Not The Songs

Feb 22, 2014:
I always think of song titles, but here are some song titles I thought of this week. It was an interesting week.

You Do Not Live Again
Distress
My Mornings With Satan
Stop Laughing
Somethin' Else
The Simplicities In Life Are Way Too Expensive
I Am Convinced That You Are Not A Real Human Being
As The World Grows In Beauty, I Suffer From Symptom Distress
The Devil Plants A Seed That Grows So Slowly
I Don't Know What The Hell You're Talking About
Someone Else, Somewhere Else
Tired Of The World
I'm Tired Of Love Songs
Everyday, I Get Uglier
I Go To Parties By Myself
Photoshop That Shit!
No More Cameras
I Am A Pop Star
We Are All So Damn Proud Of You
I Don't Love Like I Used To

Valentine's Day Music... Awww Yeah!

For my music review for the Utah Statesman this week, I simply wrote a review of some of my favorite love songs (Valentine's Day, hello). Instead of writing about them, I just wanna listen to them today. Some of these are arguably not about love, but either way, it's a great lovin' playlist. ENJOY.

'BE MY BABY' -The Ronettes

'LOVEFOOL' -The Cardigans

'LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE ARE FLOATING IN SPACE' -Spiritualized

 

'LETS STAY TOGETHER' -Al Green

'DOWNTOWN TRAIN' -Tom Waits

 

'NAKED AS WE CAME' -Iron & Wine

 

'GOD ONLY KNOWS' -The Beach Boys

 

'STRANGE POWERS' -The Magnetic Fields

 

'I CAN CHANGE' -LCD Soundsystem

 

'WHAT IS LIFE' -George Harrison

Thank God for Carl Sandburg & the World's Columbian Exposition

I remember the first time I listened to Sufjan Stevens' Illinois.  I remember I heard a few tracks from it over my spring break, senior year of high school. I got a job as a dishwasher at Redfish where a guy named Tony would put Sufjan tracks on shuffle in the kitchen. I eventually copied Illinois from him and knew it was going to be awesome.  I had already heard a few tracks, the classics- "Chicago," "Casmir Pulaski Day," "John Wayne Gacy Jr," "Come On! Feel the Illinoise!" So I had the thing sitting in my mp3 player for a few days before I decided to listen.
I remember hiking alone up to the Shangri-La lakes and getting intensely lost on my way back.  I was worried sick until I remembered how to read military time: The shuttle boat doesn't arrive in 1 hour, it arrives in 2 hours. So I stopped running around like a chicken with its head cut off and walked by the river until I rediscovered the trail.  I had some time to kill at the dock, waiting for the shuttle to come. So after experiencing some horror and feeling a lot more comfortable with myself, I decided, what the hey!  Lets listen to that Sufjan Stevens guy! And yes, I took a picture at the docks that day. So this  is exactly where I was & what it looked like the first time I heard Illinois:

...Not bad, eh?
So not all of the songs hit me at first. "Concerning the UFO Sightings Near Highland, Illinois" has become one of my favorite tracks, but it wasn't at the time. And I didn't even get to hear the whole album yet- by the time Mikee Linville rolled in with the shuttle boat, I was kinda lost on a track where Sufjan was singing about Abraham Lincoln. He then took a pee in the trees behind me. Anyways, the song that stuck out to me that day, and even the first time I heard it a few months prior, was "Come On! Feel the Illinois!" Now I know, "Chicago" is one of the greatest things of all time, and it makes me question divine intervention associated with songwriting. "Come On! Feel the Illinois!" however, is my track.
The song is divided into 2 parts (Part I: The World's Columbian Exposition/Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream). The song title in itself is cleverly ingenious, the divisional titles are just as enjoyable. Part I is the definition of life and joy in music. I remember listening to it in the Redfish kitchen and Chad asked if we were listening to the Charlie Brown theme. It indeed sounds like Vince Guardali's "Linus & Lucy," only in 5/4 and and with some bright, extra instrumentation. The city of Chicago has a lot of Columbian immigrants who have helped out with the building of the city. It's a fun, insightful lightbulb of a history lesson. The history lesson lasts for a little over 2 minutes, then the song shifts (VERY suddenly).
The 2nd part has even more layers of instruments, including an Americana strings section (qunitet? gah! i'll never know!) that's hard to forget. He sings about writing poetry and the conversing the meaning of life and death with the ghost of Illinois poet Carl Sandburg.
The songs ends nearly 7 minutes later, and it's a very eventful 7 minutes. The composition is brilliant. The background singers, vibraphone, trumpets, electronic organ solo, strings, piano, the hidden woodwind parts, the jazz drumming- I realize now that these are all standard Sufjan habits. But hearing it for the first time, a midst Mother Nature; in the sunshine... was life-changing for me.
"Oh, God of Progress
Have you degraded or forgot us?
Where have your laws gone?
I think about it now...
I cried myself to sleep last night
And the ghost of Carl, he approached my window
I was hypnotized, I was asked
To improvise on the attitude, the regret of a thousand centuries of death...
And we laughed at the beatitudes of a thousand lines
We were asked at the attitudes they reminded us of death...
And I cried myself to sleep last night
For the Earth, and materials, they may sound just right to me...
Are you writing from the heart? Are you writing from the heart?"

