Bright Eyes :: Light Pollution (live, 2005)

Listening to records in his basement:
Old folk songs about the government
'It's love of money, not the market,'
He said these fuckers push on you
'And freedom yells, it don't cry
Whatever sells will decide
But there's no hell when you die
So don't look so worried...'

Radiohead :: Motion Picture Soundtrack

One of the all time greatest sad panda songs, ladies and gents:



Red wine and sleeping pills,
Help me get back to your arms.
Cheap sex and sad films,
Help me get where I belong.

I think you're crazy, maybe.
I think you're crazy, maybe.

Stop sending letters,
Letters always get burned.
It's not like the movies,
They fed us on little white lies.

I think you're crazy,
Maybe. I think you're crazy,
Maybe I will see you in the next life...

Bowerbirds :: Northern Lights

I don't need from you a waterfall of careless praise
And I don't need a trophy for all the games I play

But all I want is your eyes
In the morning as we wake for a short while

And I don't need you to catch my wandering mind
And I don't expect a southern girl to know the northern lights

And all I want is your eyes
In the morning as we wake for a short while

And I do need the wind across my pale face
And I do need the ferns to unfurl in the spring
And I do need the grass to sway
Yes, I do need to know my place

But all I want is your eyes
In the morning as we wake for a short while

The Tallest Man On Earth :: The Wild Hunt

There is a crow moon comin' in where you keep looking out
It is the hollow month of March now sweeping in
Let's watch phenomenons arise out of the darkness now
Within the light, she is my storming heroine
And old machines abandoned by the ancient races and
I hear them hummin' down below in hollow earth
Oh hell, I guess I don't know why I will go under to
But just for now I let the spring and storm return

I left my heart to the wild hunt a-comin'
I live until the call
And I plan to be forgotten when I'm gone
Yes, I'll be leavin' in the fall

And I will sleep out in the glade, just by the giant tree
Just to be closer when my spirit's pulled away
I left a nervous little boy out on the trail today
He's just a mortal to the shoutin' cavalcade

I left my heart to the wild hunt a-comin'
I live until the call
And I plan to be forgotten when I'm gone
Yes, I'll be leavin' in the fall

Let's open up the windows, have Satan departin' now
And we'll be even when the blues fall down like hail
Hell, I don't even care no more about cadejo now
If he's a white one or a black one on the trail

I left my heart to the wild hunt a-comin'
I live until the call
And I plan to be forgotten when I'm gone
Yes, I'll be leavin' in the fall

Yes, I'll be leavin' in the fall

To beat a dead horse...

"Flume" by Bon Iver...amazing lyrics

I am my mother's only one
It's enough

I wear my garment so it shows
Now you know

Only love is all maroon
Gluey feathers on a flume
Sky is womb and she's the moon

I am my mother on the wall,
With us all

I move in water, shore to shore;
Nothing's more

Only love is all maroon
Lapping lakes like leary loons
Leaving rope burns -- reddish ruse

Only love is all maroon
Gluey feathers on a flume
Sky is womb and she's the moon

Danger Mouse & Murs :: "Paint By Numbers"

Above is the youtube-d version of a definite FSE of mine, "Paint By Numbers" by Danger Mouse & Murs from a mixtape collaboration of theirs, sometime around 2005. The lyrics are below, and I believe every bit as relevant today as they were 3 years ago. Danger Mouse's free (and legal) download.com page has this song available for download (for free), as well as a couple others he did with Jemini around the same time period.

Now in the news this evening, a hostage situation quickly turned to mass murder as the capitol lost its patience. An investment banker, frustrated beyond sanity, walked through his office and started shooting people randomly. 32nd floor, downtown metropolis, thousands in the area cleared from their offices. Even the newscaster had a tear in his eye as he reported on the loss of ten innocent lives.

