the Gently Mad

Once again, I didn’t get around to this until Tuesday. Oh well.

Earlier this year I discovered a band called The Airborne Toxic Event. They didn’t yet have an album, but after hearing Sometime Around Midnight I immediately downloaded their EP Does This Mean You’re Moving On?, searched everything I could find about them on YouTube and started frequenting their Myspace for new songs.

I can’t overstate how great I think this band is. I can count on one hand (Ok, maybe two) the number of times I have discovered an artist or band about which I wouldn’t change a thing.

Sometime Around Midnight really is a perfect song. It’s about a guy descending into a drunken despair as he watches the woman he loves leave a club with another man. Even if you have never experienced this, the song hits on so many feelings and emotions that you can’t help but see yourself in the lyrics.

Musically, the song is also perfect. Staring softly and gradually building to a string-swept wall of crunching sound, Midnight leaves you feeling completely satisfied.

Finding such a great song is even rarer than finding great bands, for me at least. I remember a similar feeling when I first heard the Goo Goo Doll’s Black Balloon more than a decade ago.

But Midnight is a perfect example of what this band does best — somehow taking the little, day-to-day circles of modern life and romance and turning them into art.

The other thing I love about this band is their incredible literariness. The fact that their name comes from a Don DeLillo novel is telling, in my opinion. I walk away from this album with same feeling with which I walk away from great novels and films. Front man Mikel Jollett talks/sings about the same things that so many other bands do, but in a way that is transcendent and profoundly affecting.

Based out of Los Feliz, Calif. Airborne’s sound is frantic, nerve-stripped and raw. I don’t know exactly how to categorize them except to say they affect a kind of post-punk/new-wave-ish intensity, but don’t succumb to banality of similar-sounding acts.

I hope you catch just how much I love this band. They are worth a listen, even if not what you would normally go for.

With the release of their self-titled album they have broadened their tour and would be worth seeing live if in your area. They’re going to be in Atlanta in September and I can’t wait for that.

The Toxic Airborne Event has been a truly amazing discovery for me and with only one album and and EP has become one of my favorite bands. I hope they continue their current trajectory on future projects.

Check them out. (If you’re an eMusic subscriber, you can get the album there.)

OK, so EVERYBODY has some sort of music post where they share their musical meanderings of the past week or so.

But that’s because they’re cool. I love these kinds of posts because I like to find out what people are listening to and I like to discover new music.

So, here it is at the Gently Mad. The first Music Monday, er Tuesday post.

I’ve discovered a couple bands lately that have been great. Every now and then I’ll stuble across a band or musician that that is so awesome, it makes all the time spent wading through all the crap worth it.

Here are a couple that have proved to be great.

Frightened Rabbit

Hailing from Glasgow, these guys are a little bit Snow Patrol, a little bit Counting Crows and all around great. Great songwriting, great sound.

Album: The Midnight Organ Fight

Song: Backwards Walk

Why are the best songs always about breaking up?

Blind Pilot

Straight up folk. And I love it. They sound like I would image This Shins would sound on VH1 Storytellers.

Album: 3 Rounds and a Sound

Song: Paint or Pollen

Derek Webb & Sandra McCracken

Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken’s new EP has been out for a while now, but I’ve found myself listening to it quite a bit. I’ve always thought Derek Webb was a great writer of love songs and this EP showcases his skills in this area.

EP: Ampersand

Song: Watch Your Mouth

Again with the recommendation for Steve McCoy. Here is my response to his “Top 5 Romantic Movies” post.

As a preface, I would say that I don’t define romance as strictly “happy.” That being said each of these movies leave me with a sense of wonder at life and love and hope for the future.

I’ve devided my list into films that deal with romance and love and those that would be classified by Hollywood as “Romantic Comedies.”

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Probably the most romantically hopeful film I’ve ever seen and one of my favorite films of all time.

2. Garden State: Again, incredibly hopeful about love and life. Another all-time favorite.

3. Punch Drunk Love: Incredible portrayal of one man’s struggle to be understood and accepted for who he is. I guess I just love films that accept that life is broken and full of pain and still find reasons to believe in the power of love.

4. Lost In Translation: There’s just too much to say about this film. What an ending! If you haven’t seen it, drop whatever you’re doing right now and go watch it. Your soul may depend on it…

5. The Village: Say what you will about M. Night Shyamalan, but The Village is, at its heart, a love story. And a great one.

Honorable Mentions:

Pride and Prejudice: This is like romantic crack.

Moonlight Mile: Great film about the often inextricable nature of loss and love.

Romantic Comedies

1. Return to Me: THE greatest romantic comedy of all time.

2. Love Actually: Amazing. Great film. This is one of the best “happy ending” romantic comedies. It’s impossible to walk away from this film and not feel happy. And many of its observations about love and romance are surprisingly truthful and poignant, for Hollywood.

3. You’ve Got Mail: For every guy who has had to work hard at convincing the girl he loves to love him back. Is there a better romantic comedy couple than Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan?

4. When Harry Met Sally: Classic. This is one of the rare films that left such an impression that it has become an indelible part of pop culture (e.g. I’ll have what she’s having). The style of modern romantic comedies owes much to this one.

5. Serendipity: Just a great light-hearted all-around good romantic comedy. And who can resist John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale?

