There are a bunch of threads for sharing music depending upon the genre and the time of day that you’re listening to it, though I wanted a thread more akin to “The thread in which we talk about the videogames we are currently playing,” where music is discussed in words rather than just shared. Of course, music being one of the more abstract art forms, it can be harder to talk about it, so this thread might not be the most active. In many ways simply sharing songs is the best way to engage in music with others, since music has a much lower up-front investment than games – though I am still often compelled to try to spout off words, no matter how nonsensical, about the music I listen to.
This morning I listened to the Plastic Ono Band album for the first time in forever. I forgot how much I like John Lennon – and in fact a lot of what I like about music might have secretly come from listening to John Lennon’s solo albums as a teenager. A lot of sounds that I think of as “Japanese” very clearly came from close listenings to John Lennon (and the other 60s mega-musicians, like Brian Wilson). Of course I’ve always known this intellectually (e.g. the name “Sadistic Mika Band” is a play on “Plastic Ono Band”), and I’ve been reminded of it before countless times – it’s just each time that I am reminded of it, it’s such a jarring feeling. For later Japanese music, elements of the John Lennon sound were clearly reintroduced via the influence of Mike Alway/Él Records and other 80s British independent label stuff. I just realized that Bad Dream Fancy Dress’s song The Supremes is basically a cover/reinterpretation of “Remember”.
Part of me feels it’s a little embarrassing to talk at length about how moved I am by John Lennon lyrics, but “God” in particular is a song that is astounding in the contrast between how trite it seems when I think about it in isolation from actually listening to it, and the actual effect it has when I hear it. I also have a thing for songs that just go from point A to point B without having some repeating motif or a chorus to go back to. Part of me feels that’s how all music should be. If I want to hear a particular part again, well I can just replay the song – I don’t need the musician to do it for me. Though this is perhaps one of those opinions I have as a person who never listens to music live and only experiences it alone in the dark through headphones.
In other news, I’ve been trying to listen to more stuff that is both modern and popular. In pursuit of that goal, I downloaded Tricot’s whole discography and have been putting it on while I study. I am not sure if I actually like them as music to listen to, though as an exercise I’ve been learning to the play the guitar parts of their more interesting songs. I’ve always thought of myself as a kind of fake guitarist – I’ve been playing it for more than half my life, but a lot of that has just been banging out power chords or whatever. I don’t feel like I’ve ever gotten any good at it. Earlier this year I started listening to Jazz more and have learned a lot about harmony, chord extensions and all the other Jazz stuff. Tricot’s songs on the other hand do some complicated stuff with rhythm without actually being all that hard, so spending some time with them feels like a good exercise in actually learning how to play the guitar like a real guitarist.
