i don't care if it takes me all night
we're driving until it makes this nightmare untrue
this is not a love song, not a love song...

This free sampler (available through Amazon MP3) has a gorgeous track on it called "One Night" by Bostich + Fussible. The rest of the album is pretty darn good, too. But "One Night" is so appealing because it has that rare combination of sad and sultry that I like...in songs such as "Come Undone" by Duran Duran or "Try To Sleep" by Low.

"One Night," from what I can tell...I couldn't find the lyrics online and sometimes the song is so quiet I can't hear all the words, is so stark and bleak because the narrator is trying to fix a broken relationship that has left him beyond despair (or so he sounds.)

Driving at night is the only thing keeping him sane. The song unravels in my mind like a movie. It's hypnotic and heart-breaking, reasons enough to make it a winner.

But if you need another reason...the horn arrangement is a killer!

John Stamos tweeted today that he is in Low's new video for their beautiful and awesome song "Try To Sleep."  I watched it, then watched it again and realize if you listen closely to the words that no other filming of the song could have done it such justice.

The video is so bittersweet and makes you realize that Stamos, just by using his facial expressions, is a far better actor than I ever imagined during his "Full House" days.

watch here

The ending truly captures how deeply sad it is to wake from a world that was never real, no matter how much it seemed so.

  


On her new EP Beth Ditto sounds a lot like Madonna, circa 1983/84.  And on the song "I Wrote the Book" she really reminds me of the Material Girl.

 iTunes is currently offering the single for free so check it out. Meanwhile, here is the video:

watch here

Disco and Depeche Mode with a little LCD thrown in...

I'm definitely not complaining, but lately it seems everything new is old again..."old" somewhere between The Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode in all their glorious 80s sound.

On their self-titled album (just released today on Amazon's MP3 store) Holy Ghost sound like they've come to town just to party, even if there is a little bit of anger and angst thrown in the mix, with some LCD Soundsystem for good measure.

All of the tracks sound pretty darn good to me, but the best one (and what would  probably be the most sizzling on the dancefloor) is "Some Children." I couldn't believe it when I heard Michael McDonald's voice join in, but he sounds very hip here and his always soulful sound is most certainly welcome!

Well, that it's for now...Holy Ghost is too good not to get up and dance to! The opening track "Do It Again" is exactly what you'll want to do when you've finished listening the first time.

"Hypoxia"



The April issue of Rock Sound has a sampler with the most beautiful, haunting and hurting song I've heard in ages...it's called "Hypoxia" and the chills it sent down my spine the first time I listened continued when I hit repeat immediately after it was over.

This is amazing stuff, overwhelming and gorgeous. And totally worth the outrageous $9.99 you pay for the magazine...or the much cheaper 99 cents if you buy it off of Amazon's MP3 store!:)

Hypoxia itself is, according to Wikipedia, "a pathological condition in which the body as a whole (generalized hypoxia) or a region of the body (tissue hypoxia) is deprived of adequate oxygen supply."

Rock Sound says that Thomas Giles sounds like a "less schizophrenic Muse tempered by French electro wizards Air." Amen to that!!

I'm mesmerized and floored at the same time...can't wait to hear more!!

Well, when you put it THAT way...

The next time you find yourself head over heels and near insane for someone just pick up this book and start reading it. The realist part in the title is by no means exaggerated.

You may even feel quite foolish for what the writer calls, at times throughout the book, nothing more than "hallucinations." I'm still reading so I can't give a complete review, but let's just say: ouch, do I feel stupid!

The absurdity of romantic love and how much pain we put ourselves through over it comes to light here in a way I've never seen before. As Anouchka Grose writes, "love is just mad."

I've been very nostalgic this past week, something I'm normally not. But things have been a bit tight lately and it's the music of my youth, not the modern music I'm normally so passionate about, that has been comforting me.

For some reason after I got off my trampoline tonight I felt so much better.  It's hard not to feel happy bouncing up and down and flying through the air while listening to easy retro pop the likes of Wham.
I like their fluffier stuff tracks ("Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" and "Everything She Wants," but "A Different Corner" and "Nothing Looks The Same in The Light" are the true beauties, the songs that remind me that Wham! (okay, really more George Michael) were pretty great!

A nice perky plus on "If You Were There: The Best of Wham" is a six minute (and counting!) remix of "Everything She Wants"...very disco-y and much more hard-core (in terms of exercising!) than the original.

Also beautiful: the jazzy and soulful "Like A Beauty" and a lot of "Music From the Edge of Heaven."

Wise Up

Aimee Mann has a song I really like called "Wise Up." It's simple, but like most things that are simple, the truth still hits you hard. "It's not going to stop," she sings, " 'til you wise up."

Beautiful piano and quiet strings swirl in the background (on the Magnolia soundtrack.) Mann keeps up the refrain and yet it never sounds tired. She's so right: it's not going to stop 'til you wise up.

Why do the same things that always end up hurting you, why love someone who doesn't feel the same way? It's not going to stop until you wise up!

Here are the rest of the lyrics and a live performance of the song:


watch here

In My Rush To Leave The Past Behind

another heartbreaking and beautiful song:

lyrics and video here

Sweet and sad...that's why I like Guster. A few years back, "One Man Wrecking Machine" appeared on a Paste magazine cd sampler and I found my eyes filling up with tears. The song is about past regrets and wanting a second change and sounds so so beautiful.

But the truth is...you can beat yourself up over and over again but you can't go back. And, really, why would you want to? Nothing is ever actually as we remember it. I think our minds are constantly re-creating the past each time we remember something...memories just can't be trusted.

...reading an old issue of Uncut music magazine I discovered an amazing little song called "It Was Meant To Be A Love Song." The song is not available through Amazon's MP3 store, but can be purchased off of iTunes or ordered through Amazon by buying the entire album (as an import) here.

iTunes sells two different versions of digital albums with various upbeat (and pretty cool-sounding) mixes! An underlying pathos combines with an undeniable catchiness to make "It Was Meant To Be A Love Song" quite haunting!

And the title and tone remind me of how painful it can be when good intentions go horribly wrong...