Music Tuesday: A Golden Birthday

Twenty-six years ago today, John Wayne was celebrating his 75th birthday; a 7.7 magnitude earthquake rumbled in the Sea of Japan causing a tsunami that resulted in at least 104 people dead; and 28 year old woman woke up to the early signs of childbirth, got dressed, packed, swept and vacuumed her house before waking up her husband to take her to the hospital. Roughly 12 hours later, I was born.

I've said before that birthdays seem more appropriate for looking forward and back, reminiscing on past enjoyments and making new year resolutions, because this is the day when your year really does end. Sure there's an actual end to a calendar year, there's an end to a fiscal year, but these restrictions have been imposed on us from the moment our real chronology began. So on my birthday I like to look back and forward on my life, if only for a little while, to see what I can improve. The one thing I want to improve about this upcoming golden year? Anything to make it the best year of my life. Travel, work, create, love, nothing short of everything at a ten.

So with this day comes another playlist. Last year's Quarter Century list has continued to be a source of great joy for me. Whenever it's played, enjoyment ensues. It'll be tough to top for me, as I hold it as probably the most enjoyable list I've put together on this foggy blog, but here's a go, in the name of John Wayne's 101st...

Music Tuesday: Golden Year

01. Garden Walk - J. Spaceman -- off the soundtrack to the film Mister Lonely. Never ended up catching this quirky film, but it's director was cited as the source of inspiration for Mr. Spaceman (aka Jason Pierce of Spiritualized) to finally finish his latest album Songs In A & E after a tumultuous recording period which saw him actually die as a result of complications from pneumonia (his heart stopped), only to come back to the land of the living. It made for great album fodder.

02. Silent Sigh - Badly Drawn Boy -- off the soundtrack to the film About A Boy. Sensing a pattern here... The film from Nick Hornby's book continues to surprise me whenever I catch it on TV. It's funny, heavy and light, and it's got a great soundtrack provided by a man that goes by the name of Badly Drawn Boy (aka Damon Gough). Here's a lovely tune that's ripe for a morning stroll/ride.

03. Sunny Goodge Street - Donovan -- off the album Fairy Tale. It's a repeat, and not even a repeat from long ago, this song was on the last list I put up here. To be fair, I don't really care. If I were to do a list sometime in the future of my top 5 songs of all time, this would make a third appearance on the blog. I don't know what it is about this song that tugs at me. I first heard it on a compilation cd in which the tracklist was chosen by one of my favorite songwriters of all time (read: the greatest) Paul McCartney, the first time I spent time out of the country. I was studying one summer in London, the second day I picked up the Mojo magazine that contained the album and I've been in love since. It's sweet, it's haunting, it's love. I wish to find this street one day.

04. Le Poinçonneur Des Lilas - Serge Gainsbourg -- off the album The Originals. This album hooked me on Monsieur Gainsbourg and the resulting buying spree of music is soon to leave a large dent on my financial situation. Here's one of the first that hooked onto me. No idea what he's saying, just like it.

05. Ram On - Paul (and Linda) McCartney -- off the album Ram. This album within the past year or so has apparently gained a ton of popularity in the indie circles of Los Angelos, which is absolutely awesome. I picked up this album in the amazingness known as the Half Priced Books used record collection. HPB has what I consider the best collection of used stuff I've seen in a record store. I'm always in love with what I pick up there, and it's usually a quirkier find than any "true" record store. This album is the true definition of quirky pop, and could be considered one of the first "indie" albums, by way of its DIY nature. The song is pure bliss.

06. Musicbox Underwater - J. Spaceman -- off the soundtrack to the film Mister Lonely. I'll again end with an instrumental from the same man that started us off. This really out to trail off into Our glorious May 26th, as you wake, watch the sun rise, get ready for work, drive, walk, run, bike, eat, love, work and sleep.

Happy Birthday guys.

Ooooooo

I generally dislike musicals, but this one looks right up my alley. Day Lewis as Mastroianni? Lovely. Let's hope it doesn't tarnish 8 1/2's good name, or is that film untouchable in our history?

Regardless, this looks real interesting.

While Claudia Cardinale is irreplaceable in my mind, Day Lewis bull-whipping the manifested loves of his life will do. Let's hope this thing is zany.

Great Shuffle

Here's a Shuffle of a post...

Ever have one of those days were your ipod just shuffles up the perfect list of songs. It's only happened to me a total of three times, where I get a good helping on songs on a drive without skipping to the next track. It happened to me yesterday, and it put me in such a good mood. I'd like to share the tracklist:

Beirut - In The Mausoluem
TV On The Radio - Staring At the Sun
The Soft Pack - Call It A Day
Bob Dylan - Down The Highway
Paul McCartney - Follow Me
Jennifer Gentle - Quarter To Three
Cut Off Your Hands - Still Fond
The Walkmen - New Country
Letters - Interlude
Nilsson - Down By The Sea
Rolling Stones - Street Fighting Man
Spiritualized - All Of My Thoughts

I'd love nothing more than to share this as a playlist for you, but I'm going to right now. You should probably check out all of these artists if you haven't already. Ok, maybe there'll be a playlist at some point.

Also -- I now have a motorcycle.

[See?]

