Hi everyone,

When brendan first invited me to contribute to this blog, I doubted there was anything new that I could add (largely given that for the most part I just make my own playlists from Zeke’s music and he is already a good sharer). But, then I re-read brendan’s blurb and realised newness is not so much the point of all this, but rather, nowness – and in particular, those songs that you can not get out of your head. I am definitely one of those people that totally gets noises (its not just music – I think I hear my cell-phone ring all the time when it's not) stuck in their head; while I often have one song playing over and over on repeat at any given time, more commonly, its one single verse, or one beat of a song. Right now, it’s a single word; the opening word of the royal thai anthem – a rather haunting and beautiful “Kaww-weee” sung by what sounds like an eight year-old girl. I can’t stop singing it! This anthem is played at the start of every movie screening, along with a really emotive video; everyone stands, to not, is total disrespect of the king and can lead to criminal charges. The video itself is pretty wild - I can’t really say more without the threat of lèse majesté charges – but check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJiqEJPlznA

Given that I can not hear number one, without thinking of Bangkok, I’ve kind of created my own additional theme for songs number two and three (I’m sticking with the three rule for now, I like things in threes). They are also both songs that every time I hear, I can not but think of the other two cities that we have lived in since leaving Auckland. And since, at the time we lived there, I could not get them out of my head, I figure they qualify for some kind of retroactive/retrospective nowness.

Song number two/NYC is “New York I Love You” by LCD Soundsystem. While I love it, this song sounds rather depressing and doesn’t really reflect the tone of my time in NYC; but the police state they sing of was one of the most discussed issues of our time there and this song was on everyone’s repeat.

Song number three/Colombo is “Paper Planes” by MIA. Not quite as ubiquitous in Colombo as song number two was in NYC (I think we were pretty much the only people in Sri Lanka actually playing this at the time - Sri Lankans are into bollywood and don’t know who MIA is) but “If you catch me at the border I got visas in my name” was totally on my mind-repeat.

I went with youtube postings; the sound is not so good but the king-love in particular is best seen as well as heard….

X jazz.

fat house cat

This is the first time I've written on the internet I am a bit nervous and I don't know how to add the links to the songs.
I've been wanting to post Flightless Bird, American Mouth for a long time but I kept waiting cos I didn't have three songs. I first heard it while watching Twilight, a film which I liked a whole lot more than I expected. and it's also a song about me because I am a flightless bird hehe
I've just come back from Japan so I have a second song to add: the theme song from Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence
and I still can't think of three

DO YOU LIKE SCARY MOVIES?

So i was looking through some old cds the other day and found this mixtape that i'd made for Brody when we first started dating (lame, gross, weird, whatever i know). And this Andre 3000 song has been on my mind ever since. It's pretty fucking choice i reckon. It's from that double album that Outkast did a while ago which weirdly is one of the first LPs i bought on vinyl. Anyway, check it.

Outkast - Prototype
https://www.yousendit.com/download/YkxMTkFrNXZlcEpjR0E9PQ

Next up is a song that Zeke got me on to. T Pain has always been a favourite of mine, ever since the amazing 'Can i buy you a drink'. This song is just so amazing/hilarious/don't even know what you're trying to do T Pain?!?!?! But he got chains and gold teeth. Which is all that matters really. Andrew Lloyd Webber would be proud.

T Pain - Phantom
https://www.yousendit.com/download/YkxMTkFwY3ltMEt4dnc9PQ

And lastly, this song from the new Kills album has been quietly growing on me. Really into the Kills. Think Alison Mosshart is one of the hottest ladies on earth.

