Untuk lagu yang berbahasa Inggris, saya suka nya lagu lagu klasik. Lirik nya selalu indah dan menyentuh, pun ada pesan yang coba disampaikan oleh pencipta dan penyanyi lagu. Salah satu dari lagu klasik favorit sepanjang masa itu punya Elvis Costello – SHE.

Selalu keinget sama Ibu, dan kalo denger lagu ini mata sering kedap kedip nahan air mata jatuh. Coba deh, dibaca dan didalemi isi lirik nya (halah, hehe). Kalo suka boleh juga download lagunya.

SHE

She
May be the face I can’t forget
The trace of pleasure or regret
May be my treasure or the price I have to pay
She
May be the song that summer sings
May be the chill that autumn brings
May be a hundred different things
Within the measure of a day

She
May be the beauty or the beast
May be the famine or the feast
May turn each day into a heaven or a hell
She may be the mirror of my dreams
The smile reflected in a stream
She may not be what she may seem
Inside her shell

She
Who always seems so happy in a crowd
Whose eyes can be so private and so proud
No one’s allowed to see them when they cry
She
May be the love that cannot hope to last
May come to me from shadows of the past
That I’ll remember till the day I die

She
May be the reason I survive
The why and wherefore I’m alive
The one I’ll care for through the rough in ready years
Me
I’ll take her laughter and her tears
And make them all my souvenirs
For where she goes I’ve got to be
The meaning of my life is

She
She, oh she

guitar: Elvis Costello
vocals: Stephen Colbert

Love it!

(couldn’t find the video, but someone put the audio up!)

Amy Allison
Sheffield Streets
(Urban Myth)

Vilken speciell röst, säregen i ordets definitiva betydelse. Ja, så märkligt hon sjunger! Ljust och skarpt, det är som att få en tandläkarborr i örat.

Första gången jag hörde Amy Allison sjunga så ryggade jag tillbaka. Det gjorde nästan ont. Men snart – ja, jag kan lova! – omvandlas ”smärtan” till skönhet och värme. Och hennes sång blir ljuvligt vacker.

Låtarna spretar, åt country eller jazz. Däremot möts genrerna sällan eller aldrig. Kompet är mjukt eller något lite tyngre med elgitarr och trummor, ibland en jazzigare saxofon eller en pedal steel.

Amy Allison har gjort samtliga låtar utom en. De har fina melodier och liksom lite barnsliga, såna där melodier som nya jullåtar ska ha för att bli evighetspopulära.

Ändå är det hennes sång – den märkliga rösten, som inte hör hemma i någon genre utan verkligen blir Amys personliga röstavtryck – som får varje spår att lyfta mer och ännu mer.

I ”Monster of the Id” och ”Everybody Ought to Know” sjunger Amy duett med Elvis Costello respektive Dave Alvin. I förstnämnda låt, gjord av Mose Allison, spelar pappa också piano. Jo, det stämmer. Mose är Amy Allisons far.

(Liknande i Ystads Allehanda 2009)

Dear Elvis Costello and Stephen Colbert, you win.

“Lonely Blue Boy” – Elvis Costello

My name should be trouble
My name should be woe
‘Cause trouble and heartaches are all that I know
Oh oh, lonely, lonely blue boy is my name

My heart has been empty
My life has been torn
It must have been raining the day I was born
Oh oh, lonely, lonely blue boy is my name

I’m so afraid of tomorrow
So sick and tired of today
They say that love is the answer
But love never came my way

I’m writing this letter to someone unknown
And if you should find it and if you’re alone
Oh oh, lonely, lonely blue boy is my name
Oh oh, lonely, lonely blue boy is my name

Blood and Chocolate is an 1986 album by Elvis Costello and the Attractions. The album reunited Costello, the Attractions and producer Nick Lowe, but it was the last recorded by the group before a breakup that would last for eight years. The album was, unusually for its time as a studio album, recorded in a single large room at high volume, with the band listening to each other on monitor speakers rather than headphones. Costello describes it as “a record of people beating and twanging things with a fair amount of yelling”.

