I made a mix last night, which will hopefully close off the first installment of “The Pleasure of Leaving,” which was posted here a few weeks ago. This one is called The Pleasure of Leaving (Part Two), if you hadn’t guessed.

First, a note: I kept a music blog with Petra a few years ago (warmest corner, holla! Some links still work, so try your luck), where we made mixes and wrote about them. Recently, I haven’t really, really written about the music I put together. Or music, in general. So, I was thinking of reviving this practice. Just noting it right now, in case you get confused by a mix more superfluous than usual. Anyway. I’m still easing my way into it, so I’m not going to write about all of them.

Tracklist:

1. True Affection • The Blow
   just because it’s real, don’t mean it’s gonna work

   I love everything about this song. The rhythm, oddities, the lyricism of the words, the kind of throw-away manner she treats this relationship that she sings about.

 

2. Whiskey • Voxtrot
   & when the time has come for leaving, I will love you instead

   One of my favorite Voxtrot songs, with an oddly upbeat tune for something filled with so much discontent and disappointment. I love how easy this sounds, and how the words roll over and sort of connect with each other, when you sing them altogether.

 

3. Black Hole • Frances Alvarez (She & Him cover)
   it’s nowhere in here & it’s everywhere else that I don’t want to be

   Frances is my friend from school. I quite love this cover (she sings and plays the guitar). Her voice is a little bit sweeter than Zooey Deschanel’s.

 

4. Try, Try, Try • Smashing Pumpkins
   and we are still alive, try to hold on

   Possibly my favorite Smashing Pumpkins song. I find it endearing, and so resolute in trying. It’s kind of like in the Bible, where certain words are repeated for emphasis, because superlatives don’t exist in the Hebrew language. To make a point, they would repeat certain words, and I think Billy Corgan is making one with this song.

   Here’s a gem I found on SongMeanings. I wonder if Lucy ever found it.
   

 

5. Romantic Comedy • Stars
   I’ll love you and leave you and drive from this town.

 

6. I Always Knew • Tilly & the Wall
   a lullaby won’t change my mind, and i won’t ever go back to that

 

7. What Sarah Said • Death Cab for Cutie
   But I knew that you were a truth,
   I would rather lose than to have never lain beside at all

 

8. Lost Cause • Beck
   I’m tired of fighting, fighting for a lost cause

 

9. I Am Trying to Break Your Heart • Wilco
   What was I thinking when I let go of you?

 

10. Two-Headed Boy Part 2 • Neutral Milk Hotel
    Two headed boy, she is all you could need
    She will feed you tomatoes and radio wires
    And retire to sheets safe and clean
    But don’t hate her when she gets up to leave

 

11. Don’t I Hold You • Wheat
    i’m in the way
    and wasting too much time
    don’t i hold you like you want?

    This song is always about leaving.

    
    A video of a different version of the song.

 

12. Last Words • The Real Tuesday Weld
    I did the biggest thing that I could
    But I was not enough
    last words, leaving.

 

13. Motorcycle Drive By • Third Eye Blind
    And this is our last time
    We’ll be friends again
    I’ll get over you, you’ll wonder who I am
    

 

14. Books • The Acorn
    i’m the books you’re tired of reading; stories all the same

 

15. About Today • The National
    How close am I to losing you?
    Hey, are you awake?
    Yeah, I’m right here.
    Well, can I ask you about today?

    Started this mix with the song that I’m ending it with. So sad, and so yielding to the obvious demise of a relationship. I think it’s very telling, that he tries to salvage this loss by asking domestic questions. Sometimes, it’s the simple, little things — the nurturing and ignoring of them — that will count and matter when the end comes.

Download .zip file here.

The first Voxtrot song I remember hearing was “Trouble.” It was part of their self-titled album, released in 2007, way after their EPs and demos were celebrated all over the internet. I was never part of the internet hype around these guys, and although I would love to start this story with how I’d discovered Voxtrot among the internet clutter, like a 21st Century Columbus, stumbling on America by accident, my brother just gave me a few songs, and I gave them a few listens and that was that.

The first Voxtrot song I ever heard turned out to be “The Start of Something,” and I can prove it with archival evidence from Last.fm. It was April 2, 2007, and my life didn’t change. The world did not stop, like it did when I first listened — really listened — to The National’s Boxer. There was no out-of-body epiphanic awakening, as though I’d been waiting for this particular moment, this particular connection with Voxtrot, all my life. I don’t remember how I arrived at the knowledge that Voxtrot is my favorite band, or how I’d made the declaration. There just came a point in my life that I knew this was a different kind of love, of familiarity, of affinity, and I am so glad that I recognized it. (“The Start of Something” is now, and has been for a while, my favorite song.)