Honorable Mentions:

The Philadelphia Story: OK, classics are an entire different category all their own, but this one is great. One of the best scripts ever written, in my opinion. Jimmy Stewart, Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant. They just don’t make movies like this anymore.

Annie Hall: Woody Allen’s second best film in my opinion and one that has set the tone for all great romantic comedies since.

I’m a big Counting Crows fan, mainly for Adam Duritz’s writing. Many of my friends hate the band, but I never tire of Duritz’s never-ending stream-of-conscious introspective musings.

I did a wordle of all his lyrics just to see what words came up most frequently. I think it’s safe to say Duritz is the king of existential introspectiveness…

If you’re unfamiliar with wordle, go here.

If you’re unfamiliar with Counting Crows, shame on you.

If you’re unfamiliar with Reformissionary, I suggest you read his blog. He has been posting a series call “The Big 5…” for some time now asking readers for their best five books in multiple categories. The latest one is The Big 5: Books that Changed Your Mind. I thought I would post my reply here.

In no particular order:

1. The Gospel According to Jesus - John MacArthur: This was one of the first books I read in my late teens that really pushed me out of the cultural Christianity I had been raised with and into a truer understanding of what it meant to have a faith of my own. It was also the first time I encountered any type of reformed theology.

2. Desiring God - John Piper: My reading of this book caused as much of a crisis in my life as the MacArthur book. Literally took me to another plain of understanding regarding faith and what life is all about.  Undoubtedly life changing.

3. Blue Like Jazz - Don Miller: After spending several years as a reformed jerk, this book brought be back down to earth and helped me realize that just because someone doesn’t do things exactly the way my tradition does, they are not automatically a heretic.

4. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig: I cannot overstate the influence of this book during my junior year in college. This book effectively popped the arrogant Christian subculture bubble I’d been living in my entire life. Read it.

5. Mary and O’Neil - Justin Cronin: OK, this one’s a novel, but it was the first novel I read that overwhelmed me with the beauty of its writing. It caused a last minute change of major in college, among other things. But most of all, it showed me how great writing can be so much more than entertainment - it can be life changing.

Which books have been the most life changing for you?

Reformissionary recently asked readers to list the top five books that made them laugh out loud. I thought I would post my reply here.

I love all of these books, and all of them are valuable beyond a laugh. They are in no particular order.

When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris. Every single one of Sedaris’ books is genius, but there are some essays here that are among his best. I laughed almost the entire way through the title essay where he details in effort to quit smoking and how he felt the need to recruit a new smoker so as not to create a smoker/non-smoker imbalance in the world.

Fraud by David Rakoff. Along the lines of Sedaris, but where Sedaris is scatological and intentionally low-brow, Rakoff takes aim at his sophisticated New York life and how ridiculous it often is.

I Hate Myself and Want to Die: The 52 Most Depressing Songs You’ve Ever Heard by Tom Reynolds. A hilarious book that explores (and pokes fun at) 52 of the most heart-wrenching and earsplitting songs of all time and explains the reasons we continue to listen to them.

Confessions of a Reformission Rev by Mark Driscol. Classic Mark Driscoll. This one is more profound and funny than his previous effort, in my opinion. The part about calling all of the men of the church together and handing them two little stones was hilarious and convicting.

Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. His description of the generally lazy and solipsistic writer’s life was great. And true.

I know I probably overdo the mix-tape. I have given my wife a CD compilation for every significant occasion so far in our relationship. Our first Christmas, our first Valentine’s Day, her birthday, our first anniversary — all perfect occasions for the perfect mix.

Fortunately, my wife puts up with my high school antics because she is just as much of a music lover as I am. One area of musical taste that we do not share, however, is hip hop. She loves it. I, on the other hand, have never been a fan. But thanks to a couple friends who are true connoisseurs, I have come to appreciate authentic hip hop quite a bit.

I say authentic because, as I have learned, there is a massive difference between the rap that you hear on top 40 radio stations and real hip hop, which, historically has been far more influenced by jazz and soul.

So I set out to make my wife a hip hop mix that truly captured how I felt about her and what she meant to me.

This was far more complicated than it sounds. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find great hip hop love songs that aren’t completely misogynistic?

I had several rules. First, the songs had to actually express how I felt. Two, they had to be love songs. Three, they had to be true hip hop, not r&b, which often gets lumped into the genre.

This made putting together the mix a lot harder than I expected, because there are a lot of great loves songs that are r&b and a lot of great hip hop tracks that aren’t love songs.

Nevertheless, after spending nearly two months just listening to hip hop and exploring this genre I put together, what I think, is a phenomenal mix that will appeal to lovers of great hip hop and lovers of great music in general.

So without further adieu, here’s the list. Most of these you can sample on iTunes. Others I spent quite a while tracking down.

By Your Side
1. OutKast: The Love Below (Intro)
2. Count Bass D: Seven Years
3. Common: The Light
4. C.L. Smooth & Pete Rock: Searching
5. Lyrics Born: I Can’t Wait for Your Love
6. Method Man: I’ll Be There for You
7. De La Soul: Eye Know
8. Guru: Trust Me
9. World Renown: Butter Love
10. Common: Come Close
11. OutKast: Prototype

What do you think? Have you ever made a mix that you now look back on and cringe? If you were to make one for your special person today, what would be on it?