i have tasted the maggots in the mind of the universe, and i was not offended...

Maggot Brain was the opening track to the 1971 album of the same name by Funkadelic. Having been recorded in one take, the song was the result of George Clinton telling Eddie Hazel to play while thinking of the saddest thing he could, the death of his mother. Clinton liked Hazel's genius performance so much that he faded the rest of the band out, making it one of the most powerful guitar instrumentals in the history of rock'n'roll. The song itself is beautifully melancholic piece that shifts from rising fierce and terrifying to lulling and lamenting interludes. Definitely one to turn the speakers up and sit back and completely take in.

Funkadelic - Maggot Brain

Feast for a Linguist's Ears

Ok, so today's excellent post comes from my friend Anna:

I could spend hours analyzing Solomons Pijin, the language of the Melanesian Brotherhood. An Anglican community based in the Solomon Islands, their music is a beautiful goosebump-inspiring chant. If it sounds familiar, you've probably seen The Thin Red Line, a film that used a whole CD's worth of their songs. A translation of the title of this song is Jesus You Hold My Hand.

Choir of All Saints - Jisas yu holem hand blong mi

(Sorry Anna, I would have posted this earlier, but Blogger was giving me crap...Also, if anyone else wants to do a post, you're more than welcome!)

give my umbrella to the rain dogs

Good morning. Betcha can't guess how I chose the song for today! Isn't correlating weather and song titles fun? I have a very off and on relationship with Mr. Waits. There are days when his music rattles right past my ears, and then there are sleep-deprived days that lurch and creak along and Tom and I inhabit them with miscreant gusto. Shuffling to class through the grey leaky campus seems somehow rectified in light of the announcement "For I am a raindog too!" Tom always has just the right words for these occasions.

Tom Waits - Raindogs

abba dabba doo

haha. happy friday everyone.

Redd Kross - Dancing Queen

fight or flight

Yes, those are the options everyone, so choose wisely. The genetics quiz, genetics lab quiz, class from 8 - 4:30 on 5 hours of sleep, lab going an hour over, and the early christian thought research paper due tomorrow have forced me into this position.

Option #1: Let the comforting warm, pleasant baritone of Krishna Das help you transcend this world of deadlines, paperwork and $100 for not-guaranteed parking passes.

Krishna Das - Mere Gurudev
Option #2: Show them you mean business. Pour gasoline down the hole of bureaucracy and let 'em have it with clip after clip of double bass as the hordes of previously droning automatons run in fear leaving transparencies and class notes to the flames.

Carcass - Heartwork

glad you made it home

Okay, time for some audio-visual action today. The song for today is from a movie that Friendly Static showed me last week, which is located here. The film is fascinating to watch, and it was almost as interesting to learn how they made it. As good of a job as they did making the video though, the soundtrack is essential and stands completely on it's own as a song. It was actually made for another film by a composer named Greg Hale Jones. Jones's work consists of old 1930's folk recordings mixed with modern instrumentation, a combination that he was very talented in mixing. Unfortunately Jones recently died, so we will never get to hear what more he might have made. "Boll Weevil" is a testament to that potential, as the glistening melody prompts a sense of wistful yearning in between the harmonies of the vocals and banjo and the sauntering percussion.

Greg Hale Jones - Boll Weevil (removed on request)

this boy is exhausted

I was driving back from Virginia Tech last year at around one in the morning and I was listening to an mp3 cd I had made with about 300 songs on it, and this song came on. I had only a couple My Morning Jacket songs at that point, and wasn't all that familar with them so I didn't even recognize it as them. I actually thought it was a random live Modest Mouse song or something, (it was one in the morning), but regardless, the song immediately affected me. There was something about the slightly out of tune acquiescence of the song that made me feel like Jim Jones knew all about the big angsty burden on my back, but it didn't matter anymore. There aren't many songs like this, so enjoy the last half-hour of daylight and have a seat on the porch while MMJ put away those old september blues.

