25 January 2012 (Wednesday)

Last week's class was cancelled due to a rare Seattle snow storm. I was curious to see if the disruption to the scheduled classes would affect attendance... Only two students, both of them new to the class, showed up.  But we had a very good conversation!

Before talking about music we talked about living abroad and what a person learns about themselves and their own country/culture by being away from it. For example, some people once they live abroad want to always live abroad, while others want to have their life (ex. career, children) based in their home country.  We also talked about how a person when they travel is seen as a cultural ambassador for their home country, whether they want to be an ambassador or not.

The conversation was very interesting, but after a while I said, "Let's talk about what music you guys like!"

Hairi, from Malaysia, suggested listening to the song "Civilian" (video, lyrics) by Wye Oak (info).  I asked what he likes about this band, and what type of music he likes in general.  He said he likes indie (= "independent") music that has meaningful lyrics.  And he likes female singers.

I must admit, I have never heard of Wye Oak, but I liked their music.  Had I heard about them before, I would have gone to see their concert at The Crocodile last August (review).  Here's hoping they come through Seattle again -- I'd go see them!

Based on just that one song I asked Hairi if he knows about Feist (bio).  He said he knows her music.  I suggested that he might like the local singer Jesse Sykes (website) and played a bit of "Pleasuring The Divine" (video, lyrics) from her latest album, Marble Son. I haven't liked her previous releases as much as Marble Son, though she is quite popular in Seattle and among indie fans across the US.

Speaking of female singers, Hairi then said he really likes the cover version (= a song which a band that did not write it does a "copy" of) of "Come As You Are" by Malaysian singer Yuna (info).  He prefaced that suggestion for a song by saying "I know it might be blasphemy (definition) to like this version of this song since it's so different from the original (by Seattle band Nirvana (bio)), but I like it."  Here are links to the two versions to contrast them:

* "Come As You Are" by Nirvana (video, lyrics)
* "Come As You Are" by Yuna (video)

By the way, "Come As You Are" is one of my favorite Nirvana songs.  But I like Yuna's version a lot, too.  I turns out she was also in Seattle this past October but I had no idea about her at the time. Here some pictures of her in Seattle from her website (it says she contacted some local Malay students in Seattle via Twitter). I can't tell if she actually played a public concert while here, but here is a clip of her playing for some people in what looks like an office building.

Hairi said he particularly likes cover songs so I showed him one of my favorite cover versions, similar to the way Yuna made a rocking song delicate:

* "Wonderwall" (video, lyrics) by Oasis (info)
* "Wonderwall" (video) by Ryan Adams (info)

I asked Marcus, from Taiwan, what kind of music he likes.  He said he likes Taiwanese pop, but his host family in Seattle plays jazz in the house quite often and he has come to like that a lot. He said his taste in music has changed through the years, but as a teenager he really liked a band from Japan called L'Arc-en-Ciel" (info).  As an example of their music we watched the song "Stay Away" (video, lyrics).

Marcus said he still likes L'Arc-en-Ciel a lot from his teenage years.  And he likes the new music they release, too.  The band will release a new album in February 2012.


At this point time it was time to end this week's conversations. Here's looking forward to next week's meeting!

PS. Now that I am getting to know what kind of music the students like I will suggest some concerts or other music-related things to do.  One suggestion for those who like soul music and to dance is a soul music party the first Friday of every month called "Dug".  It takes place at the Lo-Fi bar (21+) and is not far from the University of Washington. Here is Dug's Facebook page. The next one is next Friday, 3 February!