The Big Machine Theory

The Big Machine Theory (not the right title AT ALL but I had to think of something, I'll i think of the right thing later) is the theory that there is a category of music today... of uncategorizable (I really thought that was a word but I'm getting a squiggly line) bands where people are like "Umm you can't really describe them their like incategorizable" basically they're the bands that win Grammys, purely accessible and the more accepted of the pop groups, usually really hyped and considered overrated by anyone with a brain - or they have so much of a brain that they don't bother giving the general public any authority but suggesting that their high opinion is the most important. Like MGMT. Coldplay. Probably like Kings of Leon and Dave Matthews Band and The Killers, by the way if you haven't noticed Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga won Grammys. These are MUSIC awards is the point. Album of the year, Taylor Swift. Wait who decides this things? Oh who cares. Oh the machine thing is because they all go into a machine, ewww, like the way we process meat. You don't know where your meat is coming from anymore! It's coming from a billion different cows (there is a real statistic but I have no idea if a billion is a close estimate. I'm guessing not.) And that's the problem, most people wouldn't know real meat if they tasted it! They wouldn't like it. I'm not saying I'm not guilty of it though. Speaking of meat, there is some.

Now I'm Home

Splash 1 (Now I'm home)

Is a pretty boring sixtiesy kind of song that might even be Jefferson Airplane but is in fact the 13th Floor Elevators.

But I like that I put it on right now (when browsing through my itunes artists from the bottom up - I thought that sounded like how I wanted to feel right now.) I like how it starts with an eerie little guitar thing reminiscent of a darker, bad-druggier Jefferson Airplane song. At first I was confused but then it just falls (splashes, really!) into a nice warm pool, and now I'm home.

Talk About An Opening Line

If you were a river of whiskey and I was a diamond jar I would let you fill me up until I overflow

At least I think it's a good line haha

Children By The Million

How is it that Alex Chilton was born on December 28th and Paul Westerberg December 31st?
I've been really, really more in love with The Replacements than I ever thought I could be lately and I think it's really that it needed time to grow and not to be become me, and not for me to become it, but for me to realize we're one. I was just thinking about how much I love the song Alex Chilton. I think it's a combination of two really simple but really powerful forces, the idea and the hook. The idea: Well someone like me can only attempt to put into words the magnitude of music idol admiration. Paul Westerberg says it plainly in this love song to Alex Chilton, and the point is, anyone who loves music (and sees this as a love song) (oh, "I'm in love what's that's song I'm in love with that song" I didn't even think of that haha) knows everything that's behind those words. And that small hook "Children by the million scream for Alex Chilton" means everything, and as Westerberg recounts his childhood "runnin' around the house mickey mouse and tarot cards fallin' asleep with a flop pop video on" I'm reminded of my own childhood/music I associate with it and I feel warm and fuzzy. I also feel warm and fuzzy imagining little Paul Westerberg running around the house with mickey mouse and tarot cards falling asleep with a flop pop video on. Whatever flop pop is. If the lyrics online are even right.
Oh yeah but I was going to say that I was looking at pictures or something of The Replacements and then Big Star (I'm putting off a paper) and I said something stupid in my head like "You ARE Alex Chilton!" (Not literally... just trying to say to Paul that he's done a good job... Because I can identify so strongly with idolizing, I was just saying to Paul, in my head, that he lived up to whatever he idolized in Alex Chilton. And then some.) and then I saw how close their birthdays are... it's cool. I mean it makes a lot of sense, like for example Joe Strummer is an example of an idol of mine (you could say) and he is a Leo like me. Because it's my sun sign, it's what I am inside and want to be more of... your sun sign is potential

Oh the other thing was that I was curious about Capricorns because I didn't realize they were important ha just kidding but apparently they are and I'm in love with Paul Westerberg and Louisa is a Capricorn too and we kind of get along or something so what's with that. Patti Smith. Shane MacGowan. Jesus Christ. Elvis Presley. Captain Beefheart. Will research.

Middle Mass

THE EVIL IS NOT IN EXTREMES
It's in the aftermath
THE MIDDLE MASS
After the fact
VULTUROUS IN THE AFTERMATH

Oh Nice

http://www.guitars101.com/forums/f90/100s-really-of-bootlegs-by-the-clash-66714.html Great. What am I supposed to do with that? Download all of it and let it take over my life in a brand new way? Well alright.

"This a new song called 'London Calling To The Faraway Towns'!"
Oh no. They are playing Clampdown. This is predating the release of London Calling of course, which is the point. Words cannot express.

