Showing posts with label animal collective. Show all posts
Showing posts with label animal collective. Show all posts

Monday, May 3, 2010

Synapse to synapse (How my mind works, Green & umbrellas)

Sometimes I think my mind (perception?) works like the Internet, maybe. Is it the same for everyone? I don’t remember it always being like this. It jumps from one idea to the next, often I can barely keep up. From one related concept to another. Like… stream of consciousness, free association or I dunno what. The ideas just branch out infinitely, like that Chemical Brothers video, you know, “Let Forever Be”? @ some point this became my reality. I just almost always associate things, involuntarily & immediately. Usually words, lyrics, images, things I’ve heard/read. Stuff ppl have said (well-known ppl or just ppl III know). My memory’s good, which helps.



The other day I went to this place ppl call Plaza Borges with my friend Martin. It was really green. So right away I thought
- “Green”, the Dandy Warhols
- “Green machine”, Apples in Stereo
- “For Reverend Green”, Animal Collective
- "A certain shade of green", Incubus etc etc etc...

Green is my friend Sofi’s fav color, I remembered. & in 1st year of Uni, we had to make a collage describing ourselves. She had cut out the words MUNDO VERDE (green world) & put them near the center of hers. I’m pretty sure there were also jungle leaves & a photo of Charly Garcia (maybe el Flaco Spinetta too?) but I could be wrong about that. Nyssa liked green too, but yellow better.

Green was my House @ school. See, @ my school here (a private, Catholic, all-girls) in Buenos Aires, the English department divided students into Houses, like I guess the private schools do in England. In Harry Potter, Hogwarts has got Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw & Hufflepuff. We had the Green, Blue, Red & Yellow Houses. Each had a patron saint. Blue: St Thomas More, Green: St Bede (who the hell?). Don't remember the others.

I enjoyed being in Green House as I always favored the color, still do in fact. My most comfortable pair of Chuck Taylors are green, FYI. I’ll think of my House mates such as Lucy A & Ceci D, both of whom I still really care about. Blue was pretty nerdy, IMO. I think the best grades ("top marks") usually went to Blue or Green. Cali was in Yellow. No offense but as far as I remember, Yellow tended to be fairly mediocre…am I wrong?

All this came up bc today the internet said Paco was listening to “Son of Mr Green Genes” by Frank Zappa. The next track was “Little Umbrellas”. Right away this orchestral-sounding line played in my head

Just when I thought that my vista was golden in hue
one thousand umbrellas opened to spoil the view

It's from one of my fav songs off Skylarking by XTC, recommended by Romo in 2006. The others are “Ballet for a rainy day” (which reminds me of ppl who paint -Pool, Consu L, Daniel Dubois, Kata, etc- bc it has this line: I push my paintbrush to conjure a new world as this one is slowly washed away) & “The man who sailed around his soul”.
See what I mean? But there was also

- “Preparen sus paraguas”, Fantasmagoria from the Clearence EP, which possibly my VERY fav song by them (”La Laguna”) is off
- “Under my umbrella”, Incubus...BEFORE Rhianna's! One of the last tracks from the album “Morning view”, the last album of theirs I really loved.
- Well of course the Rhianna song, although I h8 it. EHH EHHH…NO THX. Not even after the Manic Street Preachers covered it. I do recall NRS had the chorus line as her MSN name though. Only I remember these things, right?

So, it’s mostly got to do with music. But not exclusively. I also thought of how Jime P (schoolmate) had an umbrella with Tweety Bird (Looney Tunes) wearing a raincoat on the handle. "Mary Poppins", "Singin in the rain" (one of my fav movies), Gene Kelly "walking down the lane with a happy refrain", the girl from the salt I grew up eating in the States...



...how Laurita forgot her umbrella the night of that party on Altolaguirre (what a night that was...in my life, anyways), how I forgot my umbrella @ Lucinda's bday last year, the same night I met someone who didn't know who "Rock the casbah" was by (I couldn't believe it either).

