Sound Insulation

Just a little ditty (actually it's more of an opus, oops) to follow-up from Friday's post, which Stew told me was "depressing."  I didn't mean it to come off that way.  It was intended more as a tribute to seasonal funks.  Recognizing that most people fall into them at one point or another, and that there is nothing wrong with it.  Maybe even they are good for you.

Anyway, shortly after writing the last post, I started perking up.  Plus I got distracted by troubleshooting why blogger.com's new threaded comments weren't working on my blog.  Then felt vindicated when I figured it out.  I even posted it to the blogger help forums and someone else replied saying thanks!  What can I say?  It warms my heart to help people with my geekiness.  So I can feel my little januweary boohoo cocoon starting to do it's magic.

I'm still slackering it up style-wise and only have energy for the scratching of surface of chores, but I am in higher spirits.  Was nice to hangout this weekend.  Stew and I marathoned our way through the first season of The Walking Dead.  I had to cower into his shoulder a few times- I really DO NOT LIKE zombies -but the storyline was compelling enough to outweigh the willies.  Plus it is kind of fun to be freaked out every once in a while.  During/after the first two episodes I could totally feel my stress reactions kicking in, it was crazy.

Talking about stress reactions... this is the penultimate day of the older boys' school-break-take-3, and so far, no bloodshed.  Today I'm not taking any chances though, and have organized an impromptu "Picnic with Dad" as a way to eat up 3-4 hours...  Going to let them watch a DVD w/ headphones, while I drive to FM transmitted iPod goodness.

Because, along with NetFlix marathons, one prominent feature of the cocoon's internal structure is a thick layer of sound insulation.  Not so much keeping sound out- with kids, that is nigh impossible- more so, a buffering of a  musical equivalent of shag carpet and trippy wallpaper.  

You know how all the best movies are scored with superfab soundtracks, made up of seemingly random songs, but when you sit back and listen, the tone or lyrics fit the situation perfectly?  And it makes you wish someone would craft a soundtrack to your life too?  Or was I the only child of the 80s who felt that way after watching a John Hughes movie?

Similar to books, I've always been a bit of a follower when it comes to acquiring a taste for music.  Maybe it sounds better to say that I prefer books & music to be peer reviewed.  Other than movie soundtracks being a big musical influence in my life, suggestions from friends and family and strangers on the internet are basically the only way I pick up on new tunes.  I don't do a lot of hunting & gathering on my own.  I save that decisive/predictive/"this is cool" energy for thrift shopping / clothing.

But I really like the flirtation stage of new music, when you first hear it and are like all, eh.  Then you give it another try, and something tickles your fancy.  A hook winks at you or a lyric makes you take a second glance.  You play it again to see if you heard it correctly.  Head over to google to read the full lyrics.  It's like poetry.  What's the meaning of the words?  Realize it doesn't matter, you are infatuated, either way.  Finally it all comes together and it's totally heavy petting as you hit repeat the second it is over so you can hear it again and again.  Then you drop it for awhile.  Come up for air.  And if it still gives you butterflies the next few times you meet, well, then you know.  Similarly, I have a tendency to fall out of love with certain songs too.  Maybe I play them too much too soon, I don't know.  But then it can be fun to rediscover them later on.

Thinking back, if I were to look back through my life, my boohoo cocoons most likely coincide with increases in music acquisitions.  I'm not sure what comes first, the cocoon or the music, but at some point they interweave and flow along with each other for a time.  Which means, I've been consuming a lot of "new to me" music lately.  Also significant, Santa brought me a $50 iTunes gift card.  Which now only has, like $12 on it.

Since I like hearing what other people are hearing, I usually try to pass things on as well.  Used to be in the form of burned CDs, but is it just me, or are music CDs going the way of 8 tracks?  So the other day I started finding YouTube videos for some of the songs I've downloaded recently.  Then I wrote a little bit about each song and saved it as draft because it was taking forever.    But now I'm just going to  post it and move on.  I gotta go get ready for the picnic...

See the songs listed below, or you can play through each one via this YouTube Playlist.

What songs/bands/albums have you been grooving to lately?

Mavehaven read my mind and shared some of her Tunes this morning.  She has good taste, go visit.

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- Stereo by IAmDynamite (video)

Passed along by a friend and now I'm anxiously awaiting the March album release.  In the meantime, go here to download their song Hi Lo and listen to another track, Carolina (in player across top of window). 

