proteanme

I saw St. Vincent on Monday. It was a really good show. Kinda dreamy for me, but I was feeling kinda dreamy. Hard to describe her music, poppy, jazzy, rocky, but not hard to describe her. She rocks the mic, she rocks the guitar, and she happens to be knockout. Her single, Marry Me, made it on to my top singles for 2007 and here’s what she had to say about that track: It was a comment on all symbols of stability, which is also a comment on never really questioning commitment, really.

Listening to a cover of Neil Young’s Razor Love by the Mobius Band , and without thinking I got a quick and almost lucid (I think that’s word I wanna use here) image in my head of summer sunshine streaming through the window of any little bungalow in Bloomington and walking barefoot across the wood floor to push on the screen door and head out to the porch.

Music can evoke so much imagery and emotion for me, which I’m often grateful for because negotiating my emotional landscape is often like seeing in the dark.

I recommend you download all 6 free Valentine’s day covers. It looks like they are still there for the taking. My favorite track is the cover of Bob Dylan’s I’ll Keep it with Mine.

And no one’s around to dig the sound.

I made a mixed cd for a new friend, carefully culled from end-of-year favorite lists I’ve maintained over the last 5 or 6 years. (My lists not only include stuff that was released in a given year, but also whatever I happened to be listening to a lot that year, which is why Under Pressure made the cut) The mix went through a couple iterations, but with the final tweak in place I came up with a great idea for a cover that looked pretty fucking cool and was also a personal nod to my new friend. And after the final listen when I popped the cd in its case I’m thought to myself . . . perfect. My new friend seemed genuinely happy when I handed it over.

A couple of weeks pass. I’m chatting with said friend. I inquire, “How’d you like that cd?” She pauses, her eyes look down just a little and she answers, “I think we have different taste in music.” I’m sure I must have tipped my head to the side as I thought over my response, if for no other reason than being thrown off balance by the weight of the shocked and indignant thoughts quickly amassing in my brain. Thoughts like – “What? How can that be? Maybe your taste is broken. Or maybe it’s just neglected. Maybe your taste needs a work out, like a lazy fat guy who doesn’t want to put down and pizza and turn off the xbox. Yeah, maybe my taste should be your taste’s trainer, your taste’s sifu, because I have phenomenal taste in music. So much so that I should instruct you in what you should be listening to. C’mon my taste is so cool it should kick your taste in the fucking ass. Right, ass. . .right, don’t be an asshole here. Liz, you’re on the verge of being an obnoxious, pretentious asshole. Good lord, she can listen to whatever she wants, who cares?” You might be happy to know, I ended up saying something, like “What gracious reply”. We’d been talking about being gracious earlier.

I keep forgetting to link to this, the Fantastic Idea Project lives on in myspace. And you can check out 3 newer tracks there.

I was looking in the moleskin I carry around in my back pocket, thinking I’d written something really profound in there that I could ruminate on here in my blog. But instead there’s mostly random notes about freelance projects, sneaker stores I wanted to check out when I was in NYC and SF, a list of graphic novels to check out, the theme of a dinner I’m hosting next week, and a reminder to pay my rent. So here’s an oldie but a goody. I think it’s the first song Matt and I wrote together, lyrics by him and melody by me: sold out teenage screamfest.

I’m angry and sad right now and don’t want to talk about it in any detail, because if I did it would just be long version of fuck it. So instead I’m offering up some quotes.

• From: Kissing the Lipless by the Shins
• Berate, remember
  Your ailing heart and your criminal eyes
  You say you’re still in love
  If it’s true, what can be done?
  It’s hard to leave all these moments behind

• From: Silence by P.J. Harvey
• I’d risen this morning
  Determined to break
  The spell of my longing
  And not to think

• Last up from: Shatter by Liz Phair
  I don’t know if I could drive a car
  Fast enough to get to where you are
  or wild enough not to miss the boat completely
  Honey, I’m thinking maybe
  You know just maybe

On a big ass freelance project this week so I’ll be keeping things short here for the next several days. I think mostly posting lists and today it’s about what songs made it onto my 2007 end of year play list:

• Peter Bjorn and John – Up Against the Wall
• Beirut – A Call to Arms/Nantes
• St Vincent – Marry Me
• Spoon – The Ghost of Your Lingers
• Radiohead – Reckoner
• Lykke Li – Little Bit (This video is so damn sexy it makes me really wish I had someone to make out with.)
• LCD Sound System – Someone Great
• New Young Pony Club – Ice Cream
• Shout Out Louds – Impossible
• The National – Slow Show
• New Pornographers –Myriad Harbour
• M.I.A. – Paper Planes
• Rilo Kiley – The Moneymaker
• Okkervil River – Our Life is not a Movie or Maybe
• Jens Lekman – Postcard to Nina
• PJ Harvey – Silence
• Panda Bear – Comfy in Nautica
• Shocking Pinks – How am I not Myself
• Andrew Bird – Heretics
• Yeasayer – 2080
• Lucinda Williams – Are You Alright
  
• The Sharp Things – Cruel Thing
• Iron and Wine – Flightless Bird, American Mouth
• Caribou (Four Tet Remix) – Melody Day
• Apples in Stereo – Same Old Drag
• Hot Chip – Ready for the Floor
• Glass Candy – Beatific
• Calvin Harris – Merrymaking at My Place
• Sleeping States – Rivers
• Feist – Limit to Your Love
• Wilco – On and On and On
• Radiohead – Nude

This week is a track from an electronic project, called Canary Prince, that Matt and I spent a little time on about 5 years ago. The working title for the track is called song 8.

I mean really, damn. “I gotta have some of your attention give it to me.”  You got it.

I’m going to regularly post MP3’s of songs I wrote by myself or ones I wrote with Matt. This week is one of mine, from my solo project, Buddy Love. It’s an oldie, maybe 5 years ago; anyway here it is: Her secret Theory. (RU if you check this out, please note I’m not feeling particularly nostalgic, but it’s nice to hear this none the less.)