Chapter 136: The dreams just get weirder, but the music gets better

Let me bore you with my recollection of dreams. Such dreams are a result of sleeping at 4-5 am each night and waking up at roughly 12 in the afternoon and then sleeping again at 5 for 2 days. Please do not try this because whacky results guaranteed.

Anyway, the first dream involved me driving a damned bus and Ysabel (haha, why-sa-bell). Ok, it was pretty weird because when the dream began, I was on the 69 bus from home driving this long avenue 1 which passed by several blocks and there were tons of triton students filtering out of their houses at 5am and I could see Shiva… maybe in dreams you see better.

They got on the bus and I was on the top deck. Then I looked down and there was no bus driver. Gasp. The horror. So I went down and took control of the bus and Shiva was directing me and teaching me and…haha, lets say things didn’t go well but we made it to Tampines Interchange after cutting across the big field. The human bodies were just…what they say, collateral damage.

Fast forward, to the soccer match! Which I didn’t attend in real life because I was busy climbing up a bloody granite hill. Anyway, the match was over and then everyone was about talking and talking, hazy images of people and french braids on loretta and irsyad dancing like a fool and then I saw ysabel. I can’t remember what in the world we talked about but it was a good conversation and we went to dinner and then…

Ok, next dream today. Some weird dream about MJCs 50th anniversary being held at the new national staidum which looked giant inside the dream and I was ontop of this float in the middle of the field wearing the triton colours and then there were people all around me. I remember Jenn, Michelle (the 6 pter one in Mj), Grace, Atiqah and like I was hi-fiving them for some reason. I was sitting on the float and everything was really bright and then I saw Syjia to my left looking very sad (a pretty girl when sad, guys, is even prettier) and I asked her what’s wrong and then she explained. but things get hazy from there and I woke up but I tried to force myself to sleep but dinner beckoned.

Boo!

/

Anyway, Thursday was spent sandcastle building with the ODAC people and I had fun. The pre-u sem kids thought I was J2, thought that I was really good at sandcastle building, thought I was paid, and listened when I talked. It felt good that they wanted to take a picture with me and the sandcastle, good kids good kids!

Went to Donn’s house with Lynette and cliff because I was an emotional wreck and because I haven’t seen them in ages. Donna’s mum is wonderful towards me, I’m wondering if she’s hinting something. She said lynette lost weight too, and I agree because her face looks more goldfish than before. We sat, cheated at bridge, ate pizza and chickenwings, drank coke, sniffed donna’s pillow, marvelled about problems and that room holds so much familiarity, so warm even with the aircon blasting. Thanks guys, I’m much better now.

Anyway, to help me cope with the bad news, good news, whatever…I went on a quest to find singer-songwriters like Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. Thank god for three things, hype machine, last.fm (which loretta, I found out, uses  and itunes. Found a few confidantes in Phosphorescent, Peter And The Wolf, Radical Face (one half of great indie-pop electric president) and of course Bowerbirds!

I’ll just do a review on one of them before I leave for Malaysia to climb mountains a little higher than Bukit Timah.

Bowerbirds!

Indie people always look so weird. Well, so do Mac user. Ergo, I should be a mac user.

Anyway, the Bowerbirds are almost parallel in nature to Bon Iver and their album Hymn For a Dark Horse that was released roughly a year back more than justifies this. The bloody album received an 8.4 (higher than Bon iver’s 8.1) on Pitchforkmedia. And receiving a rating that high from such an indie mecca is totally wow.

The album starts of strongly with “hooves”, the folkish guitar plucking slowly, the guitar riff ever building but never climaxing. Then the singer comes in, a voice totally reminscent of rufus wainwright minus the slurriness and its familiarity is unsettling. then the chorus with the harmonies sets in “Ahhhh”, you think- wonderful. Accordion and all.

The songs pretty much follow the same tempo, the same beat, the same feel, the lone guitar first followed by a great orchestration of voices, violins, clap drums and harmonies. The exception being the second song ‘In Our Talons’ which is a total contrast because the tune is so gypsiesh and folkish,it falls abit out of place in the album but then you listen to the album as an entirety and it falls just in place!

The lyrics from the Bowerbirds aren’t as strong as Radical Face or Bon Iver, but they more then make up for it through the musicality in their songs, wonderful songs that seem to be everyday songs and just right for every mood but perfect for melancholy. Highly recommended for indie freaks!

Cheers to the wives of the drunks.
Cheers to the husbands that tag along for good luck.
Cheers to the miles it took to get here.
Cheers to the the nerve it takes to forget who we are.