For a friend…

It’s that time of year again when people forgo their usual sarcasms and recognize the good things in life. I know there is a lot to be sarcastic about these days and, if you watch entertainment news or The Soup, you know what I’m talking about. But there are many things to be thankful for such as good music. So, here are ten things that I’m thankful for (all music related of course): 

10. Drum Off 09: I’m thankful that there are corporations such as Guitar Center that still the value quality music, hosting events like this featuring the best drummers like Danny Carey from Tool and Brian Dailor from Mastodon.

9. Webcasts: I’m thankful for webcasts that bring festivals like Coachella and KROQ’s Almost Acoustic Christmas to my computer every year when I can’t be there in person.

8. The Beastie Boys, Vandals, and The Aquabats: I’m thankful that there are really talented musicians who resist the urge to take themselves seriously.

7. Natasha Khan from Bat for Lashes: I’m thankful this rising star thinks the Karate Kid and Stevie Nicks are important cultural icons.

6. Insanely unique musicians: I’m thankful for musicians such as Maynard James Keenan, Tori Amos, Bjork and Mike Patton, who all take music to places no one ever imagined or expected.

5. NIN farewell tour: I’m thankful that I finally got to see NIN live before Trent Reznor retired it.

4. Deftones’ resilliance: I’m thankful that Chi Cheng is still holding on and maybe someday we’ll get to see him play again.

3. The Cure still rocks: I’m thankful this band is still touring and making great music. Without The Cure, Deftones and Muse would never sound the way they do.

2. Rage Against the Machine reunion: I’m thankful that I got to see this band reunite at Coachella in 2007 with 80,000 other RATM fans.

1. Bad Religion continues to comment on American society: I’m thankful Greg Graffin is saying all the things that need to be said and is also a UCLA professor, who is actually doing his part to help mold American youth into critically thinking members of society. 

And now a Band of the Week I am very thankful for…Placebo!

I’ve been listening to this band for a while now and I am surprised that they are not as big in the states as they are everywhere else. Since the first time that I heard their cover of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” I was hooked. I enthusiastically suggest anything from their 2006 album Meds, but you must hear “Lazarus” and “Drag.” They recently released a new album Battle for the Sun and I am loving “The Never-Ending Why.” I saw them live at Coachella and I highly recommend catching them live. However, this band will be on a World tour until March. Hopefully, these Brits will visit the states soon.

Until next time, protege moi. -K

1. paul and john
treemiesters
balloonhands
noo wayy
laughing
most of our way
through the monotony
and when that doesn’t work
i’m locked into the bathroom
singing beulah land

2. burning walnuts
for the pesto
twice

3. sheet tray of potatoes
450 degrees
meets bare arm
shock of heat
pink patching and spreading across skin

4. the undeniable
mathematical
and scientific approach
to poetry
including charts and
computations

5. how quick
sun slips
stopping
halfway there
to fetch bike light
from bag
to be seen
in the thick dark

6. the poem
that killed
the whole room
with sister in the last stanza
i don’t need to tell you
what she’s doing
in the doorway
at the rescue missison

7. this is not a love affair
but i am tortured and passionate

8. the essay
that refuses
to write itself

9. gelato for dinner
kitchen laughter for dessert

10. scalloped hanky
of so many feathers
tucked into
back right pocket

much too long since i’ve been here…and now off the birded wings of thanksgiving eve…i bring you. me.