Costello’s singing and playing is credited on the album under the pseudonym “Napoleon Dynamite,” while his songwriting is credited to him under his actual surname, “MacManus” (with the exception of “I Hope You’re Happy Now”, which is credited to “Costello”).

The above track, written by Fred Wise & Ben Weisman recorded by Elvis Presley and Conway Twitty only featured on the bonus disc issued in 2002 as part of the Rhino Records expanded re-release.

To buy the music of Elvis Costello click HERE

is stuffed, / de world, wif feeding girls

A country or two full of girls, a black-and-white world
They are made of glossy papers and billboards and boredom
Simple beauty, different of course from daffodils, ocean spray
Think sidewalk rain and the painted backs of lavatory doors
You love them of course methodically, a rhythm like economics
A bear, overall—in keeping with corporate policy, after all
Any street in a college town, you will see them and sneer
Their slight frames and large bags, always their perfect hair
Admiration an easy distraction, boredom on heavy boredom
You know the game, what rules to break and when, how
In line for groceries and behind some keen miniskirt
One can look; to talk is to risk what’s left of your capabilities
There is no doubt—there is never—what will happen next
All young angry boys grow old and die, leave nothing behind
Their plastic glasses and string suspenders will have gone
All their fullnesses emptied, all their emptinesses filled
At last there is no trace of their rebellion, their compliance
Rest assured, it is never your fault entirely: you are ill-equipped
From the beginning crippled by your own understanding
The mortal dangers of self-creation, a complex of gods
The way nothing turns out as we planned in the beginning
But how lucky you made this machine to manufacture unrest
A kind of frustration factory to keep you alive, or so, for now
And eating, and going to work; it’s more than some of us have
Perhaps even those girls—open-backed, broken-mouthed—
Will envy us one day: we could not have been better

She
May be the face I can’t forget
The trace of pleasure or regret
May be my treasure or the price I have to pay
She
May be the song that summer sings
May be the chill that autumn brings
May be a hundred different things
Within the measure of a day

She
May be the beauty or the beast
May be the famine or the feast
May turn each day into a heaven or a hell
She may be the mirror of my dreams
The smile reflected in a stream
She may not be what she may seem
Inside her shell

She
Who always seems so happy in a crowd
Whose eyes can be so private and so proud
No one’s allowed to see them when they cry
She
May be the love that cannot hope to last
May come to me from shadows of the past
That I’ll remember till the day I die

She
May be the reason I survive
The why and wherefore I’m alive
The one I’ll care for through the rough in ready years
Me
I’ll take her laughter and her tears
And make them all my souvenirs
For where she goes I’ve got to be
The meaning of my life is

She
She, oh she

In honor of seeing Neko Case at the Moon tonight, I am going to take a look back at many of the live music shows I have seen over the years. Some good, some, well, not so much. From the Big Sombrero to Jannus Landing, U2 to De La Soul, I have seen some weird, wild stuff.

Starship. There. I said it. My name is Lyssa and Starship was my first concert. I went with my sister. We saw them in Peoria, a city that was not built on rock and roll. I wanted my first concert to be Loverboy or Prince — two shows I have since seen — alas, it wasn’t meant to be. (For the record, I only saw Loverboy in 2008 because they played after a Tampa Bay Rays game, and they sucked.)

U2. The first time I saw U2, it was the Joshua Tree Tour, 5 December 1987 (the day after my birthday!) at Tampa Stadium. My boyfriend bought my ticket ($18.50, I still have the stub, of course), and I ended up breaking up with him before the concert. We traded tickets (I got the good ones), so I got to sit with my friend Jenny, whose dad drove us to the show. Fantastic. Amazing. Awesome. I consider this my first “real” concert. Seeing U2 in that stadium was one of the best times of my life. Seriously. I also saw U2’s Elevation tour at the Ice Palace on 1 December 2001. Another birthday gift ($110), and another boy — this time I was just about to break up with him. I guess I should be glad I didn’t go see U2 in Tampa this year.

Depeche Mode. So many Depeche shows, so many good times. Of course, I remember the show I couldn’t go to because of a freakin’ hurricane. Thank you, Hurricane Wilma, for canceling the kickoff show of DM’s Playing the Angel tour. I promoted the show with this great piece I wrote for the Miami New Times, and scored a free ticket and access to the band. Fuck you, Wilma. Well, I will always have the World Violation Tour, the Devotional Tour, and the Exciter Tour, but I will always remember the one that washed away. Wait, I will also remember the Devotional Tour, when I was in the second row and made eye contact with David Gahan as we sang “Stripped” and danced as one. *sigh* Yes, that makes everything better. Phew.

R.E.M. The Green Tour was a fun show. It was our senior year of high school, right before we graduated, and I went with a bunch of my girlfriends. It was at the USF Sun Dome, which isn’t the best venue, but it was still great to see R.E.M. It just sucks that my most vivid memory of that concert is of the drunk guy who almost puked on me. I jumped out of the way just in the nick of time.

Lollapalooza. It was the 9 August 1991, and I had just moved to Boston. My friend Holly and I scored free — and awesome — tickets to go see the festival at Great Woods. Siouxsie and The Banshees were on that tour, but didn’t play because the bitch got sick. We did get to see Jane’s Addiction, Living Colour, Nine Inch Nails, Ice-T, the Butthole Surfers and the Henry Rollins Band. Well, I slept through Living Colour — until the hippies began throwing sod and I got hit in the head. Not cool. Anyone who knows me knows how much I hate being dirty (when I’m not prepared to be dirty; camping doesn’t count).  I was wicked cranky until Perry Farrell got on stage. “Jane Says” made it all better. Oh, here’s a photo from a yacht part I went to with Perry. It was during WMC in Miami, and Sasha & Digweed were the DJs for the party on a boat. Sweet.

Perry Farrell and his lovely wife

The Lemonheads. I met Evan Dando when I was living in Boston, and I had a huge crush on him. I was very excited about going to see him at the Masquerade in Atlanta. I went with my crazy friend Kim, and I lost her two minutes after we got inside. I didn’t care. I was used to it. I had staked out my spot by the stage and I was going to stare at Evan during the entire show. I bonded with some girls around me and had a great time. After the second encore, the lights came on and a woman came on stage, grabbed the mike and shouted, “Is there a Lyssa Oberkreser in the crowd? Lyssa?” OMG. It was my moment. Evan recognized me and wanted me to come backstage! OMG. The girls around me screamed and boosted me up on stage. I was giddy. The lights were on me and everyone knew that I was special. Evan picked me!  {flutters} Um, yeah. Not so much. It wasn’t that at all. It was my friend, my drunk friend who passed out backstage, and I was called upon to claim her drunk ass and take her home. KHAAAAAN!!!!!!! (The second time I saw the Lemonheads was at Jannus Landing, and I ran into my friend GeorgeAnn, which was very cool.)

Moby. On tour for “Play,” you wouldn’t think that Moby would put on a good live show, but it was fantastic. Great outdoor courtyard venue, perfect weather, and good friends. But the meat! My G-D, the meat! There I was, watching Moby the vegan while choking on the smoke and smell of grilled meat. There had to have been about 10 sausage vendors around that courtyard, and it was impossible to get away from all of the smell of burning dead animals. Un-freakin’-believable.

Elvis Costello. The absolute worst show I have ever seen in my life. Seriously. It was at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center in 2004. I went with my friend Nick (“Hey, Leese! You wanna smoke some marijuana and go see Elvis Costello?”), and I fell asleep. Elvis only played ballads (awww! He was in wuv!) and it was a crowd of older people, meaning that I could hear beeping hearing aids throughout the show. BO-RING. Hated it. Huge disappointment.

Prince. When I was in the 6th grade, I begged my mom to let me go see Prince. Of course, she said no. I had no idea what a “pocket full of horses, Trojan and some of them used” meant, but I thought Prince was hot and I loved him. Flash forward 20 years. My friend Nick had an extra ticket for Prince’s 2004 Musicology tour at the St. Pete Times Forum (“Hey, Leese! You wanna smoke some marijuana and go see Prince?”), and I was beyond excited. Awesome show. Definitely in my top 5 favorite concerts of all time. Prince performed for nearly three hours. It was incredible. Good things do come to those who wait.

