SOUNDTRACK: SLOAN-“Cars” (2011).
When Sloan went to the A.V. Club to record their cover, they were disappointed by the selection. Of course, that’s the game, so suck it up Sloan. But they decided to do Gary Numan’s “Cars.”
Now, I feel compelled to say that Gary Numan’s “Cars” may be my least favorite song of all time (it’s very close to Billy Idol’s “Eyes without a Face”). I understand that “Cars” was “groundbreaking” or whatever. But gah, it is boring and monotonous and just awful (and I say that while admitting that I like Phillip Glass, so i know from monotonous). While I will admit that the riff is pretty great, everything about the song, from the performance to its endlessness (it’s like 8 minutes long, right?) drives me nuts.
And that may be why I love this cover so much. It keeps the riff but it adds music to it. All of that horrible “one guy with a cheap keyboard” sound is taken away. It’s replaced by a great full-sounding band bringing live joy to the song. I love that the whiny keyboard is replaced by a guitar and that the drummer rocks the hell out of the ending. I mean really rocks the hell out of it. Well done, Sloan. You’ve been a favorite for years, and you’ve now redeemed my most hated song. I think Billy Idol just peaked on my list.
You can watch it here.
[READ: July 20, 2011] “The Money”
Junot Díaz’ story in the New Yorker’s Fiction Issue is also a Starting Out piece. This story is about how his mother always sent money home to her family. No matter how little money they had, she would always scrimp and save and stash away until she had a few hundred dollars to send every six moths or so.
From Diaz’ other work, we assume that he was not a model citizen as a youth, but even he knew not to tamper with his mother’s money. (Stealing from her purse was one thing, but the wrath of stealing from the “to be sent money” was unfathomable).
Then one week when they go on vacation they return to see that their house has been robbed! Some of Junot’s things were taken as well as the money. The Money! (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: BILLY IDOL
Billy Idol plagues my existence. Ever since he popped up on the scene (my first exposure was “White Wedding”) I thought he was kind of goofy. He has some kind of claim to cred and fame from being in Generation X, and yet I have never heard a song by Generation X and I never hear them mentioned anywhere except as being the band that spawned Billy Idol.