Whedon Wednesday :: Years and Seconds and Years [a Victor - Tony fanmix]

1. Clean Slate (M. Ward)
When I was a younger man I thought the pain of defeat would last forever, but now I don’t know what it would take to make my heart back down, ‘cause I only have to wait a little while before I get my clean slate.

2. I Guess I Should Go to Sleep (Jack White)
I guess I should go to sleep, too hard standing on my own two feet.  Been walkin’ too long on a dead end street, I guess I should go to sleep.

3. Man of a Thousand Faces (Regina Spektor)
The man of a thousand faces sits down at the table, eats a small lump of sugar and smiles at the moon like he knows her.

4. Sleepyhead (Eisley)
Quiet falling all around me, fall onto my knees before you, break the tie that binds me to it far away from here.  Falling, I’m falling, can’t you hear me calling?  Running, I’m running, catch my hand and hold me

5. Steadier Footing (Death Cab for Cutie)
And this is the chance I never got to make a move, but we just talk about the people we’ve met in the last five years and will we remember them in ten more.

6.On My Chest (Lissie)
It’s an abstract place where I hold you and the relief I felt gets confused.  And I have cried a couple of times when I’m wondering about you…

7. A Martyr for my Love for You (The White Stripes)
I could stay a while but sooner or later I’ll break your smile.  And I can tell a joke but one of these days I’m bound to choke.  And we could share a kiss but I feel like I can’t go through with this.  And I bet we could build a home but I know the right thing for me to do is to leave you alone.

8. Burn (Apocalyptica)
Instrumental.

9. Endless Sleep (Sucré)
I woke up to a voice who said I had been dreaming and I missed, I missed everything, I missed everything.  Oh heaven, please help me, help me from falling back again.  In hibernation, a century of loneliness

10. End All (The Narrative)
I hold you here in my mind, where I am coming undone with fleeting emotions a landslide is born.  And the pieces will tumble through cracks in your floor.

11. City of Delusion (Muse)
Stay away from me, build a fortress and shield your beliefs.  Touch the divine as we fall in line.  Can I believe when I don’t trust, all your theories turn to dust. I choose to hide from the all seeing eye. Destroy this city of delusion and break these walls down and I will avenge and justify my reasons with your blood

12. Last Man (Jed Whedon and the Willing)
Last man left is left alive.  You’re in the fire of a fight.  High end, all right.  Shinin’ in infrared light,  You’re in my telescopic sight.  High end, all right.

13. Soldier (Angus & Julia Stone)
I’m a soldier but I don’t know how to fight, I’m your best friend but I’m scared to see you tonight, I’m the darkness but I want to be the light.  Oh how I want to be, oh how I want to be.

Years and Seconds and Years at 8tracks.

– your fangirl heroine.

Whedon Wednesday :: Always Find You [a Willow/Tara fanmix]

1. Nothing Else Matters (Apocalyptica)
Instrumental.

2. Somedays (Regina Spektor)
They come in all quiet, sweep up and then they leave, and you don’t hear a single floor board creak.  They’re so much stronger than the friends you try to keep by your side.  Downtown, downtown, I’m not here, not anymore, I’ve gone away, don’t call me, don’t write.  I’m in love with your daughter, I wanna have her baby, I’m in love with your daughter, so can I please. 

3. You Are a Tourist (Death Cab for Cutie)
When there’s a burning in your heart and you think it’ll burst apart or there’s nothing to feel, save the tears, save the tears, when there’s a burning in your heart.  And if you feel just like a tourist in the city you were born then it’s time to go and define your destination, there’s so many different places to call home.  Because when you find yourself the villain in the story you have written it’s plain to see that sometimes the best intentions are in need of redemptions, would you agree? If so please show me.

4. Do Not Hang Your Head (Elizabeth & the Catapult)
If ever I do hurt you, make your willows bend, if ever I deceive you, darlin’, do not hang your head.  If ever I betray you, cast shadows on your light, I pray that you may pardon and forgive me by and by.  Oh my, baby cast another light.  Oh my, baby cast another light.

5. Under Your Spell (Amber Benson)
I lived my life in shadow, never the sun on my face.  It didn’t seem so sad, though, I figured that was my place.  Now I’m bathed in light, something just isn’t right.  I’m under your spell, how else could it be anyone would notice me?  It’s magic, I can tell, how you set me free, brought me out so easily.

6. Love That Conquers (The Swell Season)
In the time when you word was true, you gave your heart to the ones you knew.  And at the dawn of every day there was a light that you gave to me.  You gave yourself to a love that conquers, gave everything to a love that conquers.

7. Lovesick Mistake (Erin McCarley)
How do I slow down? I can’t relate to my heart now.  I’ve thrown what I known, is it enough for me out?  I’m running on empty.  I’ve gotta find someway to fumble right through this new heartache, it’s torn me apart.  Oh, lovesick mistake, turn me away.

