nixsight

I had to ask Girl One about this one – because as I get older, my memory goes on certain things, and sometimes it’s quicker to just ask her. I had thought I always went on about “When The Man Comes Around” by Johnny Cash, for my main funeral song, but apparently, I went for something even more literal than that.

I want “On The Radio” by Regina Spektor, to be played at my funeral.

I could claim that it’s the purely reflective aspect of the song – how it picks out tiny, lovely, poignant details out of a life, and presents them as the memorable, heartwarming moments that they actually are – as worth remembering.

Or I could suggest that the peculiar and satisfying blend of traditionally beautiful and classical voice, with idiosyncratic delivery and contemporary lyrics, that Spektor represents is something that I want played to add those elements to the service where people are supposed to remember me, as if those things will somehow rub off on their memories of me.

But actually, I think it’s the reference to the hearse being driven through the screaming crowd. It’s a retarded combination of really, painfully obvious and literal – it’s a hearse, you see? You see? – and joyfully macabre that I think would be surreally amusing played at a funeral, and I don’t know anybody else who’d be willing to have the song played at theirs, so I guess I have to have it. Even if it means I only get my kicks on this score from beyond the grave.

Kieron Gillen posted “Swim” by Madder Rose, as a song that reminded him of somewhere. It was the first time I’d heard or even thought about that song in years, but while listening to it, I read Gillen’s post, about a Sixth Form full of music and memories, and the arbitrariness of choosing one song to define a particular thing, if you’re a certain sort of person with a certain sort of relationship with music.

But something he said, about a girl playing the song to him, triggered off a couple of different thought processes, and I ended up pretty much spamming his comments with them.

The song that came to mind, after some meandering, was “Creep” by Radiohead.

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It’s not a particularly sophisticated choice. The song is almost designed to resonate with a certain sort of boy in a certain sort of period of his life. But, you know, it is what it is. So few things work the way they are supposed to by design, and this particular one totally does. At least for me, in the perfect storm I found myself in in 1993.

I’ll let “Comments Nick” explain, in an only-mildly-edited-from-the-comment-I-just-left form. Just assume everything after the jump is in quotation marks:

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Kieron Gillen found this, and acquired it, and I don’t think I’ll manage it with quite his skill, as he writes about music in a way that suggests an almost photographic – phonographic? – memory, but as I just filled his comment box with what could notionally count as one – or maybe two or even more – of my days, I figure I’ve probably got it in me to give it a shot with at least half of my arse.

day 01 – your favorite song
day 02 – your least favorite song
day 03 – a song that makes you happy
day 04 – a song that makes you sad
day 05 – a song that reminds you of someone
day 06 – a song that reminds of you of somewhere
day 07 – a song that reminds you of a certain event
day 08 – a song that you know all the words to
day 09 – a song that you can dance to
day 10 – a song that makes you fall asleep
day 11 – a song from your favorite band
day 12 – a song from a band you hate
day 13 – a song that is a guilty pleasure
day 14 – a song that no one would expect you to love
day 15 – a song that describes you
day 16 – a song that you used to love but now hate
day 17 – a song that you hear often on the radio
day 18 – a song that you wish you heard on the radio
day 19 – a song from your favorite album
day 20 – a song that you listen to when you’re angry
day 21 – a song that you listen to when you’re happy
day 22 – a song that you listen to when you’re sad
day 23 – a song that you want to play at your wedding
day 24 – a song that you want to play at your funeral
day 25 – a song that makes you laugh
day 26 – a song that you can play on an instrument
day 27 – a song that you wish you could play
day 28 – a song that makes you feel guilty
day 29 – a song from your childhood
day 30 – your favorite song at this time last year

I think Mr Gillen is on the right track taking these out of order, and also linking to them as he does them. We’ll bloody see, won’t we?

Okay, I’m off somewhere eating too much food and turning even rounder than I ever was. Also, maybe playing on a new XBox 360? Hope hope?

Okay, that last thing isn’t going to happen. But I will have awesome gifts and stuff. Girl One is great at that sort of thing.

So, anyway, if for some peculiar reason you are on the internet today, and have wandered over here, I guess I should provide something for you.

How about some festive songs? That sounds good, huh?

Sleighride To Heck – James Kochalka

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I love the chaos of this one as it all starts to fall apart. One of those voices in the background is Moby, by the way. See, he isn’t a completely humourless fuck.

Christmas Time In Hell – Satan from South Park

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Because the South Park guys actually write damn good songs. The attention to detail in this one is the thing. Also, how damn jaunty it is, considering.

I’ve Got A Boner For X-Mas – Nerf Herder

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Okay, so “Fairytale Of New York” IS Christmas, but this is my hands down favourite song that isn’t about New York. Or Fairytales. This song is how I feel about Christmas right flipping now.

It’s a bit hectic here, so I’m running behind on my music post this week. This is, of course, not news to anyone – I’m always running late on my posts. Eventually I’ll get to a point where I don’t feel the need to apologise at the beginning of every one that’s overdue. You’ll note that I’ve dropped the date from the posts, and that’s in some ways an admission of how rubbish I am at keeping up!

This week, I’m in a slightly romantic mood, so I figured it was a good time for unusual duets. Though, of course, it being me, they aren’t necessarily the most perky of songs in some cases.

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A bit of a diversion this week, because… well, because the urge took me, and I had to take it back…

I’ve loved They Might Be Giants for such a long time, but it’s a peculiar kind of love. They are the loyal, cute and intelligent friend that I forget about from time to time, but when something reminds me of them, I have to seek them out instantly, nervously concerned that they won’t remember me. A quick search reveals that so much has changed in their lives – like a new album that I knew nothing about. I wonder how much they’ll have changed.

