Worried about the title of this post? I was a little worried when this band popped up in my inbox the other day too. Vague images of death and debauchery were quickly banished from my head though when I pressed play and proceeded to listen to ‘The Mistakes’ compulsively several times. Not only does it have an infectious and totally non-threatening sound, but the lyrics are fantastic. Lines like ‘do you ever feel like you’re crazy? Do you ever feel like someone’s watching you?’ jumped out at me immediately, and it doesn’t take long before you find yourself singing along.
Manson Family Picnic are Arthur (charango, guitar, vocals), Aaron (guitar, accordion, vocals), Devlin (percussion, vocals), Jeffrey (violin, glockenspiel), Andrew (upright bass) and they play music that is catchy and youthful and whimsical and right up my alley. It couldn’t be more up there if it tried.
And it’s not just this track that does it for me. Head to their myspace to check out what I’m talking about. ‘Ten Dead Horses’ has slightly sinister overtones (that beat!) complete with that yearning violin sound that I go on about so much here. ‘Shit Diggers’ is wickedly chaotic with quirky lyrics and sweet tempo changes that make me smile every time.
When I saw this video for the first time on YouTube around 2 years ago, the view tally was sitting at about 2.5 million. It’s now above 10 million and rising.
For those of you who, like me, wondered what ‘boulangerie’ means, it’s got something to do with a bakery. I thought I better check just in case it was a rude word or something, and was the reason for the little girl’s cheeky grin. You need to be careful of these things.
I don’t usually like to post videos very often, for the simple reason that I don’t like the way they look on the page (am insane, I know), but then I don’t shift continents very often either, so let’s throw all the rules out the window shall we?
If you can show me a better music video than Queen’s ‘I Want To Break Free’ then I am more than prepared to eat my hat. Seriously.
Freddie Mercury vacuuming in a black miniskirt and tight pink top, complete with 1970′s porn star moustache and a killer attitude. I bloody love it, and you should too.
There are loads and loads of entertaining links to check out at Oddee – perfect for a five minute distraction at work or a funny email to a friend. I’m planning on using them every now and then in the next little while as fillers when I can’t get to the computer for long enough to write a proper post.
Another list I came across was the 20 Most Amazing Coincidences, and I spent most of the time alternately rolling my eyes and nodding to myself as I acknowledged how incredible these things were, assuming they actually happened.
I’ve always been fascinated by stories about identical twins who are separated at birth and go on to lead similar, if not identical lives, so this coincidence that rocked in at #4 on the list gained my immediate attention.
The stories of identical twins’ nearly identical lives are often astonishing, but perhaps none more so than those of identical twins born in Ohio. The twin boys were separated at birth, being adopted by different families. Unknown to each other, both families named the boys James. And here the coincidences just begin. Both James grew up not even knowing of the other, yet both sought law-enforcement training, both had abilities in mechanical drawing and carpentry, and each had married women named Linda. They both had sons whom one named James Alan and the other named James Allan. The twin brothers also divorced their wives and married other women – both named Betty. And they both owned dogs which they named Toy. Forty years after their childhood separation, the two men were reunited to share their amazingly similar lives.
I also quite liked this one, coming in at #16.
Morgan Robertson, in 1898, wrote “Futility”. It described the maiden voyage of a transatlantic luxury liner named the Titan. Although it was touted as being unsinkable, it strikes an iceberg and sinks with much loss of life. In 1912 the Titanic, a transatlantic luxury liner widely touted as unsinkable strikes an iceberg and sinks with great loss of life on her maiden voyage. In the Book, the Month of the Wreck was April, same as in the real event. There were 3,000 passengers on the book; in reality, 2,207. In the Book, there were 24 Lifeboats; in reality, 20.
Months after the Titanic sank, a tramp steamer was traveling through the foggy Atlantic with only a young boy on watch. It came into his head that it had been thereabouts that the Titanic had sunk, and he was suddenly terrified by the thought of the name of his ship – the Titanian. Panic-stricken, he sounded the warning. The ship stopped, just in time: a huge iceberg loomed out of the fog directly in their path. The Titanian was saved.
But I reckon #5 is my favourite.
In the 19th century, the famous horror writer, Edgar Allan Poe, wrote a book called ‘The narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym’. It was about four survivors of a shipwreck who were in an open boat for many days before they decided to kill and eat the cabin boy whose name was Richard Parker. Some years later, in 1884, the yawl, Mignonette, foundered, with only four survivors, who were in an open boat for many days. Eventully the three senior members of the crew, killed and ate the cabin boy. The name of the cabin boy was Richard Parker.
Spooooooky!