Wilco. Saw them twice. Once at the Tampa Theatre, the other time at the Pompano Beach Amphitheater. Both shows were fantastic. Great venues, great band. Wilco puts on an awesome show when the members aren’t too high.

Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings. Wow. Nothing like saving the best for last. Not the best show. Oh, no. The best story, for sure. The entire night is enough for a solid book chapter. Here you will get the sweet and condensed version. I hadn’t really eaten all day, I did some serious bar-hopping (and stuff) before heading to the show at Club Downunder, and I fainted. Yep. First time I ever fainted. I once experienced the almost-fainting thing, but I had never fainted before the night of Sharon Jones. Listening to the opening act, I started to feel it. I had the tunnel vision going on, it was closing in, and I could no longer focus on the fiddle and accordion players on stage. I was going down. Only, I thought I could fight it. I fought something, or someone. I have no idea how long I was blacked out, I just remember waking up on the floor. A friend was holding my glasses. Some kid was handing me a bottle of water. I could see my date’s feet next to me, but I was too dizzy and too embarrassed to look up at him. I fainted. In public. I was that girl. Mortified. Well, at least I didn’t puke or piss myself, right? The good news? I fucking rallied like a champ and didn’t miss one note of (the very short) Sharon Jones. ROCK ON!

Here’s to a good show tonight, with good friends, beautiful music, and no fainting!

I love stationery. Probably a little too much. There. I said it.

I thought I ought to acknowledge this, particularly as, for the first time, stationery got a few mentions on the blog, in my post on writing.

First, there was the Wall Street Journal article, How to Write a Great Novel. Reading through it, it was clear that stationery is pretty central for many writers. It’s not just about scribbling on any old sheet of paper – each writer has their own needs and wants, when it comes to what to actually write on, and write with.

Orhan Pamuk writes in graph-paper notebooks. Hilary Mantel always carries a notebook. Kazuo Ishiguro collects notes in a binder. Michael Ondaatje has a thing for notebooks from Muji. Dan Chaon writes on colour-coded note cards.

Margaret Atwood is perhaps less fussy, scribbling away on napkins, restaurant menus, in the margins of newspapers. (Interlude: Working that way reminds me of an interview with Elvis Costello I read. He said that despite buying many notebooks with the intention of using them for lyric writing, they would often be left unused, as he would end up scrawling his ideas on whatever pieces of paper came to hand. He clearly can be in my Stationery Fan Club, as his intentions are good, but it is interesting that he and Atwood are not tied to a particular method for physically writing their work.)

I was then delighted to see that the world of WordPress has a few stationery fans too. Frances Bean commented, “There was nothing like a fresh compilation notebook and the possibility it holds.” There is definitely something special about that new notebook, ready to be filled. Sometimes it almost seems a shame to write in a good notebook. Almost.

So why do I love stationery? From a very, very young age I enjoyed having paper and pencils. Apparently, before I could write, I would scribble on page upon page, convinced I had written a story, and would then ‘read’ it back to my parents. When I was a little older I’d spend hours writing in A4 pads. Sometimes I’d write stories, sometimes I’d make up football scores, sometimes I’d make up entire discographies of imaginary bands. Paper and pencil was a means of channelling my imagination. I was as happy with a new exercise book as I would be with a bag of sweets.

As an adult I’ve continued to enjoy using stationery, especially notebooks. I’m a real sucker for Moleskine notebooks and have completely fallen for their marketing and stories of famous writers and artists using them in the past. I find them wonderfully tactile, sturdy and just right for carrying wherever I go. They are a bit of luxury, but hardly an extravagant one.

I can also be quite fussy with pens, although so far I’ve shamefully stuck to the disposable type. One day I’ll find the right ‘proper’ pen. One day.

My Significant Other shares this love, luckily for me. We’ll happily mooch around the huge Staples superstore near where we live, or smaller shops we find, like the pen shop we came across whilst holidaying in Eastbourne. As silly as it sounds, enjoying stationery has been a lovely, fun thing for us to share.

I suppose when it comes to me actually writing, with this blog or whatever else, I’m far more likely to use my laptop than pen and paper. But my notebooks are still really important to me. I enjoy having something to hand to jot an idea in, or write a list, or to simply play around with an idea. And there is something more satisfying for me to use a notebook for this, rather than a laptop, or smart phone (not that I have one), when I’m out and about. I look forward to, many years from now, looking through those notebooks and reading those snatches of my thoughts, those snapshots of a past me.

