Sci-Fi Hi-Fi

Normally I tend to scoff at those meme things where people ask you to fill out a little questionnaire on your weblog, but recently there’s been a strain going around that appears to be so virulent I was beginning to feel left out. Fortunately, Brent Simmons passed it to me, so I’m finally free to hold forth on my musical taste.

Here we go (apologies for the length–I feel like writing about music right now)…

Total volume of music files on my computer

30.54 GB.

This is actually deceptively low, since I used to only rip the songs I liked off CDs.

The last CD I bought

Waiting for the Sirens’ Call, by New Order.

As some of you might have guessed from my karaoke repertoire, I dearly, dearly love New Order. Their latest album certainly isn’t the best work they’ve ever done, but it has its moments–particularly the title track (produced by John Leckie, the man behind The Stone Roses’ seminal eponymous album, and featuring a guitar tone I would kill to replicate) and “Turn” (an emotional ballad I could easily hear Morrissey warbling).

Song playing right now

At the moment I read Brent’s post, I had just finished walking up Haight Street while listening to …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead’s album Worlds Apart. The particular song was, I believe, “Worlds Apart,” Trail of Dead’s manifesto-like screed about the sorry state of American culture. It’s one of the few songs I can think of that I would describe as “infectiously angry.” The sneering lyrics (”and the soccer moms and dads who raise brats on those TV ads, I know that they sleep at night”) roll along against such a catchy, upbeat musical backdrop that you can’t help but sneer right along.

Incidentally, if you ever get a chance to see Trail of Dead live, do it. I saw them once, before they were as big as they are now, at a little dive called the 15th Street Tavern in Denver. They had such a reputation for crazy behavior (they’ve been thrown out of towns in their native Texas before) that the small audience sat there on edge just waiting for them to throw something. Sure enough, my friend actually got hit by a drum stick! My brother Bobby just saw them in Denver, and during that performance they threw cake into the crowd (for the singer’s birthday) and invited everyone on stage to dance for the finale! You can bet I’ll be seeing them at The Fillmore later in the month!

Five songs I listen to a lot, or mean a lot to me

Here’s five songs I’m really into these days:

“The Perfect Kiss,” New Order
During their gloomy 1980s heyday, New Order was once described as “the world’s bleakest disco act,” and songs like this, from their 1985 album Low-Life, show why. The listener’s initial perception of the track as an upbeat dance number is quickly challenged by lyrics (”pretending not to see his gun, I said let’s go out and have some fun”) that hint darkly at a friend’s (Ian Curtis’?) contemplation of suicide, and it finally dissipates completely during the song’s stormy climax.

This song may sound like a rather melancholy selection on my part, but as someone who periodically struggles with bouts of depression, I can tell you this song resonates with me to deeply. What I respond to about it (and the entire Low Life album really) is that it recognizes the sadness and alienation that so many people feel, while never quite giving up hope that love can conquer all. Plus, it’s got some really cool percussion at the end.

“Pacific Theme,” Broken Social Scene
This instrumental, which sounds to me like New Order jamming with the Fairport Convention on a Burt Bacharach composition, fairly screams California to me. I love listening to it while driving to work on one of America’s greatest highways, Interstate 280 (try turning down the volume and listen to this song while watching this movie, and you’ll get a sense of the experience). It should make a wonderful soundtrack for my drive down to LA next month.

“Quattro (World Drifts In),” Calexico
I’m a real sucker for atmosphere, and this song has it in spades. It perfectly captures the feel of the twilight hours of the day, and I love to play it while taking sunset walks through the trees at Buena Vista Park.

“Gold in the Air of Summer,” Kings of Convenience
Perhaps I’m showing my age, but I’m increasingly finding the JAMC-loving rocker in me developing a taste for the kind of acoustic folk my parents used to enjoy. This is quite simply a beautiful song, full of poignant remembrance of things past and a hint of regret, all distilled through a simple description of a house. It’s amazing how music can add so much emotional punch to such simple words.

“Secret Meeting,” The National
I’m a person who constantly has to fight a tendency toward shy introversion, so I really love singer Matt Berninger’s haggard-sounding apology in the opening track on The National’s wonderful new album: “I’m sorry I missed you–I had a secret meeting in the basement of my brain.” The manic, chant-like background vocals under the chorus parts also make for rather an interesting rhythmic dynamic that I quite enjoy.

Five people to whom I’m passing this baton (sorry guys):

• Ethan Bold, who has actually seen Wesley Willis in concert!
• Mike Merrill, who is a very sharp dresser, so he must have equally good taste in music
• Courtney Patubo, who must be up on what the kids like these days since she went to Coachella
• Elke Sisco, who likes a lot of the same music I do
• Daniel Wilson, our resident “Jazz Nerd”

(Update: I listened to a playlist containing all of the songs mentioned in this post on the way to work today, and liked it so much that I decided to publish it as an iMix.)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 18th, 2005 at 12:31 am and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.