musical monday: the decemberists

I have mentioned The Decemberists before on my blog, but I wanted to spend a little more time on them here.

I love the earlier stuff The Decemberists have done.  They’ve recently gone to a major label (Capitol), and the last time I heard them — on the radio, while driving through Denver this fall — I wasn’t impressed.  But their older works are great.  They have an unusual sound, and their lyrics are a kick in the pants, based around 19th-century soldiering-sailoring life, sung about in a distinctively 21st-century style.

By far my favorite of their songs is “The Engine Driver,” from the album Picaresque (2005).  I first heard this on the IndieFeed Alternative & Modern Rock podcast, but it is still available as a free download online.  I like their use of different professions as a way to explore different kinds of love.  And, above all, I love this line: “I am a writer, writer of fictions, I am the heart that you call home; and I’ve written pages upon pages trying to rid you from my bones.”

You can explore The Decemberists further using the links below:

• visit their official website
• visit their MySpace page, where you can listen to three of the songs from their most recent album
• read about them on Wikipedia
• listen to and/or download “The Engine Driver” at Fingertips (“free and legal mp3s”)
• read the lyrics to “The Engine Driver” on azlyrics.com

 

musical monday: christmas music

One of the things I love most about the Christmas season is the music. In fact, I kind of feel cheated if I don’t get to sing enough Christmas songs during the season.

I have lots of favorite Christmas music, which I separate into three categories. Christmas hymns are the ones that we have in our hymn book, plus a few others; the main thing, I suppose, is that they are focused on the religious aspect of the holiday. Christmas carols are generally songs that come from Victorian England. They may also deal with the religious aspect, but they don’t have to; in any case, they’re the kind of songs you would sing when going out caroling. Christmas songs are the kind that were written, usually, after the turn of the 20th century and they don’t really talk about the religious aspect at all.

So, without further ado, here are some of my favorites from each category, in no particular order and with no particular quota.

• hymns
  • Joy to the World: Nothing is greater than singing your heart out to this song.
  • I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day: I love the words.
  • In the Bleak Midwinter
  • O Holy Night: I especially hate it when people slaughter this song, which is extremely common.
  • O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
• carols
  • God Rest You, Merry Gentlemen
  • The Peace Carol
  • Carol of the Bells: Anyone heard the version put out by The Bird and the Bee, featured as a free song on iTunes recently?
• songs
  • The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)
  • Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas: I love just about every version of this song ever recorded.
  • The Christmas Waltz: There’s a great version of this by Frank Sinatra, which is one of my all-time favorite Christmas songs, but I rarely hear it.
  • Sleigh Ride: I usually prefer the instrumental versions.

I’m sure there are plenty of others, but I don’t want to bore you all, and — frankly — I have better things to be doing now.

Happy Christmas!

 

musical monday: bed-time songs

During the past two weeks, as I’ve been watching my nieces, I’ve spent a lot of time putting the Princess to bed.  (NB: I’ve changed aliases for the girls, so The Big One is now called “the Queen” and The Little One is now “the Princess.”)  I’ve always liked this job the best out of all parenting-type work, and I especially love to sing a song or two to get little ones settled.  So this week’s Musical Monday is about my favorite bed-time songs.

5. Church songs Any number of Primary songs make great bed-time songs, as well as a few of the hymns.  My two favorites are “Teach Me To Walk In The Light” and “I Am A Child Of God.”  For a little variety, I like to sing the latter in German sometimes.

4. “The Very Thought of You” Although I love the melody of this for bed-time, I tend to avoid it, since I find it hard to find the right range and inevitably end up getting too high or too low.

3. “L-O-V-E” A classic.  It teaches kids to spell while softly lulling them to sleep.

2. Rosemary Clooney songs I love Rosemary’s voice, and her song choices make wonderful lullabyes.  I do, of course, avoid “This Ole House” and “Come On-A My House,” but others I embrace: “Blues In The Night,” “The Man That Got Away,” “I Got It Bad And That Ain’t Good,” “Shine On, Harvest Moon” … the list goes on.

1. “Bye Bye Blackbird” I first heard of this as a bed-time song from the movie Sleepless in Seattle, and I hated it.  Couldn’t stand the Joe Cocker version they used in the movie.  Years later, though, I heard the Rosemary Clooney version (way before Joe Cocker’s time), and I fell in love with it.

 

musical monday: the used

I promise that I will post a real update soon and tell you all what’s going on in my life. The trouble, you see, is that there’s not much going on right now. But as soon as there’s something to tell, you can be sure I will do so.

This week’s Musical Monday is about The Used. I love their song “The Bird and the Worm,” even though I’ve only heard it a few times. It’s one of those rare (for me) songs that grabbed me the first time I ever heard it. The lyrics are fascinating — I especially love the first line: “He wears his heart safety-pinned to his backpack” — and the layers and varieties of sounds on the track create a real depth.

Enjoy the YouTube version I’ve embedded below — and please don’t forget to comment and let me know what you think, whether you hate it, love it, or don’t think it’s worth either of those extremes.

read the lyrics

 

musical monday: eve 6

One of the great things about the free exchange of digital music is that I’m constantly re-discovering music I’m familiar with but didn’t know especially well. During one recent exchange, I got a song from NM that I’ve always liked, but until the exchange took place I didn’t know what the song was called, or who it was by. I now know that it’s “Inside Out” by Eve 6, and since I can now listen to it any time I want, I’m more familiar with the lyrics. I’ve always loved the line, “Wanna put my tender heart in a blender, watch it spin round to a beautiful oblivion.” How utterly expressive! And who would think to rhyme ‘tender’ with ‘blender’?

It turns out there’s some debate over a few of the words (e.g., ‘rhines’ versus ‘rinds’ in the second line). Regardless of this debate, though, I very much enjoy the rhymes in the song, as well as the subtle plays on words: ‘doubt’ played against ‘faith,’ ’spin’ against ‘rendezvous,’ the connection of ‘time,’ ’stale,’ ‘tick-tock,’ and ‘clock,’ and the opposition of ’sane and logical’ with ‘tear it off the wall’ — and that’s only the first verse!

Compare lyrics: LyricsFreak ~ Seek Lyrics ~ Lyrics Depot

Check out Eve 6: Official Site ~ Google Music ~ Wikipedia ~ AllMusicGuide

 

updated, plus my top twenty favorite lyrics (part two)

I have to explain what’s been going first. My parents recently purchased and installed a new VoIP phone system, but once we got the phones working, then the internet wouldn’t work. We’ve been trying for the last week to get the problem fixed so that both the phones and the internet work, which is partially obstructed by the fact that my mom can’t seem to decide whether she wants to just cancel the service or not. In the meantime, I’ve been mostly living offline … except for really big tasks (such as applying for jobs), for which I go over to my brother’s house.

But for the evening, I have the phone line knocked out and the internet hooked up again while Mom and Dad are at the temple, so I’m taking advantage of the time to update my blog and write some emails.

I’ve decided I want to start doing a weekly music moment, where I can share my favorite lyrics, musicians, and songs. I plan to normally do this on Mondays (musical Mondays — gotta love the alliteration!), but this week I’m pretty behind-hand, owing to the above-mentioned internet problems.

So, with apologies for its late-ness, here is the second half of my favorite lyrics list:

10. Do you have the time to listen to me whine about nothing and everything all at once? I am one of those melodramatic fools, neurotic to the bone, no doubt about it. (Green Day, “Basket Case”)
9. Delilah, I can promise you that by the time that we get through, the world will never, ever be the same, and you’re to blame. (Plain White T’s, “Hey There Delilah”)
8. Feels like lightning running through my veins, every time I look at you. (David Gray, “Please Forgive Me”)
7. Couldn’t take the blame, sick with shame; must be exhausting to lose your own game. Selfishly hated, no wonder you’re jaded; you can’t play the victim this time. (Evanescence, “Call Me When You’re Sober”)
6. I won’t be seeing you for a long while, I hope it’s not as long as these country miles. (Camera Obscura, “Country Mile”)
5. Don’t believe that the weather is perfect the day that you die. (Armor for Sleep, “The Truth About Heaven”)
4. I should, I wish I could, maybe if you were I would — a list of standard-issue regrets. (Ok Go, “A Million Ways”)
3. I need your grace to remind me to find my own. (Snow Patrol, “Chasing Cars”)
2. The beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair. (Relient k, “Be My Escape”)
1. I am a writer, writer of fictions. I am the heart that you call home. And I’ve written pages upon pages trying to rid you from my bones. (The Decemberists, “Engine Driver”)

So there you have it — my favorite lyrics. As mentioned, this list is by no means complete, and you can be certain you’ll be getting lots more of this in future weeks. And thanks, NM, for sharing some of yours!

 

my top twenty favorite lyrics … part one

Driving through Wyoming and Idaho, believe it or not, does have its plus side: it’s a perfect time for listening to all kinds of music. It was during one such drive that I “discovered” Camera Obscura and Arcade Fire (thanks, Erin and NM!).

This time as I drove, I got thinking about how much I love certain lyrics. And I thought to myself, “Self, why not share those lyrics with your handful of faithful readers? Maybe some of them will discover some new music that they love as well.”

This list is not entirely complete. For one thing, I’m not putting any Muse lyrics in here — there are just too many of them that I love too much, so I’ve decided to make a separate post for them later on. For another, I’m focusing right now on the alternative and indie music I’ve grown to love during the last year or so (thanks again, Erin and NM … and Stephenie Meyer), so there are no lyrics from Gershwin or Berlin or … whoever wrote all those Bing Crosby/Frank Sinatra/Rosemary Clooney lyrics. Another time, perhaps.

For another thing, I have left out several of my very favoritest lyrics, having decided that the lyrics for these whole songs were too good to be able to just pick one or two lines. So, I will post another list sometime (probably quite soon) with these.

The list is also rather flexible — a lot depends on my particular mood, and I know I’m missing some that I have thought about in the last week as favorite lyrics. I was originally planning, in fact, to make this a top ten list, but I couldn’t narrow it down quite that far. But, at the same time, twenty things is a lot to take at once. So I’m giving you the first (or last) ten today, and the rest I will save for another day.

Anyway, with no further ado (since we’ve had ado a-plenty at this point), here is part one of my top twenty favorite lyrics.

20. Face down in the dirt, she said, “This doesn’t hurt.” (Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, “Face Down”)
19. I am not afraid to keep on living, I am not afraid to walk this world alone. (My Chemical Romance, “Famous Last Words”)
18. If I threw my guitar out the window, so far down, would I start to regret it, or would I smile and watch it slowly fall? (Cake, “Guitar”)
17. She left me roses by the stairs — surprises let me know she cares. (blink-182, “All the Small Things”)
16. And as for now, I’m gonna hear the saddest songs and sit alone and wonder how you’re making out. And as for me, I wish that I was anywhere, with anyone, making out. (Dashboard Confessional, “Screaming Infidelities”)
15. With a name I’d never chosen, I can make my first steps as a child of twenty-five. … Just because I’m sorry doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it at the time. (Snow Patrol, “Chocolate”)
14. So never look behind you, spooky people make you cry. The world is ending, there’s a party by the bay. (Blue October, “Sound of Pulling Heaven Down”)
13. In a car, underwater, with time to kill. Thinking back, I forgot to tell you this: I didn’t care that you left and abandoned me; what hurts more is, I would still die for you. (Armor for Sleep, “Car Underwater”)
12. My heart is playing like a violin. (The Clientele, “Here Comes the Phantom”)
11. But that’s how it’s gotta be, it’s coming down to nothing more than apathy — I’d rather run the other way than stay and see the smoke and who’s still standing when it clears. … I wish you were a stranger, I could disengage. … I’m losing you and it’s effortless. (The Fray, “Over My Head (Cable Car)”)

So, now it’s your turn — tell me about some of your favorite lyrics. Are any of them the same as mine (so far)? Do you love some songs or artists that I don’t know yet?

 

things i love about muse

You may well have found yourself thinking, sometime during the past four months or so, “I don’t get it — just what does gryffinkat see in Muse, anyway? What’s so great about them?” Well, through the magic of YouTube, I have decided to share a few of the things I love about them.

The BBC does a show called “Live and Kicking,” where they have popular musicians on to play live. But when they invited Muse onto the show a few years ago, to play their hit “New Born,” they asked the band to lip sync their song, rather than playing it live. So Muse rebelled. Though it’s hard to tell, Chris (the bassist) and Dom (the drummer) have switched places, and Matt (the genius … that is, lead singer/guitarist) is just plain ridiculous throughout the whole performance. (And yet, still sexy as all get-out — check out those shades, eh?)

And here’s another thing I love about them. The BBC does another show called Re:Cover, where they invite bands to cover a song of their (that is, the band’s) choice and perform it live (for real this time). So when Muse was on a while back, they performed — of all things — “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.” Although the BBC folks bill this as originally by Andy Williams (his version reached #5 in the UK charts), most Americans know it from the Lettermen’s version, when they did it as a medley with “Going Out of My Head” (which reached #7 in our charts). Anyway, few people could take such a classic, relatively mellow song and make it sound this amazing in a rock version.

(As a side note, I hear that The Killers have also recently covered this song — I’d love to hear it, though I doubt they can reach this kind of nirvana with it.)

In a related item, I also love the reason Matt gives about why the band chose to cover this particular song. It’s at the end of this video, so you’ll have to sit few a minute or so of inane conversation.

