RIP

Mark Linkous made a ton of beautiful music while he was alive. I remember driving through West Virginia about ten years ago and not being sure of what I was looking for. Listening to "Good morning Spider."

A few years later, I was seeing the Flaming Lips on the Yoshimi tour, and for the opening act, this weird guy came out and played a few songs by himself in front a weird projection screen. He wasn't announced before taking the stage nor was he officially on the bill, but by the second song I knew for a fact it was Mark Linkous. Everything I saw that night was consistent with the little that I knew about him - reclusive, shy, tentative. As the years went on and I heard more and more about him collaborating with fairly big names - Tom Waits and Danger Mouse, to name a few - I figured it was a sign that Linkous had realized he belonged, that he had peers, and I kind of tuned out.

The news of his suicide and the grizzly details are really hard to stomach. I rarely mean the phrase "rest in peace" literally, but I really hope Mark Linkous can.

RIP.

singer-songwriter kind of mood.

Have really been enjoying Elvis Perkins.



His biography is plenty compelling. Knowing about his mom makes this song borderline unlistenable - it's almost too much to take. [Since many of you might not click through - his dad was Anthony Perkins, of "Psycho" fame. Anthony Perkins died ("complications related to AIDS") several years ago. Elvis Perkins' mom was on the ill-fated American Airlines flight 11, flying from Boston to LAX on the morning of September 11, 2001.]

Turning the corner, we've got Jenn Grant, who, I currently enjoy as a culmination of what Feist, Beth Orton, and, why not, Norah Jones aspire to be. I dare you not to want to hear this on a rainy day.

because I still feel like atoning for Taylor Swift

How good is this Townes van Zandt clip? The tears say it all.

No me llores, Argentina

Ms. Abstract Citizen has been dealing with a consultant in Argentina, which is a fantastic excuse for all of my vitriol to come out. I actually dreamt about this goal on Friday night - one of my all-time favorites. Heartbreaking that it is hard to find good video of it, but you can see Bebeto's beautiful form on the half-bicycle kick.

Of fenceposts and crumb trails

Is there a word for the great feeling you get for a few seconds when you get that feeling that you're on the right track? I'm sure there is a word for it in German, since they seem to be the best at combining disparate words into high-falutin concepts. Something like "feelings-consorting-thoughts" or "connected-object-mindfulnes" maybe.

This can happen when you get a strong feeling of deja vu. I have always assumed that the most logical explanation for deja vu is that you've dreamt about something before it happens. This is not mystical - it's rather the result of the fact that the brain is a powerful computer, repeatedly analyzing myriad scenarios, and occasionally it hits on exactly what might happen a few weeks or months later. I recently had a little bit of this feeling, sitting in my office, talking to a co-worker about a silly work drama.

The other time I get this sort of feeling is when I get the feeling I'm the only person who knows a song that a performer is covering. I don't know why, but I was just so proud of myself for recognizing Nick Lowe's "cruel to be Kind" at a relatively lame corporate function in San Diego. (Well, the people were lame - the open bar and fist-sized truffles being shaved onto the scallops on my plate were awesome.) The guy playing it on a casio-type set up with a microphone looked as generic as could be expected, but I just had this feeling about the fact that I had been recently introduced to the song by a friend for the sole purpose of enjoying that moment more than anyone else at the party. (The great sidenote is that I mentioned this to someone at the table with me, and she nodded, telling me that the first concert she ever attended was Nick Lowe opening for The Cars. So maybe I wasn't so special, but for a few seconds, I was.)



I also recently listened to Mike Gordon's new band for the first time - great, upbeat, quirky pop. On the particular show I found, he does a cover of a Kasey Chambers that I am sure no one in the audience would have known, and I got this feeling that my brief interest in Kasey Chambers - even seeing her on her first US tour, when she was pregnant - was somehow retroactively legitimized by Mike Gordon, several years later.



And finally, Okkervil River covering John Phillips' April Anne has to take the cake. I had just come acros the John Phillips reissue no more than a month or so before I started taking Okkervil River. I loved the L.A. conjured in John Phillips' album - somewhere between Gram Parsons and Joan Didion. Okkervil River's version, on their covers mixtape, is just as sad as you would expect, but I think the song sounds best with John Phillips' crystal-eyed vocals about his ex-wife shacking up with Dennis Hopper. When I saw that Okkervil River had released a covers album, I wanted to skim the tracklist. Seeing that song listed as the opening track was all the convincing I needed that I was, as I suspected, on the right track.

...and making the case in favor of spelling in music.

Let no one say that Abstract Citizen isn't fair and balanced...

Making the case against spelling in music

"Respect," before it got ruined by Aretha and was immortalized by Rodney Dangerfield in "Ladybugs." The recently released Rhino remasters do the bassline some justice, but you can get a sense from it here...

if these fireworks seem lame, you should blame the recession.

Credit for the post title goes to Ms. Abstract Citizen. She quipped it when I demanded an encore.

Fluminense 3 x 1 Sao Paulo

Rainy day videos

Rainy Days and Mondays, by the Carpenters.