Stefani Germanotta ("Captivated" and "Electric Kiss")

Yes, that is Lady Gaga. Err, well, it's the same person making very different music.

Just dance.

A Boston Globe Video on the Bohlen-Pierce Scale

Next summer I'm going west

[singing]
This is the place... they say

[talking]
People come from far, far, far away to find their dreams
Chasin' down these meteors and comets
(chasin' 'em, chasin' 'em, chasin' 'em down)
Called dreams, in the sky of life
(chasin' 'em, chasin' 'em, chasin' 'em down
chasin' 'em, chasin' 'em) There certain hot spots
Where these meteors and stars have tendency to fall
And legend has it that California is one of those spots
I believe that to be true

[singing]
They say this is the place stars are born
They say this is the place (place) legends are made
They say this is the place where angels come again, ay ay
They say that this is the place where it all can happen for you
(for you, for you, for you)
California knows how to make dreams seem so sweet
California knows how to-
Whisper in your ear and tell ya you're a star
You're a star, you're a star, you're a star, you're a star (star)
You're a star and you keep on shinin'
(you're a star, you're a star, you're a star, you're a star)
Pretty girls by the oceanside (side)
Stars that refuse to shine (shine, shine)
This is on your mind (i-i-i-ind-i)
California knows how to party (indeed)
In the city of L.A. (ay ay ay ay ay ay ay)
They say that angels come again
In the city, city of Compton (Compton, Compton, Compton, Compton)
Black people all over the "other side"
In the city of good ol' Watts (Watts, Watts, Watts, Watts, Watts)
Make them stop, make them stop
In the city, California don't stop (don't stop)
All the way from L.A. to the Bay (indeed)
Stars fall down here, that's what they say (indeed)
All the way from L.A. to the Bay (indeed)
Stars fall down here, that's what they say (indeed)
It's everything they say, it's everything they say
Distant lights from across the Bay
California! It's the C-A-L-I-F-O-R-N-I-A
California knows how to make me smile sometime
Yes they do (woo) yes they do
California-hey-ay knows how to do what they do
When they do what they do
When they do what they do to me and you too, hey-ay
California-how-hey-ay-ay (phenomenon, phenomenon)
Worldwide original style (indeed)
Mos Def on the profile (indeed)
Adamsville droppin' you so very well
Worlwide original style (indeed)
Mos Def on the profile (indeed)
Adamsville rockin' you so very well
Worldwide original style (indeed)
Mos Def on the profile (indeed)
Adamsville rockin' you so very well (indeed)
Worldwide original style (indeed)
Mos Def on the profile (indeed)
Adamsville rockin' you so very well (woo)
In the city of L.A. (ay ay ay ay ay ay ay)
It's everything they say, it's everything they say
It's everything they say, it's everything they say
It's everything they say

This deserves its own post.

If anyone can figure out who this quote is from, that would be greatly appreciated.

So, I really love those magnets and mugs with quotes on them.

I guess I am just a big fan of the ways other people express the things that run through my mind. I stole all of these from my neighbor (thanks Jhane):

Sometimes I feel like this:

"(F)lannigan's Ball" - Dropkick Murphys

and other times I feel like this:



"Sledgehammer" - Peter Gabriel

Haiti & Wyclef

Gone 'til November by Wyclef Jean

If you can, help Haiti:

The Nation: Helping Haiti

Thank you!

Social Commentary via Ralph Lauren?

Vampire Weekend's second album, Contra, was released yesterday to mixed reviews. Big surprise, right? Vampire Weekend are always given the shaft in one way or another. They are considered too preppy, too lyrically obtuse, too Ivy League, not "authentic" enough, too much like Paul Simon (I fail to see how that is a negative attribute), and really just too much for most music reviewers to take. But I found myself in this funny little wrinkle of synchronicity where I felt the need to re-watch season one of Hugh Laurie's and Stephen Fry's Jeeves and Wooster based on the novels by P.G. Wodehouse, on the same day that I needed to do a complete stock-taking of my current feeling for Vampire Weekend's first album.

