Black Mustang Music, Pt. 1

It’s not really the fact that it’s black, or a mustang, or a convertible. You know what it is? It’s the fact that the sound system takes up practically the entire trunk.

Locomotive Breath – Jethro Tull

Courtesy of my Uncle’s extensive collection of 70’s rock. I had no idea that the flute could be so hardcore. Hey, you learn something new every day.

Greetings From Orange County, CA

Fast cars! Megachurches! Implants! Southern California’s treating me very well. I promise to avoid posting all those songs that come up when I search for “California” in my library – although “California Love” was tempting – but for my first day here, no harm in sharing a classic ode to the Golden State.

California Soul – Marlena Shaw

I first heard this mixed into Brainfreeze by DJ Shadow – which tells you how much I know about soul. Marvin Gaye and Tammy Terrell also recorded a version. And for the record, I love the strings, fake or not.

If you didn’t think the title of this post was terribly clever, you need to purchase this album posthaste.

Every Beautiful Thing

I’m leaving for the airport in about ten minutes. As I make my way through the strange non-place netherworld of airport terminals, attempt to catch up on sleep in a cramped little seat, and then arrive in sunny southern California and try to get my bearings, you can be enjoying one of my top five songs of all time:

In The Aeroplane Over The Sea – Neutral Milk Hotel

What a beautiful face
I have found in this place
That is circling all round the sun
What a beautiful dream
That could flash on the screen
In a blink of an eye and be gone from me
Soft and sweet
Let me hold it close and keep it here with me

And one day we will die
And our ashes will fly from the aeroplane over the sea
But for now we are young
Let us lay in the sun
And count every beautiful thing we can see
Love to be
In the arms of all I’m keeping here with me

What a curious life we have found here tonight
There is music that sounds from the street
There are lights in the clouds
Anna’s ghost all around
Hear her voice as it’s rolling and ringing through me
Soft and sweet
How the notes all bend and reach above the trees

(strange bridge)

What a beautiful face
I have found in this place
That is circling all round the sun
And when we meet on a cloud
I’ll be laughing out loud
I’ll be laughing with everyone I see
Can’t believe how strange it is to be anything at all

This is gonna be my kid’s lullaby. My kid’s weird, off-beat, but totally beautiful and heartfelt lullaby.

I Am Gonna Make It Through This

“I broke free on a Saturday morning, put my pedal to the floor…” If you’re just joining us, John Darnielle is the greatest lyricist ever, his one man band The Mountain Goats is the hippest thing this side of folk music, and The Sunset Tree, his latest, is a masterful autobiographical exploration of troubled childhood and redemption. But with this track, feel free to ignore all the context, and the specifics of the painful moment he’s narrating, and just blast the refrain:

This Year – The Mountain Goats

Recommended for driving, especially driving fast, away from something bad and toward something good. Darnielle’s music has never been elaborate or technically impressive, but it always presents his storytelling effectively, and here the driving beat manages to back up the angry determination in his voice and simultaneously suggest a speeding car.

Obviously following the cleverly, efficiently told story is worthwhile, if only to admire his skillful choice of words, but the chorus is the reason this song is posted. Pop music often greets heartbreak and personal chaos with resignation or self-pity or maudlin sentiment, or even a celebration of despair and dysfunction, instead of the furious insistence on staying afloat and getting past it that Darnielle captures here. If you can take that and use it, play this song at that right moment for you whenever it comes, I think he’s done something admirable, enviable and oddly grand, considering how widely distributed music is in the era of mass media. But maybe only I use music that way. It’s a good song, regardless.

Repeat after me: “I am gonna make it, through this year/if it kills me.”

Dreaming I’m In A Suit Of Light

I was just recently talking to a good friend about our dreams, our bold and improbable hopes for the future. Not enough people speak these things out loud, believe and trust and allow themselves to hope that these things could actually happen. It made me think of this song, which I’ve sung to myself for years:

The Kid – Cry Cry Cry

Contemporary-folk super-group Cry Cry Cry (Lucy Kaplansky, Dar Williams, and Richard Shindell) was a one album project; they covered eleven beautiful tracks by favorite songwriters of theirs, selected with a bias towards songs that embodied melancholy and longing. The upbeat, uplifting centerpiece of the album is “By Way Of Sorrow.” It’s great stuff for a good cry.

