Headphones

They Save My Life : They destroy yours.
a little bit presumptuous

a lot more ridiculous.

you may here: i will hear:

i really dislike having to update areas. but! urgent:

may 27 -- transmitting, will apolinario, tina kim. CREATION CONSORTIUM. free. see here for more info.

june 3 --Stereolab, Yoko Ono, Thurston Moore, DJ Spooky and Friends, Graham Haynes, The Wayward Shamans (featuring Barrett Martin & members of Tuatara), Toninho Horta all this and more at Battery Park, buy tix at www.jazfest.com; only $20.

defining characteristics:

though my tastes tend to ebb and flow, i remain consistent in the pieces--

1. post-punk electronic experimentations -- bjork. aphex twin. kukl. it's good to be post-punk when one didn't even have to pass through that awkward punk phase.

2. ethereal programming ambience -- portishead. eno. lamb. radiohead. yo la tengo. stereolab. cocteau twins. lovely droning powers creating extreme logic out of logic.

3. groove jazz world fusion-- beastie boys. cibo matto. beck. dha fuzion. phbalance. things to smile to. and all the ancestors of this funk.

4. sheer madness -- prokofiev. zorn. blonde redhead.

5. southern-fried rock & roll -- black crowes. early r.e.m. maybe this is 70s rock or college rock or some other premature limited image of a genre, but for me this is southern at its utmost. raised on this stuff before discovering #1 (see above).

music i adore: 

bjork, kukl, portishead, lamb, aphex twin, prokofiev, brian eno, radiohead, stereolab, beck, carter burwell, john cage, billie holiday, ella fitzgerald, sarah vaughan, janis joplin, moby, beastie boys, patsy cline, stravinsky, cibo matto, squarepusher, phBalance, transmitting

music i like[d]: 

black crowes, rem, b52s, indigo girls, maldoror, squirrel nut zippers, yo la tengo, tricky, saint etienne, cocteau twins, seely, mazzy star, sneaker pimps, morcheeba, massive attack, herbalizer, hooverphonic, myrkskog, john zorn, boredoms, melt banana, no doubt, sugarcubes, gus gus, bloem de ligny, ez rollers, schubert, schumann, wagner, holst, pj harvey, kate bush, vss, mozart, the beatles, led zeppelin, the verve, michael nyman, beth orton, the smiths, the carpenters, joan baez, bessie smith, the mamas and the papas, thelonious monk, miles davis, john coltrane, the velvet underground, pizzicato five, violent femmes, bic runga, prolapse, elliot smith, jeff buckley, nina simone, garbage, jackson 5, marvin gaye, blonde redhead, legendary pink dots, they might be giants, talking heads, madonna, olive, pet shop boys, fiona apple, tori amos, smashing pumpkins, vengaboys, fatboy slim, sasha, paul van dyk, john digweed, goldie, mahalia jackson, sondheim, diana ross, bette midler (in her gay bathhouse years)
 
movies i listen/look:
 
being john malkovich, run lola run, the matrix, bladerunner, boogie nights, chungking express, high fidelity
 
saving wishes and alibis:
 
Groovebox
Fender Rhodes piano (VK-1000, Mk80, Chroma-Polaris)
Wurlitzer (200A)
Cubase
acoustic guitar (gibson, martin, takamine)
recorder (for $15)
cd grocery list: cocteau twins (heaven or las vegas, treasure, head over heels, victorialand, garlands), portishead (live: roseland nyc, portishead), stereolab (emperor tomato ketchup), brian eno (music for films, the pearl, music for airports), aphex twin, yo la tengo (electr-o-pura, i can hear the heart beating as one, fakebook, painful), blonde redhead (In An Expression of the Inexpressible), saint etienne (so tough, good humour), at home with the groovebox
 
top five (sod off):
 
1. bachlorette -- bjork
2. refractions in the plastic pulse -- stereolab
3. boy/girl song -- aphex twin
4. let down -- radiohead
5. zero -- lamb
6. summertime -- janis joplin
7. gloomy sunday -- billie holiday 
 
money i no longer have:
 
once a year or so ago my cd collection disappeared. i was very unhappy. then when i moved to nyc more went away. 5 floors below lives a cd store. i can charge to my payroll. this is a good. maybe. thank goodness i kept my receipts (though not all of them), eternal packrat (tho when i need w2 forms, they are nowhere). inspired by high fidelity's main character arranging his record collection not chronologically. not alphabetically. ... autobiographically. sad: that the frequency with which i buy causes only the replacements to have meaning (no not that), whereas before, the originals, due to my status of not having any money, were virtual landmarks. memories unfurling.
 
 
4/25 - st. etienne tiger bay
 
i've been losing money gambling on cds so much that i should do one of those easy to manage online journals; at some point i'm going to get irritated at how i change so i'll simply refuse to update this page. then i'll have to do something permanent. yet permanence is so faux pas. anyway, this cd is not so hot, but i heard pieces of their other albums which were promising.
 
4/24 - stereolab dots and loops
 
slight impulse buy, as i already have intense, down-your-throat access to this spiritualistic sound playland. happened upon the realization that i left ok computer at home, why i brought it home makes no sense as i already have home version. weird. back: can't program without good. i will be going to their concert in june. inner cartwheel.
 
4/19 - replacing the carpenters.
 
sophomore year my roommate was a huge fan of the carpenters, abba, blondie, the smiths. we were friends from before not for music tastes, but for kids in the hall and the young ones and absolutely fabulous. i wasn't originally fond of her music, but i liked it when she played the carpenters so i bought the same cd. also back in 6th grade my parents had one of their albums on vinyl and i remember when i sat in front of the record player and listened to the album. the whole day.
 
4/18 - smashing pumpkins machina. a good! also replacing radiohead; i now have a copy atwork and one at home. free access to let down, i started suffocating from holding my breath, it was that good to hear it while coding.
 
smashing pumpkins: not replaced, but memories of their concert in 1994. this was the day i met two people who influenced my life tremendously, and still manage to do so. and they watched over me after the concert; this was back when i found subways scary and didn't tell my parents i took the subway. another piece, a high school friend and i lying on a hill with grass on it in front of the music building and headphones and playing a sp taped instead of having lunch. she made me tapes of college music mixes back in middle school; if it weren't for her, blanketed in my classical world.
 
radiohead #1: a car trip from philadelphia to pittsburgh back junior year. i had gone to visit a doe-eyed model boy i was dating over the summer. he liked mozart's symphony in c and had a high fahrenheit 451 consistency. the 8 hour drive consisted of ok computer on repeat. also: we were pulled over by a policeman. a beautiful ending: i moved, left no phone trace.
 
radiohead #2: between junior and senior year, living at a friend's place. he lived for music, vegetarianism, and computers. also a cat that i taught to wink while this cd played. even though i am allergic. then one day--cds and stereo disappear.  
 
2/25 - next best thing soundtrack. i wanted to hear olive. i am very very sorry i bought this. i have since then conveniently lost this cd. it is probably somewhere in my cubicle.
 
2/11 - go! by letters to cleo. also a collection of opera pieces i want to remix.
 
1/25 - replacing telegram by bjork. remixes. you know.
 
a long, drawn out, almost 2 year relationship with venus as a boy, serious; incessant playing of this cd between the two of us; the early days of cognac pieces in his room, our togetherness revolving around bjork. months later i cried almost every day with him there, apologizing. never again. whenever i listen to the cd now (which is rarely), i have to create a distance. i stand away from the stereo. which really isn't mine.
 
1/24 - sarah vaughn's greatest 18.
 
not the exact cd i lost, but close. played overwhelmingly by a comparative literature major i was entertaining myself with summer before junior year. this, nina simone, sinatra and opera. his best friend was a conductor and once complimented by bernstein on oboe. this has nothing to do with the boy at hand. the boy preened his intellectualism and smoked a lot of pot which he called drugs. i was charmed for a time, then became annoyed. i moved on to better things, like soup.
 
1/20 - squarepusher selection sixteen
 
1/14 - being john malkovich soundtrack. i had to special order this. bjork's newest was on; layers upon layers of voices; tres beautiful. and carterburwell. also tres.
 
all this in reaction to / in reflection of how i fucked up badly on new year's.
 
1/5 - went dorothy and got easter parade. also replacing a patsy cline album. 
 
this occurred the second time i saw coal miner's daughter, summer before senior year. a very good. this is around the time my a/c unit kept blowing out the electricity and one of my roommates that also liked patsy cline and had a shaved head would yell my name out in anger. this i did not like. taking my name in vain. i hid in the closet.
 
12/13 - tori amos to venus and back
 
i normally am not a fan of hers, but this cd reminded of the first and last girl. the closest i ever got to being with tori amos.
 
11/25 - beastie boys sounds of science
 
went to a concert of theirs in 1994 with two boys who ended up being the sweetest ever (if not a little strange). they went into the mosh pit and one lost his bandana and had this beautiful amount of hair that it still bothers me to see him with a financial haircut. by the end of that summer i knew all the words to sabotage without even seeing the video.
 
 

i need help. please stop cd addiction.

(more to come)

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