Now miles overseas, let me paint a scene: an eleven year-old boy holds an M-16 and he’s shooting out the door of his one room home cause earlier that night, his dad was popped in the dome. Now he protects his mom and two sisters all on his own, cause guerillas want the local government overthrown. So he led them to a ditch, in the still of the night, under a hundred dead bodies they all hid, full of fright; and this happens everyday—different family, same plight—but nobody gives a [fuck] cause the victims ain’t [white].

But everybody makes a scene when a mid-western teen is abducted, and it sucks—she could have been a prom queen. But, let the same [shit] happen off Martin Luther King, and they’ll quickly write it off as some gang bang thing. So I’ma say what I mean and mean what I say, and I know the race card is a mean one to play, but:

If one more dies, then it’s one too many, in these third world countries where they kill so many. [Fuck] a third world war, it ain’t a second to waste, when no one knows what we’re fighting for in the first place.

Now I could stop [bull-shitting] and throw the real Molotov, and compare the black slave trade to the Holocaust. But they were both atrocities, there’s hope for stopping these…crimes against humanity from happening again. But AIDS has killed how many millions of these African men? As soon as it gets attention, we’re distracted again—by what? J-Lo’s wedding!? How the stock market varies!? Pro basketball!? Or will Bush beat Kerry!?

Let Michael Jackson be, and let gay men marry. The world is so much bigger than this [bullshit], it’s scary…how we all think we’re free but we’re trapped in a box, but compassion is the key that’ll open up the lock. So [fuck] Kobe Bryant’s [cock] and the white chick he stuck it in. [Fuck] Democrats and [motherfuck] Republicans. It’s about that time for real rap to rise up again, up out the rut that these suckers done stuck it in.

But if one more dies, then it’s one too many, in these third world countries where they kill so many. [Fuck] a third world war, it ain’t a second to waste, when no one knows what we’re fighting for in the first place.

"She says she's not upset; she says that loneliness is worse than regret"

Ken Stringfellow's "Any Love (Cassandra et Lune)" is one of my modern FSEs (favorite songs ever.) Here's a youtube and the lyrics:

Cassandra, for the sunrise century,
Taking the moon in her bed like a lover.
Letting him leave her,
Taking no others,
Watching the tides as they fill up her eyes.
She says that she's not upset;
She says that loneliness is worse than regret.

We have to wonder
What she meant
When she told us,
"Any love is good enough."

The sun comes to her on the windowsill,
She meets him there. He says,
"Come ride on my flaming hands,
By tomorrow we'll be painting the horizons
With the gold streaks of a good goodbye."
What would the Moon suspect?
He only sees the clouds that slither by his head.

We have to wonder
What she meant
When she told us,
"Any love is good enough."

Could heaven keep the light on so I can keep my eye on you?
You and only you.
And follow you as far as I can go.

There's a break in the trees, the moon is shining through.
She rolls down the window and says, "Is it you? Is it you?"
Gravity turned him,
Comets had burned him, too.
She splashes the river to move his reflection.
She says, "Could heaven keep the light on
So god can keep his eye on you?
You and only you
And follow you as far as you can go?"

We had to wonder
What she meant
When she told us,
"Any love is good enough."

I Know A Woman With A Two-Hearted Soul

I wrote a new song today, it's called "I Know A Woman With A Two-Hearted Soul"
Here's the youtube and the lyrics:



(edit: just in case the video doesn't load properly, as embedded videos are known to do, just click here to watch it on youtube's own site.)

Now, I know a woman with a two-hearted soul
There’s one that I love and there’s one I can’t know
And she paces her room before she lays in her bed
While she waits for the music to stop in her head
But it doesn’t
She don’t let it

Now, I’ve got my lovers and she’s got hers too
Filling faded old yearbooks of heart-shaped tattoos
But when she looks at me through those eyes big as moons
I can almost forget my old ways and old wounds
And I wonder
Can she?

