Friday, December 7, 2007

CD Mix Nov-Dec 07

Because I am rather bored, having already eaten the Key Lime Pie yogurt that was in my refrigerator, having already run my 2.2 miles for the day, waiting to eat dinner and not knowing what else to do with myself, I will write about a mix cd I have been listening to for the past month on repeat while driving in traffic or at night or to go somewhere to stop being hungry.

The only way I can enjoy music anymore is to make a cd like this with songs that won't get old and listen to it until the songs are engraved on my brain and I don't need to hear them ever again, which takes about 2-3 months:

1. INTERPOL 'Pioneer to the Falls' - I really liked Interpol's first record. Their second record sucked a little more but was still listenable. Their new album pretty much mostly all sucks, except for some reason this first track that I sometimes listen to 10-15 times in a row before going to the next track.

2. ANIMAL COLLECTIVE 'Derek' - Animal Collective are rather overrated I think, but their new album STRAWBERRY JAM is really good. This song does the Beach Boys thing and then goes into a repetitive beat that I can not stop my hands from banging on the steering wheel while I drive. I like the title 'Derek' for a song. I don't know why.

3. DEAD PREZ 'I'm a African' - I enjoy saying the lyrics to this song aloud. It makes me feel correct and angry in a good way. The last line to this song is, "All you uncle Tom ass-kissin' niggas got to go." I said this line to my mom the other day when I visited their house and she poked me with a wooden spoon and refused to let me have a bite of her sandwich.

4. TALKING HEADS 'Animals (LIVE)' - This live version from the live record 'THE NAME OF THIS BAND IS THE TALKING HEADS' is very different from the studio version in subtle ways. I like that he says things about animals. 'YOU KNOW ANIMALS ARE HAIRY. THEY SAY THEY DON'T NEED MONEY.' David Byrne is one of the few musicians I still believe always knows what he is doing as is intelligent. His performance in their live dvd STOP MAKING SENSE is one of the most excellent performances in music. The studio version of this song makes me feel like I am several times larger than I am.

5. RADIOHEAD 'All I Need' - I stopped liking and started hating Radiohead when they put out KID A. I think Radiohead is partially responsible for the death of music as art, by their trying to be the opposite of that. This song is a return to the good they once were. It is already a song I find hard to listen to because of the texture of its goodness. Radiohead is still full of shit.

6. ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN 'The Yo-Yo Man' - This song is catchy without using any of the normal methods of pop song. It sounds incomplete but is also perfect. Right now I want some creamed corn.

7. AESOP ROCK 'Five Fingers' - This song has an excellent bassline. Bass often makes music good to me. This song makes me move abnormally. Aesop Rock has a tongue.

8. SUBTLE 'The Mercury Craze' - Another steering wheel basher. There is no group like this that has ever existed ever. This song says, 'WHAT IF YOUR BLOOD WEREN'T YOU?'

9. COCTEAU TWINS 'Fifty-Fifty Clown' - I hated Cocteau Twins until I got really drunk one night and rode in a friends car half-looned and it all made sense. This song could be on a soft rock radio station and it is very perfect. I often wish I knew what she was saying in these songs because it mostly sounds like gibberish but it's probably better that way. She reminds me of a dungeon master's girlfriend angrily writing Plath poetry at the lunch table in high school.

10. BLONDE REDHEAD 'Publisher' - Good. New album very good space pop with weird vocals and lots of layers. Music jargon.

11. BONNIE PRINCE BILLY 'Another Day Full of Dread' - Currently one of my favorite songs. The lyrics to this song are excellent. This song is my myspace song. People look at other people on myspace. People update their myspace. I have myspace even though I talked shit about it for more than a year before I finally signed up.

12. BUSDRIVER 'Mr. Mistake' - Another good pseudo-rap pop song that is very catchy and with very fast lyrics except for on the chorus which feels like yams.

13. TOM WAITS 'Jayne's Blue Wish' - One of Tom Waits's crushers, from the rarities triple album he released last year or the year before that. I also hated Tom Waits and talked shit about him for years before I finally understood him after hearing the song ALICE from the album ALICE. Tom Waits can do anything he wants and it usually works and is good. One time Tom Waits was on David Letterman and talked about horses 'cribbing,' which is when they chew on the wood of their stalls. He showed pictures of some 'cribbing' a horse had done where it formed a picture of a horse jumping out of a stall.



I just wasted a lot of time.

I sometimes wish I did not hate music now. I used to own more than 2500 cds. Now I rarely can enjoy anything for more than a little while because it gets boring or old or I stop liking it. Some songs are good. I don't know what I'm talking about. I am about to go eat Korean BBQ and I might hate it.

I feel the oncoming of something good.

7 comments:

Matt DeBenedictis said...

I am a product of this culture I assume, I collect music. Like it will soon be what is exchanged for goods. I don't even think about it, it's not a decision...I just collect, ergo horde it. The day when I can buy groceries Tom Waits albums I will be complete. You have a nice mix there, I couldn't agree more with the overrated statement of Animal Collective, I enjoy them. I have to be in the mood of course for their psychedelic Beach Boy-esc records but my life has not been changed by them.

Anonymous said...

everything is good.

trevor said...

blake:

any plans for a christmas list?

jereme said...

I don't know about the south, but here in SoCal Korean BBQ is fucking delicious.

Plus there are hot korean girls who keep serving me soju and they barely speak english.

I have the yellow fever. It is a sickness.

I need help.

sam pink said...

animal collective and dead prez are good. listen to wolf eyes also. and zeigenbock kopf and lightning bolt.

Mike Young said...

Animal Collective is ridiculously overrated. Like Greek fishermen shirts of any color, pink, regular, etc.

I am racist against Animal Collective fans.

BLAKE BUTLER said...

trevor: xmas list? yes'm. i want candy and a new mattress and a white noise machine.

sam: lightning bolt is fun like though their records never did it for me. never heard of zeigenbock kopf. i'll check it.