let's... V?
The Rules:
1. Reply to this post and I'll assign you a letter. (If you want a letter, just say so.)
2. List (and upload/link) 5 (or more if you want) songs that begin with that letter.
3. Post them to your journal with these instructions.
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petronia: Let's go with something a bit difficult - V.
Which sounds like it would be difficult, if I didn't already know that one of them would have to be "Vinternoll2", by Kent. XD
"Valon" -- Ilmari x Salyu
A gift from Erin, and one of the best I've ever received. Salyu was Lily Chou-Chou's voice, and Ilmari is from RIP SLYME, which means this was like all the best things in the world wrapped into one mp3 for me. And it totally delivers. It's floaty and gorgeous and makes you believe that everything is going to be all right. Ilmari's playful rapping voice works so well with Salyu's full-throated and almost ballooning held notes. It's like gliding along the Milky Way, which, you know, is fitting with the lyrics of the song.
"Video kid" -- Video Kid
I'm convinced one day we will find out that Bret McKenze co-wrote this song with Neal Stephenson. Other than that, wth, I can't believe this is the same guy who is one half of Flight of the Conchords. The song is no less ethereal as the one above it, and was on Neil Tennant's half of "Back to Mine". Because Tennant has amazing taste, that's what.
"Valder Fields" -- Tamas Wells
I'm also waiting for the day that someone explains to me why this song is so goddamned popular with Chinese people. I've come across it on blogs, it was featured in a BOBO video, for chrissake, and google suggests that I look up "Valder fields Chinese" when I go looking for the lyrics. It's not that great, though it's catchy and Tamas Wells' voice is smoother than butter, and the guitar melody is sweet like popsicles in the summer, and it's certainly not great enough to garner that much obsession. TAMAS WELLS IS AUSTRALIAN!! Also what is this song even about? I've constructed in my head some crazy indie romance movie between a store employee who is about to get laid off and a girl he runs into who's convinced she's the main heroine of a fantasy novel about an aging king who lives in a castle overlooking Valder Fields. YOU TELL ME.
"Visions of Johanna" -- Bob Dylan [May 26, 1966, London]
I love recordings of Bob Dylan live, because he sounds so real, like he's going to materialize out of your speakers and make you hold his guitar for him so he can really blow out that harmonica solo. And for some reason his intonations in this particular recording reminds me crazily of Steve Harley in "Make Me Smile", from the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack, hahaha.
"Vampires" -- Pet Shop Boys
I liked this song better when I thought the lyrics were "just a reflex, like feral sex". Also I know the piano melody sounds like something, but I can't for the life of me tell you which song also uses those particular three notes in that particular sequence. And okay, so the song is trite, and the lyrics are not really up to form, but since hearing "Night in the city/ New Orleans pretty", I prefer to believe that Neil Tennant narrated all of Interview with the Vampire out loud in a purposely poncey voice to Chris Lowe and together they wrote this song because they found the whole thing so ridiculous but flamboyantly enjoyable, just like Pet Shop Boys at the best of their worst. EDIT: I HAVE FIGURED IT OUT. It reminds me of "Carry On Dancing", by Savage Garden a;sdfj no seriously i mean it.
"Vermillion" -- The Album Leaf
I was totally not expecting this song from The Album Leaf. It's like Jimmy LaVelle listened to a lot of Mylo and decided he needed to make some crazy house/slowcore/ambient post rock crossover, and the result was "Vermillion". No, don't get me wrong, I think it's great. But I think anything The Album Leaf comes out with is great. Jimmy LaVelle could just have his musician friends read me the telephone directory and I'd probably still think it was great. It helps, of course, when his friends are The Black Heart Procession, Sigur Ros, Mum, and Telefon Tel Aviv.
"Vaseline for 11 Baseline"-- Cubismo Grafico
The perfect music for taking your iDog for a Sunday walk in the null-g park before settling down for a Finagle's Folly with William Gibson and then just wasting some time eating ice cream and watching old videos of women in the 1950s vacuum carpets. Okay, okay, I am be facetious. Except I'm totally not.
"Valley of the Dolls" -- Mylo
Like putting a relatively calm Aphex Twin in a blender with "On the Radio" and a couple of Coca Cola commercials and served slightly shaken over chilled Ulrich Schnauss. Like the electronica version of a hangover pill. Like something capsule and Air might have collaborated on, while speaking in Swedish. Like taking your iDog for a Sunday walk-- okay okay, I'll stop. XD
"Violet Hill" -- Coldplay
Viva La Vida was kind of crazy, wasn't it? It was all sorts of Coldplay going in strange directions that I feel like they hadn't before. "Violet Hill" was definitely one of the songs that made me do a doubletake when I realized, god, that actually is Chris Martin singing. And I used to make fun of people who thought this, but goddamn if the CD doesn't sound like it was written with Code Geass in mind. With lyrics like "When the banks became cathedrals and a fox became God" and "I took my love down to Violet Hill/ there we sat in the snow/ all that time she was silent, still", I really am just dying for The Arcade Fire to cover it. Instead, we get The Kooks. Sometimes, you just have to settle. (The Kooks make the whole thing sound like some acid rock-folk song, but I argue that no one can sing a plaintive verse to piano like Chris Martin can.)
"Volcano" -- Damien Rice [Sept. 26, 2003, KBCO Session]
The only version of "Volcano" anyone should ever listen to. Sad, slow, raw, and unbelievably sensual, it beats the CD duet version of the song out of the water, because of how ambiguous the song becomes when the narrator is only a single male voice instead of a staggered narration by two people, how he both wants and denies and grabs and pushes away, because of how piercing that violin sounds layered with Damien Rice's angry delivery of "What I give to you/ is just what I'm going through.../ what I really need/ is what makes me bleed." So beautiful. So amazingly beautiful.
"Vinternoll2" -- Kent
lesstraveled thinks that if we pimp this song enough, it'll turn into a self-replicating meme and take over our heads and become the new intergalactic ruler of all creation. It's a pretty awesome, yeah. :> Though you'll have to pry my cold dead hands off of "Nålens öga" before I let "Vinternoll2" take over.
edit: links now fixed.
---
HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY, EVERYONE. You know what V stands for? THAT'S RIGHT. VINDICATION. TAKE THAT, ENGLAND.
Er.
1. Reply to this post and I'll assign you a letter. (If you want a letter, just say so.)
2. List (and upload/link) 5 (or more if you want) songs that begin with that letter.
3. Post them to your journal with these instructions.
---
petronia: Let's go with something a bit difficult - V.
Which sounds like it would be difficult, if I didn't already know that one of them would have to be "Vinternoll2", by Kent. XD
"Valon" -- Ilmari x Salyu
A gift from Erin, and one of the best I've ever received. Salyu was Lily Chou-Chou's voice, and Ilmari is from RIP SLYME, which means this was like all the best things in the world wrapped into one mp3 for me. And it totally delivers. It's floaty and gorgeous and makes you believe that everything is going to be all right. Ilmari's playful rapping voice works so well with Salyu's full-throated and almost ballooning held notes. It's like gliding along the Milky Way, which, you know, is fitting with the lyrics of the song.
"Video kid" -- Video Kid
I'm convinced one day we will find out that Bret McKenze co-wrote this song with Neal Stephenson. Other than that, wth, I can't believe this is the same guy who is one half of Flight of the Conchords. The song is no less ethereal as the one above it, and was on Neil Tennant's half of "Back to Mine". Because Tennant has amazing taste, that's what.
"Valder Fields" -- Tamas Wells
I'm also waiting for the day that someone explains to me why this song is so goddamned popular with Chinese people. I've come across it on blogs, it was featured in a BOBO video, for chrissake, and google suggests that I look up "Valder fields Chinese" when I go looking for the lyrics. It's not that great, though it's catchy and Tamas Wells' voice is smoother than butter, and the guitar melody is sweet like popsicles in the summer, and it's certainly not great enough to garner that much obsession. TAMAS WELLS IS AUSTRALIAN!! Also what is this song even about? I've constructed in my head some crazy indie romance movie between a store employee who is about to get laid off and a girl he runs into who's convinced she's the main heroine of a fantasy novel about an aging king who lives in a castle overlooking Valder Fields. YOU TELL ME.
"Visions of Johanna" -- Bob Dylan [May 26, 1966, London]
I love recordings of Bob Dylan live, because he sounds so real, like he's going to materialize out of your speakers and make you hold his guitar for him so he can really blow out that harmonica solo. And for some reason his intonations in this particular recording reminds me crazily of Steve Harley in "Make Me Smile", from the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack, hahaha.
"Vampires" -- Pet Shop Boys
I liked this song better when I thought the lyrics were "just a reflex, like feral sex". Also I know the piano melody sounds like something, but I can't for the life of me tell you which song also uses those particular three notes in that particular sequence. And okay, so the song is trite, and the lyrics are not really up to form, but since hearing "Night in the city/ New Orleans pretty", I prefer to believe that Neil Tennant narrated all of Interview with the Vampire out loud in a purposely poncey voice to Chris Lowe and together they wrote this song because they found the whole thing so ridiculous but flamboyantly enjoyable, just like Pet Shop Boys at the best of their worst. EDIT: I HAVE FIGURED IT OUT. It reminds me of "Carry On Dancing", by Savage Garden a;sdfj no seriously i mean it.
"Vermillion" -- The Album Leaf
I was totally not expecting this song from The Album Leaf. It's like Jimmy LaVelle listened to a lot of Mylo and decided he needed to make some crazy house/slowcore/ambient post rock crossover, and the result was "Vermillion". No, don't get me wrong, I think it's great. But I think anything The Album Leaf comes out with is great. Jimmy LaVelle could just have his musician friends read me the telephone directory and I'd probably still think it was great. It helps, of course, when his friends are The Black Heart Procession, Sigur Ros, Mum, and Telefon Tel Aviv.
"Vaseline for 11 Baseline"-- Cubismo Grafico
The perfect music for taking your iDog for a Sunday walk in the null-g park before settling down for a Finagle's Folly with William Gibson and then just wasting some time eating ice cream and watching old videos of women in the 1950s vacuum carpets. Okay, okay, I am be facetious. Except I'm totally not.
"Valley of the Dolls" -- Mylo
Like putting a relatively calm Aphex Twin in a blender with "On the Radio" and a couple of Coca Cola commercials and served slightly shaken over chilled Ulrich Schnauss. Like the electronica version of a hangover pill. Like something capsule and Air might have collaborated on, while speaking in Swedish. Like taking your iDog for a Sunday walk-- okay okay, I'll stop. XD
"Violet Hill" -- Coldplay
Viva La Vida was kind of crazy, wasn't it? It was all sorts of Coldplay going in strange directions that I feel like they hadn't before. "Violet Hill" was definitely one of the songs that made me do a doubletake when I realized, god, that actually is Chris Martin singing. And I used to make fun of people who thought this, but goddamn if the CD doesn't sound like it was written with Code Geass in mind. With lyrics like "When the banks became cathedrals and a fox became God" and "I took my love down to Violet Hill/ there we sat in the snow/ all that time she was silent, still", I really am just dying for The Arcade Fire to cover it. Instead, we get The Kooks. Sometimes, you just have to settle. (The Kooks make the whole thing sound like some acid rock-folk song, but I argue that no one can sing a plaintive verse to piano like Chris Martin can.)
"Volcano" -- Damien Rice [Sept. 26, 2003, KBCO Session]
The only version of "Volcano" anyone should ever listen to. Sad, slow, raw, and unbelievably sensual, it beats the CD duet version of the song out of the water, because of how ambiguous the song becomes when the narrator is only a single male voice instead of a staggered narration by two people, how he both wants and denies and grabs and pushes away, because of how piercing that violin sounds layered with Damien Rice's angry delivery of "What I give to you/ is just what I'm going through.../ what I really need/ is what makes me bleed." So beautiful. So amazingly beautiful.
"Vinternoll2" -- Kent
lesstraveled thinks that if we pimp this song enough, it'll turn into a self-replicating meme and take over our heads and become the new intergalactic ruler of all creation. It's a pretty awesome, yeah. :> Though you'll have to pry my cold dead hands off of "Nålens öga" before I let "Vinternoll2" take over.
edit: links now fixed.
---
HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY, EVERYONE. You know what V stands for? THAT'S RIGHT. VINDICATION. TAKE THAT, ENGLAND.
Er.