Borrowed & Blue

04.07.09

2009-07-04T14:50:00.000-07:00

Lost the years for this one as well. But it is mainly Seventies. And joyous.

21.06.09

2009-06-21T11:52:00.000-07:00

Words from the titles of the albums these songs are from: Forever, Electric, Moanin', Alight, Statement, Weather, Sun, Demons, God, Tomorrow, Messages, Milk.

1973
2008
1956
2008
2008
2006
2007
2000
1996
1996
1994
2003
2003
1993

20.06.09

2009-06-20T08:21:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 20.06.09

The cat's name is Crazy Cat.

2007
2007
?
1990
2004
2008
2008

16.06.09

2009-06-16T13:33:00.001-07:00

borrowed & blue 16.06.09

More sound to soothe things, that doesn't make anything better, but that just puts things in your head that aren't thoughts for a while.

2003
2007
2003
2000
2002
1998
1991
?
2004
1995

12.06.09

2009-06-12T09:20:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 12.06.09

Lost track of what the years are for this one... it does however contain:

prolapse-inducing drone metal
lascivious, ethereal Seventies discopop
MOR emo
prog acapellas "mashed-up" with improvisatory guitar scrawls
a post-punk band trying to do proper pop
folk
chanson industrial
David Fucking Cross

19.05.09

2009-05-19T13:04:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 19.05.09

Don't call it a comeback.

1983
1969
1968
1973
1968
1973
2003
2004
1995
2007
2003
1997
1997
2001
1991

23.02.09

2009-02-23T16:15:00.000-08:00

borrowed & blue 23.02.09

At night the stars burn so brightly that their sudden, fiery descent seems inevitable. I fear they will aim straight for me, scream into my skull and burn out my eyes.

I can never go home again. I need to patrol the streets.

To stop us from all from falling into the sea.

RE:ACTION

2006
1982
1975
2007
2008
2003
2005
1939
1952
2008

07.02.09

2009-02-07T10:02:00.000-08:00

borrowed & blue 07.02.09

Trees are just tall ships without sails

X-rayed into the sky by my camera

Is a dream I once had

RE:ACTION

1962
1963
2008
2000
1980
2006
2008
2001
2007
2002
2007
1970
?

05.02.09

2009-02-05T13:56:00.000-08:00

borrowed & blue 05.02.09

You cut me with your fringe, you stab me with your eyes.

When you dance you’re a clockwork killing machine.

Don’t call me again.

RE:ACTION

2006
1986
2007
2007
2005
2008
2006
1999
?
?
1984
2005
?
1967
2005
1975
2007

31.01.09

2009-01-31T13:05:00.000-08:00

borrowed & blue 31.01.09

The tritone paradox is an auditory hallucination – a kind of aural version of the Necker Cube. A pair of Shepherd tones (sets of octave-related sinusoids, with amplitudes scaled by a fixed bell-shaped spectral envelope based on a log frequency scale) are played sequentially with an interval of a tritone. This interval is interpreted as ascending by some people, and descending by others.

Interestingly, different populations and cultural groups were shown to favour different interpretations. Native speakers of Vietnamese heard the paradox differently from native English-speaking Californians. This is explained by different populations tending to favour different points around the chromatic circle as central to the set of ‘higher’ tones.

As this hallucination is powered by a tritone, it has a relationship to the diabolos in musica (literally, ‘the devil in music’), the dissonant tritone interval which was interpreted as ‘evil’ by the Vatican, and was allegedly banned from church music following Guido of Arezzo’s foundation of the hexachordal system. Church musicians found to be exploiting the dark energy of the interval were officially excommunicated.

ACTION

1972
2005
2006
1977
2007
1977
1983
1986
1984

25.01.09

2009-01-24T11:17:00.000-08:00

borrowed & blue 25.01.09

When I was a child I used to dream that at night a malevolent force would manifest itself in my room and tell me that if I told anyone about its visits to my room then it would kill my parents. The dreams were so intense and vivid, and because I don’t recall them as being connected to sleep as such – just my room in the second house we ever lived in, after dark, when everyone else was in bed – I can’t even configure them as dreams in my memory.

RE:ACTION/ACTION

1970
1961
1984
2007
2004
2006
1999
1994
1972
1978

18.01.09

2009-01-18T13:11:00.000-08:00

borrowed & blue 18.01.09

I'm interested in starting up a new project, purely out of fun and the love of making things, and I really want to find preferably non-musician female poets, spoken word artists or singers to collaborate with.

What I propose is that you send me a wav file (quality or length isn't important, and it can be recorded using just a PC mic, iPod or phone if necessary) of you reading, acting out or singing your writing, whether it be monologue, stream of conciousness, poem, diary entry or part of an acapella song. It can be funny or sad, abstract or literal.

I will take your contribution and set it to music, creating 3 potential arrangements. I will then send the 3 files back to you and you'll pick the one you like the most. This 'song' will then be uploaded to a blog created specially for the project, where everyone or no one can listen to it.

I have a sort-of working-title for the project, but it shouldn't really be thought of as a band or anything (unless it's an imaginary band), just an experiment to see if strangers can make music together blind; an experiment in sound and randomness.

The music isn't strictly post-rock, and I don't generally write song-based structures, more abstract mood pieces using electronics, acoustic and electric guitar, pedals, oscillators, glockenspiel. The reason why I'm interested in collaborating with female artists is because I often like to use quite harsh or unusual sounds and textures, which I think would be counterbalanced in an interesting and non-obvious way with female vocal. I also just really prefer girls voices to guys voices.

If anyone is at all interested in this then please message me because I think it could be loads of fun and really rewarding.

ACTION

2006
1974
1993
2006
2003
1995
1975
1970
1975
1996
1993
1991

11.01.09

2009-01-11T16:43:00.001-08:00

borrowed & blue 11.01.09

PANEL 1

Picture: “Woman with bullwhip up her fanny.” A barcode-shaped dash in the dead centre of the image, containing the text.

Text: What was happening in my life at the time that Fabulous Muscles was being made was frankly the worst time of my entire life.

PANEL 2

Picture: “A machine gun pointing into a bold Iraqi dawn.” barcode-shaped dash in the dead centre of the image, containing the text.

Text: My dad had committed suicide, I was living in a very dangerous neighborhood…

PANEL 3

Picture: “Tumescent stiffy disinterestedly pulled by some beefcake.” A barcode-shaped dash in the dead centre of the image, containing the text.

Text: …I was working at an impoverished school where my favorite student was repeatedly molested by his brothers…

PANEL 4

Picture: “Uniformed bestetsonned grunt pushing up for a squat thrust.” A barcode-shaped dash in the dead centre of the image, containing the text.

Text: …I was totally broke, I was drinking out of control (maybe that is why I was broke)…

PANEL 5

Picture: “Blindfolded child in vest perhaps sat on the knee of the great dictator, maybe just dimly aware of the pederast behind the viewfinder.” A barcode-shaped dash in the dead centre of the image, containing the text.

Text: …my best friend had betrayed me twice and I was cutting my face with car keys.

PANEL 6

Picture: Profile view of a human brain (possibly slightly tilted, diagonally, not flat 2D-looking). Driving through the brain diagonally from top-right to bottom-left is a spear. The background is a flood of zeros and ones, appearing as if on an old school (think 80s films) computer green-screen.

Text: I would say that Xiu Xiu for me has the function of being a place to put feelings that would, have and do otherwise put me over the edge.

