Lists and Links - Five Best Literary Works

Out of boredom sometimes, I make lists. Here are four of such lists. Until I change my mind, these are the best-ever Poems, Short Stories, Books, and Plays/Scripts/Drama (including some film scripts) with links on where to find them on the internet:

Five Great Poems:

"Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot

"Alien Vs. Predator" by Michael Robbins
"On Leaving Some Friends At An Early Hour" by John Keats
"Sonnet #29" by William Shakespeare
"The Tyger" by William Blake

Five Great Short Stories:

"Early Music" by Jeffrey Eugenides
"A Hunger Artist" by Franz Kafka
"The Kiss" by Anton Chekhov
"A Perfect Day for Banana Fish" by J.D. Salinger
"The Kugelmass Episode" by Woody Allen

Five Great Books:

"Bright Lights Big City" by Jay McInerney
"Eeeee Eee Eeee" by Tao Lin
"The Crying of Lot 49" by Thomas Pynchon
"Gary Benchley, Rockstar" by Paul Ford
"The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz

Five Great Plays/Scripts:

"Look Back In Anger" by John Osborne
"The Birthday Party" by Harold Pinter
"Being John Malkovich" by Charlie Kaufman
"The Maids" by Jean Genet
"Persona" by Ingmar Bergman

Map of Africa - Channeling The Captain

Discovered this song "Bone" via Gorilla VS. Bear's gnarly summer mix. I totally thought it was by Captain Beefheart, but it turns out it's by some band/guy/project/whatever called Map of Africa. It's "tight work."

Map of Africa - "Bone"



The Captain abides.

The King of Pop Has Left The Building

I think Michael Jackson's death is the best thing that could've happened to his music.  Hopefully now people will see past his wacky drama and court cases and bizarre appearance as of late and remember just how great his music was. (You do realize there would be no Daft Punk without Michael Jackson. No Phoenix. No mid-2000s disco/80s/new-wave/house revival. Right?).

...and now for a duet between Michael Jackson (impersonator) and one of his best friends, Bart Simpson.

Michael Jackson (impersonator) and Bart Simpson - "Lisa, It's Your Birthday"

Classical Crossover

So I've started recording full-length album number 2.  It has no title yet and I'm not 100% about much of anything on it.  I have two songs partially recorded.

One of the artists that I think is partially influencing the sound of the album so far has to be Yann Tiersen.

I looked him up on AMG recently (I do this every so often to gather background info on interesting artists since it seems just a notch above Wikipedia) and noticed that they label him as "crossover-classical."  It's an interesting label for him.  It's interesting because it's accurate, since he's blatantly classicist but also blatantly populist and accessible.   It's also interesting that classical needs a bridge or "crossover" these days.

This is funny to me because I feel like I have this like tendency to gravitate toward classical-ish-ness in popular music (for instance, my love of Belle and Sebastian and Nico's Chelsea Girl album other chamber-poppy groups full of strings and woodwinds in their arrangements), but I also kinda have this shame about it.

Like classical music is so stuffy and pretentious (I mean, even more so than typical "music snob" indie/obscuro rock and pop) I'm embarrassed to tell people I actually kind of enjoy it.I don't always mention the Bach Harpsichord Concertos and Mozart Piano Sonatas on my iPod.  Not to mention all the World War II-era jazz stuff (which I liken to classical in its level of esoteric-ness) I have on there like Ella Fitzgerald, Dave Bruebeck Quartet, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, etc.  

Like telling people you like this stuff is like saying you enjoy caviar or something like that.  It makes you come off as a snob.  Why?  I don't know.  I'm not actually a snob.  It's possible to listen to this stuff without being one.

But it seems to work the same way for classical artists themselves.  Like they have to act like snobs or they get heat from critics for "dumbing themselves down."  I was watching this video interview/documentary thing of John Adams directing "Shaker Loops"...

... And he mentions how people criticize him for his "accessibility" and "popularity" and he has to defend it by saying he's not trying to "dumb down his music."  But should he even have to say that?  I mean why is "accessibility" even a big deal?

Of course the real question is:  why does the shame in classical musicians come out of having too much accessibility and popular musicians' shame comes out of being too esoteric?

WTF, yall.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Apparently the only winner in all this is Dan Deacon, who really straddles both camps of music pretty comfortably.

Girls Go Full-Length

Finally!  

Girls is (are?) releasing a full-length album--y'know, instead of a bunch of vinyl singles that are impossible to ever track down and purchase until it's way too late and they're all gone or out of print or the band has broken up.

GvsB simply calls it "Album" so that means it's either an awesome anti-title or a TBA title. ....or both?

Actually, during that paragraph break I just checked Matador's official press release and they say it is "entitled" Album so that must mean it is actually the title.

So here is the track list for Album by Girls:

1. Lust For Life
2. Laura
3. Ghostmouth
4. Goddamn
5. Big Bad Mean Motherfucker
6. Hellhole Ratrace
7. Headache
8. Summertime
9. Lauren Marie
10. Morning Light
11. Curls
12. Darling

And this is the awesome new video (and seemingly re-editing/re-mastering?) for a possible contender for the title Best Song to Play On Repeat For Hours On End and NOT Get Gick Of, "Hellhole Ratrace":

They Might Delete my MySpace Profile

So I bought a new guitar.

(The boyfriend of the girl that stepped on my guitar paid me for the guitar after all.)

To celebrate this new acoustic guitar, I put two acoustic guitar (and some Fender Rhodes electric piano) covers on my MySpace profile.

Is that legal?

Anyway, check them out before they delete my MySpace account.

or, if they do, download them via zShare:

Little Insects - "Frozen In Time (Adam Green Cover)"

Little Insects - "The Boy Done Wrong Again (Belle and Sebastian Cover)"

Someone Broke My Acoustic Guitar

As you can see, my guitar was broken at a show last night by a few drunken dancers that stepped on accidentally.

Unfortunately, i don't have a backup.

so now i need money to get a new acoustic/electric guitar:



can you help?

2 Many Glasses Show @ Stardust

So there were indeed too many glasses at last night's show.  If I remember it correctly even people in the audience seemed to be glasses-bearers.  Oddly enough, a few people in the audience recognized me from high school, which is funny because out of all the things I do and have done, going to Edgewater High School was what I last expected people to remember me for.

Anyway, it was great to play a show with Marc with a C, since he's seriously one of the local musicians that I saw live a few years back (2003? 2004? -ish) and motivated to me to get out of my room and play music live.  Although, it took me 2 more years to really shed all (or most of) my cowardliness and I didn't really play music live until 2006, I would say it was seeing him play nerdy pop songs like "I'm in Love With Everyone I Know" and not get shot at or thrown tomatoes at or pulled off the stage with a giant cane in a place like Orlando that did the trick.

Alright, well enough mushy stuff.  This ain't Oprah.  ...yet...?

Okay, so here are some video highlights of last night's show at Stardust Video and Coffee:

1. Little Insects - Pyramid Scheme Pipe Dream (Short Ukulele Version)

This was my second time ever playing it live, so there's obviously some variation from the recorded version (in reality, these were mistakes, but let's just refer to them as "edits")

2. Little Insects - Casio Drone / Stop Taking Advice From Songs

This used to be two songs that we played as a band that kind of segued into one another, but it's basically becoming one, multi-part song.

3. Little Insects - I Wanna Die (Adam Green Cover)

And this is just a great song by Adam Green.  Even though it's in E Major, you can actually sing the entire thing over Pachelbel's Canon in D major, because the harmonic structure of the original song is practically identical.  Maybe at a future show I will just play Canon in D from a boom box and karaoke Adam Green's lyrics over it and transpose the vocal melody down a whole step.  Or not.

4. Marc With a C - Chicken Pox & Star Wars

This is one of my favorite songs from Marc's new, free-download album, Losing Salt.   It's written from like a kid's perspective, a kid that just wants to go outside and play with his Star Wars guys.  Impossible not to smile at this song.

5. Marc With a C - Mr. Roboto (Styx Cover)

And this is just one of the best "re-imaginings" of an old song I've ever heard.  Enjoy.

Animal Collective @ Club Firestone

Crowded.  Too crowded.  

...But amazing.  Too amazing. 

That a band like Animal Collective (not to mention Black Dice, who opened for them) could draw a crowd this big in our sleepy, (seemingly) Creed-loving, Bible-thumping, musical-experimentation-hating tourist town of Orlando deserves mad props.  Orlando has earned my respect as a city.

...kinda.

The local A/V guys working at Club Firestone still kinda messed things up for us and probably pissed off Panda Bear.

Trust me, there's nothing worse than an angry Panda.

