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Friday, April 30, 2010
And now, for no particular reason:
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Wednesday, April 28, 2010
KAAAAAAAAAA!
This txt msg received just now:
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ESPN MLB - STL Run Scored BOT 1ST - STL 2 ATL 0 - C Rasmus struck out swinging, R Ludwick scored, A Pujols to second on wild pitch by K Ka
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ESPN MLB - STL Run Scored BOT 1ST - STL 2 ATL 0 - C Rasmus struck out swinging, R Ludwick scored, A Pujols to second on wild pitch by K Ka
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Friday, April 16, 2010
Friday, April 09, 2010
Wubbzy is against the intrusion of government in our day-to-day lives?
I always had him pictured as pro-state and pro-taxes. Instead, he's a Libertarian. Or she. Or it. Who knows.
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Cool Brittania is dead. Long live Cool Brittania.
For all intents and purposes, my record collection stops around the year 2000; although I was gainfully employed at that point, I really didn't have the means or ambition to continue throwing money at new music. My roommate at the time had moved out, draining me of the financial resources necessary to pursue every rarities, B-sides and singles collection that appeared in local record stores, while the 'zine that the Captain and I put out died a quiet, anonymous death (still available in electronic form, if you look to the right of this page). Moreover, I had taken up with someone who didn't really share my taste in music. To this day, I still annoy her with repeated listenings of Sloan, Belle & Sebastian and the like on road trips. I imagine she dies a little inside every time (being a fan of country radio and all that), but conversely, my favorite bands and albums of that era still bring me a great deal of joy, and I would imagine that she wouldn't want to take that away from me. So she endures.
Ten years later, I finally have the means to resume collecting. Most of my favorite bands from the time have fallen by the wayside, with only the aforementioned Sloan still kicking (although rumors of a new Belle & Sebastian release is the best musical news I've heard in years). Thanks to The Captain and his trusty CD burner, I have gotten into a few other bands since then - Drive-By Truckers being chief among them - but I can honestly say that, by and large, I'm still clinging to the bands of my mid-20s. Which brings me to a couple of my other favorites at the time.
A couple of BritPop bands that were huge on the other side of the Atlantic, Sleeper and Elastica barely dented the consciousness of the American music-buying public - the latter definitely more than the former, but not, say, Spin Doctors big. I still lean heavily on Sleeper's The It Girl and Elastica's self-titled debut - the former was, in my view, almost the best Britpop album of the era (save for Oasis' Morning Glory), while the latter was a sharp, hooky, punk-influenced joyride that made it easy to forgive their lack of originality and the accusations of plagiarism that seemed to follow them.
While both bands have long since disintegrated, for various reasons I hadn't been able to pick up what turned out to be their respective final albums. Sleeper's 1997 epitaph Pleased to Meet You was never released Stateside, I don't believe, while Elastica's The Menace came out just as I was getting away from music. But at long last, a decade or more later (!), I've finally managed to close the circle by acquiring both albums, and short reviews of each follow.
The Menace, sad to say, is a mess from beginning to end. Attribute it to whatever - the alleged drug use, the relationship turmoil between singer Justine Frischmann and Blur's Damon Albarn, and so forth - but ultimately, you have to have the songs, and The Menace falls well short in this regard.
Whereas their debut was punchy, infectious and to-the-point, the follow-up's 39-minute length is an eternity, with nary a hook in the bunch. I've listened to this catastrophe one time, and at this point, I have no desire to do so again; I wasn't expecting to hear an album that sounded just like their debut from five years previous, but I was expecting at least a steady growth to justify the delay.
Instead, The Menace is a sprawling, angular, incomprehensible wreck with vapid, empty songs that are as dull, sexless and un-fun as their predecessors were exciting, fun and sexy. Which, really, you wouldn't expect out of an album with song titles like "My Sex" and "Your Arse My Place," but that's exactly what was delivered. Perhaps they should have waited five more years; on the other hand, a hundred years couldn't have polished these shitty songs any more.
Meanwhile, Pleased to Meet You suffered from terrible timing; Oasis' Be Here Now, a bloated, coked-up mess of an album that is largely credited with killing BritPop as a cultural phenomenon, had come out a couple of months before, and the resulting backlash did Louise Wener and Co. no favors. Quite an injustice, really, because the third Sleeper album - while just shy of their landmark sophomore effort - shines regardless.
