Bat For Lashes

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

I admit that it took me a while to give Bat For Lashes (aka Natasha Khan, with a band for touring) a fair chance. I'm naturally suspicious of wispy girly girl voices (a small rant on this subject can be read in my review of Wildbirds & Peacedrums) and she looks so much like Lily Allen that she didn't stand out in my mind for a while. Honestly, I'd heard nothing but good things, and the reviews I'd read made the album sound like it was full of the kind of music I would make (Elemental, drawing from several decades of influences, lyrically sentimental). Her preoccupation and personal identification with bats reminds me of my own with wolves; I'd willing put my support behind any other fully grown adult who relates personally to an animal in a heartbeat. She opened for CocoRosie and did an AMAZING cover of Springsteen's "I'm On Fire" (thanks Gilly for calling this to my attention!), which is hands down one of the best and most appropriate covers I've ever heard. Finally, I stumbled across the video for "What's a Girl To Do," which is what convinced me to open up. So I gave in and got the album. I've been listening to it for a few days now, and I'm still on the fence.

What's a Girl To Do

For me, "What's A Girl To Do" is the best song on the album, and I KNOW I feel this way because it sounds like a Shangri-La's song. I have a well documented love and appreciation for 60's girl groups, and the teenage melodrama that "WAGTD" is drenched in taps into that energy PERFECTLY. If it was her intention to pay homage there, she did an amazing job. I really, really like this song, don't get me wrong. But I still can't LOVE it, mostly because the lyric "When your dreams are on the train to train wreck town" really, really annoys me. I realize and fully admit to what a dick I can be when it comes to lyrical content in a song- it's virtually impossible for me to get over dumb lyrics, even if the music itself is beautifully arranged. I hear music as poetry accompanied by instruments, which puts me in the position to be disappointed more often than not.

The other tracks on the album mostly leave me feeling unfulfilled. To be honest, a lot of them remind me of Tori Amos; which is fine, except there's already a Tori Amos and she's still making albums. The album version (not the single version, which is quite different) of the song "Prescilla," which lyrically is incredibly appropriate for me right now (about a woman who decides to settle down and have children early because she's losing her faith through bad relationships and too much partying), sounds SO MUCH like a track that could be on "Little Earthquakes" that it throws me completely off. The ideas behind a lot of these songs are wonderful and insightful, but the delivery just falls flat for me a lot of the time.

The song "Sad Eyes," which is apparently her tear jerking trump card at live shows, is SO gooey and theatrical that I have trouble getting through the entire song. That being said, I should also add that I'm positive I would have loved it when I was 15, and certainly would have put it on countless mix tapes for my high school boyfriend. My attitude toward this song was reaffirmed by all the comments left for the lyrics on songmeanings.net, including the following gem: "this is song is(sic) so beautiful... apparently natasha drank and smoked loads before recording this song just to get into the sad mood... she's so awesome." OMG, sooooo awesome.

Album opener "Horse and I," apparently inspired by the story of Joan of Arc, is quickly growing on me, though. It's mystical, strangely sexual, and makes me feel a little bit like an animal- all good things. Plus, you have to give props to a song with a strong female protagonist that has nothing to do with men or their "Sad Eyes." Thank GOD. (I'd just like to add that after writing this review, and looking up Bat For Lashes' Myspace to link for you guys, I discovered that Thom Yorke of Radiohead said almost exactly the same thing about this song. I swear that when I wrote it down it was an original opinion, haha.)

All in all, I think Bat For Lashes is a promising artist but this album isn't as good as it had the potential to be. As I mentioned earlier, the theories and thoughts behind the songs themselves are typically great, but the follow-through doesn't do her writing much justice. I'm willing to bet that her next album will be absolutely amazing but universally hated by critics, and once people aren't watching her so closely her talent will really explode. I've got my fingers crossed!

batforlashes.com
full tracks on myspace.com

Free Blood

Saturday, February 16, 2008

It's generally accepted that after 20 weeks of being pregnant the baby can hear the music you play, and suggested by some that the kind of music you play will somehow affect your unborn when his day of liberation finally arrives. If this is indeed true, I'm not entirely sure what to tell you about my little guy, considering I've listened to virtually nothing but the new Free Blood tracks since they appeared in the atmosphere of my life a few days ago.

