Saturday, December 23, 2006
merry christmas, i'm sorry
Though that sounds like a title for a Morrissey song, that's basically what I have to say. It's Christmas eve and this is my last post for the year, and I'm sorry I didn't even get to finish my Best Songs of 2006 list. But that will be the first thing I'll do in the new year. I'll be back on January 4th and add 6 to 11 more. Please send me an e-mail at alternativesounds{at}gmail{dot}com if you would like to receive updates of this blog. In the meantime enjoy this song that I posted a few weeks back to spruce up my profile in a travel forum. It's called Yumeji's Theme by Shigeru Umebayashi, used in the Hong Kong film In The Mood For Love.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
new in my top 25
Most played songs in my iPod, that is.
mid-november : johnathan rice
click here or on the image below to listen
A fitting post given that we just crossed that part of the month. There seems to be so much Johnathan Rice is trying to say in this song, but I can't get through the lyrics. What's the story behind it? While it speaks of war, I couldn't make out if it's literal. The mention of death and coins on the eyes – a reference to the ancient practice of placing copper coins on the eyes of soldiers who died at war, according to the movie Troy – made me think it is. I have an outrageous theory. The narrator is the spirit of a soldier at war, wounded and fighting for his life. He visits his loved one, finds her in bed restless, and wonders if she somehow knows of his condition. This is probably nowhere near what Rice had in mind, but nonetheless I find Mid-November gravely sentimental, especially with that voice that seems to have just been squeezed out of clinical depression. Feel free to share your ideas.
please don't send me away : matthew jay
click here or on the image below to listen
Here's another song that breathes with trouble and secrecy. Following the lyrics, one might immediately look at it as paternal discourse. But Matthew Jay was not even 24 when he wrote the song – that was his age when he died from falling from the seventh floor of a building – so it might be that it was his conscience, personified by his father, speaking to him. Torment, after all, comes in many voices. I'm not familiar with Jay's life story, but it looks like suicide was never ruled out as a cause of his fall, and I think his family even volunteered the information that he left no note. It's probably just me, but the words, especially the last three lines of the song, read like a self-addressed farewell note of someone who expected way too much responsibility from himself and failed to meet his own expectations in spite of second chances. Ah, but I think I'm being too morbid.
way of the sun : archer prewitt
click here or on the image below to listen
I don't normally like the sound of everyday objects or even nature being used in a song, and the chime or music box effect at the intro of Way Of The Sun is no exception. But the rest of this clever and striking post-apocalyptic song makes it a worthwhile listen. Think of a massive disaster, natural or man-made, that cost lives and property and imagine people huddled on rooftops waiting for evacuation. That's the image I get from the third and fourth verses of this song, and as if the lyrics weren't sufficient enough to hint at salvation, comes the invocation of "Ave Maria" which falls just a bit short of sounding somber. I thought it was an unnecessary turn, but here I am talking about it, which means it did its job of calling attention to itself. But what follows after that – a series of claps – is a charming melodic transition to the gradual, restrained ending of the song.
Anyway. I'll try to post newer songs next. I'm off to get Teitur's latest album. I can't wait.
mid-november : johnathan rice
click here or on the image below to listen
A fitting post given that we just crossed that part of the month. There seems to be so much Johnathan Rice is trying to say in this song, but I can't get through the lyrics. What's the story behind it? While it speaks of war, I couldn't make out if it's literal. The mention of death and coins on the eyes – a reference to the ancient practice of placing copper coins on the eyes of soldiers who died at war, according to the movie Troy – made me think it is. I have an outrageous theory. The narrator is the spirit of a soldier at war, wounded and fighting for his life. He visits his loved one, finds her in bed restless, and wonders if she somehow knows of his condition. This is probably nowhere near what Rice had in mind, but nonetheless I find Mid-November gravely sentimental, especially with that voice that seems to have just been squeezed out of clinical depression. Feel free to share your ideas.
please don't send me away : matthew jay
click here or on the image below to listen
Here's another song that breathes with trouble and secrecy. Following the lyrics, one might immediately look at it as paternal discourse. But Matthew Jay was not even 24 when he wrote the song – that was his age when he died from falling from the seventh floor of a building – so it might be that it was his conscience, personified by his father, speaking to him. Torment, after all, comes in many voices. I'm not familiar with Jay's life story, but it looks like suicide was never ruled out as a cause of his fall, and I think his family even volunteered the information that he left no note. It's probably just me, but the words, especially the last three lines of the song, read like a self-addressed farewell note of someone who expected way too much responsibility from himself and failed to meet his own expectations in spite of second chances. Ah, but I think I'm being too morbid.
