#1 November 3rd, 2005 11:31 AM

Merricat

Member

Songs you're obsessed with

I love music, it's one of the most important things in the world to me. I tend to go through little lists of songs that I become completely obsessed with about every couple of weeks...I listen to the songs several times a day, sometimes just put them on repeat, have them in my head all the time, that kind of thing.

So what songs are you currently obsessed with?

Here's my list:

Broken Social Scene - Anthems for a 17-year-old Girl
Muse - Time is Running Out
Grant Lee Phillips - Sadness Soot
Rufus Wainwright - The One You Love (I just saw Rufus live on Monday. I've seen him several times and he's always amazing...and this time he gave me a hug! And signed my shirt!)
Damien Rice - Volcano
The Dresden Dolls - Halfjack
Rasputina - Torniquet

catt

Member

Re: Songs you're obsessed with

I love music, it's one of the most important things in the world to me. I tend to go through little lists of songs that I become completely obsessed with about every couple of weeks...I listen to the songs several times a day, sometimes just put them on repeat, have them in my head all the time, that kind of thing.

So what songs are you currently obsessed with?

Here's my list:

Broken Social Scene - Anthems for a 17-year-old Girl
Muse - Time is Running Out
Grant Lee Phillips - Sadness Soot
Rufus Wainwright - The One You Love (I just saw Rufus live on Monday. I've seen him several times and he's always amazing...and this time he gave me a hug! And signed my shirt!)
Damien Rice - Volcano
The Dresden Dolls - Halfjack
Rasputina - Torniquet

Nice choices, Ms. Merricat.  And in I go...

- It's Getting Bongo Rock In Here - Reverend Dan (a piss-take of sorts on It's Getting Hot In Here, set to bongos - really catchy, and made a shite song awesome)
- Here Comes Your Man - Pixies (am digging through my old CDs, and falling in love with The Pixies all over again)
- Waltz #2 - Elliott Smith (gorgeous song)
- Pissing In The Wind - Badly Drawn Boy (another gorgeous song)
- Owen's Lament - Augie March (my favourite song from my favourite band - who happen to be local to me *S*)
- Holland, 1945/O Comely/Gardenhead - Neutral Milk Hotel (my second favourite band - I'm obsessed with these guys...obsessed!)
- all of Takk... - Sigur Ros (and anything else by these guys...)
- all of Electric Six (saw them in concert last week - FINALLY - and am still in love)
- Here You Come Again - Dolly Parton (shut up)
- Bang - The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
- She Is Beautiful - Andrew W.K. (this is the BEST song to get ready to go out to - the BEST!)
- You Make Me Feel Like Dancing - Leo Sayer (TERRIBLE!  But I love it)
...am also listening to a lot of old favourites again; Birthday Party, Descendants, Ween, etc.

Gosh, too many.  Like you, music is one of the most important things in the world to me, and my tastes go from extreme to extreme.

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the beauty of simplicity is the complexity it attracts.

SCSIgirl

Member

Re: Songs you're obsessed with

I love music, it's one of the most important things in the world to me. I tend to go through little lists of songs that I become completely obsessed with about every couple of weeks...I listen to the songs several times a day, sometimes just put them on repeat, have them in my head all the time, that kind of thing.

So what songs are you currently obsessed with?

>>>>  snipped for brevity  <<<<

Rasputina - Torniquet

Just about anything by John Fogarty or Beethoven will tie me up for days  (how's that for a interesting duo?)

Johnny Maddox and Joe Carr (ragtime piano players) both have tunes I go over and over.

Paul McCartney and Gorden Lightfoot both have recurring tunes a couple of times a week.

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"Apple of my Eye", "bated breath", "brave new world", "caught red-handed" - all coined by Shakespeare.

Merricat

Member

Re: Songs you're obsessed with

Oooh, Neutral Milk Hotel. They are so so good. I have a very vivid memory of the first time I listened to them. I was in the car with my boy on a long drive, we put in one of their albums to see what all the fuss was about, and just sat silent and stunned listening to it. Then started gushing about how good it was.

blissed

Member

Re: Songs you're obsessed with

"It's too late" by Carol King pops into my head at regular intervals, but  I sort of remix it in my imagination and it's a lot looser and expressive. Her version is a big wooden. Anyone else change the way their favourite songs sound in their head ?

jdudley76

Member

Re: Songs you're obsessed with

The Cure - Mixed Up, Wish
The Pixies - Monkey Gone to Heaven, Wave of Mutilation, Mr. Grieves
The Breeders - Metal Man, Fortunately Gone, Oh!, No Aloha, Invisible Man

I bought the new Fiona Apple CD recently, but it won't play in my car CD player! (GRR!)

