absolia's Last.fm Journal

top 50 albums after 16 months of using last.fm

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 21:31:52 +0000

absolia's top albums
1. PJ Harvey - White Chalk (264)

2. Tori Amos - To Venus and Back (197)

3. The Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (193)

4. Tori Amos - Boys for Pele (162)

5. Tori Amos - American Doll Posse (159)

6. The Smashing Pumpkins - Adore (140)

7. VAST - Nude (139)

8. Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville (137)

9. The Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream (136)

10. Pixies - Trompe le Monde (134)

11. PJ Harvey - Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea (129)

12. Tori Amos - Scarlet's Walk (126)

13. Bat for Lashes - Fur and Gold (122)

14. The Chameleons - Strange Times (112)

15. Mary Timony - Mountains (97)

16. Helium - Magic City (93)

17. The Smashing Pumpkins - Gish (89)

18. Poe - Haunted (89)

19. Sonic Youth - Experimental Jet Set, Trash & No Star (88)

20. Pixies - Doolittle (87)

21. Hole - Live Through This (87)

22. The Smashing Pumpkins - Pisces Iscariot (80)

23. Interpol - Our Love to Admire (79)

24. Tori Amos - Under the Pink (79)

25. Sonic Youth - Washing Machine (77)

26. Helium - The Dirt of Luck (77)

27. Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes (76)

28. Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights (76)

29. VAST - Music for People (74)

30. Sarah McLachlan - Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (69)

31. Stone Temple Pilots - Core (69)

32. Sonic Youth - Dirty (68)

33. Hole - My Body, the Hand Grenade (66)

34. Tripping Daisy - I Am an Elastic Firecracker (65)

35. The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow (64)

36. TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain (60)

37. Tori Amos - From the Choirgirl Hotel (59)

38. Local H - As Good as Dead (59)

39. Mary Timony - The Golden Dove (58)

40. Interpol - Antics (58)

41. Pixies - Bossanova (57)

42. Mary Timony - Ex Hex (57)

43. Sonic Youth - A Thousand Leaves (56)

44. Hole - Pretty on the Inside (55)

45. U2 - Zooropa (54)

46. The Shins - Oh, Inverted World (54)

47. The Chameleons - Script of the Bridge (53)

48. Echo & The Bunnymen - Heaven Up Here (53)

49. Jeff Buckley - Grace (49)

50. PJ Harvey - Is This Desire? (49)

top albums generator »

I saw The Smashing Pumpkins.

Mon, 1 Dec 2008 19:56:43 +0000

http://www.flickr.com/photos/serchswitch/3074102188/

The Smashing Pumpkins were amazing.

we waited in line for 7+ hours in the freezing foggy cold. um, weather.com said 72 degrees and sunny. yeah, it was neither. so. fucking. COLD.

but, obviously it was worth it. i was technically in the first row. my hand was on the bar (thank god), but some chick taking up too much space was in front of me. christian protected me from getting kicked by crowd surfers like 5 times. haha. and some chick with pink hair punched one of them in the head.

stand-outs:
- Bodies
- Gossamer
- Owata :: LOVE this new song.
- The Rose March :: wow, infinitely better live. the whole band harmonizing with billy added so much magic.
- Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness
- Soma <3
- Zero

billy was in a GREAT mood. said he was really "zen." he danced around in a top hat during the encore. the band was so fantastic and Jimmy Chamberlin looked just so happy. billy paid tribute to him at the end, saying "is he not the greatest drummer in rock n roll?" really wonderful.

anyone who says that Billy Corgan's lost "it" is fucking insane. i'll stand by that til... well, he loses "it." ha.

Getting in-depth about my exceptional Top 4.

Tue, 7 Oct 2008 22:16:20 +0000

Tori Amos

Favourite track: Changes often, but Precious Things is probably the ~*ultimate*~ Tori song.
Least favorite track: Barring anything on The Beekeeper, which might as well not exist, I'd have to say Flying Dutchman.
Happy song: Secret Spell
Sad song: "Sad" is an understatement, but Me and a Gun is pretty jarring on the sad side of the spectrum of emotions
If a song had to be played when you entered the room, it would be: Datura
First song you heard: Crucify, when it was a new single on the radio. I loved it.
Last song you listened to: Listening to Caught a Lite Sneeze at the moment.
Best album: Boys for Pele, no contest.
Worst album: The Beekeeper
Best live song: The Waitress
Song that describes you: I think the stock answer for most would be Precious Things.
Song for your funeral: Mother is the first song that came to mind.
Most overrated song: Siren-- I don't get the hype. At all.
Most underrated song: Marianne
Song you wish you wrote: Professional Widow; I want "balls" like that.

