new music!

[chanaleh]

I don't usually play any music at work. I tend to find that it (music with words, anyway) distracts the same part of my brain that I need for the visual and text processing I'm doing in my work.
(Contrariwise, it's when I've really got the Quark juices flowing that I can be found *singing* away to myself at my desk. That seems to come from a different place in my brain. Which maybe explains why, as a kid, I used to be able to read a book while quietly singing something completely different. Mom thought this was hilarious, especially after she heard this line in Broadcast News. So anyway.)

But I ordered some new CDs from Amazon last week, and they came today (shipped to the office), so I have been playing them in my CD drive for most of today. Fun!

They are:

• Travis, The Man Who (inspired by hayley4728)
  
• Great Big Sea, Turn (inspired by ablock, greenlily, murph_grrl, and all you other rabid fans)
  
• Billy Bragg, Back to Basics

This is the most music I've bought in months, let alone music that was new to me (in that I didn't already own anything by the same artists). Of course, I've heard Turn several times in the car with ablock, so maybe that doesn't count as new to me, but definitely new to my collection.

Hayley, I like the Travis disc so far -- a very Beatlesy sound, how far wrong can you go? -- but I'm going to have to listen to it with more of my brain when I get home tonight, to get the full effect. :-)

Oh yeah, and also, meanwhile, I'm making huge strides on yesterday's evil bad-news projects... so I am on track for a three-day weekend free of residual work stress. Woo!

Comments

[bluebythebook.livejournal.com]

Lovely. :-)
I hope you enjoy "the full effect" of The Man Who. The first time I heard it I couldn't stop listening for days. But that was me, LOL.

[navrins]

I don't usually play any music at work. I tend to find that it (music with words, anyway) distracts the same part of my brain that I need for the visual and text processing I'm doing in my work.

You too? That's exactly what it does with me! (Not just at work, but I'm such a verbal thinker that no matter what I'm doing I'm using that part of my brain.) But I can listen to songs in languages I don't know (especially Japanese) without that problem; my brain doesn't think they're words so it doesn't get distracted.

World domination imminent

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

Another GBS listener. Exsssellent. We *will* rule the world. Seriously, these guys are among the best anti-depressants I know; if the music doesn't do it for you (esp. "Old Brown's Daughter") take a look at the band photos. :) Darrell, who sings low bass and plays, um, bass, has gone byebye but they are still great.

And this follows tradition: I've probably mentioned before that I got hooked on GBS when Jason Goodman played Rant & Roar really loud during a set paint for our last _Yeomen_.

great big sea

[adamosity.livejournal.com]

As someone who is a rabid great big sea fan (who has seen them in concert), Turn is good, but there are better ones. If you're new to them, try Rant and Roar. It's a best of their three canadian cds, and their first American release. (not to be missed for their cover of REM's "End of the World!")

Their live concert one is called "Road Rage" and while it's a couple of years old, it's a great listen.

My favorite song at the moment by them this week is "Stumbling In" off of Sea of No Cares--their recent one. If you want me to send you a realplayer form, I can attach it to an email.

They made it down to Florida, and sadly, I missed their show last month--I was out of town and kept missing them by a day (I was in Orlando when they were in St. Pete, and by Daytona when they were in Jacksonville, etc.)

Happy Pesach a couple of days late--I hope your seders went well.
We just had a very small one here--relatives are spread out, and half of them thought this was a perfect time to spend three weeks in Israel. (To be fair, I have a number of relatives already over there.)

adam

Re: great big sea

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Hey, thanks, and chag sameach to you too. (And it's not late -- Pesach goes on for *days* yet!)

I figured I might as well start with Turn and work up to more later. I'll put down Rant and Roar for the next round. :-)

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Yep. GMTA! as jessruth says. (Great minds think alike. Rather literally, in this case.)

[zenala.livejournal.com]

I've never been able to listen to music at work, but then again, most of the paying jobs I've had in the past 5 years have involved listening to and segmenting speech, so...

(btw, is that new photo you when you were younger? The hairstyle reminds me of middle school for some reason... don't worry, it reminds me of my friends' hair, not the snotty girls)

[navrins]

I had the same reaction. But ignore the wavy hair and it's still Erica. Same shape of face - and same smile.

Re: great big sea

[murph-grrl.livejournal.com]

Soooo glad to see that you picked up some GBS! They are awesome. Without a doubt, my favorite band.

As far as best albums - Turn is very good. I love that album a lot, and it's extra special to have "Boston and St. John's" on it. But, actually, I think Up is GBS's best album, although my opinion varies wildly based on mood. And Rant and Roar is actually an American CD. It contains songs form Up and Play which you can find in the States, but it's damned hard.

And too bad Adam didn't hit Orlando or Jacksonville. Those shows were great fun!!!! (Next stop for me, Toronto on June 21st. Woo hoo!!!! That makes ... ummm ... 7 GBS shows in less than a year: 3 in the US - only one of which was actually up here in Boston - and 4 in Canada. Obsessed? Me? Naaah).

Re: great big sea

[adamosity.livejournal.com]

I hit them in Jacksonville last July--with Seven Nations and Young Dubliners.

Sadly, I was just a day off in a trip. I'm an old baseball fan, and I did a spring training trip, but where I had places to stay didn't coincide well with Great Big Sea shows.

I wish I had known you (a bit) a month ago--I could have arranged the trip a bit better and a bed to crash on in Jacksonville!

adam

P.S. I had Up at one time but it's gone now. I still think their best song ever is from Play: "How did we get from saying I love you?" It's an impossible decision to judge. I wish I knew someone with the canadian tracks on mp3 or something--I bought all three of them at one time, but they didn't survive a theft (of that and aa lot of other things.)

New userpic

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Yes, that picture is of me in the fall of 1990 -- which for you likely *was* middle school, but for me it was sophomore year of college. cos took it. I made it a userpic recently because it was relevant to a comment I was making and, well, it's always been a flattering picture. ;-)

I wore my hair wavy for years (permed it all through high school and college). And I loved it that way, but it never could achieve *quite* the texture I would have wanted (which would have been, basically, Matthew's hair); and I finally decided there must be some way I could be happy with my naturally stick-straight hair, so I stopped fighting it, and now I still like it pretty well in its natural state. (But people who haven't seen me in some years always say, "Wow, you're straightening your hair! It looks great!" :-)

[jessruth.livejournal.com]

Gates McFadden's Teaching Assistant??

Glad to have added this gem to your lexicon...

Re: New userpic

[zenala.livejournal.com]

Yeah... I was in 7th grade that fall...

It's odd, actually, how very young 19-year-olds (or 18-20, whatever) look to me now... I mean, I remember in kindergarten thinking how very old 3rd graders looked...

Re: New userpic

[cos]

The original scans of that picture are here - click on it for a larger more-colors version. Obviously I scanned these before I learned how to use the dust & scratches filter in Photoshop :)