The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

JUST BECAUSE I CAN!
“Talking Themes – Nich’s Michs”

Track 1:Debaser by The Pixies. I’ve heard of the Pixies… I don’t really care for this guy’s voice… he’s like screaming but not screaming? It’s kinda weird. The song isn’t bad, though… but it’s not like… clicking into me and energizing me like I like my music to do. It’s in that large grey area of songs I can say “Yeah, that’s alright” but then never listen to again… then again, this project is supposed to expand my music experience… or something…

Track 2: Ageless Beauty by Stars. Female vocalist… that’s nice… it’s all like airy and barely there, though… and I dunno, there’s not a lot happening in the background or whatever… it’s just like this steady constantly repeating thing that occasionally changes pitch a little but doesn’t change… it’s kinda hypnotic, I guess, but not doing a lot for me. I guess it does make the refrain like… kick it up a notch… but it’s still so… subdued. Sure seems to go on for a long time, too…

Track 3: Last Dinosaur by The Pillows. Oh yeah, this like the first track from the FLCL soundtrack… the Pillows are good stuff… first song and band I actually know, too… Oooh, lyrics. This is an expanded version, or the one on the FLCL soundtrack was a shortened one. Yeah, good track.
I will admit, though, that I think I’m sorta getting what they mean by flow…? All these songs have a sort of similar… background feel. I don’t think the current draft of my mix has that… I switch it up a lot… ups and downs. This has kinda been one constant sort of feeling. (although maybe a little different with the vocals in track 1) What does this mean? Fuck I dunno. Just trying to think like… something about it.
Oooh, back to the song, I love this bridge… that’s nice.

Track 4: What’s Mine Is Yours by Sleater-Kinney. Another female vocalist…? Heh, maybe not… no, that’s a girl. Mmm, not bad, so far… yeah, if it keeps slowly building like this, I could get into it… mmm, it isn’t getting much more… powerful… like I was hoping… but it’s still good… what the hell is up with all this random stupid reverb guitar…? Okay, dislike building… this section is kinda stupid and it just won’t end… now they added some bass to it… okay, starting to get back into the song proper… and it’s starting to build again like in the beginning… but yeah, I never really want to hear that section in the middle again, it was kinda annoying. Wow, that ends abruptly…

Track 5: Soft Power by Ladytron. I have some Ladytron CDs, but this song doesn’t immediately spring to mind. Their music tends to be a little too slow for me to completely get into them, even though the female vocals and electronic music seems like a good fit… but this one isn’t too bad… I could probably have guessed it was a Ladytron song without reading the track list, though… something about how the lyrics are sung just reminds me of their other song. They do that DA DA da da DaDa DA! thing with the vocals all the time. This is definately one of the better Ladytron songs I’ve heard, though. Oooh, drum track with some energy added… and now we’re into an Ahh ahhh ahhhh section…
In general, I really want this mix to kick up the energy, but I know that’s just a personal bias… that’s what I turn to music for. To energize me. It’s why I do things like collect boss battle themes, because they’re sort of designed to do that.
The Aaaaahs are apparently the end, but they’re just going on forever and ever… I really sorta dislike songs that do that… it seems kinda pointless, really. The interesting part is over, you’re like… wasting my time.

Track 6: I Spy by Pulp. Whispery… hmm… lots of whispers… and now it’s picked up a little with some nice background stuff… but man, all of the tracks on here have this sort of subdued energy, though… like… almost to the point where I can rock out, but they’re keeping it down… on the down low… keeping it calm… sorta thing… I do like the little bell-y noises, and the little tiny bits of sound from the guitar… we’re back to whispering now, though… apparently the singer wants to be caught fucking someone’s wife…? What’s up with these LA LA’s… hm… yeah, I don’t know… it’s… yeah. Now it’s all slow again towards the end… I don’t know if there’s enough time for it to pick up at all again…

Track 7: Blood Tree by Mary Timony. Still the same sort of feeling going on with the subdued music… yeah, I already don’t like this song… also, my brother is back in here now which makes me annoyed that I’ll have to get out the headphones… Oh, it changed… that’s better… let’s see what it does after this point… yeah, it does the little change thing again… I like the refrain, but the rest isn’t doing a whole lot for me…

Track 8: Accused of Stealing by The Delgados. Sort of a methodical walking forward sort of feeling… more… more… and now they went to this echo-y piano… and what’s probably the refrain… which is only in the right speaker, which is… odd… oh, okay, so they have a male voice on the left… alright. Well, now it’s back to the original… okay, so just going through the various parts again with different lyrics. It’s alright, but again, it’s not clicking and interacting with me. It’s alright, certianly. If someone put this on, I wouldn’t complain. But that describes so, so much of the music I listen to… probably like… 70%… 20% I don’t like… 10% I love… maybe something like that. Hmm, the music is building slowly… has been over the whole song, and now it’s pretty like… strong… not like… powerful but just… louder… I guess a little more powerful…

Track 9: Pyrite Pedestal by Pretty Girls Make Graves. I think these guys opened for Franz Ferdinand when I saw them… they kinda sucked in concert. This one starts out promising, though… nice and fast with neat little keyboards… Oh yeah, this is nice… all energetic drum roll behind the sorta slowish lyrics… it… yeah. I could do this… this is closer to what I want… knowing how he’s slowly moving in energy or whatever, this might bode well for the end of the CD. Mmm, yeah, now the music is even stronger… yeah, that’s nice… Jonathan left, I can take off the headphones, thank goodness… yeah, it’s got my head nodding to the beat and whatnot. Good job, song. But… it’s got the long fade out… bleh, why? And Jonathan comes back in after leaving. Wonderful.

