2011/04/30
2011/04/29
johnny and mary
Robert Palmer - Johnny and Mary by UniversalMusicGroup
j: robert palmer - johnny and mary
i was alive and musically inquisitive at the time, but i can't really speak to what was happening that so many established rock and/or pop stars in the early 80's tried to pick up on the "new wave" wave. today's adorable track, "johnny and mary" was one from robert "addicted to love" palmer; rod stewart and billy joel, among so many others, did the same.
did i just compare robert palmer to rod steward and billy joel? sorry.
2011/04/28
psychedelic furs: detailed heaven
imagine your grandpa climbing up on the picnic table and singing a slutty version of "happy birthday to you", and you loving it. this is the experience of seeing the psychedelic furs in concert today.
somehow, i've waited almost thirty years to see psychedelic furs play live. thirty years of really, really liking their records. i wasn't so aware of them when talk talk talk was first released, but when they hit it big with "love my way" off the next album forever now, and then really hit it big with mirror moves ("the ghost in you", "heartbeat", "heaven", and "here come cowboys"), i was in full-fledged fandom. midnight to midnight made me think they'd last forever, which of course meant that they would immediately slide into something a considerably more popular than obscurity.
at their peak, i had tickets to see them at san diego state university, but a stroke of bad luck that week, as i had emergency surgery to get my wisdom teeth pulled. you know how every emotion seems dreamily heightened on painkillers? i was seriously saddened that weekend.
but, back to last night: this year's tour commemorates the thirtieth anniversary of talk talk talk's release, so the first half of the show was playing straight through that album, which included the original version of "pretty in pink". if you haven't listened to talk talk talk recently, give it a shot, as it holds up extremely well. talk talk plays live well, too.
the furs took a short intermission after wrapping up talk talk talk, and then came back out to play a round of hits, the surprising highlight of which seemed to be "heaven". surprising, because when the single originally came out, it wasn't HUGE, though like apparently many other san diego fans, i took it in as a favorite single from the band.
a short note about the band themselves: they appeared happy, even thrilled, to be playing for us. good actors? maybe, but they looked to be genuinely enjoying themselves, and the crowd. richard butler would often crouch down to eye level with us as he sang, having no problem with cameraphones snapping in his face. his brother tim (the bassist), and the sax player, mars williams(? - that's the name on wikipedia), also engaged the audience by playing directly to individuals in the first few feet of the stage. plenty of energy for a group of 50-60 year olds, and we ate it up.
they tour a lot...seems almost an annual thing. next time they come to your town, buy a ticket. it's a completely satisfying event.
2011/04/27
i feel love
i: donna summer - i feel love
this was the record that first made me aware of real texture that can be achieved in music -- especially electronic music, i suppose. i remember dropping something off to my cousin's house several miles away, and as i parked the car at the curb, this song came on the radio...and i didn't want to leave the car until the song was over.
funny i still remember that.
a few years later, giorgio moroder wrote the score for the movie, midnight express, the theme to which was very similar to "i feel love", though not identical, i suppose. still, a nice companion piece to donna summer's record.
this was the record that first made me aware of real texture that can be achieved in music -- especially electronic music, i suppose. i remember dropping something off to my cousin's house several miles away, and as i parked the car at the curb, this song came on the radio...and i didn't want to leave the car until the song was over.
funny i still remember that.
a few years later, giorgio moroder wrote the score for the movie, midnight express, the theme to which was very similar to "i feel love", though not identical, i suppose. still, a nice companion piece to donna summer's record.
2011/04/26
long time coming
i: ipad
i'm not the guy who stands in line waiting for the new apple device on day of release. but, i've been intrigued by the ipad since it came out (actually, since seeing a similar device on some TV sci-fi movie)...mainly because i spend several hours each day online, and the portability of blog reading is very appealing. it's why i got the iphone, though that device doesn't quite deliver on that promise of "it's the real internet".
so, the husband and i decided to get each other an ipad for our birthdays (which are a couple of weeks apart). they arrived last week, and it's been quite the honeymoon since it arrived.
the ipad makes up for most of the iphone's shortcomings: the screen is significantly larger, a big benefit for my old eyes. the keyboard is also larger, so i can actually type on it. i wouldn't attempt a novel on the ipad (not that i've ever attempted a novel ANYWHERE), but i can get through a blog post or email message with little bother. and it doesn't replace the phone or camera aspects of the iphone -- too big to carry for a camera, and no phone or text messaging on the ipad.
updating this alien's blog can be a tad cumbersome, mainly because i can't add music files to my divshare account using the ipad...this is the sort of activity for which i have to go back to my PC laptop. (photos aren't a problem, as long as the pic is already stored on the ipad, or available via URL link on the web.)
finally, a longtime complaint i have with itunes on these devices: we need the option to delete an itunes track directly from the iphone or ipad, and not be forced to wait until we get home and cable up to the laptop itunes. for what it's worth, my little adaptation for this task: if i come across a tune i want to delete, i'll "rate" it with a single star. next time i update my iphone, i sort all tunes by rating, and delete those with a single star.
