Mental Constipation

I made a tumblr-account! Finally decided to start posting today, it will have pictures mainly, while I’ll keep on rambling here (see what I did there?).

as the title says, I can be found at www.keeponrambling.tumblr.com

Closing your eyes to the sun makes the whole world blue.

I think

Pink Floyd is better with Syd Barrett.
AC/DC is better with Bon Scott.
Joy Division is better than New Order.

does this make me an asinine purist?

Still going to narrow down my taste in music to five bands. After realizing it’s been practically the only band I’ve been listening to for the last couple of weeks, I have to add:

The Smiths
These post-punkers occupy an interesting space between punk’s destructionism and the new romantic baroque syndrome – determined not to be like either genre they created their own sound, stripped down yet rich. With only one guitar, bass, drums, vocals – and no synthesizers! – The Smiths composed four albums filled with top-quality, jangle-pop melodies that resonate melancholy and soul. Singer Morrissey’s haunting vocals and lyrics are what really makes the band unique though, perfectly suitable to their particular brand of youthful confusion.

obligatory EDIT: I would just like to comment that the central theme of these days is Conclusion. Everything is coming to a close, and life is finally moving on to something other than the rigid schedule it has followed for so long. Turns out all I hoped for came true in a way, at least the basic idea: changing the status quo. And wow, did it change. But I hate to get too personal and uncryptic – suffice to say I am satisfied.
:)

I forgot the International Towel Day. Again. Last year, when I discovered I had forgotten it, I wrote a note in my calendar so I would remember it this year. The calender was on my cell phone. Which I lost the 1st of May. Fuck.

Dear blog,
just now, I ate so much, a little bit of me died as I got up from the dinner table.

Still thinking about my top 5 list, but it’s difficult. The ones I have were pretty easy because they are so unique; everyone can say they love Bob Dylan or 2pac or whatever, because their music is everywhere, but because such artists are considered classics the quality of their music is almost a given. I guess I’m looking for something with a more special sound.

While I’m still deciding, though, here are two songs I absolutely hate:

Graceland, by Paul Simon
Holy shit, how I hate this song. I mean, seriously, “The Mississippi Delta was shining like a national guitar“. What the fuck? I can’t really listen to the song very long before I start throwing violent fits, but I’m pretty sure it’s about some pedophile who’s driving to Graceland with his kidnapped son.

Big Yellow Taxi, covered by Counting Crows
Christ, it’s just too horrible. Made even worse by the fact that I for many years thought they sang “big paradise put up a parking lot”, this song is just too much to bear. It’s just too.. incredibly.. cheesy. The nasal vocals of that douchebag singer.. and just look at how the guys move on stage! Someone should put them down.

I was going to make it a top 3 and include This Love by Maroon 5 as well, but that song is really just cringe-worthy and awkward, compared to the seizure-inducing nausea fests above. Don’t worry though, there’s plenty more hate where that’s coming from.

Oh, and anything by Smash Mouth.

So I’m compiling a list of my top 5 favorite bands/artists.. only two definites so far:

Cherry Poppin’ Daddies
This swing-revival act was formed in the late 80’s, and released several albums throughout the 90’s. They attained minor fame for their danceable neo-swing music, but have since experimented in many different genres, producing a rich variety of songs – ska, rock, punk and beat music being just a few of the styles in their repertoire. Whatever the genre though, they always retain their rowdy but down-to-earth and sincere flavor.

Equicez
A Norwegian hip-hop duo consisting of the two members Cast and F’em One. Their first and only album, State of Emergency, elegantly mixes paranoid, apocalyptic lyrics with hilarious dissing of both themselves and others, while at the same time allowing for a few more serious songs and even a psychedelic rock/rap crossover. Add to this the top-quality, detailed production and the incredible delivery from both artists, and you get an amazing, world-class album.

Not too sure about the others. I’m leaning towards The Smiths, but I haven’t really listened to them for a very long time, and I want the list to represent all (or at least most of) the music that I like. What would you put in your top 5? Comment below :)

EDIT: In other news (or whatever), I’m seriously considering moving my blog to Tumblr. It has so many awesome features! I’ve become addicted to photoblogs lately and I want to have one for myself. Trouble is, www.mentalconstipation.tumblr.com is taken, and there is no way of contacting the bastard who has it, so I’ll have to come up with a new moniker, or start a different Tumblr altogether.. Decisions, decisions.

So, it turns out my future isn’t ruined after all (i know I didn’t post about it here, short explanation: those bureaucratic b/witches down at the office apparently needed a month to translate my 50-word grade transcript, and I needed that to apply for college). Turns out I dnd’t need that after all, though! Great news, really made my day (which would otherwise have sucked – New Norwegian all-day test today. No money for the train home, had to sit in the tiny train bathroom from Askim to Tomter). Buut, I’m a happy camper. Speaking of which, saw American Psycho the other, what a great movie! A really nice adaption of the book. Worth seeing. Loved the business card scene.. and the rampage scene. I’m actually ona bit of a Bret Easton Ellis roll at the moment, reading Rules of Attraction again, which is a really funny and well written book. And, of course, it’s relevant (sort of) to my college future. So there you go.

Fuck yeah, I went there.

Believe me when I say it, discovering new music is tiresome. As I have mentioned before (I think?), I recently decided to start liking The Cure. I’m not sure where it started, but I think I wanted to download some Joy Division, for some reason. Before downloading I read about them on Wikipedia, because, you know, their story is interesting. What I also came over was their genre – little did I know what I was getting into. Post-punk, it said. Interesting, I thought. I’ve always loved punk music and the narrative of “music destroying music”, but what kind of music came after it? Well, as I learned later, post-punk isn’t technically “post” – it developed alongside punk rock from about ‘77 – but it has a distinctly different sound.

The Wiki-article on post-punk directed me to a list of artists whose names I’ve heard many times but never really listened to a lot. I picked out a few: The Smiths, Talking Heads, The Cure, The B-52’s. I skimmed their respective articles, then checked their discographies and downloaded the three or so first albums of each of them. A few days later I was a fan. It didn’t stop there, however: my music player, Songbird, has a nifty function that shows information on the artists, directly from last.fm. I started reading those, too, and checking out the “recommended artists” section. More names were added to my To Listen To-list. Among those was Elvis Costello, which brings us to today. I had already listened to his three first albums and become a fan, but I just needed to check up on some facts. And that’s how I fell into the Wiki trap. Long story short, one article led to another, and soon I was reading about The Specials, Lou Reed, The Velvet Underground, Andy Warhol, then Dire Straits, The Police, and then Eric Clapton, David Bowie, Rock Against Racism and British fascists. The point to all this? Well; that the history of post WWII 20th century music is very interesting. And, the lesson: don’t enter Wikipedia unless you’re sure you have a lot time ahead of you. Hours may fly by unnoticed.

EDIT: This post should also be read as a gigantic musical recommendation. I whole-heartedly endorse every artist mentioned on this page.

EDIT II (or post-post scriptum for you latin spics out there): as I am reminded of maybe once a year, once upon a time this blog was supposed to have a link to good music in every post. Well, consider this a massive recompensation: every link in this post will lead to a video of an exemplary song from the respective artist. :)