I Am Totally Procrastinating (And Also A Geek)

Yeah, I should be writing papers right now, like for serious. But...that's hard and boring. I will start in the next few hours though, I swear! 

 So this weekend I realized I was running out of poins on my geek card, so I went on a major filk music spree and downloaded a bunch of stuff, mostly Leslie Fish, Heather Alexander, Mercedes Lackey, and various combinations thereof. BECAUSE THEY ARE AWESOME, OKAY? Anyway, this is a list of songs I've been obsessing over and loving, and if you're into fantasy and sci fi, or just really like the crack, you should check it out too.

1) Captain Signy Mallory by Heather Alexander

"Captain Signy Mallory has no soul they say/
the captain of the Norway has a heart of frozen clay/
and on the bridge of Norway she throws men's lives like dice/
Captain Signy Mallory, her eyes are fire and ice"

Probably my favorite new song of the week, it threw me into serious need for some good (slashy) space opera fic. Heather Alexander really kicks ass on the vocals, too.

2) Bedlam Boys by Heidi Talbot and also Heather Alexander

"For to see Mad Tom of Bedlam/
10,000 miles I'd travel/
Mad Maudlin she goes on dirty toes/
to save her shoes from gravel"

A fairly well-known English ballad about the Bedlam asylum (I think?), creepy and wonderful and /creepy/. The background music on the Heidi Talbot version is cooler, and her voice is little higher and dreamier than Heather's, but Heather of course is still kick-ass, and her version has an extra stanza.

3) The Paper Sea by Leslie Fish

"I went to work for welfare in hopes to help the poor./
The staff showed me a desk and introduced me to the war./
They warned me that the battle started right outside the door,/
And they fought it on the paper sea."

It's a song about the welfare system! And I don't know why I like it so much, but I do! It's somehow really funny and hard-hitting at the same time.

4) Don't Call My Name In Battle by Heather Alexander

"Don't call name in battle it's not wise/
do not distract me when you see a new soul in these eyes/
for when the war god fills this flesh I wear
I am no more friend, I am the spirit of the bear"

This song is so completely Sephiroth, it's scary. Assuming you adopt the theory that in-game Seph was no acting of his own volition but had his cracked mind taken advantage of by Jenova. But, yeah.

5) Life's Flame by Heather Alexander

"I am life's flame/
respect my name/
my fire is red - my heart is gold/
thy dreams can be/
believe in me/
if you but let my wings unfold"

Aside from the fact that it's about /phoenixes/, which is pretty damn cool, this is a great example of an artist  completely throwing themselves in their music - Heather is so passionate and intense in this song, and it comes out in the music in a great way.

6) Voices of The Sea by Heather Alexander

"Oo, let the wind fill your sail,
oo, good weather to you prevail
Thus call all the Voices of the Sea,
to which whose spell not a sailor can be free"

The opposite of 5 - very low-key, haunting, sad song about some sailors who get drawn into a mermaid's spell and then drown. 

7) The Gods Are Not Crazy by Leslie Fish

"So, drink, drink to Charlie Forts' memory,
Marvelous doings and marvelous sights.
Drink, drink, we may as well join t hem.
The Gods are not crazy, they're higher than kites!"

Do I need to explain what is awesome about this song?

8) Some Kind of Hero by Leslie Fish

"It was quiet that night with the docks closed down
There was nothin’ due in for a week
Not a ship was in port but the old Antelope,
When the ‘Red Alert’ started to shriek"

An odd little song about an old man, a drug-addicted pilot, and a Navy wash-out - and heroes, real heroes, that had me in tears by the end

9) Hawk Brother by Mercedes Lackey

"Old memories are unfaithful things, they bind the strongest will
The frightened boy I used to be, comes back to haunt me still.
It's hard to be born different a stranger in you home
To know that you may always have to face the world alone."

Based on a character from the book Magic's Pawn - and it's not obvious from the lyrics, but this is canonically very slashy!

10) Magic's Price by Mercedes Lackey

"Every year Companions Choose, as they have done before,
The Chosen come with shining hopes to learn the Herald's lore.
And every year the Heralds sigh, and give the same advice-
"All those who would hold Magic's Power must then pay Magic's Price." "

The story of Vanyel's last stand from the book Magic's Price, and IIRC within in the Valdemar canon one of the most famous ballads ever. Sad in all the right ways, and Heather Alexander has fun with the ballad style here.

11) Shadow-Lover by Mercedes Lackey

"Shadow-Lover, never seen by day,
Only deep in dreams do you appear
Wisdom tells me I should turn away,
Love of mist and shadows, all unclear-
Nothing can I hold of you but thought
Shadow-Lover mist and twilight wrought."

The Shadow Lover, in the Valdemar-verse, is Death, just so you know. And this song is /pretty/ - a little sad, a little hopeful, and a little scared, and once again Heather Alexander's does the singing. Cause she kicks lyrical ass.

12) Threes by Mercedes Lackey and Leslie Fish

"Three things never anger/
or you will not live for long/
a wolf with cubs, a man with power/
and a woman's sense of wrong"

Fun /and/ violent! And all girl-power-y, too. There's also a pretty funny alternate version called Threes: Take 3, that I haven't downloaded yet. But this version won a Pegasus Award either last year or a few years ago, and it's pretty much awesome.