Do we need a keyboardist part II

RIP Jon Lord

I wrote about the argument in metal about keyboards here

But here is the finest moment in keyboard metal

Thanks Jon.

Here is an actual factual article . .

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18864409

A cool love

So, this is the first of the new Music Ruminations blogs

Please bear with me a little bit because I am working this out as I go along, I assure you that it will be worth it. I have refrained from doing a spoken commentary on this blog because I think it needs to be one step at a time. Let's see how it goes.



The reason I am doing this is because it is interactive. If you suggest songs that you like on the playlist, probably via the comments here, then I can add them and we can start to generate playlists together. Then everyone is better off.

I wanted to talk about Love. There are a lot of songs about love. In fact I did some research, and using advanced techniques (stole the idea from someone else's work from google) and the most scientific answer I was able to get was that it is a stupid question because most songs are about love.



It has always been the way hasn't it? I think it would make a fairly understandable and logical argument to suggest that song, or musical expression has actually evolved from this as the primary purpose. Everything that came after through song is perhaps a bi-product. A lucky bonus. or maybe, songs about lost love were the driver. That angst causing people to want to express it in a more eloquent fashion than just letting out a primal scream at the sky and walking away and kicking a dodo or something -I am sure this is perhaps why the Dodo is not with us, primary cause of extinction was kicking through unrequited love, rather than them just being tasty, they were in the wrong place any way.

The issue, which you cool music hipsters with your finger on some sort of pulse already know is that most of the songs are rubbish. They suck, they mean nothing in real terms to us. We are too cool for that. But then some cool people put out love songs don't they.

That is where I want to go today, cool people writing about cool love, in a cool way. Now cool is the word I use, perhaps you have a different word, groovy, awesome, I don't know, but substitute it in and you will get the idea.

 A cool love

Click on thelink for the playlist

The playlist starts with two mellow classics. The unique Stevie Wonder, and the peerless Roberta Flack. Stevie Wonder has such a complex and varied catalogue that it is taking years to appreciate it all. Sunshine of My Life is not a song I would usually search out and put on. But listening to it today, it has a joy and an energy that is infectious. Roberta Flack, is a different kind of cool. A very quiet mellow, but in the same way intense, song about another person. A bit mushy perhaps, I get that, but what a voice.

I then branch out into three upbeat songs about love, by very cool bands. Everlong by the Foo Fighters, one of my favourite songs, Ever Fallen in Love by the Buzzcocks, obvious, and Another World, Another Planet by The Only Ones which is more obscure, but a great song and for some reason I always put those last  two songs together in my mind. I know the last song isn' t really about long lasting love, but it is still cool. Because I said so.

I am not going to go through the entire playlist, mainly because I got into this a little more than I expected and there are going to be a lot of songs when I am finished.



I have tried to group the songs into some sort of order and general theme. There is some flow I hope.

Some of the songs you may agree with, some probably not, some may make you snicker and wonder what you are doing here . . Regardless, listen, suggest, let's get this done and then the next one is about unrequited love, the yang for the ying.. . .

Thanks guys

Your cheating heart

So I have been away for a while, did you miss me?

I hope not because I didn't miss you. In fact I am not sure I even like you anymore. .

No no, I am only joking, but you could do a lot better than me, than this blog. There are lots of other blogs out there, really interesting ones

I guess what I am actually trying to say dear reader is that I have been seeing someone else. Yes, younger, yes, exciting. Yes I know them from work. Name,? I don't see why a name is important, but yes you have probably heard it.

OK it's Spotify.

Yes, I have been lost for the last month or more in Spotify. It is why I haven't written. Why I haven't been in touch at all, why I may have forgotten an important event or two. On that note I missed the death of Disco. Donna Summer and Andy Gibb have both passed away. A sad day for Disco.

I have always liked that track. Mainly because it is basically the first dance track as we know it.

The Bee Gee's. Never really got into them. As you can imagine, when I started getting into music in the early 80s Disco was properly dead. The Bee Gees never really got onto my radar at the time and as such, never really did. Condolences to those who loved them however.

What do you mean I am changing the subject? Oh Spotify? yes, OK.

