Dan's Comments on Volume Six:Themeless: The New Black

Well, nobody seems to be buying your categorical denial of a theme bull-shit, Miles. Or at least, maybe place and space and all the other pieces of our lives that go into defining who we are at any given time will make it hard for a playlist to not to take on a life and theme of its own, regardless of our intentions.

I definitely see a love relationship/Valentine's Day thing going on, though I can certainly believe it was unintentional Funny, nevertheless. Stylistically, this is definitely alt-rock territory, as opposed to seeming like a random bunch of songs thrown together (ala iTunes shuffle, where we might have heard some of your much heralded jazz collection). But enough about themes, here I go...

1. Soul Meets Body: Add me to the list of folks that is finally hearing Death Cab for Cutie, rather than just hearing about them; coming across their name via their Beatle-like death grip on the top of the college music charts, or from any kind of general condescension from a true musical hipster. Someone (Gibbons?) was talking about this reminding them of the inception of MTV. I'll take it a step further and say this song sounds flat out like new wave. Once the intro is finished and they launch into the main verses, it would not be difficult to picture the guy from Depeche Mode singing the lead. About the lyric you really like: 'Cause in my head there's a Greyhound station/Where I send my thoughts to far-off destinations: it's hard for me to hear those words without thinking of a vaguely similar line from Petzler: In a city station/far from destinations...Very different songs, very different bands, but I can't shake the association. I don't love this song, though I think they do some neat things; I like the ba-bas (I see I'm not alone), and I like the complex, sort of multiple strains of instruments as they weave around during what I would call the choruses. Later in the song, that "weaving" starts to build in complexity and I think there's some really neat musical moments. The double-vocal track really helps this out, as later on they split the shit out so there's one identical vocal in each ear-really neat effect. This line: And I do believe it's true that there are roads left in both of our shoes/But if the silence takes you then I hope it takes me too would have my vote as BLS (Best Line of the Song). In and of itself, the words are not earth-shattering, but (for me), they have a quality of being delivered at just the right moment for the music underneath to put them in a very special place for me. So that's cool. Having never heard anything else by them, I'm guessing that the sound in this song is not indicative of their usual "sound," if usual sound have they. Am I right?

2. So Beautiful: A gentle, beautiful song, establishing its character right off the bat. Gentle singing, gentle accompaniment. I like your take about the little dig about you'll find love again, and also your take about the awkwardness of the singer (the character he is singing as); kind of a 44s "Thank You Though" approach. I totally hear the "Walking After You" melody, or chord progression thing Aaron is talking about it. I would have said it if he hadn't, but now we both have so here we are. David Poe went to the Willie Nelson school of guitar solos, where you are so proud of the melody you are singing that you use the brief opportunity of a guitar solo as a chance to pick out the notes the exact same notes you've been singing during your verses. I like the way he has a kind of crescendo during the You're so beautiful moments, but still manages to keep it subdued.

3. I Burn Today: Between AJ & PG talking it up all those years about Frank Black to the fact that some guy named Jack Black is an actor, yet he's a musician, and he's all over the place, and yet I have no clue who or what he is-I've gone through some serious Crocodile Dundee moments concerning Frank Black/Jack Black. I'm lost. At least I think I've got Sirius Black down. Sooo-this song is driving me crazy, because the first four or five second of guitar totally make me thing a song from Help! or Rubber Soul are about to start, but for the life of me, I can't think which one. There are so many things about this song that would not make someone think to do this, but I challenge someone to hear this song and picture the Beatles playing it. The backbeat, the guitar work, the change from verse to chorus-a lot of things that, to me, are just very Beatle-like. I think this song is neat-I think his relaxed, speak-song style works really well. The line: hold my heart strings/ and have yourself a strum catches my attention every time. Definitely, one is feeling a style and even sound "theme" three songs into this thing.

4. D'Artagan's Theme: Like Mixdorf, I am mystified by this song, especially by the Vietnam helicopter at the end. What the hell? It's a nice enough song, musically; but it seems like there's maybe some unnecessary bells & whistles in there. Another thing that's perplexing me (ala the unknown Beatle song above) is some unknown song from the 80s that I can just about place, but not quite; that comes to mind whenever he launches into the chorus: But I don't know what else to say...For a minute, I thought it was Alan Parsons Project's Don't Answer Me, but now I don't. Think that era, though, and maybe together, we'll come up with the song. Not much else to say about this one.