2011/04/25
hold it
tin tin – hold it
three young lads sharing the seat of a small scooter, riding late through a cold winter night from provo, utah to a place called club max (?) in salt lake city.
sort of a truth or dare...in that neither of the three lads dared face their own truths at the time. yet somehow, convinced each other that it was okay to check out a gay club forty miles away.
(i went to the trouble of verifying this memory with a friend who doesn't specifically recall the scooter, but does remember us marveling at the third lad's dancing ability to madonna's "lucky star". i tend to make up memories, but this one is real.)
did they play this song, tin tin's "hold it", at the club that night? i don't remember...but it's the sort of record that i would have hoped to hear.
2011/04/24
recent movies
HANNA: pretty much jason bourne as a 13 year-old girl. dreary ambience and european locations of action scenes seem similar, as is HANNA's backstory (we never told you, you're a government creation). showdown with female government agency official, too.
the good parts of the movie: eric bana's long johns; those locations; some emotional development of HANNA (if nobody else); filming reminiscent of early 70's sci-fi in the early training scenes.
recommendation? sure, why not. i'm not likely to remember much of this a year from now.
THE CONSPIRATOR: i was curious to see the conspirator in part because i was born in the town featured in the film, clinton, MD (formerly known as surrattsville). but also, like many in the US, for the whole lincoln mystique, which will apparently never die.
and it paid off...good-enough 2 hour history lesson that never really enthralled, but held my attention, and informed me further of an obessible episode in US history. no undue cinematic effects, no wild courtroom theatrics, but a cast of so many familiar faces, all doing the "victorian" or "southern" thing: actors from star trek, newsradio and true blood, 30 days of night, another from true blood, that kevin kline guy, that guy from wanted, that girl who married sean penn...it was like everytime the camera saw a new person, you went into "where do i know him from" mode.
so yeah, a recommendation.
2011/04/23
2011/04/22
2011/04/21
2011/04/17
ARC: awesome record cover 1
perhaps my favorite record album cover i've ever owned. early releases by the band were designed by the same guy, pete watson, for several years. his work was hit-and-miss, but when he hit, he hit well.
on listen
, watson captured the seagulls' sci-fi theme better than their music did at this point, with what appears to be simply a plastic mannequin face and some circuit boards. and though the fashion magazine typography was trending out by now, it still worked here.the band portraits for the back cover aren't bad, either, and in fact have become pretty much the remaining go-to images for the band.
2011/04/16
girlie girlie
blondie swear that the new album is coming out in a few weeks. interesting way to pre-distribute it, too: before the CD-only release, the disk will be bundled in a fan-pack (not fanny pack), with a book/magazine chronicling the band's decades-long career, etc.
of course i have that thing on order. but what i really am eager for is the darned CD that's been postponed for the past 16 months or so. but here's one of the three tracks that were included in a giveaway disc a few months back:
blondie - girlie girlie
2011/04/15
f: flamingo
brandon flowers - on the floor
go to a concert and your experience will probably be: stand on a concrete floor for four hours, surrounded by a bunch of mall girls who prefer to scream-chat at each other rather than listen to the band playing; alternately get whipped in the face with their long hair on those odd moments when they do actually listen because they just spilled their drink on your shoes.
then get nudged by the tall guy who elbows his tiny date into your now-long-established 2 square feet of floor space while he worms his way behind her, and his shoulder now blocks your view of the stage. that is, when his arms aren't raised -- not in exuberance or applause, but in positioning his cellphone camera to get a non-photo image of the performers.
or, decide to skip the opening band, get to the venue moments before the headline act, the band you really want to see, starts up, and find yourself confined to the very back of the hall, craning your neck this way and that to follow the performers onstage as their presence bobs in and out of limited sightlines created by the massive pillars holding up the balcony seating, above.
given the probabilities of the above, crappy soundsystems, forty-five dollar t-shirts, exhausted performers, expensive drinks at overwhelmed bars...why do i go to concerts?
because there's an energy. i've been listening to brandon flowers' flamingo for the past several months, and really liking it...REALLY liking it. but i've never felt it or experienced it. (it's odd that, at a time when i could probably best afford it, i don't possess a working stereo-with-speakers system; the best audio experience i have is in my car, though the default is the ipod, with too-large earbuds that won't fit in my earholes.)
brandon's inconsistent success at holding the notes he sometimes reaches in his own songs doesn't seem to lessen the emotional impact of lyrics that tell stories of a man finding his way in, but mostly away from, his childhood faith. stylistically, flamingo wanders from country-rock to gospel to folk, and only occasionally settles in pop.
...the variety of which makes for an interesting, never dull-bore-tiring concert experience. that, and mr flowers is so, so enthusiastic of his own rockstardom. and i don't say that to be snide or sarcastic: he clearly enjoys what he's become, and that makes for a terrific performer who loves interacting with, and genuinely seems to love, his audience. an audience who loves him right back. loudly.
and that's the energy, that's what made all the horrid factors of an overly-crowded public place so forgettable when driving home after the show last night.
