ALL YOUR MEME ARE BELONG TO US
I was going to do this music meme at some point in any case, but now, spurred on by my friend Gabrielle, I'm doing it sooner rather than later. Huzzah!
1. Total volume of music files on your computer?
4,971 songs, 13 days, 1 hour, 35 minutes, 2 seconds playing time, 17.47 GB. Mind you, that’s not my compete music collection—I have loads of CDs that I haven’t burned, either because my musical tastes have changed to the point that I have little interest in them, or just because I’m too damn lazy.
2. Song playing right now?
“Rolling Down to Old Maui,” as performed by Jonathan Moorman and Charlie MacLeod. A powerful a cappella rendition of an old whaling song. Regrettably, unless there’s some magic secret I’m missing, there is no way in hell you’ll ever find it online. Go ahead, google “Rolling Down to Old Maui”+"Jonathan Moorman." See? No hits. Unless this entry ends up showing up. The track comes from a pub’s compilation CD that I purchased at an outdoor concert in Montreal which as far as the internet is concerned does not exist. Anyway, long story short, if you think this is the kind of thing you’d enjoy, ask me and I’ll email you it.
3. Last CD I bought?
I rarely buy CDs in physical form lately unless it’s an artist I know I like. And even from itunes, I haven’t done much buying lately. However, I did just today purchase an album: Fairport Convention’s Unhalfbricking, because people always compare them to Steeleye Span. It’s all right, but it doesn’t blow me away; I certainly don’t think it’s the all-time classic everyone says it is. A lot of the tracks have a kind of annoying hippie-ish vibe to them. I imagine I would prefer their albums that have more traditional material.
4. Five songs you listen to a lot and which mean something to you?
I don’t know, man. I can’t help thinking that “listen to a lot” and “mean something to you” are to very distinct categories. So I’ll treat them as such. First, the five most-listened to songs in itunes’ “top twenty-five most played menu:
Joan Baez, “Johnny I Hardly Knew Yeh”—Great performance of a powerful anti-war song. Also check out the more punkish version performed by The Tossers.
Nick Cave, “To Be By Your Side”—From the soundtrack to the documentary/poem-in-movie-form Winged Migration. This just sends shivers down my spine. Maybe the most romantic song I’ve ever heard (I suppose James’ “5-0” and Leonard Cohen’s “Light as the Breeze” would be the other main contenders). “Over the shifting desert plains/Across mountains all in flames/Through howling winds and driving rains/To be by your side.” Yeah.
Johnny Dowd, “Mother’s Little Helper”—Huh. A Rolling Stones cover, obviously. It’s not my favorite Dowd song or anything, but it IS quite good. It’s a non-album track, so I listened to it quite a few times when I found it on limewire, hence it’s position.
Men Without Hats, “Safety Dance”—Okay, okay!
Steeleye Span, “Boys of Bedlam”—“Me staff has murdered giants/And me bag a long knife carries/For to cut mince pies from children’s thighs/With which to feed the faeries.” Heh indeed. A genuinely unnerving portrait of insanity; one of my favorite Span tunes.
And five songs that “mean something to me.” This is inevitably gonna be a bit arbitrary, but nonetheless:
Blur, “Girls & Boys”—Not even my favorite Blur song (though it’s certainly a good one), but it IS the song that kickstarted the rabid anglophilia that consumed me for many a year. I heard it on a college radio station, and there was a delayed reaction: somehow, a few months later, it just clicked. And that was that.
Tom Waits, “Singapore”—The Captain is a one-armed dwarf! He’s throwing dice along the wharf! Likewise, this is the song that began my rabid Waits fandom, eventually leading me to other artists like Leonard Cohen, Johnny Dowd, and the Handsome Family. In that sense, I suppose you could say it also sort of weaned me a way form the exclusionary anglophilia I used to have going. So, full-circle and like that.
