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Location: Work.
Researching: Lloyd Cole & The Commotions.
Listening: "Rattlesnakes" ~ Tori Amos (cover of Lloyd Cole).

Bits and pieces, then, because that's how everything's coming to me today.

/nick fangirl.

Strange Little Girls was released September 18 (coincidentally, the nine month mark for Peter and I) and I've been following my usual routine for new Tori material. After hearing Little Earthquakes for the first time, I realized that I was dealing with an artist who didn't so much sing songs as put forth a series of small stories against musical scenery. Hence, after the first quick run through a new disc (during which I usually am instantly drawn to one or two songs), I'll sit down and work through each song slowly, trying to get a "feel" for it. Once a technical familiarity has been built up, I can then decide if I feel any sort of resonance with that piece. It's a long process, but one that I feel is necessary.

Strange Little Girls is processing in a slightly different way. It's a cover album--the stories are not hers and the majority of them I was already technically familiar with in their initial incarnations. So what I'm actually seeking is any possible resonance with her interpretations of others' stories, which I might have had resonance with in the past, but might not now. My reactions to these pieces, then, are a little more complicated, as I'm more sensitive to the changes in the songs I've already heard and left wondering about what changes were made in songs that I haven't. As a result, just listening to the album all the way through is actually exhausting. Add to this the fact that, in my opinion, it's her darkest collection to date, (she's had her moments with "Me And A Gun", "Yes, Anastasia", "Sugar", etc., but her versions of "Time" (Tom Waits' piece told from the perspective of Time/Death), "Raining Blood" (Slayer death-metal re-created as a dirge) and "I'm Not In Love" (pop by 10cc stripped down and re-worked into an S&M ballad) are much more sinister than anything she's done in the past), and the processing slows down even further. I'll eventually get a glimpse of the forest, no doubt, but for now, I'm too busy squinting at every tree. So far, I've instantly bonded with "Rattlesnakes" (hence, the research on Lloyd Cole--I love his lyrics) and "Time" (not surprisingly, as Tom Waits is a favorite of mine). "I'm Not In Love" is running a close third, but I'm trying to limit my listening on that one; it somehow manages to invoke a lot of long-buried anger that's further down on my "Things To Deal With" list.

In short, Strange Little Girls is coming along slowly, but so did Boys For Pele and To Venus And Back --my two favorite albums. *shrug* I should have it pretty well sussed out by November 20th, when Peter and I see her in concert at the Copley Symphony Hall in San Diego. Ticket sales for the three Los Angeles shows were slightly tweaked by Ticketmaster (web site wasn't working properly, reps had conflicting information, public sales were delayed by two weeks after internet pre-sale instead of one, etc.), so I grabbed seats for the San Diego date. Turned out to be a good call--last night of the North American leg of the tour, sold out show. I'm trying to keep my fangirlishness under wraps for now, but I don't know how long it'll hold. You've been warned.

/nick bigdork.

I've been running around on BearShare, my Gnutella server Napster-subsitute, downloading some Rolling Stones ("Mother's Little Helper" and "Gimme Shelter") here, some Billy Joel ("New York State Of Mind" and "Innocent Man") there. In the midst of this, I ran across a song called "Why Should I Worry?" that Billy Joel wrote for a little animated musical feature called Oliver & Co. back in the early 90's. Said feature was Disney's re-vamping of Oliver Twist with a kitten as Oliver and a stray mutt as The Artful Dodger. Guest voices included Bette Midler as a snooty poodle and Cheech Marin as a Chihuahua. I adored it. I probably still would, although I haven't seen it in at least 10 years. I definitely still love the song.

This discovery has thrown me into a musical soundtrack frenzy. I'm currently working on Little Shoppe Of Horrors and Chess, but can see myself drifting into Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat territory pretty soon. Nostalgia for my days as a high school and college theatre rat will undoubtedly follow.

/nick mizu.