balding angrily

I spent today in a wheelchair; my company sponsored my time, giving money to a local charity. I’ll post the name of the charity when I can find it. The event is designed to make architects aware of the specific challenges of the wheelchair-bound.

I knew it was going to be difficult, in general terms. Therefore, I’ll focus on a specific.

When did we become so lazy and/or absent-minded that we need a device to close a door for us? I can think of only one place where a door closer is appropriate - at a door that closes in the event of a fire.

You might say, “But Alex, what about at shop entrances? Isn’t that a matter of security? Aren’t automatically closing and locking doors appropriate there?”

No. No they’re not. If we have become so averse to turning around to close the door behind us, we deserve to have our shit stolen. If we have trained generations of people that the door will close itself, then it is our own damn fault. If our national security is at risk because someone forgot to close the damn door, we were never really secure.

You might say, “But Alex, what about doors into bathrooms? Surely, we need to protect the public from seeing dirty bathrooms and/or male body parts.”

No. No we don’t. Again, if you can’t turn around to close a door, you deserve to have your wang looked upon. And again, if, as a society, we have become so lazy that we’re not training people to close doors, we deserve an unwelcome peepshow.

Swinging doors are cloves of garlic to a person in a wheelchair - if a person in a wheelchair is a vampire. Door closers are prickly spines on that garlic - if garlic had prickly spines. Do this. Pick up one of those hand-held counters popular with amusement park line attendants. Carry it around with you one day and click it every time you go through a swinging door. Click it twice if the door has a closer. Fuck it; forget the counter. Just count how many times you have to open a swinging door in a day.

Imagine the number you get is the amount of times you spilled hot coffee on yourself. You would be justifiably afraid of coffee. But you can’t give up coffee, and you can’t NOT spill coffee on yourself. In order to function, every day is a constant barrage of messing your shirt and burning your nipples.

By the end of the day, I feared doors. I feared leaving my cubicle to go to the bathroom. I feared my daily [walk] to Starbuck’s. I feared going to the kitchenette to get a glass of water. I preferred gas pains and a screaming bladder to negotiating the path to the bathroom. I preferred the dull boredom of my computer screen to turning around in my cramped cubicle to look out the window.

But don’t let me discourage you from doing a similar exercise, especially for charity. I’ll do it again next year if only to remind myself how the smallest things can be huge for someone else.

Enjoy.

For me, it’s Architecture in Helsinki. They’re making me do a twist-and-bob-butt-scoot dance in my office chair. It’s like they kicked me in my spleen, if my spleen was full of happiness and bursting it caused happiness to spill all over my body.

Thanks, Crumpet.

Buy my shit. I want an iPhone.

It’ll be here on Thursday.  All my dreams will come true, and I’ll be the most popular boy on campus.  Passers-by will throw sex at me.  I will never get sick again.  If I had cancer, it’d be cured.

Jen-An, Owen, Jerry and I went to Chicago last week. The highlight of my time in Chicago was fulfilling a lifelong dream of mine. Family Guy stole my dream and made it a parody, so you may already know where this is going. I wanted to sit in front of Georges Seurat’s masterwork at The Art Institute and listen to The Dream Academy.

In Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, I identified with Cameron. I never wanted to be Ferris. I wanted to be - and be with - Cameron. He wasn’t my first movie crush, but he was important. The scene where the camera switches between Cameron’s eyes and those of the little girl in Sunday Afternoon on the Isle of La Grande Jatte was powerful for 14-year old me. I understood the longing in that exchange.

A little later, I started exploring Sondheim and rented the PBS performance of Mandy Patinkin in Sunday in the Park with George. I didn’t know it was about Georges Seurat’s famous painting until the end of Act I or that it was a multi-Tony-nominated musical; I thought I was making a discovery. The story is about the character of Seurat who isolates himself in pursuit of his art. That’s what I got out of it anyway.

Again, there’s that theme of loneliness with this painting. As a lonely little fella, I connected with this painting.

It’s breath-taking in person, and I nearly cried sitting there looking at it. I feel like Seurat painted it just for me, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels like that scene is Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was filmed just for me. Or that “Sunday,” the song from Sunday in the Park with George, was written just for me. Or that Seth MacFarlane and Co. wrote the parody in Family Guy just for me.

I’m sure that these things are loved by many, many, many people. How Eleanor Rigby of us.

This is the last I do of these because I don’t want for the website to be dedicated to this game. If you wish to follow along, you can download Nick’s mix. You can also read Magnus’s comments where you would normally find Magnus. His review will give a better feel for these tracks because they’re all very personal.

Track 1

• :02 Starts out with some solid, hard beats, and some possibly ironic piano playing.
• :25 Then the strangled voice comes in. This voice isn’t unpleasant. I might be able to listen to an album of this guys singing.
• 1:05 Some falsetto. What’s this song about? “I am my father’s son?” And how does it relate to “I wish I was a little girl so I could root myself in the shower?”
• 1:55 Some rough guitar solos. Lots of dirtiness to this track. I’m refraining from the word grunge because it’s too specifically linked with the 90s Seattle scene. But if the word grunge hadn’t been co-opted by that ultimately paper-thin “movement,” it would apply to this track.
• 2:40 Overall, not bad, but not to my tastes. I like the noisiness, the dirtiness, and the feedback. But it doesn’t hit me in a personal way.

Track 2

• :00 I like the understated opening. The higher guitar hitting the arpeggios is very nice. It sounds like a dreamy night under the stars.
• :24 This is a really nice waltz. Ethereal but it doesn’t take shit from anybody. It stands on firmly planted feet with those assured drums.
• 1:55 The third time I heard this I was watching a runner, and I started to imagine this as a soundtrack behind a race scene. It has that triumph-filled-with-pain feeling.
• 3:08 Changed key signatures to 4/4.
• 3:27 This is the real triumphant pain theme, and they’re doing a nice job of transitioning from 3/4 to 4/4 with the 3-3-2 beats. Someone’s been studying their text books.
• 4:57 Now we’re at the final run to the tape. The lead runner, our hero, knows he’s going to win, but he feels the intense pain in his chins and lungs.
• 5:37 The dénouement. Overall, beautiful track.

Track 3

• :01 “Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say…”
• :17 This voice is smooth. It puts me at ease, but at ease in a pub where I’m never fully at ease. I’m comfortable in a alcohol-induced way.
• 1:28 Nick, you really like a waltz. I can imagine you can show your partner around the dance floor.
• 2:18 Not enough can be said about the Hawaiian-by-the-sea feel to this track - the trumpet, the ukulele-sounding instrument. The accordion is a little out of place for Hawaii, but it still feels tropical.
• 3:31 I feel like he took some lessons from Peter Gabriel and just started mumbling word-like sounds into the microphone.
• 4:32 Very cool long coda that strips out the drums and strings, leaving it to the trumpet and accordion - a really brave way to end a track.

Track 4

• :00 Where are my glowsticks? I NEED MY GLOWSTICKS!
• :20 UH-UH-UH!!!
• :37 I told a friend one time that there are some tracks that just make you want to fuck. This is one of those.
• 1:03 Fuck underwater, to be specific.
• 1:24 I can do without the chorus. Or they could’ve found a stronger chorus because the lead singer overpowers the back-up.
• 2:15 This is “Under the Sea” from The Little Mermaid as interpreted by The Prodigy.
• 2:58 Seriously, the back-up monks need to go.
• 3:16 If you can’t tell, I really appreciate a thought out ending. That final guitar scratch is perfect for this track.

Track 5

• Because this song is pretty much a stand-up routine, I can’t really live-blog it. Once you’ve heard the jokes, a fourth or fifth listen doesn’t reveal anything more. I really like the “Kiss” motif around 1:27 and later. I also liked the “team-building exercise” T-Shirt because Jerry used to lead team-building exercises. I like to think that he’s singing to one of Jerry’s students. Since I know some of the females he’s taught, I like to picture these particularly frumpy people.

