Cathryn (formerly catslash) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
remindmeofthe) wrote2007-10-13 05:18 pm
remindmeofthe) wrote2007-10-13 05:18 pm
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Welcome! To the first entry I have written from my precious iBook in over a year and a half.
You know the best part of getting onto an old computer? Going through all the shit you have on it. I have stuff on here I forgot about. I have stuff on here that I no longer know why the hell I have it. I even have a couple of saved HTML files of LJ pages that let me grab an icon I had thought lost forever.
And, of course, I have songs. And LimeWire. I did not have LimeWire on the PC, because of the vulnerability to malware. That, I think, maybe be my favorite thing about having a Mac. Sure, there are a few bad things floating around out there, but for the most part the jerks who write viruses ignore us and focus on you sad bastards running Windows. (Question: does a Mac running Windows - because sadly, those now exist, like, wtf is the point of HAVING a Mac if you're going to use friggin' Windows - share the vulnerability of a PC? Or is it, like, supercomputer because the software is written differently to jive with the Mac hardware? Do have any idea what I am talking about? No, I do not.) I'll probably install some antivirus software to be on the safe side, but for the most part Mac users only really need it to avoid serving as an unwitting conduit for viruses and such that coast along on their e-mails to get to PCs.
God, I had a point. Sorry, I'm running on negative sleep. The sleep debt I amass during semesters is alarming and makes me really glad I don't drive. My point is - one of the first things I did (after DLing Firefox and tricking it out with all my favorite extensions, but before figuring out how to transfer my bookmarks without having to copy and paste them all into an e-mail, if at all possible) was to grab all the songs I never got around to begging people to DL for me, upload them onto MegaUpload, and download them onto my PC to put on my MP3 player.
So now I have all these uploads going to waste. It is only right that I share them. Especially since people on my flist are always uploading songs, and I have never returned the favor, for I am lazy and prefer to send files over IM.
FIRST A NOTE. Check out the list of songs. If you want more than, like, six or seven of them, just download this .zip of all the songs (83.97 MB). This is because MegaUpload has an obscenely stingy daily download limit for free users. I should have just used MediaFire, which can be a pain, but is free with no download limit. Or, you know, zipped everything together in the first place. DUH. Oh, well. Those of you who only want a few can benefit from my ADD-"logic? what's that?" thinking.
These are all .mp3 files, listed in no particular order.
* "Everybody's Fool," Evanescence.
Perfect by nature, icons of self-indulgence
Just what we all need, more lies about a world
That never was and never will be
Have you no shame, don't you see me,
You know you've got everybody fooled
If you only really know Evanescence through their reputation of being an emo-gawthtastic-dark-and-cry-and-cut-yourself band of whining, please download this song. Its message is, "Hey, asshole, I've finally seen through your crap and I'm over it." I'm not hugely familiar with Evanescence, but this song always makes me want to change that. I'm told that overall, they actually lean more toward the snarky side of the Force.
* "Living on a Prayer," Bon Jovi
Oh, we're halfway there
Oh, livin' on a prayer
Take my hand, we'll make it, I swear
Oh, livin' on a prayer
Livin' on a prayer
I have a very specific association with this song. After Game Five of the 2004 ALCS, I heard it playing in the background of some program on NESN. We all remember that time, right? Giddy with amazement as we started to let the hope creep in again, crazed with stress as, well, the hope crept back in? Add to that the sleep deprivation that came with starting a new job that had me up at like seven in the morning after the crazy marathons that these games had turned into (I actually started the day after Game Four, on something like three hours' sleep), and I was in exactly the right frame of mind to cling to this song as a mantra and sing it under my breath like Jon Bon Jovi himself was going to carry the Red Sox through the next two games. This song always sends me right back to those frantic hours before Game Six began.
* "Devil Went Down to Georgia," The Charlie Daniels Band
The Devil opened up his case and he said, "I'll start this show"
And fire flew from his fingertips as he rosined up his bow
What can I say? I am a serious sucker for some good fiddling. It's one of the things that also draws me to Flogging Molly.
