Musical Miscellany

There have been a few things going on that I have not necessarily understood, but have found interesting, so I am just going to throw them out there for your perusal.

One was that I had two songs separately that I found myself needing to listen to about three times a day. Specifically, they were “Astro Zombies” by My Chemical Romance and “Great Expectations” by The Gaslight Anthem. I didn’t necessarily get the craving to listen to them at the same times, but once I realized that I was in the same spot with both of them, I did start listening to them together just for efficiency’s sake.

In this case, I believe the issue was that I just needed to make both songs a part of me, where I was familiar enough with them that I could mentally bring them up any time I wanted. That is actually pretty common for me, though usually it happens shortly after I hear a new song. What was unusual in this case was that it was two songs at about the same time, and both ones that I had heard some time previously. “Great Expectations” I liked immediately, but not obsessively, and I don’t remember “Astro Zombies” making a strong impression on me at all. I guess I fell in love with both, but on a delayed reaction.

The other phenomenon was that I got two phantom fragments of other songs in my heads, again at around the same time. They were both songs that I knew, and yet somehow, divorced from context, I could not immediately place them. This was new for me, and it was a little scary because after reading Musicophilia, I was more aware of all the weird things your brain can do, and how it can take something you love and turn it into torture. I wasn’t there yet, but I was worried.

I did have ideas about where they were from, and eventually I was able to work backwards and trace both of them to their origins. One fragment was the violin part from “Falling Apart” by the All-American Rejects, and the other was the ending passage on S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W, by My Chemical Romance. Both are a little more orchestral in nature (if that makes sense), which may be what made them stand out. For right now, what I am taking from it is that they are both lovely in their own right, and while they fit into their respective songs, maybe it is also good to give them some unique appreciation. It’s as good an answer as any.

The other mystery is that after having been to concerts of bands I really like recently, and in both cases having forgotten to bring ear plugs (we are normally very responsible about protecting our hearing), in both cases the lead singers’ voices seemed higher-pitched to me than I am used to from the recordings.

In the case of the Gin Blossoms, more time has passed since their last release, where the voice could have changed, but for the All-American Rejects, Kids in the Street is pretty recent, so that’s not it. So then I am wondering if they sing differently in live performance than in the studio, or if me being used to having ear plugs in makes it seem different when I don’t (I had not seen either band live before), or if I am just crazy. There may be a more quantifiable answer to this one than the others, but I honestly don’t know.

So, those are some things that I have been thinking about musically, and that seems like a good place to start as I move into another section of blogging about music. I will be writing about the concerts I have seen recently, and new bands that are following me on Twitter, and things that I find interesting about band dynamics.

I am not done with my exploration of the guitar comments yet. Part of it is that I realize I will never be done. For one thing, I keep finding more information. Rolling Stone doesn’t just have a list of the 100 Greatest Guitar songs of all time; they also have the 100 Greatest Guitarists, and there are comments there too, and I don’t know that I am committed to checking out all of those the way I am with the song comments, but I was at least thrilled to see that Robert Johnson made this list, and that someone finally mentioned the glaring omission of Django Reinhardt. Fine, he didn’t play rock, but he influenced many people who did make the list, he mastered the guitar, twice, and doing it after the injury made him more of an inspiration to others, including Tommy Iommi.

Actually, I probably think rankings like this are stupid, but then they become interesting starting points for me. Just from the comments on the songs, I have 46 bands left to listen to, and I felt kind of bad about that, and then my list of books to read was growing, and movies to see, and so that doesn’t feel like much has been accomplished, but then I reversed how I was looking at it.

I have listened to about 129 different bands – sometimes only one song, usually more. Many were completely new to me. Some are starred because I want to get back to them. I have read three books that I had been meaning to read. One of the others I started, and I realized that I needed to go through it slowly, listening to different songs along the way, so I bought a copy, and I can do that.

(I’m doing horribly on the movies. There’s no excuse for it.)

So, there have been many thoughts, and there will be many more thoughts. I have written a lot. I will write more. And there will always be more to know. So many cool things to find.

Oh, there is one other thing I am doing that is kind of interesting. I guess it has been two years since I wrote this Christmas song, and last year I kind of felt like I should do something with it, and didn’t, and I started feeling that way again. I think next year I will animate a music video for it, and post it on Youtube. Remember, I need to allow myself a lot of time to accomplish things.

This year I am just singing it every day. I have a melody in my head, but it is not as concrete as when you actually put it out there, so I am fine-tuning that. I am also starting to make some minor tweaks to the lyrics, and I may make bigger changes to the order. One habit that I picked up over the last few years is making the chorus different each time it is repeated. This makes the songs harder to memorize, and it seems like a bad habit, but I do it a lot. One more motive for frequent practice.

It’s a stretch because this one was actually written for a female voice, and it has been super fun because lately I have had a cold and my throat is all rough. Still, it’s interesting, because I haven’t done this for a long time. Don’t get me wrong; there is a lot that would need to happen to have a music video that I could be satisfied with a year from now, and part of that may be finding another singer, and if it needs instrumentation, and how to manage that if there does.

I have no idea, but one step of getting ready to make my own film is working with shorts, like a three minute video, and I want to be able to record my family in Italy when we go see them, so I need to be looking at recording equipment anyway (maybe a TASCAM; I will take recommendations) and it just all works together. From a creative point of view it is fulfilling, and also it just seems like the world is full of possibilitites, and anything can happen. I like that.

For right now the main thing is that tonight I’m going to go see the Killers.