I’ve avoided writing straight-out reviews on this site because reviews aren’t my strong point. I do much better with stories about the area between my knees and my belly button while keeping such stories distinctly non-sexual - or more correctly - non-erotic. Sex is funny, and I’m not going to limit myself if the point of a sex story is to make you laugh instead of turn you on. I’ve got a story rolling around in my brain that I’m trying to figure out how to frame so as to gross you out enough to make you smile, but not turn off the real people that have to eat dinner with me and look me in the face.
One of the unwritten rules I made for myself when starting this blog is that I wouldn’t do a movie review even though movies and the Filmspotting Boards take up a lot of my time. The people on the boards, and Adam and Sam do such a great job that I don’t really even want to try. My reviews would be along the lines of, “I liked it because I got to see Christian Bale’s wiener” or “I didn’t like it because I don’t like guns.”
However, I’ll talk about books and music.
For anyone that is a fan of 80s music, please buy Pet Grief
Pet Grief helps me remember that when I was growing up the 80s, music I liked was considered “alternative.” The Pet Shop Boys, Erasure, New Order, Duran Duran, and The Cure were artists that made me feel a little bit dirty as a kid on the edge of puberty; I felt they were a little too grown up for me. Now their music is lumped in with Debbie Gibson, Taylor Dayne, and New Kids on the Block, and people point to the 80s as a vapid decade. The Radio Dept., because they’re a little-known group, reminds me that this kind of music was once considered subversive, or if not subversive then strange.
Think about Robert Smith with his Edward Scissorhands haircut, black-painted fingernails, and smudged lipstick. My mom would have worried about me if she saw his face on the cover of an LP in my collection. Well. Worried MORE about me.
So, kids of the 80s, go get it. I’ve had it on almost continuous loop since I bought it.
MagnusFromBerlin | 27-Mar-07 at 4:12 am | Permalink
I know about the Radio Dept.
tell me something about “Hellogoodbye”, haven’t got a clue who they are…
crumpet | 27-Mar-07 at 4:43 am | Permalink
I used to be one of those OMGWTF80sSUXX0R3D people. Then I remembered that some of my favourite music was made in the 80s. R.E.M., XTC, U2 (letters and numbers were big, apparently), Oingo Boingo, Men At Work, The Cure, Violent Femmes, The Smiths, Run-D.M.C., Beastie Boys, Bruce Springsteen, Midnight Oil, Yo La Tengo, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Sugarcubes, Pixies…
Admittedly, I didn’t discover these musicians until after the ’80s, because I was still in primary school in a country town with one radio station, but I made up for lost time later.
alex | 27-Mar-07 at 5:39 am | Permalink
Hellogoodbye is, I think, right smack between Scissor Sisters and Blink-182. They’ve one really great dance number: Here (In Your Arms), which may have heard, and the rest doesn’t really stray from pop, but I’ve been surprised at a few guitar/drum outbursts.
MagnusFromBerlin | 27-Mar-07 at 9:26 am | Permalink
Which I now have heard, yes — uhhh… vocoder voices… my tolerance for vocoder voices has degenerated a little lately… but I can see how this most certainly might becoming a hit…
alex | 27-Mar-07 at 2:24 pm | Permalink
Crump,
As I said on someone else’s blog, I’m waiting for the 80s to be redeemed like the 70s were. Remember in the 80s and early 90s, how people laughed at the 70s with the roller-skates, the Farah Fawcett hairdos, the rainbow t-shirts, and disco? Then the late 90s came around, and all of the sudden people are making movies called “The Last Days of Disco” and people are really trying to piece together what was considered a “lost” decade. When that happened, the 80s turned into the decade to laugh at with its huge shoulder pads, Nagel paintings, leg warmers, and “straight” singers in make-up. The 80s will have their day in the sun again, I tell you. And I’ll be at the front of the line with my Members Only jacket and aviator sunglasses.
Magnus,
I feel your pain on the vocoder. I give these guys a pass because not every song on the album has it.
PulpAffliction | 27-Mar-07 at 2:42 pm | Permalink
The Radio Dept. are fantastic, but I prefer their debut album “Lesser Matters.” If you haven’t heard it, Alex, you must check it out, it rocks the socks off of “Pet Grief” which is an admitedly amazing album.
alex | 27-Mar-07 at 3:29 pm | Permalink
It’s in my wish list. I got Pet Grief, Zombies! Vampires! Etc!, and The Dixie Chicks latest album all on the same day, and I’m slowly working my way through them. I haven’t even listened to The Dixie Chicks album yet.
Magnus, after listening more closely to Zombies!, that one song is really the only one of its kind. There’s a song in there that sounds like a 60s/70s California Beach song; there’s a sweet song that features what sounds like a ukelele or banjo. There’s some fast-paced songs that contrast strong guitars and drum-kit work against a synthesized arpeggio line. It’s kind of a schizophrenic album, but like I said, it doesn’t stray far from its pop center.
saltine | 31-Mar-07 at 3:16 pm | Permalink
Late to every party am I, but have you listened to slacker.com? I used it to listen to The Radio Dept, just to see what you were talking about. I imagine this service has been available since the ice age of the internet(s) and I’m just finding it, but if not, it’s a good way to sample music and listen on line.