this whole adam lambert thing. hm. i was watching the american music awards and thought they were alright. really enjoyed a lot of the performances…i grew up on tori amos, pj harvey and bjork, so honestly lady gaga sparks no interest in me whatsoever…the overly dramatic live shows (of which i’ve seen on awards shows) leaves just a whole host of dramatics and not enough sound pleasure for me. i liked jay z and alicia keys, whitney houston’s slow comeback…not feeling green day and wish they could go back to the rare beauty of their earlier punk…the album ‘dookie.’ i wish kings of leon would have performed. liked the eminem performance and i think that carrie underwood is a very talented artist…odd that taylor swift won so many and didn’t show up because of rehearsal in london but who am i? the thing that gets me the most and is getting the most publicity is american idol, adam lambert’s (a very gorgeous young man…btw) performance. i consider myself open minded however for me it was entirely out of place, way too over the top and repulsive. i really don’t wanna see oral sex simulation during a dick clark american music awards broadcast. silly me? he’s apparently unapologetic about it…and wants to equate it to janet jackson’s (who was incredibly awesome) crotch grab on a male dancer. or wants to equate it the mads and britney kiss…well, adam the networks didn’t air your kiss. and ok, janet did like six songs in a row…it was quick and she wasn’t really like…sexualizing her 1 second much as 3 minutes of his performance. lambert held a dude’s head to his crotch and continued to move his pelvis with the dude’s head. not only that he tugged between the legs of a female dancer, repeatedly…i wasn’t sure if something was supposed to pop out or what. it was too much. even for me…it was way too much. the saddest thing however is that if lambert had been akon or 50 cent or lil wayne or little richard. we have insane double standards in this country. take the janet and justin superbowl show…the media and we (not i) went crazy. you would have thought janet jackson murdered someone or had sex on air…her nip popped out. we see the nip as infants. big freakin deal. he nor she ever licked or fondled the nip…it just showed up for like a half second. you also would have thought justin timberlake was on mars during the performance, he was the garment revealer or ripper…the press hate fest focused on jackson…but justin…he was right there. insert any ethnic entertainer gay or straight…fines and talking heads would be going crazier than the electronics line will be at wal-mart tomorrow morning. we have such a bias way of thinking in this country and it’s quite sad…but true as metallica would say.

and as much as i promise i won’t watch ‘dancing with the stars’ ever again…i watch only to see it repeat a catastrophe. there’s no way that donny osmond was a better dancer than mya or kelly osborne…so i wish they’d stop letting the producers dictate the results. also, lil kim was absolutely robbed last year…mya and her top performing all season self was robbed as well. i’d feel much better if kelly osborne would have won…oh well.

on that somber note…happy thanksgiving.

here’s a new favorite video and song by p. diddy.

peace&eat!!

Just for a moment there I thought I might have a look into real life again… it’s a good thing I get back to ground level fast these days. An evening with potato chips, dip and red wine is cozy enough… but I hate the day after feeling of nervousness and hangover nerves of saying or doing stupid things. It’s a good thing I will never ever do that again this year at least (or ever if I manage) ’cause the feeling of being a moron is worse than drinking alone… so I’ll stick to that last part in the future. For the last part, note to self, don’t bother flirting … you’ve been out of the game for over a decade and to top it off … you can’t compete with David Berkowitz. Nope, I’ll stick to WoW ^.^ I still can enjoy the occational bottle of J.D with the usual farming (it’s amazing how fast farming goes with some whiskey at the side, not that it’s something I do often…).

Driving on the ocean by Dark shore (gotta love the water walking potions).

These last few days my night has turned into day and vice versa. I’ve been doing the Pilgrims bounty on most of my characters to level cooking. It’s by far the most interesting seasonal event cause it makes your cooking easy. I must admit i had some problems with the Turkinator achievement the first day but now I have it on 5 different characters *yay*. Also I’ve leveled cooking on 5 characters up to 300 which is good for later leveling.

Had to visit and explore Bloodmyst and Azuremyst isle with my DK.

You can catch many flies with one stone while doing the Pilgrims bounty achievements… like exploring the Islands in Ally territory (like Bloodmyst and Teldrassil)… and the achievements keeps flooding in as you do stuff you wouldn’t bother normally doin on an alt. Tho I must admit playing a deathknight is pretty fun (and I love the path of frost).

We also have raided Ulduar 10 with our casual guild last weekend… I hope to do it again the coming weekend. It’s a bit new to me and exciting since we get further each time. We have gotten Freya down and working on Hodir. The Catwoman (picture above) we oneshotted this week so we seem to progress and get to train before the 3.3 patch which will make Ulduar and TOTC absolete cause of the higher gear status on Icecrown Citadel.

I’ll just continue having fun with the old content grinding reputation on my deathknight whilest waiting for the new content. I actually also love the company of guildies on a daily bases like boosting old friends in old instances or enjoying an evening in Stratholme with new friends… it makes the game more fun…

Anyways… I guess I’ll fall asleep soon… been up since 2145 last nite and I get tired fast these days.

I admit that I was all fired up to write this post when I got home, but after a hot shower, a cold beer and a phone call with my mom, I’m feeling pretty chill. Nevertheless, the show must go on.

You can't tell, but I'm flipping her off

My ride home today was scary. It was pouring rain, dark out and with all the city lights reflecting off the pavement, I was nervous about drivers seeing me and my lights. Then one particular driver had to go and be an a-hole. I was in the bike lane passing a line of stopped traffic when a car started moving into the bike lane. I yelled on the top of my lungs, “HEYYYYYYY!” to prevent being run over. The car slammed on its brakes (I’m loud) and I proceeded on.

To my surprise I heard a woman screaming behind me. I got to the front of the line, turned around and saw that the driver had rolled down her window and was screaming, “I saw you, that’s why I stopped!” This extremely pissed off and offended reaction was odd, to say the least, so I yelled back (we were a couple of car lengths away from each other), “I yelled to make sure that you saw me and did not run me over!” She repeated her first scream in a whiny screech. I responded, “Well, I’m not a mind-reader.” She screamed, “Neither am I!!” Ooookay. She doesn’t need to read my mind to avoid getting squashed. “I’m just out here trying to stay alive!” I yelled, giving her two thumbs up and an insane smile. At this point, I noticed she was on her CELL PHONE. Typical. So I made the “hang up your stupid cell phone” gesture and went on with the green light.

A little wet

The nerve of that prissy little sorority girl (window decals) to scream at me while I was on my bike in the pouring rain dodging her deadly machine is disgusting. I’m reading Traffic right now; I understand all the whacked out psychology, but that doesn’t mean I accept it. I bet she would not have been yelling like that if she wasn’t protected by her car. I haven’t wanted to give someone a beat down that badly in quite a while. I can’t believe this violence in my heart, but if I did it fast, you know that’s an act of kindness. She’s lucky that I believe in peace (b***ch).

[Check out 6:35 and bless Tori for having a different song for my every mood.]

Hey, look at that: I’m all fired up again. Nothing like reliving anger through blogging.

I’ve just decided that my favorite CD this year is Tori’s new one called Winter Graces.  It’s an updated take on carols with original material strewn in here and there.  It’s breathtaking to say the least.  If you can, get out and buy a copy now – there’s one with 2 tracks (including Silent Night) along with a DVD (great interview about the music she chose and how she Tori-fied them) – - – incredible.

Even if you don’t like Tori or ’seasonal’ music – you may like this one.  It’s a diamond in the rough (especially with all the bad music going on lately) – at least this is one artist that will never fit into “the commercial machine”.

Other CDs this year I recommend for gifts:

Pet Shop Boys: Yes

Mika: The Boy Who Knew Too Much

Noisettes: Wild Young Hearts

Annie Lennox: The Annie Lennox Collection (CD/DVD Special)

Ogni anno me ne vengo fuori con una compilation estiva per i miei conoscenti, una sorta di tradizione che continua dai tempi del liceo. Le compilation sono piccole creature d’amore, veri e propri omaggi a quegli artisti la cui musica diventa, giorno dopo giorno, ascolto dopo ascolto, la colonna sonora delle nostre vite.

Grazie a queta pratica (fare compilation, cassette, cd o anche semplici playlist) attraverso gli anni ho fatto conoscere moltissimi artisti a svariate persone, che poi si sono trovate anche a comprare dischi o ad andare ai concerti di questi musicisti. Di nuovo la domanda sorge spontanea; quanto realmente danneggia un musicista la cultura del file-sharing?

E comunque bisogna sempre guardare avanti, come ci dice Chris in questo brillante intervento su youtube. La grande opportunitá per gli artisti di slegarsi dalle logiche di mercato e dalle regole imposte dall’industria discografica sta proprio nel trovare alternative alla vendita del prodotto/disco.

Anche i Radiohead, che in una recente intervista affermavano che non avrebbero piú rilasciato un disco, non hanno annunciato la loro fine ma un nuovo inizio, come poi ha spiegato Colin Greenwood in un susseguente intervento. Gli artisti devono pensare le loro opere all’interno delle nuove culture tecnologiche e sociali. Il formato cd é ormai obsoleto. Un musicista oggi ha l’opportunitá di presentare i propri lavori sotto moltissime nuove forme, grazie soprattutto a internet.

Questa qui sotto é la mia compilation proposta per l’inverno. La tracklist é un semplice consiglio d’ascolto, ma guarda caso sono riuscito a trovarla da qualche parte in rete, perció se vi va di scaricarla, accomodatevi: http://is.gd/52rS9

Buon ascolto a tutti!!

THE COLONY COMPILATION
Winter 2010

01 – BIG ELF – Money is pure evil
02 – WOLFMOTHER – New Moon Rising
03 – PORCUPINE TREE – Time Flies
04 – DIABLO SWING ORCHESTRA – Balrog Boogie
05 – JOHN ZORN – Miller’s Crake
06 – THE MARS VOLTA – Copernicus
07 – PINK MARTINI – And Then You’re Gone
08 – THE DEAR HUNTER – The Poison Woman
09 – NORAH JONES – Even Though
10 – TRANSATLANTIC – The wind blew them all away
11 – JULLIETTE LEWIS – Fantasy Bar
12 – TORI AMOS – Snow Angel
13 – BEARDFISH – Destined_solitaire
14 – ALICE – Island

Picture by Willoclick

The title says it all. I’ve fixed some of the broken links in my first posts. You can now listen and download the songs from Rilo Kiley/Jenny Lewis/Postal Service, The Orion Experience, The Beatles/Chairlift, Tori Amos, Cake, and http://cookingonsale.com/2009/10/03/fruity-desserts/ in their respective posts. Again, sorry about the broken links! They’re all patched up.

Got a last.fm account? Join the Wears The Trousers listening group here. We’ll be publishing details of what members are listening to every week throughout the year.

Week ending 22/11/09

Unique to the group

01 Tori Amos (2)
02 Lisa Germano (-)
03 Mariee Sioux (-)
04 Soap&Skin (9)
05 Ani DiFranco (-)
06 Lauren Hoffman (-)
07 Marissa Nadler (-)
08 Jesca Hoop (-)
09 Bat For Lashes (6)
10 Cat Power (-)

Overall charts

01 Tori Amos (1)
02= Regina Spektor (2)
02= Cat Power (5)
04 Bat For Lashes (3)
05 Lady Gaga (9)
06 Tegan & Sara (4)
07= Sufjan Stevens (-)
07= Yeah Yeah Yeahs (-)
07= Sia (-)
10 Garbage (-)

* * *

This week’s stats are based on the compulsive habits of 279 listeners.

I’ve made a new playing list. Do you have a special music list at your iPod/MP3/etc?

1. Lykke Li – Possibility
2. M.I.A – Paper Planes
3. Oh Laura – Release Me
4. Tori Amos – Winter
5. Antsy Pants – Vampire
6. Muse – Time is running out
7. Muse – Starlight
8. Muse – New Born

9. Katie Melua – If the Lights go Out
10. R.E.M – the Great Beyond
11. Velvet Underground – I’m sticking with you
12. Kimya Dawson – Tire Swing

13. Arctic Monkeys – Mardy Bum
14. Bloc Party – Two More Years
15. Bloc Party – This Modern Love
16. The Cranberries – Zombie
17. The Cranberries – Salvation

I am kinda into that alternative music sound these days. Not that these artists are too alternative. But still, they make really great music.

Tori Amos performed an incredible solo concert in Adelaide, Australia, on November 19, 2009 — watch the entire show below (filmed by cobbercpd) and download it in mp3 format here. This is one of her best solo concerts ever!

Last Saturday, Kristen and I were talking about the music history workshops we taught with some bad-ass GRCA alums for the Girls Now! conference. As you can imagine, it’s hard to pare down nearly a century’s worth of female contributions to popular music into a 75-minute PowerPoint presentation and have it be fun and interactive as well. Thus, we made sure to include many music videos and performance clips that hopefully engaged our girl attendees. One such clip was Christina Aguilera’s Grammy performance of James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World,” apparently beloved by Patti Smith. Afterwards, Kristen mentioned that it was possible to do an entire section on cover songs and wished we had more time to highlight and discuss more interesting examples.

Too right, Kristen. In fact, I think I started this section of the blog to cull together noteworthy cover songs, as I think covers are fascinating. What does song selection and interpretation say about the artist? How do their personae, generic alignments, and identity markers give the source material new meaning? What does it mean for Solange Knowles — aka Ms. “Fuck the Industry (Signed Sincerely)” — to cover an indie rock song like Dirty Projectors’ “Stillness Is The Move,” which was originally inspired by Wim Wenders’s Wings of Desire and includes a sample of “Bumpy’s Lament” in her version? What does it mean for Cat Power to adopt the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” as a signature song and create several arrangements of it ranging from stripped-down folk to soulful rave-up? How does Tori Amos blow apart Eminem’s misogynistic murder fantasy in ”‘97 Bonnie and Clyde” by orienting herself as the dead wife in the trunk? 

Tori Amos as Bonnie; image courtesy of hereinmyhead.com

(Note: For further insight into the last song mentioned, I recommend reading Lori Burns and Alyssa Woods’s “Authenticity, Appropriation, Signification: Tori Amos on Gender, Race, and Violence in Covers of Billie Holiday and Eminem.” Also, I might need to get around to unpacking the cover art for Amos’s Strange Little Girls at some point.)

