here comes my face, its plain bizarre
i was driving home from work and almost rear-ended a car because i was barely paying attention to the world around me which is a sort of distressing common occurance whilst driving. this potential inconvenience was averted entirely due to my damage control. i was worried that i'd get a finger thrown my way and i'm of a pretty fragile disposition so this type of thing really ruins me. however, the other driver was totally unaware, JUST LIKE I HAD BEEN.
isn't this weird? isn't it kind of cool? how many things do you think we completely miss on the road? i barely missed a moose earlier this summer, in fact i hit one moose with the rear-view mirror of the car i was in! thats an extreme case of what might have been (i might not have been) cars are funny and so are people...in cars.

i got the record nilsson schmilsson; it is most excellent. if you haven't peeped this, PEEP IT i mean it, now! its so choice. really just wall to wall sweetness. it does have that song coconut, and also jump into the fire. harry covers that song "without you" which i think is badfinger's originally. its one of my favorite tunes...evs.
in this respect it is like "i heard it through the grapevine" (sadly not on the nilsson record) which i think cannot be poorly covered. or rather (as i'm sure someone is up to the task of butchering even grapevine...bon jovi's together again...nickelback and hoobastank are touring which has got to be the funniest tour title of this summer...maybe ever...nickelstank? hoobaback? ha) i've really enjoyed all the versions i've heard. of course marvin gaye is probably the best, CCR and the slits are really close for second though. as this short list indicates its one of the best songs because its versions can accomodate various genres/styles/moods/desires but all channeling the initial theme of a profound disappointment. this being said it rises above hand-wringing patheticism (doth i coin a term? probably not but...check it out, i'm pretty clever) in its weary, aloof futility. or is it that much more broken up over the method of discovery? does it differ from version to version? wouldn't that be cool?!
the slits come off pretty accusatory. the chugging, angular (yeah, i'm writing about rocknroll) attack could pretty much give a fuck about the relationship. the slits know its over and just want "you" to know that you're making a bad decision. this being said its understood that you're stupid enough to think you're right and in fact clever or discreet and so you're really done because ari's not stooping to your level anymore. one day you will rue this idiotic decision. you'll probably be all hand-wringing pathetic and weepy when you finally realize what a good thing you blew. thats when this cut will really sting. yow
marvin's kind of hand-wringy actually. but, like so much good motown (and good pop for that matter, see harry nilsson/badfinger doing that song that started this; without you) the song manages to elevate this state to something noble. the text is actually right there for you, a man ain't supposed to cry... the present state is pathetic but what can a poor boy do? what has befallen our protagonist is some bullshit. his woman is getting ready to peace and she won't even tell him so and everybody else already knows and finally this veritable twisted, fruit-bearing branch of folks comes back around. it is the worst possible salt in the wounds situation and marvin is managing to snatch a sublime beauty from it all. he is going to be alone but first he gets to be the sucka. all of his love, which he knows to be genuine and superior (quatifiably so) to that of the other involved is going tragically unrecognized.
i'm getting didactic here, a little, but the song hits me pretty hard. creedence seems to split these two approaches. this version is not nearly as icy as the slits but rocks along delivering a similar mesaage; this will be your loss. fogerty is pained but the band is jiving and it is ultimately the jive that wins. and how. if you're so callous as to leave the man who loves you more i guess i'll just rock this guit-piece with my kickass band. peace.

it is high time that i acknowledge neal daniel for being the only person to comment on this blog. this is understandable, i'm essentially writing for him and a few other firends who also enjoy needlessly obsessing over rock ephemera. neal argues that bleach belongs on the greatest albums and his argument is strong especially with regard to school. howevs, the album has atrocious production and, while i know this is a mainstream bias, too many songs that seem like good, though underdevolped, ideas. i understand its appeal in a lot of ways. it is not to be polished or cohesive in the general consensus but there are so many albums that employ this textual approach and manage a seemingly effortless, or even unintentional, subtextual coming together that i will not give bleach the ultimate propers as one of the best albums of my lifetime. if not for in utero it may well be the best nirvana album. (not to hate on nevermind but nevermind is, to me, not what nirvana is really about. it is too slick, too radio-friendly. it is punk structure pumped through arena-rock stacks of amplifiers. feel free to disagree, and maybe this is more authentic nirvana. i realize that i am giving benefit of doubt and shamelessly romanticizing the tragic cobain myth. i realize that heroes, even rock heroes...especially rock heroes? occupy a strange and often unhealthy region of the brain and to counteract this one must try to acknowledge their faults and maybe even tear them down a little. but i cant or wont with respect to kurt cobain. i mean, he never even wanted to be a hero man. again this is just my timing. i was young and impressionable when i was getting into rock music and this was at the tail end of the reign of nirvana but the mark was made and try as i might, and i have actually, i cannot really get beyond these intial impressions)
this being said neal is right on about blackstar and also probably the hives. ah the hives, i and probably too many of my peers wrote them off too quickly after the flash in the pan of hate to say i told you so. this is media and record industy's fault though aint it? i mean the hives just got mixed up in that jumble of immaculately constructed garage band revival throwback return of the guitar savior of rocknroll bullshit that started cluttering about with the strokes album. were such cradle to grave consumers that we suspect hype pretty quick. its funny because its a really fine line (i was in my mind to find this...so maybe it doesn't apply universally) we live by the hype (probably gonna die by the hype..alot of us do...kurt cobain...?) and so we never want to be caught in a hype gone bad. the really smart know to just kind of hate everything thats not david bowie.
and so i thought the hives were just cashing in but actually this is never fair because (as steve albini'll tell you) its never bands that cash in (except maybe the dandy warhols...i saw dig! and i think its the first music documentary that i thoroughly enjoyed and also made me want to NOT further explore the artists' catalogue. it will take some hard fighting objectivity for me to stomach let alone stand courtney taylor) its record company's that cash in. kind of like boys dont cry, too bad this is my favorite shit by the cure. god i'm such a poser. that being said i love station to station. the facts is that the hives, under my admittedly faulty radar, made two albums worth of furious pop equal to hate to say i told you so. so check em out ok, they really cool. its a funny brand of punky pop that comes out of that region. the international noise conspiracy as well, and i haven't listened to them in a piece but they had some dope jams.