I’ve been hearing this band Biirdie on KCRW a lot lately, and they have this terrific song Catherine Avenue that I really love (it’s the first sample on their MySpace page) – strange and kind of brooding and uplifting all at the same time, with this bizarre guitar solo at the end. Good stuff.
Category Archives: music
Running Through my Head
I’ve had that song “Phantom Limb” by The Shins stuck in my head for the last couple days. The lyrics make no sense at all to me but it sure is catchy.
Been Listening To
I was recently listening again to that William Shatner album, “Has Been,” that came out in 2004. The whole idea sounds like a ridiculous joke but it’s surprisingly really good stuff, pretty melancholy too. The high point is the song,”Common People” that he did with Joe Jackson. Damn, that thing really rocks!
Boogaloo Dudes
I recently heard this cover version of that great 70s song “All the Young Dudes,” done by Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden, and it’s been running through my head ever since. He’s got this great Axl Rose-like quaver to his voice that makes it sound even campier than the definitive Mott the Hoople version, if that’s possible.
I love that song. I must have been about ten years old when I first heard it and it just sounded so unbelievably cool. It was only a few years ago that I learned it had been written by David Bowie, who had the greatest gender-fuck look of all time. So anyway, to feed my Itunes addiction I downloaded both versions of the song. (Hey, I can get “Afternoon Delight” for only .99 cents!) Okay, I’m off to make a compilation tape for Club Fantasy (It’s this Friday!)
Jose Gonzalez
I’ve been really enjoying this singer Jose Gonzalez (from Sweden, believe it or not). You can stream some of his songs on MySpace. Whenever I listen to “Crosses” I get really quiet and stare off into space…
http://www.myspace.com/josegonzalez (Scroll down a little ways for streaming).
Crazy
I can’t get that Gnarls Barkley song out of my head. It’s worth checking out MySpace just so you can listen to their tunes.
Old Songs
It’s weird but I find that as I get older, old music seems to have less of an emotional hold on me. When I was in my twenties, I used to get so sentimental and just have this feeling of yearning and loss when I’d hear certain songs on the radio (some of them pretty embarrassing, like old Bread or America songs). But I notice now that I rarely ever get that feeling anymore. I heard that old Eagles song “Lyin’ Eyes,” (which, yeah, I’ll admit I like quite a bit), but I had none of that old feeling of sadness and loss from it. I enjoyed it and thought it sounded pretty but it didn’t cause any emotional suffering, which I was thankful for. But then for a moment I also wondered, am I somehow missing something by not having such a strong reaction? I don’t know if that’s just getting older and growing beyond my youthful sentimentality or getting jaded or what. But I’ve had other friends report the same kind of thing.
Mediocre Coldplay Song
I was on the freeway the other day and heard that Coldplay song on the radio, Speed of Sound. It’s so weak. Every time I hear it I get the same visceral reaction, like they’re trying to fool us and hope that no one notices that it’s really not very good at all. Ok, I’m no music geek, but to my ear it sounds like one of those left-over tracks that didn’t make the cut on a previous album. I’m not a huge Coldplay fan, but that album that sold a kazillion copies – A Rush of Blood to the Head – had some really nice songs on it, providing background for numerous television commercials.