Continuing why I hope to be an on-going discussion, tonight I selected two songs originally recorded by James Brown and Sam Cooke. ”It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” has always seemed to me to be an ode to chauvinism. ”A Change Is Gonna Come,” however, is an anthem for social change that came to define the Civil Rights Movement. But think about what additional meanings these songs may have when performed by Christina Aguilera and Sharon Jones.  

for Tori Amos (whose guise my guardian angel assumed in a dream)

in a place safe from battle
she awoke me from my deathbed
gently in a dream
of mauve and velvet
and the starry crowns

of violet-green passiflora

exploding from a fire escape,

attracting sparrows—
the only indicator

of surrealism

and half-asleep and blinking
I waited at her wooden table
as a teapot whistled—
and as she rode through the doorframe
like a birthday candle flame
in a dress made of peacock feathers,

I just listened



and she said:

love yourself—
I mean really love yourself

as in a verb, an act of,
not some abstract notion—
as in a knowing
that your cells 
love the blood oceans
they swim in,

singing psalms
to their only heart.



She said:


cultivate radiance—

I mean the kind

that bursts from your eye sockets
like comic book stars
and drips from your pores
like the nectar of lilacs
that calls the irridescence

of hummingbird wings,

like the mystical amber buzz 

of honey—



she said—


be a sister to yourself
be a mother to yourself

be a lover to yourself
be an infant to yourself
be everything to yourself

and elevate yourself

as so human,

as the goddess you are



because no matter what
there’s never enough time
for a woman to heal herself,
to make love to herself
to know herself

to go inside herself,
and no matter what,
the world won’t give you that—



so you have to take your heart
and hold it tight
inside the callouses 

of your palms,

and let it loose 

with the blood jewels

that slip unchecked
from your depths,

let it drag from your limbs
like magnetic rattles

trailing glory
in your wake

as you fold towels,
trip over roller skates

and drive long hours
in industrious solitude

to make it all pay—

choosing daily between 

body and soul,
poems and life—



she said:



no matter how you struggle,

no matter how

the world pulls you under

its bunioned toes
you will have no part in ugly—
for you are
beauty itself—
you rise like the wet pale nymph,
colors awakening
into flight—
you rise 

like the timid pink sun

like the flickering neon rainbow
like the stretch of twilight shadows,
like dangerous thunderheads
like stubborn dandelions
that grow and grow
overtaking trim lawns

no matter how

you mow them—

she said:



you will win this, miss

but not by the user’s manual,

nor any tidy book of rules
and certainly not 
by closing your heart

to its semisweet core



for it is ecstasy only
that supports the orchid
on its frail foundation

of clouds and dreams

and should you dare
invite a draft
into this hothouse
you call death 

to your side—



she said:



wake up from the night

and take this ripe fruit 
of you
into your balled fist

into the hunger in your teeth
into the wide pockets of your dress

into every secret orifice
with a vigilant avarice
and spit out the pits,

don’t let anyone steal this
succulence—
no matter how busy you are,
how poor,

how your child cries

and the world needs more 

and more of you—

you are ripe,

you are whole
down to the strange sewers

of your soul. 

You give best
only when you hold on.
If you don’t know this,

then you’re just a hole, awaiting

a cement mixer to fill you—

and you have had enough 

of sidewalks.



She said:



You are love, love—

poetry in motion,
and all those pick-up clichés
from 1950’s songs
where the boy gets the girl,

only you are the girl

and already know it—



You are all the love you seek.
You are
the mystical musk of the ox,
the delicacy of rainbow
and the fragrance of orchid.

You are not a hole

but a volcano,

taking in and making
and breaking new pathways—
you are the flight of the butterfly,

the hummingbird’s irridescence

and the mythos of honey,
the secret life of bats

and the bitter melt of chocolate.

You are all things nectar

and beautiful,

you are darkness

and light
and you have no right

to deny us this,

woman—
all your sun and shadow.

She said,


Love yourself

(as in love yourself)

so that we all may love you,

lady:

bearer of light,

keeper of night,

guilty of the sin
of purity.


Spread yourself like grape vines

over these prison walls,

over each edifice
that reins in the flame

of spirit

and usurps your wine

for religion—

wash the just and unjust

with the rain of your senses,

and curl pigs and lepers

and infant angels
into the womb of your arms—

and 

with delicate skin,


press all the world’s wickedness
like pourcelain clay


into the sacred kiln
of your heart.





© Sarah N 2007

Here’s the latest batch of Music Musings and Miscellany’s unapologetically subjective selection of the twentieth century’s best 1000 singles.

FAIRPORT CONVENTION – Si Tu Dois Partir / Genesis Hall (Island 6064 1969)
In the period between the end of the sixties and punk, for the serious prog-rock, metal and folk-rock fan, the 45rpm seven inch single became a bit of a joke. Some bands (Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd) didn’t bother with them at all. For others, a hit single and a Top of the Pops appearance was a bit of a lark, not to be taken too seriously. Fairport’s cover of a Dylan song, in French, with chairback and milk bottle percussion (with an accident when one fell off the table and smashed left in the final mix) was a surprise hit. It’s not a comedy record, just light-hearted and gleeful.

LEE MORGAN – The Sidewinder / Part 2 (Blue Note 1911 1964)
Jazz artists, too, weren’t generally interested in singles. Most that were released were edits of album tracks aimed squarely at jukeboxes. The ten minute “The Sidewinder” by jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan has become one of the best known post-bop standards, with its funky rhythm and catchilly repetitive central riff. In some ways, it’s one of the foundation stones of jazz-funk, acid jazz, fusion and the rest.

PRINCE – Sign ө the Times / La La La La He He He He (Paisley Park 28399 1987)
Stepping back from his tales of sex and Corvettes, Prince unleashed this unassuming little song that dug into the underbelly of the brash and flash eighties for which he himself was part of a symbolic triumvirate of pop stars, along with Jacko and Madonna, who came to represent the ‘me’ decade. The flipside – AIDS, poverty, the still real threat of nuclear catastrophe (remember Ronnie “let’s bomb Russia” Reagan was still president) were marked out, almost without comment. It’s still his most forceful and thoughtful song.

STEVIE WONDER – Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours / I’m More Than Happy (Tamla 54196 1970)
“Signed, Sealed, Delivered” represents the end of phase one of Stevie Wonder’s career when he was still just a cog (albeit a vital one) in the Motown hit factory. As his 21st birthday loomed, he held out for a new contract that would give him unprecedented artistic control – something almost unheard of at Motown – and would pave way for his classic period when he would fuse soul, pop, gospel, electronic music and funk into his own unique and brilliant vision.

TORI AMOS – Silent All These Years / Me and a Gun (East West YZ618 1991)
Out of the flood of singer-songwriters who’ve emerged over the last two decades, Tori Amos remains a singular talent, and the two sides of this single go a long way to explaining why. The first, a lush, beautifully orchestrated, literate piano ballad. The second, a chilling a capella recounting a harrowing rape experience.

CARTER FAMILY – Single Girl, Married Girl / Storms are on the Ocean (Victor 20937 1927)
This proto-feminist tune comparing the lots of the wed and unwed woman has become one of the best-loved, and oft-covered Carter Family tunes. With good reason.

NIRVANA – Sliver / Dive (Sub Pop 72 1990)
NIRVANA – Smells Like Teen Spirit / Even In His Youth (Geffen 19050)
Only a year separates these singles. The first a dipped toe into melodic pop rock, albeit with a lyric recalling a pre-school Kurt being shipped off to his grandparents’, and despite TV and ice cream, just wanting to be in his own home. The second a Pixies parody, and last minute addition to Nevermind, that made him a reluctant global icon.

BEACH BOYS – Sloop John B / You’re So Good To Me (Capitol 5602 1966)
Added to Pet Sounds at Capitol’s insistence, “Sloop John B” doesn’t really fit with the rest of the album, but as a single works just fine. A strange choice of song for a 45, it’s actually a Bahamian song about a wild party that took place on the Nassau waterfront the night that the John B was sunk and was originally entitled “The Wreck of the John B”

ULTRAVOX! – Slow Motion / Dislocation (Island 6454 1978)
Another classic from the Foxx era, and an inspiration from everyone from Gary Numan to Duran Duran. Don’t let that put you off, though.

THE UNDISPUTED TRUTH – Smiling Faces Sometimes / You Got the Love I Need (Gordy 7108 1971)
Less a band, more Norman Whitfield’s own experimental lab rats. The man was even more of a control freak than his boss Berry Gordy, and wanting a group a little less combative and more malleable than the Temptations he ended up with the Undisputed Truth. Many songs would be road tested by the Truth before being handed to the Tempts, but they did at least have one major hit they could truly call their own – this dark, paranoid masterpiece.

