Cankles Thursday @ Roxy

I absolutely laughed outloud when I got this e-mail the other day. It's actually pretty interesting. Who do I have to go down on to get to DJ This event? Um - Well... Nevermind.

Now I actually support her - not enough to shell out $50 on a Thursday night - but I support Hillary. If anyone goes - of if you know anyone that is going - please let me know. I'd love to know the setlist. Let's open up the comments for that. Person that comes up with the best 3 songs that should be played will - be the winner!

I heard that you save $10 if you show up wearing something that accents not having ankles.

https://contribute.hillaryclinton.com/events/newyork1012.html?sc=e170

1984

So enter the obscure and the 80s. Howard Jones is one of those people whose songs you know - but have no idea who the hell he is. Well at least that was my case. Sirius helped me out with figuring out who sang "Things Can Only Get Better" which is one of my favorite 80s tracks of obscurity. Up there with Joe Jackson's "Steppin' Out" and Talk Talk's "It's My Life" - so accurately covered by No Doubt a few years back. Yes that was a cover.

So here's a track that could easily be covered by Ben Folds and make it sound just as good. As an added bonus - here's a link for Ben Folds covering The Postal Service's "Such Great Heights." Gotta love when indie covers indie.

Frank

PS - There are all links to iTunes above. I am going to try and start posting these songs as MP3s if I can figure out a good way to do it.


Howard Jones - No One Is To Blame

You can look at the menu but you just cant eat
You can feel the cushions but you cant have a seat
You can dip your foot in the pool but you cant have a swim
You can feel the punishment but you cant commit the sin
And you want her and she wants you
We want everyone
And you want her and she wants you
No one, no one, no one ever is to blame
You can build a mansion but you just cant live in it
Youre the fastest runner but youre not allowed to win
Some break the rules
And live to count the cost
The insecurity is the thing that wont get lost
And you want her and she wants you
We want everyone
And you want her and she wants you
No one, no one, no one ever is to blame
You can see the summit but you cant reach it
Its the last piece of the puzzle but you just cant make it fit
Doctor says youre cured but you still feel the pain
Aspirations in the clouds but your hopes go down the drain
And you want her and she wants you
We want everyone
And you want her and she wants you
No one, no one, no one ever is to blame
No one ever is to blame
No one ever is to blame

Ironic...and not Alanis

2 songs - 1 you know - 1 you may or may not know. Let's start with the one you know.

Covered recently by the Counting Crows (and then Vanessa Carlton was added on) this song made a resurgence. It apparently was included in the movie "2 Weeks Notice" which, I will say, I have never seen. Written by Joni Mitchell and covered about a billion times, this one is obviously a classic. This was originally released in 1970, which I would say is ahead of its time, but I'm sure what was going on then, is very similar to now. Although, on good old Staten Island, I would say put up a parking lot, 18 row houses and 38 traffic lights. And that was last week alone. Oddly enough, this reminds me of this chick that was a secretary at my last job in Jersey. I copied the Joni Mitchell "hits" CD from her. On a side note, she's the only girl I've ever met that I know had a breast reduction. Which, I guess adds to the irony of this post.

Joni Mitchell - Big Yellow Taxi
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
and a swinging hot spot
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

They took all the trees
And put them in a tree museum
And they charged all the people
A dollar and a half to see 'em
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And they put up a parking lot

Hey farmer farmer
Put away that D.D.T. now
Give me spots on my apples
But leave me the birds and the bees
Please!
Dont it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

Late last night
I heard the screen door slam
And a big yellow taxi
Took away my old man
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot


So let's rewind a few weeks. Clerks 2. Aside from being a fabulous and hysterical movie, and a great scene about beast - um - ok - nevermind (Just incase Joel Siegel is reading). It did include some great songs. Soul Asylum, Jackson 5 (with a dance sequence) and this one. This was the opening sequence track. I had heard it years ago and have been listening to it a lot lately. I always like the Talking Heads and find this a song funny and sarcastic. It becomes more surreal as I run in the new park by my house and think about moving out. So this is the ironic flipside to Big Yellow Taxi.


