string theory
december '05 mix
december -- the icy still in dry timelessness always leaves me envigorated. the sting in the air cuts me and heals me and rushes my blood. in the blankets and tea or the starlit nights i hear the drone and the wail with each lift and fall. the strings chant their sadness and then squeal their excitement. and helpless, i am dragged along for the ride.
Strung Along All This Time
songs featuring strings that tie you up and drag you away
1. Ani DiFranco - Living In Clip (Disc 2) - 06 - Both Hands (4:52)
"Both Hands" is one of Ani's crowning glories. Listening to the original version from "Like I Said", you'd think that there were several other Ani anthems more lyrically poetic and muscially beautiful, and you'd be right. In fact, even the artist Raining Jane did a more fun cover of it with a building drum beat that taps your feet against your will.
But here, on the live disc, Living In Clip, Ani is accompanied by a full orchestra like we've never heard with her before. The strings start this piece {and we've never before called one of her songs a "piece"} like a chorus from the clouds, rising and falling, triumphant in the sun, billowing and blowing through the story, until we drift down along with those strings and into a small theatre where Ani stands on a stage alone with her guitar.
As a knife cutting into the string section, she starts strumming and her voice sounds ghostly and small...
I am walking
out in the rain
and I am listening to the low moan
of the dial tone again
and I am getting
nowhere with you
and I can't let it go
and I can't get through...
We feel the frustration in her voice as it echoes along the walls of the theatre and we're unsure if the room is empty or full. But there's nowhere else to look and nothing else to be heard and it feels like there never was.
the old woman behind the pink curtains
and the closed door
on the first floor
she's listening through the air shaft
to see how long our swan song can last
and both hands
now use both hands
oh, no don't close your eyes
I am writing
graffitti on your body
I am drawing the story of
how hard we tried
And slowly Ani picks up a chorus of ghosts in the echoes that draw out the most tender power in each inflection. She's telling us how in intimacy she finds her own vulnerability. How her kind plea to be treated gently and with care seems to fall on closed eyes.
I am watching your chest rise and fall
like the tides of my life,
and the rest of it all
and your bones have been my bedframe
and your flesh has been my pillow
I am waiting for sleep
to offer up the deep
with both hands
in eachother's shadows we grew less and less tall
and eventually our theories couldn't explain it all
and I'm recording our history now on the bedroom wall
and eventually the landlord will come
and paint over it all
And then with a gush of air, the strings enter in again and their melody pulls us through the rest of the story, making it our story, making it inescapable.
and I am walking
out in the rain
and I am listening to the low moan of the dial tone again
and I am getting nowhere with you
and I can't let it go
and I can't get though
So now use both hands
please use both hands
oh, no don't close your eyes
I am writing graffitti on your body
I am drawing the story of how hard we tried
hard we tried
how hard we tried
2. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois - 03 - Come on! Feel the Illinoise! (6:45)
One of my next blog entries I'm working on is an end-of-year "best albums of all time" recap and I haven't worked out the rankings yet, but "Illinois" is definately, hands-down, without a doubt ... in the top 3. As in, third best album of ever.
Here we have a tale of that great state, of the city of Chicago, of the birds and rainbows and unicorns... of the feeling that Illinois is the bestest state in the world. How can you listen to this song and feel any different?
The strings in the end, during the "i cried. myself. to sleep last night." punctuate every happy memory that brings Sufjan to tears. They create the depth he feels. They beg us to feel and to travel and to write -- but only from the heart. They pull us along in a journey we've all taken, in any state or province we reside.
3. Final Fantasy - Has A Good Home - 11 - That's When The Audience Died (4:37)
And after songs about Illinois, it's only fitting that we have a violin ode to Canada.
fascinate
fascinate
fascinated with underclass
The strings here start out plucking little rythyms and then sliding into a quick jumpy melody.
no matter a drunkard,
a swinard,
a Spaniard,
we're all treated equally.
What other indie rock band could manage this far without a guitar? Do you even miss it?
Canada
Canadadidoodida
I love how this singer can make the word "sleep" have 23 syllables. And then when the strings fade and the guitar softly strums, we're drifting over Canadian fields and forests. The violin begins to solo and our neighbors to the North never felt so warm.
