Stand alone and greet the coming night

Here I am, back from another trip. I returned this afternoon from Denmark (plus a side trip to Sweden this time -- where, sadly, no one sounded like this). More on that trip later.

Not long before this trip I brought a new toy -- my Microsoft-produced Zune (competition to the ipod). What, you might ask, possessed me to purchase such a device? Well, I wanted a music player, but my new car apparently is not compatible with the ipod. Plus, just about everyone I know curses their ipod regularly. The device came in handy... I ended up watching all of Season 1 of The IT Crowd while I was stuck for six hours in Frankfurt, Germany. I've vented enough about that unexpected layover, and will refrain from boring you with that story...

In preparation for my trip I decided to get a few new songs. I found out about an eMusic "download 35 songs free" offer and decided to test it out. Unfortunately, they didn't have many of the songs I was seeking. I ended up rather arbitrarily picking out songs in the alternative, math rock, and goth genres.

Anyway, here are the songs I listened to most during the trip--some of which were new eMusic acquisitions, and others were not:

- Juliet, by Emilie Autumn. Goth/industrial/electronica. I like. I like much.



- Imitosis, by Andrew Bird. Alternative/Rock/Indie. I picked his album for the cover, of course. My goodness, I'm predictable. Anyway, I like this song despite its use of the word "machinations," which is one of my least favorite words ever. Whenever I read a paper containing that word, it undercuts the author's credibility by approximately 64.3%. And that's on a good day. Despite that, the song is excellent. You can listen to the song on his myspace page. Grr, I apparently just missed his 9:30 Club concert! Oh, also, the singer appears to be a thinner version of Dr. Who.

- Hey There Delilah, by the Plain White T's. Alternative/Rock/Indie. I actually heard this song on on the radio (it seems to get some late night "new music" play, at least), and decided to follow up. This song, as well as Hate (which I think is an amazingly entertaining song!!), is on their myspace page.

- Tired of Being Sorry, by Ringside. I wish they'd play more concerts. This is such a great song. And it doesn't hurt that the singer is HOT. Though I still don't understand why the video is about him getting beat up by a girl.



- Caramel, by Suzanne Vega - Good song. I can't find it now, but I swear I first heard this song in a trailer for the movie Closer. Not that I ever saw the movie... but I always have that association.

- The Mating Game, by Bitter:Sweet - Interestingly, this is one of the default songs on the factory-fresh Zune device. But if you like it, you have to download it later, 'cuz MS deletes it when they upgrade your firmware. This one is also available on the group's myspace page.

- The Last Remaining Light, by Audioslave. I've had this song (and album) forever, but for whatever reason, it regained my attention during my trip.



Last, but not least:

- The System is Down, by Homestarrunner. I have no idea why I have this, nor why it kept coming up. But it's kind of amusing...