hellgod_13’s Charts

So here goes the start of my year-end lists.

According to Last.fm, these are my most listened-to songs of the past 12 months.

hellgod_13’s Charts – Users at Last.fm:

1		Mogwai – Summer			13
2		Cynthia Alexander – Comfort in your Strangeness			11
2		The Magic Numbers – I See You, You See Me			11
4		Jeff Buckley – Hallelujah			10
4		Jeff Buckley – Mojo Pin			10
4		Alanis Morissette – You Oughta Know			10
4		Jeff Buckley – Last Goodbye			10
4		Regina Spektor – Samson			10
4		Collective Soul – The World I Know			10
4		Cold War Kids – Hospital Beds			10

Not even one song here was released within the last 3 years, LOL... but I'm blaming this on the Last.fm scrobbler plugin not working on my laptop (plus me doing most of my music listening through my trusty, 3.75-year old Creative ZVM)

But if I had to choose a song that really made an impact to me this year, it's this gem by Up Dharma Down. (Alright, I know this song wasn't released this year either, but bear with me)

Something about this song (the *brilliant* lyrics, the smooth melody, Armi's incredible voice, Carlos, Pol and Ean's tight playing, the witty original video) and something about the things that happened the past year just *clicked* in an incredibly affecting way. The above video was taken from Up Dharma Down's live performance during the last few days of NU 107's existence (tear...)

Robbers, Bibles, Rainbows, Machines, Nightmare

So I'm not quite done yet with my year-end lists.

The previous two years, I listed the 20 most played songs from my it's-not-an-iPod-it's-a Creative Zen Vision M, but I'm not gonna do that now (since I wasn't able to reset the songs' play count at the start of '09.) So I'm just gonna list my 10 most listened-to albums (based on last.fm, which probably isn't very accurate either, because my last.fm widget doesn't usually work when I'm in the office, and I had some issues with using the widget on Windows Media Player, but enough side comments.) Here they are:

1. Cold War Kids – Robbers & Cowards

2. Arcade Fire – Neon Bible

3. Radiohead – In Rainbows

4. Fiona Apple – Extraordinary Machine

5. Arctic Monkeys – Favourite Worst Nightmare

6. Duffy – Rockferry

7. Up dharma Down – Fragmented

8. The Perishers – Let There Be Morning

9. Kings of Leon – Only by the Night

10. Amanda Palmer – Who Killed Amanda Palmer

So none of these albums were actually released in 2009, but whatever, I'm wired to be late in many, many ways.

I think CWK's Robbers & Cowards probably made it to #1 on the strength of this brilliant, brilliant song (not to say that the rest of the album isn't great, because it is.) Neon Bible and In Rainbows are two of my favorite albums of the decade. I mean, those CD's are outstanding work, and in the case of In Rainbows, literally priceless.

If Robbers & Cowards was on repeat because of one song, then Extraordinary Machines was probably on repeat solely because of the lines "I was feeding on the need for you to know me, devastated at the rate you fell below me." (you get bonus points from me if you know what song that came from) (without googling it up) (bonus points are irredeemable, btw.)

So that's my music list for 2009. I'd love to see yours :-) (no really, I do. I'm not just being polite.)

Da da da, da da, Da da da.

Great song, awesome voices.

Randomly stalking people while singing? Sounds like a great idea while walking around the streets of Paris.

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And here's another good one. Great old school song sung by a great old school voice.

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Been watching the 15th season of the Amazing Race on Studio 23. They broadcast it via satellite, so it starts on time, and with no commercial breaks. Best way to watch TAR! Only six teams left, and I like all of them. It's been a pretty good season so far, they've been to Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia and Dubai. The last Dubai episode was AWESOME.

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I had another bout with the flu 2 weeks ago which lasted for more than a week. Never went to the doctor though so I have no idea what kind of flu I had. What's annoying is this is the 2nd time I've gotten the flu this year, after paying for flu vaccine earlier. Before the vaccine, I've gotten the flu maybe once or twice in my life.

Thanks, flu vaccine. You were worthless.

Best Music Of The Year, Question Mark.

So the Grammy Awards will be handing out its awards later today, and here's my take on some of the categories (actually, these are the categories I've managed to find out of google that interested me.)

ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Alison Krauss & Robert Plant, Raising Sand
Coldplay, Viva La Vida
Ne-Yo, Year Of The Gentleman
Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III
Radiohead, In Rainbows

I only have In Rainbows and Viva La Vida, and between the two, I think I like Viva La Vida more, but I prefer Radiohead's discography in general, and they haven't won this award yet, and I think it's time they should.

SONG OF THE YEAR
"American Boy," William Adams, Keith Harris, Josh Lopez, Caleb Speir, John Stephens, Estelle Swaray & Kanye West, songwriters (Estelle Featuring Kanye West, artist)
"Chasing Pavements," Adele Adkins & Eg White, songwriters (Adele, artist)
"I'm Yours," Jason Mraz, songwriter (Jason Mraz, artist)
"Love Song," Sara Bareilles, songwriter (Sara Bareilles, artist)
"Viva La Vida," Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion & Chris Martin, songwriters (Coldplay, artist)

This is actually a very solid list of nominees, unlike previous years where some songs just make you go WTF?! That said, I want Adele to win this. She is awesome.

RECORD OF THE YEAR
Adele, "Chasing Pavements"
Coldplay, "Viva La Vida"
Leona Lewis, "Bleeding Love"
M.I.A., "Paper Planes"
Robert Plant and Alison Kraus, "Please Read The Letter"

Even though Viva La Vida has that catchy chorus, I actually prefer Violet Hill. So go Adele again. (Although I wouldn't be surprised if Plant and Kraus turn out to be the Grammy equivalent of Oscar-bait epic dramas?)

BEST ROCK ALBUM
Coldplay, Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends
Kid Rock, Rock N Roll Jesus
Kings Of Leon, Only By The Night
Metallica, Death Magnetic
Raconteurs, Consolers Of The Lonely

I love the new KOL album, but it looks like this category is Coldplay all the way.

BEST ROCK SONG
Bruce Springsteen, "Girls In Their Summer Clothes"
Radiohead, "House Of Cards"
Death Cab For Cutie, "I Will Possess Your Heart"
Kings Of Leon, "Sex On Fire"
Coldplay, "Violet Hill"

I'd be happy if any of the four bands take this.

BEST POP PERFORMANCE, FEMALE
Adele, "Chasing Pavements"
Sara Bareilles, "Love Song"
Duffy, "Mercy"
Leona Lewis, "Bleeding Love"
Katy Perry, "I Kissed A Girl"
Pink, "So What"

Adele, Duffy (even though there are more songs on Duffy's Rockferry album that are better than Mercy, imo) or Sara Bareilles would be a satsifying win. Please don't let Katy Perry's gimmick to stardom win an award.

BEST ALTERNATIVE ALBUM
Beck, Modern Guilt
Death Cab For Cutie, Narrow Stairs
Gnarls Barkley, The Odd Couple
My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges
Radiohead, In Rainbows

In Rainbows! Woohoo!

BEST NEW ARTIST
Adele
Duffy
The Jonas Brothers
Lady Antebellum
Jazmine Sullivan

If Adele or Duffy lose to The Jonas Brothers, I'm going on a tween murder spree. Like, srsly!

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Now playing: Adele - Chasing Pavements
via FoxyTunes

Travel and Tunes

To sum up 2008, I'd say this has been a great year for traveling.

The Poland trip at the end of 2007 reignited my wanderlust which continued on to this year. And I had some great, great, great trips this year. There was El Nido with my college friends, and the Boracay teambuilding, and the Hong Kong and Macau trip with some current and former officemates. But the highlight of the year was definitely the awesomely epic SEA backpacking trip from Kuala Lumpur to Siem Reap to Ho Chi Minh City with the "cliquish" batchmates from the office. Angkor Wat has been my dream desitnation for a few years now, and let me tell you, right from the time I set foot on Siem Reap International Airport, to riding the tuktuk to the hostel, to seeing the temples and walking around the town, every second of that trip was amazing.

Being able to go to a dream destination is an awesome experience. Yep, this was an awesome year of traveling. Machu Picchu, Lalibela and New Zealand, anyone? =D

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I made the same list at the end of 2007 and since I'm all about routines, I thought I should do it again. So here are the 20 most played songs on my ZVM:

1. Machines - Biffy Clyro
2. Sex On Fire - Kings Of Leon
3. 3 Libras - A Perfect Circle
4. Missed The Boat - Modest Mouse
5. If You Tolerate This - Manic Street Preachers
6. Little Motel - Modest Mouse
7. Keep The Car Running - Arcade Fire
8. I See You, You See Me - The Magic Numbers
9. The Comeback - Shout Out Louds
10. The Origin of Love - Hedwig and The Angry Inch
11. 9 Crimes - Damien Rice
12. Grace - Jeff Buckley
13. Oasis - Amanda Palmer
14. People As Places As People - Modest Mouse
15. Warwick Avenue - Duffy
16. Weak - Skunk Anansie
17. Dream - Alice Smith
18. Oh Well - Fiona Apple
19. Sway - The Perishers
20. This Year's Love - David Gray

Happy New Year Everyone! May 2009 be great for all of us! (and when I say us, it means me and the people I like...)

Owned In the Head

I don't know what's gotten into me lately, but my musical mood has been pointing me to the direction of these 4 artists who fall on the folk/soul/blues/jazz genre...

Amos Lee:


Duffy:


Adele:

Ray LaMontagne:


They're all great, right? I don't know what it says about my current state of mind, or if it's just completely coincidental. But it does make me want to start thinking, except that involves too much effort.

I was talking to my friend and former teammate Karon to make sense of some things, and well, I still don't know. I'm not that good with introspection, my mind always sidetracks me.

...

Girls Strumming Guitar Strings and Guys Pounding Piano Keys.

Or great YouTube finds.

I've been scouring YouTube for some good cover versions of songs that I like, and I've stumbled upon some really, really, really good ones.

Such as...



The Beatles' Across The Universe, covered by Kiersten Holine. Awesome, clear beautiful voice.


Here's some solid vocals. Fucking good piano-playinng too. Precious Things by Tori Amos, covered by Matthew Luke Sandoval


Cover of Paolo Nutini's Autumn by a cute French girl named Lou Salomez. I love this song, and I love her accent.


Shelley Green covering Rachael Yamagata's Worn Me Down. Beautiful quirky vocals.


Probably the best of the bunch. Adam Monroe doing 3 Libras by A Perfect Circle. He's got some great originals too. And he has a piano-based cover of Pardon Me by Incubus that's pretty amazing.



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Now playing: Badly Drawn Boy - One Plus One Is One
via FoxyTunes

Fix Me Now

OK.

This is just great.



According to the description:

This is from a documentary shown on Channel 4 in the UK called 'Young@Heart'; the name of the New England octogenarian chorus line. The performer here is Fred Knittle, who suffers from congestive heart failure. This song was intended to be a duet between Fred and another chorus member, Bob Salvini. Sadly, Bob died of a heart attack and it was left to Fred to carry the song on his own. If I'm correct, the people you see crying at 01:13 are Bob's family. The lady you occasionally see mouthing the lyrics in the audience is Fred's wife.

There were some very touching scenes where we see Fred rehearsing alone soon after Bob's death. It was an incredible film.

They also do songs by Sonic Youth and The Ramones on their concerts. I heard there's gonna be a movie released about the group too.




video uploaded by http://www.youtube.com/user/akf2000

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Now playing: Tori Amos - Precious Things
via FoxyTunes

Habits of The Highly Disaffected

Earth Hour a few hours ago. My mom didn't want to turn off the lights because she was watching TV.

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Earlier this week, I attended the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People seminar. I definitely learned a lot from it, but I can't say that I'm an effective person now. After all, they were called habits for a reason. I think I have a lot of gritting of teeth to do before I finally can declare myself to be highly effective.