Oh, and this is the proper version where Johnny calls the Devil a "son of a bitch," instead of the cleaned-up-for-lame-radio-stations "son of a gun."
* "Evening Star," DragonForce
In the land of desire with hearts filled with fire
We live for the right to be free
We will sail on, forever on
To the land of the evening star
DragonForce was first described to me as "a death metal band who writes songs about medieval times." That was all I needed to hear. They're really obscure and their CDs were insanely expensive (well, last I checked like two years ago - for all I know now, they've gotten popular, or disappeared), so I tracked down all of their songs on LimeWire. (I never do that.) This is my favorite one.
* "Ireland," Garth Brooks
Ireland, I am coming home
I can see your rolling fields of green
And fences made of stone
I am reaching out, won't you take my hand
I'm coming home, Ireland
One of Garth Brooks's best, and never got any airtime, probably because it doesn't sound like country and carries a - GASP - anti-war message, and that shit don't fly on country music stations. This is a beautiful, lyrical, sad song about a group of Irish soldiers preparing for a battle that they know they won't come out of alive. Brooks's warm voice, which never did carry much of that country twang, is perfectly suited to this song. Ha, now I sound like an overwrought music reviewer, but man. Just download this song. It's fantastic.
* "Tubthumping," Chumbawumba
He drinks a whiskey drink
He drinks a vodka drink
He drinks a lager drink
He drinks a cider drink
Yeah, yeah, leave me alone. Sometimes I enjoy the nonsensical popular crap just like everyone else.
* "Take Me Out," Franz Ferdinand
I know I won't be leaving here
I know I won't be leaving here
I know I won't be leaving here
With you
I like this song.
. . . they don't all have stories.
* "Simple Man," Lynyrd Skynyrd
Mama told me, when I was young
Come sit beside me, my only son
And listen closely to what I say
And if you do this
It will help you some sunny day
This song actually first came to my attention when my sister fell in love with the Shinedown cover. I like the cover okay, but the original was what really got me. The song, like its exhortations, is simple. Simple lyrics, simple vocals without a bunch of quirks and tricks, simple melody and music. It is precisely the kind of song that I can belt out along with and feel like a great singer. I almost don't care what it's about because I find it so musically appealing.
* "Enter Sandman," Metallica
It's just the beast under your bed
In your closet, in your head
My favorite thing about this song is that I can hear it on our alternative rock station, and then within the next twenty-four hours it'll pop up on the classic rock station. I know of no other song that does this.
* "Wonderwall," Oasis
And all the roads we have to walk are winding
And all the lights that lead us there are blinding
There are many things that I would
Like to say to you
I don't know how
This is one of those songs that I heard a thousand times without caring about much one way or another, and then one day it just clicked. There are a ton of songs I like better, including just about every one on this list, but I perk up when I hear it playing on the radio or in a store.
* "Ballroom Blitz," Sweet
Now the man in the back
Is ready to crack as he raises his hands to the sky
And the girl in the corner is ev'ryone's mourner
She could kill you with a wink of her eye
Te first time I remember hearing this song was on a classic rock station that had just debuted. I was bowled over by its sheer weird awesomeness. It's got a good beat, bizarre lyrics, and the lead singer sounds like his voice is cracking. It's spaztastic and hilarious and it never fails to brighten my most foul mood.
* "Mr Brightside," The Killers
Now I'm falling asleep
And she's calling a cab
While he's having a smoke
And she's taking a drag
This was getting heavy airtime during one of the times I was listening to the radio a lot (I go through phases), and it eventually won me over through sheer repetitiveness. There was just something about it, something in the rhythm and the lyrics that gave it a touch of strangeness. Of course, as I discovered later, it's probably the most normal song on the CD.
This file, unfortunately, is not the best of quality; it sounds fine on the computer, but if you want a copy for your MP3 player, you should find something else.
* "Lola," The Kinks
I pushed her away
I walked to the door
I fell to the floor
I got down on my knees
Then I looked at her and she at me
The only thing cooler than a song about a guy overcoming his prejudices to accept being in love with a male-to-female transgendered woman is a song about that that came out in, like, the sixties. And was popular. Brilliant.
* "Turn the Page," Bob Seger, and the cover by Metallica
Most times you can’t hear em talk, other times you can.
Oh the same old cliche, is that woman or a man
You always seem outnumbered, you don’t dare make a stand.
(The lyrics sites I looked at said "You always see my number," but how much sense does that make? I like my version better.)
One of those background songs that most people probably don't pay attention to. I enjoy it, for the instrumentals, the lyrics, and Seger's voice.
Why the cover? I like what Metallica does with this song, giving it an edge that highlights the unhappiness in the words, but with more anger than the mournful sax in Seger's version.
And speaking of covers . . .
* "Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting)," Nickelback and Kid Rock
Don't give none of this aggravation
We've had it with your discipline
Saturday night's all right for fightin'
Get a little action in
Get about as oiled as a diesel train
Gonna set the town alight
Here's my thing about covers - they have to say something new. If you're not gonna do something different with a song, don't bother. This is one of the all-time best examples of that.
You're all familiar with the Elton John version - light and poppy and friendly, a powderpuff of a song notable mostly for making "Saturday" cease to be a word by the end. This cover, in contrast, is loud and hard and fierce. These guys aren't hanging out in a bar whining about oppression over a beer or two - they're pissed as hell about getting fucked around all the time by those with power in their lives, and they're getting trashed to forget about it. Saturday night is theirs to do what they wanna do and the people who screw with them the rest of the week can fuck off. The hard rock edge is exactly what the lyrics need to make their rebelliousness pop out and be heard. This is possibly the only cover I've heard that is miles better than the original. (Not that there aren't others. I just haven't heard them all, and in any case I'm a tough customer.) It's a damn shame that it's buried on, of all places, the Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle soundtrack.
* Andy, You're a Star," The Killers
On the match with the boys, you think you're all alone
With the pain that you drain from love
In a car with a girl, promise me she's not your world
Cause Andy, you're a star
This is the song that convinced me, after some time debating, that I needed to own the Hot Fuss CD. Creepy gay stalker song! With fantastic instrumentals and intense vocals to match. I loved it instantly, and it's really representative of the kinds of out-there topics covered on the CD.
* "The USS Make Shit Up," Voltaire
And I say bounce the graviton particular beam off the main deflector dish
That's the way we do things, lads, we're makin' shit up as we wish
The Klingons and the Romulans pose no threat to us
'Cause if we find we're in a bind
We just make some shit up
I love Voltaire. I'm only familiar with two of his songs, but I love him based on their awesomeness alone. His website and album covers give the impression of Gothic Dark Master - but then he turns out to be the kind of singer who sings about how Star Trek makes no sense. Inherent hilarity right off the bat. The other song I love, "When You're Evil," is also a riot - he sings, in a jaunty, infectious tenor, about the joys of being so evil that "the Devil tips his hat to me." I'm going to have to get that uploaded the next time I fire up the PC, because I don't seem to have it on this one.
* "Cold," Static X
We kiss
The stars
We writhe
We are
. . . okay, so this one isn't so much about the lyrics. It's more about the way they're sung, and about the instrumentals. This is actually a recent discovery that I had to grab while re-acquainting myself with LimeWire. I heard it on - okay, you know Sims 2? Well, there's this whole community of people who make movies with it. It's infinitely cooler than it sounds. One of my favorites is this one by crystalwitchery, which is really slickly edited and has great, well-chosen music. It's hard to tell a story without dialogue, using shots from a game, but this is a good example of doing it very well indeed. "Cold" is such a perfect song for it that the match increased my liking for the song a bit more each time I watched the movie. And OMG SHE MADE A SEQUEL WHICH I JUST FOUND RIGHT NOW so it's just as well that this is the last song of the lot.
