fakehead's Last.fm Journal

Top 15 Kings of Leon

Sat, 6 Jun 2009 02:24:19 +0000

In no particular order:
Knocked Up
Velvet Snow
Sex on Fire
The Bucket
Milk
Trunk
Manhattan
Holy Roller Novocaine
Red Morning Light
Wasted Time
King of the Rodeo
Day Old Blues

However, I do have a top 3...

3. Talihina Sky
Both versions; each so different from the other, yet just as special. I think I may prefer the "Alternate" version (the non-piano one). But only by a smidge.
2. Revelry
I fell madly in love with this song almost immediately. I had to play it over and over and over again.
1. Arizona
The definitive KoL song.

See them live if you can.

A well-thought out meme!

Tue, 26 May 2009 06:32:46 +0000

Favourite bands:
1. Fleetwood Mac
2. The Beatles
3. Red Hot Chili Peppers
4. The Smashing Pumpkins
5. Tears for Fears
6. Daft Punk
7. T.Rex
8. Midlake
9. Explosions in the Sky
10. The Mars Volta
(11. Kings of Leon)

Favourite albums:
1. Tusk by Fleetwood Mac
2. The Trials of Van Occupanther by Midlake
3. Revolver by The Beatles
4. Electric Warrior by T.Rex
5. Hunky Dory by David Bowie
6. Songs From the Big Chair by Tears for Fears
7. De-Loused in the Comatorium by The Mars Volta
8. Damnation by Opeth
9. Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd
10. Discovery by Daft Punk
...
(11. Want One by Rufus Wainwright
12. Disintegration by The Cure
13. Violator by Depeche Mode
14. The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place by Explosions in the Sky
15. Blacklisted by Neko Case
16. Friend Or Foe by Menomena)

Greatest single ever made:
Oh my gaw, um! There are so many. I'll just pick one from outta the air: (I've Had) The Time of My Life.

Favourite boxed set:
Join The Dots by The Cure
I don't really do box sets.

Favourite Greatest Hits:
Catching Up With Depeche Mode, which I still think is one of DM's best albums (woops!).

First CD bought:
With my own money, it was Fallen by Evanescence. Before that I remember most vividly Jennifer Page's Crush single, and Hanson's Middle Of Nowhere and 3 Car Garage.

First Concert:
For REAL real concert? Hanson at (the now defunct) Reunion Arena.

Favourite Concert:
I have a few favorite live acts I've seen: Midlake, Explosions in the Sky, Pilotdrift... but when talking about a concert you have to take into consideration the entire event. The openers, the crowd, the sound system....... I'm gonna have to go with a festival of sorts. It was in Fort Worth, and I forget the name of the thing, but IN A ROW I saw Midlake, Explosions in the Sky, and Ghostland Observatory. The crowd was way into all of it, the sound was fine, the midnight sky was starry and clear. Eased in with Midlake, upped the epic soundscapes with Explosions, and climaxed in erratic dance with Ghostland. It was perfect. Earlier in the evening as the sun started to go down, we sat in the grass drinking beer and watched (listened to) Pinback. That was a very relaxing time in my life.

EDIT: Wall of Sound! It was called Wall of Sound!
at LaGrave Field
Saturday 22 September 2007 (thanks, last.fm!)

Concert You Wish You'd Seen:
I wish I had seen The Beatles. I also wish I had seen Fleetwood Mac circa late 70s-early 80s.

Best Use of Music In Film:
See: Quentin Tarantino films.
I'll have to go with Pam Grier singing along to Across 110th Street at the end of Jackie Brown.

Best Use of Music In TV series:
I'm getting sick of these shows like Grey's Anatomy, Scrubs, and The O.C. using easy listening indie pop as a sounding board. I hate it all. It's sentimentalist crap. Um, I'm gonna have to go with American Idol. Really, they've been bringing in some class acts lately to perform for and mentor the contestants.
The L Word usually uses (used :( ) great music.

Favourite music books:
Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield
Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman
This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitin

Favourite Songwriters:
Rufus Wainwright, John Lennon, Elliott Smith, Ben Folds (although, I'm not happy with his latest, Way to Normal. :\), Jason Mraz

Favourite album covers:
Revolver by The Beatles, Rumours by Fleetwood Mac, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, The Fragile by Nine Inch Nails, Aladdin Sane by David Bowie, Dreamboat Annie by Heart, Bryter Layter by Nick Drake, The Slider by T.Rex

Least fav album covers to albums you like/love/don't mind
Zeitgeist by The Smashing Pumpkins, Brain Thrust Mastery by We Are Scientists, Stadium Arcadium by Red Hot Chili Peppers.... notice these are all within very recent years, hmmm?

