This Life's Narrative

Jose Gonzalez - In Our Nature

2008-05-07T18:05:00.006-04:00

Right now I am eating a tomato like an apple. I do that sometimes and people think I am weird, but thats cool cause they just don't know how good a vine ripened tomato with sea salt sprinkled on it before each bite is. They lose.

I have a secret to tell: I hate LA. I am really trying not to but it is hard. This place has no soul. I keep looking for the special things, the small things, the little corners and colours that make a place special and mine but they are not here. I like my little corner of Hollywood, I do...but it isn't enough. The ocean is too far away. Everything is too far away.

Here is another secret: I do not know how to write about music. At all. I know what I feel about it but I don't really know what I think about it. I don't really like thinking about it. I just like it to be and exist in my life and make me feel things or not feel things depending on what I need that day. I am not doing well at this writing about it thing. I still want to share it but I am finding it daunting to sit here and write about it in some way that can be deciphered by the average human being. It is okay though. I am going to do it anyway.

This entry is about José González. Jose gonzales is from a small town in Sweden, born to Argentinean parents. The catch words LastFm are telling me for him are indie and acoustic and folk. I don't even know what the word indie means anymore and I don't care so lets just forget about that one. Acoustic and Folk; yes. What is up with Sweden these days? I either love or hate the music that comes out of there... anyhow. I've mostly been listening to his second album 'In Our Nature' since I got it first. I like it very much. For the last three days I have listened to it non stop. That means I get up in the morning and listen to it while I run. Then I unlock my bike and have a song on pause, ready to go. I put my bike seat back on (People in LA think it is endlessly hilarious that I bother to take it off 'haha where is the rest of your bike?' ) and when I am ready to actually start moving I hit play. I don't really know why I do this but I always do. I need the music to start when I do. Anyhow, I listen to it to work and at work and home from work and while paintings and before I sleep. It is not often that I find music I can do this with. The last was probably Richard Youngs' Sapphie. I love that album for all its solitude and sadness. I love In Our Nature for all its solitude and happiness and....contentment and calmness. The songs are thoughtful and without being didactic and introspective without being haughty or ostrasizing. Listening to this album feels like sitting in the sun with an old friend who you may not have seen for some time, listening to them telling you stories about what has gone on...and actually being interested in knowing.

The guitar is melodic and lyrical. This is an album for thinking but like Sapphie is. For me it is for biking and painting and writing and anything else that involves me being alone but not wanting to feel too alone.

My favourite tracks are:
Down the line
Cycling Trivialities
Killing for Love

Down The Line
I see problems down the line
I know that I’m right.
There was a dirt upon your hands
doing the same mistake twice
making the same mistake twice

Come on over and be so caught up
its not about compromising.

I see problems down the line
I know that I’m right
I see darkness down the line
I know its hard to fight.
There was a dirt upon your hands
doing the same mistake twice
making the same mistake twice.

Come on over
be so caught up its all about compromise.

I see problems down the line
I know that I’m right.

Don’t let the darkness eat you up

hxxp://www.megaupload.com/?d=5416329M

It is about time (The Black Keys: Attack and Release)

2008-03-19T18:33:00.002-04:00

Sometimes life gets you and you get sucked in and everything else except for surviving falls to the wayside...and I do mean surviving. Not livin large and ballin...I mean wondering what you're going to eat tomorrow, I mean hoping your bike stays in one piece just one last week... That is what I mean.

I lot has gone on and Ive been listening to a lot of music, but also a lot of old music because I have just not had the time or energy to go seak out new stuff, plus the comfort of old things has been um....comforting.. ha. Not to mention that I lost all my music blog bookmarks due to my hard drive failing completely. woe is me. What did it teach me? Im storing all my blogs in my online RSS feed from this point forward god damnit.

Anyhow I do have one new album that I have been listening to non stop. Every morning I listen to the same three songs on my ride to work. It is perfect for walking around in warm rain or biking to venice or wondering why every god damned person out here seems to be so fucked up

Sometimes an album comes at the perfect time. When you need something to fill your head and it is just right. Mirrors your mood, or puts you in the one you want to be in. That is how I feel about The Black Key's Attack & Release. I know that this album will always remind me of my first little while in Hollywood...the back streets, the sunsets, the way the whole place smells like flowers at dusk, the choopers and the sirens...

I love these guys. They don't play clean and it sounds like the kind of thing youd hear in some dive bar in Tennessee (um thats a good thing alright...) It is good heartfelt blues rock.

I needed this album right now so badly and I'm beyond glad that I have it.

*lies, Things ain't like they used to be and the single, Strange Days are my favourites (with a U).
I like these guys and want to support them. This album is not out till April 1st so don't be a dick and go posting it all over the place (um no im not a hypocrit...well maybe a little bit) or....if you are really awesome just go see their show in LA on April first.)

http://xxx.megaupload.com/?d=3CIQ90K4

(just replace the X's obviously)

Break For the West Coast. Youknowhowwedoit.

2008-01-15T20:31:00.000-05:00

Okay so I know I have not been posting. I want to and I will again soon. I have been taking some time out to make power moves in Los Angeles. And by power moves I mean eating Korean BBQ, Roscoe's Chicken and hanging out in a T-Shirt. In the mean time take a look at my paintings. If you want one (hey portrait of your Chihuahua?!) let me know because I am accepting commissions. Nothing too small or large. Prices are reasonable and negotiable. I am in the LA area right now but I am willing to ship anywhere within reason.

rap music

2007-12-03T23:17:00.000-05:00

i will post a mix of rap i made.

i want to say something now.

i like rap.

some of it.

this mix includes qwel, dose one, k the i, big juss, el-p, gza, rob sonic, alias, mr. skurge, company flow, buck 65, and quasimoto.

there are stereotypes associated with rap, and i don't really want to be associated with these stereotypes.

i'm not gangster, and if someone wanted to fight me, i'd probably run away.

stereotypes of people who listen to rap are, maybe: 'gangster,' 'talking with some kind of rap accent or using rap expressions,' 'keeping it real,' which, i think means, to fight someone if you think they disrespected you, and other things.

i say 'yo' sometimes. and 'sup?' sometimes. i never really threw my hands in the air like i just didn't care.

i don't think i like going to hip hop shows so much, because they always tell me to do that, to wave my hands around or something, the people on the stage would, and everyone else does it, and i feel pressure to do it, but i feel to sarcastic to do it, so i just end up leaving the concert with a vague sense of alienation and dejection.

i went to a divinci show, once, and i really liked it. he played 3 mpc's at the same time. he played the center one with his mouth and nose and chin. one time he fell over because he went totally insane. everyone was silent and i yelled, 'that was fucking cool,' and everyone laughed. and i loved that hip hop show.

i don't find fault with anyone that fits into some kind of stereotype. i'm not sure it's possible to stay stereotype-free.

let me tell you about why i like this mix, and why i chose some of these songs.

i don't like reading abstract poetry, or novels with a bunch of abstract sentences in them. i feel it's exclusionary. and trickery.

i can't explain why i feel different about music lyrics. it might have something to do with the fact that i'll listen to a rap song i like, maybe, 200 times over the course of a year or something, so i have time to think about almost every line in that song. this is not the same for poetry or novels. i rarely read a poem 200 times.

here are some lyrics from the 'kingspitter' by big juss, which is on this mix. i might have misheard words.

the battles, the legends, the heroes, the villains
the dual for the embodiment and consciousness of millions
who can't sabatoge the fourth information
molecular hyper universe
fully hardwired configurated to the main frame
rockin a syllable hydraulic chassis
wherever reaction occurs in the presence of a catalyst

and then there's a bunch more that i don't care to write about.

when i listen to these 200 times over the course of the year, it becomes very easy to understand what he's really saying, so you get the imagery, a scary, science fiction, mechanical, epic earth image, with this message behind it. the message isn't pretentious or something, and it's both one, all-inclusive maxim (something like, 'we're fucked'), and a lot of individual, detailed points. for me it's like reading a very good, scary science fiction novel. i become afraid of the things he says, sometimes, because i wonder what his brain looks like, if it's gigantic, and i wonder which pathway in his thoughts he was able to access by thinking of those lyrics. i begin to feel like these people are 'true intellectuals,' or something, even though that's a glorification.

this is one kind of reason that i like this kind of music.

now i'll say things about qwel. the songs by qwel that i put in the mix are off the album 'if it ain't been in a pawn shop, it can't play the blues'. i like the production in this album. it's perfect for me. the songs i put in the mix very much illustrate this. qwel is very smart too. here are some of his lyrics where he says some shit that is wrong with our society:

divided we stand man the sides to unite for bandwagons
antagonistic fashion statements pants saggin grand dragons
street taggin advertisers plastic liars barcodes stuck your wallets fat
mispelled your cotton farm clones
scarred with shoppin carhartt
march with the other army ants
we ardvarks for 40 hours, thought? hardly a chance
how long can we dance upon our hands for these snakes?
dreamscapes and screen savers, faith-based police states?

these are the first lyrics in one of his songs on the mix. he's really good at this. he doesn't even say one thing and mean another. it's like he just understands the world this way. it seems like there is little pretension to qwel. i like that.

here is the mix.

part one

part two

typing this is taking too long.

i hope you like it.

Intro yo.