THE END. Please let me know if I screwed up any of the links - they all look alike! - or left any songs out of the .zip, since I was half-conscious when I put it together. Enjoy!
You know the best part of getting onto an old computer? Going through all the shit you have on it. I have stuff on here I forgot about. I have stuff on here that I no longer know why the hell I have it. I even have a couple of saved HTML files of LJ pages that let me grab an icon I had thought lost forever.
And, of course, I have songs. And LimeWire. I did not have LimeWire on the PC, because of the vulnerability to malware. That, I think, maybe be my favorite thing about having a Mac. Sure, there are a few bad things floating around out there, but for the most part the jerks who write viruses ignore us and focus on you sad bastards running Windows. (Question: does a Mac running Windows - because sadly, those now exist, like, wtf is the point of HAVING a Mac if you're going to use friggin' Windows - share the vulnerability of a PC? Or is it, like, supercomputer because the software is written differently to jive with the Mac hardware? Do have any idea what I am talking about? No, I do not.) I'll probably install some antivirus software to be on the safe side, but for the most part Mac users only really need it to avoid serving as an unwitting conduit for viruses and such that coast along on their e-mails to get to PCs.
God, I had a point. Sorry, I'm running on negative sleep. The sleep debt I amass during semesters is alarming and makes me really glad I don't drive. My point is - one of the first things I did (after DLing Firefox and tricking it out with all my favorite extensions, but before figuring out how to transfer my bookmarks without having to copy and paste them all into an e-mail, if at all possible) was to grab all the songs I never got around to begging people to DL for me, upload them onto MegaUpload, and download them onto my PC to put on my MP3 player.
So now I have all these uploads going to waste. It is only right that I share them. Especially since people on my flist are always uploading songs, and I have never returned the favor, for I am lazy and prefer to send files over IM.
FIRST A NOTE. Check out the list of songs. If you want more than, like, six or seven of them, just download this .zip of all the songs (83.97 MB). This is because MegaUpload has an obscenely stingy daily download limit for free users. I should have just used MediaFire, which can be a pain, but is free with no download limit. Or, you know, zipped everything together in the first place. DUH. Oh, well. Those of you who only want a few can benefit from my ADD-"logic? what's that?" thinking.
These are all .mp3 files, listed in no particular order.
* "Everybody's Fool," Evanescence.
Perfect by nature, icons of self-indulgence
Just what we all need, more lies about a world
That never was and never will be
Have you no shame, don't you see me,
You know you've got everybody fooled
If you only really know Evanescence through their reputation of being an emo-gawthtastic-dark-and-cry-and-cut-yourself band of whining, please download this song. Its message is, "Hey, asshole, I've finally seen through your crap and I'm over it." I'm not hugely familiar with Evanescence, but this song always makes me want to change that. I'm told that overall, they actually lean more toward the snarky side of the Force.
* "Living on a Prayer," Bon Jovi
Oh, we're halfway there
Oh, livin' on a prayer
Take my hand, we'll make it, I swear
Oh, livin' on a prayer
Livin' on a prayer
I have a very specific association with this song. After Game Five of the 2004 ALCS, I heard it playing in the background of some program on NESN. We all remember that time, right? Giddy with amazement as we started to let the hope creep in again, crazed with stress as, well, the hope crept back in? Add to that the sleep deprivation that came with starting a new job that had me up at like seven in the morning after the crazy marathons that these games had turned into (I actually started the day after Game Four, on something like three hours' sleep), and I was in exactly the right frame of mind to cling to this song as a mantra and sing it under my breath like Jon Bon Jovi himself was going to carry the Red Sox through the next two games. This song always sends me right back to those frantic hours before Game Six began.
* "Devil Went Down to Georgia," The Charlie Daniels Band
The Devil opened up his case and he said, "I'll start this show"
And fire flew from his fingertips as he rosined up his bow
What can I say? I am a serious sucker for some good fiddling. It's one of the things that also draws me to Flogging Molly.
