Summer Musings: The Sounds (Songs of the Week)

While I am working on the material for my next big blog (don’t be misled by the lazy writing, I’m actually doing serious research and digging deep down into my patchwork soul, as well as maybe, our chips bowl!) and you, whoever you may be, are waiting to read an incisive take on Noam Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent(well, pal, I’d love to but I’d have to read the book first—even by then I’m pretty sure far more elevated minds have already got me covered), I have here a refurbished version of the Song(s) of the Week sections you see at the bottom of every rot I’ve written for the past month. What’s new, you ask? Well, there are descriptions now to every song I’ve been heavily spinning this past week—a mix bag of new music and the older stuff I just have the propensity to listen to over and over again. I don’t know if you, reader, have been contaminated by this disease but I’ve actually been doing this “music-sharing” stuff since high school, if only to a select few in my class(well, actually, to anyone who ever comes to me for them). But nowadays, I seem to be giving music away more and more like party favors because they are, well, for lack of a better word, interesting. Interesting things are meant to be shared. If something as maudlin as love quotes could be shared, there is definitely a place for something of a new, interesting (and equally annoying) breed. And they were never MINE to begin with. It’s out there ripe for the plucking (hello, Internet!); I just happen to stumble upon it. I’m not obligated by the artists to share it, but I want to. Why? I’m not exactly sure. It could really be gamut of things.

In somewhat authoritarian stance, perhaps I like sharing music with people because, whether or not people liked it, I do somehow feel responsible for them tapping into an experience of a different kind— an excursion to the possibilities of sound, of wordplay, of imagery, of emotions, of thoughts that perhaps most of mainstream music hardly explores these days. Imagine: all that power you wield in changing people's perceptions and that awesome tingling you feel at your fingertips can only herald world domination! Mwahaha. But then again, in a somewhat democratic stance, it’s not so much an imposition as it is an option. They are free to CHOOSE to take on the challenge of suspending their understanding of what music could or should be in a couple minutes. And then after, if they still could muster to do so, are free to voice out what they thought or felt. The fun begins in hearing my friends’ tw0 to three-second soundbites (from "wow, that's amazing!" to "geez, Marian, what the f*ck was that?") and surprising, wide-eyed insights. Sharing them makes room for discussion and further discovery--whether it comes in a form of an obscure mp3 from another obscure but clearly mind-blowing artist or something far more intangible(like how your mind felt like it was being blown). And then in a somewhat socialist stance, it also dawned on me that interesting unconventional music does not always have to be esoteric or exclusive to just a group of high-browed hipsters; and that everyone can appreciate them at varying degrees. There would somehow be a way for the ears to be pricked by a certain chord or movement familiar or accessible; or for the common heart strings you and I both have to be tugged, perhaps even those heart strings laying dormant for some time, in words that people will latch on to in the music, and take on a whole new level of appreciation for. We are wired to adapt--take tips from our early ancestors who have done a great job for millions of years. It may not happen overnight; it might not even happen in over a year after you’ve first heard it, but “Road to Damascus” moments do happen when they are never forced(obviously). An open-mind is always a prerequisite in taking on anything alien to what you’re used to. That’s the first step. This is where I should say, “Well, take it from me…” but I’d prefer to go “So, yeah, listen and let’s see where it takes you from there”—that, I think, is more important.

Song(s) of the Week:
1. “Eraser” by No Age Hands down, the best parts are in the shimmery fuzz work layered one over the other and its smattering of unintelligible lyrics before the two minutes is up. Question: by ascertaining its subliminal effect, am I being ironic?
2. “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” by Vampire Weekend
“This feels so unnatural, Peter Gabriel too!”= Word. Quick, throw me the beach towel; I’ll throw you the bongos!
3. “Fireworks” (“If the elephants be reaching for our purses, then meet me after the world with the shivers…”) and “Grass”(“I was walking on feet just like my father, and my knees were trying to reach you at your mothers’…”) and “Peacebone” (“…you progressed in letters, but you used to cook it broccoli(?)”...) by Animal Collective = a plethora of mind-efferies to choose from on a lonely Saturday night—this, of course, being when you get around to deciphering what frontman Avey Tare is shrieking about!
4. “Build High” by Pixies And what would Animal Collective(and every other alternative band you can think of, like, pff, Nirvana) be without this band? Black Francis(a.k.a. Frank Black a.k.a. Charles Thompson), lead singer of the legendary Pixies, once described this song as country, but its hyperkinetic stomp and banshee shrieks are more akin to a skinhead’s wet-dream than maybe, um, Kenny Login’s.

And...HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO EVERYONE'S MOM!