vain, selfish & lazy.

2009-10-19T21:35:00.003-04:00

oh, hi! you know, i tweet now. it's really the extent of my music writing, apart from facebook posts. if you always thought i needed an editor, brother ...

2008-12-16T00:20:00.002-05:00

the end.oh, not of this blog.but blogger & me.i'm moving over to wordpress to see if i can avoid the dmca issues that have become a major source of frustration.here is where i'll be.

2008-12-10T21:03:00.003-05:00

here, in an incredibly rigid order, are my favorite tracks of 200855 sugababes, "unbreakable heart"54 glasvegas, "geraldine"53 nick cave & the bad seeds, "midnight man"52 kanye west, "love lockdown"51 tindersticks, “the flicker of a little girl”50 kleerup, "on my own again"49 guns n' roses, "shackler's revenge"48 a classic education, "stay, son"47 tony christie, "louise"46 the aliens, "blue

2008-11-28T17:11:00.002-05:00

regarding my post on 7 nov, i have another song to add to the category i established therein: "let it rock" by kevin rudolf ft. lil' wayne. this time, the thing i enjoy about it is how it sounds like "blue monday" or, b/c i've been reading genette lately, how it sounds as if it is a text whose paratext is actually "blue monday" released b/w "the beach" by new order as fac 73 on 7 march 1983.

2008-11-20T22:25:00.003-05:00

songs to download & sing:the new sins, "feelings (have changed)," feelings (have changed) 12".britney spears, "blur," circus lp.kanye west feat. mr. hudson, "paranoid," 808s & heartbreak lp.guns n' roses, "shackler's revenge," chinese democracy lp.the brighton port authority feat. emmy the great, "seattle," seattle cds.mumford & sons, "feel the tide," love your ground ep.jazmine sullivan, "dream

2008-11-20T00:14:00.000-05:00

guns n' roses are finally releasing chinese democracy on sunday. your assessment of the album will likely hinge on the response to that statement. if the many years have been suffused w/ countless tears, if you found yourself getting he-motional over it--disillusionment may be in the cards. on the other hand, if you're like me and were just deeply curious then you'll find some things on it to

2008-11-12T23:24:00.003-05:00

let me say a word about wild beasts, who have likely made my favorite album of the year.they're good.i haven't always thought so. they were receiving hype based on some early singles, including "brave bulging buoyant clairvoyants." you can hear the original version here, at last.fm; you can hear the album version here, at their myspace profile.there isn't a huge difference, but it makes all the

2008-11-07T12:16:00.003-05:00

i listen to music exclusively on my ipod these days.whenever i add something news itunes, it gets put in a folder called "to listen," which, given the intransitive quality of that verb, should technically be called "to listen to" but i don't like the repetition. (v. likely it will henceforth be called "to hear.")there are songs that i keep; there are songs i remove; and then there are songs that

2008-10-30T19:25:00.003-04:00

this was my first post back this time around. i managed to save it from google cache. the same, alas, cannot be said of my post on girls aloud, which is gone for good. (n.b. d.m.c.a.: links have been removed.)---but, really, passion pit?it's enough to start me blogging again. why passion pit?they're a v. v. nice band, and i will mildly disagree w/ anyone who doesn't think so, but admittedly

2008-10-30T16:02:00.002-04:00

i know it's been two years since i last blogged, but my this is a new blog order.two posts: two dmca notifications.anyone out there dealt w/ this before? does one actually bother going through the counter notification process?

2006-09-21T14:55:00.000-04:00

(favorite song of the moment: "sally o'gannon" by the tamborines (listen). it's not nu-gaze, not enough guitars--more like a glaze. or a sheet, instead of a wall. they're also fond of random keyboard outbursts, as well, and melodic pop. it's as if "sally cinnamon" took up w/ the reid brothers, and they took her down to the darklands. "so much better now!" the chorus goes. we all should be singing

2006-09-20T00:13:00.000-04:00

(a friend said, "i'm sorry, i know you were only trying to do the right thing." i said, "ha, well, if certain people are to believed, i only try to do the right thing when it can serve as a convenient cover for my baser wants & selfish desires" (as if they confused who i am w/ the name of this website, and but they did). i'm not sure why i try to do the right thing; it hasn't gotten me v. far--

2006-09-19T20:09:00.000-04:00

(... but maybe i spoke too soon.)