Smashing Pumpkins

Favourite track: Again, changes often, but Soma is my ultimate.
Least favorite track: Take Me Down is certainly not their worst, but it's existence on Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness makes me hate it. :P
Happy song: Luna <3
Sad song: Um, SP songs.. sad? Blasphemy! To Forgive is as sad as anything I've heard.
If a song had to be played when you entered the room, it would be: Crush
First song you heard: Today more-than-likely.
Last song you listened to: Listening to Geek U.S.A. at this very moment.
Best album: Siamese Dream, but for me, their first three albums are, for all intents and purposes, tied.
Worst album: Zeitgeist
Best live song: The versions of stumbleine on the Adore tour are so fucking blissful.
Song that describes you: Sweet Sweet ;)
Song for your funeral: Soot and Stars
Most overrated song: Tonight, Tonight
Most underrated song: Starla
Song you wish you wrote: By Starlight

Sonic Youth

Favourite track: That's actually really hard to decide, but probably Mote <3Lee<3
Least favorite track: Meh, probably My Friend Goo
Happy song: Reena
Sad song: Tunic (Song for Karen) is very maccabre.
If a song had to be played when you entered the room, it would be: bee-bee's song
First song you heard: Probably The Diamond Sea when it was on the radio.
Last song you listened to: Listening to Saucer-Like now. <3Lee<3
Best album: Their "best" is Daydream Nation but my favorite is probably Washing Machine.
Worst album: I don't really like Bad Moon Rising :x
Best live song: --
Song that describes you: No Queen Blues ;P
Song for your funeral: Karen Koltrane <3Lee<3
Most overrated song: I'm not going to say Superstar, so instead I'll say Kool Thing but I still love that song. I really don't think any of their original shit is "overrated" in the traditional sense.
Most underrated song: Sunday
Song you wish you wrote: Wish Fulfillment <3Lee<3

PJ Harvey

Favourite track: Big Exit is fucking electric.
Least favorite track: Not a fan of 50 Ft Queenie
Happy song: We Float is so full of bliss.
Sad song: To Talk To You
If a song had to be played when you entered the room, it would be: Working for the Man
First song you heard: The first song I *really* listened to was Angelene.
Last song you listened to: Listening to To Bring You My Love at the moment.
Best album: Not the most popular opinion, but I think Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea is her "best."
Worst album: I guess Uh Huh Her but there's something unique and wonderful about them all, really.
Best live song: --
Song that describes you: Right now, I feel like Good Fortune is very apropos. ;)
Song for your funeral: White Chalk
Most overrated song: Down by the Water is her most popular, really, but there's so much better Polly Jean songs.
Most underrated song: Dear Darkness
Song you wish you wrote: White Chalk

Shuffling my life away... pt. 2. <3

Fri, 3 Oct 2008 17:56:06 +0000

RULES:
1. Put your music player on shuffle.
2. Press forward for each question.
3. Use the song title as the answer.
4. Bold the questions and with the answers, give your own comments (or some lyrics) on how it relates to the question.

How are you feeling today? Beauty Of Speed -- "afraid we've been changin' in a way i wasn't lovin'" -- okay; things moving in a strange direction, but i can't stop velocity, no matter how much i'd want to.

Will you get far in life? That's The Way (My Love Is) -- "i feel a coming age now. i feel a dawn in me- a certain sun keeps rising." -- literally? of course. i'll go many places- physically, emotionally, mentally. i hope to continue to go far from anywhere i have been.

How do your friends see you? Rhinoceros -- "could have known i would reveal. should have known i would conceal your way" -- secretive, elusive, and they love it.

Will you get married? You Come Through -- "i'll be lifted on this our holiday. i'll take you my friend, i'll take you with me." -- yes, i think so. but to a friend as well as a lover, or not at all.

What is your best friend's theme song? Sometimes -- "you will find the (way it) hurts to love. never cared, and the world turned hearts to love." -- afraid of real love, needing real love.

What is the story of your life? Epic -- "you can touch it, smell it, taste it so sweet. but it makes no difference 'cause it knocks you off your feet. you want it all but you can't have it; it's in your face but you can't grab it." -- well, i think that's fairly self-explanatory.

What was high school like? Dryad and the Mule -- "if i hurt myself will it hurt anyone else?" -- lashing out at people who hurt me, polarizing people, causing a dramatic ruckus on more than one occasion, all the while claiming resilience.

How can you get ahead in life? Wet My Bed -- "please think for me, i can't bare to" -- again, fairly self-explanatory. ha.

What is the best thing about your friends? Rub 'til It Bleeds -- "speak, i'm listening" -- they really listen, always. and they dissect.

What is in store for this weekend? Honey -- "you're just too used to my honey now" -- taking care of my ex's dog, shooting a gun.. both kinds.

To describe your grandparents? Vaccination -- "justify my worst behaviour. search in blood-lines. exchange a favor." -- nepotism and enabling.

How is your life going? Broken Harp -- "i tried to learn your language but fell asleep half undressed, unrecognisable to myself" -- new things, new people, new me.

What song will they play at your funeral? Shane -- "you were doing a story about if people understood what had happened to their world tonight. in bed, sleeping. the world tonight, in bed, asleep."

How does the world see you? Sweet Sweet -- "and they all want you to change" -- cliche, yet completely apropos. i'm unconventional and that bothers people.

Will you have a happy life? Take to the Sky -- "my heart is like the ocean, it gets in the way. so close to touching freedom then i hear the guards call my name." -- i think so, and full of love and passion.

What do your friends really think of you? Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle -- "she'll come back as fire and burn all the liars, leave a blanket of ash on the ground" -- i value passion and empathy over most traits and if you lack them, to the left. my friends can attest to that.

Do people secretly lust after you? Only When I Lose Myself -- "i feel hypnotized, i feel paralyzed. i have found heaven. i feel satisfied, i belong inside your velvet heaven." -- people need me because i fully grasp them in the ways that humans need, which can lead to a whole beautiful and yummy place.

How can I make myself happy? Every Day Is Exactly the Same -- "sometimes i think i'm happy here. sometimes, yet i still pretend" -- not succumbing to monotony, for sure.

What should you do with your life? Cindy (Rotten Tanx) -- "sipping wine - sipping lies" -- don't take anything too seriously and look out for yourself. kthx.

Will you ever have children? I've Been Tired -- "losing my life to a whore with disease." -- that's how i feel about having children.

My 10,000th !!

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 02:45:21 +0000

My 10,000th song played since joining last.fm: Sometimes a Dream (Is What Makes You a Slave) by Liz Phair.

That just seems right, I don't know why.

The best song of all time.

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:26:20 +0000

I feel like TV on the Radio's 'Blues from Down Here' could very well be the best song of all time. It's just that no one knows it yet.

Full track here:

From the depths I called you, ma
for your breath and breast so warm and fabled
Your hands reached inside
grabbed my heart, enlarged, disabled

Hailed for your mercy
An ear that cares

How the blues sound from up there?

With my wet hair, I wipe the blood off of your feet
Carry me through these shark infested waters
Well you spared me from slaughter for sure,
but these sharks are equally in need of a martyr

Oh kindness shared
Undeserved purest gift, this life you spared

How the blues sound from up there?

Teeth gnashing, masticating this dumb tongue
Quiet now, quiet now, hear that supplication
echo into the void
been recieved by no one

Oh my sweet dear
Cold alone poisoning ourselves
engulfed in our own tears

Signed, blues from down here.

Pull the pin, drop it in, let it wash away your

Time for your favorite story
of how to achieve golden glory
Wash yourself all squeaky clean
all in white all Hallow's Eve

Lessen your desire
hold your breath so patiently
never inquire how to be free
Just stay on your knees

You might doubt it
think there's nothing left for me
to do but stomp my feet
and shout about it

From the depths I called you.

Now I'm waiting for an answer patiently
Stuck here at the bottom of this well
It's not the last you've heard from me

Return to Cookie Mountain

earthquake!

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:33:02 +0000

So, there was just a 5.8 earthquake in Southern California. Books fell, my dog's water was spilling out the bowl. It started off as a rumble, like a train and then everything started rocking. I ran over to the door jam (turns out that's not smart anymore) and I called for my dog, who looked totally freaked out; his paws were planted all out firmly on the ground and he looked very suspicious. Everything got quiet and I could hear Smashing Pumpkins' stumbleine playing on my headphones. I thought for a second that "this could be the end" and that Stumbleine would be the last song I'd ever hear... and that would have been cool.

Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness

White Chalk

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:08:08 +0000

PJ Harvey's White Chalk is my new favorite album. Every single song is a small sigh of a revelation. I cannot stop listening, and at under 34 minutes long, it never feels like enough. It reminds me of the best stuff from Cat Power, Bat for Lashes etc. but a near-totally-different species.

