This one’s from my friend Holly over at Self-Portrait As.

OK, let’s try it:

1. How would you describe yourself?
Birdie Brain (The Fiery Furnaces)

Hmmmm…

2. What is your motto?
Messiah Ward (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds)

3. What do you think about often?
The Dreaming (Kate Bush)

4. What do you think of your family?
Swimming Horses (Siouxsie and the Banshees)

5. What do your parents think of you?
Black Market Baby (Tom Waits)

Oh man, I always knew they weren’t my real parents!

6. What do you think of your friends?
Cover My Face (Miranda Sex Garden)

7. What do your friends think of you?
No Man in the World (Tindersticks)

Daaaang. That’s harsh.

8. What do you think of your best friend?
Candidate (David Bowie)

My best friend is Barack Obama? Cool!!

9. What is your best friends theme song?
Kingdom Come (David Bowie)

10. What do your coworkers think of you?
Under Pressure (Queen + David Bowie)

I’d say that’s about right.

11. What do you like in a guy/girl?
I Let Love In (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds)

12. What do you think when you see the person you fancy?
Come Here My Love (This Mortal Coil)

Wow… this is getting a little frightening accurate.

13. What do you want to say to the person you fancy?
The Rockafeller Skank (Fatboy Slim)

OK, less frightening now….

14. What is your hobby/interest?
Ol’ 55 (Tom Waits)

15. What is your biggest fear?
The Empty World (The Cure)

Back to being a bit frightening again…

16. What is your biggest secret?
Eyeball Kid (Tom Waits)

17. If your heart could talk what would it say?
Save It For Later (The English Beat)

18. What is your theme song?
Oh To Be In Love (Kate Bush)

19. What do you want to be when you grow up?
Be My Wife (David Bowie)

Too bad that wasn’t for the next one.

20. What song will they play at your wedding?
Sweetheart Come (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds)

21. What will they play at your funeral?
Lightning Strikes [Not Once But Twice] (The Clash)

22. What is your mood right now?
Dead and Lovely (Tom Waits)

23. What will you repost this as?
If Music Could Talk (The Clash)

Amazing!

24. What does your future look like?
Untitled (Interpol)

Wow.

That was pretty cool.

Sadly, Tom Waits isn’t coming to the Pacific Northwest during his recently-announced summer tour, but here he is at a press conference in which he explains the astronomical and alphabetic significance of his tour schedule.

Enjoy, and make sure to watch to the end.

So, there’s this web site called YouTube and they have all these cool videos, OMG!

Most every morning I wake up with a song in my head. It’s rarely something that I’ve heard recently, and I don’t always remember it after I get going, but lately I’ve been making an effort to pay attention. Here are the last five songs my brain has inexplicably greeted me with at 7 am.

• “With a Little Bit of Luck”, My Fair Lady
• “Somebody Got Murdered”, The Clash
• “Daft Punk is Playing at My House”, LCD Soundsystem
• “New Amsterdam”, Elvis Costello
• “Clint Eastwood”, Gorillaz

As the kids these day say: WTF?

I’m happy, I’m feelin’ glad; I got sunshine … in a bag! Arrrrgh!

Here is Ray’s new favorite song, Tom Waits’ “What’s He Building in There?”

OK, so it’s borderline (or maybe wholly) inappropriate for a four-year-old, but he requests it and he doesn’t seem at all disturbed by it. Today he called it “a funny song” so maybe he gets the humor.

The Police’s “Synchronicity II” cycled up on one of my car CD’s the other day, which caused both me and Ray to seriously rock out (Ray: “He just said ‘Dark Scottish lake!’”). After the CD ended, I toggled over to the radio where I heard a few bars of Sting’s “Fields of Barley,” which acted as a musical finger jabbing itself down my throat causing me to gag. I hastily changed the channel.

It got me wondering: which other pop musicians, if any, have fallen from stone-cold awesome to nauseatingly sucky as far and as quickly as Sting?

Discuss.

I’m obsessed with this song right now.

“Dirty Laundry” by Bitter:Sweet. (The video is static; just listen to it.)

OK, let’s get something out of the way first.

In high school, I was a big fan of the TV show “Night Court.” I especially liked the character of Judge Harry (Harry Anderson), who wasn’t so much a “character” as he was a direct port of the actor/magician’s own persona. I was so taken by Judge Harry, in fact, that I bought a 30’s-era fedora and raided local vintage clothing stores for old ties and fancy duds. That I then wore. To school. I even learned magic and would produce silk scarves or “vanish” sponge balls at a moment’s notice. It’s a wonder I wasn’t beaten up every day.

Anyway, during the first season, the public defender (Billie Young) was played by a pretty, slighty-punkish actress named Ellen Foley. I had a mad crush on her, as did the character of the judge — the questionable ethics of which didn’t concern me at the time.

Later on, Young/Foley was unceremoniously replaced by the inferior, more conservative Markie Post, who provided the requisite sexual tension for the remainder of the show’s remarkable (and, in retrospect, complete undeserved) run of nine years. I never recovered from this recasting.

