Lullabies: from kid to adult

Ever since I was a kid, I've had a serious nightmare problem. I still do, but it mostly stems from vivid-and-lucid-dreaming-producing medication I take, as opposed to genuine all-encompassing fear, which was the cause when I was little.
Anyone who knows me knows that I tend to have more problems now staying awake than falling asleep. But that doesn't mean that when it comes down to bedtime, especially if I'm stressed or excited or nervous, I don't have problems sleeping. So I've been turning to the magic that helped me sleep as a child: lullabies.
There was one lullaby tape I had when I was little. Eventually it turned into a CD, then into computer-played mp3s, then to an iPod playlist, and has currently settled as an iPhone playlist.
This is the tracklist:
1. Roger Wagner Choral - Wiegenlied (Lullaby) Op. 49, No. 4
2. Academy Of St. Martin In The Fields - Pachelbel Canon in D
3. Tzimon Barto - Nocturne in E-flat, Op. 9, No.2
4. Academy Of St. Martin In The Fields - Dance of the Sylphs
5. Christopher Parkening - Sheep May Safely Graze
6. Aldo Ciccolini - The Girl with the Flaxen Hair
7. Debussy - Claire de lune
8. Bach - Air
9. Nancy Allen - Reverie
10. Christopher Parkening - La Filla mal marxant / El Noi de la mare
11. Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra - Dance of the Blessed Spirits
12. Alexis Weissenberg - Kleine Studie (Little Study)
13. Tzimon Barto - Cantabile (Andantino)
14. Satie - Gymnopedies 3 & 1
The structure of this album is really important for me. Listening to it out of order makes it almost irrelevant. And it's almost exactly an hour long, so it doesn't usually stop before I've fallen asleep.
That album has really stuck with me. It's hard for me to listen to Claire de lune without getting really really sleepy. But recently I've been listening to another lullaby playlist that's actually been more effective. I think it's because the music is actually more lulling, plus it's more catered to grown-up me, as it so far is exclusive to Animal Collective and Panda Bear:
- Animal Collective - Did You See the Words?
- Animal Collective - Flesh Canoe
- Animal Collective - Bees
- Animal Collective - Banshee Beat
- Animal Collective - Daffy Duck
- Animal Collective - Loch Raven
- Animal Collective - Seal Eyeing
- Animal Collective - Visiting Friends
- Animal Collective - The Softest Voice
- Animal Collective - No More Runnin
- Animal Collective - I Remember Learning How to Dive
- Animal Collective - Baleen Sample
- Animal Collective - It's You
- Panda Bear - Search for Delicious
- Panda Bear - Ponytail
- Panda Bear - Untitled 3
- Panda Bear - Untitled 7
- Panda Bear - Mich Mit Einer Mond
- Panda Bear - O Please Bring Her Back
- Panda Bear - Winter In St. Moritz
- Panda Bear - Liebe Auf Den Ersten Blick
- Panda Bear - A Musician and a Filmmaker
Shuffle is important here. Plus the playlist is over 90 minutes long. This playlist nearly single-handedly kept me from crying on my recent plane rides from Champaign to Detroit, Detroit to Atlanta, Atlanta to Savannah because I was so sick and in ear pain. I couldn't sleep without this playlist. It is beautiful, really.
I don't really know of anyone who denies the power music has over people and their thoughts and emotions. Amazing.

I could be worse!

I had an e-mail exchange today with Rob Carmichael, the graphic designer that designed:
Animal Crack Box (Animal Collective) Bitte Orca (Dirty Projectors)

Merriweather Post Pavilion (Animal Collective) Water Curses (Animal Collective)

Red, Yellow, & Blue (Born Ruffians) Strawberry Jam (Animal Collective)


Peacebone Single (Animal Collective) Person Pitch (Panda Bear)



Gulag Orkestar (Beirut) Feels (Animal Collective)


And he told me that the font used for a lot of the Animal Collective stuff (seen above on Peacebone and also on the inside of Strawberry Jam as well as a load of posters and stuff) was based on Dave Portner's (Avey Tare) handwriting. He said there's a program that generates fonts based on handwriting samples you submit. They decided not to use it after Strawberry Jam.

SO WHAT I'M SAYING IS: for all those people who say my handwriting is illegible, that may be true (or not) but it's not as crazy as Dave Portner's. That's all.

I'm sick so this is how I'm spending my 22nd birthday.

2good2betru??

Nope. It's really them.

Oh, Animal Collective!!!!

Radiohead and Animal Collective: two bands I can really count on. For different reasons, but they do have the one big reason in common: THEY ARE ALWAYS AWESOME.

Ever since Sung Tongs came out in 2004, Animal Collective has followed the pattern of: release LP, release EP, release LP, release EP. And by EP I don't mean singles (although they do that, too), I mean EPs: little baby jewels that aren't full-length albums, but are not just records of tossed-aside B-sides. Not only that, but every year there's something new:
Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished LP in 2000
Danse Manatee LP in 2001
Hollinndagain Live LP in 2002
Campfire Songs LP in 2003
Here Comes The Indian LP in 2003
Sung Tongs LP in 2004
Prospect Hummer EP in May 2005
Feels LP in October 2005
People EP in 2006
Strawberry Jam LP in 2007
Water Curses EP in 2008
Merriweather Post Pavilion LP in 2009
It's still 2009, but MPP came out in January and leaked on Christmas 2008. Which makes one wonder about the next EP . . .
Oh but here it is!! Fall Be Kind. Digitally out now, for real real out December 8th.
Does it sound anything like any other EPs or LPs they've done? Not really. Hints of Feels and MPP, but it's clearly it's own thing. This is one of the things I can count on Animal Collective for: always changing. Don't get me wrong, I think there is a place for a band that can consistently make good music without changing up their formula too much. But how much Animal Collective changes but remains AWESOME, ALWAYS, ba-lows my mind.
What I'm saying is that if you have ANY brains or want to remain/become my friend, it's pretty imperative you sink into Fall Be Kind. I'll break it down a little for you:
1. Graze - A.) Perfect opener. B.) Avey Tare and Panda Bear both sing, which I love. C.) THERE ARE PAN FLUTES.

2. What Would I Want Sky - A.) Did not cut out intro that they played live when I saw them back in June, but they did clean it up and make it even better. B.) Has first ever licensed Grateful Dead sample C.) Has one of my ALL-TIME favorite Animal Collective lyrics: "I should be floatin,/But I'm weighted by thinkin."

3. Bleed - A.) Avey Tare's voice goes nuts and it's BEAUTIFUL B.) Panda Bear does something I love: becomes a crazy/sorta scary angel voice that haunts the background of Avey Tare

4.) On A Highway - A.) Maybe one of the most coherent Avey Tare songs (lyrically) B.) Sweet sweet sweet breakdown C.) Has the line "Jealous of Noah's dreaming" which is JUST CUTE.

5.) I Think I Can - A.) The Panda Bear show

I am in love. AND LOOK AT THIS PICTURE. SERIOUSLY: