Battlestar Eclectica: 2020

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Song of the Day: "The Last Time I Saw You (O Christmas)"

"The Last Time I Saw You (O Christmas)" by Porridge Radio—an indie-rock outfit from Brighton, England—is is a splendid, keening, rocking darkwave Christmas tune. It may be a doomed couples' holiday swan song, but it's more cheerful than Judy Garland or Karen Carpenter's heartbreak-beat rendition of "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas."

Random Musing: Triangulation

<<last musing

Sunday, December 13, 2020

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

I can't help it. I'm Gen X, graduated from high school 1992 and attended, as a teen, the first Lollapalooza with headliners Jane's Addiction. I love their tribal, spacey, drugged-out, Dionysian sound. 

The sound is complex, quiet and keening and yet elbowing for ever-more space via reverb and a percussive wall of sound, notably the hypnotic use of steel drums. 

Perry Farrel —who I had the peak-experience honor of 

interviewing a few years back for the Reno Gazette Journal—surfs the aural wave with ease and eccentricity.  

"Jane Says," about a drug-addled girl with her feet on the most sordid of streets and her head in the clouds, is not just a song. Forgive my hyperbole, but to my music-addled brain, it's a prayer meeting of the church of rock 'n roll, set in the ancient Greek temple of the Oracle of Delphi.

—Sarah Torribio

Saturday, December 12, 2020

Thursday, December 10, 2020

Random Musing: As inspired by the original "Karate Kid"

<<next musing

Friday, December 4, 2020

Song of the Day: "Dance Yrself Clean" by LCD Soundsystem

This 2017 song I just stumbled across by LCD Soundsystem, "Dance Yrself Clean," is very cool. Give it a moment for the build, an unexpectedly vigorous beat-drop and growing vocal angst on the part of frontman James Murphy. 

I'm pretty bad at pegging a genre for most music. Perhaps, like Billy Joel, "It's all rock 'n roll to me." According to the inter webs, however, the band—which has been rattling around with various membership permutations since 2002—can be called indie rock, electro-pop or dance-punk.

—Sarah Torribio

Song of the Day: "Romeo" by the Basement Jaxx

"Romeo" by the Basement Jaxx, off the British electro-pop's eminently danceable 2001 album Rooty, is song of the day on Battlestar Eclectica. It's one of the more upbeat, energetic hits of the early 2000s. The video is a ful and appealing take on those colorful Bollywood Indian movies.

I also recommend the Basement Jaxx's preternaturally catchy "Where's Your Head At?" from the same record. Just don't watch the video for that one if you're easily unsettled, because there are some things you can't unsee.

Song of the Day: "You're Still the One" by Okay Kaya

I like this bluesy cover of Shania Twain's "You're Still the One" by Okay Kaya. The song grows, becoming more classic, universal and intimate in the alt-pop translation. In this jaded, plastic, pre-post-apocalyptic time, we need love songs both sweet and silly.

Okay Kaya, I've learned, is a Norwegian-American model, actress and singer/songwriter from New Jersey. She also does a Fiona Apple-esque cover of Cher's "Believe" that's likewise moody and pretty, making for a quiet coffee house torch song.

Sunday, November 29, 2020

Metaphorically Speaking: Lifelike

>>last metaphor

<<next metaphor

Song of the Day: "Hourglass" (Ambyon Remix) by Vidoux

My song of the day, which I stumbled upon while browsing my favorite music-sharing/recommending site LetsLoop, is "Hourglass" (Ambyon Remix) by Vidoux.

This ambient, chill-wave concoction is pretty and so much needed for my jangly nerves, chakras both over-and under-active and shaken confidence. #MusicIsMyShaman

Sunday, November 22, 2020

Random Musing: Reflections on a rough year. . .

<<next musing

Song of the Day: "For the Longest Time" by Billy Joel

I cannot hear this song without breaking into a full-on doo-wop cover.

It's a feat because I insist on singing all the parts, from the friendly tenor of frontman Billy Joel to the contributions of the trio of a cappella masters who startle him as he sits pensively amid the wreckage of an hours-ended high school reunion. 

I also join in the regular beatbox of doo-wop nonsense words and octave straddling "ah-ing" peppered throughout "For The Longest Time." Let's just say it takes breath control and one of those gas station bottles of 5-hour energy drink.  

I'm an ambitious gal, so I'm thinking of also incorporating—after considerable practice—the finger snaps and hand claps that punctuate this 1983 hit. 

This is actually my favorite Billie Joel song. Is that weird? I love the lyrics and presentation. 