Flash forward to a couple days ago. The Clash’s “Hitsville UK” song comes up on iTunes. “Hitsville” is distinctly different from other Clash songs in that it’s (1) melodic, and (2) sung by a female. It never occurred to me to wonder who this guest vocalist was, but it was a slow day so I hopped over to Wikipedia, where I learned that the tune was sung by Clash guitarist Mick Jones and his then-girlfriend … Ellen Foley.

The same Ellen Foley who stirred such warm feelings in my adolescent body!

It turns out, Ms. Foley had been a recording artist prior to her acting career, released three solo albums, and worked with such rock luminaries as Meat Loaf and Joe Jackson in addition to various derivatives of the Clash. She’s currently a noted Broadway actress.

And now the damn song is stuck in my head.

I usually like my postings to have more meat on them, but can I just say that I am loving The Dresden Dolls’ album “Yes Virginia”?

There, I said it.

Amy and I were discussing our first album purchases the other night. I was reminded of how behind the curve I was when it came to music, and even life in general.

I often feel as if I’ve lived my life one step out-of-phase of everyone else. By “phase,” in this instance, I mean a major segment of life, like “high school” or “college.”

I look back and realize that my high school years were largely spent figuring out the things that most of my peers had nailed down in junior high school — e.g. girls, pop culture, fashion, interpersonal relationships, etc. Until my senior year, I was largely an outcast, developmentally behind and socially immature compared to my classmates.

The first couple years of college were in many ways an extension of high school. I lived at home, dated significantly younger women (i.e. high school students), and wandered aimlessly about my curriculum. Of my first ten college courses, I dropped 6 of them; I changed my major four times and my minor twice. It wasn’t until my third year that I started making sense of everything, and by my fourth year I had finally figured out what I wanted to do only to run smack into graduation before being able to fully realize my goals.

The soundtrack of my life reflects this out-of-phaseness, too.

Continue reading "Sitting on the Doorstep of the House I Can’t Afford" »

We’re inside now, which is nice as it’s a bit chilly outdoors.

The last time I waited in line like this was for tickets to David Bowie’s 1991 Sound + Vision tour. My girlfriend, Katie, and I drove to the ticket outlet at 5 am. It was freezing out, and a dozen or so fans were there already, but they were still in their cars, thus violating a major rule governing queuing up for concert tickets: no matter the weather, you wait in a line outside.

We boldly strode to the doors and sat down. Slowly, the others emerged from their car and joined us. One guy engaged us in some pleasant conversation before awkwardly stuttering that he had been there since 2 a.m. and, surely, we would let him in first.

” Well,” I replied, “you weren’t at the door.”

For the next several hours, I think he and the others thought we were bluffing. The atmosphere was tense, and when the doors opened, Katie and I rushed in to the ticket window and placed our order.

No one had a chance to object, and we ended up scoring font-row center tickets.

At the concert, the 2 a.m. guy spotted us from his 8th row seat. He was, rather inappropriately, in full Ziggy Stardust regalia, and shouted angrily at us. We smiled and waved, and, later in the show, took great pleasure in watching the decidedly anti-glam Mr. Bowie recoil from his touch.

Tom Waits, my favorite singer-songwriter and probably the coolest man ever, just announced he’s touring the Midwest and southern states later this summer.

“We need to go to Tennessee to pick up some fireworks, and someone owes me money in Kentucky,” said his press release.

He did a limited tour in the northwest last year and I got to see him at the Paramount here in Seattle. For friends and family of mine back in Detroit, he’s going to be there on August 11th at the Opera House. Go see him!

Here’s “Chocolate Jesus.”

The White Stripes’ “My Doorbell” is Ray’s favorite song at the moment. According to him, he likes it “so, so, so, so much.” He also needs it played “loud ‘cause I like it loud.” And every time the word “doorbell” is sung, Ray repeats in a voice full of wonder that there can be a song about a doorbell, of all things.

I found the video on You Tube. It’s in arty black-and-white with Jack and Meg playing… to a crowd of small children.

How appropriate.

Link in case the embedded player doesn’t work

Apart from some lullaby CD’s, we never invested in any baby or kid’s music for Ray. The poor guy doesn’t even know such staples as “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” or “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” A few weeks ago, we were the only parent/child duo present at the bookstore during an impromptu sing-along of “Baby Beluga” who didn’t know the song. From an early age, he seemed to respond positively to the music that Amy and I listen to, so we just kept going.

I remember once rocking him to sleep as Bauhaus’ “Swing the Heartache” played, soothingly, in the background. Once he gained a modicum of control over his body, he would bop up and down to the beats of various songs on the radio — not all of them; just the good ones. On his early childhood playlist were such numbers as “Float On” by Modest Mouse, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” by Green Day, “Be My Girl” by Jet, and “London Calling” by the Clash. He could recognize David Bowie’s “Young Americans”, and he sang along to the choruses of The Police’s “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da” and Marc Broussard’s “Take Me Home” from an early age. Even now, his nap-time music is Norah Jones’ “Come Away With Me,” and he’s lately begun to fancy (and often request) the whimsical avant-garde stylings of The Fiery Furnaces — especially the fantastic “Blueberry Boat” — and the fierce acoustic chords of Ani DiFranco.

