the bells

so, i couldn't go for long without mentioning the beatles.
the white album features many great tracks. including today's little number - 'everybody's got something to hide except me and my monkey'.
now, i am sure that you can google a whole lotta information about the beatles, and there will be some wonderfully well written and deeply insightful pieces discussing each and every nook and cranny of the fab four's ontology.
so i won't say much about this song other than note the two things that make me love it.

• the guitar. listen to what george plays, and how he rips it out. what a killer riff. none of that fancy ringing rickenbacker 'i love flowers' shit. a rough and rockin' attitude on a 6-stringed stick.


• the bell, man. the bell. listen to it, hear it, and marvel at it's ringing. it really rocks me. really. did i mention that i like the bell?

that is all for today. go forth and listen to the bell.

for the love of an e

well. i am really enjoying 'feeling yourself disintegrate' by the flaming lips.
not so much the recording of it (although i do have a special place for the whole of 'the soft bulletin'), as the act of playing it.
you see, i have this lovely takamine, a fairly large, boomy room, and some crisp new strings from d'addario. and the song, it all starts with an e chord, and it rings beautifully around the room. i personally believe that my guitar was designed around that chord, it just sings...
and speaking of singing, i enjoy trying to match the melody of the song, although sometimes it falls just beyond me, as i am shit-singer champion, 1995-2005 (inclusive)
the lyric also appeals to me, simple and fragile:

'love in our life is just too valuable to feel for even a second without it.
but life without death is just impossible.
oh, to realise something is ending within us.
feeling yrself disintegrate'

and of course, i love the lack of bridge.

more fuel

i remembered.
to add to the already way out of control debate about my love of over-simplified song structures, i give you 'how strong is love?' by irish band 'a house' (from the album 'i am the greatest', which was recorded by Edwyn Collins, incidentally).
i love this song as a sing-along, because it's dead easy.
opens with the chorus ('how strong is love, how strong is love, how strong is you love love love?'), then repeats the chorus, then another chorus, followed by the chorus. after a while they manage to slip in a verse (about 10 lines, so it's pretty decent sized), and then back into the chorus about 10 more times, or more.
all delivered with that classic 'i could sing pretty but i caint be arsed' irish-affectation.

blank

i am blank. i was singing in the car all morning, and now i am blank.

dredging the past

well, you might all think i'm a sad and lonely git living in his past youth, but today's song is another oldie.

in brief, mark murphy is one of melbourne's finest pop songwriters. one of those guys who never got the credit he deserved. the guiding hand behind the under-recognised pop beauty of 'Captain Cocoa' (featuring RRR and Nova's Dave O'Neill), he went on in the early nineties, to form a sensational shoe-gazing slow-pop-rock band, called Ripe. The only full length album I know of is 'The Plastic Hassle', which I am proud to own. I do believe that Ripe featured Mr Darren Seltman (Avalanches, and married to New Buffalo) on drums.
from the above-mentioned album, the slow and sorrowful 'get yr shit together'. it is from this track that i developed my tendency to write 'yr' in place of 'your', and i have never looked back.
the song itself is one of those marvelous moments in pop, with 'verby drums, and droning guitars that feel like they're being played in slow-motion, always lagging behind the song. it creates a great melancholy feel, and is a fine technique, that i would love to be able to use one day. a great song about being crap. the lyric is suitably self-interested and down: 'i lost myself long before you came - breaking up don't bring me back again', but most importantly, the structure is what kills me every time. verse, chorus, verse, chorus, coda to solo and fade out. it's the ending that i love the most; we come out of the mournful chorus 'but i, just couldn't get my shit together on time', and break into the coda, a repetition of 'i forget just what you mean', which blends into a tasteful, short lead break, and then stops, before it gets out of hand.
a masterful song, that always works well in my head when i am as miserable as today.

pretty little ones....

this is very sweet... some lovely images...

today is not like any other day.....

i have decided that i wont be using a generic header for my daily song posts.

today, day 2, we go for a slightly higher profile band than the happies.
the band is The Legendary Jim Ruiz Group, and the song is 'every other sunday', from the 'oh brother, where art thou' CD.
Jim Ruiz is a fairly chirpy slightly jazzy indie-pop genius, with an honest, unaffected/effected vocal that appeals to me and my own limited vocal abilities.
anyway, to the song. with an opening lyric something like 'i woke up and i scratched my head and i cursed myself and The Grateful Dead' you know yr on a winner. this is a jaunty little number, just acoustic guitar and doubled vocals. a song about wasting time, about lazy weekends, a song about recovering from saturday night excesses. and with a happy 'ba dap a do da' vocal solo in the middle, you can't go wrong.
it makes me smile to think of it... on a side note, the album is loaded with great little jazz-pop tunes, buy it now!

sad, but true

i just called my brother to tell him that i was surfing the net whilst speaking to him on the telephone.

this new technology is really something, eh?

day 1 - success so far

okay. my will is still my own, i take Mr Crumpet's suggestion on board of my own volition.

the Song For Today is 'why is there so much buzz?' by the happies.

in this aural tone poem, the happies implore us to search within ourselves for a deeper understanding of ourselves. when listening to this piece of introspective pop brilliance, the listener will find 'myself looking back at myself', as if through a video camera attached to a television; where your eyes are focused just off to the side of the television.

the soulful wailing hanging tastefully behind the main lyric is a real charm, carrying quite an atypical sonar-myticism that the happies rarely venture into.

in short, a true masterpiece. unlikely to ever be beaten.

the end of the world

This is shit
Jeff F Kennett.... and you can guess what the 'F' stands for.

i don't like to discuss politics, but i will mention that i voted against the prick every oppportunity i had, and i cheered when he got the arse.

From the Hawthorn Football Club Website --He is currently Chairman of '‘beyondblue'’ , the National Depression Initiative; is a member of the Singapore Tourism Board'’s 'International Advisory Council for Tourism'’ and Director of Jumbuck Entertainment Ltd, Q Limited (a printing company) and Australian Seniors Finance
How many pies does he want to put his fingers in? And why must he stick them into my bloody football club?

tee hee brutus

to avoid any more unsightly spelling errors, i have decided to enlist the help of the blogger.com spell-checker.

it failed on the word 'blog'

...........

a song a day

in an effort to keep this blog alive, and to keep my fingers moving, i have decided to undertake an almost completely unfeasible task.
i will choose a song a day, and blog about it.
i will endeavour to choose a song that represents my headspace on each given day, although i may choose a song that will help to adjust my headspace, if i see fit.

prepare to be amazed by my lack of eloquence.

sresreveR eht

you all remember those crazy irish funsters pop will eat itself
and the sultans of ping who lost their jumpers?
well... the reversers are nothing like that.

sresreveR eht are a rather merry band of italian tanks that i discovered under a pile of Agatha's Panties in the front yard of Stormin' Norman.
They play little games, like pictionary and charades, and enjoy Lottery.

also, they have a good beat, and few strings.

Conceptualize, man.

for the continued linking of.....

so. i finally find something to blog about.

we moved house, but there was no blog entry.

i fulfilled my wife's lifelong dream, but no entry...

we've done a few working bees, and have made real progress in our poor, abandoned garden, but not a blog entry....

broadband was connected, with modem and router problems, but not with a blog entry....

i've had promising job interviews, and tentative suggestions of a pay rise/secondment, nothing in the blog...



but now, now i have been given the ultimate impetus....Captain Creaky-Shoulder has threatened to drop me from his links, like he did to scamp. and between you, me and the internet, i'd rather not suffer this frigtening excercise of vengance.

so i blog, for self preservation.