In My Head: Today: David Bowie - Love Is Lost (Hello Steve Reich Mix by James Murphy for t...

(WARNING: NSFW but toooooootally worth it!)

A little less than a year ago, I was sitting in bed, having come home from some evening activity or other. I was catching up on the Tweets of the day, when something caught my eye.

Duncan Jones @ManMadeMoon

Would be lovely if all of you could spread the word about da's new album. First in ten years, and its a good 'un!  http://www.davidbowie.com/the-next-day

I screamed like a little girl.

For those not hip to the fact, Duncan Jones is, in fact, David Bowie's son. So this was for REALS!

Okay, admittedly, I came to the David Bowie party late (see previous post about my year-long Bowie "catch-up" phase). But once I was in, I was waaaay in. So, hints of a new album were devastating... good devastating. Mind blowing, in fact.

But this January announcement wasn't about the actual album, it was an announcement that an album was on the way.

The Next Day - it seemed like the next year before the darned thing came out.

After months of waiting, a first video came out. The Stars (Are Out Tonight) is a mini-movie starring The Thin White Duke and Tilda Swinton. Right there, we are talking about something wonderful. Tilda is the new Bowie, after all! The album followed and OH  MY GOD! True Bowie. Poetic, melodic, weird, harsh, catchy - you name it. It was all there.

But, back to the video above. The song is one of my favorites on the album. This remix of the song is incredible, the video just mesmerizing. Every video that has accompanied The Next Day has been visually stunning. Works of art, befitting the man himself. It even includes some catch-it-if-you-can Bowie sightings. But this one.... it just sucks me in every time I see it. I pull up the link to send to a friend, or I post it on my FB page, or start a blog post with it and.... If I see more than about 30 seconds, I will undoubtedly watch the entire thing.

I don't have any ending for this entry. I don't have a deep insight into how this video reflects or informs my own life. I just fucking love this video. And should you happen onto this page, set aside 10 minutes (Remember the warning! NSFW) and enjoy.

In My Head Today: Vad hände med dem? - brian jonestown massacre

Huh.... go away from your blog for a little while, and suddenly it becomes MUCH easier to manage. Last time I visited, back when I was playing with this blog sorta-kinda regularly, I had to go through a painful process of grabbing the right link from YouTube and copying it into the post, hoping it would land correctly. Going back through my posts, there are some videos that aren't there anymore, or maybe never were. I was never totally sure that the process had worked.

Now I just click the "B" under the video and Whoomp, there it is!

So, Welcome Back Siren! Of course I rejoin this world with our usual hero: Brian Jonestown Massacre. Anton is building another album. Through the voyeuristic world of the Internet, we've been able to watch life giving him amazing highs and frightening lows since the last album came out. Music continued to pour out of his soul and onto YouTube. For a while there were soundtracks and disco mixes - new directions and experiments. And then slowly songs in the more traditional BJM vein started to emerge. Watching the Twitter feed, we got to hear first hand how he struggled to create tracks that he liked. As with Aufheben, we have watched more and more tracks emerge. Today's entry is just one of many that are being shaped and molded into what I think is going to be a stunning album. (you can head over to Anton's YouTube Channel if you want the sneak peek)

Some songwriters scratch some words together on paper, add a good beat and auto-tune the fuck out of it... and they call it good. In contrast we have these lyrics (As posted with the video, translated from Swedish):

nothing is right, nothing is good, nothing is the way is should
something went wrong so long long ago, something broke inside because of all those things we said
but I hope the winter will come soon and shut this whole town down
the snow will cover everything, every mistake we've ever made
go straight into the nothingness, just shut down and turn off
go straight into the nothingness, just shut down and turn off
keep on talking all you want but no one's listening anyway
you think you see something better up ahead, stretch out your hand and try to reach it
your lies are so full of holes that the sun is shining through
just let the light crash through your brain and wash everything away
just let the light crash through your brain and wash everything away

So... ya. Not so much on the "oooh, baby baby" line of songwriting. I think this is an example of why I hate listening to Top 40 radio. Oh sure, that Katy Perry song "Roar" (and no, I will NOT be linking to that vid) is a big Happy Independence Day To Me song, but for me it still rings hollow. I'm not sure how to describe the difference. Surely she's gone through something and come out the other side, and she's written a song about breaking free and asserting her freedom. Perhaps someone more eloquent than I can explain why that sounds shallow in comparison. I think Lou Reed started to touch on it in his final interview. It doesn't totally answer my question, but I will say that the depth of meaning he found in sound was... music to my ears.

Dear reader-who-is-not-there, I have so much music swirling in, around and through me. With this note I hope to kick myself in the ass and start to write again.