I came to some fresh conclusions upon a fresh listen, in light of P.G. Wodehouse, and this blog entry from just about two years ago by Elif Batuman: My Life and Thoughts: Beautiful Shirts

All of these things really made me think about social commentary in music and art in general, and what spaces are authentic, and what spaces are contrived, and what makes for a thoughtful comment, and then I thought about Rudyard Kipling and I thought about Ernest Hemingway. And largely, my thoughts got away from me - as they have a tendency to do. But one thing I realized is that if Vampire Weekend had the ability to spark all of this discussion and controversy, then isn't that a good thing in and of itself? I mean, at least it means that people are taking these ideas into account, and feel like they are being challenged in some way. So how is that wrong?

On the musical commentary side, I find myself enjoying both Vampire Weekend and Contra. My first thought with Contra was that VW had pulled an M.I.A. M.I.A.'s first album had a lot of world music influence, and it all sounded fairly rough in terms of its application of computerized sounds. It wasn't streamlined to the point where it sounded like something futuristic. But Kala hit home with a world music sound that pushed the boundaries in terms of computer music. The synthesized sections were clear and common. This is true on Contra. The album is streamlined, it sounds cleaner and slightly more contemporary. It's a sound that you cannot easily tie to Paul Simon, and I find it rather entertaining.

Flamenco in many forms

My friend turned me onto this video for "Boy with a Coin" by Iron & Wine:



I think it is beautiful.

I also came across this photographer in the New Yorker:

The Flamenco Women of Spain - Ruven Afanador profile in More magazine

Ruven Afanador just released this book of photography, Mil Besos, which is a compilation of pictures of "the flamenco women of Spain."

I swear, sometimes things just follow me around!

...and in music the salvation of the world

So I knew I was being hyperbolic when I entitled this post only to write about the Green Day musical. Bear with me. Hopefully you won't be disappointed.

Here's the thing, I didn't realize that the American Idiot musical was the brainchild of not only Green Day, but also Michael Mayer who worked on Spring Awakening, and that the incredible John Gallagher Jr. played the main character "Johnny" in the San Francisco run. Or, that the cast would sound as exceptional as they do on the newly re-released "21 Guns." The repetition of the line "you're in ruins" makes my heart palpitate. While the choral repetition of the chorus feels like gospel music, and only intensifies the feeling of regret and resignation that is so encapsulated in the original song.

I wasn't a big fan of 21st Century Breakdown, but this song in particular struck a chord with me, and I am pleased to see it re-vamped in such a fulfilling way.

If it is any indication of what lies in store for those who see the musical, I cannot wait to get my hands on some tickets.

Happy New Year Playlist (The Clean Slate Decade)

2010: a new year and a new decade, and many people seem to be grasping hold of this "beginning" in the face of multiple levels of crisis. To me, the new year is all about symbolism, and its ability to channel growth and positive energy all across the world. With this in mind, I've created a 2010 playlist. 12 songs that address some of my own positive and negative attributes. I suppose they are resolutions of a sort, but not anything really clearly defined. For now, they are the background music to my life. It's like tattooing "love" and "hope" on your wrists; they're there to jumpstart you into action, not to create something from nothing.

---

I am going to start with a song that has been playing over and over recently on my radio, and not of my own choosing! It's a song about putting yourself out there, and maybe getting hurt, but trying nonetheless because you can't do anything but try.

"Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" by The Police.

"I resolve to call her up a thousand times a day,
and ask her if she'll marry me in some old fashioned way.
But my silent fears have gripped me,
long before I reach the phone,
long before my tongue has tripped me,
Must I always be alone?"

---

This next song has also been following me around, and I love Elvis Costello so I really cannot ignore it. Oh, synchronicity.

"Everyday I Write the Book" by Elvis Costello.

"...Don't tell me you don't know the difference
Between a lover and a fighter..."

---

I rediscovered So Much For The Afterglow when I was thinking about my two musical decades and focusing on the '90s. I relate to this song in too many ways.

"Everything to Everyone" by Everclear.

"You do what you do,
you say what you say,
you always try to be everything to everyone..."

---

I was at a Boxing Day party and this song came on shuffle, and I had to stop walking and talking, and just listen for a minute. Spoon has had this effect on me ever since I saw the movie Stranger than Fiction, which I found really brilliant.

"The Underdog" by Spoon.

