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Yet Another Music Thingie

Lauren

Jim passed this one my way, and I should probably maim him for doing so.


1. What is the total volume of musical files on your computer?

10.5 gigs of mp3s, baby. Filthy, I know.

2. What song are you listening to right now?

Tears For Fears, Head Over Heels. I was submitted to Donnie Darko last month and surprisingly didn’t hate it so much. I loved the soundtrack in part because I can remember my older sister listening to all of the music when I was a wee one.

3. Last CD I bought?

Best of Barbara Pittman’s years with Sun Records. I bought it on sale solely for one song, Handsome Man. Best musical investment I’ve made in awhile.

4. Five songs you listen to a lot and which mean something to you:

  1. Queen – Another One Bites the Dust
    Ethan has been obsessed with this song since he was a baby. I can’t hear Queen without thinking of Ethan stomping around his room screaming the lyrics to this at the top of his little lungs. Same with anything by David Bowie.
  2. Elliott Smith – Alameda
    Smith was in my CD player all throughout my pregnancy. This song, in addition to the entirety of XO, takes me back to that time. And that’s why I can’t listen to it anymore, which I suppose should strike this entry from the list.
  3. Summertime, in all its incarnations
    This is one of the first songs I ever taught myself to play on the piano. I learned the Gershwin version, but obsessed over the covers by Billie Holiday, Janis Joplin, and others. The Sublime cover always irritated the crap out of me. Nonetheless, when Ethan was a baby I sang this to him every night and every time we got into the car. He still recognizes the tune even though I haven’t sung it to him in years.
  4. Sufjan Stevens – John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
    This is off his newest CD, “Illinoise” (as in “Come On Feel The Illinoise!”), which has yet to come out of my CD player since I got the pre-release copy from a super-secret, illicit file-sharing deal. This song has several places in which it could go totally wrong, and yet it never does. It is about the devastatation that the Gacy murders put on a nation of people. The chorus and last line of the song are utterly heartbreaking and beautiful, as is most of the rest of the album.
  5. One of my favorite songs at this moment is Donovan’s Get Thy Bearings. It’s perfect walking music — slinky and chill — and remains a staple on the mp3 player.

I’m supposed to pass this one along, so I’m hitting up the biggies: Mac of Pesky Apostrophe, Roxanne of Rox Populi, Trish Wilson, and Amanda of Pandagon. Anyone else who wants to play should hit it up here in the comments or on your own blog. Enjoy!

In other news, I really should bathe and get out of the house for the night, but Law and Order has been on for hours and I’m knitting a lovely super-secret birthday present. Choices, choices.

9 thoughts on Yet Another Music Thingie

  2. I can’t pass up the music stuff because I’m such a dork about it — but I’m sitting around with my legs coated in dirt because I opted to complete this post instead of bathing after I spent all afternoon in the yard. :-* yourself. 😉

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  4. I think I’ve reached my weekly meme limit on my blog, so I’ll answer here.

    1. What is the total volume of musical files on your computer?

    I hope you’re sitting down, cause I’m glad I was. 47.3 gigs. That drive only has room for 47.5. I have no idea what I’m going to do.

    2. What song are you listening to right now?

    “Thrice All-American”–Neko Case

    3. Last CD I bought?

    The Ugly Beats new one.

    4. Five songs you listen to a lot and which mean something to you:

    I’ll list songs that I throw in mixes when people come over a lot, since that’s probably a good measure of where I’m at mentally right now.
    1) “Under Pressure”–Bowie and Queen. I just love the way Freddie Mercury sings this.
    2) “Think”–Aretha Franklin. One of the most inspiring songs ever. Gives me hope for mankind.
    3) “Jolene”–Dolly Parton. Think I have a thing for powerful vocals?
    4) “Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA”–Devo and me are bestest friends.
    5) “The KKK Took My Baby Away”–The Ramones. My dad commented that he really liked this when he heard me listening to it. It was the first time I think he realized that my taste in music, while much different than his, was still really good. It was a bonding moment, if you will.

    A few weeks from now I’m going to be a guest on a radio show on Urbana-Champaign’s college station playing some of my favorite songs of all time, and I think the above will certainly be on it. I’ll make an announcement on Pandagon when the date and time are settled. You can get it on streaming.

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  6. I’ll bite on this one, since I’m a semi-music nerd. My first answer will be pretty disappointing, though.

    1. What is the total volume of musical files on your computer?

    Zero. The computer that I am currently using is old, slow, and has no room for music or other extraneous stuff. So all of my music comes from CDs, and I estimate that I have about 125-150 of those.

    2. What song are you listening to right now?

    “Burned Out” by Sevendust.

    3. Last CD I bought?

    Ascendancy by Trivium, a metal band from Florida.

    4. Five songs you listen to a lot and which mean something to you:

    1) “Home” — Dream Theater. This was the unofficial pledge song when I was pledging the band fraternity three years ago.

    2) “Original Faubus Fables” — Charles Mingus. This song encompasses everything that is great about jazz, I think. It was written in protest of Governor Orville Faubus’ actions in trying to prevent desegregation of Little Rock, AR schools. Mingus was also one of the greatest bebop and free jazz composers of the 1950s and 1960s. This song includes both written sections and sections of totally free-form improvisation.

    3) “A Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation” — Trivium. Trivium is a band I’ve recently discovered–introduced to me by an old high school friend–, so of course I listen to them constantly. This song is about a child who can finally stand up to an abusive father, saying “Your abuse will end right here/No longer will your family fear”.

    4) “Chop Suey” — System of a Down. For whatever reason, this was one of the last songs to be played at my senior prom. I actually have fond memories of my prom, so this song always works well for me.

    5) “Bohemian Rhapsody” — Queen. The only meaning this song has for me is that it is one that my friends and I like to pretend we can sing. Results tend to be very, very bad, but we have fun with it.

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