Listening to a new album whose title makes it built for rainy days…

Here are some old images from my journaling days:

I have over 45 journals of my writings. They are hidden in boxes and will probably be discovered after I pass. I don’t know what’s in most of them. I do know I keep important things written down. I chronicle the things that matter to me. I’ve moved to the digital realm but I miss the feeling of really writing. It cleans out the soul. I need to get in the practice of it again.

I’ve been listening to a lot of Vampire Weekend lately. I don’t know, but maybe the Prep Rock just fits my idea of summer – days on Cape Cod, popped collar polos, bleeding madras sports coats. My trip to the Hamptons coincided with this re-discovery, so it was nice to get that WASP-Y prep rock blasting through my ears.

I love highly literate music. When Jeff Tweedy quotes Henry Miller during “Ashes of American Flags” from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, I fell in love with Wilco. The double and triple meanings of the poetry in hip hop music has always made it something I’ve loved. Vampire Weekend’s “Oxford Comma” always makes me laugh because of this.

The song’s chorus asks, “Why would you lie about how much coal you have?”

Well, lying about how much coal you have can easily be done through the omission of an oxford comma.

An oxford comma is the comma right before the ‘and’ in a series.

I have 100 pounds of iron, 50 pounds of steel, and coal.
I have 100 pounds of iron, 50 pounds of steel and coal.

See the difference?  The “optional” comma allows for misinterpretation of what the writer is saying.   “But why would you lie about how much coal you have? Why would you lie about something dumb like that?”

Okay, I’m a bit of a nerd because of this, but I can’t help it.

And it ain’t no use in turnin’ on your light, babe
That light I never knowed
An’ it ain’t no use in turnin’ on your light, babe
I’m on the dark side of the road
But I wish there was somethin’ you would do or say
To try and make me change my mind and stay
We never did too much talkin’ anyway
But don’t think twice, it’s all right….

I don’t know which came first.  My love for Bob Dylan or the cynicism.  Rob Gordon asks the question but the answer is never provided.  Still, I find such beautiful, cynical music to be so compelling.  I’ve been in a Dylan mood for the past few weeks and I don’t foresee it going away.

I’m writing a book.  It’s a love story of sorts and it’s a bit of a departure from my previous writings.  Stylistically, it will probably be the same because that’s just the way I write.  But from a plot perspective, I am starting to carve out a distinct plot where my previous writings were mostly just ramblings that I would edit down.

Songs and love are something that I talk about a lot – often together.  Looking back on my eclectic music collection, I see many of the similar songs that I once used as inspiration in my more naive and blissful days.  I can’t replicate all those mix tapes from back in the day – made with Skeff, in college, and many times after – but I can write about a few of my songs that might be a bit off the radar from the conventional mix-tape.

Lover Lay Down – Dave Matthews Band

It’s hard to say that this song was under the radar, but it definitely wasn’t one of Dave’s top hits, coming on his breakout release “Under the Table and Dreaming.” For anyone growing up in the 1990′s, Dave Matthews represents the sweet saccharine songs that wowed girls and either inspired boys and made them run for the hills. I was inspired – the hopeless romantic long before I really knew what that was all about. Listening to this song for the first time in a long time (a decade, perhaps?), I can’t help but enjoy it’s simple beauty. My tastes in music may have evolved past Dave Matthews by the turn of the century, but he still knows how to write a good love song….

Forever – Ben Harper

Maybe the cynical streak is something I was born with – or at least, embedded with due to parental divorce and a uncomfortable adolescence. Either way, this song made it’s way onto so many mix tapes that I almost think it was a single – even though it definitely wasn’t. Ben would actually make many appearances on these sort of mix tapes – with songs like “Steal my Kisses” off of “Burn to Shine” being the most memorable.

Can’t Hardly Wait – The Replacement

This was always a classic staple on a mix tape – even though I’m a much bigger ‘Mats fan today than I ever was back then. It’s a classic. Not much to really write about it….

Luna – The Smashing Pumpkins

The Smashing Pumpkins were the hot band in High School. One of my favorite albums growing up was Siamese Dream. While most girls got into them during the Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness string of hits, I loved them earlier. This song was my way of being “cool” – putting a sweet song from a band that they already loved. It’s a classic mix tape move – one that I probably would still do, even if the song selection has improved.

Lullaby (Goodnight my Angel) – Billy Joel

Sure – the song is written about his daughter. My younger self even knew that. Still, I figured most girls wouldn’t and I kept this song to be one of the key closers on any good romantic mix tape. I’m not a big Billy Joel fan, but he still writes beautiful music that appeals to the masses. In other words, the perfect closer to a mix tape…

Of course, making a mix tape is a lot more than picking a few songs and putting them together. It’s about flow and balance and all those stuff that I’ve written about a million times. I just wanted to relive some of the thoughts I used to have around making tapes. Now, with my love life a lot more complicated and unpredictable, sometimes being able to just make a tape is exactly where I need to be…..

