Thursday, April 16, 2009

changing all my strings, I'm gonna write another traveling song...

In the cathedrals of New York and Rome
There is a feeling that you should just go home
And spend a lifetime finding out just where that is...

I'm going on a road trip next week. I'm going to drive down 8 hours to visit Fae, and I'm making a playlist. A eight hour playlist, for my iPod (yay Aux input!). So I thought this a really good time to write about my love for Traveling Songs. Which I promised when I wrote about Old Soul Songs. This is going to be hard because I always want to spell it "travelling," so I'm going to have to spell check the hell out of this...

The above quoted is one of my all time favourite songs, Cathedrals by Jump Little Children. It's so beautiful, and completely describes how I feel in my life right now, why I can't stay in one place.

You and me have seen everything to see
From Bangkok to Calgary
And the soles of your shoes are all worn down
The time for sleep is now

From I Will Follow You Into the Dark by Death Cab for Cutie. There are so many Death Cab songs about traveling that I adore. Okay, I adore most Death Cab songs. I think they're so sexy. Yes, sexy music. It's true. Anyone who wants to make out with me need only play me Death Cab.

Well I woke up in a car
I traced away the fog
So I could see the Mississippi on her knees
I've never been so lost
I've never felt so much at home
Please write my folks and throw away my keys
I woke up in a car

No music post would be complete without a little Something Corporate, the band that inhabits every atom of my soul. Another line of this song says "I met a girl who kept tattoos for homes that she had loved." I've always wanted to be that girl. Because I believe you can call a lot of places home. I also love tattoos and have two. Another Something Corporate song is where the url for this blog came from

Light breaks underneath a heavy door
and I try to keep myself awake
Fall all around you on a hotel floor
and you think that you've made a mistake
And there's a pain in my stomach
from another sleepless binge
I struggle to get myself up again
I want to hang onto something
that wont break away or fall apart
like the pieces of my heart

Globes and maps are all around me now
I want to feel you breathe me
Globes and maps I see surround you here
why wont you believe me?
Globes and maps they chartered your way back home
do you want to leave or something?

Globes and Maps, by Something Corporate. Because even if the songs are about how sad and lonely traveling is, I love them. Because it makes me think of airplanes and bus rides and new things and going places. Anywhere but here.

You'll have to excuse me,
I'm not at my best
I've been gone for a month
I've been drunk since I left.

Home for a Rest, which I thought was by Great Big Sea, but turns out it's actually by Spirit of the West. It pretty much sums up my trip to Ireland, so I love that. It's such a fun song, but sad if you listen to the lyrics.

Well I’m changing all my strings
I’m gonna write another traveling song
About all the billion highways and the cities at the break of dawn

Like a lot of twenty-somethings I'm just looking for the next place to call home.

4 comments:

Ambles said...

I've never heard "Globes and Maps", but I LOVE those lyrics!

I need to travel so badly...
It can be lonely, but it's a beauriful kind of loneliness, like you're a part of the world or something.

God, I need to get out of here.

Sebastian Anthony said...

Something Corporate, eh...? How about that.

Audioboxer and Leaving Through The Window are both on my 'listen weekly' playlist! Both great albums.

I actually need to check and see if they did anything after North in 2003...

Unknown said...

There isn't anything after North by Something Corporate, because Andrew McMahon got leukemia (!!) and then left the band to start Jack's Mannequin. He's recovered, but Jack's Mannequin isn't nearly as awesome as Something Corporate.

Something Corporate is definitely my favourite band of all time. Audioboxer is amazing, and I used to spend hours just sitting and listening to Leaving Through the Window. Have you heard Ready Break? Because that's awesome too. Yeah.. I clearly use the word "awesome" a lot when speaking of Something Corporate.

I have to say I'm quite amazed that you like Something Corporate, Seb!

Sebastian Anthony said...

I went through (well, still going through...) a bit of an emo/punk rock thing.

The Ataris, The Early November, Something Corporate -- all my faves!

Sad to hear that that was the last one... but hey, they ended on a high? :)