tunes

My iPod spit out some stellar 80s songs during my commute-home shuffle.

First off was "Vienna Calling" by Falco. I don't think this one was ever as popular as "Rock Me Amadeus". I love it though. "..Amadeus" probably is the better song, but I don't think it right that "Vienna Calling"is overshadowed. I think I just love pop songs in German. Further proving this theory-- I am markedly less into "99 Red Balloons " vs "99 Luftballons".

Speaking of ethnic 80s rock, I also listened to one of my more obscure gems- "Live is Life" by Opus. OK, so that particular tune is in English. But I always got the strong sense , when I heard it back in the day, that Opus was...uhhh, not of this country. In fact, I got the idea into my head that they were Greek, definitely Greek. I had never actually heard or read that about them...it's like they just struck me as Greek, and at some point I converted that impression into a cold-fact.

So tonight I look up the "Live is Life" video on YouTube and watching it, I think: "I thought these guys were Greek but now I see that they are actually SUPER DUPER GREEK" I mean, c'mon-- that crazy-ass gymnast lead singer guy, and that one guitarist (the one leading the audience in the up-high clap-along at 50 sec. in) How can those dudes not be Greek??



They're AUSTRIAN!! How could I have been so off base? But, Austrian? Really???? They don't look even slightly Cap'n VonTrappish !! But I read this on Wikipedia, and Wikipedia is super DUPER smart.

Last 80s tune I heard this evening was Depeche Mode's "Just Can't Get Enough". That is *such* a quintessential 80s song. I think it's the beginning, especially. There's a lot of 80s flava synth out there in the world, but I don't know that any tops the opening riff of "Just Can't Get Enough" for y'know...sheer eightiesness.

It's just as well that I'm enjoying my current cache of tuneage, since I am at an impasse with iTunes. 3310 songs should be sufficient, but now that I am unable to buy any new tracks, there's all these songs I want. For instance, I have been loving everything I've heard off of Vampire Weekend's new album Contra. And I've loved the song 1901 (by Phoenix)for ages now, but just recently figured out its title & artist .

Here's the deal with my iTunes-- I had my whole library on my sister's computer--kept there because of the speediness of her internet. But then they had some internet connectivity issues a while back, and there was twiddling around with their computer innards, connectivity probs were solved, but iTunes had to be reinstalled and the whole library..GONZO...well maybe the tunes are in there somewhere, but I'll be damned if I could find 'em.

My niece plugged her iPod touch in and transferred her purchases, so now there is a bit of a library on there--580 songs approx. But when I plugged mine in, the only option I'm given is "Erase & Synch" so I just hit "Cancel" and disconnected.

I did a bit of snooping about on the web and I think if I get a new computer ( I'm hoping to scrape together some moolah and buy a laptop) and download iTunes on that, I can use the tips in THIS article to get all my songs in the new library. (Just noticed, when creating that link, that the article I'm pinning all my hopes on dates back to 2006...that unnerves me a smidge) Until then, though--musical-spending freeze.

In the meantime, I'm going low tech... I was putting silverware away tonight and felt compelled to try and play the spoons. I got some kind of sound out of them, but I can't figure how anyone can manage any sort of tune on the spoons. (haa! Rhyming!!) Perhaps I just haven't watched that Soundgarden video enough.

I guess my only hope of jugband superstardom is on the washboard. It's gotta be a cinch to play the washboard. I can play a jug, but I don't think I have the lung capacity to really excel at it. Once upon a time, I bought a jaw harp on a whim but I've not figured out how to play it. It looks so damned easy on YouTube, but I've found it to be damned difficult!! I have taken to carrying this jaw harp around in my purse. I think the oddball reasoning behind this is that if the instrument is semi-omnipresent and often on my person, I'll be reminded that I need to learn it. If my life were a movie, the camera would have panned in close on that perplexing jaw harp by now and I'd be soon to get into some scrape where I need to beguile people via music to save my life. You know, the type o' scenario. It'd be like PeeWee staving off a biker beating with his brilliant big shoe shuffle (Tequila!) except, if it's my jawharp saving me, I'd prob'ly be in Arkansas and the menace would come from dirty fellers wearing no shirts under their overalls (ack!! phantom nipple chafe at the thought!!)