Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
music is subjective, but . . .
I recently added three albums* to my iPod: Rasputina’s Oh Perilous World, Vox Vermillion’s Standing Still You Move Forward, and Portishead’s Third. I picked up Oh Perilous World because it sounded interesting:
The storyline of Oh Perilous World, essentially, is an audit of six years of post-9/11 America and its domestic and foreign policies under President George W. Bush’s administration, but told through a fictional steampunk parallel universe. In this world, America is ruled by the tyrannical Queen of Florida, Mary Todd Lincoln, threatening war and occupation of the small, third-world sovereign of Pitcairn Islands (a metaphor for the Middle East) using her blimps and airships. Her opposite number in Pitcairn is an Osama bin Laden-like resistance leader, Thursday October Christian (in real life the offspring of Fletcher Christian, leader of the Bounty mutineers who settled on island).
and because, well, I really like Rasputina — at least based upon their live album A Radical Recital and their debut album Thanks for the Ether. The Vox Vermillion album I bought because I liked their stuff on Pandora, and Portishead . . . well, I’m a dope. It’s taken me this long to realize they had a third album. You know — Third.
I’ve listened to the Vox Vermillion album once. I haven’t even finished Oh Perilous World. Neither of them can compete with Third. I lack the vocabulary and knowledge to write a decent album review, so here’s a link to a review that does the job quite well.
And here’s an amazing song, and a mesmerizing video to boot.
D.
*Albums? Disks? Collections? People still speak of a discography, but isn’t “disk” only a little less archaic than “album”?
I missed the whole Portishead thing. I guess being overseas left me out of it. On the other hand, I’m a big fan of BallySagoo, courtesy of my time in Delhi.
Somehow the Portishead video reminded me of Mazzy Star and one of my all-time favorite songs, even if it always makes me cry (weirdly, so does REM Man on the Moon), Fade Into You. Amazing song and great album.
My newest thing is Paolo Nutini (check out his song Candy). I bought his two CDs (on actual discs, but then I’m one of the latest of late adopters).
Hope you had a good T-giving. Just finished up making a vat of eggnog, after doing herbed gruyere scones, cranberry sauce, two types of mashed potatoes (one with herbs and goat cheese and the other straight up hard core spuds, butter, and cream), and stuffing. Tomorrow we are off to a friend’s house for ex-pat dinner, since we all get to work on the day itself.
Well I missed ’em too, considering their last album was in 2008 and I only figured out they existed this year. Never too late to dive in with both feet.
I like Mazzy Star, but to my ear her voice and songs don’t have the same complexity as Portishead. Can’t say I’ve ever been much of an REM fan, but in general — with few exceptions, such as NIN or Depeche Mode — I don’t like too many male vocalists.