Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Song of the Day: "Teenage Dirtbag" by Wheatus




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I've diagnosed myself with a case of arrested development because every six months or so, I need to listen to "Teenage Dirtbag" on repeat and sing along.
I love the way Wheatus frontman Brendan B Brown's voice sounds as though he is lip-quiveringly on the brink of tears as the song progresses. 

It's a moment strangely akin to the scene in "The Sound of Music" when Captain von Trapp—played with aplomb by Christopher Plummer (pun intended)—sings a tender tribute to Austria's iconic national flower, the delicate, lacy white eidelweiss.

"Teenage Dirtbag was on the soundtrack of a movie that proved to be kind of forgettable, the 2000 Jason Biggs, Mena Suvari vehicle "Loser." The aforementioned soundtrack was also marked by the presence of the über-catchy electronic Eiffel 65 hit "Blue." 



—Sarah Torribio


Saturday, June 27, 2020

Song of the Day: "Everybody Wants To Rule the World" by Tears for Fears





"Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Tears for Fears is one of the happiest songs in the world for me. It's simultaneously sophisticated and laid back.

It's a pitch-perfect composition, with every note and beat just where it needs to be. It's ABBA-esque in the perfection of its execution. (Of course, ABBA is more performative while Tears for Fears is a bit more soulful.0

"Everybody Wants to Rule the World is also among the best road trip songs ever. It quickly launches you in to that pensive companionship and sedentary momentum unique to those moments when you're getting the hell out of Dodge, so to speak.

Adding one more recommendation to this '80s classic, as if it's needed, it appears on the soundtrack of the very witty and well-written movie "Real Genius," which benefits from the underrated genius of Val Kilmer.

—Sarah Torribio


Epigram of the Day: "Agree to disagree"


























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Epigram: California poppies





Song of the Day: "Victims of the Night" by Lee DeWyze




A lovely ballad with dramatic dynamics and a rich melange of sound. There's also that whole Irish-tinged aesthetic that's been so hot for the last few years. Like truly, you could Irish step-dance to this song as it nears the culmination. 

Lee DeWyze is not from Ireland, however, according to Wikipedia.  He's also not exactly new to the music scene, though he's new to me. He won the ninth season of American Idol and is "an American singer-songwriter" from Mount Prospect, Illinois. My song of the day is his "Victims of the Night."

P.S. The 2 vids I've seen by Lee DeWyze are sweet and whimsical in an almost Royal Tenenbaums way, featuring paper engineering, miniature scale and stop motion.


Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Song of the Day: "Pulling Mussels from a Shell" by Squeeze

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I  really kinda like this song: "Pulling Mussels From A Shell." Squeeze was ahead of its time. Except for (pardon my opinionated attitude) when it comes to the song "Tempted by the Fruit of Another." The aforementioned song is why I never thought to listen to much Squeeze until young adulthood. 
The same goes for Thin Lizzy. All I ever heard on the radio was "The Boys Are Back in Town," so I had no idea about the mix of Irish culture and mythology and of the lonesome cowboy ethos evoked by frontman Phil Lynott. 
He was mixed, bi-racial, half-white and half-black in a time and place where that was rare. (Ireland, 'mid '50s-'60s). If I'm not mistaken, he was raised by a single mother. That makes you feel apart, I think, or tends to. For a taste of that lovely melancholy, listen to Thin Lizzy's "Cowboy Song," ideally while sitting by a campfire. 
To hear Phil Lynott's reverential treatment of Irish heritage, try his "Whiskey in the Jar," which is awesome. Metallica did a pretty good cover of "Whiskey in the Jar," by the way. 
Phil Lynott died young from the effects of alcoholism, but his music is still there. You may ask, is this a music blog about Squeeze or Phil Lynott? To which I say, "Yes." 
I have a divergent mind, with my neurons arranged like a walking path. One thought, one song, one image leads to another. It's not the most efficient way of processing the world, but as they say, it's good enough for rock 'n roll.


