"run as fast as you can / they're shootin to kill"

this post could also be named: "the devoted were wearing bracelets, to remind them why they came / some concrete motivation, the absract would not do the same"

or: "but i can't say it like i sing it / and i can't sing it like i think it / and i can't think it like i feel it / and i don't feel a thing."

the first is jon's favorite. the second is mine. the third is one of emily's favorites. they are all quotations from lyrics written by Pedro the Lion.

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pedro the lion is beyond doubt the musician who has influenced me the most, ever, to date. dylan and sufjan are coming close, but i think there will always be a part of me that no other band can overtake. pedro the lion will still be the first band listed when someone asks for "favorite bands."

i can't tell you the number of times jon and i had been practicing for the upcoming debut of Huxley's Red (which is still upcoming in a way, and jon, i thought of a decent band name! are we still a band? if you ever record i better damn well be invited to the session, and the same goes for you if i ever record.), and a song would eventually sound so much like a Pedro song that we would feel terribly defeated. most of the time, they would sound like "Rapture" or something else from Control or It's Hard to Find a Friend, my two personal favorites.

i can tell you this w/ a straight face: Pedro helped me get through college. he is one of the reasons my thoughts are still given to christianity, politics, poetry, and music. he has helped me to try and find my own path where those things coexist, albeit not always peacefully, w/ one another.

musically, he has shown me that often times less is more. much of his music is not complicated, but there is no sound made, no chord played, that is unnecessary or left unused. lyrically, he is nothing short of a genius. his words are cutting and insightful. he has the guts to say things that many would steer clear of, and he isn't afraid to use powerful, dirty imagery. dirty in the way that the images, feelings, and senses are felt by the listener, and sometimes dirty in the way you're thinking. (get your head out of the gutter.)

the song "Winners Never Quit" is the only song that has ever affected me so deeply that i have not been able to move for about five minutes after having listened to it.

i leave you w/the lyrics to one of the songs off of Control, called "Penetration."

Have you ever seen and idealist with grey hairs on his head
Or successful men that keep in touch with unsuccessful friends
You only think you did
I could have sworn I saw it too
But as it turns out
It was just a clever ad for cigarettes

'Cause if it isn't making dollars
Then it isn't making sense
If you aren't moving units
Then you're not worth the expense
If you really want to make it
You had best remember this
If it isn't penetration
The it isn't worth the kiss

We're so sorry sir
But you did not quite make the cut this time
And we'd appreciate it if you cleared you stuff on out by five
Don't take it personal
Everyone knows you did your best
If it makes it easier
You should look at it from our perspective

'Cause if it isn't making dollars
Then it isn't making sense
If you aren't moving units
Then you're not worth the expense
If you really want to make it
You had best remember this
If it isn't penetration
Then it isn't worth the kiss

lyric source: http://www.plyrics.com/lyrics/pedrothelion/penetration.html

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also, check out the new song from Pedro's newest album, available at:
http://www.purevolume.com/pedrothelion/music

and his website is always good to check out from time to time.

the great illinoisemaker--sufjan stevens.

the shadow of sufjan has lingered long and heavy on my mind for the past year. my first encounter with his music was the gentle Seven Swans, the sounds of which can assuage the asperity of the most tired soul. this album is comprised of soft folk spirituals, with nods to the Kierkegaardian (to use a word that likely does not exist) existential struggle of Abraham, as well as Flannery O' Connor--an author i'm sad to say i have not had the pleasure of reading. (think Christmas, i say!). it also contains the best song with a block quote of Scripture i have ever heard, "The Transfiguration." actually, this song wins the prize for "best song other than a hymn which uses Scripture, ever."

sufjan is best known for his 50 States project, in which he plans to record an album for every state in the union while searching for "the true america." he's already recorded two, one for michigan and one for illinois. Seven Swans was released between these two. he is gaining in popularity, and often times that would disparage me, as i am a bit of a musical elitist. but with sufjan, i celebrate his recent celebrity with alacrity. it is well deserved.

please note the following GRE study words, which have been used in this blog entry:
alacrity
disparage
assuage
asperity