Author Archives: The Music in My Ears (by Jamie Kyei)

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About The Music in My Ears (by Jamie Kyei)

Just one man who's making his way through life one day at a time writing about the songs he has on his phone. And other things at some points.

#842: OK Go – A Million Ways

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You didn’t know OK Go had another dancing video, did you? No, it’s always been the one with the treadmills that got all the attention. Well, here in the UK at least, ‘A Million Ways’ came before ‘Here It Goes Again’ by at least a year or something. Though the latter was the video that skyrocketed OK Go’s name in the business, and got them doing the treadmill act at the MTV VMAs in 2006, ‘A Million Ways’ was probably the track that really started it all.

This was the first track I ever heard/saw by OK Go. Didn’t know that they had something of a hit with ‘Get Over It’ in 2002. The video showed up on the Amp music channel. All I know was that there were these four men dancing this somewhat elaborate routine. To a ten-year-old me, I thought it was truly captivating stuff. I probably didn’t catch the music as much, but I certainly couldn’t forget the video. The band held a contest on YouTube allowing people to do the ‘Million Ways’ routine. If I had been older and had friends who were into the same music as me, I could have done it. I do remember doing the dance at primary school, just at playtime or whatever. People thought it was funny. It’s not that great doing it solo though.

For a while there in 2006, OK Go was one of my favourite bands. YouTube was now a thing and you could watch music videos on there, it was pretty revolutionary at the time. During that time, I found the video for ‘Invincible’, ‘Do What You Want’ was a single and appeared on the soundtrack for Burnout Revenge. All these songs I liked. ‘Here It Goes Again’ and its success capped off that good year for the band.

#841: Deerhoof – Milk Man

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I was really into the NME back around 2007. I was well into my first year of secondary school, and my musical tastes were being shaped by whatever what was on FIFA games and MTV2. NME appeared to be the magazine that gave a lot of coverage to what was playing on that channel. So, if I wanted to know more about that music and those bands, the NME was the way to go. In those years, the publication had its own web/internet radio station on their website which anyone could click on and start listening to. The only reason I know today’s song, ‘Milk Man’ by Deerhoof, is because it played on this station. From what I remember, it was played twice. The second time, I made sure I made note of what the song was called and who it was by. Lucky for me, because after that second time I don’t think the song was played on there ever again.

So, yeah, this is the only Deerhoof song I know. I tried to get through the Milk Man album years ago, but don’t think I could make it past the second song. I remember it being quite noisy. I should give it another go someday. But the ‘Milk Man’ song I could listen to all the time. When I was 12 in 2007 and heard the guitars opening the track with their little stop/starting riffs, I knew even then that it would be a song to remember. Quite cliché to say, but I mean it sincerely. The noise kicks in for those driving breaks before transitioning into the quieter verses where bassist and lead vocalist Satomi Matsuzaki comes into the frame. Her voice is perfect for the track. And her Japanese accent makes the lines so much more fun to sing. The drums are something to look out for too. Drum rolls and erratic hits on the snare are abound. Drummer Greg Saunier goes even wilder during live performances.

The track isn’t about anything deeper than what it describes in the lyrics. It’s about the Milk Man, who you can see on the album cover, who has bananas embedded in his arms, wears a mask, and wants to play happy music with the boys and girls. It’s an introduction to the character, and the album is meant to be a story about what he gets up to. I can’t get more into it than that because I haven’t heard the whole record. This is something that needs to be personally rectified.

#840: DJ Shadow – Midnight in a Perfect World

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Mood music at its finest. Took me a real long time to finally get this track. I’d had Entroducing….. in my library since 2014, and my initial reason for downloading it was because I needed some instrumentals for my uni radio show. Plus it’s regarded as one of the best instrumental hip hop albums of all time, so I thought it was worth the time. One – I don’t think I used any tracks from there on my show, and two – I sat through it once and as time went on I pretty much forgot all the stuff on there. I kept the album on the laptop though. It’s meant to be a classic, so maybe I would get it some day.

