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English as a Second Language
Feb. 5th, 2007 06:32 pmThis year for the CD Swap thing I froze my cd submission in a block of ice. I thought I waas pretty damn clever, whoever got it would hafta wait days for it to melt, seeing it emerge bit by bit from it's cold prison. But then Spitcurl just ran it under hot water for a couple minutes and melted the damn thing. Oh well. But TheAmazingJB and ChristianB's CD was WAY better anyway they made a jello mold around it. Silas stuck his hand inside the bloody red mass and pulled out the disc it made a wet sucking sound like when that chick pulled the key out of the guy's stomach in Saw. So cool. Anyway, these were the liner notes for my CD:
English as a Second Language
1. Introdiction - MC Solaar
2. Solaar pleure - MC Solaar
3. Anarkhiya - The Ukrainians
4. Nas Ne Dagoniat - t.A.T.u.
5. A Time of Prayer - I've
6. Hasta la Vista Mi Amor ! - MC Solaar
7. Quizás, Quizás, Quizás - Nat King Cole
8. Batyar - The Ukrainians
9. L'aigle ne chasse pas les mouches - MC Solaar
10. Elo Hi - Ofra Haza
11. Chekannya - The Ukrainians
12. Verge (Revive Mix) - I've
13. Ya Shosla S Uma - t.A.T.u.
This year is songs in not-English. I think a lot of the time songs sung in languages I don't understand are more appealing, Kinda like how foreign-language movies seem somehow better or more meaningful because the acting seems better. But really, how would we know if the actor is giving a good performance, because if we don't speak the language there's no way we could know what the proper vocal inflection should be. Maybe Gerard Depardieu and Gong Li and Toshiro Mifune are really terrible actors, we just can't tell because we don't speak French or Chinese or Japanese. So in that vein I'm pretty sure if I understood what MC Solaar was actually saying I wouldn't like his music nearly so much.
But I don't speak French, so I love MC Solaar. He's pretty much the godfather of French hip-hop, he's been doing it for like fifteen years. I always knew who he was but didn't own any of his stuff; then I saw District B-13, which is full of the frenchie hip-hop - none of which is Solaar, but Solaar is the only name I knew. Poking around his stuff on iTunes there's a lot I don't care for much, but these tracks are from Cinquième As, which is totally brilliant. The album has some great jazzy grooves on it, well as the more aggressive style and oh yeah I remember watching an episode of Sex & The City and being all excited that they used a song from it, La Belle Y Le Bad Boy.
I heard The Ukrainians on NPR a few years ago, one of the band members is from The Wedding Present or something. They rock hard the traditional Ukrainian music, and when I heard them do a Ukrainian language version of Bigmouth Strikes Again, I was hooked, and you will be too. Ukrainian covers of Anarchy In The UK and Venus In Furs are bonus.
Yup, t.A.T.u. are those two pubescent Russian lesbian chicks had a single on pop radio seven or eight years ago, they are awesome, and a testament to my above thesis that if you can't understand the words it's much better. The English versions of these songs are terrible-to-mediocre crap pop lyrics, but you hear it in Russian and all of a sudden the songs have all this life and emotion and vitality. I think so, anyway.
The I've songs are J-Pop goodness from the score of the short film Thomas did some years ago, starring me and Chris O'brien and Cassel and James. Awesome bouncey great. I'd like to find more stuff from this band, but do you know how hard it is to do a web search on a band who's name is a pronoun.
Quizas is a classic song, it's like a hundred years old, you'll hear it done by dozens of different people. The song is lovely and sad, I got this version from the lovely and sad movie In The Mood For Love,my favorite Wong Kar Wai film ever. I like this version because you can tell Nat King Cole does not actually know how to speak Spanish, his pronunciation is so atrocious it's funny.
Ah, Ofra Haza we miss you; you were the best Israeli pop-music diva who sang on a Sister Of Mercy remix ever. This particular song is from the Queen Margot soundtrack, a movie I love love love to death. And there is quite a bit of death, along with the flawless Isabelle Adjani who is a porcelain statue goddess. Sigh.
