|
03 june 2000
-----
I climb up, spending daylight Yesterday, I was re-reading those lyrics from thursday's entry, from XTC's "Apple Venus Volume I," and I was suddenly compelled to go out and buy "Apple Venus Volume II," otherwise known as "Wasp Star," which just came out. I'm startled by the contrast between the two albums, both lyrically and musically. Where Volume I was orchestral and brooding, filled with samples of strings and horns, Volume II is light, upbeat, and guitar driven. So I put the first verse of the first song of Volume II up there, a tune titled "Playground," a really simple ditty about kids playing and fighting in a schoolside subculture, though by the end of the song you realize that the whole thing actually applies to adult relationships as well, and it was probably intended that way... OK, no more lyrics. I'll stop analyzing the bubble-gum brit-pop that I'm so drawn to. I'm just gonna sit, listen, and enjoy it. Ah, a quick side note -- got my latest shipment from Razor+Tie Records the other day (they send me all their new releases as part of a deal we made when I sold them musicspace.com last year) and there was a gem in the usual rough. This is a guy from Dublin Ireland who sounds like a cross between Tom Jones and Bono and Jim Morrison, looks like a cross between Johnny Depp and Leonardo DeCrapio and something else, although I'm not really giving him enough credit here. I'm really enjoying the disc, but there's one song on there that I'm predicting will make this guy huge in America: "Ode to Ed Wood" (renamed "Boys and Girls" for the US release, but I like the original title). Watch the video here. Mark my words. This song is going to be a massive hit, and this guy will be the next biggest thing among all the purchase-powered automatons who rallied behind Santana last year (hmm, was I one of them?). Ya heard it here first. Hee, I should go into the music biz. Oh wait, I'm _in_ the music biz, well, kinda... Speaking of which, we mixed down the next few songs for the cd at IceDog's place tonight. They're sounding pretty good and I ripped two of the new ones to MP3 before I left. IceDog warned me not to "do anything" with them ... in other words, he was telling me to keep them off the internet, since we already have four full-length songs on the band website. But those are the old mixes on the band website, and even the new mixes of the old songs sound quite a bit better. Still demo quality, but better. I'm gonna upload the two I burned tonight, but I'm not linking them here -- per IceDog's request, I will keep them private. Frankly, I just want feedback. How do they sound? Email me if you're willing to listen with a critical ear, and I'll tell you where they are. Better yet, come to the next gig. Friday June 16th at Luna Park, 8pm. You can even bring your kids. It'll be our last early show for a while ... they're moving us to the 9:30 slots now, starting with the Roxy, I think, sometime in July. Too much music talk. Maybe it was an inverse reaction to all the introspection I've been doing of late. Maybe it's just a way to get my mind of this stupid leaking mattress.... While we were mixing at IceDog's, the new roommate called me on my cell. "I think your new mattress came today. It's about a foot on each side ...." Sounded like a box with an air mattress inner tube in it to me... I was all smiles on my way up PCH, looking forward to my first uninterrupted night's sleep in over three weeks. I opened the front door and there was the box. It looked perfect. I lifted it up. It felt a little light. I shook it, and there was lots of hard stuff bouncing around in it. I looked at my roommate -- "Um ... I don't think this is my mattress." I looked for the return address, and could hardly make it out through all the fine print: "GTE Internet" -- so, it wasn't my mattress, but it was the next best thing. My DSL modem and installation kit had arrived. Fifteen minutes later I was surfing as my mattress slowly sagged beneath my butt. Alternating thoughts "Cool, this thing is so friggin fast" with "Shit, my aching back..." I think I would have preferred the mattress to arrive first. I bought my first new piece of furniture today: a chest to sit between my bed and my desk. It's so nice that I haven't even unwrapped it from the shipping cellophane yet. But I put it in place, and set up my stereo on top of it. Now I have music, and the room is starting to feel much more like home. I christened the whole set-up with "Apple Venus, Volume II" (of course) and the disc is just winding down now. Kinda like my mind. Time to sleep. 03 june 1999: didn't write : 03 june 1998: the last time : My grandmother just went into the hospital with pneumonia and a punctured lung. Each day she survives, according to the doctor, will most likely be her last.
[ swim back | email me | swim ahead ] |
