Terrible Analogies

Is it just me, or is Pink Floyd’s “Time” one of the most depressing songs ever written?

“Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day 
Fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
And you are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it’s sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you’re older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I’d something more to say”

Music Music

In case you haven’t seen this amazing video yet, feast your eyes on Ok Go’s latest video for their song “This Too Shall Pass”.  Check ‘em out as they interact with an amazingly complex Rube Goldberg machine.

This from a band who initially gained widespread attention by dancing on treadmills.  The machine in this video took over six weeks to construct, and over 60 takes over a period of two days to wind up with this single-shot music video.  You have to admire the talent and patience it took to create this.

I initially became aware of Ok Go when they toured with They Might Be Giants in support of their first (self-titled) album.  It’s great to see a band stay true to their roots and in touch with their fan base.

Music, video Music, video

With my car in the shop (blown radiator & cracked head gasket), I’ve been driving a loaner for the better part of a week.  When I first started up my loaner POS I discovered that all of the stereo channels had been programmed to various spanish-language stations.  Ugh.

When I got home I grabbed the closest CD I had on hand and threw it into the car, not paying too much mind to which CD I picked up.  Turns out I snagged Soft-Core by My Robot Friend.  This happened to be an album that I hadn’t paid much attention to, but after listening to it on repeat for the past five days it’s become of my favorite albums as of late.

Once you get beyond the whole “I’m a robot and I sing about robots” schtick, the album is amazingly solid.  This is the perfect album to listen to while on a long drive to nowhere in particular.  As for their sound, imagine putting Depeche Mode, LaTour, The Postal Service, and Kraftwerk into a blender and pressing the puree button.  Add a pinch of Datarock and a dash of The Shins and you’ll wind up with a valid facsimile of MRF.  Though classified as an electronica band, there’s enough keyboard and guitar to keep the mellow sound well congealed and defined, so don’t let the “electronica” tag dissuade you.  I think it’s a case of a record exec trying to pigeonhole this album into a category for connivence sake, and getting the category completely wrong.

MRF’s most easily digestible track would unquestionably be “Robot High School”, but I tend to enjoy the vibe of the track “Failure”. 

As the week wore on this album continued to grow on me.  As a whole, I found there’s really not one klunker track in the bunch.  Rare is the album that’s thought out enough that lets you press ‘play’ and simply walk away.

At first glance this album might seem a bit tame and redundant, but repeated plays really brings out its subtle, quirky brilliance.  Plunk down some cash, download the album, throw it into your car, press “play” and take a ride to anywhere but here.  I’m confident that you’ll enjoy the trip.

Oh, and in case you were wondering what the ultimate driving song is…”Twilight Zone” by Golden Earring.  You can disagree, but you’d be wrong

Music Music

Being the last.fm junkie that I am, I find it humorous how many people tend to pick up on the latest soulless musical trends, only to obediently drop them on command when corporate America shoves something else bright and shiny in their collective faces.

As a prime example, let’s take a look at the latest list of songs most frequently removed from last.fm users playlists:

Now, I’m not the musical fashion plate that your kids should look up to, and I don’t pretend to believe that my musical tastes are inherently superior to most everyone else (even if they are), but at least I’m not listening to pre-packaged “artists” such as Lady Gaga, or insiped noise such as the Black Eyed Peas. This sort of music is targeted at the lowest common denominator who is either incapable of tracking down music worth listening to, or doesn’t have the desire to do so. This is music that can conveniently be swapped out with whatever MTV or Billboard says is the “hottest ticket in town”, and by definition is complete trash.

But hey, if you’re big on Britney Spears, and think that Lady Gaga really has something important to say, then by all means stick with your corporate concoctions. I admire your loyalty, even if there is a sort of sick sadness to it.

As for this chart, I’m not quite sure how to interpret it; either people are waking up to the fact that these cash cows are nothing more than fictitious talent posing as the real deal, or they’re simply following the normal cycle of disposable music and are ready for the next wave of plastic tripe to spill out of the agitated, enflamed bowels of the music industry machine.

But then again, I could be wrong about this whole thing. It could be that I’m tragically mistaken about the entire concept of art, and that folks such as myself should just shut up and listen to what we’re supposed to.  Perhaps I should just keep my vapid opinions to myself?

Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah, ga-ga-ooh-la-la indeed.

Music Music

Forgive me if I cut this entry short.   After twelve hours at work today I have naught the willpower nor the energy to focus on any one topic.  It was, to put it mildly, “one of those days”.  I blame the developers for this rotten day.  Seems we have some new people who can’t QA their code worth a darn.

I think I’ll toss back a beer tonight and give a listen to Mewithoutyou’s album It’s All Crazy! It’s All False! It’s All A Dream! It’s Alright. If you dig The Decemberists, give Mewithoutyou a shot.

Music, Random Music, Random