Can you see me when I'm running?

[nano_moose]

Last month, my sister and I were Christmas shopping in a music store, and my sister walked up to me with an album and said, "Could you buy this for me?"

It turned out to be because of the coverart, which was really awesome, although we could not in fact make out the name of the band or the album because it was so abstract. To make a long argument short, she eventually bought it herself, and it turned out to rock. (Plus, with the CD inside, the art was even cooler, because you could turn it around and see different things in it.) The album is called Friend and Foe, the band is Menomena, and they have this fantastically odd homemade sound that's as weird as their coverart.

So, I'm going to upload a couple of their songs for you! Along with some other random stuff that I'm digging at the moment. I'll probably upload a few more when the Internet co-operates, so be sure to tell me what you think.

These are mostly m4a, which is what iTunes converts things to. They should play in WinAMP, but if anyone has any trouble, I'll either link to a site that will let you convert things or, if my connection is not sucking, do it myself and re-upload them.

Ready?

Right!

Wet and Rusting - Menomena

I think this is the most accessible of their songs aside from the odd beginning. It builds up to this awesome clash of percussion, piano and voice in the climax that's still strangely beautiful, for all the noise. The lyrics...really don't make a whole lot of sense, but that's par for the course in my playlist, I guess.

I made you a present, you'll never expect it
And when you unravel the secret will travel

Weird - Menomena

This is my favourite track on the album. I really love the bizarre contrast of the instruments and the section that starts around 2:30, and the lyrics fit the relationship between two of my characters almost scarily well.

You always said that we're friends
But that must depend which way the wind blows
It's clear that you have your own set of plans
Maybe that's the way you and I will always relate

M4 Part 2 - Faunts

Oh, Mass Effect, how I love you with all your eighties sci-fi-ness and melodrama. This is the credits music, which is eight minutes long, completely ridiculous, and awesome for every second of it.

Fire the fields the weed is sown
Water down your empty soul
Wake the sea of silent hope
Water down your empty soul

The Only Way - Gotye

Here, have some Gotye. This song always makes me tap my feet and groove around like a moron, which is funny because the lyrics are actually kind of depressing.

All the things you thought you had to say
Everyone you left along the way
So you gather how
Nothing matters now that your time is through

Harrowdown Hill - Thom Yorke

And if you want some genuinely depressing music, this song gives me the shivers. Normally I could take or leave Thom Yorke's voice, but the eerie melody and lyrics suit it very well here. If that's not enough for you, you can always look up the thoroughly disquieting story behind the words.

Don't walk the plank like I did
You will be dispensed with
When you've become inconvenient
Up on Harrowdown Hill
Where you used to go to school
That's where I am
That's where I'm lying down

I'll upload some more as soon as I beat Yousendit into submission.

Comments

[thebaconfat.livejournal.com]

Oh man! The Mass Effect one is awesome and I am bopping to The Only Way as I type this. And I have no idea what to make of the Menomena, but I think I like it! Harrowdown Hill is creepy and cool.

Thank you so much for sharing! And I am totally looking forward to your next post, and on a completely unrelated note, if at some point you feel like sharing more Whitlams I would be totally in support of that.