If I hear something about the subway I’ll think things like “Subterranean homesick alien” by Radiohead or “Subterranean homesick blues” by Bob Dylan. When riding the Deutschebahn across Germany I thought “Train in vain” by The Clash & “Strangers on a train” by Lovage, although I knew there was a film of the same title. I haven’t seen, although Tute mentioned it when we talked a lot. I did seen “Stranger than Paradise”, the Jim Jarmusch movie, though. Richie had recommended that one. Esteban really likes Jim Jarmusch. & I saw a photo of Sol S with him (JJ) once. & so on…& so on…& so on.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Busy as a bee

I'm busy as a bee but enjoying it : )

- "Be a bee", Air. Along with "Sing sang sung" & "Eat my beat", my fav track from their last release "Love 2".
- "Bees", Animal Collective
- "Outro with bees", Neko Case
- "Killer bees", The Stills
- "Muzzle of bees", Wilco

Album:
- "Bee thousand", Guided by voices

Bands:
- The Hives: very 2002, to me. Hit "Hate to say I told you so". Swedish (Scandinavians are soOo attractive, amirite?). Black & white suits, etc.
- The Bees: their "Chicken payback" is quite fun to dance around & be silly to. Apart from that, as far as I remember, I've just heard their cover of "A minha meninha" by Os Mutantes.

As a kid I was rly afraid of them, hornets, wasps, yellowjackets, etc. @ school the kids told urban legends (I hope that's what they were!) of killer bees the size of golf balls. Swarms of these well, killing ppl. I have a kindergarten memory of sitting on a see-saw where there was a bee. But I don't know if it happened to me or someone else. Also being @ a swimming pool & this barefoot lady stepping on a bee. The death of Thomas J (Macauly Culkin) in "My girl" after stepping on a hive & consequently being attacked by the swarm that lived within (he was allergic to bees)...left me DEEPLY DISTURBED. I remember this too, but only the name & a piece of the theme song.



So yeah, not a huge fan of bees. BUT, BUT, BUT...I love honey.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Let the door swing



I have an Animal Collective poster on my PiNK bedroom door XD I got it after their gig @ l'Alhambra in Paris, which I attended by myself. I rode a vélib (bike) there. Man, did I love cycling in Paris. But more about that another time. The point is that AC live is amazing. Esteban compares their concerts to a tribal rave. It is a spiritual thing, really. Anyways, after the show, I went to the garderobe (cloakroom) to pick up my helmet & stuff & saw these posters all over the place. So I asked the dude behind the counter if I could have one, & he was like “Yeah, sure, take it”. EPIC, EPIC WIN. Then I went to this party @ La Cité Universitaire & was super careful so it would remain in the best conditions possible. It became the sole decoration on my bedroom wall during my days in the 19th arrondissement. & now it’s the 1st thing to hang on my door ever since I painted it (yes!) in the summer of 2004.

“The door”, Silverchair
“Door to the river”, “Doors closing slowly”, Manic Street Preachers
“You should never have opened that door”, Ramones
“Ignore that door”, Richard Hell & the Voidoids
“Don’t leave me”, Blink 182 (I said, "don't let your future be destroyed by my past", she said, "Don't let my door hit your ass"…Man, did I love this album back in the day)

Band: The Doors

PS: On my wall, among others you can find Cibo Matto, Andy Warhol, Dolores Fonzi, Paris Hilton, Fab Moretti, the Osbournes, Sanrio's Twin Stars & 90s Nickelodeon's Alex Mack

Friday, March 26, 2010

Smile empty soul

Overblown things can be felt in the middle of the night (around 3am, usually)



Oh and I don't have a soul to save,
Yes and I sin every single day

- “We never change”, Coldplay

Heaven help me for the way I am
Save me from these evil deeds before I get them done

- “Criminal”, Fiona Apple

- “Empty souls”, Manic Street Preachers
- “The man who sailed around his soul”, XTC
- “Sold my soul”, Gare du Nord
- “Mi espiritu se fue”, Pescado Rabioso (epic lyrics, deserving of their own post)
- “Lost souls forever”, Kasabian
- “Spirit they’ve vanished”, Animal Collective

Band: Smile Empty Soul (shitty band, cool name)