I first stumbled across Free Blood (once a trio, now John Pugh from !!! and clothing designer Madeline Davy) on Myspace (you'd be surprised at how much amazing music you can find there, if you're patient and REALLY want it) back in March '07, a month that many of you know I spent not leaving my house, smoking copious amounts of pot, watching "Family Feud" with my dad and refusing to be open minded about anything APART from music. The first track of their's I heard was "The Royal Family" (although at the time it was called "WDWD") and it blew my cynical hermit mind. It's not very often that I so quickly attach myself to a group, but there was something about Free Blood's sound that was interesting enough to immediately win me over. It was chaotic, catchy, driven and completely peculiar- exactly what I so badly needed.

It seems like Free Blood prefers being an entirely live phenomenon- their Myspace page seems to be their only solid connection to listeners outside of the Brooklyn area who can't attend their shows at various clubs and pitch black basement parties. The designated "homepage" brings you to a web design company's website and for months there was no place to actually buy their music. In fact, it's pretty difficult to find any information about them at all aside from reviews of their live shows written by "hipster" "bloggers." By summer I'd mostly given up hope I'd ever hear much more from them, but thankfully over the past week there's been a sudden fury of activity. There's a video out now for "the Royal Family" and vinyl for sale through roughtrade and boomkat. Keep your eye on these two, that's all I'm saying; I haven't heard anything truly NEW that appealed to me this much in a long, long time and (provided you like this sort of music in the first place) I doubt this will be the last you hear of them.


The Royal Family video

They're playing a live show with Hot Chip in Boston on April 14th, two days before my 26th birthday. I'll be 7 and a half months pregnant by then, roughly the size of a small planet. Provided I can stomach the drive, do you imagine there'll be room for a pregnant lady who can't exactly dance at a mind blowing dance party? Because seriously, how could I miss this?

Links:
Free Blood @ Myspace
Full tracks available on last.fm

"I call him Cosmic Creepers because that's the name he came with."

Friday, February 15, 2008

aka: The Part Where I Talk About My Cat On the Internet

In October, right before we found out I was pregnant, David and I took in a stray cat that had been living under a wood pile behind an apartment complex next to our old place. A regular at the bar we used to live above spotted him under a car, and after trying several unsuccessful times to lure him out he finally got David's attention. The cat (like most small, adorable things) instantly took a shine to David and went running over to him, purring and such. So when I came home from visiting my parents that day there was an tiny black muffin in my apartment, and what choice did I really have? After that he quickly became a part of our family, fleas and all (well, we evicted the fleas).

Cosmo (short for Cosmic Creepers, named after Ms. Price's cat in 'Bed Knobs and Broomsticks') is definitely an eccentric. Despite being, as far as we know, feral for the first 6 months to a year of his life, he's a complete cuddlebug and also a total feline genius. Even though he's got a few odd habits (we call him a trashcan cat because of his affinity for things like trash, bathrooms, and rolling around in dust), he repeats the things I say back to me by meowing with the same inflection I put on my own words. I think he believes David and I are the biggest, ugliest cats he's ever seen and is desperately trying to communicate with us the same way we try to with him: mimicry. A commercial came on television once where a women's voice called "Coffeeeeeeee!" in a similar way to how I say his name, and from the next room he meowed back, thinking it was me looking for him. I speak to him in an alternate language that his being so fucking adorable just naturally brings out of me; I'll spare you the details, but there are a lot of b's and o's in it. He's been my constant companion through this sick, hard pregnancy and all the long days I've had to stay home on the couch. He's been invaluable to me, keeping me sane with his general awesomeness.

(Cosmo's very important input: "nm jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjh bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn")

The week before we moved, we had to scramble to get all of his medical work done. The Saturday prior to the move he got his first round of shots, dewormer, etc. That was traumatizing enough for him (he fights us whenever we try to take him anywhere slightly resembling "outside" - apparently he has no desire to ever return to his woodpile existence), but then the following Thursday he was neutered. Since he's an older cat (the vet thinks he's about a year old) the surgery affected him differently than it did ever other animal I've kept, who were all neutered or spade while very young. Honestly, I wasn't sure he'd ever be the same. For days and days and days he sulked around, never meowed, his breathing was irregular, he didn't show any interest in affection. I was sure we'd killed his spirit and was had made up my mind never to forgive myself. I had to literally chase him down and stuff him into his cat carrier to bring him here to my grandmothers house in Springfield, and he glared at me from the backseat the entire way.