The REAL NBA Playoffs

The Arizona Cardinals were 10-6 this season, yet didn't make the NFL playoffs due to the rules of allowing division champions a playoff berth instead. Considering the NFC North champions only won 8 games this year, I'd say this is unfair. The Cardinals even had a better record than the AFC 6 seed team. Rules are stupid.
Meanwhile in he NBA, the Eastern Conference is a disgrace, yet there are expected to be terrible teams making the playoffs.Only 16 NBA teams go to the playoffs. Unfortunately, it's split up between 2 different conferences and not based off of the actual 16 best records in the NBA.
Here are the 16 most dangerous teams in the NBA, in playoff-matchup form.
An italicized team is in the Western Conference.
An underlined team has a record under .500.

1 Indiana Pacers
16 Washington Wizards

2 San Antonio Spurs
15 Chicago Bulls

3 Portland Trail Blazers
14 Minnesota Timberwolves

4 Oklahoma City Thunder
13 Toronto Raptors

5 Miami Heat
12 Denver Nuggets

6 Los Angelos Clippers
11 Atlanta Hawks

7 Golden State Warriors
10 Dallas Mavericks

8 Houston Rockets
9 Phoenix Suns

Only 8 teams from each conference make the playoffs in reality. In case you didn't notice, 8 teams in the West have better records than the 3rd best team in the East. Also, the Warriors are awesome.

5 REASONS Why You Should See SPAMALOT in Twin Falls This Month!

If you're in this neck of the of the woods any weekend this month, you should see this freaking show. It's gonna be great! Now here's why:
REASON #1 It's directed by Tony Mannen. Tony Mannen is a beast. He's been directing shows in Twin Falls for a little over 150 years and is a dedicated Cleveland Browns fan. Not sure which task is harder.
REASON #2 The Laker Girls. Kinda hot.
REASON #3 Just a few cast members: Dusty Blackburn, Amber Wagner, Coltyn Giltner, Jud Harmon, Billy Perry, offstage work done by Tony Mannen and Shane Brown... It's like the perfect pirate crew. The Random Acts of Theatre players have never done a bad show. They're the best in the bizz.
REASON #4 It is hilarious/entertaining. I've been to my fair share of theatrical performances in Southern Idaho. They are not always hilarious or entertaining. But this is. The script was written by original members of Monty Python and Coltyn Giltner has ridiculously skinny legs. You can't lose.
REASON #5 This ridiculous picture. I mean, come on.

For more info, here are some nifty links below
http://www.ratplayers.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Random-Acts-of-Theatre-Players/196994837013594
https://www.facebook.com/events/279520082186180/

The College Football Teams I Hate

6 UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS

Over-rated QBs? We got 'em.

5 UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

Bob. Stoops. Need I say more?

4 OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY 

2002: Never forgive, never forget.

3 UNIVERSITY OF UTAH

Screw these guys.










2 BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY

Orcs from Lord of the Rings?
think lower.
People at KISS concerts?
lower.
Raiders fans?
almost there...
Boise State fans.
the lowest form of life.





1 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

I have never rooted for USC in any football game ever. Somewhat raised a UCLA fan (some years they aren't so entertaining to follow), I was raised to hate USC. I always despise their quarterbacks, their fans, and at one point Pete Carroll. But Northern California is always where it's at. So Cal is an overrated wasteland. Just gotta hate these guys.

Songwriter's Block, 1 AM

All my songs sound the same, at least all the ones I've been working on recently. They all sound like Panda Bear and Brian Wilson singing hooks to 1 or 2 chords (poppy Sung Tongs?). I like the idea that the songs are acoustic and feel very freewheelin'- but they also just sound like really pretty native chants. Pieces of Animal Collective, Fleet Foxes, Beach Boys.
I feel like I've been writing songs like this for a long time now. Sometimes I feel like a song needs a basic electric guitar riff to go with it, but nothing rough: Think Peter Buck. It's jangle pop. Even some Rubber Soul or Spoon-esque marijuana fuzz bass is needed at times.
Actually, it all just sounds a strange lot like Galaxie 500.
I also feel like these songs could use ambient organ intros/outros like Automatic for the People.
I really wanted to do something even less poppy w/ more full instrumentation. I remember making a blog-post for a project called "Reality." That would have some flute parts, solo trumpet hooks, and a healthy dose of vibraphone. I still like the idea, but it doesn't fit where I'm going right now.
+ I also made up this song yesterday that just sounds like a usual Ben Folds song, only with quiet Doug Martsch guitar fills. Has a catchy "la-la-la" part.
These days I mostly listen to electronica-dance music and Neil Young.
Writing music is such a drag.
"The total effect is 'Let's Go Away For Awhile', which is something everyone in the world must have said at some time or another. Nice thought; most of us don't go away, but it's still a nice thought." -Brian Wilson