I’ve never really had a “favorite” band, just a couple of artists whose songs I liked. People had The Beatles, Deftones, Brand New, Death Cab for Cutie, The Lucksmiths, Eraserheads. My brother had My Morning Jacket and my sister had Frank Sinatra. I had a handful of emo bands whose middle-class angst just felt good to scream along to. I had that, until I found Voxtrot. It sounds way too dramatic, but I really can’t explain how it feels when I listen to them. I like seeing the world from the music that they write. My chest feels like exploding in agreement more often than it feels comfortable, when I listen to them, because yes yes yes yes yes, you guys frakking nailed it again.

There is an elegance, an eloquence, a certain maturity and at the same time, a certain innocence present in Raised By Wolves, which is the first EP they released in 2005. They sounded fresh, earnest and everything just seemed to flow out so perfectly and so effortlessly. I don’t know what happened along the way, but towards the end, this end, it seemed like they grew disenchanted and resentful and tired. I have no way of knowing, but that’s just what it feels like to me.

I still love them and it makes me sad and heartbroken, that it’s going to come down to this. In many ways, it still doesn’t make sense to me, but even though it’s hard to admit, I know that they’re doing what they feel is best. Living in the Philippines has conditioned me towards not hoping to see any of my favorite artists play my favorite songs live. The unfairness of it all is stark and clear in my head. No one important to me ever goes here, and it’s unfair and unideal that I probably can’t ever see them or partake in that fellowship that is so special to fans who convene to celebrate something that is dear to their heart. Just because I live thousand of miles away.

Voxtrot’s last and final tour is called Goodbye, Cruel World, and I’m likely not going to be able to see it, because I live exactly twelve hours away, time-zone-wise. But I truly, truly hope that whoever gets to watch can show them that the world isn’t really cruel, and this isn’t really goodbye.

from Ramesh Srivastava’s good-bye post:

For me, the most important thing in life is leaving behind something beautiful, something that finds its way into the lives of strangers, and forever alters them in a positive manner. Sometimes, being able to do this means that you have to work the shitty job and serve bread to rich idiots, but whatever, it’s better than just cashing in your chips and spending the rest of your life wondering, “what if…?”

In the end, I’ve come to realize that there really isn’t any cause for disappointment. The fact is, the songs still exist, and the music of Voxtrot lives on as a sovereign entity which, outside of all criticism, positive or negative, belongs to the guys and me, and to everybody who ever loved it or believed. Taking into account every person I’ve met, every place I have visited, every emotional exchange I have ever had with a listener, there is absolutely no room for regret.

I don’t think I can hold these reasons against somebody, so I’m not going to. There isn’t enough room, and aren’t enough words to fully convey how big a part of me Voxtrot is, and how sad I am to see them go their separate ways, so I suppose this is the end for now. I hope you guys find something new and beautiful, and that you share them with the world, no matter how cruel or terrifying it seems to be.

There is absolutely no room for regret.

Was working through my iTunes playlist and felt in the mood to make a small mix. There’s going to be a Part Two, because it just seems like it is unfinished. Might even have a part three, who knows?

1. I’m Leaving You Because I Don’t Love You • Jens Lekman
2. Atoms • Emmy the Great
3. Don’t Leave the Light On Baby • Belle & Sebastian
4. Love Me Then Leave Me • Laura Marling
5. Please Do Not Let Me Go • Ryan Adams
6. So Long, Lonesome • exposions in the sky
7. 2:45 AM • Elliott Smith
8. KLM Line (Acoustic) • The Fairways
9. A Lack of Color • Death Cab for Cutie
10. Let It Die • Feist
11. …And He Left With Everything He Came For • Don’t Forget, Clementine

Download here: .zip file

I’m working on a new layout and some entries about some ideas that I’ve been mulling over (Hong Kong, television — big surprise!, RockBand, et cetera).

I’m going to relay the events that unfolded prior to, during and after the Kings of Convenience/Jens Lekman show last night, March 31st, in Manila. See, I took down notes on old receipts I found in my wallet, because I was suffering from Twitter separation anxiety, I guess. I suspect it’s just really one of those times when everything that happened seemed to be particularly important or poignant.

I’m going to out myself and say that I’m not really much of a Kings of Convenience fan. I only know a handful of songs, but I liked them enough to decide to watch them, but what really, really excited me was when I learned that Jens Lekman was going to be playing with them. Petra introduced me to Jens a couple of years ago, and I never really got over him.

