a boat ends its journey

playa girón : silvio rodríguez
click here or on the image below to listen

I believe that idealism is a mark of noble leadership, but its practice should not humble a people to poverty. I believe that every person has the right to health care and education, but not at the cost of his freedom of expression. I believe in the pursuit of national unity, but not to the point of denying individualism. I know very little about Cuba; I know very little about Castro. What I know is just enough to make me both respect and revile the man, impressions I no doubt share with countless others who have neither set foot on the island nor met any of its people. And yet, I have a strong sense that Castro enjoys a positive popular bias. His name has become synonymous with romantic notions about revolution, that what he has come to symbolize seems to have overshadowed what he has actually achieved. Castro may be a divisive figure, but also an inspirational one. Forget his influence on the current turn to the left in Latin American politics. While on one hand he has driven away some of the best musicians the island has produced, on the other his rule has led others to sing of his ideals in ways that are poignant and sublime. In Playa Girón, Silvio Rodríguez, a trovador and member of the Cuban parliament, pays tribute to the fishing boat in which he worked briefly in 1969, an experience that to him represented not just man's return to his primitive form, constantly in battle with the forces of nature, but also the virtue of toiling not for mere individual survival but for the shared benefit of many. The song, he says, is "an intimate and human tribute to the nameless men who work in sometimes perilous circumstances for the Cuban population." But what makes the song really moving is that it is its own answer to the question he asks in the lyrics: what words and rhythm do justice to a boat as vital as the Playa Girón? Here are the original lyrics below, followed by my very liberal, not literal, translation in English.

Playa Girón

Compañeros poetas,
tomando en cuenta
los últimos sucesos
en la poesía,
quisiera preguntar
—me urge—
¿qué tipo de adjetivos
se deben usar para hacer
el poema de un barco
sin que se haga sentimental,
fuera de la vanguardia
o evidente panfleto,
si debo usar palabras
como Flota Cubana de Pesca
y «Playa Girón»?

Compañeros de música,
tomando en cuenta
esas politonales
y audaces canciones,
quisiera preguntar
—me urge—
¿qué tipo de armonía
se debe usar para hacer
la canción de este barco
con hombres de poca niñez,
hombres y solamente
hombres sobre cubierta,
hombres negros y rojos
y azules los hombres que pueblan
el «Playa Girón»?

Compañeros de historia,
tomando en cuenta
lo implacable
que debe ser la verdad,
quisiera preguntar
—me urge tanto—
¿qué debiera decir,
qué fronteras debo respetar?
Si alguien roba comida
y después da la vida,
¿qué hacer?
¿Hasta dónde debemos
practicar las verdades?
¿Hasta dónde sabemos?
Que escriban, pues, la historia,
su historia los hombres
del «Playa Girón».

Playa Girón

My comrades in poetry
considering the many ways in which
poems are written these days
I would like to ask you
I'm very keen to know
what words must one use
to pen a poem about a boat
without making it sound sentimental
without making it pretentious
or an obvious propaganda
considering that I have to refer to the boat
as the Cuban Fishing Fleet
and Playa Girón?

My comrades in music
considering the wealth of tones
and the boldness one can employ
in the process of writing a song
I have to know
what harmonies one must use
to compose a song about this boat
this boat of men who knew little about childhood
men and only men on deck
black men, red men, blue men
yet men who spent their lives in Playa Girón?

My comrades in history
considering that truth is never a compromise
I would like to ask
I'm dying to know
what do you say
where do you draw the line
when someone steals food
but later sacrifices his life for another?
What do you do?
Up to what point do you uphold the truth?
How much do you really know?
Let them write then, their own story
their own history
the men of Playa Girón.

déjà vu all over again : the best songs of 2006

Will you forgive me for doing this? When I started making my two Best of 2007 mixes last December, it struck me as a good idea to revisit 2006 and revise my list of 20 songs I had uploaded as the best of the year. I always felt it rather incomplete, and truth be told, I put very little thought into it. Beth Orton's Safe in Your Arms, for example, was a cursory addition. I was simply recognizing her effort to release a new album, even though it was wholly underwhelming. The idea of a creating new compilation excited me, even though I knew it wasn't going to be too difficult, since I already knew my favorites. The only challenge was whittling them down to 34 and trying to see how to best group them in two. Thirty-four is not a number I picked for the sake of being random. I make these mix tapes (...because "mix CDs" just doesn't roll well off the tongue...) with the intention of sharing and sending them to friends, and 17 just happens to be the average number of songs I can burn in a normal CD. Double the fun, et voila, you have the opportunity to create two distinct compilations.