8. Happy Now? (Stretch Princess)
Could you do you feel a little closer, should I be a little high?  I’d give you everything and a little more if they were only mine.  And I’m here for you and you want me to feel things you’ll never feel, you’re tired of my dreaming and your words will set you free.  Oh was it hard for you to say it?  And the world won’t be waiting to turn you around, I can’t keep us together or happy now. Are you happy now?

9. Swan Song (A Fine Frenzy)
Wretched, look at me, I’ve lost it, melting on the table in parking lots and markets.  I cant help it, I love you like a starfish loves the salty water, like a selfish daughter.  Yet I wrote the words to the swan song, the author of the wrong.  And I said what I said and I meant it, but now I regret it.

10. Gamble Everything for Love (Ben Lee)
Love me with an open heart, tell me anything.  We can find a place to start, to gamble everything, we can set this thing apart, ’cause we’re gonna, gonna gamble everything for love.  Tell me do you lose your way each day?  Are there people you don’t recognize?  Do they lie?  Tell me do they make you feel too real?  Tell me the truth and I’ll tell you the truth, if you gamble everything for love you’re gonna be alright, alright.

11. A Sight to Behold (Eisley)
I know that I have taken things, I’ve taken things I had for granted.  I know this one thing’s for sure:  I won’t let you ever walk out my door.  Oooh… Let’s break the walls down and find how to live, ’cause you and I have so much to give.

12. The Past and Pending (The Shins)
Blind to the last cursed affair pistols and countless eyes, a trail of white blood betrays the reckless route your craft is running.  Feed till the sun turns into wood dousing an ancient torch, loiter the whole day through and lose yourself in lines dissecting love.  Your name on my cast and my notes on your stay offer me little but doting on a crime.  We’ve turned every stone and for all our inventions; in matters of love loss, we’ve no recourse at all.

13. Advisory Committee (Mirah)
Heard a shot rang through the woods, couldn’t tell from what direction.  Spun around and tried to see if there were two, if there were three.  The mist came down the ground was wet, I talked with you inside my head. The way I have forgotten back, quickly prepare it’s an attack.  Listen for the sound, feel a shaking underground, to have the weapons and the time, the will to push off from the side.

14. Night Light (Sleater-Kinney)
Oh little light that shines for me in the dark of night.  Oh little sigh, sometimes I follow you all the way home.  I would almost have to ask you, I hate to be led, so give me a spark I can look for instead.  How do you do it: this bitter and bloody world, keep it together and shine for your family?  How do you do it: with visions of worst to come, live in the present and spin off the rays of sun.

Always Find You on 8tracks.

–your fangirl heroine.

Music Monday :: 5 examples of instrumental music that isn’t a score

Because scores can be holy hot damn beautiful, and I love them very much, but sometimes a singer or group that’s just recording albums to record albums goes instrumental.  Sometimes all the time, sometimes for a track or two.

5. Apocalyptica.  Almost always.
These guys are straight-up instrumental a lot of the time.  They’re four cellists who play the likes of Metallica, Sepultura, and Pantera.  And they play original pieces, too; in fact, one of their gorgeous original pieces, “Peace,” was used in Dollhouse 2×13, “Epitaph Two: Return.”  And though that’s not how I found these guys, it’s why I love them.  I find cellos very, very appealing; I find weird industrial things appealing.  They’re the best of both.  Some of their tracks have vocals, but the majority is instrumental and beautiful.

4. “Per I Morti,” “Si Mi Quieres Escribir,” and “El Can Dels Ocells,” by Mirah and the Black Cat Orchestra (To All We Stretch the Open Arm)
All of these are covers; the first was written by Fausto Amodei, the others are from anonymous sources.  But this combination of Mirah, a singer-songwriter I love wholly, and the Black Cat Orchestra, who I admit I’m not otherwise familiar with, yields very pretty orchestration.  Very pretty indeed.

3. M. Ward does it a lot, too.
Four tracks on on Duet For Guitars #2; three on End of Amnesia; three on Transfiguration of Vincent; three on Transistor Radio; only one on Post-War; only one on Hold Time.  The titular instrumental piece on End of Amnesia might just be my favorite at the moment, but they’re all beautiful.  M. Ward is a “musician’s musician,” I’ve heard it said, and this is so so true.

2. “The Violet Hour,” the Civil Wars (Barton Hollow)
This is one of those instrumental tracks that’s just so beautiful that it makes me want to cry.  Not actual tears, but tears in my heart, definitely.  It belongs on a soundtrack somewhere (which means I’ll find a mixy purpose for it, like many of these other tracks).

1. “The Swell Season,” the Swell Season (The Swell Season)
Yes, it’s amusing.  Be amused by the repetition.  But it’s a beautiful piece of music, and if I had the patience and the time and someone to learn it with, I’d learn it.

–your fangirl heroine.