"I wanna forget how convention fits
but can I get out from under it?
Can I get it out of me?
It can't all be wedding cake
It can't all be boiled away
I try but I can't let go of it
Can't let go of it,
Cause you don't talk to the water boy,
and there's so much you could learn but you don't want to know,
You will not back up an inch ever,
that's why you will not survive..."

---

I found this band back in the early 2000s, and I have followed them since. They don't always take me where I think I want to go, but once I get there it's usually right.

"Goodnight" by ZOX.

"Sometimes I,
stand between the sidewalk and the sky,
and stare into the clouds as they pass by,
you have to leave the ground to learn to fly."

---

This song never ever fails to make me smile. In fact, it almost always makes me dance. Stevie Wonder's music can be a spiritual experiment, and this is a religious song.

"Signed, Sealed, Delivered" by Stevie Wonder.

"Seen a lot of things in this old world,
When I touched them they did nothing, girl,
Ooh baby, here I am, signed, sealed delivered, I'm yours!"

---

The Grateful Dead have been a staple in my musical experience since I was in the womb, and I find myself regularly drawn back into their orbit. This song has been in heavy rotation over the last few months, and I find it comforting in many ways.

"Scarlet Begonias" by the Grateful Dead.

"Well, I ain't always right, but I've never been wrong,
seldom turns out the way it does in a song.
Once in awhile you get shown the light,
in the strangest of places if you look at it right."

---

Otis Redding is another kind of comfort food. This song makes me feel intensely calm. It is meditative, and it puts me in a contemplative mood. I feel myself growing every time I listen.

"Sitting On The Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding.

"Looks like nothing's gonna change,
Everything still remains the same,
I can't do what ten people tell me to do,
So I guess I'll remain the same, yes!"

---

Positivity can be embodied so thoroughly in music, and in so many shades. I love it! This song is multifaceted. It has edges and curves, and more than a little sunshine. It makes me want to travel and see the world. It is so much greater than it appears to me now.

"Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" by Paul Simon.

"And she said honey take me dancing,
but they ended up by sleeping in a doorway,
by the bodegas and the lights on Upper Broadway,
Wearing diamonds on the soles of their shoes..."

---

Riding that vibe, you always need an upbeat, cheerleader song. You need people to cheer you on!

"Doing It Right" by The Go! Team.

"We have the right combination, we got everything.
And to strike faster than lightning, we raise what we bring.
We have the right combination,
It ain't time to crawl.
Give it all!
Give it all!
Give it all!
Give it all!"

---

Everything about Peter Gabriel makes me feel ready to take on the world. How can one person create that feeling? It is something I am striving for – for myself, and for the people around me. If I can inspire, I will be happy.

"Solsbury Hill" by Peter Gabriel.

"So I went from day to day,
Oh, my life was in a rut,
'Til I thought of what I'd say,
Which connection I should cut.

I was feeling part of the scenery,
I'd walk right out of the machinery.
My heart going boom-boom-boom
Hey, he said, grab your things I've come to take you home
Eh, back home..."

---

If I have learned one thing this year, it is that "be yourself" is a loaded proclamation. More appropriate, I think, is "pattern yourself intentionally." So I've been listening to Mika... It's a work in progress.

"Grace Kelly" by Mika.

"I could be brown, I could be blue,
I could be violet sky,
I could be hurtful, I could be purple,
I could be anything you like.

Gotta be green, gotta be mean,
Gotta be everything more,
Why don't you like me?
Why don't you like me?
Walk out the door!"

---

Happy 2010 lovely readers.

"Hurricane (LIVE)" - Something Corporate

Shake down you make me break
For goodness sake
I think I'm on the edge
Of something new with you
Shout out don't drown the sound
I'll drown you out
You'll never scream so loud
As I want to scream with you

Standing there with your smile blinding
Your eyes from seeing
My face as I'm dying
To figure out a girl
But she drifts so far away
I'm on her coast
So maybe I should stay
And map around your world

So Don't Say
These currents are still killing me
And you can't explain
But the wind went and pulled me
Into your hurricane
Into your hurricane

Stand up don't make a sound
Your ears might bleed
There's sweet fluorescent enemies
That live inside of me
The world moves faster than I knew
Not fast enough to not creep up on you
And the space we put between
So pull me under your weather patterns
Your cold fronts and the rain don't matter
Because the sun burns when I need it