Saturday, June 13, 2020

Song of the Day: "Amber" by 311


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Hello summer! I see you, even when you're tryin' to hide yourself behind a medical mask. As for 311, those dudes put the "mic" in pandemic. 
I know, it's too soon for Coronavirus jokes. Come to think of it, it's still too early for Titanic jokes and, for that matter, Pompeii jokes. 
But the all-grows-up class clown in me always has to go for the gag. It's like you have to aim for the brass ring while riding a carousel. I'm a writer, and though we play hide-and-seeks, all of us are attention-hungry. 

As for my song of the day, you can't tell me you could compile a "summer playlist' without at least considering "Amber." (Unless your bag is metal or death metal, in which case I bet you could.)

Friday, June 12, 2020

Random Musing: Honkey tonk banter. . .



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Song of the Day: "Obstacle 1" by Interpol



                         
Oh, the glamorous desperation of Interpol. Lead singer Paul Banks sounds like he's been talking to God until he's nearly hoarse, nervously twisting the phone cord, only to find there's no one on the line. 
Likewise, Banks' baritone seems to echo in a deserted auditorium, evoking the same kind of Bell Jar-claustrophobia affected by Ian Curtis of Joy Division. His delivery can be heard to fine affect in their most well-known song, "Love Will Tear Us Apart." 
Curtis and Banks' also share a languor of delivery that tolerates or even demands the occasional flat note. It makes for a doomed charisma.
For a more upbeat Interpol song, try "Evil." The baseline is downright jaunty, comparatively speaking, and has some Kim Deal-esque bounce to it. It's easily among my top hundred basslines.



Song of the Day: "Jane Says" by Jane's Addiction

                   


When I was a teenager, I saw Janes Addiction at the first Lollapalooza and it was almost tribal. This impression was added to by the fact that some fans at the early '90s Irvine Meadows gig had lit fires.
There was a lot of good music and some I would come to appreciate more later. Siouxsie and the Banshees were great, Björk activated my chakras and Nine Inch Nails was. . loud. Later, around the time Trent Reznor curated the Natural Born Killers' Soundtrack, I would be impressed by the beauty of songs like "Burn" and "A Warm Place."


But the evening set by concert organizer Perry Farrell and Jane's Addiction outdid everything. The crowd was hypnotized by the sheer, star-dusted repetition of the song "Jane Says." It's a jam that has no proper place to be cut off because, once started, in a perfect world it wouldn't stop.

Parry Farrell's voice is from another planet. It has its own scale, somewhere between pentatonic scale and Indonesian gamelan orchestra. You may say, "Oh, it's all done with smoke and mirrors, echo and sustain."

He sounded just as strange though when, several years ago, I had the great honor of interviewing Perry Farrell via telephone.

If the song as performed live was tribal, Perry Farrell served as chief. He was charismatic, but touched with an languor that says, "We've got all night. You're not leaving until you get it."

What a guy for a Gen X teen to gawk at. Handsome in a praying mantis kind of way, if that makes sense. That band was on fire, the audience was singing along, and then, a single percussive chord.
Janes Addiction is brilliant for bringing steel drums to the melange that lifts "Jane Says" from being a song about a sad, pretty junkie to something more elemental. The ambiance is part surf, part sand, part tiki torch part voodoo. It's those nights you get in the car and drive fast because the ocean is touched with bioluminescence or teeming with grunions.

—Sarah Torribio 

Song of the Day: "Daydream Believer" by The Monkees

 

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The problems we have communicating on social media reflect the same problems we have speaking face-to-face. What are our conversations, arguments, small talk and patter like in person? 
How often are we on both the offense and the defense, snapping back at others' critiques or opinions without taking time to really hear them? 
How often do we craft our arguments, our retorts, our responses, quips and gags while the other person is speaking?
For me, it's all too often.
Speaking and listening respectfully and with full attention to someone who thinks differently takes practice. People are more likely to practice if others aren't so quick to dismiss an opinion and "cancel" the one who delivers it. 
I'm always looking at the proverbial "Man in the Mirror." (Actually, come to think of it "Man in the Mirror" is not a proverb but instead a song by Michael Jackson. I know because I had the 7" single) 
So I'll start with me. I'm going to be more open to the opinions of people who voted for "the other guy." I'll accept that you consider Def Leppard to be the best band of all time if you try to respect me after learning I prefer the Monkees to the Beatles.



*Incidentally, my song of the day is "Daydream Believer" by The Monkees