So, do you covet particular items of stationery? If you use pen and paper, are you fussy about the pen and paper you use? Does it depend on what you’re writing? Or where? Or do you think this is all stuff and nonsense?

Photo from mrbill via Flickr

“I Know” is a favorite Fiona Apple song of mine.  Elvis Costello’s interpretation remains faithful but adds another layer to it.  Enjoy.

In the kitchen, an amused Barney, arm well braced in measured anticipation of the recoil, smiles with anticipation as he takes aim at the enchanting Alison.

Alison, inspiration for the song of that name, sitting across the kitchen table, brazenly  ignoring the gun pointed at her, enchants me with what I hopefully imagine is the gaze of a beautiful woman interested in my presence.

WORD

jive [jahyv] n. 1. swing music or early jazz 2. the jargon associated with swing music and early jazz 3. Slang. deceptive, exaggerated, or meaningless talk: Don’t give me any of that jive! ∞ v. 4. to play jive 5. to dance to jive; jitterbug 6. Slang. to engage in kidding, teasing, or exaggeration 7. Slang. to tease; fool; kid: Stop jiving me! ∞ adj. 8. Slang. insincere, pretentious, or deceptive

BIRTHDAY

Frank Calder (1877), Soichiro Honda (1906), Gordon Lightfoot (1938), Martin Scorsese (1942), Lauren Hutton (1943), Danny DeVito (1944), Lorne Michaels (1944), Gene Clark (1944), Stephen Root (1951), Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (1958), Jeff Buckley (1966), Sophie Marceau (1966), Daisy Fuentes (1966), Kimya Dawson (1972)

STANDPOINT

Short and sweet today. I’m really quite annoyed with the all the goddamn Christmas ads, sales, etc. that are all ready all over the place.

Despite my misanthropic tendencies, I’m really kind of a softie in some ways. I like the holidays. I do.

But this time of year has been kind of tainted, for me, by all the commercialism. Even those of you out there who possess the unending optimism I enjoy frowning upon know this to be true.

For lack of a better, more definitive sentiment: BAH! HUMBUG!

QUOTATION

There are about five things to write songs about: I’m leaving you. You’re leaving me. I want you. You don’t want me. I believe in something. Five subjects, and twelve notes. For all that, we musicians do pretty well. → Elvis Costello

TUNE

I know. I’m beating this HTC commercial thing into the ground. I just like it. Really like it. More than I like most people. For those of you wondering what song is actually playing, it’s a remix of “Sinnerman” by Nina Simone. One of the comments on YouTube simply reads, “Futureproof.” Sums it up.

GALLIMAUFRY

→ Oprah Winfrey and Sarah Palin were on the same stage and no one thought to do the proper thing and plant explosives. Christ, people, do I have to think of everything?

→ In what’s becoming sadly commonplace, another celebrity has died young. Ken Ober, the host of the late-80s MTV game show “Remote Control,” passed away yesterday at the age of 52. As of yet, no one’s sure how.

→ All right, on a personal note, here’s a picture of my favorite piece of art – “Woman with a Water Jug” by Johannes Vermeer. It’s only 18 in. by 16 in. The detail is amazing. Best part is that the painting currently resides in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The latest dip into my oh-so-very self indulgent archives goes right back to the start. As I was lugging bags of shopping out of the boot, the phone rang and I answered, suitably flustered, with a curt, ‘Hello?’, not recognising the number. I was greeted with, “Hi, it’s Paul Du Noyer at Word magazine.” Being more than a little bit of a music press geek, this was a fairly unbelievable moment. My little piece on some Elvis Costello reissues that I’d emailed off a week or so previous had not only been received and read by Paul Du Noyer, but he actually liked it! And here he was, offering me the chance to do a page review of his new one, with the reissues rolled in for good measure. It’s one of those moments that I’ll always remember and it was an instant shot of euphoria that’s hard to top. Looking back at it now, its not too bad. The bus analogy could be worse and you can tell I used to absorb anything and everything I read  – I still regularly read six titles – but I reckon it’s not a bad debut!

