Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself

So, here I am in the crunch time of writing an essay and I'm using my tightly scheduled break to finally get some more music up here.

What is my essay about? (Thanks for taking interest).

Well, it started out as a vague idea of modernist techniques in The Sound and The Fury and Mrs. Dalloway. However, it started to take it's own direction based on the links I spent way too much of my time following. My essay is now on (and titled) Suicide as an Existential Tool in Modernist Literature. I really don't know how it happened. Still, it's crazy interesting stuff. I'd definitely recommend both novels, though Quentin's bit takes some real dedication to follow.

Anyways, I need to wrap up so that I can finish my essay and then learn about crazy people. For your listening pleasure, here are just a few songs by people who killed themselves:

Elliott Smith - Pretty Mary K
Definitely the most recent musician suicide I can think of. He stabbed himself with a kitchen knife, which I can only imagine to be pretty damn painful. This is a song from the Either/Or sessions that is characteristically quiet and powerful. It actually reminds me a bit of my personal favorite, Nick Drake.

Del Shannon - I Go To Pieces
A real true golden oldie. Runaway is my personal favorite of his, but I couldn't find the file. Del shot himself in the head at the age of 55. He also happened to have just started taking Prozac, so that's kind of a scary med story.

Nick Drake - Winter is Gone
It would take far too many words for me to describe my love of Nick Drake. He was one of those quiet sensitive bookish types, which of course means he was miserably depressed. This song is from Family Tree, a compilation of his home recordings that was released just last year. Seriously though, download Five Leaves Left (his first album). It will chill you out and bring a tear to your eye.

Joy Division - The Eternal
Ian Curtis, Joy Division's lead singer hung himself after Werner Herzog's film Stroszek and listening to Iggy Pop's The Idiot (great album by the way). A biopic about him called Control, that won a bunch of British awards and is finally coming out on dvd on March 25. This particular song is from their last album, Closer. It's 6:07 minutes of pure depression. It's great to listen to on a rainy day, so long as you remind yourself after it's over that you actually don't want to die.

Badfinger - Baby Blue
Though not so widely known now, Badfinger was huge back in the '60s, banking on the Beatles era power pop explosion. Unfortunately, a few poor business decisions were made and things quickly went downhill for the group. Lead singer Pete Ham hung himself in his garage three days before his 28th birthday and about 8 years later singer and guitarist Tom Evans hung himself in his backyard. Now, I don't know this band too well, but two suicides...wow.

Ok, so maybe it's a tad bit morbid, but sad people make the best music, so this is the stuff that's worth looking up.

Enjoy!

OMG! Listen to this!: Week 1

I download a lot of music. My band ADHD has reached an all time high lately as I've been downloading individual songs, not even albums. Because of this, each week I have a quite a few 'new favorite songs' that I should really post before I move on and forget about half of them.

Belle and Sebastian - The Blues are Still Blue
I've been a Belle and Sebastian fan for a while, but this definitely doesn't sound like a lot of their older stuff. In fact, this song is the epitome of catchy indie pop. I highly suggest it, but this song comes with a disclaimer. You will have it stuck in your head for days.

These United States - First Sight
These guys have to win as my new favorite band. Not that it's my favorite band, the DC natives (represent!) have definitely captured my heart. They're also all over the blog scene despite having not yet released their first album. I'd say that's a pretty good sign.

The Whitsundays - It Must Be Me
When this song first starts, I can't help but think of The Beach Boys. While it definitely falls under that vague umbrella that is 'indie', this band has a really chill 60's feel to it. Also, it has harmonizing.

Lou Reed - Take a Walk on The Wild Side
How tragic is it that The Velvet Underground isn't still around. Despite my love for the band (and also because of it) I just adore Lou Reed. This laid back song about hookers and transvestites is an absolute classic.

The Essex Green - The Late Great Cassiopia
I wish I could wake up to this song every morning. It's yet another upbeat indie pop tune that will get stuck in your head (though maybe not for quite as long as Blues are Still Blue). Just another one of those things to brighten up a grey winter day.

