music of their own choosing from the jukebox. At one point it got quiet. They weren't getting enough tips to play the songs. I brought a five-dollar bill to the stage, rested it at one of the girl's feet. She smiled down at me, "Thanks, sweetheart!"; I beamed. Ordered another glass of "shiraz." I'm solidly into wine these days no matter where I am, and you know what, it was delicious.Labels: ipod, joanna
posted by Joanna
LINK |
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
HARD TO SAY I'M SORRY
Chicago
Chicago 16
Warner Brothers : 1982
[Buy It]
STUCK INSIDE OF MOBILE WITH THE MEMPHIS BLUES AGAIN
Bob Dylan
Blonde on Blonde
Columbia : 1966
[Buy It]
HOW CAN I LOVE YOU (IF YOU WON'T LIE DOWN)
Silver Jews
Tanglewood Numbers
Drag City : 2005
[Buy It]
Oh music, music, music. It's hard to keep you in my life. The iPod, which I introduced to the world via Moistworks, has gone untouched for several weeks. I'm sorry, little pink one. I live with a vinyl junkie, and I'm sitting here in my apartment surrounded by it all, in addition to my own CD/tape/vinyl collection (from a time when I did have a genuine and strident interest) and all there is is a car going by on Humboldt Street blasting this Chicago song ("After all that we've been through!"). And the memory of being in a cafe in my neighborhood on Sunday morning, watching a pretty girl sing along to this Bob Dylan song. She couldn't have been more than 25, and I marveled at her knowledge of every single word. Bob. I think he's been a little too "around" lately, with the paperback release of Chronicles and some other scrapbook-style book, and the PBS documentary.
"Are you a poet?" a reporter asks a young Bob, looking gorgeous and young as I wish I could've kept him in my mind (had he dutifully died at 27 like all the rest).
"I'm just a song and dance man," he said.
And, with that, my mind goes to David Berman, whose new Silver Jews record came out yesterday. A poet and a musician certainly. I'm not sure about the dancing part.Labels: folk, indie, ipod, joanna
posted by Joanna
LINK |
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
OUTDOOR MINER
Wire
Chairs Missing
Harvest : 1978
[Buy It]
THEY DON'T KNOW ABOUT US
Tracey Ullman
You Broke My Heart in 17 Places
Repertoire : 1983
[Buy It]
HOLOCAUST
Big Star
Third/Sister Lovers
PVC : 1978
[Buy It]
I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU
Dolly Parton
Jolene
RCA : 1974
[Buy It]
I have been jumping up and down for months about the epidemic of New Yorkers shutting out of the sounds of the city, people not moving out of your way because they can't hear "excuse me," the ubiquitous white cord. This perfectly fit in with the other thing I like to jump up and down about: the uselessness of the generation behind me, the twentysomethings (except Brian Howe) who seem to not really be working or doing much of anything but shopping and fiddling with electronic items. I have worked since I was nine. Paper routes! Babysitting! Walgreen's! Never mind the fact that in MY twenties my friends and I began our path toward total world domination. What have these people been doing?
I had a Walkman. Walkwoman. I rode the bus with Wire and New Order. Later I skied to Mountain Song. I'm a great skier. The only sport I'm actually good at, aside from swimming, which always seemed less a sport and more something you do in order to enjoy the water and not die. Fucking hell, I took that far. I was a lifeguard. Never for oceans, I wasn't strong enough, but for pools and lakes. I saved small children by reaching out a hand. Adults by saying "stand up (the water is three feet deep)."
I love computers, I love Macs. And when they came out I was fully supportive of the endeavor. I even sort of wanted one. I just didn't have the money. And as it evolved I even went through the entire thought process about the amount of memory on the regular one versus the Mini and how stupid Mac was that the Minis were the cute ones in colors and for a feminine but tech-oriented person like me it was all just a huge conflict that left me feeling broke and tired. Color against space. This time around, I wanted a Shuffle. It's tiny, I'll wear it at the gym. But then it has no screen and hardly holds any songs and if you're going to spend $100 you might as well spend $200. Really? I think that's still twice as much.
But then the real rationalizations began. I'm feeling sad. Music makes me happy. Getting rid of my anti-iPod feelings will alleviate some of my day-to-day stress. I live in Williamsburg. It's a lot of work getting mad at the kids all day. I can use it in the car. I can use it for work to record interviews. Though I publish fiction and poetry and have never done an interview in my life. But the musician interviews I start doing for moistworks will take me places I've never dreamed of and of course pay back the $259 in minutes. I am on my way to becoming a new person, and there is only ONE WAY for the new Joanna to even begin to emerge.
YES! Please, yes, yes. A pink one.
I tried it this morning on my way to work, listening to Dolly Parton and Big Star. I was getting into it a little, making sure not to sing aloud. A woman across from me had hers on. She was about five years older than me, a little frumpy, but nice looking. She smiled. Women smile at me all the time. I smile back. It's something we do. Either about an outfit or shoes or good hair or just, "you look like a nice person." This woman may have been doing any of those things, yet all I could think was, she's smiling out of iCamaraderie, something I am in no way ready to participate in. I gently removed the buds and pulled out a magazine, making sure to make another eye-smile at her. There was no need for hostility.
-by Joanna YasLabels: country, indie, ipod, joanna, pop
posted by Alex
LINK |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
