May 17th, 2005

ohmygodohmygodohmygod

OK. I just saw yet another track list for a mixed CD with Radiohead's "Just" on it. Can we all just put this argument to rest and agree that it's Radiohead's best song period? I know I know I know: "Paranoid F-ing Android." I know. But I think the people like "Just," just a little bit more. It's STILL popping up on mixes, naysayas, ten years later!

I just heard from my friend who attended the taping that Chris Martin told the Vh1 storytellers cameras that Coldplay tried to replicate the drums from Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" on their new single "Speed of Sound." I don't know if I'm more shocked about someone admitting to ripping off Kate Bush, or Chris Martin knowing who she is. I think I need a cigarette.

They also performed a song that was supposed to be a duet with Johnny Cash, but he died before he could lay his vocals down. :(

Thanks to Kelly for this Rilo Kiley info:

Blake and Jenny were the guest deejays on woxy.com for a little over an hour today. Here's what they chose to play:

Phoenix: If I Ever Feel Better
Bob Marley: Coming In From the Cold
B-52s: Private Idaho
Enon: High Society
Spoon: Turn My Camera In
Talking Heads: This Must Be the Place
The Strokes: Under Control
Gillian Welch: Wayside/Back In Time
John Lennon: Watching the Wheels
Tom Waits: Hold On
Feist: Mushaboom
Neva Dinova: Poison
Fiery Furnaces: Tropical-Iceland
Elliott Smith: Twilight

* Jenny's all over the new Spoon album. She called the track she chose "Princey"
* Enon almost went on tour with them
* Coldplay dates are "alleged," nothing's confirmed yet. Jenny said, "The internet's a liar. Sometimes." They do feel pretty sure it will happen, though.
* They talked about recording in Nebraska
* Jenny said her solo album is coming out after she turns 30 in January and said it was a present to herself. She was initially going to put it out in September.
* Blake's working on a new Elected album, but not sure when it'll be coming out.

That Talking Heads song has gotten more props lately than Nigel Godrich wandering aimlessly through the fields of Coachella. The Strokes nod surprised me a bit, though it shouldn't because that first album rocks and they endured way too much backlash without selling enough records to offset it. John Lennon and Elliott Smith are enough for me to overlook the Fiery Furnaces. And Jenny Lewis is turning THIRTY?!?! Holy moly.

John the Giant Fan sent me a link to a great New York Times article today called "The 50-Year Shadow"--and, no, it's not about his team's woes vs. my team.

It's a column about Nuclear--or nuculur, if you're W-- Warfare, and it's written by the only living signer of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto--which derided people blowing other people up for posterity's sake. It's an interesting, short, read. Check it out: Remember Your Humanity, and forget the rest.

My commitment to avoid joining myspace at all costs is being challenged right now by some stupid-head's decision to stop making Billy Corgan's blog available to the general public, and only to members of the stupid meat market popularity web for stupids.

This is so totally un-fair, but I won't backdown.

If I'd known how many defensive know-nothings Cardigans' fans would get off their arses and firebomb me via e-mail, I'd have skewered their latest record months ago. Seriously, it's like Ruby Ridge in my inbox right now. I haven't experienced this much misguided ire since Tori Amos coincidentally f-ed "Jamaica Inn" in Clearwater FL right after I shrieked "DEAR GOD WHY?!" (Though I will gladly except the spiritual responsibilty for that butchering, I was sitting way off the side--she coudn't possibly have heard me, people! )

If cringing all over this Cardigans record is wrong, then I don't want to be right. I could launch into a tirade about the suicide-wish that is opening a batch of songs with a navel-gazing ballad (even Maroon 5 waited 'til track four, dudes)--but I think I'll save my breath and head straight for the "let's just compare sadness to a rainstorm and rhyme 'heart' with 'torn apart' and call it a day" lyrics.

From "And then You Kissed Me"
"And it hits me like never before/That love is a powerful force/Yes it struck me that love is a sport.........."Oh, blue, blue, black and blue/Red blood sticks like glue/ True love is cruel love/Red blood says power fuel/... My heart overfloods."

(Ed: Overfloods!? Yikes.)

From "Couldn't Care Less"
"Oh, my heart can't carry much more/It's really, really aching and sore/My heart don't care anymore/I really can't bear more."

(Ed: Me neither!)

From "For What It's Worth"
"For what it's worth, I love you/ And what is worse, I really do!/"

(Ed:You had us at "I love you.")

From "Lead Me Into the Night"
"I went too far, yes I came too close/I drove away the one that I loved the most/ Now I ride the tide on a boat made of sand/I'm sailing for another to guide me to land....yes I found a guide in the city of lust"

(Ed: I found a guide in the city of lust? Vom.!)

From "You're the Storm"
(Ed: Actually, the title is enough).

I could keep going but it's really just the same sad song over and over again. Even Britney Spears shifts from "you broke my heart, you stupid-head" to "no, i changed my mind. i broke your heart because i'm emotionally unavailable. tee-hee" with more creativity than these blokes. It's sad because I love First Band on the Moon and Gran Turismo. I just can't abide by a record that can't go five minutes without dropping the L-word. (The constant use of that word was one of the first things that irked me about Amos' Beekeeper. She never used to go there when singing about romance. To quote my poet friend, 'Love' is lazy, and should be used as sparingly as an atom bomb.)

The Cardigans: proof that a good groove can hide a song-writing problem.