Dreamy Music for Librarians
One of the weirder set of folks I follow on twitter are these wacky librarians who have anonymously aggregated themselves and who let you inside their very bizarre lives. Follow them on my librarians and collectors list if you want to see what I am talking about. Be warned they tweet and curse more than you average sailor so be warned in advance. Their minds are fascinating.
What is interesting to me about twitter culture is you get to be in the nitty-gritty of people's lives as much or as little you want. You follow(stalk) every random thought without the depth of a blog (yuk-yuk) unless your desire tells you to do otherwise. I love lists and librarians whole existence is about knowing where to file stuff so it can be found later. So from a social graph perspective this tickles my right brain. Sure, I am simplifying their job which from what I gather is mostly an exercise in managing people of all ages and getting lost in the stacks of books. They dread the reference . So in thinking about this list for folks who make lists I'm going to keep it simple and focus on a couple themes that come up the most. They work a lot of hours, hate most folks, drink a lot of alcohol and are also experts in the art of relaxing. This may be too easy or maybe just an excuse to make a list but it is not where I am going. The there is the whole obvious eyeglasses and plaid skirt thing to consider too but that is also too easy since some librarians are male. The good thing is they really take it to a whole other level and have these amazing minds. So what I came up with is more of is a list for music for the mind. Here is a some dreamy music to escape to which is what reading and listening to music is all about.
Sleepless in Silver Lake (mp3) by Less Savy Fav from their new record Root for Ruin (2010). I like this song because it's a destination. Makes you want to hang out and escape in LA as it captures a vapid culture of late nights and growing up hipster which could have easily been titled Sleepless in Brooklyn. Obvious chick-flick reference but allas the record is spacey and rockin at times and far from uni-dimensional. Certainly a candidate for the top 10 for this year. [ Buy ]
Candy Season (mp3) by the Librarians from Present Passed (2010). I really like this record a lot when it pops-up on the random play. this band takes you places. I always have to see who it is. Sounds sort 80's with synthes and percussive guitars. You can't pigeon hole them but it's like jazzy rock and is pretty ethereal and they hail from West Virginia. [ Buy ]
Champ (mp3) from Last Days of Summer (2010) by White Denim. A collection of b-sides and unreleased stuff available for free from the band. Some of these tracks they reworked and recorded for this while they work on their next LP. Lots of great jams on this record. Total Americana menu of acoustic and electric songs with quirky rhythms that reminds me of Captain Beefheart. If you dig it they ask that you donate so [ Download ]
Zig Zag Wanderer from Safe as Milk(1967) by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band. I admit the only 60's band I paid any attention to were Hendrix and Pink Floyd in Highschool. A class mate was always going on and on about Captain Beefheart and I always shelved them in my mind with the Greatful Dead. I had a visions of tie-dy t-shirts and really long boring jams that I could not stomach for lack of melody or lyrics I could relate to. Regardless this album is amazing; as nutty as it gets I hear influence in all the bands in this post whether they realize it or not. Safe as Milk is one of the quintisential "jam" bands executed to a whole different orchestration level. After this release Trout Mask Replica (1969) would bring them onto musical map thanks to Frank Zappa. Both great introductions to the band and Don Van Vliet (AKA Captain Beefheart).
