Down to business!

I had plenty of time on my hands during the bus rides I recently took to and from Madrid.  I'll introduce you to some good ways to spend 12 hours:

Soko             Not Sokute               1 piping hot batch of Southern cornbread

A sweet, poppy mixture of songs and emotions.  There's something in the teen-styled lyrics and vocals that reminds me of the Moldy Peaches or The Do.  Her slightly French accent also adds to some of the naivety and overall pleasant feeling of this music.  This is a set of songs that keeps leading me back to memories of summer walks and picnics.  Have some fun with this one.

I'm usually against all things New Jersey, but I must say there's some good music coming out of that barren place.

Real Estate          Days                  8.5 scoops of "Reece's Pieces"

Someone who is very close to me summed it up like so:

Cool and elegant electric rock music. They said they tried with that album to put into music the kind of gloomy landscapes they see everyday in the suburb where they live... They remind me of Kurt Vile, with maybe more light in their music.

I think the above description is perfectly fitting.  I've flown through Newark enough times to buy in to their attempt.  It is a bit gloomy, but not in a depressing way.  Gloomy in a way that makes you want autumn landscapes and a coffee at hand.  
Elegance is also a word that somehow applies.  The music is almost hypnotic in its synth-y harmonies.  You can almost predict the sounds of the songs that are coming.  They're not just what you expect however, they're what you want.  Consider this for your Christmas shopping list.


If you're not sure of who Kurt Vile is, take a moment to introduce yourself to a great, underrated artist:
http://kurtvile.com/


The same music lover said of Vile and Real Estate:

... we can really wonder if they don't belong to the beginning of a new American era.

Little Stevie Dedalus

I realize that it is probably sheer folly to write this post, but I'm choosing to do so anyway.  I've been reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce the past few days, and really enjoying the experience.  So much of what Joyce said back then seems salient for me in the modern era.

Of course, stream of consciousness is modeled after how one thinks, so it is logical that this kind of writing would really speak to a person.  However, I believe the content of the story itself really echos something of the adolescent experience generally, and my experience specifically.  Not that I had an alcoholic father who drank and squandered our family into ruin, nor did I have to cope with a subsequently poor diet or hygiene, but many of the actions, emotions, and thought processes were there.

I remember on occasions the same crippling pangs of guilt for sin (not that I had a lust for prostitutes).  The same hysterical thoughts of repentance, continual penance and self-denial, and the same burning desire to change my ways so as to avoid an all but certain eternity of punishment.  What if I died on the way to confession?!  What if God chose to stop my heart right before the priest spoke the final words?!  

I remember the utter mental and bodily illness I felt before confession; the vile repulsion with myself and the world.  The equally strong elation after receiving absolution.  

I was a maniac.  The resolves I always made following confession encouraged and terrified me at the same time. 

In my case, and in Dedalus's, religion succeeded in cultivating a dire sense of guilt and panic.  This seems to be a very adolescent-style religious experience.  An experience that almost without fail, tempers itself over time.  It certainly did for the character and for myself.

However, I do have to wonder if it has truly been tempered, or merely changed shape.  I've reflected on my current lifestyle here in Spain, and I've realized I have been pouring myself into a physical fitness routine among other habits, so as to fill some unseen void.  I do yoga everyday, I run at least four times per week, and sometimes I do additional exercises as well.  I continually read, cook low-cal, listen to music, and write.  To what end?  What fulfillment am I seeking?

I suppose I shall leave off where Joyce left off: on the move, in transition.

Read the book.  It's free to download, or cheap to buy.

http://www.gutenberg.org/

http://www.betterworldbooks.com/

Another review and a note on Spanish culture

I'm not sure it's a good idea to continue on this path of musical review indefinitely, but it's something I'm enjoying for the time being, and I think other people could get something out of these bands!

Father, Son, Holy Ghost by Girls   99 Nilla wafers

This is a really nice album in many ways.  I'm not sure I'm comfortable with linking this album to MGMT as some websites do, because I feel the purpose and intent is entirely different.  There's an ambiance that is currently eluding my description, but it's one worth checking out.  The sounds and intentions seem pure and undiluted. Cool guitar rifts.  Strange, lost vocals.  Think moody Beatles meets Race Horses.  (Maybe a little Pink Floyd minus the pretensions...?)  It has a lot of the qualities you'd look for in a soundtrack for "finding yourself".  Pack this one for a road trip.

Velociraptor by Casabian    18 lolcats

This album leaves me at a bit of a loss.  Some songs seem to leave the listener behind.  I realize it seems harsh, but I don't listen to music I don't like, don't worry.  It just seems half-conjealed somehow.  I feel there was some idea floating around the band, "Man, we're so good, let's do some really weird crap.  Weird, weird crap.  And when people say they don't get it, we'll say, 'Of course you don't.  Not now anyway.  We've transcended you.'"  My opinion is that some of it worked, some of it didn't.  It's a collision of the Gorillaz, Arctic Monkeys, the Butthole Surfers, and egoism.  Take a handful of songs, flush the rest.  Repeat if residue remains.

Cultural Note:  I went to a great little town not far from here called Jerez de los Caballeros.  It's supposed to be the Seville of Extremadura.  I think that's a bit of an exaggeration in some ways, but not all.  It's built in an incredibly hilly area, lending itself to lots of cool little curving narrow streets with charming shops and bars.  There are four main church towers, easily visible from various parts of the town and the freeway outside of the city limits, again because of the hills.  There's a tiny Roman theater.  There will be a meat festival in April which I fully intend to see.

http://www.jerezcaballeros.es/

Kitsch?

I've decided to continue writing little opinions of music I [re]discover or am introduced to because I like this stuff and it gives me some giggles.

I think I am also going to create an arbitrary rating system to have some more fun with this.  I believe I may've been too generous with stars in my previous reviews.  After all, if The White Album can only max out at 5, how much hope is there for anything above a 2 really?

Tamer Animals by Other Lives    Rating: a sack full of Kinder Bueno Bars
Do it.  Not because it's some obscure hipster band you heard about from a random blog.  Do it because it is good, wholesome music.  This album smacks of reincarnated British psychedelic/indie sounds.  Sort of like a tamer version of The End's Introspection album.  Harmonizing vocals, soothing piano, strings, woodwinds, acoustic guitar, tambourine tambourine tambourine.  The bizarre, mumbled British voices fade into it all.  There's clearly an effort to create an atmosphere more than there is to convey concepts through words.  It's a great break from the pseudo-intellectual stuff that usually gets crammed into this genre.

Mirel Wagner's self-titled, self-styled album   Rating:  4.4793 Lovecrafts
Pain, sadness, necrophilia?  Usually people don't like subjecting themselves to something so bleak for an extended time, but there's something of Eliot Smith in the way you can't pull yourself away from the despair.  You almost regret the song "The Well" has an end at all.  It has a mesmerizing guitar rhythm with dark and hopeless images you delight in.   Her lyrics are simple and rhyme neatly--almost like a children's story--but at times you can feel your alarm at what is actually being said.  A good example of this is "No Death".  The pure simplicity of the guitar and her matter-of-fact way of half singing/half speaking creates a creepy land fit for a Burton movie.  A truly great, truly dark album. 

And a related bonus music/pop-art collision for lolzing.
http://thekittencovers.tumblr.com/

Food Nostalgia. Adventures in cooking!

Nothing profound in this one, just the musings of a foreigner and some help from a famous dude. 

I've been missing home(s)--NOLA and Arkansas--a bit lately, and I decided to conjure up a little comfort through some good Southern food.  Specifically, the red beans I saw in the market behind my apartment.

I had never made red beans before.  I am from Arkansas; red beans and rice is from South Louisiana.  And anytime I've had red beans and rice, it was cooked by someone from NOLA or thereabouts, and served to me in NOLA or thereabouts.  I am currently in Spain (the reason for missing this food) so ingredients were questionable.  No andouille.  No Creole seasoning.  But I went ahead and tried.  It's po' folks food, so at worst I'd waste a couple of bucks and some time.

I started soaking the beans at 8am and I started cooking around 8pm (2 hours ahead of the Spanish dinner time), because I knew it could take a while. 
I did what I could to follow the processes of THE guy: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/red-beans-and-rice-recipe2/index.html.  'Cause if anyone knows Creole cookin', it's Emeril.  BAM.  
And lo and behold, edible food!

I'm feeling warm and spicy and a bit pleased with myself.   Now I just have to find some Arkansas catfish and okra.

Amateur Music Review and New Artist Link

So, here goes nothing.  I am going to try my hand at the most disgusting of all arts.   Reviewing the art of another.

Ceremonials by Florence and the Machine. 4.5 stars

It's not the sophomoric album that I had feared.  It conveys powerful emotions with sometimes dark, sometimes optimistic music to go with always ethereal lyrics.  This universe has always seemed untethered, yet somehow accessible.  

I'm pleased that the album has included elements of dubstep, evolving with the English music scene from which it emerges.  It has a very "Florence-y" take on the dubstep/blues of artists like James Blake.  Her famous powerful blues-suited voice and lyrics over synth.  However, the acoustic songs at the end of the album also have something to offer.  The simplicity of these arrangements is admirable.

Buy it.

Bad as Me by Tom Waits.  3.5 stars

A horror/comedy set to music. Maybe it's his broken, dirty voice, or the edited warm crackling sound of a worn out record.  Maybe it's the blues lyrics set to the tune of a fool's dance, but I can't help but think of the chaotic atmosphere of carnivale in New Orleans when I hear this album.  It induces images of rowdy drinking, dancing, and all of the other debauchery for which my old city is so famous. 

It's similar in many ways to his 38745947359734 other albums, minus much of the overrated crap.  But a word of warning: don't bother with the ballads.  They're a waste.  

The bottom line is: something about this album, especially it's more upbeat or wild songs, grows on the listener.  

Give it a gander.

As an unsolicited plug and without commentary review: someone I know from New Orleans has released an album.  
You may find it here: http://gabrielgoldstein.bandcamp.com/

"Happiness only real when shared."

I watched Into the Wild this evening, and I think it's inspired me to be more active in my life.  Today I've decided two exciting things.


I've decided there is no reason for me to wait around for better weather: I am going to run.  I am going to try to train for the 1/2 marathon I've (questionably) put off for two years because I was working too much as a TFA teacher.  I now work 12 hours a week and have plenty of time to devote to the cause.  I also have a great town with beautiful hills and children from school shouting "Hello!" as I go by.  Today's run was a good start.


I've also decided I need to do what I can to follow through with my NaNoWriMo sign up.  Although there are obviously no guarantees that I will have a novel completed in a mere 25 more days, it is a nice thought that I will make an attempt.  This is again, something I now have the time for.


Maybe this little blog will be a way to hold myself to these new routines.   And hopefully I'll be able to share some happiness with others.