Track 6

• :03 If I would respond to this track I would respond with something from Björk’s Selmasongs. It has that everyday-noises-as-rhythm-section philosophy.
• :56 These ethereal voices are definitely not Björk-like. I feel like I’m underwater with this track.
• 1:24 This track sounds like it came from either a Sofia Coppola or John Hughes movie. I can see a young Alan Ruck looking deep into a pointillist masterpiece in front of this song.
• 2:32 The key signature changes. Things I’ve learned about Nick from this mix: he likes waltzes, songs that change time signatures midway through, and music that have a water feeling to them.
• 3:32 The Beach Boys have nothing on these guys.
• 3:49 You know what they say about water in dreams, don’t you? It’s all about the sex. So, Nick is obsessed with sex; it’s so obvious.
• 4:36 “Sixth floor: swimsuits, snorkels, underwater masks, tropical fish”

Track 7

• :03 Sorry, Nick, this is my least favorite song of the group. I really like positive messages in raps à la Common, but this song just lays there.
• 1:05 I do appreciate how you connected to Wowser’s song with the saxophone. That’s a brilliant connection.
• 2:18 This is about the time I go to sleep. See, in Wowser’s track the soothing sounds were welcome. This is boring interrupted by some guy rapping with false bravado.
• 3:22 But it’s blessedly short.

John’s up next. John, do you want to publish to this website or to Magnus? Magnus, will you have our friend be a guest blogger on your site?

Hello, my name is Nick, though some of you may know me as PulpAffliction. Nice to meet you!

On to the business at hand: our little game of telephone racism, one which I prefer to call Zatoichi’s 6. (Yes, Magnus, I like your original name.) After writing out a live blog of Wowser’s mix in the style that Mr. Alex has been using for the previous mixes, I realized I came off as a wordy, pretentious ass-hole. Suffice it to say, that’s not what I was aiming for. Instead, I’m doing my reviews as follows: I will use four words/terms, each separated by commas. The first will be a noun the song made me think of, second will be the color it made me think of, third will be a film it could be in and fourth will be a number indicating how I liked it compared to the other songs in Wowser’s mix (1 = best, 7 = worst.) For instance, if I were reviewing the song “The Magic Position” by Patrick Wolf this is what it would look like:

Circus, Yellow, “The Science of Sleep”, #

Got that? Without further ado, here goes:

————–

Track 1: Britain, White, “24 Hour Party People”, 3

Track 2: Ship, Blue-Green, “You, Me and Everyone We Know”, 4

Track 3: Gypsy, Bright Neon Exploding Yellow, “Everything is Illuminated”, 1

Track 4: WoW, Dark-Purple-Felt, “Braveheart”, 7

Track 5: John Cleese, Maroon, “Napoleon Dynamite”, 6 (Edit: I couldn’t tell if this was supposed to be comedy or not. I opted for the former. So. Yeah.)

Track 6: A Noise Band From the 70’s, Brown, Something directed by Chris Cunningham, 2

Track 7: Porn, Silver, “Anchorman”, 5

———–

So that’s that. Now off to my mix! But first; a short disclaimer: This isn’t exactly what I would have chosen, but I am on vacation right now, so I don’t have my music library. Instead I used what I could find on the internet, which means the songs veer more towards recent stuff.

More importantly, my songs are all DIRECT responses to the corresponding track on Wowser’s mix. Unfortunately I do not get extra credit for bringing it back down to six songs. There is no one to blame but Alex for the fact that it’s now seven songs. Ya hear that Alex? It’s your fault! So. Yeah.

Here it is: Enjoy!

Wowser, the next in line in our fabulous game of racism and musical elitism, finished up his mix based on mine. Like Magnus, I’m starting to really like this game. I listened to the mix the first time during lunch, and my gut reaction was, “This really is shite.” I chatted with Magnus a little, and realized I really hadn’t given it a fair shot. I listened to his mix many, many times before I started really digging the songs.