I couldn’t help but suddenly feel the intense desire to search the song that is describing my current feelings.  There have been a lot of songs that I have been listening to lately that are close.  For example, the line,  “If I could do just one near perfect thing I’d be happy /They’d write it on my grave, or when they scattered my ashes / On second thoughts I’d rather hang about and be there with my best friend / If she wants me” hit close to home, but the song overall doesn’t capture things completely.

When Bob Dylan was writing Blonde on Blonde in the Chelsea Hotel, I wonder if it was raining out.  The cliche cinematic version in my head has him at his typewriter, smoking cigarettes and pushing them into an all too full ashtray.  He is maniacal at the keyboard, the pounding keystrokes balancing the lightning speed of thought and the machines physical constrictions. This is the scene I have in my head when I imagine Dylan sitting there writing these songs from my favorite album.  This is the album I listen to when I’m feeling blue.  So why is it shocking that it’s two Dylan songs that capture what I am feeling:

Sitting in my apartment, looking down on Loisaida Avenue, the window slightly ajar, and the cool air filling my all-too warm room, the only light in the room is this monitor and the flicker of a candle that I lit a few hours ago – and that will go out by the time I finish writing this post.  In a bit of reverse engineering, I’m trying to capture the muse using the setting Dylan had while listening to the finished product.  I’m trying to echo that moment from almost a half century ago so that I, too, can create something from feeling the way that I feel he felt.

It’s not working, but at the very least – I have the music.

Once upon a time, almost ten years ago, I rang in the new millenium from Times Square. It’s funny to think that, by flashing forward 10 years, I’ll basically will have only moved cross town. Of course, the journey to get here – that cross town traffic, if you will – has combined for an amazing series of events that I can’t help but want to be introspective about. With me, introspection always is accompanied by music. After all, I wrote in a lonely, long lost blog on December 25th, 1999 – “They say the sense of smell is the most nostalgic. “They” never had my music collection.”

I know, I know – that’s a bit cheesy but it’s apropos to what I have always attempted to convey with my personal blog writing. Whether it was old journal entries with song quotes as a forward, my Wurtzelian style was predicated on the fact that, while I may have a certain strength as a wordsmith, I am only offering a glacial tip to the emotive mass that lay behind those keystrokes. For those of you who have been reading me for the past ten years, for those of you who have conversed with me about personal things, for those of you who have actually helped me through it all – you know what I’m talking about.

Carlos Santana once said that Music is all around us, and the musicians were just translators. What about those of us who fail to create music? I feel immersed in the language and, while I am not conversational, perhaps I find a deeper meaning being lost in translation?

My taste for music has definitely changed over the past decade. In 2000, I was enjoying the musical meanderings of Phish, the rebellious positivity of Blackstar, the organic hip hop of The Roots. My love for Hip Hop would swell and grow while I cast aside the Jam Band love that I had. I soon discovered real roots in the americana sound of Alt-Country – with the Tweedy lilt leading the way via Uncle Tupelo, Wilco, and the various bands he’s worked in. Indie Rock shortly morphed from there to where I basically stand today. I carry all of these timbres within me – I still listen to many of the albums that I loved during each year of my life. I think that’s a good metaphor for life. You carry with you the things from you past. You may change your perspective on how you view them, but ultimately they morph into a part of you. Here is my “off-the-top-of-my-head” list of albums for each year of the past decade:

2000: D’angelo – Voodoo
2001: The Strokes – Is this it?
2002: Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
2003: The Postal Service – Give Up
2004: Arcade Fire – Funeral
2005: Sufjan Stevens – Illinois
2006: Girl Talk – Night Ripper
2007: Radiohead – In Rainbows
2008: She & Him – Volume One
2009: Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca

Are these the best albums of the decade? No – many of them don’t even represent the best albums of the year for their respective years. But they are a glimpse into my head, into my heart, to a place where music has a personal connection to certain parts of my life. Each of these albums I still listen to very frequently. They are part of my collective subconscious because I have listened to them so many times. Other albums from the past decade have joined their ranks. The catalog runs deep and, one day, when I have a lot more time to write and contemplate, perhaps I will share my breakdown of music by the year. If you want to get to know me a bit more, get to know these albums. You won’t be disappointed.

In May, I received a few pairs of headphones from Skullcandy as a gift. I’ve used them every day since and they look just as new as they do in the picture above – which was taken right after I opened the package. I absolutely love these things so much so, that I was visibly saddened when I realized I left these at work over my long weekend trip to Izeafest. As someone who has a deep and profound love of music and currently a pedestrian, a good pair of headphones are mana from the gods. I can’t imagine living without my Skullcandy earbuds.

Giveaway: Of the things I did receive from Skullcandy, I do not use the Double Agent pair. I opened the package and tried them out and, while they had great sound quality, the fact that the music was run off an SD card and couldn’t be hooked up to your iPhone wasn’t for me. So here’s the deal – if you comment on my blog, I’ll pick a winner at random and send the Double Agents (My pair is lime green) to you. Consider it a gift to my loyal readers.