PANEL 7

Picture: Silhouetted form of a man/person, kneeling, facing the user. Their form is completely black but their eyes gleam. Inserted into their skull, on either side of their head, are two electric coils with wires trailing off. In the background-right of the panel there is a laptop (on a table?), the screen displaying scrolling zeros and ones.

Text: At the risk of sounding morosely self aggrandizing, I have a hard time dealing with about almost anything and Xiu Xiu allows me to turn manic and self destructive tendencies into something else.

PANEL 8

Picture: Same shot as above, but with a crack appearing in the head of the black-shaped person, and the two halves coming apart slightly (still all in black, with the same powerful gleam in the eyes) and garish streams of neon colours unfurling out of the crack. The background of the picture, playing on the computer green-screen motif, should now be green-screen waveforms (like a WAV file being played, possibly with a few zeroes and ones intermingling behind it?).

Text: The impetus comes from what is happening in my life. From dark, negative sexual feelings and violent impulses and actions and from relentless self hate and from shame and from horror at how I have acted.

PANEL 9

Picture: Shot from above and to the side of the cracked head, close up. Here the crack is a visible jagged crevice, the neon colours unfurl and fill the rest of the panel.

Text: Horror at what sex can be, horror at how desirable that horror can be, horror at unquantifiable mean lusts.

PANEL 10:

Picture: Bottom corner of a bed, sheets ruffled. The Elifrede Jelinek novel Women As Lovers, a white hand next to it. Maybe a white rose next to the hand and book. Everything here, in contrast to the last panel, is very serene and soft – whites or other very soft, pale pastel colours.

Text: The novel is about, or at least my reading of it, how far one will allow oneself to be destroyed by and for love.

PANEL 11

Picture: The lap of a naked male sitting on the edge of the white-sheeted bed, sitting cross legged (genitals not visible, maybe the crotch-area would be seen as slightly ‘out of focus’, with his hands and knees in focus). In one hand he holds a white rose, the stem of which is pressed against the outstretched forearm of his other arm.

Text: How socially a woman can be told to think of the idea of love in and of itself regardless of how the opposing object of said love beats them and is disgusted by them…

PANEL 12

Picture: Close up of the arm and rose. We can see here now that he is pushing the thorn of the stem into his arm, that it has caused a small, but deliberate, red scratch. Note: the physiology of the man in these pictures should denote a tense, locked-up feeling. Also still quite like the idea of this being quite soft focus, pastelly and serene, except for the strong, new deliberate line of red.

Text: …and is careless to them and to fight for love to endure for love to push forward through hell for the idea of love, blindly.

PANEL 13

Picture: Extreme close up of previous shot. The scratch is longer now. The image should look as though the man has just stopped digging the thorn into his skin, that his physiology has relaxed slightly – the rose therefore is not digging into but resting between the man’s hand and his arm, not-quite parallel (it’s head should be tilting towards) to the bloody scratch. The furthest petals of the rose overlap the fresh scratch, and its blood seeping colours a pretty spot of the petal red.

Text: …to be told to need the idea so much that health and reality do not exist.

PANEL 14

Picture: The lower legs and feet of the man, still cross-legged. The bedroom floor. The lower part of the bed. The laptop on the floor (suggest making it a white macbook) is creeping into view in the bottom left of the panel, its screen is partly visible. Note: the Word document that the laptop displays, and which various parts of the text are visible depending on the positioning of the screen in the panel reads: Loneliness isn’t being alone, it’s when someone loves you and you don’t have it in you to love them back… ‘Do you want to see my panties?’ is the last thing I will ever say to you. ‘I want to finger every teenager I see,’ is the last thing you say to me. Don’t make fun of my night out.

PANEL 15

Picture: Close up on the laptop, slightly from above, bottom corner (left?) edge of the keyboard against the floor, a different section of the screen and the text visible. A small spot of red blood on one of the letter keys, a topless, discarded bottle of Liquid Gold on the floor next to the keyboard.

PANEL 16

Picture: Extreme close up of the bottom right of the laptop screen and top-right keyboard. The last part of the text should be strongly visible here.

PANEL 17

Picture: The head and upper torso of the man, looking away from the viewer, at a blank spot on the white wall in his room. His hand should be to his mouth, perhaps picking at the corner of his mouth, as if nervously thinking. His form is in the left-hand of the frame. The wall is bare and white. Behind him in the left of the frame could be an oak dresser, with a vase of white roses on top. In the right of the frame the top of his bedhead is visible (see this as being a metal frame).

Text: As a person for whom gender dysphoria comes in and out of play it is an incredible work to read being a male and propagating some of those things upon women (in a way that I am ashamed to admit I have not as much with men I have been with) but feeling like a female inside and relating to those themes in a turned around sort of first hand way.

PANEL 18

Picture: Straight-on view of the metal-frame bedhead (drawn in black, thinking of iron) pressed against the wall. Above the bedhead is a slightly out-of-focus family portrait. Tied to/around both of the bedposts is a thick black strap. These two thick, taut straps descend forward and downwards to something out of shot on the bed. Note: the bedhead grid stretches fills from left to right of the panal, the family picture is at the top of the frame so should be slightly cut off. The black straps are the strongest, most salient and ominous element in the picture.

Text: It is about the desperate, insane, out of ones hands personally and socially downward careen that the conception of love is or can be.

PANEL 19

Picture: Back to lap of naked man, but this time with POV swivelled round slightly so we can see what is to the other side of him on the bed. His hand is laid against the naked back of a body laying face down. Note: think pretty much just the back of the person, of indeterminate gender (although it is a male), should be visible at this point.

Text: It is very confusing to be newly in love in a positive way but to have a suspicion of it and a guilt regarding it.

PANEL 20

Picture: Back to the POV showing bedhead, but this time lowered, so that we see the body who is tied facedown to the bed. The POV of the viewer therefore should be as if we were above the body’s thighs. We can see his naked bottom, his back, with the hand resting on it, a mop of black hair, face down where his head is (and arguably not totally visible, gag straps around his head – also black), and his wrists each raised slightly above his form – strapped to the bedposts.

Text: ‘I Do What I Want When I Want’ is a love song and a song about being afraid of being in love but finding a person who despite all attempts to ruin things on my part is too wonderful not dive headlong into. I think love songs that are truthful are amazing, any song that is truthful is. It is less about trying to avoid writing a love song and more about trying to avoid being in love but finally being unable to deny that it is staring me in the face.

PANEL 21

Picture: The head of the bound person. His lover’s hand on his head, as if lovingly tousling his hair. The straps of the gag going down across his face should be visible here, if not the gag itself.

PANEL 22

Picture: Profile of the above shot. POV is as if the viewer were kneeling next to the bed, very close to the man’s face. His face is facing downwards, but here the gag and some facial detail is visible, as is the man’s eye – open. The bottom half of his lover’s face is visible as he bends down to whisper into his ear, his lips are parted. From his lips, instead of words, comes one single musical notation (a quaver?)

PANEL 23

Picture: Extreme close up of the singing man’s lips, profile as before, no longer singing – closed (as if to kiss?).

Text: The person who the song is about is someone with whom I had and have a B&D relationship with and 2 years after becoming involved in that way we have since proclaimed for each other.

PANEL 24

Picture: Directly from above, looking down from the ceiling at the scene – bed, laptop, singing man now sitting up again, the hand again on the bound man’s back.

Text: I think that any sex, any physicality can be knife to the throat. Gayness, in our case has nothing to do with it.

PANEL 25

Picture: As above, but with the singing man now looking directly up, at the viewer. This is the first time we have seen his face.

Text: People's perceptions of gay sex can be what you are saying and we have used that imagery but we have used description of submission and domination in relation to hetero sex as well.