2006-09-12T23:28:00.000-04:00

(writing "official" emails for school & such has gotten me back into the accursed habit of using capital letters. grading doesn't take me nearly as long as i thought. kids are receptive; some are, dare i say it, enthusiastic. none have found this page, but one myspaced me after i took steps to prevent just that. nothing to hide, really, but it struck me as a boundary that didn't need to be

2006-09-12T22:53:00.000-04:00

(And this is a song by british post-teen goth betty curse. it's fucking great. My, this is a wonderful track from bromheads jacket, the arctic monkeys it'll be okay to like. Yeah, this here is simply an amazing beyoncé track. (buy.) Right, you'll probably love this if you <3 jens lekman--& you know you <3 him. (buy.) Oh, this has the sample of the year; girls aloud must be pissed she beat them

2006-09-10T23:58:00.000-04:00

(i always thought ccr's "travelin' band" was meant to be the beatles covering little richard. hearing jerry lee lewis's cover, on his new record (pre-order), w/ fogerty in tow--well, it sounds like he's just reclaiming something that's always belonged to him. (listen.) like fire, and passion. jesus christ, he sounds great. jesus? one suspects the devil's involved in this one, he sounds too good.

2006-09-07T21:21:00.000-04:00

(magazine is the most underrated band ever. perhaps i exaggerate--no, not there, here : when howard devoto left the buzzcocks, he went on to form magazine and, w/ them, post-punk. (john lydon "leaving" the pistols & forming pil is also acceptable, but "shot by both sides" was out seven months before "public image.") "give me everything" (listen), their third single, is my favorite magazine song;

2006-09-05T17:59:00.000-04:00

(arctic monkeys won the mercury prize. i was hoping they were like the obvious answer on a standardized test that the testmakers want you to choose instinctively. alas, they were the right answer. richard hawley shoulda won, even alex turner thought so; (listen) to this & tell me he shouldn't have. ok, that track isn't from from coles corner, but you should know that he has other records, too,

2006-09-04T17:35:00.000-04:00

(i've just finished claire messud's much-buzzed-about the emperor's children, which might as well be subtitled the way we lived then. it's excellent. read it before oprah puts a sticker on it, as happened to the much-buzzed-about novel i was reading exactly five years ago today.9/11 happens in the emperor's children. it's neither as near as world trade center nor as far away as mcewan's saturday.

2006-09-01T12:13:00.000-04:00

(one of the things that bothers me most is the sainthood given to the "insane," the nimbus that surrounds the entire output of artists as disparate as daniel johnston, syd barrett, brian wilson, and james carr, when even these fellows are lucid enough to recognize that some of their material is shit and there aren't enough prescription drugs in the world to make it seem otherwise (score one for

2006-08-28T23:20:00.000-04:00

(said the gramophone has posted a new lloyd cole song, an (excellent) cover of an old moby grape record, "i am not willing." i had thought of posting it, but it's time had come & gone; several weeks ago, though, it would really have said so much about a certain situation. picture the girl from pulp's "like a friend." now imagine if, instead of running into an obliging jarvis cocker, she ran into

2006-08-26T15:56:00.000-04:00

(like many things in life, the following goes down easier while listening to al green, here singing "what a wonderful thing love is" (listen)(BUY!). al condenses four-hundred pages of baldwin into about four minutes, and if he spares us the view from the gutter, it's only out of christian charity. sometimes i think only al green is in the position to sing about love b/c only he has as many tones

2006-08-26T15:24:00.000-04:00

(one of the reasons we read, i think, is in the hope of finding our inmost thoughts expressed in writing, presented to an accepting public, validated & affirmed, confirming that we are neither mad nor alone. this morning, i finished james baldwin's another country; in the v. brief closing chapter, dated by the author, i discover that on 10 december 1961 in istanbul, james baldwin had an idea

2006-08-25T00:34:00.000-04:00

(last night i finally got my sacd player to work. i put in blood on the tracks; it was like hearing the album for the first time. "if you see her, say hello" is one of my favorite songs. i must admit that i never really noticed its inexorable pace; in this mix, the percussion slaps you across the face & ends in double-time, like an expression of impatience, someone tired of hearing your

2006-08-22T16:27:00.000-04:00

(sometimes i'm so happy i feel i can't speak sensibly. one of those moments was earlier this afternoon. my paperwork officially went through; i copied my syllabus; i copied roland barthes's "photography & electoral appeal" for my first class. there was a bounce in my stride & a strong temptation to skip. i got in the car & my ipod, bless his empathic electric heart, offered me up the following :

2006-08-22T12:18:00.000-04:00

(a real treat. keep this one under your hat & near about your heart.)

2006-08-18T20:02:00.000-04:00

(here is a link to a mix made for a friend. it's called scandimania. it contains tracks by the knife, i'm from barcelona, envelopes, junior senior, josé gonzález, lo-fi-fnk, jens lekman, acid house kings, moonbabies, sondre lerche, the concretes, the radio dept., peter bjorn and john, serena maneesh, dungen, marit larsen, love is all, kings of convenience, annie, bobby baby, and loveninjas. it's

2006-08-16T19:13:00.000-04:00

(this, this is what is wrong w/ the world.)(apart from, you know, war & poverty & screwdrivers & vaseline.)

2006-08-15T01:00:00.000-04:00

(sorry, jake, but i feel like dancing. this is my favorite song in the world to dance to, this side of anything by james brown. james inspires really intent dancing, especially deliberate dancing; this, though, this is pure joy & delight in one's ability to move. i don't know if i can dance, if only b/c i don't know how people dance nowadays; i hear diddy is bringing dancing back so until i see

2006-08-06T23:41:00.000-04:00

this is the last post.i finished the magic mountain today. i started it months ago--this date, exactly--when things were so different. but i had a feeling, i had a feeling that it was inevitable that once i finished the book, that this site would come to an end as well. maybe this is why i tarried so.but i'd never have guessed how it would end, either the book or the site. i was drafting this in

2006-08-04T18:21:00.000-04:00

maybe just one ultimatum ...the long winters - "ultimatum" (from the ultimatum ep, available for purchase here.)no, this isn't just rank cleverness. i had been thinking of posting this awhile now--it says a lot about so much--& i was reminded of it when i saw that the album came out last week (the album version is crap, i'm sorry to say : stick to this one). that is, i had been thinking about

2006-08-04T18:11:00.000-04:00

the beach boys - "the little girl i once knew" (from the today! / summer days (and summer nights!!) lp, available for purchase here.)my life is filled w/ unlikely confluences.i was reflecting on a girl i know today and w/ some sadness the phrase "she's not the little girl i once knew" came to mind. i thought of the beach boys song of the same name, the last single they released before pet sounds-

2006-08-04T11:32:00.000-04:00

love - "my little red book" (from the love story : 1966-1972 lp, available for purchase here.)r.i.p. arthur lee.

2006-08-03T23:28:00.000-04:00

steely dan - "dirty work" (from the can't buy a thrill lp, available for purchase here.)hans castorp--"head over heels in love," as people say, and yet not in the happy sense of the idiom, but as one loves when it is forbidden and unreasonable, when there are no calm little songs from the flatlands to be sung, terribly in love, dependent, subjugated, suffering and serving--was nevertheless a man

2006-08-02T12:14:00.000-04:00

the horrors - "death at the chapel" (from the death at the chapel single, import available for purchase here.)i'll tell you one thing : the horrors don't sound like the libertines.... which is exceedingly rare for a rock band getting a lot of publicity in the uk these days. "death at the chapel" is basically a motorcycle crash tricked out to sound like early bad seeds, right down to the haircuts,

2006-08-02T00:56:00.000-04:00

nancy sinatra & lee hazlewood - "big red balloon" (from the nancy & lee again lp, out of print.)then, one day, one of them tries to leave--and does. but in a most peculiar way ... "big red balloon" is the damnedest song, i swear.it's like "send in the clowns" meets "up, up & away," as sad as the former, as sprightly as the latter. it's central conceit is as bizarre as anything from a kafka story

2006-08-01T01:50:00.000-04:00

while we're mining 90s uk obscurities, here'sbrian - "you don't want a boyfriend" (from the understand lp, out of print.)brian ended up at setanta, home to the divine comedy & edwyn collins, when his heart really sounds as if it's w/ sarah--if only the craftmanship & fidelity of his records weren't on such a high level & his lyrics too lacking in bitterness & self-pity. the more you give yourself

2006-08-01T01:05:00.001-04:00

wah! - "heart as big as liverpool" (from the songs of strength & heartbreak lp, out of print.)"heart as big as my hometown," pete wylie sings. his hometown, as you might've guessed, is liverpool; my hometown is here in northern new jersey, about 1/30th the size of liverpool. if you've got five minutes, i can show you everything worth seeing.oh, but listening to this song, my heart just swells &

2006-07-31T00:46:00.000-04:00

charlotte gainsbourg - "the songs that we sing" (from the 5:55 lp, released september 4, import available for preorder here.)this is the song that i've been singing most often, enough to make me want to post early monday a.m.whenever "luminaries" get involved w/ projects for female stars, one fears two scenarios. one : the nancy sinatra, in which famous boys help out b/c they would really like to

2006-07-28T02:00:00.000-04:00

the long blondes are fucking amazing.no, no mp3 tonight. i've already posted three or four of them & i feel guilty. go check hype machine or some shit.one, i've never been in the knitting factory when it's been that packed (or that young; truly, this must be the myspace effect). two, i've never felt the floor shake so. ok, ok, ok, so kate, yes, but reenie the bassist, placed at the left hand of

2006-07-26T23:25:00.000-04:00

the puppini sisters - "panic" (from the betcha bottom dollar lp, released july 31, import available for preorder here.)your grandmother would love it. but what would morrissey say?well, he wouldn't like it, first, b/c, well, it's not morrissey singing, is it? second, he'd probably make some ill-considered remark about its edges being smoothed--OR TOO PARALLEL (sorry, on a morrissey kick lately)--

2006-07-26T01:23:00.000-04:00

oh, what the hell, might as well post that other track mentioned earlier.pavement - "box elder" (from the westing (by musket & sextant) lp, available for purchase here.)next monday, it'll be a year on from the day i thought i'd left new jersey forever.two songs ran through my head, either transmitted through headphones or transmitted by synapses. one was "regret" by new order; the other was "box

2006-07-25T15:33:00.000-04:00

morrissey - "hold on to your friends" (from the vauxhall & i lp, available for purchase here.)(trainspotters : see how many "hidden" morrissey references you can find! send your answers to the usual address! winner gets one (1) used walkman, melted.)a friend of mine is the biggest morrissey fan i know. i sang her a line from this song the other day; she told me she didn't know it. the song is for

2006-07-24T21:19:00.000-04:00

right, since i can't get it out of my head,gene vincent - "cat man" (from the gene vincent & his blue caps lp, available for purchase here.)"c" is for the crazy hairdo that he wears around."a" is for the arms that he'll sneak around your waist."t" is for the taste of the lips belong to you.cat man.CAT MAN!!listening to 50s rock & roll, not only does it seem like they got to all the best ideas

2006-07-24T20:19:00.000-04:00

vain, selfish & lazy's sort-of half-year round-up.tracks. (links lead to write-ups, where applicable.)10 sunshine underground - "commercial breakdown" 9 heavy blinkers - "try telling that to my baby" 8 josé gonzález - "hand on your heart" 7 delays - "valentine" 6 the lodger - "let her go" 5 t.i. - "what you know" 4 mission of burma - "2wice" 3 camera obscura - "lloyd, i'm ready to be

2006-07-23T18:56:00.000-04:00

guillemots - "if the world ends" (from the through the window pane lp, import available for purchase here.)my dearest friend, her deepest fear is the end of the world. not her own death, mind, but everyone else's--and the destruction of the world, too. it make sense w/ me : i left my old job once to go elsewhere : it wasn't nearly so sad as when we closed & the whole damned thing came tumbling

2006-07-18T19:54:00.000-04:00

so let me tell you.my friend, who is so much of a presence here (& elsewhere)--well, she finally ditched that undeserving boyfriend; and jesus christ, will he regret this. she said to him basically that, pace iggy pop, she no longer wanted to be his dog. she did it; and she did it for herself; and overhead in the near distance one hears the sound of first flight & a hard-won song of joy.i started

2006-07-05T21:24:00.000-04:00

the beauty room - "soul horizon" (from the beyond an infinite lp, released august 7, import available for preorder here.)i know. everything you read up there sounds horrible. some of what i say below may be equally distasteful, but i have to ask you to trust me on this.listening to this record, i was reminded of what robert christgau once said of debarge :I know of no pop music more shameless in

2006-07-03T09:37:00.000-04:00

belle & sebastian - "i'm waking up to us" (from the push barman to open old wounds lp, available for purchase here.)"i'm waking up to us," despite the trumpets on their earlier singles, is the belle & sebastian song that most resembles love, right down to stuart's stilted line delivery, recalling arthur lee at his most precious. this is ironic b/c it is also the belle & sebastian song that is

2006-07-02T17:34:00.002-04:00

the rolling stones - "under my thumb" (from the aftermath (uk) lp, available for purchase here.)"under my thumb" is a vicious way of thinking, old testament kind of justice, eyes poked out left & right. if you believe there's due cause for mick's spleen, you'll cite the opening lines:under my thumb,the girl who once had me down.under my thumb,the girl who once pushed me around.and even if you

2006-06-29T22:44:00.000-04:00

billy bragg - "levi stubbs' tears" (from the must i paint you a picture?: the essential billy bragg lp, available for purchase here.)folks, i concede that there are countless motherfuckers walking around free who need nothing so much as to have the living shit kicked out of them, so as to make way for that final, dying shit. it might be selfish of me, but tonight i can only think about one of

2006-06-28T23:39:00.000-04:00

the long blondes - "weekend without makeup" (from the weekend without makeup single, import available for purchase here.)i've been holding back on this track b/c i wanted the single to be released officially before i posted it. after all, this is their first single w/ their new label, rough trade, and everyone should buy it if they can b/c the b-sides are even better.furthermore, i'm glad i held

2006-06-25T23:15:00.000-04:00

1965 : at the start of "leader of the pack," one of the shangri-las asks, "is she really going out with him?" after all, he drives a motorcyle; he's probably also told at least one teacher to cram it w/ walnuts. oh, nostalgia!1976 : the damned begin "new rose" w/ "is she really going out with him?" homage? irony? regardless, the most offensive thing about the damned is their fashion sense.1979 :

2006-06-25T12:24:00.000-04:00

saint etienne - "hobart paving" (from the smash the system : the singles and more lp, import available for purchase here.)"and baby," sarah cracknell sings sadly, "don't forget to catch me." it's a game of trust, a game lost every evening; but who has the heart to keep score? to be sure, he doesn't, and she can't bring herself to believe that he's intentionally letting her fall ("why is he doing

2006-06-23T18:42:00.000-04:00

orange juice - "rip it up" (from the esteemed orange juice lp, out of print.)"and there was times i'd take my pen and feel obliged to start again."oh, if only life was as easy to to scrap as a piece of paper and as easy to revise as a text. but songs like "rip it up" make the process a lot easier. sure, music soundtracks the lows--as it so often does 'round here--but it can, if not make you happy

2006-06-22T20:28:00.000-04:00

fred astaire - "a fine romance" (from the let's face the music and dance lp, available for purchase here.)folks, i've borne witness to some sad things in my day. one of the saddest, and the unlikeliest, was a girl standing on the roof of a car, singing & dancing, w/o any music, to "if i can't have you." i tell you, it broke my heart in about six places, i'm still tallying the damage.the dancing

2006-06-21T22:53:00.000-04:00

elvis presley - "it hurts me" (from the artist of the century boxed set, available for purchase here.)pascal said : "the heart has its reasons, which reason does not know." everyone i know, it seems, your humble included, seems to be dealing w/ affairs of the heart. i feel like i keep repeating--to myself and to others--that it's one thing to understand a situation intellectually; it's quite

2006-06-19T23:52:00.000-04:00

prince - "strange relationship" (from the sign 'o' the times lp, available for purchase here.)prince, my good friend, i know you have a dirty mind & a funky imagination, but you really have no idea just how strange. (to think, i'm lecturing him on loves bizarre; what a day it was!)many people think this is the runt off of sign 'o' the times--i'd say it's "it," but i can understand why people

2006-06-18T14:13:00.000-04:00

jim croce - "time in a bottle" (from the classic hits lp, available for purchase here.)my father used to tell me, when i'd refuse a request, that after he passed, i'd have to tell everyone, "i never sang for my father!" "time in a bottle" was far & away the song my father most requested me to sing when i was a kid. i don't know why, but i just read on wikipedia that the song was written for

2006-06-17T20:14:00.000-04:00

abc - "all of my heart" (from the lexicon of love lp, available for purchase here.)the lexicon of love is the greatest album ever about the subject. it deals w/ the semiotics & semantics of love, it deals w/ its commodification & its performative aspect : barthes would love it, but The Kids loved it too, and that has much to do w/ the touch of trevor horn. it's precisely what green gartside was

2006-06-16T21:35:00.000-04:00

pulp - "like a friend" (from the great expectations ost, available for purchase here.)don't bother saying you're sorry,why don’t you come in?smoke all my cigarettes again.everytime i get no further.how long has it been?come on in now,wipe your feet on my dreams.you take up my time,like some cheap magazinewhen i could have beenlearning something,well, you know what i mean.i've done this before,and

2006-06-14T21:12:00.000-04:00

aberfeldy - "hypnotised" (from the hypnotized single, released june 26, available for preorder here.)i really enjoyed young forever for the first few weeks i owned it. it aged quickly.i don't know what the shelf life of "hypnotised" will be, but it made me smile and for that it deserves some sort of award. i'm going to say it's a bit like the corrs covering the cars, and i know that's far too

2006-06-12T17:22:00.001-04:00

final fantasy - "i'm afraid of japan" (from the he poos clouds lp, released tomorrow, available for pre-order here.)let me type that once more : he poos clouds. what the fuck, owen?right, so no japanophobia or no fear of david sylvian, for that matter. "i'm afraid of japan" is like an overture i'd hear at the film forum before a scandinavian art film. it only fucks up that arthouse vibe when it

2006-06-11T20:19:00.000-04:00

lambchop - "i would have waited here all day" (from the damaged lp, released august 22, visit their official site here.)i really had no intentions of posting today. but then i heard kurt wagner close out this song, and there's no one better, i've decided, at delivering this kind of lyric (see also : "my blue wave"). "my favorite hour of any day," he sings, "is the one before you get home," and i

2006-06-08T22:24:00.000-04:00

the zombies - "care of cell 44" (from the odessey & oracle lp, available for purchase here.)no, i don't think the question of what crime the girl in the song committed is a fruitful path of inquiry. the conceit is merely a concession to the times, though admittedly it makes for a neat title.really, the song could be about any reunion between two lovers. it's all about remembered details--the

2006-06-07T12:09:00.000-04:00

polytechnic - "won't you come around" (from the won't you come around 7", import available for purchase here.)apart from being another success for the folks at transgressive, polytechnic's "won't you come around" is also one of the year's dance records.when i say "dance," i don't necessarily mean anything having to do w/ its sound. instead, "won't you come around" inspires in me the desire to

2006-06-06T10:59:00.000-04:00

the louvin brothers - "satan is real" (from the satan is real lp, available for purchase here.)current 93 - "lucifer over london" (from the lucifer over london ep, out of print.)sinner friend, if you're here today, satan is real, too; and hell is a real place, a place of everlasting punishment.666, it makes us sick / we're sick, sick, sick of 666.

2006-06-05T23:33:00.000-04:00

herbert - "we're in love" (from the scale lp, available for purchase here.)music & politics, right. "movers & shakers" would have been the track to post, w/ its line about how "christian bones can orchestrate shock and awe."but "we're in love" is the track i like best; and ultimately i want you to buy this music, b/c it's probably the best album i've heard all year.when one knows that an artist

2006-06-05T11:57:00.000-04:00

the feeling - "never be lonely" (from the twelve stops and home lp, import available for purchase here.)the feeling's debut is released today in the uk. they're poised to be the biggest thing to hit the country since the arctic monkeys.on the surface, they seem like a reaction to that band, the feeling playing it soft and then softer--music for your mother, indeed. a closer listen, though,

2006-06-02T15:51:00.000-04:00

australia update!vain, selfish & lazy has been friendly to artists who have australian backgrounds. happily, australia continues to hold our interest.the grates - "19 20 20" (from the gravity won't get you high lp, import available for purchase here.)yes, yes, in the long run, the yeah yeah yeahs > be your own pet, but in 2006, i'll put "adventure" up against anything karen o &c. released this

2006-06-01T22:32:00.000-04:00

pet shop boys - "integral" (from the fundamental lp, released june 27, available for preorder here.)in the magic mountain, herr settembrini, humanist & man of letters, says, music ... there is something only semi-articulate about it, something dubious, irresponsible, indifferent. ... music, it would appear, is movement for its own sake--although i suspect it of quietism. let me overstate my case

2006-05-30T00:04:00.000-04:00

if you've looked to your right, you'll notice that i'm reading the magic mountain.yes, things are going to be heavy around here awhile.it is the last pillar of 20th century literature that i haven't read--unless someone wants to make a convincing argument in favor of dance to the music of time. i picked it up first as an eleven year-old, but even at the peak of my precocity it proved a bit much.

2006-05-24T14:56:00.000-04:00

these are new songs that i think a girl i know might really like, if she's reading. who knows, you might like them too.voxtrot - "soft & warm" (from the mothers, sisters, daughters & wives ep, available for purchase here.)voxtrot reminds me of jens lekman. i think i'd get on well w/ both and there's probably a lot of overlapping in our respective record collections. also, both artists seem to

2006-05-23T16:06:00.000-04:00

you know, i haven't done a list in a while ...so, i came across this list from rolling stone, comprising the best songs, one a year, for the forty years that the magazine has been in existence.it's a good list--imagine w/ what difficulty one would have said that ten years ago. most notably, they seem to be making amends for almost entirely ignoring britpop : oasis, pulp, suede & hefner made the

2006-05-22T23:01:00.000-04:00

this is one of the reasons why i wanted an mp3 weblog. "down river" was one of the first song i posted, but i realize many of you weren't here then. as i said then, if you download one song from this site, this should be it. it's probably the song i've written most about, so tonight i'll try to write about it by writing about something else instead.david ackles - "down river" (from the david

2006-05-21T20:46:00.000-04:00

what are you doing here on a sunday? well, this is for you.richard hawley - "some candy talking" (from the best of 86/06 cd, available w/ the june issue of q.)this track, from vs&l's favorite person, was recorded exclusively for a compilation of covers of the "best songs" released between 1986 & 2006, free w/ this month's q.i wonder what the brothers reid would think of this? richard seems to

2006-05-19T18:54:00.000-04:00

[edit : i really need to edit. and not just the punctuation & grammar neither.]decoration - "pine" (from the don't disappoint me now lp, import available for purchase here.)i heard this wonderful song on a great compilation of what's brewing in the uk underground, called the new british invasion, which also features tracks from vs&l favorites like the rumble strips, the pipettes & the harrisons,

2006-05-18T21:58:00.000-04:00

here are three songs, each inspired by three different moments from the past week. you get three b/c all i've got is fragments : nothing will reach resolution. or, rather, they all reach the same resolution and, by God, it's a path that even i'm tired of treading by now.talking heads - "and she was" (from the little creatures lp, available for purchase here.)i went into new york the other day for

2006-05-17T20:01:00.000-04:00

i'd planned on posting something really chipper & upbeat this evening.but then i read a tribute to grant mclennan on amg by thom jurek. in itself, it's thoughtful & comprehensive, paying welcome attention to grant's considerable solo career. it's the last detail, though, something i hadn't encountered in all of the write-ups of the day of his death. jurek writes : And finally, in maybe the

2006-05-17T17:45:00.000-04:00

art brut - "emily kane" (from the bang bang rock & roll lp, available for purchase here.)... and no band seems less poised to take a page from the jimmy webb songbook than art brut. w/ a song directed at an ex-lover, though, directly addressed to an ex-lover, art brut recall webb's late 60's cycle of songs i'd written about earlier--and no singer seems less poised to succeed in his entreaty than

2006-05-16T18:02:00.000-04:00

dear reader, you will be rewarded for your patience & indulgence today as i post a song from this calendar year.i started listening to contemporary music again on may 4th, when i chanced to hear the new pet shop boys album. i returned to the practice in earnest when i purchased the domestic release of art brut's bang bang rock & roll. i reckon that i had stopped listening to anything new in order

2006-05-15T16:33:00.000-04:00

it's been raining for days here. of a song i nearly posted the other night, i wrote, "it's not great to be miserable in nice weather--although people in san diego seem generally better adjusted than those in seattle--but it does occur to you, 'well, at least it's not cold.'" mid-day, i had recourse to my car's heater. let's get happy, shall we?dexy's midnight runners - "this is what she's like" (

2006-05-14T13:52:00.000-04:00

judy collins - "amazing grace" (from the very best of judy collins, available for purchase here.)whenever anyone asks about my relationship w/ my mother, i describe it as being healthier than that between norman bates & norma, but less healthy than the relationship between paul morel & gertrude.i am at a loss to explain why this is so. my mother & i are not best friends; i tell her v. little a/b

2006-05-11T22:28:00.000-04:00

i received reader mail this morning from a friend to this site. i hope in discussing her case that i keep on the right side of propriety--and that she'll email me asking for an edit if she finds anything to her disliking.she's going through a situation not unfamiliar to your correspondent, having to let go of someone she cares about. like me--like so many of us for whom music is a constant

2006-05-10T23:11:00.000-04:00

the stone roses - "sally cinnamon" (from the complete stone roses lp, available for purchase here.)this band never should have become famous.not to say that they didn't deserve it; not to say that, w/ ian brown's star power, john squire's tunes, and their timing, it wasn't inevitable. but there's something about "sally cinnamon," their second single, that one doesn't find in their later work, cf.

2006-05-10T15:48:00.000-04:00

don't interrupt the sorrow, you say! (where "you," as w/ julie london, = "i"--or joni mitchell). well, fear not fans of the forlorn, i'll just put the brakes on momentarily to alert you to the fact that the pipettes are streaming their new single, "pull shapes," on their myspace page. beware : it might make you happy.it's definitely the busiest production of theirs to date. it's also the first

2006-05-10T00:13:00.000-04:00

julie london - "the end of a love affair" (from the essential lp, available for purchase here.)first, if you like chet baker at all, you should own a julie london album. julie is the female chet, and vice versa : neither has a "great" voice--julie described her own as "only a thimbleful of a voice"--but they know what they do have, and so they know what songs to sing and they do them v. well.