Favourite Music DVDs:
Fleetwood Mac's The Dance, The Cure's Trilogy, Bernadette Peters' Sondheim, Etc.

Artist You Will Always Believe In:
Rufus Wainwright

Artist You Will Always Defend:
Evanescence
Tears for Fears
Fleetwood Mac
Jason Mraz
Carrie Underwood

Albums You Will Always Defend:
Dandy In The Underworld by T.Rex
Seeds Of Love by Tears for Fears
By the Way by Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Bends by Radiohead

Singers Who Can Make Your Skin Crawl:
Michael McDonald

Artists I'm Supposed to like, but don't.
I got a lot of these.
Neutral Milk Hotel
Broken Social Scene
The Arcade Fire
Muse
The Fiery Furnaces
Iron & Wine
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
...

Song You Can't Stand by an Artist You Like:
Your Body Is a Wonderland by John Mayer

Artist Who Broke Your Heart:
Our Lady Peace... what the hell happened?! These guys were wicked in the 90's. They were kind of cryptic yet spiritual and rockin'. Oh, and Maida's solo stuff is shit, too.
- heliotropic2005

It's true. I agree wholeheartedly.

Opeth kinda broke my heart when Martin Lopez fled.
I never really cared enough about U2 for them to break my heart, but it's a shame they became so lousy (& holier than thou).

Band That Should Break Up:
Journey
Bon Jovi
Evanescence, probably. Amy just needs to go solo. She's too driven and strong-willed to be held back by a band.
Sonic Youth
Rilo Kiley

Bands That Should Get Back Together:
Tears for Fears (have they broken up? What's going on????????)
Ben Folds Five
Sleater-Kinney
A Pacific Model

Guilty Pleasure:
I am not guilty. I love Barbra Streisand.

Riff raff

Fri, 22 May 2009 05:02:11 +0000

Dream Brother inspired me to make a list of my favorite geetar riffs.

Dream Brother

Stairway to Heaven
Over the Hills and Far Away
Black Dog

Knives Out
Street Spirit (Fade Out)

Honey and the Moon

The End Has No End
Heart in a Cage
Electricityscape

Dream On
Here Is the House

Big Love
Never Going Back Again
Oh Well
Black Magic Woman

Crazy on You
Barracuda

This Velvet Glove
Under the Bridge
Transcending
The Zephyr Song
Death of a Martian
I Could Have Lied
Breaking the Girl
My Lovely Man

Transmission
Disorder

Fascination Street
Lullaby
In Your House

Driven Under

Places for Breathing

Family System

Thru the Eyes of Ruby
Zero

Windowpane
Moonlapse Vertigo

Eriatarka

And Your Bird Can Sing
Dear Prudence

Dust in the Wind

Julia

Till I Hear It From You

Maggie May

(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

Bang a Gong (Get It On)

Fade to Black

Day Is Done

Sweet Adeline
Independence Day

Tonight

The Boys Are Back in Town

Revelry
Red Morning Light
Knocked Up
King of the Rodeo

Fox On The Run

No Time

Turn to Stone

She Is Suffering
Die in the Summertime
Archives of Pain

Frusciante wins.

saturday shuffle II

Sun, 5 Apr 2009 03:09:49 +0000

Okay, so I cheated this time. I've shuffled songs from the 50s-early 80s instead of my entire library. It's what I wanna listen to right now, aiiight?

About A Quarter To Nine (1967)
Very Zombies-ish, but less seductive. This is a cute song with some horns and sax and sweet 9th grade style poetry. Ehhhhh it's fine. Not really in the mood for it now, but I can foresee future listening potential.

Shock Rock (1973)
HELL YEAH. I'm always in the mood for some Bolan boogie. This is from Tanx, one of his later albums with the band. I'm not familiar with this album or this song. It's more of the same from Rexyrex, which is great. But what I love so much about Marc Bolan is his ability to surprise; to completely catch you off guard with a particular style of guitar playing or distortion of the voice. ... Wow, that was really short.