Then, of course, it turns out that they do remember me. And even though they’ve got more stories to tell, we easily fall into the same old conversations.

Oh, god, They Might Be Giants are my Cookie.

Anyway, people know the band for a lot of things that the band aren’t. It isn’t their fault, or the band’s, really. The closest they ever got to fame were with two songs that could easily be described as novelty hits, and that’s the sort of peculiar celebrity that can kill an otherwise long-lived group.

In fact, those two songs – “Birdhouse In Your Soul” and “Istanbul” – though characteristic of the band’s output musically, and a lot of fun, aren’t typical TMBG tracks, though Birdhouse comes close. If all of their output had that same crowd-pleasing infectious appeal, and that was all they had going for them, I would have loved them for the length of the glorious summer of 1990, but I don’t know if they’d still resonate with me as much as they do today.

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We like TV… And though it was a little off-putting when it first happened, I love the trend that started a few years back of attaching a pre-existing song to a show as it’s theme.

(When did this start properly, by the way? My instinct says that the first CSI really kicked it off proper-style, but that just seems like it can’t be right, for some reason… enlighten me in the comments, wouldja?)

There are a whole bunch of lovely examples, but this is a small selection of tracks that I’ve been thinking about recently, so these are the ones that I’m posting:

Baba O Riley – The Who

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Though I had no previous experience of this song before they used it on “CSI: New York”, and it took a while to grow on me at first because of it’s meandering opening, it has become my favourite of the trio of The Who songs that the CSI shows use as tradition. And no, I don’t know how I missed it, as it seems it’s well known – it’s in the original “Life On Mars”, too.
The initial version of the song that they used over the show’s opening credits was cut down pretty short – because this is a bit of an epic song – but it perfectly defines this branch of the franchise as being the on-the-street, shoulder-to-the-grindstone, heavy lifting team that you’d expect of New York cops. The musical scope of the tune belies the lyrics, which are working-man lyrics.
Around season three or four, they swapped out that more powerful version of the song for a musical stab heavy, lyric-light one, with punchier visuals to go along with them.
Girl One and I have not yet come to terms with this – singing along to the earlier version was a highlight of our TV watching experience. Still not sure why they did it, as the song seems redundant without the cool vocals.

We Used To Be Friends – The Dandy Warhols

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“Veronica Mars” was one of the best shows that nobody ever saw. I’m still not sure how well known this song was before the show started, but it’s a perfect fit – punchy and youthful, and lyrically dealing with some of the high-school, fall-from-grace social-strata themes of the show.
There was even one of those awesome John Water’s “Yay!” moments during the first season, when Veronica spoke the main chorus lyric as part of the cold-open, just before the credits rolled.
They swapped the original theme out in the third season, for a woozier version of the same song, by the same band. But it didn’t feel as shrewd as the CSI decision in that case, as it was still a pretty – if abstract – version of the tune.

Once In A Lifetime – Talking Heads

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This being used as the theme to “Numbers” is a lovely moment of closure for me. I’m a big Talking Heads fan, and the first time I heard them was when this song was used at the beginning of “Down And Out In Beverly Hills”.
There’s a questioning tone in the song, aimed at the listener’s expectations and understanding of their life so far, that worked well for that movie’s themes, and works equally well for the near-autistic attention to detail and use of maths and number theory to map human behaviour used in the show.
Plus, you know, David Byrne! The Talking Heads! Brilliant, brilliant stuff.

Little Boxes – Regina Spektor

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One of many cover versions of the classic song used in the second season of “Weeds”. I’m including it here because it’s cute, but by definition it’s not really representative of the theme to the show – which was the same throughout the first season, and then was covered by disparate artists throughout the second one. And dropped altogether by the third.

Three croaky guys sing about the devil. I think.

I’m undecided on the Johnny Cash song – he may just be talking about the apocalypse in general. Or, you know, just some guy. And actually, it’s possible that each of these songs is some coded reference to alcoholism that I’m just not getting, because I’m only addicted to hookers and glue.

Step By Step – Jesse Winchester

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The Man Comes Around – Johnny Cash

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Way Down In The Hole – Tom Waits

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There’s lots to say about the subject of redemption, as covered by the various and talented musicians and artists out there, but I’m not sure I’m capable of the attention to detail that such a discussion would require this month…

Still, as always, feel free to say what you feel in the comments…!

This week, three songs connected to computer games, either literally or tangentally. Not going to say much about them, because, well, it’s a week when I should be doing other stuffs, and am not so far…

Blue Skies Forever – DoYouInvert

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I first heard DoYouInvert on the wonderfully, “only vaguely about gaming” gaming podcast, “One Life Left“. He/they do great little anti-folk songs about games.

In other news, I think I have a bit of a crush on Ann Scantlebury, adorably cute and naughty “only vaguely about gaming” newswench. The pictures at their website don’t really give a very clear indication of why I like her voice so much. That isn’t how sounds and pictures work, apparently.

Dust Off Your Cartridge – Joahmonkey

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This is actually a mashup, and I know very little about it, beyond that it’s awesome. J directed me to it – there’s a good chance that it comes from either the SomethingAwful or Dinosaur Comics forum.

Thank You Mario But Our Princess Is In Another Castle – Mountain Goats and Kaki King

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A lovely love song about the Nintendo trademark character. I think I heard this for the first time via BoingBoing, but it’s a favourite at 1LL as well. Good times!

This week I seem to be suffering the brain-wrongs, as does my computer. Also, the index finger on my right hand is paining me at the knuckle… I ACHES! So I thought I’d try to listen to some pretty, new music – or at least, music that was new to me.

It hasn’t worked out exactly right. These female singer-songwriters were a lot more perplexing than I’d have expected.

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