...or somewhat quietly, I suppose, considering I'm putting this on paper rather than going out to shout it out.
I had an opportunity to share "kanske ar jag kar i dig", a wonderfully beautiful Jens Lekman song, with some friends today and was delighted to see their elated reaction. That reaction is like a drug for me.
Whenever people ask me for music recommendations, There are usually several things that happen. It's like a few generators turn on in my head to begin cranking out recommendations. One generator pops out music I love but no one has heard about. The more obscure, the more excited I get and the more I can see the little box generator hopping around in my head (Not sure if you've seen a small generator in motion but when they reach the end of their use and are being kept alive with duct tape and wd40 they tend to creak and shake about a bit more than usual).
Other generators pop up with safe recommendations everyone knows (classic rock, music from 10+ years ago, etc). I don't like to rely on these songs, but I'll often throw 2 or 3 into the list to help hook people into the rest of what I've got to share.
There's always a third generator. It rarely performs but when it does it's the most efficient beacon of energy I know. It's gold plated and pops out only one song every once in a while and that is the cornerstone song, the lone patch on a denim jacket, THE gold star song that links me to this person and represents our history together OR merely hits just the right spot lyrically or harmonically in a way that I KNOW will touch them just as much as it did me. When that generator does kick into life the rest of the tracks simultaneously seem more AND less important. More because the one song makes everything shine a little brighter and less because, metaphorically speaking, when you meet a room full of celebrities like Jimmy Fallon, Steven Wright, Graham Norton, Jann Arden, and Gayle (Oprah's best friend) and all of a sudden you realize that Tim Curry is sitting in the corner trying not to be bothered. The only thing you'll be thinking about is trying to have a 5 minute conversation with Tim Curry without telling him how much you adored him in Rocky Horror but find it hilarious that the same actor who plays Frank N Furter was also the bad guy in Congo. That conversation would make your day, week, life.
I've been digging on a GREAT upcoming album from a band called Landlandy. Their song "The Globe", for some reason, is touching and amazing. My first media addition to a blog entry!
I'll leave you with that note and a chance to listen in.
Your turn...
