Reading & Listening

I don't remember exactly when I downloaded "Girl and the Sea" by Australian duo The Presets. But, fortunately, I rediscovered this hypnotic indietronica gem on Friday night as I was shuffling through my iPod while driving to Pasadena.

It's a hauntingly beautiful song and I get especially choked up on this chorus:

"No place, some time
We'll clear our eyes.
And when you're down
I'll come around."

I know they look weird in the masks and all, but trust me, it's a good song. No, actually it's a great song. So great that you can click on this link to watch the video on You Tube. But, I'd recommend just plugging in your headphones, turning up the sound, closing your eyes, and letting the waves of the song wash over you.

I'll come clean and admit that I have no idea what this song "The Creeps" by Camille Jones is really about. Is it about drugs? Is it about going insane? Was it originally written for a scary movie?

I have no idea.

All I know is that the electro-house remix of Camille's "The Creeps" by Fedde Le Grand is damn hot! Camille is a Danish singer and a singing star in her own right. She released "The Creeps" two years ago and it's been remixed a couple of times since then with so-so results. But this song in Fedde Le Grand's hands, man oh man, it's magical.

I'll admit I'm biased since I love Fedde thanks to last year's massive tech-house track "Put Your Hands Up 4 Detroit". I'd say he's definitely worked his magic once again. He needs to be remixing Depeche Mode.

Here's the link to the video for "The Creeps" on YouTube if you want to hear what I'm loving these days. I'll warn you, the video is a bit over-the-top sexy but Camille is quite entertaining (and I love her outfit!).

Feel free to turn up the sound and put on your dancing shoes.

I'm sure that someone somewhere has done scientific research about how long it takes for people to decide whether or not they like a song. For some songs, you need to wait till you get to the 32nd count or at least till the 16th count. With "Sunday Morning" by K-OS, a song I stumbled on tonight, halfway through it, I was hooked after the first 8-count.

I wrote down the lyrics to the chorus, googled, and was led to some links. I skipped those and headed straight to iTunes to download this gem. Why iTunes has this listed as hip-hop/rap is beyond me since this is about as far from what nowadays passes as rap as you can get. It's not really pop either.

What genre is it? I suppose it fits best into the "breath of fresh air" genre.

I read up a bit about K-OS and here's what I've found out: For one thing, he's a mature man...a few months older than moi. He's from Toronto of Trinidadian descent. He's not feeling being a record-industry puppet. He's been doing music his whole life. Oh, and Wikipedia claims he's a Depeche Mode fan. His music is good so I'll trust that fact.

Want to take a listen? You can check out the video for "Sunday Morning" on Youtube. I did a little more investigating and found out that K-OS is playing the House of Blues here in LA tomorrow night with Gym Class Heroes. Tickets are only $14. I may have to get myself over to the Sunset Strip to check him out, if only to sing along, "Everyday is Saturday night...but I can't wait for Sunday morning."

You know you want to sing the chorus to this one:

"Hey now, hey now
Don't dream it's over
Hey now, hey now
When the world comes in
They come, they come
To build a wall between us
We know they won't win"

Yes, I heard "Don't Dream It's Over" by Crowded House on the radio today and, sap that I am, I got all choked up with emotion, just like I used to in 1986 when this song was first released. Back then, I got emotional because I was a lowly freshman and having a hard time not being depressed about the four long years of high school that were ahead of me. Ah, high school and her maliciousness. Those four long years certainly dragged in their passing.

Thankfully, it's twenty plus years since freshman year. Nowadays when I hear this song, I get choked up over the possibilities, over what could have been, and what still can be if I only have enough courage to make things happen. It's the reason why the only poem I've ever memorized is "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost. All of it makes me think back to the different directions my life could have taken. Sometimes I am amazed by the choices I made. Often, I'm utterly saddened by them. So you see, I have to remember it's never over.

Goodness, who knew a 21 year old song by a little Australian band called Crowded House would inspire such musings?

I know, it's Black History Month so you might think I'd probably be reading something related to black history. Well, I'm not. Go ahead, revoke my black card if you want to.

Instead of slave narratives or Toni Morrison, this past Friday night, I picked up a copy of The Mandarins by Simone de Beauvoir. This tale of post-World War II angst and how people do or don't pick up the pieces when they've been existing in the midst of a living hell has been on my reading list for many years.

It's terribly cheesy but I remember the book catching my eye when I was a teenager for two reasons. First, isn't "Simone de Beauvoir" a great name? I didn't know a thing about her, but I wanted that name. (After all, what teenager doesn't want to change their name at some point?) Second, I'd heard that although it deals with weighty realism and existential questions, parts of it read a bit like a romance novel. I'm a terrible romantic and a morbid realist, even though the combination of those two things just seems impossible.

I've heard that the writing is a bit dry at parts, even though the opening seems fine to me. We'll see. If you've ever read The Mandarins, let me know what you thought of it.

Everybody has an opinion about Mariah Carey. I find folks go to extremes of either loving her or disliking her a whole lot. For the first few years of her career, I veered toward the dislike side of the spectrum. I was not a big fan of her ballads or her attempts at danceable pop.

Then, one night in August of 1998, I was trying to keep cool in my sweltering Harlem studio apartment by lying on the floor in front of a fan. I happened to be listening to the radio, New York's ubiquitous urban hit factory Hot 97, and heard the song that changed my opinion of Mariah forever: "Breakdown".

The song is an R&B/Hip-Hop crossover ballad about the heartache of post-breakup unrequited love, something almost all of us have experienced. Mariah's lyrics shimmer with sadness as she asks, "Do you cling to your pride, and sing "I will survive"? Do you lash out and say, "How dare you leave this way?" Do you hold on in vain as they just slip away?"

The song also features Bone Thugs-n-Harmony who harmonize throughout, "Break, breakdown. Steady breakin' me on down" and pose the profound question, "Whose shoulder can a thug go cry on?"

I remember heading down to the Virgin store in Times Square to purchase the cd single of the song, the first and only Mariah record I've ever purchased. Although it's been many moons since I first heard "Breakdown" I still find myself occasionally pulling the cd single off the shelf to give it a listen. Today was one of those days. You can hear it and see the video here. Even though her latest work has been admired, to me "Breakdown" is Mariah at her best.

My AFI love continues unabated due to their live concert dvd, I Heard A Voice.

The actual concert was filmed at the Long Beach Arena last fall. I wanted to go to the show but I was a little worried I'd get smashed in a mosh pit or something.

Thankfully, I got the dvd as a birthday present so I can now watch the show from the relative safety of my living room. I've been watching parts of it every day for the past week.

To see why, you can watch the live performance of "Silver and Cold" from I Heard A Voice here. If you think you're going to have a hard time getting past AFI's tattoos, the theatrical makeup and the hair dye, just remember, both Little Richard and Prince wear make-up and James Brown straightened the heck out of his hair and wore a cape on stage.

"Silver and Cold" is one of my favorite AFI songs anyway, but this live version of the song really sucks me in every time I hear it, especially when everyone sings the chorus:

I dubbed the audio of the entire concert onto cd so I can listen to this version of "Silver and Cold" anytime I want to. You may not want to watch the entire dvd, but go ahead, give this clip a listen.

I have a shameful confession to make: I haven't read a book in a month.

There are few things I love more than a fantastic house or techno record. Fortunately, I subscribe to a podcast called "Dance Department: The Best Beats To Go" so I get access on a weekly basis to some of the freshest gems from around the world.

"All Alone" by Splitter is the first track on this week's session and fits the fantastic record bill perfectly. This may be one 12 inch I head over to Amoeba Music to buy today.

Splitter is a collaboration between Dutch house DJ Martijn Ten Velden, born and bred in the original Haarlem, and UK alternative producer/musician Mark Yardley. Boy oh boy, they should collaborate more because they get the job done. It's not a hugely complicated track. There are only three sung lines to the whole song:

"I don't feel like going home...without you.
I don't feel like going home...all alone.
I don't feel like going home."

If I were out somewhere dancing and the DJ was playing "All Alone", I wouldn't want to go home either. You can go to Mark's MySpace page or to Martijn's to hear "All Alone" in the music players. But, you might want to put on your dancing shoes first .

You ever hear songs that you just don't want to end?

The first time I heard Nelly Furtado's "Say It Right" I was so captivated by everything that was going on both musically and lyrically that I immediately went and downloaded it from iTunes. Timbaland definitely outdid himself on the beat and Furtado's vocals touch you in this odd place.

Who hasn't felt that way before? We've all been there before. For all I know, you might be there right now. You can watch the video of the song on youtube if you haven't heard it before, but I highly recommend taking a listen with your eyes closed first....then you'll hear how great it is and why I never want it to end.