So, I’ve listened to it many more times today, which is blessedly easy given that they’re much shorter songs than Magnus’s. Without further ado let’s get into it. If you want to follow along, you must first follow the link.

Oh! But before I do, you get to know what my songs were:

• Track 1: “Boy” - Book of Love
• Track 2: “Kaleid” - Depeche Mode
• Track 3: “Light & Day / Follow the Sun” - Polyphonic Spree. But you knew that already.
• Track 4: “Avalon” - Roxy Music
• Track 5: “I’ve Been to a Marvelous Party” - The Divine Comedy channeling Noel Coward.
• Track 6: “Supersonic” - Basement Jaxx
• Track 7: “Off to Work” - Michael Giacchino from The Incredibles soundtrack

Now we’re off. Wowser’s mix. Now!

Track 1

• :01 We start with a bang. None of that meandering around like Magnus.
• :14 “woot myself in the shower?” How does one woot oneself?
• :44 “squelching awful?” I can tell already I’m going to have trouble with the accent. Bloody Brits, with their leaving out of rs.
• 1:31 I like the refrain. Wowser did a great job of connecting with the “I wish I was of the opposite sex” theme. That still doesn’t explain how one “woot”s oneself. I really dig the plinking piano in this, though.

Track 2

• :00 I like the playground melody. I feel like I should be playing hopscotch or double-dutching.
• :09 And an immediate introduction of some new sounds. Note to Magnus: this is how it’s done. No lingering in the doorway with the same sounds over and over again. We require some rapid changing up of the sounds. There’s only so many minutes in the day, you know.
• 1:08 Speaking of, this does have a kind of ticking clock vibe to it.
• 1:27 Jeez it’s halfway over. Thank you, Wowser! I like short songs…(but not big butts)
• 2:06 I like the Caribbean steel drum sound. That’s probably my favorite part.

Track 3

• :02 Huh?
• :19 Alright, I had to pause there. The first time I heard that Spanish voice I thought, “Oh laws…Wowser’s gone off the deep end.” After my sixth listen, I really, really dig this voice. I want to be in this guy’s beach resort.
• :43 I really struggled to connect this to The Polyphonic Spree, but now I don’t even care. It’s just fun and upbeat, and maybe that’s the connection. How can you be sad listening to this?
• 1:36 Spanish yodeling: A+
• 2:14 Ooooo. Fancy fiddle playing. I really admire that kind of verve in a player.
• 3:06 He’s talking about dancing. When aren’t the Spaniards/Latin Americans talking about dancing? What if you’re a bad dancer in those countries? Are you doomed to a miserable life? Do you get the shun?

Track 4

• :13 Mood music. I definitely see the connection to Roxy Music.
• :34 Is this Spinal Tap?
• :59 Bring me my broadsword? And the talisman? I really hope this spot in our game of telephone isn’t doomed to be all about medieval moping. Where are the hobbits?
• 2:11 Yep. Definitely hobbits.
• 2:30 And thus began The Great Guitar Solo of Pretension. And lo, the mastiff did bow its head. And the wee man with the nose of rotted fruit did dismount. And The Great White Wizard did proclaim this day to be one of Majesty.
• 4:23 I don’t have your broadsword. Did you check under the cushions?

Track 5

• :06 Jesus, that brogue just hit me across the face like a wet fish. I feel violated.
• :34 A labyrinth under the sea? So, we’re continuing with the fantasy theme are we?
• 1:26 Sleepy people. That may be a first for me - yawning as a musical statement.
• 2:17 “I can’t read well because of my horns.” The two things aren’t related. Unless your horns grow from your eye sockets. Then I suppose it would be very hard to read.
• 2:56 The background singers just got pissed all sudden-like. It’s like the blood alcohol level passed an invisible but vital boundary, and they went from sober to drunk in one second.
• 3:07 Where’s the “I’m drunk” hiccup? There needs to be a hiccup at the end.