PANEL 26

Picture: As above, but with the man looking straight down, as if staring intently at the bed sheet. His hand is now raised above his lover’s back, curled tightly into a fist.

Text: I think there is too much of a knee jerk equivocation to the cock as terrible spear.

PANEL 27

Picture: from POV of other side of the bed, close, as if the viewer is kneeling again. The frame should encompass probably the upper part of the bound man’s bottom at the edge of frame left, his head should be partly cut off from frame right – just a bit of black hair visible, no facial details. In the centre of the frame, his lover’s fist has violently smashed through and into his back, up to the wrist (as if attempting to punch through and clutch his heart, from the back). Red blood splashes high from the wound. The first should be right inside the body (think DL in Heroes), the blood should be vivid and colourful.

PANEL 28

Picture: Same as before but close up on the fist, still in the back. The blood has settled on the man’s back now, and out of the wound and into the air is seeping twirling strands of the same neon colour used in the early panels.

Text: I think that the heart as grenade is more spot on.

PANEL 29

Picture: same POV as frame 25, this time twirling neon colour beginning to flow upwards from the wound, filling the room. The punching man’s head is once again turned towards the viewer, his lips once again slightly parted, his eyes gleaming as in panel 7.

Text: Any genders heart.

(not sure about this frame)

PANEL

Picture: Reprise of panel 6, except with the zeros and ones replaced by the flooded, twirling colours, perhaps more pastelly and subdued now. No spear. Overlaid on the brain is perhaps the outline of two male faces kissing softly.

Note: Had an idea that this reprise of images would be smaller than the introduction, just all five frames in a horizontal line in one panel.

PANEL 30

PANEL 31

Picture: “Uniformed bestetsonned grunt pushing up for a squat thrust.” A barcode-shaped dash in the dead centre of the image, coloured neon pink, no text.

PANEL 32

Picture: “Tumescent stiffy disinterestedly pulled by some beefcake.” A barcode-shaped dash in the dead centre of the image, coloured neon pink, no text.

PANEL 33

Picture: “A machine gun pointing into a bold Iraqi dawn.” A barcode-shaped dash in the dead centre of the image, coloured neon pink, no text.

PANEL 34

Picture: “Woman with bullwhip up her fanny.” A barcode-shaped dash in the dead centre of the image, coloured neon pink, no text.

ACTION

2007
2000
2006
1978
1977
2001
2004
1991

07.01.09

2009-01-07T15:35:00.000-08:00

borrowed & blue 07.01.09

I’m in love with the heart-shapes in your name.

ACTION

1998
2005
1988
2007
1968
1974
2001
2005
1987

04.01.09

2009-01-04T04:39:00.001-08:00

borrowed & blue 04.01.09

I fucking KNEW there's absolutely no call for bending your SECOND AND FOURTH fingers into impossible chord-shapes in real life Paramore. I'll just settle for grinding out the excellent Sara-era-Erase Errata-like clunks and scrapes that the game makes when you fuck up.

e|----------------|---------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| B|----------------|---------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| G|----------6-6-6-|---------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| D|----------7-7-7-|-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-|-----------------|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-|-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-| A|----------4-4-4-|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-| D|----------------|---------------|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|-----------------|-----------------| e|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| B|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| G|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| D|-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-|-----------------|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-| A|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-| D|-----------------|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|-----------------|-----------------| Pre-Chorus (They taped over your mouth…) e|-1---------------|-3---------------|-5---------------| B|-1---------------|-3---------------|-6---------------| G|-3---------------|-5---------------|-7---------------| D|-3---------------|-5---------------|-7---------------| x2 A|-1---------------|-3---------------|-5---------------| D|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| e|-12-13-12------13|-12--------------| B|----------13-----|-----------------| G|-------------12--|-----------------| D|-----------------|-----------------| A|-----------------|-----------------| D|-----------------|-----------------| e|-----------------|-----------------| B|-----------------|-----------------| G|-7---------------|-7---------------| D|-7---------------|-7---------------| A|-0---------------|-0---------------| D|-0---------------|-0---------------| Chorus (Nothing compares to..) e|---------------0-|-----------------|-------------0---| B|---------------5-|-----------------|-------------5---| G|---------------5-|-----------------|-3-----------5---| D|-0-0----3-3----5-|-----------------|-3----0-0----5---| A|-0-0----3-3----3-|-----------------|-1----0-0----3---| D|-0-0----3-3------|-----------------|------0-0--------| e|---------------0-|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| B|---------------5-|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| G|---------------5-|-----------------|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-| D|-0-0----3-3----5-|-----------------|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-| A|-0-0----3-3----3-|-----------------|-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-| D|-0-0----3-3------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| Post-Chorus e|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|----------------|-----10--------| B|-10-11-10--------|-----------------|----10-11-10-----|----------------|---------------| G|----------12-10--|-9-10-9----------|-------------12--|-10--9-10-9-----|---------------| D|-----------------|--------12-10-10-|-10--------------|------------12--|-10------------| A|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|----------------|---------------| D|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|----------------|---------------| Verse (Well if you wanna play it like a game..) e|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| B|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| G|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| D|-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-|-----------------|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-|-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-| A|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-| D|-----------------|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|-----------------|-----------------| e|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| B|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| G|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| D|-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-|-----------------|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-| A|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-| D|-----------------|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|-----------------|-----------------| Pre-Chorus (They taped over your mouth…) e|-1---------------|-3---------------|-5---------------| B|-1---------------|-3---------------|-6---------------| G|-3---------------|-5---------------|-7---------------| D|-3---------------|-5---------------|-7---------------| x2 A|-1---------------|-3---------------|-5---------------| D|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| e|-12-13-12------13|-12--------------| B|----------13-----|-----------------| G|-------------12--|-----------------| D|-----------------|-----------------| A|-----------------|-----------------| D|-----------------|-----------------| e|-----------------|-----------------| B|-----------------|-----------------| G|-7---------------|-7---------------| D|-7---------------|-7---------------| A|-0---------------|-0---------------| D|-0---------------|-0---------------| Chorus (Nothing compares to..) e|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| B|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| G|---------------5-|-----------------|-3-----------5---| D|-0-0----3-3----5-|-----------------|-3----0-0----5---| A|-0-0----3-3----3-|-----------------|-1----0-0----3---| D|-0-0----3-3------|-----------------|------0-0--------| e|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| B|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| G|---------------5-|-----------------|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-| D|-0-0----3-3----5-|-----------------|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-| A|-0-0----3-3----3-|-----------------|-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-| D|-0-0----3-3------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| Bridge (Rock and roll..) e|-----------------|-----------------| B|-----------------|-----------------| G|-----------5-----|-----------------| D|-0----3----5-----|--------8-8-\----| x8 A|-0----3----3-----|--------8-8-\----| D|-0----3----------|--------8-8-\----| Final Chorus (Nothing compares to..) e|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| B|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| G|-------------5-5-|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-|-3-3-3-------5-5-|-5-5-5-5-6-6-6-6-| D|-0-0-0-3-3-3-5-5-|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|-3-3-3-0-0-0-5-5-|-5-5-5-5-7-7-7-7-| A|-0-0-0-3-3-3-3-3-|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|-1-1-1-0-0-0-3-3-|-3-3-3-3-4-4-4-4-| D|-0-0-0-3-3-3-----|-----------------|-------0-0-0-----|-----------------| e|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| B|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| G|---------------5-|-----------------|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-| D|-0-0----3-3----5-|-----------------|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-| A|-0-0----3-3----3-|-----------------|-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-| D|-0-0----3-3------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| e|-----------------|-----------------|-------------0---| B|-----------------|-----------------|-------------5---| G|---------------5-|-----------------|-3-----------5---| D|-0-0----3-3----5-|-----------------|-3----0-0----5---| A|-0-0----3-3----3-|-----------------|-1----0-0----3---| D|-0-0----3-3------|-----------------|------0-0--------| e|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| B|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| G|---------------5-|-----------------|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-| D|-0-0----3-3----5-|-----------------|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-| A|-0-0----3-3----3-|-----------------|-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-| D|-0-0----3-3------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| e|-12b---12-12b-12-|10-12b-12-10-10--|-13----------10--|----13-12-13-15--| B|-----------------|-----------------|----10-11-10-----|-13--------------| G|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| D|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| A|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| D|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| e|-13-15-17-18-17--|-18-22\----------| B|-----------------|-----------------| G|-----------------|-----------------| D|-----------------|-----------------| A|-----------------|-----------------| D|-----------------|-----------------|

