Lisztomania

So, my hubby and I were driving down the road here recently when the song "Lisztomania" by Phoenix came on.  I have on any occasion attempted to figure out the lyrics and mentioned to him that, try as I might, I could not grok what they were singing about.  He admitted that he was in the same boat (despite the fact that we were in his pickup).  Out comes the Instant Trivia Device!  (Most of you know that as a smart phone, but really, I use mine predominantly to find answers to random questions that pop into my head.)  A quick Google search brings up the lyrics.  Here, let me share:

So sentimental, not sentimental no
Romantic not disgusting yet
Darling, I'm down and lonely when with the fortunate only
I've been looking for something else
Do let, do let, do let, jugulate, do let, do let, do

Let's go slowly discouraged
Distant from other interests on your favorite weekend ending
This love's for gentlemen only that's with the fortunate only
No, I gotta be someone else
These days it comes, it comes, it comes, it comes, it comes and goes

Lisztomania
Think less but see it grow like a riot, like a riot, oh
I'm not easily offended
It's not hard to let it go from a mess to the masses

Lisztomania
Think less but see it grow like a riot, like a riot, oh
I'm not easily offended
It's not hard to let it go from a mess to the masses

Follow, misguide, stand still
Disgust, discourage on this precious weekend ending
This love's for gentlemen only, wealthiest gentlemen only
And now that you're lonely
Do let, do let, do let, jugulate, do let, do let, do

Let's go slowly discouraged, we'll burn the pictures instead
When it's all over we can barely discuss
For one minute only, not with the fortunate only
Thought it could have been something else
These days it comes, it comes, it comes, it comes, it comes and goes

Lisztomania
Think less but see it grow like a riot, like a riot, oh
I'm not easily offended
It's not hard to let it go from a mess to the masses

Lisztomania
Think less but see it grow like a riot, like a riot, oh
I'm not easily offended
It's not hard to let it go from a mess to the masses

This is show time, this is show time, this is show time
This is show time, this is show time, this is show time
Time, time is your love, time is your love, yes time is your
Time, time is your love, time is your love, yes time is your

From the mess to the masses

Lisztomania
Think less but see it grow like a ride, like a ride, oh
Discuss, discuss, discuss
Discuss, discuss, discouraged

Sooooo...yeah.  After much careful study (and a dive into the dictionary - jugulate is a real word.  It means to kill by slitting the throat of the victim) I think I know EXACTLY what the lead sing is saying.  It translates to "I forgot to take my anti-psychotics this week."  *nods knowingly*

However, I still totally dig this song.  It's just a hell of a lot of fun.  Lyrics be damned!

And for those of you who are not into classical music - the word Lisztomania was first coined to describe the fan frenzy that occurred whenever Franz Liszt performed.  Proving that crazy fangirls were not created by the Beatles and in fact existed at least as far back as the 1840s.

Not giving up...

Got distracted by the holidays and lack of motivation, but I'm not going to give up on the blog.  Things have settled and we've recovered from the holiday financial crunch, so I think I'll have more to babble about.  I'm seriously hoping to get out to more shows this year.  We weren't able to get season tickets for the opera this year, but I'm really going to try to get to one of the last shows.  I just have to get my act together.

So, what's been happening musically in my life - mostly practicing the ukulele and listening to my iTunes.  I've finally started wrapping my fingers around the B and Bb chords.  These chords are identical, just one fret off.  They require me to press 2 strings with my forefinger and then two other strings with the 2nd and 3rd finger.  Problem being with getting the pressure right on both the strings the forefinger is holding AND keeping my hand raised enough that my wedding ring doesn't touch the first string.  I am now able to do this, but I'm still having trouble being able to do it consistently when switching from other chords.  I am getting there, though.

I now have 10,247 songs on my iTunes thanks to Best Buy's sale bins.  I specifically went there to pick up The Black Keys new album, El Camino.  It is an excellent rocking album, with a lot of energetic songs.  This was the first release:

The don't appear to have an official music video.  I chose this one because the guy was having such a fun time with the song and the music quality was perfect to the album.  As you can hear, it is another one of my perky dysfunctional love songs.

