Here's my brush with greatness. Me and Dave at 2:30am in Champaign, Illinois. I'm the hand on the left, he's the arm on the right. We look awesome!

Destination - Queens

Jamaica, Queens was my destination this week. I had a work trip with a colleague. It was my first time stepping foot on New York soil, which was extremely exciting and also upsetting since the closest I got to the Manhattan skyline was my hotel window.

On the way there, the opening lines from Christmas in Hollis by Run DMC kept running through my head. “It’s Christmastime in Hollis Queens. Mom’s cookin chicken and collard greens.” Since I never got out of Queens, I had to find some musical associations to the area so I could feel like the trip wasn’t all work. G-Unit is from Jamaica. So these were the streets where 50 Cent got showered with bullets? It didn’t look as tough as I expected. We also ate dinner in Astoria, birthplace of John Frusciante! Okay, now the trip was successful. Forget the effing Statue of Liberty.

The flight home was hell. I was in the dreaded middle seat next to a woman with a nine month old baby, an egg-headed baby. That might sound mean. It was cute but had an enormous head. When women become moms, sometimes I think they get ultra strange. This woman was no exception. When I made eye contact with her baby, which made him smile by the way, she looked at me as if she smelled something bad. As if to tell me, don’t stare at my child! I was thinking to myself that a strange face, especially one with glasses, always entertains a baby for a bit. You’ll need me later in this flight! The young woman on the other side of me said aloud, “That baby is so cute!” prompting the mom to look at the baby and say, “They are nicer than the people we sat next to on the way out, aren’t they?” It always cracks me up when instead of talking to you, people tell their kids stuff aloud for your benefit.

I put on my headphones and chose a little Saturday Night Fever soundtrack as we departed LaGuardia. Then the wailing began. This kid wouldn’t stop and the mom was whipping him around in various positions, trying to get him to stop crying, bumping that noggin of his into me repeatedly. For someone who seemed so protective the baby’s personal space, she thought nothing of letting that flat head of his rest on my arm for his all too brief nap. Then he was back up screaming and I couldn’t even hear a word of the Bee Gees’ Jive Talkin’. There would be no comparison of The Bee Gees or Tavares’ versions of More Than a Woman on this flight. I needed more than disco to drown this kid out.

Foo Fighters’ Monkey Wrench

Sleater-Kinney Entertain

Yeah Yeah Yeahs Cheated Hearts

I could still hear that baby. Thanks Baby, Thanks A lot!

--J

Heavy: The Story of Metal

You know how VH1 runs every program they produce into the ground? I know that they will eventually start running their four-part series on heavy metal again, because they ran it quite a bit in May. Look for Heavy: The Story of Metal on VH1 if you haven’t seen it. I don’t consider myself a heavy metal fan, but this documentary was terrific. Heavy metal has some true characters in its history and some hilarious moments in this program. I won’t even touch Sebastian Bach here. That needs an entirely separate post! One of my favorite quotes came in part three from Dee Snider. He was mentioning a time in metal where everyone decided to unplug. His response was...

“Thanks Tesla! What’s metal about that?! There was this unspoken thing on MTV that if you can’t unplug you’re not really a musician. You know what. You don’t see Tracy Chapman or Paul Simon plug into two Marshall stacks and ride the lightning!”

Hahahaha!

If you are a metal fan, Chuck Klosterman's Fargo Rock City is a must read. Another favorite of mine on the topic and recommended by my brother is Seb Hunter's Hell Bent for Leather: Confessions of a Heavy Metal Addict.

--J

Running to Stand Still and Say Goodbye

Whenever I go home to Huntsville I have to brace myself to face the ghosts of failed romances and friendships. You may not be able to imagine that so much life can happen in a relatively small southern city, but it can. The lack of city activities fosters strong relationships and friendships. You get used to lazing around at people’s houses and get to know their families. It’s the most beautiful thing in the world, but you only realize the beauty in something when you no longer have it, don’t you?

When I go back now, I remember all the good and bad living I did, but there is one particular person that is present in almost every one of those memories, T. A 1998 wake was the setting of our first hook-up, so we joke. We held hands after paying our respects and that’s when it started. Maybe this was an omen, but we didn’t look at it in that way. We looked at it as two lost souls finding love via one of the most brutally honest events one can experience.

