Conor - No Excuses

I just got back from a date party where I danced. Yeah that happened. I was about to lay and bed and play maybe an hour of Final Fantasy before I went to bed, but if I have time to play Final Fantasy I have time to write a half-assed Classic Brian. Never again will I fail my readers.

So here are the things that have interested me lately.



Radiohead - Lotus Flower

Radiohead came out with a really good album last Friday called the King Of Limbs. It's the first time in a while that they've released a really good album instead of an arguably amazing album, so some people, myself included, were initially somewhat disappointed by it. But even weak Radiohead interests me and challenges me. There are things to love about this album. It's subtle and contained, maybe even to a fault. The huge musical moments they're known for (like the climax of Exit Music or the explosion halfway through 2+2=5) are no where to be found, but it's obviously a decision they made. They can make that music, and they chose not to. The question is why did they do that, and without that sense of drama and scale does the music still connect? I can't tell you why they designed the album like that, but the music definitely still works. It makes you have to search for the little things. The melodies that don't initially jump out at you, the guitar lines that come in so quietly you didn't even realize they were there, the lyrics that were obscured by the way Thom Yorke sings, etc. There's good stuff there to be found. It's not as good, but I still love it.

Also check this guy out. He's a dancing machine.



Bright Eyes - Shell Games

This is just a perfect song. Everything works. I've always been a fan of Bright Eyes, but I've never been 100% sold. I know how Bright Eyes operate, so I can't fool myself into thinking the rest of this album will be as catchy or as infectious, but I can hope.



Fisherman's Horizon - Final Fantasy VIII

I'm learning this on the piano right now. Their arrangements are so pretty. I especially the part that begins at 2:25, the way the different hands and voices harmonize.



Thomas Jefferson - Derrick Comedy

My guy Tynan showed this to me over the summer, and so you know, I didn't even find this video for the first time recently, but for some reason there was a time first semester where I watched this like twice a day. Iunno why. Maybe to try to get funnier. * Also Mada showed Derrick Comedy to me in the first place, so shout out to Tuesday.



The Mountain Goats - God Damn These Vampires

I feel somewhat obligated to like this song because it's called "God Damn These Vampires." ** Thank god it's good. John Darnielle writes the best choruses. That's not dissing his verses at all, his melodies and especially his lyrics are definitely incredible. It's just he's written so many choruses that just make me  nod in agreement. They just click so well. It's not like I relate to all of his characters, or the sadness and wild, energetic desperation that make up so much of his work. It's not me personally being like "yeah, I get you." It's just the combinations of his words and his conviction. Together they're perfect. Like "I am going to make it through this year if it kills me," or "... and I won't get better but one day I'll be free, cause I am not this body that imprisons me." "And in a small room in Brazil, we were waiting" doesn't seem like an amazing line by itself, but with John Darnielle's voice, it is.

And any chorus that has the line "God damn these vampires for what they've done to me" is just sweet as hell, I don't care.

OKAY WELL I GUESS THAT'S IT. Status report from Conor. I saw Broken Social Scene last Sunday in Tulsa on a whim. That was sweet. I almost died in a car crash on the way up there. That was also sweet, no joke. I'm well on my way to locating the house I will be living in next year, which is exciting. It's not lost or hard to find it's just, you know, we don't know what we're doing exactly yet. But we will soon. I'm trying to figure out what my spring break is looking like. There's a frisbee tournament the first weekend of spring break that our B Team ("Of which I am proudly member of," Conor said while gazing longingly at the A Team)  is supposed to be playing in, but I bet we won't get enough people to go and we'll have to cancel, so like, no way am I going to buy plane tickets to work around that tournament that I am pretty much certain we will drop out off. Frustration becomes me. Tomorrow is our frisbee team's Prom party. I got asked out. By Nolan. A dude. So. I'm going with Nolan. A dude. He best put out.

YEAH I GUESS THAT'S ALL.

*Impossible
**And because it's by the Mountain Goats, if I'm really being honest with myself.