So there you go, that's my CD swap entry, made up from random non-english songs I have in my music collection. If I'd have been more prepared I would have gone out and gotten some Corvus Corax, now those guys are awesome. Oh well. Hope you like it.
English as a Second Language
1. Introdiction - MC Solaar
2. Solaar pleure - MC Solaar
3. Anarkhiya - The Ukrainians
4. Nas Ne Dagoniat - t.A.T.u.
5. A Time of Prayer - I've
6. Hasta la Vista Mi Amor ! - MC Solaar
7. Quizás, Quizás, Quizás - Nat King Cole
8. Batyar - The Ukrainians
9. L'aigle ne chasse pas les mouches - MC Solaar
10. Elo Hi - Ofra Haza
11. Chekannya - The Ukrainians
12. Verge (Revive Mix) - I've
13. Ya Shosla S Uma - t.A.T.u.
This year is songs in not-English. I think a lot of the time songs sung in languages I don't understand are more appealing, Kinda like how foreign-language movies seem somehow better or more meaningful because the acting seems better. But really, how would we know if the actor is giving a good performance, because if we don't speak the language there's no way we could know what the proper vocal inflection should be. Maybe Gerard Depardieu and Gong Li and Toshiro Mifune are really terrible actors, we just can't tell because we don't speak French or Chinese or Japanese. So in that vein I'm pretty sure if I understood what MC Solaar was actually saying I wouldn't like his music nearly so much.
But I don't speak French, so I love MC Solaar. He's pretty much the godfather of French hip-hop, he's been doing it for like fifteen years. I always knew who he was but didn't own any of his stuff; then I saw District B-13, which is full of the frenchie hip-hop - none of which is Solaar, but Solaar is the only name I knew. Poking around his stuff on iTunes there's a lot I don't care for much, but these tracks are from Cinquième As, which is totally brilliant. The album has some great jazzy grooves on it, well as the more aggressive style and oh yeah I remember watching an episode of Sex & The City and being all excited that they used a song from it, La Belle Y Le Bad Boy.
I heard The Ukrainians on NPR a few years ago, one of the band members is from The Wedding Present or something. They rock hard the traditional Ukrainian music, and when I heard them do a Ukrainian language version of Bigmouth Strikes Again, I was hooked, and you will be too. Ukrainian covers of Anarchy In The UK and Venus In Furs are bonus.
Yup, t.A.T.u. are those two pubescent Russian lesbian chicks had a single on pop radio seven or eight years ago, they are awesome, and a testament to my above thesis that if you can't understand the words it's much better. The English versions of these songs are terrible-to-mediocre crap pop lyrics, but you hear it in Russian and all of a sudden the songs have all this life and emotion and vitality. I think so, anyway.
The I've songs are J-Pop goodness from the score of the short film Thomas did some years ago, starring me and Chris O'brien and Cassel and James. Awesome bouncey great. I'd like to find more stuff from this band, but do you know how hard it is to do a web search on a band who's name is a pronoun.
Quizas is a classic song, it's like a hundred years old, you'll hear it done by dozens of different people. The song is lovely and sad, I got this version from the lovely and sad movie In The Mood For Love,my favorite Wong Kar Wai film ever. I like this version because you can tell Nat King Cole does not actually know how to speak Spanish, his pronunciation is so atrocious it's funny.
Ah, Ofra Haza we miss you; you were the best Israeli pop-music diva who sang on a Sister Of Mercy remix ever. This particular song is from the Queen Margot soundtrack, a movie I love love love to death. And there is quite a bit of death, along with the flawless Isabelle Adjani who is a porcelain statue goddess. Sigh.
So there you go, that's my CD swap entry, made up from random non-english songs I have in my music collection. If I'd have been more prepared I would have gone out and gotten some Corvus Corax, now those guys are awesome. Oh well. Hope you like it.