Talking Heads - (Nothing But) Flowers
Here we stand
Like an Adam and an Eve
Waterfalls
The Garden of Eden
Two fools in love
So beautiful and strong
The birds in the trees
Are smiling upon them
From the age of the dinosaurs
Cars have run on gasoline
Where, where have they gone?
Now, it's nothing but flowers

There was a factory
Now there are mountains and rivers
you got it, you got it

We caught a rattlesnake
Now we got something for dinner
we got it, we got it

There was a shopping mall
Now it's all covered with flowers
you've got it, you've got it

If this is paradise
I wish I had a lawnmower
you've got it, you've got it

Years ago
I was an angry young man
I'd pretend
That I was a billboard
Standing tall
By the side of the road
I fell in love
With a beautiful highway
This used to be real estate
Now it's only fields and trees
Where, where is the town
Now, it's nothing but flowers
The highways and cars
Were sacrificed for agriculture
I thought that we'd start over
But I guess I was wrong

Once there were parking lots
Now it's a peaceful oasis
you got it, you got it

This was a Pizza Hut
Now it's all covered with daisies
you got it, you got it

I miss the honky tonks,
Dairy Queens, and 7-Elevens
you got it, you got it

And as things fell apart
Nobody paid much attention
you got it, you got it

I dream of cherry pies,
Candy bars, and chocolate chip cookies
you got it, you got it

We used to microwave
Now we just eat nuts and berries
you got it, you got it

This was a discount store,
Now it's turned into a cornfield
you got it, you got it

Don't leave me stranded here
I can't get used to this lifestyle

Hmm - where do we go next?

Long overdue...

Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol

This officially becomes the first song I'm ever able to play on guitar. Which I will say - I'm pretty damn proud of. Granted, its simple, but its a great song. I remember listening to this and thinking about how this song really was scary. How it could be so close to what I was feeling, although the whole album is like that. "Gray's Anatony" used this song at the end of last season, which is most likely how it ever landed itself on Z100. Which was a shock to me and Jillian when we were eating pizza at 5am on the Lower East Side. Both our drunk asses couldn't believe that it was on. So now I play this just about every night before I go to sleep. To practice the guitar and think through the words of a great Irish band (move over U2 and the Cranberries).


We'll do it all
Everything
On our own

We don't need
Anything
Or anyone

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

I don't quite know
How to say
How I feel

Those three words
Are said too much
They're not enough

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

Let's waste time
Chasing cars
Around our heads

I need your grace
To remind me
To find my own

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

All that I am
All that I ever was
Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see

I don't know where
Confused about how as well
Just know that these things will never change for us at all

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?


-----------------------------------------------------
Sun Is Shining by Bob Marley vs Funkstar Deluxe


7 years ago I went to Wroxton, England. On what will end up one of the best and life changing experiences of my life. I was 19 and had no idea what to expect in a foreign land. I had previously been to Japan in the 8th grade, which was the extent of getting out of the country. I had actually never been west of Pennsylvania, aside from that trip. So I get there, thinking that I'm trying to be a DJ from NYC and that dance music will be a good thing for me to stock up on. I remember being in a record store - an HMV in Piccadilly Circus I believe, near the first H&M I had ever been in. This song was playing in the store and asked the guy what it was and if they had it. He said no, but it was coming out the following week. I did buy a double mixed CD called "Ibiza Euphoria," which was amazing, that day - but more importantly knew that this song was going to be one of my favorites. The next week I bought 2 copies of the CD single of Bob Marley vs Funkstar Deluxe - "Sun Is Shining." I sent one to Tommy for his birthday, who was still DJing at the time (and is instrumental in helping developing into the DJ I am today) for him to hear this amazing song. It didn't change his life the way it did for me, but every time I listen to this song it just makes life a bit better. Takes me back to a place that is soothing for my soul and makes me feel all warm inside. I guess you put some dance beats with Bob Marley and you can't really go wrong, although the follow up of "Rainbow Country" was less impressive. It became one of the best songs in 1999 in Europe, but most importantly became an anthem for our little class of 33. So for me, I know that at any given moment, I can put on that song and have it come "To The Rescue." As I listen to it now - 7 years has gone by. Unreal. Enjoy it - I'm jealous.

Sun is shining, the weather is sweet, yeah
Make you wanna move your dancing feet now

When the mornin´ gather the rainbow,
Want you to know, I'm a rainbow too
To the rescue, here I am
Want you to know, y'all, can you understand?

Sun is shining, the weather is sweet yeah
Make you wanna move your dancing feet now
When the mornin´ gather the rainbow,
Want you to know, I'm a rainbow too
To the rescue, here I am
Want you to know, y'all, can you understand?

Do you believe me? (x 5)

I'm a rainbow too (x 7)

But to the rescue, here I am
Want you to know just if you can,
here I stand

To the rescue, here I am
Want you to know, y'all, can you understand?
[Sun is shining, the weather is sweet yeah
Make you wanna move your dancing feet now]

To the rescue, here I am
Want you to know, y'all, can you understand?
[When the mornin´ gather the rainbow,
Want you to know, I'm a rainbow too]

Three's a crowd...

So let's start back off - I'm adding this first Smashing Pumpkins song and then as promised almost 2 months ago, I will soon post about both Snow Patrol and Bob Marley vs Funkstar Deluxe.