In this list, you'll plainly see that the first puts together songs that rock, and the second, songs of a more folksy nature. Now, the more diligent mix tape nerd will disregard the fact that most people now listen to music in shuffle mode, and take pains in putting the songs in proper sequence. You just don't throw them into a pot, you have a whole set of issues to think about. Do you start with a bang or do you gradually build up the mood? Can you follow a song that ends abruptly with one that starts slowly? How do you make a transition between – horrors! – two completely different genres? Can you build a story out of your song choices? Admittedly, I factored all these when I made my 2007 mixes, but for this 2006 set, I left it up to the wisdom of iTunes: I sorted them by song length, shortest first. And you know what? I'm happy with the way it turned out. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did putting them together.

As in the 2007 list, you can listen to the songs in one click, or individually.



Best of 2006 Mix 1
click here or on the image above to stream the entire list, or
click on the titles below to listen to the songs individually

1. Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured : Arctic Monkeys
2. Nausea : Beck
3. Portrait : Upper Room
4. Long Distance Call : Phoenix
5. You Only Live Once : The Strokes
6. You & I : Graham Coxon
7. Have A Good Time : Morning Runner
8. Stadiums & Shrines II : Sunset Rubdown
9. Into The Ocean : Blue October
10. Mr. Tough : Yo La Tengo
11. Somewhere Down The River : Elf Power
12. Typical : MuteMath
13. Dead Funny : Archie Bronson Outfit
14. The Clock : Thom Yorke
15. Postcards From Italy : Beirut
16. The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song : The Flaming Lips
17. Young Bride : Midlake



Best of 2006 Mix 2
click here or on the image above to stream the entire list, or
click on the titles below to listen to the songs individually

1. Summertime : Josh Rouse
2. Yours And Mine : Calexico
3. Love You More : Alexi Murdoch
4. Irene : Rose Melberg
5. This Voice : Ane Brun
6. Thief About To Break In : Teitur
7. Born In The 70s : Ed Harcourt
8. Half-Assed : Ani Difranco
9. Lucile (Where Did The Love Go?) : M. Craft
10. Oh People : Tim Easton
11. Yellow Taxi : Matt Costa
12. Splendid Isolation : Pete Yorn
13. Forget About You : Cary Brothers
14. Rootless Tree : Damien Rice
15. Brighter Discontent : The Submarines
16. It's Beginning To Get To Me : Snow Patrol
17. Young Folks : Peter Bjorn & John

sounds of silver : the best of 2007

Not to let a good year in music pass this blog by, I'm making a last ditch effort to resuscitate it after being long out of commission due to a technical glitch. Nothing serious; my iMac just decided one day to, you know, die, and this trusty PowerBook didn't have the program that lets me stream songs in Flash format, until recently. I'm still going to get a new computer; the act has just been delayed, first because of the wait for Leopard, and now for whatever upgrade comes after Macworld next month. I'm also torn between a new 24-inch iMac and a 17-inch MacBook Pro, but enough of the tedious stuff. I'm back on track, and since it's the end of the year, I thought I'd make the second of what will hopefully be my annual list of the year's best songs.

That's right, this blog is all about songs, not albums, so I won't even bother (We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank, Modest Mouse) telling you (Because Of The Times, Kings of Leon) what are (Armchair Apocrypha, Andrew Bird) to my biased ears (In Rainbows, Radiohead) the best albums of 2007 (Boxer, The National) even though (Sound of Silver, LCD Soundsystem) I enjoyed (Crime & Beauty, Suzanne Vega) this year (The Con, Tegan & Sara) more than (Leaves In The River, Sea Wolf) the last (Wincing The Night Away, The Shins). I just wanted to make that clear.

I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking that alternative rock is entering a new, quiet golden age, not just in the sense of today's music being not of the out-loud variety that grunge was, but also because the independent music scene seems to have found a lasting mode of survival, thriving and happy to be buzzing under the radar like never before. I am, of course, talking more about its manner of distribution than the creation of new styles. MySpace and Facebook have made word-of-mouth not only easier and more effective but also cool again, and these new channels have allowed bands to reach new and old audiences without reliance on corporate marketing. While getting rid of the middleman has long been possible through downloads from artists' websites, the conundrum has always been how to translate this freedom from labels into revenues. Radiohead's pay-as-you-wish model for "In Rainbows" introduced a clever way of doing so, because although it no doubt attracted low-ballers, it also won for the band a new market in those who wouldn't have thought of buying the entire album otherwise. I'm pretty sure it won't be the last, and as new, creative ways of selling songs and albums come up, independent artists will continue to make music the way they really want them to sound.

