So I was listening to Poe today (again) and thought, dude, I should totally play Angry Johnny as the Wednesday song. Then I listened to it for real instead of in my head and, HOLY COW I DIDN’T REMEMBER *THAT* part. I mean, I don’t want to say that it’s NSFW, but it’s NSFW if you pay attention to it instead of just hearing it. I mean, it’s a good song. Don’t get me wrong. Just don’t listen to it loud enough to make the words out if you’ve got a cube or an open door policy. (And I can’t believe that I thought it was subtle back in 1995… I was so young!)
So I started listening to this song (for real, just in case)… and was pleased to find out that there was a second version.
And here’s the other:
So… what are you listening to?
Wow, that second version was SO mid-90s. Eek. I don’t think I enjoy it as much as the original. It feels like she was trying too hard to look like something she’s not, since I’m viewing this almost two decades later, knowing she followed up that album with “Haunted”, which went in a very different direction musically. But, I also saw her live in 1995, and she was every bit that “edgy” when she performed, all nerdish metaphor and black nail polish.
Fun fact: The writer of the film “Stir of Echoes”, which had the misfortune of coming out after “The Sixth Sense” but before everyone got tired of Shamayamadingong, had “Hello” playing on repeat while he was writing.
What I’m listening to: not a lot. Hello iPod Shuffle. Florence + the Machine’s two albums feature prominently, as does Lana Del Rey. I actually listened to “Kiss With a Fist” for the first time today, as in listen to the words intently. Quite wonderful.
both are fairly 90s to my ears – the first touchstone being massive attack triphopitude, the second being evanescence style uh whatever you want to call that flaming aesthetic tire fire. the second is definitely strong with the uggo, to be sure.
speaking of the 90s, beyond watching it bleed through stylistically both musically and fashion-wise (early 90s style colored denim overalls are hurtling back to us in a miasma of terrible eroticism and erotic terriblism) i’m finding myself secondhand party to more discussions of the 90s as a nostalgic hook for over 30 types like myself. i’ve always held fast to the notion that nostalgia is a dead woman who hates you as it were, but i wonder if the style blender is so vast and so deep and so easily accessed that people are picking out bits 2, 3 and 5 out of a ten point menu and assembling false nostalgia out of a culture which is far more scattershot and diffuse than human brains are able to contemplate?
my wife is actually teaching a class somewhat around this concept of “remixing of culture” in general as it related to modern output/analysis. sounds better than i’ve written it here; not sure if 19 year olds would appreciate it any more than i appreciated the depth of borrowing with whatever i was into then.
anyway, i love this album even though it’s a few years old. halloween is coming and it fits real well. it is hard to describe otherwise.
http://yoga666.bandcamp.com/
oh and gosh the new swans double album is just fantastic.
Did you see the interview on Pitchfork (I know, I know) with Gira? I thought it was an interesting read.
Having never really listened to Swans (aside from the track they had posted in the interview – The Apostate), would the new one be a good entry point for a novice?
that’s a rough one. swans is roughly three periods (hope they don’t filter this due to links)-
1) no wave brutality. gira just losing it while a chord pounds your face in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p4_5P8ObS4
2) kind of hippy goth heavily acoustic stuff that’s actually even more brutal and depressing than the above. (this may be my favorite song by them)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWjYdKX3Mv4
3) the current melding of the first two periods into some kinda weird ecstatic and not quite as angry thing. which is totally fantastic if you get a chance to catch them live. (they’re playing oct 11 at bowery ballroom)
sorry never really answered. i would say white light from the mouth of infinity, and then the rest of the seer (which is great but very long). if you like that, then the 2cd edition of children of god/world of skin is a nice mid point.
And, if I’m not mistaken, “Hello” played over the credits of Stir of Echoes.
I should write an essay about that movie. It provides the perfect counter-example to Sixth Sense.