Yeah, You Got Me Wrong

I finally got around to really listening to the Broken Bells' album, featuring Danger Mouse and James Mercer.  I'm a big fan of both The Shins and Gnarls Barkley, and my first listen through this back in March kind of left me cold.  It was alright, but there didn't seem to be much to hook me. 

Like the collaboration between Timbaland -- trying to make a rock album -- and Chris Cornell -- trying not to make a rock album -- it seemed like the things that made the individual acts special was missing.  One of the things that I liked about Danger Mouse was the incredible beats and electronic flourishes, while sampling some 60's pop, in Gnarls Barkley and on Beck's Modern Guilt - the choice to primarily use live instruments makes that largely absent here.  What I love about The Shins is the jangly pop, with Mercer's rather endearing high register whine-sing, although I suppose the Smiths-ish influence to Wincing the Night Away might point to the approach to this album.  In any event, the lack of the two things that I loved about the separate groups had me largely shelve the Broken Bells album after a couple of listens.

In the wee hours of the morning today, I decided to give it a spin again as background music.  Like many albums that have grown on me over time, I found it worked considerably better when I wasn't thinking about it.  Especially the second half of the album, which settles into a nice laid back groove.  That groove, in a way, is very similar to some of the more acoustic beats from the Gorillaz' Demon Days and the musical backbone of the Gnarls Barkley tracks.  There's also an odd old-school pop feel to some of the music, almost like something out of a David Lynch film, that adds a different flavour to some of the tracks.

Stand out tracks to me include; "The Ghost Inside" --which I think has the most similarity in terms of bass beat to a Gnarls Barkley song, although it's fronted by Mercer singing falsetto--, "October" -- which features a great opening of guitar and piano, as well as some of the best lyrics on the album--, and "Mongrel Heart" --which highlights a great 70's disco groove as well as a refrain featuring Morricone-esque trumpet work.

The River

I always wonder about nostalgia. 

It's a strange emotion; longing combined with reflection, wistfulness and a mix of happiness and sadness.  I guess conceptually I can understand people who think that high school, university, their 20s, their 30s, whatever, were the best times of their lives -- how there are memories of good times, memories of things being simpler, certain people being around.  Missing someone or something can be difficult, debilitating even, but you can never go back.  Only forward.  One step at a time.

Cherish the memories of the good times, but don't become trapped by the past.  While certain elements may be "better" than "now", those times certainly weren't necessarily simpler than things now.  I've thought about different times myself, wondering where I got different ideas, how I did different things when I was younger, and where certain passions or abilities went.  Treading water, maybe? 

This Too Will Pass Away

When it comes to personal mnemonics, I tend to code most things to music.  As such, just thinking of an individual song can allow me to recall complex, lengthy information, scenes and such.  I used the technique regularly when studying in university; code a book to a CD, keep it in my short-term memory, and then "read" the book, along with the accompanying soundtrack, during an exam.  The ability to remember the entire contents of a textbook fades, but fragments remain whenever I listen to a particular song from any of the albums.  I also tend to encode memories to listening to songs, just as a certain scent, taste, or touch might trigger something.

As such, I've not been able to listen to Puscifer's "C" is for [Please Insert Sophmoric Genitalia Reference HERE] for the past few months, since it would elicit an emotional response of either tears or illness.  Overcome, I usually turn it off.  Which is sad in itself, considering that the EP is just that damn good.  I was listening to the album during the months of November and December while I was working on a short story ["22"] which I've posted an excerpt of elsewhere and the songs "Potions" and "Polar Bear" both highly influenced pieces of the text.  It would almost be funny that the lyrics to "Potions" are relevant both to the story, the roots of the story, and the resulting events following writing the story.

Reading this week's issue of Fables (#95), with the second part of its story focusing on Rose Red, also provided a contribution to a kind of perfect storm regarding memories that I'd rather not keep.  It utilizes what looks like part of the direct text from Grimm's version of Snow White & Rose Red; something that I used as a springboard for part of the aforementioned story, after one of the primary characters related a truncated narration of the fairy tale.  Roses...

