Brainvomit

I have, in my possession (knock on wood), a very rare 3-day weekend.

I spent day 1 of said weekend catching up on yard work. Not that I have a lot of yard to worry about, but my black-eyed susans and coneflowers were literally overgrown by weeds.

Much better now.

Music, if you haven't noticed, surrounds us... it's a background noise in stores, it's in the car, it's in our homes. (I've got mixed feelings about this, as it generally trains people subconsciously to talk over and tune out music. It un-specials the music, to a degree.)

Weeding is extremely meditative. Almost always, I work in the garden without musical accompaniment. I find that with my hands busy, my mind free, the brain spins its own records from memory.

And I think it's important, for a number of reasons, that the brain should be allowed to do this from time to time. It exercises our memories. I believe it can also work to help refine pitch-sense, since you're recalling the music and trying to reconstruct the details in your mind. (I don't have anything to back that statement up, just what I suppose.)

But mostly, I think it's like... dreaming. The mind dreams at night, regardless of whether you remember the dream. It's a way for the mind to refresh itself and/or to look into itself. (Many of my own dreams fall into that category, which, for lack of a better term, I'd call "window dreams," since they provide a momentary window into how I'm really feeling about certain things.) I honestly do believe that there is some, some merit to the notion that the songs that get stuck in your brain can reflect how you're feeling.

As a musician, I think it's also important to pay attention to what gets stuck in your brain because it's a key to defining your taste. Why's it stuck in your head, is it a certain riff, or a timbre or texture, or a story? Pay attention.

So, I'm weeding in the garden. And here's what my brain comes up with...

Fell in Love With a Girl - The White Stripes 
In the Garden (ha... yep) 
Dogs - Damien Rice 


a song of my own that's been unfinished for a few years... not even a title...
When my own unfinished songs get in my head, I wonder if it's not a call to finish it... there's a reason these things come to mind, y'know?



That Summer - Garth Brooks
Rowing Song - Patty Griffin
Blank White Page - Mumford and Sons


Over My Head - the Honey Badgers
Honey Badger! Actually, The Honey Badgers and Battleshy Youths have a habit of getting in my head quite a bit, and it's usually the stuff they don't tend to play on stage. "Don't," "Battle," and "Temporary" all get lodged in my head with fair amount of frequency, Michael (I KNOW YOU'RE READING THIS)


Violet's Dreams - Erin Magnin
Okay, so I didn't actually have the music in my head, but I could not stop thinking about the story of this song for a long time. It's a haunting story. I love it.



Also, "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" ALWAYS, without fail, gets stuck in my head for a loooooong time while I'm weeding. I can't really explain it, I'm not really proud of it, it just is what it is.