You Oughtta Know :: Beyonce????

I approve of this cover!!! Oh wow.

Love Lockdown :: Kanye West

I'm kind of into Kanye West's new stuff, from 808's and Heartbreak. It's such a departure for him, it's so stark. People have criticized him for singing instead of rapping, and for using weird vocal-distortion effects, but I really like it.

I think Kanye West is a total egomaniac, but he truly is an artist, and I can respect him for what he does. He makes me think of Peter Gabriel for some reason.

This video is pretty stunning. It makes me think of ancestors and blank canvasses and love and stuff. Oh yeahhhh.

Kanye West - New Music - More Music Videos

I'm not lovin' you the way I wanted to
What I had to do, had to run from you
I'm in love with you but the vibe is wrong
And that haunted me all the way home

So you never know, never never know
Never know enough, 'til it's over, love
'Til we lose control, system overload
Screamin', "No, no, no, n-no!?

I'm not lovin' you the way I wanted to
See I wanna move but can't escape from you
So I keep it low, keep a secret code
So everybody else don't have to know

So keep your love locked down, your love locked down
Keepin' your love locked down, your love locked down
I keep your love locked down, your love locked down
I keep your love locked down, you lose

I'm not lovin' you the way I wanted to
I can't keep my cool, so I keep it true
I got somethin' to lose, so I gotta move
I can't keep myself and still keep you too

So I keep in mind when I'm on my own
Somewhere far from home, in the danger zone
How many times did I tell ya ?for it finally got through?
You lose, you lose

I'm not lovin' you the way I wanted to
See I had to go, see I had to move
No more wastin' time, you can't wait for life
We're just racin? time, where's the finish line?

So keep your love locked down, your love locked down
Keepin' your love locked down, your love locked down
I keep your love locked down, your love locked down
I keep your love locked down, you lose

I'm not lovin' you the way I wanted to
I bet no one knew, I got no one new
Know I said I'm through, but got love for you
But I'm not lovin' you the way I wanted to

Gotta keep it goin', keep the lovin' goin'
Keep it on a roll, only God knows
If I be with you, baby I'm confused
You choose, you choose

I'm not lovin' you the way I wanted to
Where I wanna go, I don't need you
I've been down this road, too many times before
I'm not lovin' you the way I wanted to

So keep your love locked down, your love locked down
Keepin' your love locked down, your love locked down
I keep your love locked down, your love locked down
I keep your love locked down, you lose
You lose, you lose, you lose, you lose

Staring at the Sea : The Singles 1979-1985 :: The Cure

Another great album from my adolescence was this "greatest hits" (right!) collection from the Cure. Not that this album came out when I was adolescent; rather, I was about ten years too late. I really liked early Cure stuff, though! It is sparse and fatalistic, just a little bit of that punk aesthetic mixed in. My love for the Cure goes up until the "Friday I'm in Love" era, and that is where it ends.

"I'm alive / I'm dead / I'm the stranger / killing an Arab..." holy hell. What great lines, delivered in that droll Robert Smith style. I think Smith had a really nice way of composing songs about love, too. Love is something to cherish and relish in the moment, be we all know it can be gone in an instant... "The day I start is the day you change, and fly away from me..." ("The Caterpillar").

TRIVIA: What book inspired "Killing an Arab"? Post answers in the comment section.

Free Falling :: Tom Petty

This is just an all-around great song. I remember liking it a lot when I was a kid (I think I was 9 or 10 when it came out). I remember sitting in our hot little Ford Tempo car on summer days, and this song would come on, and I would feel free.

I also played this song a lot at the Haymarket, when I was going to school in Decorah, Iowa. Every time I went up to the jukebox, I had to put on a couple Tom Petty songs, because I knew Sarina liked them (and oh, how I did anything that girl wanted...)

The last few months have been really frustrating for me- just feeling totally claustraphobic and boxed-in, like all I've wanted to do is throw bottles against walls. But the last month, I've been voluntarily transient, and I've never been happier. I'm living simply and treading lightly and not taking myself too seriously. I haven't been tied down to much in the last month and I feel really free.