Fast forward to 2019, and I was going through my library deleting songs/albums that I really didn’t listen to. Needed to free up some space. Entroducing….. was next up, but I listened through it just to come to a final decision. And for whatever reason, maybe it was that I had gotten older and paid more attention to albums, I don’t know. But I definitely liked the album a lot more. ‘Midnight in a Perfect World’ was the clear standout. It’s so good that its keyboard/piano sample appears twice on the album, the first time in ‘Transmission 2’. ‘Midnight’ is so calming, so nocturnal and atmospheric. I had to add it to my phone immediately. And thus it saved the whole of Endtroducing….. from being deleted.

I went to Berlin with a few friends a couple months after that all happened. It was pouring rain from the moment we landed, and once we got to our accommodation and unpacked our things, we went to go around for a walk. Just to get a grasp of the new surroundings and stuff. The rain fell, the skies were grey, it was quiet too, barely any cars around and we weren’t talking so much. And suddenly that loop from ‘Midnight’ just started playing in my head over and over. Seemed to be the perfect music for that moment in time. I’ll always think of Berlin and its not so great weather when I hear this song.

#839: Hot Hot Heat – Middle of Nowhere

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So ‘Goodnight Goodnight’ was the first single from Hot Hot Heat’s Elevator back in 2005. And I thought it was okay then. Just okay though. I didn’t think it was as good as ‘Bandages’. That song still rules. I eventually grew to appreciate ‘Goodnight’ more too. But when the hype for ‘Goodnight’ was over, the video for ‘Middle of Nowhere’ started showing itself on television soon after. I thought it was much better. I wasn’t into Hot Hot Heat that much then. I think 2005 was my Green Day year. But the track was one of the reasons why I downloaded Elevator when I started to download random albums in around 2009 or something.

For me, this track goes into that pile of those that I’ve known for so long and sung along to but never thought about in much depth. The stop-starting groove’s very catchy and the vocal melody throughout is infectious, particularly during its choruses. Obviously those moments are when you want to have the memorable parts. I’ll listen to it and it’ll take me back to being a ten-year-old just watching new music on the television. For the sake of this post, I’ll share with you an interpretation I found. The song’s narrator is dealing with a lot of heavy stuff. They’re unable to sleep, think properly. The girl who is being sung about provides some relief from all these problems and frequently meets up with the narrator to see how they’re doing. The narrator gives her something to go on (nudge nudge) before continuing to do the same old same old.

Makes sense to me. Again, I wouldn’t think about it so much, but that’s just me. I’ll carry on listening to it the same way I did when I was younger. Enjoying it all the same. This song was on an episode of One Tree Hill, so this track may be familiar.

#838: The Beatles – Michelle

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Story goes that, in his younger days, Paul McCartney would go to parties, pretend he was French and perform a song with his acoustic guitar with a fake accent to woo the ladies. In his own words, his goal never came to fruition. But many years later when he was in the Beatles and recording Rubber Soul, John Lennon reminded him of that fake-French song and told him to work on it so it could be a new number for their album. The result is ‘Michelle’, a love song cherished by many and probably a reason why a lot of people out there have the same name.

For a long time, I mean a long time, I didn’t care about this track. Thought it was just a soppy love song, “I love you, I love you”, yeah, yeah, okay McCartney. Didn’t give it much thought. And it suffered from the terrible instruments-in-one-ear-vocals-in-the-other mix that the whole album had. Didn’t make the listening experience much better. Then I made my own mix using the Beatles Rock Band stems that you can find online with a quick google, and I suddenly liked it a lot more. I’m still not into the lyrics that much, but there’s a swing and coolness in its delivery that’s undeniable.

I find myself listening more to McCartney’s bass line that rings and climbs and falls and sometimes mirrors the ‘ooh-ooh’ backing vocals by Lennon and George Harrison. Those elements really add to the smoky nightclub feel which I think the track is going for. That smooth solo that comes in during the middle is pretty slick too. All of these aren’t really given their props in the album mix. Now if I could share my mix, you’d probably like the song a lot more. But that’d just be too long of a process. So I’ll share the mix from the Rock Band game instead.