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Music to lift the spirits

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I haven’t been the best lately, but I think I’ve turned the corner and am beginning to recover. A friend gave me an extract of Caroline Jones’s book An Authentic Life – Finding Meaning and Spirituality in Everyday Life, and it’s inspired me to write down the things that make me happy, that are lifegiving. For me, music has always been lifegiving. Whether it’s listening, playing, singing or writing, it’s something that resonates with me, that is in me, that needs to be expressed.

When it comes to listening to inspirational, uplifting music, Sigur Ros is the band to listen to. Their albums are amazing enough, but live, they are astonishing. Listening to this lifts me out of my gloom, beyond my everyday struggles, and into something ethereal.

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How to play a drum kit with 5 people

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Went to see Franz Ferdinand last Tuesday and they were great fun as per usual. I’d seen them once before 3 years ago at the Enmore, and like that time the majority of the crowd were up and dancing for the entire set until the Enmore because a giant sauna!

Someone’s already uploaded youtube clips and my favourite moments were… Michael, my fav song off their first album.

And the band (+1) playing the drums during the ending to Outsiders. Fantastic!

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7 Worlds Collide

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My favourite music DVD has to be the 7 Worlds Collide gig – a series of concerts organised by Neil Finn with friends that included Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam, Johnny Marr from The Smiths, and Phil and Ed from Radiohead. The gig was wonderful and full of life, considering the band only had 5 days to practise from scratch! But one of my favourite songs on it was The Smiths’ There is a light. It actually compelled me to go out and buy a Smiths compilation.

Seven years later, Neil’s organised another supergroup, but this time they’re recording an album of new songs as well as playing 3 shows! The Radiohead boys are back as well as Johnny Marr. And again I was impressed with a Smiths cover of Please Please Please, ably sung and played by Johnny and backed by a great band.

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War is crap whichever way you look at it

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I was in Canberra again over the weekend and visited the War Memorial for the first time since I was 12.

It’s a sobering experience to wander through the miles and miles of exhibits that meticulously catalogued every conflict Australia’s been involved in since the Boer War. However, the most interesting fact was a little display detailing the WWII massacre at Bangka Island, the place where my grandparents came from, and from which they had fled from probably just weeks before this took place.

The two long corridors that made up the Roll of Honour was a reminder of how many people were lost.

Poppies

Some people in my group were surprised to see so many Japanese tourists at the Memorial, but I wasn’t surprised at all. After all, I have been to the Japanese musuems when I visited the Tokyo and Hiroshima. Hiroshima in particular was heartbreaking. It brought home to me that neither side got through unscathed.

The only surviving structure

War is crap whichever way you look at it.

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Voices of Angels

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Blogging about Karekare has made me think of Crowded House and their wonderful album Together Alone which they recorded in a makeshift studio at the back of the beach. It is my favourite CH album because it is so atmospheric.

I went in search of live performances of songs from the album, and while doing so I discovered this gem:

It must be the one of the most poignant versions of Throw Your Arms Around Me I’ve heard, and certainly the most unique.

The kids also did this fantastic version of another CH favourite, Private Universe.

Adventures on life's merry-go-round