CONFESSION OF WEAKNESS

this is my number one jam. for some reason this song has an odd habit of MAKING ME CRY LIKE A LITTLE GIRL (i might be technically a little girl) even though it is really uplifting and beautiful... the first time i saw a full-length video of it on youtube, i got tears in my eyes, for some reason.
anyway so i found a bootleg of this, recorded from some concert in glasgow. and i'm walking down the street to go to the bus stop listening to it and all of a sudden i realize that i am crying hysterically. it's not like there are those little happy tears in my eyes, but it's that i am legit weeping. like running down my cheeks and i can't really see and etc.
it was ridiculous.
when i hear this song i want to look up into the sky and say "hello!" i want to reach out and touch everything in the universe. i want to look in all the buildings, and imagine i live there.
this might be the most beautiful thing i have ever heard, i swear. with the keyboard scale in the chorus, the background vocals in the third verse, the way he flattens out the word "once," the guitar thing from 1:24 to 1:30, the bassline - ba ba BA, BA BA ba.

WHITE SKY (LIVE ABC GLASGOW) -- VAMPIRE WEEKEND. via sendspace. download that immediately. tell me if you cry.

M12 IS REAL
genevieve

THE BEST SONG EVER

through genius reasoning and exploration of universal energies / the power, unsurpassed and still growing, of the internet, i will PROVE TO YOU that ROADRUNNER IS THE BEST SONG EVER.

roadrunner, recorded in 1972, is the song that CREATED THE GENRE WE KNOW TODAY AS "PUNK." however, unlike most punk music which entails weird hair and violence, roadrunner is about BEING HAPPY TO BE ALIVE.
thusly at the same time, roadrunner innovated:
1. really simple music with a focus on not giving a fuck (like punk music)
2. positivity in lyrical detail (like pop music)
3. insane synth / keyboard (like post-punk music)
so at the same time, roadrunner made possible bands that don't give a fuck about musical talent, such as the sex pistols, bands that utilize lyrical positivity, and bands that utilize ridiculous keyboard.
however, the PUNK GENRE focused on HOW MUCH EVERYTHING SUCKS -- roadrunner is about how awesome everything is. arguably jonathan richman who wrote the song stole the chord progression from the velvet underground, etc. i would argue that even if this is true roadrunner is still original in a lot of ways because most velvet underground songs are about DEBAUCHERY IN NEW YORK and roadrunner is about BEING IN LOVE WITH MASSACHUSETTS.

possibly the most interesting facet of roadrunner - indicative of a kind of universal energy i cannot begin to interpret or understand - is that it comes up in many a song to this day.
M.I.A. recites it at the beginning of BAMBOO BANGER. i do not understand where this comes from. my thought is that M.I.A. who is in her music trying to introduce the jamz of the still-exotic East to lame americans is trying to do a similar thing than jonathan richman, who was trying to just JAM OUT IN A DIFFERENT WAY and showcase this desire to lame americans, because at this time punk was still EXOTICA (???)
SPOON sing "the highway is your girlfriend / and it goes by quick" in IDIOT DRIVER. i think this connection is more obvious because idiot driver is a song about driving (really?). interestingly, spoon have another (equally short / jam-tastic) song about driving called CAR RADIO. i would think a roadrunner nod would make more sense in this one because like roadrunner car radio is HOPEFUL - "with the radio on," etc. idiot driver on the other hand is one of those sexy, angry spoon songs - "she's waking up right now with him, it just makes me sick." INTERESTING. the choice to put a nod to a song about JOY in a song about UNREQUITED LOVE is kind of trippy in my opinion - kind of provocative and awesome. although i'm sure no one besides me notices these kinds of things.

i'm done. all this thinking / energy-interpreting is exhausting + i have to go to work.

TONIGHT: CAMP ROCK / OXFORD COMMA / LIL WAYNE. BEST NIGHT EVER. get some sleep kids.

M12 IS REAL
genevieve

I REALLY HATE COLDPLAY; CONVERSELY I LOVE PETER GABRIEL

GIANT TRAVESTY.
7 / 10 of the most downloaded songs in the "alternative" section of itunes are new coldplay songs.
18 / 100 of the most downloaded songs in the "alternative" section of itunes are coldplay songs (stretching as far back as parachutes - yellow and clocks will NEVER leave the top 100)
radiohead, whose complete discography was added to itunes the other day, have one spot (creep) at number 35, just after green day's opus, "good riddance (time of your life)."

WHAT THE BALLS? i am questioning my faith in the internet and the human race. coldplay brings further shadow to a dark place in my soul. i feel a kinship with that drunk british girl who attacked that dude trying to karaoke yellow.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE, THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN RIGHT NOW. i was just listening to SLEDGEHAMMER (that said, i wanna be [bwarrrrr!] your sledgehammer! [bwar-bwarrrr!!] just ca-a-all my name! [bwar-bwarrr!] awww!! i wanna be your sledgehammer! this could be my tes-ti-moh-ny!) and thinking about how much i love peter gabriel. immediately after that i put on cape cod kwassa kwassa and thought about how much i love vampire weekend. this should say something about the extreme amount of sense that this cover would make.


