Thoughts on "Corner of the Sky" by Cut Copy

When the band thanked Talking Heads in the liner notes of the most-excellent Zonoscope, I thought it was more of a "shout-out to my fav band" thing more than an actual hint of influence. I mean, there was no thanks to Fleetwood Mac and "Take Me Over" sounds straight from Tango in the Night*. But I digress. I'm not here to argue about that. So the thanks was more than just a shout-out, it was to answer yes to the following question: "Hey you guys, is it me or does 'Corner of the Sky' sound like a lost Talking Heads song?"

I mean, seriously... it does. Haven't you listened to it? Here, I'll give you some time.



Still not sure? Well, take the time to listen to the entirety of Remain in Light. I'll wait.

...

You back? Cool beans, continuing forward!

So yeah, it does right? I mean, the guitar effects! Bang-on impression of Adrian Belew's signature "elephant"! As for the lyrics, they make no sense, so yeah, totes David Byrne**. The keyboards? Sounds like Bernie Worrell and Jerry Harrison were having an epic synth fight (I'll pay good money to see that in person). And the all-male harmonies! Some Brian Eno emulation (who comes across vaguely baritone-ish, to me at least) whenever he sang backup, like in "Once in A Lifetime". The drums are pretty damn whomp-whomp, which is kinda Chris Frantz's thing. And yeah, the bass is straightforward Tina Weymouth, keeping the whole thing together.

The ending? Yeah, I see what you did there: throwing me off with a slight hint to My Life in the Bush of Ghosts and "Drugs" (oddly enough) with usage of "found sound".

And strangely enough, the song's atmosphere sounds like "The Overload" meets "The Great Curve". Weird, no one asked for the two to mate and have a child, but thank God they did...?

Overall, this song is made of pure amazing with a bonus side of "there is a God and He's slowly blessing the music industry".

~~

*Also, Dan Whitford (lead singer/keyboardist) has gone on record (hur-hur) to say that Tusk, well mainly Lindsey Buckingham's songs, were HUGE influences throughout.

**Okay, he has no monopoly on that, but whatever.

~~

And also props to my second all-time favorite album cover (this being my first).

This post was fueled by the music of Cut Copy, a sense of accomplishment, and Dan's utter cuteness.

Holy mackerel...

this dude apparently had the same thought as me:

In many ways, Jerry Harrison is sort of the Lindsey Buckingham of Talking Heads - the factor that pushed them over the top that no one seems to remember or talk about (heck, Harrison and Buckingham even look somewhat alike!).

Dude. Seriously. Get outta my head! Joking aside, it's nice to feel not alone in that thought. As the cliché goes, great minds think alike. And I see that you are from Christchurch. Hope you and your loved ones are well.

~

Inspired by that post, I have decided to do a (revisit) review on Harrison's 1988 album Casual Gods (though actually, that's the name of his band) as part of my review series that never seems to end. Details on that later...

Either way, it's always nice to find people with similar ideas.

Whoa, Nelly! It's storytime!

Okay, no review today or anything about writing. Instead, I drove my ass up to a William Gibson book signing. It was about two hours (thirty minutes longer 'cause I got sidetracked several times). It took about the same time returning home only because most of the highway going into town was closed off for construction. The cool thing is that driving out of town was one of my goals. So yeah, three down and forty to go! (Yes, last time I counted, I did it wrong. This is why I'm an English graduate.) I should note that I never drove out of town before, not until tonight. And it was nearly four hours total, going to and from!

One more thing: I'm changing goal #34 to: making my own Talking Heads shirt. I need one in my life, so I shall create it.

~

Wait. You dunno who William Gibson is? Get schooled!

So yeah, after waiting twenty minutes, I got my copies of his latest and Neuromancer signed. Pictorial evidence, y'all:

He was pretty cool, and freaking tall too. Like over six feet for sure. He had this leisurely way of speaking, but if you watch this clip of him from the eighties, he's always talked like that:



I asked him what his favorite J.G. Ballard novel was (he mentioned the author during the Q&A, in terms of influences). He didn't have a definitive favorite, but said "all of them were good". That is a valid answer.

So not only did I achieve a big goal, I got to meet the guy who came up with the term "cyberspace". Ace.

Until next time, Hazmat-wearing ponies.

The music geek riseth!

As much as I love Lindsey Buckingham and his solo works (and his work with Fleetwood Mac too), but I cannot lie...

Go Insane honestly scares the hell outta me. It also doesn't help that I knew, well sorta, why the album has the content that it does. From what I recall, a longtime relationship ended badly, a good friend passed on, and maybe personal issues never disclosed (?).

This is my third time listening to the album in its entirety and my opinion still stands... the man had some serious stuff go down, like WHOA.

Oh yeah, and it's pretty good. My least favorite by him, but still good.

*descends back behind the stack of records she was hiding from before*

P.S. For those unfamiliar, no, I wasn't named after Mr. Buckingham.

Ugh...

'Tis the season. Nasty sore throat, drainage (with accompanying earaches), fever (with sweats. Lovely)... yea!

In other news, school seems to be going well. I'm tearing through Geisha, A Life. Since I'm mostly bedridden, reading is an easy task.

I also discovered that I like Peter Gabriel's solo stuff more than Phil Collins'. Does that make me a good Genesis fan? 8D

Nothing much else to say. I leave you, wondering if my sore throat is actually strep throat...

-Lindsey

Hells yeah!

Look who's releasing a new album this year... ma girl Vienna!

She's an amazing musician. If you haven't given her a try, go to iTunes (or whatever music service you use) and have a listen.

I forgot...

how ace Talking Heads' Speaking in Tongues is. I need to revisit a lot of my music.

I can has last.fm?

Yes, Crazy Lady Writer, you can:

my last.fm

No, I'm not a huge Fleetwood Mac fan... *is sarcastic*