Sisters of the Moon (1979)
HELL YEAH again! Fleetwood Mac is one of my very favorite bands in the whole world. And this song in particular is one I'm partial to, as well as the album to which it belongs. Tusk is iconic and a prime example of differing styles within the group coming together in cohesion. 2 minutes in I just realized this is the demo version. Sounds terribly close to the original sans the ghoulish ambiance and background vocals. Fantastic song any which way. If you have the time or want, please get hold of a live version from the early 80s. It's indescribable. Do a youtube search. The accompanying video is just as enamoring.

The Card Cheat (1979)
A few years ago I realized the brilliance of this band and this album, London Calling. 50s doo-wop influence rooted in the glory of punk. Reminds me a bit of latter-day T.Rex, actually. Phenomenal production.

Lazy Sunday (1968)
A-you're adorable. That's all I can say. It's ear candy.

saturday shuffle

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 04:04:17 +0000

As an attempt at (a for alliteration) getting to know my library a little more, I'm gonna let iTunes shuffle out 5 random songs consecutively, and review them. Gonna try to make this a weekly thing.

Here goes nothing..

Fizzy Love
I've always liked Catherine Wheel even if I've only listened to a very limited amount. I do know that this guy is cousin to Iron Maiden guy. Sorry, IM, but I think cos gotchu beat. This is alright. I've heard better from the Wheel. Not big on the harmonica style guitar (is that a guitar? or is actually a harmonica?), and the lyrics are a bit silly. "My fizzy love for you/my fizzy love for you/my fizzy love for you/fizzy love...love...love...love"
Reminds me of Spiritualized.

#1
Spunk for PUNK! This is fun and juvenile and everything punk is supposed to be. Not something I'd deliberately turn on unless I was feeling punky, but it's cool nonetheless. At 3:24, it's a tad too long for my taste. Anything over the 3 minute mark is too long for a punk song, IMO. How did I get these guys? They don't even have an artist description.

Waste
Oh GOD. I remember years ago I bought this album (Billy Breathes) in front of Movie Trading Company in a box for like, $1. Never have listened to it in full. I don't know why I bought it. I knew the band name, and maybe was feeling spontaneous. $1 is nothing to snoot at. I'm glad I picked it up, because this song is really very nice, and nothing like I had perceived them to be (heavy handed jam rock). This has piano and acoustic guitar and angelic singing! This is good, maybe I'll break out the album sometime soon and give it the proper listen it deserves.

One Last Kiss
Heh, this was bound to happen. LOL. This is from the original 1960 Broadway cast of Bye Bye Birdie starring Chita Rivera and Dick Van Dyke. I recently bought this album just for collectors' sake. It was at a good price, and I do love the music. I love the movie. I love Ann-Margret. I'm partial to the movie version, so this one sounds a bit weird. Much more theatrical. But what was I expecting?

One Reporter's Opinion
Minutemen! I love Minutemen! Really, Double Nickels on the Dime is one of the greatest albums you will ever hear. No matter how many times I listen to it, it sounds new and fresh. Like I'd never heard it before. Maybe that's because it has 12,309,340,234 tracks.

iPop! 3.0

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:59:06 +0000

I made 3.0 awfully fast after 2.0.
1.0 had a lot more breathing room, and is also a more consistent playlist.
2.0 is pretty damn good, but also pretty damn catchy, which makes for a short visit.
3.0 has its moments.

1. Into the Groove
2. he ain't heavy, he's my brother
3. She Loves Everybody
4. We Built This City
5. I Want You Back
6. Is It Any Wonder?
7. Cornflake Girl
8. About a Girl
9. Built To Last
10. Solar Sister
11. The Walk
12. Papa Don't Preach
13. I'm Yours
14. Poker Face
15. What It Feels Like for a Girl
16. Ain't No Mountain High Enough
17. The Trial of the Century
18. Low
19. Gravity

Some mistakes here. First, I cannot put slow pop ballads on these mixes ever again. When I put in an iPop! mix, I want to dance around in my car and sing like I'm on American Idol. Songs like "Gravity" and "The Trial of the Century", while great songs, do not belong here. I tend to skip them.

Another skipper is "We Built This City". This song has always been kind of a wonder to me. I think there are some very nice hooks throughout, but overall it just leaves me feeling sticky. It's just tooooooooooooooooooo...... much.

"Solar Sister" also feels kind of awkward. It's a little too artsy indie to make a comfortable addition. The chorus is great, but the verses just don't do it. That solo though, that guitar solo can plop itself nicely just about anywhere. Drrroooooolllllloool.