Enjoy.

One, Two, Three, GO! - Belanova

Lately I've been on a catchy summer music kick. While I have no idea what this song is about, it is summer, the song is catchy and I'm posting about it. This song is called One, Two, Three, GO! by a Mexican synth-pop band called Belanova. I heard the song during Nordic Fest (slightly ironic) in the courtyard by Sabor Latino, and it was stuck in my head all night. Who knows, maybe the alcohol contributed. The vocalist kind of reminds me of Kathleen Hanna (of Le Tigre) when she lets loose on the chorus, I think that hooked me as well.

Enjoy!

Academia :: Sia

i know we've blogged about sia before, but this particular song struck a chord with me. sia has done a lot in her career, which began with her first solo cd, OnlySee, in 1997. she's well known for a couple of reasons: her collaboration work on many tracks for the british downtempo group zero 7 and her hit song, breathe me. this aussie is weird. that's why i like her. she's very different and eclectic and quirky. AND, she's recently come out as a lezbian! i really dig her new cd, some people have real problems, because it's just that - a recognition that some people have real problems. many of the songs deal with love, heartache, loss, relationships, etc. this album definitely moves away from the style of writing that is utilized in her most famous single, which is, at best, a very ambient, sentimental...emo track. but the one song that has been in the foreground of my mind since i've heard it is academia.

as i come closer to may 11 (my graduation date), i start to panic slightly because it means that time is running out for me to finish my thesis. some days are better than others, and most days i am reminded that i need to take a break from academia. but it is during these little vacations, that i come to realize that my relationship with academia will always be one of love/hate. i love being in school, but i hate how i feel it separates me from reality. i love learning, but i hate being forced to write about what i've learned. i love writing, but i hate feeling like what i write will be judged. when i first heard this song, it was eerie...became a sort of running conversation from me to my thesis and vice versa. but more importantly, this song resonates within me because of the following lyrics:

Oh academia you can’t pick me up
Soothe me with your words when I need your love

how i would love for school to be enough...for being an academic to be enough, but it's not. i need things that are more tangible...to be more tactile...and not so much all in my head, or all in pure theory. so this one goes out to all y'all still in school and working on projects that just need to be finished. may you have the strength, determination, and hutzpa to get through it.

the end.
<3,
meggo.


Academia::Sia
You can be my alphabet and I will be your calculator
And together we’ll work out on the escalator
I will time you as you run up the down
And you’ll measure my footsteps as I blow through this town
The mean of our heights is divided by the nights
Which is times’d by the daggers and the route of all our fights,
The pass of your poem is to swathe me in your knowing
And the beauty of the word is that you don’t have to show it

No, oh academia you can’t pick me up
Soothe me with your words when I need your love

I am a dash and you are a dot
When will you see that I am all that you’ve got
I’m a binary code that you cracked long ago
But to you I’m just a novel that you wish you’d never wrote
I’m greater than x and lesser than y, so why is it
that I still can’t catch your eye?
You’re a cryptic crossword, a song I’ve never heard
While I sit here drawing circles I’m afraid of being hurt

Oh academia you can’t pick me up
Soothe me with your words when I need your love

You’re a difficult equation with a knack for heart evasion
Will you listen to my proof or will you add another page on
It appears to me the graph has come and stolen all the laughs
It appears to me the pen has over analysed again
And if I am a number I’m infinity plus one
And if I am four words then I am needing of your love
And if you are a number you’re infinity plus one
And if you are five words you are afraid to be the one

Oh academia you can’t pick me up
Soothe me with your words when I need your love
Oh, Academia
Academia
Academia, oh
Oh, Academia
Academia
Academia, oh