Track 6

• :03 I have time on this one. This particular track is very, very difficult for me to like. It just doesn’t go with my tastes. I’ll try my damnedest, though.
• :54 What’s fascinating to me about this track is how it might connect with Basement Jaxx’s “Supersonic.” At first I thought they’re polar opposites. “Supersonic” is so controlled and focused on the beat. It is entirely about the production work. Where this is so free and all about spontaneity, and the mix happens while playing. Then I thought about it some more and realized there’s probably just as much production work on this track as there is on “Supersonic.” And if you want to talk about spontaneity, I now realize that may be exactly what Basement Jaxx was going for with “Supersonic”…using their own language. So, really they match quite well.
• 4:49 I prefer this beat to the frenetic one of two minutes ago. I can even kind of dig the guitar moaning.
• 5:40 I need a joint or a hit of acid to appreciate this fully I think.
• 6:22 I kind of expect an end more thought out than a fade-out. This guy’s all about the free-form. A fade-out seems too simple for him.

Track 7

• :04 Wailing sax or clarinet. That’s beautiful.
• :40 I really prefer this structured kind of jazz. It brings me back to my jazz band days in high school.
• 1:14 I seriously need to look into some nice clarinet/sax music. That thing makes me cry. No, not that Kenny G shit. Some good shit like this.
• 2:08 It borders on tropical music with xylophone and the kind of breezy vacation feel to it.
• 3:20 Wowser, if this is your type of music, you really need to check out the soundtrack to Mirrormask. It’s a little less structured than this, and it crosses into other genres at a moment’s notice. But this reminds me of it.
• 4:38 Mr. Saxophone man, would you come over and serenade me every night like this? This is perfect for calming the nerves, for slipping off to sleep.
• 5:49 I sense Mr. Saxophone just got goosed. He went a bit crazy there.
• 6:22 More of the same to the end, methinks. Damn good, Wowser.

So, PulpAffliction is up next. You have Wowser’s mix. Your mix should be based on his, but don’t put too much thought into it. Or do. It’s up to you. The kind of gut reactions to songs are producing the most fun connections I think. On the other hand, there should be some one-on-one correspondence. Half the fun for me was deciphering that connection. Double points if you can combine two of his tracks into one of your tracks. That would get us back to Magnus’s original six.

- Edit -

Ladies and gentlemen, this post is for one person, one Mr. MagnusfromBerlin. You can follow along, but not knowing what I’m referring to will make it hard on you. That’s how it goes at Balding Angrily. You just have to read and be confused. The tracks at the end? You are not allowed to help Magnus figure them out. You will be hit by a truck if you do. From here on, I am speaking only to Sir Magnus.

Last week MagnusfromBerlin let me download some songs so I could review them. While I’m not qualified or capable of giving a good review in a meaningful way, I can easily spit out the first thing in my head when hearing a song. His rules were simple. He wouldn’t give me the artist or the name of the song.

He chose songs that I likely wouldn’t know because he’s extra cruel.

I chose songs to respond to his, and posted them at the end. He’s since responded to the post you’re reading right this moment. We both want you to play along. We want you to choose six or seven songs that respond to mine, take off any identifying information, and give it to one or both of us to yak about.

Below are my impressions of his songs. You can follow along to my rambling if you want. Download the six songs he gave me here. I wrote this all directly to him. Keep that in mind when you get to “you” statements.

Track 01 - The first time I heard it, it made me think of that stretched-out Beethoven project. Lots of pulsing.

:32 Ooh! A beat! But still more pulsing that never ends. Ever.
1:00 Godammit. The beat ended. The best part and it’s over.
1:48 I feel the beat coming back. Come on. Any second now. You can do it.
2:00 There’s the bass beat, but not the whip-cracking.
2:19 THERE IT IS!! You had me wondering there for a second.
2:39 Ooh! A chord change! Hooray for chord changes!
3:06 Kick-ass lyrics. I wish I knew what he/she was saying. “But I’m hitching a ride”?
3:36 And the synths pick up the melody. This is getting very cool.
4:16 “I can see lights”?
4:30 Seriously, I’m starting to bob my head and dance. I’m digging this track.
4:55 Uh-oh, I’m sensing an end. The chord changes are only in the base line, and now the drum just ended again. This is the “go take a bump off your best friend’s fingernail” interlude.
6:08 Yay! Back to the full orchestration and lyrics! Time to put away the coke and get back on the dance floor!
6:42 You know how I love the Johnny Marr-esque guitar. I feel like that’s what made you send this track to me.
7:24 With only a minute to go, I sense it’s just more of the same to the end. That’s a’aight. I had a lot of fun with this track.

