Mixtapemotions

  • "Rings & Roses" by Dabin ft. Conor Bryne, Friday, May 14, 2021

    Dabin is a melodic EDM music producer from Toronto, and Conor Bryne is known for his YouTube covers. I first heard this song last week when Apple Music played it as a “music you may like based on the artists you just played.” It’s probably the most surefire way for me to discover music these days. Neither artist has a Wikipedia page as of yet, so I feel like I can be a tastemaker when I recommend this song. Based on the nursery rhyme, “Ring Around the Rosie,” “Rings & Roses” explores the career path of someone, a friend or a lover, who is pursuing fame. That person has become too popular for the singer, who warns that in the end “they all fall down.” Simple enough.


    WAITIN’ ON THE DREAM YOU BEEN SOLD. Part of the American Dream is indoctrinating elementary-school-aged children that they can be anything they want to be when they grow up. Of course, as the children get older, teachers start to point them in a different direction. They try to help Suzy realize that she should also focus on academics in case she can’t grow up to be a pop star. As children get closer and closer to the point where they either get accepted or rejected by the college of their choice, the world begins to start narrowing for them. But when I was growing up, I didn’t have any specific goals. I would go to school to be a teacher because I couldn’t think of anything else to do besides being a professional musician. But I was scared to death of the commitment and the uncertainty it would take to be a professional musician. I thought that being a teacher would at the very least be a secure income. I found the work rewarding. But now I’m coming to the point where I have to chose what I want to be when I grow up. My student loans are almost paid. I’m feeling stuck in my job, and I’m realizing that I’m free. But free to do what?

    I MISS YOU. I MISS YOU. WHERE ARE YOU NOW? Meanwhile, I’ve built my life in Korea. I’ve been here for longer than I ever said I would. I was sure that I would begin my teaching career in the states by at least three years after teaching in Korea. However, falling in love kept me here. For a while, too, it seemed like everything I was doing at my job would help further my career. But there’s a time when you realize that staying in the same job is no longer growth but stagnation. I’ve gotten too comfortable doing the same thing, losing connections, and embracing introversion. Then two weeks ago my dad had a stroke. It shook my understanding about work/life responsibility. For my family, a steady income is the greatest virtue. But I reflected on how a steady income made my dad so mentally unhealthy. He coped with the stress with food and cigarettes. For me, a steady job means that it’s much more difficult to see and talk with my family. This would normally be okay, but the two years away is really starting to wear on me. And my dad’s stroke really scared me. I wonder if, like this song, I’m stretching too far. Trying to be a professional teacher and failing to make the connections. Trying to be a good boyfriend. Trying to be a good son. Trying to live in a country where I can wear out my welcome. “In the end they all fall down.”

  • “Embers and Envelopes” by Mae, Thursday, May 13, 2021

     

    Every band has tackled the Covid-19 pandemic in different ways. Many bands are selling live-stream tickets. Some have decided to give free concerts on social networking. Cleared from the time-consuming task of driving across the country, setting up equipment, and tearing down only to drive to the next city, musicians have been able to produce music in new ways. It doesn’t hurt that all of their equipment and professional microphones are in their basements. Last year, Emery produced a show on their Twitch channel, in which they played their songs. They often had guest vocalists from other bands, such as Hawthorne Heights, Silverstein, and Dave Elkins of Mae. Emery reimagined some of their songs and the guest vocalist’s band’s songs too. The collaboration of “Embers and Envelopes” was a beautiful updated take on Mae’s first single. 


    I KNOW YOU HAVE SACRIFICED TIME, LIFE, LOVE. I’ve been having a bad few weeks. It seems that no matter what I do, I cannot catch up with the mountain of work piling up on my desk. Plan. Grade. Teach. Get surprised by schedule changes. Plan. Almost grade. Teach. Teach. Plan. Teach. On top of the workload, the principal is complaining about the native teachers’ classes because of our use of Google Classroom. Exhausted over the weekend, I try to focus on how to make my teaching career more professional and how I can be a more marketable teacher and eventually work for a more professional school, but I see the good examples with the benchmarks that I’m not reaching. I see the records I never kept of student surveys, amazing student work. Then I think about how hard you work to be a great teacher and how much debt you get into for the credentials. Is it even worth it? On top of that there are problems at home in America. My dad had a health scare, and there’s nothing I can do about it in Korea. In the midst of this funk, I’ve been so cold to teachers in other departments when they ask for favors. 

