Day 28: Release Me

The Tiger Lillies

I don’t care if you're right
Don't care if you're wrong or right
There the water it beckons me
An early grave that waits for me
Sweet suicide release me

Day 27: Spiegel im Spiegel

Arvo Pärt

The first time I listened to this album was in 2007 in Iran on a cold winter day. I remember listening to it 5 times in a row. Mirror in Mirror is an apt title. It seemed every note was like a mirror in which I could see myself. 

Day 26: Lived in Bars

Cat Power

There's nothing like living in a bottle

and nothing like ending it all for the world

Day 25: I Get Low

Timber Timbre

One of my favorite Canadian bands. This song is the quintessential of Timber Timbre. I found this fantastic live version, unfortunately there is no video.

He says, I get low low low, I think he gets high high high 

I reach the summit
But I come tumblin' back down

I get low low low low low low  on my own

Day 24:The Place I Left Behind

The Deep Dark Woods

I do not give a damn
This fair land that you call yours

Day 23: Something for Myself

Dark Dark Dark

Don’t fool me in
Don’t fool me in
Let me be

Day 22: Sleeping Ute

Grizzly Bear

I love the video clip as well as the live version of this song since you can see the whole band and it's a good quality live recording. The video clip version is unique though since you can see Chris Bear playing xylophone which you don't even hear in the album version.


So I walk out
These wandering dreams
Of the north road
Dressed gold and green

Day 21 :Come Undone

Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan

Time will take its toll

time can break your heart

Day 20: The Köln Concert, 1975 - Part I

Keith Jarrett

Yes, there is no specific title since the whole performance is an improvisation. This piece and its subsequent Part II are perhaps the ones I listened to most from Keith Jarrett. It's a long piece that touches your soul. I wish I could find a live version on youtube since seeing Keith playing is such a joy by itself. You can hear his breath and sighs during this performance. It shakes my heart.

Day 19:Mal Assis

Pauline Croze

Je m'adonnait à cette chanson en décembre 2012. Les paroles, le rythme, la tristesse...

repasser dans le desert des errances d'autrefois,
redevenir solitaire comme un oiseau vu d'en bas,
quand j'aurais fait le chemin à rebours de mes déboires,
je pourrais penser enfin au projet de me rasseoir

Day 18: Bouncing Off Clouds

Tori Amos

In the memory of all those nights riding in Tehran highways, listening to this song.
On the occasion of the Persian New Year, the first day of spring...,

We could be Bouncing off the top of this Cloud

Day 17: The Only One

The Black Keys

Mystery is what this is to me
Give it up, I'm having no luck
Like a ghost, the one that I love most
Disappears when I get near 

Day 15 :Stepping Stone

Renée Fleming

And now you have the nerve to play along

Just like the maestro beats in your song

You got your kicks, you get your kicks from playing me

Day 16 :My Best

Lilly Wood and the Prick

I have no fear of loosing this game

I have my future all figured out

Day 14: The Mistress

Amelia Curran

It's hard to choose a few lines from such a beautiful song. The underlined lines are questions I sometimes ask myself.


until i wonder how I got here
until I don't know who to be
is it better to be grounded?
is it better to be free?
am I better off without you?
am I happier alone?

Day 13: For 12

Other Lives

But it feels like forever
When your mind turns to fiction

 

Day 12: One Way or Another

Blondie

One way or another, I'm gonna find ya.
I'm gonna getcha, getcha, getcha, getcha.
One way or another, I'm gonna see ya.
I'm gonna meetcha meetcha meetcha meetcha

Day 11: I Disappear

Metallica

Yes, sometimes I can be a metalhead too! Specially when it gets close to deadlines.

...

Hey, hey, hey

And I went on, then I went on down that road
I'm pain, I'm hope, I'm suffer

Day 10: Underlying Lies

Scott Mathews

....
I can smell your fake smile now
The glue sets on a face you wear proud
Remind me who the hell you are
I don't remember ever thinking we were friends

Day 9: The Glorious Land

PJ Harvey

Mondays should start with a high beat songs to take that Sunday laziness out of your body.
This is by one of my other favorite women singers.

