It's fun how I write these ginormously long titles so you know exactly where I'll be going with this blog (or trying to at least) and gives a good indication of how none of this has any rhyme or reason. I crack up every time I write it but at least I'm being honest at the gate so you can decide if you really want to race.
FIRST THINGS FIRST. I lied. I said that I was going to chat about Phoenix today but wrong. I've decided to actually spend an entire week dedicating five songs of theirs for each day of next week. That's how much I love them right now. I will give a great introduction to the band and then get you hooked by the end of the week. That's the goal anyway. I'm listening to them a lot today and will be for a while to come.
I feel so Debbie Downer today. Maybe not the best day to write. But I will anyway (lucky lucky you). I think it's the weather or the fact that my insomnia is making me narcoleptic through the day and kicking my ass by evening. My thoughts are all jumbled and I feel kind of nothing. The only interesting things that flash through my head are really dark (like when I die, I will not be able to have that first initial high of hearing an amazing song for the first time - yes, this was my thought on my way home from school) to really strange (like maybe I should quit my day job all together and really delve into physical science like why we can see through solids like ice and glass). And while on the subject of day jobs, I decided that writing about music or having my own radio show would be my dream job. I feel like a female Christian Slater hunkered down in my little room with nothing but music in the background and so much to say. None of these thoughts are useful at all. I'm a noncontributing zero at the moment.
But Phoenix aside, there are some other great bands worthy of attention right now. One that no one seems to talk about is The Temper Trap. I think I like them. I mean, I'm more on the side of really liking them than not liking them which was a fence I hopped today with Muse. Sitting on this fence for a while and then this morning I decided it's just not my thing. Speaking of Audioslave yesterday, that's what they remind me of. Like MGMT synthesized sounds mixed with Audioslave and some Third Eye Blind. Just not really doing it for me. Doesn't give me the tingles. But Dougy Mandagi of The Temper Trap does. His voice is very melodic and I like how straightforward it can sound one minute and then reach an unbelievably high pitch in no time. He's no Bon Iver (that's French, assholes HA!) but smooth and consistent. I like him, so I am featuring him as my artist of the day.
The Temper Trap, for those of you who don't know, are a band that started in Australia with the front man being born in Indonesia. He's super cute to boot. The BBC nominated them as the top 15 sounds for 2009, the year they broke out and had commercial success with their first album, Conditions. You are bound to hear them as a band in an awesome lineup for kick-ass music festivals. They gained worldwide notoriety after their performance at South by Southwest in 2009. So look for them out and about in your area to see a show or better yet, just buy an album. I still buy CDs. I'm so archaic like that.
I began to think about life, as I mentioned earlier today, and was thinking about the loss of memories. Some people will really surprise me with their memory. I think years of drinking and self-destructive self-centered behavior enabled me to forget most of my past, which I thought was really great there for a while and now I hate it. I don't necessarily wish I had superior autobiographical memory but I also don't want to forget what it was like to have a first kiss, what sneaking out for the very first time felt like, Indian summers with my brother in huge fields running around barefoot pulling ticks off of us while skipping down to the corner store market for Big Hunks and Yoo-hoos. I don't like forgetting past lovers and what hearing Pearl Jam's Ten album was like in my room long, long ago. Speaking of Pearl Jam, I DID remember the other day while doing the dishes about me applying for one of my first jobs when I was 16 to The Music Station. It was like the hippest thing we had in Roseburg and was the ONLY place on earth you would buy music (us alternative kids, anyway because like we would be caught dead at Sam Goody). The question on the application was "If you were on a deserted island but had a way to listen to music, what five albums would you take?" What a question. It would still feel nearly impossible to me to answer but my attempts were: 1) Pearl Jam - Ten; 2) So far the best of... - Sinead O'Connor; 3) Elliott Smith - Either/Or; 4) Billy Holiday - Songs for Distingue Lovers; and 5) Chet Baker - My Funny Valentine. I had to of course put backups on there. 16-year-olds are indecisive by nature. I believe I put Jeff Bukley's "Grace" and Beastie Boys' "Licensed to Ill". I think Jeff Buckley should've replaced Sinead. He is after all my second favorite musician of all time. I never got the job. Was it something I said?
Anyway, sometimes I will have very strange memories like I will suddenly smell the sweet pungent aroma of plastic/latex mix that reminds me of the inside of a Halloween monster mask from the 80's that my brother and I used to play with or I will be behind a school bus and can smell the diesel remembering my rides to school every morning and every afternoon picking at the crappy hot glue gun job they did on those cheap brown plastic seats. The other day I even caught myself missing a current memory in the making in which I was on the freeway listening to Phillip Glass watching a crop irrigation sprinkler thingey water this huge field and it just looked like these huge tennis balls with streamers attached pummeling the plants like comets falling through the atmosphere. I just realized how tired I am.
Some songs can be so sad when talking about memories or at least they make me sad and I can't tell if the artist is sad or maybe I'm sad when I think while listening to them. Who knows. Songs can be strange that way. Like what about "Against The Wind" by Bob Seger or "In My Life" by The Beatles or "Copperline" by James Taylor or "Glory Days" by The Boss (that's Bruce Springsteen chitlins), oh I could go on and on. But these songs are so sad for me. A song that I hear once in a while that makes me feel all pensive and imagine myself driving through the desert toward an awesome sunset thinking back on my life driving toward the future (how's that for a cheese vision) is: Noah and the Whale "Oh Joy". It's a pretty song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EZ_TiLp-qI
For some reason I couldn't imbed the video.
Something that I am so super duper happy about with this blog is that I get to keep these featured songs archived. I can always look back on them. I love that I have a digital record of these songs. Ever since Facebook changed its features, I have lost every song I have ever shared (which is the main reason I am on the thing anyway) and I used to love that in the left hand column, it listed all of my music. No longer. I lose them as I go. So here I am making and recording memories with these songs I share for good.
Can't wait to make lots of memories in this beautiful city I live in now. Some artists even sing about their memories in Portland, Oregon. It's a memorable place. Today I celebrate my 6 month anniversary of living here. It's the longest relationship I have had in a while. I think it's getting serious.
I will now leave you all with a quote from my very favorite television show from my youth:
Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose. ~The Wonder Years
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