Feel free to tell me otherwise!

***

ELVIS COSTELLO

North (and re-issues of Get Happy! Trust and Punch The Clock)

Deutsche Grammophon

The odds of hearing Elvis Costello singing; “I want to kiss you in a rush, and whisper things to make you blush” were never very high. It is not what you would expect of him. Which is probably why he’s gone and done it. One suspects he’s not keen on the idea of being predictable. His last album, released on a hip-hop label was a College Chart Number One in America. Other recent work included providing the music for a ballet production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and recording the old Chaplin tune ‘Smile’ for a Japanese detective show. The man simply, and rather charmingly, cannot be pigeonholed. Speaking in WORD some months back, Costello told how he felt his last release, ‘When I Was Cruel’, “didn’t have a tremendous amount of heart” to it. By contrast his new album wears its heart ever so firmly on its sleeve.

Those of us willing to invest in Costello’s eclecticism have long since given up trying to guess what will be heard after pressing play on each new release. Pooling classical and jazz influences, ‘North’ plots an emotional journey that one would be churlish to pretend does not begin with his split from Cait O’Riordan in the autumn of last year. A sparse sombre tone pervades the initial tracks and you can’t help but wonder if loss and pain will loom like storm clouds over the entire album.

The mood lightens as the album progresses with a certain air of chronological autobiography. On ‘Still’, The Brodsky Quartet are finally reunited with Costello, a decade on from the glorious ‘Juliet Letters’, and their appearance appears to bring about a more engaging performance style that propels the record to its conclusion. ‘Let Me Tell You About Her’ is virtually a “conventional” love song, one of Costello’s first. You can almost picture Costello gliding over the keys in the corner of a smoky jazz bar, while the muted trumpet finale surely begs for a black and white film for it to soundtrack. It’s gorgeous, with the vocal making full use of Costello’s baritone while the lyrics are immensely heartfelt if unexpectedly, but utterly forgivably, a tad clumsy.

‘North’ comes to its close with ‘I’m In The Mood Again’, thus completing our hero’s journey towards his new-found happiness with Diana Krall. The melody reflects the lighter mood that has replaced the foreboding initial textures, and contentment is as prominent as it can be on an album bearing the legend ‘Elvis Costello’. In the sleeve notes of the remastered ‘Punch The Clock’ Costello describes much of his oeuvre as “allergic to the happy ending”, but, ever one to contradict, ‘North’ appears more than willing to buck such a trend.

As well as ‘Punch The Clock’, ‘Get Happy!’ and ‘Trust’ have also just re-emerged as part of the ongoing reissue programme. It’s hard to pick fault with the whole collection let alone these three, which between them contain over seventy bonus tracks; a live version of ‘High Fidelity’ aping the style of Bowie’s ‘Station To Station’ and practically the entire ‘Punch The Clock’ album in its uncluttered demo form amongst the highlights.

Costello’s accompanying essays are almost worth the admission fee alone, with recollections as wide-ranging as mistakenly adding echo to Chet Baker’s trumpet part on ‘Shipbuilding’ and the magical imagery conjured by the phrase “a rather lifeless lesbian discotheque”, which was apparently the only nearby entertainment during the recording of ‘Get Happy!’. The remastered sound is warm and forgiving, even with parts of ‘Punch The Clock’, and the bonus discs are genuine delights in every instance.

It’s hard to imagine ‘North’ selling as well as these earlier albums did, and I can’t imagine Costello is that bothered. This is another of those albums he’s wanted to make, another expression of his desire to try everything and a record that will no doubt incite as much criticism from some as it will praise from others. It’s not a classic, but it’s a lovingly crafted record that you will keep returning to, slowly allowing its subtle charms to seep in.

Speaking to the BBC a few years ago, Elvis said: “if you don’t like this one, maybe you’ll like the next one. They’re not all a series of red buses that are all the same”. Listening to the shift from ‘When I Was Cruel’ to ‘North’, quite what sort of buses the record companies will be repackaging twenty years from now, God only knows.

