Summer of Sam (Famolaro) OST: Track #4

Home

by Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros

Up From Below (2009)

Not to say it's a bad album...

cause it does have other decent moments. 

but, Home is far & away the best, 

most perfectly crafted song on Up From Below.

Really, the song is a perfect storm of everything 

that the band is attempting to be.

the call & response vocals are spot-on

and the female vocalist (Jade Castrinos)

honestly, makes this song for me...

but i'm not finished, yet. 

It's always easy to think about home.

even if you don't love where you're from. 

the idea of returning home 

to all the people & places you've left behind

somehow makes everything better, 

even if it only for a brief moment in time.

Everyone has something that makes home feel like home.

Maybe it's family, friends, lost loves.

really, it's all about familiarity.

i'll just get to my point I guess.

When you're not at home with me, 

I don't really feel like i'm home. 

there. I said it.

(but you already knew, didn't you?)

"Home" - Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros [download]

Summer of Sam (Famolaro) OST: Track #3

I Can Change

by LCD Soundsystem

This is Happening (2010)

LCD Soundsystem will be playing 
at my house, my house.


...for most of the Summer, anyhow. 

If I had to choose one song that I assumed

was going to become the anthem of Summer 2010,

this would have to be it.

This is also the first song on the playlist
that was actually released in 2010.
Thus, I wanted to add this before it becomes "played-out"


...and I have a feeling it will.


Truth be told, this entire album is littered with potential
summer-time fireballs ("Dance Yrself Clean", "Drunk Girls").
But personally, I find James Murphy to be most appealing
when he's lovesick & writing bittersweet, 
devastating electro-pop gems.
Wile the memorable synth-line, open-book lyrics &
 surprising danceability, I Can Change could easily become 
the 2010's version of Someone Great [link]


I'm always pretty impressed with Murphy's lyrics.
He has that subtle combination of snarky & ernest that is hard
to pull off without sounding like a prick, but somehow when
he tells me "he can change", I honestly believe him.

"I Can Change" - LCD Soundsystem [download]

Summer of Sam (Famolaro) OST: Track #2

Can't Hardly Wait
by the Replacements
Pleased to Meet Me (1987)

There are at least 2 distinctly different versions of this song.
- a grittier, more stripped-down verson on Tim (1985)
- the bombastic, super pop, horn-laden version on 
Pleased to Meet Me (1987)

So why did I chose the second one?
well, i'm glad you asked...

killer horn section.

yeah, that's right
the road to my musical heart
is paved in sweet, sweet horn sections.

This will become a recurring theme for my playlist.
As the Summer progresses, you will start to see
a steady increase, per capita, of songs with horns.

the Replacements were based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota,
which just so happens to be one of my favorite cities to visit.
(Cold as balls, but great people, music & food)
Minneapolis was also home to some of my other favorite pop bands,
such as Semisonic, Motion City Soundtrack & Hüsker Dü

There's a reason that everyone loves this song.
And It's probably got alot to do with
Paul Westerberg's signature raw-throated vocals, 
because this really may be his vocal masterpiece.

...Seriously, his voice gives me goosebumps.

"Can't Hardly Wait" - the Replacements [download]

Summer of Sam (Famolaro) OST: Track #1

Too Many People 
by Paul McCartney
Ram (1971)

I'm building my summer playlist one song at a time,
and I'm going to share it with you, so ya'll can join along
...If you're into that kinda thing.


So, this is the first track...




Now, Question. 


Which member of the Beatles do you like the most? 
Do you like the dead ones?
 or the live ones?


Which the exception of a few hardcores who just can't 
get enough of George Harrison's relatively hit-or-miss later catalog
(...I refer to these people as "Harrisonites")
most people will pick either John Lennon or Paul McCartney.
(Sorry, Ringo. Luv U!)


I'm not disputing that John Lennon was 
one of the greatest song writers off all-time
but his body of work outside of 
the Beatles is limited. 


Good, just... limited.


On the other hand, Paul McCartney has 
more music than I care to think about sometimes.
Between the Beatles, Wings, his solo career, 
his weird classical albums, his Michael Jackson duets 
& his highly-overlooked electronica duo, the Fireman [link],
Macca has a bigger catalog than almost any artist alive today.


it's not too hard to figure out that Too Many People 
was indeed written about the very recent (at the time) 
& highly personal, Beatles break-up.
It's interesting to hear it from McCartney's side,
He sounds like he had grown tired of Lennon's persona.
As well as the fact that John "had been doing a lot of preaching".
(Oh, if you wanna hear Lennon's response, go here.)


I love this song.
Too Many People has to have one of my 
favorite choruses in McCartney's entire catalog. 
If Paul McCartney knows anything, 
he knows his way around a vocal harmony.

Paul McCartney - Ram (1971) [link]

Philosophical Anarchism

the Man Who Was Thursday: 
A Nightmare

by G.K. Chesterton (1908)

''No man should leave in the universe 

anything of which he is afraid."

                                                                  - Gabriel Syme

I was waiting for a train,

(NJ Transit from Penn Station to Linden, NJ)

when I first opened up this under-appreciated, 

mostly-forgotten, British thriller.

It's a story that moves very fast, often in directions you don't expect. 

Bouncing quickly between various genres, 

the piece, at times, could be considered 

a mystery novel, a detective story, a satire,

a Christian metaphor, a horror story & great adventure tale.

"The rare, strange thing is to hit the mark; the gross, obvious thing is to miss it."

                                                                  - Gabriel Syme

I don't want to spoil the story for you,

the secrets & plot-twists are important to the experience, 

but for the sake of explanation, the novel starts off as 

our protagonist, Gabriel Syme, is engaged in a heated debate

with the town's local anarchist poet, Lucian Gregory,

over what the "purpose of poetry" is.

For the sake of proving to Syme that he is indeed 

an anarchist, Lucian takes Gabriel to the secret headquarters

of the local anarchists.

This is where the story shifts gears, 

so I won't go any further for now.

Chesterton paints a very surreal picture of 

turn-of-the-century London, with equal portions

of quaintness & grime, secret tunnels & vast golden fields,

all the while, carrying with it a dark sense of humor,

married with impending sense of dread which

seems to lurk just around every new corner.

Chesterton's novel is not an easy read.

This is not the kind of book to read on a lazy day at

the beach. It has a very 'British/European'-style voice that

does take a few minutes to get adjusted to, but once you've

become accustomed to the dialogue of the author, 

the second half starts to fly-by.

Personally, I love this book & I hope you will, too. 

“The philosopher may sometimes love the infinite. The poet always loves the finite. For him, the great moment is not the creation of light, but the creation of the sun and moon.”

                                                                 - Narrator

A Nightmare on Waverly Ave.

I was staring across the table at her 

and she looked absolutely beautiful.

We were in a tiny, little rustic French restaurant 

& the waiter was just bringing my steak out to the table

when I decided I needed to tell her how i feel.

I poured my heart out.

I told her I would do anything for another chance.

I told her I had changed and that I was older;

Ready to start the rest of my life with her.

Ready to commit to her for the long run...

I reached into my pocket, 

but whatever I was looking for had disappeared.

Frantically, I searched around the table.

She took her purse off the back of her chair

and placed it on the table. 

Wordlessly, she reached into her bag, 

pulled out a small snub-nosed revolver

& casually shot me in the chest. 

I didn't feel the bullet hit me,

but I watched the world tumble as 

I fell straight back out my chair onto the floor.

the chamber music stopped abruptly.
patrons watched from their seats horrified,
before turning back to their meals & drinks.


the chamber music started again. 

I scanned my surroundings before 
casting my gaze upon a large man

sitting on a tiny barstool against the wall.

It was my my cousin, Dean.

He had a snifter of Anisette in his hand 

& the charred end of a cigar clenched in his teeth.

He looked down at me silently, as I laid there gasping for air,

bleeding out onto the luxurious plush carpet, 

Dean took the cigar from his mouth, cleared his throat, 
and said...

"Legend has it, his shadow once killed a dog"

And then i woke up; late-for-class.

that's how I started my morning. 

Maybe it's everyone.

Or maybe my brain is just wired incorrectly

(Or maybe I shouldn't fall asleep watching the Sopranos)

but the effects of my nightmares
tend to linger throughout the day.


My nightmares bothers me far more than my Insomnia, 
although I honestly believe it's all inter-connected.
And while my insomnia is well-documented throughout this blog,
It tends to be more of an annoyance/product of my environment
than anything else; coming & going on a quasi-cyclic pattern.
My nightmares are not remotely that predictable...


I don't regularly remember my dreams once I wake up,
So, over the years I've come to believe that 
when I DO have an intense, highly-specific dream like this, 
it must have a deeper meaning than just 
my over-active imagination running wild.


Up until I received my Associates Degree from MVCC,
I had an awful recurring nightmare.
I woud wake up deep underwater,
Floating, but not swimming. 
Just treading water, no matter how hard i paddled.
When i'd look up, I see the moonlight above the water
followed every time by a large, slow-moving
shape that floated/swam across my line of vision
and blocked out the light, leaving me in the dark.


I hated that dream & i'm glad i don't have it anymore.

...seeing double.