Which brings me back to my blog. Next year, I'll be back to posting songs not just because they're new and worthy, but because they mean something to me. In the meantime, enjoy this list, which took me a while to compile. A few housekeeping notes: There are two ways to listen to these songs. Apart from uploading them individually, I've also grouped the songs in two virtual mix tapes. All songs in each mix are in the same file, and will play one after the other in the sequence below. You can, however, jump from one song to the next or the one before by clicking the forward and back buttons. You can also play them in shuffle mode by clicking on the cube icon. So without further ado:



Best of 2007 Mix 1
click here or on the image above to stream the entire list, or
click on the titles to listen to the songs individually

1. Australia : The Shins
   
2. Do Me A Favour : Arctic Monkeys
   
3. Don't You Evah : Spoon
   
4. Go Tell The Woman : Grinderman
   
5. Coat Check Dream Song : Bright Eyes
   
6. People As Places As People : Modest Mouse
   
7. Time To Get Away : LCD Soundsystem
   
8. A Hand To Take Hold Of The Scene : Okkervil River
   
9. Plasticities : Andrew Bird
   
10. Mistaken For Strangers : The National
    
11. House Of Cards : Radiohead
    
12. The Opposite Of Hallelujah : Jens Lekman
    
13. Somewhere Between Waking And Sleeping : Air
    
14. No Cars Go : The Arcade Fire
    
15. Fans : Kings of Leon
    
16. Makeup : Everybody Else
    
17. Yankee Go Home : Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Best of 2007 Mix 2
click here or on the image above to stream the entire list, or
click on the titles to listen to the songs individually

1. Heart It Races : Architecture In Helsinki
2. Gronlandic Edit : Of Montreal
   
3. Raise The Roof : Tracey Thorn
   
4. Close Call : Rilo Kiley
   
5. Zephyr & I : Suzanne Vega
   
6. Myriad Harbour : The New Pornographers
   
7. Lay Your Head Down : Keren Ann
   
8. I Feel It All : Feist
   
9. Lifesize : A Fine Frenzy
   
10. The Con : Tegan & Sara
    
11. Love Me Like The World Is Ending : Ben Lee
    
12. Basement Parties : Matt Pond PA
    
13. Pioneer To The Falls : Interpol
    
14. Like Something Worth Remembering : Mixtapes & Cellmates
    
15. Pots & Pans : Les Savy Fav
    
16. You're A Wolf : Sea Wolf
    
17. Tonight I Have To Leave It : Shout Out Louds
    

thoughts from a boat ride

cartwheels : reindeer section
click here or on the image below to listen

How much can you write in half an hour? Half an hour is my ferry ride to work. The amount of time it takes for me to decide where I'm having lunch and actually getting there. Three, maybe five, percent of my waking hours that slips past my cognizance as I trawl the internet. (Is that all?) Three hundred and sixty seconds of gainful knowledge as I read the editorial page. Six songs and many years of adolescent memories from my eighties playlist. A tall soya no whip mocha for flatfoot. How do you occupy your mind in a half-hour commute? Sometimes I get to wondering about thought process itself. What do I normally think about when I have nothing to think about? I never knew, or maybe I did, but have forgotten. Thoughts are funnily tentative, like dreams, which are thoughts you didn't know you had. Sometimes I steal glances at other people. Do you look at other people too? Mentally pick on the man next to you for his coffee-stained two-buck necktie from Bangkok? Do you close your eyes and try to take a nap? Reminisce your childhood? Cartwheels are the stuff of childhood. I have never cartwheeled in my life. Or maybe I have, but never with any measure of success. I climbed walls and trees and jumped from them to scare my mom. I tumbled in the grass, on my parents' bed, on our living room couch, which wasn't much of a couch, as the make was firm and you hardly sank. I remember the giant shell on the sofa table. I would put it against my ear to listen to the sound of hollow. The sound of hollow. Empty has a sound. Empty takes aural space. Space is funnily fleeting, just like time. My thirty minutes is over. My ferry is about to dock. Good day.

and i thought it was gonna be the worstest

don't fence me in : david byrne
click here or on the image below to listen

Summer is officially over; how was it for you? I have to say it was good for me too. I didn't think it would be, what with the new job cutting my annual leave days in half to a miserly 12. A change in company policy brought it to 15, and that was good enough for me to go somewhere far for a few days in July. So I spent my birthday in Prague, followed by a series of trips that were small in scale but surprisingly big on fun. Right after returning from the city of a hundred spires, I played host and tour guide to a few friends whom I met at an internet travel forum, then wore a black shirt, black jeans, and black eyeliners to watch the reunion concert of The Cure. Shortly after, I went to Manila to attend the wedding of a friend, saw Gwen Stefani in concert (please keep that thought to yourself), then went to Singapore, China and Japan, both for business and, with careful planning, weekends of pleasure. My legs are still hurting a bit after climbing Mt. Fuji last Saturday. Needless to say, I'm not complaining. So it is with great pride that I present to you this song – one of the few that I promised to deliver during the Triassic period. Don't Fence Me In is a cowboy song extolling the freedom of the open space, and that's enough for me to call it a travel song. Written by Cole Porter, this version is by David Byrne – one of the guys in the picture above – who also wrote what I call the best. travel song. ever!