Obviously, the song is melancholy and full of heartbreak, and even more obviously, not all plans and hopes come to fruition. But I love how the kid gets his heart broken (“…always thought we’d be lovers/always held out that time would tell/Time was talking, guess I just wasn’t listening/no surprise if you know me well”) and doesn’t give up his big plans: “But the truth is, I could no more stop dreaming/than I could make them all come true.”

Keep dreaming. Keep hoping you can be who you want to be. Have the courage to admit to yourself what it is you want out of your life. Those far-fetched plans are worth believing in. They give us a reason to get up every morning and work as hard as we can to be what we want to be.

So Tired Of Beating Myself Up

Another day, another song. Jamie Lidell is on Warp, which puts out wierdo electronica, and has had a long career making exactly that. Great stuff, but a strage genesis for the beautiful, airy motown sound on display here. The homage here doesn’t have a hint of irony to it; he believes in this. Love it. Funky and easy fun doesn’t come along often enough:

Multiply – Jamie Lidell

“I’m so tired of repeating myself, beating myself up/gonna take a trip and multiply.” A Joyful Noise will be blogging from the great state of California for two weeks starting Sunday. I’m taking a trip, hoping great things come of it; I’ll be sharing all the music that accompanies me. Stick around.

Spoon Lays It Down

Who knew simple, repeated figures could be so damn funky? Promise my you’ll try to boogie to this riduculous spoken beat. I have. Tried. Ian can attest to this.

Stay Don’t Go – Spoon

“At times you find that the truth is the best way out/Sometimes telling the truth is the best way out.” Amen.

Just Do Something Random

Too tired to work out a coherent rationale for putting this up. I freaking love this song. You probably won’t. I dance around like a fool to it. Again: you, maybe not so much. I personally rate this up there with such embarassingly awesome dance tracks as “Rock Your Body” and “Ignition (Remix)” and “Gasolina.” In fact, those very songs sit right next to “Random” in my playlist called Embarassingly Awesome Dance Tracks, which I play whenever I need to take myself less seriously. Enjoy:

Random – Lady Sovereign

If you’re completely bewildered, as near as I can tell Lady Sov would be classified as Grime, a recent British incarnation of hip hop with a lot of electro production and its own ridiculous slang (which you’ll hear some of). Dizzee Rascal is the scene’s biggest star, if you’ve heard of him. Lady Sov is also famously short. You’d probably have figured this out if you listened to the song, as she makes many mentions of it. And she’s moving up in the world! I think it was Jay-Z who recently signed her. Shes, like, 19 or something.

That’s it, I’m out. Any further cues to what the hell is going on will have to be gleaned here and at Urban Dictionary. I’d start with this entry. Remember to whip this one out next time you’re DJing a dance party. Right after “Rock Your Body” and just before “Gasolina.”

Wilco, Reprised

I put this song up a while back, and here it is again. I have no apology or explanation. This is just the song I want to share today:

Pot Kettle Black – Wilco

Especially the line “I myself have found a real rival in myself/I am hoping for a re-arrival of my health,” and of course, the lesson: “Every song is a comeback/Every moment’s a little bit later.”

I’m Still Alive! Cee-Lo Explains It All

My deepest gratitude to everyone who’s called, written, or sent good vibes my way. I don’t know quite what to put here, quite what to say, so I’m going to let Cee-Lo do the talking for me, but please don’t hesitate to write. I promise I’ll respond. Anyway, music has always meant the world to me, and there are three songs I’ve been listening to that I want you all to hear.

Maybe I’m Crazy… probably. But I have family, and friends, and I’m Living Again. And dancing again. To Cee-Lo Green. To The Art of Noise.

Isn’t it ironic how it feels so good? But I was only just singing the blues.

And I really think true wealth is home and happiness and health, a little cash and you’ll need nothing else…

Turn the radio on, let the music play. If I could I’d dance my life away. And if you can’t seem to find any words to say, make a joyful noise, look around it’s another day.

So when you really really need you some soul, I mean dead serious damn near ’bout to die ’bout some, don’t be too proud to turn your radio way up loud, close your eyes and have fun.

Turn the radio on, let the music play. If I could I’d dance my life away. And if you can’t seem to find any words to say, make a joyful noise, look around it’s another day.