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Tuesday, August 12, 2003

what i'm listening to Right Now: Beth Orton, Central Reservation - Sweetest Decline
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"She wears secrets in her hair, the whispers are not hers to share. She's deep as a well." This song is catchy. It's also FULL of cliché. On amazing, hypnotizing levels. Oh wait...Let me link some stuff first.
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Mike d. must had words with Miss Modernage, because he posted a pic of miss modern playing hipster bingo at the Siren festival. Sweet Jinners was in the background. No big deal, but I pop over to check out I'm Losing my Edge today (as I do everyday) and I see, "Edit: Dear Miss Modernage sorry about the post. Didn't mean to offend."

Maybe Miss Modernage should change her name to Miss Hyper-Sensitive. She was cute too. She's got nothing to be ashamed of. Although, she was probably just concerned about her anonymity based on what she said in the NYPress article. Of course, I don't think having one of the best rock n roll weblog's on the net and participating in articles for NY Press is a good way to stay anonymous. I frown on censorship type things, but cheers to Mike d. for respecting her wishes. And I'll still stand by The Modernage as one of the best on the net.
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Glorious Noise message board discussion on Liz Phair. Jake says, "There are five bad songs on the album. There are also five pretty good songs and four great songs. Stay tuned for an upcoming article about Liz Phair 2003, The GLONO Edit. I've finished my tracklisting and am currently putting together the cover art. (Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2003 11:15 am)" He was following up on a previous post, "I'm in the process of re-arranging the tracks, adding the five songs from the comeandgetit ep, removing the really bad songs, and I bet I end up with an album as good as Whitechocolatespaceegg. Not saying that's great, but it'll be all right. And at least I won't cringe when I think of her anymore. (Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2003 12:49 pm)"

jenyk was enjoying looking up Liz's skirt during her show at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC. Oh, alright, he wasn't looking up her skirt. Actually, if you want to see Liz's underpanties just ask.

GQ interview. I don't know how she fits that huge ego into that little body.
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So as I was saying earlier, I listened to Beth Orton a few weeks back (after my Chicago White Stripes trip) and liked what I heard. But then I stopped listening for a bit. Well I'm headed off to take a shower yesterday morning and I decide to play Beth Orton again. I'm in the shower when I realize the last stanza of this song goes: "What are regrets? What are regrets? They're just lessons we haven’t learned yet. It's like catching snow on your tongue. You can't pin this butterfly down." Even talented artist are entitled to write crappy lyrics I guess. I just happened to be listening to it again this morning and thought I'd post my thoughts on it.

You know. I write songs. And back during that Chicago trip I was singing them for relatives. Well, I had like 5 or so at that time that are nice and catchy, and I'm proud of them. But they were all so narrative. They told the listener what was going on and I wanted to write a song that painted pictures in the listeners mind. So on the huge long 18 hour car ride home from Chicago I wrote a song called "Ain't Never Seen." It's about the 5 senses Sight, Touch, Smell, et al. The first part goes:
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I've seen a raging, winding river.
I've seen a rainbow in the sky.
I've seen a sweetly swimming manatee.
and I've seen a dove flying high.

And i've seen a clouds silver-lined reflection,
in the ripples of a rock-skipped mountain lake.
But ain't never seen anything as wonderful,
as the smile you bring to my face.
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And I'm all proud of it. I'm thinking, "Wow what a great song" you know? I'm proud and I'm feeling like I accomplished my goal of being visual.

Well, soon after I've finished, I sit down in an impromptu living room concert and I'm playing the 5 songs that I felt confident with and they are always a big hit. People get impressed and they love them. And they want more. And so I decide I'll lay out this new one that I'm all proud of. And....it didn't impress they way I thought it would. Now I also didn't practice it as much as the others so that had something to do with it, but now this Beth Orton song is making me think about a different reason why it didn't go over as well. It's a huge cliché. It's been done to death. I've seen all this beautiful stuff, but ain't never seen anything as pretty as you. Boring. Next.

BUT THAT'S NOT RIGHT!! See, it feels like a clichéd song because of the rainbows and doves and whatnot. But then "I ain't never seen anything as wonderful, as the smile you bring to my face." MY face. You get it? It booby traps the listener because they think the song is clichéd but then I say that the most beautiful thing is MY smile.

Is that too clever for my family to get? Or is it not clever at all and that's why they aren't impressed?

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