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"This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating."   - George W. Bush, as quoted by the New York Daily News, April 23, 2002

catt

Member

Re: Songs you're obsessed with

The Cure - Mixed Up, Wish
The Pixies - Monkey Gone to Heaven, Wave of Mutilation, Mr. Grieves
The Breeders - Metal Man, Fortunately Gone, Oh!, No Aloha, Invisible Man

I bought the new Fiona Apple CD recently, but it won't play in my car CD player! (GRR!)

I never was a Fiona Apple fan, but her new CD is bloody excellent.

---

the beauty of simplicity is the complexity it attracts.

catt

Member

Re: Songs you're obsessed with

Oooh, Neutral Milk Hotel. They are so so good. I have a very vivid memory of the first time I listened to them. I was in the car with my boy on a long drive, we put in one of their albums to see what all the fuss was about, and just sat silent and stunned listening to it. Then started gushing about how good it was.

Aren't they just incredible?! I came across them late (they barely made a splash in the underground in Australia), but fell in love/obsession straight away.  Lyrically, musically = perfect.  I adore them.

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the beauty of simplicity is the complexity it attracts.

liandra_dahl

Member

Re: Songs you're obsessed with

I have totally different taste in music to you guys, probably because I am just too lazy to find out about music that doesn't find it's way into my life. So I haven't heard of most of the names above. Um....I love drum and bass, and I don't just change my favourite tunes in my head, tunes make themselves in my head, but it's not so easy to get cubase or fruity-loops and try and make those tunes a reality, so my laziness kicks in and I don't bother. I'm also not going to bother listing my favs as it'll probably mean nothing to any of you.

So other than drum and bass... well I'm not proud of my taste in music but I like what I like I guess. So the songs that I love or can remember having loved obsessively are;

Natalie Merchant - 'Ophelia', 'Life is Sweet' and 'Kind and Generous'
Bic Runga - 'Drive', 'Sway'
Missy Higgins - 'Special two'
Jet - 'Are you gonna be my girl', 'Cold Hard Bitch'
Ani Defranco - 'Untouchable face'
Portishead - 'Glory Box'
Tracy Chapman - 'Behind the wall'
Erica Badu - 'Next lifetime'
Nina Simone - 'My baby just cares for me' and 'Feeling good'
Lauryn Hill - 'Nothing even matters' and 'When it hurts so bad'
Air - 'Sexy Boy'
Sean Calvin - 'Sunny came home'
Men at work - 'down under'
Madona - 'Playground'
Chris Isaac - 'wicked game'
Black Street - 'No diggity'
Bill Withers - 'Ain't no Sunshine'
Trisha Yearwood - 'How do I live without you'
Scribe and P-Money  - Stop the Music
Ed Elane JOhnson (no idea if I spelt that right) - his electric violing albumn from about 1992

blissed

Member

Re: Songs you're obsessed with

Cubasis is the easiest to use. In my head I like to get one artist to cover another's song. One of my favourites is to get Tracy Chapman singing "The look of love" by Burt Bacharach. With brushed snare, cool jazz piano and double bass.

liandra_dahl

Member

Re: Songs you're obsessed with

Cubasis is the easiest to use. In my head I like to get one artist to cover another's song. One of my favourites is to get Tracy Chapman singing "The look of love" by Burt Bacharach. With a cool jazz piano and double bass.

Cubase is easy to use but that doesn't make it easy to create the songs I have in my head.

blissed

Member

Re: Songs you're obsessed with

If you get the best cheap mic there is, a Sure SM58, a USB mic pre-amp and do several takes of a song acapella with a guide rhythm and aproximate piano track (which you later discard). and then find a cool acoustic guitarist to collaborate with.

liandra_dahl

Member

Re: Songs you're obsessed with

If you get the best cheap mic there is, a Sure SM58, a USB mic pre-amp and do several takes of a song acapella with a guide rhythm and aproximate piano track (which you later discard). and then find a cool acoustic guitarist to collaborate with.