way of the sun : archer prewitt
click here or on the image below to listen
I don't normally like the sound of everyday objects or even nature being used in a song, and the chime or music box effect at the intro of Way Of The Sun is no exception. But the rest of this clever and striking post-apocalyptic song makes it a worthwhile listen. Think of a massive disaster, natural or man-made, that cost lives and property and imagine people huddled on rooftops waiting for evacuation. That's the image I get from the third and fourth verses of this song, and as if the lyrics weren't sufficient enough to hint at salvation, comes the invocation of "Ave Maria" which falls just a bit short of sounding somber. I thought it was an unnecessary turn, but here I am talking about it, which means it did its job of calling attention to itself. But what follows after that – a series of claps – is a charming melodic transition to the gradual, restrained ending of the song.
Anyway. I'll try to post newer songs next. I'm off to get Teitur's latest album. I can't wait.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
grumpy old men
end the vietnam war : allen ginsberg
anarchy : utah phillips
click on either title to listen
Off to Singapore for a business trip; I will be back this weekend. Here are a couple of old anti-war records, which are as much as I can say about the war in Iraq now. The Democrat victory pleases me; I would love to see a reduction of troops there together with a more decisive exit strategy as far as the government of the country is concerned – one that takes into careful consideration the differences of the domestic political forces there, and that will preserve lives and prevent Iraq from spiralling further down into the hell hole the Bush administration has dug for it. I am now especially eager to find out what happens about Iran more than anything else. As far as I know, an attack on the Islamic Republic was almost a done deal before the mid-term election. I count on the Democrat-led Congress to change that. Iran, and more importantly the Iranian people, do not deserve any form of military hostility, regardless of the government's new claim that its nuclear program will be completed by March. To be sure, Iran does seem to want to annihilate Israel – I've seen the propaganda posters all over Tehran myself having been to Iran last July – but my feeling is this intent is just that, a propaganda being perpetrated by the mullahs for whatever purpose they are trying to achieve. To preempt this empty threat by attacking it on the back of the failure in Iraq is neither morally nor politically astute.
anarchy : utah phillips
click on either title to listen
Off to Singapore for a business trip; I will be back this weekend. Here are a couple of old anti-war records, which are as much as I can say about the war in Iraq now. The Democrat victory pleases me; I would love to see a reduction of troops there together with a more decisive exit strategy as far as the government of the country is concerned – one that takes into careful consideration the differences of the domestic political forces there, and that will preserve lives and prevent Iraq from spiralling further down into the hell hole the Bush administration has dug for it. I am now especially eager to find out what happens about Iran more than anything else. As far as I know, an attack on the Islamic Republic was almost a done deal before the mid-term election. I count on the Democrat-led Congress to change that. Iran, and more importantly the Iranian people, do not deserve any form of military hostility, regardless of the government's new claim that its nuclear program will be completed by March. To be sure, Iran does seem to want to annihilate Israel – I've seen the propaganda posters all over Tehran myself having been to Iran last July – but my feeling is this intent is just that, a propaganda being perpetrated by the mullahs for whatever purpose they are trying to achieve. To preempt this empty threat by attacking it on the back of the failure in Iraq is neither morally nor politically astute.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
introducing alternative tales
Alright, as some of you know, I write for a living, and that what I do is nowhere near what I want to be writing about. I used to write a lot fiction and poetry, but I've stopped. I plan to change that, and just to make it more fun to do, since music is my foremost interest, I decided to combine both music and fiction.
Introducing alternative tales : stories from my ipod. Essentially, this is my self-imposed mental exercise, and it will only work with your help.
Here's what you do: Give me a song, pick a line from that song, and then give me a name, place, or object.
And here's what I do: I'll write a flash fiction* about or inspired by that song, throwing in that line and name, place, or object you picked.
Anything but rap, metal, country and bubblegum pop.
*It's basically a very, very short story of 250 to 1,000 words. I have one online: Here. (No, that's not my real name.)
I'll post the story – and the songs so you can listen to them as usual – at alternative tales.
To start, I give you a story called Rudie Can't Fail -- from the song by the same title by The Clash. A member of a forum I often visit suggested it, and he chose the line "How you get a rude and a reckless, don't you be so crude and a feckless, you been drinking brew for breakfast, Rudie can't fail." His person is Mother Teresa.
And so it is. Let me know what you think, please, and don't forget to make your own suggestions.
