Soul Transplant Operation

- Super Furry Animals

 

Take one hit and hold your breath for 10 seconds...




LISTENING TO ...
El Oso - Soul Coughing.

Navy Blues - Sloan.

Another Side of -Blur.
Bootleg with Special Collector's Edition and a couple of extra tracks.

 



Tender

The time is coming up for the new Blur single to be released. I've gone through this with a couple of their albums now and the anticipation is a killer. It drives me crazy that friends of mine have advanced copies and that Radio One continually plays it. But luckily, the whole song is up here as opposed to the snippet at NME.com. So I sat there yesterday afternoon listening to it repeatedly. What do I think?

It's good. It's really, really good. It's about what I expected. When they were saying it was going to sound 'techno-gospel' I was terribly afraid it was going to sound like Ray Of Blur, but this is much better. Very 70s-ish feel. Yet more intimate. I think if you like "Beetlebum", you'll like "Tender".

Amanda said it sounded like something left off of Give Out But Don't Give Up. I see what she's saying but I think that they deserve a bit more credit for the song.

Perhaps I'm biased because Blur are my favorite band. That very well may be true. But I like the lyrics, I think it's good that they're actually singing about emotion rather than the usual intellectual puns and stories. Those are sacred to me, but it's always good to move on in as many avenues as possible.

It's good to hear so much of Graham in the song. It's like he and Damon split the vocals. I'm happy that they did this, but if he starts that "I'm too shy wah wah" crap again it's just going to set me off. Don't become a popstar if you can't handle the spotlight. I know you're a person and you're sensitive, but get over yourself. If you step up to the pedastal, expect people to stare.  I adore Graham for his guitar playing, he's easily the best guitarist in pop music in a long time. His complexities have always drawn me in and that's why I originally became a fan of his.   If he would just get past his hangups, he'd be a much happier person and I'd stop having to read about his hermit-like qualities. At least Syd Barrett had enough sense to play with his garden gnomes and leave the scene when he couldn't handle it anymore.

So yes. "Tender" is a good song. I'm usually not a fan of gospel choirs, but there's always a first. I think the next album should have a zydeco influence. Then they could play at the Funky Butt in New Orleans.

01 February, 1999
I found a copy of Twin Town this weekend at Suncoast. Mom took Carolyn to the toy store, and I was just looking around to see what I could find, and there in the "Drama" section was Trainspotting, Trash, and Twin Town. Finding it felt like a conquest. I never in a million years thought I'd find it in a mall in Plano, but it goes to show you that you never really know your immediate surroundings like you think you do. Hell, I didn't even know Amanda was a Bauhaus fan until a month or two after she started listening to them. So there you go.

Needless to say, I purchased this fine movie and loved it. Critics have called it a Welsh Trainspotting, but I don't particularly agree. The formula for direction was still there, but it had a completely different purpose. Yeah, it had bad guys like Trainspotting had bad guys, but it was a mischievious sort of bad guy character that made it a little more endearing to me. And they played Dodgy and Super Furry Animals in the background. So it was really, really good. Very black and pretty gory.

The decapitated poodle probably would turn a lot of people off, but I laughed. I really hate pets, I realized that this weekend. I knew I did before, but like watching that movie and the pet owner obsessing over the dog just gave me the creeps. I have friends who are scared of clowns and knives and guns. None of those things bother me, in fact I kind of like all of them (to a degree). Pet obsessives bother the hell out of me. Your pet is an ANIMAL. Stop treating it like a person. Yes, it is human, but like, get out of your house and let the dog roam the yard. I can't understand why people spend a lot of money on expensive pet food. I can't understand why this lady I work with spends $175 every three months to get her three dogs' teeth cleaned. Give me a break. I don't like women who call themselves mommy and their dogs "booboos" and old cat women scare me more than anything.

I grew up with dogs and once had a cat. I hated that cat more than anything. When I found out our neighbor, a 75 year old man, poisoned it with rat food, I didn't care. Mom thought I was going to be broken up, but I just rolled my eyes and went back to the tv. That cat hated me and I hated it. Cinnamon. Stupid animal kept me up all night and scratched me and smelled everything up and walked around like it owned the place. Dogs were a little better. Aside from the time I looked out the window with my brother and saw our pregnant Collie have a miscarriage staring right at us.  It was raining, lightning flashed, she wagged her tail and looked at us and bam, pregnancy over. I'm still scarred from that one.

So my alternative to pets? I have a baby sister. She's much cuter and can now go to the bathroom on her own and draws pictures for me. And tells me gossip. And for that cuddling up that I'm "missing" with a furball, I have a laptop and a fleece throw blanket.

On Friday night I saw She's All That, which was cute. Erin and I were surrounded by a million little 14 year old girls squealing for Usher and the like, but it was still a sweet movie. Aside from some of the dialogue and slap stick. I hate slap stick.
After that we met Amanda up and saw Still Crazy. Long live prog. I thought it was better than Velvet Goldmine in the pop references. Perhaps it's because I like guys in denim and brown shoes more than I like them in glittery makeup and eyeliner. And there was none of that nonsense in this movie. This was PROG. All music was done by Foreigner which ruled. You're talking to a girl who was raised on ELO and Boston, so I am a bit more partial to prog. And I guess I'm getting kind of tired of everyone jumping on the sparkly bandwagon. Give me a break. Before a few months ago, none of you (music industry, internet inhabitants, etc.) even knew that there was a movie called Velvet Goldmine in the works, or even what that pairing of words could mean. Don't tell me that you are now little glambunnies. I'm sorry. I just don't buy that. So I'm going to stay boring Chrissy and wear jeans and sneakers and follow my own rule. Don't be obvious. And yeah, I'll go see Placebo, but I'll be decked out in the most non-glam attire I can find. Did many of you even know who Placebo were before "that cool weed song" came out?

Above comments were not necessarily directed at readers of my journal. More of a question to the "indie" community at large that likes to pick up on latest trends and act like they know what they're talking about. That's not very indie, is it? Do your research kids before you start opening your mouths.