Yeah. I love the Dead Kennedys for a similar reason. Nothing I put on at night when I'm going to sleep or listen to before work to get me in the right mindset, but they're definitely a part of me. I love Fugazi. I used to rock a Clutch tape on the way to school. I used to love Ministry (i think you actually turned me on to Ministry or maybe Josh L- / Bob or somebody). I also have a taste for the Sex Pistols. Makes me wanna fuck shit up. Unfortunately, that in the past has also meant myself.
I also got into electronic stuff, but there's not much that really MEANS much there. Just beats. Beastie Boys always make me happy. But they're creative and clever. I asked you for copies of those, remember?
Really though, when I felt like I found -my- music it was Jeff Mangum's Neutral Milk Hotel that I heard when I was living in NYC. Andrea gave me or I stole a tape. I listened to it in a cassette walkman on a LIRR platform and actually cried. I'm sure you can understand that at various parts of my life, with my family, my traveling, my drugs I have felt very alone. I remember it was really hard living in a single room in Harlem being very young and knowing that it was me vs. the Universe. I wanted my own team I suppose.
It gets mighty lonely when it's you vs. the Universe. Sometimes, like for a sailor to see a shore, -- for me to hear someone sing something that I feel and can't describe or find anyone that convinces me they relate, that they understand -- makes me feel something really good and really big. From my core, my heart.
Anyway, I'm attaching the song that made me cry. It's the lyrics. He explained in the album cover that when he says Jesus Christ he doesn't care what you believe. He's referring to the magic, the mystical side of existence. But the rest of the lyrics really really resonate with me. Particularly:
Up and over we go
Through the wave and undertow
I will float until I learn how to swim
Inside my mum in a garbage bin
Until I find myself again again oh oh
Up and over we go
Mouths open wide and spitting still
And I will spit until I learn how to speak
Up through the doorway as the sideboards creek
With them ever proclaiming me me ohh
And it means to me that I will survive until I learn how to live. That's my life J-. Maybe other people's too, but definitely my own. It also means (the garbage bin) that this body, this world, and my mom are all mundane. Precious garbage, but garbage nonetheless. Disposable.
I also notice that a lot of the music I really like is like large waves, sometimes whole tides of orchestral sound. Strings, horns, synthesizers. Another feature I've noticed is that sometimes I really love simple, almost childish melodies on pianos / xylophones -- sometimes on top of the ebb & flow of strings or horns or whatever, or sometimes just at other parts as a sort of arabesque flourish or even as their own song structure.
The one thing I feel about the music I gravitate towards though is that it isn't formulaic. At least not by the standard Rock & Roll formula, or the Punk formula, or anything like that. I feel a bond with the artists because I feel like they are doing something they know is close to divine. They're using a supreme human ability. They're drawing on math, sound, patterns, contrast, time meted out to reflect their experience and emotion and they're _extremely_ articulate. And I love them for that. 866-NEON-BIB(LE).
God Save the Queen,
J-
I also got into electronic stuff, but there's not much that really MEANS much there. Just beats. Beastie Boys always make me happy. But they're creative and clever. I asked you for copies of those, remember?
Really though, when I felt like I found -my- music it was Jeff Mangum's Neutral Milk Hotel that I heard when I was living in NYC. Andrea gave me or I stole a tape. I listened to it in a cassette walkman on a LIRR platform and actually cried. I'm sure you can understand that at various parts of my life, with my family, my traveling, my drugs I have felt very alone. I remember it was really hard living in a single room in Harlem being very young and knowing that it was me vs. the Universe. I wanted my own team I suppose.
It gets mighty lonely when it's you vs. the Universe. Sometimes, like for a sailor to see a shore, -- for me to hear someone sing something that I feel and can't describe or find anyone that convinces me they relate, that they understand -- makes me feel something really good and really big. From my core, my heart.
Anyway, I'm attaching the song that made me cry. It's the lyrics. He explained in the album cover that when he says Jesus Christ he doesn't care what you believe. He's referring to the magic, the mystical side of existence. But the rest of the lyrics really really resonate with me. Particularly:
Up and over we go
Through the wave and undertow
I will float until I learn how to swim
Inside my mum in a garbage bin
Until I find myself again again oh oh
Up and over we go
Mouths open wide and spitting still
And I will spit until I learn how to speak
Up through the doorway as the sideboards creek
With them ever proclaiming me me ohh
And it means to me that I will survive until I learn how to live. That's my life J-. Maybe other people's too, but definitely my own. It also means (the garbage bin) that this body, this world, and my mom are all mundane. Precious garbage, but garbage nonetheless. Disposable.
I also notice that a lot of the music I really like is like large waves, sometimes whole tides of orchestral sound. Strings, horns, synthesizers. Another feature I've noticed is that sometimes I really love simple, almost childish melodies on pianos / xylophones -- sometimes on top of the ebb & flow of strings or horns or whatever, or sometimes just at other parts as a sort of arabesque flourish or even as their own song structure.
The one thing I feel about the music I gravitate towards though is that it isn't formulaic. At least not by the standard Rock & Roll formula, or the Punk formula, or anything like that. I feel a bond with the artists because I feel like they are doing something they know is close to divine. They're using a supreme human ability. They're drawing on math, sound, patterns, contrast, time meted out to reflect their experience and emotion and they're _extremely_ articulate. And I love them for that. 866-NEON-BIB(LE).
God Save the Queen,
J-
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