    TO WRITE THIS DOWN AS MEANS TO RECONCILE. “Embers and Envelops” contrasts reconciliation with alienation, writing a letter or burning a bridge. One of the hardest things to learn about working in Korea is not shooting the messenger. You may have an issue with the top, and the top has strategically put set the messenger up to take the fall, but it’s important to make it crystal clear that your issue is with the top and not the messenger. But it’s hard to do that when you feel deeply depressed. It’s hard to do that when you care less and less every day. If and when you pick yourself out of that mess, apologize and explain your situation. Not fully as to give that person ammunition against you later. Apologize for the stray bullets fired. And bring a gift.
    Mae:

    Dave Elkins ft. Emery

  • "I Won't Give Up" by Eric Nam (Jason Mraz Cover), Wednesday, May 13, 2021

    In every small town to major city in South Korea there are private karaoke rooms called noraebang (노래방). These are used by everyone from middle school students escaping the stress of studying for exams to middle-aged office workers, pressured into going out and drinking with the boss. Since I’ve been in Korea, I’ve heard them mentioned in American TV shows or movies in major cities; however, noraebang culture is much more permeated in Korean culture than karaoke is in America. So what is sung in these karaoke rooms? You can spend hours browsing the song selection from old Korean throat music (트롯), a kind of old-timey, often disco sounding music that Korean ajoshis or ajumas (아주씨, 아줌마), or middle aged people, love. There are K-pop songs through out the ages and international songs like Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Spanish, and of course English pop, rock, and traditional songs. When you go to a noraebang, you select the song you want to sing and the lyrics appear on the screen. There’s sometimes the music video, but usually a generic backing video that accompanies the song. After the song, the machine will measure your pitch and timing and give you a score based on how well you followed the song. It’s quite a fun evening, and a karaoke room is usually about $20 for an hour if you have a big group and less for a smaller room.


    HOW OLD IS YOUR SOUL. It was October of 2012 when I first experienced the noraebang. There was a talent show at church on a Saturday night and a bunch of other English teachers came from other parts of Korea. After the talent show a bunch of people went out for dak galbi (닭갈비) a spicy chicken dish that was the most famous dish in the city I lived Chuncheon (춘천). As the evening drew on, we lost more and more people, the way that all large nights out do, but after dinner and maybe a cafe, we headed to sing karaoke, which, in my American culture of just getting to know people would be terrifying. American karaoke is usually in public on a small stage in a pub, but Korean karaoke was a private event. I sat and watched the karaoke and sang Oasis’s “Wonderwall” toward the end of the night. The evening consisted of songs like “Diamonds” and “Umbrella” by Rihanna, Alicia Keys/Jay Z, Beyonce, songs from movies, old songs, Franz Ferdinand “Take Me Out,” a few Korean songs like “Monster” by Big Bang, “Ugly” by 2en1, and at some point someone sang the new Jason Mraz song “I Won’t Give Up.” I had heard the song before, but seeing the words made them stick out and resonant with me. 

