Free mp3: Noah & the Whale

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I know nothing about this band (maybe I should check with my buddies at Britsound), but the chill feel seemed to match my mood right now.

Maybe it will yours, too. Plus, it’s free.

(You Tube Note: Performing @ Mod Club, Toronto ON, April 27, 2009. I chose this version because the audio seemed better than any other the others. Even if it is not the whole song …)

Free mp3, part 4

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Thanks to the peeps at Britsound.com (“The Only Show of its Kind”) for the heads up on this one. Just go to The Doves website, give them an e-mail address and get the free track from their upcoming album. The song is called “Jetstream,” and the band wrote that

Being fans of the Vangelis film score, ‘Blade Runner’, we always wanted to write an imaginary song for the closing credits on Ridley Scott’s classic… It’s called Jetstream…

Sound interesting? Check it out. It’s free, after all.

Anyway, the video is from the band’s 2002 release The Last Broadcast. The song is “There Goes the Fear” and it’s got that smooth, head-bobbing sound that makes me smile.

Have fun and be sure to check out some other free mp3s!

High Fidelity quotes and other signs of aging

So I was with Rob Quicke, host of Britsound and an ardent audiophile, today in Ear X-tacy, one of the best independent music stores in the southeast, and had an interesting conversation. He basically said the following:

“I remember when I was young I used to go into a record store and find all of this stuff I would need,” he said. “But now, I come into a store and I don’t find anything really new or anything I really need. So I end up looking for rare CD singles like this …”

He pulled out some CD single out of the used sale rack (I forget who it was). It reminded me of the scene in High Fidelity where John Cusack talks about fetish properties (the first 2 mins).

Rob’s quote also got me to thinking about the difference between adult and teen music fandom. When you first discover the beauty of music, you want to take it all in. You’re an empty vessel just waiting to be filled. The older you get, the more filled you become and the more discretion you begin to employ. You prefer some things and not others. You’re able to afford more things, but you’re also able to be choosy. You add to your collection, tailoring it to a perfection that eventually takes shape. It makes a statement. And then you realize that you run out of room for the new because you’re maintaining the old.

Old. There it is. The dreaded word. And when it happens, you’re showing the first signs of aging. And in this culture, it’s the first sign of death. But what’s the alternative? Continue to re-invent your collection? Isn’t that akin to re-inventing yourself? High Fidelity also weighs in on this issue: “What really matters is what you like, not what you are like. Books, records films — these things matter. Call me shallow, but it’s the … truth.”

Is it? Do the expressions of our likes and dislikes say more than other expressions of who we are? Maybe that’s why we can know people, but it’s hard to really KNOW people …

P.S. For the record, Rob isn’t old because he said this, I am old because I interpreted it this way …

Music on my mind (update)

A quick update: Here’s the 20-song CD I made specifically for the rental car. Feel free to check things out, ask questions or, more importantly, debate the following choices.

1. Hiroshima (B B B Benny Hit His Head). The first song on Ben Folds’ new album tells a story about him falling off the stage in Hiroshima. I don’t know how much of the story is true, but the song is pretty funny and has a sing-a-long feel to it.
2. 27 Jennifers. Saw Mike Doughty at Lebowski Fest Louisville over the summer, but had no idea he sang this song until I looked it up on iTunes.
3. Everybody Wants Me. Got this song by The Pigeon Detectives from our friends at Britsound. Pretty cool.
4. Energy. This song by The Apples In Stereo I got for free from Amazon.com. Good score.
5. Everyone. This Van Morrison song comes at the end of one of my favorite movies, The Royal Tenenbaums, and perfectly fits. Now, it seems, it perfectly fits without the pictures.
6. The Show. This was a free song on iTunes. You’ll tap your feet (unless you intentionally won’t just to spite me).
7. Kill the Director. The Wombats (see below).
8. Imaginary Girl, The Silver Seas. I heard this song on a commercial for a product I cannot remember. I’m sometimes surprised at how many songs I purchase were first heard in connection with advertising.
9. Birdsong, The Golden Dogs This song was on the Everything’s Gone Green soundtrack – which has some great songs on it. The Douglas Coupland-penned movie is pretty good too (though pretty “indie” as well).
10. Lost, Morrissey. Sometimes, you just gotta mope.
11. The Plot That Weaves, Brothers Martin. If Morrissey is the king of mope rock, the Brothers Martin are definitely in the family. I like how these two songs blend.
12. California, Phantom Planet. Just a cool song.
13. Don’t Wait, Dashboard Confessional. I remember when they were new and fresh. This is much more “anthematic.”
14. Common People, William Shatner. If you haven’t heard this song, I’m sorry. It’s hilarious.
15. Most Of The Time, Bob Dylan. I heard this song when it first came out, but fits so perfectly in High Fidelity that I now think about that scene when I hear this song.
16. In Between Days, The Cure. You can’t go with Morrissey without going with the Cure, can you?
17. All Over This Town, The Upper Room. Thanks, Britsound.
18. Make Me Pure, Robbie Williams. See above.
19. Hands of Time, Groove Armada. Got this because I heard it in the movie Collateral. I like the feel of it, it’s so laid back.
20. Hotel California (Spanish Mix), Gipsy Kings. Taken from one of the greatest scenes in all of movie-dom – the dance of the Jesus in The Big Lebowski.

By the way, I went to put this in the rental car and guess what? It already had a CD in it. The big Sharpie letters said “RAP MIX” I’m curious to give it a listen. Stay tuned. In the meantime, here’s the Ben Folds song. (I was going to post the Jesus dance from The Big Lebowski, but then I found this.

Music on my mind

So I go out of town tomorrow and that means I get to make a travel CD. It’s my own private “Project Mayhem,” except without all the violence and hitting and explosions and split personality.

It’s something I have done the past couple times I rent a car: I leave the CD in the player for the next person to enjoy. (OK, OK, I know … the company checks the radio for stray CDs before renting the car out again, but allow me my fantasy.)

Now, making a mix CD always reminds me of “High Fidelity,” one of my top five favorite movies. In it, Rob Gordon (John Cusack, the greatest American living actor) delivers this soliloquy:

“The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick it off with a killer to grab attention. Then you gotta take it up a notch, but you don’t want to blow your wad, so then you gotta cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules.”

Mind you, this project has two distinct purposes:

1. It has to entertain me as I tool around some strange town for a couple days.
2. And possibly, more importantly, this music I leave behind is a statement of who I am to the next person, a kind of tutorial on things that I think others should be listening to.

With that in mind, what should I put on it? Who is worthy of such a statement? Bob Dylan? U2? Hanson? (OK, maybe not Hanson … I just don’t know you well enough to drop some MMmm-Bop) … Should I put some Johnny Cash or stuff more obscure, like The Pigeon Detectives or Iron & Wine? Should I try for some street cred with early Public Enemy AND some Clash? Should I be totally androgynous and record 80 minutes of Morrissey?

Sometimes I put the Britsound radio show on. Maybe I’ll be loyal to the family and put the Pomegranates.

What would you put on a mix tape left for someone anonymous?