I went inside and started watching some of the many episodes of "The Twilight Zone" which I TiVo'd the other day. July 4, the SciFi Channel had a Twilight Zone marathon. Good stuff. I wish they still made shows like that. I mean, they tried to revive it a couple of different times, and they tried to revive "The Outer Limits" , but none of those efforts were to any avail.
I thought I was gonna have to go upstairs again, as the dude up there was ROCO at like 1 am. Before it got out of hand, though, he shut it down of his own volition.
I hate my fantasy baseball team. We're 4-9 in dead last. We just ended an 8-game losing streak, but it doesn't look that good this week. I'm just ready for the season to be over so I can concentrate on fantasy football. This baseball league I'm in is with some friends of mine who all used to work where I work now, plus a bunch of dudes in Michigan and Florida who I've never met. They expanded the league two years ago, and I was invited to join. I'm not really a baseball fan (although I used to be), so I reluctantly joined. I got lucky and had a fantastic team last year which finished in second place out of 12. This year, though, has been an abysmal failure. Yuck.
Okay. Now to the bit about music. I bought the Sufjan Stevens record yesterday, and I like it a lot. As I was listening to it the first go-round, I had a brief IM conversation with Reid. I had not listened to the mp3 for "Come on Feel The Illinoise ...." which he has posted on his site. So I was hearing that song for the first time. All I could think about, was that that song has Badly Drawn Boy written all over it. It's a good thing, in my mind, but it's really creepy how much it sounds like him. Right now, I can't provide you with mp3 files to make an easy comparison, but if you can get your hands on a Badly Drawn Boy record, specifically Have You Fed the Fish?, give it a listen. If you listen to the new Sufjan Stevens song, and listen to some Badly Drawn Boy, you'll probably be able to hear a similarity. Or am I crazy? I wouldn't rule out the "crazy" option.
now playing:
Badly Drawn Boy One Plus One is One
2 comments:
I wouldn't have likely thought of it myself, but I can hear the BDB/Sufjan comparison too, now that you mention. They both love to make big, orchestral baroque sounding pop songs. Sufjan probably takes it a bit further, but that's likely because he's classically trained and can play like a zillion different instruments (check the liners, yo). Anyways, when I first got Illinois, I was a bit dissapointed, as it sounds basically like Michigan Part II. I had it in the car with me all of last week though and it has really started to grow on me. The "holy shit I can't believe someone is making music like this" factor wasn't as strong with me for this one simply b/c I had that reaction already with Michigan. If that makes any kind of sense. Also, the lyrics to the John Wayne Gacy song really bother me. The "oh my god" bit makes me cringe. Yeah. There.
To try and put it down in a word, I just think that Sufjan sounds quirkier than BDB. I've always *liked* and admired BDBs songs, but there was something about it that kept me from being blown away. It always felt somewhat stiff to me. Sufjan makes music that's odd. He gets away with things that he shouldn't; things that in theory sound ridiculous, but sound beautiful in practice.
The John Wayne Gacy song kind of bothers me too, and the "oh my god" kind of irritates me as well, but I think it's because it feels like a filler line, like he needed something in that spot, something emotional, and didn't feel like coming up with anything else. But that song is kind of lyrically uncomfortable anyway. I can't really decide if I like it or not.
Otherwise, I think the album is brilliant. I discover a new song every day. "Chicago" and "Casimir Pulaski Day" are my latest favorites, with "Come On" and "Concerning the UFO" being instant classics.
Post a Comment