Show and Tell

The day after Christmas a friend took me to Baltimore to see a Kix-mas show. If you aren't familiar Kix they are a glam-rock band from Maryland who never saw the long term commercial success of say the Crue but managed to have one record go platinum in 1988 (Blow My Fuse).

The band still has legendary status in the Baltimore area so needless to say the show at Ram's Head was well attended by screaming fans who knew all the words to every song (my friend included). I will be the first to admit that glam metal doesn't butter my biscuit but the crowd loved them. Where I winced in embarrassment for the band as they actually use props for certain songs (the same ones they have been using for a decade+) and changed outfits a little here and there (velvet hat and red round John Lennon glasses for one of the ballads), once again their fans loved every minute of it. One woman's trash was clearly a nearly sold out venue's treasure.

What I really want to know is how those band members stay so friggin skinny. They were nearly all as thin as pre-pubescent teen girls. I also have to applaud these men for single handedly keeping the vest look alive. Vest with long sleeves, vests with a short sleeve half shirt, vest with no shirt...viva the vest.

More importantly I heard just about the best statement ever from a woman standing next to me whose husband was trying desperately to drag her closer to the stage. She dug her heels into the ground like a stubborn mule and screamed at him "I don't fuckin' need to be up front for this, it isn't like this is a Kid Rock show!!!"

You will be missed.

Eartha Kitt - I Want To Be Evil (She passed away this week at age 81 of colon cancer)

Time Off

I will be taking a week or so off from blogging. Having a lovely holiday.

xoxo,

Lightning's Girl

(circa 1977 pix of me)

I wish this wasn't stuck in my head

I had almost managed to push this Yo Gabba Gabba song out of my brain but then Anthony Bourdain had to go ahead and sing it in one of his episodes on TV. Dang it.

Liechtenstein - Security By Design

A new video from a band I adore.

Friday Flashcard: Name That Metal Band

I never get tired of this. Not only are their enough metal logos out there to go around the world twice but the serious self important things these bands say about themselves on their sites gives me endless joy.

For instance the Austrian band who belongs to the logo this week has this to say about themselves.

"______ stands for death, madness and everything dark and evil that exists on this planet."

Can you imagine introducing yourself at a bar with a line like that. And who wouldn't crack a smile when you said it?

I heart metal. I really do.

The Mean Reds

When you feel worse than blue

Think Early Stereolab or Lush

Norway keeps churning out lovely new music. I give you Je suis Animal. Their full length Self-taught Magic From A Book hasn't left my stereo all week and it managed to make my top 10 of the year list at that. For those of you who loved Mahogany's Connectivity! as much as I did will be all about this record too.

It's almost absurd how excited I am for you to hear this band. Enjoy!

Well This Is Exciting

Just read this on Aaron Turner's blog.(you know...the Isis, Hydra Head, fantastical artist fella)

"GREYMACHINE: another project long in the works is the debut album from greymachine (justin broadrick, dave cochrane, diarmuid dalton, and myself), which is finally in the finishing stages. titled "disconnected", the album will be out on hydra head sometime in the first portion of 2009. in the meantime you can hear a track from the album here . there has been loose talk of live shows at some point in the future, but the only concrete plan at the moment is to get the album out, an event all the participants have been greatly anticipating to despite our inability to get it done in a timely fashion."

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And in other news check out this cool podcast of shoegaze gems.

Artist: These are Powers
Title: Terrific Seasons

Hometown: NYC / Chicago

Label: Hoss Records
Street Date: Out Now

RIYL: Sonic Youth having left a phone off the hook, The Liars (ex-Liars bass player Pat), Deathrock / No-Wave

Righter Magnitude Rating Scale: Moderate leaning towards strong

The band may have given their genre of music a pet name of "ghost punk" but the only thing haunting this record is the spirit of very early Sonic Youth and the Birthday Party.

These Are Powers pay a decent tribute to decadent noise led by primitive beats but I imagine anyone who calls themselves a serious Nick Cave / SY / the more avante less melodic side of the Liars would rather revisit those records in their record collection than consider giving this band a place on the shelf next to them.

The Future / Human League : The Golden Hour of the Future

Artist: The Future / Human League

Title: The Golden Hour of the Future

Hometown: UK

Label: Black Melody

Street Date: Out Now

RILY: The roots of electronic, new wave, and experimental industrial music. Kraftwerk, mangled disco

The Hits: Blank Clocks

Richter Magnitude Rating Scale: Light to me, strong historically speaking.

The Future now exists in the present tense (in reissue form) and it comes armed with Korg synths and ready to dance. At least that seems to be what The Future meant to some forward thinking electronic instrument loving fellas from Sheffield England in the year 1977.

Before the band Human League entered the picture, two of the members Martyn Ware and Ian Craig were busy trying to master a brand new to the market synthesizer by Korg. These gentlemen weren't interested in being another punk band but were however inspired by the DIY ethics of the scene and applying it to disco...another tired genre they wanted no part of. Hungry to further exploit new technology the group incorporated found / sampled sounds to their music taking them even further way from music trends at the time. In fact A&R people who were given the band's demo suspect that the songs were a joke mocking the industry which in turn led the music executives to call security and have them thrown out of the building.

Shortly there after their third member Adi Newton left the group to form Clock DVA and the remaining members went on to rename The Future, Human League. The band that eventually went on to write 80's classics (if you care about 80's new wave music that is) like "Don't You Want Me" and "(Keep Feeling) Fascination".

