Letters Have No Arms have packed their bags, put their travel hats on, and moved to a new land!
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As new single 1901 spins its way across the globe (or at least the Land of Blog), I thought it might be good time to remember why we (should) love this band as much as we do.
Listening to the new The Pains of Being Pure at Heart album a few days ago couldn't help but bring me back to a simpler time, early to mid 1990s, when guitars were jangly and love was polaroid. And it would appear I'm not the only one wearing sepia-tinted glasses, as there are seemingly ever more bands these days who are not only delving into the past but recreating the sounds.
Field Mice - If You need Someone If you need someone
to hold you
when you are afraid
I'll hold you
If you need someone
to make you
happy when you're sad
I'll try to
Mary Lou Lord - Some Jingle Jangle Morning (When I'm Straight) Song about a sun beam
Song about a girl
Your voice still rings and echoes in my mind
So many words unspoken
So many worlds apart
Your memory is all you left behind
REM - Harborcoat There's a splinter in your eye and it reads "REACT"
Roses Kings Castles - Horses A slice of pure loveliness from Adam 'Babyshambles' Ficek. Proving once again that it's impossible to write a bad song about horses.
Letters have no Arms would hereby like to unequivocally state that it in no way, shape or form encourages and/or condones providing alcohol to alcoholics. Letters have no Arms is very sorry for any offence and/or discomfort caused by any callous statements it may have made, and duly recognises its social responsibility and duty towards, well, everyone. For this reason we have decided that 100% of the proceeds of this post will go a rehab programme in your area. Kids, alcohol is not a joke. It's a drink.
So, Valentine's Day has come again. You know that all over the world men, women and, especially, teenage boys are going to be dedicating "Creep", "Hallelujah" and uhm... "I Will Always Love You" to their loved ones. Leonard Cohen, Bright Eyes, and Brian Adams, Death Cab for Cutie, Magnetic Fields, and The Beatles will be heard on stereos, ipods and gramophones (for the old-school) all day long. If you don't want to bore your boyfriend/girlfriend/wife/husband/crush with the same ol' same ol' here are some lo-fi and possibly less known songs that are begging to be dedicated to someone, so don't let them down :)
"If you want to lay at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean, I'll be the one that comes with my ship and drops the anchor down. Will you be the one that smiles for me? I'll bake you muffins and apricot tea.
If you want to glide in the night sky, I'll be the one that comes with my plane and pulls the stars out of the night, And brings them to the day for you.
Oh, will you be the one that smiles for me? I'll bake you muffins and apricot tea"
"This old machine has been good to me
All of my life I have waited for you
Waited for you
Waited for you
Waited for you. "
(Paul Baribeau - Strawberry [Acoustic]) This version is so much better than the one on "Yikes"! "To say that you are cute would be like saying a strawberry is sweet, 'Cause a strawberry has secret flavors that are sharp, and tart, and red, and deep And I would love to find you growing wild out by the woods,
I would make a basket with the front of my t-shirt, and take home as many of you as I could. And to say that you are pretty would be like saying that the ocean is blue,
'Cause the ocean is full of all kinds of colors, and I see all kinds of things when I look at you
And I want to explore you with my tennis shoes off
Standing ankle deep in a tide pool with my khaki pants rolled up.
And to say that you are funny would be like saying that the night sky is black,
'Cause the night sky is filled with stars and comets and planets that no one has seen yet And I want to look at you lying down on my front lawn
I'll try to take you all in at once, but you just go on and on and on..."
(Elephant Parade - Boat Song) I want to fly in a balloon too. "I want to sleep on a boat And I'll sail away with you
Oh, but the winds are much to strong And I am feeing weak so...
So, I want to fly on a balloon
And I want to fly with you
Oh, but the winds are much to strong
And I am feeling weak so... So, I don't know if you like to sleep on boats, too I won't make you go But you'll come, I know
I know. "
"You've gotta a sparkle in your heart stronger than the brightest sun And every time you come around I know for sure that you're the one
You're the parachute that saves me when I feel the need to jump
You're the records that I play and you sing the songs I need to hear
There is an ocean in your eyes deeper than the dark blue sea
And every time you fall asleep I want the waves to swallow me
You're the island that I swim to when I need to find a rock
You're the cables that connect me when I need to feel attached to something"
Valentine's Day is upon us once again. Screaming at us with its chocolate scented breath. Pink sticky fingers poking. James Blunt is in our TVs, maniacally grinning. Hedgehogs are suddenly regarded the epitome of cute. Roses are chopped and wrapped. Reservations made. Tables booked. Teddy bears purchased.