Saturday, November 4, 2006
holiday pics anyone?
I'm just taking care of some backlog project here. Apart from a couple of songs, below are links to picture galleries from my last two summer holidays. The first one is from the Cyclades Islands in Greece where the significant other and I spent about a couple of weeks just this July; the second is from Oaxaca, part of my three-week Mexico trip in July last year. Oaxaca isn't actually in good shape right now, and I sure hope they sort things out pronto.
Listen to the songs I'm posting while you, it is my hope, enjoy the pictures. The songs and the pictures don't exactly go together, but these are bands I've been listening to lately, as I just bought their Best Of compilations that they released a few months ago. The Tragically Hip and Gomez are underrated bands I like. TTH live up to the tragic in their name. These talented Canadians, who pre-date the recent wave of bands north of the border such as The Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade and even The New Pornographers, should be bigger than they are. In fact, they've been around since 1983. Gomez, likewise, came before the Brit wave that we are still seeing. And even though they have a Mercury Prize to prove their worth, admittedly, I think they were not as exciting as the fresher lot. They're finding new popularity, however, after Grey's Anatomy used one of their new songs, a boost they could certainly use.
So. Click on the titles to listen to the songs, which will pop up in a new window as usual, then click on the pictures to go to the galleries. They will open in this same page, but there's a link back if you want to return to this here blog.
scared : the tragically hip
click on the title to listen
click on the picture to see greece
diskoloadout : gomez
click on the title to listen
click on the picture to see oaxaca
Listen to the songs I'm posting while you, it is my hope, enjoy the pictures. The songs and the pictures don't exactly go together, but these are bands I've been listening to lately, as I just bought their Best Of compilations that they released a few months ago. The Tragically Hip and Gomez are underrated bands I like. TTH live up to the tragic in their name. These talented Canadians, who pre-date the recent wave of bands north of the border such as The Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade and even The New Pornographers, should be bigger than they are. In fact, they've been around since 1983. Gomez, likewise, came before the Brit wave that we are still seeing. And even though they have a Mercury Prize to prove their worth, admittedly, I think they were not as exciting as the fresher lot. They're finding new popularity, however, after Grey's Anatomy used one of their new songs, a boost they could certainly use.
So. Click on the titles to listen to the songs, which will pop up in a new window as usual, then click on the pictures to go to the galleries. They will open in this same page, but there's a link back if you want to return to this here blog.
scared : the tragically hip
click on the title to listen
click on the picture to see greece
diskoloadout : gomez
click on the title to listen
click on the picture to see oaxaca
Friday, October 27, 2006
sometimes i am such a wuss
auto rock : mogwai
click here or on the image below to listen
Has a song ever made you cry, and not in a contemptuous smart-ass kind of way? In the wide range of human emotions, nothing is as confusing and unreal as shedding a tear over a song that has no sentimental meaning to you. I was standing at a bus stop the other day, staring at nothing, iPod in my ears as usual. The morning had been perfectly ordinary: a slice of bread, a swig of orange juice, fumbling with my keys, waiting for the elevator, a foggy horizon, an elderly man walking his dog, a breath of autumn, missing the 8:40. I could call for a shared cab but decided to wait for the next bus, which was to come in 18 minutes. Alone at the station, I crossed my arms by force of habit, and rested my back against the billboard . There was nothing in particular to occupy the mind. I focused on the music. What was this quiet intro? An 18-second soundtrack to the birth of the universe? And then came the piano, calling, heaving, a stirring succession of notes pulling me out of my early-morning indifference. And before I knew it, an invisible lump had welled up in my chest, beating with every pound of the drums in the song, growing larger with the rise in its volume, and finally forcing a tear from the corner of my eye. I looked down and pressed my lips against my fist. Another tear fell. I turned back to wipe my cheek. The pounding only grew louder. Was this a never-ending crescendo? All I could do was wait for the song to end, and it did with little warning, a sudden break after a rush, rug pulled from under feet, throwing me into a wall of questions that had no words but spelled the same: What the fuck just happened?
alone in kyoto : air
click here or on the image below to listen
I will never know, and I don't care enough to find out. All I know is that Auto Rock continues to haunt me, minus the tears. I could not connect the song to anything in my memory – unlike Alone In Kyoto, which comes from the soundtrack to the film Lost in Translation. I saw it shortly after it came out and really liked the score, especially the intro where Bill Murray was being driven from the airport to his hotel. I remember the part of the film where this song was used. Three scenes, in fact: a Japanese couple marching to their wedding, holding hands; Scarlett Johansson tying a strip of white paper on a wishing tree; and again her character half-bouncing on a trail of circle steps. The film succeeded in resonating the isolation and alientation of travelers. This song brings to me that kind of sentiment; it doesn't make me weep, but it sure isn't happy. Even without the memory of the film, the song actually stands on its own as a mild blow to the heart. If the trilling vocals don't release butterflies in your stomach, then congratulations for not being the wuss that I am.