    WE’VE GOT A LOT TO LEARN. At most points in my life, I had carefully curated the influence I allowed in. My blog is a pretty good reflection of that. I grew up not allowed to watch R-rated movies until I was 17 (with a few exceptions). I had to hide my record collection from my mom, but I chose to listen to mostly Christian music. I cut off friendships that I thought would lead me away from the Lord. In college, I felt a kind of duty to catch up on the culture I had cut myself off from. I started listening more broadly, watching questionable movies, especially if they were artistic, and reading everything I could. I wanted to be well-versed in my Christian apologetics. There was a culture war, and I didn’t want to be an ignorant solider in it. But when I came to Korea, I met up with some pretty conservative Christians who were all about sheltering themselves from worldly influence. I was very frustrated with that stance, and I felt Christians should be allowed to explore art for what it is, while understanding that it is not holy and that the answers come from the Bible. What was interesting about Jason Mraz’s song is his evoking God’s name into his message. Of course, artists do this all the time, call on the name of God without it being the God of the Bible. However, something about when Mraz declares, “God knows we’re worth it,” reminded me of Christian humanism, a philosophy I had flirted with in college, but ultimately rejected because of the little Calvinism that crept into Adventism, telling us that humans are nothing outside of God. This song helped to spark the journey that I’m on today. Love is worth it. Who I am is who God created me to be. I have worth because I have worth.

    I’M GIVING YOU ALL MY LOVE. The version of the song I chose is a rare cover version by Korean-American singer/songwriter, TV personality Eric Nam. Before his K-pop career started, his YouTube channel featured covers of other famous artists, but these days those videos are only available through other sources. I talked about Nam back in March, and I think that his version is slightly better than Mraz’s because of the guitar work (not played by Nam as far as I know); however, Mraz’s version will end up on my Apple Music version because Nam’s is not available on Apple Music.





  • "Should Have Known Better" by Sufjan Stevens, Tuesday, May 11, 2021 (Trigger Warning: Child Abuse/Abandonment, Death/Grief)

     

    In March of 2015, Sufjan Stevens released Carrie & Lowell, and the album was praised by indie music journals and NPR. In May of that year, a study concluded that most of the number one hits from 2005-2014 were written on the reading level of a fifth grader.  Maybe that’s the reason I don’t spend too much time wrestling with finding the meaning of the text in most song lyrics. However, whenever I choose a Sufjan Stevens song, I spend quite a bit of time reading the Genius annotations, discovering hidden metaphors and symbolism that don’t appear until quite a few listens. “Should Have Known Better” is the second track on the album, following his invocation of the muse in “Death with Dignity.” Stevens recalls more specific, particularly the jarring details about when his mother “left [him and his brother] at that video store” when he was three or four. 


    THE PAST IS STILL THE PAST, THE BRIDGE TO NOWHERE. As Stevens gets more specific on Carrie & Lowell, he still is painting a beautiful scene of Oregon, wrapped with geographical references. He’s painting the scenery he remembers when he went to visit his mother when she was married to Lowell Brams. Sifting through the memories, Stevens feels a guilt for not reaching out to his mother in her later life. He feels like he “should have [written] a letter” to her to reach out to her, but traumatized by his experiences with her, he tries to live his adult life well-adjusted by forgetting his painful memories. However, it was only through Lowell Brams that Sufjan had a chance to know his mother, as she reached out after abandoning Stevens at the age of one. Sufjan visited his mother and Lowell for three summers, but Carrie later succumbed to substance abuse and bi-polar/schizophrenic episodes and left Lowell. Years later, Stevens met Brams again and they formed a musical partnership, Brams owning the record label that would release all of Stevens’ music.

    MY BROTHER HAD A DAUGHTER. THE BEAUTY THAT SHE BRINGS, ILLUMINATION. As the song picks up, keeps dropping metaphors and symbolism into his grief, but the major key change and the introduction of the synthesizer gives the song some resolve. After all, what do you do with the fact you should have, but you didn’t, and now it’s too late, but if I did I would have been too traumatized to move on? Stevens then throws the information, like talking to his mother’s grave, telling her that his brother had a daughter, and she’s beautiful. He’s telling his mother that even though things could have been better and despite all of the grief, new life is possible because his mother gave them life. Of course, as grief is a process of tricking yourself until it’s time to let the next part of it go, the song doesn’t end on a major note. Like “Death with Dignity,” “Should Have Known Better” ends funereally on minor sustained chords. The black shroud is laid back over his mother, and the listener is given a minute to grieve before the next track begins.

