It is 12/12, tomorrow starts the 12 days of Christmas.
It is about that time when I officially think it is okay to start playing Christmas music.
Some people I know are November 1st people, post-Thanksgiving people, as soon as it snows people, or NEVER people.
Where do you fall on the spectrum? When is it okay to play Christmas music?
The interpretation of song lyrics has always been a curiosity. Whether you’re excusing yourself and kissing this guy, or going to the bathroom on the right, lyrics – at times – are malleable things, and because of that, we have a lot of fun with them. Sometimes though, the lyrics are simply unintentionally creepy in their original form – or maybe intentionally, depending on how you’d like to see it.
Let’s take, for example, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” Here’s the original, and then the more, shall we say, “rapey” version done by Key & Peele.
Question of the Day:
What is your favorite misinterpreted song lyric?
This morning, Spotify 90′s radio played Colorblind by Counting Crows while I was brushing my teeth.
Obviously, if you are my age, when hearing this song, your mind automatically rushes to Ryan Phillipe riding up an escalator to stop Reese Witherspoon from getting on that airplane. It is unavoidable.
The Summer of ’69 always reminds me of the summer of ’99. We listened to the song a lot that summer and, while that summer would no longer be considered “the best days of my life” there is something in the lyrics, feeling, and sweet, sweet Bryan Adams crooning that captures and speaks to youth- that feeling of having the world in front of you and at your feet.
In that moment, I was atop the world with College, the real world, and adulthood waiting for me but yet to challenge me. The world of childhood had been conquered and the rest was waiting to topple.
In my newly acquired sentimentality, that summer could be the inciting incident that lead to my education, my career, meeting my wife, becoming who I am… but when I look back now, that summer seemed to last forever.
When I hear Three Little Birds by Bob Marley it always reminds me of Azlan. Sometimes I remember the good times and I laugh and laugh uncontrollably. Sometimes I cry because he left us to soon.
QOTD – What songs elicit strong memories or strong emotions for you?
I enjoy writing in odd places: shopping mall benches, downtown parking lots, street corners, and bathroom stalls. These days, my cell phone provides me with quick access to a notepad, and the availability of something that can be saved by simply closing the screen. This, however, was not always the case.
To allow you to understand a bit more about what I’m about to write, you’ll need to know that I am incredibly finicky when it comes to bathrooms. I don’t like public places. Much like Finch in American Pie, I would rather wait until I go home than use a public facility. Obviously, this isn’t always an option, and I’m not willing to get sick because of it, but it’s definitely an issue at times. In order to stave off illness, I search for a bathroom that doesn’t get used very often, but is consistently cleaned. I’ve found that most buildings I’m in with any frequency has such a place, and so I’ve been able to do pretty well. Pacific University was no different.
In the downstairs of the University Center, there was a seldom used bathroom. If I was wandering around campus, this was definitely where I would head in order to… well, use the head. I didn’t have a cell phone through most of college, so I couldn’t use that as a writing tool – and cell phones at that time didn’t really allow for any “notes” functions. In order to make sure that I wouldn’t forget anything that might creep into my head, I kept a dry erase pen handy at all times. I had learned the cleaning schedule for that bathroom, and I knew that if I were to write something, I had until close to midnight to come back and copy it down. So I used that to my advantage. When I was taking care of business, I would scribble a verse, or a story starter, or a catchy line, or even a quote I didn’t want to forget on the inside of the bathroom stall. When I was done, I would head back to the University Center, or my dorm, or my apartment off-campus (depending on the year), and then when I was back on campus, I would head back to the restroom, and copy down what I had written. The next day, it would be gone, and I had a blank canvas upon which to work.
I know it might seem odd for me to have used a stall as my personal notebook, but it was what I had, and I wasn’t willing to forget lines that were creeping into my mind. I often wonder what the janitors said after cleaning the walls countless times over my five years at Pacific. I wonder if they ever took photos, or wrote down any of what I had left there? I know it must have been annoying to clean, but at least I did it in dry erase, and not sharpie. Maybe there’s a former janitor from Pacific who has become rich off of the words he read on a bathroom stall. I wonder if any other students discovered my scribbles? Hopefully something I wrote inspired someone – or at least gave them a bit of a pause to think about, or laugh about, or in some way react to something they saw.
Sometimes we need to find a bathroom, sit in the stall, and write. And sometimes we need to find a bathroom, sit in the stall and write.
