January 13, 2018

Tracks From The MP3 Player

The other day, I was chatting with a coworker during one of my rare lunchbreaks that didn't involve me taking a nap, and she told me something that both stunned and amused me.  See, the Powers That Be decided that it was time to put someone in the desk next to me... it had been empty for a month, much to my pleasure (imagine discovering you're the only person in a row of seats on an airliner)... and my new neighbor apparently was able to hear the music from my headphones... but only a certain type of music as it turns out.  Metal and/or Other Loud Aggressive Music.  Via conversations with her friends, a good portion of the office appeared to believe I listened exclusively to Screamo.


For the record, nothing could be further from the truth.  I do have a single song by a screamo band, "On My Own" by The Used, but I didn't know it was that genre.  Amusingly, I first heard the track eleven years ago, more or less, as it was used to make a music video for my favorite Japanese wrestler, Hayabusa, after the terrible in-ring accident that paralyzed him.  Okay, that part isn't amusing.  A while ago, another coworker "stole" my mp3 player because she was bored and wanted to hear something new.  Sadly, she no longer works there, or she could have put a stop to the rumors.  I don't know if I convinced my accuser of my varied musical tastes or if she thought it a case of 'the duckie doth protest too much', but I gave her The Pond's address and told her to look for a music post.  If that's you, hello, see you monday!  If it's not, hello, Pond Scum!  Click "more" for, well...

Defenders Unite - Niklas Johansson
You can't have "screamo" without "scream," and this is definitely without screaming.  Or words in general.  I don't know how I found this artist, but anybody who can turn out stuff that sounds like ES Posthumus on a laid-back sort-of day is okay with me.

Live For Life - Aimi
Ben-To was a fun little show that I'm glad I did writeups for, but it took until years later... like about six months ago, maybe... for me to realize just how good the soundtrack for the series was.  Case in point, the full version of the main OP tune.  For a while there, this was my "start claims" song... come in, get everything set up, load the first claim, and press start on this track.  There's something about her voice that gets me, particularly what I've come to call 'the steam whistle' in the chorus.  Listen with headphones, you'll know why I call it that immediately.

Tengoku No Kioku - "Rei Ayanami"
Yes, of course I know it isn't really the character, but I can't actually find the performer's name.  If you want to hear the vocal definition of a voice that could be called "fragile", this is it, right here.  The first time I heard it, I thought it was good.  The first time I heard it through headphones at work, I thought I would cry.  Maybe I was having a bad day or something, but it just got me right there.  No, not there, a little to the right.  Yeah, there.  If my coworkers knew how many times a day music brings me near to tears, they'd worry about me.

Vashta Nerada - Traffic Experiment
Scratch that.  They probably worry about me anyway, in that whole "why did my coworker bring in a chainsaw today" sort of way.  I love this track; they really nail the whole "One Of These Days" sound.  Since that's far and away my favorite Pink Floyd song, nearly as much for the concert lighting as for the actual music, I can give it not a whole lot more praise.  Plus, hey, Dr Who Theme.

edit: if you listen from 1:08 to around 4:58 or so, you get a less tiring song.

Radio - The Members
Lyrics!  In English!  Well, I never!  Who would have thought?  Yes, I have '80s music on my mp3 player.  I know!  I'm sure you're flabbergasted.

S.T.A.R.S. - Marina Inoue
Yes it is.  Would I lie to you?  Of course this is on my mp3 player!  I may not have liked Gurren Lagann, but the song is catchy as all hell, why wouldn't I have it on my mp3 player?  Somewhere in Texas, Ben from Midnite Tease, has just sneezed...

Signal 30 - Public Service Broadcasting
The latest musical obsession.  I so desperately want to make a Formula 1 video to this song... and yes, I know the BBC already did.  The difference is, mine would be good.  Unfortunately, when the Humble Bundle offered Vegas Pro 14 for $20, I couldn't afford it... Merry Christmas, don'tchaknow?... so I missed what was probably my best chance for a good non-linear video editing suite.  Bah.  At first, I didn't much like this song... it didn't take all that long for my opinion to change.

So yeah, that's some stuff that's on the mp3 player.  If my coworker sees this, please convince everybody that I DON'T listen to Screamo.  K?  Thanks!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 07:56 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 875 words, total size 7 kb.




What colour is a green orange?




23kb generated in CPU 0.0184, elapsed 0.5089 seconds.
46 queries taking 0.5001 seconds, 142 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.