Friday, June 01, 2007

YOU'RE THE LAST THING THAT I'D EVER WANT TO LOSE

We'll keep this brief since I still have more stuff to pack.

Reed KD - Seventeen

This is the song I think of when I think about the fact that everything I own has to be moved: "I was packed away in boxes". But I don't want to get lost - oh no, I'm coming home. But the line, "we'll never be seventeen", is so simple and so heartbreaking. Time doesn't stand still for anyone - everyone has to grow up at some stage. Thankfully, my time is not now. So while this song is small, short, simple, and sad, my heart is bursting with life.

Reed KD - Please Forgive Me

Mistakes are made, relationships fall apart and the world keeps on spinning.

A. A. Wallace - I Can Break Your Heart
A. A. Wallace - Godspeed You Black...

If I was looking for a replacement for the late Elliott Smith, I would probably pester this guy to continue making such sad anthems. The truthfulness of each song is gutting. You might say it's uncalled for, and maybe it is, but sometimes people beg for your opinion so much that eventually you forget your social grace, and you tell them, straight out, "It's not that I was reckless, I just didn't care".

These artists present two sides of the same coin - one is apologetic, romantic, and (tries to be) hopeful, whilst the other is honest, romantic, and miserable. I'm sure you can work out which is which. They are both honest in their own ways. And both have songs that deal with moving, packing, dreaming.

Don't think that these songs are any less amazing just because nothing much happens. It's the subtle details in life that change people, that change hearts. Like buying that Mickey Mouse notepad for your best (female) friend. She might not even say thanks, but in her heart she is smiling. If you ask her six months later when she knew she might be falling in love with you, it's that simple gesture that she'll recall. And when you're separated, and in a different country, it will be the train journeys you take alone, past valleys, greenery and beaches, that leave you sobbing uncontrollably. Our hearts are touched by the smallest things.

-----

How is your heart? I think mine is falling apart.

Thursday, May 31, 2007

OUR SLEEP IS LIKE A MIX-TAPE: #4

They were given note-pads and Bic biros. They were given spray-paint and public transport. They were given voices. They were given laptops and imagination. They were given face-paint and glow sticks. They were given voices. They were given a beat and feet to dance with. They were given sofas in night-clubs upon which they could sit, sleep or kiss. They were given hearts bursting with joy and life and love and wonder. They were given everything.

-----

If you want to dance, then dance. Just because it's still daylight and the streetlights haven't come on yet -- it doesn't matter. Soon, the sun will go down and the kids will come up. It doesn't matter if your face is sparkling with sweat, glitter or a smile. Maybe you're covered in Day-Glo colours, or maybe you're still half-asleep from the night before. The point is... it's time to kick-start your little heart. And remember: there's plenty of time for hugging afterwards.

Electro-Graffiti At Bus Shelters



Chromeo - Fancy Footwork
Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles Vs Klaxons
Kavinsky - Testarossa (SebastiAn Remix) [Info]
Solomun & Stimming - Feuervogel
Parts & Labor - Fractured Skies
Pantha Du Prince - Steiner im Flug
Justice - Waters of Nazareth

-----

Click to download all tracks as a ZIP file.

-----

[Info] = website of the remixer.
Listen in the order shown. Or don't.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO: JEFF BUCKLEY

If, somehow, you are unaware of the brilliance of Jeff Buckley (one of few artists who truly hold a special place in my heart), then these songs below, are the ones that I urge you to find, and listen to. In parenthesis you will see where they can be found -- after you find them, it's up to you to let them into your heart, and to change your life.



FIVE ESSENTIAL TRACKS

Last Goodbye (Grace)
Lover, You Should've Come Over (Live A L'Olympia)
Hallelujah/I Know It's Over (Mystery White Boy)
What Will You Say (Mystery White Boy)
Morning Theft (Sketches)

Although, the new compilation album, So Real, is also a good start.

CELEBRATING A LIFE: JEFF BUCKLEY



Jeff Buckley

I Know We Could Be So Happy Baby (If We Wanted To Be) (Demo)
Lover, You Should Have Come Over (Live Acoustic In Japan)
All Flowers In Time (with Elizabeth Fraser)
Forget Her (alternate version)
Grace (acoustic)
Untitled

The Boy With The Thorn In His Side (The Smiths Cover)
When The Levee Breaks (Led Zeppelin Cover)
Be Your Husband (Nina Simone Cover)
Ulalume (Edgar Allen Poe Reading)

He was already dead when I first learned about his music -- about his adoring fans who can breathlessly recite his lyrics and song-titles, and hum his melodies as if they'd written them themselves. But Jeff Buckley isn't the music-geek's personal soul-mate -- even the casual music-listener has heard or heard of him. His cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", recorded in 1994, emulated John Cale's and - later - the song became omnipresent, used in the sound-tracks of TV sitcoms and dramas, such as Scrubs, The West Wing, and The OC.

