Weekend (I discover music)

[oyceter]

I actually had a fairly good weekend, despite working through some of it and despite a Flaming Samosa of DOOM in my toaster oven. In fact, I even managed to eat some samosas that did not go up in flame!

My sister's friend B came over, and yesterday I dragged her to my farmers' market. I had the pleasure of taking her to my favorite berry stand and watching her eyes widen as she ate a sample strawberry.

"This is GOOD!" she said.

"Yeah. They even smell wonderful!" I said.

(The stand's strawberries are awesome and make me wonder why I ever ate sour, bland, not-really-ripe strawberies ever.)

After that, I made her buy heirlooms from my tomato guy. "You should try these too!"

"Wow. These are really good!" she said. "Oh, man, I shouldn't get any. I'm leaving in three days. But they're so good!"

I grinned, satisfied with the acknowledgement of my market.

We also watched Catch and Release, which was fun and cute and happy and has a wall scene (you know, where one person has their back to a wall and the other is leaning in and they're just an inch apart and there is UST and you just know they're going to kiss). I like wall scenes.

Then I decided to splurge, as I am being paid overtime! I managed to find a Divine Comedy CD, FMA DVD 1 and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon used ($4 for the latter!!). I'm not even sure if I like Divine Comedy, since I've only heard one of their songs, but that song is on one of my happy mixes ("Perfect Lovesong"). And! I also bought My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade and the Fratellis' Costello Music!

OMG LOVE!

LOVE!

(this is all Vonnie's fault because I got "Welcome to the Black Parade" and "Teenagers" and "Chelsea Dagger" stuck in my head for all of this week and HAD to buy them)

And! I have been cruising through YouTube music vids! This, coupled with Mely's post from last week, has made me discover music vids! (I scorned MTV when I was a teenager.) And things like concept albums and rock operas and whatnot!

Er. I have previously mentioned before that I know zero about music? And that my music knowledge centers roughly around the 50s and the 60s, and then makes a straight jump to Things My Classmates Listened to But I Didn't in the 90s? So I basically managed to skip over the entire 70s rock thing, which I am now happily rediscovering via a whole bunch of incomprehensible articles talking about My Chemical Romance and musical influences and citing a ton of stuff I vaguely know of via fannish osmosis but have never heard.

I suddenly want to spend lots of money on lots of CDs and sit and listen and actually concentrate, as oppose to letting things play in the background like I usually do. This is so odd! I do not listen to music this way! But it's very exciting! Maybe eventually I will actually pay attention to lyrics and concepts and albums as opposed to being completely amused by how very cheerfully My Chemical Romance sings about death and cancer. As in, I would totally put their music on my happy mixes and sing at the top of my lungs "Haaaaave you heard the news that you're dead?" bouncing the entire way.

As you can all tell, my intentions of buying music by women of color has largely gone kaput. Apparently the music that draws me like a moth is insanely catchy white boy punk-flavored rock with loud guitars and drums and hooks galore. See also: my obsession with Me First and the Gimme Gimmes and Flogging Molly. And now after playing with YouTube, I want to get Green Day's American Idiot and maybe Dookie even though it reminds me of middle school and maybe some Springsteen and Elvis Costello and Queen, though maybe not as albums because I am still dipping my toes in.

But! I still have my iTunes gift card, so I think I will buy a lot of singles by WOC and find catchy WOC punk-flavored rock with loud guitars and drums and hooks galore.

(omg people i am so embarrassingly in love with the black parade)

Comments

[tatterpunk.livejournal.com]

But! I still have my iTunes gift card, so I think I will buy a lot of singles by WOC and find catchy WOC punk-flavored rock with loud guitars and drums and hooks galore.

Seriously, the Noisettes. Sample "Sister Rosetta." We weren't kidding with that rec. ;)

[oyceter]

I have been listening to them! Really! It's just taking me a while to go through all the music and figure out what I like or not. ^_^

[oyceter]

Dude! You totally didn't mention that the video for "Sister Rosetta" has swing dancers!!! I feel betrayed! ;)

(I am going through all their stuff on YouTube now. OMG. I have so much love right now for YouTube and MySpace!)

[tatterpunk.livejournal.com]

I... did not know!


*rushes to YouTube*

[oyceter]

Hee!

I feel so stupid for just having discovered music videos! They are so strange!

[quivo.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, I was so here to plump for the Noisettes! *plumps for them some more*

[oyceter]

I have been listening! I like so far!