ACTION

2002
2003
2003
2001
2006
2006
2001
1978
1990

27.12.08

2008-12-27T09:30:00.001-08:00

borrowed & blue 27.12.08

I suppose one thing that made 2008 different from other years for me is that this year I bought some instruments and started faffing about with sounds, for fun, out of boredom. It was mostly all crap. But fun to do. It'd be kind of great if everyone had a go at making stuff, because it's such fun to do, but there should kind of be a law that you're not allowed to play it to anyone else, or talk about it, ever.

Today I was bored and google image-searched pictures to put into the ID3 tags of the crap I've recorded; each picture thematically illustrates an individual 'song'. I wonder how obvious it is by reading the pictures what the music sounds like.

ACTION

1979
2001
1982
1988
2008
1970
1969
1974
1956
2005
1998

26.12.08

2008-12-26T10:37:00.000-08:00

borrowed & blue 26.12.08

Spent Christmas day being introduced to what will by now surely be the great xmas tradition of our times: Guitar Hero. It's somewhat depressing to think that I've spent infinitely more time trying to master the fake guitar-wrangling game's intricacies than I have the Boss DD-3 Digital Delay pedal I bought myself as an xmas present.

And it's embarrassing. How utterly crap I am on anything above beginner level. I can't even do Paramore. Fucking Paramore! They're, what, 12? Have they even learnt the F chord yet?

But it's so satisfying. Being able to belt out Raining Blood (Raining Blood is HARD. Hard in real life and hard in fake life. I've always resisted learning how to play it properly because I don't want to undo its skin-tearing magic) though, or the death-from-above whammy-divebombs and guitar-tire-screeches in White Zombie's Black Sunshine, while a cartoon character you poses and preens like a bastard in an exploding-with-colour dream-gig (the kind of gigs I'd always imagine would happen in the beginning years of this century - with loads of over-the-top stage action and hologram-like effects). Satisfying in a way that playing the real guitar in your living room isn't.

It sounds better for one thing. I sound shit when I play guitar. To the extent that the last few things I recorded weren't even music at all, but lazy noise-improvisations, exercises in trying to make as many stupid non-guitar noises as possible and collaging them into an ugly imploding mess. It also finally, smugly rams home the point that you can't even do Raining Blood in a computer game and, therefore YOU WILL NEVER ACTUALLY BE IN SLAYER THE TIME TO ACCEPT THIS IS NOW.

I began my xmastimeoff with two vague projects: learn riffs from the recent Decibel Top 50 Greatest Riffs In Extreme Metal and work on my book proposal. So far I've managed a couple of lame attempts at Am I Evil (Diamond Head) and Black Coffee (Black Flag).

Everything else is over-eating, held-down-past-your-stomach stress, a constant expenditure of reassurance and comfort to those around you and a sick, gnawing feeling growing around the hole in my middle that I'm fucked, I'm useless, another year gone and I've wasted myself.

ACTION

1998
2004
2007
2001
1995
1985
1974
2005
1982
1978
?

23.12.08

2008-12-23T15:40:00.000-08:00

borrowed & blue 23.12.08

I should say that before I missed you I missed the skies from our home and I missed them instantly. Back home the skies were huge and blue and implacable, skies to drown in. Here the very air seemed to choke on itself and I almost feared to look up at the sky in case I angered it, and those heavy, straining omnipresent duvets of dark cloud and smog rush down at me to smother me. And then I missed you like I’ll miss a decent coat a month from now.

ACTION

1977
1975
1973
1980
1978
1971
1970
2007
?
1998
2007

borrowed & blue get happy

2008-12-20T12:25:00.000-08:00

borrowed & blue get happy

Happy music is treated with some suspicion by music fans. Dark is easy. It's EASY to do pain and sad and suffering because not only do people relate to it, they crave it. People don't want to be elevated from their day-to-day conditions, or if they do, it's only because they revel smugly in knowing that someone, somewhere on the end of their iPod headphones, has got it worse than them. Whenever 'happy music' is mentioned, sneered words like 'Christian' eventually follow (as if Christianity wasn't the most blatant pain-and-suffering-fetishising model ever).

I use happy music in the same as I use angry music: as a source of energy. I use it deliberately as a drug. To bring me up, to take me out of myself, to shoot my soul hard-and-fast out of my ribcage until it becomes something bat-winged and beautiful and something not like me.

In my teens and early twenties I had something approaching similar to what people blanket-term 'agoraphobia'. I found it hard to leave the house, integrate or hold conversations with people, partly what scared me was what I didn't know who I was when I was doing these things, and for a long time I could only get through it by a) pretending, being someone different and b) (and crucially) being drunk. Around that time I invented a mix CD which I used for a bit as a crutch to enable me to work through these things. When I walked down the street I'd blast it out very loud through my crappy CD player (much louder than iPods let you crank stuff these days). The opening track was the almighty 'Where Eagles Dare' by The Misfits, and the CD featured similarly sonically-invulnerable moments like Nine Inch Nails' 'Wish' or Dead Boys' 'Sonic Reducer', but the most effective tracks were actually tunes like 'I'm Alright (Theme from Caddyshack)' by Kenny Loggins. You can't walk down the street and listen to the theme from Caddyshack and not feel a thousand times better than you did when you left the house.

Despite being someone who - I'm told - doesn't look very happy most of the time, I have a natural bias towards happiness - which people are often quick equate with inanity or banality - in pop songs, and a bit of a distate for angst, which normally seems a bit crass, obvious or insincere in musical expression. Happy music makes me feel better about the world in the same way that bright colours and moulded plastic do. The only thing that worries me about my affinity for it, is the way that I pursue the most aggressive, bizarre extremes of the genre, and overdose on it in a way that makes the effect giddying and intoxicating. It can make you feel drunk and deranged. It'll make your head spin and you'll see stars.

For Christmas, I thought it would be fun to do a compilation of the most aggressively-happy songs borrowed & blue has put out so far. You probably won't like it.

14.12.08

2008-12-14T06:15:00.000-08:00

borrowed & blue 14.12.08

We met once in Leeds, and once in Derby.

I’ve seen you twice on the streets here, in four years.

The last time we locked eyes and threat-dared each other to acknowledge. Our composure was magnificent. In the way that in London you’re statistically never more than four feet away from a rat, I wonder as we shuttle through the city how far away I am from you.

We’re like rats, miles and metres apart, entwined by our trails. Rooting each other out, sensing danger like stink.

When this whole ship finally sinks into the slime, I hope it will comfort you to know that we went down together; always scurrying, always hiding.