Which is just dandy.
But what about when things don't work out?
We’ve all been there. Or at least every serious music lover has. You’ve lost your favourite song(s) to someone who, it turned out, was, well, let's say less than worthy of said songs.
‘Lost’ because you can’t listen to them anymore. They remind you of a person and a time you’d much rather apply the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind treatment to. You’ve left all that in the past, but unfortunately you’ve been forced to leave the songs there too…
How did you get there?
It seems so unavoidable. You meet someone, fall in love… a song is playing, and the problem begins. And it's a problem that can begin anywhere, where you may most or least expect it..
Many, if not most, people meet in bars, clubs or other social places. Since clubs, bars and other typical locations where alcohol is served tend to play music, and all these places can be the cause of our topic today.
Now the good thing is that the music at said establishments tends to be crap - you probably won’t lose any sleep over ‘losing’ that Black Eyed Peas track.
No, higher risks are likely to be posed by places such as your local indie club (adieu Kaiser Chiefs), your computer at home (ciao Bright Eyes), your car (seeya Kanye), your friend's home or car (goodbye, uhm, Mariah), your iPod (later Sebadoh!) or, since the O.C., every decent television programme ('bye bye Deathcab', 'farewell Futureheads', 'good riddance Snow Patrol').
The biggest cause of the aforementioned problem however, and the most difficult to 'repair' once the damage is done, is definitely the mixtape (sorry, but 'mix CD' just sounds bad), and differs from the former examples as it involves songs you actually already loved before you met the person in question.
What matters most is what you were listening to when you met this person (see above), when you were thinking about them (ditto), but most importantly of all, the songs you included on that cursed mixtape. The one they didn’t even listen to/like/understand/appreciate (or, and this is the worst: they said "oh yeah, i kind of liked that one song, I don't remember what it was called, but it was nice, and a girl was singing it"). 'Nice'!!! These are your favourite songs we're talking about!
And, as anyone who has ever made a successful mixtape can attest: making one is not just a matter of collecting a few random songs and pushing record/burn.
The truth is that, unless you shuffled it, you’ve put some thought into it. And chances are, if you were successful and achieved what you set out to do, you probably put (at least some of) your favourite songs on it…
So you’re fucked right?
Not necessarily.
Here are some tips to help reclaim your favourite songs:
1.Context. Yep, this one is all-important. Simply change the context of listening. If you remember hearing the song in question in the bedroom with the person in question, simply listen to it in the bathroom/kitchen/broom closet instead. Or leave the city and/or country. That works too.
2.Listen to remixes of your favourite songs (see point 4 below) from now on. Granted this might be a problem with all those Smog songs you once burnt on a CD for her/him, so you’ll have to make your own remixes of said songs (try Acid).
3.Break into their home and physically remove said song from any iPod, PC they might have. If you can actually get your hands on the original mixtape, that is obviously the best. In fact if you do that, you can happily disregard all the above and below points, as the sheercatharsis of that simple act of criminality will be of inestimable value to you and your psychological well-being.
4.Simply burn a new CD for someone completely new, using the songs in question! Of course you will probably only be postponing the inevitable (see above), but what the hell!
5.Rig up a Clockwork Orange/Lost style brainwashing device and listen to all the songs in question on repeat for several weeks while watching a selection of completely random imagery.
Or simply avoid losing the songs in the first place!
1.Avoid meeting new people in any places where music is played. Or simply avoid meeting new people. Period.
2.Don’t watch any TV series made after 1999. Friends in relatively safe, as is Frasier.
3.If you really must make one, only include songs you dislike on your first mixtape… Of course you won’t impress the object of your affection, or in any way achieve what you set out to do, but at least you’ll have the last laugh (hahaha)
4.Here’s a clever one: include only remixes of your favourite songs on the mixtape! Yep, this way you’re sort of giving them something you love, but not quite!
5.Avoid karaoke. Duets in particular. So, the next time you and your special person are invited to a Singstar party, simply say no.
6. Don't fall in love to begin with... But where's the fun in that?
And here are a few sad, angry and beautiful songs to help soundtrack your day:
I don't think we've ever written anything about Emmy the Great. Which is weird because, if you had asked me a year ago to give you ten reasons for starting this blog, five of the reasons would have been variations of "to make everyone love Emmy the Great". Well, it seems that Emmy finally has an album out, titled "First Love". Yet, for some reason, I don't think she reaches her full potential on it. For starters many of her best songs are not included on it. Furthermore, it seemed to me that even some of her songs that I knew and loved weren't as great in their album-versions as they were when they were merely demos. But this post is not just about "First Love". It's meant as a tribute to a singer I truly love. Emmy easily makes my top three of sweetest female voices in the music industry (up there with Camera Obscura's Tracyanne Campbell). But that wouldn't have been enough. As is usually the case with my favorite bands/singers, she also writes heartachingly beautiful song lyrics. Not pretentious or "intellectualized" song lyrics, but song lyrics that are sometimes sweet, sometimes innocent, and sometimes mean, but always honest. Song lyrics that aren't like those paragraphs in "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" that you always quote because they sound smart. Song lyrics that are like those passages in your favorite book that you remember most, that you hold closest to your heart, that make you think "that could be me saying it".
"Wish I could tell you all the things that Woody Allen helps me see How Annie Hall is starting to seem quite a lot like you and me It took a while to come around to David Bowie's new CD And it's much too late to give back your Magnetic Fields EP Can I keep it by my pillow? Fucking loved it - How I long to tell you so..." * Canopies and Grapes *
And you and me are still but the scenery moves Well why would it stop just 'cause suddenly there's one where there used to be two? And everything's quiet but... looks like the speaker lived through the blow Still playing some compilation you made Feels like a lifetime sitting alone so I start humming along to the tape - I always liked this singer I remember how you were the one who told me that her name was either MIA or M.I.A" * MIA * "I'm having a party and I hope that you know this Spend Friday alone and pretend not to notice All of the stupid things you've done I know and I'm telling everyone 'Cause you're not my best friend anymore. And tomorrow I will find a new friend from the new friend shop" * My Party Is Better Than Yours *
"Now they tell me that unless you're looking out of magazines, well, then you don't exist But I knew that you were real before I read it in an interview today Before I used you as a surface - did a line across your face In the toilet of a girl who's sitting outside dropping names like they were carpet bombs, she knows everyone But I knew you first... Back when love was underneath you with my fingers in the dirt You said 'I'll stop if it hurts' You said 'I'll stop it if it's scary' " * Two Steps Forward * "What will you look like when you're old? And what will I do if I don't know you? I guess that I decided not to know the day I took the road down to the city as it called Sun making silhouettes of gauze... I don't remember you at all. They pulled a human from my waist It had your mouth, it had your face I would have kept it if I'd stayed"
But you would settle for anything
That would make your brain slow down or stop
Break this circle of thoughts you chase
Before they catch back up with you
As anyone who has ever used Google (or any search engine for that matter) already knows, it's practically impossible to do a search for anything (from thimble to sock puppet, from hamster to earplug) without bumping into a. Porn, or b. Something ridiculous and/or funny. I found a rather nice combination of both the other day, added some music and voila, here you go, Letters have no Arms is pleased to present its very own video for Of Montreal's Gallery Piece.
p.s. if Frank, Of Montreal's US publicist, happens to see this, we're still wondering when we can expect to receive that CD you promised us many months ago... ;-)
Effusively or tearfully sentimental: "displayed an almost maudlin concern for the welfare of animals" Aldous Huxley.
maudlin·ly adv.
maudlin·ness n.
It's been a bit quiet on the Letters have no Arms front lately. Many good books, too much work and February apathy are all in some part to blame for that. So who better than Camera Obscura to rouse us from our slumber!
With the announcement of a new album and a few dates, Camera Obscura present themselves to 2009. And like an old familiar friend, we embrace them.
Letters have no Arms! loves music, art, film, books and trains, and is based in a large dusty city at the end of Europe. We'll soon be moving to another. We post things we like.
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