5. Glory Box: I really don't like Portishead, it appears. "Sour Times" was a song that came out during the height of the alternative rock revolution of the mid-90s, right? I'm probably projecting a myriad motivations & feelings & other things on the band-something I tend to do (see my comments on Natalie Imbrulia's C-Song), but I remember always having this feeling that they were making this very conscious and over-the-top effort at being all sultry, loungey, and minor-chordy and kind of "unique sounding for the sake of being unique sounding ." I just didn't like that song at all, and this seems like the same God-damned song. Maybe if I just strip away the projections, what I'm left with is I just can't stand her vocal style. Or the style of the backing music. Which leaves me with nothing left to like. I forced myself to listen to this a couple of times, but now I just have to skip over it cause I start to sweat and my sturdy fists start to clench when she gets into it.

6. Alison: Funny, this song starts off and there are elements that sound a little like Joe Jackson's "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" Thank God, that ends in a hurry. I llove the noodling guitar and the refreshingly accessible lyrics. Also, I am a huge fan of tonic (the "base" note, around which a song or part of a song is based-where it feels natural for a phrase to end). Peter Gabriel is a master of the use of tonic, and Costello is, here. I love the my aim is true descent, ending on the tonic. I love it enough to justify the continued repeating at the end of the song. I like his voice, though he is very underrepresented in my colleciton.

7. Boots of Spanish Leather: I can't add a whole lot that hasn't been said. Timeless, beautiful words that one could have seen attributed to "Traditional," rather than Dylan. Stark. Poignant. Powerful. Take care, those emoting ones among you-if you don't keep your feet, this song will pick you up and sweep you away into a wistful daydreaming state, and almost to tears. If you are an emoting one, like me, anyway. I know I've heard the song before, though I don't specifically recall when. I'd love to hear it done, if done just right, by a male-female duet. Bob Dylan writes lyrics that go for days. I write lyrics desperate to grind out enough verses to link my choruses together and hoping the whole thing, with solos, hits 3:30.

8. Time Has Told Me: Damn it. I see Gibbs called him "The Dark Donovan of the Woods," before I could speak of the striking similarities between their voices & deliveries. A beautiful song, I think, and a deceptively sophisticated musical progression throughout. Is this a sad song, or just sad because of the sad tale that is poor Nick Drake? Anyway, I am so glad this song is in my life now. If there is one track on this collection that I guess will eventually result in my buying an entire discography, it is this one.

9. I Am the Luckiest: I put Ben Folds in that category along with Death Cab...someone I've heard mentioned constantly throughout my adult life, but with whom I was utterly unfamiliar. Actually, maybe more akin to the whole "Frank Black" thing, in that I think I would sometimes confuse Ben Folds/Ben Harper, who I also don't know. Anyway, this might edge out "Time Has Told Me" and "Boots of Spanish Leather" for my BS. I just think the words are so lovely. The theme really, really struck a chord with me. The part in this song where he goes into the old man passing away-whether that put me into a frame of mind where I started thinking about how some day Sharon or me is going to die and leave the other-or whether I just thought the sentiment was beautiful (both, I think), I started weeping, weeping on my drive into work. Not entirely uncommon for me to tear up as a result of music, but the waterworks were on here. What a beautiful statement of love and what a vulnerable-sounding voice Mr. Folds has to accompany the piano. I love the crickets at the end-they're relaxing together on a porch in the evening after he sings her this song. Miles-your dream girl would say she loves Ben Folds. I'd say my dream girl would say she loves Paul McCartney, but that'd mean she'd be about 55, and probably have a brain that got fried in the 70s.

10. The Nurse: These two are my next generationg of Beck: I'm watching my musical peers jump aboard the train and I'm left at the station. I can see a lot of really neat inventive, musical things happening, but I've just devoted so much of my attention and money to exploring back catalogues of past-masters that I've been spread too thin to continue to explore current stuff. These two are reaping the benefits of a perfect concept, timed perfectly. This is another in what I see as a string of inventive, fun and funny songs that I've heard from The WS. I always love a good hint at the crunch of what's going to hit you from guitars (ala Radiohead's "Creep"). And WOW-the full band comes crashing in, doesn't it? I do have to say that the way in which I like the White Stripes' music has generally been in more of a novelty-way. I'm not musically in love with their stuff to the point that I could see it continually giving me great pleasure to hear, over & over. I can appreciate a lot of what is going on-as I said, the inventiveness & so on, and appreciate some of the subtle levity.

Great stuff, Miles! The goal of this whole thing is to give us a chance to hear music we wouldn't have otherwise; and inspire us to seek out more from the respective artists. For me, there may be two songs on this collection that will do both for me. Three songs I would have to consider instant near-personal classics, and a number of other solid songs. I look forward to seeing if you try to try and really pull off a themeless collection next time. BS-I did end up giving the nod to "I am the Luckiest" mainly because of the emotional connection I had with it. SIWHI: I take the slant of looking at songs I've been listening to a lot. Perhaps none more than "Summer of Roses," by Willie Nelson.