The next several years consisted of me telling him where to go, casual hook-ups, reconciliations, earth-shattering break-ups, him telling me where to go, casual hook-ups, reconciliations, and on and on. Despite the ups and downs, we were nothing but true to each other. Actually, we weren’t always faithful, but we never pretended to be anything but our true selves with each other. One of the things that we were true to each other about was the fact that we were both seriously music-obsessed. Together we spent a lot of time listening to music and talking about it. There is one band, however, whose music embodies our entire 8-year pathetic, yet exquisite on and off again relationship: U2. We were both lifelong fans, but his love of them trumped mine. He would get an itch and make me listen to a song like “A Sort of Homecoming” from beginning to end and then want to discuss its greatness. When this kind of mood would grab this 6’2” dude, his big blue eyes would widen and he would get a far-away look. It always made me smile. If he could do anything it was make me melt with his child-like love for this music. I always felt very safe with him. Even when, at hearing this from me, he would answer with the question, “what do I protect you from? Bandits?” He knew exactly what I meant, but he liked making me laugh. And this he did often, including in 2004 when I called him from a Sydney hotel room (one of many I lived out of) crying my eyes out because I was painfully homesick. Even in another hemisphere, through his humor and comforting words he could force me to rest my mind and stop the racing thoughts I would often suffer. This is a man who saw me anorexic, over-medicated, hammered, spoiled. Yet he still saw beauty and child-like innocence in me (though I was convinced the well was dried up there). We sought solace in each other, really, and that’s what always brought us back together.

Back to U2. One year, T presented me with a handful of mixed cds he made that contained several live performances of U2 music representing different phases in their career. Long before we had iTunes or Limewire, we had Napster!

1. Greatest Hits Live. This disc included Surrender, Bad, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, and a great version of Whiskey in The Jar. This last piece is mostly sung by the crowd, which gives me chills even now.
2. Pop Life in Mexico. This disc included all of the songs performed on the VHS. “Miami” is a highlight. When you live in Huntsville, you hear tornado sirens often during storm season. Some of us, including T and myself, learned to look forward to this season. It had a way of shaking things up and reminding you that there was something bigger than you in this universe. The sirens in this song give me that funny feeling in my stomach that I always got when I would know it was time to seek shelter.
3. Zoo TV Tonight. Like Pop Life in Mexico, this disc includes the songs one sees on the VHS. My favorite is “Ultraviolet”, which I don’t believe is on the VHS. It’s my favorite song from Achtung Baby. T knew this and made sure to get it on the cd. Bono’s lyrics became a vehicle of sorts for T. Through him, T could express what he was feeling towards “us” when he couldn’t do it himself. This song is an example of that. I didn’t mind. Bono helped us communicate just fine when things were good and even more so when things were bad. In many ways, Achtung Baby’s themes of betrayal and redemption represent a huge part of our relationship.

In 2000, we drove across Arizona together and had the best and worst road trip of our lives. We listened to a lot of music together (Oh, the amount of Rush he subjected me to), but U2’s Pop was a constant part of the soundtrack. He had seen Pop Mart at Sun Devil stadium in Tempe during that tour. Miles away from Huntsville, T had a connection to U2 in that desert state and it would become that way for both of us.

When U2 took All That You Can’t Leave Behind on the road in 2001, T and I both saw them perform in Atlanta. We weren’t together at this time. In fact, we were both there with other people, but we knew we were there together. It wasn’t a week after that show that we were hooking up again. One song from that cd, “Kite”, stands out in this collection. Back then, he called me once to ask if I thought of him when I heard it. Of course I did. How could I not when I hear “I’m a man, / I’m not a child/ A man who sees/ The shadow behind your eyes”. I could never hide from him, no matter how much I sometimes tried.