Now, she told me, honey, the future’s unsure
I said babe, don’t you know what the present is for?
And I try to be brave when she gets up to leave
But I’m never discreet about the hearts up my sleeve
So I ask her
To stay

Now, I know a woman with a two-hearted soul
There’s one that I love and there’s one I can’t know
And I pace round my room before I lay in my bed
While I wait for the music to stop in my head
But it doesn’t
She don’t let it

Your thoughts?

Good song!

Apparently gingers can sing, too...

Brett Dennen :: The Holidays Are Here (and we're still at war)
[yousend it link only...will expire in one week.]

Pilgrims in the parking lot
Arteries clogged with blood clots
Pushing through the aisles of department stores
Neon crosses and Christmas lights
Credit card debts and brand new bikes
The holidays are here and we're still at war

The rabbi reads from the testament
The banker gazes at the year's investments
Salvation santa's solicit for the poor
Deception of democracy
The philanderings of faux foreign policy
The holidays are here and we're still at war

Smoggy skies and fixed elections
Injustice strikes from all directions
People with their backs against the floor
Looking for someone to set us free
A king with fists like Mohammad Ali
The holidays are here and we're still at war

A mother knows what is best for you
Even though it's hard to listen
Your father knows he can count on you
Though you couldn't count on him

Christopher Columbus knew
Vasco De Gama and Magellan too
The profits of oppression grow like never before
All hail to the captalist thief
And mourn your lost ones and covet our grief
The holidays are here and we're still at war

Hurricane waters ravage southern towns
And black and brown people are left to drown
While the White House and the emergency management agency ignores
Victims seek shelter in the Astrodome
And the National Guard says "Don't go home"
The holidays are here and we're still at war

Police officers hassle the homeless
Domestic disputes, alcohol and violence
The jailhouse opens wide its door
A corporation cuts a million employees
And the factory is moving overseas
The holidays are here and we're still at war

A mother knows what is best for you
Even though it's hard to listen
Your father knows he can count on you
Though you couldn't count on him

Jesus sheds another tear
Into a sea of two thousand years
Into the eve of a new year once more
Tears of joy, resolutions of sorrow
Toast to health and wealth tomorrow
The holidays are here and we're still at war

Religious wars and domination
World trade and globalization
The prices of petroleum soar
Lonesome churches are packed with sinners
Non-believers and new beginners
The holidays are here and we're still at war

Say a prayer for the less fortunate
Prisoners and soldiers you never have met
Understand what it is they're fighting for
Say a prayer for your enemies
Say a prayer for the victims and their families
The holidays are here and we're still at war

Yes, the holidays are here and we're still at war

what was our love worth if it's something we could gamble on? yea, it fucked me right up. it fucked me right up.

This is a great, sad alt-country jam that was pretty blog-hot last year. Definitely a modern FSE (favorite song ever) of mine. I'm posting it now because (A) it seems to fit perfectly the mood of this foggy, dark December evening; and (B) I'm always in the mood for a great sad song.

Sean Hayes :: Fucked Me Right Up
[yousend it link--^ only, will expire in 7 days.]


[...also, for clarity's sake: I don't mean this Sean Hayes: ]


[...but rather: this Sean Hayes.]


Don't know that she knows
What it is she's doing
Don't know that she knows
How deep this will cut

I can't believe you really think
We'll really make it through this hour
You fucked me right up
Just fucked me right up

All alone, in the house where we were livin
All that love just walked out the door
She's off running around with a brand new man
Oh, it fucked me right up
Just fucked me right up

I got a long way to travel
With a heaviness taking hold
It takes a long night when you unravel
At home

Don't know that she knows
What it is she's doing
Don't know that she knows
We;'re throwing it all away

Now tell me how you think we're gonna make it through this hour
It fucked me right up
Just fucked me right up

Don't know that she knows
Or even if it matters
The cut's been made
The dice have been thrown

What was our love worth if it's something we could gamble on?
It fucked me right up
Just fucked me right up

I got a long way to travel
With a heaviness taking hold
It takes a long night when you unravel
At home

Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye...