Let's Talk Music....

I’ve been doing a lot of random music listening lately, sitting in front of my monitor with headphones strapped to my head, blasting sweet melodies into my ears while I bash away at essays. I’ve been told that listening to music while writing or reading or something that requires focus and concentration, since it effects your output. I don’t know if I agree however since I often listen to something while typing. Though sometimes some subject matter requires silence for it to be absorbed, and some songs just aren’t good music to be mentally active to.

This post has turned out to be longer than I thought it would, but all interrelated which is why this ramble drags on. I kinda got a bit self indulgent and started to analyse my own musical taste evolution and what's stuck with me, maybe theres a trend. Anyway, it's a good idea to try yourself if you're bored enough and have time to waste! So' scuse all the reading, but thats what a month without writing will do to you!

Lately, since I’ve been home more than traveling with my mp3 player, I’ve gotten myself a lovely playlist that I’m happy with so instead of writing about 10 songs I’m just going to give you a bunch and let you venture for yourselves! Think of it as a lucky dip or a surprise party bag of music delights. The list below is comprised of a mix of dub, reggae, classics, female singers, classical, world, dark ambient, electronic, trip hop, downtempo, new wave, tango, Cuban orchestra, new york rock, cabaret, latin… ah you get the idea. I'll even divide it into band genre to make it easier to find what you like .

Enjoy!

Blackberry Moose’s Playlist Surprise Party Bag of Music Delights.

New Wave, Indie New Wave & Post Punk Revival
New Order – Ceremony*
Talking Heads – Once in a Lifetime
The Police – Walking on the Moon*
The Radio Dept. – Pulling Our Weight
Windsor For Derby – The Melody of a Fallen Tree
She Wants Revenge – Tear You Apart

Rock - Indie, Brit, American, Underground, Post Punk
The Strokes – What Ever Happened?
The Strokes – I Can’t Win*
The Futureheads – Decent Days and Nights
The Smashing Pumpkins – Luna
The Smashing Pumpkins – Soma
The Velvet Underground – Venus in Furs
The Velvet Underground – Stephanie Says
Radiohead – There, There
Radiohead – Sail to the Moon*
Radiohead – You and Whose Army?
Radiohead – Everything in its Right Place
The Cardigans – I Need Some Fine Wine and You, You Need to be Nicer.
The Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #1(Tunnels)
The Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #3(Power Out)
Interpol – Obstacle 1*
Interpol – NYC
Interpol – PDA
Weezer – Say it Ain’t So*
Weezer – Across The Sea*
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Black Tongue*
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Y Control
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Pin
The Shins – New Slang

Australian Artists
Architechture in Helsinki – Souvenirs
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – As I Sat Sadly By Her Side
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – 15 Ft of Pure White Snow*

Reggae & Dub
Toots and the Maytals – 54-46
Sublime - Doin' Time*
Sublime - Santeria*

Chill - Downtempo, Trip Hop, Hip Hop, Jazz, Deep House, Electronica, Dreampop
Aim - The Girl Who Fell Through The Ice*
Swayzak - Make Up Your Mind*
Blue States – Season Song
Outkast/Andre 3000 – Prototype
Portishead – Only You
Portishead - Cowboys*
Portishead – Mourning Air
Beck – Jack Ass
Erykah Badu – Didn’t Cha Know*

Cocktail - Lounge, Mondo, Cabaret, Bossa Nova, Latin, Jazz
Pepe and the Bottle Blondes - Cuentame Que Te Paso
Pink Martini – Lily*
Pink Martini – Le Soledad
Nouvelle Vague – Ever Fallen in Love*
Nouvelle Vague – Too Drunk Too Fuck
Monsieur Camembert – Dance Me to the End of Love

Dark Ambient & World
Lisa Gerrard + Pieter Bourke - The Human Game
Lisa Gerrard + Pieter Bourke – Nadir(synchronicity)
Lisa Gerrard – Hymn For The Fallen*
Lisa Gerrard – Space Weaver*
Dead Can Dance – Rakim*

Chick Songstresses
Nellie McKay – Ding Dong
Cat Power – Cross Bones Style
Nico – These Days
Fiona Apple – Carrion
Fiona Apple – Sullen Girl
Fiona Apple – Get Gone*
Fiona Apple – I Know
Alice Russell – High Up on the Hook*
Cibelle - Waiting

Manly Voices
Cody ChesnuTT – Serve This Royalty
John Mayer – Stop This Train
Emitt Rhodes – Lullaby
Elliot Smith – Needle in the Hay
Jose Gonzalez – Heartbeats*
Bright Eyes – Lua

* = songs I highly recommend, or particularly like more than the others.

Hopefully some of you will find some new music gems there to add to your collection. Part of the beauty of music is that there is such an extensive amount available that its almost impossible to tire and get bored of music. There's always something to listen to, and somewhere to listen to it. Always a song for any mood, any emotion, any situation, moment, memory. There's always an artist, or artists, that will remind you of a certain point in your life, a certain stage in your timeline.

Music is eternal, though tastes change.
On the bus today I was thinking about how my own music tastes have changed over the last decade. What I regard as my favourites now aren't entirely what fueled me through my adolesence. Have I gone from an angsty teenager that no one understood to a chilled out adult that couldn't care less? I guess so. I thought it'd be interesting to write down and see what was playing on my stereo when I was 14 to 17, then when I was around 17 to 21 and now at neering 25 and compare the evolution of my own tastes. Might give you an idea to try yourself!

The Music Evolution of Blackberry Moose: Favourite Artists

Phase 1 - Ages 14 to about 17
Deftones, Marilyn Manson, Ben Folds Five, The Smashing Pumpkins, Tori Amos, Bjork,Something For Kate, Stabbing Westward, Weezer, Fiona Apple, Lisa Loeb, Sublime, Radiohead, Jewel, Sarah McLachlan, Blink 182, Superjesus, Hole, Nirvana

All Time Favouites (as said at 17)
Deftones, Tori Amos, Ben Folds Five, Tori Amos, Sublime, Marilyn Manson

Phase 2 - Ages 17 to about 21
Bjork, Ben Folds Five/Ben Folds, Incubus, Something For Kate, Tori Amos, Massive Attack, Reel Big Fish, Save Ferris, The Hippos, LTJ Bukem, Portishead, Pj Harvey, Ben Harper, Erykah Badu, John Butler Trio, Jeff Buckley, Diana Krall, Kruder and Dorfmeister, Muse, Sigur Ros, Weezer

All Time Fabvourites (as said at 21)
Incubus, Something For Kate, Tori Amos, LTJ Bukem, Erykah Badu

Phrase 3 - Ages 21 to now (24)
Fiona Apple, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Radiohead, Massive Attack, Zero 7, Lisa Gerrard, Pink Martini, Bjork, John Mayer, LTJ Bukem, Gilles Peterson (DJ), Portishead, Erykah Badu, Mr Scruff, Peaches, Kings of Convenience, George, Hird, Cornelius, Weezer, Common, Dead Can Dance, Madeleine Peyroux, The Polyphonic Spree, Taraf De Haidouks

All Time Favourites (as said at 24)
Fiona Apple, Bjork, Radiohead, Weezer, Lisa Gerrard, Pink Martini, Zero 7, Massive Attack, Portishead, John Mayer, LTJ Bukem, Erykah Badu, Taraf De Haidouks, Mr Scruff

So there you have it! If someone asks me what music do I like, I'll just send them here from now on. Maybe it's something you'll want to try in your procrastination time, mapping out where you started with music and where you are now. It's interesting, I'll give you that. Or maybe I just find these small things interesting.

For now though, I think that's plenty of music talked abouthere. I have many more music blog plans, quirky and whatnot. Maybe this will end up being a psuedo-music-move blog more than aimless rambles. Well... rambles still but not so aimless.

Until next time, toodles!

<3 Blackberry Moose

P.S If my spelling gets off towards the end blame my spellchecker. It just packed it in half way though this post.

She Surfaces, With TV Addictions

Apologies. A mixture of headcold's, migraines, period pains, Easter holidays, essays and general malaise caused me to neglect my readers from my rambles. But I'm back, and hopefully it won't be another month til I post again!

Firstly I must do a small praise of the wonderful Lisa Gerrard, who I was lucky enough to see live about two weeks ago. She was absolutely beautiful, singing angelically to a sold out audience. After many standing ovations we were graced with two encores, and I got some fantastic photos:



If you'd like to see the rest of my photos of Lisa or others I have taken in general, go here

Over the past couple of weeks I decided a few things. I post mostly about media related items - music, TV shows, actors, films etc - and that I do more rambling than actual structure to these posts. So I changed the title of the page to make it more appropriate for what it is, don'tcha think?

Speaking of media related things though I have been addicted to several TV shows not available to us, sadly, in Australia but thankfully to the beauty of downloading piracy I have been considerably entertained for the past couple of weeks. If you need something new to watch, something to suck you in for a couple of days to a couple of weeks - look for these:

Ideal

A British dark comedy series that my partner stumbled across. It's centred around Moz, a overweight weed dealer and all the characters that he encounters via his business. Instead of the focus being on drug culture, it is instead on how people lives are connected via the a same interest. The characters he deals to are pretty unique and very, very funny. If you like black British humour, I highly recommend this.


Reno 911!

Another gem my lovely partner stumbled across, except this is an American Comedy Central series which is based around the Reno Sheriff's Department in Nevada. Set up just like cops, where camera follow the police around on their daily shifts, this follows a bumbling more realistic, lazy police force that grow on you. If you like shows like Trailer Park Boys, you'll like this immensely. They also did a film recently, which is also very funny.

Trailer Park Boys

I believe you can see this on Comedy Central here but we've been getting series seven, fresh from Canada. And boy is it funny so far. No more Trevor and Corey though. Though still many dodgy, greasy things going on with Ricky. Highly recommended show, one of the best I've ever seen. About the residents of Sunnyvale Trailer Park, especially Ricky, Julian and Bubbles. There's drinking, nudity, swearing, bad grammar, guns, weed, kitties and so many more funnier things. Just... go watch.

As for other shows, here's what I have to say about my regulars:

Lost
This is now just dragging on too long and making me lose interest. The deal with the 'others' keeps getting complicated, and I really just want to know why they're still there. That's all. I can see this being dragged out for another season, at least, maybe even up to 6 series. So we know there's two islands, there's two types of others and there's getting to be divisions in the survivor camp.

Heroes
I wish this would hurry up and come back on air, since we've been left at a cliffhanger. What is going to happen to Mohinder, what about Sylar, the cheerleader....? So many unanswered questions. Currently I have a debate with my partner whether or not they'll drag this out for a few seasons too. I do like the comic book aspect of this show though, and it's got great dramatic tension.

House
Two things are standing out to me lately about House. One - wonky, distorted vision always signifies someone is sick. Two - House has a thing for Cuttey. Also, I'm curious as to who the second antagonist will be for the latest series (3rd) as the police dude has been and gone. The cases are interesting, but nothing overly mind boggling. Chase and Cameron are also engaged in real life (meaning Jesse Spencer and Jennifer Morrison) which could be reason to why they're a bit cosy on the show.

Supernatural
In the realm of supernatural things, I still prefer The X-files but Supernatural has its moments. Though I find it amusing that the boys solution for every demon/ghost/ghoul/spirit and so on is to salt and burn the bones. Without fail, at least once in every episode the salt-and-burn-bones gets offered as a solution. There must be more ways to vanquish spirits.

Desperate Housewives
Or as I call it 'Desperate Muchachos'. I gotta admit, the recent series ain't so bad. Though Teri Hatcher completely shits me, as does her character of Susan, the rest are their usual bored, oversexed 'housewives' with nothing better to do than gossip and snoop. Though this series has divorce, scandal, paedophilia, murder, mystery and intrigue.

The Sopranos
According to my partner, looks like Tony Soprano is probably going to get his comeuppance. Chris's film has been made and it's a good mix of gore and the mob. I believe this is the last series, and these current episodes are an extension to the series to round things up (as happens with most serial narratives).

Hotel Babylon
Although we just finished watching series 2 (only 8 episodes), I highly recommend this show cos I'm addicted to the scandal of the hotel industry. Based on a tell all novel about the hotel industry, the series is set in the fictional Hotel Babylon in London and its core staff, and what events happen there. There's tabloids, bad football stars orgies, drugs, money, fame, and lots and lots of sex. Highly recommended book, if you want an easy read for a day, and show. If only they'd show it on TV here again.


That should be enough entertainment there, if you're bored of whats on your normal box. If you're familiar with bit torrent programs, you're bound to find all of the above listed shows on one of many torrent sites.

Until next post, I shall bid you adieu and happy viewing.

<3 Blackberry Moose