But this isn't about the prevalence of "Hallelujah" in TV and Cinema (to read about that, and the song's evolution, read this article). This isn't even really about the fact that 10 years ago today, Jeff Buckley went for a swim in the Wolf River Marina (Memphis, TN) from which he never returned alive. Because, tragic as that is, it doesn't say much about him, or his music. We can't ascertain how someone lived, or what they created in their lifetime, merely by knowing the circumstances of their death. (Although you can read a tribute detailing said circumstances here.) Really, this is just a celebration of the fact that Jeff Buckley lived long enough to record some unbelievable music.

Before he was signed, Jeff Buckley performed in the Sin-é (at that time, a café-style venue in New York's infamous Lower East Side), where he would play mostly covers, and improvise in a whimsical nature -- always encouraging audience participation. The Live at Sin-é EP got released to promote Columbia's new artist to the public before Grace came out, which was then posthumously expanded to a sprawling 2CD and bonus DVD package that truly emphasised the almost flippant nature of Jeff Buckley's talent -- he could step up to a microphone with just a guitar and his voice and wow an audience into silence. Even after his death his music continues to hush, touch, change.

-----

It was through the release of Live A L'Olympia in 2001 that I first came into contact with his music: his guitar skills, his voice, his lyrics. My brother asked for the album as a Christmas present from our parents, and then he invited me into his room to hear it. And I was just... stunned. And when I read the liner-notes I was gutted -- why wasn't this amazing musician still alive? Why?! For a live album to be so emotional and playful and perfect -- it was and still is just incredible. [Buy]

But Grace, the album proper that I subsequently discovered, didn't have the same impact upon me -- the studio setting for me, appears to render some of the emotion sterile. Live, Jeff Buckley could be cathartic, amazing, overwhelming, but - to my ears at least - the studio setting removed some of these desirable elements and almost, in a sense, made the songs too pitch-perfect. In comparison to the studio albums of other artists though? It's still nothing short of incredible, and critics and fans agree (in 2006 Mojo named it the #1 Modern Rock Classic of all Time; in 2005 readers of Q magazine placed the album as #13 on their list of The Greatest Albums Of All Time.) [Buy]

-----

Brief Words On:

Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk: This release left the songs as they were, in their unfinished states, as 'sketches'. Remarkably, this album, so clearly unfinished, is incredibly enjoyable. [Buy]

Jeff Buckley's influence: Admired by Radiohead, Damien Rice, and Martin Grech... enough said.

Radiohead with regards to Jeff Buckley: The vocal for Fake Plastic Trees, perhaps my favourite Radiohead song, was recorded by Thom Yorke in two takes after seeing Jeff Buckley perform. After the vocals were laid down, Thom Yorke apparently broke down into tears.

-----

A gushing summary: Music bloggers in general are stereotyped as being obsessed with the new new NEW! with only the briefest backward glance at what's come before, but few new artists can hold a candle to Jeff Buckley in my eyes. An example of someone adept in all fields of musicianship -- his remarkable voice spanning four octaves (read more at the official Jeff Buckley FAQ), his guitar skills (which, unlike many, he only ever showed off if it was beneficial to the song -- few realise how incredibly skillful he was at guitar because of this), his interpreter's ability to transform the songs of others into his own (see the Sin-é sessions for proof), his lyrics ("My kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder... all my riches for her smiles when I slept so soft against her") -- his whole craft was impeccable. Thus, despite today being the 10th anniversary of Jeff Buckley's death, his music continues to live on and touch the hearts and minds of others.

-----

Links:

Jeff Buckley Official Website / Jeff Buckley Official Store / Jeff Buckley Discography / Jeff Buckley Guitar Tabs / Jeff Buckley on Wikipedia / Grace on Wikipedia / A Beginners Guide To Jeff Buckley

-----

If you want to download more rarities, live versions, and songs written in tribute to Jeff Buckley, then go to I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS. There are a lot of great posts (all conveniently linked at the bottom).