Patrick Wolf

For quite a while, I've known that Patrick Wolf is amazing. I've been absolutely in love with his music for a good deal of time and for many reasons.

Firstly, he's a genius. In his first album Lycanthropy, all the songs were vaired and different. He didn't want to be pigeon-holed or pegged down to a certain style so he kept the listener on their feet, guessing what could possibly come next. He experimented with different sounds and styles and vocals. I loved it. I still do. One of my absoutely favorite songs of all time, "To the Lighthouse" inspiried my novel-in-progress immensely and I'll be forever in his debt (even if he doesn't know it).

Secondly, I can't stop listening! Because he's such a variable arist, I can listen to Patrick Wolf all the day long and never tire of him. His second album, Wind in the Wires, is probably his most song-to-song flowy album but I adore the style of every song on the disc. The Magic Position, his third album, is one of my favorites. He experiments with pseudo-dance pop and different moods and it's magical. I had mp3 copies of all his CDs and then bought them because they were so fantastic.

Thirdly, he can't mess up! I've watched many, many, many videos of him on Youtube that are live or music vidoes and his voice sounds exactly the same. He's flawless in every performance (until he gets drunk and forgets his own lyrics). Though vaguely Bowie-style eccentric, Patrick Wolf keeps faithful to his own music as well as his own sense of style. But musically, he is always perfect. I am amazed by the consistency of his voice. I've never heard any other arist who can sound the same from one performance to another, rain or shine (so to speak).

Here is an example of his vocal prowess:


And here is a live version, to contrast:

PS: He talks for about a minute in the beginning but he's entertaining. Also, he is wearing no shirt. Beware of nudity!

Pandora Radio

I listen to music on Pandora a lot. I like looking at the different songs and finding what things link my various stations together. I've learned a lot about my musical tastes. Apparently, I like:
-Minor key tonality
-Extensive vamping
-Subtle use of strings
-Subtle use of vocal harmony

Right now, my stations that I have are:
-Dance pop
-Kate Nash
-The Beatles
-Patrick Wolf

I've had my Patrick Wolf station since I first got a Pandora account this fall. I've listened to basically every song that Pandora can get to match P Wolf and I've weeded out those that I don't really care for. I'm shaping up my Kate Nash station the same way and I like basically every song they've given me for more than an hour's worth of listening.

Pandora is a fascinating music... whatever it is. Free-online-streaming radio? Prexisting-music-generator at the push of a button? Mind reader with an extensive collection of tunes? Whatever. It's amazing. For someone who's picky about what she listens to (me) but doesn't have the time to keep changing songs (me) because she'll get distracted and never get anything done (me!), Pandora's a godsend. I can turn it on, pick my station-of-the-day and get going. It will keep playing music I like and I don't have to do a thing, except rate things Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down to keep it motivated.

Now if only I could get Pandora for my iPod... how awesome would that be? They should just sell Pandora-pods and you can plug them in, choose a station, and it will give you all the songs that would come with that station and you can give them Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down and then when you plug it in again, it transfers the information to an internet profile.... Could that really exist? Please, Pandora people?

PS: How classy is this? I did a blog about Pandora and then someone from the Pandora team commented on it. That is basically the coolest.

Junky (William S Burroughs)

A few weeks ago, I bought and read the book Junky by William S. Burroughs. The book was very matter-of-fact and a lot was said in one or two pages. The book felt like it was 200 or more pages, but in all actuality was only 128 pages, plus the prologue and a glossary and appendixes (which are not necessary, thus not included in the overall page count).

The book is, if you couldn't tell, about junkies (aka: heroin/opiate addicts). Drug addiction is a fascinating topic. There's something really desperate and raw when people are dependent on a chemical reaction. The book was very real and raw and even though it takes place in the 1940s/1950s, it still holds true to much of the problems with drug addiction and the addicts themselves we see today.

In the novel, Burroughs takes us from New York to New Orleans to Mexico City in his search for more (and better) drugs and in his attempts to escape the law. His story is epic and told through a haze, as much is autobiographical and then embellished where his mind let go of details that were lost in a cloud of drugs. The people and events are not always clear, but the experiences are conveyed with exceptional clarity: his first taste of morphine, picking pockets for junk money, the agony of heroin withdrawal. Though stealing money and shooting up opiates aren't things I can relate to, Burroughs lets us see the underground drug world from his eyes and we can suddenly understand the need and the addiction.

I am very eager to read more of Burroughs' work, such as another drug-centric novel, Naked Lunch. He's also been indirectly compared to Jack Kerouac and so he's another author who's standing on my To Read list (as well as F. Scott Fitzgerald; I really want to read his book The Beautiful and Damned but have heard it isn't that good... ?).

Also related to Junky would be Hunter S Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. If you want a book that is less coherent than Junky but undoubtably entertaining and about drugs nearly 100% of the time, that's the book for you.




Burrough's reading a segment of Junky.