Breaking blog silence for a few moments because I actually can’t stop listening to this bad boy, and think those of you not already part of the Twitter wave might get a kick out of it:
Nixsight does still exist, I promise. Just got a lot going on, and not got a smart enough work-flow to keep you up to speed on it all at the moment!
A bit of a diversion this week, because… well, because the urge took me, and I had to take it back…
I’ve loved They Might Be Giants for such a long time, but it’s a peculiar kind of love. They are the loyal, cute and intelligent friend that I forget about from time to time, but when something reminds me of them, I have to seek them out instantly, nervously concerned that they won’t remember me. A quick search reveals that so much has changed in their lives – like a new album that I knew nothing about. I wonder how much they’ll have changed.
Then, of course, it turns out that they do remember me. And even though they’ve got more stories to tell, we easily fall into the same old conversations.
Oh, god, They Might Be Giants are my Cookie.
Anyway, people know the band for a lot of things that the band aren’t. It isn’t their fault, or the band’s, really. The closest they ever got to fame were with two songs that could easily be described as novelty hits, and that’s the sort of peculiar celebrity that can kill an otherwise long-lived group.
In fact, those two songs – “Birdhouse In Your Soul” and “Istanbul” – though characteristic of the band’s output musically, and a lot of fun, aren’t typical TMBG tracks, though Birdhouse comes close. If all of their output had that same crowd-pleasing infectious appeal, and that was all they had going for them, I would have loved them for the length of the glorious summer of 1990, but I don’t know if they’d still resonate with me as much as they do today.
The internet is doing what the internet does with the newly released JJ Abrams Star Trek trailer.
The “five things” format seems to be working out quite well for me, so here’s five things about it, after the jump.
This starts out giving you the impression that it’ll be pretty annoying, but after a few seconds it becomes kinda hypnotic…
Edited to add:
Peter Serafinowicz does his own fifty impressions, this time in two minutes. But I think they’re a little bit funnier.
This week, more Drugstore, I’m afraid. I’d apologise for the lack of imagination this shows, if Drugstore weren’t so fucking awesome.
Hardly anybody ever heard the band, which is a tragic shame. The blend of their melancholy lyrics and Isobel Monteiro’s heartbreaking vocals is just as haunting and evocative as all hell.
3. The Adventures Of Isobel – Drugstore
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I once saw Isobel play this song on stage at Southampton’s adorably cruddy Joiners. As I recall, the rest of the band were offstage having a break, and Isobel played on through, bottle of wine at her feet, acoustic guitar massive against her tiny frame.
Which is funny, because when you listen to it, it sounds like the song that Bjork must have thought she was singing over and over again, all those years ago. It has her whimsy. But it has Isobel’s macabre sense of humour. For example, the line:
“She killed the beast with her long blonde hair,
Than calmly Isobel ate the bear.”
Both predates and predicts the imagery that makes all of those daft Asian horror movies so spooky. Looking at Monteiro onstage, you can almost picture her doing away with a big brown bear exactly the same way. And smiling sweetly afterwards.
2. Nectarine – Drugstore
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This song, again, is superficially morbid, but full of vicious humour and sticky imagery. There’s a haunting and repetitive phrasing used throughout it, with lines like this one:
“I’ve still got the knife that I used to get rid of that guy.”
And each of the things Isobel says during these phrases are images that still come to me from time to time, and have reflected in some of the stuff I’ve written for Elephant Words.
3. Favourite Sinner – Drugstore
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Throughout this song, Isobel seems to be reflecting on her mortality, and coming to terms with her own demons. But then, of course, because it’s Drugstore, she’s also talking about a final, defiant act in the face of God. And it’s unclear what that act is – it might be suicide, but it might just as likely be the case that Isobel is singing about killing God.
No YouTube bonus this week. Instead, here’s an extra bit of glorious Drugstore goodness – a beautiful instrumental version of the song “Gravity”, performed, I believe, with a full string section.
Gravity (Instrumental String Version) – Drugstore
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If you liked these songs, or you have a Drugstore memory, or, you know, even if you just fancy a chat, as always please leave a comment!
A really simple trio of songs this week, or rather, the same song, but three very different versions, because I’m feeling playful.
