for your listening pleasure

Catalonia (Cataluña in Spanish; Catalunya in Catalan—the province of which Barcelona is the capital, and the origin of the language with which I struggle daily) has a great music scene.  Here are a few beautiful videos, straight from my YouTube to yours.

Enjoy! Què ho gaudeixis!

(and an apology for my rather choppy translations.)

***

Cançó: Un Tros de Fang

Artista: Mishima

A piece of clay

You don't know how you make me feel

like a puppet out of its box

so small and insignificant

a piece of clay in your hands

You don't know how you make me feel

like an idiot who counts lost time

between "I'll see you" and "Today, I can’t"...

You don’t know how to recognize

the gold in me—it looks like tin to you

I’m getting wrinkles and I’m rusting

What’s sweet to me tastes bitter to you

and to keep the nonsense going,

what burned us yesterday is drowning me today.

***

Cançó: Boomerang

Artista: Manel 

Boomerang

Our long-bearded uncle arrived, our grandparents made special food, and he said, “Boys, you’re getting tan,” and he said, “You’ve grown at least a hand-span.” 

Ignasi and I listened, a thousand adventures of far-off countries, and they were good and entertaining, but it was difficult to forget how his strange gift flew over the neighborhood.

We situated ourselves below, a prudent distance away from the ladies who were tanning and from the parked cars.  We studied the air currents,  we wiped the sweat off our hands.

But the boomerang ran aground among the tree branches and never came back.  But the boomerang needed the skill of a professional.

And all the rest came down, with Vanessa—oh, Vanessa, how should it go for her?—and they ate seeds and jeered from the bench.

Until, bored with the spectacle, Xavi, who was older, came down.  “Let me try, get back; let me try, you bunch of know-it-alls…this is a wrist, what it wants is a good arm game.”

And, gentlemen, it’s as good to insist as it is to know when to withdraw.  And I don’t know about Ignasi, but in my case I can recognize that it hurt to see the thing get more interesting in Vanessa’s eyes.

But the boomerang ran aground among the tree branches and never came back.  But the boomerang needed the skill of a professional.

But speaking of time, I think that was the July that Indurain melted, and we cursed the Dane and the climb up to Hautacam.

The years, anyway, have made us like men, and even though neither of us has procreated, I keep thinking of alternatives in case it never happens.

And in this world, between my heights, there won’t ever be the details, but I’ll make an effort, and one gift I’ll abstain from giving—that childhood be fun, magical, free, ok, agreed.  But there isn’t any time to loose, and, sooner or later, only one truth remains.

The boomerang ran aground among the tree branches and never came back.  The boomerang needed the skill of a professional.

And, Vanessa, if you hear this, a very big hug.

***

Cançó: A Vegades

Artista: Els Amics del Arte

Sometimes

I’m sorry if I go to sleep to Vent del Plà, I’m so sorry

I’m sorry if I leave hair the shower, I’m so sorry

I’m sorry if I walk through the kitchen you just mopped, I’m so sorry

I’m sorry if I tolerate crudity, I’m so sorry

I would write you a love song,

but nothing I would say would be original—

The Beatles would have already said it in Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

And sometimes birds shit,

And sometimes I love you but I don’t like you,

And sometimes I wonder if you never screw up,

And sometimes I burn the toast—

but that last one, only once in a while,

only once in a while…

I’ll learn to smile at your mother’s house, I’ll learn

I’ll learn to cook that dish that you like, I’ll learn

I’ll learn to change the toilet paper, I’ll learn

I’ll learn to give you a complement, I’ll learn

I would write you a love long…

And sometimes birds shit…

In an Apache Tribe…

***

Cançó: Corro sota la pluja

Artista: Anna Roig i L’ombre de ton chien 

I’m running in the rain

I’m running so I don’t feel that I’ve been still and waiting

I’m running after a dream that I’m not sure is ahead of me

I’m running for the adventure of running after someone

I’m running because of the energy that’s making me come to you

I’m running in the rain after that sweet memory

that maybe you still keep in some corner of your heart

I’m running in the rain because I want to

but if you don’t stop, maybe in the end I’ll think it’s better to leave you with it.

There’s like a whisper that tells you, “Follow him close!”

And another that says, “Go slowly;

it’s better to let someone who’s escaping from you leave,”

But, maybe, if he’s escaping, I can catch him?

I’m running because I’m coming to the place we have to get to,

and to see clearly in your eyes if the memory is still there.

I’m running because it’s going to be time to rest,

and to know if you want to be seen, or if you are really escaping.

I’m running in the rain after that sweet memory

that maybe you still keep in some corner of your heart

I’m running in the rain because I want to

but if you don’t stop, maybe in the end I’ll think it’s better to let you go.

***

And, not that it has anything to do with Catalan music, but just because I LOVE Fleet Foxes and their album is coming out May 1st, I wanted to share their new single with y'all!

Song: Helplessness

Artist: Fleet Foxes

(no video, just click on the link below to hear the mp3)
http://assets4.subpop.com/assets/audio/8475.mp3