I have got into Spotify in a massive way. Mainly because I got an app for it called ' share my playlists' and the Last FM app. Together these have opened up a world that I knew was there but never properly explored. Yes, this is the next generation of music listening.

As I wrote in this post, I have followed the musical trends in terms of formats. Records, tapes, CDs, digital music. So we evolved, in true Darwin style, from format to format, getting better sound quality (less scratchy, not warmer for those vinyl fans) , getting more compact and portable, until we get to the ability to have everything you have ever listened to on your PC and a bit of that on a portable music device.

So what does Spotify offer? What can it possibly have that I can't already have? It offers other peoples music. You do not have to buy it, but you can listen to it. So if you like it and then buy it if you want to.

So, you can search and it gives up results you can then explore. It doesn't have everything you ever heard of on it. Really it isn't wiki- music- pedia at all. I can stump it quite easily. I am sure you with your knowledge would be a bit disappointed.

However, and this is the why my head has been turned. With Share my playlist, other people put a selection of tracks together in a so called 'playlist' post it to the app and then you can subscribe to it. Listen to it. This is like having a friend come around and play you tracks by genre.

But, and this is where it becomes irresistible. . . you can play a song on one of the playlists, go to the last FM app and it will generate a playlist of similar songs that are in the Last FM song library. Ones you may not even have known existed.

So , So cool.

As you can imagine . . I have been there for a while and the romance is still and fresh and it makes me feel alive again . . Ok, bollocks aside. It is cool. it is free, and there is a world of music out there.

I have not got to the next stage yet, where you download the playlists to a portable music player as my Ipod is not configured and I do not want to lose everything, which I would if I let Spotify take that over. But i can't do that, because that is my music history for the past few years. Although I want to move on, I do not want to forget about the past. So I need to get another Music player.

I am very open to recommendations on this one. Ipod? or something else? Not a smartphone. Your help is appreciated.

So potentially, this is the last blog of this style. I am looking into how I can link in Playlists and songs on Spotify. I am even toying with the idea of becoming completely multi media and speaking to you directly. Save you the trouble of reading.

I will see, but big changes afoot, two reasons. One to keep you and me interested and two, to boost my pityful readership. Which is my own fault because I stopped advertising and stopped writing.

Anyway, this isn't the end , it is just the end of the beginning.

Love this song for some stupid reason.

Summer playlist

Another quick playlist of songs for summer, in celebration of seeing the sun for the first time in 6 weeks in the UK.

Is there anything better than a summers day, BBQ going, cool drink, or nice glass of wine in hand , cool people around you, and a selection of great summery tunes. I have picked these ones because I like them in this situation. If you disagree, you have to tell me. .

In no particular order

Horse with No name by America

1979 by the Smashing pumpkins

Comfortably numb by Pink Floyd

Then She did by Janes Addiction

Ramble on by Led Zeppelin

Take it easy by The Eagles

Drive by Incubus

I just Wanna see by Smashmouth (vastly underrated band by the way)

Everybody talks by the Neon Trees

Someone I used to know by Gotye

As I said, they are just some summer type songs that I do enjoy listening to.

What would you add to the list?

A new music playlist

Time for something new

I am not going into huge detail , just a list of songs from the past couple of years that I think works well

Lonely Boy                          The Black Keys          El Camino
Down with the trumpets        Rizzle Kicks                Stereo Typical
Pumped up Kicks                 Foster the people        Torches
Everybody Talks                   Neon Trees                 Picture Show
2024                                    Cage The Elephant      Thank you Happy Birthday
Somebody I used to Know   Gotye                          Making Mirrors
Tokyo (vampires&Wolves)    The Wombats          The Wombats Proudly present
Very Busy People                  The Limousines           Get Sharp
King of my World                  Ftaang                        King of my World

There is some good new music. There really is.

Appreciate any tips on new music, released 2011+ that you are into at the moment

Thanks

Suicide is painless. . . reflection

There is a lot, a lot, of published material out there about learning to know yourself. In some cases this is about suppressing yourself and becoming something that you think is better, Much of the rest of it is about coming to some sort of acceptance about yourself and the way you react to things.

In the post about my friend's suicide I was trying to express what I was going through and in some way trying to understand it all. This friend wasn't the first person I have known well who has died, but the act of suicide of a formally close friend took me by surprise. By some of the reactions I got from other friends, I certainly wasn't the only one shocked by the whole event.