Track 10: Dark Matter – Andrew Bird. Mm, whistling…? Oooh, lots of building… lots of building… yeah… yeahyeahyeah… mmm, a little slower now that it got going than I was hoping…. yeah, Nich definitely has a style he likes… and I guess everyone else likes it on the board, as he’s got nothing but praise for this mix… hm… is this leaving any kind of impression on me…? It’s all kinda fading together, they’re all kinda similar and this isn’t really affecting me in any strong way. I keep wanting to use the word methodical again… it’s very like… marching in the background… duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh constantly… like a lot of these songs. Hmm… sorta ending kinda sad or something.

Track 11: I Summon You – Spoon. These are the guys who did the soundtrack to Stranger Than Fiction, right? Essner likes them… I like like… the theme song to the movie. I don’t know what it’s called… but yeah, this is definitely an Essner-like song. Nothing wrong with it… and it has a beat I can nod and tap my foot to and general get into a little bit… ooh, tambourine. And see, this is different from the other songs because it has… what’s the word… a syncopated rhythm…? Go go, Wikipedia… yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s what this is. That makes me get into it a little more. Maybe I just like syncopation? Abrupt stop… man, no in between stops for Nich…

Track 12: Lord of the Netherword by Shoji Meguro. Organs… oh, this is the song from one of the MegaTen games… not Persona 3. But the same guy. Yeah, it sounds like his softer less hip-hoppy energy pieces from Persona 3… that means I really appreciate it, but have no real want to listen to it outside of a video game context where it can set the game’s mood well…I worry about setting my mood to anything but happy in my spare time…

Track 13: Skip Divided by Thom Yorke. Beepy… hm… weird… definitely differentish… hmm, I wasn’t expecting a male vocalist even though Thom is probably a male name… his voice is kinda getting eaten by the sorta annoying electronic noise music… it’s like deep bass that eats everything… and there are weird noises in the background too… yeah, it’s just like totally eating the singing… it’s hard to focus on it… I guess that’s the idea they’re going for… but it just makes me feel distracted, like I’m missing something… or I could miss something, if I don’t keep the two things like… separate… The vocals are a little louder now, but they seem focused more on the left side which still makes me feel kinda awkward… Also, the like… emotion of the song doesn’t really change at all when the music changes, it’s still giving the same feeling out… it doesn’t really feel like a break or whatever.

Track 14: Seven Swans – Sufjan Stevens. This is an Essner band… I’ve heard them before… I think they’ve even played one of his songs in Kohl’s, though it was an upbeat one… this one is all this acoustic something… and very slow… so I already hate it. It’s kinda haunting, I suppose, but if I wasn’t trying to like… be open and was just listening for something to listen to I definitely would have already skipped this… ooh, they added some piano now… but it’s probably going to be more of the same only with some piano behind it… I guess the instrument is like… a Ukulele maybe…? It has a kinda toy-ish quality… Wikipedia go… oh, he’s holding a Banjo… yeah, that could be a really slow banjo. Another vocalist… female… just on the left… hm… mmm, they keep building… I’m liking this a little better at the end with the sorta full group going at it.
Nich seems to be about… haunting… they all have that kind of quality… is that all he listens to…? Or was he just trying to make a haunting mix? See, I dunno… I was trying to make something entertaining as well as a cross-section of what I enjoy listening to while trying to keep things maybe a little more obscure so that it would be new to people… I wonder if that’s what Nich did, or just put a lot together with similar themes… music people might be able to do that.

Track 15: Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space by Spiritualized. Started with a voice saying the title… and there are vocals sorta fading in… Hmm, you’ve got a singer and another singer whose voice seems to be pumped through a filter to make it sound like a radio… and now it’s all grown out and built… but still very slow… and walking slowly forward, like I was talking about before… they keep adding more and more vocal parts overlapping each other, though, that’s kinda neat. Sorta like a round I suppose. It definitely builds the intensity. I keep spelling definitely incorrectly and using spell-check to fix it… I wonder how many times I’ve done that so far… oh, look, yet another vocal part. Another abrupt end.

Track 16: Warm Night by The Concretes. Mm, what is this start reminding me of… “In the good ol’ suuuumertiiiiiiiime!” Or something… it’s like… carousel-like? Does that make sense? Goes around and around and around, slow and gentle… not too bad, I suppose… but yeah, definitely that sensation I said… of moving but not really going anywhere… gentle… got some violins in there… hm. It’s interesting, but again, not really my thing. It does sort of invoke a mood, though. And we all fall down. Hey, it didn’t end abruptly or forever!

Track 17: Debaser by Feed. Last track… a cover of the first track, or so I understand. Only with a female singer. Ooh, I like those drums… hm… what are they going to do with them? Mmm, taking awhile to get going… and like… modem noises in the background…? And dogs barking… that’s… hm… not really enjoying that… weird little stall pointless point here with some big like… cymbal hits and more weird seemingly random beeping… now those drums I like are coming back… and some more music is coming back into it… Ooh, there we go… that’s more my style… I could get into a whole song like that. Ooh, guitars… yeahyeahyeah, that’s much much better! A little repeating, but nice… and now it’s fading away and… done… that’s the CD.

Overall, yeah, this CD is not for me. At all, really. It’s mostly the sort of music I’m indifferent to and never seek out… I might give it a second listen sometime just to be fair, but… yeah. It doesn’t make me want to do so besides out of a duty to this whole mix CD project…
I do feel like I might have a good grip on the musical whatevers of Nich, though… I wonder if that’s everyone’s goal or if I shouldn’t assume I can get that from these CDs… hmm…