"I'm no fucking buddhist, but this is enlightenment."
On Saturday, Ben, Nell, Mason and I are making a four hour exodus up to the Gorge Amphitheater for the Sasquatch Music Festival in what will surely be an unparalleled day of music.
For those not in the know, Saturday's line-up is shaping up like this:
Björk
Arcade Fire
Manu Chao
The Long Winters
Citizen Cope
Neko Case
Ozomatli
The Hold Steady
Sarah Silverman
And in what has got to be some of the most disappointing news of the year: M.I.A. is going to be quite literally M.I.A. due to "unexpected delays" in acquiring her visa. I guess I can commiserate -- I after all studied abroad in Spain without a visa courtesy of consul bureaucracy. Still, do we no longer live in an age where these things can be "expedited"?
But really, none of that matters. Björk is playing.
Some of our long-time readers may remember that she topped the list of bands I am dying to see live. I would easily pay ten times the festival ticket price to see Björk live. Everything else is a pleasant bonus.
To get primed for Saturday I have cobbled together a modest sampler of sorts of the Björk oeuvre. In many ways, this mix is completely unessential: practically everybody knows (and I hope adores) Björk, and those who don't can be cured of such a terrible affliction by a few spins of the absolutely flawless Debut or Post or Homogenic or Vespertine.
But like every artist touched by the 90s muse of multiple single formats, many of her best songs spilled out beyond her albums, so I have tried to include a healthy dose of b-sides for those of you on more intimate terms with Björk (it was with a heavy heart that I excluded I Go Humble). I will accept criticism that I completely whitewash Medulla, an album I admire far more than I enjoy, and some of her non-canonical work such as Selmasongs and Restraint 9 (and I still need time to fully digest Volta). Hopefully you can take the "modest" modifier to heart and forgive these minor oversights.
[On a personal note, I should add that if push came to shove today, I would list Homogenic as my favorite record of all time; an album that still sounds a million years ahead of its time -- like the last transmission from some dying star.]
This is an alarm-call, so wake-up, wake-up now:
Björk: A Modest Sampler
1. Hidden Place (Vespertine)
2. Jóga (Homogenic)
3. Generous Palmstroke (Hidden Place Single 1)
4. Play Dead (Debut Bonus Track)
5. Army of Me (Army of Me Single 1)
6. It's Not Up To You (Vespertine)
7. All Neon Like (Homogenic)
8. Come to Me (Debut)
9. I Miss You (Post)
10. Crying (Debut)
11. Human Behavior (Debut)
12. Isobel (Post)
13. Bachelorette (Homogenic)
14. Oceania [Piano & Vocal] (Triumph Of A Heart DVD Single)
15. Alarm Call (Homogenic)
16. It's In Our Hands (It's In Our Hands Single 1)
17. All Is Full Of Love [Video Version] (All Is Full Of Love Single 1)
Like always, you can re-create the mixtape on your own vertebrae by vertebrae by vertebrae, or I can weave for you the marvelous web.
For those not in the know, Saturday's line-up is shaping up like this:
Björk
Arcade Fire
Manu Chao
The Long Winters
Citizen Cope
Neko Case
Ozomatli
The Hold Steady
Sarah Silverman
And in what has got to be some of the most disappointing news of the year: M.I.A. is going to be quite literally M.I.A. due to "unexpected delays" in acquiring her visa. I guess I can commiserate -- I after all studied abroad in Spain without a visa courtesy of consul bureaucracy. Still, do we no longer live in an age where these things can be "expedited"?
But really, none of that matters. Björk is playing.
Some of our long-time readers may remember that she topped the list of bands I am dying to see live. I would easily pay ten times the festival ticket price to see Björk live. Everything else is a pleasant bonus.
To get primed for Saturday I have cobbled together a modest sampler of sorts of the Björk oeuvre. In many ways, this mix is completely unessential: practically everybody knows (and I hope adores) Björk, and those who don't can be cured of such a terrible affliction by a few spins of the absolutely flawless Debut or Post or Homogenic or Vespertine.
But like every artist touched by the 90s muse of multiple single formats, many of her best songs spilled out beyond her albums, so I have tried to include a healthy dose of b-sides for those of you on more intimate terms with Björk (it was with a heavy heart that I excluded I Go Humble). I will accept criticism that I completely whitewash Medulla, an album I admire far more than I enjoy, and some of her non-canonical work such as Selmasongs and Restraint 9 (and I still need time to fully digest Volta). Hopefully you can take the "modest" modifier to heart and forgive these minor oversights.
[On a personal note, I should add that if push came to shove today, I would list Homogenic as my favorite record of all time; an album that still sounds a million years ahead of its time -- like the last transmission from some dying star.]
This is an alarm-call, so wake-up, wake-up now:
Björk: A Modest Sampler
1. Hidden Place (Vespertine)
2. Jóga (Homogenic)
3. Generous Palmstroke (Hidden Place Single 1)
4. Play Dead (Debut Bonus Track)
5. Army of Me (Army of Me Single 1)
6. It's Not Up To You (Vespertine)
7. All Neon Like (Homogenic)
8. Come to Me (Debut)
9. I Miss You (Post)
10. Crying (Debut)
11. Human Behavior (Debut)
12. Isobel (Post)
13. Bachelorette (Homogenic)
14. Oceania [Piano & Vocal] (Triumph Of A Heart DVD Single)
15. Alarm Call (Homogenic)
16. It's In Our Hands (It's In Our Hands Single 1)
17. All Is Full Of Love [Video Version] (All Is Full Of Love Single 1)
Like always, you can re-create the mixtape on your own vertebrae by vertebrae by vertebrae, or I can weave for you the marvelous web.
posted by d l wright at 5/23/2007 11:33:00 PM
3 Comments:
Very nice DL. I agree with your assessment of Medulla. It says a lot if everyone calls the record a great achievement but you haven't listened to it much since the week you bought it. But if her greatest sin is going too far off into left field every now and again, that's hardly an indictment of her artistry.
I still remember that night when I saw Dancer in the Dark at the CFA cinema....and the magic of Bjork was upon me - like car parts, bottles and cutlery.
Incidentally, if you don't know it already, Bob Boilen has a great podcast through NPR - All Songs Considered - and a they did a webcast of one of Ms. Gudmunsdottir's live shows in NYC, (co-hosted by my former boss, Jad Abumrad). It should still be up on the website. Beyond her sheer energy, Bjork is one of those performers who toys with new instrumentation and phrasing a lot, making the live show (and bootlegs) well worth it.
Gushing complete - out.
I have memories of listening to Post on repeat while driving back from The Raveonettes concert in RI in your car!
Speaking of Dancer in the Dark at the CFA: on my viewing, the projector broke with about 10 minutes left in the movie. Unfortunatly, I have yet to muster the steely courage to sit through it again, so I have to take people on their word that the end is heartbreaking. Stupid liberal arts projectionists.
And thanks for the hot tip on NPR. I actually have that download as one of my podcasts, but I have been holding off listening to it until I see her live. [I also managed to snag a video bootleg of her Coachella performance!] If you haven't already, you should check out her live box set -- it is amazing!
I have been watching the Volumen video series: the Isobel video was my first exposure to Bjork. <3
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