It is really really really fantastic that I can listen to so many shows all the way through. This is ELECTRIFYING. This is HEART-WRENCHING. And not like the live albums which are just cuts from different places or... cutting out what happens between songs etc. Wow. Thanks bootleggers! Joe would kill you. Okay that was 79 at the Palladium in New York, onto Manchester 77, only two allowed for tonight.
(I was there too)
(And I'll never forget the feeling I got)

Congratulations

Not! Even if MGMT didn't realize WHILE recording Congratulations, you would think that they would have maybe sat back and listened to it upon completion and realized it sounded like a shitty of Montreal album. of Montreal before of Montreal grew on me. Kevin-Barnes-sounding vocals without... being Kevin Barnes by any stretch of the imagination. I guess I feel bad for them that they had to get all famous for a few great pop songs... joke but serious. And understand that they want to go in a different direction... serious. But I've never heard anything with less direction... even really directionless stuff. I mean if they don't wanna pump out hits they don't have to do that but they're gonna need a little more punch in their stuff if they want to prove anything. I think what this album says is that not only ARE they those guys who got really big off those songs (face it, it's what you are, and it isn't a bad thing but I think they think it is) but they're publicly embarrassed about it AND not capable of anything better or more creative but they THINK they are? I dunno. With that said, I've only listened to it once. I think I have to stop jumping to criticism. Actually I feel like the album got a little better by the end. I thought I kinda liked mgmt but there have just been little things like... interviews where they basically say they think they're better than any other bands of right now and only like old music and don't want to be associated with anything current. Well aren't you special. Why don't you just get over it - or you could make shitty albums by tossing all your favorite old bands into a pot and giving it a stir (also diluting it with water) and don't even release them just sit around and listen to them while admiring yourselves in the mirror. I'll definitely listen to it more and maybe something will stick to me but I dunno. I don't believe anyone writing about it on the internet on the first day it came out was really "lovin' it" or "diggin' it" bleh you should be diggin a hole and burying yourself in it because it'd be as enjoyable as this album.

Someone called it underrated on Tuesday (the day it came out).


On second thought I think the only thing bothering me is how people receive them, and honestly why should I care about that, I only think I need to care about them because they're MGMT, maybe they don't even think this album is good, maybe they're just trying some things, whatever, cool. I think it really would be so hard and weird to cope with sudden fame and they must just want to mess around like they did in college but on a little bigger scale and then things like this happen where something small becomes overthinking on everyone's part. And they're never going to be great. And that's okay. Haha. I saw an interview where they said they wanted to make their influences more clear on this album. (By the way I have nooo idea what they are except Brian Eno obviously and apparently Television Personalities, because their names are in the song titles) Why don't they just recommend some things and not try to convey it in their music then cause I sure wouldn't be sold on any of it. What can be said about Oracular Spectacular is that it's theirs. I'm not saying it's the most original thing in the WORLD, i'm not saying it's oracular but it's theirs and they should recognize what that's worth

It's Hop Time It's Monk Time

THE MONKS HA HA WHAT!!!
Literally never been so into music from the first second ever. Don't even ask how these things happen because most of the time it's so sudden. But most of the time there's a lot behind it, it's just waiting to happen. Then something sparks it and it takes off! The first time I heard of the Monks was when I read that Cole Alexander's funny monk haircut last year was inspired by this band 60s garage band called the Monks, who had monk haircuts and dressed like monks. How I even just decided to finally check them out I'm not even sure. I'm prematurely and possibly temporarily proclaiming them the greatest of the proto punky garage whatever bands. I'm really, really, liking my exploration into that category lately. This is literally awesome. Laughably awesome because it's funny and awesome. I laugh when things are really good. I have no need to look any further for the moment. This is everything I've been craving, the band I've been searching for! I've been dabbling with other bands of this vein and I think I've been searching for this pinnacle, to know it could reach this level for me. Totally lip smackingly satisfying. Apparently The Fall covered them on a later album of theirs that I don't have yet! Great call Black Lips and Mark E. Smith but great call mostly to the Monks right now! I'm having a great ol' time. Can't stop moving my body. In a chair in the sun in my backyard. Oh but when I can really move it... I like it it my ears but I can't wait for it to shake the walls of my house, and the car will be good, playing it for other people will be really good, and shakin' it, and getting wacky to it

Read About Your Band Part 2

replacements? I don't understand. sometimes what happens is that... I've spent so much time on youtube watching music things, but usually I'll focus in on one band for a long period of time. For example (meaning... these are the four biggest obsessions I've gone through), there is no Clash, Pogues, Black Lips, or The Fall related videos on youtube that I haven't seen (I mean that hasn't been proven but I'd be willing to bet) But then sometimes I actually forget to explore other things on youtube. I think because I subconsciously know I could honestly go on forever so I just don't even let myself go there but once in a while something will pop into my head. Pop! Replacements. Anyway, I go in and out of stages of needing The Replacements all the time, and not really needing them. That's what it is, it's very much a needing thing. I just started my video exploration of them and within thirty seconds a new stage officially began. But I couldn't even make it through an entire video, it was too much. Too good and too emotional no matter what the song. And watching it "live" (I wish really live) is even more powerful, makes it even more real, riveting, just sucking the soul out of me. I appreciate it so much more. My feelings about their music is too weird how it goes on and off, but I think basically it's just this undeniable thing. Like I've said, it's in my blood. Can't deny my blood. But this time it's better than ever. Every time is better. I have to get back to Youtube later and write more later but I can't even open this delicious can of worms right now. Cause I have homework.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zmSYjpx84U Where do I go from there?

I didn't do my homework. Read about your band. Shiiiiit. Shit in the good way.

