hrudu. » music

Actually, calling it “sleepy” is ridiculous. I am making this post because I am unable to fall asleep. Also: playing LOUD. The neighbors are going to hate me for this.

(This is what the sleepy UFO is, unless you were paying attention.)

Mr. Little Jeans – The Suburbs (Arcade Fire cover)

Let’s start with an Arcade Fire cover. Sounding good so far.

The Elected – Sun, Sun, Sun

Because I am a fool who has only discovered this recently. Eat a witchalok.

Yuck – Get Away

Wake up. Feel free to be awesome. Do it.

Architecture in Helsinki – Escapee

This is too good. You may or may not deserve it.

La Sera – Never Come Around

I have listened to this song everyday for the past forever.

The Submarines – Fire

Under the covers and shittt. Almost quoted parts of the lyrics there.

Bon Iver – I Can’t Make You Love Me / Nick of Time

Because of this. Also, years later, “Creature Fear” plays on.

Pulp – Disco 2000

(Specifically this version.) This song will never not be relevant.

Kerli – Army of Love

Kerli – Army Of Love by simoneberlioz

Summer 2011.

Soko – The Dandy Cowboys

Only because this song is too cute!

the sleepy UFO 6

paolo. — Sun, 29 May 2011 15:10:47 +0000

Yay, a sleepy UFO before May ends! Triumph!

Here we go:

Katie Costello – Island in the Sun

Polarizing cover, amirite

KT Tunstall – Throw Me a Rope

Her voice. Ridiculous. So good. (Side-quest: open Rainymood on a new tab while playing this.)

Rainbow Arabia – Without You

This is almost too good. Also, the video’s a riot — I guess that’s what you do when a significant other’s not there?

French Films – Golden Sea

Let me tell you a secret. I love the sound of the ’80s, but I’m too young to claim that I grew up listening to *that* sound. Thank you new bands for making yourselves sound older than you are. You guys are awesome.

Cassette Kids – Spin

I’m calling it: this song is SUMMER 2011. “When the songs about to end, *right now* we’ll put it on again *right now*”

Crystal Castles ft. Robert Smith – Not in Love

Crystel Castles and ROBERT SMITH.

The Submarines – Shoelaces

Yes. Yes. Yes. Repeat.

Cat’s Eyes – Not a Friend

Post-’50s/’60s ’50s/’60s. Like I like.

Sleigh Bells – Rill Rill

More than a year later, still good.

Color of Clouds ft. Kellie Scarr – Haunts Me

Weird. Good weird.

The Joy Formidable – Whirring

From The Big Roar!

Thanks to my music group on Facebook for helping me discover new music every.single.day.

the 30-day song challenge

paolo. — Sun, 08 May 2011 15:49:11 +0000

30 days of posting music videos on my Facebook wall for the 30-day song challenge — was I a better person after? No idea. Was I able to subtly assert/inflict my taste on my friends? Fuck yeah — and they were better for it.

ATTENTION PEOPLE: you’re welcome.

Here are the 30 songs that I posted:

day 01 – your favorite song — 2002 was a weird year.
Morrissey – The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get

day 02 – your least favorite song — From the director of the Transformers movie — this video terrified me as a child. It’s too much of everything (in a bad way), over-produced and too long. It also didn’t help that they used to play this EVERYWHERE. (at the time.) This was long before Meat Loaf’s stint as Robert Paulson, but even that won’t make me listen to this song.
Meat Loaf – I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)

day 03 – a song that makes you happy
Matt & Kim – Daylight

day 04 – a song that makes you sad — regret and longing in song form. This could’ve easily been Sunset Rubdown’s “Empty Threats of Little Lord” or The Cure’s “Cut Here.”
Stars – Your Ex-Lover is Dead

day 05 – a song that reminds you of someone — hahahaha!
Aretha Franklin – Natural Woman

day 06 – a song that reminds you of somewhere — this reminds me of Makati.
Aqueduct – Hardcore Days & Softcore Nights

day 07 – a song that reminds you of a certain event — I wish there was a better version of this song on the YouTubes.
Sia – Sweet Potato

day 08 – a song that you know all the words to — it was either this or “Forever” by Damage LOL
Jeff Buckley – Last Goodbye

day 09 – a song that you can dance to — Pin Me Down: dance music for rock kids!
Pin Me Down – Cryptic

day 10 – a song that makes you fall asleep — a bit obvious, though as Billy Corgan would say, “what I choose is my choice.” If I wanted other songs that would make me fall asleep out of boredom, I’d crack open some Bright Eyes, lol Also, I need to sleep more. Early and often.
Smashing Pumpkins – In The Arms of Sleep

day 11 – a song from your favorite band
The Arcade Fire – Wake Up

day 12 – a song from a band you hate
Bright Eyes – Going for the Gold

day 13 – a song that is a guilty pleasure — shittt when I’m drunk or half-asleep, apparently this is my go-to song. Which came first, the music or the misery?
Mariah Carey – Heartbreaker

day 14 – a song that no one would expect you to love — thank you, that one bored evening and TapTap.
Nicki Minaj – Right Thru Me

day 15 – a song that describes you (at least I’d like to think it does)
Elvis Costello – Everyday I Write the Book

day 16 – a song that you used to love but now hate — “I liked it before you even heard it” etc. (Call me a hipster and I will eat your face.) This was a gem in Regina Spektor’s 2006 album, until everyone else heard it and started using it in their teen movie/show soundtracks. Now I associate the song with teenagers and bad decisions.
Regina Spektor – Samson

day 17 – a song that you hear often on the radio — often? more like always
Steel Train – Bullet

day 18 – a song that you wish you heard on the radio — Gender-bendin’, random-yet-calculated-beatin’, middle-of-the-song-meter-changin’, vocal-choppin’ and summer-2009in’-yet-relevantin’ Discovery. Wish I heard you on the radio.
Discovery ft. Deradoorian – I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend

day 19 – a song from your favorite album — from the tragically incomplete (Sketches for) My Sweetheart the Drunk
Jeff Buckley – Morning Theft

day 20 – a song that you listen to when you’re angry — sometimes being angry is like this song: stream-of-consciousness rants that don’t really mean anything.
At The Drive In – One-armed Scissor

day 21 – a song that you listen to when you’re happy — Alphabeat = silly grin.
Alphabeat – 10000 Nights of Thunder

day 22 – a song that you listen to when you’re sad — for a song called “Happiness,” you sure are sad.
The Blue Nile – Happiness

day 23 – a song that you want to play at your wedding — it’s either this or Mickey Avalon’s “Jane Fonda” lol
Stevie Wonder – I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)

day 24 – a song that you want to play at your funeral — you will sing along while pouring Coke over my grave.
The Smiths – There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

day 25 – a song that makes you laugh — FOTC!
Flight of the Conchords – Jenny

day 26 – a song that you can play on an instrument — today, I’ll cheat! I cannot play an instrument to save my life, so let’s pretend I could, and here’s a song that I know how to play.
Jonathan Coulton – Skullcrusher Mountain

day 27 – a song that you wish you could play — dat guitar solo. It’s either this or “Rainy Night in Soho”
Lynyrd Skynyrd – Free Bird

day 28 – a song that makes you feel guilty — should’ve been nicer to the crane wife. The song/title is based on a Japanese folktale which is about asking too much of someone without thinking of how it would cost/destroy that person. (I think.)
The Decemberists – The Crane Wife 3

day 29 – a song from your childhood — to be fair, my childhood is still ongoing.
Polaris – Hey Sandy

day 30 – your favorite song at this time last year — according to a tumblr post dated last year, only a different version. 30 days of posting music videos: did it make me a better person? No idea.
Band of Horses – Funeral

arcade fire at coachella!

paolo. — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 14:48:46 +0000

Coachella: for now, just a YouTube Live Webstream. Tickets to Coachella are notoriously hard to obtain (according to my cousin) — you’d have to have at least considered watching it the year before, and you must have already bought your ticket 6 months before the actual thing.

Woke up in the afternoon earlier only to catch the live stream via YouTube, on the Coachella channel — who was performing? Arcade Fire! They had a 14-song (or something) set and it’s no surprise that it was fantastic. Remember months back when they questioned why these guys had a Grammy? Also — it was super special that the last song they played was Sprawl II, which is a personal favorite.

They were the last act for one of the stages on day 2, which means tomorrow, (my time) I’ll be able to catch The Strokes, Jimmy Eat World, PJ Harvey, Angus & Julia Stone and Best Coast. If I don’t sleep. Or wake up early. Or something.

What I couldn’t wait for is when they turn some of that Arcade Fire footage into embeddable videos. The thing with the beat-corresponding(?)-color-changing balloons is a sight to behold. Of course, watching it over the internet is nothing compared to the real thing, but for now this is all I get. Hah.

Check out the YouTube channel, or keep watching the Twitters for the #CoachellaLive hash tag to stay updated.

UPDATE!

So here’s a web-rip of “Ready to Start” — check out the color-balloons!