Oh, and this is the proper version where Johnny calls the Devil a "son of a bitch," instead of the cleaned-up-for-lame-radio-stations "son of a gun."
* "Evening Star," DragonForce
In the land of desire with hearts filled with fire
We live for the right to be free
We will sail on, forever on
To the land of the evening star
DragonForce was first described to me as "a death metal band who writes songs about medieval times." That was all I needed to hear. They're really obscure and their CDs were insanely expensive (well, last I checked like two years ago - for all I know now, they've gotten popular, or disappeared), so I tracked down all of their songs on LimeWire. (I never do that.) This is my favorite one.
* "Ireland," Garth Brooks
Ireland, I am coming home
I can see your rolling fields of green
And fences made of stone
I am reaching out, won't you take my hand
I'm coming home, Ireland
One of Garth Brooks's best, and never got any airtime, probably because it doesn't sound like country and carries a - GASP - anti-war message, and that shit don't fly on country music stations. This is a beautiful, lyrical, sad song about a group of Irish soldiers preparing for a battle that they know they won't come out of alive. Brooks's warm voice, which never did carry much of that country twang, is perfectly suited to this song. Ha, now I sound like an overwrought music reviewer, but man. Just download this song. It's fantastic.
* "Tubthumping," Chumbawumba
He drinks a whiskey drink
He drinks a vodka drink
He drinks a lager drink
He drinks a cider drink
Yeah, yeah, leave me alone. Sometimes I enjoy the nonsensical popular crap just like everyone else.
* "Take Me Out," Franz Ferdinand
I know I won't be leaving here
I know I won't be leaving here
I know I won't be leaving here
With you
I like this song.
. . . they don't all have stories.
* "Simple Man," Lynyrd Skynyrd
Mama told me, when I was young
Come sit beside me, my only son
And listen closely to what I say
And if you do this
It will help you some sunny day
This song actually first came to my attention when my sister fell in love with the Shinedown cover. I like the cover okay, but the original was what really got me. The song, like its exhortations, is simple. Simple lyrics, simple vocals without a bunch of quirks and tricks, simple melody and music. It is precisely the kind of song that I can belt out along with and feel like a great singer. I almost don't care what it's about because I find it so musically appealing.
* "Enter Sandman," Metallica
It's just the beast under your bed
In your closet, in your head
My favorite thing about this song is that I can hear it on our alternative rock station, and then within the next twenty-four hours it'll pop up on the classic rock station. I know of no other song that does this.
* "Wonderwall," Oasis
And all the roads we have to walk are winding
And all the lights that lead us there are blinding
There are many things that I would
Like to say to you
I don't know how
This is one of those songs that I heard a thousand times without caring about much one way or another, and then one day it just clicked. There are a ton of songs I like better, including just about every one on this list, but I perk up when I hear it playing on the radio or in a store.
* "Ballroom Blitz," Sweet
Now the man in the back
Is ready to crack as he raises his hands to the sky
And the girl in the corner is ev'ryone's mourner
She could kill you with a wink of her eye
Te first time I remember hearing this song was on a classic rock station that had just debuted. I was bowled over by its sheer weird awesomeness. It's got a good beat, bizarre lyrics, and the lead singer sounds like his voice is cracking. It's spaztastic and hilarious and it never fails to brighten my most foul mood.
* "Mr Brightside," The Killers
Now I'm falling asleep
And she's calling a cab
While he's having a smoke
And she's taking a drag
This was getting heavy airtime during one of the times I was listening to the radio a lot (I go through phases), and it eventually won me over through sheer repetitiveness. There was just something about it, something in the rhythm and the lyrics that gave it a touch of strangeness. Of course, as I discovered later, it's probably the most normal song on the CD.
This file, unfortunately, is not the best of quality; it sounds fine on the computer, but if you want a copy for your MP3 player, you should find something else.
* "Lola," The Kinks
I pushed her away
I walked to the door
I fell to the floor
I got down on my knees
Then I looked at her and she at me
The only thing cooler than a song about a guy overcoming his prejudices to accept being in love with a male-to-female transgendered woman is a song about that that came out in, like, the sixties. And was popular. Brilliant.
