Slippery Slidey Road Down
1. I'm glad that The Verve reworked "Come On" a bit, because the demo version I have of theirs from the sessions for A Northern Soul ain't pretty. Richard Ashcroft sounds like Rod Stewart and Tom Petty being swallowed by Tom Waits. Yipes!
2. Has anyone listened to the Coquina Marble song I posted yesterday?
3. The Lives of Others might be the best new film (read: since 2005) that I've seen since Sweet Land. Remarkably mature and understated for a debut feature about a colonel in the Stasi spying on a high-profile artistic couple. I see why it won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. Very refreshing and, as I mentioned a while back, I've been in the mood for good politically-oriented drama.
4. I'm finally better rested this week. I've endured four straight days where I've slept a sufficient amount quite deeply. I may not be heading to bed at the exact time I'd desire to, but it's a vast improvement. I'm feeling somewhat refreshed actually.
5. I'm really amazed that my mother and Ethan bought into The Polyphonic Spree on Saturday. Perhaps I should have been closer up to enjoy them - Diplo wasn't even that fun until I went closer up. Perhaps my mother's love of faux-spiritual bombast provided by the likes of The Arcade Fire and U2 may have been an influence in that outcome. Personally, although they're excellent musicians (and I really liked the brass - at points I thought they should have jumped ship and made Julian Cope reform The Teardrop Explodes) I feel like they were extremely contrived. Their "happy-fied" cover of Nirvana's "Lithium" and Tim DiLaughter's arm-waving cribbed from Jim Kerr's 1985 playbook certainly didn't help matters. Oh, and I don't think Annie Clark (of St. Vincent) was playing with them, either.
6. Other recent events: I missed out on Unwed Sailor because I had no money to venture across town. I sold merchandise in the Union yesterday and DJed my brand new shift for regular programming today. (Thursdays between 2 to 4 PM are all mine! Finally, daylight!) There's not much else to report. I'll probably send the next few days reviewing music, listening to it, and creating it. I should probably watch The Deer Hunter as well; it's been sitting here for two weeks. On Sunday I'll probably venture over to 80s Night at The Beta Bar since A) I haven't gone lately, B) it'll probably be slammin' considering that it's Labor Day Weekend, and C) I owe Kennie a dance for her birthday.
7. I'm really looking forward to this new Caribou record, too. Finally, an album I'm excited about that's NOT a reissue!
Two songs to leave you with.
Simple Minds - "Pablo Picasso"
("All the girls think you're an asshole!" Pretty much anything they recorded up until 1981 should warp your conception of them entirely in a wonderful way if you're only familiar with the inescapable likes of "(Don't You) Forget About Me", "Alive and Kicking", "Sanctify Yourself", and "Promised You a Miracle". Even then, finding this song was a slight surprise to me despite being a fan of their pre-1984 output.)
Cul de Sac - "Lauren's Blues"
(I forgot about this one until it came up on my iTunes shuffle just now. Very nice, but most of their output usually is. Dates back to their 1991 debut Ecim, about half of which actually sounds like the American answer to Can. But this song doesn't.)