Blog

The title says it. Every day i'm going to pick a song I think represents that day the best and I'll even give a little explanation why.

Reasons I may pick a song:

I listened to it a lot.
I had it in my head.
I was blown away by it.
I discovered it.
I rediscovered it.
I heard it somewhere special.
I listened to the lyrics in a new way.
I learned something about it.
I cried to it.
I saw it performed.
It's a really fucking good song.

Saturday, Jan. 1: Animal Collective - Bluish - Packing all my stuff to leave the place where everyone I love is and used to be, and listening to this song as I do so.

Sunday, Jan. 2: Hockey - Song Away - How ironic would it be if you played this song at 11:59 p.m.? Oh wait...

Monday, Jan. 3: Athlete - Superhuman Touch - Smooth indie rock, put me to sleep while I try to block out all this incessant noise.

Tuesday, Jan. 4: Explosions in the Sky - So Long, Lonesome - I'm going to have to agree with those who say song titles don't matter. …

My 45,000 track was....
Buck Owens - Tall Dark Stranger

As of 10.16.10:
Top ten artists
01. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
02. The Decemberists
03. Neko Case
04. The Handsome Family
05. They Might Be Giants
06. Rufus Wainwright
07. Tom Waits
08. Sufjan Stevens
09. Elliott BROOD
10. Bruce Springsteen

Top ten tracks
01. Devotchka - You Love Me
02. Elliott BROOD - President (35)
03. Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road
04. The Handsome Family - The Woman Downstairs
05. 16 Horsepower - Hutterite Mile
06. Songs: Ohia - The Old Black Hen
07. The Pine Hill Haints - Cuckoo Bird
08. Jay Munly - Big Black Bull Comes Like a Caesar
09. Andrew Bird - Scythian Empires
10. Neko Case - People Got a Lotta Nerve

Top ten albums
01. Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
02. Elliott BROOD - Ambassador
03. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
04. The Pine Hill Haints - Ghost Dance
05. Sophe Lux - Waking The Mystics
06. 16 Horsepower - Folklore
…

I've already forgotten a bunch, I might as well start a list somewhere, before I lose any more. As of posting, there's 250.

Most seen band (6 or 7 times, lost track): Chevelle

5 times: Dredg, Opeth

4 times: Mates of State, High On Fire, Why?

3 times: Cake, Spoon,Bride, Ume, Tub Ring, Mucca Pazza, Shearwater, Voxtrot, Lucky Boys Confusion, Newsboys, Stars, Orphaned Land, Skeletonwitch, Coheed and Cambria, Eagle Claw, Converge, The Appleseed Cast,

Twice: In Flames, Arcade Fire, Mastodon, Tegan and Sara, The Sword, Cut Chemist,The Dresden Dolls, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Dream Theater, Clouds, Torche, Ruby Isle, Jucifer, Melvins, Jens Leckman, Devotchka, Basia Bulat, Dethklok, Wolf Parade, Pinback, Kylesa, The Weird Weeds, Týr, SuidAkrA, ASG, Burst, Laura Viers, The Octopus Project, Coalesce, Vesperian Sorrow, Between the Buried and Me, Voivod, Darkest Hour, My Education, Enon, Thao with the Get Down Stay Down, The Used, The Black Angels, Goes Cube, Trap Them, YOB…

Top 50 charts for hilarion between 28/03/2010 and 27/06/2010:

ARTISTS

1. Depeche Mode (98)
2. CMX (84)
3. The Legendary Pink Dots (79)
4. Woven Hand (77)
5. Einstürzende Neubauten (72)
6. Rome (70)
7. Deutsch Nepal (67)
8. Daniel Menche (61)
9. Jarboe (55)
10. Laibach (52)
11. Dernière Volonté (52)
12. Varjo (47)
13. Blood Axis (45)
14. Bohren & der Club of Gore (41)
15. Robert Johnson (41)
16. Coil (40)
17. Rammstein (36)
18. Type O Negative (34)
19. Elliott Smith (31)
20. Geneviève Pasquier (30)
21. John Foxx (29)
22. Vangelis (28)
23. Those Poor Bastards (28)
24. Sieben (27)
25. Celtic Frost (26)
26. Naevus (25)
27. Serge Gainsbourg (25)
28. Vivenza (25)
29. Maaseudun Tulevaisuus (24)
30. Current 93 (24)
31. The 13th Floor Elevators (24)
32. Jay Munly (23)
33. Dorian Gray (23)
34. The Handsome Family (22)
35. Yendri (22)
36. Underworld (22)
37. The Tiger Lillies (21)
38. Militia (21)
39. Ginger Ninja (21)
40. Van Halen (21)
41. Advanced Art (21)
…

This is one of my favourite songs by The Handsome Family. The lyrics are brilliant, but the song's background is even more ingenious because it deals with an X-file-like event. Namely, it's about geographic anomaly called Mel's Hole


The Bottomless Hole

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y9wQGkkVgo

My name, I don't remember
Though I hail from Ohio
I had a wife and children
Good tires on my car
What took me from my home
And put me in the Earth
Was the mouth of a deep dark hole
I found behind my barn

We'd been filling it with garbage
As long as you could count
Kitchen scraps and dead cows
Tractors broken down
But never did I hear one thing hit the ground
And slowly I came to fear
That this was a bottomless hole

I went out behind the barn
And stared down in that hole
Late into the evening
My mind would not let go
So I got out my ropes and a rusty clawfoot tub
And I rigged myself a chariot
To ride down in that hole

My wife, she did help me
She fed me down the ropes
…

In February, Robbie Fulks began a Monday night residency at The
Hideout, which is scheduled to last throughout at least all of 2010
(whenever Robbie is available). Few artists would do such a thing
with as great a diversity as he has thus far. So I'll use this journal
to keep a record of the shows, updating it throughout the year.


On October 31, 2010, the Chicago Sun-Times ran an article on Robbie's residency: http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/music/2844886,music-residencies-103110.article

Feb 1 - with Robbie Gjersoe
http://www.robbiefulks.com/blog/posts/112-2010-weekly-residency
I'm starting this Monday, Feb. 1, with something safe and sound: my duo with the incredible Robbie Gjersoe. We'll be focusing on country flatpick songs. Bring your eighth-note-o-meters.
?? (instrumental)
Molly and Tenbrooks [Bill Monroe]
Georgia Hard
The Bluebirds Are Singing For Me [trad.?]
Guess I Got It Wrong
Cheyenne
The World Is Full of Pretty Girls (And Pretty Girls Are Full of Themselves Too)
…

My 40,000 track was....
Talking Heads - The Big Country

As of 04.11.10:
Top ten artists
01. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
02. The Decemberists
03. Neko Case
04. The Handsome Family
05. They Might Be Giants
06. Rufus Wainwright
07. Tom Waits
08. Sufjan Stevens
09. Elliott BROOD
10. Devotchka

Top ten tracks
01. Elliott BROOD - President (35)
02. The Handsome Family - The Woman Downstairs
03. Songs: Ohia - The Old Black Hen
04. Devotchka - You Love Me
05. 16 Horsepower - Hutterite Mile
06. Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road
07. Jay Munly - Big Black Bull Comes Like a Caesar
08. The Pine Hill Haints - Cuckoo Bird
09. Andrew Bird - Scythian Empires
10. The Decemberists - On the Bus Mall

Top ten albums
01. Elliott BROOD - Ambassador
02. The Pine Hill Haints - Ghost Dance
03. Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
04. Sophe Lux - Waking The Mystics
05. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
06. The Handsome Family - Last Days Of Wonder
…

Track: Winter Lady
Artist: Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Martha Wainwright
Album: Leonard Cohen I'm Your Man (2006)
Tags: female vocalists, covers, folk, harmony, live, my gang rotw
Video: Click the pic...

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/dHYzVCdgJuY/default.jpg YouTube, audio upload


This wasn't going to be today's reco. I haven't had much time to research for it and to be honest, I am surprised at how upset I am, so apologies if it isn't very good.

This afternoon, it was announced that Kate McGarrigle has died of cancer at the age of 63.

You will read much better obituaries and tributes than I could write, so I will just make this personal.

http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/www.montrealgazette.com/sports/Singer+Kate+McGarrigle+dies/2458946/2459032.bin?size=620x400
Kate McGarrigle, 2003. Picture: Montreal Gazette

Readers will most likely know Kate McGarrigle was mother to Rufus and Martha Wainwright and was once married to Loudon Wainwright III.

…