PLATTERS – Smoke Gets In Your Eyes / No Matter What You Are (Mercury 71383 1958)
SABRES OF PARADISE – Smokebelch II (entry) / Smokebelch II (exit) (Sabres of Paradise 9 1993)
HOWLIN’ WOLF – Smokestack Lightning / You Can’t Be Beat (Chess 1618 1956)
ROBINS – Smokey Joe’s Café / Just Like a Fool (Spark 122 1955)
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the smoking section. The first a 1933 show tune by Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach about blind love, turned into an unparalleled piece of weepy melodrama by the rich tenor of the Platters’ Tony Williams. The Sabres of Paradise’s classic come-down instrumental has graced a million TV soundtracks, but still sounds fresh and sober. Wolf growls and howls his way through a typically apocalyptic blues, whilst the Robins encounter a problem when trying to hit on the girlfriend of a large and borderline psychotic café owner.

More soon

had an awful nightmare because the new house my mother and step-father have moved into is far too much like the house i grew up in, in appearance, design and no few details. i thought i’d be ‘ok’ with that but it’s going to take some working on and i’m not going to be able to stay with them right before i move, that’s for sure. so my apologies if this post rambles somewhat. i’m bleary eyed and my heart throbs with such intensity that i think it will burst. it doesn’t, of course but it might be better if i did, once in a while…

“someday i’ll wish upon a star and wake up where the clouds are far behind me…”

Tori Amos sang that at what was a truly blissful concert the other night. seeing her live is like nothing else. her voice does things to you. deep and marvellous things.

it makes me want my feelings back… all of them. including the ones i was forced to give up or forgot, denied, never got the chance to have or just plain suppressed along the way to wherever it is i am now.

i want them back. technically i don’t need them. but i want them. and i don’t think that’s such a crime.

it is to some people in my life, though. it scares them. makes my family think of me as an alien that has appeared in their lives. my mother keeps calling me that. she doesn’t understand… never has, she said.

doesn’t see that i’m not who i was because i’ve worked hard to get here. where maybe i can have a life and really live it… someday.

and of course and very naturally does not realise that part of it is a reaction to the deeply rooted, damaging helplessness my parents respond to things with. i don’t believe either maliciously ever did anything. but that’s just the thing. they didn’t ever do much of anything for anybody, on an emotional level, let alone for their own true selves…

and just because none of it was meant to harm doesn’t mean it didn’t. or that it was ok.

everything has always been done to them, for them or against them. in their minds, at least. even Love.

and what kind of a way to live is that?

i can’t do it. i don’t want to. so even if it means i’ve got to carry a sword on my back i won’t play it that way.

there are so many days that i just don’t feel like i have any armour left but i have more options. i intend to use them.

it isn’t quite the same as having decent self-esteem but maybe self-protection isn’t such a bad start.

Yahoo premiered Tori Amos’ video for the first single of Midwinter Graces ‘Pink and Glitter.’ Check it out here

Hay cabida para todo el mundo en el planeta de ser creativo y consciente si tú eres tu propia persona. Si estás intentando ser como otra persona, entonces no hay.

Tori Amos.

¿Cuántas veces habremos dicho por aquí que confíemos en quienes somos y lo que somos y lo que hacemos? Éste es un buen momento para repetirlo: Confía en ti, sé tú, ¡adelante!

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365 Vibraciones

Tori Amos released Midwinter Graces, her first seasonal album. Abnormally Attracted to Sin, Midwinter Graces will find Tori reworking and expanding on classic carols as well as developing some of her very own seasonal tracks Tori adds her own twist to the traditional holiday season.

tracks:
1. What Child, Nowell
2. Star of Wonder
3. A Silent Night with You
4. Candle: Coventry Carol
5. Holly, Ivy, and Rose
6. Harps of Gold
7. Snow Angel
8. Jeanette, Isabella
9. Pink and Glitter
10. Emmanuel
11. Winter’s Carol
12. Our New Year

buy album

… in which “cool” is defined as any music enjoyed by self-confessed music-fascist, Scar.

It’s probably going to contain guitars and sad men with messy hair and scruffy jeans.  Disclaimer: this is purely a style choice, not a gender-political one.  Scar is and always has been very cheerful about having a vagina.

