06.21.05 - 12:17 a.m.

Alright arajane, let me tell you my six favorite songs as of 12:17 AM 21 June 05

1) Nathan Fake - The Sky Was Pink (James Holden rmx)

where discovered: they were talking about it on the dissensus boards
style notes: techno? kind of? starts slow but it's a spine-tingling filtered psychedelic crescendo... that's the thing with dance tracks, you're supposed to hear them in a mix. I guess I could have excerpted bits from the middle & end but come on, don't be so lazy.
best listened to: while driving fast down the highway at that hour when the sky is pink

2) Soda Stereo - En La Ciudad De La Furia

where discovered: for a while Chuck Eddy was evangelizing Mexican/South American rock bands that sounded like the Police... I think Soda Stereo might have been one of those bands. they were really big down south you know.
style notes: kind of like the Police, except the lyrics sound better (unless you know Spanish, in which case they might not...) Actually for the longest time I listened to this song and it made me feel pleasantly sad, but I never bothered figuring out what the lyrics actually meant. And meanwhile my dad had taken up Spanish as a hobby and become fluent, far beyond what I picked up when I was in Chile. So I finally sent him the lyrics and asked for a translation. I'll send them to you if you want... lots about a winged bird of prey.
best listened to: while standing on a hill smoking a cigarette, looking at city lights

3) Company Flow - Lune TNS

where discovered: in a record store in Austin
style notes: "for those who don't understand, obviously this wasn't made for you... so fuck you." but even if you don't understand, that piano track is killing it
best listened to: while riding BART to Oakland International and looking out the window at burners etched on abandoned factories

Searchin for the hidden message
Hit up my aerosol alphabetics
Subvert, word brutalizer
Critical thinkin modifier
Bigg Jus, Lune TNS, stark black tunnels and live wire

4) Mel Torme - I'm Coming Home Baby

where discovered: my friend Alex trained as a classical singer (tenor?) and I was asking him what vocalists he likes, and he mentioned Mel Torme
style notes: it has those space age bachelor pad keys & the nice minor key touches... his pledge to come home sounds strangely grim, strangely tense... it swings
best listened to: at a dinner party

5) Kinuyo Yamashita - Castlevania theme

where discovered: let's see... this would have to be... hrm... I would have to say I first heard this masterpiece when playing "Castlevania"
style notes: the NES offered a limited 8-bit palette. creativity thrives under constraints. i like 0:08 to 0:15 the best
best listened to: when hanging with Jenny Tsui, so as to drive her nuts

6) Paul Wall fet. Big Pokey - Sittin Sideways (Dirty)

where discovered: one of them rap blogs... i forget which. (but since Still Tippin blew up, this is getting play... i saw it on MTV2 the other night! a video! Paul Wall is an ugly, ugly man. he has diamonds in all his teeth)
style notes: goddamn, turn the bass UP. perfect, perfect production... the constant tempo on the drum track that stutters just often enough to break it up (first time is at 0:48), the chopped up female cries ("ahhh'), the sluggish murky bass, the chorus (sampled from some famous houston freestyle i think) that gets pitched down at the end like the record suddenly stopped... and girding it all is that odd exotic repeating series of notes, what is it? a sitar? some weird synth?
best listened to: driving slow leaning low, pretending you're not in a 99 corolla.

You see me actin bad I'm showin out and pullin stunts
Say cheese, and show my fronts, it's more carets than Bugs Bunny's lunch

you're supposed to pass this on to six other people. how about laura, aj, triet, shawn, angi and kate. (i don't think you actually have to offer all the songs to download or write so much about them. it's just that i'm so much cooler than anyone else on the internet. and by cooler i mean "in possession of more empty, empty hours in the dark of the night")

PS the wedding etc went well but i wasted too much time writing about music so let me just say: at one point 8 of our party got trapped in an elevator and the fire dept. had to chop down the elevator door with an axe!