I’m all right jack keep your hands off of my stack

J.D. is so going to be the next singer of OB: INXS.

While MiG the most ‘theatre’ of all and not in a good way, it’s J.D. who understands the theatre of rock. Check out his performance of Pink Floyd’s ‘Money’. The guy has vision. I’m also digging the rhinestone megaphone that he uses in ‘Pretty Vegas’, the song he co-wrote with Andrew Farriss. Well, I would, wouldn’t I? His performance of ‘By my side’ was subtle and I love the voice. That hint of Elvis that everybody hates so much? It’s a good thing. Elvis doesn’t have the patent on it. It’s Scott Walker. It’s Bowie. Totally floats my boat, anyway. I’ve been humming ‘Pretty Vegas’ for the last couple of days.

MiG’s the next to go. Too feminine, too sweet, too theatre, too squeaky clean. An ill fit with the Farriss brothers. Then it’ll between Marty and J.D. And Marty? Maybe an audience favourite, but he’s just completely wrong for INXS. The grunge voice and the arrogance cum naivety in thinking he can change and lead this band, come on. His idea that INXS invented ‘dance rock’ and that he can make them compete with the new new wave bands… please. Convoluted much? Poor sod, I nearly cacked myself when he started to ‘explain’ the music business to OB:INXS.

My money’s still firmly on J.D.

Maybe Suzie can join Fleetwood Mac now she’s eliminated. That’s where she belongs.

You know, that band? With that singer?

This has been bothering me all weekend. I have some MP3’s at work, a full (recently released?) album by a band whose name I can’t recall. I’d never heard of them before, but they may have been around for a while. My colleague passed them on to me. I went through all the Pitchfork reviews and current charts yesterdat, but couldn’t find them. I don’t know anything about the band and haven’t heard the songs enough to say anything about them, but their singer sounds a lot like Tom Jones. I think they’re British, but they might not be. I think their name sounded a little odd or funny, in that it didn’t fit with the music they played. I could wait till tomorrow to find out, but maybe you can tell me right now.Update: Duh. Remembered I can access work mail from home, found the original mail with the download link. The band is called Electric Six . If the Scissor Sisters played rock music, that’s what they sound like.

Continue reading

The week in bits and pieces


I was handed these colourful vouchers at the train station — the design struck me as ‘of this time, but looking back at the 20’s and 30’s (see ‘Dutch Moderne‘).

Best quote I read this week (in Q Magazine… who appear to be taking a cue from Word these days) was from New Order’s Bernard Sumner on meeting Greenday for the first time: ‘Ah, the American Alarm!’ Bwah!

I have a lot of the new New New Wave bands records, but The Killers’ Hot Fuss is the one I keep coming back to because it genuinely makes me feel better and I keep turning to ‘Indie Rock And Roll’ for a boost. I think it will stand the test of time.

New albums to get acuainted with this week: New Order – Waiting for the Sirens Call, Nick Cave – B-sides and Rarities, Athlete – Tourist, Doves – Some Cities. Having an mp3 player makes it easier to focus on complete albums again. 4gb is, however, not enough for the voracious listener.
(Update: both Athlete and Doves go where I’ve stuck Coldplay. The bin.)

Almost everybody I know who got the flu/bad cold, got it twice this winter.

A colleague introduced me to the Paleolithic Diet. I’m not a diet-believer (unlike my step mother who has been dieting obsessively for the last 30 years.), but this one seems to make weird sense. Not that I’m ever going to be able to do without dairy products and starch, two of life’s great comforts. But I have adapted my behaviour: more fruit, more raw root veg & meat, less spuds & rice.

I’ve never suffered from SAD before, but this year’s winter definitely gave me the bloody blues. Glad to see the back of it.

Still debating whether I should fork out 70 euro a month for a fitness club .

I have Oink invites. Want Oink?

House, MD‘ and ‘Medium‘ are two of my favourite new tv shows. Plotwise, both aren’t the best, but Hugh Laurie is compelling, even with the bad accent. And Patricia Arquette and Jake Weber (and the kids!) are portraying what must be the first ever realistic husband/wife/family relationship in the history of television.

The Office (USA, just started on NBC) isn’t bad at all. It’s just… exactly the same as the UK original. I think superfluous is the word.

Having never watched Dr Who before (bar the occasional glimpse), I come to the new series fresh and with no expectations other than wanting ‘good tv’. Billie Piper (Rose) is just… surprising. A likeable female character who isn’t a stick figure. I’ll just have to repress the whole Chris Evans thing.

Unfortunately, Eccleston (The Doctor) is all kinds of weird, the way he holds his head and all. Will probably get used to it and keep watching.

Had forgotten Easter is my favourite holiday. It’s Springtime, you get all the time off and none of the (family) obligations or emotions that Christmas/New Year bring. Wonderful.

Continue reading