When it’s not suicidally morbid, or even rather emo, it tends to be grunge, surfer punk and in some cases, things like Metallica and Nine Inch Nails.  Mostly, however, it tends to be stuff like Nick Cave, Mark Lanegan or a bunch of foppish looking young brits with floppy fringes.  Scar has never quite managed to shake off the nineties.

Scar is not a complete gender traitor, in fact she is sometimes known to sing tonelessly along with Tori Amos, PJ Harvey, Ani Difranco and the like.  Yup, there’s a pattern there too.

In order to fake some kind of cool factor, Scar hangs out at spinner.com and stereogum.com and downloads obscure music by bands with whimsical names.  The ones she keeps are generally the ones that remind her of nineties bands.  Her inverted snobbery is a prominent factor in her musical choices and if she admits to enjoying something mainstream, the admission is always prefaced by the muttered words, “Don’t tell anyone, but …”

Despite all of this, her favourite band since the mid-eighties has been R.E.M. and she reacts to 21st century descriptions of them as “grandad rock” with sincere distress.  She is also the only known lesbian on earth with a crush on Kurt Cobain.

Woke up this morning feeling like I’d spent the past several days drinking absinthe with Aleister Crowley and followed it up with enough Acid to trip-out a troop of hardy circus clowns.

Am having issues with the world. Would boycott but seems unlikely to actually affect anything, yes? I like my batcave, though.
(Note to self: Invest in hella sexy batgirl costume.)

As I was saying…

The world was too bright and too cold simultaneously, too brash and bold, too dense, humid and sticky with the sense that memory is seeping out of my very pores and contaminating the air I breathe.

It’s the sensuality of spirit. How dare they strip that from my faith? How dare they even try! The necessity of fire, of new passions and the faulty logic that assails me. Long lost, unwilling, insensible things that blossom in the waters of the mind.

The recurring visions cease to be merely recollections and instead invent themselves again in living colour. They drink me — all broth and no substance. Stirred and stirring in the pools of the unconscious.

Do your dreams have a soundtrack?
It always amuses me to wake up and realise that I’ve had the likes of Master of the House running through my head all night long…

“Everything has got a little price,” hey… though lord knows I’m with his wife. Meanwhile, I can think of a great many other things I’d rather be doing all night long.

I stumbled blindly to the bathroom, knees weak and hands shaking. They always shake. Nothing new. Nothing to get worked up about. Just your average day in a possibly not so very average life.
Or maybe we all wake up just exactly where we don’t want to be and trudge back to higher ground? Maybe it’s all just circles within circles. You, me, the Eucalyptus tree… all age old elements of part-time wisdom.

*Assembly required.

+Batteries not included

Off on a tea-break then aren’t we? Waiting to *live* but what is living except feverish deceptions and yearning touch? I force my hand into the morning light and feel every forgotten phrase, each electric, light bulb moment lost. There. Waiting.

Maybe just a little time off for good behaviour? Time served, your Honour.
Call off the night watchman.

I’m not going anywhere.

p.s. the title is also a nod to the fact i’m off to see Tori Amos live on Monday night!!!!!

Slim pickens for this years new Christmas albums:

* Best Choice – Must Buy:

Andrea Bocelli

What a great cd. Andrea has one of the best voices of all time and his Christmas cd is a must. Stand-outs on the album are: “The Lord’s Prayer”, “Angels We Have Heard on High”, “Adeste Fidelis”, “O Tannenbaum”, “Silent Night”, “Cantinque de Noel”, “Caro Gesu Bambino”, and “God Bless Us Everyone” (from the new A Christmas Carol movie starring Jim Carrey).

The only misstep on the cd is the duet with Mary J Blige “What Child is This”. What a mistake…

I have to say that the version of “Jingle Bells” is oddly enjoyable. It’s a duet with… The Muppets! If you can get by the “oddness” of the track I guarantee you’ll be liking this one!

* Avoid:

Sting

Aside from a couple of “okay” songs this collection of “winter songs of snow and cold” is a snooze-fest at best. Very mediocre.

* Not Good:

David Archuletta

Are we over him yet? He has a good voice but it isn’t distinct and memorable enough for me. A bunch of mediocre songs much like Stings effort. It’s a beter cd than Stings though…

* Avoid at all costs!:

Tori Amos

Her voice is grating in this album. Maybe one or two “listenable” songs on it…

* Should be BANNED:

Bob Dylan

One of the worst things I have ever subjected my ears to. And I’ve listened to some pretty horrible stuff over the years…

Merry Christmas and God Bless Us Everyone!