Song du Jour: Envy Edition

Pattern Against User

by At The Drive In

Blurry-ass Picture Taken by Adam

I've been living vicariously through my twitter feed.  I'll admit it--it's nothing shameful.  Sure, it's probably a little pathetic to be following Rachael Ray's updates on South by Southwest and, more recently, Holly Madison's substance-less tweets about owl hats at Coachella but I've come to a place of acceptance that other people (specifically Anthony Bourdain--that bastard!) are living my life.  Some people--like Adam (you remember him)-- insist on rubbing it in my face.  How dare he post those blurry pictures on Facebook?!  And a recording complete with screaming fans and musical awesomeness to the extreme?! Does he consider that "mercy?!" The Monster--Damn him all to hell!!! Okay, I'm done--long story short, Adam went to go see At The Drive In perform in Marfa while I took calls from octogenarian idiots who happen to live in Coachella, CA.

For those of you unfamiliar with At The Drive In, they are a post-hardcore band that hails from El Paso, TX--which happens to be where The Boyfriend and Adam live.  Around 2000-ish, the band broke up and the members created a couple of other bands you may have heard of-- The Mars Volta and Sparta (both are pretty awesome but that's for another SDJ). Fun Fact:  According to Wikipedia (which is where I get most of the background info for SDJ), they are playing Coachella this year. And for the past couple of days -- essentially since I got the order from Adam -- I've been trying to decipher the meaning of the lyrics for "Pattern Against User."  Apparently, ATDI are big fans of the cryptic lyric.  You know when you watch a Japanese horror film and you're pretty sure it has a broader theme than just the obvious blood and guts but you're just too stupid to understand it?  Yeah, I kind of feel like that.  And, I am relieved to report, I'm not the only one--there was a pretty heated discussion on SongMeanings.com as to whether or not this song was about drugs and one brave commentator with alot of time on his hands actually went through the song, line by line, to prove his point that it is critical analysis of society.  I didn't have the time or patience to read through it but I'm sure his mother is very proud.  Instead, I'll let y'all have a go at it and I'll report back Adam's opinion on the matter when I get it (which I almost certainly will.) In the meantime, I'll be ruminating on how to get the hell out of Arizona now that I'll have a Part-Time schedule. Video after the cut. 

Song du Jour: Adam's Pick

Oblivion

by Grimes

Little Known Fact: 
Pink is actually her natural hair color

Today's song was requested by a good friend of mine, Adam. Actually, he requested it Friday and then called me out for being a slacker and not posting it yesterday.  Thus, I've finally gotten around to posting it today...and none too soon, because apparently my music cred is in danger of being revoked.  This is news to me since I didn't think I had any music cred (especially after that embarassing admission about enjoying "Love You Like a Love Song" ::hangs head in shame::) but if I do, I suppose I must put up some semblance of a fight to keep it.  Now, while my music cred is borderline questionable, Adam's is more solid than ice in the Arctic--which is good because that shit is melting, bitches.  But that's not the point....

The point is Grimes is pretty awesome, especially if you like synth pop--which I do, I do, I do-oo.  A little history:  Grimes (aka Claire Boucher) hails from Canada (not the part that spawned Bieber) has been on the scene since about 2010, releasing two albums that year--one of them being on cassette, which is pretty badass, even if that medium has been defunct since the early 90s. As of January 2012, she was officially signed with the label 4AD and her album, Visions, was relased in February.  There...now you're all caught up.  As for this song, "Oblivion," it fits very comfortably in that dream-like vein of indie electronica that you can get lost in, and personally, the vocals remind me of those songs that they play in Chinese buffets.  I don't mean that as a bad thing--I like the crisp soprano vocals of popular Asian songstresses and Grimes deserves mad props because, trust me, it is not easy to sing in that high range for long periods of time.  The tune somehow manages to be both chipper and zen-like while at the same time having lyrics that--I'll say it--are a bit dysthemic.  But maybe I'm projecting--my mother has been acting like a paranoid superbitch lately but that's a story for another day, mes amis.  Instead, enjoy some slow-motion high school antics while I wait for Adam to give me shit (just a warning--since he's made his blog stalking habits known, he'll probably be featured pretty prominantly in the future)--video after the jump.