Smashing Pumpkins - Muzzle

As I think I've said a lot - sometimes it takes a while for me to really get a song - or have it make sense in my own head. Mellon Collie came out in 1995 - got it a few days early thanks to a record store (Our Music Center) that used to sell new albums on the Friday they came in and not wait for the official release date on Tuesday. Yeah, it was more expensive, but to be the person that knew all the lyrics for the most anticipated album of 1995 before everyone else. That was heaven. I also remember getting it on my birthday and being so excited that I got it and even more excited there was a song called 1979. The year I was born. It was surreal for my 16th birthday. This was also around when Z100 was cool (yes, they were!!!) and they played a live Smashing Pumpkins show from Chicago on Monday night before the album release.

I listened to this whole album today - beginning to end - and almost forgot how great it was. Yeah some songs were loud and distorted (XYU) and some were really cute (Lily, My One and Only) but overall one of the best albums ever. I believe it still sits behind Pink Floyd's The Wall as the best selling double original album of all time. I've listened to Muzzle a million times and today - it jumps out at me. In a sort of hey shit happens - but life still goes on - sort of way. I guess I realize that when I think things are figured out, it's time to panic and wait for the unexpected.


I fear that I'm ordinary, just like everyone
To lie here and die among the sorrows
Adrift among the days
For everything I ever said
And everything I've ever done is gone and dead
As all things must surely have to end
And great lovers will one day have to part
I know that I am meant for this world
My life has been extraordinary
Blessed and cursed and won
Time heals but I'm forever broken
By and by the way...
Have you ever heard the words
I'm singing in these songs?
It's for the girl I've loved all along
Can a taste of love be so wrong
As all things must surely have to end
And great lovers will one day have to part
I know that I am meant for this world
And in my mind as I was floating
Far above the clouds
Some children laughed I'd fall for certain
For thinking that I'd last forever
But I knew exactly where I was

And I knew the meaning of it all
And I knew the distance to the sun
And I knew the echo that is love
And I knew the secrets in your spires
And I knew the emptiness of youth
And I knew the solitude of heart
And I knew the murmurs of the soul
And the world is drawn into your hands
And the world is etched upon your heart
And the world so hard to understand
Is the world you can't live without
And I knew the silence of the world

Tickets

have fun with this
http://www.says-it.com/concertticket/index.php

here's an example of fun

http://img45.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ticketay5.jpg

Let's Play 2

2 songs for you -

Keane is a band that somehow I think my grandmother would like, which is a good thing. The lead singer has a voice that reminds me of a traditional 50s singer but they really can make some great rock music. Their latest song "Is it any wonder?" is from a new album being released later this month.

The chorus of this song definitely explains me lately. An odd feeling of constant exhaustion, stress and uncertainty.


Keane - Is It Any Wonder?


I.. I always thought that I knew
I'd always have the right to
be living in the kingdom of the good and true
It's so long that now I think I was wrong
and you were laughing along
And now I look a fool for thinking you were on...

My side,
Is it any wonder I'm tired?
Is it any wonder that I feel uptight?
Is it any wonder I don't know what's right?

Sometimes it's hard to know where I stand,
It's hard to know where I am,
Well maybe it's a puzzle I don't understand.
Sometimes I get the feeling that I'm
stranded in the wrong time
where love is just a lyric in a children's rhyme.

Is it any wonder I'm tired?
Is it any wonder that I feel uptight?
Is it any wonder I don't know what's right?
Oh, these days, after all the misery made,
Is it any wonder that I feel afraid?
Is it any wonder that I feel betrayed?

Nothing left inside this old cathedral,
just the sad, lonely spires,
How do you make it right?

Oh, but you try,
Is it any wonder I'm tired?
Is it any wonder that I feel uptight?
Is it any wonder I don't know what's right?
Oh, these days, after all the misery made,
Is it any wonder that I feel afraid?
Is it any wonder that I feel betrayed?


Pearl Jam - Footsteps

This song has always been a favorite of mine. I heard it performed live for the first time last week. Absolutely amazing, those 4 minutes with the harmonica were worth the price of admission. This song is a part of the "Pearl Jam Trilogy" along with Once and Alive, which they played in order that night. The haunting chorus of "I did what I had to do. If there was a reason, it was you" has become a lyric I have thought about many many times, surrounding a certain past relationship. It's one of those dark night, all alone songs.


Don't even think about reaching me. I won't be home.
Don't even think about stopping by. Don't think of me at all.

I did what I had to do. If there was a reason, it was you.

Aaah, don't even think about getting inside. Voices in my head. Ooh, voices.
I got scratches all over my arms. One for each day since I fell apart.

Ooh, I did, oh, what I had to do. If there was a reason it was you.

Footsteps in the hall... It was you, you.
Ooh, pictures on my chest... It was you. It was you...

Ooh, I did a what I had to do. Oh, and if there was a reason... Oh, there wasn't no reason. no.
And if there's something you'd like to do. Oh, just let me continue to blame you.