* "Turn the Page," Bob Seger, and the cover by Metallica
Most times you can’t hear em talk, other times you can.
Oh the same old cliche, is that woman or a man
You always seem outnumbered, you don’t dare make a stand.
(The lyrics sites I looked at said "You always see my number," but how much sense does that make? I like my version better.)
One of those background songs that most people probably don't pay attention to. I enjoy it, for the instrumentals, the lyrics, and Seger's voice.
Why the cover? I like what Metallica does with this song, giving it an edge that highlights the unhappiness in the words, but with more anger than the mournful sax in Seger's version.
And speaking of covers . . .
* "Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting)," Nickelback and Kid Rock
Don't give none of this aggravation
We've had it with your discipline
Saturday night's all right for fightin'
Get a little action in
Get about as oiled as a diesel train
Gonna set the town alight
Here's my thing about covers - they have to say something new. If you're not gonna do something different with a song, don't bother. This is one of the all-time best examples of that.
You're all familiar with the Elton John version - light and poppy and friendly, a powderpuff of a song notable mostly for making "Saturday" cease to be a word by the end. This cover, in contrast, is loud and hard and fierce. These guys aren't hanging out in a bar whining about oppression over a beer or two - they're pissed as hell about getting fucked around all the time by those with power in their lives, and they're getting trashed to forget about it. Saturday night is theirs to do what they wanna do and the people who screw with them the rest of the week can fuck off. The hard rock edge is exactly what the lyrics need to make their rebelliousness pop out and be heard. This is possibly the only cover I've heard that is miles better than the original. (Not that there aren't others. I just haven't heard them all, and in any case I'm a tough customer.) It's a damn shame that it's buried on, of all places, the Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle soundtrack.
* Andy, You're a Star," The Killers
On the match with the boys, you think you're all alone
With the pain that you drain from love
In a car with a girl, promise me she's not your world
Cause Andy, you're a star
This is the song that convinced me, after some time debating, that I needed to own the Hot Fuss CD. Creepy gay stalker song! With fantastic instrumentals and intense vocals to match. I loved it instantly, and it's really representative of the kinds of out-there topics covered on the CD.
* "The USS Make Shit Up," Voltaire
And I say bounce the graviton particular beam off the main deflector dish
That's the way we do things, lads, we're makin' shit up as we wish
The Klingons and the Romulans pose no threat to us
'Cause if we find we're in a bind
We just make some shit up
I love Voltaire. I'm only familiar with two of his songs, but I love him based on their awesomeness alone. His website and album covers give the impression of Gothic Dark Master - but then he turns out to be the kind of singer who sings about how Star Trek makes no sense. Inherent hilarity right off the bat. The other song I love, "When You're Evil," is also a riot - he sings, in a jaunty, infectious tenor, about the joys of being so evil that "the Devil tips his hat to me." I'm going to have to get that uploaded the next time I fire up the PC, because I don't seem to have it on this one.
* "Cold," Static X
We kiss
The stars
We writhe
We are
. . . okay, so this one isn't so much about the lyrics. It's more about the way they're sung, and about the instrumentals. This is actually a recent discovery that I had to grab while re-acquainting myself with LimeWire. I heard it on - okay, you know Sims 2? Well, there's this whole community of people who make movies with it. It's infinitely cooler than it sounds. One of my favorites is this one by crystalwitchery, which is really slickly edited and has great, well-chosen music. It's hard to tell a story without dialogue, using shots from a game, but this is a good example of doing it very well indeed. "Cold" is such a perfect song for it that the match increased my liking for the song a bit more each time I watched the movie. And OMG SHE MADE A SEQUEL WHICH I JUST FOUND RIGHT NOW so it's just as well that this is the last song of the lot.
THE END. Please let me know if I screwed up any of the links - they all look alike! - or left any songs out of the .zip, since I was half-conscious when I put it together. Enjoy!