week in the knees wednesday.... Brandon Reilly of Nightmare of You.

So this week, I am staying with my rocker theme and picking the shaggy-haired, mumbling lead singer of Nightmare of You as my Week in the Knees Wednesday winner.

Brandon Reilly always looks like he will eitehr kick you in the shins or burst into tears. I like that. A lot. I’ve almost forgot aboutr him until I was going through my Itunes and found the precious gem, “I Wanna be Buried in Your Backyard.”

Oh 2002, how I missed you. Blogs were actually interesting. I actually felt like if I dropped myself off in the LES of NYC Ultragrrl and all her friends would invite me to live in their house with the big red door and pose like a heroine addict in front of the infamous wall at MisShapes.

“ For I haven’t slept a week since you’ve been gone/Now I want to be buried in your backyard/And when the flowers grow just know you’re still in my heart”… I used to listen to this song on repeat at work all the time. Imagining that there was someone out there who was sensitive enough to be so outwardly vulnerable, so grandiose and so earnest.

That is Brandon reilly. Tortured, skinny and rarely cracking a smile, he is a rockstar without the glamour, a hipster without the overwhelming irony and a regular guy without the regular.

He is a screw up and a romantic and his songs make me think I am in the 80s listening to the Smiths or the Commitments or some English band that has a really tortured lead singer with a non-chalant gay vibe.

I love you Brandon Reilly and I miss 2002!

TV Placement killed the Video Star

There was a time when song and video went hand in hand. What is Teen Spirit by Nirvana without the iconic image of the anarchy cheerleaders and the chubby janitor headbanging away? What is The Scientist by Coldplay without the images of the backwards car crash? These were both iconic songs and iconic videos. But nowadays the only songs that really have videos that stick in your head are those few that get overplayed so much on radio you are ready to murder the tuner. I mean I love T.I.’s Live your Life song as much as anyone and even like Katie Perry’s Hot N Cold but I swear those are the only two music videos I ever see on TV anymore. Let’s face it. Music videos are not on music video channels much anymore. MTV will show a few seconds of new music videos if you’re lucky and Much Music will basically only show you Jonas Brothers or Simple Plan music videos or shows making fun of music videos (I love you Video on Trail but you are on like 20 times a day).
Today new music is brokered not through the dead radio format or the newly buried music videos; it’s found through television shows and commercials. At one time it was considered selling out but these days artist have few other choices with both radio and music television refusing to embrace new genres and take risks. For new artists it is a great opportunity to get their music out there and up their MySpace hits. For television shows it’s instant cool cache. The more indie the featured artist is, the more allure he/she hold for fans eager to find something new and already crowned cool by the tv execs who manufacture their favourite show.

When’s the last time you saw a Bright Eyes video? I would say maybe never? A quick Youtube search shows that he has plenty but I’ve rarely seen any. But I’ve downloaded over 20 of his songs and he routinely sells out 3,000 seat venues in minutes wherever he tours. I mean who can forget the first “Chrismakuah” episode of the O.C. with Blue Christmas by Bright Eyes? Or when “Lover I Don’t Have to Love” by Bright Eyes was featured in that hawt make-out scene between Marissa and Volchuk in Season 3? Or where would Snow Patrol be without “Chasing Cars” in Grey’s Anatomy at the end of Season 2 when Denny Ducette dies and Izzie is so upset in her pink prom gown?

I’m not sure what show started this trend, but I definitely know which shows do it best: Any Josh Schwartz-produced show, (The O.C., Gossip Girl, Chuck), Greys Anatomy, One Tree Hill, So You Think You Can Dance, Brothers and Sisters. Actually any melodrama works well.. Come to think of it, I think I even remember learning new music off the original 90210, like in the later years when they had the Peach Pit After Dark and like Toni Tony Tone played there, and Brian McKnight and Christina Augerila, and R.E.M..... Now none of these acts were really indie darlings or new discoveries by any means but they all hit a new cache of cool when they appeared on the hit show and I am definitely from the school of anything cool that happens on teen serials happened first on 90210.

All in all I think it’s for the best. Finding new music through television shows forces you to go out and find music as opposed to radio and music video channels that just spoon-feed you everything you are supposed to like. Undoubtedly by searching out an artist’s MySpace or downloading their featured single on itunes, you are exposed to more of their music and maybe even other artists similar to them if you are perceptive enough or so inclined to follow the consumer bread crumbs.

It’s a bit sad though. I mean there are a lot of artists still making very interesting videos like the Ting Tings, Radiohead, Rosin Murphy. But their videos get little play on music television. So your choice is either watch new videos on Youtube or just create your own music videos in your head. Just don’t be surprised if your mental music video contains steamy scenes from last week’s Gossip Girl.

I Can Make Love to A Crocodile

I’ve never liked ‘the oldies.’ They bug me and a lot of the time it all sounds like the same droning mid-tempo elevator music. Gives me a headache! But lately I’ve developed a new appreciation for the ‘oldies.’ At least some of them. I like the blues. I like the down in the gutter; going to shoot myself with a bb gun and make you watch blues. I like the I’m so poor, so desperate so drunk that I can’t even keep my words apart blues.

