1 post tagged “i am a thousand”

Let us hear the weirdest song from your music library.
Submitted by Hydranokaori.

Isn't that a little subjective?  What makes a song "weird"?  If I think a song is weird, that doesn't necessarily mean you think it's weird, does it?  And things that sounded weird 10 years ago don't necessarily sound unusual today.  Not to mention that some songs that are weird don't sound as weird as they actually are (for example, there's a Frank Black song--I think it's "Parry the Wind, High, Low" but I could be wrong) where in one segment he has the drummer playing in one time signature and the guitar in a different one.  I don't give it any thought, but if you really stop and think about it while you're listening, it does sound distinctly odd.  I think the drums are in 3/4 and the guitars are in 4/4...or maybe one of them is in the always-baffling 5/4.  I can't remember.  The point is, it's a weird thing to do to a song).

Maybe I don't have any weird songs in my collection.  Maybe that's the problem.  Maybe the task of finding a weird song is making me self-conscious.  Am I weird enough?  If my musical tastes are found to be unweird, will people still like me?  Is even mentioning Frank Black a sign of my age and secretly all the kids are laughing at me?  The burden of trying to be weird.

I have Camper van Beethoven singing about the day that Lassie went to the moon.  I have Los Amigos Invisibles singing a discofunk song about having a pimple on your nose.  I have a song called "Cowpunk" that apparently some people find odd and even off-putting.  I have the Reverend Horton Heat exhorting you to eat a thing that goes moo.  I have "Parry the Wind" for sure.  I have a song about mighty dwarves flying in the sky and fighting in the night.  I have an entire CD of solo accordion (hey, the accordion don't need no reason).  I have much music by famed weirdos Danny Barnes and Timothy Young.  The first time I saw Tim Young play live he was wearing sweat pants with cowboy boots and before the show he was standing by the bar muttering to himself.  Danny Barnes was the sort of lead guy in a kind of bluegrass band that consists primarily of Danny on banjo and other instruments plus Mark Rubin on tuba and acoustic badass bass and then a fiddler, which is probably weird, and then they did that Butthole Surfers song about Pee-Pee the sailor. 

How about "Auto Modown?"  Weird?  Or normal? 

Does any of that strike you as "weird"?  I am pretty sure it will strike many of you as "unlistenable."  There seems to be a low tolerance amongst the general public for banjo, fiddle, and nasal vocals.  Well, anyhow.

Oh, right.  I also have a prized copy of Crispin Glover singing about automanipulation.  I consider that entire album that he did to be very weird, but I like it.  I was trying to upload it for your edification, but Vox has declined to accept it.  I'm guessing that once Vox got a whiff of the opening line ("Women are sweet and girls are honey, but beat your meat and save your money") it decided this was not something it wanted any part of.  Maybe I should have tried the classic "Clowny Clown Clown" instead (from the same CD), but I'm tired now and going to bed, because yes, dammit, I am old. 

I spent the entire time I was trying to upload that song listening to Jane's Addiction and rifling through a portion of my CD collection that is sitting on the floor in the bedroom gathering dust.  It's an interesting monument, really.  I think I'm going to get rid of most of them.  I mean, I can't really even remember when the last time I listened to Melt Banana was...ages ago.  That's one of the advantages of moving overseas and putting everything you own into storage; if you lived without it for 3 years in Japan, then you can probably live without it now.  Anyone want a Melt Banana CD?