My Morning Jacket - Old September Blues

machine gun etiquette

see you walking and i know shes my friend, again
just the weight of the water drags me down, again
guess i'll think of the water its my friend, oh yea
it's just the way that the water makes me feel again

son of sheba i saw him drown
son of yellow i saw him drown
it's all i need yeah

Slowdive - Machine Gun

the new smile

Here is a track from The Cure's American debut, Boys Don't Cry. I bought this album on an impulse over Christmas break and since have been glad that I did. Before The Cure got all moany they wrote some quite excellent poppy new wave songs like this one here.

The Cure - Jumping Somene Else's Train

this song is only here to impress you

Here is a song from my small collection of classical music that I like. It is from Vivaldi's Four Seasons, something my mother played alot for me when I was very young, so there is probably a nostalgic element to it. That aside though, this piece is very engaging to me with the violins manically vacillating all over the scale and the powerful lower end of cellos, (or whatever), keeping a satisfying rhythm going throughout the song. Some songs I can just see in my head, and the kinetic flow of the notes eddying at parts and whipping at breakneck speed in others during this song make it so much fun to listen to. (Also if anyone knows of other music similar to this, please let me know.)

Vivaldi - L'estate Presto

i don't like reggae

My friend Beth sent me this song the other day, and I don't like it...I love it. Ok that was lame. But its my blog and I can do what I want. In other news, my buddy has just today started his own mp3 blog, so all y'all should go post disparaging comments there. I suppose you could be nice though if you felt like it, he actually put a real nice song up. But its nothing to compare to white british reggae from the 70's. You might recognize it from the Snatch soundtrack.

10cc - Dreadlock Holiday

Stomp!

I cannot stop listening to this song. It is so catchy. I randomly picked this song from my mp3's this morning to listen to on my iriver during art, and I probably listened to it six times in a row. George and Louis Johnson, (played bass on Thriller), make up the core of this group, that started in the early 1970's. They have played with Bobby Womack and the Supremes and have done extensive work with Quincy Jones. They put out Stomp in 1980. Ok, enough already, just listen to the song.

The Brothers Johnson - Stomp

G to the R to the A to the V, E to the D to the I to the G, G to the A to the zigzag-Z

Yeah, so I'm going to be real original today and post a track by the Gravediggaz, even though Evigan Funk did a week or so ago. Well, I justify it because he has stopped doing that blog now and has moved onto another. Anyways, he posted 1-800 Suicide and Pass the Shovel by this entertaining and extremely talented Misfits of hip-hop, which I loved and bought the album over break, (see RIAA...I have some honor!). I'm not going to try and pretend that I know alot about the members involved and the history of the group, I'll let this dude fill you in if'n you're interested. All I can say is that 6 Feet Deep, which this track is from does not have one crap track. The song that I chose to post here I think other than 1-800 Sucide does a pretty good job of summarizing what I like about the album. The completely unhinged guitar loop sliding in and out of the death-rattle high-hat and a back beat stomping to it's own otherworldly rhythm combine with each rapper's individual abilities to paint the dark portrait of the grim and smoggy world the Gravediggaz inhabit.

Gravediggaz - Defective Trip (Trippin)

cheers

Okay. I am back. Break was good, saw the gates in N.Y., drove alot and of course chilled with the pig. I just re-watched Shaun of the Dead last night with my brother and I liked it every bit as much as the first time I saw it. I think that everything important in life can be distilled down to how you behave during a zombie invasion, and that movie I think points this out in style. My favorite scene was where Shaun and Liz are forced to leave Ed to wait for the zombies alone due to his injuries and he jovially says "cheers!"as he smokes his last cigarette. I only wish that I was so blithe in accepting my gory fate if I ever found myself in that situation. It might be easier if I had this song playing as I unloaded my 3 last bullets into the encroaching horde.

Type O Negative - My Girlfriend's Girlfriend