Mostly, though, I love watching Muse play live. (Insert enormous sigh, resulting from my thinking about the fact that I haven’t personally seen them perform live, yet. One day … one day.) But then, that’s the glory of YouTube. While I’m really not a fan of music videos, I do love watching the first half or so of Muse’s video for “Time Is Running Out” (the half before the Nazi-esque women start removing their clothing for no apparent reason — one of the things I hate about music videos.) Just look how engrossed they are in their music. It’s fabulous — and, to me, inspiring — to watch!

(There’s no quote this time. I just don’t feel up to it tonight. Incidentally, I will be starting the scoreboard over soon, since Erin has effectively trounced everyone — again. And the last quote was from Middlemarch, as Jane Heiress said.)

 

"Parentheses" by The Blow

A new favorite song, which I discovered on the IndieFeed Alternative & Modern Rock podcast.

Some philosophies fuel a belief in the self
Constructed to keep one’s goods on one’s own shelf
Built well you’re a strong letter I
With your feet on the ground and your head to the sky

Now and then you can bend
It’s okay to lean over my way
You fear that you can’t do it all and you’re right
Even day takes relief every day
From its work making light from the night

And when you’re holding me
We make a pair of parentheses.
There’s plenty space to encase
Whatever weird way my mind goes
I know I’ll be safe in these arms

If something in the deli aisle makes you cry
You know I’ll put my arm around you
And I’ll walk you outside
Through the sliding doors
Why would I mind?

You’re not a baby if you feel the world
All of the babies can feel the world
That’s why they cry

And when you’re holding me
We make a pair of parentheses.
There’s plenty space to encase
Whatever weird way my mind goes
I know I’ll be safe in these arms

If something in the deli aisle makes you cry
You know I’ll put my arm around you
And I’ll walk you outside
Through the sliding doors
Why would I mind?

By the way, you can download this song for free from merylinabarrel’s livejournal.

 

happy st. george’s day!

Yup, today is St. George’s feast day. And you may have noticed from the side-bar, we’re currently reading a bunch of St. George legends for my Medieval Lit class. Good timing, I’d say.

Here’s a little about what’s been going on for me lately.

Mormon … is she, or isn’t she?
The other day I mentioned to a girl in my program that I’m Mormon, and she responded, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you seem like a Mormon — very together, centered.” I had to laugh as I told her that, during my first semester here, when I told another girl that I was Mormon, she had exactly the opposite reation: “You don’t seem like a Mormon to me.” This seemed to mean, that time, that I wasn’t pushy about my religion. Exactly opposite reactions, yet I took both of them as a compliment.

BYU baseball
I went to Fort Worth Saturday night to watch BYU baseball against TCU. Unfortunately, BYU didn’t score at all that particular night, although we’d won on Thursday and lost, but scored, on Friday. So, the most exciting thing that happened during that particular game was that I got a full paragraph of Wulfstan’s Sermo Lupi translated from Old English — I’ve been working on it all semester long as part of my final paper for Medieval Lit.

getting up early
Friday night, I slept out on the futon, since both of my roommates were gone, and I just felt like “camping out.” Then I slept in really late the next morning. The good news about this is that I woke before my alarm went on Sunday morning — a sure indication that I’m no longer sleep deprived. So this morning I got up at 6:16 and worked out before coming home to finish homework (and blog). I’m hoping to keep this up until the end of the semester — I’m much happier and more productive when I get up early and go to bed early.

I’m also much happier when I work out, and even though I haven’t been for almost a whole month, I can already see and feel my biceps growing. And I’m really serious about that — it’s not just psychological.

IndieFeed podcast
If you remember, I posted an entry a while ago about the podcasts I subscribe to. At the time, I had only just started subscribing to the IndieFeed Alternative & Modern music station, so I didn’t really know whether it was at all good. Well, now I know.

It’s great!!

They play all kinds of different music, many of which you can buy on iTunes and many others of which you can only get by visiting the artist website. Naturally, I like some better than others, but it’s great to be able to hear what’s going on in the music world out there.

One of my favorite songs that I’ve gotten to know from IndieFeed is “Ikea” by Jonathan Coulter: “Ikea: just some oak and some pine and a handful of Norsemen … Everyone has a home, and if you don’t have a home, you can buy one there.” I love it.

If JoCo is not your style, though, they’ve got lots of other folks on IndieFeed: Mates of State, You Say Party! We Say Die!, Calling All Monsters, Tom Thumb and the Latter Day Saints, Snowden, +/-, The Dead Science … you name it, they got it. The DJ also usually has some nifty trivia tidbit at the end, which is fun.

quote of the day
In the meantime, I’m still obsessed, although I don’t have time to indulge this particular obsession right now.

I bet she’s tougher than that — she runs with vampires. (71 points)

The last quote, which no one guessed, was from a Muse song (shocker!), “Blackout.”