the big mogowski, year two
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It looks like I've been Mogging for two years to the day (i.e. Monday). It was the one time I had nothing to say but then my favorite unloved album of last year came up on iTunes and I started thinking of songs, years, decades.
visceral thing, intangible song;
things i've known seem to fall away.
here i go again.
~ Tunng
1984. Gothic rock was relocating Seventies punk. I'd crossed unscathed from Duran Duran to heavy metal to The Cure. Synth pop and new romantic were ubiquitous. I abandoned radio for MTV after seeing 10:15 Saturday Night. I met the girl who would liberate my music mayhem. We'd become inseparable and discover a tiny shop of bootleg tapes. Killing Joke was the first album I'd buy with my own money, then PiL, Xmal Deutschland, Specimen. The year closed with Band Aid.
she loves the music box forever,
she's crying on my shoulder.
stay and i will understand you.
~ The Blue Nile
1995. I died after hearing Street Spirit (Fade Out). Movements felt natural from shoegaze to rave to trip hop, slowcore back to folk, Exit Planet Dust to everything new. Friends were electric. I was exhausted from all-nighters spent everywhere there was neon. Somewhere there, I lost all my music to a vengeful first boyfriend, and my family went bankrupt. I was in awe of the internet. Richey James Edwards went missing, I bought and heard Jagged Little Pill and was unimpressed.
in his thrift-store corner of the world,
his soul is my cheap laugh
as the hour grows late.
~ Yo La Tengo
2004. I lost sleep deconstructing Blueberry Boat. Where I scored music on Epitonic, Sputnik 7, Audio Galaxy, and Napster, they were now everywhere. I heard Modest Mouse and thought, Pixies! Two separate moments had me asking, why didn't I know you before? One had to do with Jesus Lizard, the other with The Folk Implosion, but I was in my most committal relationship. Mogger supertopsecret would email me in October two years later but I would not find it until December. John Peel died.
any danger except what i might
know of myself and see in you tonight;
fall on me when you come down.
~ Delays
Comments (29)
Stay - The Blue Nile (from A Walk Across the Rooftops, Linn Records)
The Hour Grows Late - Yo La Tengo (from Electr-O-Pura, Matador)
No Ending - Delays (from Faded Seaside Glamour, Rough Trade)
This is so....beautifully enigmatic. You offer enticing tidbits, flashes of the development of the Lady we've come to know & treasure as one of The Mog's true gems.
I enjoy the music bios, our evolution of musical tastes tells alot about our character. Great post. HAPPY MOGVERSARY!!!!
Elegant, eloquent, and a wee bit insouciant - as usual. I'm happy to celebrate two years of poebegoing at MOG, and hope you are equally happy to be here amongst us...
Exquisite.
...but I have to admit, a lot of it was over my head. I think I lost you at Duran Duran. What are Epitonic, Sputnik 7, Audio Galaxy, and Napster? I mean I only bought my first mp3 player 2 months ago (it's actually my phone).
Maintaing the mystery...
loving the Yo La Tengo tune, too.
Ilay, I've said it before, but you are one of those moggers that makes this place what it is, and we are the lucky ones to have you. Happy mog-day, and I truly hope for many more!
Ah, Epitonic, Sputnik 7, Audio Galaxy...good times. I almost cried when Audio Galaxy was "strangled". Did you you know that Sputnik 7 has been revived?
Thanks for sharing and Happy Moganniversary!
Thank you dear. I don't have much time to post these days, but people like you remind me why I keep coming to the site.
The Blue Nile and Yo La Tengo are already favourites and you've given me two more names to check out.
Happy Mogversary!
happy mogversary ilay. it's a pleasure knowing ya! :)
celebrate. MOG rejoices your tenure. you bring the most indispensible bouquet of sonic experiences and poetic commentary imaginable. Thanks, and congrats!!!
Jeff - thanks, and ditto on being a true gem of MOG. i think i can only do flashes and tidbits. i'd hurt my brain badly if i did more.
Galen - thanks, i have been enjoying the bios myself. seriously, i've grown up even more musically since i started Mogging.
Mike - thanks, the insouciance was a tad deliberate as i was feeling rather mellow as of posting. "poebegoing" - i like it!
lak - thanks, Epitonic and Sputnik were music sites that featured a whole range artists, often with free downloads of songs. Audio Galaxy and Napster were peer-to-peer sharing, except AG was web-based and Napster was a program you installed. i also use my phone as my mp3 player.
Callisto - thanks, you nailed my preferred sort of cupcake. yum!
Chris - thanks, your Icicle Works post sent me through Eighties post-punk considerations for this post. i love how MOG works that way!
