Thursday August 21st 2008, 4:48 pm
Filed under: Indie Music 2007
“These Days” for one of those days…and here comes the rain again.
St. Vincent - These Days (Live, DUMBO Session)
Nico cover, 2007
Nico - These Days Lyrics
I’ve been out walking.
I don’t do too much talking these days.
These days.
These days I seem to think a lot about the things that I forgot to do.
And all the times I had the chance to.
I’ve stopped my rambling,
I don’t do too much gambling these days.
These days.
These days I seem to think about how all the changes came about my ways,
and I wonder if I’ll see another highway.
I had a lover.
I don’t think I’ll risk another these days.
These days.
And if I seem to be afraid to live the life that I have made in song.
It’s just that I’ve been losing, so long.
I’ve stopped my dreaming.
I won’t do too much scheming these days.
These days.
These days I sit on corner stones and count the time in quarter tones to ten.
Please don’t confront me with my failures,
I had not forgotten them.
After watching The Rock-afire Explosion jam out to Usher (see Love in This Club), I thought they needed some indie love too. Should I bid on the song with the biggest play count on my iTunes? A classic indie song? One of my favorites from a fallen icon? Or instead of digging deep, should I think in the moment like I did as a kid and say you know, it would be bad ass to see a bear with Tom Gabel’s voice and a pom pom wielding Mitzi Mozzerela as Tegan Quin.
My fondest memories amidst jamming out to The Rock-afire Explosion include the time a friend found a Little Person’s wallet at the bottom of the plastic ball pit, and long car rides with a group of sugar-induced kids singing their hearts out to random eighties hits, NKOTB and A Nightmare on Elm Street theme song (nine, ten, FREDDY’S BACK AGAIN!) Although I am much older now, I still have bad days where I exclaim to friends that “only skee ball can make me happy”, and it never fails.
“Borne on the FM Waves of the Heart” is a collaboration by two artists from amazing bands (go buy their albums if you haven’t already), and has been playing in my headphones since its release. If you have yet to hear this song, enjoy a version that will take you back to a day of working hard for tickets instead of pay checks, eating bad cheese pizza like it was the Last Supper, and watching life-sized kinda-creepy stuffed animals sing and dance for your viewing pleasure.
I won this bid in a landslide, and it was worth every token…
Against Me! (featuring Tegan Quin) - Borne On The FM Waves of the Heart
from New Wave, 2007
Performed by The Rock-afire Explosion. Choreography by Aaron Fechter.
Want to place a bid to see your favorite song performed by The Rock-afire Explosion? Visit Fan Programs now.
“Be safe” you say, whatever the mess you are, you mind okay. That is the custom,
on down.
The New Pornographers – Challengers
from Challengers, 2007
The New Pornographers – Challengers Lyrics
Yes I know it was late,
we were greeting the sun,
before long.
And you live with someone,
I live with somebody too.
Leave it there,
for safe keeping.
One of the west village in plains,
that was the custom
come dawn.
On the walls of the day,
in the shade of the sun,
we wrote down.
Another vision of us,
we were the challengers of
the unknown.
“Be safe” you say,
whatever the mess you are, you mind okay.
That is the custom,
on down.
Until I see you around,
until we clear the accounts. Leave it there.
Leave it to us.
We are the challengers of,
the unknown.
Ova Looven - Lust for Svirda (Eschers Reflexion Remix)
from 58:34 Remixes, 2007
Ova Looven - Lust for Svirda (Eschers Reflexion Remix) Lyrics
How long, could this really go on?
Some things need testing.
Nothing comes from the waves of the radio.
And, that’s so typical.
It doesn’t matter how far I drive.
And everything that catches my memory’s eyes.
This is for the resisting mind.
All the microscopes I own.
I couldn’t find the words that are stuck in the memory.
Green lights, fills up the windows of my car.
Drive so much faster.
Trees fall, over me like a waterfall.
Feel so protected.
All the animals live outside.
Don’t you think they’d feel the weight of a suicide mind? If they did, they’d grieve like us.
Like a roller coaster ride,
you never know it’s over until your memory lies.
Ed Harcourt - Until Tomorrow Then Lyrics
If the world did end, would you be my apocalyptic friend?
Until tomorrow then.
If the skies did fall, would you pick up my last call?
Until tomorrow then.
Navigate to the moon.
Flee the planet this afternoon.
Until tomorrow then.
With the waves rising high, we’d be the first most likely to die.
Until tomorrow then.
I guess, it’s you, I miss, ’cause I just stare at the ceiling.
My stomach knots and twists, you’ve created this feeling.
And I may be out of style, but do you know what true love is?
I’ll make this all so worthwhile, so let’s rise above this.
Rise above this.
So I dug a tunnel underground, and waited patiently to be found.
Until tomorrow then.
All my ideas make them laugh, but in the end you will see they’re not so daft
and we’ll have sorrow to spend.