Onto the tracks. The song connection here is purely title related. I would like to thank the James twins for leading me to discover Cass McCombs though. I searched in vain through my music library for a suitable track to accompany this story and was forced to look elsewhere. This is what I came up with, it’s gorgeous, and I’m on the hunt for more of Cass McCombs stuff. Is that fate, or what?
I’ve included this for the ‘this boat is sinking’ line. And because I saw an Unplugged gig of hers from 1994 on telly the other day. I love Annie Lennox but my goodness she was a scary looking lady in this particular recording. I too agree with the popular opinion that she and David Bowie are twins separated at birth, just like the lovely James brothers. There can be no other explanation.
This one is purely title related too. I did do a ‘cannibal’ mp3 search over at Elbows, but it kept throwing up Cannibal Corpse tracks, and my stomach was still feeling pretty queasy from the yucky body mutilations I’d been unfortunate enough to witness earlier on this evening. Shudder.
Update: Checking in this morning (still in Oz), I saw that Chris pointed out to me in the comments that this post is very similar to the opening monologue about chance in ‘Magnolia’, a movie that I hadn’t heard of until now. I tracked it down on YouTube and it’s pretty bloody cool! Especially the last part about the Barringers and the mistaken shooting (though this is based upon a hypothetical theory). Unreal. Check it out below. And thanks Chris!
Mmmm. Coffee. I’ve always loved coffee, but for the longest time I couldn’t drink it without getting all agitated and twitchy. I never could drink beer either until a couple of years ago. It didn’t make me agitated and twitchy, it just tasted icky. Now I love it. I must be growing up. Either that or I got tired of paying $8 a drink. I’ll take four $2 pots any day.
Picture from a designer packaging website called Dieline. Seriously worth a look. A long look.
This will be my last ‘live’ post for a little while. I’m pretty busy getting organised for my overseas trip now and I’m spending my time trying to declutter my possessions and pack (that’s not going too well at the moment actually – if anything I’m making more mess) and catch up with family and friends before I leave.
I have however scheduled some quick’n'easy filler posts to pop up at certain times during the next little while, and to keep this place going for a bit until I find my feet over there and figure out what’s what. The good thing (well, one of ‘em anyway!) about this move I’m making is that I expect to have lots of new stories and hopefully new music to share with you as I explore that other hemisphere up there that I’ve heard so much about. I’ll still be checking in and replying to your comments when I can though, so please feel free to keep leaving them because reading your comments is by far my favourite part of blogging.
It wouldn’t be right if I didn’t leave you with some tunes now would it?
I had no idea that I even knew The Presets music until the Sound Relief bushfire benefit concerts that went on in Melbourne and Sydney a couple of weekends ago. They showed their set at the Sydney gig on the telly and though I really REALLY hate crowds, I have never wanted to be part of one so much in my life! They showed aerial shots of it and not a single person was still, it was just a big surging mass of saturated people (it was pouring, which only added to the atmosphere), some sitting on the shoulders of their friends, some crowd surfing, all of them jumping up and down to the beat of the music. So totally not my usual thing, but wow, it looked amazing!
Changing tack completely now, we have The Low Anthem, and the gorgeous opening track from 2008′s Oh My God, Charlie Darwin. I defy you to listen to this track and not feel the pressing need to immediately listen to it again as you reach the end. Beautiful harmonies and an aching solo near the end on an instrument I can’t quite identify (help me if you know what it is – is it a horn? a harmonica? a haircomb? I just don’t know!) make for a song that begs for repeated listens. The Low Anthem are touring the US with Ray Montagne in April and are scheduled to play Bonnaroo in June. Oh, and head to their website to check out their hilarious Darwin birthday card.
To continue with the theme of music of a quieter nature, we have Leonard Mynx. This Portland singer-songwriter pens tunes that are not just songs, but stories, snapshots of ordinary people living ordinary lives. His debut release Vesper is all yearning and melancholy and perfect for late night listening or a reflective solitary stroll. And oh, those strings, those backing vocals, the pedal and slide guitar! Lovely stuff.
Leonard Mynx has a ton of dates booked throughout the US in the next couple of months and you can get all the details you need at his myspace hangout.
Oh, and I don’t know what Jacky boy is doing up there in that picture, I guess it must be from some movie I’m too young to remember. Anyway I like it, and at a stretch you could imagine that he was giving some live broadcast or something – I couldn’t be bothered doing an extensive image search for the perfect pic to go with this post. It’s late, and I’ve got me some sleeping to do.
Side note, added about 30 minutes after the original posting: It wasn’t until I’d stared at that picture of Jack that I realised my first post title ‘Last live post’ was really boring, and that I could do better. Cheers, J.