2011/04/14
2011/04/13
electricity
e: pet shop boys - electricity
maybe my seventh favorite pet shop track of all time?
maybe my seventh favorite pet shop track of all time?
Call it performance, call it art
I call it disaster if the tapes don't start
2011/04/10
a single man (again)
we re-viewed tom ford's a single man last night. all the more enjoyable the second time around. how is it that i overlooked the ticking clock the first time around?
as mentioned before, definitely a designer's point of view throughout the movie. and that is a big plus...the design aspect seems to lift the movie a bit higher than the story would otherwise warrant.
(not many movies are as symmetrical as this one, to be sure, especially in today's world of thirds.)
big, big recommendation.
2011/04/09
blondie #1 again
it looks like blondie have scored another #1 hit, in spain at least.
Debbie Harry Has The #1 Song in Spain…? | Cherrybombed
too bad their record isn't being released anywhere else, yet. (great pictures attached to the article, btw.)
Debbie Harry Has The #1 Song in Spain…? | Cherrybombed
too bad their record isn't being released anywhere else, yet. (great pictures attached to the article, btw.)
2011/04/08
dance
d: sparks - dance godammit
from the 80's, sparks too-close-for-parody "sparks in outerspace"...became a classic new wave album. still a huge favorite.
didn't posts:
blondie - d-day
alphaville - dance with me
ultravox - dancing with tears in my eyes
elton john - daniel
deluxe - danke schoen
val emmich - darling denise
the monkees - daydream believer
dirty vegas - days go by
adam ant - desperate but not serious
david garza - discoball world
deborah harry - dogstar girl
inxs - don't change
patty duke - don't just stand there
human league - don't you want me
blancmange - don't tell me
anything box - doubt
petula clark - downtown
blondie - dragonfly
omd - dream of me
blondie - dreaming
from the 80's, sparks too-close-for-parody "sparks in outerspace"...became a classic new wave album. still a huge favorite.
didn't posts:
blondie - d-day
alphaville - dance with me
ultravox - dancing with tears in my eyes
elton john - daniel
deluxe - danke schoen
val emmich - darling denise
the monkees - daydream believer
dirty vegas - days go by
adam ant - desperate but not serious
david garza - discoball world
deborah harry - dogstar girl
inxs - don't change
patty duke - don't just stand there
human league - don't you want me
blancmange - don't tell me
anything box - doubt
petula clark - downtown
blondie - dragonfly
omd - dream of me
blondie - dreaming
2011/04/07
2011/04/06
corinne
c: metronomy - corinne
i just started listening to the new album by metronomy, the english riviera, and this is the track that jumped out first time around. love this sort of synthy pop song. and i'm a fan of human league-esque male lead with female backups in the vocals, too.
i just started listening to the new album by metronomy, the english riviera, and this is the track that jumped out first time around. love this sort of synthy pop song. and i'm a fan of human league-esque male lead with female backups in the vocals, too.
2011/04/05
2011/04/04
another birthday
maybe next year i start a new tradition. in the meantime...
A Flock of Seagulls - The more you live the more... by Tunashaker
maybe next year i start a new tradition. in the meantime...A Flock of Seagulls - The more you live the more... by Tunashaker
2011/04/02
B
B: dandy warhols "bohemian like you"
other contenders:
blondie - background melody
iggy pop - bang bang
devo - beautiful world
erasure - because you're so sweet
the drums - best friend
monarchy - black, the color of my heart
linda ronstadt - blue bayou
the cars - blue tip
white apple tree - bombs
book of love - boy
debbie harry - brite side
depeche mode - but not tonight
other contenders:
blondie - background melody
iggy pop - bang bang
devo - beautiful world
erasure - because you're so sweet
the drums - best friend
monarchy - black, the color of my heart
linda ronstadt - blue bayou
the cars - blue tip
white apple tree - bombs
book of love - boy
debbie harry - brite side
depeche mode - but not tonight
2011/04/01
autobahn music box
a: cut copy's "autobahn music box"...
other contenders:
david bowie - absolute beginners
bill nelson - acceleration
ebn ozn - aeiou sometimes y
human league - all i ever wanted
ABC - all of my heart
dan black - alone
erasure - am i right
the sound of arrows - and beyond
wild swans - archangels
devo - are you experienced
ryuichi sakamoto - asadoya yunta
maxwell - ascension
paul oakenfold - ascension
blondie - atomic
other contenders:
david bowie - absolute beginners
bill nelson - acceleration
ebn ozn - aeiou sometimes y
human league - all i ever wanted
ABC - all of my heart
dan black - alone
erasure - am i right
the sound of arrows - and beyond
wild swans - archangels
devo - are you experienced
ryuichi sakamoto - asadoya yunta
maxwell - ascension
paul oakenfold - ascension
blondie - atomic
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