I though in the interest of completeness, and to be honest, trying to get further along with an understanding of myself,  make no real apologies for the fact that, at times, this blog serves as an outlet for some of my angst and I guess in that way serves as a silent listening post. You know, a perfect way to get things off my chest, and not have to listen to someone else try to bend it into their universe of understanding.

So where am I?

I think about it quite a lot. I will be honest, a tiny bit of the sting has gone from thinking about it. It occurs to me to think about it when I see things that remind me of my friend. I do not mean this in the way that, this was his, or that is where we hung out, because I do not have to deal with that. I hadn't seen him in a while as I explained in the first post. So there isn't that reminder in my face. I imagine that for his widow and parents , that must be very difficult. It must also hinder the process of moving forward. I guess it is far too early to suggest moving forward at the moment.

Have I moved forward? A bit yes. After the shock of the event and the immediate aftermath, you do tend to fall back onto your core understanding of the universe. I understand that everyone dies. Everyone you know will be dead given enough time. I guess that fundamental truth makes it harder for us all to understand suicide. If the inevitable is coming, why jump through the door when you don't have to?

That to me is the key. It is a choice, a choice that in reality we all are making each time we check before we cross the road. Before we wait for the train to arrive rather than jumping on the tracks. As it is a choice, why did he choose that? So I haven't moved that far forward. I am still wondering why.

As before, it is not why as in trying to understand what the external forces at play were. Much more trying to understand the internal workings of what makes a person, any person, think that this is the best option to take at that point of time. I still just don't get it. The Ghost In My Shell does not entertain these possibilities. Which means what exactly? I guess it means that whilst I understand that the options are there , I do not consider it to be a path I would take.

Going back to one of the statements I made above, about the sting going out of the memory process, this is because some of the anger at him has subsided. I am still pissed that he didn't reach out to someone, anyone, me, but with time anger should fade with reflection. I would like to give him a shake, tell him to snap out of it and have a drink.

I am not trying to belittle mental illness. Certainly not trying to say that a simple shake and a beer would have cured , no 'cured' is the wrong word, but I am not sure what the right word is. I am trying to say that I realise it is far more complex than anything simple could help to rectify. Rectify, I think that is the word I am looking for. To change the situation from one where he decided to hang himself, to one where he didn't.

That is however the big thing about it all isn't it? I can't do that anymore, because he is dead. Another fundamental truth is that dead people do not come back to life. So as the cliche holds true, there is regret. Regret, mixed into everything.

I would have just liked to catch up.

Have I learnt more about myself? yes I have. I guess in my journey that will help me a bit. Doesn't make this suck any less though.

A word on the music in the post, because although the post isn't about music, it is there for background. The first song is Unsung by helmet. It was chosen because it is a reaction to a friend's suicide. The second song is Aphex Twin and Parallel lines. It was chosen because I think it represents a dystopia. The final song(s) is a beautiful place in the country by Boards of Canada. I chose it because it somehow reminds me of summers spent at the beach with my mate, or at least a rose tinted view of the past.

WTF is going on there? II

I love messed up videos. There is something very cool about the whole visual media that some people just love to mess with.

Look at this.

Now that is a guy

From Sweden.

He is singing in Japanese, very well in fact. I would like to make it clear, no issues what-so-ever with the gender bending thing. But it is a little bit of a shock when he starts to sing. It is definitely a guys voice. Pretty good on guitar. I mean for a Swedish guy dressed as a Japanese girl

on a similar but different vein, there is of course the very famous video by Aphex Twin

Yes, that is messed up also.

But a video doesn't have to have a big budget to achieve the desired weirdness

I love the fact that it is dubbed badly, sung badly, and the dancing is just fantastic. Here is their second video. Seems it may have been done on the same day, in the same place

Not all videos that are classified as weird are actually bad. I am not really a fan of this song, but I love the video for some reason

I guess I just miss Japan a bit.

Ok one final one to show that not all strange stuff actually comes from Asia . .

Ok, the weird stuff that comes from other parts of the world is not nearly as funny.

There is nothing more to this post than having a bit of a laugh.

It is Friday, so cheer up. . .