I’m not always going to write long drawn out posts with 2 or three videos on them. Sometimes it will be short ones like this one with a song them so that you have a great time dealing with the next 4-17 minutes. As I like to call it, XIV’s Dossier.
Allow your head to bob freely. It’s supposed to do that.
-Enjoy
And so it begins.
There was nothing particularly methodical about the choosing of the first song to present to you today. Normally, I would have gone through some sort of process like XIV did, turning over option after option in my brain and eardrums until I found something that I thought would a) impress the reader b) entertain the reader and c) mean something to the reader. I would have tried to look for something with mass appeal that was still lyrically deep. I would have tried to find something new, but not brand new. Something relatively obscure, but not so much that I’m posting it merely to be hip because it’s obscure. And, in the end, I probably would have posted something by House of Heroes. But there will be time for that band later. Lots of time.
The song I chose for this post I think fits all the categories that I listed above, and possibly does them better than just about any HOH song I could find. It also exemplifies something else I love in my music (and my literature and film, for that matter), a feeling of triumph against adversity. Something that can lift your spirits when you are down and save you from the darkness.Which, if you listen to the lyrics, you will see is exactly what it was meant to do. And it just popped into my head randomly a few minutes ago while I was taking out the trash (hey, I told you it was random).
That, ladies and gentlemen, is Foxy Shazam. I love this song so much, and I kind of love the video too, for different reasons. The juxtaposition of song and video is a weird one, but it works. On one hand, you have a clearly powerful and serious message being delivered by way of Eric Sean Nally’s Freddy Mercury-esque vocal chords, on the other, you have a video that includes a cartoon entry, a bearded man playing upside down piano and breaking the keys, a choreographed women’s basketball team, and a freckled man-child with a ridiculous-looking mustache. But as odd as the blend is, it’s perfect. “Lock this song away for a darker day” Nally tells us. Yes. Do that. Because one of these days when you are feeling down, you might just need to hear someone tell you with the truth of impassioned experience that “in the morning, the sun will rise”, and to “Keep on keepin’ on”. And it also might help to hear it in a child’s dreamland of awesomeness, because in those times, it’s really the faith of a the child in us who needs to be brought out the most.
-13
They say the first post you do on a band turns out to be the staple that everyone judges you by. That said, I actually did try to figure out what the best thing to start off with was. I really bounced around. (Old? New? Something emotionally heavy? Something light and whimsical?) So, needless to say, I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve now for the coming weeks.
But for now, a two-fer. (That’s two for each reader for you new blokes)
In the end, I decided on an old favorite. A group that I’ve been following since I was a junior in high school, though they’ve been making music since long before that. I became a fan while the sounds reverberated around inside my skull. You might not understand what I mean so hit the play button on this track and turn your music up to 11 on this older track of theirs.
That’s “Marvelous Things” from the album Room Noises. This was actually the second album I’d heard from these guys but it’s their first studio album. I’m not a knower of musical terminology as much as 13 but this song stays in the rafters and makes you pay attention to it. A wonderful tale of things that don’t exist and the emotions they strike into you.
While you eat that cake, how about a glass of milk to bring you back down to from the sugar high?
This song “Ambulance” is from The Valley. (Actually, it’s from the Fire Kite EP, but that is neither here nor there, both are right and neither is wrong)
Feel this one right here:
0<-<
^( That’s pointing at the head)
I quite literally have very few words to describe these, real music speaks like that.
We’ve been there. That entire album is like that, I’ll get a review of that album up here sometime. I’d love a chance to tell them what they’ve done to music. And probably buy them a cupcake. XIV loves cupcakes.
-XIV
Okay, maybe not completely. My partner does have a different background than me, and his musical tastes don’t match mine exactly. But I suspect we won’t disagree on everything. In fact, I hope we don’t. Although it would be boring for our opinions to line up repeatedly, part of my hope in participating in this blog is that when we do agree, you, our loyal followers, will be the richer for it. Few things please me more than introducing someone to a new song or band that they can love as much as I do, and if we both like it, well, let’s just say I respect XIV’s opinions enough that I think it will be worth a listen.
Which brings me to what this blog is going to be about. The idea here is to recommend music to you, be it single songs or, sometimes, entire albums. Since we are on different schedules, XIV and I will usually recommend something on our own for your listening pleasure, which the other of us may or may not comment on. Occasionally though, we would like to double review some things for you, (probably entire albums) to give you a sort of Ebert & Roeper type thing for music (only hopefully, a little more fun). Those guys definitely have different opinions, but their approach can feel the same, and after a while that can get boring. XIV and I are good friends, but our personalities are different enough that that shouldn’t be the case here.
I guess I’ll close out this intro by talking a little bit about my background. In addition to being a huge fan of pretty much all popular music genres, I am also a musician, and have spent time lending my vocals to things as wide-ranging as choirs, pop groups, jazz groups, and yes, a rock band (as admittedly short-lived as that was). I also went to school for music for two years before changing my major, so I have a bit of the “University knowledge”. I don’t say any of that to gloat though, or to make myself sound like the superior judge of music. Far from it. If I didn’t think that my partner had interesting things to say and interesting ways to bring them to you, I wouldn’t have signed on to this project (which was entirely his idea). I only tell you my background to give you an idea of where I am coming from, and what I bring to the table.
I’m genuinely excited about this. As I said, I love introducing people to new things that are awesome, and I am confident that I have a few things like that to throw your way. Thanks for following us, and we’ll get this thing started soon.
-13
Hello Readers,
Welcome to the first post of 13&XIV. I’m XIV and I’ll be one of your cruise directors for the remainder of your journey. I’ll get my partner to throw a line as soon as I can. But, I wanted to give you a rundown of the game plan from here on out. Game plan is, “we’ll have as much fun as possible before the world implodes”. I’ll throw somethings your way and so will my compatriot. And everyone once in a while we’ll drop some double knowledge on you.
Have a bite of that logic.
We are very different people so our timing will most likely not be the same every time but rest assured, I won’ t forget you.
I’ve been around music my whole life, and I’ve spent a great deal of time forgetting myself in the beat. I tend to lean toward songs with great instrumentals but I always come back to the vocals. Every Genre is my playground and every song is the earth beneath my feet. I look forward to jamming with you guys in the future.
-XIV
13 & xiv 