Tagged

Tagged by Rob:

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they’re listening to.


I am late responding to this meme - sorry Rob... somehow June has gotten away with me! (Note: I was given an iPod for my birthday in Feb and so I have been listening to individual songs more than entire albums for the first time in my life... haven't yet made up my mind on this type of listening.  Some people you just really have to listen to the album as a whole!)

1. Crazy Island by John Mellencamp - The first words of this song are 'Hey, hey America, you're some kind of crazy island' and it really speaks to me - culturally and politically.  Also... I discovered, about 3 weeks ago that it makes a great ring-tone for me - on a crowded bus in Edinburgh!!
2. Anti-Christ Television Blues by Arcade Fire - These guys are visionary, and this song just really gets under the skin.  My son Aric has just graduated seminary - I know he would never fall into this type of self-centered 'ministry'! Check out the female backing vocals... screechy, nasally and totally evocative!!
3. Neon Bible by Arcade Fire - From the album of that name... this song has all the elements of 'arty' disaster - electronic noise opening that resolves to a single frequency that holds the pedal note through the whole piece, creepy understated and monotonous singing, short and repetitive lyrics scheme, non resolving bass line that just thumps along, the only 'build' in the song comes from more intensity in the vocals, and simple key changes and the entire song is only 2.16" long.  Somehow it all works.  The more you listen the more you want to listen.  First time I listened I thought it was the worst song on the album.. now it is my favorite!
4. The Plank by Devil Makes Three - These guys are a folk group I discovered on KPIG a totally amazing radio station out of my home territory in California.  I have two of their albums now and truthfully I like all the songs... but having aspirations to Pirate-hood, the Plank is special to me!
5. What It Is by Mark Knopfler - An paean to Edinburgh Saturday nights.  'The drinking dens are spilling out they're staggering in the square' this appeals to my romantic view of this city that, like Stevenson, has not been eliminated by the fact of it being my home.
6. The Poon Tango by Mondo Heptet - Oh yes! They did go there!  These guys are fine musicians that skirt the edges of parody.  I can never quite decide if they are serious or not!  Whatever - it is fun music, masterfully played.
7. Jarad's Lament by Chip Clark - This is the tenor's lament from the opening of the opera Chip and I are writing together.  Along with 'I'm Bored', 'Boredom is Trouble' and 'I am Clotho' this song has been stuck in my head for months!  Time for us to get on and write new stuff!

Okay that's my seven I tag Aric, Callee, Miki, Heather, Shay, Stacia, and Clarice.

Comments

[Rob]

Great list: I knew some but Mondo Heptet were totally new to me. I like the sound of them....