how to scare away people

john frusciante - running away into you (right-click to download)

The story of John Frusciante goes something like this: Fan of band becomes member of band, band breaks bigtime, fan of band (and now band member) thinks band has sold out, fan of band quits band, becomes heroin junkie, releases some albums, nearly dies, rejoins band, band releases more albums and enjoys more success.

The band that John Frusciante was and is currently a member of is the Red Hot Chili Peppers, a band that was my favorite over about a year span during my college years. I'm not sure what my thinking was back then, because I don't really listen to the band at all now. I do know that the story of John Frusciante was one I found highly interesting, enough so that I joined an email group dedicated to him. And this lead to some interesting email discussions.

I also struck up a sort of pseudo-friendship with a fellow out in San Francisco because of the email group; when I first put my name in the ring he responded by telling me I wasn't invited, so I continued to send him harrassing emails until we struck up a more rational conversation. I can't recall his name now, oddly enough, but in the early days of the internet and email, he was someone I greatly looked forward to hearing from. Because my knowledge of music and film at the time was quite limited, his suggestions were always taken with the highest regard. He told me about Tricky and Breaking The Waves (if you click this link and are unfamiliar with the movie, be sure to read the plot summary), and really sort of opened my eyes to a lot of things.

As I recall, he eventually said he was taking a new job and/or new drugs, and then all of a sudden his emails just stopped coming. I may have even pleaded for further contact, but nothing ever came.

I find the whole thing really funny now, and I can't see how I ever thought any of our "friendship" made any sense; he probably just thought I was some naive kid, and I'm sure the way I paid attention to everything he wrote was quite the ego boost. He probably wasn't more than 3 or 4 years older than me. I guess our email conversations kind of started a pattern for me... You had to be there.

Anyway, back to the John Frusciante song. I've always enjoyed this song for the absurdity of the whole thing; a voice that turns into a UFO, words that fall like water, a millionaire junkie living in a filthy hotel singing into a tape recorder... When I spent a semester at college living in the dorm, I used to play this song whenever we had visitors that didn't know me very well. I guess maybe I thought it sort of defined where I was at, or maybe I was using it as a beacon. In any case, all it ever managed to do was annoy people enough to where they'd ask me to turn it off.

I guess I'm (or was) a weird kid.

PS. If you are downloading these songs, I'd appreciate your thoughts in comment form, even if it's just to say "that was horrible" or "quit wasting my time".

two song rotation starts tomorrow, probably

a new song will be going up sometime tomorrow, so if you wanted in, you'd better get it while you can.

(this message is just in case someone is actually reading this)

we're not breaking new ground here

REM - Electrolite (right-click to download)

I've always found that it takes me a couple of years to "get" an REM album after it's released. I'll form an opinion that I don't like the albums when they debut, and then a while later I'll revisit them and find that they're alot better than I remembered.

In any case, New Adventures In Hi Fi isn't usually the first REM album most people think of; while I can remember an MTV performance of "The Wake Up Bomb", nothing else about the album really sticks out. But New Adventures is by far my favorite REM album, perhaps because it's an album well suited for driving, which is something I do a fair amount of.

I suppose the song I've put up, Electrolite, reminds me of a different kind of travel, the sort of travel that I hope comes at the moment we die. I'm don't want to get overly sentimental or maybe even creepy about it, but certain phrases in the song kind of sum up how I hope to feel when it's all over. I imagine this is the song I'll hear right after I take my last breath and head off to whatever is next. At least I hope so.

break a bottle of champaign already

blur - good song (right-click to download)

If I'm going to start a proper music blog, I might as well start with a song titled "good song", which will hopefully set the whole thing off right.

This song comes from Blur's 7th album, Think Tank, which was either loved or hated by critics. In any case, most music writers seem to think the album sounds like a band falling apart. Oddly enough, I think Think Tank sounds like a Blur that has finally found nirvana (not the band).

This song reminds me of a tiny car driving down a narrow Japanese highway during a boiling summer, but not for reasons that would make sense to anyone but me.

Mike, did you hit this up?

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,67303,00.html?tw=rss.TOP

Indy, Star Wars, and IT just seem to go together

there's blood on my neck from success

things on my desk: 5 cds, 12 diskettes, scrap paper, two white gloves, a notepad.

a highlighter, a rubberband, a checkbook that says "dale earnhardt" from when he was still alive, eye drops, a coupon for fazolis that i'll never use.

a set of car keys, a scanner, a monitor, (1) keyboard, a phone, a clipboard.

a sharpie marker. a mouse. my arms as i type this.

a hockey puck and a webcam.

* * * * *

Knicks, Jesus Fucking Christ

Tonight, on a broker's dime, I saw Reggie Miller's last game at Madison Square Garden from box seats. Nothing could have been more anticlimactic. Reggie scored some 13 points or so, but the fact that the Knicks are the worst team in the worst division in basketball kept an undercurrent of nausea running through what I had hoped to be a memorable experience. I quickly got drunk, but it couldn't mask the sadness of what has become of this team. The Pacers, without Jermaine O'Neal (or Ron Artest, of course) EASILY handled Isaiah Thomas's ragtag crew. By the end, I was praying to see Joanna Newsom off the bench.

Ugh. This doesn't help me stomach the Illinois loss. If another person says "live by the three, die by the three," I will cut off my own head, set it on fire, and throw it through their living room picture window.

Joanna Newsom, wtf?

I have to admit that I've been avoiding the music of Joanna Newsom based entirely off things that really have nothing to do with the actual music. For example, let's take a look at Miss Newsom (and a Joanna Newsom associate, Devendra Banhart).





Ok... before I'd ever heard of Joanna Newsom, I read an article about Devendra Banhart on pitchfork and discovered that he looks like an evil wizard on crack. I try to stay away from music created by crack wizards, and also music by crack wizards' associates, and so...

The thing is, I don't really know how I found out they were associates anyway. There's a good chance they aren't, for all I know.

Besides the Banhart association, I'd read that Miss Newsom has a high pitched voice and plays a harp. Not really my thing, but I'll usually give anything a shot.




The thing is, I listen to music created by the two fellows above (Max Cavalera of Sepultura/Soulfly and David Lee Roth (if you don't know who David Lee Roth is you just don't deserve to live)) more often than I'd like to admit, and neither of them are exactly pretty.

So who am I to judge, really? I'm ugly myself.

With that in mind, I downloaded a Newsom track today, and while I haven't listened to the whole thing yet, my very first thought was "Why didn't anyone tell me she sounded like Shirley Temple?"

Oh man... awesome.

Tom DeLay, wtf?

Mr. DeLay is threatening judges now? Oh, the inconveniences of checks and balances. When you control 2 branches of gov't, you can't help but eye that third one and think, "If it weren't for that pesky judiciary..."