  • "Move Along" by The All-American Rejects, Monday, May 10, 2021 (Trigger Warning: Suicide)

    When Jonezetta released their 2006 debut record, Popularity, they dedicated the album to their recently deceased fifth member. Keyboardist Timothy Jordan II took his life in 2015. Jordan had been a promising young musician from Arkansas, which had a small but notable musical scene since acts like Living Sacrifice, The Juliana Theory, Evanescence, As Cities Burn, and others got their starts in the area. Jordan became a touring member of The All-American Rejects just as their career started blowing up with TV performances and bigger tours. However, just before releasing TAR released Move Along, Jordan announced his departure and joined an up-and-coming band on Tooth & Nail Records–Jonezetta. Popularity is a very dancy, upbeat album and featuring Jordan on the keys. Jonezetta never memorialized Jordan in their two albums. However, The All-American Rejects wrote the song “Believe” about him, and fans also say that “Move Along” pays tribute to Jordan, as the song is an anti-suicide song. The best tribute, though, is As Cities Burn‘s album closer “Timothy” from their 2007 album, Come Now Sleep.


    THESE HANDS ARE MEANT TO HOLD. A few weeks ago for my after school ESL music listening class, we listened to Jack’s Mannequin‘s “Swim,” a song I covered last month. I called the song a per aspera ad astra song, a Latin phrase translated “through hardships to the stars.” The meaning of this phrase is that by enduring difficulties, we will overcome and become great. “Move Along” is a great pep talk of a song, particularly for a hard day. The video depicts the band going through a variety of hard, uncomfortable, or seemingly hopeless situations. However, the song begs the listener  “keep . . .strong, like I know ya can.” Often pushing through the difficulty can make it bearable. Moving on to the next thing can distract us from the failures we can’t fix. But in the moment, that failure is glaring. Relationships end, car accidents happen, tickets are issued, fights occur–“days when you’ve lost yourself completely” are painful to reflect on at night. Certainly you want to redeem yourself or escape the misery. But holding on and reaching out makes us realize that we’ve all been there. Sometimes I’ve said, “I’d rather die than face what tomorrow holds” only to have something happen, like almost stepping in front of a bus, and I find myself instinctually fighting for my life. No, I guess I’d rather face tomorrow.

    WHEN YOU FALL, EVERYONE STANDS. I won’t doubt that this song has saved lives and helped many people through hard times. However, I do worry about “moving along” as a blanket prescribed solution. The saying “Fake it until you make it” has some merit, but at some point you have to be able to say, “I’m not happy. I need to talk with someone about why I’m unhappy.” Sometimes we “move along” too quickly. Just like you shouldn’t put off other emergencies, dealing with our mental health should be top priority. For my mental health, I found that my close friends have gotten me through my darkest times. However, there are times when a friend is not enough. And that’s when it’s time to stop and seek help from a professional.

  • "Too Good at Goodbyes" by Sam Smith, Sunday, May 9, 2021

     

