His lipstick's gone again.
Hmm, recent events. Where do I start?
Well, I DJed on Thursday and Friday, and after the latter shift I hung out with Shawn for a while before Kennie called and scooped me up for a little while before she and Casey dropped me off at All Saints, where I rejoined Shawn and company. Eventually we wandered over to Railroad Square for First Friday, but the power was out again (second time since July) in half of the Square. After a while, the lot of us sauntered over to All Saints again and some of us ended up at Amy's housewarming party, where she played loads of freestyle and we watched Michael's short film involving lychee fruit and interracial pit-fucking. Yeah, you read that right.
I ended up getting home very late and slept little before going into work at 8 AM. I had to deal with families going to Barbizon(!) and football fans attending the Florida State vs. Univ. of Alabama-Birmingham game. Luckily, it wasn't as God-awful as I thought it would be and the 8.5 hours at work felt more like 5. There was supposed to be a massive tail-gate party in the lot, but it never quite materialized because of the heart, and I didn't end up getting shifted to the South entrance of the main lot after midday (which would have meant that I would have fried in the heat for four hours with no shade) because they close off Madison Street for the Spirit Express buses running to and from the stadium. The Barbizon parents were the most annoying thing about the day, actually. Afterward, I had Qdoba for dinner and slept.
Yesterday I reviewed some music prior to the DJ meeting, which went on longer than expected. Afterward, I headed over to All Saints for the revival of the Second Sunday Salon before eventually crossing the street for 80's Night at The Beta Bar and joining up with my mother, Erin, Sean B., Forrest, Rachel, and others.
I have much more to report than that, but I still feel like keeping my mouth shut. Instead, there's this thing going round which says "tell me in a comment to give you a letter, then name your top ten favourite songs which start with that letter". You don't have to if you don't want to, but it might be fun. southerndave recommended the letter E for me. It took a long time because most bands don't seem to have songs with the letter E, and then I had to scroll through my musical knowledge for a while.
The Comsat Angels - "Eye of the Lens (John Peel Version)": High drama territory and I really like this BBC session more than the EP version. The tension seems to be heightened and it's more upfront and pummeling.
Breathless - "Every Road Leads Home": You'd probably figure that these two groups would show up here. This is the only song on The Glass Bead Game that sounds like it could have been a product of 1986, and that's mainly due to the drum machine in the intro. Everything else about it sounds refreshingly modern, like it was recorded five minutes ago. Lush, propulsive, insistent, chilly, and one harrowing and twisty ride. I feel like this would be perfect for cruising on an curvy stretch of interstate from the foothills down into a city on an icy winter morning about forty minutes before sunrise.
Crispy Ambulance - "Eastern Bloc": A track they only recorded for a John Peel Session, probably my favorite of theirs alongside "We Move Through the Plateau Phase" and "Concorde Square".
Talk Talk - "Eden": For some reason, this song makes me think of sitting on the old U.S. Highway 98 bridge converted into a fishing pier in Parker (near Panama City) at sunrise.
Cabaret Voltaire - "Eastern Mantra": Twenty minutes of a relentless drum machine pulse and faux-Arabian riffage with Stephen Mallinder barking about "a signal of symptom soon to be exhausted" and bodies and palpitations. Phenomenal enough for me to use as an e-mail address.
Mission of Burma - "Einstein's Day": A pretty underrated track off of Vs., methinks. It's one of the slower tracks but holds my interest almost as well as "Trem Two". I love how it closes with the interlude.
Cocteau Twins - "Eggs and Their Shells": Probably an underrated song of theirs as well. Always gives me a sad and queasy feeling, particularly the wordless chorus and the odd ending. Makes me think the last few minutes of the car ride to Panama City and entering my grandparents' neighborhood, particularly after my grandfather died because I was listening to this and it stopped as soon as we parked and I remember feeling really disoriented by it.
Shriekback - "Everything That Rises Must Converge": "Nemesis" may have been the club hit, but I always preferred this one and "Malaria" and they both get stuck in my head a lot. Good title, too, cribbed from a Flannery O'Connor story.
Kitchens of Distinction - "Elephantine": Shoegaze pop. Yum. I love the pretty and placid intro. I tend to associate this song with Richmond, Virginia, oddly enough. I happened to be listening to Love is Hell, the Elephantine EP, and Capsule between Rocky Mount, North Carolina and Washington, D.C. on my way up to New York via Greyhound almost four years ago. (Christ, it's been that long? How depressing.)
Roxy Music - "Editions of You": Classic, of course, with every line intentionally a cliche or a non-sequitur. "Too much cheesecake too soon! No mention in the latest Tribune!"
Honorable mentions:
Associates - "Even Dogs in the Wild"
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - "Electricity"
Let's Active - "Every Word Means No"
The Human League - "Empire State Human"
Big Audio Dynamite - "E=MC²"
New Order - "Everything's Gone Green"
Band of Susans - "Elizabeth Stride (1843-1888)"
Prince Far I - "Easy Squeeze"
The Gap Band - "Early in the Morning"
Disco Inferno - "Even the Sea Sides Against Us"
Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper - "Elvis is Everywhere"
Trouble Funk - "E Flat Boogie"
The Monochrome Set - "Eine Symphonie des Grauens"
Modern Eon - "Euthenics"
For Against - "Echelons"