The other 3 CDs I picked up were Greatest hits albums.  Electric Light Orchestra, All Over the World, which at $10 for 20 songs was a great buy; The Best of Berlin, because I'm an 80s music type of gal; and The Best of Louis Armstrong, because I'm also a big band/jazz type of gal.  What amuses me is that I've got a lot of Louis Armstrong music, but I did not have one of the songs on this particular Best Of album.  Which just goes to show that when you've made that much music, you really can't have a Best of album without making it a double or triple album.  The latter 2 albums I found in the $4.99 sale bin and I could have spent quite a lot more on music had I not already given myself a limit (which I was well over just grabbing the 2).

So, with that I'll sign off.  May go see if I can add Eb to my repertoire.

The Pirate Charles

*looks around guiltily* Okay, how about we pretend that I haven't been slacking for a couple of weeks and instead have posted some really good music, so I don't have to make up some lame excuse for not posting.  No?  Yeah, okay, I've been bad.  I'll try to do better.

So, for the real post.  Last week our friend Rock gave us an album because he knows about our love of pirate music.  The album is Conquer and the band is The Pirate Charles (warning: the page autoloads music, and I find no way to turn it off).  Now, this is not a Renaissance pirate group, like so much of my pirate music.  These guys are rock musicians.  They do have a mandolin, a couple of fiddles and a very Ian Andersonesque flutist, but they also have some good heavy guitars and drums.  The music is mostly about drinking, wenching and thievery on the high seas.  I dig them.  The appear to be from somewhere in the Northwest going by their schedule, so I'm hoping to catch them sometime if I go up to see my brother in Oregon.

Vocally, none of them have overwhelmingly awesome voices.  They sing a bit rough, which is totally acceptable for both the music genre and the theme of the group.  Now, they do harmonize very well and I think y'all are aware of my love of good harmonies.  Musically, they are very tight.  On the album, there is a good balance between the acoustic instruments and the electric instruments.  The sound on the live performances on their videos isn't very good, but it seems that they balance fairly well on stage as well.

My favorite song?  The Star Spangled Banner.  No, really.  You know how they told you in music class that Key only wrote the lyrics, the music was from an old drinking song?  And do you remember - like I do - thinking "No way are a bunch of drunks going to be able to sing this music."?  Well, TPC convinced me.  This is the Star Spangled Banner as sung by a bunch of drunk, but very patriotic lads down at the local pub.  I in no way shape or form find this in the least bit insulting.  In fact, I was very sorry that I couldn't find a YouTube video so I could share the love.

So, I'll share this one instead.  It gives you a good idea of both their harmonies and their ability to rock.  Unfortunately, the sound isn't the greatest once the guitars kick in, but its good enough that you get the idea.  And no, the lead singer isn't playing a tambourine.  He's playing his flogger.  It's THAT kind of fun. :)

They've a bunch more videos on YouTube than they do on their website.  I suggest you go have some piratical fun.

Guilty Pleasure

*looks around cautiously*

Don't tell anyone, but....I kinda dig this video

No, I'm not a Belieber or anything.  However, I'm also not a jealous adult who will give him shit for being famous.  All that fuss about his hair?  Dude, he had the same haircut that John Lennon had when the Beatles started out!  Talentless?  No, not really.  He can actually carry a tune pretty well (although there is a touch of Autotune in this song, I'm thinking it's more b) moo than lack of talent).  He's not what I'm going to regularly listen to, but I'm also not about to fuss over a reasonably clean cut kid who is an appropriately aged teen idol.  Not my generation - not my place to dis.

But the video - Steampunk and awesome breakdancing.  Hell, I might even give Ke$ha brownie points for doing that!

Slow music week...