I guess, it’s you, I miss, ’cause I just stare at the ceiling. My stomach knots and twists, you’ve created this feeling.
I may be out of style, but do you know what true love is?
I’ll make this all so worthwhile.
So let’s rise above this. Let’s rise above this.
Let’s rise above this.
Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. Rewind, rewind, rewind. AFOM and I, with our shared obsession for lyrics and analysis, have devised the following words for this song. They weren’t posted anywhere else, so we couldn’t leave it alone. No, no, oh, no.
UPDATE: Mark Ritsema (synth, vocals) responded to my request to fill in the blanks. So here they are, revised. He said I was “pretty close!”. I’ll take that as a compliment. John Pelant sings lead vocals on this particular song.
The Battle Royale – Race Car Lyrics
No, oh, oh.
Why don’t you leave it alone?
Oh, oh, oh.
Who are you to get known?
When will you be done?
Did you forget where you came from?
I don’t wanna feel,
what you feel.
No, no, oh, no.
No, no, oh, no.
Back on the high speed, don’t you wanna meet me?
I don’t think they’d ever see.
Look what you’ve done to me.
Now, who can I trust?
After all, you got the best of us.
The kids are doing old things.
There must be bells inside their heads that ring.
Even though it’s hard to.
Oh it’s hard to say right now.
In the late night.
In the late night (we’ve lost the way how)?
Don’t you wanna know oh oh?
I couldn’t ever show
you me
inside.
Don’t stay.
Not tonight.
I’ll forget it, you’ll forget it.
I don’t wanna know.
I don’t wanna know.
I’ll forget it, you’ll forget it.
I don’t wanna know.
I don’t wanna know.
I’ll forget what you said.
Come back to us
if you can
I’ll forget what you said
now.
No, no, uh-oh, no.
No, no, uh-oh, no.
Maybe you (can follow)?, maybe you can call us.
I don’t think you’ll ever know, the pain were goin through.
Winner! The best politically charged song to play in your headphones as you stroll past buzzed suits and wayward beggars to purchase organic perishables and overpriced nag champa at Whole Foods.
When a king is a whore who comply and conform, miles outside of the eye of the storm. With a siphon, a lure and a prize and award, while avoiding the vile and bizarre that is violence and war.
Aesop Rock – None Shall Pass
from None Shall Pass, 2007
(Nominated by Plug as one of the top 12 music videos of 2007.)
Aesop Rock – None Shall Pass Lyrics
Flash that buttery gold, jittery zeitgeist
Wither by the watering hole, water patrol
What are we, to heart huckabee, art fuckery suddenly?
Not enough young in his lung for the water wing
Colorfully vulgar poacher at a mulch like, “I’ma pull the pulse out a soldier and bolt.” (Fine.)
Sign of the time we elapse,
When a primate climb up the spine and attach
Eye for an eye, by the bog life swamps and vines,
They get a rise out of frogs and flies
So when a dog fights hog-tied prize sorta costs a life.
The mouths water on a fork and knife
And the allure isn’t right, No score on a war-torn beach
Where the cash cow’s actually beef.
Blood turns wine when I leak for police
Like, “That’s not a riot, it’s a feast. Let’s eat.”
And I will remember your name and face
On the day you were judged by the funhouse cast,
And I will rejoice in your fall from grace
With a cane to the sky like, “None shall pass.”
None shall pass, none shall pass…
Aah, let me in!
None shall pass.
Aah, let me in!
None shall pass.
Now if he never had a day a snowcone couldn’t fix
You wouldn’t relate to the rogue vocoder blitz,
How he spoke through a no-doz, motor on the fritz
‘Cause he wouldn’t play roll over, fetch, like a bitch
And express no regrets though he isn’t worth the homeowners’ piss
To the jokers who pose by the glitz. (Fine.)
Sign of the swine and the swarm
When a king is a whore who comply and conform
Miles outside of the eye of the storm
With a siphon, a lure and a prize and award,
While avoiding the vile and bizarre that is violence and war.
True blue triumph is more.
Like, “Wait, let it snake up outta the centerfold,
Let it break the balls of Jericho. Ready? Go.”
Sat where the old cardboard city folks
Swap tales with heads like every other penny throw…
You tried to trick me, you’ve got a lot of nerve.
I’m not trying to trick you. I’m -trust me- I’m -trust me- I’m trying to help.
Okay, woke to a grocery list
Goes like this: duty and death.
Any one object, come stand in the way,
You can be my little Snake River Canyon today.
And I ran with a chain of commands
And a jetpack strap where the backstab lands if it can. (Fine.)
Sign of the vibe in the crowd
When I cut a belly open to find what’ll climb out,
What a bit of gusto he must erupt Make a dark horse rush like enough’s enough.
It must’a struck a nerve so they huff and puff
Till all the king’s men fluster and clusterfuck.
And it’s a beautiful thing
To my people who keep an impressive wing span
Even when the cubicle shrink,
You gotta pull up the intruder by the root of the weed
And march you through the machine…
