I remember when I was little my sister took me to see Amadeus, a film I was probably too young to see or appreciate at the time. The final scenes of Mozart’s death, with “Sequentia: Rex Tremendae” underneath them, are indelibly marked onto my brain even now. Though it should have been far over my head I remember watching the entire movie intently, long after the row behind us (and my sister) had fallen asleep.

I’ve been doing a lot of music shopping lately, buying up tons of records most nights and stuffing them onto my iPod for my morning drive. Every six months or so I remember that life is pretty worthless without music and I do this. I’ve managed to find some good and worthwhile things to listen to, but none so incredible as a recording of Mozart’s Requiem in D Minor. The provenance of the piece alone is amazing and eerie, but my favorite part is this from the Wikipedia entry:

The autograph of the Requiem was placed on display at the World’s Fair in 1958 in Brussels. At some point during the fair, someone was able to gain access to the manuscript, tearing off the bottom right-hand corner of the second to last page (folio 99r/45r), containing the words “Quam olim d: C:” (an instruction that the “Quam olim” fugue of the Domine Jesu was to be repeated “da capo”, at the end of the Hostias). To this day the perpetrator has not been identified and the fragment has not been recovered.

Ever since I read this passage I’ve been imaging a screenplay depicting the events leading up to the display of the score and the theft of the fragment of the page. Most fascinating of all may be the last part:

If the most common authorship theory is true, then “Quam olim d: C:” might very well be the last words Mozart wrote before he died. It is probable that whoever stole the fragment believed that to be the case.

I missed my old town today for as long as it took to watch these videos. ~

Oh well. What the hell. It’s isn’t Thursday and there’s only one tune, but it’s a good one. It’s “Over My Head (Cable Car)” (4.78MB MP3 Download) by The Fray and it sounds like Ben Folds meets Joe Jackson with a bit of John Mayer thrown in for good measure. I’ve heard it at the gym for three straight days now, and I’m kinda suggestible. So it isn’t indie rock. Sue me. Enjoy.

Why doesn’t video on Yahoo work at all? I’ve been trying on and off in every iteration of their offering to get it to work–with lots of browsers and at least three platforms–to no avail. Having said that I cannot see how it gets used very often and in turn how it could possibly be a significant stream of revenue for them. Why not open it up a little, or make it work at least as well as their competitors? Of course I’m ignoring all the obvious Draconian add-ons that are required by copyright holders these days. I’m certain is takes time to disable and hobble all that video, before watering it down content-wise so as not to make it truly compelling. But even so. There’s got to be some easy way to let me see my 42 second clip of last night’s American Idol winners without eight browser crashes, five errors and eleven stalled progress indicators, right? ~

Prince is a bad ass

Recently I was in line at some coffee place waiting for a latte. I pricked my ears up at the background music only to realize it was “I Would Die 4 U”, the Prince classic, playing into the staid and indifferent ears of the customers in this indifferent and unremarkable place. And it got me to thinking.
Prince is a bad ass.
I remember seeing the video for “1999″ on a then neonate MTV. At the ripe old age of five or so I obviously had no idea what I was looking at: A keyboard player dressed as an ER doc? Two gorgeous women playing yet another keyboard (and sort of playing each other, if you get me)? A backup guitar player trying really hard to look like Jimi Hendrix? We’re hitting all the high points of rock history in one three minute clip here, people. On top of all that everyone is moving in unison, like a sort of sparkly, purple version of the Four Tops with prominently featured and musically gifted lesbians. I mean, the guy’s band was called The Revolution. Are you kidding me?
At the height of his powers Prince could not be stopped. He could breath hard and put the first three rows on its knees, and he brought rock and roll back to the black kids and brought funk back to the white kids. He got Grammy nods and scored Hollywood blockbusters. Then all that nastiness with Warner Brothers happened and Prince changed his name to something we couldn’t readily pronounce. Which was a real shame. I think Prince had another “Purple Rain” in him somewhere (or at least another “Darling Nikki”), even though he’s done reasonably well since the (now undone) name change.
So Prince, even though your former glory is sort of a memory, I can always watch that video for “1999″ and remember what could have been. We’ll always have Minneapolis.

An open letter to Ben Gibbard from your pal Nick

Dear Ben,
I’ve been a big fan of your band Death Cab For Cutie for a number of years now. Back in the old days, when you were opening for Dismemberment Plan and providing sig lines for Live Journals, I thought you could do no wrong. Your lyrics were novel and your music was thoughtful, and your stage show was intimate and friendly. When the airwaves became inundated with bands who wanted to be just like The Strokes you stuck to your guns and released The Photo Album, which is still one of my favorite records. Then you did the whole Postal Service thing, which has clearly found some legs.
But recently Plans came out, and I have to say I think I’m done. It’s not you, it’s me. Plans is just boring, and feels like an abandonment of what was good about Death Cab in favor of what was maudlin and dull. I mean, have you read the words to Summer Skin since you wrote them? I know 13 year old girls who wouldn’t write that stuff where it could be read. And now this Franz Ferdinand “co-headlining” show, and the OC soundtrack. This probably hurts me more than it will ever hurt you but please don’t try and call. We had something wonderful. I remember fumbling in the dark with the plastic wrapping on We Have The Facts And We’re Voting Yes so that I could hear your voice. But no more. Atlantic Records needs you more than I do.
Go.
Before I change my mind.

Your pal,
Nick

Thursday tunes!
Rogue Wave - Publish My Love (Live @ The Earl - Atlanta, GA 12-06-2005)
Robert Pollard - The Right Thing

Some notes about this week’s mp3s: The Rogue Wave show is available to download in its entirety from the Internet Archive here. It’s not the only live show there, either. If you have broadband and a few hours to kill there are some great shows hosted there.
The Pollard song hasn’t been released yet but is just so good that I had to share. I still need to tell you about the show on the 27th but my ideas about it are still all splintered and zooming around in the ether. The gist of it is that it was easily in the top three shows I’ve ever seen. This new solo record is one of the greats also.

God bless you, Robert Pollard and your band of renown! (Good night…)

James Frey will be on Oprah today and Gawker has someone live-blogging the taping. She goes at him pretty hard, too, which he richly deserves. Good thing we had someone live-blogging at the Oprah taping. (Note to the author: You were live-blogging at the Oprah taping?! WTF?!)

Thursday Tunes:
Mushaboom (Demo) - Feist
Plan of the Man - The M’s

I recently acquired the new Feist record. For the uninitiated Feist is actually Leslie Feist from Broken Social Scene, Kings of Convenience and others.
Her solo album is absolutely, positively gorgeous.
I love a record that can start in one place and end up somewhere else entirely, all without seeming contrived when you get there. The track I keep coming back to is “One Evening”, a track so authentically inflecting Ricki Lee Jones and the smooth feel of 1970s singer-songwriters that I spent 20 minutes trying to make sure it wasn’t a cover. Beautiful. No one loves that stuff more than me. Another wonderful thing about Feist is her absolute fearlessness; she has no problem with making aongs that are aesthetically pleasing and yet carry great emotional weight. No one really does this anymore. As a group I think a lot of songwriters have decided that you get one or the other; I’ll either be important and discordant or pretty and mindless. Dumb.
Someone might find another way to marry seriousness and beauty, but it won’t be like this. This is four out of five, easily.

Your listening is requested required

Here, for my enjoyment if no one else’s, is a list of the top 3 artists that will be forced down your throat in 2006. There will be nothing you can do about this. They will be everywhere. And long after you’ve stopped caring they will be all over commercials for the things that your demographic buys. Here we go.

3) Cat Power - Ok hipsters, here’s how this one works. You talk shit about Fiona Apple for years and then Chan Marshall makes a record where she spends 13 tracks trying to sound just like her. You will buy the record in droves. I will hang onto my bootleg of the version of “Extraordinary Machine” that Fiona didn’t let that hiphop asshat ruin.

2) Jenny Lewis - Not content to cure insomnia with Rilo Kiley only, Lewis has a solo record out. Expect to see her in an article in Time or Architecture Digest now that she has “broken”.

1) Belle & Sebastian - Someday we’ll collectively realize that Belle & Sebastian only had one Boy With The Arab Strap in them. Until then, there’s always Nissan commercials.

My favorite book when I was five, now in crappy HTML slideshow mode. My mom used to read it in Grover’s voice. Parents always get mad props for reading in character.

Everyone keeps raving about We Are Scientists. I picked up their record and I have to say that it succeeded only in making me feel old and incapable of “getting” whatever it is they’re trying to do. I love the dance punk revolution just as much as the next person, but I swear I heard these guys on The Real World once. Ick. In my humble estimation an appearance on that show is not the cred builder it once was. Anyway.
Bob Pollard’s new album should be a work of genius, as usual, and I’m set to see him here on the 27th. That should more than make up for the middlebrow scenestering of We Are Scientists.
I should also mention the new m83 record, which is pretty excellent and has something for anyone who loves this “new shoegazer” stuff coming out right now. The production is even tricked out to sound a little like vinyl.