How is our glorious country ploughed?  
Not by iron ploughs

Day 8: The Indie Queens Are Waiting

Dan Mangan

He's from Vancouver. Nice, Nice, Very Nice,  is the first album I heard from him and is my favorite too.
This song fits my lazy Sunday afternoon mood, while I'm sipping my coffee and watching this clip which is in as cozy a setting as the song itself. The unpredictable pauses he makes in this song is one of the things I like most.

Cuz your days are numbered,
Cuz my days are numbered too
Are we cool now?
Are we cool now?

Day 7: Soul Driver

Bruce Springsteen

In a disco, on a hot summer night, lights flashing on the bare skins of bodies grooving to the tunes...

I'll be your gypsy joker your shotgun rider

Baby let me be your soul driver

Day 6: Woman

John Lennon

It's March 8th and no song better than this fits my mood.

Woman, I know you understand the little child inside a man...

Day 5: Bubble

King Creosote & Jon Hopkins

When Diamond Mine came out, I listened to it incessantly through Guardian. It was my favorite album of 2011. Tonight, a dear friend sent me a video because of our mutual interest in it. 

A live version of one of the songs and how they made it can be seen here, which is one of the best. 

So who's been unfair? Who causes you sorrow?
And who's been unkind? Who burst your bubble?
And who drags you down, down, down, down?
Who handed out lines? And now I'm in trouble

Here goes Bubble

Day 4: Prayer in C

Lilly Wood and the Prick

Yeah, you never said a word
You didn't send me no letter
Don't think I could forgive you

See our world is slowly dying
I'm not wasting no more time
Don't think I could believe you 

Day 3: Love is Blindness

Jack White

Love is blindness,
I'm so sick of it,
I don't wanna see
Why don't you just take the night
And wrap it all around me, now
Oh my love
Blindness

I loved the Great Gatsby when I read it some 10 years ago. Jack White's song on the trailer of the forthcoming movie makes me more impatient for its release.


P.S. I just realized that youtube has removed this video so I add another one.

Day 2: Lonely Caroussel

And all the time
The world unwinds
I can't deny the way I feel
The truth is lost beyond this lonely carousel


I could not find a live version of this song except one which is in a longer video, including several songs of Rodrigo Leao. Lonely Carousel starts at 2:24 in this video and it's live. I would watch the whole video.

Below is Lonely Carousel

Day 1: I live on a lonely avenue

It's time for a new blog, not much for writing, perhaps a few words accompanying a song I plan to and will try to post everyday. I have different playlists on spotify, soundcloud, youtube and they won't fit here. However, there are songs that mean something to me or trigger memories of which I thought I wanna keep a record.

My musical tastes are eclectic so you will find from Bach to Arvo Pärt, from Thelonious Monk to Keith Jarrett, Ray Charles to Diana Krall, Chuck Berry to Grizzly Bear, Vivaldi to Anouar Brahem, etc. So don't be surprised if you hear soft tunes of Billie Holiday one day and high beats of The Strokes the next. I listen a lot to low beat songs, indie of different kinds, acoustic; Patrick Watson, Dan Mangan, The Deep Dark Woods, Other Lives, Mathew Perryman Jones and whatnot. They might take over Yeasayer, Ladyhawke, Tame Impala and what have you.

I will start with a song by the lady I absolutely admire. I went to her concert last week here in Montreal, in the middle of writing my midterm exam. It kept me writing the rest till 4 in the morning. The lady had caught cold but nevertheless was shining on the stage.

The performance was just stupendous. It's not easy to choose but I found myself singing to the tunes of this song, on the way back home , walking on the crystalline snow that shined everywhere with the reflections of street lights.
As far as I know, Ray Charles was the first to sing this song (or perhaps made it famous), written by Doc Pomus.

I will die, I will die, I will die, I will cry, I will cry, I will cry, I will cry...