I should have put Travis Barker's remake of "Low" on here instead of the original. One, I like it better; two, the original has an angry brooding feel to it that I don't want when I'm listening to iPop!.

Getting sick of "Cornflake Girl", like whoa.

Also, I think I'm beginning to abuse the Madonna. 4.0 won't have no Madge, k?

iPop! 2.0

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:43:08 +0000

A few decades ago I wrote a journal about my iPop! mix, in which I stated those songs were some of what I think to be the best pop songs ever made. 2.0 is an extension of that, obviously. Madonna was in heavy rotation at the time.

1. Voices
2. Disturbia
3. Shattered Dreams
4. I Wanna Be Where You Are
5. Changes
6. Guilty
7. Whatta Man
8. Fingers
9. Move Along
10. (I've Had) The Time of My Life
11. Dance 2Night
12. But Not Tonight
13. Closer
14. Miles Away
15. Tell It to My Heart
16. Maneater
17. Keeps Gettin' Better
18. Out of My Heart

How it compares to 1.0? I got tired of it faster. But since making 3.0 just a month later (which I'll get to), I tend to put this one in the player more often. Such are the ways of downloading mp3s peer 2 peer, there are a few drops in volume/sound quality at times. Stops the flow and such.

Also, there are some songs here that just remind me too much of my youngin' days. Like Whatta Man and Changes. These have a time and place for sure. But it is really really incredibly nice to rediscover the lyric "And although it seems heaven sent,
We ain't ready to see a black President, uhh". :)

CLIMAX

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 06:58:17 +0000

What I think are the greatest climaxes in music history.

Stairway to Heaven (5:50-end)
I Know You Won't (3:05-3:25)
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi (3:40-end)
For Martha

work in progress

Another trip to Half Price

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:54:49 +0000

Last week kidacomputerok and I stopped in Half Price Books for a while. We both kind of made a bee line to the vinyl "new arrivals" section. Almost instantly, he picks up Bowerbirds' Hymns for a Dark Horse, of which he speaks great love and affection for. Similar to Midlake's Trials of Van Occupanther, he says... I'M SOLD.

Next.

As he heads over to DVDs, I linger in the vinyl section. I realize after 15 minutes, I haven't left this spot. Every time I go in there to look at vinyl, I am determined to find a gem. A diamond in the rough.. at times, very rough. But the rougher the field, the shinier the diamond. Weeding through the Carpenters, Olivia Newton-John, Grateful Dead, and obscurities from mostly the 60s and 80s in the unalphabetized and unorganized clearance section, I stumble upon completely on accident David Bowie's Space Oddity. I marvel and salivate and put the album in my pile.

Next.

I kept coming back to the new arrivals section in hopes of finding something spectacular. I eventually picked up Enoch Light's Persuasive Percussion and Provocative Percussion (Vol. 2). The covers intrigued me. White background with black dots of different sizes, bold and clear. Being a percussionist, I'm a huge fan of anything having to do with percussion. I took a look at the description to find that these albums were actually designed to test your home audio equipment.

"Its grooves carry an enormous range and diversity of musical sounds, created with almost unbelievable technical virtuosity specifically for those who make the greatest demands on their phonographic equipment. These are peak performances, musically and technically, designed for the true connoisseur of sound reproduction."

Each track has a description of what to listen for, and if you hear it correctly, your system is indeed a very fine example of good sound reproduction.

I decided to pick just one of the two albums, and if I liked it enough I'd come back for the other one. I chose Provocative Percussion (Vol. 2) because it had more songs I was familiar with, like "Hernando's Hideaway", "Lady is a Tramp", and "Mack the Knife".

Listening to it now, I'm so glad I took a chance. This is GOLD. And I think my sound system is quite alright!

A song within a song within a song, etc.

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 04:45:54 +0000

Band on the Run inspired me to make a list of what I think to be the best epic songs containing songs within the song. Acts, if you will. Musical phases. I'm gonna stray from the progressive rock bands like Tool and Dream Theater and Pink Floyd, who (mostly) base their entire catalog around this kind of format. I think it's more of a treat when it comes unexpected from a little pop band, or whatever.

Band on the Run
Sunday Papers
Bohemian Rhapsody
A Day in the Life
In Other Words
Sounds
Savior
Venice Queen
Emotion Sickness
Paranoid Android
Jesus of Suburbia
Fade to Black
We Walk (might not count, but at one point there's 3 different vocal lines going on!)

Please help me out if I'm missing some blatantly obvious ones. And do feel free to recommend as well!