Bob Dylan's "She Belongs To Me (Alternative Take)"

As the espresso's effect slowly wears off, I just had to get this up and out before I lose the motivation. I finally got off my ass and to the record store tonight. Being there for a lengthy amount of time, a bit forgetful and hurried, I had already popped my pile onto the counter and then it dawned on me: I should look for this Dylan record. "No Direction Home: The Soundtrack" came out last September and I've been trying to remind myself to pick it up. It took close to 6 months, but I finally have it. And I predict to be living inside these 28 previously unreleased versions of Dylan songs for the next few weeks.

When I got to the second disc, I found it opens with "She Belongs To Me" and I was instantly overwhelemed. This song was never in my top tier of Bob Dylan favorites.

When I finally told my mother that I had moved to Minneapolis from San Francisco (I was scared to tell her that I moved so far away from her in So. Cal, predicting that I would have a two-or-more-hour-long conversation and then find myself on the next plane back out of guilt. So I waited to tell her after I had already been in Minnesota for about a month). She sighed, and then sang a snippet of this song.
She's got everything she needs / She's an artist, she don't look back / She can take the dark out of the nighttime / And paint the daytime black.
At the time, I had no fuckin' idea what she was singing. Was it obscure Simon & Garfunkel? Some weird band she's got some weird story about? Was it something she made up on the spot? Then she said, "You know Bob Dylan was originally from Minnesota." (What like because Dylan was from there it was acceptable?) Eight years later, here I am - surrounded by layers of guitars that accompany the lyrics and I'm hearing Bob sing but remembering my mother's funny version of it doing her best Dylan-accent impression on top of her own foriegn accent. Add this to that top tier.

Even if you didn't have a weirdo parent who sings you Bob Dylan lyrics to lament your decision to move across the country - surely there's a song in here for you. Desolation Row? Man of Constant Sorrow? Masters of War? Leopard-Skin Pill-box Hat? Whichever you fancy - there's a gem in here for you.

New pictures up!

Yep.

You read correctly, I scrounged up enough time to put more photos up in the gallery.

Featuring Northern & Southern California, Sundance @ Park City UT, and New York + its "Blizzard of 2006" ...wussies.




Clicky: www.celestetabora.com/fotografia/



NP: Spoon's "They Never Got You"

Portishead Remixed: "Dumb"

I've been meaning to post this for awhile now, and it just gets swept under the rug because of that ever-growing list of things to do on the Solid PR tip.

But, here we are finally. A moment in which I recall to do this.
You can download the entire Portishead Remixed album by clicking on this link.
No, seriously, the whole album. Free. Yes, free. There are some great mash-ups and reinterpretations of this (already) classic pop album, which you should definitely check out, if not have. This site that holds the mp3s also hosts fascinating small blurbs about each remixer. And yes, again - it's free. All they want you to do in exchange is to donate a little to a well-deserved charity or simply purchase the original Dummy album (which you should have if you do not already, regardless of your main affliction in music genre) - it's totally sexy.

Efterklang's "Monopolist"

Like many of you, I work my day away with itunes on shuffle. All the things I wouldn't normally choose to play resurface at my computer's will. I think Oliverio might have even transferred this track onto my sad little full hard drive while I was in New York three weeks ago (though I got a portable one yesterday that I now claim to be my lord and saviour).


Anyway, the song... it's a smidge less than 7 minutes long and travels from your typical driving electronic beat to quicksand pianos and darting keyboards sifted through some filters. The vocals remind me of what Amish church songs might sound like. It's creepy, like a real-life fling with your socially unacceptable relationship with your professor, and I like it. Thank you weirdo Danish ensemble!








Here's what Pitchfork had to say about it.

Opal's "Happy Nightmare Baby"

While Capitol/EMI are prepping to release The Mazzy Star Anthology and a deluxe CD/DVD later this year, I'm thrown back to earlier than they're trying to get me to be nostalgic for. I'm talkin' thown way back in 1987, pre-Mazzy by a sweet little friend who put this Opal song on a Valentino mix for me. It's practically been on repeat today as I've made any open ear listen to the track. Ned Ragett from AllMusic.com nails it by saying, "For one thing, Opal was very much its own band, with Kendra Smith's particular lyrical visions of mystic power and universe-scaling dreams and nightmares its own entity. As is her singing, though she's got less of Hope Sandoval's wistful drift and more focused control." And while I'm not the biggest Mazzy Star fan, I really like Opal and that's probably why. I haven't had the pleasure of hearing the entire "Happy Nightmare Baby" album, but now I have something to look for the next time I hit the record store...

Opal page on the Mazzy Star site's related bands section.