Watch this space. I'll update this entry with a few pics.

hello, what's this?

everything hits at once (for discos) : spoon
click here or on the image below to listen

Okay, so I'm still officially off the air, but as I was cleaning my iDisk last weekend, I found quite a few songs I uploaded but had somehow forgotten to post. In fact, there are seven of them, and I'm putting them up here in single installments, for added suspense. Or something. This here is the funkier version of the first song off Spoon's 2001 album, Girls Can Tell. Everything Hits At Once is a post-breakup song that captures the uneasiness that sets in right after the end of a relationship. It's not quite sadness, but an emptiness that's almost corporeal. You actually feel something hollow in your chest. A chasm that grows every minute that you're made aware of your sudden solitude. A vacuum that turns into a whirlpool that sucks you in with every memory of your own mistakes. You want to plug this hole. You want to save yourself. You try to do something, anything – a haircut, a singles bar, a pornographic site – just to take your mind far away from your insignificant reality, but you only end up being spaced out, making a fool of yourself as a matter of course. You catch your own reflection on the elevator door, and it mocks you. Get a grip, for heaven's sake! And you let out a laugh, or a sob, and a drawn-out sigh. It feels good. You close your eyes, breathe in, breathe out. And tomorrow you'll get over it. Best Line: Merging in traffic, cross the lanes, and then we become something bigger than just any one. Best Part: The xylophonic loop that's absent in the original.

alternative sounds takes a break

As if this blog wasn't irregular enough, I'm taking a break for about a couple of months.

My iMac, which has the program that converts my songs into the format you see here, has died on me. Here's what happened. I'm still thinking whether to buy a new one or have it fixed. Either way, it'll take a while before my online life gets back on track. If you wish to know when I start blogging again, please e-mail me at alternativesounds {at} gmail.com

Now as to why I've been quiet for a longer while than usual, yes, that was a bit rude, not making good on my promise of a diverse all-woman March. Weird as it may sound, my frame of mind has just been focused on something else. Since my last post, I've not only quit my job, but I've also left the world of journalism where I spent many happy years. Truth is, I had long been wanting to shift careers, but it wasn't easy for me to do, being in a place the language of which I don't speak, and not having letters of higher learning after my name. You can imagine how happy I was when I got this new job – the title and description will bore you, but it's exactly what I'd been looking for – and so I wanted to make sure that my mind was a fresh, clean slate before my first day. I'm still getting through the learning curve, but I think I'll be fine.

In other news, I had 10 days off in between jobs, and during that time, I finally had the chance to organize my CDs. I think I overdid it. I separately alphabetized my English-language and world-music albums by artist name. Then I stacked my compilation CDs by genre and alphabetized them by album title, then my soundtrack albums by film title, and then my freebie CDs by the names of the magazines they came from.

I've also been buying a lot of new albums. Here are some of them, and it pains me that I couldn't blog about them just yet:

• Air : Pocket Symphony
• Andrew Bird : Armchair Apocrypha
• The Arcade Fire : Neon Bible
• Archie Bronson Outfit : Derdang Derdang
• Arctic Monkeys : Favourite Worst Nightmare
• Bright Eyes : Cassadaga
  
• Clap Your Hands Say Yeah : Some Loud Thunder
• Everybody Else : Eponymous
  
• Grinderman : Eponymous
• Kings of Leon : Because of the Times
• LCD Soundsystem : Sound of Silver
• Low : Drums and Guns
  
• Matt Costa : Songs We Sing
• Modest Mouse : We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
• Rodrigo y Gabriela : Eponymous
  
• The Shins : Wincing The Night Away
• Tracy Thorn : Out of the Woods

Anyway. I was actually able to convert three songs into Flash format before my iMac died. Here's the rest of what I promised last month.

fall at your feet : mary black
click here or on the image below to listen



Fall At Your Feet by Crowded House ranks high up in my favorite songs of all time, and this cover version doesn't disappoint. Mary Black, an Irish folk artist, made it her own and even infused a lot more emotion than the original.

zomaye : gigi
click here or on the image below to listen

A strong reminder that some of the best beats in music can be heard outside the English-speaking world. Gigi is from Ethiopia.

recovery : new buffalo
click here or on the image below to listen



I saw this act in Sydney last year. Very good.