Some people call Chip E. one of the godfathers of Chicago house music. But back in high school I didn't know anything about him. I just knew that I really liked to dance to his record, "If You Only Knew".
I used to get so excited when it'd come on one of the WBMX mixes. It was the house music version of a song by the Smiths. A bit dark, lonely and full of unrequited love.
Here's the track with some great footage of Chicago. Watching this makes me a little homesick.
Music for the Masses, Depeche Mode's sixth studio album, might be my favorite Mode album of all time. It's hard to choose one, but MFTM just might get the nod. And besides, I have four copies of it.
It was released in the fall of 1987, one month into my sophomore year of high school. I can remember huddling under my blankets listening to a bootleg Maxell cassette tape recording of it.
Sometimes things happened in my life that made me listen to one particular song more than another. And that winter of 1987, I had "The Things You Said" constantly playing in my dark bedroom at night.
The song begins with Mode's singer/songwriter Martin Gore singing, "I heard it from my friends about the things you said."
And my goodness did the tears run down my cheeks when I'd hear that line. High school girls can be cruel, mean even. One minute they're your friend and the next, they're stabbing you in the back and gossiping about you.
What gets less attention is that high school boys do the same things. That winter, I turned down the advances of a boy. He was a senior and very good looking. I really liked him but he'd made it clear he wanted to sleep with me. And I did not want to sleep with him, even when he'd tell me all the typical things high school boys say to try to get you to feel sorry for them.
And so, to save his reputation, and, I think, to get back at me, he went and told lots of people that he'd slept with me. I was shocked and absolutely outraged. So when Martin sang:
"I get so carried away
You brought me down to earth
I thought we had something special
Now I know what it's worth"
I could feel those words completely.
Looking back, I think I was even more upset that some of the girls who were supposed to be my friends believed him and not me and chose to spread the rumor behind my back.
I never forgot that experience, never forgot what it was like to have someone say something about me that wasn't true.
And today, when I least expected it, that memory comes creeping back into my present, and I remember the song:
Sia is an Australian singer that used to do acid jazz but now does a poppier, Kate Bush style. The regular version of this off of her upcoming record, "Some People Have REAL Problems".
And that album version's cool.
But the Stonebridge remix of "The Girl You Lost to Cocaine" has "Hit dance record of winter, 2007" written all over it. It just gets taken to a much darker place and manages to get you moving as well.
Thankfully, someone put the song up on YouTube. I promise, you're going to start moving in your seat:
Seether is a rock band from South Africa and even though they've been together for a few years, I just heard their single "Fake It" a couple of days ago. It's got a great lyrics like:
"Who’s to know if your soul will fade at all
The one you sold to fool the world
You lost your self-esteem along the way"
Are they sure they don't live in LA now? Those lyrics seem tailor made for this city!
But even more than the song, the "Fake It" video cracks me up, especially the part halfway through where the video director is teaching the model exactly how he wants her to shake her rear into the camera. It just shows how ridiculous rap and r&b videos are these days:
Billy Idol is one of those artists that probably shouldn't still be alive. But, despite ingesting massive amounts of drugs over the years, he is still around and looking as slim as ever. Unbelievably, this poster child for sex, drugs and rock-n-roll's about to be 52 in a couple of weeks.
I loved his whole look when I was a teenager: the classic sneer, the bleached out spiky hair, the leather. If I could have been a female version of this look, I would have in a heartbeat.
The music wasn't half bad either. Who didn't love rocking out to tunes like "White Wedding" and "Dancing With Myself"? I was certainly part of the crowd who loved those tracks. But, my favorite Billy Idol song hands down is "Eyes Without a Face".
My favorite lyrics come from the second verse where a seemingly heartbroken Billy sings:
"I spend so much time
Believing all the lies
To keep the dream alive
Now it makes me sad
It makes me mad at truth
For loving what was you"
For some reason I've been listening to this for the past two days, the haunting synths, the emotion coming through his voice. Yeah, this song stands the test of time. I bet it could be played on radio today and still be a huge hit.
“I want you behind my bedroom doors. Ready or not we’re about to speed up.”
Yeah, I think it’s pretty obvious what the song “Speed Up” by Dutch house DJ Funkerman is about.
Sex.
Except that the beat is so great I seriously doubt anyone is having sex while they’re listening to this one. Everyone is probably too busy dancing.
This song is one of the most infectious dance records I’ve heard in awhile. I've been listening it to for a few months now and it just doesn't get old.
I haven’t been out to a club too recently, but every time I hear this track, I wish I was out somewhere dancing. Instead, I find myself running to it and the song works well in that capacity too.
" Life, will flash before my eyes
So scattered and lost
I want to touch the other side
And no one thinks they are to blame
Why can't we see
When we bleed, we bleed the same"
And that's why my obsessive song of the week is Muse's "Map of the Problematique".
If you don't know about Muse, well... they're very talented British alt rockers. They sing about social change, conspiracy theories and, um, aliens. And folks consistently say they're one of the best live acts out there right now. I get to do a little investigative reporting on the veracity of that statement when I go see them in September.
In the meantime, I'll keep enjoying this live clip of Muse performing "Map of the Problematique":
I'll confess, I'm all over any book that has to do with discovering what happened to the mysterious treasure of The Knights Templar. After all, I've wanted to personally discover that treasure since I was about nine years old.
Unfortunately, that hasn't happened yet so it was with pleasure that I picked up a copy of Steve Berry's 2006 novel, The Templar Legacy.
The book has action,intrigue and a main character named "Cotton". (Who names their child that?!?)
Anyway, I wish the book would have just stuck to treasure hunting because it got waaay too Da Vinci Code on me. I didn't need for the treasure to be some secret about the Bible that proves that Jesus didn't do something we all think he did.
Along the way to finding out this major secret, some rogue, CIA agent type Templar monks try to kill each other. At times, their dialogue is so catty and fraught with sexual tension that found myself wondering if what they really needed to discover is the secret of having a wife.
Seriously, Steve Berry should have left all the theological philosophising to someone else and stuck to solving clues in order to find bars of gold and caskets of diamonds. When he does just that, the book shines. However, by the time Cotton and company find the "treasure", I felt like I'd just sat through a really bad "Lost Books of the Bible" Dateline NBC special. It's not a book I'll pick up again for the pleasure of rereading.
This reader gives The Templar Legacy a C+.
Some people don't like their favorite musical artists to change.
Some people want artists to stay the same. Sameness, as in wear the same clothes, have the same hair, have the same musical sound over and over again. Year after year. Forever and ever till death do them part. After all, it's comfortable.
To me, that's pretty boring. That's why I'm so thrilled that Davey Havok and Jade Puget from AFI have gone ahead and worked the goth-electro-industrial thing through their new side project, Blaqk Audio.
With lyrics like, "How it breaks their hearts, that we made an art of desecrating our sanctuaries," their first single, "Stiff Kittens" channels some mid to late 80's Depeche Mode and New Order. In my world, that's an infinitely good thing.
This isn't an official video, but here's the very danceable song. Enjoy:
I don't remember exactly when I downloaded "Girl and the Sea" by Australian duo The Presets. But, fortunately, I rediscovered this hypnotic indietronica gem on Friday night as I was shuffling through my iPod while driving to Pasadena.
It's a hauntingly beautiful song and I get especially choked up on this chorus:
"No place, some time
We'll clear our eyes.
And when you're down
I'll come around."
I know they look weird in the masks and all, but trust me, it's a good song. No, actually it's a great song. So great that you can click on this link to watch the video on You Tube. But, I'd recommend just plugging in your headphones, turning up the sound, closing your eyes, and letting the waves of the song wash over you.