November 23, 2004

thin on the ground, like cellophane

Entries are, lately, for which I apologize: I've been overtaken by events, as they say. To make up for it, here's a song I promised a few weeks ago and finally got my hands on a copy of: Helen Love's "Girl About Town" (MP3)--a terrific example of the low-tech/high-wit buzzpop thing I mentioned here a while back. Helen (to whom thanks for permission to post this song) has made a long series of singles and EPs, all of which sound pretty much like this, obsess over bubblegum pop and Formula 1 racing and indie-ness, and mention Joey Ramone in some context or other. (His appearance in this one is... well, I'll let you discover it for yourself.) Here's the band's official web site. A bit of a tribute to the Jam's "Boy About Town" going on here, too. And Jamie from Helen's site mentions that "the 'sequel' - '(the continuing adventures of) THE GIRL ABOUT TOWN' will be released as part of 'The BubblegumKillers EP' on Sympathy for the Record Industry early next year."

Since I last posted here, I've been to NYC and back. Attended Ol' Dirty Bastard's wake; saw GodCo's current incarnation play at Tonic; spent time with a bunch of friends; saw Linda Hagood and Fly Ashtray's memorable game-based performances at a game-themed party at OfficeOps--Fly Ashtray's set list was determined by audience members spinning a Twister wheel (and playing Twister in front of the stage), and ended with John "Hyena Spareribs" Beekman coming up to sing "Ostrich Atmosphere" with them, which I explained to Lisa was the equivalent of something between Syd Barrett showing up to sing "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" with Pink Floyd and--actually probably closer--Jeremy Spencer showing up to sing "Green Manalishi" with Fleetwood Mac. Except much happier.

Further updates will likely be relatively slim over the next couple of weeks: terrifying mountains of work (at one point I did a quick calculation and realized that I'd agreed to review ninety-seven albums in under two weeks), then a final prenatal tropical vacation. But I brought back a big pile of fabulous lost indie 7"s from NYC, so look for full-on service to resume the second week in December, and there will probably be a few updates and maybe even some MP3s in the meantime.

Posted by Douglas at November 23, 2004 11:00 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Thanks for the Helen Love track. It is great!

Posted by: Five on November 24, 2004 8:47 AM
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