4. Stars - Set Yourself On Fire - 07 - One More Night (5:18)
Stars start us out on a soaring string hook, as if to fool us into thinking we're starting a gentle love story, only to deftly blend in full instrumentation, building emotionally into lyrical intensity that belies the violence and pain of one-nighters, until the hurt and the guitars are overdriven and the effects are crushing in a melodic tidal wave before vanishing into silence once again.
try as he might he's unable to speak
he grabs her by the hair, he strokes her on the cheek
the bed is unmade like everything is
dark little heaven at the top of the stairs
take me like that, ruin it all
then build it again by the light in the hall
he drops to his knees says please my love, please
i'll kill who you hate, take off that dress, you won't freeze
one more night, that was a good one
one more night, i dreamed it was a good one
one more, one more night, that was a good one
one more night, the end should be a good one
a good one
he starts with her back cause that's what he sees
when she's breaking his heart she still @#$@s like a tease
release to the sky, look him straight in the eye
and tell him that now, that you wish he would die
you'll never touch him again so get what you can
leaving him empty just because he's a man
so good when it ends, they'll never be friends
one more night, that's all they can spend
one more night, that was a good one
one more night, i dreamed it was a good one
one more, one more night, that was a good one
one more night, the end should be a good one
a good one
5. Björk - Gloomy Sunday (5:30)
Who better than Björk to recreate Gloomy Sunday in all it's suicidal passion. The strings can only be called lush. The horns are truly haunting. The voice as childlike and disturbing as the original intentions of the song. If you've heard the history, this rendition takes on new meaning. The first version came from Hungary in the 30's. And almost as soon as it did, suicide notes began to quote it with terrifying resonance. Over a hundred documented suicides were directly tied to this song. Radio's banned it. In the 40's, Billie Holiday added an uplifting 3rd verse, but her version was also banned. Then, in the 60's the original composer jumped to his own icy death on a cold night in Hungary. Then a few decades later, a deranged man sends Björk threats, dangerous mail-bombs, and is found dead in his home, having left her a video of himself, committing the suicide on tape, dedicating it to her.
Björk goes on to record Gloomy Sunday...
Sunday is gloomy, the hours are slumberless
Dearest of shadows I live with are numberless
Little white flowers will never awaken you
Not where the dark coach of sorrow has taken you
Angels have no thought of ever returning you
Would they be angry if I thought of joining you?
Gloomy Sunday
Gloomy sunday, with shadows I spend it all
My heart and I have decided to end it all
Soon there'll be prayers and candles are lit, I know
Let them not weep, let them know,that I'm glad to go
Death is a dream, for in death I'm caressing you
With the last breath of my soul, I'll be blessing you
Gloomy Sunday
Dreaming
I was only dreaming
I awake and I find you asleep and deep in my heart
Dear...
Darling, I hope that my dream hasn't haunted you
My heart is telling you how much I wanted you
Gloomy Sunday
This absolutely gloomy sunday
Gloomy Sunday
6. Björk - Hunter (With Brodsky Quartet) (4:29)
This one can only be truly enjoyed by fans who know the original "Hunter". It's deeply electronic. It's seriously intense. It's dark and immaterial. But the version recorded with the Brodsky Quartet is solely strings. And though the mood of the song remains the same, the strings play much differently on your ears. You hear each electronic beat and synthetic beep, but none of them are there. It's all smoke and mirrors. It's a fantastic reinterpretation. And she throws in some extra lyrics at the end that also change your interpretation of the meaning of her words. Like her "Bachelorette", which I blogged here, the ideas in this song are pretty personal to me. And the Brodsky Quartet only magnifies them for me.
7. Matt Haimovitz - Goulash! - 01 - Kashmir (7:56)
This piece was the original inspiration for the Strings Mix this month. I was asked to see Haimovitz in Chicago a couple weeks ago and that concert still replays in my head now. It was such a new experience for me, as I am almost completely unfamiliar with modern classical solo artists. Haimovitz is a classical cellist, but I have to confess, before seeing him in concert, I couldn't have told you the difference between a cello and a viola. But I was fascinated the entire night. This recording is his cover of Led Zepplin's "Kashmir" and if you liked the original, you will also be thrilled at his reinterpretation as it feels quite experimental and modern for a classical cello soloist.