ACTION

1999
2004
2002
1972
2006
2007
2007
1987
1977
1977
1985
1990

13.12.08

2008-12-13T08:48:00.000-08:00

borrowed & blue 13.12.08

Haven't done one in ages but thought I'd play with some ACTION mixes. Whereas the RE:ACTION series is an experiment in scouring the underbelly of unpopularity - to see if you drill right down to the most insignificant, unloved music, what sort of odd, unexpected and utterly singular places you end up sonically, the ACTION series is designed to present our own, slightly Satanic, view of what pop music is. The ACTION mixes comprise songs whose function is to reach as many people as possible, by whatever means possible.

ACTION mix:

1992
1992
2008
1972
1985
1981
2006
1984
1988
2003
2006

12.12.08

2008-12-12T04:50:00.000-08:00

borrowed & blue 12.12.08

Sometimes when I don't remember that I'm 28-years-old and I have a job and a flat and a nice girlfriend and a free time-decimating commute, I like to think about bands. Until probably relatively recently, I'd always wanted to be in a band, and saw that goal in terms of personal progression as bigger than the other milestones that tell you you're not fucked up anymore, like getting a girlfriend or a job or a nice place to live. Being in a band, I thought, must be like being in a gang - you'd feel amazing all the time. Those kind of feelings soured over time, I think from just hanging around bands too much.

But sometimes, I still have ideas for things that would be a good band, and it gives me sympathy for the kinds of people - like Stuart Murdoch - who before they were in bands would make up fake bands and send in details of their imaginary gigs to the NME listings pages.

Currently my favourite idea for a band is two guitars, alternating between flange and distortion, detuned (but nothing too heavy and obvious, maybe like E flat), flanking a singer who would render all of the basslines as rapid bleeps on a distorted Casio. Vocals would be the high-register girl-barks I loved in Xerox Girls, Disco, Help She Can't Swim or The Brownies.

The music would sound like:

Got The Time by Anthrax
Breaking The Law by Judas Priest
Last Caress by The Misfits
Fuel For Hatred by Satyricon
The Pentagram Burns by Satyricon
18 And Life by Skid Row

I can't decide if there'd be a drummer or not.

RE:ACTION

2008
2008
2006
2006
1987
1987
1980
1981
1982
1978
1982
1981

08.12.08

2008-12-08T13:55:00.000-08:00

borrowed & blue 08.12.08

Turquoise hexagon sun. You are invisible. A boy I knew once told me about a talisman he had. The talisman was for restoring his head to a better place, an instant hit of lucidity and preternatural calm. To conjure his sacred place he had to create a symbol in his mind. Once the symbol was complete, then it would white-out his mind like a flash going off or a lightbulb exploding and he would be there. The tools to create the talisman were three words.

Over time I managed to develop my own talisman. You are invisible. I realised that I didn’t need geometry, colour and shape to draw something in my mind; I could just wish my body away.

I believe I am being punished.

I have wished my body away many times.

RE:ACTION

1995
2007
2008
2005
1980
2007
2007
2006
2005
2008
2006

07.12.08

2008-12-07T05:45:00.000-08:00

borrowed & blue 07.12.08

Nothing to do with this mix, but today toying with an idea for a Pavement mixxtape.

Name Artist Composer Album Grouping Genre Size Time Disc Number Disc Count Track Number Track Count Year Date Modified Date Added Bit Rate Sample Rate Volume Adjustment Kind Equalizer Comments Play Count Last Played My Rating Location
Major Leagues Pavement Terror Twilight Indie 4966052 204 5 1998 27/10/2008 14:02 27/10/2008 14:05 192 44100 MPEG audio file 7 30/11/2008 13:55 G:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\terror twilight\05 major leagues.mp3
Stereo Pavement Brighten The Corners Indie 4499462 187 1 1997 27/10/2008 13:24 27/10/2008 14:05 192 44100 MPEG audio file 6 30/11/2008 14:14 G:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\pavement - brighten the corners\01 - stereo.mp3
Gold Soundz Pavement Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain Alternative 4268293 159 1 1 7 12 1994 10/06/2008 05:46 02/10/2008 22:55 211 44100 MPEG audio file 6 30/11/2008 13:58 G:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\pavement - crooked rain, crooked rain\07 gold soundz.mp3
Here Pavement Slanted & Enchanted 5661778 235 9 27/07/2007 13:46 02/10/2008 22:43 192 44100 MPEG audio file 6 26/11/2008 16:08 G:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\Pavement\Slanted & Enchanted\09 Here.mp3
The Hexx Pavement Terror Twilight Indie 8189144 339 10 1998 27/10/2008 14:18 27/10/2008 14:57 192 44100 MPEG audio file 6 28/11/2008 13:25 G:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\terror twilight\10 the hexx.mp3
From Now On Pavement Westing (by Musket And Sextant) Indie Rock 3014915 123 10/06/2008 05:14 04/10/2008 11:54 192 44100 MPEG audio file 6 30/11/2008 16:28 G:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\01-westing by musket and sextant(early recordings)\13-from now on .mp3
Two States Pavement Slanted & Enchanted Indie Rock 3100267 107 10 1992 27/10/2008 16:20 31/10/2008 09:17 226 44100 MPEG audio file 5 30/11/2008 14:15 G:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\1992 - slanted and enchanted\10 - two states.mp3
Debris Slide Pavement Westing (by Musket And Sextant) Indie Rock 2834385 116 10/06/2008 05:21 02/10/2008 22:55 192 44100 MPEG audio file 5 30/11/2008 13:47 G:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\01-westing by musket and sextant(early recordings)\16-debris slide.mp3
01 - we dance Pavement Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinels Edition 4376327 182 27/10/2008 13:34 27/10/2008 14:05 192 44100 MPEG audio file 5 26/11/2008 11:30 G:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\wowee zowee sordid sentinals cd1\01 - we dance.mp3
grounded PAVEMENT Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinels Edition Unbekannt 6161389 256 5 27/10/2008 13:41 27/10/2008 14:05 192 44100 MPEG audio file 5 28/11/2008 13:12 G:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\wowee zowee sordid sentinals cd1\05 - grounded.mp3
Fillmore Jive Pavement Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain Alternative 10512757 400 1 1 12 1994 10/06/2008 06:03 16/06/2008 00:47 209 44100 MPEG audio file 00000812 00000617 00001D8D 00001ABE 00052E94 00052E94 00006522 00007098 00052E94 00052E94 4 28/11/2008 16:53 G:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\pavement - crooked rain, crooked rain\12 fillmore jive.mp3
Raft Pavement Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: L.A.'s Desert Origins (Disc 1) Rock/Pop 5630309 214 15 2004 31/10/2008 13:00 31/10/2008 15:02 208 44100 MPEG audio file 4 30/11/2008 13:51 G:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\15 - raft.mp3
Shady Lane (Krossfader) Pavement Shady Lane Alternative: Indie Indie Rock 3929631 157 1 1997 13/07/2007 08:17 10/06/2008 00:26 200 44100 MPEG audio file 4 30/11/2008 13:45 G:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\Pavement\Shady Lane\01 Shady Lane (Krossfader).mp3

RE:ACTION and momentum forever&ever

1971
1970
1989
1992
1988
1978

30.11.08

2008-11-30T07:29:00.000-08:00

borrowed & blue 30.11.08

Congratulations to comrades 20jazzfunkgreats and The Quietus for caning the gongs at the Record Of The Day awards on Thursday!

The award for least-read blog and most consistently-dropped music journalist goes to...

RE:ACTION

1997
2007
1987
2008
1997
2006
1979
2008
1994
1980

29.11.08

2008-11-29T04:09:00.000-08:00

borrowed & blue 29.11.08

So goodbye drunk-at-train-stations blurry phonecam, hello cathedrals-in-the-sky-making Holga...

RE:ACTION mix for surging comedowns and floating highs:

2003
2004
2008

22.11.08

2008-11-22T08:54:00.001-08:00

borrowed & blue 22.11.08

K. One more mobile phone picture.

RE:ACTION:

2001
1998
2005
2007
2003
1983
1968
1972
1970

21.11.08

2008-11-21T12:41:00.000-08:00

borrowed & blue 21.11.08

I'm going to overhaul the pictorial element of borrowed & blue soon, so this scary dog might be the last beautifully-flat mobile phone picture you see........

RE:ACTION mix yo:

2000
2004
?
1989
1969
2007
1968
1969
1977
?
2001
1971
1968
1985

16.11.08

2008-11-16T14:11:00.000-08:00

borrowed & blue 16.11.08

borrowed & blue imaginary radio for headphones presents a RE:ACTION mix.

?
2008
1997
1997
2000
2008
2005
2006
2007
2007
2001

07.11.08

2008-11-07T06:30:00.001-08:00

borrowed & blue 07.11.08

I recently interviewed Paul Morley for a piece on ZTT and I was interested in the way he segregated the labels output into different 'series'. The 'Certain' series was composed of "surreal, possibly bleak cabaret"; 'Incidental' was "experimental research".

I've been experimenting with using two different processes to determine the borrowed & blue mixes recently, and have noticed that some people have preferred one to the other. I'm going to continue both audio streams, but in homage to ZTT I'm going to label them. ACTION will be our mixes of music that has more or less been specifically designed to reach as many people as possible, while RE:ACTION will be the opposite, lonely sounds that crave obscurity.

This is a RE:ACTION mix.

2007
2007
2002
2001
2004
1982
?
1984
1997
?
1992

31.10.08

2008-10-31T13:29:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 31.10.08

I like the way that it looks like it's turning itself inside out.

2005
1991
2000
1979
?
2004
2006
1995
2008

23.10.08

2008-10-23T03:40:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 23.10.08

Have to get my nominations for Albums Of The Year into one of the metal magazines I write for soon, so frantically trying to condense a year's worth of growls, screams and shreds into one week of listening. Mostly none of which is reflected in this smooth, smooth mix.

1993
1961
1994
1972
1973
1975
1978
2001
1996
1978
2008

21.10.08

2008-10-21T15:16:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 21.10.08

We heart: 14 Iced Bears The 5678s Abe Vigoda Acid House Kings Aeternus Alden Tyrell Alphabeat Amon Duul Amon Duul UK Ampop Antony & The Johnsons Apparat Organ Quartet Apples In Stereo Arab On Radar The Associates Au Revoir Simone Autechre Bananarama Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso Bauhaus Beat Happening Beehoover Belinda Carlisle The Berzerker Bessie Smith Big Black Bikini Kill Bill Laswell The Bird And The Bee Black Tambourine BMX Bandits Bo Hansson Bobby Womack Born Heller Boxcutter Brandy Bratmobile Brighter Britney Spears The Bug Burning Star Core Buddy Holly Butthole Surfers Buzzcocks Cadallaca Caetano Veloso Can Carpathian Forest The Carter Family Casiotone For The Painfully Alone Casual Dots Catscan Celeste Hutchins Cerrone The Cheetah Girls Chet Baker The Chips Christian Death Chrome Chuck Berry Clandestine Blaze The Clash Cliff Richard Clock DVA Coil Comet Gain Comets On Fire The Cosmic Jokers The Cramps Cymande Daisy Chainsaw David Grisman Quartet Damon & Naomi The Damned David Cain David Bowie Deadbeat Death The Death Set Dee Dee Ramone Deerhoof Deerhunter Delia Derbyshire Devotchkas Dick Mills Distance Disiplin DJ Promo DJ Shadow The Donnas Dr Hook The Dramatics Dream Drexciya The Dub-Liner EC8OR Echo & The Bunnymen Edie Brickell Edith Piaf Edwyn Collins Electronic Electrypnose Eric B & Rakim Eumir Exuma Deodato Fad Gadget Fairport Convention Faust The Flaming Stars Flipper Fluttr Effect Flying Lotus The Flying Pandas Fog Frankie Vaughan Freezepop Front Line Assembly Galaxy 2 Galaxy Gameboy/Gamegirl Gehenna Gene Vincent General Patton vs The X-ecutioners The Germs The Gits Gordon Lightfoot Haircut 100 Half Man Half Biscuit Hank Williams Hawkwind Heaven 17 Hella Hem Hevia Holger Czukay Horsepower Productions Hot Snakes Hurricane Smith Husker Du Ice Cube Imogen Heap Infiniti Inti-Illimani Jackie-O Motherfucker James Chance Japan Jarvis Cocker Jay Haze Jenny Scheinman The Jesus Lizard jesusfreak Johann Johannsson John Renbourn Johnny Foreigner JoJo Jon & Vangelis Jonny Greenwood Jordan Rudess Jorge Ben Jump5 Jupiter Black Karen Dalton Karl Bartos Kate Bush Katy Perry Keak Da Sneak Kindergarten Kisses Kimya Dawson King Sunny Ade Kit Clayton Klimek Kukl Kylesa Lalo Schiffrin Lamont Dozier The Left Banke Legendary Pink Dots Lemon Kittens Lesbian Liars Lightning Bolt Lil Scrappy Lil Wayne Lindsay Lohan Lloyd Cole & The Commotions Louis Armstrong Lump Mandrill Mark Isham Marvin Gaye Masada String Trio MC 900 ft Jesus The Meters Mike Mareen Milanese Miles Davis Minizza Mirah The Misfits Mission Of Burma Miyavi Mono Moondog Mount Eerie Mrk1 Mudhoney Murcof The Muses Rapt My Brightest Diamond Naglfar Naked Eyes Nas Nation Of Ulysses Neurosis New Flesh Nickel Creek Nil Karaibrahimgil Non Orange Juice The O'Jays Padded Cell The Pale Fountains Panasonic The Pastels Peggy Lee Pentangle Pere Ubu Peter Hammill Peter Maffay Pharoah Overload Pinback Pinch Pipas Polvo Praxis Presence Prince Buster Professor Genius Psychic TV Queen Adreena R. Stevie Moore Rapeman Red Snapper Richard Swift Rocketship Rodriguez Roll Deep Crew The Rolling Stones Ron Geesin Roxy Music Sandy Denny Samhain School, Sweet School Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel Scott Walker Scratch Acid Screaming Trees Scuba Seafood Secret Chiefs 3 Shop Assistants The Shout Out Louds Showaddywaddy Sizzla Skream Sleep Slough Feg Snoop Dogg The Softies Solange Sparklehorse Sparks The Specials Spiritualized SPK Squarepusher The Stylistics Sufjan Stevens Super Numeri Swans Swell Maps Taake Talulah Gosh The Tears Teddy Pendergrass Television Personalities The Temptations Teriyaki Boyz Terry Riley Thanksgiving The The Theatre Of Hate They Might Be Giants Thorns Three 6 Mafia Three Mile Pilot The Three Degrees Tiger Trap Times New Viking Toasty Torche Tower Of Rome Townes Van Zandt Trembling Blue Stars Trophy Scars Turtle Grace Ultravox Ulver Vic Chesnutt Virgin Prunes Vivien Vee The Wake The Walker Brothers Warfaze The Wedding Present The Weirdos White Williams Wiley The Wipers Wire Wives Y.A.C.H.T. Yanni The Yardbirds

2006
1998
?
1981
2004
1972
2007
1994
2000

18.10.08

2008-10-18T06:20:00.001-07:00

borrowed & blue 18.10.08

The first two tracks are a total red herring. BITCH.

1969
2004
1998
1995
1956
2006
2007
1996
1999
2007

14.10.08

2008-10-14T13:54:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 14.10.08

I suppose the name of the kind of music this blog posts is 'overlooked music'.

Sometimes popular music can be overlooked music too.

2006
2007
2006
1994
1997
2000
?
1995
1996
2002

13.10.08

2008-10-13T15:57:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 13.10.08

Enraged, I leap the tracks in a single bound and lunge for her, but Darcy Bethany just backflips up the wall, and, balancing on the gutter, taunts me in arabesque.

I curse the air with a flurry of battement glissé. I stammer impotently in échappé.

Darcy Bethany just bounces away on the top of lampposts, hands folded behind her back, mocking me in a wordless sing-song.

“La la fucking la!” I scream. “Come down here and dance like a man!”

Her pretty, placid face is a perfect V-sign.

2006
2005
?
1993
1989
1986
1981
1979
2006
1995
2008

12.10.08

2008-10-12T04:45:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 12.10.08

I woke up and I didn’t know where I was, but in the first two seconds that my soul was sucked back into my body it was able to calculate the following information: everywhere around me is pitch black, impenetrable dark. A great volume of air is rushing extremely quickly past me, quicker than any natural force, sucking me. A fist is gripping my hair. My body is horizontal, facing downwards. Only my toe tips feel earth.

2007
2006
2005
?
1972
1972
1972
2007
2008
1993
1999

08.10.08

2008-10-08T15:44:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 08.10.08

The first acknowledgment of humanity so far. And I'm superlate to the party on one omnipotent pop song.

1978
1986
1988
2004
2008
2007
1973
1981
1970
2007
2008
2002

06.10.08

2008-10-06T08:05:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 06.10.08

I played back our conversations multilayered and speeded-up in my head into white noise and in the scree I fantasised that I could hear orchestras.

1991
1980
2007
2005
2000
2004
1979
1981
2004
1966
?
1993

05.10.08

2008-10-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 05.10.08

The people here have hard, tired faces and they look like they’ve had the sadness sucked out of them. How can you live like that? Without sadness. Without sadness there is no beauty. We may have quaffed the stuff like wine, got raging drunk on it, but when all is said and done the holocausts of our bodies still knew how to appreciate a good painting and a scar.

1972
1999
2004
1999
2003
2002
1996
2000
1985
1988

02.10.98

2008-10-02T13:50:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 02.10.08

Songs from CGI kids films, psy-trance, MOR pan-pipe jazz, misogynistic Christian rap-rock, painfully... basic riot grrrl... this could be our most unpopular mix yet!

2005
1973
1923
1998
2005
1992
1994
1993
1998
1998
2004

30.09.08

2008-09-30T00:32:00.001-07:00

borrowed & blue 30.09.08

Feel crumpled-up today.

2007
2007
2003
1999
?
2004
1988
1979
2001
2004
2007

28.09.08

2008-09-28T08:02:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 28.09.08

Lazer-beamed by the London Eye.

2008
2006
1967
2007
?
2006
1983
1987
1985

24.09.08

2008-09-24T12:32:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 24.09.08

Shred feta ham meats.

2007
1976
1999
2006
2004
?
2007
1985
?

21.09.08

2008-09-20T16:00:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 21.09.08

The problem about most people who grow up really, really loving music is that they mostly only listen to one type of music, so by the time they hit their late twenties they are bored, they feel like they've heard anything, and that no one is doing anything new anymore - just repeating sounds they suckled on in their youth. There's always a pain barrier in listening to kinds of music that it would never normally occur to you to try out, but once you break through it, it can be as rewarding as listening to ten potential futures of music at once.

2007
2007
2006
1976
1972
2005
2006
1997
1988
2003
1967

20.09.08

2008-09-19T12:57:00.001-07:00

borrowed & blue 20.09.08

Progressive metal is a genre so completely singular that neither of the component genres in its title really accurately describes the music that is tagged under it. Although you would assume it to be musically quite tricky to get your head around, it's actually one of the most staid and stubbornly oblivious musical strains in metal. It's entirely encased in a bubble of its own magnificence, where trends and fads stream past the domed atmosphere, and inside its all perfect key changes and pitch-perfect emoting. What IS tricky for the listener is the use of emotion in these songs. The genre perhaps to a lot of people would mostly sound like MIT-graduate power ballads. The tunes definitely weight themselves around a very overbearing type of emotional delivery, but what is weird is just how completely glassy and emotion-free the actual sound is. Everything sounds so flattened-out and cold and perfect, it almost creates an entirely new emotion altogether, and i think it's THIS emotion that the fantastically-ignored perennial musicians of progressive metal are truly in love with. They feel like they have to shore their autistic absence of human emotion up with lyrical cliches about self-discovery, redemption, a completely hollow kind of love. But in the glassy tinkling of their MIDI-keyboards (actual honest-to-god pianos seem unequivocably absent, instead its always the 'piano' setting of an expensive keyboard, one in a rack of many), you hear a real peace. A kind of joy at finding solace in a space where nothing ever changes, where no juddering dynamics scare or change you, where words and notes are perfect and profound and everything is about shape and form, not texture or meaning. Perfect sound forever.

2004
2004
2006
2005
1964
1970
1969
1992
2008
2007

19.09.08

2008-09-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 19.09.08

The image to today's post arrived in the mail, suspiciously, without warning or explanation.

1987
1973
1994
1988
1941
1989
1974
1981
1978
1998
2006

17.09.08

2008-09-17T13:44:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 17.09.08

One rewarding aspect of this almost wilfully naive approach to listening, where eras are puree-ed into sonic paste, is how the actual tunes become freed from context. An also ran new romantic song, for example, released way after the genre itself hurtled over the shark, would in its time sound cliched, cynical and desperate. When you don't know how you would have felt when that song was released first time round, what was the context of its release, what the sound of that year was (this is something i want to come back to in later posts, how a year not only can, but in fact always does have a sound strung through it, that i think only certain people can hear - and i'm not talking about 'tastemakers' here), then all you can hear is the tune. Do you like it? Then that's ok.

1992
2007
1991
2005
1988
2006
1992
2008
2005
2004

16.09.08

2008-09-16T14:01:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 16.09.08

I'm still tinkering with the mix process, it isn't completely random but it isn't meant to work as, for instance, a DJ set or something. I think of it more as being like a disembodied radio station, the kind you would fall asleep to late at night when you were a kid, the songs almost psychedically vivid in the state between sleep and awake, but the voices of the presenters blissfully distorted and intangible, all detail obscured.

1978
2007
2007
1977
1992
2007
2007
1995

14.09.08

2008-09-14T05:33:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 14.09.08

Part of the point with the posts was that with each one, I would incrementally give a bit more detail about what I'm doing with the mixes, or at least clues for why I'm doing it. Today, however, I am hungover. Was at a wedding yesterday. So all I will say is that it's kind of interesting to me how despite originally setting out with the intention of creating mixes drawing from all genres and all histories of music, that overwhelmingly the bias is for tunes written and released within my own lifetime (i was born in 1980). Because I wasn't really aware of music much before about 1991, there's a lot of obvious exploration of the decade so ultimately reviled by Prolapse ("The Eighties were CRAP!!! The hairstyles were CRAP!!! The music was CRAP!!!" etc.), but I think on some level I must be clinging to this era because I do only feel like I can properly understand things that occurred in my own lifetime.

Recently I've been working on a collaborative project with a friend, which was originally mooted as being set in a fictional, faraway history, with mangled signifiers running from the 1800s to the 1950s. I found it physically impossible to write in a voice affecting to be that of someone living in the olden days. Instead I've dodged the issue, by writing as much as I can in a voice that sounds like it's something I would say, or one of my friends would say, but obfuscating as much time-sensitive detail as possible. It's going to be a good project. Maybe it's a sign of my limitations as a writer that I can't write in a voice that I don't think in, but also I've never understood why people in their twenties want to pretend they're living in a decade that their parents probably weren't even born in, and in another country. The town I live in is a rockabilly necrophiliarapefest. There's something about contrivance that I just find squeamishly embarrassing.

I'm going to try listening to more old music though.

1969
2006
1972
1980
2007
1984
1989
1984
1981
?
1985
1987
?
2003

13.09.08

2008-09-13T07:00:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 13.09.08

Happy weddingday to dom & verity.

2008
1982
1991
2007
1972
1974
?
1968
1971
1973
?

11.09.08

2008-09-10T04:37:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 11.09.08

2003
1995
2008
2005
1983
1984
1985
1966
1986
1989
?
2002
1978
1977
1978

10.09.08

2008-09-08T12:54:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 10.09.08

Why are the twin obsessions of Swedish alternative culture twee and pop-reggae?

2005
2005
?
?
?
?
2004
2004
1974
1973
1973

08.09.08

2008-09-07T16:22:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 08.09.08

There's an absurd lapse into post-Britpop somewhere in the middle of this tape, out of curiosity. It recovers.

1996
1982
1992
1977
1977
2002
1997
1996
2002
2005
2006
2005
1956
1974
1972

06.09.08

2008-09-06T16:47:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 06.09.08

Having just returned from a 3-day noiseimprovfest, the one parallel i can draw between that and this is how hard it is to second-guess whats coming in the mixes, because there's many of them, because there's so much information.

1956
2007
1982
?
2008
1971
1968
2008
2002

02.08.09

2008-09-01T17:43:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 02.08.09

These mixes are great for morning journeys. Just about the right length so that you don't get so bored of music that you can't be bothered listening to the rest of it. I don't eat in the mornings, but I think of music as being a bit like food. It's what I use to start the day, and like any food, you don't want to gorge too much on one flavour least you become sick of it, or it makes you sick. borrowed & blue for a healthy, balanced diet.

1971
2005
2002
1999
2007
1976
2002
1996
1969
1982
1983
1997

01.09.08

2008-08-31T17:22:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 01.09.08

Slight fuck-up on the quality means that this one is 320 instead of 128 - and therefore will take longer to download. I don't know whether it's worth bearing in mind that I see this mixes as kind of use-once-and-destroy bits of pop ephemera, they're intentionally disposable. I use them for myself as a daily mental-download of music that I would never have listened to if I hadn't on some level forced myself to, and felt better because of it.

Doing this project has helped me, as someone who has worked in a semi-professional level in the music industry for 11 or so years, really reconnect with music as pure pleasure, something to immerse yourself in for no other reason other than it feels good. Not work. Musical comfort food.

1965
1979
2000
2007
1983
1988
1997
1982
1978
?

31.08.08

2008-08-31T09:45:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 31.08.08

Shove this up your mind!

2003
2004
1986
2006
1979
1972
1969
1968
1970
2008
1970
2008

30.08.08

2008-08-30T05:27:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 30.08.08

This mix opens with a song from an album with a very similar title to this blog...........................

2004
2006
1972
1973
2008
1973
1970

27.08.08

2008-08-27T14:05:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 27.08.08

In just the few posts that we've done so far, the blogmixxes have managed to run the gamut of burlesque cabaret rock, death metal, avant-pop, art-glam, noise, skiffle, early country, bluegrass, folk, acoustic blues, electrosexx lo-fi pop, 'antifolk', experimental hip-hop, garage rock, unhinged Albinimess, slow jamz soul, skag rock, seventies MOR, child star teenpop, UK hip-hop, dubstep, industrial-dancehall, tweetronica, hardcore, visual kei, J-hop, psychobilly, goofball punk, goth, post-punk, prog, space rock, Disneymania and sheer fucking bubblegum.

But what I'm enjoying most about this experiment is just how hard it is to actually 'correctly' identify genre when it's mashed and pulped with so many weird juxtapositions here. It really fucks with the tyranny of taste.

I always loved listening to the radio late at night as a kid, and almost hated finding out what the songs were when the DJs broke the mood to talk. I remember loving Kylie's Confide In Me on first listen, and then balking when I found out who it belonged to. There are songs in these mixes that belong to the uncoolest of all bands, but with their edges warping and bleeding into the bleeding edge of modern music, they can sound just as futuristic and awesome.

The mixes are still something I'm getting the hang of, but the people who have heard them so far are loving getting off on the absurdities each one flaunts. I like the way they all sound different - my moods on different days of the week. It's not done for wilful eclecticism as much as a love for different sounds, colours and moods.

Today's timehaul:

1981
1988
2008
2008
1999
1979
1982
1982
1986
1978
1974
2005
1999
2000

2008-08-23T03:57:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 23.08.08

Was listening to a lot of stuff from 2006 today. I can't remember what I was listening to in 2006, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't listening to so much dubstep. Perhaps hence the belated catch-up.

Our debut song from the 1990s sounds, meanwhile, like it was eerily pre-empting some of the sounds of 2006.

2006
2005
2007
2006
1997
2006
1982
2003
2006
2006

22.08.08

2008-08-22T13:30:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 22.08.08

I guess what I really want for this blog is for people to treat these downloads like a goodie bag - the kind where you buy 5 mystery cds from your local record shop for a fiver - or as some kind of daily prescription, a musical pill.

Today's mix is brought to you by the years:

2002
1986
1973
1979
1969
2008
2005
2006

20.08.08

2008-08-20T14:05:00.000-07:00

borrowed & blue 20.08.08

This is my first blog for Borrowed & Blue. Part of the intention is to try and strip preconceived ideas out of the way we listen to music. Bill Drummond recently gave up on the concept of recorded music altogether, although he admits that in stopping listening to CDs that by hearing music by chance, randomly, in unexpected locations, has reawoken a whole new love for songs which he'd previously been sick of. I agree, I love that randomness, the surprise. I want to try and create a forum for people to find music which they might haven't heard before sure, but also a place where people could rediscover music they heard maybe a long time ago, forgotten that they loved.

It's important for me to not include biography, because I want people to open their ears up and shut down their minds as much as possible. The 'blogosphere' is so overcrowded with judgements - just a few words arranged into a song title or a description can completely skew and screw with someone's expectations and perception of the sound. I just want people to listen and actually be surprised about music again.

Not all of the music I post here will be 'good', by most people's tastes.

And crucially, this isn't a quest into obscurism. There will be songs by a lot of 'obvious' artists, but maybe ones you've never heard before. This isn't me picking an approved reading list and saying 'LISTEN TO THIS', it's me getting off on this music which, on a daily basis, I'd never ever heard before and wanting people to listen with me.

This blog will undoubtedly be a hymn to OCD, but that seems so obvious that I don't need to explain it any further.

The years that make up our first mix are these:

1985
1988
1982
1973
2008
1958
1947
1928
?
1969
2007
2006
2005

This first blog is a test post. If I do more mixes they'll probably be shorter, easier to digest. Maybe.