UPDATE!

Here’s an explanation of what the balloons were, from an unfortunately-titled (lol) article from StereoGum:

The live interactive piece is called “Summer Into Dust.” Designers created giant balls with embedded LEDs and IR transmitters that could make the orbs light up and change color in synchronization.

[Stereogum: Watch Arcade Fire's Magic Balls Light Up Coachella]

such great heights.

paolo. — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 20:16:22 +0000

Such Great Heights has an unusual staying power — hey, you don’t make it to a “Top 100 Songs of the Decade” list for nothing — here are a few of the flavors you might have (or not) heard in this lifetime:

The Postal Service

I still remember hearing this on a pair of headphones for the first time, and being caught by that alternate ear-chirping opening in 2003.

Iron & Wine

This cover gave the song enough of a change to actually make you consider liking it over the original.

Frankmusik

My current favorite version at the moment.

Ben Gibbard (acoustic)

Ben Gibbard’s solo acoustic makes this the “Deathcab” version of the song. (How good are you, really, to be able to cover your own song and yet make it sound like something else entirely?)

Ben Folds

Ben Folds singing “Such Great Heights,” which would sound exactly like how you’re imagining it.

Tetrastar

Because I LOVE Tetrastar. This comes in their FREE album, Songs We Didn’t Write — available on their site.

There’s also one done by Confide, which is embed-disabled — but it’s okay. Not really my cup of tea. And I don’t drink tea. Here’s the link, if your curiosity is itchy.

the sleepy UFO 5

paolo. — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 21:00:03 +0000

The 2009 ambition for a weekly sleepy UFO post has nothing on this playlist. I mean, honestly, my sense for this sort of thing has probably only gotten better — I’m probably more efficient at filtering out what I like from the hot, sweaty mess of music recommendations. Then again, I still habitually play out the sad bastard tunes (random thought: wouldn’t it be been bad-ass if Captain America was one of the Inglorious Basterds?) every now and then. And, and, and — sometimes — sometimes I even play it out over some Rainymood. (will it make any of these other songs better? try it out and maybe tell me.)

So here are some of the good ear-candy, in no absolute particular order — make a game out of it, skip ahead to the song at the bottom, or maybe the middle. Mileage may vary. Or not. Maybe.

For optimum enjoyment, turn ALL the knobs in the direction where sound will become the loudest. Your neighbors/officemates will love you for it, I shit you not! Better yet, do that while wearing headphones!

Your browser will hate me for the number of YouTube embeds I have here. (I secretly envy you if you are about to hear any of these songs for the first time.)

Friends – Friend Crush

Warm post-disco disco-pop, plus those vocals. Wow. I could only find this live performance from the YouTubes, so if you want to hear the record version of this, check out STEREOGUM’s Band to Watch feature on them. (and download the mp3!)

The Strokes ft. Elvis Costello – Taken for a Fool

The surprise Costello was a nice touch, hopefully there’s a nicer version out there? Machu Picchu is still my favorite track from Angles, so maybe check that one out too. (then listen to it on repeat, obsessively.)

Cults – You Know What I Mean

This is my favorite song at the moment. I know it starts out very JS-prom-y, but look out for 0:49 — then look down at the floor. Are those your panties? If not, wear a pair, and get ‘em dropped!

Rafter – Timeless Form, Formless Time

“Timeless Form, Formless Time,”? More like simple complexity, complex simplicity. Beware if you are easily swayed by drum beats. Your limbs will move involuntary-like.

Bat for Lashes – Strangelove (Depeche Mode cover)

Because I still love covers. And bats. And lashes.

Esthero – Superheroes

That I only recently found out about this song is a tragic fact (heard from Cheekie) — it is only quickly rectified if you give it a listen. Also, a one word description for this song is: earsexxx.

Frankmusik – Such Great Heights

I love this cover. Which gets even more meta if you think this is a cover of the Iron & Wine one. LOL Also, Frankmusik is a genius. There is no reason for you not to like this version, or this song. (this isn’t *that* version — which I wouldn’t link, hah!)

Gayngs – By Your Side

The original is clearly better — but listen to it maybe once or twice, then you’ll find that the heavy bass intro is haunting your dreams and hums. (at first you will bargain with it, like “what do you want do you want money? leave my humming alone!”) First found out about Gayngs from their “No Scrubs” sorta-cover — which is ridiculously smooooth. Skip this one if you’re not into the autotune’d.

Angus and Julia Stone – A Book Like This

I just love her voice. Lishpy and beautifulsh.

***

So that’s it for now. What are you listening to now?