30.9.05

black friday

the other day, i found out a former coworker died. i'm planning on going to the wake tonight. we weren't best friends, but we did talk a lot when we worked together. she was cool, i liked her and respected her because she worked hard. once, we were talking for an hour or so about old school motown stuff that we liked. i went home that night and made her a mix cd of the songs that had come up during the conversation. omg, she was so happy when i gave it to her a couple days later. i swear, for a month straight she would tell me about how she listened to the cd i made her the previous night. she said she would put on the cd and not let anyone touch the stereo until the disc was finished. it was cool that something so simple could make a person so happy. i love when you can connect with someone through music.

i left that job three years ago and have seen her only a couple times since then. i was walking home from work when my friend called to let me know what happened, i stopped in my tracks as my heart sank. i'm not the emotional type; i don't cry easily, but man, i've been feeling ten kinds of awful all this week. this, coupled with some other crap that's been running through my head...so, yeah...

return of the king of the mountain

King of the Mountain
Could you see the aisles of women?
Could you see them screaming and weeping?
Could you see the storm rising?
Could you see the guy who was driving?
Could you climb higher and higher?
Could you climb right over the top?
Why does a multi-millionaire
Fill up his home with priceless junk?

The wind is whistling
The wind is whistling
Through the house

Elvis are you out there somewhere
Looking like a happy man?
In the snow with Rosebud
And king of the mountain

Another Hollywood waitress
Is telling us she's having your baby
And there's a rumour that you're on ice
And you will rise again someday
And that there's a photograph
Where you're dancing on your grave

The wind is whistling
The wind is whistling
Through the house

Elvis are you out there somewhere
Looking like a happy man?
In the snow with Rosebud
And king of the mountain

The wind it blows
The wind it blows the door closed


image and lyrics pilfered from katebushnews.com, so check em out...

28.9.05

long lost cousin


two weeks ago, my dad drops me an email saying my cousin, A, asked him for my email addy. i hadn't seen her in something like ten years. so we get in touch and it turns out we've been working within two blocks of each other for the past year. even before RE moved office last year, i was still within a 15-minute walk from her office. small world, huh? and all this time, we never bumped into each other. we had lunch last week and shot this pic before heading back to our respective offices. i even dragged her to the new pornographers show tonight. we had a pretty good time. christ, i look like some weirdo stalker dude or something. i'm gonna stop taking pix of myself.

aerial


here's the cover of kate bush's upcoming album, aerial. fucking hell, i can't wait for it. so here are ten kate bush songs i can't live without.

  • running up that hill (a deal with god)
  • night of the swallow
  • under the ivy
  • l'amour look something like you
  • babooshka
  • this woman's work
  • james and the cold gun
  • violin
  • waking the witch
  • suspended in gaffa
hmm. nothing from lionheart or the red shoes. that's not to say that lionheart is not a good album. it is, but it just doesn't have my favorite tracks. the red shoes, however, is another story. what a disappointing album. it has a couple good moments, but i feel it completely pales in comparison to anything previous to it (including lionheart!). put that under your christmas tree!

25.9.05

the innocence mission


i've been listening to a fair bit of the innocence mission this weekend. i think i've finally collected most, if not all, of their releases. that one lakes of canada promo single is a bitch to find, but i did manage to get mp3s of it. the gus gus remix of snow is especially good. their regular releases are as follows:

  • the innocence mission
  • umbrella
  • glow
  • birds of my neighborhood
  • small planes
  • befriended
  • christ is my hope
  • now the day is over

it's difficult to pin down a favorite, they're all very good. i don't know which one to suggest to you, either, as you can't go wrong with any of them. i guess i'll go out on a limb and say that glow is my fave, as it sounds really....complete. not exactly a gushing endorsement, but you'll have to trust me on this one. i guess they could be classified as a christian band, but their lyrics aren't as straightforward as many of the bands of that genre. the songs hint at it, but they don't come off as preachy. karen peris' voice is absolutely gorgeous and most of the music is sparsely arranged, especially after the first three albums. they really have gotten better with time. check out their site, there are a few mp3s to sample.

a list of ten favorite IM songs (no particular order) for you to check out:

  • today (small planes)
  • the lakes of canada (birds of my neighborhood)
  • everything's different now (glow)
  • every hour here (umbrella)
  • one for sorrow, two for joy (befriended)
  • mercy (the innocence mission)
  • small planes (small planes)
  • 500 miles (christ is my hope)
  • bright as yellow (glow)
  • snow - gus gus remix (lakes of canada single)

enjoy ^_^

23.9.05

king of the mountain

that's the name of kate bush's new single. i heard it today on bbc radio one. perhaps there's a bit of fanboy talking, but i think it's really good. it has a nice texture to it. the opening has this kinda dreamy and ominous feel to it. there's one point where the backup vocals sound like a the horn on a passing train speeding through the snowy darkness in the middle of the night. pretty damn cool

there finally is an official site, www.katebush.com, where you can hear a snippet of the single and sign up for a newsletter. the message states that the site will launch on november 7th.

some other links if you're interested:
gaffa.org
homeground
katebush.info
katebushforum.com

22.9.05

beg, scream & shout!

the other day, i skipped out on work (due to my ailing shoulder). i went up the street to find some lunch. there's a music shop along the way, that i rarely see open. however, they were open this time, so i decide to pop in. i'm browsing, wondering if i should purchase anything when i stumble upon a box set i've been seeking for the past year or so. it's rhino records beg, scream and shout!; 6 cd's of 1960s soul. released in 1997, i passed it up at the time, thinking i might get it later. bzzzt. wrong answer. the next time i checked, it was out of print. argh! i gave up and forgot about it until last year, when someone on bowlie mentioned it in passing. i could only find copies on ebay for about $200 or so, which is a bit pricey. pricey enough to make me wait. so i'm in this store on ocean avenue, the creative music emporium (which i think is a cool name for a music store), and there it is on the shelf.

brand new in shrinkwrap.

$100 price tag.

holy fucking shit.

seriously, i let out an audible gasp and whispered an "oh. my. god." i picked it up and looked at it, the burgundy color was bleached out to a dull brown from having sat there for so long. big deal.

i bought it.

i mentioned to the store-owner (super nice guy called joe) about my search for this holy grail. he laughed and said he was so used to seeing it on the shelf, he was surprised that someone was buying it. he had been planning to keep it for himself if someone didn't buy it at some arbitrary point in the future. we talked about some other sets that were being released by motown, coupla music fans just shooting the breeze. how fucking cool is that?

i can't begin to tell you how good this set is. it's 6 discs, 144 tracks. the cd's are packaged in little trays that resemble 45s. if you don't know what that means, i won't bother explaining it. also included is a set of cards, one for each song. the card lists the artist and the story behind the track. i haven't gone through them all as of yet, but i will soon.

15.9.05

takk


sigur ros have done it again. this album is gorgeous. now i wanna see their show here next month. originally, i was gonna skip it as i've seen them a couple times. i really want to hear the new songs played live. i gotta try to find tix, it's sold out. if i do get some, i'll probably end up overpaying some, but it'll be worth it as their live shows are a treat.

4.9.05

3.9.05

let's exchange the experience


kate bush's new album, aerial, comes out november 7th. her last album, the red shoes, was released in 1993. i think this is the longest i've ever waited for an artist to release an album. the fact that the red shoes was so disappointing to me has me hoping that this album isn't more of the same. a lot can change in twelve years.

my first encounter with kate bush was in 1985, while i was at pete's house. we didn't have cable and pete's family did, so i was always channel surfing at his place. the
single file video was playing on the usa network, which i found out after watching the program. i was mesmerized by this woman who was singing and dancing while in these strange chainmail costumes.

the next week, i went to tower records and looked her up. i bought
hounds of love, which was her latest album at the time, and fell in love. goddamn, that album is good. it's beautiful, magical, and wonderful. i eventually picked up just about everything she released. if i had to pick a favorite album, it'd be the dreaming (with hounds running a close second).

kate bush is responsible for my most expensive single musical purchase. the box set,
this woman's work, had all 6 albums plus two discs of b-sides. it was import only. i couldn't find it around here, but a friend of mine in los angeles had located it at aaron's records. i begged him to buy it for me. it came out to about $225, so i wrote him a check and mailed it off. i already had the albums on vinyl, and now i had them all on cd and i didn't care. rapture.

so yeah, two more months and a new kate bush DOUBLE album! YEAH! put that under your christmas tree!