3. She Don’t Use Jelly – The Flaming Lips
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This is the original version of this song, but I think it may have been the second one I heard. It isn’t my favourite, coming from a period of the band’s history that was more experimental than accessible, but I have grown to like it a lot.
2. She Don’t Use Jelly – Ben Folds Five
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… And this is the one I heard for the first time most recently. It’s a lovely, sweeping, swooping version, and considering Ben Folds Five are the most straightforward of the three bands here, it’s the most peculiar and different of the versions. It’s the one that shows just how far an interpretation of a song can go from the original, as well, which is ace.
1. She Don’t Use Jelly – Drugstore
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My favourite take on this song, and actually the first time I heard it was performed by this band. It may even have been live. I’ve seen them a few times, and I do wonder what ever became of them. The lead singer, Isobel, was always so talented but I guess always seemed like she might put too much strain on a really long career. She did like the red wine, that’s something that I remember very clearly from the various times I saw them at The Joiners.
(more…)
God, I love Chip Zdarsky so bad!
Okay, so this week I’m resorting to a theme, because I’ve got a head full of it.
First up, we’ll start with something new:
3: Monkey’s World - Monkey
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If you read my Twitter feed, you know that the drama between ordering the new Damon Albarn/Jamie Hewlett album and actually receiving it was a little long-winded. You’ll also know that my first listen was a little disappointing. So if your first listen to this track is a bit peculiar, don’t worry – it makes sense in the context of the album, and it takes a while to grow on you.
What Albarn has done here is a proper Chinese Opera extravaganza - the album as a whole is abstract and bewildering, with the only possible touchstone I can think of being the classic and just as original Akira soundtrack – but if you begin to imagine the spectacle that might have joined it on stage, it begins to come together.
And this is one of the classic stories of all time, so goddamn it I am going to listen to it until the gorgeous illustrations on the inlay start to come alive for me.
2: Monkey Gone To Heaven – The Pixies
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In the story ”Journey To The West”, that Albarn’s play is based on, the Monkey symbolises, among other things, the quixotic and stubborn nature of man, railing against authority. At least, I choose to think he does.
That has nothing to do with this classic, beyond that the monkey here probably also represents the human experience, and while the lyrical content of the song doesn’t follow it through, the title evokes a recurring theme within the story.
Actually, there’s probably very little that the one and the other have in common, beyond the obvious “monkey” thing. But come on! It’s monkeys!
And also it’s Frank Black screaming that line: “If the devil is six then God is seven, then God is seven, then God is seven”, before the softness of the chant kicks in about that monkey, and how he’s gone to heaven. Lovely…
1: Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey’s Head – Gorillaz
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Yes, yes, strictly speaking this is a little cheap, as it’s Albarn and Hewlett again. What do you want from me? I never said there were any actual RULES to this weekly Top Three thing.
But really, this has to be one of my favourite songs ever – certainly my favourite Gorillaz track, and I love the band so that’s saying something. The story in the song is evocative and poignant without the allegory in it ever being too obvious, and having it delivered flat by an unusually restrained Dennis Hopper is inspired. This is possibly the prettiest and most sensitive that Albarn’s voice has ever sounded, too.
That final verse, delivered after the rest of the action, always jarred with me as being a bit too blunt after the near-whimsy of the rest of the song, but now that I’ve got used to it, it seems vital.
A final treat after the break…
… After standing up in the midst of thousands of strangers for five hours. But that’s okay, because we were watching live music. I’ve no idea what the capacity of the Rosebowl is, but it’s a pretty big cricket-ground venue, and by the time the band played it was packed. The weather kept threatening to turn on us, from dull and overcast to positively nasty, with odd flashes of sun that only really promised that rain, if it came, would be heavy and in a storm.
Girl One kept saying that the weather would hold. She is a terrible optimist when it comes to things like this.
[Spoiler: She was right.]
Oh, Hulk. Will you ever learn?
Awww…!
365 2010 (via Foxtongue)
Logan and Me (from My Flickr Account)
Not for nothing, but as much weight as I seem to be putting on, my chin doesn’t usually disperse to quite this extent.
Logan is at least as adorable as seen here, though.