Well, I've had it for a while, about 2 months now. It's a 1980 Moto Guzzi V50 II, and it's really fun. I got it in terrific shape from the Vespa dealership here in town. For a used bike of that year, it looks and performs wonderfully. It's my first motorcycle, and it is just begging for a cross-state trip replete with Springsteen blasting along the way. Let it be known that riding a motorcycle makes me want to cruise around and listen to music even more. Let it also be known that I never do that, because it is incredibly dangerous. But man do I want to.

here's another pic:


Yes, it is dangerous, and yes I know what I'm doing. And yes, it is incredibly fun.

Also also -- this last photo was taken with a new camera I bought for myself. It's my first step up into non-commercial based photography [i.e., coolpix cams]. It's a Nikon D60 that I got on the cheap from a Wolf Camera that was going out of business. Look out graphic world, Kyle's on the ups.

Here's one of the first pics taken with it, of my girlfriend's family's Great Dane, Ferris the Lover:

[Ferr-ocious]

Music Monday: The Trip

It's really just a big ol' mash up of about 6 different ideas I had for lists, all half-complete, but hey who cares. Here it is anyway... and on a MONDAY!

I wanted to get this done because my friend, Anton, is headed out of the country for a month or so and I want him to listen to good music while he's gone. He's got great taste, so I'm sure he will anyways, but this is just a little extra bump of something new. Or maybe it's not new to him, who even knows these days, what with the ready supply of knowledge at everyone's fingertips. I had a friend once give me a mix CD before a two month trip overseas, and while about half of the songs were repeats for me, the pleasure of the whole of the album played together far outweighed the fact that I had doubles on my ipod. It was about the Playlist.

This little edition features 29 songs total [I'm pretty sure] and runs pretty close to all styles of music to be enjoyed. If you decide to download it, and it'll only be up for about a week I'd say, you'll find 8 folders, each containing anywhere from one to seven songs, depending upon how far along in the completion process I have found myself at this moment. The a couple lists have a point, a couple just comprise themselves of new music, and one is just a single 26 minute track from the film Jules Et Jim (I know you been digging it recently, Anton).

So here we go... I started out writing about each of these and man, it was a lot to write. I have about a paragraph for each of these tracks about why you should listen, sometimes more than a paragraph. If you really need to know why you should listen to these songs and feel like asking, feel free, I'll post any of my thoughts on any of these songs. For now though, just take a look at the track list I guess...

Music Monday: The Trip

After Beatles:: was supposed to be a quick 4 track sampling of each of the Beatles best song (as determined by me, at this current point in time) after their break up. I only got two songs in.
1. Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth) - George Harrison
2. Photograph - Ringo Starr

Austin's:: this started out as an Austin's Best list, but quickly became just a list of songs by Austin artists new and old that I really like.
1. Empty Rooms - Sound Team
2. Culver City - Yellow Fever
3. Let Me Go - The Early Tapes
4. Poem Party - The Strange Boys
5. Mean Mad Margaret - Spoon

New:: pretty self-explanatory. Full of new/newish tracks that you might not have heard. If you have, then you can pride yourself on it.
1. Inside Job - The Muslims (aka The Soft Pack)
2. La Llorona - Beirut
3. Kim & Jessie - M83
4. Video Tapez - Amplive (ft. Del tha Funky Homosapien)
5. Sleep All Day (demo) - Silverchair
6. The Lie - Bad Veins
7. Vacationing People - Foreign Born
8. Tree Bones - Port O'Brien
9. Airplanes - Local Natives

Old Warm:: an older selection of jazz and country cuts. The warmth exuded from these three songs is immeasurable. Even if the country songs are lonely. Wish I had more for this one.
1. Django Castle - Django Reinhardt
2. Amelia Earhart's Last Flight - The Greenbriar Boys
3. He's Solid Gone - Maybelle Carter

WA Film:: this was a list I was pretty excited about, but I never finished. Comprised of songs I thought Wes Anderson should have in his films it only totalled out to 3 songs. Two of them are here because the other one, Bob Dylan's "Fourth Time Around" wouldn't convert to an mp3 for me. This is another list I wish I had taken more time for and really finished. Maybe sometime down the line. It also is a little disappointing to not talk about these because they are definitely two of my favorite songs of all time.
1. Teddy Boy - Paul McCartney
2. Sunny Goodge Street - Donovan

Walkmen:: A list I talked about a few times already, this was supposed to show a track from every Walkmen album to date just to emphasize how awesome they are. Their latest, You & Me was my favorite album of 2008.
1. Mucho Mongo - The Walkmen
2. There Goes My Baby - The Walkmen
3. Canadian Girl - The Walkmen

Wave:: filled with four songs of late 70's/early 80's acts that have creeped into my heart over the past 3 years or so. The Smiths in particular. I love The Smiths. Glad that I can acutally appreciate their music at this point in my life.
1. Disorder - Joy Division
2. Venus - Television
3. This Charming Man - The Smiths
4. Seven Seas - Echo & The Bunnymen

Jules Et Jim:: one 26 minute track called Suite Symphonique from the 1961 film Jules Et Jim by Francois Truffaut. It was a glorious tale of drama, intrigue, passion and relationship, and this suite emphasizes each bit of it. Anton, you're in the mood to make a little love story in NZ, here's a bit of soundtrack to help you out.
1. Suite Symphonique (Jules Et Jim) - Georges Delerue

* * *

Alright so that was a long post.

Please enjoy this if you'd like. It'll be up for a week or so. If it's down when you try to get it, let me know and I'll put it together again for you. And again, if you'd really like more on any of these artists, ask me I won't say no, how could I? (Thanks Morrissey.)

Good Luck on your trip Anton.