no time for a hundred indecisions

This week's assignment was to come up with my dream set list for three genres, and then one of my choice. I have done an unspeakable amount of research to be able to present this final product to you. I have surfed Pandora, last.fm, Amazon, and iLike until my eyes burned. I have downloaded over 2 GB of music to my already cluttered computer. So appreciate, please. :)

Genre #1: Hip-hop

Opener: Gnarls Barkley
Mid: M.I.A.
Headliner: Santogold

What's that you say? Gnarls Barkley and Santogold aren't actually hip-hop? In my book, they are. If I hear you rapping (and you're not being ironic), you're hip-hop. I know Santogold is horribly offended by this label, but my justification is that I'm honestly not doing it on racist terms. So now that I've sufficiently defended myself against classification Nazis, if those exist, I'd like to explain my choice. I've never liked hip-hop (or any other terms I judge to be equivalent, i.e. rap, R&B, etc.). And when I learned I had to come up with my top 3 hip-hop artists, I practically tore my hair out in panic (minor exaggeration). So after much research, I've compromised for a sort of pop rap theme. I'd like to see Gnarls Barkley live because I've always sort of liked them (since their ubiquitous hit, "Crazy"). And also, I hear they put on a great live show, with themed costumes. Next, I chose M.I.A. because I think I'm beginning to appreciate her music more (read: more than I appreciate other rappers), and because she has apparently performed her last show?! I chose Santogold because I actually really like the music from her debut album. My favorites are probably, "L.E.S. Artistes," "Shove It," "Lights Out," and "Say Aha."

Genre #2: Jazz

Opener: John Coltrane (c. 1960s)
Mid: Nat King Cole (c. 1950s)
Headliner: Frank Sinatra (c. 1940s)

Jazz was also a bit hard for me, since I'm not much of a jazz-appreciater. I'd like to be, but it's just hard for me to get into certain types of music at this point in my life. Like Bob Dylan. I don't like admitting this to hardcore music snobs, but I really don't see what's so great about Dylan. Call it a lack of maturity, but I also can't yet appreciate 10-minute saxophone solos. But I hear the experience of seeing a jazz performer live is incomparable to hearing a CD, so I'll go out on a limb and put John Coltrane on my list. Also, he's is reputedly an amazing improviser. Nat King Cole made the list because I love the sound of his voice. And I think Frank Sinatra is a no-brainer. Frank Sinatra songs have been the soundtrack to my love life, and I know by heart all the words to "Let's Fall in Love," "Fly Me to the Moon," "The Way You Look Tonight," "Somethin' Stupid," "I've Got the World On a String," etc. You get the idea.

Genre #3: Rock

Opener: Blondie (c. 1980s)
Mid: Queen (c. 1980s)
Headliner: The Beatles (c. 1960s)

There are so many bands in this genre I would love to see live, and it certainly makes me unhappy to have to leave so many out of this set list. In case one of the above bands calls in sick, I would please like someone from the following to step in: The Clash, The Pogues, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, The Cure, The Smiths, Nirvana, The Velvet Underground, The Replacements, Duran Duran, or Bruce Springsteen. Maybe I did that to illustrate what a tough choice it was. Maybe I did it as an honorable mention. More likely, I did it because I have very little confidence in my final set list, and I like to keep my options around. I chose Blondie because I love everything they do, which seems an adequate enough reason. I am also still disappointed at not being able to see them this week. The show is the night before my economics midterm, but I still wouldn't hesitate to go if I were somehow magically offered tickets. By a secret admirer who reads this blog. No? Well, it was worth a shot. I think Queen and The Beatles need no explanation.

Genre #4: Pop

Opener: The Magnetic Fields
Mid: The Killers
Headliner: Stars

For Genre #4, I chose the vague, all-encompassing genre of pop. I've actually already seen The Killers and Stars in concert, but I really enjoyed both concerts, so I would have no problem seeing them again. The Magnetic Fields and Stars both have a very charming, lo-fi sound, and really clever lyrics. And The Killers are just a lot of fun. Enough said.

homework trouble

I'm supposed to be working on some problem sets that are due tomorrow, but instead I've been scrounging around on Craigslist and Ebay for Blondie tickets, with no luck. Blondie, one of my all-time Top Ten, dare I say Top Five, Bands, is coming to the Fillmore this month and I am so angry that I'm not going to be able to go! It's completely my fault, though. I saw the tickets on sale months ago, but I was being stupidly ambivalent--you know, about how Blondie is way past their prime, and how it isn't even really Blondie anyway, etc. etc. And now don't I feel like an idiot?