This is defeintely something new for me, Sigur Ros a band from Iceland. The album “Kveikur” is a hard one for me to review, but not because the music is bad, because it isn’t – actually it’s very good. I like the instruments and how well they sound together, it’s just the fact that the lyrics aren’t in English so I cannot understand anything the lead singer is saying; so I decided to scour the Internet in the attempt to get a translation. It was a success! Please read the sarcasm in that last sentence. Getting a translation proved to be even more confusing, maybe because the lyrics make no sense when translated from Icelandic to English, or maybe because the lead singer, Jonsi, uses words that are completely made up. Whatever the case is, I do enjoy this band very much; the vocals are used less as a way to get lyrics but more as a way to convey emotions and as an instrument themselves. This is not bad music at all, far from it, but seeing as this is The Poetry Question, and I am supposed to review music based on lyrics, I cannot do my job since the lyrics make little to no sense. This is an album that you have to listen to and feel it rather than focus on the lyrics and wordplay because you will be lost if you do not speak Icelandic, or the band’s made-up language, dubbed Hopelandic.
I am so happy to be able to review this mixtape from one of my idols Ludacris. I have been listening to Luda since before I can remember. I have his entire discography from “Incognegro” till this mixtape “#IDGAF” and I am currently waiting for his latest project to release. This is the music that is really great to have at a party or bump in the club, Ludacris’ music makes the ladies want to dance and I like that. He is a rap veteran who has been active for almost 18 years, and has been able to stay consistent with his music. That is something that most artists cannot proudly admit about themselves.
That being said the lyrics on this mixtape are not clever or cunning, if anything they are typical rap lyrics that speak of drinking alcohol, smoking weed, and having sex. So I feel like I don’t need to quote anything from this mixtape. Maybe the reason this mixtape is called “#IDGAF” is because Ludacris does not give a fuck about lyrics? This is just a thought, I’m not hating on Luda for the lack of cleverness in his verses, but he could definitely do better… Actually I could quote Ludacris himself on the track “IDGAF,” “Luda quit playin around and get some work done.”
This is some great feel good music for all you indie fans to add to your summer-fun playlists. Listening to this album makes me think of driving to the beach with the top down, wind in my hair, and the warmth of the California sun on my skin. The songs on this album sound like they belong on commercials advertising all the cliches of summer. I feel like someone in the PR department of some big brand company should listen to this band and and put a sample of any one of these songs into a commercial for Samsung phones or Levi’s jeans, or even just sitting around a bonfire at the beach while some guy plays acoustic guitar sings the songs of summer happiness.
This is the type of music that Bronze Radio Return has made, with very uplifting lyrics such as “Lead your way/ Sing your song/ Moving everyday/ Going further on,” from the song “Further On;” this such a great album. I find it impossible to be in a bad mood while listening to this album or even write anything negative about it. I don’t even listen to this genre of music at all, but the vibes that I get from this album make me want to grab as much of it as I possibly can, Bronze Radio Return has opened my ears to a brand new genre of music that I have never known before. Now I am angry at myself for not having listened to this sooner. I have been looking to expand my musical selections beyond that of hip-hop/rap music and I believe that I have found that in the indie rock genre.
“Holy Ghost”
“Some holy ghost keeps me hangin on, hangin on
I feel the hands, but I don’t see anyone, anyone
I feel the hands, but I don’t see anyone, it’s there and gone
Feeds my passion for transcendence
Turns my water into wine
Makes me wish I was empty
Now, I don’t know much but I can tell when something’s wrong,
and something’s wrong
but some holy ghost keeps me”
– Alan Sparhawk (track 1 on One True Vine)
Mavis Staples’ deep, raspy, swoon, mixed with the production and instrumentation of Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy is poetry in music. With their second album together, One True Vine, they prove they are an unstoppable musical force. Tweedy has a knack for pulling out the best in Staples, by not only writing lyrics that sound like they belong in an old Memphis Minnie song, but force her to retrace the songs of her childhood.
I am not a religious man, but even these gospel driven songs have me feeling as if something is watching over us all. How can one voice be so powerful, so emotional, and so subtle at the same time? In the fourth track, “Jesus Wept,” written by Tweedy, she sings, “My throat quits when I try to say / how I long for the day / How I wish there was a way / I could see you again,” and you can feel her searching for her father, or a long-lost love, or a dream that she can’t seem to hold onto. It’s moments like this where the instrumentation fades into the background, and you just want to hold the person you love, and remind them that everything will be okay.