I decided to listen to the EP again tonight...

Tired Starlings

I'm still conflicted about the season finale to Supernatural.  I think I liked it.  I also think I hated it.

So, until I watch it again, I'm just going to post the video to a live performance of "White Room" by Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, and others. The really good part starts around 4:09 if you want to skip ahead, but I'd just sit back and listen.

All Out of Happy

Yes, I realise that the series has been cancelled and I'm a little saddened by it.  I can't say that I'm surprised, though, since the series is rather quirky, which doesn't necessarily seem to go over well with typical American audiences.  This week's episode continues on with more of the same, plus random sex and an out-of-left-field appearance by David Cronenberg.  That kind of elevates the show to awesome, which is of course why it needs to be cancelled.

Here's to You, Frank

You will be missed.

Always Deny Everything

Leading on from the Jack Parow stuff, I've also been turned on to Fokofpolisiekar, an Afrikaans alterna-punk band out of Belville, South Africa. I've only had the chance to listen to Lugsteuring so far, but it's pretty damn good.  I don't have a bloody clue what they're singing about -- some of Afrikaans sounds like German words I recognise, but I don't want to necessarily translate them the same way -- but the music is entertaining.  I'd say it sounds like a cross between DC-era punk, Iron Maiden, and stoner rock.  Wikipedia compares them to Alkaline Trio and I'd say that's kind of apt, but I'd argue that their guitar sound is more open and prone to solos and more interesting recursive riffs.  Francois van Coke's scratchy vocals also add a different edge to the music.

"Dance, Dance, Dance. You can fucking, fucking dance."

Due to the fact that I have very strange friends (actually kind of goes without saying), I now have the chorus from a South African rap song stuck in my head.



It's like taking Ali G seriously and having him rap in an unintelligble mash-up of English and Afrikaans. The ginormous hat, bizarre clothes, dancing mummies, automated cat statues and overall song just makes this priceless. I think everyone needs a little more Jack Parow in their lives.

The New Doctor

Up until the David Tennant run on Doctor Who, there had always been an odd quirk, something that I just couldn't take seriously, that would keep me away from regularly watching any run of the series.  I enjoyed watching the old Tom Baker reruns when I was a kid on the CBC, much in the same way I enjoyed watching the black and white sci-fi movies, but there was always something hokey about them that kept me from really being a fan.  The Christopher Eccleston series started to change a lot of that, and then with Tennant, I was watching as soon as they aired.

Unfortunately, that hokey quality seems to be creeping back in to this new run with Matt Smith.  Now, I like Smith as the Doctor.  He's not as good as Tennant, Eccleston or Baker, but he's still rather endearing, and Karen Gillan is quickly becoming my favourite companion since Billie Piper, but...Daleks in WWII facing off against Winston Churchill?  Part of me liked the absurdity, part of me wanted to change the station.  This week's episode, with the weeping angels, however, seemed to appeal to me more.  I'm still watching, but it may turn out to just be an occasional thing if nothing else is on and I'm home.

So Happy You Could Cry

Well, I hate to say it, but I don't think that Happy Town is going to last much longer than its initial batch of episodes.  Despite having its strongest character (MC Gainey's Sheriff) unconscious for the episode, I still kind of liked it, but I do think that it's being too quirky for its own good.  The mystery of the intial murderer is solved in a fairly unusual fashion, so it gets points there, but at this stage in the game, everything's still so fresh that we don't necessarily have any baseline to be shocked by any events.  Everything in Haplin seems off kilter, so there isn't any sort of "normal" grounding.

Random Funny Thing

I've been looking for a release date/pre-sale for the new Spiritual Front album, and in doing so went to the Canadian, American and German Amazon sites and came across something I found endlessly funny.  On both the Canadian and American sites, Amazon is highly featuring the Kindle.  On the German site, the main feature is a washing machine.



I did, however, manage to find that the video for the first single from the new album has been posted, "Darkroom Friendship".  It seems much more accessible compared to how dark some of Armageddon Gigolo was, nevertheless I quite like it.  It still continues with the Morricone-inspired guitar feel and I like the trumpet and accordion.