Discography - Week 22

Yes, we've made it to Week 22 of our Discography music discussion.  There are several things of note to report: 1) we are joined this week by the excellent Margie Beatrice, which means that our Overall Beatrice numbers are up, meaning, like cholesterol, we have higher Good Beatrice (Margie) numbers to make up for the Bad Beatrice (Gary) numbers; 2) inspired by Miranda's post from last week Cyndi did go with the long jacket/short skirt look one day last week to favorable reviews; 3) next week, Week 23, we will be announcing the theme for Week 25's thematic week, our third, and 4) we continue to percolate along with many great songs and insightful comments - and also some popularity.  The blog enjoys unusual traffic (routinely over 150 page views) for Discography posts, which dwarfs the usual numbers for my mind-numbingly inane running commentary on Proust.

Margie Beatrice

The Ting Tings, We Started Nothing

I knew  this was a cool group when we visited NYC NBC tour and the tour guide asked if anyone had heard of the Ting Tings. I was the only one to acknowledge I'd heard of them. Apparently they were going to be on SNL that week. Impressed the hell out of the tour guide.   They are kind of addictive. They don't take themselves too seriously.  It's all about the sound.

Cyndi Brandenburg

Neko Case, Furnace Room Lullaby 

I just love Neko Case so much, and I have been thinking about adding something of hers to this blog since the day Gary asked me to join in.  There are so many good choices though, that it felt nearly impossible for me to settle on a song.  But then last night this happened (true story):

Much like so many other nights in this middle-aged stage of my life, I found myself wide awake at 3:30am.  The perseverating interruptions of a good night's sleep are never the same, but there is a certain element of commonality to them all in that they almost always involve the people I love most.  I'm worried, I'm sorry, I'm trying, I'm confused, I'm uncertain, I can't figure out how to make this right, I'm trying to find a way, please forgive me, I forgive you, I love you, I care so much, are you going to be okay? 

This time, after tossing and turning for a while, I put in in my earbuds and played this song. The perseverations stopped, and before I knew it, I was soundly asleep.  While on first read of the lyrics, a semi-literate Edgar Allen Poe fan will see it as an obvious homage to "A Tell Tale Heart," that has never been how this haunting song resonates with me--it's all about heart, and love, and care, and the deep deep challenges and occasional pain that inevitably accompany everything that matters most. 

Know that whatever ends up spinning around my head during the night, when morning comes, I always feel better. (If you know me, you know that I am a quintessential optimist who doesn't find it hard to find a ton of joy in every single day.)  But at the same time, any coping mechanism that helps me to get through an hour or two of middle-of-the-night loneliness is welcomed.  Neko, this one is a keeper. 

Gary Beatrice

Son Volt, Windfall

Part of the reason I've been disappointed with Jay Farrar's post Uncle Tupelo output is quite unfair to him. In my opinion he peaked with the very first song from his very first album.

Son Volt sounds fantastic on Windfall, and Farrar's voice, which I am not always wild about, works perfectly with this melody. I can't help but feel I am sitting next to him as he hits the next time zone while switching over to the AM dial.

More than anything though, I love the chorus. I do not know a song that has a more genuinely sincere and caring sentiment than "May the Wind Take Your Troubles Away".

Dave Wallace

DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, Summertime

I have to get this one in before the official end of summer.  It's hard to remember that Will Smith got his start as a rapper, and I'm not sure that he was all that great as a rapper, but this one is special.  Incredibly evocative in reflecting the laid-back, mellow mood of summertime.  It also draws vivid pictures of different scenes that are part of summer:  "Sitting with your friends cause y'all reminisce/About the days growing up and the first person you kiss/And as I think back makes me wonder how/The smell from a grill could spark up nostalgia/All the kids playing out front/Little boys messin round with the girls playing double-dutch/While the DJ's spinning a tune as the old folks dance at your family reunion."  I obviously don't know what this exact experience is like, but this song makes me feel like I do.

Dave Kelley

Van Morrison, When the Healing Has Begun

Released in 1979, the album Into the Music for some reason has never garnered the attention that some of Van's other records from his golden era have enjoyed.  It was either DW or GB that introduced me to the album many years ago, and it is still perhaps my favorite of his.  When The Healing Has Begun is on side two of the record which is just otherworldly IMHO.  Van Morrison has been covered by others on the blog before, and he has countless great songs from which to choose.  I selected this one in the hopes of turning others onto this often overlooked song and record.  At its most basic, I suppose the song is about makeup sex, but the emotions it conveys run much deeper.

"I want you to put on

your pretty summer dress

You can wear your Easter bonnet

and all the rest

And I wanna make love to you 

yes, yes, yes

When the healing has begun"

I really have nothing to add other than I feel sure you will enjoy listening to this one.  Great melody, tremendous instrumentation, and that voice.

Miranda Tavares

Andrew Duhon, Gonna Take a Little Rain and Sidestep YourGrave

Yes, another two-fer, but it's worth it, I promise. I am not an Andrew Duhon fan, exactly, but I like his stuff and I love these two songs. And I can't talk about one without the other, because one is yin and one is yang. One is soft and soothing, and one is grinding and, perhaps not quite galvanizing, but close. One is a hard night of knocking back whiskey and hustling pool, and the other is a glass of wine on your porch on a pleasant evening. But a life without either one of these things is a life I'm not particularly interested in (ok, the hustling pool is just a fantasy), and taken together these songs, in both music and lyrics, do a pretty good job of summing up what if feels like to be alive. And in the end, stripped down, they both have the same message: good things can turn bad, and bad things can turn good. Just keep on going until you find what fits.

Nate Bell

Radiohead, Just

Radiohead is one of those bands where people are either complete fanboys, or seem to completely loathe them.  Strangely I fall somewhere in the middle, and I appreciate that they have some very good guitar work, some very intense, intricate lyrics...but the depressive and sometimes maudlin level of self pity can be ...wearing.

The song "Just" is something of an exception.  The chorus is my favorite part:

You do it to yourself, you do
And that's what really hurts
Is you do it to yourself, just you
You and no-one else
You do it to yourself
You do it to yourself

It seems like a refutation of the wallowing self-pity that many of the die-hard fans immerse themselves in, which makes me love that little chorus.  Originally the song is about a stalker that the band had, but I prefer to think of it as a heartfelt response to some of the Radiohead fans after an imagined droning self-involved backstage conversations the band has had to endure from their emo fans.  Even M has said she likes this song, and she despises Radiohead.  

The guitar is very impressive with its swelling crescendos, and the vocals are compelling with clear energy that sometimes is absent in other Radiohead pieces.  The video is really, really well done as well---bonus points to anyone in the group who can lip-read well enough to discern the fateful and paralytic phrase that is uttered.  I also like to think of the video as a commentary on the professional depressives that make up a small but significant portion of the Radiohead true fan base.  

I suppose I should have issued a trigger warning to any died in the wool Radiohead fans, but friends and compatriots, I like the music Radiohead does, generally, but I calls 'em as I sees 'em. :)

Gary Scudder

Miles Davis, Summertime

I changed my mind for this choice, which is not particularly unusual because even though I follow my rule of posting whatever I'm thinking about or listening to that week, I still will end up starting and then rejecting several choices - mainly because on Friday I'm suddenly fixated on some song than I was on Tuesday.  However, even by those loose standards this is a last minute change - because it truly was a last minute changed, inspired by Dave Wallace's choice.  You've all suffered through my sincere belief (and you know that I'm not prone to hyperbole) that Miles Davis is the great American genius of the 20th century (and ALL right-thinking individuals know this to be true).  He produced so many albums that changed the world of jazz, especially those where he worked with Gil Evans.  I almost downloaded the entire Miles Davis - Gil Evans collaboration on the my iPod the other day, and then I realized that I already have all the individuals albums anyway (which is why I'm waiting to do it until today; if you can locate logic in that statement, bless you).  This week's selection is his cover of Summertime from his album Porgy & Bess, which is a rendering of the George Gershwin opera of the same name.  I sometimes forget what an extraordinary album that is, from start to finish.  In this case the beauty is in the simplicity, which in this instance is Davis playing in his normal mid-range.  Sometimes you just trust the song.