Melodious music

Farelka

2009-05-24T22:04:00.003+02:00

Any Polish band playing on Melodious Music is a thing that is worth mentioning as I don't consider Polish music scene as particulalry melodious (to put it mildly). The occasion to write something about a Polish band is that a Polish actress Alicja Bachleda-Curuś is dating the Irish actor, Colin Farell. (Who knows, maybe they've even already kissed, God please forgive them). Their relationship and especially the status of the Polish film star brings to my mind a good Polish song "Farelka" (a Farell's girl), by the band named Kevin Arnold.

Farelka is kind of electric heater, very popular in Poland in the communist times, when there were frequent heating-systems' outages, so farelka was a priceless device. I like the concept of the song: the guy sings as if farelka was a girl ("spending evenings together", etc.). But the problem is that as there is no perfect girlfriend, there's also no perfect electric heater (farelka also used to break sometimes).

Kevin Arnold - Farelka (2000)

_____

Discovering of the Beatles

2009-01-25T22:41:00.004+01:00

I remember quite clearly the day when I really fell in love with The Beatles. It was in my secondary school, on the English lesson. Our English teacher used to make a singing lesson from time to time. We first analyzed the text of the song (in English of course) and then we sang at the top of our lungs. One day the song that served as didactic material was The Beatels' "Nowhere Man". Of course, I had known the band earlier, but rather superficially. I used to think of them as of only a little bit better version of Czerwone Gitary (Polish followers of the Beatles). I was dead wrong.

I took me the next few years to explore all the Beatels' music. No wonder, as they released (in the UK) 12 albums which contain the treasure of everything the best in the rock'n'roll music. "Nowhere Man" comes from the "Rubber Soul" album (1965), which is in the middle of the Beatels' musical journey (it lasted from 1960 to 1970). The longplay ends the joyful, energetic, twist-and-shout period and begins the more mature and reflexive one. I love "Rubber Soul" for its ascetic sound and the sweetness of melody. And for "Nowhere Man" of course.

The Beatles - Nowhere Man (1965)

_____

It is because it is from Sweden

2009-01-21T20:01:00.004+01:00

The expression "so what that it is from Sweden" (cóż, że ze Szwecji) is one the most difficult phrases to pronunciate in Polish. It is comparable to "a table with broken legs" (stół z powyłamywanymi nogami). Expressions like these, for a foreigner learning Polish, are Mont Everest of Polish language. An exceptionally demanging teacher of Polish could create a sentence like "So what that it is from Sweden (e.g. from Ikea) when it has broken legs". If you don't speak Polish: believe me, it is extremely difficult.

When talking about good music the expression "so what that it is from Sweden" doesn't make much sense. It suggests that the thing from Sweden - although it is from Sweden - is poor, dissappointing, etc. Not in the world of melodious music. I appreciate Swedish bands a lot and I'm always keen on checking some new band or discovering some older one. My first, and loved to these days, important Swedish band is Eggstone. I discovered them on the unforgetable Viva2 TV channel and they dominated my 2002 music year. In the summer that year I was looking for a job and although I didn't find any (or maybe because of that), that was a great summer.

Eggstone - Summer and Looking For a Job (1996)

___

The Band from Barrack Obama's Childhood Country

2008-11-05T19:35:00.004+01:00

The world learned today who is gonna be the next president of the USA. Although the position of this country has diminished quite considerably recently, it is still quite an important issue for the globe. It is also very important for the melodious music as many of the bands that will appear here come from America. So, what does the result of the US election mean for the melodious music? I'm the optimist.

After they chose Obama, I felt kind of obliged to learn something about his life history. He moved a lot in his life which makes me - also a wandering guy - like him a bit. Between the age of 6 and 10 he lived in Jakarta, Indonesia; there he was going to school and some say that he still speaks Indonesian quite fluently. By the way, I like the motto of this exotic country, which is "Unity in Diversity" (Bhinekka Tunggal Ika).

Once I met a nice band from Indonesia. The guys (among them one girl - "Unity in Diversity") play twee pop and their aim is of course to rule the world.

