urgency to bleed

I know I said I might not be posting for awhile but I saw this prompt on the front page of Livejournal when I signed in and it inspired me: Is there any song you could listen to 20 times in a day without ever losing interest? I mean, it's perfectly suited to this blog, no? So I thought for awhile about whether I should go with the old standards, aka the songs I've loved forever and already gushed about and will never grow tired of, or newer obsessions that I haven't yet posted. I decided to go with the latter since I basically just posted a week's worth of entries containing songs I've already mentioned. Maybe that means I'll look back on this entry in a year and think, "Seriously? I could have listened to that 20 times in a day?" but at the moment they all seem like good choices. They're also a rather odd combination of artists I'm just getting into and ones I've loved for awhile but I'm 99.9% certain that every song here can be found in no other entry. So, enjoy!

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Yeah, can you tell I quickly gave up on trying to describe most of these songs eloquently? Sigh.

I was going to do a song of the day post but I kept thinking of more songs I wanted to mention and four seems like a little much for song of the day and I'm too impatient to post everything separately. So here are four completely random, unrelated songs.

• Now It's Overhead - Turn & Go

If you don't know by now, I'm a bit in love with Andy LeMaster. This song kind of sneaked up on me from out of nowhere. I never really took much notice to it and then it suddenly hit me and I was completely overwhelmed by how beautiful it is. It's very simple and doesn't have much in the way of lyrics but it is so emotionally affecting anyway. Especially the last few lines: "A heart of gold can't glisten in this winter rain/Turn and go, don't wander in this storm again" - when Andy sings that last word in falsetto, oh God, I'm a pile of jelly. The entire song kind of builds up to that one glorious second for me but it's totally worth it. My obsession with this actually happened a few weeks ago, I just haven't got around to posting it until now.

• Margot & the Nuclear So and So's - My Baby (Shoots Her Mouth Off)

Another song that I didn't really realize was quite so good at first, I've been enjoying this one a lot lately. It's just so catchy! I also have to say, I've noticed lately that their lyrics are often extremely violent, which I find quite amusing since the actual music is so pretty and usually quite gentle. This one is actually rather tame and only goes as far as "My baby wants to kill me" in one of the choruses. But the song I'm thinking about the most is "The Shivers (I've Got 'Em)" with its wails of "Evelyn, your spine cracks like a wine glass/Evelyn, your skull pops like a walnut" and then it also has the line, "I want to gouge out your eyes/Splinter your spine" - scary, creepy, but in a totally awesome way. Anyway, I am talking about a completely different song now. This song is "My Baby (Shoots Her Mouth Off)" and isn't as creepy but is still very good. So I'll stop talking about songs I'm not even posting and move on.

• Neko Case - People Got a Lotta Nerve

I haven't listened to Neko much lately but I am very excited to hear her new album, Middle Cyclone, which is to be released in March. This song is short and catchy; I find it most reminds me of "Hold On, Hold On" from 2006's excellent Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (which was my second favorite album that year, behind Joanna Newsom's Ys, for the record). It's not exactly the most compelling song ever but it's pretty good and gets better with every listen for me. And I also suspect it is far from the album's best track. You can download it for free - legally - from her page on the Anti- website here; just find it on the left-hand side of the page and click for your listening pleasure. Also, if you're interested in hearing a bit more from this album, check out the EPK. It's got clips from many more of the songs and they sound very promising.

• A Camp - Stronger Than Jesus

A Camp is mostly the brainchild of Nina Persson, who you may better know from the Cardigans. She released a self-titled album under this name back in 2001, I believe, and is finally back with Colonia this year. I listened to the first A Camp record awhile back and wasn't overly impressed but I have to say, Colonia is definitely my first true love of 2009. It comes out in the first week of February or so in Europe and is not going to be released stateside until April; sadness. But I am definitely posting a review at some point after it comes out so I don't want to talk too much about the entire album right now. "Stronger Than Jesus" is the lead single and it's catchy, catchy, catchy (I really need to find another word to use; I overuse this one so bad). Nina's voice sounds delightful and it's just a completely lovely smart pop song with a highly infectious chorus: "Don't you know love is stronger than Jesus/Don't you know love can kill anyone/So bring it on, wars and diseases/You know that love can do you like a shotgun." You can hear a special live version of the song by signing up for the band's mailing list on their official site; it comes highly recommended. More on this album later.

I've been kind of non-existent here lately, I know, at least compared to the rate that I used to post, but here's a little something to make up for that. I've been wanting to make a new mix lately but had absolutely no ideas for it. Between that and trying to think of something - anything! - to post about, this one was born. The seed was planted last night when my Zune decided to play me "Get Big" and "Warrior" back-to-back and I thought it sounded quite nice, so then I kept thinking about other songs that would work with those two. There is really no hugely obvious theme this time... I guess just that all of the songs are kind of dark and moody and sad, different aspects of depressing, I suppose. And basically I just think they all sound good together and they're mostly songs that I've been obsessed with lately. I think there are only two that I've posted previously, so that's a plus. And I just have to say, I'm the kind of person who feels like it's wasteful to not use the entire 80 minutes of a blank CD, so it was extremely hard for me not to try and fill up the last twenty or so that remain with this. But there are really no other songs I felt the need to add and I was afraid that any half-hearted inclusions would disrupt the entire thing, so I left it be. Also, there is really no reason for the two parts, just me being pretentious, I guess. (And yes, I realize that Orenda Fink is technically on the CD three times which I generally try not to do but whatever...)

( I'm landing now, forgetting how. Your gravity ruins everything. )

Download entire mix (87 MB)

Well. Here is some music I can't get enough of lately. It started out as just random songs, but then I realized that a few of the bands had two songs each, so I decided to make them all like that - five bands, two songs each. Most of them I've posted about before but you know how great it feels to listen to a song a ton of times and then suddenly discover how awesome it is? Yeah. That's the case with a lot of these and I can't help posting them. Anyway, without further ado...

( Music! )