A’Sharad

A’Sharad – heartfeltself

From the Hardcore Pride Australia Wide video again. From their demo. Yes, they once sounded like this. They sounded like a Boysetsfire cover band. To me, who came in late, it was the sporadic screaming that sounded out of place, yet i guess to those who were there from the beginning it was the encroaching wuss-melodic stuff that was out. I wonder how they feel about this now – if they’d like for it to be forever buried and never reminded of a hardcore past. What if the kids found out? I’m sure they are smart enough not to and know this is great, carrying what i’m sure is some very special and sharp sentimentality for them.

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Supposed To Understand

Supposed to understand – The Pastels

Doo-be-doo Doo-be-doo Ba Ba Ba-da-da. Apparently that’s sung by the girls from Strawberry Switchblade, which, only knowing them from Since Yesterday and Trees and Flowers, i find incredible. I thought it was Aggi, and was all ready to attribute the greatest backing vocals in the history of music and their effect to her, but i guess she wasn’t in the group yet. Listening to those few Strawberry Switchblade songs i have, stripping the production and processing on their voices, singing for Stephen Pastel instead of Warner Records, i can kind of see it now. Small worlds, small scenes.

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Masterpiece

Masterpiece – Adrenalin O.D.

I love that they called this song Masterpiece (because it’s the theme to Masterpiece Theater) and not Fanfare-Rondeau as it is exactly what i would have done, because who knows what the titles of classical pieces are called or who composed them? It reminds me of that Mr Show sketch where Bob is running a classical record club and lists all the songs he wants by the television shows or movies they are themes to.

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Pile Ou Face

Pile ou face – Corynne Charby

Pile! No, je veux dire face. No, pile. No, face. No, pile. No, face. Pile. Face. Pile. Face. Pile. Face. Pile. Face. Pile. Face. Pile. Face…..

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Song Six

Song six – The Field Mice

Yes… Maybe i’m still so used to a certain type of delivery in songs such as these, making this sound to me a little off – a little patronising, a little regressive, a little pathetic. Its earnest tweeness seems like a tip toe around the issue. But it was worked from the heart, without rhetoric, in a language that really did not exist then, in a type of music that, now, then and throughout, rarely explores themes like this. There is a problem, Robert Wratten sees this, this is his reproach.

It may seem paltry, lip service, the solution to nothing and all “Kiss me i’m a feminist” (or “Kiss me i’m a boy who likes girls and never would think to mistreat one. Yeah that’s me. You’re safe”) but i’ll take anything over nothing – any opening up of dialogue over silence.

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Right Here

Right here – The Go-Betweens

I submit that the Go-Betweens were less in love with and an embodiment of the city of Brisbane than Brisbane wanted/wants them to be. Especially at this point in their career. Take that.

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Heart In Your Heartbreak

Heart in your heartbreak – The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

A few days to go now. And as promotion for that date what do i find when i turn on the TV late last night but them on the David Letterman show playing this song.

While it was a fantastic surprise and is great exposure for the band, this is not a They Might Be Giants on the Tonight Show moment. Although i’m sure it might have changed someone out there’s life, i guess it’s because talk show appearances are no longer the showcases they once were. There are so many other avenues now to broadcast yourself and be found by the desperate and unwitting alike. Still, it’s always fun when people who don’t belong on television somehow find themselves on there. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart on my TV? Please.

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Life Is Wacky

Life is wacky – Assfactor 4

This song is my ringtone so every time it appears here it is most probably because i was woken by a phone call. That this is the first time it has ever appeared here just goes to show how much that actually happens. My mother called to tell me she has sold the house, so there’s that, delivered as both good and bad news. That was quick. Someone from over the road bought it as their investment property… yeah… A lot of history there. A lot to be cleaned up.

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Birdhouse In Your Soul

Birdhouse in your soul – They Might Be Giants

Miss Listen-To-One-Song-On-Repeat-One-Thousand-Times-In-A-Row woke me up with this song this morning. Actually it wasn’t just the one song, but a loop of three, over and over. I’ll never understand. Anyway, i’ll take this opportunity to post my favourite band on a talk show moment with They Might Be Giants performing Birdhouse In Your Soul on the Johnny Carson show, as a two piece with the Tonight Show band backing. It becomes especially great when instead of the traffic jam solo as on the record, Doc Severinsen takes to his trumpet.

Odd Future twenty years beforehand? No one is going to be brave enough to draw that comparision, but i’m sure for many people it was, especially considering the opportunity back then for a band such as They Might Be Giants to actually appear on prime time network television. Here:

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The Calm Before The Storm

The calm before the storm – The Bats

The b-side to the Block of Wood 7″, demonstrating further that the Bats never wrote a bad song. Well it is one of the b-sides – the other is the nearly as excellent Candidate. That they never wrote a bad song is not a confidence i’ve yet extended to their newer stuff, but i’m sure there is nothing to worry about. The next time they play some place near me i will actually go. I should. It would be good for me. If i could only keep on top of such goings on. I miss so much. I don’t think there is much hope for them playing this song, though.

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