    Sam Smith’s music is a musical cry for love. Influenced by Amy Winehouse and Adelle, Smith made a gut-wrenchingly melancholy pop-R&B debut album in 2014’s In the Lonely Hour, and followed it up with an even sadder, gospel-inspired sophomore record in 2017’s The Thrill of It All. However, in a turn of events, during the album cycle, the British singer began dating 13 Reasons Why actor Brandon Flynn and the two seemed happy in interviews and in social media posts. The two dated for nine months, during which, Smith came out as genderqueer, stating that they identified as equally male and female. In “Too Good At Goodbyes,” Smith tackles their psychological and emotional barrier they bring to a relationship. But as Smith points out these barriers, anyone with emotional baggage (or everyone) can probably relate to the song on some level. It’s damn hard to know when to open up to someone or when to conceal in fear that that person will use it against you in the future. “Too Good At Goodbyes” leaves the listener in a bit of a relationship limbo. 
    I’M JUST PROTECTING MY INNOCENCE. I talked about Troye Sivan on Friday, and while their musical styles are quite different, there are some remarkable parallels between both artists. First, both artists came out relatively early in their careers. Unlike famous LGBT+ musicians from past generations who often tried to cover up tabloid speculation, Smith and Sivan publicly announced their sexuality and even relationship statuses by their first full length album. Second, both singers proudly portray LGBT+ relationships in the music videos and even sing about their relationships. The music industry discouraged open discussion of non-heterosexual relationships, unless it was somehow fetishized by artists who could “pass” as straight (i.e. Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl”). This is not to say that queer themes didn’t exist in music. Artists like U2, R.E.M., Franz Ferdinand, Third Eye Blind and Christina Aguilera showed or talked about same-sex relationships. Growing up same-sex relationships were pretty censored from my world. I think I was 13 before I was allowed to watch Three’s Company because the premise that Jack has to pretend to be gay in order to live in a house with two beautiful roommates. I was taught a kind of homophobia that made homosexual depictions on TV or in music seem dirty. There was the video played on MTV by the Russian lesbian group t.A.T.u. There was the “I Am Beautiful” video by Christina Aguilera featuring two men kissing. As for ’90s rock, my dad always changed the station when Third Eye Blind came on because he said the lead singer was gay. This was not true. Their song “Jumper” was about a gay man who was trying to take his life. However, he would listen to U2’s “One” and R.E.M. despite him acknowledging their connections to queer culture.
    I’M JUST PROTECTING MY SOUL. A lot has changed since my Christian teenage upbringing. Growing up and becoming a teacher at a Christian school as I continue to process my own faith and sexuality, I try to reconcile what my parents taught me with what I’ve read, studied, and lived on my own. In 2017, my third grade middle school students (HS1, American age) started talking about 13 Reasons Why, a controversial Netflix drama about the suicide of a high school student. The actor from the series, Brandon Flynn, was dating Sam Smith, who was well-known in Korea at that time. My student asked me about the Flynn-Smith relationship, “Do you agree with their love?” I had to choose my words carefully as of the legal thin ice teachers can get into in South Korea for condoning same-sex relationships. I’ve been thinking about that question since my student asked it. The U.S. had just legalized same-sex marriage in every state, but many other countries, including Korea, wouldn’t recognize two people of the same gender assigned at birth being married. But this isn’t a legal question at the grassroots level. Do you agree or do you disagree? My answer is that I don’t know either person, so I couldn’t say if they were right for each other. Isn’t that the heart of the issue? Romeo and Juliet’s parents didn’t agree with their love, and that was a straight relationship. Moreover, a loving parent may think she is no good for my son, so those parents don’t agree with their love. However, those two still have the power and legal right when they are of age to defy their parents. Sometimes often parents come around. But when it comes to same-sex relationships, do you agree with their love? And if you do or don’t, who are you anyway?

  • "Higher Power" by Coldplay, Saturday, May 8, 2021

     

    Back in 2010 we learned that yes, a pickle can get more likes than Nickelback, a band that had become the most hated “butt rock” band in the mid-’00s. In fact, the conclusions of the social media study found that a pickle had more likes than Oprah Winfrey or other beloved figures. It turns out that internet users’ hate outweighs Internet love, or the terrible outweighs the good. In 2014, the most hated rock band would become U2 after their release of Songs of Innocence was forced into every iTunes users’ library. People tried everything to scrub the songs from their shuffle. Today, people have mostly forgotten about Nickelback, and Apple Music no longer comes standard with that U2 album, so people have other musical axes to grind. Justin Bieber has grown up and is no longer blaring in our cultural continuousness. So who is the most hated band these days? After the 2019 Super Bowl it was Maroon 5, for taking to the stage when the NFL was in the middle of racial controversy around Colin Kaepernick’s taking a knee during the National Anthem and many other musical acts refused to play that year. Or is it the “rock groups” who take the name of rock ‘n’ roll in vein? Imagine Dragons (we’ll talk about them later) or Coldplay, who has garnered a lot of hate due to their pop sound and supposed generic sound?  


