on music & little things

As for music, I already have more than I can cope with.

My flat isn’t enormous, but I have thousands of slaves to do my bidding. I have Lithuanian pianists, Korean violinists, Icelandic tenors, Dutch divas, American harpsichordists, Senegalese cellists, Balinese drummers, slaves living and dead, of almost every nation to play music for me. I can make them play again and again, louder or quieter.

The choice every time I want to listen to some music is almost tiresome. The first stage of choice is easy: up, down or hanging around. Then it’s a question, if you want to go up or down, how far up or down you want to go. If you’re glum, is it the sort of glumness that you want to ornament with another layer of dejection? Or is it a vexatious misery you want to dispel? Or, if you’re elated, do you want to be driven into a frenzy? Guessing what sort of music you want to listen to can be exhausting, but on occasion getting it wrong can be surprisingly pleasant.

Finally, how much music can you listen to? Working at home means I can listen a lot more than the average officenik, but I have over five hundred discs that represent fifteen years of collecting, of birthday presents, of Christmas presents, of I-would-like-to-take-your-clothes-off presents. If you listened for twelve hours a day, every day, that would be six weeks without repetition; and a lot of music, usually the more rewarding, requires half a dozen plays before you begin to get a grip on it. The great pieces you can listen to dozen of times, naturally, with the enjoyment growing and changing all the while. I’ve concluded it would be profligate to buy any more since I have every field covered, two or three discs to accompany every emotional permutation, though I will doubtless succumb to some new release promising more.

And a great piece by a great composer is an almost undrainable pleasure. I have twenty-five different recordings of a double piano concerto; though it was with the purchase of the twenty-fifth that I worried I might be fiddling with my sanity.

There’s something slightly embarrassing about liking a great composer. Of course you do. It looks so obvious, so lazy, so dull. There’s always this tension in your tastes; no one wants to fit in with the crowd, to bellow herdishly. This desire is contrasted with the desire to evangelise for a new discovery; we want others to share our pleasure, but only to a certain pint. I can’t imagine anyone, even those who go for the most obscure and awful music, enjoying something and not wanting to share it with someone. We might not want share our food or our money, but we do want to share our judgement. We want to be considered of good judgement, knowledgeable. We want others to think we have more fun. But we need meeting-places of the mind. A Kilimanjaro of the spirit that we’ve all visited so we can say of other things: it’s shorter, or taller, or the same height as Kilimanjaro.

 - Tibor Fischer, Voyage to the End of the Room

But WE want YOU to have as much fun as us! So here’s 2 little things. 

little joy

You like The Strokes. You’ll like Little Joy. Stroke’s drummer Fabrizio Moretti starts his own band with Little Joy.

Brand New Start – Little Joy (click!)  

Little Joy’s MySpace 

The Weepies are mellow, but no worries, you won’t be reaching for that Kleenex just yet. Enjoy!

Little Bird – The Weepies (click!)

The Weepies MySpace

*swing

happy belated birthday swing!

Us at Swing’s birthday party, many million years ago. Swing always had fabulous puffy dresses, which she passed down to me when she outgrew them. Despite the frills, we were hardly sugar and spice. I once walked into Swing’s birthday party to see her jumping on a chair in a floor-length white frilly gown.

Swing is in hongkong Again. We spent her birthday there last year falling in love with Terrible Toby and dragging our poor tired feet in search of elusive desserts. So I’m left here doing a post that should have come four days ago.

And what more perfect birthday song for her than something game-y. This isn’t quite Supermario, which she loves, but it comes close. The Pacman Remix. There are countless remixes of the Pacman theme, which my groupmate found while looking for a soundtrack for our videogame-inspired video. I still like this one best, but you should do a youtube search and see what’s out there.

Happy Birthday!!!

*crush

Pacman Remix (click!)

a real MANIC monday!!!!!!!!!!!!

MANIC STREET PREACHERS ON OUR SHORES!!!!

http://www.sistic.com.sg

I have so many favourites from them ( like ‘if you tolerate this then your children will be next’, ‘why so sad’, ‘tsunami’, ‘a design for life’…etc)  and 38 songs on my iTunes. How can I not go!?

*swing

Solitude Sometimes Is – Manic Street Preachers (click!)

Ocean Spray – Manic Street Preachers (click!)

oh darling

Hee hee.

A spoof, because there’s something wrong with our heads. (click!)

*crush and swing

everyone’s in a band now

What happens when Hello Kitty forms a band? Lullatone, who hails from Japan and describes their music as “pajama pop”, attempts to portray just that. What you get is a tinkering toy musical instrument beat, a dialogue between Hello Kitty, and maybe…Dear Daniel?

Lullatone uses child-like voices, which may come across as creepy or create mild pedophile-ish feelings, but really, is much better than Barney. It’s a really interesting mix of influences and music, some like Sesame Street, with indie sounding beats, some Lisa-Ono-ish sounds and cutesy Jap-accented english spoken in slow staccato with music-teacher hands clapping. Their music I will probably not be addicted to, but it’s actually great for laughs (listen to Bathtime Beat!).

