Aya Ueto

Not a music post

Thank you for not playing rock music

Listening to AIR on my iPod today, I was struck by how far from rock’n roll this is. No honky tonk, no 12 bar blues traces here, which one could still recognize in much of the current music.

Maybe this is why it feels so liberating.

Saint Etienne

My favorite band in my favorite magazine talking about some of my favorite things: Saint Etienne [ in Monocle].

Someone I would like to know

One of the luminaries of modern American music: Charlie Clouser of NIN.

My favorite song

Nine Inch Nails Lyrics
Head Down Lyrics

Eno & Byrne

From two of my favorite art-rockers… hot off the presses.
Everything that will happen will happen today

Getting too serious

Let’s kick back with Karsh Kale. Now that is cool.

In the meantime

Listening to Nightmares on Wax.

Discovered (but unconvinced by) Aimé Césaire. Will watch the Malcolm X movie, maybe it all fits together. The ending of Burn! was a letdown although the movie was really good. And yes there is an underlying theme to this post.

The secret of cool

From this…

to this…

The first is the rather pedestrian poster for a 60’s movie. The second is the cover of Air’s song inspired by/somehow dedicated to the movie. While the poster is functional and perhaps even humorous, it lacks any punch in its almost 50’s aesthetic. Air’s cover however manages to perfectly capture the mood of that hip, swingin’ time, as idealized by 40 years that have gone since then: the Richard Neutra, midcentury modern architecture, (not to mention the cool downtempo beats of the song) – I want to live in Air’s version of the secret of cool.

Of course, it would entail living in a quarters such as this one:

However, the soundtrack could well be Stereolab:

And the readings would be from this author, perhaps.