Originally published in Word Magazine, 2003

Dans son  Bruce Brunch du  15 novembre 2009 sur The Hawk, la radio rock du Jersey shore, Tom Cunningham a retrouvé et interviewé le fan qui a fait la “request” d’Higher and Higher lors du concert de Bruce Springsteen du 20 octobre au Spectrum de Philadelphie.

Ce fan a expliqué son choix : ce classique soul des années 60 lui semblait particulièrement convenir avec la trompette de Curt Ramm.
Séduit par ce morceau, Bruce Springsteen l’a joué depuis dans tous ses concerts, sauf celui de Saint-Louis le 25 octobre.
Le plus souvent, Higher and Higher vient conclure en beauté le show, comme ci-dessous le 8 novembre au Madison Square Garden de New Ÿork, en duo avec Elvis Costello.

Hello all,

My name is Zach, and I intern at Bikiniwax. My assignment for today was to revamp the BW blog, which seemed like a no-brainer.

Zach’s Inner-Monologue: “How hard could it be to make a blog look nice? Not that hard, right? Right?”

It was actually kinda rough. WordPress is a great blog platform, one of the better ones I’ve used, but they’re not very into customizing their layouts unless you’re into paying for extra features, which, as an independent record label we’re not entirely too keen on. So Leah and I set about choosing the most agreeable pre-fab layout, and 10 minutes later, Ta Dah! The blog went from looking like a plain Jane “I blog about indigenous frog species’ of Arizona!” blog to a “Hey, I’m a hip young record label that happens to also run a blog” blog. Rock.

And yet there was still one element missing: a breath-taking banner for the top of the page. The banner is the one truly customizable component of the layout for us, so Leah and I took finding the perfect banner image very seriously. We searched the internet with unbelievable scrutiny and thoroughness, trying every single viable search phrase we could think of on Google Images. We found some really amazing artwork out there, but everything was either too small or too low-resolution for our uses. So what’s a lowly intern and his direct superior to do in this situation? A thought occurred me…

Today I am proud to announce the first Bikiniwax Records “Help Us Make A Sweet Blog Banner” Contest!

Here’s the details: The dimensions of the banner must be 760 x 151 pixels. We love artsy stuff around here, so if it looks like someone in a great deal of emotional pain made it, all the better. Ideally the banner will involve bikinis, music, turn tables, things of the like. Leah wasn’t really feeling the color red today, so let’s shy away from that pigment. Also, included in this post is a JPEG file of our logo, winning banners will include this logo, ladies and gents. Sound good? Let’s talk about what you get if you win, cause I know that prizes are important.

IF YOU WIN!!! You’ll get a copy of the new Bikiniwax Records 8-Track Compilation, BW’s clever little throw-back to the glorious era of the 1960’s. The Bikiniwax 8-Track Compilation is a monthly mix featuring 8 songs from the Bikiniwax catalouge, and the winner of the banner contest will get a copy of the very first 8-Track Comp. Pretty sweet huh?

Submissions should be emailed to info@bikiniwax.com with the subject “Help Us Make A Sweet Blog Banner” Contest Submission.

In the mean time, I’ll leave you lovely people with a video that blew my mind last night when I got back from Optimist Club and did the requisite drunkenly-playing-around-on-the-computer-before-passing-out deal:

-Zach

Every Friday, we will be bringing you this bite sized guide to things going on that we find interesting for the next seven days to follow.

Saturday, November 14th

Craig Finn, Tad Kubler of The Hold Steady, and some guy named Chuck Klosterman are doing a 1PM happy hour at Le Poisson Rouge.  Ten bucks.

Another Hold Steady member (and guy soon to be published on Julius Singer Press), Franz Nicolay plays with one of our favorite bands, The Shondes, and also Soft Power, featuring Mary Timony for a night called Hartzveytik! A Heartbreak Survival Society Social.  @ Southpaw, 8PM. Ten bucks.

Sunday, November 15th

If you have 35 bucks and want to schlep out to the the 92nd Street Y on Upper West Side, then by all means, go listen to Max Brenner talk about chocolate, and his new book about…chocolate.  Be advised, I don’t think there will be chocolate, but I could be wrong.