Do take them seriously tho, and there is a sweet story and reason behind their music. The couple that makes up Lullatone met while they were in school, and the male half of Lullatone loved composing music. He did so only late at night, while the female Japanese voice in Lullatone slept soundly. So as not to disturb her, the songs he created were all soft and gentle lullabies, which led them to name themselves Lullatone.

My favourite part of this song:

- OK Ms. Kitty, I think I see, but I’m afraid that I am a little hungry.

Kitty: Well, before we go we can have a snack.

- Or we can pack a picnic and put it in my backpack.

Kitty: Oh that sounds great!
What a wonderful date!
The more I think about it I don’t want to wait!

- Yes, I can see your excited state.

Kitty: Ok, let’s start packing. Don’t procrastinate.

*swing

Hello Kitty Makes a Band – Lullatone (click!)

Lullatone’s MySpace (listen to them!)

lulla-log (Lullatone’s blog)

celebration, misunderstation, affirmation

They sure look kinda queer, but Billie The Vision and The Dancers has been awesome in putting up all their music online [FREE] on their site, but if you’re too lazy to go there, we’ve kindly linked one here for a weekend pick me up.

I can’t picture people who look like them to sing songs like Groovy. They look too… diverse? As if the guys in this group would bother about being insane and going to Berlin or New York. One of the MORE insane things I’ve done is carting a very large object that was strewn by the road into my car in the early hours of some morning. I can’t really divulge more information, but feel free to speculate, and share also the MOST INSANE thing you’ve ever done.

*swing

Groovy – Billie The Vision and The Dancers (click!)

happy annie

Their album Through the Window Pane is an album that plays like a musical- each song has a different beat and mood, and it’s layered expressively such that I can almost see spotlights on sad protagonists and backup dancers prancing to the choruslines. The story is one you can make up as you go along.

These are songs from different albums though, because I like to take things out of context.

Prawn is a faithful reader whose Happy Song is Mr Bluesky by Electric Light Orchestra. So she would like Annie, Let’s Not Wait for its similar cheerful electronic chimings and dramatic buildup, especially the part where the little voices go “Annie Annie!”

What makes this song is the bassline, which brings to mind indian drums because of its awesome lilt. Combined with the little AnnieAnnie voices, very Bollywood i’d say.

Another reader, Goldstar, quotes Weezer’s Island in the Sun as his favourite Happy Song. So he would prefer Trains to Brazil: good old Big Beat at a college funfair, with the kind of pounding drum and bass that reminds me of men running down alleys.

This is a poor representation of Guillemots: they do a significant number of slow and poignant songs. But I skip past them all to get to these two on my busrides. Let’s be happy, annie annie.

*crush

Trains to Brazil – Guillemots (click!)

Annie, Let’s Not Wait – Guillemots (click!)

wish you were here

I’m physically tired, from walking through large almost-forests for class, and walking up a hill because I didn’t trust that the bus would come. Here’re two little somethings for tired feet. Happy feet, but tired feet.

*crush

p.s. Received the horrifying news that tashed was suspended, but found it safely there when I got home. If you don’t know tashed, you should still thank it for giving merrymen much of its music merriment.

Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd cover) – Candy Cane (click!)

Falling Into You – Elektone (Singaporean! click!)

well i could dance with you honey

Still basking in happiness, which the beach and the sun does to any old mellow fool.

Before I unveil more Happy Songs from our readers, let’s go disco.

I wish I grew up in the 70s, with synchronized disco dancing and talentimes. But music never stays within its era; even a boyband-era child like me who turned to classic rock–even I need a disco beat now and then.

Thank God for bands like Melody Club, El Presidente and Scissor Sisters for doing unabashedly cheesy disco beats.

And with mamma mia!the movie out, I think we should all be feeling that disco energy. I watched the musical and honestly I hated the story. But that shouldn’t stop us from singing along.

Does Your Mother Know- Abba (click!)

Fever Fever- Melody Club ( cheese alert. but click!)

to amelia

Thank you amelia for that uplifting e-mail with its very surprising sweet things. We started merrymen thinking of ourselves as Robin Hood’s happy helpers, but it still stunned us to no small measure that we do make your world a merrier place. Though we don’t know you, we’re mighty pleased that we’ll all be at camera obscura together.

Here is Amelia’s happy song, bouncing down a highway in an old car, past small barber shops and boys on bicycles.

De Capulet- Help me! Help me! (click!)

And the rest of her energy-drink Happy List:

A.I.S.R. – Gettin’ Better
Jose Vanders – Faces Going Places
New Radicals – You Get What You Give
Owl City – Captains and Cruise Ships
The Beatles – Twist and Shout
Weezer – El Scorcho
Wilco – The Thanks I Get

And a song in return.

Always Your Way- My Vitriol (click!)

*crush