Don’t ask me why I obsessively look to rock ’n’ roll bands for some kind of model for a better society. I guess it’s just that I glimpsed something beautiful in a flashbulb moment once, and perhaps mistaking it for prophecy have been seeking its fulfillment ever since.
- Lester Bangs
I am totally iced in tonight. I mean I guess I could go out, but since I am freakishly tall and naturally clumsy, I don't do so well with the ice. So tonight became a night of nostalgia. Listening to some of the seminal albums of my life, cover to cover. I got to the Verve's 'Urban Hymns' a second ago and felt obligated to share my inner dialogue.
Such a killer album. And it found me at the most opportune time. I swear EVERY track on that record has some sort of anecdote attached to it... as I listen there is a virtual slideshow going on in my head. Then I started thinking about last year's Coachella and the utter bliss that I felt when 50,000 people were all singing along to the chorus of 'Bittersweet Symphony'....chills on top of chills on top of chills. Those moments, those snapshots of perfection are what make all of the day to day drudgery worth while....amen.
BEST SHOWS/SETS I SAW IN 2008: 5) Langhorne Slim (Columbus) 4) The Hold Steady (Cleveland) 3) My Morning Jacket (Coachella and Columbus) 2) The Swell Season (Coachella and Columbus) 1) Prince (Coachella)
BEST SONGS I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD GET A CHANCE TO HEAR LIVE, THAT I DID ACTUALLY GET TO HEAR IN 2008 4) 'Cactus'(Pixies cover) - The Swell Season @ Coachella
3) 'It Could Be Sweet' - Portishead @ Coachella 2) 'Bittersweet Symphony' - The Verve @ Coachella 1) 'Creep'(Radiohead cover) - Prince @ Coachella
BEST STALKING OPPORTUNITY REALIZED IN 2008 1) Minnie Driver @ the Hotel Cafe in Hollywood (And I didn't even rush the stage...I was really proud of myself) * Minnie Driver - 'Down' MP3
BIGGEST LIVE MUSIC DISAPPOINTMENT OF 2008 1) Jens Lekman @ Coachella - Maybe it was too early in the day, or maybe I built him up too much in my music obsessive mind...either way, it just fell flat :-(
LOUDEST SHOW OF 2008 1) Stephen Malkmus @ Coachella - What??? Seriously...my ears haven't been the same since April.
BEST STAGE BANTER OF 2008 1) Glen Hansard - In a LANDSLIDE! I have never seen somebody so genuinley happy to be on a stage playing music in all my life.
WORST STAGE PRESENCE I WITNESSED IN 2008 1) Bill Callahan - I LOVE your music Bill, I really do...you just looked painfully uncomfortable up there. To make it up to you I will play one of my favorite songs of yours.
Finally, The Verve have come back to us. The LONG awaited follow up to the near perfect Urban Hymns is set to release of August 25. It's a sprawling and a gorgeous album, with most of the songs clocking in at over 5 minutes...enjoy it - it may have to last us another ten years or so! Here is a tune from the record...
Again, the bar for bad Craigslist poetry as been raised.
******
Ah, sweet mystery...
My Love - perhaps you will recognize me by my verse:
Your skin glows like the mango, blossoms sexy as the rose in the purest hope of spring. My heart follows your piano voice and leaps -- like a koala at the whisper of your name. The evening floats in on a great minah wing. I am comforted by your shoe that I carry into the twilight of lunchboxbeams and hold next to my toenail. I am filled with hope that I may dry your tears of iced tea. As my leg falls from my sweater, it reminds me of your blender. In the quiet, I listen for the last scream of the day. My heated finger leaps to my dress. I wait in the moonlight for your secret ugly so that we may run as one, finger to finger, in search of the magnificient gray and mystical paper towel of love.
It astounds me how fast the years start to fly by as you get older. Time seemed to crawl at a snail's pace when I was kid. It felt like there were years gone by from one Christmas to the following one and the only thing I wanted was to speed up the clock so I could be 'big'.
Now that I am in my early 30's it is the exact opposite. Time is moving way too fast. Weeks turn into months and months into years in what seems like a way too rapid fashion.
I can't believe it has been 10yrs since my dad passed away. So much has changed...it feels like two lifetimes ago. I ddin't realize it at the time, but my pop was a huge influence on me as a music lover. I remember at the funeral the pastor saying that my dad worshiped two kings, God and Elvis. So true. He was an Elvis man through and through. It makes me so happy that he was able to go to Graceland a few months before the Cancer got the better of him...that lifted his spirits so much and seemed to get him through one last holiday season with us.
This song is probably one of the most beautiful songs ever written about the human experience. It's such a sad thing to watch somebody you love struggle with illness...the most helpless feeling in the world. Just another example of how music is such an integral part of my life...the soundtrack to my life. I can't imagine being any other way.
All this talk of getting old It's getting me down my love Like a cat in a bag, waiting to drown This time I'm comin' down
And I hope you're thinking of me As you lay down on your side Now the drugs don't work They just make you worse But I know I'll see your face again
Now the drugs don't work They just make you worse But I know I'll see your face again
But I know I'm on a losing streak 'Cause I passed down my old street And if you wanna show, then just let me know And I'll sing in your ear again
Now the drugs don't work They just make you worse But I know I'll see your face again
'Cause baby, ooh, if heaven calls, I'm coming, too Just like you said, you leave my life, I'm better off dead
All this talk of getting old It's getting me down my love Like a cat in a bag, waiting to drown This time I'm comin' down
Now the drugs don't work They just make you worse But I know I'll see your face again
'Cause baby, ooh, if heaven calls, I'm coming, too Just like you said, you leave my life, I'm better off dead
But if you wanna show, just let me know And I'll sing in your ear again
Now the drugs don't work They just make you worse But I know I'll see your face again
Yeah, I know I'll see your face again Yeah, I know I'll see your face again Yeah, I know I'll see your face again Yeah, I know I'll see your face again
I'm never going down, I'm never coming down No more, no more, no more, no more, no more I'm never coming down, I'm never going down No more, no more, no more, no more, no more (Repeat and Fade Out)
...or my email is anyway! Hey, it's me Blair...the Certain Songs staff of one. I just do this for the love of the music and am in no way trying to rip anybody off, so if you are an artist or a record label and you are not happy that I am promoting your music, or you want me to take a song down, just shoot me an email and I will most definitely oblige.
And please support the artists I post here in whatever way you can if you do download a song...go to a show, buy some merch, buy an album...these songs are the soundtrack to my life and I just love to share them. But I can only do that if the insanely talented artist responsible for said songs are able to eat.
I also love hearing new stuff...so any submissions can also be sent to my email, I will try my bestest to listen to everything and get back to you all...peace,love,rock n' roll.
csmusicblog@gmail.com
Monthly Mix Tape
Mission Statement
I guess you're old enough to know. Kids out on the east coast. Roughly twenty years old. Got coaxed out by a certain perfect ratio. Of warm beer to the summer smoke. And the meat loaf to the billy joel. Certain songs they get so scratched into our souls.
She goes low on the seats when she gets high in her car. She looks shallow but shes neck deep in the steamy dreams of the guys along the harbor bars. She's pulling out her shirttails and jacking up her socks. Stern and stoned and confident, coming up towards the jukebox. Born into the only songs that everybody finally sings along. B-1 is for the good girls. It's only the good die young. C-9 is for the making eyes. It's paradise by the dashboard light. D4 is for the lovers. B12 is for the speeders. And the hard drugs are for the bartenders and the kitchen workers and the bartender's friends. And they're playing it again. Ellen Foley gives us hope. Certain songs they get scratched into our souls.
I guess you're old enough to know. Kids out on the west coast are taking off their clothes. Screwing in the surf and going out to shows. They get high and ride around in gtos. I guess you're old enough to know. CERTAIN SONGS THEY GET SCRATCHED INTO OUR SOULS. - The Hold Steady
