and i'm feelin' good. well, not great, but better than yesterday. i know you were concerned.
anywho, awake from my sick day and already behind the curve on some interesting tidbits. I have a new jersey shit heap of work to do today so I'm going to try and extol as much efficiency as possible in my ramblings today.
first off, it's blitz has been out a week and i still have not listened to it. I hope everyone who reads this took the opportunity to listen to that b side I linked last week. It's a great song and gives me hope for that album.
dude, i want the lotus plaza album pretty bad. Reviews have been good, but not great, which I feel like is a critic's way of trying not to prop up an album that no one else has the balls to. Like if everyone gives it the same general rating its because they don't want to say the wrong thing. I have this innate feeling that the album is probably really good, or at least I will like it a lot. Much like the parenthetical girls album that I spent at least 8 real hours of life tracking down. To which there was seriously no possible way that album could have been as good as I had built it up in my head.
though the parenthetical girls album Entanglements is pretty dees.
Looks like today is going to be a multi-post day cause i gotta run. But I just saw this and poo'd big time. HOLY F I EFFING LOVE THE EFFING CRYSTAL ANTLERS ...
2009-03-31
2009-03-29
nerdy sunday
getting excited ... always wanted to do this
Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew.
It's the same when love comes to an end,
or the marriage fails and people say
they knew it was a mistake, that everybody
said it would never work. That she was
old enough to know better. But anything
worth doing is worth doing badly.
Like being there by that summer ocean
on the other side of the island while
love was fading out of her, the stars
burning so extravagantly those nights that
anyone could tell you they would never last.
Every morning she was asleep in my bed
like a visitation, the gentleness in her
like antelope standing in the dawn mist.
Each afternoon I watched her coming back
through the hot stony field after swimming,
the sea light behind her and the huge sky
on the other side of that. Listened to her
while we ate lunch. How can they say
the marriage failed? Like the people who
came back from Provence (when it was Provence)
and said it was pretty but the food was greasy.
I believe Icarus was not failing as he fell,
but just coming to the end of his triumph.
2009-03-28
are you sick of me talking about the decemberists yet?
ok, so i'm ready with my final thoughts (in this space at least) regarding the hazards of love.
I love it. I like it more than the Crane Wife, but less than all previous work. BUT I like this album in a much different way. Let me try and explain what i mean.
Particularly the decemberists excel in a number of ways on this album. First off, musically I would say that HOL is a new and great creative step forward by the band. Maybe not in precision or skill, but taking the concept of a rock opera and flawlessly putting out a nearly hour long piece of work that seamlessly fuses together each piece of the story without batting an eye. It's downright excellent. I feel like they were preparing their chops for this grand of an undertaking on crane wife. And here they are allowed to just go all out. As I had clearly stated in the past I was quite hesitant about this. The crane wife just wasn't that great to me. But here with the band being allowed take their idea and stretch it until it becomes a true landscape results in a magnificent piece of work.
The only part of this argument is that because the story is just that and needs to make sense not only lyrically but musically I found that sometimes the music hovered near repetitive. The band's way of reminding the listener of the themes being expressed. Essentially, if you like track 1, you will like the entire album. It feels like HOL is just one track, with the band rising and falling through the different movements of the story. Also I totally hate kids singing. They have kids singing.
Lyrically, I found also because a story is being told that perhaps if you don't like the story all that much, then you won't find much interest in the lyrics otherwise.
The flip side to that is the work put in my the guest female guest vocalists. Particularly Sharon Worden of My Brightest Diamond. She's become officially an indie credible female voice and a force in the genre.
You think the decemberists aren't powerful any more. Listen to HOL4. It's an epic closer and sends those all too familiar decmeberists chills down my spine every time.
I know in another week I'm going to be tired of this album. But for right now I am enjoying the ride.
I love it. I like it more than the Crane Wife, but less than all previous work. BUT I like this album in a much different way. Let me try and explain what i mean.
Particularly the decemberists excel in a number of ways on this album. First off, musically I would say that HOL is a new and great creative step forward by the band. Maybe not in precision or skill, but taking the concept of a rock opera and flawlessly putting out a nearly hour long piece of work that seamlessly fuses together each piece of the story without batting an eye. It's downright excellent. I feel like they were preparing their chops for this grand of an undertaking on crane wife. And here they are allowed to just go all out. As I had clearly stated in the past I was quite hesitant about this. The crane wife just wasn't that great to me. But here with the band being allowed take their idea and stretch it until it becomes a true landscape results in a magnificent piece of work.