    THIS JOY IS ELECTRIC. “There’s not much to hate about Coldplay. But every time I hear one of their songs I kind of don’t realize I’m listening to anything,” my coworker once said. Many listeners have also come to this conclusion. In the video “Where Coldplay Went Wrong,” critic Frank Furtado, of the YouTube channel Middle 8, argues that Coldplay is the commercialized version of more talented, authentic bands more hidden in the scene. He also argues that lead vocalist’s Chris Martian’s avoidance of personal details in his lyrics make their songs mediocre at best. Finally, he argues that sing Viva La Vida, Or Death and All His Friends, the band has been virtually producing the same record over and over again, watering down their lyrical and musical depth in the process with the exception of 2019’s Everyday Life. One thing Furtado doesn’t talk about, though, is the danger of working with the same producers album after album. Perhaps Coldplay’s relationship with producers Brian Eno and Rik Simpson is to blame. Essentially, Coldplay is using the same ingredients and mixing them differently. 
    GOT ME SINGIN’ EVERY SECOND, DANCIN’ EVERY HOUR. Still, I admire Coldplay for their use of the recording studio as a musical instrument. Bigger than Coldplay is the production of Brian Eno, the producer that created three of U2’s most iconic albums The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, and All That You Can’t Leave Behind,  worked with Genesis, Devo, Toto, and David Bowie, and scored The Lovely Bones–the soundtrack making the movie watchable. But for their latest single, Coldplay turns to a producer with a  “Higher Power,” Max Martin, the producer with the second most Hot 100 number 1 hits under his belt, second to The Beatles’ producer George Martin. Starting with Ace of Base in the early ’90s and then writing and producing for the Backstreet Boys, Martin would score his first number one hit with Britney Spears in 1998 and then again with “It’s Gonna Be May,” I meant, “It’s Gonna Be Me” for *NSync He cultivated Katy Perry to become a hit producers, then took P!nk to the top of the charts. He replaced the banjos for EDM with Taylor Swift taking her from the top of the country charts to the top of the pop charts. He introduced the pop charts to dark R&B singer The Weeknd. The question is, what can he do with Coldplay? And if he takes them back to the top of the charts, is the concept behind their new album–an alien language developed since Viva La Vida complete with its own planet–enough to revitalize their career?
    Performance Video:
    Official Dance Video:
    Official Music Video:

    https://genius.com/22963922

  • “Lucky Strike” by Troye Sivan, Friday, May 7, 2021

    Austra-South African YouTuber-turned pop star and actor Troye Sivan creates a kind of infectious electro-pop that brilliantly celebrates love, acceptance, and sexuality. From my vantage point in South Korea, I saw the rise of Sivan’s career. With his debut album, Blue Neighbourhoods, Sivan could be heard everywhere in 2016 and not only was his music making an impact, him and fellow LGBT+ singer Sam Smith were starting conversations around sexual orientation that would have been considered taboo even five years before. My middle school students, in their free time at school, would often play Sivan’s music videos. “Wild,” “Fools,” and “Youth” depict a teenage secret relationship between two boys. Being a teacher at a Christian school and working in a conservative country where it was illegal for teachers to talk about LGBT+ issues at the time,   undoubtedly these middle school students were trying to press some buttons. Still, with some of Korea’s own K-pop groups coming out in support of LGBT+ youth, it is certainly a different experience from my middle school days. Thank God for that.


    MY BOY, LIKE A QUEEN. In Sivan’s sophomore album, he continues to write about love, but this time making his music less ambiguously gay and singing about specific experiences. Songs like “Seventeen” and “Bloom” and this song, Sivan proudly uses masculine pronouns and says “boy.” This was rarely seen in pop music in past eras. In the past, musicians who had come out either wrote ambiguously or changed pronouns in hopes of greater market reception. But on Bloom, Sivan bent the pop charts to him rather than editing for mainstream approval. And while some of the songs on Bloom tell explicit tales of gay love just as many straight artists get explicit with tales of straight or bi-curious sex, “Lucky Strike” is a subtle love song that talks about a pretty innocent crush. You could play it in a coffee shop.