Monday, November 16th

The Jesus Lizard got back together for whatever reason.  Just watch this video, and don’t ask questions.   At the Fillmore at Irving Plaza, 25 bucks.

Tuesday, November 17th

Chris Leo hosts a night of  “lyrics vs. poetry” at Lolita Bar in NYC.  Appearing are Danny Leo (yes, he is related to the host), poet Chelsea Hodson, and more.  It’s free, and there are five dollar margaritas.

Jonathan Lethem will make a trek from Park Slope to Williamsburg to appear at Spoonbill and Sugartown at 8PM.  Free.

Elvis Costello is appearing at Barnes and Noble in Tribecca to pimp out the DVDs from season one of his show, “Spectacle: Elvis Costello With…“.  Free.

Wednesday, November 18th

WORD presents a reading of the book State by State by editor Sean Wilsey and writer Jed Lipinski at 7:30PM.  Free.

Thursday, November 19th

Our very own Vol. 1 Brooklyn Storytelling series will takeover Bar Matchless for one last time in 2009 with what we gotta say is a pretty phenomenal lineup featuring Porochista Khakpour, Aaron Hartman, Tobias Carroll, Clay McLeod Chapman, and Claire Shefchik.  Starts at 8PM, and is free.  Facebook invite is here.

Friday, November 20th

We are gonna guess tUnE-yArDs are going to be huge. Go see them free in Greenpoint at Permanent Records.

Today Jason Boesel announced that his debut album will be released January 12, 2010.

Boesel, the drummer of Rilo Kiley, The Elected, and Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, collaborated on his new album with Nik Freitas, Blake Mills, Orenda Fink, Dave Rawlings, Taylor Goldsmith, Blake Sennett, and producer Jonathan Wilson (Elvis Costello and Jenny Lewis).

Team Love, Boesel’s label, describes the 11-song debut as an “Americana album” filled with country-folk, mid-’70s California rock, and alt-country.

For a free download of the second song on the album, called “Hand of God,” click here.

Is this baby crying in German or French?  A new study says we may be able to tell. The study was originally discussed on my sister pod, The World’s science podcast. It   concludes that we begin language acquisition in the womb. At that stage, we are, well, a captive audience to mama’s words; researchers say we pick up a bit of her accent and intonation. Then after birth, we cry in ways that imitate that accent and intonation.

Then it’s off to Ukraine, where the Ukrainian language (see alphabet above) is enjoying a government-sponsored revival. This comes at the expense of Russian – with the notable and ever-delightful exception of swear words: people still curse almost exclusively in Russian. Why? you tell me, please…In any case, the government’s support of Ukrainians, especially in schools and colleges has turned this into an election issue. The two front runners in next January’s presidential vote are the pro-Western Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who generally favors the promotion of Ukrainian, and the more Kremlin-oriented Viktor Yanukovych, who believes Russian should be protected.  Which leaves our Kiev-based reporter, Brigid McCarthy, somewhat conflicted as to which language to study.

Finally, a conversation with the two French guys behind cover band Nouvelle Vague. Their new album re-imagines punk and new wave classics by The Sex Pistols, Plastic Bertrand and others. The singers tend to be non-native English speakers, female and young — young enough in some cases not to have heard the originals, or know about the ethos and vibe of punk. I like a lot of their reinterpretions because they’re so wildly different from the originals, yet add something that was seemingly overlooked by the original artists. It’s as if the musical code — the language — is flipped to reveal something previously hidden.  So, the vicious anger of the Sex Pistols’ version of God Save the Queen becomes a sweet, hymnal folk song. The Police’s poppy So Lonely becomes a desperate, haunting dirge. There’s a great linguistic flip too:  for the one song with lyrics in French, Plastic Betrand’s Ça Plane Pour Moi, the singer is an English woman who enunciates the French words with a marked English accent.

At the end of our interview, I offered the Nouvelle Vague guys my two cents on the punk classics they might next tackle:  anything from Elvis Costello’s My Aim is True album, Richard Hell’s Blank Generation,  Iggy Pop’s Dog Food, and top of the list:  a very early single from Adam and the Ant called Young Parisians. They should sing that one in French.

Listen in iTunes or here.

OK, I just need to include an image of the Pistols.