It's Natural To Be Afraid: at Merri Creek

In the wee hours of the morning, last night. I was traveling on foot between a partay in Northcote and my joint in Brunswick

It was late and I was underdressed (flannel with t-shirt underneath, in case you were wondering) and it was freezing (6 degees, i looked at the temperature clock on the corner of Lygon and Blyth, in case you were wondering)...

I started jogging... (it was cold and it would have taken me about an hour to walk, i wanted some peppermint tea... STAT)

I'd prepared well for the journey home coz I bought my ipod with me...

So I was listening to this beautiful music...
There wasn't another person the street... Dew was on the ground, stars above, i was drunk and happy

I 'had a moment'

when I crossed the bridge over Merri Creek...

as this song hit a crescendo... layer and layer of guitars crashing, chaotic drums... and a silent pitch black water flowing below. Very beautiful... (Sigh)

It was a perfect soundtrack moment, the cinemetography of what I was seeing with the soundtrack provided by mass marketed hardware, digital files and a post rock band from texas.

a creek, but not merri

I often wish the people who write these music were able to see what I saw as I as listening to them. I'm pretty sure Explosions In The Sky write their music with exactly these moments in mind.

And good on em too! I think they tread a fine line between homage, influence and wholesale piracy of Mogwai but as far as slow-burning-no-words-post-rock for people-like-me-who-like-to-get-emotional-without-having-to-concentrate-on-lyrics goes. They're pretty great! Props to Explosions In The Sky...

This song is long... 13 minutes, sit through it if you have the patience... relax, chek your emails...

The other thing is that in 2005, Explosions In The Sky, spent 8 days writing recording one song from scratch a day. They released it as free EP called "The Rescue". You can download it legally by CLICKIN HERE

U.X.O.

About 14 months ago I got back from an overseas holiday.

I had an old fashioned ipod on the holiday and as we were travelling in old fashioned buses around Loas and Cambodia I could only listen to a limited number of songs. Like 4 gig worth.

When I was preparing to leave on this holiday, i spent more time sorting through MP3's for my trip than any other part of the preparation to go away. When you've got a limited amount of space then you have to be really selective about what you pack. So I packed boxer shorts, a sleeping bag, insect repelent, singlets, pants, toiletries and MP3's.

there's a few songs and albums that I got kind of obsessed with on that trip... i still associate them with that holiday. the ones that stick in my head were incredibly beautiful songs that were a perfect soundtrack to a beautiful but tragic lanscape rolling by. I went home and anylised the music (like i would do when I studied music at uni, chord progressions, orchestration, rhythmic intricasies etc. It was music nerd heaven...) I wanted to know why these songs stuck in my head so bad. Why they still make me gasp a little to this day?

I loved this one among many...



But 1 piece of musik reminds me of that Holiday more than anything else...

It reminds me of an area in Lao where you can't even walk out of a village without risking your life because you may just step on a bomb.

The USA dropped 3 million tonnes of bombs on Laos in order to stop the Vietcong using it as a safehaven. That's 1 tonne for every person currently living in Laos. Almost 2 thirds of it didn't explode when it hit the ground and has remained active and lethal ever since.

The people of Laos were inspiring and beautiful (one of the best holidays of my life, relaxing, beautiful, fun, educational, cultural and partiful). It was strange listening to songs off Yanqui UXO by Godspeed you! Black Emperor while traversing through the most heavily bombed country in the world... The album is about weapons. About unexploded ordinance. It felt so right while i was in that area of the world.

Check it out... It was inspiring... And Sad...



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