Gordon Bok, “Peter Kagan and the Wind”—Bok was the soundtrack to much of my childhood, and beyond that he’s just a fantastic, underrated talent. This is an extraordinarily powerful (and I'm well-aware that I'm over-using the word "powerful" in this post) story-song; it gets me every time. Art doesn’t bring me to tears; I’m just not programmed that way. But this song comes damn close.
Leonard Cohen, “Democracy”—Although the repeated assertion that “democracy is coming to the USA” seems, oh, I don’t know, perhaps a little overly optimistic at this point, the fact remains that, better than anything else I can think of, this song creates a real sense of religious awe. Far more so than a more explicitly religious song from some crap Creedy-type Christian band. “From the wells of disappointment where the women kneel and pray/From the grace of god in the desert here and the desert far away.” Or else “We’ll be going down so deep the river’s gonna weep/And the mountain’s gonna shout AMEN!” Amen to that.
Yoko Kanno (composer; not sure who actually performs it), “Call Me, Call Me”—Anybody who’s familiar with Cowboy Bebop can back me up on this. A good song on its own; a heartbreaking one in the context of the episode, reflecting both Ed’s sense of freedom and Faye’s ineffable loneliness.
5. Pass this on to whom?
As before, everyone is welcome to participate.
1. Total volume of music files on your computer?
4,971 songs, 13 days, 1 hour, 35 minutes, 2 seconds playing time, 17.47 GB. Mind you, that’s not my compete music collection—I have loads of CDs that I haven’t burned, either because my musical tastes have changed to the point that I have little interest in them, or just because I’m too damn lazy.
2. Song playing right now?
“Rolling Down to Old Maui,” as performed by Jonathan Moorman and Charlie MacLeod. A powerful a cappella rendition of an old whaling song. Regrettably, unless there’s some magic secret I’m missing, there is no way in hell you’ll ever find it online. Go ahead, google “Rolling Down to Old Maui”+"Jonathan Moorman." See? No hits. Unless this entry ends up showing up. The track comes from a pub’s compilation CD that I purchased at an outdoor concert in Montreal which as far as the internet is concerned does not exist. Anyway, long story short, if you think this is the kind of thing you’d enjoy, ask me and I’ll email you it.
3. Last CD I bought?
I rarely buy CDs in physical form lately unless it’s an artist I know I like. And even from itunes, I haven’t done much buying lately. However, I did just today purchase an album: Fairport Convention’s Unhalfbricking, because people always compare them to Steeleye Span. It’s all right, but it doesn’t blow me away; I certainly don’t think it’s the all-time classic everyone says it is. A lot of the tracks have a kind of annoying hippie-ish vibe to them. I imagine I would prefer their albums that have more traditional material.
4. Five songs you listen to a lot and which mean something to you?
I don’t know, man. I can’t help thinking that “listen to a lot” and “mean something to you” are to very distinct categories. So I’ll treat them as such. First, the five most-listened to songs in itunes’ “top twenty-five most played menu:
Joan Baez, “Johnny I Hardly Knew Yeh”—Great performance of a powerful anti-war song. Also check out the more punkish version performed by The Tossers.
Nick Cave, “To Be By Your Side”—From the soundtrack to the documentary/poem-in-movie-form Winged Migration. This just sends shivers down my spine. Maybe the most romantic song I’ve ever heard (I suppose James’ “5-0” and Leonard Cohen’s “Light as the Breeze” would be the other main contenders). “Over the shifting desert plains/Across mountains all in flames/Through howling winds and driving rains/To be by your side.” Yeah.
Johnny Dowd, “Mother’s Little Helper”—Huh. A Rolling Stones cover, obviously. It’s not my favorite Dowd song or anything, but it IS quite good. It’s a non-album track, so I listened to it quite a few times when I found it on limewire, hence it’s position.
Men Without Hats, “Safety Dance”—Okay, okay!
Steeleye Span, “Boys of Bedlam”—“Me staff has murdered giants/And me bag a long knife carries/For to cut mince pies from children’s thighs/With which to feed the faeries.” Heh indeed. A genuinely unnerving portrait of insanity; one of my favorite Span tunes.
