I will be alone again tonight my dear

I don't know how I've made it this long on here without giving this song, possibly the greatest song ever, the proper respect it deserves. Of course I'm referring to Love's "Alone Again Or," first track from the album Forever Changes (one of the best albums, ever).

Take a listen



Downright amazing, isn't it?? You may recognize the song from Wes Anderson's Bottle Rocket, or from the Calexico cover a few year back, or just from it being a goddamn great song.

The flamenco-esque style works so well, with in the trumpet highlights and then the most excellent solo in the middle, accompanied by strings. The vocals are borderline desperate, which creates some tension with the upbeat instrumental arrangement, resulting in awesome. Words fail me. Just listen to the song again, and appreciate all that Love has done for us.

WHY? videos. Why not?

Here's a couple of videos from a band that's becoming one of my favorites, WHY?. I've talked about them a few times on here, but have never put up any of their videos. It's kind of funny, neither of these videos were made by the band, they were both made by fans, and the band has sort of adopted them as the "official" video for each song.

First up is "Dumb Hummer," with a really fun video:



Next it's one of my Vital Flenker Tracks, "Gemini (Birthday Song)." I love this song, and this video fits it so well, it's incredibly well done. It almost makes me want to cry.



Enjoy! I'll be back Monday with a post.

Austin Ink

Here are a few pictures from my excitement from yesterday. This is something that I've been wanting to get for a while now, from one of the Vital Flenker Tracks, "Concierto de Aranjuez." It's the first few bars (I originally wanted more of it, but it would've ended up bigger than I was wanting, and a lot more expensive. A lot more expensive.), along with a couple of figures from the cover art of Sketches of Spain, the album the song appears on.





If you can't tell, this is on my upper right arm, wrapping around. It's neato, at least I think so. And just to show it, here's the tattoo that I had gotten many many years ago.



It's on my back, right between my shoulder blades. Yes, it's from a video game, I know. It means a little more than just that, it's also representative of a band I was in at the time, and just a big part of my life. But that's something for a different post. For now, I need to get off of the computer and go to bed. Let me know what you think, though!

Concierto de Aranjuez

So I've been slacking a little in my Vital Flenker Tracks, naming only one so far, but that's something I'm hoping to change in the next hundred posts, along with the Flenker's Thumbs Up movie rating system. Today, I'm introducing a new track, one of my all-time favorites.

In either my junior or senior year of college, I took a trip to Iowa City to see the Chicago Jazz Ensemble perform. The program for the night was Miles Davis's Sketches of Spain, an album recorded in '59/'60. I was taken with the song "Concierto de Aranjuez" from that point on, and I quickly found Davis's version. Ever since then, it has been one of my favorite songs of all-time. (I even made my roommate Dan promise me he'd have it played at my funeral.)

So this song becomes the second Vital Flenker Track, because of its simplicity, its wonderful melody, and just its overall beauty. Enjoy this clip (the only recording I could easily find on the internet) of the middle (Adagio) section. The full song is over 16 minutes long, and ends too quickly every time I listen.

When we're on different sides of the globe

In this post, I mentioned how I had heard a new song that I fell in love with and put on my mix CD. Since everyone has received my mix now, I thought I'd end the suspense and let everyone not involved with the Exchange in on the wonderful song. The song to which I'm referring is Gemini (Birthday Song) by WHY? You can find it on the myspace page, it's the last song listed (you'll have to use the scroll bar to get to it on the list).

What first caught my ear about this song was the vocal line, the timbre and rhythm and just a basic idea of some of the lyrics. Musically, it seemed kind of upbeat, but there was a tinge of some melancholy piano lines in the background. Upon closer listening, the lyrics display a wide array of emotions, but ultimately this is a sad song. It also has some "dirty" lyrics, like the following selection

Today I fell asleep in a bath of hair.
Hair that once sprouted from my own
white wet chalk follicles.
I swallow a coal
and follow my breath
and I did it with the grapefruit soap
thinking of you.

and

When I ask you to kiss my pulse
you offer to start the shower.
I want a verb and you give me a noun.
What do you dream up while I tongue you down?

I think lyrically this is a pretty amazing song. It doesn't use any cliche imagery, everything comes off fresh. I especially like the lines

don't regret the done dirt
there is no life plan set
you just swallow the cold
and follow your breath until death

The song, to me, is about a relationship that the narrator is reflecting upon, one that fell apart.

I wanted to make this some sort of "epic" post, breaking the song down and everything, but I'm having a really hard time trying to come up with some good way of dissecting this song. Every time I do, I feel like I kind of cheapen it and that I don't quite do it justice. I don't feel like I can really get on here and say "this is what this song means, this is what the songwriter meant and what he was feeling, etc." This song, for whatever reason, strikes a chord (pardon the pun) with me, and that's why I'm making it the first song in my new feature, Vital Flenker Tracks.

Vital Flenker Tracks (VFT) will be something that I'll post from time to time, consisting of songs that score the highest points with me, songs that I feel have a special meaning to me or ones that I hear and instantly love. Like this song from WHY?, which fits just about every one of those criteria. I'll try to get a few songs per week, but it won't be on any set schedule. How can I tell when I'll fall in love with a song? They can come from unexpected places. Maybe this will eventually make it into a mix cd, but for now, I just want to share the songs that I love, in any way possible. Perhaps I'll come up with some clever logo, or maybe someone else will. And I'll put up a special section off to the side once I get a few more songs introduced. For now, enjoy Gemini, I hope you can find your own meaning in it, let me know what you think.