You don't make drum and bass like that, it's electronic dance music that started in the UK around 1991 - very sexy to dance too because it has really strong drum and bass rythms rather than the dance music you get in the charts, or you know, all that house, techno, breaks stuff. It's much sexier music than any of those other dance genres IMO, some of it is anyway, as there are lots of different types of drum and bass and some of the darker stuff is pretty manic and psycho and impossible to dance to.

Belgareth

Member

Re: Songs you're obsessed with

You don't make drum and bass like that, it's electronic dance music that started in the UK around 1991 - very sexy to dance too because it has really strong drum and bass rythms rather than the dance music you get in the charts, or you know, all that house, techno, breaks stuff. It's much sexier music than any of those other dance genres IMO, some of it is anyway, as there are lots of different types of drum and bass and some of the darker stuff is pretty manic and psycho and impossible to dance to.

The good D&B of the early 90's carries a mesmeric rhythm, almost akin to tribal music. It's great to dance to and it was so sexy that, in the right environment, I have know people remove their clothes to it, almost as if that is what it was telling them to do. I do agree that some of the recent stuff is really wierd and it's way outside my scale of comprehension, if it can be comprehended..

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blissed

Member

Re: Songs you're obsessed with

You don't make drum and bass like that

In a computer you can record linear or with samples. I preferred it when it was called jungle. I loved the stuff with complicated beats with ever changing structure constantly backfooting. I absolutely loved it. It's a completely different type of dancing at 160 bpm.  7 years ago I tried doing a song with rhythmic acoustic guitar and a sort of Roni size brown paper bag style rhythm, but I was using just a small crappy sampler. But as to the future, I still like the thought  of a very light acoustic fragile D&b (with double bass) with a song structure, I'm still up for that and I might try it oneday with the set up I've got now.  I think the reason d&b sort of sunk was that nobody was producing anything with a song structure and garage came in and took everything back down into crap. Then rock music came back to the fore anyway. Theres tons of sample Cds with d&b loops and playing about with a loop record using drum samples is so easy. I should go for it when you've got the time. and see what you come up with.

jdudley76

Member

Re: Songs you're obsessed with

You don't make drum and bass like that, it's electronic dance music that started in the UK around 1991 - very sexy to dance too because it has really strong drum and bass rythms rather than the dance music you get in the charts, or you know, all that house, techno, breaks stuff. It's much sexier music than any of those other dance genres IMO, some of it is anyway, as there are lots of different types of drum and bass and some of the darker stuff is pretty manic and psycho and impossible to dance to.

Anything specifically in the D&B genre you'd recommend? I'd like to hear some.

---

"This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating."   - George W. Bush, as quoted by the New York Daily News, April 23, 2002

blissed

Member

Re: Songs you're obsessed with

It's a while since I was into it, so Liandra might know stuff thats new

But if you've got iTunes you can hear
Hyena 1 by Goldie
Rise to the challenge by Asian dub foundation
Brown paper bag by Roni Size

Stuff by the Prodigy strays in and out of d&b too.
It's quite a big genre

blissed

Member

Re: Songs you're obsessed with

Actually, dancing at 160 beats per minute, you can slow the Ragga style pelvic thrusts to the same brisk speed as a good hard shag.

Merricat

Member

Re: Songs you're obsessed with

I never was a Fiona Apple fan, but her new CD is bloody excellent.

I thought that "When the Pawn" was really excellent as well.

Aren't they just incredible?! I came across them late (they barely made a splash in the underground in Australia), but fell in love/obsession straight away.  Lyrically, musically = perfect.  I adore them.

Can you explain their lyrics to me? I know that there are people who do "get" the lyrics but I really don't. I mean I love the band anyway. There's a great comic that makes fun of those lyrics here:

comic

Natalie Merchant - 'Ophelia', 'Life is Sweet' and 'Kind and Generous'
Bic Runga - 'Drive', 'Sway'
Ani Defranco - 'Untouchable face'
Portishead - 'Glory Box'
Tracy Chapman - 'Behind the wall'
Nina Simone - 'My baby just cares for me' and 'Feeling good'
Bill Withers - 'Ain't no Sunshine'

You have amazing taste in music. I have such an even bigger crush on you now!

Also, someone at the suicidegirls burlesque show did a striptease to "Glory Box".

Merricat

Member

Re: Songs you're obsessed with

Oooh, and has anybody ever heard any of the following groups/people?:

Regina Spektor
Eddie From Ohio (this is unlikely, they are a tiny band)
Damien Rice
The Dresden Dolls
Kaki King
Magnetic Fields
Michael Merenda (again, VERY unlikely)
Nick Drake
Sigor Ros

I'm trying to find other people who know these groups!

blissed

Member

Re: Songs you're obsessed with

Cannon ball by Danien rice is brilliant.

catt

Member

Re: Songs you're obsessed with

Oooh, and has anybody ever heard any of the following groups/people?:

Regina Spektor
Eddie From Ohio (this is unlikely, they are a tiny band)
Damien Rice
The Dresden Dolls
Kaki King
Magnetic Fields
Michael Merenda (again, VERY unlikely)
Nick Drake
Sigor Ros

I'm trying to find other people who know these groups!

I've heard a fair few Regina Spektor (she gained a little exposure with The Dresden Dolls being so popular) - she's ace, and of course, The Dresden Dolls (I saw them in concert in Melbourne last year, and they're utterly lovely).   I've heard some Magnetic Fields (you should also try The Decemberists/The Arcade Fire if you're a fan of NMH and Magnetic Fields), but not enough to form a good opinion. And I LOVE Sigur Ros - saw them in concert this year when they toured.  Blew. My. Mind.

I think we might need to swap mix CDs *S*

xxCattxx

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the beauty of simplicity is the complexity it attracts.

catt

Member

Re: Songs you're obsessed with

Can you explain their lyrics to me? I know that there are people who do "get" the lyrics but I really don't. I mean I love the band anyway. There's a great comic that makes fun of those lyrics here:

comic

The album On Avery Island is an ode to Anne Frank, if that helps (it's a little more obvious on songs like Holland, 1945, etc) - as for other lyrics...well, it's hard to say.  Like with David Lynch films, I like to believe that they're open to the viewer/listeners' interpretations, and too close a dissection tends to detract from the beauty of it all.  Jeff Mangum is a bit kooky, and a recluse - he rarely steps out for playing in public these days, and makes unannounced appearances at the gigs of related bands (see Olivia Tremor Control, etc).  There's rumour of a new NMH album/reforming of the band, but I feel that this is just a rumour.   

Other than that, I don't think I can really help you hon.

(And thanks for the comic - excellent!)

xxCattxx

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the beauty of simplicity is the complexity it attracts.

jdudley76

Member

Re: Songs you're obsessed with

I thought that "When the Pawn" was really excellent as well.

I finally heard "Extraordinary Machine" today, and I thought a lot of it was very similar to "When the Pawn".

---

"This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating."   - George W. Bush, as quoted by the New York Daily News, April 23, 2002

liandra_dahl

Member

Re: Songs you're obsessed with

The good D&B of the early 90's carries a mesmeric rhythm, almost akin to tribal music. It's great to dance to and it was so sexy that, in the right environment, I have know people remove their clothes to it, almost as if that is what it was telling them to do. I do agree that some of the recent stuff is really wierd and it's way outside my scale of comprehension, if it can be comprehended..

It is the sexiest music on earth IMHO. I think my favourite stuff comes out of that early 90's period. Of the many branches of drum and bass I love Jungle and melodic, or jump up drum and bass with raggae, RnBish roots. I love jungle more than the rest though.

Theres tons of sample Cds with d&b loops and playing about with a loop record using drum samples is so easy. I should go for it when you've got the time. and see what you come up with.

You're right, it is on my list of things to do. I've got plenty of friends who would be happy to show me how to get what I wanted out of it, I'll stop making excuses.

Anything specifically in the D&B genre you'd recommend? I'd like to hear some.

Anything by Pendulum, Aphrodite ('I got five on it' is fucking sexy to dance to), Shapeshifter, The Ganja Cru (AKA Dj Hype, Pascal, Dj Zinc; Dj Hypes Fugees remix is good too), Tee Bee, Shy FX, Ed Rush
Roni Size is a veteran and has done plenty of great stuff.
'Super Sharp Shooter' by the Ganja Cru is one of my all time favourites from 1996
Stevie Hyper D was a damn good Jungle MC his sing song style was perfect for the music, died when I was still dancing at drum and bass clubs, we were all devastated. Here's a site you where you can hear some of his stuff. Stevie
Andy C and his Ramrecords label are popular though it's generally not my sort of thing.