Black Friday SotD: "Black Celebration" by Depeche Mode

What else would I choose to celebrate the blackest of all retail days? Here's hoping my dad's store (Nafziger's Men Store, ask for Craig) had tons of business. (Gosh, they need a website!)

Let's have a black celebration ... to celebrate the fact that we've seen the back of another black day.

Twilight

I have ducked my head throughout this whole Twilight thing. Well that's not entirely true. I've read tons of snarky analyses and critiques of the books and so I know the basic plotlines and who these unlikable characters are and that SMeyers likes LINKIN PARK and writes about towns in Washington she knows next to nothing about. (Given a choice I would not go dress shopping in Port Angeles, for example, and neither would Bella and her friends. BUT I would eat at Taco Time.) But I have definitely not read the books.

Well, the internet informs me that there are bands that have formed which write music inspired by this terrible series. And I have not listened to a note of it! I got my fill of this sort of thing with Wizard Rock, AKA Wrock.

If you are interested, check this out: The Bella Cullen Project, perhaps the first Twilight band. Hey, they're no Harry and the Potters.

SotD: "Beautiful Dream" by Adam Ant

Adam Ant's last album Wonderful came out in 1995, which of course means he's hardly relevant anymore. And yet, he is one influential dude. Bands have totally bitten his military/gypsy/American Indian-inspired style, including Coldplay. Of course he was so over that stuff in the nineties and he was making music with long time writing partner Marco Pirroni and Boz Boorer of Morrissey fame.

This single, written without the help of Boorer, is a tale of love, lust, biology, and safe sex. It also kind of reminds me of "The River of Dreams" by Billy Joel.

Local News: The Bouquet is back!

Boise bar and music venue the Bouquet is reopening tonight after an extensive remodel. Tonight there is a reopening party (cover free!) sponsored by Red Bull.

The Bouquet is located at 1010 W. Main St.

Before the remodel (and possibly under different management) Thomas Dolby and Martin Fry performed there. I hope we can expect such big, yet irrelevant, names. I'm actually serious, I would love to see Thomas Dolby and Martin Fry.

SotD: "Johnny and Mary" by Robert Palmer

Robert Palmer was the man. He's best known for the videos featuring models pretending to play instruments while all looking the same (and it's been parodied countless times, see: Love Actually). It's more than a little bit sexist but it's also a lot sexy and makes for a great Halloween costume for twins. The video for Johnny and Mary sucks. I mean, it's really bad. One really stupid gripe is that you can't comb your hair like that or you would pull all your hair out. BUT I chose this song for SotD because it's a solid song.

Call for scholarly works about Morrissey

This news item posted at Morrissey Solo cracked me up. Ever since I read something I got off JSTOR about the Smiths, I've been tempted A) to subscribe to that journal and B) to write little articles myself. Unfortunately it's been too long since I've done some cultural studyin' and I'm all out of practice. On a final note, that's my kind of symposium, yo.

SotD: "Trans Europe Express" by Kraftwerk

I love Kraftwerk but I got into them embarrassingly late in the game. They were a huge influence on much of the music I enjoy - DM, techno, other synth-based music. This song wins for mentioning Iggy Pop and David Bowie and talking about European traveling. How pleasant.

Video!

Goodness, I fell behind

In show-I-will-totally-be-checking-out news, the English Beat are coming! And it's only $15 dollars. These dudes are known for doing the song "Mirror in the Bathroom" which is a strange but catchy song that I only found out about when watching Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

Show info:
The English Beat @ the Knitting Factory appearing Dec. 8 (with the revolver [get it? it's a Clue joke!])

Today is a lazy day

I'm too busy feeling ennui over the movie to be made about Monopoly.

http://www.bestweekever.tv/2008/11/12/open-thread-worst-band-to-put-on-a-mix/

SotD: "Steppin' Out" by Joe Jackson

This song has been stuck in my head for the past half week or so. Joe Jackson is most famous for this song and "Is She Really Going Out with Him?" Jackson helped bring the New Wave sound to the United States in the late '70s. And for that I thank him. And how can anyone forget his work with William Shatner on the cover of Pulp's "Common People" for Has Been?

I love this song for its optimistic and anticipatory lyrics. The perfect Friday night jam.

The Enthusiastic Recommendation: Dirk Wears White Sox

Dirk Wears White Sox (1979) was the first LP released by Adam and the Ants. This features a pre-Marco Pirroni Adam and the Ants lineup and the difference is evident when comparing Kings of the Wild Frontier and Prince Charming with Dirk.

I love the post-punk imagery - playing with fetishism ("Whip In My Valise") and politically charged lyrics. Adam used to perform in bondage gear and I think he wore a gimp mask at some point. The sound is much heavier and slower than the more New Wave-y sound of later Adam and the Ants and yet it is still catchy as hell.

One song is both fun AND educational! "Catholic Day" can work as a way to remember which year JFK was assassinated - "Kennedy died in '63/Poor John F.-" - and thus unable to continue turning on the middle-aged ladies or playing with Monroe.

In Which I Turn My Lame Celebrity Crush Into Blog Fodder

I've loved John Francis Daley since Freaks and Geeks and I am ecstatic to see him weekly on Bones as Dr. Lance Sweets. So of course, Wikipedia is my friend when I wanted to know how old the dude is. [Answer: totally my age!]

So I'm reading the Wiki article when I see that Daley is the keyboard player for a band called Dayplayer. What do I think? PRETTY DECENT.