At times, this album is devastatingly haunting. Very little music can attain a true palpable feeling of distress, mourning and literal haunting.

It almost feels like every song is a ghost in her own right.

The way PJ continues to reinvent herself is exceptional.

I'm in love.

The Devil | Dear Darkness | Grow Grow Grow | When Under Ether | White Chalk | Broken Harp | Silence | To Talk To You | The Piano | Before Departure | The Mountain

Top 5 Pixies songs.

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 05:45:19 +0000

There's only 5, simply because the Pixies have so many fantastic songs, that I feel after 5 it becomes pretty moot to even have a "favorites list;" especially because they really do have very few songs, particularly when compared to my 3 top artists Sonic Youth, Tori Amos and Smashing Pumpkins, whose libraries are fucking overwhelming, literally.

So, these songs are my must-have's. They incite something almost otherworldly inside of me. You know, that thing you can't really define; it gives you goosebumps and makes your eyes water a bit. I doubt I'm the only person who gets that.

These are in no particular order.

* Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons

* U-Mass

* No. 13 Baby

* Distance Equals Rate Times Time

* Hang Wire

The first time I heard Pixies was when I was 17. I was staying with my [now ex-] boyfriend's family in Napa, CA for the summer. His sister, who subsequently was my age, would play Surfer Rosa really loud and it would echo throughout their small wood-floored house. We'd sit on the stoop and do various lazy summer things while listening to this album. She listened to Gigantic the most and treated it like an anthem.

Her and I never got along too well but she holds a special place in my heart for showing me the Pixies. Oh, and for giving me her Doc Martens for no particular reason-- they fit like a fucking glove, still.

My top 25 Tori songs. Definitively.

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 03:13:50 +0000

Six months ago, I made a top ten Tori Amos songlist [found here]. It's obviously very limited and kind of an unfair ranking, seeing as how my knowledge of her was limited to just most of her studio albums (not To Venus and Back-- yeah, I know *hangs head in shame*) and barely any b-sides. Though, I had been a rabid fan (not really, I've only seen her once) since 1993, when my Mom's boyfriend bought us our first CD player and a whole grip
of CDs, and her Crucify single was included. Fuck, I played that thing to death. Anyways, last.fm really inspired my proverbial "branching out" Tori-wise.

Usually, with music, I can tell right off, from the first minute or so of a song, if I'm going to really love it. That's the way 90% of these songs were for me. Particular others are dripping heavily with nostalgia and mean something far deeper than words can express.

So, here we go, listed alphabetically. Of course.

* Black-Dove (January) -- one of her very best, I think, despite the fact that I am not a huge fan of this album as a whole.

* Cloud on My Tongue

* Crucify -- the live version; particularly the 10 minute live version from the Scarlet's Walk tour; even more specifically the show I was at. Listen/download here: http://boomp3.com/listen/brvyb41/crucify-live. It literally sends chills up my spine every time I hear that intro.

* Cruel (live) -- from To Venus and Back. So full of life; amazing how she turned an otherwise "OK" song into an epic fuckfest is further proof that Tori is a goddess.

* Doughnut Song

* Father Lucifer -- particularly the live Tubular Bells version. Listen/download here: http://boomp3.com/listen/ecqz8u9/father-lucifer-tubular-bells-mix. The way she sings "rain" and "aeroplane" and other choice phrases gets me everytime- it's so.. cute.

* Datura

* Horses -- w/Beauty Queen on Boys for Pele.

* Little Earthquakes

* Marianne -- a song that touches me and swells something inside me every time I hear it.

* Mother -- I firmly believe that her "oh.. my.. god" is one of the best moments she and music has had.

* Mr. Zebra

* Muhammed My Friend -- definitely only the live version, with Maynard James Keenan:

* Never Seen Blue

* Precious Things -- the song I would without hesitation give to [a very special] someone, if they had never heard Tori, or music for that matter. It's also probably the song, if pressed, I would say is my ultimate favorite of her's.

* Pretty Good Year

* Professional Widow

* Riot Poof -- her originals on TVAB are so fun and well, riotous and I think this sums up her departures from [just the] keys perfectly.

* Sister Janet

* Space Dog -- the last three tracks of Under the Pink are like an epic journey and so criminally underrated. I just love them and I can't really pinpoint exactly why.

* Suede

* Sugar -- both studio and live versions; they almost feel like different species.

* Virginia

* The Waitress (live) -- from To Venus and Back or A Piano: The Collection Disc 3 versions are particularly goosebumps-worthy.

* Yes, Anastasia