—Sarah Torribio

•NEWER POST

Saturday, November 7, 2020

Random Musing: Twinning

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

Song of the Day: "Slow Hands" By Interpol

I don't know whether this is a love song or a horror story, but I love Interpol. They're a stunningly good band. My song of the day is their "Slow Hands" off the band's 2004 album "Antics." I adore how unabashedly in love the song's protagonist is, which is belied by the detached sound of frontman Paul Banks' voice.

It makes for an awkwardly beautiful declaration of devotion, akin to but more successful than George McFly's initial gambit in "Back to the Future" when he tells his future wife that she is his "density." I'd take it in a heartbeat:

"I submit my incentive is romance/I watch the pole dance of the stars/We rejoice that the hurting is so painless from the distance of passing cars/And I am married to your charms and grace/I just go crazy like the good old days/You are me want to pick up a guitar and celebrate the myriad ways that I love you. . ."

I saw Interpol at Coachella many years ago and they were great. All faces were deadpan and the bandpass attired in frontier Victorian Doc Holliday attire. Then they played like they were on fire. But more full of ennui than panicked about it.

While I'll always take the goth, sonically speaking, I hope Paul Banks—whose voice carries a sort of Ian Curtis hollowness—is happier than he sounds.

.

Random Musing: Rehabilitating a traumatic year

<<last musing

Sunday, November 1, 2020

Random Musing: What happens at the No-Tel. . .

Song of the Day: "Radiation Vibe" by Fountains of Wayne

<<last epigram

>>next epigram

• NEWER POST

Song of the Day: "Gives You Hell" by the All-American Rejects

•OLDER POST

•NEWER POST

My song of the day, "Gives You Hell" by the All-American Rejects— is vengeful and petty and I love it. It's from the power pop/rock band's 2008 hit "Gives You Hell" off their World Comes Down album.

—Sarah Torribio

Song of the Day: "Rotting Piñata" by Sponge

Sometimes I think Sponge might be underrated.

There's a momentum in this song, "Rotting Piñata"—off the band's 1994 album by the same name—that makes it perfect for a car trip.

Thursday, October 22, 2020

Epigram of the Day: A modest proposal

>>last epigram

<<next epigram

Song of the Day: "Something Silver" by Pure Bathing Culture

Pure Bathing Culture is increasingly amazing to me. My song of the day, their "Something Silver," is lush, gentle and thoughtful. And the song structure is so sophisticated. I'm a sucker for multiple bridges.

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Song of the Day: "She Shakes" by Pure Bathing Culture

I haven't listened to this pretty indie pop confection, "She Shakes" by Pure Bathing Culture off the group's 2015 album Pray for Rain, in a while. I love the whimsy of this song. Lead singer Sarah Versprille has a lovely and strong alto vibrato and an octave-straddling range. 

As for the music, there are taught and simple drum-lines, jangly dining guitar and just enough production tweaks to make the song glitter. 

—Sarah Torribio

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

Song of the Day: "It's Good to be in Love" by Frou Frou

How did I not know that I needed to hear this song? Imogen Heap is, of course, amazing and from some enchanted woodland. And the production of 'It's Good to Be in Love" by Frou Frou is so lush. 

I love her description of feeling unhappy, discontent and awkward: "When all of my clothes feels like somebody's old throwaways." 

I know that feeling well. . .

—Sarah Torribio

Song of the Day: "It's a Mistake" by Men at Work

Music has a frequency. Sometimes I feel harried, pressed for time, overwhelmed, socially maladapted, unkempt and feral—and that's just for starters. All of the bad stuff. 

When it's like that and my nerves are jinglier than windchimes made from xylophone keys, I have a go-to band. It's Men at Work. It's a balm to my soul. it's like having a kitten asleep in my lap. It's like taking a shot of tequila before hitting the dance floor or drinking warm milk before bed. 

If there wasn't the competing force of The Police, Men At Work would be more celebrated than it is. Or maybe there are other closet super-fans out there. 

So, hoping to calm, focus and right I decided it was time, yet again, to listen to some music. I do it everyday with a passion. Men at Work, I thought to myself. And then I heard a refrain in my head: "It's a Mistake." 

There. That's better. 

—Sarah Torribio

Song of the Day: "Lemon" by Local Natives ft. Sharon Van Etten

My song of the day is "Lemon" by indie rockers Local Natives featuring actress and singer/songwriter Sharon Van Etten. It's a charming duet with clear, ringing guitar notes and two fine singers' voices intertwining.