Shattered Faith

Don’t you love it when you stumble upon a song you’ve never heard before and it’s the greatest thing ever created? I just did that moments ago:

The song is called “A Different Story” by German singer Peter Schilling. Now I’ve known about good old Peter for awhile, he was the one who did the one hit wonder “Major Tom” which I’ve always loved. I don’t know how I’ve missed this song. In my years of listening and loving 80s music I somehow managed to miss this gem. But now I have it. And I’m listening to it. And all is grand. This shit right here is the reason I love 80s music so much. It’s just way too awesome.

Yes. Finally. My Siouxsie Sioux cherry was popped this past Saturday… and it was fucking EPIC.

I’ve missed my past two chances to see Siouxsie live. The first being a reuinion show of Siouxsie and the Banshees in 2002, while I was in Saudi Arabia. The second being an ‘evening with Siouxsie’ featuring Banshees songs and songs from her side project with her (then) husband Budgie, The Creatures. I had math class that I felt I couldn’t afford to miss. To this day I still can’t tell if my priorities are fantastic or retarded. When I heard that she was touring for her first solo album (at the age of 50!) I emailed Joey and told him he’s going. He had no choice. It was kind of pricey with the ticket master charges tacked on but totally worth every penny. We got to the venue around 8:30 or so since the tickets claimed it started at 9. This ended up not being the case and she didn’t take the stage until 10. It was a relatively long wait and I started getting pissed until this:

It started. The lights dimmed, the screen went up. The band took to their instruments and then eventually she walked out. Good God did she look fantastic. It completely blew my mind. I don’t have many friends that understand my fascination with this woman and her music, but being able to finally see her in the flesh was an experience. Her mic was fucked during the first song, although it got better towards the end of it. Subsequent songs sounded fantastic – she still has it. Even though her voice has dropped considerably. Her new material is more catered to this change, but she played 4 Banshees songs that sounded fantastic. Hong Kong Garden(which she announced is now 30 years old, released as a single in 1978), Night Shift, Nicotine Stain and Dear Prudence (yes, it’s a Beatles cover). Here is a short clip of the Dear Prudence performance:

Here is a video of “About to Happen”. You can see how fabulous she looks. I apologize for the video, as the cameraman decided it would be fun to sing along. Apparently he does this will all his videos after browsing his collection. Regardless – Awesome.

All together, it was amazing. I couldn’t have asked for a better show. I started to get a little teary eyed at one point, and I’m not kidding. I don’t do shit like that, but now I can somewhat understand videos of little girls crying for the Beatles. Well, they went a little overboard. I don’t preach Siouxsie to others, as she’s an acquired taste – but to me it doesn’t get better than this.

My whole weekend was a lot of fun. I went up to the city Friday evening so we could go out for Tim’s Birthday. We ate at some Texas BBQ esque/Whiskey bar place in Brooklyn. Meat, Meat and more Meat. Ribs, Brisket, Pulled Pork, Sausage and baked beans that had more meat chunks than beans. Excellent. Afterwards we went to a bowling alley for some more drinkage. In fact, the majority of my weekend was drinking which is alright with me. The Subway system is absolutely retarded and I missed my original bus on the way home so I had to sit around for 2 hours at Port Authority. Oh well, not enough to bring me down from my high.

Yay.

Still enjoying my vacation which consists of doing absolutely nothing. I took my car into the dealership yesterday to get some routine maintenance done, as well as check out some other things. Lo and behold the total bill will be around $1000. I needed new tires (which is true) and new brake thingers (which is true). I’d be pissed, but considering the car is 5 years old and I haven’t pumped really any money into maintenance at all yet I don’t think it’s too bad.

I’ve seen Juno and Sweeney Todd recently. Both movies were fantastic and I highly recommend checking both out. Juno went from a very small release to being #2 in the box office right now, so it looks like it’s on it’s way to being this years Little Miss Sunshine (I think Juno is better). Sweeney Todd was fantastic, and I’m not saying that because I’m a Burton/Depp fag (both have had their ups and downs). Yes, Burton recycles the same cast again – but they fucking sing! and do it well! It shows what a talented bunch these actors really are. Adding Alan Rickman to the mix just makes it all the better. They’re by no means professional singers, but they really do a fine job. Even if you don’t like musicals I suggest you check it out. Plus there’s buckets of blood which should satiate the juvenile in everyone.

This video made me laugh out loud. A lot. It’s a fake interview with Michael Cera (Arrested Development, Superbad, Juno). Check it out.

I still can’t get rid of the shit comments. Damn you wordpress.

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween. Mine started out relatively shitty. I had to work and was being rushed around. We had plans to attend a party at our friends house in Palmerton and I had no costume, and no intention of really getting one. We went to one of those seasonal costume warehouses and I couldn’t find a damn thing – plus I hate spending money on something that I’ll wear once. I was about to leave with nothing and just say fuck it, when Morgan picked out a $12 Benjamin Franklin “disguise” kit. I went for it and it ended up being pretty awesome. I had no costume to go along with it, but I think it made it all the better. By the time we got to the party and I had a couple drinks I was feeling much better about my holiday. There was a ton of great food, flowing beverage, and it was really nice to hang out with some friends and catch up with old ones. I got pretty hammered too, although I don’t think I made an ass out of myself, at least my friends wont tell me to my face.

I just finished watching “The Ice Storm” which I had partially seen a long time ago. First off, the cast is amazing. Tobey Macguire, Elijah Wood, Christina Ricci, Joan Allen, Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver. Wow. Secondly it was done by Ang Lee, who so far as really impressed me with his work (sans Hulk, but we’ll ignore that one). The whole story is about the downfall of two suburban Connecticut families in the 70’s. Really excellent, I even got a little teary eyed.

Yesterday I was browsing YouTube looking for any new videos from Siouxsie Sioux’s solo album, and I found this live version of “Here Comes The Day”:

She’s 50 now. 30 years in the music business, and this is her first solo album. She looks and sounds absolutely fantastic. I love her solo album. I mean it’s great to hear some new material, and now she can cater to her new vocals. Her voice has dropped considerably since she was in the Banshees, and you can really tell when she sings some of their older songs. She just can’t hit the high notes anymore – but here she sounds great. I really hope she goes on a tour in the US.

I have a history test tomorrow. YES!!

Friends and random internet strangers, I present to you my first Video of the Week!*

I was wasting my life away on YouTube searching for enjoyable one-hit wonders from the 80s when I stumbled upon this gem. I remember this being one of the first mp3s I ever downloaded over my amazing dialup connection back when mp3s first started to emerge. 99 Luft Baloons by Nena being the first, in case you were wondering. Now I didn’t actively go searching for this song at the time, but back then we didn’t have iTunes, or BitTorrent. No, this was before that. It was prior to the Limewires, Groksters and Napsters. This was back when we had to dig around the bowels of the Internet looking for FTP sites that probably weren’t still active, waiting to see if we could ever connect, and browse what they had to offer (without knowing beforehand). And lucky for me I happened to get on a server owned by someone who apparently had an awesome taste in music.

Watching the video saddened me, as I really miss my own little northern town and can’t wait to return. Well.. I guess actually I should say Mid-Atlantic town. But it’s close enough. The video is good, and the song just rules. And if any of you think it’s pussy just know that The Dream Academy could totally kick your ass.

*Be advised that “Video of the Week” will most likely not end up being a weekly occurrence, as I apparently don’t post enough. The name had more oomph than just.. “video”. Thank you.