“Couleurs” by M83 which clocks in at 8:34
I started drawing again.
It’s been a while and I’m a bit rusty. Well, it’s been roughly 22 years actually. Something told me back then that I should probably give up drawing and I did. A patron’s question stands out in my memory: “What is that, a black flounder with a sword? Where are the colors?” Ugh! Always with the colors! Nobody appreciates my weltanschauung in this 5th grade art community and… well, there are two swords actually. And no, it’s not a fish it’s a dog. You might notice the two long ears and pronounced snout? Clearly a canine.
I imagined that that was my response, and then I imagined her taunting reply: “Ears, those look like fins! It has five leg-fins and two ear-fins and then. Wait, are they tentacles? That’s no dog, and it’s clearly not a flounder. It’s a messy black octo… septopus! Hey everybody come look at how much time Matt is wasting by drawing imaginary black sea creatures! He can’t even use color!”
Black ink was my preferred medium back then, and always. No colors, colors were beyond my reach and I fear they still are. It’s an austerely black and white world of extremes, the only couleurs exist dans le bruit. In sound.
In sound in sound in sound in sound… Read more…
“Happy Suicide” by David Byrne which clocks in at 9:45
Last night marked the premiere of “Under African Skies”, the second of three programs comprising Paul Simon’s month-long residency at BAM. As you most likely know by now (or at least can guess by its title), “Under African Skies” focuses on the Afro and Brazilian-tinged pop sounds that informed Simon’s immensely popular 80s albums Graceland and The Rhythm of the Saints. For these performances, Simon is joined by most of his Graceland-era backing band in addition to other special guests, most notably fellow World Music aficionado David Byrne.
In Byrne’s well-known personal blog, he recently chronicled the experience of working with Simon for these shows. Apparently, the two started meeting up a few months ago to casually discuss the songwriting process, and while Byrne candidly admitted that Simon’s writing techniques didn’t necessarily jive with his own, he still found these “meeting of the minds” quite helpful, writing: Read more…
“Oh Well” by Fleetwood Mac which clocks in at 9:02
Do you know who Peter Green is?
Have you ever heard this song before?
Did you know that Fleetwood Mac was a hard-edged British blues band in the late ’60s, previous to their career as Los Angeles superstar pop-rockers in the ’70s?
If your answer to the above questions is yes, then I have nothing new to offer you in the form of information or music at the moment. But I do have a tiny game you can play while the rest of us learn a thing or two… click HERE. That should entertain you for at least 30-45 seconds. My best time after 5 attempts is 15.211 seconds. Read more…
“You Enjoy Myself” by Phish which clocks in at 9:50
There are those of you reading this site who likely (really) enjoy making fun of Phish. The mere mention of the band probably makes you laugh loud judgmental laughs “Phish? ha ha HA!” you say. I’m sure you enjoy yourself making phun fun of Phish. And why not? It is a fun band to make fun of; what with their aimless jazz-brunch influenced noodling and nonsense lyrics and white-kid-with-dreadlocks audience members… Phish symbolized the Starbucks generation of “hippie” music lovers and carried a legion of mind-scrambled fans around the country with them for 20+ years, nearly single-handedly defining/soiling the term jam band for an entire generation. Making fun of Phish is like shooting fish in a barrel. Which is why that’s exactly not what I’m here to do today. Instead, I’d like to make fun of fish. Don’t worry, it’s not like I’m going to hurt their feelings.
If that fish in the picture above could speak, what do you think it would say? “Tzaruch shemirah”? Me, I’m guessing something along the lines of “you enjoy myself to eat, please don’t eat myself!” Look at it. It looks like it’s talking to the photographer; and, it’s fairly adorable. And fish aren’t anywhere near “cute” or “adorable”. But that one is. And I could totally see cuddling with it or having a nice broken English conversation with it. Phish, er fish, would be all “you wash your feet in my water drive me into a frenzy,” or whatever it is they say. But fishes can’t learn things like how to complain about dirty water, or language, or anything… can they? Read more…
“Homecoming” by Green Day which clocks in at 9:19
We’re pretty lucky. Lucky to have arrived home safely (from our journey down to South by Southwest and back) last night after three days of some of the worst driving conditions either of us has ever faced. We figured it was that our timing was simply unfortunate in regards to leaving Kansas City on Monday to drive back to New York; yes, it turns out this was true. Perhaps it was that cursed table we sat at* in Austin? Whatever the cause, we drove with a massive storm the entire way back. It made each hour of driving seem like four hours. But still, we were never quite aware of the enormity of the peril we were right in the middle of. Pretty stupid - a couple of American idiots driving through the rain like that. You see, sitting here now (safe and sound, back at home watching the news), it turns out this storm was a LOT worse than we could’ve ever imagined. Read more…
“Joe Hill” by Billy Bragg which clocks in at 8:24
Busy busy busy! It’s mid-March, I’m in Austin, TX, and South by Southwest is in full swing. Today, for example, there are at least twenty two different bands/shows I’d like to see. Tops on that list is Billy Bragg who just happens to be playing twice today. He’s long been a favorite of mine ever since I first happened upon Back to Basics in a friend’s car. Then I went and purchased The Internationale on cassette and I was sold right away, been a huge fan ever since. I’ve already seen him three times in the past, which is to say, I know he’s a fantastic entertainer and dishes out plenty of fun/educational banter. Nice songs too. Anyway, I’ve got a very full schedule today, tomorrow, and the rest of the week. Expect to read all about it in the coming days (R.E.M. and Dead Confederate last night, holy crap! check back tomorrow for coverage of it). As a result of this packed schedule we’re going to simply explore some background about this Joe Hill, who is the subject of the song that’s posted here, and try and get a bit more adventurous with next week’s 8+. EF music education? Let’s go. Read more…
“Year to the Day” by Van Halen which clocks in at 8:35
One year ago, to the day, I took to the road with the band Goes Cube. 5 weeks, 14 state capitol buildings, 24 states visited, 22 shows played, over 8,000 plus miles. Their mission: to rock the planet, one US state at a time. My mission: to document said rocking with a bunch of cameras and steady hands. It was four guys in a Honda Odyssey versus the world. I barely knew David, Kenny, and Matt before we left for the trip, by the time we returned they were like family to me. We’d been to California (and by California I mean Bakersfield, and by Bakersfield I mean hell) and back, and we triumphed like kings.