While I understand the important role this band plays in breaking new grounds for electronic pop music, the music leaves me wholly unmoved and disinterested. New age industrial doesn't butter my biscuits, it leaves em' cold.

Twitter-rific!

Hey guys! You can now receive Lightning's Girl updates on Twitter. Add us!

Thanks, Anna, for bringing me into 2007. I hear Arcade Fire is gonna be huge.

Okay, I Am Done Feeling Sorry For Myself

So, in the words of Peggy Lee's song "Is That All There Is" (the video I posted last)

"We were so very much in love. Then one day he went away and I thought I'd die, but I didn't, and when I didn't I said to myself, "is that all there is to love?""

Yup. Life goes on and here I still am. Love or no love.

I am still DJing next week and I should remind you good people of this. It is next Thursday at Cous Cous (in RVA), Dec. 18th., from 10pm to 2am. It is FREE and I could use some love right now. Come visit me and lucky for you I will be playing some really fantastic records to make it extra worth your while.

Beyond My Control

Due to a truly awful occurrence in my life I don't have the energy to blog right now. I will be back eventually.

I dont feel like posting about metal today...I give you Mutators - Secret Life instead

Son of a gun. I thought I had my favorite records of 2008 all figures out and then this record rises to the surface of a pile of 12"ers in my living room that I have been meaning to get around to. I was cleaning up the apartment when I put the needle on side A but I stopped cleaning just a few seconds into the record. The music was too good, too distracting to do something as lame as sweeping up scattered cat litter. (Do I know how to party on a Thursday night or what?) I suddenly felt more inclined to kung fu bricks in half with my bare feet. You have to respect a record that literally is the audio equivalent of an adrenalin shot or 10 cups of coffee.

The Mutators sound like a band that would be in the opening slot of a Sonic Youth / Bikini Kill tour in the early 90s. In fact I am pretty sure that Thurston Moore wishes he put out this record. Secret Life is P. U. N. K. A. S. F. U. C. K. with a female vocalist who is a master of the perfect and ongoing scream.

Vancouver is lucky to have this band and Nominal Records - I owe you one for sending me this slab of noisy genius.

It even gets a Tobi Vail approval...and it is wicked limited (820 pressed) so don't snooze on this or you will be sorry. In fact I feel a little sorry for you right now because I have it and you probably don't.

Richard Edson

You might recall this guy from Ferris Beuller's, Stranger than Paradise, Platoon...the list goes on, but once upon a time (81-82) he was the drummer in Sonic Youth. I had forgotten about that until I pulled out the record today.

Something else I nearly spaced on, he also appears in an old Cave In video for the song Anchor.

The Loft / The Weather Prophets

From allmusic.com:

The Loft was one of the early bands on Alan McGee's Creation label. The band started out as the Living Room in 1980, with singer/guitarist Peter Astor, drummer Dave Morgan, bassist Bill Prince, and lead guitarist Andy Strickland as members. Upon realizing that they shared their name with a venue run by McGee, the Television-inspired band changed their name to the Loft. After meeting up with the club owner, they began playing there regularly and wound up on his label. The single "Up the Hill and Down the Slope" won the group and the then-fledgling label a good amount of attention, winning the group a spot on The Oxford Road Show, a television program on BBC2; along with the Jesus & Mary Chain's debut single, it also upped Creation's profile during their early lean period.

While on a tour opening for the Colour Field, a major rift between the group grew extremely deep; there was the Morgan/Astor half and the Prince/Strickland half. Perhaps, not surprisingly, the former half was the second half to join upon the band's inception. Prior to a major show opening for the Colour Field at the Hammersmith Palais, Astor informed Prince over the phone of his wish to sack him and Strickland and continue with Morgan under the same name. After Prince told Strickland of the call, Strickland demanded that Astor be present for the gig. Astor showed; prior to the final song of the band's set, Strickland foiled the singer and told the packed crowd that the Loft would be no more after that show.

Almost immediately after the dramatic public split, Astor formed the Weather Prophets with Morgan (he also released solo records and formed the Wisdom of Harry later on). Strickland and Prince went on to play in a couple of minor bands and also continued working sporadically as music journalists; Strickland also ended up managing the Dotmusic website. Once Around the Fair, a compilation of the Loft's material, was issued posthumously by Creation

Discography is here and I personally heart the LP Once Around the Fair.





More rainy day Brit Pop, The Weather Prophets - "Almost Prayed". Note the awesome hair of the singer. Actually if I am going to be honest here, the lad is pretty easy on the eyes in general.



Hollow Heart:

Soooooo Disinterested...

That I don't even have the energy to write proper reviews of Ra Ra Riot or Japanese Motors.



Ra Ra Riot's The Rhumba Line kicks off with a stolen, okay maybe I should say borrowed riff from The Smiths song "Girlfriend in a Coma", by the second track they were copping a melody from The Clash's "Lost in the Supermarket" and it was right about there I stopped paying attention. I don't have any interest in a band who can't seem to right a riff of their own.



I made it through even less of Japanese Motors self titled release on Vice. The Heartbreakers, The Walkmen, Jonathan Richmond...again...nothing I haven't heard before and nothing I really LOVED in the first place.



Bahhh humbug. In fact I was apparently so disinterested I forgot to post this months ago.

This Black Tambourine video for Throw Aggie Off the Bridge will cheer me up.