A lot of life happened throughout our life together, which ended for good in March of 2006 (we even got involved with other people at some point). Throughout, U2 remained a part of our lives until the final end with How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb’s “Original of the Species”. A couple of weeks ago on my way to California, when I was flying over the AZ desert, where we had once been exhausted and road-weary, I sat alone in the back of an empty plane and this song came on through my earbuds. For a couple of months, I had been running away from accepting the fact that I had said my final goodbye to a friend and lover who had always been there in life and in mind. Forced to slow down because of the plane, I couldn’t stop the tears from flowing as I watched the familiar desert landscape slowly roll away under me. I accepted that it was the end of an era for two people who for years couldn’t seem to resist each other. We had often saved each other from the darkness, even though at times each led the other sans apology into an emotional abyss. I will never understand exactly why he wasn’t the one for me. But, I know that I have to accept some truths, no matter how incredible they seem to be.

In the end, I’ve returned from my first trip back to Huntsville since the final breakup and decided I needed to write about how much U2 means to me with reference to T, now another figurative ghost in that town. The years I spent with him will forever be protected and locked away in my heart, but played out again and again with every U2 song I will ever hear. As I re-read this post, I feel as though I have failed at truly representing what U2 and T mean to me, but it’s been nice to sit still and finally say goodbye.

Goodnight, Dublin-city. -K

The Blasters - J's Review

Let me add a few things about Beale on Broadway, the venue for the show last night. The indoor part of the club is a pre-Civil War building, with not much room inside. Attached is a patio of sorts, which is all wood and does not look as nice as the picture on their website. The stage is outside and covered. It looks a bit like a shack with only one wall and some stilts holding the rest up. There are lights on the stage, but the audience is lit by the street lights of St. Louis, a few beer bottles hanging with white Christmas lights stuffed in them, and some tiki torches. Before The Blasters took the stage, we watched a train pass on an elevated platform through the city. The place definitely has atmosphere.

When we arrived, there was a lone bluesman playing a guitar on stage. Neither one of us are fans of that kind of music, so we just sat and talked about work, etc. The supporting act was announced as the only “roots rock” band in St. Louis, a band called Scott Kay and the Continentals (www.scottkayband.com). They sounded good and played some recognizable stuff like Johnny Cash’s Cry, Cry, Cry, and Mystery Train mixed in with some original hits. I enjoyed this more than The Blasters. Rockabilly bands, come to St. Louis! Scott Kay opens for every roots rock act that comes to St. Louis so they can probably handle a little healthy competition!

As for The Blasters, the club announcer mentioned that they have not played St. Louis in 10 years. The audience was crammed into the patio and spilling over into the parking lot. You could tell there were some hardcore fans. When they took the stage it was very understated and every song sounded the same with very low energy. You could tell the guys (audience predominantly men) were getting into it. I leaned over to K and said, “This is guy music”. When I listen to music like that, I can tolerate it, but I wonder, is it because I technically don’t know anything about music and guitar playing the reason why I don’t appreciate it? My brothers can talk about it at length and I am just bored. We didn’t stay for the whole set.

I had put together a playlist on my iPod before heading to the concert, and just for fun, added the song My Sharona off of The Knack’s Get the Knack album. My two older brothers bought that album for me for Christmas when I was nine years old and I thought it was the shit. My brother M teased me about it and would refuse to let me play it on his stereo. So maybe I still have crappy taste next to the two of them, I don’t know. I like to think we just have different taste, one not better than the other. We just like what we like. Isn’t that all a music lover can claim?

--J

If you want to get 80's with me, check out the video

The Blasters- the Beale on Broadway, St. Louis

Last night, J and I watched the Blasters perform at The Beale on Broadway, a blues bar located between Soulard and downtown. We enjoyed the opening band’s energetic rockabilly set which was peppered with covers from the likes of Cash and Elvis. In comparison, we found the Blasters to be a bit more laid-back and therefore slightly anti-climactic (humble apologies to J’s brother S, who had left her a v/m telling her how much this band means to him and how much fun we would be having that night). Nonetheless, we enjoyed the evening's Americana. -K

Hell Hop Bloodsuckahz

Both K and I are regular readers of the St. Louis entertainment paper, Riverfront Times. We were both taken aback by the story gracing the cover of the June 29th edition. We were reading it in Vintage Vinyl while waiting for Pete Yorn to take the stage, nudging each other to read quote after quote. Here’s a link to the full story.

http://www.riverfronttimes.com/Issues/2006-06-28/news/feature_full.html

Hell hop? Where do I begin? I’m all for people expressing themselves, but this is ridiculous. There were 1,300 fans at the latest hell hop event. Can you believe that?