One year later here we are again. The three kings of Cube departed just yesterday on another massive road trip. They’re off to South by Southwest in Austin, planning to bloody ears all over the US on their way to and fro. This time they’ll be doing it without me; however, I’m on a similar quest myself. An EAR FARM quest, and the entire EAR FARM staff is coming with me. Except, we won’t be rocking socks off like Goes Cube, we’ll be the ones on the receiving end of the aural hammering as we travel the southern part of the US seeing beaucoups live music and eating the best regional BBQ we can find. Hot shit innit? Read more…
“The Telephone Call” by Kraftwerk which clocks in at 8:03
From Wikipedia: “Chinese whispers or Telephone is a game in which each successive participant secretly whispers to the next a phrase or sentence whispered to them by the preceding participant. Cumulative errors from mishearing often result in the sentence heard by the last player differing greatly and amusingly from the one uttered by the first. It is most often played by children as a party game or in the playground.” Read more…
“Oh Comely” by Neutral Milk Hotel which clocks in at 8:18
Or, The Assassination of Jeff Mangum by the Coward Colin Meloy.
No, I do not think Colin Meloy is a coward; I actually like him as well as the Decemberists. The above is simply a strained haymaker aimed at timeliness, a one-two punch if you will. Punch one, right in the gut: Neutral Milk Hotel’s seminal album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea turned ten this month, what ideal fodder for this week’s 8+….except that last week was it’s actual anniversary, so perhaps then would have proven more ideal. Alas. Read more…
“Rhaphsody in Blue” by George Gershwin which clocks in at 14:25
It’s Valentine’s Day, and I’m in love.
It’s not a new love……. Read more…
“Smell Memory” by Múm which clocks in at 9:23
Two days ago, early Tuesday morning around 1am, I lost internet service at my home. A mini-disaster for someone such as myself, without doubt. I spent the better part of the evening troubleshooting everything I could think of - trying in vain to crack the codes to the other secure networks in my apartment building and unplugging/re-plugging the power to my cable modem and AirPort thirty-two times each. I know, I counted. Come on, what else was there for me to do without the internet?? Needed internet! But, nothing. I pacified myself by digging through some old bits and pieces of things I’ve begun writing and never finished, my “saved for later” folder. You’ll find one such example posted below. It’s something I honestly never figured would see the light of day.
Anyway, I went to bed that night hungry for information, dissatisfied (and even disgusted - you’ll see) with my own writing snippets, and well aware of the fact that a dreaded phone call to Time Warner and a visit to a public internet cafe awaited me whenever I awoke. I barely slept. Read more…
“Lateralus” by Tool which clocks in at 9:24
Easter.
Eggs.
Intentional hidden messages.
They are everywhere, just look.
In nature, movies, TV shows, on this website… Read more…
“Real Emotional Trash” by Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks which clocks in at 10:09
(In which we use Google Maps to get a better understanding of this song)
Making sense of Stephen Malkmus’s lyrics is largely a hit-or-miss endeavor. Some are so straightforward they read like a picture book. See Jenny. See Jenny run to the Ess Dog. The Ess Dog drives a Volvo with ancient plates.
File “The Hook” under this category. Synopsis: A 19-year old is captured by Turkish pirates only to earn their respect by age 25 and eventually run the crew by the time he’s 31. Simple enough, yes? Read more…
“Seventh Son of a Seventh Son” by Iron Maiden which clocks in at 9:53
I didn’t want to listen to Iron Maiden, but I had to. No choice. I listened because my most basic survival instincts told me to. See, there was this “kid” in homeroom with me in 7th grade - not quite a bully in the classical sense of the term (most likely because he wasn’t smart enough to put together the facts of his own existence and realize that he was, indeed, made to be a bully), but pretty much as close to being a bully as one could get while still maintaining some sense of niceness, innocence, and friendship. Not that he was my “friend” per se, but he kind of demanded to be just that for those few minutes we were in homeroom each day. Read more…
“Tornado” by Mandy Reid which clocks in at 8:41
Coming of age in central Massachusetts, the prospect of a whirling cyclone bearing down on my mulleted self never really posed a clear and present threat. Sure, I had heard about a substantial tornado passing through in 1953 and even braved some of the residual winds and rain of a small twister passing through my hometown in 1989. These were small potatoes though, and my lasting memory wasn’t a crippling fear of the tornado but a desire to cop one of the inevitable “I Survived the Twister of ‘89!” shirts that made their rounds soon afterwards. Read more…