Kari Carpenter

is, I suspect, one of those people whose accent gets more Southern the more drunk she gets. Listen to the studio version of 'Top of the world' (sober) and the live version (considerably more Texan)

adam

Shonen Knife - Or, Music for Strangely Disillusioned 9-Year Olds - Or, Everything You Thought You Knew About Music is Wrong.

This is going to be difficult to put into words - because the primary effect of the music of Shonen Knife is to shamanistically invoke the hyperactive nine-year old that secretly resides deep in our hearts. And nine-year olds are not historically very good at english. Nevertheless - I shall try - for the sake of science. 

Immediately I felt a huge discord within myself as if I had invoked some kind of jungian doppelganger. The grown up in me wanted to goggle in austere horror at the sheer travesty of it all. Shonen Knife does not sound well on cultured ears. The nine year old that I talked about earlier was, on the other hand, ecstatic like he'd been given a bag of lollipops - I can only attribute this mysterious reaction to the presence of some kind of mystical force. 

After awhile the initial shock was replaced with a grating feeling that I've done my growing up too fast. 

adam

life changing redux

Better put up a few more in case you got the idea that I was a music lover.

6. h2g2

7. the great gatsby

8. prufrock

9. eats, shoots & leaves

10. anarchy in the u.k.

11. Little Wing

life-changing

Name 5 events that have shaped who you are as a person.

1. A Love Supreme

2. E.S.P.

3. The Velvet Underground

4. Led Zeppelin IV

5. Preludes

adam

Ever proof that my poor damaged brain is slowly receding into childhood.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epRWUbgw9V4

I can't get this song out of my head.

adam

I'm on the highway to burnout city, with an open mind and a song in my heart.

In other news, there is true joy in Wynton Marsalis and the Modern Jazz Quartet's rendition of 'Cherokee'. 

adam

Most incongruous bassist

This award needs to go to Krist Novoselic of Nirvana. See this link: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbHO0OFNC8w

Kurt Cobain looks like he's faced down the collected horrors of the 20th century and been found wanting. He looks wasted. Krist looks like he's just got back from the frat party and knows the reason Kurt is so bummed is cos he just stole his entire stash of pot and smoked it all at once. He looks like he wishes he was in the Beatles. Check out the stupid grin on his face at 1.54. Pat Smear also looks like he wishes he was Slash, but that's different - he's just a guest guitarist and gets to make an idiot of himself.

adam

The Boxer

One of the songs I really love is Simon and Garfunkel's 'The Boxer' not just because it's unusually intelligently and sensitively written but because it gets slowly, imperceptibly but insistently louder as it plays, growing from a quiet folksy ditty to a towering, reverb-drenched wall of multi-tracked orchestra. 

This usually allows me to use it to drown out people I don't want to talk to - 'Hey, do you listen to Simon & Garfunkel? This song's pretty cool, lemme put it on for me to hear...' 

'Yeah, I'm doing good, I'm in army now.... nope... don't believe I've heard of that movie... what's that? sorry I can't hear you LAI LA LAI. LAI LA LAI LAI LAI LAI LAI

adam

I guess I should update this every now and then. 

So.

Army is shit, that's about all I really have to say. 

adam