This is one of my favorite quotes about the vampire rapper:

“An emerging rapper who lives with his mother in an O’Fallon subdivision, Flowers seldom breaks character – not at the mall, not while smoking Newports with his crew at Culpeppers, and not for an instant at his Pageant concert in March.”

What kills me about this is living in O’Fallon and eating at Culpeppers is about as safe and suburban as one gets. My recommendation to him is to try the Culpepper Burger, one of my favorites.

No big surprise that Insane Clown Posse is partially responsible for this bullshit. Here’s a little history about these bozos (no pun intended). “The largely white, suburban followers of the group were later named Juggalos, after the ICP song “The Juggla”, about a mentally disturbed carnival juggler”. Doesn’t this sound like a parody from a Christopher Guest movie?

I could go on and on, but read the article for yourself. The writer at the RFT did a great job reporting this story with a straight face. I don’t think I could have done the same.
--J

Pete Yorn @ Vintage Vinyl

Saturday turned out to be a perfect day. I started out feeling slightly guilty because I wasn’t willing to drive A., my ten year old daughter, to a free B5 concert at the Gateway Arch in downtown St. Louis. Last year I took her to a Raven Symons concert at the same location and it was a bust. I had to carry her on my back most of the show so she could see the stage, and since she is now five feet tall, I wasn’t in the mood to do that. Also, weeks ago, I had been meaning to tell K that Pete Yorn was playing at the Duck Room at Blueberry Hill in University City, but because of my travel for work, I forgot to mention it. In the interim the damn show sold out! To my delight, I picked up the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Thursday and read that he would be doing an in-store acoustic set at Vintage Vinyl in U. City. We had to go. I told A. she could come along with us. She was excited to be hanging out since I think she thinks K is HER friend, but she was not too thrilled about the musical selection.

We arrived about 12:30 and looked around the store. A. discovered String Doll Gang at the counter. You can see these cute little guys from the following link. http://www.kamibashi.com/papers/stringdolls/ She spent most of her time in the store pouring over the variety before selecting Bella.

Before the set began, K and I were discussing how strange in-store gigs are. Here we are standing among aisles of CDs at two in the afternoon, with the brightest of fluorescent lights, about three feet from the artist. I don’t know if I were an artist, if I could take that kind of pressure. Pete arrived and commented on that very same point in between songs. He sounded really great, even though he confessed being hung over from many shots in Kansas the night before. He didn’t need to confess his sins, no one would have known. He played a great set which made me sad that we didn’t have tickets to the evening’s show. Now I’m playing Musicforthemorningafter nonstop today.

After the set, we did some shopping, grabbed some gyros, a bottle of wine, and headed back to my place to watch Life on the Murder Scene, the My Chemical Romance documentary, then we moved on to Pearl Jam’s Storytellers. The former was good, the latter was preachy. At some point in between, we were playing ‘N Sync and Backstreet Boys songs on the computer. Hey, we’re not too embarrassed to admit loving ‘N Sync’s I Want You Back, at least not after four glasses of wine in the privacy of my home. We also listened to the free download on iTunes by Boy Kill Boy called Suzie. Check it out. It’s a great summer song.
--J

I May Look Like a Sugar in a Plum Today, I Don't Know

Boney M. I don’t remember this disco band growing up, but wikipedia tells me that they were “phenomenally successful in the 70s and 80s”. How I learned of them was through my best girlfriend N, an Indian who was raised in Dubai and my then boyfriend, B, who was of Jordanian nationality. B was a HUGE AC/DC and Led Zeppelin fan. Imagine my surprise when, in the car on the way to dinner, he pulled out of his glove compartment a blank tape on which he had recorded a compilation of Boney M music. My girlfriend's boyfriend, a fiery, red-haired tall white guy from Appalachia, was in the car as well. My friend and B went on and on about how great this band was. What her boyfriend and I couldn’t get over was how bad this music was. And the lyrics made no sense at all. For example,

Brown girl in the ring
Tra la la la la
There’s a brown girl in the ring
Tra la la la la la
Brown girl in the ring
Tra la la la la
She looks like a sugar in a plum
Plum plum

We couldn’t help but mock this music by screaming the nonsensical lyrics. While we cracked ourselves up, we didn’t realize how upset we were making the other two. Apparently, this band was incredibly cool in the Middle East during the 70s and 80s. But how do you look like a sugar in a plum? What does that mean? Just today, B IM’ed me from Jordan and he was very eager to tell me that one of their songs has now been remixed and you can download it from iTunes. In fact, you can download multiple tracks of theirs on iTunes, I discovered. I’ll close this post by reacting as I did in IM, “cool”.

Note to American readers: Strongly recommend not making fun of your foreign friends' musical tastes. The conversation may spiral downwards and morph into a culturalist discussion on how the American collective considers itself superior to the rest of the world. This may put a damper on the rest of the evening if you're on your way out to dinner with the aforementioned foreign friends.
-K

HFStival 2005

It had been some time since the last Foo show, so when I heard that they were planning to play the HFStival in Baltimore May 14, 2005, the wheels began to turn. How was I going to get to Baltimore? I have a high school friend who lives in Maryland that I had wanted to visit. I began to compile a list of friends who would be willing to make the twenty hour roundtrip road trip in a weekend. I was able to convince my friend Mel that she must go with me. I baited her by telling her that she had not lived until she had seen a Foo show, and then reeled her in with the mention of Coldplay. We called our friend R in Maryland and he said he and his wife L were totally on board. I’ve known Mel since the 9th grade. She asked me as we began to drive how long I had been a Foo Fighters fan. I responded that I knew all kinds of facts about the band. But in order to not freak her out, I would simply pepper factoids throughout the trip. She laughed. The drive out Friday was catching up talk about work, friends, family, etc and scouring the iPod for songs from our past. We arrived at R & L’s place in Maryland that evening and caught up with them. They are always so much fun.

Saturday we hit the concert venue at around noon. Interpol was on stage. We got to hear a few of their songs, which was quite enough. They’re okay, but everything kind of sounds the same. Highlights for me were Garbage, a very drunk Echo and the Bunnymen leaving the stage after about 3 minutes of performing, Social Distortion, and Billy Idol. Billy Idol had everyone on their feet. Don’t even get me started on how much Good Charlotte sucks! I’ll never get back to my main point of discussion.

After Billy’s performance, concern began to creep in. The rain began to fall. We were hot so the rain first felt okay, but then sheets of rain with thunder and lightening began. The crowd began to thin out, leaving the very drunk from a long day in the sun, and us. We continued to sit and watch.

Coldplay was delayed but eventually took the stage. After Coldplay, there were more delays. In fact they made everyone move under cover within the stadium because of lightning. The security folks were telling the crowd that the show was going to be cancelled without the final act performing. I was sitting there in knots. Did my friends want to leave? Here they were, soaked to the bone but still smiling that weird plastered on courtesy smile. Mel told me later, she sitting there in knots afraid I was going to be so disappointed after driving ten hours then not seeing my favorite band. I knew I would go to another Foo concert, especially with In Your Honor hitting stores in a matter of weeks, so at the moment I was more worried about my friends sitting there being miserable but afraid to say they wanted to leave. Just when we all thought we would have to pack it in and head home, the rain subsided, and the show went on.

When we got R & L’s house and I took off my St. Louis Cardinals cap that I had been wearing all day, I notice that my hair was stained bright red due to all of the rain. The next day, Mel and I had a ten hour drive back to her home in Chicago and then I had five additional hours to St. Louis. It was all worth it. What a show!
--J

Music To Write Reports To Too

How funny, I was going to post about what I listen to when I write my effing reports for work. The reports I have to do totally stress me out because they are a mix of financials and counts of delivered services. In other words its all numbers and I am so not a numbers gal. To add insult to injury, the week after I turn them in, I get approximately four to five calls from different people in the company verifying some of the numbers because my reports get compiled into their reports. There's not a problem with my calculations, it is just that everyone is scared to death to turn in something inaccurate so double and triple checking occurs. So when I do reports, I need audio valium. It's old old school for me. My two albums of choice:

Ella and Louis Again - Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong

Frank Sinatra Sings the Select Cole Porter - Frank Sinatra

If I don't want to go quite that old school, I go for Derek and the Dominoes' Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. Yes, Derek, I DO want you to crawl across the floor to me.
--J

Music To Write Reports To

In a hotel room in southern California last week, I sat in front of my laptop and wrote reports for work while listening to this pretty varied playlist. Be warned. This playlist is all over the damn place (like me). -K

Love Train – Wolfmother
Wolfmother is a breakout band hailing from Australia. This song makes me feel crazy sexy. It’s a marriage of Sabbath riffs, Zeppelin-esque vocals (that I mistook for Jack White when I first heard this song on the radio) and funk. It’s my favorite song that I’ve downloaded this summer.

Bliss – Muse
I read in a 2005 Alternative Press magazine that Muse is the band that all your favorite bands are into. I saw Muse here in St. Louis. It was the first time I went to a concert on my own. Razorlight opened. At this show, I met two guys who were Muse superfans. One of them had traveled from Newfoundland to see them in St. Louis. I love meeting superfans and I loved this show.

Free - Donavon Frankenreiter
In 2004, this song was in heavy rotation on the radio in Melbourne, Australia. One Saturday, my British friend Moo and I took a hike up into the hills surrounding the city. We heard this song a million times on this day, but it didn't matter. This song is so full of good feeling that you can't get sick of it.

Pass It On - The Coral
These guys hail from Merseyside, England. Pass It On's plucky guitar, easy rhythm, and message of acceptance and moving on was a light during dark times for me back in the winter of 2003/2004. The claustrophobia I experienced at work and in Huntsville as a result of an awkward breakup with a coworker was cause for me to climb the walls. To escape the gossip at work I would sit in my cubicle and listen to streaming Virgin Radio. It was on this station that I first heard Pass It On. It is extremely easy on the ears the morning after if you are in the habit of finishing a bottle of red wine every night just to get to sleep. Dark days are gone, but this song remains a remedy.

I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do - ABBA
I love ABBA. When I hear this song, I have vague, but happy memories of red geraniums, German family members, and a sunny garden. Lovely.

Photograph – Def Leppard
I always think of the early days of MTV when I hear this song. It’s so full of hooks! Gotta love it.

Dancing With Myself – Billy Idol
Billy Idol music is ageless to me. This song makes me feel alive just like it did when it was in heavy rotation on MTV in the 80s. Every time I hear it, I want to dance like Molly Ringwald in The Breakfast Club. Oi, sexy!

Thunder Road – Bruce Springsteen
I love this man’s work so much. This may be my favorite song of Bruce’s besides “Racing in the Streets”. On a cold late November night, this song came on while I was driving down the NJ Turnpike heading to Woodbridge, NJ, and I sang every word. Loudly. Bruce has a way of telling stories through song that is unmatched in my opinion. Pianos, saxophones and melancholic story-telling make up all that I love about this artist.

Rocket Queen – Guns N’ Roses
I have always thought that the change in the middle of the song was amazing. When I read Chuck Klosterman’s opinion of this song in Fargo Rock City, I wondered how I could meet this man. I’m here in St. Louis, Chuck. I’m here.

If You Want My Love – Cheap Trick
Cheap Trick is one of those bands that I have fallen in and out of throughout my life. The light in this song has, for me, never gone out.

Snow (Hey Oh) – RHCP
What’s a trip to California without some RHCP? I’m currently celebrating their new release. On a related topic, RHCP’s cd BloodSugarSexMagik was the very first cd I ever owned.

Under Pressure – The Used/MCR
I’m a lifelong Queen and David Bowie fan. I was a little nervous when MCR covered this song as it is a little ambitious. I am really impressed with this cover. For a time all proceeds went to the Tsunami Relief fund when purchased on iTunes. This cover nails it.