Club employees walked through the line outside trying to sell $300 "V.I.P. Area" tickets.  I think the girl in the black spaghetti strap was offered one of these rip-off tickets and she just said no.  You go, girl.

Anyway, they played no identifiable very little stuff pre-Strawberry Jam, which was a pity.  However, they played at least two of their most awesome songs.

1. Animal Collective - Fireworks

and...

2. Animal Collective - Comfy in Nautica*

(*Does this count as a cover?  I mean if a band plays a song by one of the bands' own members solo-outings is it considered a cover?  Leave some comments with your thoughts on this, 'cause I have absolutely no idea what to make of this.)

live lofi (anti) folk show - videos

Though crappy as overly positive, high-level value judgements can make your writing (not to mention how self-serving they sound when you are part of the group of performers that you describe with them), "awesome" is the only way to describe the June 12 show at Stardust Video and Coffee.  I'm not sure if it was very strictly "lofi" or "anti folk" or whatever other label.  I just know it was, again, "awesome." But don't take my word for it (after all, blogs and bloggers are just overzealous hype machines  and I am oh-so-biased on this particular show, hehe) so just judge for yourself from these sweet (albeit poorly lit) videos and photos.

There are basically two videos and one photo for each artist that played last night. The way it breaks down is one cover and one original by each artist. 

First to take the stage was Kevin Beasley as Colitis.

Colitis - Technobox Cover*

(*even if Technobox is also Kevin, This still counts as a cover)

Colitis - Back Home

The second to take the stage was the incredible Casey Powers in what I believe was her first solo show ever.   I doubt anyone in the awestricken, mesmerized crowd could tell (especially with her amazing rendition of what is among my favorite songs of all time, "Leave The City.")

Casey Powers - Leave The City (Magnolia Electric Co. Cover)

Casey Powers - Good Distances

Third to take the stage was (very) Little Insects.  'Twas just me (Omar DeLaRosa) and Mark Oldham.  Most of the songs were on piano (a first for us in the live setting), but I switched to guitar for the last two.

Little Insects - I Saw Her At The Anti-War Demonstration (Jens Lekman Cover)

Little Insects - Oh No! (Piano + Drums Version)

Fourth on the stage were the Beat-Happening-esque, shoegaze-y weak ends featuring two of my all-time favorite Orlando musicians, Sam Metro and Geannie Friedman. 

weak ends - Femme Fatale (Velvet Underground Cover)

weak ends - Heard it Before

Closing out the show (and possibly upsetting at least one Stardust barista that had to open the next morning by going a few minutes over their actual closing time) was Phil Ileto (aka Phil Defiler) as Phil Spectre VS. Rector.  Accomplishing this (these?) monumental task(s) with a wall-of-sound created by one awesome 12-string, electric guitar and one of the most impressive pedal boards I've ever seen.

Phil Spectre VS. Rector - Freestyle Rap / Creep (TLC Cover)

Phil Spectre VS. Rector - Venus and Virgo

I saw Jeff from kickbrightzine.com also there and snapping some pictures and videos, so keep an eye out on there, too for videos and pictures from the same show.  What I've posted here is only a small fraction of what went down last night, so look out for more stuff from Jeff later.

June Annotated Song List - 5 great songs, 5 great albums

So this is becoming a monthly ritual. While I haven't made these lists public here on Plastic Impossible, I've been posting them on my Facebook profile. Anyway, here goes. For June, 5 great songs and 5 great albums with links.

5 great songs:

Dan Deacon - "Pink Batman"
Adam Green - "I Wanna Die"
Thieves Like Us - "Drugs In My Body"
Trevor Pinnock - "Bach's Harpsichord Concerto #1 in D Minor BWV 1052"
Yelle - "Je Veux Te Voir"

5 great albums

Adam Green - Jacket Full of Danger
Dan Deacon - Spiderman of the Rings
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
Lee Hazlewood - Trouble Is A Lonesome Town

Two Shows, Two Posters

Show # 1 - "live lofi (anti) folk show" with the following bands:

weak ends - http://www.myspace.com/weakendz

little insects - http://www.myspace.com/littleinsects

phil spectre vs. rector - http://www.myspace.com/defileyou

casey powers - http://www.myspace.com/caseypowersmusic

colitis - http://www.myspace.com/ihavecolitis




Show # 2 - Marc With a C and Omar DeLaRosa (Little Insects)

marc with a c - http://www.myspace.com/marcwithac

omar delarosa (little insects) - http://www.myspace.com/littleinsects