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Entry tags:
Music Post
Live
There is a Perpetual Dream Theory show in a little over a month! Do any of the Vancouverites reading this want to attend it with me?
(Perpetual Dream Theory is a band that I discovered, on the internet, in 2002; on a whim and the basis of a single track, Andrew and I went to one of their shows, where we were apparently the only ones there who didn't know them personally. Afterward, when I posted briefly about it in my weblog, one of the band members found it, and sent me an e-mail asking if they could link to it as a review. They've become somewhat better known since then, but it's very difficult for me to gauge how much*; to me, their music still tastes like tiny coffee houses (which is a positive feature).
(* Except I introduced J. and Rachel, so, by at least two people. Today is parentheses day!)
It's been a long time since the last time they played where I could go and hear it, so I'm pretty happily anticipatory.)
Albums
I got a bunch of albums for Christmas; as my inability to listen to anything but Sufjan Stevens ebbs, I've slowly been exploring them. They include (in approximately the order that I've listened to them (I told you that today was parentheses day)):
Mixes
It's difficult to tell how much the shapes of my mixes matter to people who aren't me, though to me they matter a lot. I had a conversation with J. last week (or so?) in which he admitted that he found it difficult to think of these things as wholes; he would mark transitions between individual songs, but his attention span didn't extend much further than that. Later I was talking to Elise, and she said that she thinks there are four main approaches to constructing a mix, which hopefully I recall well enough to reproduce:
1. To try to collect songs that thematically and lyrically suit the person you're giving it to;
2. To try to collect songs that the person you're giving it to will probably really like;
3. To just put together a bunch of songs that you like;
4. To try to make something coherent, like an album.
Looking at this list, it's pretty clear to me that my first priority is always goal #4, and any of the others a secondary concern; I like a lot, and am consistantly concerned with, the idea of a synergistic context that enhances each component, the album as a thing in its own right, with a larger emotional sweep. Probably this is the fault of hearing "Abbey Road" at some formative point in my listening career.
Sleepy
As predicted, I've been very sleepy today (this may have been evident from some or all of my prose). Now I am going to reward myself for writing this post... By sleeping.
Coming soon, for Rachel: a catalogue of my current classes.
There is a Perpetual Dream Theory show in a little over a month! Do any of the Vancouverites reading this want to attend it with me?
(Perpetual Dream Theory is a band that I discovered, on the internet, in 2002; on a whim and the basis of a single track, Andrew and I went to one of their shows, where we were apparently the only ones there who didn't know them personally. Afterward, when I posted briefly about it in my weblog, one of the band members found it, and sent me an e-mail asking if they could link to it as a review. They've become somewhat better known since then, but it's very difficult for me to gauge how much*; to me, their music still tastes like tiny coffee houses (which is a positive feature).
(* Except I introduced J. and Rachel, so, by at least two people. Today is parentheses day!)
It's been a long time since the last time they played where I could go and hear it, so I'm pretty happily anticipatory.)
Albums
I got a bunch of albums for Christmas; as my inability to listen to anything but Sufjan Stevens ebbs, I've slowly been exploring them. They include (in approximately the order that I've listened to them (I told you that today was parentheses day)):
- Radiohead - "Hail To The Thief": I think that this is now my favourite of the Radiohead albums I own; since the other two I own are "Kid A" and "OK Computer", that's a pretty firm positive statement. It seems like they're defter than they used to be; less experimental, in that they seem less like they're throwing interesting stuff at the wall, and more like they know exactly how they want to use it, without having become in the process any less mournful or, hm, creepy.
- Ani DiFranco - "Revelling/Reckoning": I already had a lot of what are probably the best songs on these, thanks to a mix that Marilee made me once, but I'm glad to have the whole thing. I think that "Reckoning", in particular, is going to take some settling in, though there will probably be times when 'quiet and bleak' is just what I'm looking for.
- Death Cab For Cutie - "Transatlanticism": I was actually pretty disappointed by this, which might be because my expectations were very high - I'd heard nothing but good things about it, and I love the Postal Service album - so it may turn out to grow on me, in that sneaky way they have. I worry that that's not as easy for music to do as it used to be, now, with my collection growing larger and more varied, but it's hopefully still possible. The first time around, though, I finished this up, paused for a long, thoughtful moment, and then put on the Weakerthans, instead.
- The Shins - "Chutes Too Narrow": From my sister! At first I was trepidatious, since this is the album of theirs with none of the songs on it that I previously knew, but it turns out that I like it just fine. I like of the Shins the way that the melody, and especially the vocals, will turn in sudden and unexpected directions (particularly up).
(By the way, does anyone know where I may have recently read the lyric, "I find a fatal flaw in the logic of love"? It's yanking at my recollection, but I know I'd never heard the song before.) - Hawksley Workman - "(Last Night We Were) The Delicious Wolves": I haven't actually listened to this one yet. New music takes a while to digest!
Mixes
It's difficult to tell how much the shapes of my mixes matter to people who aren't me, though to me they matter a lot. I had a conversation with J. last week (or so?) in which he admitted that he found it difficult to think of these things as wholes; he would mark transitions between individual songs, but his attention span didn't extend much further than that. Later I was talking to Elise, and she said that she thinks there are four main approaches to constructing a mix, which hopefully I recall well enough to reproduce:
1. To try to collect songs that thematically and lyrically suit the person you're giving it to;
2. To try to collect songs that the person you're giving it to will probably really like;
3. To just put together a bunch of songs that you like;
4. To try to make something coherent, like an album.
Looking at this list, it's pretty clear to me that my first priority is always goal #4, and any of the others a secondary concern; I like a lot, and am consistantly concerned with, the idea of a synergistic context that enhances each component, the album as a thing in its own right, with a larger emotional sweep. Probably this is the fault of hearing "Abbey Road" at some formative point in my listening career.
Sleepy
As predicted, I've been very sleepy today (this may have been evident from some or all of my prose). Now I am going to reward myself for writing this post... By sleeping.
Coming soon, for Rachel: a catalogue of my current classes.
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Of course, not on the list is the ubiquitous "message" mix, usually either sappy or apologetic, which I can comfortably say I think most of us have made and then not given to someone at some point...
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Since my mixes are intended for specific people, there are of course elements of #1 and #2 in their construction, for all my preoccupation with #4 (I suspect that nobody adheres to one of these goals with total purity). Also, when I say that I'm trying to do the album thing, I don't mean to imply that I think I'm necessarily any good at it yet. ^^
The idea of attempting a straight #1 is very intimidating to me, though, I think because, as when I've written a poem for someone, I feel as though I'm expected to encapsulate that whole person and everything they mean to me - to represent them perfectly - which is, er, very difficult. So much easier not to set it explicitly as my goal in the first place, and approach them occasionally, slyly, from an angle.
-Andy H.
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(My mix for Heath was all four, too.)