40s

Who

David Byrne & St. Vincent – Who

This video comes from the first single off of the album Love This Giant, the collaboration between David Byrne and St. Vincent. I love that David Byrne is still out there, being himself* (and looking more like David Lynch’s brother with that white hair), and they are taking the show on the road.

BrooklynVegan has been posting a tour diary from Kelly Pratt, who is one of the horn players on tour. It’s pretty interesting and not just because I like the album and am a long time Talking Heads fan. For instance, who knew that marching band experience could ever come in handy off the football field? Band geeks unite! And that nearly the entire band has taken bicycles with them on the road. Is that not the coolest thing ever?! Did you know David Byrne has designed bike racks before? I do think I read that somewhere once but have you seen what this company can do to a bike rack? So freaking awesome!! I want one!

(click the links, you will be rewarded with things like a video of Burning Down the House from the Minneapolis show this past Saturday night.)

I played the French horn in junior high and high school. I don’t think any of us ever thought our time sweating it out in our band uniforms would ever end in anything as cool as touring with David Byrne & St. Vincent. We were mostly thinking that it got us out of study skills or some other lame class no one wanted to take. Our band teacher in New York was adamant that the French horn could only be played properly if sitting down so we never marched with our French horns. We played the euphonium when we marched, which was nice since it was smaller and easier to carry.

The band teacher up in Maine, where we moved halfway through high school, was not so particular about our proper French horn posture so we marched with our horns. To make matters worse, we also had those Buckingham Palace guard style hats. Somewhere at my mother’s house there is a perfectly awful picture of me, in that band uniform, playing the French horn on the football field. I look about 20 pounds heavier too because I had three layers on underneath to try and keep from freezing. Marching band in Maine suuuucked. It sucks everywhere but November in Maine is already winter. You couldn’t be in band the rest of the year unless you did marching band in the fall. Although I did know these two kids who signed up for hunting lessons just because they conflicted with football games and they managed to get away with it. As a recently transplanted New Yorker, that struck me as being the ultimate sign that we were really in the boonies.

* Case in point, he has a new book out too, How Music Works.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

St. Swithin’s Day

Billy Bragg – St. Swithin’s Day

I was feeling a little low today and when that happens, I often try to make myself listen to the radio so I don’t fall into old habits and listen to songs I know will just allow me to feed that feeling. But the radio wouldn’t cooperate so I gave in and listened to a series of progressively sadder and sadder songs.

This evening Nancy posted a link to this interview with the author of a book called This Will End in Tears: The Miserabilist Guide to Music. Sounds like a book I might have written. The interviewer starts out by saying “Everyone has their favorite sad song, but have you ever thought about the sad song as a whole category of music?” Uh, have you never met a Smiths fan? I don’t have a favorite sad song, I have an extensive collection of sad songs. In college I made tapes with titles like “Morrissey’s Most Moaning Melodies” and “Anguish, Fear, Lamenting” or “Does the Body Rule the Mind or Does the Mind Rule the Body?” (subtitled, I Dunno!).

I made a conscious effort in my 20s to put some distance between myself and lots of those beloved sad songs in the interest of self preservation. And it more or less worked. I still love those songs. Many of them now, with the years that have passed helping to ease the sting, I can listen to and enjoy with a smile. “Oh I can smile about it now but at the time it was terrible.”

So after the talk of Mozzer, why the Billy Bragg song? Because no one can touch him when it comes to songs that pierce your heart. Just listen.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

Isolation

Joy Division – Isolation

I live in a small town, I work in a city an hour away. I am not at home enough to get to know many people beyond our immediate neighbors, almost all of whom are retirees and, while very nice people, not exactly a go-to group for new friends.

I like a lot of the people I work with but having that hour commute looming at the end of the day kind of puts a damper on any after work activities and on a weekend, the last thing I want to do is make that drive.

Isolation, even when surrounded by people.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

Off the Wall

Lee Ranaldo – Off the Wall

I always meant to go see Sonic Youth* but the timing never worked out. Now that seems like a slim possibility. But Lee Ranaldo has a new solo album out, Between The Times and The Tides, and I like what I’ve heard so far. He’s also touring! Opening up for Wilco nearby in August, and for M. Ward in May. I’m really going to try to make it out to one of those this time.

*Back in the early 90s, I thought it would be cool to name a hypothetical son Thurston, until a friend pointed out that most people would make a connection with Thurston Howell III and not Thurston Moore. I guess it’s going to end up in the names not used pile.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

Driver 8

R.E.M. – Driver 8

Southern Serves the South.

I bought train tickets today. I decided that with the cost of gas and tolls, it would be no more expensive, and maybe even cheaper, to take the train down to Philadelphia in May. I will travel the same route I’ve traveled more times than I could count, though I haven’t done it in a long time. 

In looking up the schedules and fares, I discovered that one leg of my trip happens to fall on National Train Day. National Train Day! Where was this holiday when I was in college? Events taking place in NYC at Grand Central, Chicago Union Station, Los Angeles Union Station, and Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station. That’s MY station. I do love the train, but the station holds more than just the prospect of a train trip for me. It’s all the hopes and dreams, all the expectations, all the heartache, all the cool, all the sadness, all the delays, all the people watching. I’m thrilled that 30th St. made the list, and I’ll be there.

I read somewhere that all the train arrival and departure signs have been modernized and are digital now and don’t make that tell-tale clickity-clackity sound anymore. That’s a little sad, but I’ve got the train tape modernized and digitized and loaded on the iPod, the angel statue is still there, and there’s probably soft pretzels for sale in there somewhere.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

Midnight City

M83 – Midnight City

I was talking with someone on Friday about old college radio days and mentioned I’d gone to school outside of Philadelphia, where she now lived. That led to a conversation about the area and I said that I’d be down there in May. She suggested a restaurant I should try in Philadelphia. I ventured that might be a good place for me to meet up with a friend before we head over to a show at Union Transfer (a new-ish club that gets rave reviews). She asked what show, and when I answered M83, she laughed and said she was going to the same show! Small world.

Normally I wouldn’t go five hours away to see a band I don’t know that well. I made the decision to go see M83 by listening to their latest album online while working and wishing I was someplace else so I could dance. Then all the write ups of their live shows in the fall were great and I saw them on some late night show and thought, damn, I guess I missed it. But they announced some spring dates so I asked a young woman I used to work with who has moved down to PA if she’d like to go. The fact that it gave me the chance to check out this new club was an added bonus. Not to mention I get to go down by myself and stay with my sister, child-free for a couple days!

I’m counting on the dark club hiding my mid-40s wrinkles and un-hipster wardrobe. Now it’s just to get myself into dancing shape and find some dancing shoes.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

Ceremony

New Order – Ceremony

This came on the radio while I was driving home today, window down on a beautiful day. I love this song. Love it. Turn it up and throw your arm out the window, not caring what the drivers around you think.

This might also explain why I don’t carpool.