The Kills - Last Day of Magic
https://www.yousendit.com/download/YkxMTkFzR3NsUjgwTVE9PQ

Turn the lights on

Sorry I'm late. Really glad the new model is proving successful, and it's lovely to see you all on the internet. I'm going to post three songs, because it's good to obey conventions, and the name sorta implies you should and if I was allowed to do more I would, and so on.
The first song I'm posting is the new Beyoncé single, which should imply the kind of ubiquity which would render posting it a pointless exercise. But I get the feeling many of you mightn't have heard it. Just because it's kinda stalling worldwide, entered low at 39 in NZ, peaked at 91 on the Hot 100. Australia has it at number two, but that country's appreciation for music exists entirely outside of the general run of play for the rest of the world, and is the exception that proves the rule. Whatever, Sweet Dreams (which used to be called Beautiful Nightmare, which is a more appropriate title, even though you have to admire the audacity of naming a song after one of the most lauded & loved songs of the '80s, the decade it most prominently pays homage to) is a perfect song. Works in the car, 'the club', or just sitting down at home with a few good mates. I don't think anyone will do anything demonstrably better this year.
Taylor Swift's Fearless is pretty much my favourite album of the year. Every song is just so hooky and perfectly crafted, and the lyrics capture the sensation of being a teenager with way more honesty than most revisionist pop-punk emo whinings (not that I've got anything against pop-punk/emo whinings, just saying they tend toward caricature). I could pick literally any song on the record, but I'm gonna go with Forever and Always, because that little circular line "it rains in your bedroom/ everything is wrong/ it rains when you're here/ and it rains when you're gone". And has those chugging guitars which are becoming more prevalent in pop at the moment. Kills me.
Lastly, and I've changed my mind three times about this, trying to figure out whether I should post a song I admire (PNC's Bazooka's Theme, Tourettes' Letting Go, Haunted Love's Sleepwalkers) or one that I've listened to a lot lately (Jordin Sparks' No Parade or SOS, The Gossip's Love Long Distance – memorably compared to M-People by Joanna Hunkin) or one that I straight up love. I've decided to go with Miley Cyrus' Full Circle, because it fits all three categories, and as its parent album's been kind shelved while The Hannah Montana Soundtrack does its thing, it looks like it'll never be a single. It kinda reminds me of Kids in America, a pure, crystalline new wave anthem that Jett loves as much as I do. The chorus is straight killer, and I'm convinced it could've been as big a hit as See You Again had Hollywood (records) realised what they had with the song. Compared to freakin Fly on the Wall anyway. Esp given what happened with Taylor Swift's similarly perky You Belong With Me.

Beyoncé – Sweet Dreams

Taylor Swift – Forever and Always

Miley Cyrus – Full Circle

All are direct link downloads, so just right click/control click and save target as etc. Thanks!

Oh, recently.

Recently, my life has been going in a steady two week cycle of meeting some beautiful new thing at 2 in the morning, waking up the next day and falling in love, getting too attached, and then watching as they run off as they leave me and my libertine ways in favor of the pressures and responsibilities of real life. These three songs have pretty much been my anthems during this period, but I like to think of it as more having to do with the fact that they're great on their own merits and not seeing anything of my current state reflected in them.

So, yeah, enjoy.

Gilchy Dan - Cowboys and Gangsters (i must warn you this song is rather long, and if you haven't heard 'Deputy of Love' by Don Armando [a much finer song], your mileage might be a bit off).

The Horrors - Primary Colours

Babyshambles - The 32nd Of December

STOP THE PRESSES!

With everyone being all positive and thanking each other for the amazing music and just how great it is to be alive in 2009, I feel inspired to break what is pretty much the only rule of ComeInThrees (although, technically, I'm not breaking any rules. As the person who writes the rules, it is very easy for me to change the rules to ensure that I am not infringing. The observant among you will have noticed that I have in fact already done so, the stated rules now emphasize posting a "few" songs per month that capture your "immortal nowness" (cf. Andy Simperingham), and de-emphasize the magic number three) to post some indie-rock kumbaya.

Quiet Company - On Husbands & Wives

I'm confident that this song can save the institution of marriage in much the same way as We Are The World saved Africa.