The only part of this argument is that because the story is just that and needs to make sense not only lyrically but musically I found that sometimes the music hovered near repetitive. The band's way of reminding the listener of the themes being expressed. Essentially, if you like track 1, you will like the entire album. It feels like HOL is just one track, with the band rising and falling through the different movements of the story. Also I totally hate kids singing. They have kids singing.
Lyrically, I found also because a story is being told that perhaps if you don't like the story all that much, then you won't find much interest in the lyrics otherwise.
The flip side to that is the work put in my the guest female guest vocalists. Particularly Sharon Worden of My Brightest Diamond. She's become officially an indie credible female voice and a force in the genre.
You think the decemberists aren't powerful any more. Listen to HOL4. It's an epic closer and sends those all too familiar decmeberists chills down my spine every time.
I know in another week I'm going to be tired of this album. But for right now I am enjoying the ride.
2009-03-27
2009-03-26
now is the december of our discontent
suddenly and without warning the decemberists have movved to the forefront of my musical reflection.
in an act of blatant hypocrisy I today chastised the shit out of hazards of love, all the while humming along to the rake's song which has imbued my brain with its dark textures and heavy melodies.
meanwhile an old friend fbook burned colin meloy's work as being elementary, comparing the lyrical style to TMBG. Birdhouse in your Soul is no fucking Red Right Ankle .... SEEEWRREEEEZ ... i mean i sort of respect the guy's opinion, but sometimes he doesn't know what he's talking about. The worst part being that he was using death cab as his shield. This obviously could've led me to some serious contradictory insults in that regard. But I can't do it. I still dream of setting up a stalker station outside of BG's seattle abode.
also, musically the two bands are in two completely different spectrums. Especially the further back you go in each's catalogue.
I'm still feeling pretty heated about the statments: "A Poor Man's DCFC" and "besides the OBVIOUS similiarities to TMBG". Punch-Drink-Cry.
I ended up telling him I'd let it go, and suggesting the mariner's revenge song if he thought that Colin Meloy's lyrics were trite. I feel like this is pointless battle, and his opinion is already set. But I feel so damn strongly about the decemberits work I feel like i have to keep trying. Here are some of the songs I have considred to try and break his predispostions:
Mariner's Revenge
Soldiering Life
Chanty for Areuthesa
Eli the Barrowboy
Legionaire's Lament
Los Angelas, I'm Yours
The Apology Song
On the Bus Mall
Red Right Ankle ... shit all of her majesty
California One, Youth and Beauty Brigade ...
grrr ... and though I couldn't possibly choose between one or the other I can already say that I think Hazards is a much better piece of work than the let down DCFC put out last year ... yeesh.
p.s. Hazards of Love ... The Crane Wife II: now with more Crane
in an act of blatant hypocrisy I today chastised the shit out of hazards of love, all the while humming along to the rake's song which has imbued my brain with its dark textures and heavy melodies.
meanwhile an old friend fbook burned colin meloy's work as being elementary, comparing the lyrical style to TMBG. Birdhouse in your Soul is no fucking Red Right Ankle .... SEEEWRREEEEZ ... i mean i sort of respect the guy's opinion, but sometimes he doesn't know what he's talking about. The worst part being that he was using death cab as his shield. This obviously could've led me to some serious contradictory insults in that regard. But I can't do it. I still dream of setting up a stalker station outside of BG's seattle abode.
also, musically the two bands are in two completely different spectrums. Especially the further back you go in each's catalogue.
I'm still feeling pretty heated about the statments: "A Poor Man's DCFC" and "besides the OBVIOUS similiarities to TMBG". Punch-Drink-Cry.
I ended up telling him I'd let it go, and suggesting the mariner's revenge song if he thought that Colin Meloy's lyrics were trite. I feel like this is pointless battle, and his opinion is already set. But I feel so damn strongly about the decemberits work I feel like i have to keep trying. Here are some of the songs I have considred to try and break his predispostions:
Mariner's Revenge
Soldiering Life
Chanty for Areuthesa
Eli the Barrowboy
Legionaire's Lament
Los Angelas, I'm Yours
The Apology Song
On the Bus Mall
Red Right Ankle ... shit all of her majesty
California One, Youth and Beauty Brigade ...
grrr ... and though I couldn't possibly choose between one or the other I can already say that I think Hazards is a much better piece of work than the let down DCFC put out last year ... yeesh.
p.s. Hazards of Love ... The Crane Wife II: now with more Crane
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