Footsteps in the hall... It was you, you.
Ooh, pictures on my chest... It was you, you. Oh





Next: Snow Patrol, Bob Marley vs Funkstar Deluxe

Frank

the new ideas...

So as I said I think i'm going to turn my blog into a music one. Where I list a song and write about it.

So I think the idea will be to include the mp3s of the song soon. i think i'm going to make a whole new blog - we'll see. So here's 2 songs for today.

KT Tunstall - Heal Over

The first time I heard this song, I was amazed. I hadn't felt the power of music in a long time. It's the warmest song I've heard in years. Just amazing production. Reminds me of the first Zero 7 album, and how I felt when i first heard it. This is another song that I listened to over and over on those quiet dark rides down the parkway from rehearsal.
KT is pretty amazing though and so is her entire album. It will definitely be making the top 10 albums of 2006 for me. The lyrics in this song are pretty amazing, and she's an amazing songwriter. I assure you this album will not let you down.

Next: Keane - Is It Any Wonder

It's been a while...

So its been a long time since I wrote - and I'll assure you that this blog may not take a turn for the better. It may not be something that some people want to read (No, Jillian, no PETA pics). But I've avoided putting down things for longer than I would have liked out here. All over the internet.

I think what I will be doing for now is linking to random songs and lyrics that I either feel are hitting home right about now. Something inspired by this book. Now this will be both good and bad. Music's in my blood. So it's pretty appropriate to do this here. Or I could do the other idea I had. Which is make a new annonymous one. No links, or readers, just a place for me in my little head - documented on my computer, instead of in that book I carry around. Eh - who knows.

So a quick update on life and then onto the new idea.

Yesterday I DJed here. What a trip. I kinda felt cool doing this to be honest. Thanks to Peter for the reccomendation. I was a part of the show as I ham-ed it up with the host and then did a little 2 hour set for them. This company is amazing, and full of wonderful people, the quote of the day was from my brother said to me "I've been here for 4 hours, and still have no idea what this company does." I think I figured it out...eventually. Thanks to Kate, who told me is it now her mission in life to get me another DJ job. As much as that's really nice and I'm flattered, she needs to find a better life.

So that was all coming down from the high of the weekend in Philly. Returned to Pure for a wonderful night, and they're very excited to have me back in less than 3 weeks for the closing night of gay pride. Sunday, June 11. Where I will be playing what I believe is the longest set I've ever done. 9 1/2 hours. I already talked to James about getting some food up there or something. Karen may come along for the ride as well. Got to hear James and Jonathan spin seperately on Friday. Played a great set on Saturday night, and had 600 people singing along to "Express Yourself." I do believe I have to get an I (heart) Tre shirt for pride. Had 2 meals with Tommy, who was very proud of his latest work project which destroyed a huge pillar. Also spent some great time with Jeanette, a friend I haven't seen in a while, and whom I always forget I miss until I see her. We also ran into MJ (the light guy from Pure) on the street and hung out at his place for a while. Admired his cool eclectic taste in everything from paintings to furniture.

Oh, the play also finished up. All in all, it was fantastic. Had a blast. And it was only this week, that I really miss it. Well more I miss the great staff and the constant partying we did. I hear there will be a DVD soon.

So now for today's song. Hell - here's 2.

#1 Vedera - Lover's Lie

I listened to the acoustic version of this just about every night on the way back from rehearsal. Sometimes more than once. Check out Vedera on myspace.com if you want. Great band.

#2 Counting Crows - Anna Begins

I've heard this song a thousand times before. But something about it grabbed me a few days ago. As I listened to it over and over today. It kept digging in. When I read the lyrics, I'm not totally sure I get it. But thats the beauty of it, and well it's written by Adam Duritz; so you know 2 things for sure. It's about a girl and heartache.



So thats all for today

Frank

Performing for 30

Tonight I got to go to the tech rehearsal for this. Needless to say it was fantastic - I saw Renee Fleming, John Williams, Itzhak Perlman, Kevin Klein and Peng Peng (pronounced Pong Pong) perform for about 30 people - most of which were staff for tomorrow's live show on PBS.com. As you know I'm a huge John Williams fan, and it was really amazing to hear the theme to "Schindler's List" conducted by the composer and performed by the person who recorded that sad violin.

2 quotes of the evening -

#1
Who: From man in tech booth to person on stage
Context: Itzhak Perlman not happy with sound
Quote: "Ask him if he was happy with the sound at the Oscar's"

#2
Who: Robin Williams via taped video
Context: Talking about Julliard
Quote: "It's kinda like jail - except with cellos"

This was all possible because Billy's partner Mitchell did the set design for it all. So thanks to both of them for remembering - I really appreciate it!! It couldn't have come at a better time.

Frank