Recently in music Category

been a while since i wrote anything

a lot of things that were going well last week
aren't going so well now

some stuff that seemed promising seems not
to have panned out

and i've got probably another week or more of
long days and weekends in the lab
still trying to make the best of what is at the core
a dumb idea

oh well
i suppose one can look at all of it
and call it some sort of progress

happened upon an amusing little exercise today
make a list of your favorite albums from each year you were alive

here goes
1976 meh
1977 kraftwerk - trans europe express
1978 genesis - and then there were three
1979 pink floyd - the wall
1980 joy division - closer
1981 depeche mode - speak and spell
1982 the cure - pornography
1983 genesis - genesis
1984 duran duran - rio
1985 depeche mode - some great reward
1986 depeche mode - black celebration
1987 r.e.m. - document
1988 depeche mode - music for the masses
1989 the cure - disintegration
1990 sonic youth - goo
1991 depeche mode - violator
1992 orbital - orbital 2
1993 toad the wet sprocket - fear
1994 toad the wet sprocket - dulcinea
1995 bjork - post
1996 underworld - second toughest in the infants
1997 the prodigy - the fat of the land
1998 massive attack - mezzanine
1999 underworld - beaucoup fish
2000 radiohead - kid a
2001 royksopp - melody a.m.
2002 underworld - a hundred days off
2003 kraftwerk - tour de france ep
2004 efterklang - tripper
2005 depeche mode - playing the angel
2006 the knife - silent shout
2007 nine inch nails - year zero
2008 portishead - third

i was lucky enough to see underworld twice in two nights. for those of you who don't know, they are totally my favoritest artist in the whole wide world. and for those of you who went last night, well, you probably know why. after two straight nights of finding a way to twitch and gyrate all 6'4" of me in a small space in time with the music, i'm a bit worn out this morning, but it was so worth it. i emerged into the frosty harbor air with my england jersey completely drenched (though it took seconds to dry; this is the reason that soccer jerseys are one of the world's most versatile articles of clothing) and dehydrated, but feeling great, really. i can say unequivocally that they were better in boston than the previous night in new york. the venue wasn't ideal, but it was louder, it was darker, and most importantly, the crowd was there to see a show and dance as opposed to there to see themselves dress stupid, smoke cigarettes ostentatiously, and talk through it. and while fewer folks seemed to recognize the songs and know all the words, i have to figure a lot of them are converts now.

i try to avoid writing about music, because while i have strong opinions about it and it’s important to me, i’m singularly unable to articulate why this is so. nevertheless, here we are.

i saw genesis last night at the td banknorth fleet shawmut center garden, which was really cool. they were totally my favorite from, oh, 1986 to 1993. in middle school, the usual assortment of bullies liked to interrogate me while i awaited whatever indignity they had planned, and i probably should have lied about my favorite band, in retrospect. this, among other egregious transgressions, such as being very smart, and rather fat at the time, was grounds for further punishment still.

as a result, i couldn’t help but think how odd it was to see a huge arena, more or less full of people, some of whom even looked like the 30-year-old, out-of-shape, considerably-less-intimidating version of the same guy who beat me upside the head with a no doubt underutilized math book seventeen years earlier.

it was actually a really good show, and while they left out plenty of my favorites, phil collins kept his more regrettable tendencies towards sappy ballads and ruining his own best songs in check. better still, he played the drums quite a lot (usually the people playing the plastic buckets outside of fenway or the garden sound pretty good, but surely their tips were down last night), and they played the full versions of most of their songs, complete with the lengthy interludes that probably had some people scratching their head, but were my favorite part, usually.

i had such a good time that i stuffed some poor guy with a dashboard confessional shirt into a newspaper box on my walk to the t. he was asking for it, i swear.

there are some days where, for whatever reason, everything in my vast itunes library simply sounds better. it's a happy coincidence when this happens on a day where i have a ton of shit to do and need to buckle down. sometimes it happens when you don't get to sit down with your music for a while. sometimes there's no discernible cause for it. either way, it's a happy thing. autechre sounds crisper and clearer. tears for fears don't sound the least bit dated. underworld's lyrics make a startling amount of sense. the prodigy are seeing that my bitch gets smacked up, i'm zoned in on solidworks, whacked out on four cups of coffee, and i'm liking it.