I have a couple of posts brewing, about AI and Turing machines and human consciousness and drunken goth chicks, and about common misperceptions in polyamory. However, chipotle tagged me to do a “six favorite songs” meme, so I’m doing that instead. Without further ado, and in no particular order:
Evanescence, Lies
Evanescence is an interesting group. It’s rare to find a female-fronted pop band that has anything interesting to say, or that does anything novel lyrically or musically; it’s rarer still to find a female-fronted pop band that can successfully combine elements from many different musical genres and create something novel that still hangs together well. Their first album, Origin, is virtually impossible to find in the United States (Fallen is billed as their “first album” here in the US, even though it’s the second). Lies is a meld of old-fashioned pop and thrash metal, which works better than you might think.
Linkin Park, In the End
A lot of the music I like lives on the intersection of what seems to be radically different genres, and creates novelty out of the chaos. Linkin Park combines rap, alternative, and a dash of metal, and does it brilliantly; everything they do is good. They’re rather like Shakespeare in that regard–they really are quite good, in spite of all the people who say they really are quite good.
Sisters of Mercy, Driven Like the Snow
No list of mine would be complete without some old-school goth, and you can’t say ‘old-school goth’ without also saying ‘Sisters of Mercy’ in there somewhere, unless perhaps you’re saying something like ‘I don’t know a damn thing about,’ but I digress. I was introduced to Sisters of Mercy by an old friend’s girlfriend, during a time in the ongoing slow-motion trainwreck of his romantic life she took a moment off from cheating on him, getting engaged to someone else, breaking up with him, getting back with him, cheating on him again, cheating on him yet again, breaking up with him, getting back together with him, cheating on him again, and marrying some other guy without telling anyone, just long enough to make me a mixed tape of Sisters music. I never did thank her properly for that. Sisters is smart, danceable, witty, and takes incredible glee in playing with language.
A Perfect Circle, 3 Libras
Shelly and I have been spending a lot of time lately talking about (and she’s been writing about) what it means to be “seen” by your lover–what it means to have a partner who really gets you, who sees past all the surface stuff and right down into your superhero soul. That’s precisely what this song is about–or rather, more precisely, this song is about a person whose partner doesn’t get it. To be fair, I’d venture a guess that the overwhelming majority of the human beings walking, crawling, and driving around the surface of this planet also don’t “get” it, and have never really seen their partners or been seen by them, which is why people will say such insipid things as “Well, if you’re poly, then that makes it easier to lose a partner, because you still have another partner to fall back on, right?” But then again, on my more cynical days I think a walk through the ocean of most people’s soul will scarcely get your feet wet.
Front 242, Headhunter v1.0
What can I say? The best song to dance to ever written, by anyone, in any genre, in the entire history of humankind, period.
Apoptygma Berzerk, Burnin’ Heretic
Sometimes a little too close to home in the Theocracy of Ayatollah Bush the Second. I first heard this song some time after dumping the contents of datan0de‘s iPod onto my laptop during a party one evening, where it sat gathering (virtual) dust for some months before I listened to it, which is about the way it goes with music and me. When I did finally listen to it, I leapt from my chair and roared, “Hear me! This is the best fucking song EVER!” (Well, actually, I didn’t. But I did think “Hey, I really like this…”)
Now, according to the rules of the game, I’m supposed to tag three more people and get them to do the same thing in their journal. So, just for the hell of it (and because i do so love exercising power), I tag datan0de, latexiron, and sarahmichigan. You’re it!