Friday Night Videos!
OK, I know I will get some grief for this one – the jokes write themselves. Bring ’em on.
But does anybody else experience the phenomenon of actually really enjoying a song, artist or album while it’s on, only to immediately forget it as soon as it’s over? To the point of actually asking who the artist is, when you next hear it?
And every time you hear them, you make a mental note to track down the album, or play it more often (because maybe you even OWN it…but you are not quite sure), but it just…never…seems…to stick?
Here are two artists that consistently do that to me.
Up top is Solvent – he makes buzzy retro analogue synthpop with vocodered vocals. Very Kraftwerk / Vince Clarke / Gary Numan. I like modular melodic stuff like this.
But I always immediately forget that I like (or even KNOW) Solvent, again and again.
Until I’m in the shower and it comes up on shuffle and I go, “hey, what IS this, I LIKE this!”, and check the display, and smack myself in the forehead, and vow to play his stuff more often. Rinse and repeat.
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Down below is French Kicks’ “Trial of the Century”. The album of the same name is like an airier, less jagged, more swooningly-romantic Spoon record.
It’s melodic, it’s rhythmic – and for me at least, it is somehow, upon completion, able to immediately & retroactively erase any evidence of its own existence in my brain.
Until I hear this song again and think, “wow, that’s really pretty”:
French Kicks – Trial of the Century
What are YOUR favorite-yet-forgettable songs, albums or artists?
That is, if you can remember them?
I’ve been downhearted baby, I’ve been downhearted baby.
That one.
Aaaaaand it’s gone.Report
Did they have any songs other than that one? I guess I kind of expect it with one-hit wonders. But I know for a fact that Solvent have at least two decent albums, and French Kicks one. I OWN them!
I just don’t understand how that works.
You know another record that is good while it’s on, then I totally forget it again? Laid, by James. Like French Kicks, it evaporates upon conclusion.
Or here’s one I don’t forget *totally*, because I like the artist a lot, but this particular album doesn’t stick in my brainpan at all.
Deerhunter’s Halcyon Digest is a beautiful record to listen to while it’s on, and Deerhunter one of a handful of modern rock bands that I follow pretty assiduously.
But as soon as that particular record is over, “poof – it’s gone”.
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I would tell you, but I can’t remember.Report
JJ Cale has passed away. He had a profound influence on me as a musician. As a keyboard player, the spotlight never shone much on me but rather on the guitar player. Smooth and powerful as good bourbon, JJ Cale wrote the sort of music which makes a man want to turn on the amp and play along.Report
I am actually not too familiar with the man himself, though I have obvs. heard his songs covered by others many, many times.
Like this one, that interpolates bits of “Call Me The Breeze” (no, not the Skynrd cover):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuZcfU6IOZs&hd=1
Just ordered the Any Way The Wind Blows anthology. I will try not to hold his association with Eric Clapton against him.Report
Blaise, Sorry to hear about JJ Cale. I lost touch with his music, but really liked his early stuff.
If you want the limelight as a keyboard player you could try dressing like Donald Duck.Report
Schubert’s symphonies other than the Unfinished and the Great C Major. If they come up on the radio, I enjoy them, wonder who wrote them, and then forget them until next time.Report
The first time or three it happens with a given artist, it isn’t that weird. There’s a lot of stuff out there, sometimes it takes a couple encounters to really make an impression.
It’s on the 8th or 9th time of asking, “hey, who is this?” that I start to question what it is about this particular artist that allows him or her to tickle my pleasure centers, without touching my memory banks.
For my wife, it’s a second-or-third-tier 90’s indie rock band. If I put them on a mix, as soon as they come on she always asks me excitedly who it is, because it makes her happy – only to be perplexed and crestfallen when I tell her that it is, once again, Butterglory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCp5yfimviU&hd=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xunX_l2Lbpo&hd=1Report