SONGS I LOVE: “Blue”

Mama - BlueMama is a band I know next to nothing about. And it’s easy to not know anything about a band when their name is “Mama” and the album the following track comes from is named “Blue”. You try googling that! I tried “Mama”, “blue Mama”, “Mama blue” “Mama band”, “Mama electronic” and “Mama chillout”… only to come up with a bunch of websites about postpartum depression! The band’s almost as hard to Google as The The, the reigning champs of “bands that are unable to be googled”.

Anyway, I finally had some luck with “Mama ambient” – the second link Google returns is the band’s MySpace page. Apparently, the band is from Athens (the old one) and has at least one member, Manolis Zografakis. And he was once in a punk band, but now does electronic music. Oh, and he has 1213 friends on MySpace as of Friday.

I found Blue at a recommended site and thought I’d give it a whirl. The disc is all about the “different shades of blue in human existence” or someting like that. I don’t know and I don’t care… ‘cos I like it! Lisa said that it sounds like “Weather Channel music for cool people”… and in a way, she’s right. It’s first rate electronic chill-out music, so if you like that kind of thing, give it a listen!

[audio:blue.mp3]

George Michael Arrested (Again)

According to the BBC, pop singer George Michael has been arrested… again:

Pop singer George Michael has been cautioned by police after being arrested in a public toilet in London for possession of drugs.

“A 45-year-old man was arrested on 19 September on suspicion of possession of drugs in the Hampstead Heath area,” a Metropolitan Police spokesman said.

The singer was taken to a police station and given the caution for possessing class A and class C drugs.

Who knew that George Michael would one day have a rap sheet as long as Al Capone’s?

Friday Time Machine: Walter’s BBQ

Sometime between my sophomore and junior years of high school, I grew tired of loud-ass punk rock music, and drifted towards the “local music” scene. Which was great, as it was 1986 at the time, and “local music” included bands from both Atlanta and Athens. So my “local bands” included R.E.M., Pylon, Guadalcanal Diary, Dreams So Real, Love Tractor, Drivin’ N’ Cryin’, and a host of other great bands of the time.

We’d often skip school and go to Athens. Part of this was because none of our parents worked anywhere near there, so our chances of getting caught were slim (I’d previously gotten busted when my dad, driving to a dental appointment, saw my car parked in Little Five Points). The city of Athens was also chock full of college students, so we just blended in with the crowd, making us a tough mark for the rarely seen (but always feared) “truant officers”. Having said all that, the main reason we chose Athens, of course, was that we were unrepentant R.E.M. fanboys and weren’t ashamed to admit it.

We’d sometimes drive around Athens for a bit and check out the architecture of the fine old Southern homes. We’d sometimes try to find where Pete Buck or Michael Stipe lived (we found Pete’s house, no luck with Michael’s). We’d try to find the railroad trestle featured on the cover of R.E.M.’s Murmur album (we found it on the second trip). We’d sit on the hard-ass granite benches at the corner of Broad and College and discuss girls or politics or music or books or religion while we waited for the record stores to open. Then we’d go to Wuxtry and quietly look through the records, straining to hear the names of the bands that the real college kids were talking about. If we had a friend named Chris Haskins with us, we’d try to talk him into buying us some beer, since he looked 25 even when he was 17.

But one thing we absolutely had to do on every trip was to eat at Walter’s Barbecue. Walter’s was the subject of a song on R.E.M.’s Dead Letter Office outtakes album. I believe it was an aborted attempt at a jingle for a radio commercial… but I could be wrong. In any case, on the way out of town, you’d see this little place:

(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)

This picture is from 2004, long after Walter’s had changed hands. And no, I don’t know who that chick in the picture is – I accidentally stumbled across this picture via Google Image Search and it made me all nostalgic. And that’s why I’m writing this post. Anyway, here’s a picture of R.E.M. eating there in 1984:

(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)

I think I sat on every single one of those stools the band’s sitting on. Heh – and look at how much hair Michael Stipe has! It’s funny to see him eating chicken, too… Vegan, my ass!

Walter’s had an awesome hot sauce for the BBQ, and he made the world’s best Brunswick Stew. I don’t know what happened to ol’ Walter, but you can still see him in his heyday in the excellent documentary Athens, GA Inside/Out.

SONGS I LOVE: “Jungle Drum”

Emilíana Torrini is one of my all-time favorite artists. Her 1999 album Love in the Time of Science is one of my favorite albums ever. It’s beautiful, lush and haunting and is one of the best electronic albums ever made (and it was produced by Roland Orzabal of Tears for Fears). For a time, it seemed that Emilíana was poised to eclipse the fame of her Icelandic counterpart, Bjork.

But then tragedy struck: her long-time boyfriend was killed in a hit and run accident, and shortly thereafter she was violently mugged in Bethnal Green, London. She withdrew from music and fame for several years, occasionally popping up to write a song (like Kylie Minogue’s smash hit “Slow”) or to sing one-off collaborations (like “Gollum’s Song” from The Lord of the Rings soundtrack, or “Hold Your Hand” from superstar DJ Paul Oakenfold’s Bunkka album).

Emilíana finally reemerged in 2005 with her second album, Fisherman’s Woman. Unlike Science, this album was almost entirely acoustic. The album is profoundly sad, perhaps as a way to exorcise the pain of losing her boyfriend. It’s an incredibly beautiful album – “Today Has Been OK” is one the best songs I’ve ever heard – but it is, for the most part, as sad as a This Mortal Coil album. It’s something you just can’t pop into the CD player on a whim.

It seems that Emilíana has gotten her mojo back with her newest album, Me and Armini. Like Fisherman’s Woman, this album has almost no electronic instruments (much less the whole “electronica” feel). Unlike Fisherman’s Woman, however, the album is mostly poppy and happy. Have a listen to “Jungle Drum”, a song slated to be the album’s second single:

[audio:jungle_drum.mp3]

I’m so glad that Emilíana’s back on track. The girl is as cute as a button (and I mean that more mentally than physically), and it just makes me all giddy inside to hear her being happy again.

Read Emilíana’s Wikipedia entry here.

Technical Difficulties

Golden brown texture like sun
Lays me down with my mind she runs
Throughout the night
No need to fight
Never a frown with golden brown

Every time just like the last
On her ship tied to the mast
To distant lands
Takes both my hands
Never a frown with golden brown

Golden brown find a temptress
Through the ages she’s heading west
From far away
Stays for a day
Never a frown with golden brown

Never a frown
With golden brown
Never a frown
With golden brown

SONGS I LOVE: “Disorder”

Last night I watched Grant Gee’s 2007 film Joy Division, a documentary about the influential band from Manchester, England.

I really enjoyed the film… in fact, I like it better than Control, another Joy Division film from 2007. While Control is a great film, it focuses on lead singer Ian Curtis because it is based on Touching from a Distance, his wife’s autobiographical account of their marriage. As a result, Control has a few blatantly obvious biases and factual errors. For example, according to Control, Ian Curtis wrote “She’s Lost Control” shortly after his first epileptic seizure. In reality, Curtis wrote the song months before the seizure as a tribute to an epileptic girl he encountered whilst working with the disabled at the Manpower Services Commission in Manchester. Control also shows the band playing “Transmission” on their first TV appearance instead of correct song, “Shadowplay”.

Anyway, whilst watching the movie last night, I was completely taken in by a brief montage which features a bunch of artsy 8mm shots of 1970s Manchester – grimy, rotting, crumbling, depressing – over which “Disorder” is played. I’d completely forgotten how much I love that song.

Unlike, say, the music of The Jam (another band I love, but who’s music is firmly set in the 1970s), Joy Division’s music seems timeless. “Disorder” could have been recorded in 1978… 1988… 1998… or even in 2008.

Then there’s the style of the band, and by that I don’t mean their “fashion”, but how the music is. Joy Division were as “tight” a band as you could ask for, but each instrument seems to be doing it’s own thing. Unlike a child’s music box (where every individual piece is dedicated to the task of making music), Joy Division sounds like a machine built for a completely different purpose that just happens to sound like music. Each instrument floats in its own aether… and then the hollow, haunting voice of Ian Curtis kicks in… and it makes something that doesn’t sound like any band before or since.

Do yourself a favor: turn off the TV and turn down the lights. Get rid of all the distractions, then dig out your headphones and listen to this:

[audio:disorder.mp3]

SONGS I LOVE: “Starlett Johanssen”

The TeenagersSo yesterday, Lisa and I went to a friend’s house for a cook-out. It started out innocently enough, with Calvin cooking up burgers, dogs, and pork chops on the grill while the rest of us drank a few beers or wine or what have you.

After dinner, though, things rapidly went downhill. The guys retired to the living room to do tequila shots and watch the Steelers\Vikings preseason game, while the girls (and Regis!) hung out on the porch playing a slightly drunken version of Apples to Apples. After the football game was over, the boys retired to the porch, where we all had more tequila shots and played another round of Apples to Apples.

On the way home, Lisa decided that she was hungry, so she asked me to stop by the local Taco Bell so she could get a Taco Salad. While waiting in line at the drive-thru, a song came on my iPod that I’d played for her a couple dozen times before. Only, for some reason, she really latched on to one line of the song this time:

When I noticed for Jared Leto
I felt sad for 30 seconds

“Wait – was he singing about Jared Leto?”, Lisa asked.

I couldn’t help but giggle. I’d played the song I don’t know how many times, and she’d apparently never listed to the lyrics before. I started the song over again:

I know you’re born in ’84
Half Polish, half Danish
You started at 8 on Broadway
You’re a star

You don’t believe in monogamy
I’m not jealous Scarlett will you marry me
All you’ve got you can like it
But what I am you will love it

Lisa was still confused… which is understandable, since The Teenagers are from France and don’t pronounce things exactly as an English speaker would expect. I told her that the song was about Scarlett Johanssen. She got that, but had no idea why they were talking about Jared Leto, who is one of the three male celebrities that Lisa absolutely adores (the others are Johnny Depp and Edward Norton, if you’re interested).

I kept giggling, ‘cos apparently Lisa had no idea that Jared Leto and Scarlett Johanssen dated a few years ago.

“He dated her?”, she kept asking.

I kept giggling and asked her if I could get her a 4 year-old copy of People magazine to verify that yes, the two actually dated.

“He dated that bitch?”
“Yes, honey. He dated that bitch!”
“Well… I hate her.”

So I guess Lisa’s new nickname for Scarlett Johanssen is “that fucking bitch”.

Enjoy the song:

[audio:teenagers.mp3]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADONNA!!

Can you believe that the Material Girl turns 50 freakin’ years old today? Me neither. Gawd, I’m getting old. Just the other day, I realized that if I still had my first pair of Doc Martens, we could go out for a drink together, since they’d be almost 22 years old. Sigh.

Anyway… HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MADONNA! I’m still crazy about you after all these years!

PS – I hope your ankle gets better soon!

For Evelyn

For my dear friend Evelyn Kouloumberis:

I see your money on the floor, I felt the pocket change.
Though all the feelings that came through that door
Just didn’t seem to be too real.

The yard is nothing but a fence, the sun just hurts my eyes.
Somewhere it must be time for penitence.
gardening at night is never where.

gardening at night.
gardening at night.
gardening at night.

The neighbors go to bed at ten.
Call the prayer line for a change.
The charge is changing every month.
They said it couldn’t be arranged.

The yard is nothing but a fence, the sun just hurts my eyes.
Somewhere it must be time for penitence.
gardening at night is never where.

See your money on the floor, I felt the pocket change,
Though all the feelings that broke through that door
Just didn’t seem to be too real.

gardening at night
gardening at night
gardening at night

Your sister said that she’s too young;
She should know she’s been there twice.
The call was 2 and 51.
They said it shouldn’t be arranged.

The yard is nothing but a fence, the sun just hurts my eyes.
Somewhere it must be time for penitence.
gardening at night is never where.

We ankled up the garbage sound, but you were busy in the rows.
We fell up, not to see the sun, gardening at night just didn’t grow.

gardening at night
gardening at night
gardening at night