Piano / Stuff I'm Sad I'm Missing / Fucking Martha

Just worked through the theme and first variation of Beethoven's Sonata 12. Part of the reason I love Beethoven so much is those "what the fuck" moments: "Stacked fifths over here?" "Stacked fourths over there!?" "How long must you wait before throwing in accidentals and why do they make so much sense?" "Ocatves of Eb to D, then E, then F, G, Ab...in Eb major?" "This chord contains the top three notes of the Schoenberg chord..." "Is that a d diminished flat 9 over F!?! Passing dissonances my ass!" And yet even after plunking through a few sight-reads, it all finds its context in place. Fun stuff, although I kind of wanted to try for the tempest...heheh.

Because of a really really cool solo daytrip up to Montreal to see the big OP on Feb 20th, and a following rather expensive ticket to see Muse on Mar 6th, and a trip with friends soon after, I can't really justify any new concerts until like midapril. Which sucks, because so many good acts are coming through, even to the 18+ shows that I'll be able to head to now:

1/15 - Drug Rug
1/17 - Camper van Beethoven
1/27 - Of Montreal
2/10-11 - Magnetic Fields
2/13 - Tegan and Sara
2/18 - Editors
3/11 - Balkan Beat Box
2/20 - Fucked Up
3/27 - Spoon
3/27 - Toro y Moi (for $9, I'd do it, guy was sick on the Islands tour)
3/31 - Japandroids
3/31 - Miike Snow
4/3 - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
4/4 - Wilco
4/10 - Xiu Xiu
4/17 - Kaki King (eep)

1963
Aaaand Coakley is ruining everything because Brown knows how to appeal to the 30- and 40-somethings who were barely alive when Kennedy got elected, never had a sense of legacy about the Kennedy family, and are more pissed about their lost job or home than anything else. Fuck me.

Listening to Arcade Fire is both a Euphamism and a Literal Truth

And I'm avoiding Funeral like the plague because I only listen to that once a year, and I might break down entirely if I hear it. So I'm going through Neon Bible, Us Kids Know EP, Christmas EP, just finished a Glastonbury show...I'll queue up the White Session and the early Demo, and then play my rather large and redundant b-sides playlist ("brazil!").

I'm partway through a lyrical analysis post, and I'm really behind on a bunch of mixtapes. Gotta keep up, Aly.

Content: what I condsider to be my Arcade Fire "discography" (I never could find those rarer Neighborhood tracks:

LPs:

Funeral
Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
Une Annee Sans Lumiere
Neighborhood #3 (Power out)
Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles)
Crown of Love
Wake Up
Haiti
Rebellion (Lies)
In the Backseat

Neon Bible
Black Mirror
Keep the Car Running
Neon Bible
Intervention
Black Wave/Bad Vibrations
Ocean of Noise
The Well and the Lighthouse
(Antichrist Television Blues)
Windowsill
No Cars Go
My Body is a Cage

EPs / Singles:

Us Kids Know
Old Flame
I'm Sleeping in a Submarine
No Cars Go
The Woodlands National Anthem
My Heart is an Apple
Headlights Look Like Diamonds
Vampire/Forest Fire

The Arcade Fire + LCD Soundsystem Tour 7"
Poupee de Cire, Poupee de Son (Serge Gainsbourg cover)

Rebellion (Lies)
Rebellion (Lies)
Brazil

Neighborhood #3
Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) (Album Version)
Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) (Alternate Take)

Keep the Car Running
Keep the Car Running
Broken Window

Christmas EP
Chestnuts Roasting
Oh Holy Night
Jinglebell Rock
A Very Arcade Xmas
It Clouded Fully (Brendan)
The Spartans (Brendan)
In the Attic (Boston)
Asleep at the Wheel
Old Flame
Submarine
In the Backseat
Headlights

Older Demos

2001 Demo (Boston?)
Winter for a Year
My Mind is a Freeway
Accidents
Goodnight Boy
Asleep at the Wheel
In the Attic
Can't Let Go of You
You Tried to Turn Away my Fears
Instrumental
The Great Arcade Fire

Demo Tape
Sonata
The Flood
Winter for A Year

Soundtracks

Six Feet Under Sountrack
Cold Wind

Assorted Collections

B-Sides (Collection)
Brazil (Live)
Virgin Mary Highway (Live)
Burning Bridges, Breaking Hearts (Live)
Asleep at the Wheel
Surf City Eastern Block (Live)
Alligator Mine (Live)
William Pierce (Live)
Cars and Telephones
Intervention (Live)
Intervention (Studio)

Covers (Collection)
Maps (Live Lounge)(Live)
Age of Consent (New Order)(Live)
Born on a Train (Magnetic Fields)(Live)
Guns of Brixton
Five Years (Bowie)(Live)
State Trooper (Springsteen)(Live)
Naive Melody (Talking Heads)(studio)
Naive Melody (Talking Heads(live)
Heroes (Bowie)

Live Shows

Download Festival 2005 (Live '05)
Intro
Wake Up
Laika
No Cars Go
Haiti
I'm Sleeping in a Submarine
State Trooper
Crown of Love
Tunnels
Power Out
Rebellion (Lies)
In the Backseat

Emo's in Austin, Texas (Live in '05)
Wake Up
Laika
No Cars Go
Headlights Look Like Diamonds
Une Annee Sans Lumiere
Power Out
Rebellion (Lies)
Born on a Train (Magnetic Fields Cover)
7 Kettles
Crown of Love
Tunnels
Naive Melody
Haiti
In the Backseat

KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic ('05)
Intro
Wake Up
7 Kettles
Vampire/Forest Fire
(Interview)
Intervention
Born on a Train (Magnetic Fields Cover)
In the Back Seat
Outro

White Sessions ('05)
Intro
Wake Up
Laika
No Cars Go
Une Annee Sans Lumiere
Power out
Rebellion (Lies)
7 Kettles
Crown of Love
Tunnels
Outro

Live at the Orpheum Theater, Boston (Live in '07)
Black Mirror
No Cars Go
Haiti
In The Backseat
Neighbourhood #2 (Laika)
My Body Is A Cage
Windowsill
The Well and The Lighthouse
Ocean of Noise
Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels)
(Antichrist Television Blues)
Keep The Car Running
Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out)
Rebellion (Lies)
Intervention
Neon Bible

Live at T.T. the Bear's, Cambridge (Live in '04)
Wake Up
Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
Une Annee Sans Lumiere
Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) / Rebellion (Lies)
Naive Melody (Talking Heads)
Haiti
Headlights Look Like Diamonds
Burning Bridges, Breaking Hearts
Crown of Love
Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
No Cars Go
In the Backseat

Missing

Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
Neighborhood #1 (Tunnles)
My Buddy (Alvino Rey Orchestra)(also available on the single for Neighborhood #2)

Intervention B/W Ocean of Noise
Intervention
Ocean of Noise (Calexo)

No Cars Go
No Cars Go
Surf City Eastern Bloc

Live EP with Davoid Bowie (iTunes release)
...

The Box (score)

Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?
Neighborhood #5 (Hockey)

Stuff I'm Spinning / Piano

I've just been idly plugging things in, too reduced by sickness and fatigue to do some honest reviews. I feel cloudy.

Heartbeat Radio - Sondre Lerche. The guy did some fantastic work for "Dan in Real Life," and some of his other records have some interesting parts to them. When he strips away his rock influences for his acoustic focus, or generally turns down the rock for more lounge-style stuff, I'm often frustrated. His songwriting can be frustratingly convoluted, and although he has a pretty good sense of melody, his lyricism can be frustrating . He has a smooth sound, and occasionally his lounge stuff reaches good points, but the most of "Two Way Monologue" was difficult for me. Same with "Heartbeat Radio," except now he's discovered violins. His arranging in certain parts is good, and "I Guess It's Gonna Rain Today" has some wonderful intervals...but damn, he just doesn't know how to create flow and hang with it.

Tarot Sport - Fuck Buttons. I was really excited when I heard they had a new album, and I'm still working through it. However, my first impression is...disappointment. I don't like the dancey aspect to it. They used the 4/4 bass drum as a sort of pivot before, a basis or a spine, around which the song pivoted, struck against, shone with...I'm thinking directly of "Colours Move," but the regularity of the drums in a few other songs from Street Horrrsing provides a similar effect. I feel like they're...letting up a bit. That's just my first impression; I expect it to grow on me blah blah blah.

Fluent in Stroll - Big D and the Kids Table. The newfound cute self-defined "Stroll" genre is an excuse for '50s throwback and childish lyrics spiced with that same, somewhat annoying, female backup. I loved their earlier stuff, but I don't like the direction of this. Shame.

Kasabian. I'm listening to everything I can find, I love it I love it I love it I love it.



My chopin prelude (Db major for Kessler, the name "Raindrop" is highly inapt) is going awfully. I barely practiced and had no lessons ove the past three weeks. I've lost my technical ability over the parts, and I can barely play the second part of the middle section (with those rich, dissonant, tortured chords). Since it's such good music to hole up to and bash away at, in stress or peace, I think I'll spend my free time remastering certain technical aspects.

This totally leaves open all the texture-related and gesture-related and personal stuff that I should be doing. I need adjectives, and I need to stick with them and express them. I've had a few wonderful discussion about the nature of silence in the piece, and about the strange pivot point of the Ab/G# and its importance/relevance. I can barely do roman numeral analysis and I want to entirely split apart the piece and look for those golden gels and glowly liquids undearneath its placid skin. It has an unmatched range of emotion, but because the 3 statements of theme are so simliar (with the rich opportunity for contrast in the ornamentation), flow is so vitally important. How do you lead up to the creeping terror of the B section? How do you surface from it? How can you emerge from the silence, cascading down the piano in that Db major chord, with such expectation of rising again? To what? Where are we going?

I am thus overpowered by the work.

Comedown

I've been crashing all of today, half because I was up till 2 and got up at 6:30 for classes.

But, the other half is because Prop One passed in Maine, and now a large group of society of people who love each other very very much cannot get the institutional benefits, societal stability, and personal comfort that comes from a marriage. I'm slightly heartened by the small margin of the victory, as was true in prop eight; currently, the activism power of Human Rights' groups aren't enough to unseat deep-rooted beliefs and fictions about homosexuality or about queer rights. We'll always have Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, and soon New Hampshire, but Maine isn't exactly a hotbed of liberalism. So there was a veto.

One of the frustrating things about all this is the strange state of the queer voice in all this. Of all the 10 states with the highest population of LGB (ignoring our Ts and As and Qs, as usual), none of them have gay marriage laws in place; and of the states with the highest percentage population, only 3 do. And then there's fucking Iowa! If Iowa of all places does it, why not Maine, with the 5th highest percent population of LGB folks?

I'd love to take a greater look at other statistical influences here, like religious focus in certain states compared to the results of propositions like Cali's 8 and Maine's 1, but...I'm too busy crying over all of this.