As someone who grew up listening to my father’s blues collection, this CD makes me feel right at home. There’s something so entrancing about easily One True Vine expresses so much, with such simple lyrics, and easy, almost non-existent music. With Tweedy playing all instruments except for the drums, which are marvelously helmed by his son Spencer, you can feel the essence of Wilco’s softest moments providing the soundscape for poetry told in song. Think Being There meets The Best of Mahalia Jackson.
There is no doubt, that this CD will be on constant rotation in my house, and car, and wherever else I might venture.
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Before I even begin to listen to this mixtape I already have certain expectations for Asher, expectations that I know he will deliver on. This young suburban rapper has such a command over his lyrics, his style focuses more so on the finer details of whatever his topic is. This allows Asher to become a great storyteller, as he raps a story is being told. Even when he raps about nothing it is still catchy and I can easily vibe to it. His words take you on a trip through his life.
The first track “Maybe I Don’t Wanna” we get to know what type of person Asher Roth is: “I don’t wanna go to the club, I’d rather sit down on the couch and watch a movie while my girlfriend jerks me off.” I can see that Asher has grown more mature since the days of his first album Asleep In The Bread Aisle with the track “I Love College,” where Asher talks about nothing but partying. I’ve been a fan of Asher since 2008 and I try my hardest to follow him, each time Asher drops something new it becomes my new favorite content from him. Before Greenhouse Effect Volume 2 dropped today, I was bumping Pabst & Jazz for weeks waiting with baited breath for the next tape from this lyrical wizard. I use the words wizard because his words cast a spell on me, this mixtape already has me visioning GEV2 being heavily in my summer playlist while my friends and I try to keep up with the lyrics, reciting them by memory through desert dry lips.
I love how Asher is such a jokester, he can always say something to make me chuckle. “Did you see the new Farrah Abraham porno yet? Glad that’s not my girlfriend” is the intro to the song “Females Welcome.” This track desrcibes the girl he wants “Where those females at, that never got below a B in class? Down to smoke some chronic but she know she don’t be needing that”, an intellectual woman who can unwind with him when needed, I can relate Asher don’t we all want this girl? Even though Asher does not outwardly come out in his lyrics about partying
I can say that GEV2 will without a doubt be played at every high school and college party across the country (At least any party I DJ at). While this party talk is nice Asher does get more serious in “Healer” first thing that DJ Drama says before Asher chops this head bopping beat is “Can’t rush greatness.” I am with you on that one Drama, this is greatness at it’s finest. “My mind wonders if it’s turning obsolete, sometimes I struggle honestly with what I do believe, so hook it on and look beyond and tell me what you see? I see us needing what we want instead of what we need.” This man has become so poetic at such a young age. He is wise beyond his years. I’m going to qoute Drama on this one when I say “It feels good to hear you rapping man, you always were one of my favorite white boys.”
Paris Hilton is about to record a follow up to her 2006 smash hit album, Paris, because we obviously made it clear that we were missing her music. We were like, totally, shouting it from the rooftops! I mean, OMG! Can you, like, believe it? That’s so hot! She’s signed onto Cash Money Records, home of Lil’ Wayne, Drake, Birdman, Busta Rhymes, and…… Limp Bizkit. Maybe we’ll finally get that Fred Durst / Paris Hilton song that we’ve been craving since, um… never?
I don’t get it, but then again, I stopped trying to understand the music business a long time ago. There’s such little artistic value left in mainstream music. It’s about sales, and looks, and clothing, and sex, and money. There’s so little that means anything anymore. Radio is just another billboard for another alcohol company, and all of the rock stations have been pushed away to make room for another station playing the same eight songs in the same order.
What happened to lyrical content? Oh wait, Paris can tell us:
You got to know what to do
If you wanna get down
So don’t go off too smooth
Now you’re running out of time
Turn it up (Ohhhwaaa…)
Turn it up
Turn it up (Ohhhwaaa…)
Turn it up
Turn it up (Ohhhwaaa…)
Turn it up
Turn it up (Ohhhwaaa…)
Turn it up
Yep. That was the chorus to her 2006 song, ”Turn it Up.” It moves me to tears.
There is no more music on the radio. Pop Culture has reached it’s own crushing demise, and all that’s left is a gaping hole in the honest world of culture that’s as big as Kim Kardashian’s ass. I’m tired of music as marketing. I miss the 90′s. I miss labels giving a shit about the art they put out, and not just the product. Sure, there was always marketing behind certain artists, but more importantly, even those momentary “artists” could still be considered artists.
But hey, at least it’s not another sex tape from an MTV Teen Mom….. um…. didn’t that MTV once stand for something?
Click HERE for the article on Paris’ signing from Complex.com
