READIN

Friday, March 30th, 2007

🦋 That Voice, and What It Does To Me

I've been thinking, since I listened to the song "Adventure Rocketship", that it was a little silly, and immensely pleasant; that it might however not be among the greatest of Robyn Hitchcock's songs. Listening to it again tonight I had this thought: there is a thing Hitchcock does with his voice, that when he does it, this wave of bliss just washes over me, in a totally reliable way -- it's a reaction on a gut level and it happens quite regularly. Well in "Adventure Rocketship" he does it a lot, like at the lyric, "You crash upon a/ Star...", where it is practically impossible to keep yourself from singing along.

Which makes the song really nice to listen to, an experience of physical pleasure. But getting behind that, I'm not really sure the song is much else besides an excellent vehicle for his Voice -- whereas the songs of his I really love, like "Winchester" or "Love", they have the beautiful voice thing going on, but also another kind of beauty. Well anyway that's what I'm thinking. I do like the video for "Adventure Rocketship" a lot.

(Just now I realized that there is a way of reading the above as setting myself up to make the argument I outlined having convinced myself of around "Globe of Frogs" time -- that is not my intent at all. Songs on the new records, like "Television" which I am listening to now or "Belltown Ramble", "NY Doll", "The Authority Box" earlier, I am even at first listening grouping with the above songs that I love on multiple levels. Hitchcock's Voice, in "Television" even does the thing I'm talking about when he sings "Television, say you love me" with the syncopation before the first beat, and it works exactly like I described.)

posted evening of March 30th, 2007: Respond
➳ More posts about Music

Thursday, March 29th, 2007

🦋 Spooked

I got some records at the concert last night (which was fantastic, though I did not get into the opening act Johanna Kunin so much), to wit: old (and out-of-print) album "I Often Dream of Trains", new albums "Spooked" and "Ole Tarantula", new and unknown-to-me album "Down With Wilco" by the Minus 5. I have listened to some of the first three today, and here is what I think: "I Often Dream of Trains" is everything I remembered it being. And more! -- I had forgotten about the hilarious Uncorrected Personality Traits. (Which they played last night, I took it to be a more recent song). "Spooked" is an awesome, awesome record -- from the first bars of the first song "Television" (which they also played last night) I was thinking, this is exactly the qualities I like about Robyn Hitchcock. "Ole Tarantula" is good, but there are some defects in the CD which makes it sound funny in spots. I will get in touch with the record company tomorrow and see if they will give me one without flaws.

posted evening of March 29th, 2007: Respond

Tuesday, March 27th, 2007

🦋 Weiter dazu

I was talking with Jeremy E. today about Robyn Hitchcock and realized what I have been thinking about my history with his music, which is: I was flabbergasted and overjoyed in 1985, when Jeremy introduced me to "Black Snake Diamond Role" and a little bit later to "Eaten by Her Own Dinner" and "I Often Dream of Trains". When "Element of Light" came out I bought it right away and liked it but I worried that it was just pop music, not the more meaningful, cerebral category where I had been placing Robyn. By the time "Globe of Frogs" came out, I think it was only available on CD and I had no CD player -- I tape recorded it from Jeremy (overwriting my old cassette of "Killing an Arab") but by that time I had stopped listening to Robyn besides the three records I listed first, which I idealized as sort of pristine Hitchcock, unsullied by popularity.

And now going back and listening to this stuff, I am seeing my mistake -- to begin with, "Globe of Frogs" and "Element of Light" are fantastic albums, and in no way inferior to the earlier records. Looking at the music through a filter of its popularity was hampering me from really hearing it.

I have been looking for something new to happen with my musical identity and this could be it. On Sunday when I was playing with Bob and Janis (have I mentioned that we are starting to sound really good together?), I played "Winchester" on the spur of the moment, and I could feel a level of connection to the music that is not always easy to achieve.

posted evening of March 27th, 2007: Respond
➳ More posts about Jamming with friends

Monday, March 26th, 2007

I just did something I have never done, which is to call my cable provider and order a channel. To wit, I ordered the Sundance Channel, because tomorrow night at 10 they are premiering John Edgington's documentary, "Robyn Hitchcock: Sex, Death, Food, and Insects". This looks like it will be really good -- you can see some trailers at the Sundance web site, although the rest of the internets seem not to have heard about it yet. This anecdote made my day.

...The reason the rest of the internets have not heard about it, is that the title is actually "Robyn Hitchcock: Sex, Food, Death, and Insects". Here is the press release.

posted morning of March 26th, 2007: Respond
➳ More posts about Sex, Food, Death, and Insects

🦋 Robyn Hitchcock

Robyn Hitchcock is one of my very favorite musicians. And yet I'm not familiar with much of his later work. My knowledge of Hitchcock is: "Black Snake Diamond Role", "Eaten by Her own Dinner", "I Often Dream of Trains", "Element of Light", bits of "Globe of Frogs", "Queen Elvis" and "Eye". Suddenly I am feeling very interested in getting to know more of his music.

Last Monday, I was listening to Irene Trudel's show on WFMU, and heard Hitchcock playing "Adventure Rocketship", which I had not heard before. The DJ came on the mic and said Hitchcock will be playing next Wednesday at the Knitting Factory. Well ever since then I've been in a state of high excitement -- I ordered my tickets and have been playing Hitchcock on my internal stereo ever since. And I'm listening to some of his more recent tracks on YouTube (especially loving Birds in Perspex; and if you have not watched this radio performance, well you really ought to) and his genius is shining through the poor sound quality.

posted morning of March 26th, 2007: Respond

Friday, April 7th, 2006

🦋 Song nostalgia

An idea for a meme! I have never started such a thing before but now I am going to try it out.

Here's the idea: list 4 songs (by different artists please) that meet the following criteria: (a) You have not listened to the song in a long time. I'm thinking like 2 years minimum but adjust this limit at your discretion. (b) You can hear the song in your head, just by closing your eyes and willing it. (Well you know what I mean; it's debatable how strongly "will" enters into this activity.) (c) You would gladly listen to it right now. Optionally, write a little squib about the song, why you like it, why you have not listened to it, where you know it from, etc. Here are my four:

• "Clean Steve" by Robyn Hitchcock: This is the song that came into my mind this morning and inspired this whole thing. I love, love the song but have never owned it, last time I listened to it must be home from college sometime hanging around with my friend Jer Egenberger who is the big Hitchcock afficionado and was my conduit to Hitchcocky goodness.
• "Hurricane" by Dylan: I like the "Desire" album a lot but when I go to listen to Dylan, that never seems to be what I put on the record player.
• "No Xmas for John Quays" by The Fall: "Live at the Witch Trials" was one of the first punk rock albums I ever owned and I think one of the finest. Don't listen to that music too much anymore.
• "Here I Go" by Syd Barrett: Barrett is another artist that Jer Egenberger introduced me to. This is a pretty song and the only Barrett tune that I know on guitar. (For some values of "know": I haven't played it in ages but could pick it out again pretty quickly I think.) (Aha: Here are the chords, which I worked out 2½ years ago.)

I want to forward this meme to: music snob extraordinaire Amanda Marcotte; Becks, who is learning to play guitar; Ben Wolfson, who has some interesting ideas about music; and monster of rock Roy Edroso, who is on a bit of a hiatus right now but will hopefully be back soon. Also I'd like to know NickS's picks, so maybe Becks or somebody will start a thread about it on Unfogged.

If you participate (is this the correct verb?) in this meme, let me know and I will link to your stuff. Update: Here are responses to this meme:

• Ben Wolfson: A complicated musical request

posted morning of April 7th, 2006: Respond