Annmarie - Wonder Boy (2006)

_____

A lesson of (hindu) religion

2008-11-02T18:41:00.003+01:00

Once upon a time there was a band called Kula Shaker. Actually, it still exists because it was reformed in 2004, as it often happens with bands. However, during the period of its first existance (1995-1999) the public liked Kula Shaker more, which also is quite typical case. I also liked Kula Shaker. Even today I remember my way to and from school in my hometown Kielce, hearing sounds of Kula Shaker's songs coming from, in those days, walkman and cassette rolling in it. I walk along Sciegienny St., Seminaryjska St., Sniadeckich St., and there, as I approach my school, I need to prepare to say "good bye" to my music.

I find the song "Tattva" the best of all Kula Shaker's songs. A masterpiece. In Sanskrit, an old-Indian language, tattva means "thatness", "principle", "reality", or "truth". It is also, or maybe most of all, an aspect of deity. Well, as I was brought up in the catholic religion and its interpretation and vision of the reality, it's a bit difficult for me to understand and, even more difficult, to explain the nuances of hinduism and the meaning of what Crispian Mills (himself very into hinduism) sings. Nevertheless, I believe that he sings about good, positive things that bring peace to all people and to the world.

Kula Shaker - Tattva (1996)

_____

A Wonderful State of Being High

2008-10-28T23:50:00.003+01:00

What do the following women have in common? The first is Valentina Tereshkova, a Soviet cosmonaut (now the 71 years old lady), the first woman who, on 16 June 1963, flew in space and orbited the Earth 48 times. The second is Malgorzata Dydek, the Polish female basketball player, who - being 215 cm tall - has been the tallest player in the American professional female basketball leeague, WNBA ever. And the third, last but not least (I'd better wrote it), is my girlfiend who lives on the 13th floor, which is, here in Warsaw, still remarkably high Well, all the three ladies are (or were) looking down on what is going on here, among common people. It might be them who Damon Albarn and his fellows from Blur were singing about in one of their earliest songs.

Blur - She's So High (1990)

_____

Sleep the Autumn Around

2008-10-26T22:37:00.005+01:00

Last night we changed the time on our clocks to switch to the so called winter time. I must admit I didn't manage to wake up at 2am (when the clocks should be formally turned) and I turned my clock only in the morning. By the way, regarding changing the time, stopping the time or any kind of manipulating it, there is a sign at my swimming-pool, in the cloakroom, saying "HERE YOU CAN STOP THE TIME". I like this message.

I don't like this autumn one time-change though, even if we allegedly "sleep one hour longer". For me this time-change means, most of all, that it will get dark at 4pm, that there are 5months left to spring, and that generally it's not funny. An uncompromising attitude towards the time was shown in one song of the Scotts from Belle and Sebastian. They propose to sleep 24h a day, to sleep the clock around. Then you don't care if the clock is turned one hour back or forward.

Belle and Sebastian - Sleep the Clock Around (1998)

_____

A bear

2008-10-19T22:57:00.004+02:00

I cannot remember the way I discovered Panda Bear, a solo project of Noah Lennox (one of the founders of Animal Collective). Mr Lennox named his project like that referring to his youth time when he was drawing panda bears on the covers of his early musical projects. The truth is that he doesn't need any artistical pseudonym at all. He's got a great surname which resembles me one of the Beatels' surname (but I need some time to recall, who it was).

It's not the first time when my hypothesis about positive influence of classic musical education on later devotion to melody and harmony is confirmed. Today's hero, Noah Lennox, when being young, was playing the piano and cello, and what is more, he was a memeber of a chamber choir. I remember that while attending my primary music school I also preferred singing in the choir to playing in a stupid accordion band. The former had much more diversified gender structure, the latter had an unstable conductor... I don't know what type of conductor had Lennox in his choir and whether there were any girls or not. What is obvious, that experience quite nicely influenced later musical taste of the former choir member.

Panda Bear - Take Pills (2007)

_____

Where Did You Crash Last Night?