If you have any music suggestions for me, I'm listening.

Have fun (or too much fun) this weekend!

The Song Sex Talk (Not To Be Confused w/ The Sex Song Talk)

This entry is is to cover my recent obsession...covers! (Laugh ironically at the pun, please)

I used to hate covers. Don't get me wrong, they weren't all bad. I loved Janis Joplin doing Summertime and only knew Adam Green's version of What a Waster. Still, there seemed to be something innately dirty about tampering with a great piece of music.

Then I was in the mood for something new. I had downloaded so many albums, explored so many bands, that I really just wanted to appreciate the songs that I had fallen in love with.
This is where I have to thank my friend Joshua for being stocked with a full folder of links to cover blogs.

So, I listened. At first I would try and find bands I loved covering songs by other bands I love. How can you go wrong with The Shins covering Pink Floyd or Stars covering Springsteen? These were great musicians performing odes to the geniuses before them. It was beautiful. Soon I was listening to some of my favorite songs being covered by artists I don't even listen to and enjoying it.

Anyways, here are some of the covers born of these unions:

Jose Gonzalez - Love Will Tear Us Apart (Joy Division)

The Shins - Breathe (Pink Floyd)

Cursive - Franky Mr. Shankly (The Smiths)

Nirvana - The Man Who Sold The World (David Bowie)

Stars - Hungry Heart (Bruce Springsteen)

Just because these are super awesome, don't forget to download the original songs as well (if you don't already have them). Each version has its own charm.

Till next time...

Oh, and I'd really appreciate comments since I'm something of a n00b (yeah, I said it) at this.

A Love Song For Sleep

If I blog about sleep, will it find me?

Things get so boring in those hours between 3 and 8 am, when everyone is still asleep. Have you ever realized that the hours you have nothing else to do are the hardest ones to get work done during? If I could only make use of these odd hours, I could write a novel or something. I certainly wouldn't be online. No one updates facebook at this hour.

Some physiological effects of sleep deprivation (according to wikipedia):
-Blurred vision
-Colorblindness
-Dark circles under the eyes
-De-realization (a personal favorite)
-Hallucinations
-Psychosis
-Slurred speech
-Severe yawning (oh no!)
-(Drum roll please...) Sleep

Thank you wikipedia, for informing me I'll go crazy and yawn.

And, just to be a real masochist, here are some songs that make sleep sound really nice:

The Postal Service - Sleeping In

Liam Finn - Lullaby

The Smiths - Asleep

Goodnight!

Anglophiles Unite

Ok, so I think I've got this file sharing thing down. As a result, I can now bombard you all with my latest obsessions in music.

Here is a song by Adam and The Ants that I actually found on the soundtrack for a British show called Skins. It's a pretty soapy teen show (full of drugs, sex, partying, all of those things that make high school look way more crazy than it really was), but because of that it's really easy to get hooked on. Plus...it's British. That automatically makes any show worth at least listening to. Unfortunately, it doesn't air anywhere in the states, but some nice fan put all of the episodes up on youtube. Watching TV on TV is so over-rated anyways.

Adam and The Ants - Prince Charming

Oh, and another British show you should all watch it Doctor Who. I know it can be cheesy sci-fi, but the new Doctor is played by David Tennant who is a very very sexy Scottish man. It can be found through Sidereel (aka God to procrastinators and TV geeks).

Feel free to comment, and I'll post again very soon.

The Beginning Of The End

I have a confession to make. I have no idea what I'm going to blog about. To tell the truth, creating a blog just seemed like the best thing to do to procrastinate. Also, I have enough bookmarks with this damn blogger icon that I just wanted my own.

My goal is to figure out how to post songs so that you can all listen to and steal all of my latest obsessions and then become obsessed with them yourselves. Until I can figure that out, I guess I'll just make recommendations.

I'll also post pictures from my various film cameras or my digital camera of things I think are fun and interesting and..well...pretty.

I might also ramble. In fact...I probably will.

Well, now that that's off my chest, I guess I'll see you next entry.