WNW: Terrible and Perfect

I have to inflict this on everyone.



After I heard it the first time, I was like this:

This song perfectly summarizes the core of my being, and if that doesn't scare the crap out of you, something is seriously wrong with your brain and you are my kind of person and you can download it here.

After the third or fourth listen, my mother came to investigate why I was bouncing and giggling hysterically. Since she didn't know who either NIN or Carly Rae Jephson were,  I finally had to give up and say "It is beautifully obscene, like an angel made of shit."

I cannot get over how perfectly these tracks synch up. Previous to this, my go-to for "just plain wrong" was a Rickroll mashed to the tune of Smells Like Teen Spirit, but this one surpasses it. Terrible and perfect indeed.  The only way this could be more perfect is, possibly, if someone made the inverse and put CRJ's lyrics to NIN's music.

Fun fact:  After Johnny Cash did his cover of Hurt, Reznor saw the video and said the following:

I pop the video in, and wow... Tears welling, silence, goose-bumps... Wow. [I felt like] I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn't mine anymore...

I wonder how Reznor will feel about this mash-up. 

My Lurking Sound: Music for Writing

I'm not sure if this is true for anyone else, or if it's just my funky brain chemistry, but there are certain kinds of music which really help me focus on writing and get my creative juices flowing.

Apparently there is anecdotal evidence that classical music, aka harmonic music, helps the brain relax and therefore more easily absorb information, while dissonant music increases your brain's "jumpiness" and therefore makes you more inclined to energetic exertion. This partially explains why you don't hear hard rock in elevators and classical music in gymnasiums.

I have never, ever gotten classical music to work for me. Either it does nothing, or it relaxes me too much and puts me to sleep. Either way, it's not conducive to concentration.

What does seem to work for me is a kind of half-step between the two: techno or electronic music that features low, regular beats and a deep, rich, "dark" sound like you might hear from a choir of male voices. I don't know what it is, but this mixture seems to hit the resonant frequency of my brain's creative center, and it really helps me to tune out the world and concentrate on my writing. Plus, the more I listen to it the more I associate it with writing, so through Pavlovian conditioning my brain thinks "Okay, time to get serious and write" whenever I hear it.

Some samples of what really works for me:

Pretty much anything from the Tron: Legacy soundtrack, but especially "Recognizer".




Similarly, just about anything from E Nomine, but "Mitternacht" is my favorite.




And the first seven tracks (basically, DJ Miss Lisa's set) of Hot Import Nights.

Track 7: Hot N Tots (click to hear; no video exists)


So that's what works for me. Any other recommendations?

My Lurking Sound: The Sisters of Mercy, part 1

(mild apologies to Sean Witzke, from whom I misappropriated the name)

Oh hell with it, I'm just gonna phone this one in. I hated doing book reports as a kid.

From Wikipedia:
Though Andrew Eldritch is often called the "Godfather of Goth", The Sisters of Mercy (the main artistic vehicle of Andrew Eldritch), despite being formed in 1980, were originally not very popular in the post punk sub-genre that the British press, in the early 1980s, had labelled, both the artists and their audience, Goth. The Sisters of Mercy were, however, accused by the press of plagiarizing Joy Division, who were marketed by their management as "gothic" in the late '70s.

The Sisters of Mercy would have a big impact on the second wave of Goth that came in the late 1980s and early 1990s, one of the reasons Gitane Demone of the first wave commented that the scene had turned "stale". The use of drum machines and the atonal, deep vocal style used by many second generation Goth bands were inspired by the Sisters of Mercy and were not that common among the first generation.

Since the early 90s, Eldritch has publicly rejected associations with the Goth subculture. He describes The Sisters of Mercy as humanist, modernist, and implies he wants nothing to do with Goth, stating "it's disappointing that so many people have in all seriousness adopted just one of our many one-week-of-stupid-clothes benders". He also notes that, "I'm constantly confronted by representatives of popular culture who are far more goth than we, yet I have only to wear black socks to be stigmatised as the demon overlord."

(song ends at 3:27 mark)

She stands pressed against the wall
So she can see the door
In case the laughing strangers crawl and
Crush the petals on the floor

Alice in her party dress
She thanks you kindly, so serene
She needs you like she needs her tranqs
To tell her that the world is clean
To promise her a definition
Tell her where the rain will fall
Tell her where the sun shines bright
And tell her she can have it all
Today

Pass the crystal spread the Tarot
In illusion comfort lies
The safest way the straight and narrow
No confusion no surprise
Alice in her party dressed to kill
She thanks you turns away
She needs you like she needs needs her pills
To tell that the world's okay
To promise her a definition
Tell her where the rain will fall
Tell her where the sun shines bright
And tell her she can have it all
Today
Today

Alice
Don't give it away