My flatmate played this album on Sunday, and I was instantly taken by this song in particular. I went ahead and bought the track immediately (from their rather spiffy website: http://quietcompany.bandcamp.com/ - if you like this track you'll prolly like the album) and must have listened to it ten times since then. I'm rushing this straight to press because I understand that August can be fairly brutal in Auckland, and that, short of skipping the country to visit Los Angeles and Las Vegas, you may need something unexpected and cheesy-yet-sincere to help you to keep smiling. Also, like I wrote in my last posting, it's been annoying to spend a month thinking too much about what songs would be good for the blog, and then "saving them up", so that by the time I posted them I wasn't nearly as obsessed with them any more. This cuts both ways, because the main reason for having the three rule in the first place was to prevent too many impulse posts of crap songs, which is arguably what this current posting represents. On the other hand, I want to have a more real-time interaction with this thing going forward, I'd rather post songs maybe one at a time, while I am obsessed with them, rather than always three at a time, weeks after the fact. But mostly I just want to know that when I am singing

Love is less what you say, and more what you
do / And who y'spend the rest of your life with /
I'm gonna spend mine with you, gonna spend mine with

you,

that y'all will be singing along with me.

But please give me feedback on this. If you think the "three rule" is necessary then that's that. Although I find it hard to believe that a revision that is partially inspired by a Christmas spent with Andy Simperingham could be bad...

You Know I Like My Girls a Little Bit Older

Watched slightly-above-average "indie" comedy Adventureland last weekend. Intensely good power-pop soundtrack, where I discovered these guys. The harmonies kill me dead:
The Outfield - Your Love (Play Deep, 1986)

New year's resolution, decided that instead of being all, 'I'm like, totally into music from the 60s' just because I own a Herman's Hermits record, that I would spend some time actually buying and exploring:
The Zombies - I Can't Make Up My Mind (Begin Here, 1964)

Janet Weiss from Sleater-Kinney's other band, her and her boyfriend I believe. I guess you could call it Pavement-esque. The pauses are so gut-wrenching, like a drunk nodding off to sleep (if I wanted to be dramatic I could add, "for the very last time..."):
Quasi - When I'm Dead (R&B Transmogrification, 1997)

Thanks heaps for Superchunk and La Bionda inspirations, Superchunk esp. I love that song.

Come In Threes 4 lyf,
Leonie

All He Wanted To Do Was Outrun The Sun

..that Pum Pum track is nutso.

But anyways, thanks everyone for making this pretty great already. We've had postings from Amsterdam, Auckland, Los Angeles, Bangkok and San Francisco. (still waiting on our friends in France and Germany, tut tut *emoticon*). The only downside I've noticed so far is that my neurotic brain spent a not negligible amount of time and energy last month thinking about what songs I might post in August..yikes.

Getting right along with it, here's a few tunes:

You Don't Know What's Going On

Out Of Time - The Rolling Stones . I only consciously heard this song for the first time about a month ago. Since then it's been haunting me like a banshee.

I Ain't Got The Power Any More

Quicksand (demo version) - David Bowie . This is another classic that has long been a favourite. But I only heard this version fairly recently, and it's like love all over again. I'm a sucker for double-tracked vocals; this one is a goodie for the headphones.

Everyone Can Carry On, Except For We Two

Everyday - Slade . This is really a recommendation from Christina. She's been trying with considerable success to get me into Slade recently (who Kurt Cobain allegedly described as "a band that would never bend over"), and this song is a total monster. I'm also a sucker for guys who sing as if with megaphones in their voiceboxes (cf. Against Me!).

Apologies for posting three songs within the classic rock genre! I guess that's where things are at right now. Actually I've been listening to "I'd Rather Walk Than Run" rather a lot this past month too, thanks Robb for putting me onto that. Thanks also for the DropBox tip, this software is so convenient it's a little bit like magic.

Anyways, until next time,

b.

now that it's august...

...i suppose it's time to add my songs from last month:

YouTube - Hall & Oates You Make My Dreams Come True

YouTube - Pum Pum - Lee "Scratch" Perry

YouTube - I wanna be your lover - La Bionda

all of the videos are worth a watch as well, for different reasons.