something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue
Guest post mania beginz~ courtesy of the mighty Jen:
my name is jen. i'm very verbose. and i write everything in lowercase...
in light of the fact that one of my best friends just announced her engagement recently, i thought it only fitting to use this wonderful "wedding mantra" as the theme of my guest post on james' blog. (not to mention i couldn't figure out a way to narrow my mp3 choices down to just a few considering my love for music. what better way than to choose a theme to force some constraints!)
radiohead - "fake plastic trees" -- something old. i couldn't resist putting up this old favorite. "fake plastic trees" is probably my all-time favorite radiohead song. (and definitely one of my all-time favorite songs at that.) surely it's hard to choose from their large library of hits, b-sides, and not-so-famous gems, but what did it for me (sealed the cake if you will) was the music video for "fake plastic trees." all that beautiful color down the fake isles of a fake supermarket. say no more. i'm sold. this song is wonderful in it's own right, whether or not you've seen the video or not. the way thom wails at the end. god you could just cry...or at least wail with him. i'm sure you've all heard this song a million times, but if for some reason you haven't, please, for the love of god, DOWNLOAD IT NOW! and then go buy the bends because it is the best radiohead album out there. unless you are one of those people who thinks ok computer is the best. then we can duke it out. fist to fist. because while that is a perfect album as a whole, the bends is classic radiohead rock. and i don't care what you say, there is nothing better than that. (click here to buy the bends on amazon.)
beck - "clap hands" -- something new. beck just released a new album called guerolito on december 13th with 14 tracks all remixed by different artists. the idea was that this album would be a companion to his previous release this year, guero. while the album itself is just so-so, there are definitely some standout tracks. a couple being the remix of "girl" by octet and the remix of "broken drum" by boards of canada. so why didn't i post either of those songs and chose to post "clap hands" instead? well, james already posted "girl" awhile back. or at least i think he did. either way, it doesn't feel "new" to me so i don't want to post it. and "broken drum" is great but i can't talk about it the way i can talk about "clap hands." see, if you didn't know (and how would you really...i'm just a guest blogger), i am obsessed with beck. not even so much his music, but beck himself. i love him even if he is a scientologist (which i refuse to believe was his own doing). i saw beck twice in concert this year and both times i was blown away. what got me in particular was the part of the show where all the band members sit down to "eat" and beck is doing his solo acoustic thing. at one point the band guys start "playing" with their tableware. clinking glasses, stomping feet, etc. then beck breaks out into "clap hands" (a track i had not heard of til then) and they all start clapping and clinking and stomping. it was fantastic. and now here is the song in all it's glory on this album. apparently the song appeared on the limited edition version of guero, but i don't own that so as far as i'm concerned, "clap hands" is new to me. it's a delightfully fun song that i think it worth anyone's listen. (click here to buy guerolito from amazon.)
david gray - "say hello, wave goodbye" -- something borrowed. i'd be lying if i said this was my favorite cover (read: borrowed) ever made, but it's a damn good one. and considering the original song by soft cell sounds like 80's crap (not all 80's songs or soft cell songs are crap, just this one), i'm glad david gray took the time to make this cover. i personally find it mind-boggling how someone can listen to some god-awful song and think "well, that was a piece of shit but i think i can turn it into something beautiful." but mr. gray did, so two and half golf-claps to you sir. this song, weighing in at a hefty 9+ min, is truly gorgeous from beginning to end. it's the second to last track on white ladder, although in my eyes it *is* the last track because i don't count reprises. therefore a wonderful end to a wonderful album. check it out, you'll love me for it. (click here to buy white ladder on amazon.)
kylie minogue vs. new order - "can't get blue monday out of my head" -- something blue. oh mashups...this was one of the first mashups i ever heard. thanks to james himself actually. i remember when he came a knockin' with this great new musical genre he had found called "mashups." i was in awe. what the hell was this? two songs mixed together? one track's lyrics over another track's music? how could this be? now you find mashups all over the place. and the most random of songs mixed together too. sometimes 3, 4, even 5 tracks laid on top of each other. they even have radio shows and club nights dedicated to mashups. who woulda thunk? this is definitely not my favorite mashup, but it's an old tried and true classic. it'd be like saying a-ha's music video for "take on me" isn't my favorite music video. but it definitely ranks up there are one of the best for it's time (ie. the beginnig of music videos). (click here to buy the kylie import fever from amazon which has a second disc with this mashup on it.)
my name is jen. i'm very verbose. and i write everything in lowercase...
in light of the fact that one of my best friends just announced her engagement recently, i thought it only fitting to use this wonderful "wedding mantra" as the theme of my guest post on james' blog. (not to mention i couldn't figure out a way to narrow my mp3 choices down to just a few considering my love for music. what better way than to choose a theme to force some constraints!)
radiohead - "fake plastic trees" -- something old. i couldn't resist putting up this old favorite. "fake plastic trees" is probably my all-time favorite radiohead song. (and definitely one of my all-time favorite songs at that.) surely it's hard to choose from their large library of hits, b-sides, and not-so-famous gems, but what did it for me (sealed the cake if you will) was the music video for "fake plastic trees." all that beautiful color down the fake isles of a fake supermarket. say no more. i'm sold. this song is wonderful in it's own right, whether or not you've seen the video or not. the way thom wails at the end. god you could just cry...or at least wail with him. i'm sure you've all heard this song a million times, but if for some reason you haven't, please, for the love of god, DOWNLOAD IT NOW! and then go buy the bends because it is the best radiohead album out there. unless you are one of those people who thinks ok computer is the best. then we can duke it out. fist to fist. because while that is a perfect album as a whole, the bends is classic radiohead rock. and i don't care what you say, there is nothing better than that. (click here to buy the bends on amazon.)
beck - "clap hands" -- something new. beck just released a new album called guerolito on december 13th with 14 tracks all remixed by different artists. the idea was that this album would be a companion to his previous release this year, guero. while the album itself is just so-so, there are definitely some standout tracks. a couple being the remix of "girl" by octet and the remix of "broken drum" by boards of canada. so why didn't i post either of those songs and chose to post "clap hands" instead? well, james already posted "girl" awhile back. or at least i think he did. either way, it doesn't feel "new" to me so i don't want to post it. and "broken drum" is great but i can't talk about it the way i can talk about "clap hands." see, if you didn't know (and how would you really...i'm just a guest blogger), i am obsessed with beck. not even so much his music, but beck himself. i love him even if he is a scientologist (which i refuse to believe was his own doing). i saw beck twice in concert this year and both times i was blown away. what got me in particular was the part of the show where all the band members sit down to "eat" and beck is doing his solo acoustic thing. at one point the band guys start "playing" with their tableware. clinking glasses, stomping feet, etc. then beck breaks out into "clap hands" (a track i had not heard of til then) and they all start clapping and clinking and stomping. it was fantastic. and now here is the song in all it's glory on this album. apparently the song appeared on the limited edition version of guero, but i don't own that so as far as i'm concerned, "clap hands" is new to me. it's a delightfully fun song that i think it worth anyone's listen. (click here to buy guerolito from amazon.)
david gray - "say hello, wave goodbye" -- something borrowed. i'd be lying if i said this was my favorite cover (read: borrowed) ever made, but it's a damn good one. and considering the original song by soft cell sounds like 80's crap (not all 80's songs or soft cell songs are crap, just this one), i'm glad david gray took the time to make this cover. i personally find it mind-boggling how someone can listen to some god-awful song and think "well, that was a piece of shit but i think i can turn it into something beautiful." but mr. gray did, so two and half golf-claps to you sir. this song, weighing in at a hefty 9+ min, is truly gorgeous from beginning to end. it's the second to last track on white ladder, although in my eyes it *is* the last track because i don't count reprises. therefore a wonderful end to a wonderful album. check it out, you'll love me for it. (click here to buy white ladder on amazon.)
kylie minogue vs. new order - "can't get blue monday out of my head" -- something blue. oh mashups...this was one of the first mashups i ever heard. thanks to james himself actually. i remember when he came a knockin' with this great new musical genre he had found called "mashups." i was in awe. what the hell was this? two songs mixed together? one track's lyrics over another track's music? how could this be? now you find mashups all over the place. and the most random of songs mixed together too. sometimes 3, 4, even 5 tracks laid on top of each other. they even have radio shows and club nights dedicated to mashups. who woulda thunk? this is definitely not my favorite mashup, but it's an old tried and true classic. it'd be like saying a-ha's music video for "take on me" isn't my favorite music video. but it definitely ranks up there are one of the best for it's time (ie. the beginnig of music videos). (click here to buy the kylie import fever from amazon which has a second disc with this mashup on it.)
posted by James at 11:43 AM
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2 Comments:
bravo jen! good guest posting, with a whopping four tracks, even if you're not as crazy-detailed as james as to why i'm supposed to be in love with all these songs.
haha thank you thank you. i hope that i will be seeing a guest post from you this week as well. =)
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