(an idea)

Amazingly enough, he's taken to my grandmothers house in a way I never expected. Maybe it's because he has so much more room to move around now, or because there hasn't been any other animals here since the 70s, but Cosmo has officially decided this house is his home. Within minutes of being let out of his carrier he was running around, exploring, not shy at all. It was like he came back to life instantly! He sits in front of the den window for hours looking out at the squirrels and the crows in the yard; his body literally shakes with excitement. He runs around and plays just like he used to, except now he has lots of different places to hide. And, thank god, he's vocal again- every time I get up at night to pee (this happens approximately 14 thousand times) he follows me down the hallway like a toddler, meowing and bouncing alongside of me. He basically is attached to every part of this house, which is a LITTLE unfortunate considering we'll be moving into the basement next week (when my grandmother comes back; she hates cats), but once we get down there he'll have an entirely new universe to explore. Cross your fingers!

I won't get into the logistics of living at my grandmothers yet, only because it seems so time consuming and probably boring to type it all out. I will say, though, that the second night we were here I had a dream about my grandfather. He rang the doorbell (to the house he lived in for 50 years) and when I answered it he came in, dressed up in his winter gear, smiling and asking us how we liked the house. That's got to mean something, right?

Registries

Apparently there's no right way for me to link to our registries in the comments section of blogspot, which is where I just tried to leave them. Here they are, for those interested!

Babies R Us

Amazon.com (in progress)

Lack O' Net

Monday, February 11, 2008

David and I just moved from Worcester back to the Springfield area.It's just another temporary move, but every little step is at least getting us *closer* to someday. The mental ramifications of this particular move (into my grandparents house now that my grandmother is in a rehab hospital, where she'll most likely stay) is something I'll cover later when I have more time, but needless to say it's very odd.

Has anyone else noticed that I change residences completely an average of every 6 months? What the fuck is wrong with me?

Anyhow, I'm on my mothers lap top right now on borrowed time- I'm not sure exactly when we'll get the internet hooked up at the house. Sometime this week, knock on wood? When I get back I'll definitely respond to all of your awesome comments- you guys are making me so excited about writing again!

Love you, loves!

It's a boy!

Friday, February 8, 2008

We found out officially at the ultrasound yesterday that the Human Bean is going to, indeed, be a boy. This comes as shock to just about everyone (aside from myself, Renee, and an astrologer I consulted) who believed to the point of complete convincing that I was carrying a girl. I guess the places I've put weight on, how I'm carrying my bump, and even the sorts of foods I'd been craving (chocolate milk has been my biggest weakness) are all typical to old wives tales about women carrying girls. I always had a suspicion it was a boy, though! I did some googling, and found that in a study that asked women with no previous knowledge about their baby's sex, the moms-to-be correctly guessed the sex of their baby 71% of the time. Womens intuition wins every time!

Really, though, it doesn't change anything. I'd already put my foot down to my family about gender specific toys and clothes, months before we knew. David and I had decided on a space/rocket ship theme for the nursery and would have continued with it if the baby had been a girl. My wanting to give my son a gender neutral childhood doesn't mean I want to dress him up in frilly pink dresses, and it isn't about depriving him from having fun or doing the things he wants to do. I just think childhood is for exploring the world around you and learning about yourself, not for reinforcing a warped view of masculinity on a little human being who doesn't know that society thinks he's "supposed" to be one way or another. He'll have to deal with that in his own ways as he gets older, but I think the home should always be a safe place where he feels like he can be himself, whoever that may be.

Not surprisingly, it's pretty difficult to find gender neutral clothing that isn't beige, boring, or just plain ugly. I managed to find one really terrific (but expensive, of course) gender neutral children's clothing store online, called PolkadotPatch Boutique. The clothes there are absolutely adorable! I especially like this lamb coat & booties set! I better start saving now, haha.

The always amazing Etsy.com also has lots of exciting baby clothes, and I have a feeling this is where I'll do a lot of shopping. I found so many things I liked in such a short time! Months ago my mother bought this incredibly appropriate onesie in yellow and light blue. How well does she know David and I, seriously?

Everything, by Srikanth Reddy

Thanks to my mega block, you've all been spared from having to read my own poetry, but I still read other's work every day and am discovering new poets constantly. So every Friday I'm going to try to get a new poem up here; it's not necessarily new, but just a poem that I especially enjoyed that week. I hope you like it!

Everything, by Srikanth Reddy

She was watching the solar eclipse
through a piece of broken bottle

when he left home.
He found a blue kite in the forest

on the day she lay down
with a sailor. When his name changed,

she stitched a cloud to a quilt
made of rags. They did not meet,

so they never could be parted.
So she finished her prayer,

& he folded his map of the sea.

Reddy's debut, "Facts for Visitors," on UCPress