Zeigen

Music is an emotion stimulator, a direct hit to the central cortex, an upper, a downer, a smash to the thumb, a squeeze of the heart, a rage against the system of the dawn of the power to the LISTEN FEEL LIVE.

So often we share what we’re listening to with others, hoping that our unique combination of tastes — that special mix that only we could come up with — might possibly form a connection, that somewhere out there among the six billions souls there’s someone, someone who shares our thoughts, knows what we mean, knows how we feel, has the same emotional reaction to the guitars and words that are hitting us so hard right this second. “Oh my God,” that person says, “that’s exactly right, that’s exactly what I’m feeling, this is the greatest song in the world,” which it is, at that moment, at that place, for the way you both feel.

NOW PLAYING: “Paper Bag,” Fiona Apple.

According to iTunes, the song I played most in 2008 was “Trampoline” by Calomine, which came as a bit of a surprise for me since it’s so obscure, but it’s just the kind of song that I like most:

• low-key
• catchy
• both a male and female singer
• nostalgic
• a vivid narrative
• evocative
• shoe-gazing
• jangly

It reminds me of two other songs that always catch my breath: “Dogs of L.A.” by Liz Phair and “You Picked Me” by A Fine Frenzy. I could write a dozen paragraphs on each one.

I don’t have many other songs by Calamine; I know they did the cover of the Sealab 2021 theme, and I’ve been meaning to pick up the rest of their stuff. I found this track when Roger played it one time at a Tuesday night poker game. (Thanks, Roger.)

Quick, check iTunes. What’s #1 most-played right now?

It took eight years of tabulation, but the judges have finally awarded the Most Overwrought Line From A Song Lyric winner for the previous millennium. The winner was this line from the U2 song “One”:

Did you come here to play Jesus with the lepers in your head?

Congrats, Bono!

Can we start by agreeing that the greatest Beatles song ever written is 1968’s “Across the Universe“? Composed by John Lennon and seen first on a charity album, it was released on the Beatles’ last album, Let It Be. The cosmic lyrics combine with a haunting melody to create a tune that even 40 years later can inspire a movie.

As Wikipedia notes about the song, it’s well-covered. The easiest way to deconstruct a song is to see it ripped apart by others. By seeing it rebuilt, its underbelly exposed and vulnerable, you can get your mind around it and hear it wholly new.

Here are four completely different takes. (All links to YouTube; please let me know if something disappears.)

• Rufus Wainwright’s 2002 version is probably the most straightforward cover. But it may also be my favorite version, modernizing the song (ditching sitars for unadorned guitar) without ruining it.
• Fiona Apple’s 1998 cover created for Pleasantville is absolutely mesmerizing. Her languid delivery is a perfect match.
• If you know anything about Laibach, you may be surprised by their 1988 attempt, emphasizing the vocals over instrumentation, and amping up the chant-like components. Hypnotic.
• Then there’s David Bowie’s 1975 take, off his Young Americans album (with John Lennon singing and playing alongside); Bowie’s goal was to “hammer the hell out of it.” Mission accomplished.

Even the Beatles themselves had an alternate version: Different speed, different mix of instruments, this is the so-called “psychedelic” version, released officially on the 1996 Anthology 2 album.

I can listen to the Rufus Wainwright and Fiona Apple covers endlessly, but for me the others (including the original) are best in small doses.

Without a doubt, the worst version I’ve heard is this Roger Waters’ travesty. Frightening.

Got a favorite cover of this song? Tell me about it.

The process of writing their 1997 album OK Computer was reportedly a drawn-out affair for Radiohead, if it’s true that they took more than a year and went from recording in an apple shed to actress Jane Seymour’s 15th century mansion.

As a result, they had far more material than could fit on one album, yet no desire to create a double album. So, after the June 1997 release of OK Computer, an EP was issued, with six new songs: Airbag/How Am I Driving?.

My copy of that first EP somehow disappeared from my cubicle back in 2000, and for a long time I couldn’t find any copies for sale. Fortunately a new batch has appeared, and recently I picked up a replacement from Amazon.

The standout song is, in my opinion, “Polyethylene (Parts 1 & 2)” which I’ve read nearly made the cut of being included on OK Computer. It’s a strange two-part song but grows on you like nothing else. My head replays it over and over again.

Keep all surfaces clean.

The other day I read an item about Radiohead’s upcoming new album, In Rainbows. The interesting thing is that they let you buy the download (in DRM-free MP3 format) for “whatever amount you want to pay.”

I checked it out and saw that they were also selling a collector’s edition CD and LP (with free download included), for 40 pounds.

Here comes the bad math part. I knew that it’s currently 2 dollars for every pound. But instead of doing the normal sane math, of 40 times 2 makes $80, I went with dividing. 40 divided by 2 is $20, that’s a great price! So I ordered one.

(I blame fatigue.)

Then I took a nap. While napping, the fraud detection unit of the bank calls me. “Did you really spend $80 in the UK just now?”

“What? Huh?” — waking up — “no, I spent $20.”

“Well, check with the vendor. They might have overcharged you by accident.”

“Well the web site was acting funky. Maybe they did the transaction multiple times.” (And it’s true, their web site was giving all kinds of weird errors while I was buying the album. I read online it was due to crushing server load.)

But of course there was no web site error. I figured out my mistake, read their FAQ on how to cancel, which said send them an e-mail. So I did, explained my mistake, and politely requested to cancel my order. And I sent another one when I didn’t get a reply. Still no reply.

So I guess I just bought an $80 CD — to be precise $81.52 plus a $2.45 “foreign country fee.”

On the plus side, the album came out yesterday, and I downloaded it. And I’m listening to it now. And it’s insanely good. This may be my favorite Radiohead album ever.

For our one-year wedding anniversary back in February, Kimi brought us tickets to see Elvis Costello, and Tuesday night was the night of the show. And I guess Yvonne was collaborating with Kimi because they all brought tickets at the same time.

We decided to take public transit, which meant leaving work a bit early. Kimi and I met with John at the Menlo Park Caltrain station where we trained it up to where Yvonne works, and then we drove to the Daly City BART station, and from there over to downtown Oakland for dinner at Le Cheval (a very well known Vietnamese restaurant). Service was very quick (and the food is very good; it’s been a long time since I’ve eaten there), so we had plenty of time to walk on over to the Paramount.

I used to work in downtown Oakland for quite a few after I graduated from Cal, and as Yvonne put it, it was literally a walk down memory lane. When I first started working at Diversified in 1990, it was down at 15th and Broadway (although later we moved to City Center when we spun out Diversitech, the training business). That area of downtown just wasn’t doing well. Once the Emporium Capwell closed, it seemed like the heart went out of all the surrounding businesses. It got to the point where almost all of the doors were boarded up. So I was pleasantly surprised to see that the area had come back: All of the ‘89 earthquake damage had finally been repaired, the street work that had seemed to drag out for years was finally done, and both small and large businesses seemed to be doing ok (and the Emporium building was now occupied by Sears). The old Fox theatre with its beautiful Byzantine motif looked like it was back in business. And the clock on the old Oakland Tribune building even had the right time, which I had never seen before.

As for the concert, I was very impressed. We were in row NN in the Orchestra, sort of the middle of the pack. If you haven’t been to the Paramount, it’s a gorgeous Art Deco theatre. It’d been a few years since I saw Tori perform there, and if there’s a more beautiful concert hall in the Bay Area I don’t know about it.

Elvis was in rare form, and Allen Toussaint with his Crescent City Horns lit up the joint. A lot of the music really brought back memories of the first and only time I’ve been to New Orleans, with Kimi right after we got engaged in 2004 (staying with Jeff P. and his then-girlfriend Amber on their floor during Mardi Gras). Of course with Katrina and the theme of their recent collaboration, The River in Reverse, the tone was bittersweet at points.

I was a little nervous that I wouldn’t know a lot of the songs (since I haven’t listed to the new album yet), but they opened with the Nick Lowe-penned classic “Peace, Love & Understanding” (one of my favorite songs) so I was exhilirated right from the beginning.

The new arrangements of old Elvis classics like Pump It Up, Alison, Clown Strike, Watching the Detectives, Deep Dark Truthful Mirror really worked — especially the conjoining of Alison with the old Smokey Robinson & The Miracles’ classic, “The Tracks of My Tears.” With Elvis and his three Impostors plus Allen and his four-person horn section as well as his guitarist, Anthony AB Brown, this was a big noisy group. But what really hit home were the quiet moments, especially on a number like Broken Promise Land. A high point for me was a very impressive “Clubland.”

Altogether, they played for over three hours. Amazing, just amazing. You wouldn’t know that Elvis (Declan Patrick Aloysius MacManus in real life) was a 52-year-old. I’ve had these songs in my head for two days now.

With the reverse public transit logistics and dropping people off, we didn’t end up picking up Sammy until after 1am from Kyrie’s place (thanks, Kyrie, for watching him!) and I actually had to get some work down so I didn’t get to bed until 2:30. I was definitely dragging at work on Wednesday. But what a wonderful concert. It had been a while since Kimi and I had seen one, so it was really great to get out.

If you have a chance to see one of the stops of this tour, it’s highly recommended. Here’s a sample of what the set list looks like.

Sweetie, thanks for the anniversary present.

This song came up on random shuffle the other day, reminding me that I had never posted the promised fifth entry in this series. Directed by Jonathan Glazer (who also worked with Radiohead on “Street Spirit” and Massive Attack for “Karmacoma,” as well as directing the very popular Jamiroquai video “Virtual Insanity”), they took the interesting choice of overlaying the audio from the video’s events on top of the song. The effects work better on a real screen rather than a monitor, but see if you don’t think the buildup is worth the payoff.

“Rabbit in Your Headlights” by U.N.K.L.E. (IFILM, sorry for the ads)

Previous video recommendations: 1, 2, 3, and 4.