Tapes 'n Tapes :: Insistor

Minnesotans rock. plain and simple. and musicians from Minnesota rock even harder. Tapes 'n Tapes is composed of four dudes who reside in Minneapolis, MN...and they're a riot and a half. i first became introduced to them because one of my good friends from undergrad is dating the keyboardist/euphonium player/tambourine shaker/etc (aka Matt)...and i visited her while i was home for the holidays. we enjoyed a wonderful brunch together and he told me a little bit about his band and that they were currently working on a new cd, as their premiere was such a great hit! he was fairly modest about his band, and we had a good conversation. i got back to DC and promptly did what any 20 something in the 21st century would do, i myspaced his band, naturally. what caught my attention immediately was the fact that they sounded different. i don't typically do dude music...in fact, if you look at my music library, you'll find a wide collection of lady music...often times of the lesbian folk variety. however, i got hooked on Tapes 'n Tapes. these guys have a sound about them that works very well for live shows where you can jump around, sing along, dance all wild, and just have a great time in general. i mean, listening to their music only makes me want more of them...they make me wish i could hang out with them and do some hootenannying. anyway, i am choosing to write about this particular song of their first album, The Loon (how Minnesotan?! yeah!!!). Insistor is my personal favorite of the songs on that album, mostly because after listening to the album, this is the song that keeps popping up in my head when i'm just sitting around...and the drum part. i think it's the drum part that i'm a little bit addicted to because it makes me feel like i gotta hurry up and get things done...which is so true, for those of you who know me. i digress...

most favorite lyric in this song: And don't be terse and don't be shy i mean...how many bands do you know of that utilize their vocabulary this way??? exactly, just what i thought too! not many. second most favorite lyric of the song: So I'll stay here and fight for lover's rights ...enough said.

the first video was filmed in the streets of Paris and the band pretty much jammed and improvised with skills only found in true musicians. equipped with only a glass bottle, a spoon, a large metal pipe, some drum sticks, a guitar and sheet metal siding, tapes 'n tapes gives us their own version of musical communion...and i dig it. the second video is of the same song, but is the official music video. watch and prepare to be entertained!

hats off from one Minnesotan to another.
the end.
<3, meggo.

p.s. next Minnesota concert will be 04.10.08 in minneapolis, mn @ first avenue...if anyone wants to join me...or in DC on 04.23.08 @ the 9:30 club...i'm excited!!! Tapes 'n Tapes::Insistor Improve in the Streets of Paris
Insistor

Tapes 'n Tapes::Insistor (Official Video)


Tapes 'n Tapes::Insistor

Kelly the insistor
Your brother is a blister
I'll be had if I'm in your dress tonight

When you go and you're all alone
Are you still afraid of home
Do you lie in bed with fright

Your father said I lost her
Your brother said I fought her
But I stood still and I'm in your arms tonight

And when you rush I'll call your name
Like Harvard Square holds all inane
And don't you know I'll be your badger
And don't be terse and don't be shy
Just hug my lips and say good lies
And know that I will be your bail bond

Mickey the ol' lithper
Said hey there hey mister
My cold razor's edge will meet you in the light

When you go and you're on stage
Is your heart still filled with rage?
Do you still fight for lover's rights?

Challenge is for lovers
But when I run my feet hurt
So I'll stay here and fight for lover's rights

And when you rush I'll call your name
Like Harvard Square holds all inane
And don't you know I'll be your badger
And don't be terse and don't be shy
Just hug my lips and say good lies
And know that I will be your bail bond

Oh Kelly don't you go
Kelly don't you go
Kelly don't you go
I want you to know
That I've been trying, I've been lying
I've been stealing, I've been hiding
I will meet you in the grave
Kelly, Kelly, it's not your right
To be cheating, fighting and starting life
When my head and hands are tied to you so tight
Oh Kelly just tell me one more thing
Is it mine or is it some other ring
That you wear as we lie in bed tonight?

And Kelly, who's the logger?
Oh, Kelly, who's the logger?
Oh Kelly, who's the logger who's trees were felled with might?
And Kelly, hold your water
Oh Kelly, hold your water
Oh Kelly, Kelly, hold your water tight

And when you rush I'll call your name
Like Harvard Square holds all inane
And don't you know I'll be your badger
And don't be terse and don't be shy
Just hug my lips and say goodbye
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye
Goodbyebyebyebyebyebyebyebyebye