Well If You Got That Rain Part 2

Come on and gimmee sip. Well if the police only knew that blue lights induced a trip.

Only A Sword

What inspired The Clash about Taxi Driver and just now mildly inspired me. I didn't say what I was trying to say in my last post, I was trying to say that that torture drove Travis to ACTION, that was the point. Resorting to the violence, or maybe just having no other choice because, as an uneducated ex marine that's all he knew. For Joe Strummer it was more like resorting to violence. Trying, as a cultured and well-educated charismatic man and talented artist, every other way he knew, and then resorting to combat rock. Haha. I don't know, I think there is some truth in that though. What he believed in became too important to him, took over him. Kind of ruined him, his music, the people close to him.

"Compassion and humility may be among the most treasured of human virtues, but they are not useful in conflict. A beautiful gold statue of your most adored god is a treasure, but you would not use it as a weapon. Virtue is to be value in the proper context; only a sword will do in battle."

Here Is A Man Who Would Not Take It Anymore

I'm watching Taxi Driver and 1) realizing the lines from The Clash song Red Angel Dragnet that are taken from this movie! Ha! How weird to hear. They even sound awkward to me because I'm used to them in the song but mostly 2) Late For The Sky by Jackson Browne really unexpectedly coming on just now. Taking it back to sophomore year of high school spring. Don't get me started on that one. Whew.

After note: Ohhh, Joe's mohawk was inspired by De Niro's! And obviously his whole style was during that era. Geee that makes sense, I can see how he was inspired by the movie and Travis Bickle's martyrdom and this is when they've officially gotten all into America and this is their Americanized album with New York City themes and combat themes... I'm understanding the combat part now, it's all in the name of like really extreme social awareness to the point of torture. Interesting that I just saw this movie then and made that connection because lately I've been getting increasingly into my sociology class and taking that out of the class and thinking a lot about social issues and conflicts... little by little it's feeling more urgent but I'm trying to keep it under control as much as possible for the time being because I can anticipate that torture. That in itself, though, is torture. Then I ask why I should be pushing those thoughts away.

"I think too much. Or not enough. I think it says in the bible there is a time to dance techno and a time not to." said Joe. I don't really know what the techno thing has to do with anything but I like that quote. Ha because I always debate that. I think to myself that I think too much but maybe I don't think enough, or I'm not thinking about the right things, or I'm missing everything.

Fucking Combat Rock. I stand by it. Every song has a completely different feel, different story. And even though it was their commercial smash hit, the music is really anything but commercial and anyone who has heard beyond the two hits knows that. And even though it was their commercial smash hit, it's so dated and nostalgic sounding... but not dated in a way that sounds like everything else from its era, in fact it sounds like nothing else and it's totally weird and all over the place and impossible to pin down. Okay yeah I've written enough about this album before, bye

Of course Strummer and De Niro are both Leos. I should have known. Actually I did know.

Spring

Somewhere
a black bear
has just risen from sleep
and is staring

down the mountain.
All night
in the brisk and shallow restlessness
of early spring

I think of her,
her four black fists
flicking the gravel,
her tongue

like a red fire
touching the grass,
the cold water.
There is only one question:

how to love this world.
I think of her
rising
like a black and leafy ledge

to sharpen her claws against
the silence
of the trees.
Whatever else

my life is
with its poems
and its music
and its glass cities,

it is also this dazzling darkness
coming
down the mountain,
breathing and tasting;

all day I think of her -
her white teeth,
her wordlessness,
her perfect love.


I'm reading the last journal I wrote in before I ditched it for digital expression. Baha. The last thing I wrote was in December, but I copied that poem (by Mary Oliver) into it last spring. I like spring a lot. Last night was the first night of my favorite kind of night - and the first one is the best because it's so unexpected. Both windows in my room open. Honestly my room smells so entirely different from every other room in my house and spring smells so different from any other season so when the real spring air first enters my room it's indescribable and I only feel that for a few brief moments a year. My comforter feels cool on my skin and I can finally hear things happening outside. In the morning it's colder and I'm happy to be snuggled, but it's not like the winter. Because I know it's going to be a beautiful day, one with the potential of warmth, it only gets more beautiful. I love spring. Spring is intensity. The luxury of spring is one that you try to grab hold of and appreciate as best you can but you can't think about it too hard, you just have to live it. Emotions run their highest, and everything is better. Music always brings back feelings for me - physical and emotional ones of every kind - but I'm more vulnerable to it at this time of year. There is nothing that will ever compare to discovering The Clash senior year high school spring. (For better or worse) Just things getting better and more beautiful and dear to me as winter faded and spring got springier. Or last year at school (for better or worse) when love was my new best friend, the Black Lips, independence and self-discoveries and making our own fun. Those are the past two. And so for better or worse I will remember this spring, a different one completely from any other. Everything I am hearing and feeling. Because I could go on forever about this year, the significance of spring, this spring, what I feel, and maybe most importantly what I'm listening to, I'll finish this here! Not what I meant to write about. I started a new journal to jot things in, mostly when I'm perfectly stoned and happy and flipping out over every thing that happens and every thought that passes through my head. Then I'll remember things and put them into words if I get around to it.