The other day, however, he threw me for a bit of a loop. We were driving back from the grocery store and listening to KEXP. The reggae show “Positive Vibrations” was on. I don’t know anything about reggae, and once I realized it was on, I changed the station to look for some alt rock. Ray immediately protested from the backseat: “Noooo, I like that song!” I restored the station, and for the next 15 minutes or so, we both bopped to the Dub beats of The Rocker’s All Stars, Asher & Tremble, and Rhythm & Sound.

I only learned the names of the bands we were listening to after looking them up on KEXP’s website, which lists the time and date of every song they play. I then fired up iTunes on the Tablet PC, called Ray up onto my lap, and began to play samples of the music for him. His face lighted up with a big grin as the heavy bass, funky reverb, and deep echoes of the Jamaican sounds poured out from my speakers. I had to admit, that I thought it was pretty good, too, and I immediately scratched some names down on my music shopping list.

I wonder if I’m the first adult in history to be turned onto reggae by a two-year-old….

Two quick updates:

1. Thanks to Pat for his comment on “New Tunes” with a link to the video of Public Image Limited’s “Seattle” — my New Favorite Song. Check it out for yourself. That Johnny Lydon; he’s so crazy!

2. My earlier post about the Midwest reminded me of something. When I lived in Iowa, another non-native friend of mine, Mel, was telling me about her weekend in which she drove for 45 minutes to a Go-Kart track, drove a Go-Kart in circle for 45 minutes, then drove 45 minutes home. She initially categorized the experience as indicative of “postmodernism” (the simulacra, and all that) but then thought: “Maybe it’s just Midwesternism.” Thereafter, trying to define the distinction between “postmodern” and “Midwestern” was an ongoing effort in our circle.

Maybe you had to be there…..

Shortly after I posted my heavily geeky “iTunes Data Mining” entry, I received a birthday iTunes gift card from Amy’s aunt and uncle (thanks again, guys!). For the last week or so, I’ve been trawling the iTunes Music Store and finally pushed the “Buy Now” button today. Here’s my shopping list.

The songs fall roughly into four categories:

1. Nostalgia (e.g. the Berlin stuff, Morrissey)
2. Good songs from bands/albums I don’t otherwise care for (OutKast, Gorillaz, M.I.A)
3. Both 1 & 2 (The Cult, Skinny Puppy)
4. Unfamiliar stuff I’m trying out (TV On the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs)

After stripping the pesky DRM (thanks, JHymn!), I have been enjoying my new play list all morning. Upon first listen, I have to say that the biggest surprise is that “Seattle” by PIL is an F’in’ Great Song. All my PIL is on cassette and is gathering dust and mold in my basement. I sort of forgot about them. I’ve always felt they were uneven in quality so they never got the CD upgrade and sort of dropped off my radar. But “Seattle” is rocking my world right now.

I’ll admit that I dwell pretty firmly in the past when it comes to music. I don’t really listen to the radio and none of my friends are really into music so I don’t have a whole lot of ways to get introduced to new stuff. Ever since I ripped all my CD’s into iTunes, I’ve spent a good deal of the time organizing, cataloging, and rating the songs in my library and not so much time expanding it.

I have my nifty little widget over to the right there that displays what I’m listening to at any given moment, and I recently added the little star icons that display my rating of each song. You can also click the link underneath the song info to see my entire iTunes library. To make this exciting service available to you, my loyal readers, I have a nighly task set up on my PC that dumps the song information into a database on my web server.

It occurred to me that since my iTunes library was in a database, I could run some database queries to analyze my musical tastes and trends.

Continue reading "Data Mining iTunes" »

Bauhaus played the Paramount in Seattle last night. As I explained in my previous post about the show, my post-adolescent identity was largely formed under the influence of Bauhaus and their derivatives. As a fan, I am very happy to have finally seen them, especially since I never thought I’d have the chance. Objectively speaking, the show was a bit of a let down. I can’t say there was anything wrong with it (apart from some early sound issues), but I can’t say I was blown away either.

Continue reading "Bauhaus: Concert Review" »

Bauhaus are coming, Bauhaus are coming, Bauhaus are coming!

The founding fathers of goth rock are playing at the Paramount Theater in Seattle on October 21st and I got my ticket yesterday!

Hooray!!

I’ve seen lead singer Peter Murphy on solo tours a couple times, but I’ve never seen the band despite their immense influence on my musical and fashion tastes in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Given that they haven’t released new music since 1983, I was surprised that they were still touring and very happy that I chanced upon an ad for the show in last week’s The Stranger.