2006-05-09T00:23:00.000-04:00

the ronettes - "i wish i never saw the sunshine" (from phil spector : back to mono (1958-1969), available for purchase here.)in "the crack-up," f. scott fitzgerald, reflecting on a doomed love, writes, "one day the girl closed it out on the basis of common sense. during a long summer of despair i wrote a novel instead of letters." maybe i'll get around to doing something that productive. for now,

2006-05-07T01:32:00.000-04:00

God fucking damn it. now i know why people resort to all caps & peculiar typography : it disorients, it shocks, it disrupts one's processing of information. it defamiliarizes, as victor shklovsky would say, it increases the difficulty and length of peception. and it feels cold right now to be even mentioning russian formalism. but what else to do? i could generate a list of imprecations the

2006-05-07T01:31:00.000-04:00

(edit : robert forster speaks in two articles in the australian. "the go-betweens have made their final album. they have played their final show. we let it rest at that, being very proud of what we have done.")... and if the news, and the songs, haven't broken your heart yet, there's this, some context for his death :THE death on Saturday of Grant McLennan, one half of the songwriting duo from

2006-05-06T00:13:00.000-04:00

otis redding - "try a little tenderness" (from the very best of otis redding, vol. 1 lp, available for purchase here.)"what is this thing called love?" asks the title of, after "night and day," cole porter's most recorded song. telling detail : the majority of these recordings are instrumental jazz versions; but who could blame them for avoiding such weighty questions, especially when an inspired

2006-05-05T17:43:00.000-04:00

glen campbell - "still within the sound of my voice" (from the reunited with jimmy webb lp, available for purchase here.)oh, i feel positively stendhalian today!just as he published extracts from his friends visconti and salviati in de l'amour, i've now been asked to do the same here, perhaps b/c he knows i can relate.a friend of mine, shannon m—, is having girl problems, or a girl problem,

2006-05-03T10:12:00.000-04:00

the tommy dorsey orchestra ft. frank sinatra & the pied pipers - "let's get away from it all" (from the popular frank sinatra, vol. 2, available for purchase here.)my parents are going to atlantic city for the weekend. my sister, just back from an extensive cruise, is already planning her next jaunt. my nephew, if he gets the part in the commercial he's up for, will be going to china. me? i find

2006-05-02T23:31:00.000-04:00

"he remembered her reciting from memory for him, unostentatiously and in flawless middle english, the prologue to the canterbury tales and, too, the surprising antique locutions she'd picked up from her starchy father, things like 'we must be at pains to understand this' and 'it is not going too far to say,' which could have made him fall for her even without that first glimpse of her ... 'why do

2006-05-02T21:44:00.000-04:00

morrissey - "the edges are no longer parallel" (from the roy's keen single, out of print.)how, you may ask, could it have taken me so long to post a song by morrissey, patron saint of the pasty & sensitive? (particularly when i had worn a morrissey shirt during my last meeting w/ x. she owned two : we were clearly of the same tribe.) simple : morrissey, more so as a solo act, has v. little to

2006-05-02T12:19:00.000-04:00

the pogues - "a rainy night in soho" (from the hell's ditch lp, available for purchase here.)several years ago, nick cave delivered a lecture called "the secret life of the love song" for bbc radio 3. in it, he asserted that every song is a love song. i'll buy that. he loses me, though, when he says that every love song worthy of the name is a sad song--al green's "l.o.v.e. (love)" came

2006-05-01T23:43:00.000-04:00

howard tate - "either side of the same town" (from the rediscovered lp, available for purchase here.)(bonus : howard tate - "girl from the north country" (from the howard tate lp, available for purchase here.)in one of the first comments i ever received on this site, an individual praised my song selection and noted that his favorite part of was the "in brief" write-up. i'm so sorry, friend; this

2006-05-01T10:21:00.000-04:00

patsy cline - "sweet dreams (of you)" (from the patsy cline's greatest hits lp, available for purchase here.)at 5:16 this morning, i at last received a response from x. which would surely be news to her. it was only a dream. i feel like i still need to remind myself of that. my dreams are disturbingly linear and vivid. no clowns in their underwear, no dancing unicorns, no talking fish; just real

2006-04-30T23:13:00.000-04:00

observing that the park had changed so little, i had the following poem running through my head :as the mist leaves no scaron the dark green hill,so my body leaves no scaron you, nor ever will.when wind and hawk encounter,what remains to keep?so you and i encounter,then turn, then fall to sleep.as many nights endurewithout a moon or star,so will we endurewhen one is gone and far.--leonard cohen,

2006-04-30T20:02:00.000-04:00

trembling blue stars - "abba on the jukebox" (from the her handwriting lp, import available for purchase here.)(here's another track once intended for a mix.)in the moviegoer, walker percy's protagonist, binx bolling, engages in experiments he calls "repetitions," which he describes as "the re-enactment of past experience toward the end of isolating the time segment which has lapsed in order that