[vonnie-k.livejournal.com]

Woo-hoo, My Chemical Romance love! I'm so glad you like them! The Black Parade is the shit. Honestly, it was my favourite album of last year, and "Welcome To The Black Parade" was probably THE SONG of the year for me -- I love it thiiiis much. There is nothing wrong with being all bouncy happy about a song like "Dead!", because MCR *meant* for it to be so. The whole album is defiant and celebratory and it gives me much joy.

(Also, "Cancer" makes me want to wave a lighter in the air like it was some power ballad -- well, I guss it is, or sorts, but you do feel a bit odd to think this at the lyrics like "I'm soggy from the chemo.")

I went through my own "OMG I know NOTHING about the rock history!! Must amend ASAP!!" period a few months ago and man, it was a lot of work. There are CDs I bought in a fit of enthusiasm back then, which I have yet to listen to. For people like Springsteen, Queen and Elvis Costello, I'd recommend getting the greatest hits compilation. Music snobs tend to thumb their noses at Hits albums, but well, screw'em. After ignoring '70's rock for the longest time, I recently bought Queen's Greatest Hits album and have been playing it non-stop. MCR cites them as one of their biggest influences, I think. (If you don't have any Queen, start with Don't Stop Me Now (http://www.box.net/shared/eaphyyxcg9): it's, like, the most happy-making song in the history of rock music. [/only mild hyperbole])

The Fratellis! MCR! Yaaaay!

[oyceter]

OMG! I love them SO MUCH! I can't decide right now if I like "Welcome to the Black Parade" or "Teenagers" or "Dead!" or "Famous Last Words" better! It varies depending on which one I'm listening to. But OMG! It makes me so happy because it is all bouncy and because "Dead!" has an exclamation point and I have even been watching vids on YouTube and they are crazy and insane and have cheerleaders in gas masks!

I am all for compilation albums, especially given how many albums those people have put out! Also, it's weird -- I usually just listen to singles and make my own mixes because I can get tired of the sound of a band over an album, but I love The Black Parade as an album so much! Not just singles!

Oooo! I think I have "Don't Stop Me Now"! And I can totally hear Queen in MCR, especially in the guitar bits in the slow part before "We'll carry on..." and it is mind-boggling! Normally I cannot figure out musical influences at all! This is so exciting! Exclamation point! I overwhelm you with my enthusiasm!

[vonnie-k.livejournal.com]

Cheerleaders in gas masks! *delighted* I haven't ventured into music video territory with them, but this, I'll have to check out.

MCR has a HUGE LJ fangirl contingent following, and apparently they are dynamite to watch in concert. I kinda feel like I'm way to old to groove to them (they have the sort of gleeful defiance in their attitude that'd appeal to rebellious teenagers) but damn, their songs are so freakin' amazing. The Black Parade works so well as a concept album, and there isn't a dull song on it.

I hear Queen the most in "Welcome To the Black Parade" as well, especially the "do or die / you'll never make me" bits at 3:30 -- is that the part you meant? All that bombastic grandeur, and the guitars and percussion and the vocals going all out where it starts sounding almost symphonic -- FABULOUS.

[oyceter]

Yes, definitely the bit starting at 3:30! And especially when it goes up a key around 3:50 and gets REALLY bombastic! And the layering of lyrics and melodies around 4:27! It's so dramatic and big and over-the-top that I almost feel embarrassed about liking it because it does feel so teenagery. And yet! It's so awesome! And I love the screaming guitars and the anthem-ness of it!

"Teenagers" has got the cheerleaders in gas masks! And the "Welcome to the Black Parade" video is insanely over-the-top with a float! And a parade of dead people in masks! I love it!

[chr0me-kitten.livejournal.com]

find catchy WOC punk-flavored rock with loud guitars and drums and hooks galore

I need to make you a mix CD.

[oyceter]

Ooooo. ^___^

[jinian.livejournal.com]

SUBSCRIBE

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I highly recommend Fall Out Boy's From Over Cork Tree album for more insanely addictive white boy punk-pop.

[oyceter]

Oooh, thanks!

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Right below you on my FL was this post (http://firecat.livejournal.com/493971.html?style=mine) from firecat about a cute fat Chinese singing group. But the article doesn't actually say anything about their music!

[oyceter]

Oh cool, thanks for the link!

