Scar tissue that I wish you saw

I suppose at the moment, I'm figuring I'm more likely to share my lonely view with the birds rather than a mate or a community to belong to. Ah, but that's mostly just the depression talking, and a good way to take the edge off that old bug is...

Music...because music rocks.

Let's start it up with:
1. Scar Tissue - Red Hot Chilli Peppers from their classic album Blood Sugar Sex Magic. A delicate song, with immense feeling, but a gentle acceptance. It well captures that sad but understanding attitude of being alone, not by anyone's fault but just by circumstance. The lyrics sketch a picture of a man striving to end that loneliness with romance, but accepting his current failure and looking a bit gloomily at his continued efforts. Then there's that guitar rift that cuts in the middle right into your soul. It's the signal that this reluctant acceptance doesn't come without a passionate protest, but the rift never bursts into an electronic fury as it seems tempted to at times, as the acceptance wins out, but is intertwined with sorrow that the man cannot shake, and which lingers in your heart long after the song has ceased in your ears.

And here's the AMV from the good folks at FLCL. The hyper-energy of FLCL somewhat clashes with the meditative song, but FLCL's combination of humor and darkness, joy and pain, psuedo-philosophy and psuedo-pop matches well the sweet and bitter strains, that look at the birds as brothers, if only to express an alienation from the rest of the world.

But don't let that alienation get you down, because even with that you can still be singing...

2. Tubthumping by Chumbawamba, a great song with a marvelous simplicity in its energy and sentiment (the lyrics too to a degree), but also a marvelous complexity its multiple competing parts and different voices and different tones and...

DUDE: I GET KNOCKED DOWN AND I GET UP AGAIN YOU AIN'T NEVER GOING TO KEEP ME DOWN

You can't stop the music when it hits you that true and strong. Especially when it goes well with a lovely anime called Love Hina. While this anime may not be the best in the harem anime genre, it is a quintessential example, with a hero with a never-say-die attitude and an always-say-die luck which matches the song as well (plus Love Hina has plenty of examples of people drinking heavily which also hits the bells of the tubthumping way (oh I could explain to you what tubthumping means, but I'm not going to))

But to mix it up a bit, as I am inclined to, let's take the energy of the second and the bittersweet of the first and we end up with something close to...

3. Lovefool by the Cardigans - The essential sentiment of the artist in love, rejected but so broken by the lost that she's willing to cling to any thing her love can give her... Well, it's a classic. The tone switches amazingly seemlessly between honestly distraught and flippant to a degree where you can't tell whether you're being too cool for love or too in love to be cool, all you know is you're out of sorts and you don't know what to do and if only you could just have the illusion of love...well, that touches a bit too close honestly. Let's move along...

4. That's right Move Along by the All-American Rejects. This song has a decent deal of lyrical/musical complexity, but not a huge amount. It's biggest claim is the driving push of its energy. And then there's the sentiment, and then there's just the way the voice and music mixes excellently with the sentiment, because it is the loser yelp and the semi-emo, sort-of-punk rock jangle, yeah, these are the All-American Rejects, but isn't being a reject part of being an American? And isn't it glorious?

This AMV might not hit all the right notes. Sometimes the images are a little too spot on, sometimes they're just cool images without the right sentiment, but what the video editor got here is the need for an immense variation of imagery and colors to hit that energy flow perfectly. Plus the characters, like all good heroes, got a nice loser-y look from some angles, and you gotta love a loser...

Because losers are the ones who know how to rock.

I think that's the sentiment to end the night on, and if the loneliness ever gets too hard, just remember music is awesome. It won't take away the pain, but meh, pains not so bad and music, as stated before, is awesome.

So take it to your head, take it to your heart and remember Rand rocks. Goodnight Folks!

And God Bless.

Songs still burn

So everyone, just so you don't here any wild rumors, I'm being indited for fraud in Australia. (Well it was either me or Bart (Bart vs. Australia))

But even as that takes up my time, there are still some songs burning in my head and so I needed to eat cheese.

But I'm going to share the songs with you anyways.

Here's a nice one from the indescribably talented Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts.

Call me, Call me from Cowboy Bebop - Episode 23 - Hard Luck Woman (Here's the complete song, but I like sequence from the show immensely).

It goes out to a girl who I really wish would call me, despite the fact that I don't dare call her.

But there is one love I do have, and that's God's love, and one of the best songs that expresses this is this one.

Alive - POD

But what's been bugging me for a while is why. Why does God love me? What is his purpose for me?

Why do you love me? - Garbage

But whatever the mysterious plans of God, I know He is at my side, thus I need not fear, and thus the world ought watch out for the might and glory of Rand, even if I seem to be an underdog right now.

The Underdog - Spoon

Ah, but I can't pretend I don't got troubles, though with God's help I'll overcome them, I just got to keep pushing on and light up in my brain whenever my brain threatens to turn dark (Okay that transition made no sense, but perhaps a little nonsense was necessary to break up the pretentiousness. Oh the pretentiousness!), or maybe I'll keep moving along (Okay that's just a horrible transition, but sometimes transitions need to just transist, and that still makes no sense).

Run - Snow Patrol
Move Along - All-American Rejects

And while that's not all the music in my soul, that's a good amount to tide you over, my dear, dear readers, so take it to your head, take it to your heart, and remember Rand rocks. Goodnight Folks!

And God Bless!