click here or on the image below to listen
Has a song ever made you cry, and not in a contemptuous smart-ass kind of way? In the wide range of human emotions, nothing is as confusing and unreal as shedding a tear over a song that has no sentimental meaning to you. I was standing at a bus stop the other day, staring at nothing, iPod in my ears as usual. The morning had been perfectly ordinary: a slice of bread, a swig of orange juice, fumbling with my keys, waiting for the elevator, a foggy horizon, an elderly man walking his dog, a breath of autumn, missing the 8:40. I could call for a shared cab but decided to wait for the next bus, which was to come in 18 minutes. Alone at the station, I crossed my arms by force of habit, and rested my back against the billboard . There was nothing in particular to occupy the mind. I focused on the music. What was this quiet intro? An 18-second soundtrack to the birth of the universe? And then came the piano, calling, heaving, a stirring succession of notes pulling me out of my early-morning indifference. And before I knew it, an invisible lump had welled up in my chest, beating with every pound of the drums in the song, growing larger with the rise in its volume, and finally forcing a tear from the corner of my eye. I looked down and pressed my lips against my fist. Another tear fell. I turned back to wipe my cheek. The pounding only grew louder. Was this a never-ending crescendo? All I could do was wait for the song to end, and it did with little warning, a sudden break after a rush, rug pulled from under feet, throwing me into a wall of questions that had no words but spelled the same: What the fuck just happened?alone in kyoto : air
click here or on the image below to listen
I will never know, and I don't care enough to find out. All I know is that Auto Rock continues to haunt me, minus the tears. I could not connect the song to anything in my memory – unlike Alone In Kyoto, which comes from the soundtrack to the film Lost in Translation. I saw it shortly after it came out and really liked the score, especially the intro where Bill Murray was being driven from the airport to his hotel. I remember the part of the film where this song was used. Three scenes, in fact: a Japanese couple marching to their wedding, holding hands; Scarlett Johansson tying a strip of white paper on a wishing tree; and again her character half-bouncing on a trail of circle steps. The film succeeded in resonating the isolation and alientation of travelers. This song brings to me that kind of sentiment; it doesn't make me weep, but it sure isn't happy. Even without the memory of the film, the song actually stands on its own as a mild blow to the heart. If the trilling vocals don't release butterflies in your stomach, then congratulations for not being the wuss that I am.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
the most common song title ever
I have a point, I promise.
Okay. Having unpacked the last box in our new flat, I thought that now is the perfect time to post this. I've long been curious about what's the most frequently used song title ever – not the most frequently used word in a song title (in which case, it would probably be the pronoun "I"), but the most frequently used song title, period. And they have to be unique songs, not covers (in which case, Help! by The Beatles would be the hands-down winner). Unfortunately I don't know of any authoritative source that keeps track of these things. The closest I could find is allmusic, which has a massive song database; you just have to know what you're looking for. One Googly afternoon, I found a web forum that discusses this subject exactly, and the list gathered by members looks like the following. I added their allmusic count for reference. I doubt that allmusic only counts unique songs, but what, pray tell, is the alternative?
home : cary pierce
click here or on the image below to listen. 3m 46s
I was surprised by the result. How many Home songs do you know? How many Home hits have there been? Not much, I would wager. And yet, a lot of major artists have one, from Louis Armstrong to Alan Jackson to Depeche Mode to Sheryl Sorethroat Crow. But my point – and I apologize for taking so long to get there – is that home is something we always think about, but not something we choose to bring out in the open. No shit, Sherlock, you say. Who wants to broadcast every little dysfunctional thing about their family? Which brings me to the next point, that the concept of home is quite distinct from the family unit. Many of the Home songs you will hear are not about family relationships but the nostalgia of growing up, the comfort of the familiar, the return to proverbial innocence. Home as your personal world, as you choose to see it, as you want it to be. In this song, Cary Pierce calls home "the way things were", "a place where no one ever lets me down" and a place that he can come back to to keep his life on track. (Can you guess who the female back-up is?)
