::Names Week:: Brian Eno - Cindy Tells Me

This is the second track I've taken from this album on this blog. It's a bit of a surprise to me that Brian Eno would be the first to accomplish such a feat, because lets face it, some of Brian Eno's stuff is just a little too weird. However, he is a ground-breaking musician, and can write some dern tootin good songs.

"Cindy Tells Me" has so much going on in the verses. The fuzzy guitars, reggae upstroked guitars, chopsticky piano and "Woooo's" then give way to a stripped down chorus until a static-y Brian Eno noise once again breaks the simplicity of it. Great lyrics too!

Cindy Tells Me, the Rich Girls Are Weeping
Cindy Tells Me, They've Given Up Sleeping Alone
And Now They're So Confused By Their New Freedoms
And She Tells Me They're Selling Up Their Maisonettes
Left the Hotpoints to Rust in the Kitchenettes
And They're Saving Their Labour For Insane Reading.

Some of Them Lose - and Some of Them Lose
But That's What They Want - and That's What They Choose
It's a Burden - Such a Burden
Oh What a Burden to Be So Relied On.

Cindy Tell Me, What Will They Do With Their Lives
Living Quietly Like Labourer's Wives
Perhaps They'll Re-acquire Those Things They've All Disposed Of

::Names Week:: Simon and Garfunkel - Cecilia

Simon and Garfunkel are one of those duos that transcend their duality by becoming a whole. You can't have one without the other. I mean, Paul Simon made a pretty good career on his own cranking out albums that topped charts and were great albums to boot, but his work with his gangly, afro-ed pal are where the magic was made.

Their best known album, Bridge Over Troubled Water contained most of the hits, including this one, "Cecilia." Its stomp, stomp, clap off time rhythm and chug along acoustic guitar combine with their perfect-pitch harmonies to craft a song about the troubs and tribs of a cheating girl. I couldn't help but put this song on the list.

Cecilia, you're breaking my heart 
You're shaking my confidence daily 
Oh, Cecilia, I'm down on my knees 
I'm begging you please to come home 

Cecilia, you're breaking my heart 
You're shaking my confidence daily 
Oh, Cecilia, I'm down on my knees 
I'm begging you please to come home 
Come on home 
[ 
Making love in the afternoon with Cecilia 
Up in my bedroom (making love) 
I got up to wash my face 
When I come back to bed 
Someone's taken my place 

Cecilia, you're breaking my heart 
You're shaking my confidence daily 
Oh, Cecilia, I'm down on my knees 
I'm begging you please to come home 
Come on home 

Jubilation, she loves me again, 
I fall on the floor and I'm laughing, 
Jubilation, she loves me again, 
I fall on the floor and I'm laughing

::Names Week:: Guster - Ramona

Ahh, Guster. I used to listen to a lot of Guster in my high school days. I must have listened to this album, Keep it Together, 5 times a day for a few weeks during one stretch. I just remember loving their sense of not taking themselves so seriously and just making music because it was fun. Since then we've grown apart a little bit. I mean we still talk now and again and catch up over some coffee and assorted pastries, and its a lot of fun, but we're just so busy its hard to coordinate our schedules. I mean I've got Radiohead, and Wilco to take care of now on top of my numerous other favorite bands. And Guster's got its own thing going on now too. But we make time still and that's all that counts.

This song, was one of my favs from said album. "Ramona" is a soothing acoustic bongo-ey sing-a-long song that moves you to sway back and forth even though you hate it when people sway back and forth to a song, especially all those girls you see on the MTV that start swaying, close there eyes and stick their hand in the air shouting "OH my god, this is my song." Then they sing the first few lyrics of the song and completely forget about it and start making out with the nearest guy. But I digress. I guess I'm just mad because I'm never the nearest guy. I have lousy luck when it comes to proximity. Anyway. Its got a bluegrass vibe to it too that only adds to the tranquility. Ryan Miller and Adam Gardener have voices that fit so well together its like peanut butter on a playing card. I have no idea what that simile is supposed to mean.

Ramona, where have you been?
I couldn't go to sleep till you came in
Ramona, you're Miss Oklahoma
and you miss Oklahoma
I'll get you what you want
There were days when a refrain
Would brighten our corner of Hickory Lane
When you would sing that song for me
Just like your favorite singer
Why'd you have to be so nice?
A wink and a girlish smile
And why'd you have to punch my eye?
That was something
but I still want you to stay
When I was younger and thought of myself
[ From : http://www.elyrics.net/read/g/guster-lyrics/ramona-lyrics.html ]
I never dreamed I'd become like this
A snap of your fingers,
and end to the arguments
Anything for you, love
There were days when a refrain
Would brighten our corner of Hickory Lane
When you would sing that song for me
The only one you know
But I know now, not at the start,
We're going to pieces, we're falling apart
So won't you sing that song for me
just like your favorite singer?

::Names Week:: Franz Ferdinand - Eleanor Put Your Boots Back On

Franz Ferdinand are one of those early 2000s "popular indie new wave revival" bands along with The Kaiser Chiefs and  The Bravery. Not necessarily ground-breaking by any means and sometimes annoying, but they can write some pretty good songs. Hailing from Scotland, these guys hit it big with their first, self-titled album and then released their second album You Could Have it So Much Better and then kind of lost steam after that. They released a third album Tonight: Franz Ferdinand and are apparently working on a new one, but I'm not really that interested in finding out to be honest with you.

This song is from their second album and is a departure from their usual energetic guitars and dancy drum beats. It focuses on their soft side a bit with the ponderous piano and gather-'round acoustic guitar. The best parts of this song are the reverby-spy guitar and synth interludes that burst out from the choruses and make you feel like you just jumped and are drifting slowly back to Earth much like the lyrics suggest. This song also just made me realize there are a lot of really good songs about Eleanors.

Eleanor put those boots back on
Kick the heels into the Brooklyn dirt
I know it isn't dignified to run
But if you run You can run to the Coney Island rollercoaster
Ride to the highest point and leap across the filthy water
Leap until the Gulf Stream's brought you down

I could be there when you land
I could be there when you land

So Eleanor take a Greenpoint three-point turn
Towards the hidden sun
You know you are so elegant when you run
Oh if you run
You can run to that statue with the dictionary
Climb to her fingernail and
Leap, yeah take an atmospheric leap
Let the jet stream set you down

I could be there when you land

So Eleanor put those boots back on
Put the boots back on and run
Come on over here 

::Names Week:: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Colleen

What's in a name? Well, turns out a lot. This week I'm going to focus on songs that blatantly call out a girl's specific name. What better way to get their attention than calling out their name in a song, yeah? Girls love that stuff right? And lets face it guys, a major factor in us picking up guitar is to swoon women. Name dropping in songs may not always have romantic intentions though as some of my picks may show. It could also just be a big F-you to said person. Anyway, here's a few songs that make use of monikers.



This was the song that made me want to do Name Week. It popped up on my iPod today and I hadn't heard it in a while. I'm not a huge fan of all of Ted Leo's music, because sometimes its a bit too pop-punk for me, but he's got a few jems here and there. He's got a style that on the outside that's kinda gooey, catchy safe-punk, but looking deeper there's a lot more going on. Plus he's just an all around cool guy.

This song is from his 2007 album with the Pharmacists called Living With the Living. Its, like I said, a catchy fun pop punk song about a girl named, you guessed it, Colleen. Its a standard, verse chorus verse chorus and pretty expected instrumentation, but its just so happy. Plus, only using things that rhyme with Colleen through most of the song takes some talent.

Colleen – never to be crowned queen, never an evergreen
Floating above the scene as still as a figurine
Expressionless, so serene, but I know what makes you scream
So don’t you run out of steam – I know you, Colleen
It’s been all messed up since the very beginning
But you act so tough, people think that you’re winning
And everyone wants something from Colleen
Colleen - perpetually between what is and what could have been
Floating through your routine every day since you were fifteen
And as rosy as you make it seem, I know life for you ain’t been a dream
To have to deal with the things you’ve seen while they work you like you’re a machine
Machines break down, but you can’t break with them
It’s too late now, so don’t break the rhythm
And everyone wants something form Colleen
Colleen, if ever you walk into a dead-end street, come clean –
Don’t say that it’s all in your mind because I know what you mean – Colleen
It’s been all messed up since the very beginning
It’s too late now, ‘cause we’re already in it
And everyone wants something from Colleen
(and no one gets ‘cause she’s no one’s Colleen)

Wilco - I Might

I am on a huge Wilco kick right now. You don't even know, man. Since the early 90's this band has been cranking out tunes of all sorts of genres and making albums that sound like what an album should sound like. Each different record has its own different feel and mood but still manages to keep a sense of Wilco-ness to it.

This new track from their upcoming 8th studio album, The Whole Love. I am really, really looking forward to this album simply because of this cut from it. "I Might" sounds a little like it could be from the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot or A Ghost is Born era, but its got something else to it too but I'm not really sure what it is. I'm excited to discover what it is when I hear the rest of the album. Its got a happy-poppy bass line that jumps all over the place and the rest of the instruments come and go as they please offering some organ here and a guitar burst there. The doodoodoo's combined with the vibraphones at the end are just plain brilliant. Buy this album when it comes out. There are some strange choppy lyrics too that are very different from Wilco, but still great. Im guessing at a few of them here.

Was i wrong
All night long
Was so hot
I was thinking sun
I can’t deny that I felt oh oh oh
Some guys a little thing I know
It’s alright
I done a lot of crawling all around..
It’s alright
It’s so cold
And i was pissing blood
It’s in the ... everybody
Let it taste let it go
I don’t know
Cut his neck bad shaving and low blow slow mo
It’s alright
You won’t set the kids on fire
Oh but I might
Come on …
Come on I am home
..slim gym … clean .. is a murder
That’s right
When you’re gonna find .. 
oh, you're still mine
It’s alright
It’s alright
It’s alright
You won’t set the kids on fire
I might
It’s alright
It’s alright 

The Slip - The Soft Machine

The Slip is a three piecer from Massachussets consisting of two brothers on drums and guitar and a bassist. You may recognize them from the terrible game Guitar Hero (I cant really criticize here, I was obsessed with it for a while too). They had a song you could unlock called "Even Rats" on there that got me in to them.

Anyway, they have other music than that one song it turns out and its not all that bad. This song, "The Soft Machine" is pretty neat. Its got a great slide guitar slipin' and slidein' all over the place and a tinkerin' vibraphone plinkin' about. And the distortion on the rhythm is a nice touch as well. Check it out. Also, if you want to hear the cool psychedelic intro song to this song called "First Panda in Space" click here. Its molds from chaotic noises perfectly into the calmer "Soft Machine."

Love is homeless
Where is
Love is shapeless
Who needs
Love is dangerous
Love is true

The more you give the soft machine
The more you give the song
I would live for you with all my
Give to you with all my
Daggers and swollen kisses
And so that is proof that love is death


There's no ear that would or could Listen to all there is to say
About small wooden toys
Or broken shells, tiny bells or songs about a lady

The more you clean the soft machine
The more you lead me on
I would live for you with all my
Give to you with all my
Daggers and swollen kisses
And so I think that that is proof that love is death