Chuck - thanks, and right back atcha, Mr. source of moglove inspiration. ;d i'm really glad to know you on MOG.
levek - thanks, i didn't know Sputnik 7's been revived. oh my, how exciting, i'll check it out. good times, indeed.
toronno - thanks, and long time no post from you! The Blue Nile needs more MOG presence, i think i'll post more soon.
Jeff - thanks, and you know the pleasure's all mine, MOG Multi Flickr lomography and all. (;
Scott - thanks, i'll take "indispensable bouquet" any day. needless to say, you're rich with sonic experiences and poetic commentary yourself.
very well written snapshots from the illay begining to the present. it has been so nice to meet everyone over these couple of weeks, tis the season for greeting on MOG! your tenure at MOGs Ivy League is indisputable, that is, if we had such a heirarchy. i'm off to sputnik 7, glad to hear that is back on its legs, and i heard it here first
lovely...happy mogday!!!
ilay, happy two yr mogiversary! i always appreciate your posts, your writing and hearing from you. happy happy day!
Vengeful boyfriend took your music, will we? lemme at 'im!
Two whole years, crazy huh?
Thanks for all you do and bring to this lil' slice of the interwebs. :)
Had to chime in when I saw the Fiery Furnaces reference...WAY cool!
BTW if just ONE person does a search for Neil Hamburger and plays one of his clips, I've done my job for the day :-)
Damn ilay, you Mog like a three year old! Happy happy joy joy! I'm not far behind you my dear since my two year is coming up January 8/09. And I thought the EXACT same thing, the first time I heard Modest Mouse! Heard 'Good News For People Who Love Bad News' in the cd shop & thought for sure it was a new Pixies album. I asked & found out it was that cd & bought it on the spot.
Also 'Blueberry Boat' is my favorite TFF's album w/'Widow City' coming in a close 2nd. I just bought their live cd off Amazon.com last week so I'm looking forward to hearing it in it's entirety(51 tracks, damn! I'll post it to the dark side for ya).
Rob - thanks, we owe levek for the news on Sputnik 7. i just noticed on your MOG homepage that you've been Mogging long time and can't believe it (but then Hermes had the same reaction to me, LOL). i spotted one other thing - i also write with my left hand and do almost everything else with my right.
Pat - thanks, any Mogger's mogday is always a happy day. looking forward to your year 2.
Britt - thanks, and the same to you, especially those addicting games you always start. ;d
Dale - thanks, that vengeful person will never soon be forgotten. (or forgiven!) gosh, two years is just crazy daisy, is it not? think of all those hours i could've... nah, i got nothing better.
GR - thanks, and oh i was super obsessed with Blueberry Boat, i tell you. don't worry, Neil Hamburger has had a lot of moglove for as long as i can remember.
Aug - thanks, especially for letting my jobless self rely on your kindness of sharing new free music. :} i don't know whether to be happy or resent that i Mog like a 3 year old. ahahah, i keed!
i do owe you for remembering the Pixies - Modest Mouse connection, which i realized through the same album. see my comment to GarageRock on BB. jeezus, 51 tracks, i'll have to take it slow.
So you're finally jobless now? Lucky you! In that case, there's plenty of free music to be had. Do you have TFF's 'Rehearsing My Choir'? If not, I do. And you don't owe me for recalling the Pixies/MM connection AT ALL, ya goof!
Congratulations, poe. You are, I think, one of the last vestiges of what was once a marvel to behold and an honor to participate in (a wildly, wildly hyperbolic description of MOG gone by, but no exaggeration of your importance to it), and also a big part of the vanguard that are helping to usher in a brave new MOG, one characterized by a greater level of intimacy and openness than ever before.
Aug - that'd be a yes. (to being jobless and to your sharing Rehearsing My Choir). i don't know about "lucky" but i sure am busy with nonsensical non-work things.
Matt - thanks, am a vestige and a vanguard, gotcha. seriously, it means a lot, you know it does. i loved the old MOG and i really hope the brave new MOG becomes a consummated idea.
hehehe, yea, i didn't really contribute much for the first year or so, i really enjoy the community of this site though and am grateful to be a part of it. also, i apologize, i gotta drop the extra l from your name, i'm sorry, it bothers me when my name is misspelled. that is so cool about the hands! you are the first to reciprocate. i think originally i was supposed to be a rightie, but my mom would have none of that and just made me learn with my left. atleast it stuck and it gives my right brain some work to do. but besides holding a pen, that is where the lefty habits stop.
Rob (that is your correct name, right?), sorry to stretch this "hands" conversation but just a few more things. i am instinctively a leftie (picking things up, etc.) but a rightie with things i had to be taught, presumably because i learned from right-handed people. i wonder if i'd suck less in, say, hand-eye coordination in sports, or guitar, if only i learned with my left instead. also, i have to wonder if i'd be less effed up in the head if my hand use didn't use so much confusing brain work. (: