Little Wings - "Look At What The Light Did Now"
The natural evolution of bedroom pop brings you here, to this song. A boy in his bedroom considers and remarks on sunlight, sneaking through curtains, making impressions on hard wood.
Bedroom pop, historically speaking, takes place in a bedroom but is about the outside world. It's about how the artist in the bedroom wishes that he wasn't so awkward or so scared, so that maybe he could get the girl, get people to listen, make an impact. Little Wings, however, is content to sit in his room and watch the outside world impact on it. He makes great entertainment out of the light. And it sounds fun. I want to be there and watch the light with him. And somehow, as the light morphs into different shapes, and finally into a dead tree, the song actually turns into a brief treatment of death and reincarnation. This is some seriously introspective action. [Buy]
***
David S. Ware - "Glorified Calypso"
There's no playing around here. This song is about urgency. About brimming over. The whole band is barely contained. The sax and piano are ecstatic. The bass is frantic and repetitive. The drums overcome, indecisive. You want some relief, an outlet, a resolution. But the tension keeps building. The size and brass of Ware's sound is unrivalled. He repeatedly returns to the theme and somehow manages to play it each time, even as he thinks to himself, "This is it. I can't keep this up." And finally, he can't. He lays back and lets the band take over, no less immediate and visceral.
And then he's back. Louder than before (is it possible? How deep are his reserves?).
Like a transcendental religious, sexual, mathematical or gastronomical moment or like a hyper-active child. [Buy]
***
I hope you all have a good weekend.
Posted by Jordan at October 1, 2004 8:55 PMhey jordan are you reviewing music.....or trying to impress us with your mastery of descriptive prose????? where the fuck are the adjective police...come on write about music...lester bangs would beat your 2nd year impress the english teacher ass...your reviews are like most pop music pure drivil....
Posted by YaleBloor at October 1, 2004 9:30 PMJeez...someone needs to cut back their caffiene intake. Or is there a tongue planted firmly in cheek somewhere?
Posted by mr g at October 2, 2004 12:19 AMyikes.
jordan, good words and good music today. thanks for them.
lester bangs was driven by demons and managed to write about music in spite of that, no sane person would want to churn and spit out their art that way
there is no comparison to be made and i like Jordan's writing as much as i like his musical choices (which means i like it a lot)
not everyone wants to read snarky prose although it's obvious some get a kick out of posting it
Posted by rb at October 2, 2004 6:42 PMI, for one, appreciate good descriptive prose admist the vast sea of banality & snarkiness out there. I wish I could write like that. Go on w/yo bad self, Jordan.
Posted by mr g at October 3, 2004 6:16 PMi don't think this site is meant to "review" music. there is a big difference between review and share. we all get unique impressions from the music we hear, you know? plus this just isn't such a negative place by my estimation.
and jordan, you have picked another one of my favorite songs (little wings....).
Posted by bmr at October 3, 2004 7:56 PMmr. g, bmr,rb, Monica - Thank you.
YaleBloor - There are three ways that someone can write about music:
1)You can write factually (ie anecdotally or biographically). I don't do that here because I don't think that that would be a particularly useful or entertaining way to write about the songs. Anyone can google most of the artists I write about here and find out all the information I would be able to provide.
2) You can take a technically musical approach. I know a little bit about this. I'm not an expert by any means, but I've taken a few piano and theory lessons in my day. I'm just not sure how interesting or useful this would be either. In fact, when you think about it, the more perfect the language the writer uses in this kind of analysis, the more closely the writing resembles the musical score itself. So, why not just score the songs, transcribe the lyrics and post that? Because everyone would be bored to death, and then I would feel bad, is why.
3) You can write about how the music you love makes you feel. You know sometimes when you're watching a funny movie and something hilarious happens but there's no one there to enjoy it with, it can be a let down, a wasted opportunity? Sometimes when I listen to music I have the same experience. Right now I'm listening to the Arcade Fire album and I truly can not believe how good it is. I'm happy because of it, despite your stupidity. And I want to share it with everyone. Maybe if I described the way these songs make me feel, then the readers' feelings, similar or dissimilar, might be enhanced or enlivened as a reaction to my articulation. Maybe some image that I get from a song and describe will help some listener enjoy what I have enjoyed so much. This is a pretty obviously good goal. I write about the music I love the most, the best I can, because it's fun for me and hopefully fun for the reader. Maybe people will get excited about music. New music, strange music and obscure music. The music that makes me dance (when others are not watching) and smile and want to talk to strangers about it.
And I'm not a second year English major. I'm a first year theater major. No, I'm kidding. I just finished my MBA at MIT Sloan. That's also a lie.
Don't feel bad about what you've written here, YaleBloor. It's ok. I forgive you. And I think that, if you were just a bit nicer to me, I could even learn to like you.
P.S. Do I use a lot of adjectives? I don't think so.
Posted by Jordan at October 3, 2004 11:14 PMI actually started counting adjectives to see if I could get what he was on about. Answer: not really.
I do think that sometimes when people write about music, it's easy to fall into a rhapsodic mode that ends up being less about the music and more about recapturing the feeling the music evokes--but for the writer, not the reader. The reader is left in the dark, and feels that the words are no longer about the music in any recognizable way. Some would say Bangs is guilty of this. It's really not that *easy* to make your words be about the music! But I don't think this applies to you (or Sean). Rock (or some genre) on, Jordan.
Posted by rodii at October 4, 2004 8:17 AMHey Jordan.....guess I just miss Gramo....sorry I insulted your feelings.....I guess all that song said to me was *#!%$..... but you needn't worry Mr.g seems more than willing to tell you how great you are.....
Posted by YaleBloor at October 4, 2004 8:33 PMDear YaleBloor,
Why don't you take those elipses and shove them up your yalehole. And then I want to see you dance... I want to see you dance about architecture.
How's that feel, huh? Now do something constructive and recommend some songs that say something to you that cannot be expresed solely in punctuation marks and symbols.
Yours,
Kelly
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