On a more positive note, I am very excited for Coraline to come out in theatres this Friday. I'm always so worried when there's a movie adaptation of a book I really like, but so far it looks very promising. At the very least, I will be impressed by the amazing craftsmanship, i.e. the cherry blossoms made of popcorn, and other fantastic DIY elements with a very "If Martha Stewart Designed Stop-Motion Animation Sets" feel. I have a lot of expectations riding on this movie, and I think if it turns out really well, it may even make up for the loss of seeing Debbie Harry live, because for me, Neil Gaiman is to literature what Blondie is to music (AMAZING). Although Coraline is admittedly one of his creepier works, despite the fact that it's for children. I read it when I was in high school, and it still creeped me out the extent that, for days, I was on the lookout for severed porcelain hands crawling about in the dark. Ugh.

Henry James In a Nutshell

I am taking an English class with an amazing professor this semester, and the only downside is that I have to read Henry James's Portrait of a Lady. And Virginia Woolf. Two downsides, then. But back to Henry James. I just came across a great passage, and I thought I would share it with all two of you that read this blog. So the main character is expressing her thoughts on her very manly American suitor, aptly named Caspar Goodwood:

"There was a disagreeably strong push, a kind of hardness of presence, in his way of rising before her."

Oh, Henry James. The ability to make subtle sexual metaphors is obviously not among your very, very, very few strengths. But boring literature aside, this semester is turning into a really enjoyable one for me. Not only do I have amazing professors such as this one (who also has an interesting theory about a character named Ralph Touchett, who is a bit of a loser and will obviously never get laid, and just what is he doing with his hands in his pockets all the time?), but the subject material is getting infinitely more interesting. I am also taking a class on Batman. Be jealous. :)

of Montreal's "Skeletal Lamping"

I've only just started listening to of Montreal a month ago, but the sheer brilliance of their October release, "Skeletal Lamping," makes me want to kick myself for not listening to them sooner, because I just missed their SF show. I hear Kevin Barnes puts on an amazingly epic show, with fantastic props and costume changes and backup dancers dressed like Buddhas. This, I suspect, is because he is slightly insane. One listen to "Skeletal Lamping" all but confirms this suspicion: "Skeletal Lamping" is the quirkiest, and most creative album I've heard in a long time. It sounds like nothing else I hear on the radio, and keep in mind that as a Berkeley student, I listen to the most ridiculously self-consciously indie college radio station in existence, a.k.a. KALX 90.7, so I already hear my fair share of the bizarre. Barnes's lyrics often border on the nonsensical, but once you figure out what the hell he's actually saying in that wavering falsetto voice, you can't help but want to sing along. I think "Skeletal Lamping" could be a masterpiece if you looked at the songwriting alone, without even taking into account the complex melodies and instrumental breaks. I sometimes can't even decipher the meaning of the lyrics without a few consultations to Dictionary.com or Wikipedia, with Barnes's use of phrases like "paradigm kisses" or random allusions to Orpheus. The thing that absolutely charms me about of Montreal is how they're never mundane, not even when they're doing something as trite and formulaic as a love song. In "Plastis Wafers," I think it's fantastic how Barnes sings, "You're the only with whom I would role play Oedipus Rex." But no matter how bizarre it gets, the lyrics always make sense. Which is decidedly more than can be said about the melody, which probably violates every existing rule of composition. The songs don't follow the traditional "verse-chorus-verse" structure, and for many of them, you'd be hard pressed to identify a chorus at all. Many of the songs are interrupted with chaotic instrumental breaks, and then continue on sounding like a completely different song. I typically have a hard time figuring out when a song has ended and the next one has begun, and when I was listening to "Wicked Wisdom," I checked my iTunes window about three times because each time I thought I had started a new song. So listening to of Montreal is sometimes a bit confusing, and always thoroughly weird, but it's a really enjoyable experience, mostly because it's just so refreshingly different from everything else you've been listening to for your entire life.