And five songs that “mean something to me.” This is inevitably gonna be a bit arbitrary, but nonetheless:
Blur, “Girls & Boys”—Not even my favorite Blur song (though it’s certainly a good one), but it IS the song that kickstarted the rabid anglophilia that consumed me for many a year. I heard it on a college radio station, and there was a delayed reaction: somehow, a few months later, it just clicked. And that was that.
Tom Waits, “Singapore”—The Captain is a one-armed dwarf! He’s throwing dice along the wharf! Likewise, this is the song that began my rabid Waits fandom, eventually leading me to other artists like Leonard Cohen, Johnny Dowd, and the Handsome Family. In that sense, I suppose you could say it also sort of weaned me a way form the exclusionary anglophilia I used to have going. So, full-circle and like that.
Gordon Bok, “Peter Kagan and the Wind”—Bok was the soundtrack to much of my childhood, and beyond that he’s just a fantastic, underrated talent. This is an extraordinarily powerful (and I'm well-aware that I'm over-using the word "powerful" in this post) story-song; it gets me every time. Art doesn’t bring me to tears; I’m just not programmed that way. But this song comes damn close.
Leonard Cohen, “Democracy”—Although the repeated assertion that “democracy is coming to the USA” seems, oh, I don’t know, perhaps a little overly optimistic at this point, the fact remains that, better than anything else I can think of, this song creates a real sense of religious awe. Far more so than a more explicitly religious song from some crap Creedy-type Christian band. “From the wells of disappointment where the women kneel and pray/From the grace of god in the desert here and the desert far away.” Or else “We’ll be going down so deep the river’s gonna weep/And the mountain’s gonna shout AMEN!” Amen to that.
Yoko Kanno (composer; not sure who actually performs it), “Call Me, Call Me”—Anybody who’s familiar with Cowboy Bebop can back me up on this. A good song on its own; a heartbreaking one in the context of the episode, reflecting both Ed’s sense of freedom and Faye’s ineffable loneliness.
5. Pass this on to whom?
As before, everyone is welcome to participate.
posted by GeoX, one of the GeoX boys. at 11:13 PM
What the hell, I'll give it a shot.
- SK
* * *
1. Total volume of music files
123 songs, 734 MB. Not all that much, really; I don't keep copies of CDs I own on my computer, and I generally buy albums containing songs I like. I'm kind of old-fashioned that way. So, the vast majority of these songs on my computer are rarities of all kinds, out-of-print albums, vinyl singles, stuff like that.
2. Song playing right now
None at this moment, but the last one I listened to was probably "Jam Scraper" by Underworld. It is a rare alternate version of their more well-known single, "MMM Skyscraper I Love You." The original is a fast, chaotic (and very long, at 13 minutes) dance track with a strangely melancholy conclusion. This particular version, released as a B-side to that single, is entirely instrumental; although it uses all the same musical elements, it has quite a different feel (with an extended guitar intro), although it is similar to the original in the way it builds up to crescendo.
3. Last CD I bought
New Order's new album. Fantastic, in my opinion.
4. Five songs that mean something to me
Okay, here goes:
Joy Division - "Transmission"
This song needs no introduction from me. It is the essence of intense, burning passion.
Underworld - "Dark & Long"
A nocturnal, seductive song, with brilliantly semi-coherent lyrics. It's comprised almost entirely of percussion, with an understated flute somewhere in the background. It sounds absolutely beautiful, simultaneously yearning and menacing, and gains a lot of power if you listen to it when it's dark outside.
Manic Street Preachers - "Little Baby Nothing"
The most powerful part of this song, in my opinion, is the ending. You know, the bit about how "Rock and roll is our epiphany / Culture, alienation, boredom and despair." It sounds so young and defiant.
Muslimgauze - "Nabius"
A really eerie electronic piece. Very low-key and reserved, but conveys a sense of great unease.
The Cure - "Disintegration"
Because sometimes, we all need Robert Smith at his most histrionic.