Coincidentally this is how I found out about Sean Biggerstaff's (by the way, what a delightfully phallic surname - er, is that just me?) band Jonny and the Robots.

Song lyric tattoos/music tattoos: lame or awesome?

So as tattooing is on the rise in the West and in the United States, the number of song lyric/pop music tattoos is also on the rise. I have seen tons of Morrissey tattoos in my time. (There's a webpage somewhere...) I found it odd that most Moz tattoos seemingly fall into one of three categories: "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out", "Viva Hate" and variations on "Morrissey" (his autograph, "Moz", his name, etc.) I'll admit, I want a Morrissey-related tattoo; it doesn't fall into any of the aforementioned categories and it serves as a nice life philosophy: "Sing Your Life". Hokey and cheesy, I know.

The word around the bad tattoo LiveJournal communities is that there is no such thing as a good ICP-inspired tattoo, and many other music-related tattoos don't come out looking much better. Writing this paragraph gave me the idea to get Old Lesbian!Geddy Lee tattooed on my bicep. BAD IDEA!

Rachel and I wanted to come up with a whole series of "[insert musician name] here" stick figure tattoos after a comment in a bad tattoos community. The comment ran along the lines of "Every Morrissey tattoo is made awesome by the fact that it is a Morrissey tattoo. You could have a stick figure with an arrow saying "Morrissey here" and it'd be awesome." This appeared on an entry where the portrait made Mozza look like an American Indian. Ooh, I saw a portrait tattoo of Billy Idol and it looked kind of like Adam Ant and it gave me the very wrong idea to get this on my back in full Technicolor brilliance. If I knew that I wouldn't regret it and I had a good artist and thousands of dollars, I would get that. But enough about me.

Related links: http://community.livejournal.com/lyrical_ink/
http://community.livejournal.com/literarytattoos/ (sometimes includes song lyrics)

2 Bits!

IAMX'S new single available for free! Yippie skippie.
Download here (right click and all that)

Depeche Mode posted a new video from in the studio.
Irritatingly brief, DM!

Well, gosh

Ovbs. I was too busy voting as hard as I could to write an entry yesterday, but a quick trawl of MySpace gives me a couple news snippets.

The new IAMX single, THINK OF ENGLAND, will be available for free download on Nov 7.
More info to come. (http://www.myspace.com/iamx)

The video for the Streets' single Heaven For The Weather is on YouTube

Which reminds me that I was going to do a full review of the new album by the Streets, but I've only listened to it once all the way through and I can say that I was a bit disappointed. I'm a bit reluctant to listen to it all the way through again, but I am positive that it will grow on me in time. (Remember that it takes me a long time to digest a new album.) I think that I want all the Streets albums to sound like Original Pirate Material (which I think is very brilliant) but that just can't be.

Totally late, but...

New song about Russell Brand by Federal Drugs Administration
"Yeah yeah, any bloody news story and we're on it like herpes."

Years of Refusal tour, "break the bank" bands

So I'm already remiss in my participation in NaBloPoMo. Awesome. Yesterday was a bummer of a day as yours truly was so broke it hardly made it worth it to go to the Vinyl Show and Swap. What if, had I gone, I won one of the raffle prizes? Oh well.

I've been thinking about shows. It's been quite some time since I've seen live music. Last concert was the MSI show that left me a feeling a bit cold. But I always look forward to bigger and better things...

Such as the fact that Morrissey announced the release day of his new album Years of Refusal. FEBRUARY 23! That day will also kick off the US leg of his tour to support the album. I've never seen Mozza live and some may say he's peaked but Morrissey is one of my "break the bank" bands.

All music lovers have artists they dream of seeing live, artists who mean so much that we would empty our bank accounts to catch them. It just so happens that two of my "break the bank" bands are touring this year, luckily half a year apart, Morrissey and Depeche Mode. I have others but it's less likely that I will see them live. It appears that Bowie is in semi-retirement. Iman said he was writing the followup to Reality at least three years ago. But I digress.

I haven't really thought about it, but we've also spent a lot of money on two other big name acts: Rolling Stones and Rush. Now these acts, especially the Rolling Stones, are waaaaaay past their golden days, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy every second they played for us. Even from way up in the stadium I felt the sexual energy coming off Mick Jagger. *giggle*

I wanted to see Rush ever since my brother saw them live and I stole his Grace Under Pressure cassette. I've memorized the little staticky pops and it always gives me pause when I hear those songs now. The show I saw was great, even if they played too many new songs when I just wanted their classics. Also, Geddy Lee looks like an old lesbian.

So tell me: who are your break the bank bands?

Vinyl Preservation Society events

I might participate in NaBloWriMo in my constant efforts to improve this blog. So that means at least 30 wonderful updates in the month of November! In local news, Boise's own Vinyl Preservation Society celebrates one year with its inaugural vinyl swap. Sorry for the short notice, but the event takes place on Sunday. TONIGHT there's also a party to kick off the event. So let me break it down:

What: VPS anniversary party
When: Saturday, Nov. 1, 8 pm
Where: Linen Building, 1402 W. Grove St.
How much: $1 (admission restricted due to space, so get there early!)

What:Record Show and Swap
When: Sunday, Nov. 2, 10am-4pm
Where: same place as the party
How much: early admission 9 a.m., $10; regular admission 10 a.m., $2.

Related link: The Vinyl Preservation Society website
VPS write up in the Boise Weekly