- I Know What Boys Want by The Waitresses (video)

Really liked the Christmas Wrapping song by The Waitresses from a mix of Christmas songs Stew had downloaded from iTunes.  So I checked out what other music they had and was tickled to see they were an early 80s "new wave" band, who also did the theme song for Square Pegs.  Anybody else remember that show?

- The theme to FireFly written by Joss Whedon who also wrote the show (video)

Stew continues to sneak country in on me, he liked this theme song and we found it on iTunes. Also this was from the NetFlix marathon we had just prior to the watching The Walking Dead.  

- Red Solo Cup by Toby Keith (video)

I admit, I stumbled across this country one while trawling the Top 100.  I've drunk from many a red solo cup.  Actually the kegger ones I remember the most were the frosted/translucent ones.  This is not one I'd play over and over again, but would be a cheesy song to play at a party.

- Everything at Once by Lenka (video)
This was one that earwormed both Wiley and I as it played during a Disney Studio All Access ad, on the Cars 2 DVD last night.  I googled it (forget what search term I used) and downloaded it.  Milo wants to know what something that looked like all those animals would look like.  A monster, I said.

Also movie/soundtrack related...
- Immigrant Song by Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Karen O from TGWTDT soundtrack (video)
(originally Led Zeppelin, which I already had)

- Creep (Radiohead Cover) by Scala & Kolacny (video)
Another cover downloaded recently and kind of 6 degrees of separation, as it is from another David Fincher directed film (it was used in Social Network trailers/intro)...

- All I Want is You by U2 (video / movie clip [Spanish ver. dubbing surprised me at end])
This U2 song recently played in our iTunes shuffle and I told Stew it always reminds me of that part from the end of Reality Bites where Ethan Hawk calls Winona Ryder and hangs up after a long pause.

- The Show is actually a Lenka song (quelle coinkydink!) but we downloaded the version by actress Kerris Dorsey(video)
We heard in it in Moneyball, which I had Redbox'd for Stew and ho-hum watched with him... pleasantly surprised that it wasn't all that horrible.  I'm not all that into baseball, but Brad Pitt is still easy on the eyes.

- 99 Problems (Jay-Z cover) by Hugo (video) Here's an interesting sidenote about Jay-Z related to the original song.  And the rest of that Hugo album is pretty catchy too.  This song is one Stew picked up on when we watched No Strings Attached (It was okay. Ashton is cute in it, Natalie Portman is annoying.)

- Not long ago I downloaded a Steve Miller Band album.  Flashback city.  I think it was hearing The Joker play on the radio that sent me down that memory lane.  Total highschool moment.  (video)

Oh and here's a song (video) from a Norwegian black metal band Kevelrtak that I downloaded solely because when I saw it listed as "Breakout Metal Album" on iTunes I remembered a stylish Norwegian flickr friend saying how she'd been listening to it non-stop last spring.  At the time I'd googled it to see what she was talking about, and really liked the album's cover art, plus the lyrics were said to all be concerned with Norse mythology / Viking folklore which sounded really cool.   Nothing against any of those influencing factors, but pretty much all the songs sound the same to me.  Kind of wish I'd have just downloaded one song and not the full album.  Oh well.  That sometimes happens when you have a gift cert burning a hole in your virtual pocket and click "buy album" on a whim.

ETA: The Kevelrtak album actually grew on me a little bit as I listened to it on the drive home.  Maybe it was because the tracks were out of order or playing backwards, but there were a few raging head-banging ones that played this time that I think I missed before.  They make Metallica sound like The Monkees.  Also I came to the realization, just like making yourself watch spooky zombie movies, sometimes it can be good to freak your ears out with some scary music.  Whatever gets that old heart or brain pounding is good for you, I say.  Also black metal turned up way high is total sound insulation, unlike sugary Lenka... with Sultans of Satan playing, you REALLY can't hear the kids fighting in the back.

And PS, I just found this on YouTube too.  12 Hours of White Noise.

And and PPS, when left to my own devices, (or have XM radio for 3 months), I've come to find that electro/dance type stuff turns me on pretty quickly.  Wiley and the boys seem to like it too.  Here's a track of that variety I just previewed and was told to "download that to your iPod mom!"...
Kyoto by Skrillex (video)

And and and PPPS, this: