insert big sigh here

shots is fired
hard drive
Both songs by Evan Dando. Click here or on the image below to listen

Shots Is Fired is what you feel when you've bruised your feet from what you thought was a march to a hopeful end and the road all of a sudden forks and both paths look bleak and turning back is not an option and neither is a pause because you hear the ticking on your wrist that says time is running out. You wonder how in hell you even got here when just a moment ago or was it just a moment ago when everything was so straight and so simple and so sure and you remember that you tried to blaze a trail because you weren't content with straight simple sure. Whatever part of you that's been calling the shots is fired. Tell him you've lost control how could it be how could he let you down how could he leave you on your own. But you gotta do it you gotta take a step left right right left it doesn't matter just make that step close your eyes it's gonna be okay it's gonna be fine maybe it's even gonna be easy but who are we kidding. Whatever. Get in motion. Hard Drive is what you feel when you know you'll get there you'll get to it it'll be over if not soon then eventually. You'll see it. A familiar street. A house of a friend. Your name on a tree trunk. Faded paint on wooden gate. Home. Porch. A path to the ocean. A hand to hold. Palm on palm. Fingers locked. Fingers touching the back of the hand. Loose skin. Wrinkled skin. You touch each other's aged face. And wouldn't you know it. You're happy, just when it matters.

heart on a stick, dipped in a vat of burnt sugar

or, a playlist : songs for the lovestruck and the forlorn

Here's a mix CD of a playlist I've kept from one iPod to the next. I don't really have a name for it other than the generic Acoustic Ballads, but I've learned to live with it. Any other adjective would be inaccurate; any other noun contrived. Songs have come and gone in this list, but they all have one thing in common: they're mostly stripped down songs about love, loss and yearning, and they're unabashedly sentimental. It doesn't necessarily mean they're gooey and clichéd. Most of these are not off-the-shelf expressions of abstract feelings, but experiences written as stories, as intentions, as streams of consciousness. These guy don't think you wasted their love; they watched you deal in a dying day and throw a living past away. You haven't got them so confused; they're turning over TV stations, situations running through their heads. In other words, they're the anti-Celine.

As usual, you can listen to the songs two ways: click on the image below to hear them all in one go, or on the song titles to hear them individually.

1. Somebody That I Used To Know : Elliott Smith
   
2. No Fear Of Falling : I Am Kloot
   
3. Saturday : Josh Rouse
   
4. Naked As We Came : Iron & Wine
   
5. To Be Alone With You : Sufjan Stevens
   
6. I Wouldn't Miss It For The World : Johnathan Rice
   
7. Poetry & Aeroplanes : Teitur
   
8. Sleeping To Dream : Jason Mraz
   
9. Only You : Joshua Radin
   
10. Your Sweet Voice : The Reindeer Section
    
11. Trouble : Ray LaMontagne
    
12. My Winding Wheel : Ryan Adams
    
13. Kathleen : Josh Ritter
    
14. Dogs : Damien Rice
    
15. Silent Sigh : Badly Drawn Boy
    
16. Babylon : David Gray
    
17. On Your Side : Pete Yorn
    

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.