(no subject)

I know it's been over a year (wow), and the circumstances are quite different, but dammit, I still think about Live from Here and miss it every day... and it just occurred to me that NPR's Sunday live music show, Mountain Stage, has been airing past shows and shows recorded remotely all this time, and it hasn't been taken off the air. Yet Live from Here has.

This isn't an NPR thing, though. This is APM's fault. Sometimes I just wish the show had abandoned APM once it moved to NYC, but I know things weren't that simple. Also, Mountain Stage does have the advantage of having been broadcast since the 80's, and LFH lost that advantage when Garrison Keillor was fired and took his trademarks with him, but...

I miss LFH. It was the little radio variety show that could, and now it's gone. Good thing is, I have realized that I could have never had a role to play on that show unless it was featured performer. Not only because my love for music is greater than my love for librarian work, but also because I would not have been able to work with Chris Thile, as a fan of Chris Thile. I don't trust that I could have been professional about working for one of my heroes.

Oh, NO! Where did the groove go? Where did the groove go?!

Lights out, Ibiza!

Watch on YouTube

I'm OBSESSED with this song lately. And by "lately" I mean ever since yesterday, as that was the first time I remember hearing it. And by "the first time I remember," I mean that I may have heard this before, because my father has been in love with Sparks for longer than I've been alive and has all of their albums. But I feel like if he'd played this one in the past, I would have remembered it... (Then again, I know for a fact he played their follow-up to this one, Hello Young Lovers, around the house when I was young (probably right after it came out), but I swear I would have remembered a song like "Dick Around..." which I am not linking here, not now.)

So, I'm listening to Sparks now because a few nights ago I saw the documentary about them that just came out, and afterwards I wanted to binge everything they'd ever made. I've currently heard 5 out of 25 albums- definitely going to continue my binge tomorrow if I can manage to leave Lil Beethoven behind. A full ranking list will follow once I'm done listening to them all.

This was going to be a long post summing up a bunch of my thoughts on Sparks, but music listening (plus bedtime) calls, so I'm just going to leave off with this: even though their music is completely different, I get Scott Walker vibes when I listen to Lil Beethoven. Scott Walker started off his career making pretty standard pop/lounge singer music, as a pretty face of a boy band, The Walker Brothers. In the later years of his career, he ended up making AGGRESSIVELY uncommercial music (which also happens to be the stuff of nightmares), and became an English citizen because he knew his new music would not be appreciated in the States- the market was clearly across the pond. This reminds me of what I've learned of Sparks, because while their music has always been weird and underappreciated, especially in the United States, the stuff on Lil Beethoven is particularly uncommercial, with a weird dark streak running through it. I dunno, Sparks' earlier stuff tends to make me feel happy and silly and puts me in the mood for dancing, for the most part, but even in its most humorous moments- ranging from wry to outright hilarious- what I've heard from the 2000's/2010's/2020 albums have this... I dunno... this undercurrent to it that just feels OFF. Not to say I don't love it, though. I've played "The Rhythm Thief" seven times today and only the fact that I have to go to bed now is stopping me from continuing.

Oh, I guess I can fit one more thought: for some reason, more than anything else, it warms my heart (close to setting it on fire) when I read comments from people saying they love Sparks. Their fans' love for them seems so pure, but it's also the reason why I can't say I love the band (even if I do love this album). I feel like... they're not MINE to love. Like I'm encroaching on someone else's territory. That's kind of how I felt about watching Doctor Who- so many people love that show, and I feel like if I tried to love it I would be intruding upon their love for it. I know that makes no sense.