Original of the Species - U2
I do my love of U2 no justice with this tiny blurb. I have been a supporter of U2 since the early 80s (I, unlike many hardcore fans, feel that POP was not a disappointment, but a successful and admirable departure). Someday I’ll write about what this music means to me in a proper post, but for now just know that this song is U2 doing it to me again…

Time to Burn – The Rasmus
This band hails from Finland. I wouldn’t have known about them had I not been scouring YouTube for vintage HIM videos months ago. The vocals are a bit strained at times and the poppy production is not always my cup of tea. Their album may at times even sound like a more sinister Backstreet Boys production, but I’m not ready to write them off yet. Their music has a powerful and melancholic sound that makes me think they are almost there…

Don’t You Ever Leave Me Baby – Hanoi Rocks
Before there was Nightwish, HIM, or The Rasmus there was Hanoi Rocks. I hear an influence of the New York Dolls in this song. I first heard of Hanoi Rocks back in 1984 when drummer Razzle’s death in “the” car accident with Vince Neil was reported on the news. This song is not epic or cathartic, but it represents what I like to hear when I just want to get out of my head a little bit and sing along.

MakeDamnSure - Taking Back Sunday
This is an emo band and an emo song (see Emo Memo below), but I love this song.

There Is a Light That Never Goes Out – The Smiths
I have always enjoyed the Englishness of The Smiths. I really think that one could write a paper on their lyrical irony and how this music somehow reflects English society and one’s reaction to living in it. Yeah, no.

Semi-Deep Thoughts While Driving

I truly love driving by myself. Yesterday I had a two and a half hour drive home from a client meeting and enjoyed just listening to music. I had the following random thoughts.

Santo & Johnny’s Sleepwalk - Here I was, driving along a two-lane highway as the sun was setting on a perfect summer evening, and that song was the perfect soundtrack.

K is right. Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy is the Feel Good, Inc. of 2006.

Dolly Parton’s Jolene still makes me nervous. I remember hearing that song as a kid on the radio and being torn up about what was going to happen.

I have to mentally separate the Michael Jackson of today from “I Want You Back”, in my opinion, the best Jackson 5 song. It is just not the same person.

Listening to the live version of “Best of You” by Foo Fighters gets me excited about the upcoming concert in August in Chicago.

Listening to The Emperor’s New Clothes by Sinead O’Connor made me remember how much I loved that CD in 1990/91 before she went nuts.

I wish could sing “Tell Me Something Good” like Chaka Khan does.

Favorite lyrics on the drive:

Original of the Species – U2
“I want the lot of what you got, and I want nothing that you’re not”

Lua – Bright Eyes
“But me I’m not a gamble, you can count on me to split. The love I sell you in the evening by the morning won’t exist”

--J

J's Foo Restrospective

As K mentioned, I also experienced Foo Fighters at Big Spring Jam in September of 1997. Let me provide some background. NO ONE GOOD comes to Huntsville, Alabama except country acts. I understand that this is probably because Nashville is only two hours away, but that is exactly why OTHER people besides country performers should visit Huntsville. So what people end up doing to see concerts is to drive two hours north to Nashville, two hours south to Birmingham, or four hours east to Atlanta. In 1997, with a two year old daughter, there was no chance of me leaving the city limits to see a show. I had been playing The Color and the Shape pretty much nonstop in the car until my daughter asked me to “make that man stop yelling”. Big Spring Jam is the big music event in Huntsville, and the local acts are usually the best part. But, when the Foo took the stage that year, it was kind of like driving 100 miles an hour down the road and sticking your head out the window.

I have since seen them in the following places:
May 1998 – Nashville River Stages
June 2000 – Nashville with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and special guest Peter Frampton
May 2003 – Chicago
June 2003 – St. Louis
May 2005 – Baltimore
October 2005 – Champaign

I’ll probably write a little about the individual shows in later posts, because they all have a story, especially the nail-biter of a show at the HFStival in Baltimore. Of course, the Champaign show was especially great. Oh, and my only child is almost eleven and she still doesn’t like listening to that man scream :)
--J

Ville Valo and The Agents

In 1999, HIM's Ville Valo collaborated with The Agents, a Finnish folksy/jazzy band, on three songs. I purchased the compilation cd on which these songs appear from a music vendor in Finland through ebay.com. Every HIM fan out there should be exposed to these songs. -K

1. Paratiisi. This is a Finnish classic and a lifelong favorite of V's.


2. Ikkunaprinsessa. If my Finnish is correct, this song title translates into "Window Princess".


3. Jykevaa on Rakkaus. This is the Finnish version of Dusty Springfield's "I Only Want To Be With You".