So there. Here is an account of what happened last night. There’ll be pictures because those are pretty cool. The videos will follow, but just know that it was an amazing night, and they are amazing people.

Jens Lekman.

Kings of Convenience.

Under the cut are pictures with captions & a somewhat comprehensive timeline, sans setlist.

Jens & his half-Filipina percussionist Racquel.

Jens.

Playing an imaginary xylophone, the end of “The Opposite of Hallelujah.”

“The opposite of a purity ring.”

Favorite. <3

Brother & Jens.

Erlend Øye & Eirik Glambek Bøe.

Me & kuya.

ERLEND ØYE!

Ham. Haha.

Cutest Eirik.

Erlend Øye’s shoes!

Cuteface.

Eirik Glambek Bøe.

More photos in my Flickr.

My Super-Duper Time Line (Written on Receipts)
6:15: Just arrived. Jens is doing a soundcheck.
6:30: Guy behind us in line says ‘Jens’ like ‘jewish’ or ‘Jears’.
6:40: Turned down ice-cold beer because it was P100. Karen says promo girl looks like Jane Aldridge, but with nasty shoes.
6:45: Wallows in regret of beer rejection.
6:47: Beer walks in front of us to cross to other people. Resisting.
6:50: Anne talks with me a little about LOST, Jens being a sweetheart and Kings of Convenience. She’s funny.
7:00: Brother tells joke about getting diarrhea and makes pun: Kings of Inconvenience.
7:07: Nikki says ‘hi.’ People behind me are making kind of racist remarks and likens Jens Lekman’s music to Sufjan Steven…s.
7:34: Caved and bought a beer. Bought tour shirts. They look like camper shirts.
8:09: Jens Lekman is adorable. “I’m shy, so sometimes when I sing, I look down. But it doesn’t mean I don’t want to see you.”
8:30: I am in love with Jens Lekman. “The End of the World is Bigger Than Love.”
8:35: The opposite of a purity ring. “No more waiting. Tonight is the night.”
9:05: I asked Jens Lekman for a hug. So he hugged me. :)
9:21: Kings of Convenience set.
9:30: Does anybody believe in love?
9:40: Eirik: “There must be someone in Manila.” ♥
9:41: One of my favorite sounds in the world is when people sing along to songs in concerts.
9:43: Eirik: “We have to play a few quiet songs, because that is what I feel right now.”
9:45: Erlend Øye tells people who are noisy to shut up.
9:50: Eirik: “Are you hot? [...] You are in the minority.”
10:00: Eirik: “So I’m getting totally totally wet.” About to see the shortest striptease in the world. Erlend rolls up his sleeves and Eirik unbuttons his “one button”.
10:15: Audience becomes a makeshift choir.
10:20: Erlend says Manila has beautiful faces. Crosses fingers for them to come back.
10:30: They began taking requests. “Misread” is played.
10:40: They come back for an encore.

After which, I felt a little Where’s Fluffy¹ vibe going on, because there was an after party that only the higher-ups knew about. This lasted about a few minutes because I was texting people and they had no idea where it was, but the second person I asked when I got outside knew where it was.

So we drove, and there they were. Karen, Zaxx, Kasey and I got to talk to Jens for a while. I gave him my pin. He wore it on his shirt. My brother went back to the car to get something, which kinda makes me feel bad, but he says he wouldn’t really have known what to say anyway.

After a few minutes, The Fairways’ “KLM Line” was playing over at Future Prospects. That’s one of my favorite songs. As my brother and I were leaving (we were pretty tired, hungry and didn’t really know a lot of people there), we passed by and through the window, we saw that Jens was the DJ. And that made me wonder a little. I hope he was the one who played it.

My brother and I dropped by Burger King and ate breakfast food after.

We had a really nice time.

———
¹ Yes, Where’s Fluffy, as in in Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. I got excited.

1. The Next Time Around • Little Joy
2. Jogging Gorgeous Summer • Islands
3. Glue Girls • Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
   (this was in my last mix, but I love this song a lot.)
4. Walk in the Park (Acoustic) • Oh No! Oh My!
5. This Time Tomorrow • The Kinks
6. Honey Bee • Voxtrot
7. My Hands Are Shaking • Sondre Lerche
8. It’s Been Another Day • Ciudad
9. What Can I Do For You? • Illinois
10. Fine Day • Fairways
11. Let’s Get Known • The Unicorns
12. You Are a Light • Pavement
13. Thank You Mario But our Princess is in Another Castle • The Mountain Goats and Kaki King
14. Patintero/Habulan/Larong-Kalye • Ang Bandang Shirley
15. I Thought You Said Summer Is Going To Take The Pain Away • Hello Saferide
16. We are Not a Football Team • Minus the Bear

