Saturday evening electronica (((ambient sonicollage)))...

The Orb
“Earth (Gaia)”
The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld / Big Life/Island/Mercury, etc. / 1991

...this track dedicated to...

...any retiring Boomers seeking immortality with resevratrol, antioxidants, dreams of Singularity, etc. (too many ppl to enumerate)...

...my boomer-bust & millennial earth-grounded pagan friends (TH & VC, resp.)...

...gen-x/y tripsters who used to chill out to electronica like this during the '90s->'00s timespace (also a lot of ppl)...


Apropos of the view of things the day after Earth Day.  Based on what’s happening here in the suburbs, looks like we’re still intent on killing Mother Earth around here after all.  The eighties-via-fifties spirit endures around here more than anything.

Tuesday electro fix...

Cut Copy
“Need You Now”
[MP3 format] / April 2011 / Modular
(alternately released on
Zonoscope full-length / 2011 / Modular)

MP3 downloads for “Need You Now” can be found at the following sites (as of 2011-04-19):
• “Need You Now” [album cut] (Stereogum)
• “Need You Now” [album cut] (Twentyseven Views)
• “Need You Now” [album cut] (Different Kitchen)
• “Need You Now” [Architecture In Helsinki remix] (Modular)
• “Need You Now” [Carl Craig remix] (Modular)

Lyrics:

Hush, darling, don’t you cry
Hush, darling, don’t you cry
’Cause they’re never gonna reach you
Never gonna reach you

Hush, darling, don’t you cry
Hush, darling, don’t you cry
’Cause they’re never gonna reach you
Never gonna reach you

In the morning, I come down
In the morning, I break down
But you’re never gonna get away
Gonna get away

I know I’m running, baby
But I need you now
Said I know we’re going crazy
But I need you now
I need you now
To find somehow

I know we’re running, baby
But I need you now
I know we’re going crazy
But I need you now
I need you now
To find somehow

There’s a beauty in the waking eye
There’s a memory in the waking eye
But it’s never gonna reach you
Never gonna reach you

In the morning, I come down
In the morning, I break down
But you’re never gonna get away
Gonna get away

Hands touch as you’re falling down
Lips touch as you’re falling down
Run for the last train
Whatever will get you home

I know we’re going crazy
But I need you now
I know we’re running, baby
But I need you now
I need you now
To find somehow

I know we’re going crazy
But I need you now
I know we’re running, baby
But I need you now
I need you now
To find somehow

(But I need you now)
(But I need you now)

Tonight
Tonight

Sunday night indie pop heaven...

The Magnetic Fields
“The Village In The Morning”
Get Lost, Merge (1995)

This song sounds distorted and garbled, like it’s being played from an underwater boombox.  That’s not just the way it sounds in the YouTube clip; it’s also the way it sounds on the album.  The chorus is sublime.

Lyrics:

Outside the rain is coming down
Inside it’s warm and dry
You’ll never find a cab uptown
so why not stay the night?
Why don’t you call in sick tomorrow?
Let’s sleep the day away
I’ve got pajamas you can borrow
Let’s take a holiday

You can’t leave the village in the morning
when the radio writes poetry for avenue pi
You get tangled in the wheels of old queen river
and you can’t find the breath to whisper goodbye

Why don’t you stay until the weekend?
It should clear up by then
As your resolve begins to weaken
we’ll become such good friends
And you could stay until the summer
and we can sleep through spring
And I can telephone my drummer
and have her get your things

Why don’t you stay until we’re old
and fall in love with life?
Why don’t you stay until we’re ghosts?
We’ll only seem to die...

Getting Older...

So we went to an event billed as a “dance party” at Black Cat in D.C.  Normally we go to this club to see indie rock shows, but we thought we'd attempt some dancing here in the fast-waning days of our youth.

Here is how the event was billed on the website:

Saturday Apr 16

THE SATURDAY NIGHT DANCE PARTY

New Wave, Pop, 90s, and Other Oddities w/ DJ [name retracted].

$5 Backstage / Doors at 9:30

Tickets available night of show.

So we attended this event with our friend Eric, hoping for a night of eighties New Wave electronic dance numbers (think New Order or Pet Shop Boys) with maybe some nineties Trip-hop (think Portishead or Tricky) thrown in for good measure.  We’d also hoped there would be some oldsters like us (30-somethings) to round the crowd out.

It turns out that we were dead wrong.  Instead the DJ played an entire set of hip-hop, house music, R&B, and disco.  To add to the sense of displacement, the median age of the patrons seemed to be about 24.

We did have fun, though.  By midnight the music was pulsing through the stage and we were ridng on wave after wave of endorphins.  We were moving in rhythm with the crowd, feeling sweet tides of sound wash through our bodies.  (The overpriced Cosmopolitans and Manhattans didn’t hurt either.)  I could almost forget the fact that many of the kids on the dance floor hadn’t even been born when “Billy Jean” (Michael Jackson) or “Groove Is In The Heart” (Deee-Lite) were released.

After a night of cutting the rug to unrecognized hip hop dance anthems alongside youthful Millennials, we decided to call it a night around half past midnight and headed back to the Metro, grateful for our suburban creature comforts of encroaching middle age.

I leave you with this old dance track from New Order’s 1989 Technique album, called “Fine Time.”  If I had been the deejay, the sets would have contained tracks like this one.

Lyrics:

You’re much too young
To be a part of me
Too young
To get a hold on me

You’re much too young
You’re much too young
You’re much too young
To mess around with me

Hey
You know I’ve met a lot of cool chicks
But I’ve never met a girl with all her own teeth
That’s why I love you babe
That’s why we could be
But you’re too young
Too young

At the end
At the end
At the end
The past doesn’t matter

Repeat (×3)

Hey
Sophisticated lady
You know I’ve met a lot of cool chicks
But you've got style
You’ve got class
But most of all
You’ve got love technique.