'Tis The Season

Wow! Has it been two weeks already? Seems like a lot less than that since I last posted about what I'd been listening to lately. Oh, wait... that's because I keep shoehorning songs I like into posts that have nothing to do with music! It's almost like what I listen to is part of some kind of organic whole or something. Crazy, right?

Anyhoo...

Stuff's been piling up. Better release the pressure before something blows.

Oh, before I begin, I'm sure you'll all be glad to know I've been working on my musical Advent Calendar and this year I've got help. AI help. 

I asked Bard first but that didn't go well. All Bard does is make stuff up. Then I went to ask Bing but apparently you have to go through Microsoft Edge for that now (There are workarounds but they're too fiddly-diddly to be bothered with.) Edge is like fricken' ivy. If you let it get a toehold you're scraping it out of the cracks for a week so screw that. 

CHATGPT4, though. That one works. It was a lot of help, came up with some great suggestions. Give it a snappier name, it'd make a great imaginary friend. Oh... there's an idea...

I'd love to do a post about the methodology involved (Hah! Like there is one...) including all of Bard's funny little ideas, but it would be spoilerific so I'm going to save it for a postscript when Advent's over. Meanwhile, that's what I'm working on. 

Obviously, I'll be getting the AIs to help me with the pictures this year, too. That'll be loads more fun than trawling through endless pages of crappy royalty-free Christmas "art", searching for the 0.01% that doesn't make me ill just looking at it. Also, the results will be orders of magnitude better. Oh, brave new world...

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to it. But first, before we deck those halls, let's clear these decks!

Suburban House - Holly Macve (Feat. Lana del Rey)

Since we're in a seasonal mood, let's start with this gorgeous slice of wintery despair. I was previously unaware of the existence, let alone the work, of Holly Macve. I try not to think about how many bands and singers I've never heard or even heard of. It terrifies me.

Holly worked with Colin Dupuis, who worked with Lana on Ultraviolence. Lana said in an interview Holly would be her pick to play Lana in a biopic. Pop music is like this now. I imagine it always was. Actually, when I think about it, I know it always was. Nothing much changes, does it?

Alma Mater - Bleachers

Well, some things do. For example, Bleachers made a song I can listen to twice. I never thought it would happen. For all Jack Antonoff's close involvement with some of my favorite music of all time, I've never heard anything by his band I didn't find bland and uninteresting - until this. 

Granted, it sounds like an American Analog Set demo, except for the parts where Lana chips in, but that's what I like about it. Co-writing credit for the two of them, too.

Satellite of Love - Snail Mail and Thurston Moore

For my birthday I got Ezra Furman's extended essay on Lou Reed's Transformer, the 1972 album from which Satellite of Love comes. I haven't read it yet but the chapter on Satellite (Each track gets its own chapter.) is called "Lou and Pop".

I'm not sure it's exactly "pop" but it's certainly one of the most commercial tunes he ever wrote. Given that Transformer represents one of the peaks of his commercial success as well as housing both of his Big Pop Hits (Walk On The Wild Side and Perfect Day but you didn't need me to tell you that.) it's always puzzled me this one didn't chart too.

There have been many covers and most of them are better than this one but I love how ragged it is, especially since it exists primarily as a promo for Fender guitars. Snail Mail (I'm guessing we aren't supposed to call her Snail, like it's her first name...) is wildly off-key at times and Thurston doesn't seem to wake up until close to the end and yet the sum of the thing is so much greater than those shaky parts. 

It's sloppy genius. As Furman says right at the start of the chapter on this song, "Lou Reed is a control freak". He'd have hated it. But then he hated everything. It was part of his charm.

How Could You Let Me Go - Vashti Bunyan & Devendra Banhart

Okay, I can see where this is going. This is what you get for opening with bleak, bleached-out, winter chill full of despair and loss, then follow it up with ennui, regret and more despair. It sets a mood and that mood sure ain't Christmas. I suppose we're going to have to get it all out of our systems before we can move on to the fun stuff.

There will be fun stuff... won't there?

070 Shake - Natural Habitat ft. Ken Carson

Yes, Virginia, there will be fun stuff. But first you have to eat your greens.

When he says "Kerosene. Kerosene. Kerosene", doesn't it make you think of this? 

Now that was a band that really knew how not to have fun.

String Machine - Gales of Worry

Ah, that's better. I think we're easing out of it now. This is what they like to call "bittersweet" isn't it? I guess all Americana is kind of like that. Filled with nostalgia and tinged with regret but still looking to tomorrow with a glimmer of hope.

It's a bit weird, the way he looks a little like Andy out of Parks and Rec and sounds a little like Craig Dermody from Scott and Charlene's Wedding but I'll take it.

Chanel Pit - Tierra Whack

Do you think she means "Charnel Pit"? I mean, the lyrics would support it. But no. She means Chanel. Oh, she's the smart one. I love Tierra Whack. Never heard one bad track by her.

Also, now I come to listen closely, this might only be fun until you listen closely.

<Listens closely>

Nah, it's still fun.

Rodeo Tragic - Partner Look

I'm tempted to put this one in the "Too clever for its own good" bin but I'm giving it a pass for the horsey.

Highways - Pony Girl

Oh god, we're just going backwards now but I typed "horsey" and thought "pony" and here we are. 

Is this the same Pony Girl that did Candy that I posted back in August? It is! Score another for Canadian Art-Rock. 

Billy - Horsegirl

Why fight the inevitable? This has one of those long noise intros that I'm not over-fond of but stick with it. Once the actual song arrives it's magnificent. Which is more than you can say about the sound quality but it's Jarrett with his iPhone again. 

Okay, I don't know he has an iPhone. 

I bet he does, though.

Tanto - Cassie Marin

Ok, time to bring it home. Always leave 'em laughing. Or at least not curled in a corner in the fetal position.

Of course, I have no idea what she's singing about. Could be pure nihilism for all I know, not that that's necessarily a bad thing. 

The title means "So much" if that helps. (Unless it's the Japanese dagger but I doubt that. I had one of those in EverQuest, I think. I always wondered what it was. It was tiny.)

Rodney - Birthmark

The Talking Heads is strong in this one, which falls into the category of making lemonade. Also the best of it. And laughing at yourself to stop from crying. All of that.

It would work just fine on daytime radio with no-one really listening to the lyrics and the video is funny enough to cover. Then again, no-one's going to be programming a song called "Rodney" on daytime radio.

Nothing Lasts Forever feat. Grimes - Svedaliza

So true. Including this post. Not actually what I was planning to go out on but everything else I have is a downer so... 

 

A Note on the AI used in this post.

Not much. Just the header image, which is by RealCartoon XL v4, a model based on SDXL 1.0 It's the third iteration from the prompt "Lana del Rey and Tierra Whack sharing hot chocolate in a snowy winter scene. Cartoon." Weights are 50/20/50. Yes, there are three weights now.