Download Here: .zip file

Bonus Track: “Having a Coke With You” by Frank O’Hara. Read poem under the cut:

Having a Coke With You
BY FRANK O’HARA

Someone asked for songs for a lonely February. Here are some sad ones, I guess:

1. Alone Again • Illinois
2. Glue Girls • Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
3. I Don’t Want to Walk Around Alone No More • The Lucksmiths
4. The Lonely 1 • Wilco
5. I Am a Lonesome Hobo • Bob Dylan
6. So Come Back, I Am Waiting • Okkervil River
7. Owner of a Lonely Heart • Grizzly Bear (Yes cover)
8. How Fucking Romantic • The Magnetic Fields
9. I Am Leaving You Because I Don’t Love You • Jens Lekman
10. Loneliness is Not Better When You’re Alone • Hello Saferide
11. Lonely Lonely • Feist
12. Don’t I Hold You? • Wheat
13. The District Sleeps Alone Tonight • The Postal Service
14. In the Cinema Alone • Memphis
15. Skeleton Jar • Youth Group
16. Romantic Comedy • Stars
17. Your Heart is an Empty Room • Death Cab for Cutie
18. Motorcycle Drive By • Third Eye Blind
19. I Always Knew • Tilly and the Wall
20. So Long, Lonesome • explosions in the sky

Here’s the .zip file. Enjoy!

So now, I’ll be werkin’ on a quality post. Maybe. Or, I hope so.

I know I said I was going to pick you guys out of a hat, but then as humans (or just me, specifically, I guess) are wont to do, I became very biased and started picking people I liked. Which isn’t very nice of me. So, with the help of http://www.random.org, I “drew” 6 numbers and counted which comments they corresponded with. And the six lucky people are:

1. Darliza
2. Patricia
3. Ley
4. Diana
5. Kasey
6. Tim

Congratulations! I’m going to send y’all an e-mail, so you can reply with your mailing address. If we already know each other in real life (cough, Kasey, cough), I can just leave them somewhere in school. I can’t do meet-ups because my dad told me to stop oversharing online and I don’t want to be the dumb girl who blows off her dad’s advice and ends up dead in a ditch somewhere.

Ahem.

So, some of you seem to be really big Strokes fans and I’m kind of sad that I can’t give everyone a t-shirt. But I have a few favorite answers, and I want to give you guys something Strokes-related. So, I’m trying to work something out. I’ll get in touch with you over the next few days if ever I can work something out.

Anyway, thanks for joining! I’ll try to see what else I can give away next time. :)

The video is actually about nothing. I just decided to try out my brother’s Nikon D90′s video feature. If you are planning to watch it, please watch it in HD, so that it looks at least a little bit prettier. Also, for some sort of (attempted) continuity, the music in the video is by Don’t Forget, Clementine, whose launch I posted about in the last entry. Sadly, I wasn’t able to go to the launch, because I contracted some weird disease, but I heard it was awesome.

And also, the music was obviously ace.

(Watch the video, if you don’t believe me. And then try not to die after you hear how good they actually are.)

Here is a photograph of me holding it (Marb was nice enough to save me a copy) and another album by another friend, Steve. His band is called Klieg Lights. I can’t say that I’m as familiar with their work, but the few times I’ve seen them live, they were really good. Haven’t listened to the album yet because school is (always!) in the way.

It’s kind of depressing how these people are the same age as me, and they’ve released albums, and I have done zilch. This sounded way more articulate in my head. But I think you get the point that I am trying to make. Which, actually, follows “organic unity” (sort of) when it comes to the title, at least.

Speaking of music (kind of — earlier), I will probably do a Best of 2009 post soon, although I am hardly the authority, obviously. Speaking still of music, I am so excited for the anticipated releases of 2010. So. Much. Winning! (Did I say that right? Anyway.)

That’s really all I have to say. Today is actually the last day of classes before I go on my Christmas break, which excites me more than you can imagine.

Don’t Forget, Clementine is the band of a few of my (and Paulina’s) friends. We were asked to do their album art, since they are releasing one this month. It’s called Grace, And Dragging Her Wings and the launch is actually next Saturday, December 12, 2009.

If you live near or want a copy of the album (because they are extremely good), drop by! To maybe somehow “convince” you into going, here are a few shots of the inlay. (This leads to their MySpace account, with short samples.)

I promise, we are going to have a time.