Good morning. Hello. How are you? #830
Lock grooves. Ting Tings updatdes. Hot Topic home pages and sweaters. Dance parties. Happy belated Anaïs. The staying power of Anton Newcombe Jr.
Hello there, friend. How are you today? It’s 7:07 AM and it is 65 degrees. Gonna be 80 today. This is ridiculous. Making me think I should have all my plants in the ground. All the poor trees are falling for it and sprouting leaves but you’re not fooling me, weather. It will freeze again before spring comes. I know better.
Oh look, side B of the new Yo La Tengo has a lock groove isn’t that exciting. One moment. Man that record keeps delivering. Very excited to see them at Cat’s Cradle this spring. After our official average last frost date. In the real spring not this bot.
Some updates for you. On the Ting Tings. First: Not only are they a man-woman duo instead of a girl group, they are married. They have a kid. And they are still making albums. About as much as you can when you have a toddler. Good for them. That really is something. I have thrown the most recent Ting Tings album in my listening queue. Must really be something of a music career when your very first single goes to number one and then you make five or so more albums that do not have any number one singles on them. Would I feel relief? Yeah, I think I could probably roll with that, that’d be fine with me. Aside from having to play it all the time but I bet I could make that work too because playing live music is pretty fun. Secondly: Katie White from the Ting Ting’s grandfather won the English lottery, winning £6.6 million, giving each of his sons £1 million, and each of his grand kids a pony. I wonder what happened to Katie White’s pony. Anyway, her father used that money to set up a “music management career” which is somewhat mysterious, but in the process of doing so, set up Katie with Jules De Martino in their first band together. I wonder how her father feels that they went and got married. But, then again, pretty stellar opening act for a new burgeoning music management career to have your first act immediately go to number one.
Many of you have asked for photos of me in the Care Bear sweater, including my own sister, but I’m sorry that is just not going to happen. You put that photo out on the internet and it’s never going to disapper and I haven’t completely given up my presidential ambitions that I only ever think about when it comes to photos on the internet. Jane has this really cute Hello Kitty anime hat, and the hat has those long sleeve things that end in mittens, and inside the mittns, each mitten has a little puff ball thing that you can squeeze and make the ears twitch. And sometimes she wears it on walks and then doesn’t want to wear it anymore. Then I put it on and make the ears twitch and she loves it and Emma then tries to take a photo of me. She says she wants it as photographic evidence that I am a good dad but she’s not fooling me she wants to put it on the internet.
Anyway, as a compromise here is a photo from the Hot Topic catalog listing for the sweater:
Man remember when Barbarian Group made the Hot Topic home page and you had to smash the old Home Page with a guitar to see the new Home Page underneath it? I still think that might have been one of our most glorious projects ever.
Happy belated birthday to Anaïs Nin, whose birthday was Tuesday and I forgot to mention it. She would have been 120 years old if she had lived this long, which seems unlikely. Man. She really lived a life. I will spare you a long essay here about the profound influence Anaïs has had in my life. I had to have already done that at least once in GMHHAY. A full search reveals at least 26 mentions of Anaïs in here. I will spare you.
Jane and I did Daddy-Jane dance party last night, which really is the best. Really helps close my rings on my watch on rainy days when we don’t get the walk in. I declared Wednesdays goth days and so we stuck to goth bands. I’m trying to only do acts with women in them but there’s so much of the basics to cover because she has a deep knowledge of new wave from the constant playing of XM First Wave in the house but everything else she’s only heard once or twice. She wanted a mix of things she already knew and didn’t know, so we did Siouxsie and Kate Bush in the former category and Cocteau Twins in the latter category and she quite enjoyed them. Then I showed her “Burst” by Shellyan Orphan and she was not super impressed. Oh we did Cranes too and she loved “Shining Road” so we will be doing more Cranes.
As she was going to bed she asked to learn some basic algebra which was mildly terrifying. I started on the very basics like 2+3 = 3+2, getting to understand that each side of the equation can have different things in it, and that 2+3 = 3+2 can be reduced to 5 = 5. This girl is going to outstrip me it is mildly terrifying.
Here’s justa mix for you, new and old. Of note is the Johnette Napolitano track, which is a) new, b) great, and c) fascinating because it’s main conceit is that Leonard Cohen sent me flowers. I assume this is legitimately autobiographical and Leonard sent her flowers when Concrete Blonde had a hit with “Everybody Knows” on the Pump up the Volume soundtrack, which is an awesome soundtrack. It was at a time where Leonard was sort of being written off as a cheesy crooner in his I’m Your Man phase, which we all know now was awesome but at the time people did not grasp the awesomeness of it. I mean, I did but you know. People. There were a fair number of Leonard covers out there, but not too many from his later period and certainly not one I can think of as a “hit.” And of course we have the Ting Tings on here. And Teenage Fanclub because man have you listened to Bandwagonesque lately? It’s so good. Even the throwaway tracks are awesome. I am so glad I saw like three shows on that tour. God. That one at Axis with the Whigs. Anyway. Thank you Bill for reminding me about them. Obscure old goth band Zero Le Creche I just learned about from Aug and had never heard of. Shellyan Orphan cuz they’re just fantastic. The rest is new I think. Oh O. Children is new to me but it’s been out a while. New Thus Love very exciting. New Smashing Pumpkins — I know I keep saying this, much to my own chagrin, I assure you — is really pretty good. Always love a new Fidlar track. That Young Fathers album might be my favorite of the year so far.
New Brian Jonestown Massacre is solid and in the same vein as the last few but man did anyone at all anticipate, back in Dig!/Bomp days that Anton Newcombe Junior would go the distance? Develop a hardcore work ethic, deliver twenty-six albums and turn that shambolic joke of a live outfit into one of the best live bands around? No. No one saw that coming. Except maybe Anton. And Anton being right back then is a terrifying prospect.
Until tomorrow! Walmart run! Woo!
Oh look at that. Lock groove on side 4 of the Yo La Tengo too. Perfect timing.