M12 IS REAL
genevieve

OH MY GOD.

i will describe this the best i can.
last night i saw vampire weekend in a thunderstorm. having seen vw once before (they are solid live, solid and consistent but not aih-caliber amazing), i did not expect it to be as good as it was. first it was blisteringly hot, then it was torrentially raining and thunder was clapping overhead so loud it sounded fake, then it calmed down a bit, then vw played ladies of cambridge and the sky just opened and the rain came down like in one of those painful hotel showers. except, it was incredible.
ezra told us we were beautiful, and then he said one of the most excellent things i have ever heard: "you're already wet; all you can do is fucking dance." then they played a-punk, so that comment was well placed.
they played walcott last, of course. i think they could sense our need for that song because it was tangible.
it was like a million heartbeats inside you. after it happened i could not think of words to describe it. there were no words in my head. still, i have no words in my head. i am pretty sure that was the best show i have ever seen.

the rain looked like this.
white sky aka. my number one jam looked like this. it's so different since i first heard it but i seriously think it has improved one hundred percent for the better and that beautiful line is still in it: "i look in all the buildings and imagine i live there."
vw also covered tom petty with andrew w.k., which was a sight to see.

photo up top by my friend / compatriot simone!

M12 IS REAL
genevieve

DISCOVERY WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE

DISCOVERY.

this is so satisfying i can't even tell you. i mean, i just want to dance to it nonstop. sometimes you just need some soulful r+b with lyrics like "google yourself when you get home" to remind yourself of the fallacy of trying to be all hip and listening to this one-kind of music with these trendy world-beats and sublime fingerpicking and poetic lyrics, because sometimes you just need to get down, and you need to get down to something that doesn't entail drums with names you can't pronouce. getting down: there is an element of simplicity to getting down, and element of primal urgency, an element of some long-forgotten sensuality. this is a need. to get down: getting down is a need. it has been satiated by rostam from vampire weekend, he of FotC dave-style headbands and vests, and wes from ra ra riot, he of angelic voice and awkwardly homoerotic concert photography.
my friend katie and i have been listening to orange shirt nonstop, although osaka loop line is also awesome.

M12 IS REAL
genevieve

RA RA RIOT

this is an ep by a band called ra ra riot, whom i have listened to quite often for about a year now. i would buy it. they have this really excellent sound that i think is very unique: they use strings excellently, which i really appreciate. in songs by bands like vampire weekend (who i love so whatever) the strings seem like they're laid over the top of the "regular" instruments and sometimes like they don't really belong, but in ra ra riot's songs the strings are a really important part of the framework of the sound; i like this a lot.
ra ra riot have a full-length album coming out on august 19 and i am very excited for it. it's going to be called "the rhumb line." they signed to barsuk records today. i am very proud of them.
here are some jamz. i'm not giving you too many because i legit want you to buy this album.
EACH YEAR.
TOO TOO TOO FAST.
A MANNER TO ACT.

on tour for this record they need urgently to come to new york. when they play live they look like this. i love when bands legitimately love playing their songs for you. i think ra ra riot love playing their songs, and i would love to see them love playing them for me.

WHAT?!

this is an ep by a band called the virgins. they are from new york city. there was one picture of them in spin standing in front of my favorite restaurant in the east village. i saw them because one of the guys from the harlem shakes had appendicitis. it was one of those excellent accidents.
there are five songs on this ep. all of them are very good in various ways.
1. RICH GIRLS. "i went down to your house last weekend. it's like, come on man! you don't have to tell me everything that's bad! so there's a broken mirror on my bed, i'll clean it up, so what? you don't have to be such an asshole all the time." those are some of my favorite lyrics of all time. that, plus sexy bassline and clean clean clean guitar, the reflection of donald cumming's voice from low to high to low.
2. LOVE IS COLDER THAN DEATH. the bass thing, then the addition of the guitar, when he sings the song's title with slight variations and additions is so excellent. i wish i knew the name for it. at the end of the chorus also this awkward wandering guitar thing is so good.
3. FERNANDO PANDO. this remains still one of the most beautiful songs of this sort of nouveau-grunge genre that i know of. the strokes who i suppose you could most readily compare the virgins to NEVER made a song that sounded like this. i still remember when they sang this live and as slowly and gradually from the first chorus it began to build and build and build and expand and open into infinity, i still remember that energy and that feeling and then: "she said well right now you and i we're getting high but it don't have to be this way! lately i don't wanna say goodbye but it's all that i have to say!"
4. RADIO CHRISTIANE. i love the terrible sound quality, i love the acoustic guitar and the fuzz of electric over it. i love most of all though the voice, it's so good in this song. i love how it ends too, how it's just---over!
5. ONE WEEK OF DANGER. one week of danger is a thing of beauty. it is an uninhibited expression of how much you want to do it. come on. obviously! i am pretty sure that in this song donald cumming pretends he is six or seven people. he is himself, the "protagonist," then he is "assorted friends asking awkward questions about your sex life," then he is "the annoying girl." i love when he pretends to be her and he says "come on baby! don't say it's true! please say you love me like i love you!" and how the chorus is, "we love each other!" although i always thought it was "i'll have your children." which is equally hilarious.

THE PROBLEM IS: the virgins put an album out today. it is called "the virgins."

the cover's pretty cool, am i right?
unfortunately, the virgins that i loved for sounding like they put this ep out of their basement ARE GONE. one week of danger, which is for sure my favorite, doesn't even sound like itself. i miss the terrible sound quality! i miss the three instrument simplicity and lack of guitar harmony and hilarious chorus and awkward roleplaying. i don't think i am going to buy the rest of the album.

i did pay six dollars for their ep. there it is for you for free. take it! they're good live, so i'd see them.

M12 IS REAL
genevieve