2008-10-04T22:41:00.009+02:00

They seem to have found the wreck of Steve Fosset's airplane, an american multimillionaire and traveller, who, having earned a lot of money, decided just to... fly or sail around the Earth. He was doing it, as with making money, with success, as he is probably the first man ever who in 2005, alone and without an inter-landing, circled the Earth. I liked this guy I must say and I was always happy to hear about his new, more or less crazy, challanges. There is something optimistic when a guy with huge money starts to express himself in something different than business. It's good when a man, becoming wealthier, develops aspirations and values that are, in the sociological jargon, called post-materialist.

It seems however that Steve Fosset will not be able to realize these values any more (sorry for this piece of black humour). They found the wreck of his plane so probably he (or what left of him) will also be found and identified. But so far his body has not been found. These words bring to my mind some gloomy verse of one song. The verse is "and his body never was found" and the song is "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?", the old, American-folk song, popularized by Nirvana and their great performance of it in 1993. The song itself deserves a separate post. What I find particularly interesting is that despite the fact that I generally don't like shouting in music, I love the Cobain's shout at the end of the song and I invariably consider it one of the best shouts in the history of (this harder) rock. But today, as you all probably know the Nirvana's version, I have a version that is closer to the song's folk roots, the performance of Leadbelly from some 1944.

Leadbelly - Where Did You Sleep Last Night? (1944)

___

The Quarrels of Lovers

2008-10-02T13:55:00.004+02:00

Anyone who has ever quarreled with his/her girlfriend/boyfriend will perfectly understand this song. And since anyone who has had a girfriend/boyfriend for sure also must have quarreled, the song should be understood by many. The lyrics, although banal (like "My girl's mad at me / I didn't wanna see the film tonight), quite reliably reflect the essence of a quarrel as something inevitable in relations.

The inevitability of quarrels results from some fundamental differences that sooner or later must appear in any close relation of two people. To discover these differences, to understand them, to accept them, and sometimes just to bear them - that's real art. Bigger than war and diplomacy joined together. "Amantium irae amoris integratio est" (The quarrels of lovers are the renewal of love), said Terence. Well, the person who experienced situations described in this song would strongly disagree.

Madness - My Girl (1979)

___

The Ancient Roots of Modern Indie-Scepticism

2008-09-28T18:30:00.007+02:00

During my studies, which are getting more and more behind, I had an opportunity to attend a great lecture in history of the ancient philosophy. It was great because of the lecturer, rev. prof. Edward I. Zielinski. Every monday, from 10 till 11:30, slowly, accessibly, with humor and charisma at the same time, he was talking about the anciect philosophers and their ideas.

When a few days ago I was listening to the chorus of one song, some philosophical school came to my mind - namely the sceptics. They basically believed nobody and in nothing. They claimed that the man, being unable to know the true nature of things, should not make any judgments and not give any opinions on any issues. They didn't like dogmatics and dogmatic beliefs, which - in their opinion - lead only to confusion and anxiety. The only think, they believed, that leads to the peace of mind, is resignation from any judgments. Well, quite an interesting philophical school, isn't it?

The Magnetic Fields - I Don't Believe You (2004)

___

Advantages of autumn

2008-09-24T23:34:00.004+02:00

What may be the advantages of autumn? For some reason the first that comes to my mind is that you no longer need to wash your clothes so often. But you need to dry them longer though... During long, chilly, autumn evenings you can fully appreciate just being at home and enjoying pleasures that are either related to home or taste the best there.

Here, on the Melodious music blog, the great thing about leaving summer is that I can play you a wonderful song that I've keeping for you especially on this ocassion. Its author is Lisle Mitnik with its 1-person project, Fireflies. As he writes in his biogram, he was growing up in tundras of New England, playing classical piano and one day he decided to start composing songs and record them by himself on a laptop. Well, he could not decide better.

Fireflies - Summer Has Gone (2007)

___

Coming soon

2008-08-31T22:14:00.001+02:00

Coming soon, probably sooner than even I think.