Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Old Tunes on Repeat (p.1)

Every once in a while I like to check out my "Top Tracks" "Overall" on last.fm.
I've had the account for a while now. July 5 2006.
I was a junior in high school then.
So these are the 10 tracks that received the most listening time, filling my room, headphones, ears, and blog posts for the past 3.3 years.
It's interesting to see which melodies caught you most, at one point or another.

Peter and The Wolf-Bonsai Tree
I will always love this group. They're the perfect compilation of everything I love best in music.
That voice, the raw banging of pots and pans, some occasional howling, guitar picking. Parfait.
(This song is more melodic than some of the tracks off of "Experiments in Junk".)

The Whitest Boy Alive-Golden Cage
Another favorite, although I'm sure to like them less over time. This makes me sad, but hearing a band I like so much playing on Gossip Girl commercials and Sephora speakers. Too much.
But still, I'll listen. I first heard them at friend's place. He had them on sort of low in the background. At one point my subconscious communicated with me, and I realized how much I was enjoying the music. They're like that. They sink into your skin. Loungey and dancey all at once. So versatile. So good.

Sparrow House-When I am Gone
This is the side project of the drummer from Voxtrot. And it is much better than Voxtrot. Although, I'm not going to lie, I still really like Voxtrot as well.
Sparrow House is slow and a perfect blend of folk and synth. And the voice.
It is my Autumn EP. It was the only CD in my car between September 2007 and November 2007. I don't remember why, but it became my soundtrack to long drives through german fields. When I hear these songs I see orange and brown and yellow. Raindrops and pumpkins.
I wish he'd make more.
But I'm also cozy with the fact that there's so much condensed goodness there. Nothing to dislike, no tracks to skip.

Nouvelle Vague-Dancing With Myself
No real story behind this, it's just a fun, great cover. I found it on a blog I used to read obsessively: I guess I'm Floating. They due this thing "Tuesdays & Covers". Good reads.

Metric-Raw Sugar
Again, no big story. I think I got really into this album on a long train ride.
I do that.
Pick one album for a day, and listen to it over an over.
I have to be alone though.
It annoys the shit out of everybody else.

Albert Hammond, Jr.-Call and Ambulence
I'm a big fan of The Strokes, and as well, all Strokey side projects. This is their bassist. Sean Lennon and Julian Casablancas, and somebody else cool make cameos.
Not necessarily in this song though.
I saw him in Heidelberg once. It was a good show, but he was so drunk that I felt nauseous just watching him struggle to perform. But as all Strokes do, he did an impressive job of looking really drunk, but still sounding really awesome. Not when he spoke. Just, you know, the music.

Calvin-Stopes-Shipwreck Siren
This is the band of a German friend of mine. We became pen-pals on myspace when I was 15? 16? We sent each other music and stuff. Wrote about America and Germany. Envied each others' locations.
A few years later, I was searching for a job in France, but got a better offer in Germany. I went with the flow, and ended up seeing a few of Knut's shows along the way. Those were always fun weekends. The band has dissolved since then. But I still think they had something.
Their guitarist Max wrote the songs. Really great writing, I thought. One song said "The curtains will not inhale the gloom". I like that.
This song; Shipwreck Siren is particularly catchy.

Messes-Light in My Eyes

Tapes 'n Tapes-Omaha
Tapes 'n Tapes was probably the second independent band I was exposed to.
I was blown away.
I liked everything about them.
They sounded like a storm on the sea. Pirates, maybe. Something great.
Before Tapes 'n Tapes. I never just sat and listened to music. I hadn't heard anything that good.
Music was background music.
But Tapes 'n Tapes were entertainment enough.
I'd lay on the floor and just listen. Sometimes my room was a big wooden ship then.
I have a pretty big imagination.

6 comments:

Anonymous,  8:05 AM  

Alright, I have downloaded and am ready to rock! (Davidindenmark)

Kelsi 12:58 PM  

http://goingconcern.com/two%20thumbs%20up.jpeg

Moonhare 2:22 AM  

In conclusion: I was rocked! I mean, obviously not EVERYTHING was right up my alley, but BOY HOWDY (if you'll pardon my French) most of it was! :-)

Kelsi 2:25 AM  

Haha, nice!
Which ones were outside your alley?

I don't think we've talked much about music before, so I have no idea really what you're normally into!

Moonhare 2:35 AM  

Well, the first three songs were all pretty much spot on for me, but I didn't ken as much to Albert Hammond, Calvin Stopes or Tapes n' Tapes.

According to last.fm, over the last year I have been into:

"I'm into folk, indie, singer-songwriter, rock and female vocalists, including:
Bruce Springsteen, Current 93, King Creosote, The Mountain Goats, The Watersons, Damien Jurado, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, The Pogues, Smog, Pete Seeger, The Velvet Underground, Moongazing hare, Neil Young, Sinéad O'Connor, James Yorkston and The Athletes, Cat Power, Vashti Bunyan, Antony and the Johnsons, The Blow, Hamish Imlach, Swans, Herman Düne, Alela Diane, Lal & Mike Waterson, R.E.M., Fleet Foxes, Tindersticks, Death in June, The Iditarod, Diane Cluck, The Beatles, dan savage, Ralph Stanley, Alasdair Roberts, Madrugada, In Gowan Ring, My Morning Jacket, Willie Nelson, Shirley Collins, The Microphones, TV on the Radio, Fever Ray, Anne Briggs, Daniel Johnston, The Magnetic Fields, Mutton Jeff, The Angels of Light, Joan Baez, Band of Horses, The Beach Boys."

I think that pretty much covers the last 5 years of my life, as well, though I might have gone a little more MOR and a little less apocalyptic with time, but it's pretty much all about folksiness, hissing, buzzing, sentimentality and the end of the world :-)

Kelsi 3:48 AM  

Haha, great, I guessed right!
I think it was the banjo and pretty stuffed bird on your wall in Brussels, that made me think you'd probably be more into the folkier side of that list.