2007-12-02T15:27:00.000-05:00

Hi.
Well it seems like I don't have enough to do in my life. Two jobs, paintings and other blogs...well that just isn't enough responsibility so I've decided what I really need to do is start a music blog. So here it is. I have been on various Bulletin boards and forums lurking and stealing music for a really long time so I've decided it is high time I start uploading my shit and sharing a little. I have a lot of music.

I do not know anything about music. I don't play an instrument and I can't sing. There is too much math to music for me....math and I do not get along. But I do know what I like. I do know what brings back good memories or reminds me of particular poignant times in my life. And that is what I will be posting here. Songs and albums that mean something. It might be something technically perfect or very crude. It might be Three Six Mafia or Van Morrison. This is not about what I think is cool, but what is important to me.

The reviews won't really be reviews. They will be.....abstract association really. Whatever an album or track brings to mind, the person memories, the time period in my life it reminds me of...that is what I will write about. Take it or leave it.

So Here I sit unshowered, subsisting on croissants and red wine, having been holed up in my room for three days, having not seen the light of the sun, on an internet music binge.

enjoy:

Living Legends - Almost Famous

I often feel really cheesy for liking this type of hippy west coast rap. I feel like people think it is for people who smoke weed all day, talk about bongs a lot. It reminds me of white kids who went to raves and preached PLUR a lot. But that is ok because I really like this album a lot. hah. It has samples from the Charlie and the Chocolate factory movie (the one with gene wilder) and tells some good stories. I got this album when I was going to Sheridan in Oakville so it reminds me of riding on the Go train for about 4 hours a day.

Lean on Me, The best of Bill Withers

Okay, okay so I admit that what turned me on to Bill Withers was that Gap commercial. You know the one from the series where people are in Khakies dancing around? It used his song 'Lovely Day'. I loved that song so much I went and searched for it on Mosaic (wait...was it that long ago? probably not but remember Mosaic? no? ok nevermind...) I went to Tower Records (yes that long ago since this place has long since disappeared from Toronto) and bought the CD. I love this CD. I love pretty much every song on it. 'Aint no sunshine' is one of the most beautiful songs in existence if you ask me. This is a great Soul album. I love old soul. It is possibly in my top 2 favourite genres of all time. These songs have been sampled to death (blackstreet - no diggity comes to mind first) and for good reason. Bill withers is awesome. This album reminds me of my first love in highschool. Love at the time meant something else. I had no idea what Bill Withers was talking about but I thought I did. Silly me.

Boot Camp Cliks Basic training

I got into this type of rap late in the game. When I was younger I was all about the positive intellectual rap ONLY. I thought that Duck Down and Bootcamp were below me. I thought I was way too goody goody for this stuff. I think I probably was. Later on, when I was in perhaps....grade 12 or 13 I realized I was being stupid and that I was missing out on a whole world of bangers. hah. This album was my first taste of blackmoon, smif & wessun (coco brovas - what a gay name) and all the rest. The beats are dirty without being southern gritty. It is the golden era of east coast rap for me - before puffy came and gayed it up, when the songs make you think of dirty subways and shaolin and brooknam and cockroaches and bedstuy and yeah well...anyhow. I listened to this a lot on the GO train as well. Whenever I want to feel bad ass this is a good one to put on.

Prince Paul - Psychoanalysis, What is it?

Prince Paul... hrmmmm I found out about this guy cause he produced De La Soul's first album; '3 feet high and rising'. I have been a de la fan since forever. I love De La. 2 summers ago I got to see them live twice and I was happy about that. I do not love their more recent albums as much as everything up until (AND INCLUDING OKayyyyyy) 'stakes is high'. I can never decide which album is my favourite between that one, de la soul is dead, and bahloon mindstate or however they spell it. De la Soul is life music to me. It is the soundtack to my life, well part of it, a big part of it. Anyhow, Prince paul is probably insane, crazy like a fox, kind of like Kool Keith but not quite as much. This album has songs about date rape on it, and bootyclaps. The date rape songs are the best ones. they are scary but good. This also reminds me of Oakville. It reminds me of waiting for the bus at the stop across from the shitty condo I shared with 3 other girls who I did not really get along with. It reminds me of waiting and waiting and waiting cause transit out there SUCKED! I had class at 8am every day and class didnt end till 5:30 or 6. ech. After that first year of living in oakville I moved back to Toronto. Spending 4 hours on transit every day to get from downtown to Oakville was better than living there and feeling like I was dying a slow suburban death. The view from my room out there was of a vacant lot where the new cars from the ford factory were parked. how depressing. Anyhow this album is one that not so many people know of.....It is much much better than his next album (I think it was next anyhow) called 'prince of thieves' I think. He is now working on a new project called 'Baby Elephant' which is interesting and worth checking out. Plus the album cover is awesome.