I haven't run into any new music this week.  Granted, I haven't been looking for it, but I usually have at least one friend post or email a cool video every few days.  So, if anyone is actually reading this thing, I kindly request you post a video or music link to your favorite obscure artist's favorite obscure song.  Because I could use another artist that I now desperately need to buy all the music they've ever created including the crappy first album that they recorded in their parents' garage. :)

On another note (ha! see what I did there?) I finally broke down and bought Ukulele for Dummies and it came in this week.  I've been doing pretty well figuring out a large chunk of the chords on my own, but bar chords are kicking my butt.  I figured it was time for a little help.  They guy who wrote it - Alistair Wood - is British and right off the bat I found out something that I didn't know before.  We Americans use completely different names for the notes than the British do.  I would expect this means that any English speaking European uses different names, seeing as they get their English lessons from the source.  So, for those like me who didn't know, but want to (the rest of you can just skip) here's the run down.

We say whole, half, quarter, eighth and sixteenth notes.

They say semibreve, minim, crotchet, quaver and semiquaver notes.

He states in the introduction that he's going to use the American notes because they make more sense.  Which I'm rather glad of, because I don't know that I could wrap my set-in-its-ways brain around the other system.

Okay, to kick off (hopefully) some music sharing here is Plink Floyd, banjo virtuoso (no, that's not a typo) playing with Steamboat Willie:

And one more with Steamboat Willie himself singing:

It is time.

Okay, I've mentioned before that I'm not Christian, but I still enjoy the holiday season.  However, I've got a love/hate relationship with the music.  At the beginning of the season I really like it.  By Christmas day I'm so tired of it that I never want to hear it again.  I've 178 end of the year seasonal songs on my iTunes (and I state it that way because while most are Christmas songs, I've got a handful of Hanukkah and Yule songs as well).  The day after Thanksgiving is the day they are allowed to go onto the iPod where I might hear them regularly.  The day after Thanksgiving is also the day I stop scowling at everyone who has already started the season, either by music, decorations, or sales. 

And even though it's definitely a religious song, this is probably my absolute favorite seasonal song. 

And this arrangement is probably the best I've heard it done.  When I was singing as a professional caroler (Victorian caroler, mind, so I was singing in a corset.  I'm that badass.) one of our tenors learned David Bowie's part, so, I've actually sung something very close to this.

And with that, it's officially the {insert your preferred end of the year celebration} season in my house.

Fun, Fun, Fun

I've found that sometimes it's easier to pick up a song on the ukulele, if I silently run through the chords while listening to the song.  It's much easier to do this if I have the music on my iPod rather than haul my uke and music stand to the office to listen to them on Pandora or YouTube.  So, I'm buying the music when I think about it.  To that end, today I picked up the Beach Boys Greatest Hits.  I've found several songs of theirs with chords that I already know.  However, I've found that since it's been years (in some cases decades) since I've heard some of these songs, I definitely needed a refresher course.

I'm really enjoying listening to this music.  You can babble about nostalgia or looking back on a time of greater innocence of you like, but when you get right down to it, Beach Boy music is Fun.  I mean, really - bouncy music with tight harmonies, what's not to love?  And I'm not buying the innocence bullshit, either.  They may have been more subtle in what they were singing about, but I'm saying he wasn't wanting Rhonda to hold his hand in order to forget the girl that dumped him.  Or not dating so he doesn't leave hist best girl home on a Saturday night while he goes out in his hotrod and picks up chicks.   Because, you know, he's just going to drive them up and down the drag and then let them out of the car.  Yeah.

I do have to wonder if at any point in their career, they ever decided that they were too old to sing "Be True to Your School". 

 

I totally dig the car in the picture.  Yes, I wanted Archie's jalopy, too.

Yes, it's a tad misogynistic, but not enough to ruin the song.  And yes, he's an ass, but I did like David Lee Roth's version.

And then there is this one,which I know totally lends itself to ukulele, because The Corsairs did it with ukulele.  I was glad to hear they still had talent, but seriously wish that they'd followed up with more new stuff.  Oh, well.

I think I'll let it go with that.  After all, this music isn't going to just listen to itself, you know.