8. Rasputina - The Lost & Found - 05 - Wish You Were Here (4:22)
And in the same vein, we have a Pink Floyd cover, almost entirely composed of stringed instruments. Funny how the low cello notes tug at you inside, sadly but sympathetically. The higher violin dances on top in a hopeful but resounding yearning. And the voices call out in an emotion Pink Floyd never could reach. A sadness and pain. But beauty just the same.
9. Veruca Salt - Somebody (Depeche Mode For The Masses Tribute) (4:05)
Our final string-version cover comes Veruca Salt and their much improved version of "Somebody" by Depeche Mode. Yes, "Somebody" is always hailed as the most honest and heartfelt expression of love and yearning that has ever been written. I can't tell you how many young couples I've seen dance their first wedding dance to Depeche's "Somebody". But if any of them had heard Veruca Salt's mesmerizing string version, they'd forget that Depeche ever made the heartbeat-styled drum-only original. If anyone is looking for a new "our song" or even a rare but beautiful "wedding dance", you'll want to hear Veruca Salt whisper these lyrics over a bed of lilting string-accompaniment.
I want somebody to share
Share the rest of my life
Share my innermost thoughts
Know my intimate details
Someone who’ll stand by my side
And give me support
And in return
He’ll get my support
He will listen to me
When I want to speak
About the world we live in
And life in general
Though my views may be wrong
They may even be perverted
He will hear me out
And won’t easily be converted
To my way of thinking
In fact he’ll often disagree
But at the end of it all
He will understand me
I want somebody who cares
For me passionately
With every thought and with every breath
Someone who’ll help me see things
In a different light
All the things I detest
I will almost like
I don’t want to be tied
To anyone’s strings
I’m carefully trying to steer clear
Of those things
But when I’m asleep
I want somebody
Who will put their arms around me
And kiss me tenderly
Though things like this
Make you sick
In a case like this
I’ll get away with it
10. Rilo Kiley - more adventurous - 02 - Does He Love You (5:14)
Surprisingly, to me at least, the most gut-renching tear-inducing fall-to-your-knees entry in our mix this month comes from Rilo Kiley. I'm surprised because normally I have no pity for someone like this. For the other woman. For someone who would be so weak as to fall in love with a married man. But I challenge anyone, no matter how strong your morals, to staunchly listen to this pained letter from the other woman, writing to her good friend, the wife of her married lover. Try to not feel any sympathetic emotion for her. I have no experience like hers for which to compare, and I still could break down during this song. The strings in the end pummel me mercilessly. It's physical and brutal. I want to turn off the cd and I want it to go on endlessly.
Get a real job
Keep the wind to your back and the sun on your face
All the immediate unknowns
Are better than knowing this tired and lonely fate
Does he love you?
Does he love you?
Will he hold your tiny face in his hands?
I guess it's spring, I didn't know
It's always seventy-five with no melting snow
A married man, he visits me
I receive his letters in the mail twice a week
And I think he loves me
And when he leaves her
He's coming out to California
I guess it all worked out
There's a ring on your finger and the baby's due out
You share a place by the park
And run a shop for antiques downtown
And he loves you
Yeah he loves you
And the two of you will soon become three
And he loves you
Even though you
Used to say you were flawed if you weren't free
Let's not forget ourselves good friend
You and I were almost dead
And you're better off for leaving
Yeah you're better off for leaving
Late at night
I get the phone
You're at the shop sobbing all alone
Your confession it's coming out
You only married him
You felt your time was running out
But now you love him
And your baby
At last you are complete
But he's distant and you found him
On the phone pleading saying "Baby I love you
And I'll leave her and I'm coming out to California"
Let's not forget ourselves good friend
I am flawed if I'm not free
And your husband will never leave you
He will never leave you for me
11. Outside - The Rough And The Smooth - 04 - To Forgive But Not Forget (Lim'chol V'lo Lishkoach) (5:53)
If you've ever used Napster, or Kazaa, or Bearshare, or Limewire, or WinMX, or SoulSeek, or any other p2p music downloading service, you may have seen this track, mislabled "Aphex Twin - Outside" or even just "Kick A$$ Violin Solo". But it's actually by "Outside" the electronic/acid-jazz duo fronted by Matt Cooper. I have no idea what the name in parentheses means or even what language that is. But I can tell you this, whatever happened to this violinist that needs to be forgiven but not forgotten must have been quite astounding.