Track 02 - I wouldn’t be surprised if I knew who this is. I’ll let you confirm it though.

:14 This is how you start off a track. Immediately with the drumbeats and some nice piano tinkling.
:43 This voice is very distinct. I’m sure I know who it is, especially with the chorus and lyrics.
1:00 Real drums! Not always with the synths are you Magnus.
1:32 Seriously. Where did the opera singer from the “Star Trek Original Series Theme Song” come from?
2:18 Get-a-bump-of-coke time.
2:35 Not a synth to be heard. Now we’re full-on, real instruments. I love a mixture of synth and real instruments like that.
3:00 Especially that free-form guitar. Very cool.
3:37 “Everyone needs their own life they can follow. Going backwards”? How does one do that?
4:14 Very cool whispered coda.

Track 03

:08 Mandolin-type Spanish-ish guitar. Dig it.
:22 This guy sounds very mopey. Very Spandau Ballet.
1:00 I can’t really listen to the lyrics while trying to type. I like the background piano, though.
1:42 Who’s Ada? His girlfriend? A mythical goddess-type? I can see that. This is kind of an ethereal song that wouldn’t be out of place in a Lord of the Rings movie.
2:27 You got me with the weeping strings. I’m a sucker for strings.
3:08 This song, unfortunately, doesn’t really go anywhere. It’s exceedingly beautiful, but the build is a little too slight.

Track 04

:00 With a laugh, I can already tell this is going to be a fun song.
:23 Very cool bass line. I’m bobbing again. Just like in the first track.
:46 The voice is very Dave Gahan-esque.
1:00 Then it isn’t. I feel this guy is kind of like Bjork. English is his second language.
1:31 I really love the beat and the bass line. In fact, I’m having a hard time being eloquent. I just want to bob my head.
2:42 Kind of like the last track, it’s not really building. While I love this beat, too much of it can get tiring.
3:32 How come I feel like I’m on a camel in the Sahara, bobbing over sandy dunes?
4:05 I like the production work on the guitar. I like that forever-echo type thing.
5:18 Overall - B

Track 05 - Since I’ve heard all these before writing these as-I-hear-them gut reactions, I have to say this is a very fun track. Probably the most fun of all these. Okay, back to the song.

:04 I’m in a video game. I’m shooting beasties. I’m in Galaga.
:27 “I make these mix tapes. I make these pony roads”?
:42 Between the mix tapes, the bees, and the dad that goes to Dad School…what in the fuck is this song about?
1:48 Break it down.
1:58 I like how you gave me a break with some real music, and then went came right back to this pure-synth craziness.
2:25 If I had a synth version of my voice, I’d use it on my outgoing message on my answering machine.
3:15 Fucking bees again.
3:38 And now back to the mix tapes.
4:09 Game over. The beasties finally got the gun-ship.

Track 06

:06 And we’re back to the never-ending pulsing.
:23 Double time. (Kinda like Hammer-time, but not at all.)
:46 I’m cleaning my keyboard with an air sprayer.
1:33 Ominous chords? Why? Who done something wrong? Why all the creepiness?
1:58 Since I know this isn’t going end any time soon, I’ll take this opportunity to tell you what this song reminds me of. It feels like a high-tech heist. Like this would be playing under a scene where some tech-heads were breaking into a big high-tech computer company and they were going to steal some big high-tech thingamabob.
3:48 A brief end to the monotony, and then back to it.
4:09 I should say I like this song a lot more than I’m letting on…but I seriously think it needs to be accompanied by some kind of video. By itself, it’s just too much of the same over-and-over.
5:18 I really like the snaps and kind of intermittent sound effects. I think that really sells this song.
6:27 This song is telling me something. It’s speaking in its beepy language. This song is self-aware.