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There are days when I wake up and I just declare the day to be over, that it's gonna be bad. There are times when I'm pleasantly surprised that I'm wrong, and there are times when I can satisfy myself with the fact that I can say "whatever" and really mean it.

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I'm addicted to this show Damages. It's being shown on AXN a lot, with 4-episode marathons on Saturdays. It's seriously good. Season Finale is on Tuesday.

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This week, I was extremely and unexpectedly stressed out. I felt like I was scrambling for no apparent reason. I think it might have been because of the long holiday, followed by the three day out-of-office training I had. E-mails and tasks piled up, and instead of having the positive, I CAN DO THIS! attitude (I don't), I simply became overwhelmed and just tried to zone out as best as I could the two days I had work at the office. Being stressed out and anxious and overwhelmed has been nagging at me for a few weeks now. I think it's because of finding out and understanding the notion that I may not be standing on grounds as solid as I thought.

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I don't know what it is about going home from work late at night that gets my mind so riled up and I start arguing inside my head. Not arguing violently, but just... debating why things are. I think I do it sometimes because it makes things clearer for me. The sad part though is when that clearer perspective makes you see that things aren't going great for you.

Just thinking out loud.

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Check out the song on the Now Playing link below... It seriously kills me each time I hear it.
Or better yet, check out the live performance here

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Now playing: Biffy Clyro - Machines
via FoxyTunes

Welcome, 2007 + 1

A couple of hours more before the new year comes in...

The year started off with a bang, then mellowed down to below mediocre (there was a point when I felt like our office turned into The Office, without the humor, but with Dwight Schrute), but things started picking up, with the 3-month trip to Poland putting the icing on the cake. (Not everything is on the ups though... One of those things? My bonus.)

So instead using this space to deliberate whether 2007 was a great year or not, I've decided that I will use this post to list down the 20 most played tracks on my Creative ZVM :D

1. A Design For Life - Manic Street Preachers (If I was going on a protest, I'd sing this song on a megaphone, at the top of my lungs)
2. She Ionizes and Atomizes - Modest Mouse (this is a song from one of Modest Mouse's earlier albums, it's actually the first song by the band that I downloaded)
3. Worn Me Down - Rachael Yamagata (She has an awesome voice that I love listening to over and over again.)
   
4. Missed The Boat - Modest Mouse (from their latest album, a standout song. Also, check out the various videos for the song)
   
5. Run - Snow Patrol (Also from their older album. This is an awesome anthemic song)
6. Spitting Venom - Modest Mouse (Another one from the "We Were Dead" album)
7. Last Goodbye - Jeff Buckley (I'm surprised it isn't on any higher, this is my absolute favorite song)
8. Transatlanticism - Death Cab for Cutie - (Another one of my most favorite songs ever)
   
9. Us - Regina Spektor (A great, crazy vocalist)
   
10. Casimir Pulaski Day - Sufjan Stevens (This song gives me goosebumps)
11. Disarm - The Smashing Pumpkins
12. Charm Attack - Leona Naess
13. Samson - Regina Spektor
14. Silent All These Years - Tori Amos
    
15. Put Your Records On - Corinne Bailey Rae
16. A Long Walk - Jill Scott
17. Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town - Pearl Jam
    
18. The Shining - Badly Drawn Boy
19. Hedonism - Skunk Anansie
20. Love For Granted - Phoenix
    

Happy New Year, everyone!



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Now playing: Manic Street Preachers - A Design For Life
via FoxyTunes

Entertainment While the Storm Winds Down

You know that specific instance when you just realized that you've bitten off more than you can chew, and you want to have to just stop because you're starting to feel rotten to the core, but you can't and you realize that you really, really, really have no other choice but to deal with what's choking your heart and soul but you don't want to because you don't have the slightest hint on how to handle it and you get so overwhelmed and anxious that it's almost easier not to breathe? Is there a word for that? Because if there is, I sure would hate to be that.

