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Archive for the ‘The Cars’ Category

Lauren Groff–“The Wind” (New Yorker, February 1, 2021)

Posted in Agnostic Front, Domestic Violence, Lauren Groff, Pearl Harbor and the Explosions, Pearl Harbour, Short Story, Talking Heads, The Cars, Violence on February 10, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: PEARL HARBOR AND THE EXPLOSIONS-Pearl Harbor and the Explosions (1979).

In a post from a couple of days ago, Rebecca Kushner mentions a bunch of punk band members that she either knew or hung out with.  I was amazed at how many of them I’d heard of but didn’t really know.  So this seemed like a good opportunity to go punk surfing.

Until about a decade ago, I had never heard of Pearl Harbor & The Explosions.  Then a friend of mine was moving and she gave me her vinyl collection.  It was a lot of punk and new wave and, inexplicably she had two copies of this album.  I never listened to it until just now.

Kushner mentions Pearl Harbor in this essay.  I read the essay that Pearl Harbor was opening for Agnostic Front, but that seems like a recipe for disaster.  Maybe Pearl Harbor was just in the audience when Agnostic Front played.  Because this album is not hardcore.  Not even punk.  It’s punky new wave but it is certainly more on the new wave scale.

The first song was the single “Drivin’.”  The guitars are angular, the bass is very busy, it feels rather like the Talking Heads.  The backing vocals are short and direct while Pearl Harbor sings in a perfect new wave style.  The weird thing is how the song seems like it’s funky, but it’s very unfunky.  I don’t know if it’s because the record has no low end–everything is at the high end–the guitar chords, the backing vocals, the bassm even the drums feel like all snare.  But the guitar chords and change-ups are really quite interesting and the solo is really quite erratic and interesting.

“You Got It (Release It)” is really catchy pop with a nice noisy guitar solo.  “Don’t Come Back” pays off a few different styles.  There’s a kind of loping almost country bass and some wildly reckless guitar chords thrown all over them.

“Keep Going” has a wonky sounding bass that pushes this song forward with jagged guitars and dreamy vocals.  “Shut Up and Dance” is one of the harder rocking songs on the disc with a quick descending main riff and loud distorted guitar chords.  But the chorus and middle part are pure new wave.

“The Big One” has a halting guitar and bass line that makes the song catchy and slightly off at the same time.  “So Much for Love” has a disco bass line and some curlicue guitar riffs in between the angular chords.  Then after two minutes the song turns pretty conventional with a catchy reprise of the chorus.

“Get a Grip On Yourself” throws in a wildly funky bass and guitar chords straight out of Bowie’s “Fashion.”  It’s a bouncy song and even has a very disco high-pitched “ooh ooh” and a rather fun “6,5,4,3,2,1, here it comes” refrain.  It also has two false endings, just to mess with the DJ.

“Up and Over” is the longest song on the album by far.  It’s got a catchy chugging riff very reminiscent of The Cars.   The reason for the length is a middle instrumental jam high bass notes and a bunch of guitar mischief.

I’m not sure why the band never did anything else.  Or why Kushner saw Pearl Harbor hanging around in what I’m guessing was the mid 1980s.  Pearl Harbor married Clash bassist Paul Simonon and also hate a solo career as Pearl Harbour.  She also sang with The Tubes (before The Explosions album).  And, best of all, her real name is Pearl E. Gates.  Here’s a fascinating interview I found with her from the Patterns and Tones blog.

Seems like Pearl Harbor was (and still is) pretty cool.

[READ: February 8, 2021] “The Wind”

This was a very sad story, told in a nail-biting way.

The narrator is relating a story that her mother would tell to her whenever “her limbs were too heavy to move and she stood staring into the refrigerator for long spells, unable to decide what to make for dinner.”

In the story, the narrator’s mother was a young child, living with her parents (the narrator’s grandparents) and her two younger brothers.  The grandmother told her daughter that the next day she should pretend it was a normal day.

What that meant was getting out and onto the school bus just like usual.  However, once she was on the bus, she asked the bus driver to let them off at a stop a few stops away.  The bus driver was taken aback but when she looked at the girl and saw her black eye, she knew what was going on and agreed to the deceit.

Their mother was waiting for them and they all got in the car. (more…)

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Mike Lawrence–Star Scouts (2017)

Posted in Adventure, Aliens, Bob Marley, Canadian Music, Children's Books, Culture Shock, Fears, Feminism, Fiona Apple, First Second :01, Frank Bonner, Graphic Novel, Hebrew School Dropouts, Martin Tielli, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Mike Lawrence, Outer Space, Paul Quarrington, Pavement, Public Image Ltd, Ramones, Rheostatics, Rush, Selina Martin, Series, Set at School, The Beatles, The Cars, The Ramones, The Weakerthans, Tiny Desk Concert, Tom Waits, Van Halen, Weezer, WKRP in Cincinnati, tagged on November 12, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Fall Nationals, Night 2 of 10, The Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto (November 12, 2004).

The Rheostatics, live at the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, November 12, 2004. This was the 2nd night of their 10 night Fall Nationals run at the Horseshoe.  This show was exactly 13 years ago!

I compared all of the setlists from the nine shows and was somewhat surprised to see just how much repeating they did. Most of the repeated songs are new ones–they played a lot from 2067, which makes sense.  But for a Fall Nationals, there’s really not a lot of “popular” or “rare” stuff.  But the band is in terrific form for all nine shows and the recordings are consistently great.

They open intensely with “Christopher.”  It’s a great version and Martin is in very good voice.  Similarly, “King Of The Past” sounds terrific.  Once again, “Pornography” opens a lot like “Bread, Meat peas and Rice,” but the backing vocals sound great .  At the end, Dave notes: “a bit of folk disco there for ya.”

Introducing “The Tarleks,” Dave says it’s “from our new album called 2067.  It’s the year of Martin’s 100th birthday and Canada’s bicentennial and the year we get a hit single.  We’re having a party and you’re all invited.  Martin: “Unfortunately so are these guys, the Tarleks.”  The song is perfect and segues right into “Marginalized” which is also great.  The whole band is in great form and I love the guitar sounds as it segues to the chorus.

“Power Ballad For Ozzy Osbourne” is slow and fine.  And Dave says, “and you doing the super tokes you are…. from the country.  Tim: “Mmm smells good. Smells like grade 12 math class.”  MPW:  Shop class.  Dave: Back in the 70s they let you do that sort of thing …80s.  Tim, snapping fingers: “It’s cool.  Foosball is like soccer crossed with shishkabobs.”

“Fish Tailin'” rocks and then comes “Me and Stupid,” which hasn’t been played in a while.  Tim plays the riff and sings “Dave is tuning, tuning his guitar, Dave is learning how to use a tuner on his guitar.”  Dave starts the song and after the first verse he stops the song “I gotta re tune.”  Tim: “He’s just leaning.”  MPW: “That’s okay my hands hurt a little.”

“PIN” and “Mumbletypeg” sound terrific and mid song Dave says, “We’re the Rheostatics were from Etobicoke, it’s west of here.”

Dave: “We’re gonna take it down a bit.”  Tim: “We’re gonna take it down but its gonna become very heavy” with “Here Comes the Image.”  While waiting Tim pays the bass riff to “Tom Sawyer.”   Tomorrow at 2 o’clock we’ll be at Sam the Record Man.”

“Shack In The Cornfields” sounds quite different with Dave’s bass backing vocals.  It takes a while for the song to start really rocking but once it does it’s so much fun.  I like the chorus of “Try To Praise This Mutilated World” more and more.  I’m assuming by now that the spoken part is prerecorded.

“In This Town” starts quietly but martin sings a big growly ending.  “Dope Fiends and Boozehounds” slows down in the middle with a drum solo and a clapping solo.  After the solo, Selina Martin comes out and sings the end with Martin.

Martin: “Dave Alexander Herschel Bidini wrote that in 1972.”
Dave: “Hell of a year.  What with Ian Sunter’s field goal and everything.   This refers to the 60th Grey Cup in which Hamilton ran the clock down while getting close enough for Ian Sunter to kick a 34-yard field goal on the last play of the game to win.]

Tim plays a great “Bad Time To Be Poor” and Dave says “We will conclude with a song from 2067.”
Someone in the audience shouts: “what do you mean conclude?”
Dave: “what do you think I mean?  We’re fucking right off after this one.  The limo is idling, baby.”
Tim: “conclude the first set.”
Martin: “it’s really just a smoke break for me.”
Dave: “oh we got rail and hoo-ers waiting, don’t worry.”

“Making Progress” is lovely as always.  “Feed Yourself” starts off a little rocky but it sounds great.  Dave gets a little crazy with the “inside his head” bit at the end (and someone is manipulating his voice to echo and process in one way or another, which is cool).

After a quick encore break, they’re back with a Dave song while Martin smokes.  In “My First Rock Concert” he changes The Ramones to Johnny Winter for some reason.

Someone keeps shouting “Saskatchewan” and you can hear a rhythm guitar playing the melody.  Mike says this ones for the greasy wheel, but then the guitar switches to “Self Serve Gas Station” and Mike says “make up your mind I’m trying to decide which way to adjust the chair.”

Before “Desert Island Discs,” Martin notes: “We stayed in the same hotel as Van Halen a week ago.  (Those hookers in the lobby were not for us).

Desert Island Discs is sloppy and fun with people picking these discs:

Dave: Ramones-Rocket to Russia; Cars-Cars; PiL-Metal Box.
Tim: Bob Marley-Survival; Tom Waits-Closing Time (huge cheer); Pavement-Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain.
MPW: It’s his first time.  He says it’s like ordering last in a restaurant.  Anything by Gino Vanelli; Music for a Large Ensemble; Steve Reich (Tim: try to follow the groove) Metal Machine Music-Lou Reed.
Martin: my first record is (plays “Tom Sawyer”); Second Mary Margaret O’Hara-Miss America; Third uh… uh… uh… uh…  Mood Music for Beer and Pretzels
audience members
first one has a hard time: Led Zeppelin, Martin Teilli-Operation Infinite Joy; Rheostatics, of course.
second one: Weakerthans-Left and Leaving; The Beatles-Rubber Soul  and… [Dave: you don;t want to hear the E minor chord] Weezer-Weezer.
As they wrap up the song Mike keeps going after the final chord.  They bust his chops and say he is in the legion hall trance.

The set ends with a great “Legal Age Life At Variety Store.”

They take an encore break and Martin comes back out with  a ‘suede banana’ jacket “Very Century 21–he sold the most houses in the band.”

For the encore, they play “Rain, Rain, Rain” and Martin introduces “Mister Dave Bidini on lead” (it’s sloppy but fun).

This show runs about 2 and a half hours and it sounds great.

[READ: April 6, 2017] Star Scouts

Boy I loved this book.  I loved everything about it, from the understated to the perfectly stated.

The book opens with an alien creature getting yelled at.  Her name is, humorously, Mabel.  Mabel is scanning planets to collect a new species.  It turns out that she is doing this for a badge for scouts.  She selects a newt.  But she accidentally switches from Newt to New Kid (an amusing joke if not a little strange) and the teleportation begins.

The New Kid is Avani.  Avani speaks Hindi (which in itself is pretty awesome).  She and her dad (there is no mention of a mom) have just moved to a new place.  Avani has no friends.  She thinks everyone thinks she’s weird.  Even though she feels like an outsider she is also keeping people away, determined to feel sorry for herself.

The only social activity she has is Flower Scouts. Back home he Scouts were awesome, but here they just talk about make up and boys.  When Avani tries to talk about rodeos, the other kids laugh at her.  And they are equally horrified when she doesn’t swoon over Chaz Wunderlip the boy band sensation.  She would like nothing more than to get out of Scouts but her dad won’t let her quit. (more…)

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Larry David–Fish in the Dark (2015)

Posted in CHAPPO, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Funny (ha ha), Larry David, Of Monsters and Men, Play (Drama), Sex, Suede, The Cars, The Flaming Lips on August 26, 2015| Leave a Comment »

fish SOUNDTRACK: CHAPPO-Future Former Self (2015).

chappoCHAPPO opened for The Flaming Lips, and I enjoyed them enough to get their CD. Since I bought it, I have listened to it nonstop.  While I enjoyed their live show, I never expected the subtle nuances that were present on the disc.  It’s entirely possible that the band’s sound got lost somewhat in the huge open-air stadium that they played in.  They also rocked pretty hard live, so I was surprised by the more psychedelic sound they achieved on disc.

I feel like they achieved an interesting mix of psychedelia and Britpop, which I would never expect.  The album opens with “Hello” a gentle psychedelic song with whistling and a jaunty melody.  I like the unexpected riff that comes in the verse before returning to the really catchy opening melody again.  About half way through the song changes into something bigger—a very cool switch which turns the seemingly simple ditty into something even more interesting.

“Hang On” is wonderfully catchy single. Opening with washes of keyboards and a cool guitar riff, the vocals are gentle and then the bridge comes in and the song lifts to a new level. And then the chorus comes in and things get even bigger. It’s wonderfully crafted.  I saw this song live and while it was good live, and it was definitely fun.  After a quiet moment (with interesting processed vocals), the big chorus returns and you can’t help but sing along.

“I’m Not Ready” switches gears pretty radically, with a chugging riff and 70s synths thrown over the top. The chorus is much more guitar heavy but is not heavy itself–sort of the way the Cars sound.  “I Don’t Need the Sun” shifts gears again with more interesting keyboard sounds sprinkled over the sunny guitar lines.  The lyrics to this one get stuck in my head all the time.

“Run Me Into the Ground” opens with seemingly contradictory keyboard notes and guitar riff. They come together nicely into a pretty verse which all melds into a huge grabbing chorus.  “Mad Magic” opens with a kind of disco/reggae guitar line and Alex Chappo’s falsetto for certain notes.  I love the lyrics to this one too: “My wife is indispensable she will succeed because she has to she will succeed with magic.”  A multilayered chorus really complements the opening riffs and the lines “we’ll be floating while they are coasting” is very cool.

“Hey-O” has a simple catchy gesture with a group singing Hey-O Hey-O that reminds me a bit of Of Monsters and Men.  “Something’s Ringing” is a delicate ballad with a lot of falsetto (and I find Alex’s to me unusual pronunciation of some of the words strangely compelling). I like the way the odd helicopter sound ends the song as it takes off.

“Orange Afternoon” has a sleazy guitar sound and vocal that reminds me a bit of Suede. But the chorus changes direction entirely getting  brighter and brighter.  But moments of that sleaze come back and intersperse interestingly with the bright guitars.

“Ghetto Weekend” is a trippy song to end with.  There’s talking going on, and also a languid guitar.  But it’s interfused with guitar soloing which is echoed and at times seems to not stop. But the switch to the bridge is a great change of pace from the mellow opening—it a great trick, the kind that CHAPPO does so well.

I can’t think of another band that I saw live without knowing their music and was subsequently even more blown away by their album which of course makes me want to see them again in a  more intimate venue.

[READ; June 22, 2015] Fish in the Dark

I’m not sure if I would have known this play was by Larry David just by reading it, but since I knew it was by him, I could tell unmistakably that it was David’s writing (and voice) while I was cracking up.

One wonders why David chose to write a play as a opposes to a screenplay, but then, by doing this it allowed him to get away from his normal characters (even if these ones act just like the characters in anything else he has done).

This is the story of a family.  Norman (played by Larry David) is a put upon husband.  His wife doesn’t want to sleep with him anymore (she has a very funny rejoinder to him in the first scene).  His mother is overbearing (and hates his wife).  His brother, Arthur, is wealthy, recently divorced and is living it up thinking only about himself.  And he just received a phone call that his father is one the verge of death. (more…)

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Colm Tóibín–“Summer of ’38” (New Yorker, March 4, 2013)

Posted in Babies, Cocteau Twins, Colm Tóibín, Deftones, Duran Duran, Helmet, Irish Writer, Morrissey, New Yorker, Sex, The Cardigans, The Cars, The Cure, The Smiths, War on March 5, 2013| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_03_04_13Chast.inddSOUNDTRACK: DEFTONES-B-Sides & Rarities (2005).

220px-Deftones_-_b-sides

Deftones released this B-sides collection after Deftones.  It contains mostly covers.  They also later released an album called Covers which has all of these covers and some new ones.  Covers was released on Record Store Day and is really hard to get now.  The covers that are extra to that CD are: “Drive” (originally by The Cars), “Caress” (originally by Drive Like Jehu), “Do You Believe” (originally by The Cardigans), “Ghosts” (originally by Japan) and “Sleep Walk” (originally by Santo & Johnny).   Despite those interesting songs, B-Sides and Rarities is no slouch.

“Savory” is a cover of a song by Jawbox.  Chino’s voice sounds so utterly different here, I completely don’t recognize him.  It’s not the most impressive start to the collection as even after a lot of listens the song still hasn’t really stuck for me, but it’s also one of the few songs I didn’t know beforehand.  (It turns out the cover was actually by the band Far (with the members of Deftones playing as well)).  But it was the Cocteau Twins cover that really blew me away.  The Cocteau Twins, an ethereal lighter than air band get a very respectful treatment here.  “Wax and Wane” has a pretty heavy bass line which Chi produces (with cool effects on it), and while Chino doesn’t try to ape Elizabeth’s Fraser’s voice, he does a great job in her register (how he figured out the words, I can’t imagine). Lynyrd Skynyrd’s  “Simple Kind of Man” gets the Deftones treatment with whispered/creepy vocals in the first verse and a big loud chorus.  The cover of Helmet’s “Sinatra” is very heavy (I don’t know the original but I know other Helmet songs) but it doesn’t sound quite like Helmet–a perfect Deftones take on the band, with very low tuned bass strings.  The second biggest surprise comes from their cover of Sade’s “No Ordinary Love.”  I don’t know the original, but I do know about Sade and this song keeps all of the funky bass and the slinky sexiness of a typical Sade song.  But it adds an interesting slightly sinister vibe that really makes the song stand out.

The band performs a great spooky gothy cover of The Cure’s “If Only Tonight We Could Sleep” (at what I gather is a live tribute show) complete with that weird Middle Eastern sounding guitar and the cool splash cymbal.  It’s followed by a great cover of The Smiths’ “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want” and he does a surprisingly good Morrissey.   Their cover of Duran Durans “The Chauffeur” was the first cover that I had heard by the band and it was the first time I thought about how cool a Duran Duran song could sound: win-win.

There are some reinterpretations of Deftones originals as well.  “Change (In the House of Flies)” works very well in the acoustic format–sounding somehow more dramatic.  “Teenager” has a trippy Twin Peaks vibe when it opens.  This is the “Idiot Version” with guys from Idiot Pilot joining the Deftones.  It doesn’t sound all that different from the version on White Pony and yet I really didn’t recognize it out of context.  “Crenshaw Punch/I’ll Throw Rocks at You” is the heaviest thing on the album, with loud abrasive guitars.  It was a B-Side from Around the Fur.  My least favorite track is “Black Moon” which is a sung by B-Real from Cypress Hill.  I liked Cypress Hill a lot back in the day, but there’s something unsatisfying about this pairing–or maybe it’s just that this songs really sticks out on the disc.  The acoustic “Digital Bath” is trippy and very cool–it’s amazing when they strip down their songs, which are usually so abrasive and heavy and they still manage to sound great.  “Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)” is another acoustic piece with a remix by DJ Crook.

More than just a stop gap or a collection of misfit tracks, this is a really cohesive Deftones album and actually a great place to start for people trying to ease their way into the band.

[READ: March 3, 2013] “Summer of ’38”

This story is about Montse.  Montse is an old woman with three children.  Her husband died some time ago and she is by herself.  Her daughters come to visit her but she doesn’t like to be a bother to them.  On this occasion, her daughter Ana says that she met a man who is writing a book about the war and he would like to talk to Montse to see if she has any recollections of the time (she was a teenager in 1938).

Montse doesn’t want to talk to the man, she says she won’t remember anything and why doesn’t he write the book without her.  But the man arrives anyway.  When he asks her questions, she says she knows nothing about the war.  But he says that a retired general (for Franco) is coming to their town to show the writer war locations.  The general says he remembers Montse’s name and would like to meet with her.  His name is Rudolfo Ramirez.  She says she barely remembers him and that maybe she’s even thinking of someone else.

The writer says it’s not a big deal but is she would like to meet with him he will be at the cafe on Saturday for a casual lunch. She gives a reluctant maybe and the writer leaves. (more…)

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Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.–Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1970)

Posted in Canadian Music, Death, Funny (ha ha), Hitler, Homer, Kurt Vonnegut, Marriage Trouble, Play (Drama), Sexism, The Cars, Violence, Wolf Parade on July 12, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: WOLF PARADE-Expo 86 (2010).

Wolf Parade is a strange band, no doubt. Both singers can craft super catchy songs, but they like to layer them with odd sounds and lots of song parts making the songs more challenging (and better in the long run).

“Cloud Shadow on the Mountain” starts the disc off with drums and an eccentric voice.  And the lyrics? “I was asleep in a hammock/I was dreaming that I was a web/I was a dream-catcher hanging in the window of a minivan/Parked by the water’s edge./I’d say that I was all alone.”

The song has some loud guitars, some great guitars riffs and (the most notable feature on the album) retro sounding keyboards.  On this song the keys play an alternate melody that compliments the song very well.  There’s some heavy rocking sections and a slowed down drums and vocals section.  It’s fairly exhausting how much is in this one song.  By the end, he’s repeating “you will never be born as a scorpion.”

“Palm Road” is a more straightforward and catchy song, although it’s certainly offbeat.  “What Did My Lover Say” opens with a cool guitar riff an counterpointed keyboards.  As with most of the songs on this record headphones or at least good stereo speakers really make a difference.  The rest of the album is hard to speak of in different terms because each song is unusual with angular guitars and interesting vocals.  The keyboards also provide unsettling atmospherics.   None of the songs are easy to sing along to, until one day the shifts in melody and phrasing sink in and it all sounds wonderful.

What I find notable about these songs is that they are all long (most are around 5 minutes) and they feel long–not in a dragging out way (although maybe “In the Direction of the Moon” drags) but in a–so much has been going on, this song must be really long kind of way.

Some other highlights include “Ghost Pressure” with its great keyboard riff (that feels not unlike The Cars).  Speaking of The Cars, the keyboards on “Oh You, Old Thing” have the great spacey Cars sound from the 80s.  “Pobody’s Nerfect” melds the catchiness that the guys are capable of with just the right mix of unexpectedness.  And the closing song “Cave-O-Sapien” seems to combine all of the best qualities of the above songs in to one–a great riff, catchy “oh oh ohs,” and bizarre lyrics, “I had a dream of a gorilla.”

This album is definitely not for everyone, but multiple listen reap big rewards.

[READ: July 8, 2012] Happy Birthday, Wanda June

I have been chugging along nicely through Kurt Vonnegut’s oeuvre.  My plan was to read all of his novels and then read his short stories.  And then maybe read his plays (I wasn’t sure about that last bit).  But as I mentioned yesterday, reading a simple play can be a delight (and can be a very quick read, too).

Vonnegut opens the book with a prologue about how and when he wrote the book.  It was originally a play called Penelope, and he thought it was terrible.  Fifteen years later he kept the basic idea and rewrote it as Happy Birthday, Wanda June.  And the idea is straight out of Homer.  In the Odyssey, Penelope is Ulysses’ long-suffering wife.  When Ulysses came home from his travels some twenty years later, he was feted as a hero and the world (well, his world) rejoiced (except for Penelope’s suitors, of course).

So in this play, Harold Ryan is a loud, manly hunter and soldier, ready and happy to kill anything in his way.  He has been on an expedition for eight years–his plane went down and he  is presumed dead–even Mutual of Omaha thinks so.  His wife, Penelope Ryan believes him to be dead and has been entertaining two suitors–Dr Norbert Woodly, a pacifistic doctor and Herb Shuttle, a vacuum cleaner salesman.  The only person who doesn’t presume him dead is their son Paul Ryan, who bristles not only at the thought of his father being dead, but even more so at these wimpy suitors.  Although Paul is too young to ever have rally known his father (he’s 12), he keeps hopes alive that his father will return one day.

What I like about the play is that it maintains Vonnegut’s voice right from the start.  It opens with a speech from Penelope:

My name is Penelope Ryan.  This is a simple-minded play about men who enjoy killing–and those who don’t. (more…)

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Benjamin Percy–“So Far from Anything” (Esquire, Oct 2007)

Posted in Adventure, Benjamin Percy, Esquire, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Short Story, The Cars on October 11, 2007| Leave a Comment »

esquire.jpgSOUNDTRACK: THE CARS-Greatest Hits (2002).

cars.jpgFor the longest time I didn’t like The Cars. I got really sick of them, especially around the time of “You Might Think.” I guess I was watching a lot of MTV, because I just couldn’t seem to get Rik Ocasek’s face out of my head (your sympathy is appreciated). Anyhow, Sarah had said something about getting their Greatest Hits; so we did. And I’m glad.

The first ten or so songs on this thing are really great, it’s practically their entire first album, and it’s a bounty of new-wave delights from just before they got really commercial. Of course, the commercial songs are also here, but after all of these years, the commercial songs sound pretty good too. For me the best thing about the record is that it conatins “Moving in Stereo” the song that will make any red blooded young lad of around my age immediately envision Phoebe Cates climbing out of a swimming pool and…. Doesn’t anybody fucking knock anymore?

[READ: October 10, 2007] “So Far from Anything.”

This story has a gimmick. Although it is a publishing gimmick and not a story gimmick. The gimmick according to Esquire is this: The story is such a page turner, that we are going to print it along the bottom of every page of the magazine (about fifteen words per page). (more…)

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