Adventures with Dr. Lady Cutie Troublemaker

Cat Power, Cold War Kids, The Mountain Goats, Kristin Hersh, Arctic Monkeys, Ella Fitzgerald, The Magnetic Fields, Andrew Bird, Joni Mitchell, The Kills, Billy Bragg, Regina Spektor, David Gray, The Kinks, Heartless Bastards, Okkervil River, Elliott Smith, The Saw Doctors, New Model Army, Robyn Hitchcock, The Arcade Fire, Miracle Legion, Gomez, James, Echo & the Bunnymen, Shearwater, Billie Holiday, Glen Hansard, Radiohead, Wolfmother, Throwing Muses, The Flaming Lips, R.E.M., Keren Ann, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Stéphane Grappelli, The White Stripes, The Smashing Pumpkins, of Montreal, Arcade Fire, The Beautiful South, The Velvet Underground, Édith Piaf, The Raconteurs, The Old Ceremony

That sounds about right – at least for recent years. Although there are some things that are misleading. Cold War Kids shouldn’t be as high as they are. Don’t get me wrong. I love them, but most of the listens are in a one week period. Also, the only reason Flaming Lips are there is repeated listens to “Fight Test”. Similar issue with Édith Piaf. I listen to “Non, je ne regrette rien”.

lI love Last.FM. If you like what I like, listen to this to hear more.

John Darnielle (of The Mountain Goats) has written a novel about a kid in an inpatient treatment facility who is denied his tapes, most particularly Black Sabbath’s Master of Reality. This novel is part of the 33 1/3 series. John read excerpts from the novel at Regulator Books in Durham. I bought a copy, and I definitely recommend you do that same. His ability as a songwriter definitely translates to prose, and his experience in a past life as a psychiatric nurse certainly adds to the realism of the piece.

Listen to a little bit:

John also played an AIDS Walk Benefit in NYC this past weekend. In his introduction, he said, “Thank you for coming out to support AIDS Walk. When I was a young nurse, I worked with people with AIDS in Los Angeles, and I’m not going to get all maudlin about it, but I really appreciate your support of this wonderful organization. In that spirit, I’m going to play a bunch of songs that I hardly ever play.”

NYC Taper has MP3’s of the entire set. It’s so worth a listen. I finally got around to it yesterday. Pop Tarts Suck Toasted has several videos of the gig posted.

The Best Ever Death Metal Band Out of Denton (chosen because it’s Brooklyn John’s favorite!)

John Darnielle keeps on keeping on. The proliferation of songs and writing from this man is endless. A hundred years after his death, rabid fans will still be trying to collect everything he ever did. Yeah, he could sit on his laurels for a long while, and his fans could try and catch up, but that’s what I like about him. He’s always one step ahead.

What can I even say about The Swell Season? It was a delicious songfest that felt like snapdragons singing in the sun and a big noncreepy hug from an old wise man and like falling in love and like when you’re laughing so hard that you can’t stop. I was rivited the entire time. It was so much more than I could have imagined. It was an entire evening of delight. They could have come out, sung the songs from the movie Once, and gone home, but nonononononono! They didn’t do that. They sang many new songs. They sang some Pixies. They told us stories. They opened up their hearts and told us about their day, their thoughts about life, about America, about Irishness, about humility and facing problems.

I think my favorite analogy of the night (there were many) was Glen Hansard’s description of himself in the back garden (you know, y’all… a “yard”) kicking a ball. And his goal is that he’s going to get that ball all the way to the end of the garden. So he kicks it, and it reaches the back of the garden, then it goes over to the next garden, and out to the street, and into the next town, and then into towns he’s never even heard of. He was describing the momentum and trajectory of the song “Falling Slowly”, which you have no doubt heard, and if you haven’t… let me be the first to introduce it to you.

	Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova – Falling Slowly
	Found at skreemr.com

This is the song that is featured in the movie Once. If you read this blog, you’ll know that I was completely in love with this movie. The song was the catalyst that brought these two together in the film. It wasn’t a soundtrack. He’s teaching her the song while she plays the piano. Their relationship changes from the beginning of the singing to the end. Music brought these two together in fiction and reality. What a beautiful thing.

So anyway, back to the analogy. I loved what he said last, in the way only an Irishman can: “JAY-sus, this song has been good to us.” It’s been good to me, too, as have the rest of their songs.

Glen Hansard is a raconteur and a magical man. It’s hard to even describe the hold he has on an audience. My friend Roz would call what he does putting people in a “happy trance.” I know I was in one, as was Katy. Near the end, I found it so fitting that he fit in a melody from “Willy Wonka”: “Come with me, and we’ll be in a world of pure imagination.” You know the tune? I’ve always loved it. It fit right in. I haven’t seen the newer version of that film, but the way I felt during the show was that same wide-eyed, enchanted feeling. The lights they used had the effect of lighting up the entire space of Meymandi as the songs swelled – like dawn or sunset. It made the music feel big, although they didn’t need help with that. Swell Season is such a perfect name. There is the feeling of smallness and intimacy, and then something really big – bigger than everything.

Arcade Fire Encore (This is good!) from abbyladybug on Vimeo.

Arcade Fire Plays “Heroes” by David Bowie in Carrboro, NC from abbyladybug on Vimeo.

Win Butler Discusses the Election from abbyladybug on Vimeo.

(For the record, he does vote in the US even though he lives in Canada.)