The track starts off melodic and easy, a violin solo that must have been recorded in some empty high-ceilinged room along with some raw, programmed drum 'n' bass. Towards the end, though, it breaks down into a frantic mess that must only be anger reverberated by a bow and released into resonance in the air. If it seems off-putting and strange at first, give it a few listens. It's provocative energy and experimental jazz groove will leave you thinking no other solo could sound as perfect.
12. Brazilian Girls - Brazilian Girls - 01 - Homme (5:22)
Brazillian Girls always turn me on.
Read that statement anyway you like. But their self-titled cd is brilliant. They mix beautiful down-tempo, trip-hop, pop, and techno with vocals in more than 6 different languages. You can't help but get a little culture rubbed off on you.
This song is in French and I don't speak French so I have no idea what it's about. But
I love the strings and the mood they set. Let me know what the girls are singing to me, someone, ok? Unless it would ruin the beautiful dream I've got going here. Then forget it and leave us in our lack of communication so I can spend all day with a gorgeous Brazillian girl and not be bothered with incessant talking.
13. Björk - Unravel (Indra Mix) (3:28)
You can never have too much Björk on a mix right? Well, she fits a string theme so nicely. "Unravel" is such a cute and dreamy song with strings that, although synthesized, feel like the yarn of her heart, coming undone with each line she sings. The Indra Mix is actual a Fanmix. It was created by some Joe Blow like you or me. There's hundreds of fanmixes out there because she's got a huge fanbase.. and a lot of those fanmixes are crap. But I actually like this one. He mashed up her "Unravel" with Thievery Corporation's "Indra". Gives the original some peppy energy while maintaining the dreamy quality. 'A' for effort, young Björk fan remixer.
While you are away
My heart comes undone
Slowly unravels
In a ball of yarn
The devil collects it
With a grin
Our love
In a ball of yarn
He'll never return it
So when you come back
We'll have to make new love
He'll never return it
When you come back
We'll have to make new love
While you are away
My heart comes undone
Slowly unravels
In a ball of yarn
The devil collects it
With a grin
Our love, our love,
In a ball of yarn
He'll never return it
When you come back
We'll have to make new love
14. Air - Talkie Walkie - 03 - Run (4:14)
Air is such a beautiful pair of artists. If you've seen and loved the film "Virgin Suicides", they did the soundtrack. I'm including one of their creepier tracks on the mix. The voice with the vocoder / vox effect reminds us of a future robot-love scenerio. A robot who is madly in love and begs us not to leave. The synthesized background is a robot version of strings. It's our robot's serenade. I don't know if his love poem has a tragic murder/suicide pact at the end or what, but it's a beautiful robot either way.
15. Incubus - Morning View - 13 - Aqueous Transmission (6:49)
Let's let the artist speak for himself on this one:
"'Aqueous Transmission', perhaps our most ambitious work to date, was first conceived with an instrument quite alien to Incubus and all of rock music to be precise. A 'Ko-kyu' is what was used here...One late evening we began conjuring and experimenting with this track and it quickly brought to mind the image and analogy of floating freely down a river; hence the content of the song. Our friend Suzi Katayama, who has in the past worked string arrangements with the likes of Bjork, Madonna and even Yours Truly for an acoustic performance in L.A., lent her classical finesse to this story. And in doing so helped it become exactly what we envisioned; a song so atmospheric and vibratory, it would make those who listened to it doze off into a land of rivers, kung fu and unicorns, eventually making the listener pee in her/his pants. (Attainable goals I think, but please don't operate any heavy machinery while listening to this one.)"
What do you imagine?
Posted by heydomsar
2005-12-27
go back | random brainstorm | go forth
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The Collected Wisdom of Angela Chase - 2009-02-15
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