    A HIT OF DOPAMINE. In Kindergarten I had my first girlfriend. Somehow I had this idea that when you are school age you are supposed to find your future life partner. Of course it was just cutesy stuff, and by first grade I started to feel embarrassed by the whole ordeal. Then by second grade I had my first kiss with the neighbor girl. But with all of these early experiences, I was actually not  on the way to a promiscuous adolescence. Other than a “telephone” middle school relationship—when you call your girlfriend after school for a few minutes at night before mom kicks you off the phone, my dating life was obsolete. I had crushes but was always too scared to take the jump. By 2014, 27 years old, I started looking over my close encounters with dating and tried to put together the pieces why I was still alone. I started looking honestly this time.

  • "When You Were Young" by The Killers, Thursday, May 6, 2021

    Yesterday was Children’s Day in South Korea, so I had a nice day off of work. Today, it was back to work, but a song I listened to this morning took me back to a few earlier points in my life–not quite back to childhood. I wrote about “All These Things I’ve Done,” back in February, talking about the conflict in Brandon Flowers’ lyrics–the desire to keep the straight and narrow path of his faith and the temptations of the real world. And unlike the bands on Tooth & Nail who seem to have everything sorted out (granted, there is a spectrum of Christianity rather than one rather rigid denomination–Mormonism), The Killers’ music is never resolved. “When You Were Young” examines the contrast between what you fantasize love would be when you were young with the reality of it. The person you fall in love with may not be the man who looks “like Jesus.” He may not share the faith and ritual you grew up with. “But he talks like a gentleman.”


    WAITING ON SOME BEAUTIFUL BOY TO SAVE YOU FROM YOUR OLD WAYS. I mostly skipped over The Killers’ sophomore release, Sam’s Town. Critics and fans, too were mixed on the album. The band who had named themselves after a fictional band from a 2001 New Order music video and whose lead singer channeled The Cure’s Robert Smith, The Killers’ first album, Hot Fuss was steeped in New Wave, ’80s Brit-pop influences. However, their follow up was more influenced by Southwest Americana, Bruce Springsteen and U2 than New Wave acts. In college I revisited Hot Fuss and their B-Sides, Sawdust and I listened to their newly released third record, Day & Age, but Sam’s Town was too “Mr. Brightside” and not enough “Jenny Was a Friend of Mine.” The exceptions are “For Reasons Unknown” and this song. However, I kind of forgot about this song until I heard a Joy Electric cover of it the other day. Joy Electric is Ronnie Martian, brother of Starflyer 59’s Jason Martian, and one of the Tooth & Nail old school bands. Hearing Joy Electric’s cover was kind of fun and a little bit strange, and ultimately I longed for the original.

    2YOU SIT THERE IN YOUR HEARTACHE. 2014 was a pivotal year. When I came to Korea, I threw myself into being a Christian teacher. I came to Korea to shine the light of the gospel. However, the longer I worked for an institution owned by the church, I started to realize little by little that my piety was being used mostly to promote the institution. And more and more sacrifice was required “to keep the lights on.” The church connected to the private institute I worked for was dying. There was talk of the glory days in the early 2000s when students would enter the academy and get baptized and join the church. Now (2014) students only came to learn English. My team had had some success with the religious programs, attracting students, but when we got tired and didn’t promote the snot out of the programs and students didn’t come, the church members would call into question our faithfulness. The extra programs were on top of a 30-40 hours week of insane 7am-10pm hours, by the way. What was the final straw for me was when I had a disagreement with the director who kept admitting students throughout the term and expecting us to pass the students who had only attended for 2 days when it was clearly against corporate policy. I realized that it didn’t matter how much I sacrificed for the messed up church-company, it would never be enough. I became disillusioned with the religion I had devoted to myself when I was young. I had thrown myself into my job and my religion, and I never felt more used. I resolved to invest in myself from that point on. 
    The Killers:

    Joy Electric Cover:

  • "Blinding" by Florence + the Machine, Wednesday, May 5, 2021

     

    Released in 2008, Florence + the Machine’s Lungs is a testament to a change in direction in what is classified as Alternative music. Alternative radio started favoring groups like Fleet Foxes, Arcade Fire, MGMT, and of course, Mumford & Sons, and more solid rock acts that had been become staples of Alternative Rock like Foo Fighters, Incubus, and Kings of Leon started fading in relevance. On iTunes everyone from Lana Del Rey to Rise Against get grouped in that category. My working definition has been, Alternative music is when bands or artists that stretch the genre of Rock music beyond the realm of complete reliance on the electric guitar. A secondary definition is a rock act that flirts heavily with another style of music. Linkin Park is an excellent example of both definitions. The band’s hybrid musical theory married hip hop and rock while using electronica often to overshadow the guitars. However, moving into the future, let’s drop Rock from Alternative. Some of the groups/bands/artists that define the Alternative genre today are not influenced by Rock music; however, they usually use instruments base their songs on other instruments than electric guitars and they also blend more than one genre. Case in point: Florence + the Machine, a band, who if they had appeared ten years earlier may have been revolutionary in the Folk scene. Lungs bases most of the songs around a harp and Florence Welch‘s soaring vocals. 

    A TOURIST IN THE WAKING WORLD, NEVER QUITE AWAKE. I will definitely come back to the shift in the alternative sound as the year goes by, but I’d like to tell a rather embarrassing story about how Florence + the Machine and a bunch of other Indie Rock/new Alternative acts came into my music collection. It was the spring of 2011, and I was finishing up my senior year. I would be student teaching in the Fall and graduating in December. But before I could graduate, I had to take a newly introduced English Capstone course which was a review of all great literature from the dawn of time to about 1960. We would take the literature section of the GRE, and since we were the test pilot, we didn’t have to receive a passing score. However, in order to study for the test, I joined a study group with a bunch of other Lit major girls. I had a crush on one girl, but didn’t want to ruin the dynamics of the group, so I didn’t say anything. This study group took place at two of the members’ off campus house, and they shared the place with two other girls. One of the housemates asked about me. We had taken some classes together. She was a history major; I was a history minor. One day she gave me a mix CD containing indie rock groups like Death Cab for Cutie, The Shins, Noah & the Whale, Mama Ray, Mumford and Sons, and Florence + the Machine. I loved that mix and added all of the songs to my iTunes library. I made her a mix of some songs that I had been listening to, Copeland, Jonezetta, The Starting Line, etc. that had comparable sounds.

    NO MORE CALLING LIKE A CROW FOR A BOY, FOR A BODY IN THE GARDEN. Well, this mixtape exchange got the girl that I had developed feelings for in the study group a little jealous. She made me a mixed CD–all songs about rain. Most of the artists were pretty old. When we talked about music, me and her had never quite the same vibe in music. I responded with a mixtape (CD) of songs about sun. “Solar Powered Life” by The Classic Crime, “Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles, “Gimme Sympathy,” “Sun” by Mae, were all a few of the songs that I chose. I thought the mixtape was some of my best work; however, she didn’t seem to like it. Things got kind of weird between us; however, it was like the current hit by Katy Perry,  it was hot and then cold. Maybe I was hot and then cold. Maybe she was. Anyway, one Friday night when the flowers were in full bloom on campus–this was mid-April, 2021–I asked her out. I don’t think I asked with confidence, though. I was still wanting to keep the friendship and keep everything as it was with the friend group. She responded that she thought of me as more a friend. And that’s how the friendship ended. I’d like to write a song about this whole ordeal and call it “Mixtape Emotions.” I was at the end of my Christian college experience. I saw my best friends finding love, and it seemed like something that wasn’t meant for me. And it wasn’t, yet.