As on its predecessor, glorious, hook-laden radio-ready anthems abound, from the opener "Please Please Please" to grandiose first single "She's A Good Girl" (it's got horns!) to "You Got Me." Although the maudlin threatens to creep in and overtake "Miss You" and "Because of You," Wener still manages to be lovey-dovey without sounding lovey-dovey. In her short tenure as the grand dame of BritPop, she showed that she was more than a glamorous face, wrapping her witty, sometimes-biting, sometimes-breathy but always-sexy lyrics around memorable vocal melodies while the backing Sleeperblokes put in another tight, workmanlike performance. There are a couple of throwaways here; the forgettable "Romeo Me" (an upbeat dance number that was, surprisingly, the second single) and "Breathe" are filler, but Sleeper on their worst day more than hold their own, so all is forgiven.
As far as farewell albums go, Pleased to Meet You left me wanting so much more. I felt a bit of sadness once closer "Traffic Accident" came to an abrupt stop, the anticipation of 13 years of waiting to hear the last album from my favorite BritPop band having been vanquished. And then I listened to it again, and again, and again. And I will listen to it again tonight, and probably tomorrow also.
Ten years later, I finally have the means to resume collecting. Most of my favorite bands from the time have fallen by the wayside, with only the aforementioned Sloan still kicking (although rumors of a new Belle & Sebastian release is the best musical news I've heard in years). Thanks to The Captain and his trusty CD burner, I have gotten into a few other bands since then - Drive-By Truckers being chief among them - but I can honestly say that, by and large, I'm still clinging to the bands of my mid-20s. Which brings me to a couple of my other favorites at the time.
A couple of BritPop bands that were huge on the other side of the Atlantic, Sleeper and Elastica barely dented the consciousness of the American music-buying public - the latter definitely more than the former, but not, say, Spin Doctors big. I still lean heavily on Sleeper's The It Girl and Elastica's self-titled debut - the former was, in my view, almost the best Britpop album of the era (save for Oasis' Morning Glory), while the latter was a sharp, hooky, punk-influenced joyride that made it easy to forgive their lack of originality and the accusations of plagiarism that seemed to follow them.
While both bands have long since disintegrated, for various reasons I hadn't been able to pick up what turned out to be their respective final albums. Sleeper's 1997 epitaph Pleased to Meet You was never released Stateside, I don't believe, while Elastica's The Menace came out just as I was getting away from music. But at long last, a decade or more later (!), I've finally managed to close the circle by acquiring both albums, and short reviews of each follow.
The Menace, sad to say, is a mess from beginning to end. Attribute it to whatever - the alleged drug use, the relationship turmoil between singer Justine Frischmann and Blur's Damon Albarn, and so forth - but ultimately, you have to have the songs, and The Menace falls well short in this regard.
Whereas their debut was punchy, infectious and to-the-point, the follow-up's 39-minute length is an eternity, with nary a hook in the bunch. I've listened to this catastrophe one time, and at this point, I have no desire to do so again; I wasn't expecting to hear an album that sounded just like their debut from five years previous, but I was expecting at least a steady growth to justify the delay.
Instead, The Menace is a sprawling, angular, incomprehensible wreck with vapid, empty songs that are as dull, sexless and un-fun as their predecessors were exciting, fun and sexy. Which, really, you wouldn't expect out of an album with song titles like "My Sex" and "Your Arse My Place," but that's exactly what was delivered. Perhaps they should have waited five more years; on the other hand, a hundred years couldn't have polished these shitty songs any more.
Meanwhile, Pleased to Meet You suffered from terrible timing; Oasis' Be Here Now, a bloated, coked-up mess of an album that is largely credited with killing BritPop as a cultural phenomenon, had come out a couple of months before, and the resulting backlash did Louise Wener and Co. no favors. Quite an injustice, really, because the third Sleeper album - while just shy of their landmark sophomore effort - shines regardless.
As on its predecessor, glorious, hook-laden radio-ready anthems abound, from the opener "Please Please Please" to grandiose first single "She's A Good Girl" (it's got horns!) to "You Got Me." Although the maudlin threatens to creep in and overtake "Miss You" and "Because of You," Wener still manages to be lovey-dovey without sounding lovey-dovey. In her short tenure as the grand dame of BritPop, she showed that she was more than a glamorous face, wrapping her witty, sometimes-biting, sometimes-breathy but always-sexy lyrics around memorable vocal melodies while the backing Sleeperblokes put in another tight, workmanlike performance. There are a couple of throwaways here; the forgettable "Romeo Me" (an upbeat dance number that was, surprisingly, the second single) and "Breathe" are filler, but Sleeper on their worst day more than hold their own, so all is forgiven.
As far as farewell albums go, Pleased to Meet You left me wanting so much more. I felt a bit of sadness once closer "Traffic Accident" came to an abrupt stop, the anticipation of 13 years of waiting to hear the last album from my favorite BritPop band having been vanquished. And then I listened to it again, and again, and again. And I will listen to it again tonight, and probably tomorrow also.
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