this world is not my home : his name is alive
click here or on the image below to listen. 2m 40s
Not that I'm saying Home is the most common song title ever. To be sure, love is still the overriding theme in music, and at 1,150 songs, I Love You has more allmusic listings than Home. But I guess you can make a case that after love in all its dimensions, songwriting is ultimately drawn to the idea of home and all its meanings. Apart from what Pierce describes above, home is also a represenation of – cue orchestral music – our place in the larger world, including the spiritual. Here, Michigan indie group His Name Is Alive borrows two lines from the gospel staple written in 1936 by Albert Brumley: This world is not my home, I'm just passing through, And I can't live at home in this world anymore. (Am I the only one to think this is a bit suicidal?) HNIA sings this version with clinical numbness, unlike the acoustic version in their myspace page, which is quietly unsettling.
broken homes : tricky feat. pj harvey
click here or on the image below to listen. 3m 35s
For the most part, of course, love is what makes a home, and its absence or betrayal destroys it. In fact, this theme often brings out some of the best songs in pop music. My favorite? Burt Friggin' Bacharach's A House Is Not A Home. I'm not meant to live alone, Turn this house into a home. I get all weepy just playing Brooke Benton's version of it in my head. An absolute classic, in spite of Luther Vandross' beautiful but overproduced rendition. This song I'm posting is not exactly about broken homes in the clichéd tradition of most ballad songwriters, but being Tricky, this one is freaking tremendous. Enjoy.
Okay. Having unpacked the last box in our new flat, I thought that now is the perfect time to post this. I've long been curious about what's the most frequently used song title ever – not the most frequently used word in a song title (in which case, it would probably be the pronoun "I"), but the most frequently used song title, period. And they have to be unique songs, not covers (in which case, Help! by The Beatles would be the hands-down winner). Unfortunately I don't know of any authoritative source that keeps track of these things. The closest I could find is allmusic, which has a massive song database; you just have to know what you're looking for. One Googly afternoon, I found a web forum that discusses this subject exactly, and the list gathered by members looks like the following. I added their allmusic count for reference. I doubt that allmusic only counts unique songs, but what, pray tell, is the alternative?
- Hold On - 963
- You - 885
- Freedom - 742
- Stay - 703
- I Want You - 658
home : cary pierce
click here or on the image below to listen. 3m 46s
I was surprised by the result. How many Home songs do you know? How many Home hits have there been? Not much, I would wager. And yet, a lot of major artists have one, from Louis Armstrong to Alan Jackson to Depeche Mode to Sheryl Sorethroat Crow. But my point – and I apologize for taking so long to get there – is that home is something we always think about, but not something we choose to bring out in the open. No shit, Sherlock, you say. Who wants to broadcast every little dysfunctional thing about their family? Which brings me to the next point, that the concept of home is quite distinct from the family unit. Many of the Home songs you will hear are not about family relationships but the nostalgia of growing up, the comfort of the familiar, the return to proverbial innocence. Home as your personal world, as you choose to see it, as you want it to be. In this song, Cary Pierce calls home "the way things were", "a place where no one ever lets me down" and a place that he can come back to to keep his life on track. (Can you guess who the female back-up is?)this world is not my home : his name is alive
click here or on the image below to listen. 2m 40s
Not that I'm saying Home is the most common song title ever. To be sure, love is still the overriding theme in music, and at 1,150 songs, I Love You has more allmusic listings than Home. But I guess you can make a case that after love in all its dimensions, songwriting is ultimately drawn to the idea of home and all its meanings. Apart from what Pierce describes above, home is also a represenation of – cue orchestral music – our place in the larger world, including the spiritual. Here, Michigan indie group His Name Is Alive borrows two lines from the gospel staple written in 1936 by Albert Brumley: This world is not my home, I'm just passing through, And I can't live at home in this world anymore. (Am I the only one to think this is a bit suicidal?) HNIA sings this version with clinical numbness, unlike the acoustic version in their myspace page, which is quietly unsettling.broken homes : tricky feat. pj harvey
click here or on the image below to listen. 3m 35s
For the most part, of course, love is what makes a home, and its absence or betrayal destroys it. In fact, this theme often brings out some of the best songs in pop music. My favorite? Burt Friggin' Bacharach's A House Is Not A Home. I'm not meant to live alone, Turn this house into a home. I get all weepy just playing Brooke Benton's version of it in my head. An absolute classic, in spite of Luther Vandross' beautiful but overproduced rendition. This song I'm posting is not exactly about broken homes in the clichéd tradition of most ballad songwriters, but being Tricky, this one is freaking tremendous. Enjoy.
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