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Hey, look at that! Blogger has a new feature that lets you insert the signature of the song that's playing on your media player (I use Winamp) via FoxyTunes. FoxyTunes is a really cool Firefox plugin that let's you operate practically any media player installed on your PC via a small tab at the bottom of your internet browser. Nice!

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Now playing: Badly Drawn Boy - Everybody's Stalking
via FoxyTunes

Good News For People Who Love Bad News

Ok, not to be cliche or anything, but today makes yesterday look foolish. What a difference 24 hours make.

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I just heard Chris Cornell's (hey, he's got a nice website btw) new single Arms Around Your Love on the tv. Is it just me or does it sound too... I don't know, 3 Doors Down? Rob Thomas? (ducks bullets and eggs)

His vocals are still great, but the whole song just sounds so... Adult Alternative? Contemporary pop/rock? Its weird. for a Chris Cornell song, that is.

But I should probably listen to the whole album first (or the whole song even) before really spouting sacrilege.


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It's my Dad's birthday today*. It's also the Philippines' national Independence Day*. But I barely felt it. No parades, no fireworks, today's not even a holiday! So much for nationalism.

For what it's worth, Happy Independence Day to all Filipinos!

*I'm writing this at 2:15 am, June 13; but I'm still considering now June 12 according to my frame of time-consciousness. Since I woke up at 1pm today. :p

We were dead before the ship even sank.

So what's the cure for anxiety?

It seems like practically everything that's happening these past few days triggers anxious feelings, like I'm constantly on the verge of throwing up while speaking in front of a huge crowd. No, not really. That's an overstatement. It's really just because of this one thing. There are some things that are going right. Really, there's a number of them. But somehow, I just seem to have this uncanny ability to always think about the worst thing that can and will happen, and its negating all the positive energy that I should be having.

Shit.

Since when did deviance become a good thing?

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Back when I was a little younger, I'd use to listen to music to get me out of these slumps. Then I realized... It doesn't really help if you just listen to Jeff Buckley and Radiohead, or whatever Radiohead-like band was popular five years ago. They're not exactly the most cheerful music you'll ever hear, you know?

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Thinking positively, looking at the bright side of things, searching for the silver lining in dark clouds. It's not exactly the easiest thing in the world to do. Someone should make a guidebook, preferably in pdf format, so that I can do quick searches.

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Which brings me to Modest Mouse's latest album. I have it on repeat in my, ehem, ZVM for weeks now. That's how much I love it. Combine Isaac Brock's almost feral, intense singing with quirky melodies and guitar riffs (hey, Johnny Marr of the Smiths!) and you've got yourself an incredibly enjoyable record right there.

At least a title. No?

Just got a small quick sneak peak of The Killers' latest single from their new record here. I must say I'm pretty excited about this... Do I hear some shades of Pink Floyd in the intro?

Damn amazing coolness. Goes right on top of my list of must-buys =D

Another must buy? Thom Yorke's first solo cd, The Eraser. Brings the sound of Bristol back to my head. Woohoo!

Het Augustus?

One thing I like about August?

August = month-long Powerbooks sale! Woohoo!

I'd post a wishlist here, but it's not even close to my birthday so I think I'll just let this one pass for now. (But hey, if you're up for giving me a gift for no apparent reason, then go right ahead!)

You know what else is coming up this August? Rockestra II! Last year, bands such as Imago, Cambio, Sandwich, Silent Sanctuary, Sugarfree, and Twisted Halo signed up to perform their songs with the Manila Symphony Orchestra. This year's event happens on August 18 at the Folk Arts Theater, featuring bands such as The Dawn (woohoo!), Hale (meh...), 6cyclemind(umm..), Itchyworms (woohoo), Urbandub (woooohoooo!) and Up Dharma Down! (wooooohoooooo!!!) 4 out of 6 bands is not so bad... and MSO should rawk the house fo sure!

Now all I have to do is look for people to come with me.


Ooooh, and to be on the safe side, if you are going to buy me something at powerbooks, something (anything) by Kurt Vonnegut or Irvine Welsh would be good =P