So Don't Say
These currents are still killing me
And you can't explain
But the wind went and pulled you
Into the hurricane
into the hurricane

You don't do it on purpose
But you make me shake
Now I count the hours 'til you wake
With your babies breath
Breathe symphonies
Come on sweet catastrophe

Well,
Maybe this time I can follow through
I can feel complete
Stop paying dues
Stop the rain from falling
Keep my ocean calm
This time I know nothing's wrong


So Don't Say
These currents are still killing me
And you can't explain
But the wind went and pulled me in
and no you don't say
These currents are still killing me
And you can't explain
but the wind went and pulled me
into your hurricane
into your hurricane
into your hurricane

The question is not...

...why does he look like a douche? Because then the answer would be simple, i.e. he is a douche.

Instead, the question is more like this: why are there so many artistically/musically talented douches?

Or maybe: Is it only the douche-y talented people who become famous?

and finally: Am I a bad person for liking his music, even though he could totally suck as a person?

I am sending these thoughts in a letter to the universe. Maybe it'll get back to me soon with a little insight.

Sleigh Bells before Thanksgiving (and I swear I'm not becoming a consumer whore)

As far as dynamic duos go, there is a lot to live up to in music. Gilbert & Sullivan, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Simon & Garfunkel, Elton John and Bernie Taupin. The list could go on for awhile, but I'll spare you boredom and get to the juicy bits.

Sleigh Bells!

Their name sounds slightly twee, or at the very least gives off an adorably indie vibe like early Fiery Furnaces albums (Bitter Tea's "Benton Harbor Blues" kept me smiling for weeks). But, hidden within the jingly, jangly, jolly moniker, we find a duo that makes musical noise not unlike M.I.A. meeting New Young Pony Club in a bar and getting in a fist-fight over a synthesizer. I guess what I am trying to get at is that Sleigh Bells' songs don't always sound particularly "musical" in the sense that the melody does not always follow an aurally pleasing route. So what? I like these songs nonetheless, and if I like them, then you know they've gotta be good. (I really hope people who don't know me can read my sarcasm.)

Anyway, here's your basic blog breakdown. Four songs exist on the Sleigh Bells' MySpace site, as well as three videos of the band performing live, and an advertisement for a Thursday night show at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC. First we have "A/B Machines," a repetitive, banging blast of electro-dance music. It makes me long for nights with glow sticks and crowds of people dancing under circus tents (and there aren't many things that make me feel this way). "Crown on the Ground" squeals into place with wailing guitar and a bomb backbeat. "Infinity Guitars" starts off with a Kinks-esque riff, and some yelled lyrics that remind me of Le Tigre, and follows this pattern through and through with increased intensity as the song progresses. Finally, we've got "Ring Ring," which stays fairly mellow even with the inclusion of panting, clapping, and rumbling/rolling drums in the background.

Maybe there is a secret atavism, a primitive need to dance your ass off, that makes this kind of music really very accomplished. In any case, it is nothing like Gilbert & Sullivan, or R & H, or Simon & Garfunkel, and only the energy level is similar to Elton and Bernie's early stuff. But it is still worth hearing, and also worth owning a few songs in order to get that party pumping with something besides Shwayze and Jay Sean. Not that there is anything wrong with dancing to this music – it's fun! – but you should never limit yourself to the songs that are popular right now. Those songs are usually fairly fleeting, and the songs that you enjoy will be around for awhile.

Sleigh Bells "Crown on the Ground" LIVE at Le Poisson Rouge NYC from AbzPunkPhoto on Vimeo.

"The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is out to get us!"

Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall - Simon & Garfunkel

Through the corridors of sleep
Past the shadows dark and deep
My mind dances and leaps in confusion.
I don't know what is real,
I can't touch what I feel
And I hide behind the shield of my illusion.

So I'll continue to continue to pretend
My life will never end,
And flowers never bend
With the rainfall.

The mirror on my wall
Casts an image dark and small
But I'm not sure at all it's my reflection.
I am blinded by the light
Of God and truth and right
And I wander in the night without direction.

So I'll continue to continue to pretend
My life will never end,
And flowers never bend
With the rainfall.

It's no matter if you're born
To play the King or pawn
For the line is thinly drawn 'tween joy and sorrow,
So my fantasy
Becomes reality,
And I must be what I must be and face tomorrow.

So I'll continue to continue to pretend
My life will never end,
And flowers never bend
With the rainfall.

It knocks you down

There is some music that hits you so hard - that touches your core so deeply - that you cannot logically quantify or qualify the experience. Why, why now, and why this? There is synchronicity at work here, the collective unconscious. It is for this reason above all others that the Beatles are still selling records in record numbers.

I read a music article today that made a lot of sense logically. The argument was that the Beatles became famous and well-loved originally because of the simplicity of their musical/lyrical combinations; their accessibility, their generality, their universality, as opposed to some kind of intangible singularity. Everybody knows what it feels like to want to hold someone's hand, right? Right.

The only hitch in this argument is that they were rather singular as opposed to universal: their story is not common and neither is their music. Even people who aren't "fans" of the Beatles know their music. They know the rhythms, the melody, and the lyrics. If this were due just to simplicity and universality, then most pop songs would fall into the same category. So what was different about the Beatles?

There is something greater at work. I know this sounds like an overstatement of talent, but bear with me for a minute, there is more of an argument to come.

Have you ever met a person in your life who you knew was pushing for a higher consciousness with every inch of their being? They vibrated with their own urgency. Have you ever had a late-night conversation with a stranger that brought you more peace of mind and honest insight than your everyday interactions with your best friends? What about that moment when you are doing the thing you love best of all, and you move into what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi would term a "state of flow"? Or maybe you were reading a book and a sentence made you really think for a long time, and dig for something more that was hiding inside of you. Or maybe a name or an idea followed you around for months, and when you finally came to it - opened yourself to it - you found exactly what you were looking for all along. Or you were almost magnetically drawn to another person, without any reason or sense at all, and yet things happened to work the way you knew they had to all along because you could feel it. These things happen everyday, and it is an impoverished person who does not notice and crave them every moment of their life. There is something greater at work, but it isn't happening far away from you. It's happening inside you and all around you at every moment.

Now the Beatles had a member/members pushing for a higher consciousness - maybe not completely knowingly, and maybe not in those words, but their music vibrates with too high a frequency for that not to be true. There is something universal about it, and it is the same thing that is so special that takes place in every person and living thing. It is the Emersonian Spirit. It doesn't fall into place every time, with every song, but it happens often enough that people start to notice.

You listen to Abbey Road while walking in the rain,
between the trees on the quad that were planted hundreds of years ago,
and will live hundreds of years longer than you if there is any justice in the world,
and you can feel the heartbeat of the universe under your feet,
and just as you notice it,
you also notice that "Golden Slumbers" is mimicking that heartbeat,
like a baby on its mother's chest,
and it progresses with the beat of your feet,
and the tick of the rain on your head,
and the leaves shake with you,
as your back shudders,
and the world is bigger in your mind because of a song in a moment.

That's what makes them great, and it is the same thing that makes any music great. It is an ability to tune into the universe, and discover it in words that anyone can sing along with, and that anyone can understand, and maybe hope to understand better and grow alongside.

Certain things follow me around...

I Second That Emotion - Smokey Robinson and the Miracles


Maybe you want to give me kisses sweet
But only for one night with no repeat
Maybe you'd go away and never call
And a taste of honey is worse than none at all
(oh little girl)


Oh little girl
in that case I don't want no part
I do believe that that would only break my heart
Oh, but if you feel like loving me
if you got the notion
I second that emotion
Said, if you feel like giving me
a lifetime of devotion
I second that emotion

Maybe you think that love would tie you down
You ain't got the time to hang around
Maybe you think that love was made for fools
So it makes you wise to break the rules

Oh little girl
in that case I don't want no part
I do believe that that would only break my heart
Oh, but if you feel like loving me
if you got the notion
I second that emotion
Said, if you feel like giving me
a lifetime of devotion
I second that emotion

Ohgosh August

I cannot possibly make up for my blog-related laziness this summer, but maybe the Muppets can (with a little help from Harry Belafonte of course)?

I've got that Summer soul

Soul Man by Sam & Dave