Now for my 6 (7) songs. I put this together to respond to yours. The connection isn’t always obvious. This was kind of a stream-of-consciousness exercise for me. I chose based on a gut reaction, not with a whole lot of thought.

The first two songs on my mix represent the first track on yours. They are in order. In other words, 1 & 2 of mine represents 1 on yours. 3 on mine represents 2 on yours. 4 on mine represents 3 on yours. Etc. Got it?

Track 1

Track 2

Track 3

Track 4

Track 5

Track 6

Track 7

I was originally going to call this “Things That Remind Me Of Oregon,” but I started gushing so much about Poi Dog Pondering, that I thought they deserved a full treatment. I’ll write about Oregon in a later post.

I worked at a record store, my dream job, as soon as I hit 16. In order to get the job, I had to prove to The Simpson’s Comic Book Store Guy-type manager that I really wanted to work there. I came back to the store week-after-week just to check in with him, and to convince him he should hire me.

One of the assistant managers, a lanky, long-haired guy, played Poi Dog’s self-titled debut albummany, many times throughout my shifts working behind the video rental counter. I remember at first I hated it. Frank Orrall’s voice - which Jerry says reminds him of The Housemartins - isn’t exactly pleasant for a 16 year-old trying to pinpoint his taste in music. His voice isn’t exactly unpleasant either, and it’s not like I ever listened to Debbie Gibson or Tiffany-style 80s bubblegum pop.

I wish I could adequately describe this album. It has a lot of acoustic guitar, backing vocals from band members that sound like friends come over during a jam-session, and the lyrics paint pictures of biosphere cycles, right-before-you-wake-up, slumbering dreams, and poetic sex.

After a couple of months of listening to Poi Dog in the store, I really started looking forward to it. For one thing, there was the trombone solo in “Aloha Honolulu.” I am a trombone player, and how often do you get to hear a trombone solo in modern songs? There was still the matter of the female voice on “Falling,” which to me at that time, was like nails on a chalkboard. Now, I love this song; she sounds like she took voice lessons in India, but it works. For a touch of irony, there’s a song called “Wood Guitar,” which, I believe, is the only song with an un-hush-able electric guitar hitting against bullish drums. After the last whine of it, a ballad-like acoustic guitar plays out the song.

Christmas came, and we visited my family in Oregon. I stayed a couple of nights with my cousin in Eugene where I made her boyfriend drag me around to all the electronics stores to look for a Discman. I bought one eventually, and later bought Poi Dog Ponderingand the soundtrack to The Little Mermaid. I played those two CDs back-to-back in my cousin’s furniture-less, starving-student apartment. She noted that my tastes in music were a bit inconsistent.

I believe I have CDs in my collection that I’ve had longer than these two, but very few. Poi Dog’s first album is still one of my most played. Whenever I want to feel happy and slightly hippy-ish, I find it on my iPod and sing along.

Here are lyrics from “Pulling Touch,” which, to me, is the most beautifully worded song about physical intimacy. It features Susan Voelz’s atmospheric violin in its long intro.

You are a butterfly and my eyes are needles
The cold has your breast and my hand is on fire
Are you resting and reposing? Oh, my veins are pulsing
And nothing can cure me, but your pulling touch
And nothing can cure me, but your pulling touch

I’ll stretch you out and lay along side you
Run my hands along, devour, and divide you

In the cool of the night under a rain-pelted roof
Beneath cotton-white linen our love is spilt
Are you the cup that I hold by the cheekbones?
I pull you close and I drink you up
Are you the cup that I hold by the cheekbones?
I pull you close and I drink you up

I’ll stretch you out and lay along side you
Run my hands along, devour, and divide you

Consider this post your Overlooked CD of the Week. I can, without reservation, recommend this album.