 Well, it started out great, but it looks like Guyville, the get-fans-pumped-about-the-new-Liz Phair-album site is effectively dead. And me hundreds of points from being able to qualify for any of the free schwag.
Which is weird, since the early word on the new album is pretty decent. The Support System mailing list, which I’ve been on since … hmmm, forever … is usually of the view that anything after her debut album is crap. And they haven’t been, this time around, which about made me fall out of my chair.
In other news, I will find and kill the snipers who keep snatching away the promo disk versions of “comeandgetit” from me on eBay. With a shovel. It would be a bad idea to test me on this one.
Wow. After Tuesday night’s Rock Star: INXS, I would run, not walk, to pick up Marty Casey’s single, “Trees,” if it were released somewhere other than the crappy MSN Music. (Who, exactly, thought that trying to sell music that’s as difficult to listen to on a portable device as humanly possible was a good idea?) Marty did a great job combining his signature passion with a too-seldom-glimpsed sense of humor in the song.
Otherwise, I thought everyone did OK, but everyone also failed to cover themselves in glory. I voted for Marty and Jordis.
Astonishingly, it turns out that “Trees” was not the song chosen for the encore. America is clearly nuts. I will console myself with the knowledge that Sleater-Kinney’s “I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone” is finally available from iTunes.
OK, reading Marty’s Rock Star blog, “Trees” is an older song that he apparently did with his Chicago band, the Lovehammers. (The band name makes me giggle a bit too, but if I put a band together at age 13, I doubt I would have come up with a better name.) The lyrics to “Trees” can be found here.
Live Liz Phair performances and a discussion of the health benefits of sex and swimming over on VH1.com.
Concert-goers say that she and her main squeeze now appear to be wearing wedding rings on stage, so congrats to them, if it’s true and means what it seems to mean.
I don’t know what it is, but I can’t get “I Will Follow You Into the Dark” by Death Cab for Cutie out of my head.
Love of mine, some day you will die
But I’ll be close behind
I’ll follow you into the dark
No blinding light or tunnels to gates of white
Just our hands clasped so tight
Waiting for the hint of a spark
If heaven and hell decide
That they both are satisfied
Illuminate the no’s on their vacancy signs
If there’s no one beside you
When your soul embarks
Then I’ll follow you into the dark
Yeah, that’s a little morbid, isn’t it? But it’s sung in a wonderfully romantic fashion, just lead singer Ben Gibbard and his guitar (and maybe a little other instrumentation in the background).
In Catholic school, as vicious as Roman rule
I got my knuckles bruised by a lady in black
And I held my tongue as she told me
“Son, fear is the heart of love”
So I never went back
If heaven and hell decide
That they both are satisfied
Illuminate the no’s on their vacancy signs
If there’s no one beside you
When your soul embarks
Then I’ll follow you into the dark
I first heard the song on the podcast of Dave Cusick’s Post Modern Rock Show, and it’s stuck in my head ever since.
You and me have seen everything to see
From Bangkok to Calgary
And the soles of your shoes are all worn down
The time for sleep is now
It’s nothing to cry about
Cause we’ll hold each other soon
The blackest of rooms
If heaven and hell decide
That they both are satisfied
Illuminate the no’s on their vacancy signs
If there’s no one beside you
When your soul embarks
Then I’ll follow you into the dark
Then I’ll follow you into the dark
 Anyway, it’s off Death Cab for Cutie’s brand spanking new album, Plans. It’s got some other good tunes on it, including “Crooked Teeth,” which I also first heard on the Post Modern Rock Show.
I’ll just be over here, brooding in a corner and reading depressing Edgar Allen Poe romantic poetry.
Speaking of Dave Cusick, he sent me a very nice e-mail Saturday after my mention of him in this blog, answering a question I had:
As for how I can play music and not worry about the rights issues, KPSU has a license that covers podcasting. And I actually don’t know any more about it than that, but I’d rather not worry about it too much anyway.
And, as for my talking bits, I know I can rattle on a bit, but I’m working on it. I come from a long line of long-winded droners, and having a mic in front of you doesn’t help anything.
As long as there’s Morning Stories, with its 10 minutes of talking about its two minutes of story, you’ve got nothing to worry about. And I’m enjoying all the old They Might Be Giants songs I haven’t heard in ages.
Elsewhere, the New York Times profiles Death Cab for Cutie. I think you have to be registered to read it after a week or some such thing, so read it sooner rather than later. And eek, between the Postal Service, Rilo Kiley and the Shins, this article is cataloging most of the stuff I’ve been listening to recently on my iPod. I’ve become a demographic.
Variety has the news: “Rock Star: Live at the Mayan Theatre” hits stores on September 20, the night of the Rock Star: INXS finale. INXS‘ first album with the eventual winner of the televised audition process will hit stores December 13. The band’s obviously not kidding when they say they’re in the studio laying down tracks right now.
Meanwhile, Variety shows a rather cavalier attitude towards writing standards on the Web:
Show eliminated a “rocker,” as the contestants are called, Wednesday night, bringing the pool of finalists to six. Episode was watched by 6.2 million viewers.
Readership want full sentences. All parts of speech represented.
While it’s possible the continuation of the INXS saga will become another series, Riggs said several bands have approached Burnett Prods. about doing a second season of the show. “Some need lead singers, and some aren’t happy with the ones they have,” he said.
Rock Star: Velvet Revolver, here we come.
In any case, there have been enough standout performances from Jordis, Mig, Marty and the others that I can see buying the album. Me buying the INXS one will really depend on who’s selected, I think.
(Source.)
Zap2It has more details, including listing which songs are on the CD, and they are gooood. (I once turned down a job with Zap2It back when I worked for the LA Times Syndicate. Too far to drive for me at that point, although they were all very nice. Who knew they’d end up such a relatively big presence online?)
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