Good morning. Welcome to Radio Deconstruction. Today I'll tell you about Gogol Bordello's God-Like. It is the ugliest song I know.

Not the worst song, not the saddest song -- though there's a lot of sorrow in there, if you look -- but the ugliest. It's unflinching, and an interesting example of calculated, artistic use of ugliness as theme.
( oh some natterin's a comin' )

I offer this video as a sovereign remedy to post-convention blahs or, indeed, any blahs whatsoever of the mild to medium variety. It features ACTION KNITTING. Also, the band members display that goofy enjoyment of what they're doing that I find so charming in performers.

Click to view

In the context of devonapple's recent post about music enjoyability and the axes ( Read more... )

Good morning. Welcome to Radio DeconstructionSome time ago there was some discussion amongst my friends of what music to listen to to get into a character of a particular stripe; what sorts of audio preparation suited for assuming the characteristics of a sensitive, delicate person, or the high-energy violence of a thug. Things of that nature. ( Read more... )

Good morning, and welcome to Radio Deconstruction. amywithani and I are watching through the combined Buffy/Angel ouvre, interleaving discs in rough broadcast order. There's a song one of the character plays in two different episodes, and it had very distinctive guitarwork and a strong, almost chanting rhythm -- it later occurred to me that the recitative's ( Read more... )