[bravecows.livejournal.com]

Whee, I love Divine Comedy! I, er, bought one album by them which I am not passionately enthusiastic about, but a friend of mine once made me a mix CD of their music which I was passionately enthusiastic about, so perhaps they are just uneven. Which is to say, keep trying if you don't like this one! And I can look for my mix CD and upload some tracks, if'n you want.

[oyceter]

Yay! I have Regeneration right now, and while it is not quite bouncy happy car music, it's pretty nice listening-before-bed music.

Also, oooo. I never turn down music.

[littlerhymes]

Heh, I'm used to reading your lj for the book/manga/tv posts. So this MCR post is both a. delightful! and b. giving me fandom whiplash. :) TBP is awesome. You'd probably like their 2nd album (Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge) too.

[oyceter]

Hee! I usually don't post much about music because I feel so stupid doing it! Like, I have to admit that if asked, I could not identify most artists of most songs on my iPod. And then I have to admit that I know maybe five Queen songs and five Rolling Stones songs total and that I couldn't ID any Beatles until college.

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

ZOMG! Did I tell you that my latest how to draw book has a tutorial on drawing wall scenes? *dies* You know I have been studying it assiduously!

Also: now I have the black parade stuck in my head! It is so DOOM-y yet cheerful. Is the rest of their stuff like that? I may get more!

[oyceter]

Eeeee! Awesome!

OMG. Black Parade is so peppy! And yet so Goth morbid! The entire album is like that; I love it SO MUCH! I think their YouTube station has several of their music videos up. Have I mentioned how awesome YouTube is? Record companies and artists put up their own music videos! I boggle at getting to watch these things legally!

[oracne.livejournal.com]

I have all Queen. "Killer Queen" is an early bouncy one you'd probably like.

[oyceter]

Oooo, ok, thanks!

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

The best Divine Comedy album is "Casanova", although it may be a little disturbing for you because of its honesty about various forms of male fucked-upness over sex.

[oyceter]

Gotcha, thanks for the rec!

[chomiji]

>> Springsteen and Elvis Costello and Queen <<

Congrats on discovering some of my favorites! I second the recommendation of Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" as a happy-making song. "Killer Queen" is sly and arch and fun. A lot of their mid-period "deep cuts" stuff (that is, never made it as a radio hit) has a strong English music hall flavor - "Seaside Rendezvous" and "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" are good examples of enjoyably silly songs. I also really like the hits "You're My Best Friend" and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," but that's because I'm a sentimental sap.

Springsteen tends to be wry at best, rather than out-and-out fun, and a lot of his songs are angsty, although some have an anthem-like inspirational feel. Which ones do you like?

[oyceter]

Yay! I actually know "Don't Stop Me Now" and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love"! I like them muchly, will have to find others.

Um. I think the only Springsteen songs I can ID are "Badlands" and "Without You." Maybe also "Thunder Road"? I know I have it on my iPod and I'm sure if I listened to it, I'd recognize the music, but I really suck at associating songs with titles and artists b/c I tend to listen to my iPod on shuffle without looking a the screen.

[fourthage.livejournal.com]

Ha! I did exactly the same thing with music, except the expansion of my musical horizon happened in college, which happily coincided with the birth of Napster. I downloaded so many songs at random and don't have the faintest idea what decade most of them are from, but I did discover a horrible weakness for the electric guitar. (Seriously, "Sweet Child of Mine"? I make people stop talking during the intro.)

Oh geez, I want to do a real music post now.

[oyceter]

Oh awesome!

Oooo. I must look up "Sweet Child of Mine." I am such a sucker for guitar.

Also, I selfishly encourage music posts!!

[fourthage.livejournal.com]

"Sweet Child of Mine" is also one of those songs that if I can't listen to it with the volume cranked up, I'd rather not listen to it at all.

And I put together half of a music post last night, because I am suggestible like that. I'll see if I can't get the other half together in the next couple of days.

[oyceter]

Yaaay! I continue to egg you on!

[fourthage.livejournal.com]

Well, I now know two things. First, this is going to be a multi-post project because I have something like 13 days worth of music. And second, this will far and away be the most self-indulgent thing I've ever posted.

[delux-vivens.livejournal.com]

catchy WOC punk-flavored rock with loud guitars and drums and hooks galore.

there's always skunk anansie...

[oyceter]

Oh awesome, thank you! I'll look for some of Skin's solo work too.