Have you ever heard of Koko Taylor? She sings this song called I’m a Woman and it so raw, so gutter, so real. I love it!
Here’s a sampling of the lyrics:

When I was a little girl Only twelve years old
Couldn't do nothing
to save my dog gone soul
My mama told me.
the day I was grown
She says "Sing the blues child, Sing it from now on".

I'm a woman,
oh yeah
I'm a woman, I'm a ball of fire
I'm a woman, I can make love to a crocodile
I'm a woman, I can sing the blues
I'm a woman, I can change old to new

I also decided I love It’s a Man’s World by James Brown. Now the James Brown I know was all hip shaking and hooting and hollering. But this song shows a desperate and vulnerable James Brown. It is so sexy. (It doesn’t hurt that I first heard this song when Nico and Arrasay danced contemporary to it on SYTYCDC).

My next favourite right now would have to be Van Morrison. Now I am not so dim to have never heard of Van Morrison. I promise. I knew who he was. I knew he influenced everyone from Elvis Costello to Jay Z. But I only was familiar with his big hits like Brown-eyed Girl and Moon Dance. The best song of his has to be “Do Go to Nightclubs Anymore.”

I'm not a legend in my own mind

Don't need booze to unwind

Don't have no reason to pretend

Ain't got no huckleberry friend

Alcohol was too big a price

That why I said hey no dice

When it comes to men or mice

Don't go to nightclubs no more.

I bought four new CDs online on Monday but I’ve barely listened to them (although I have listened to 808s and Heartbreaks a lot and it is so genius! Oh and the Virgins EP is so infectious I feel like shaking convulsively every time it comes up on my iPod.) I am obsessed with my oldies favourites right now.

Does this mean I am officially getting old???

I Make Lists

Best songs out there right now:

1. “I’m not going to Teach your Boyfriend How to Dance with You,” The Black Kids. www.myspace.com/blackkidsrock
2. “Just Dance,” Lady Gaga. www.myspace.com/ladygaga
3. “Blind,” Hercules and Love Affair. www.myspace.com/herculesandloveaffair
4. “Cath,” Death Cab for Cutie. www.myspace.com/deathcabforcutie
5. “Shut up and Let Me Go,” The Ting Tings. www.myspace.com/thetingtings

That is all.

The More you Ignore Me, the Closer I Get

When you sleep
I will creep
Into your thoughts
Like a bad debt
That you can’t pay
Take the easy way
And give in
Yeah, and let me in

Anyone who takes relationship advice from Morrissey has issues. I understand that. But there is no doubting that the Mozfather take on relationships is eerily akin to my own. However it would be sorely off base to say I enjoy the thrill of the chase. That would imply that the ebbs and flows of the relationship inspire a surge of confidence in myself and my pursuit of what I want. I liken the experience to that of a kitten nipping and meowing at its owner’s feet; following him around incessantly until he is so tired of tripping over you that he finally picks you up.

But then once he picks you up, you realize that in mere moments he is going to realize that you have kitty breath and can do little more than look at him quizzically. So you scamper off. But then you still want to be with him. So you stay close and jump up for quick cuddles every now and again.

And the longer he stays away the more I wonder what he’s doing. Even if just a day goes by without a phone call or a text or an email I find myself unconsciously heading to the Market on Yates, or the Black Stilt or even just a wanderlust walk that lands me smack dab right in his neighbourhood.

It a bit sad, I guess. I mean what would my women’s lib sisters say if they heard me comparing myself to a kitten and referring to him as my owner? Not good.

He’s not that great, I know. It’s a go nowhere situation. But there’s something about him that keeps clobbering me over the head and dragging me back by my hair.

Skinny jean Dreams Do come True... in Record Format....

Have you ever seen a pair of jeans that you just MUST have? They are so cute, so soft, so cheap, so perfect except for one thing: they don't quite fit, YET. As soon as I start getting back into my gym schedule again, they will fit, you rationalize. The next three months will be a no potato chips zone you promise. So you go ahead, all in all it is a good deal. These jeans won't be on sale when you actually fit them. So you're saving yourself money in the long run, right?

It all sounds perfectly rational EXCEPT when you get home and realize you have a whole closet of "One-Day" clothes. Every morning when you look over your wardrobe of clothes not yet ready for public consumption you sink lower and lower into a hole of depravity and the first thing you want to do is reach for a bag of Old Dutch Ketchup chips.

So instead of faltering into a sea of ketchup-stained excess you hide those "one-Day" clothes away so you are not confronted with everything you are Not every time you open the wardrobe in the morning. Every once in a while when you are looking for a screwdriver or you randomly get an urge to polish furniture they pop out of their hiding place. The red pumps that are one and a half sizes to small but still so cute!!! The hot pink jeans that will make you look like a high-class Fergie when you can finally manage to get the last button done up.

Usually this type of shopping is a bit like throwing money into a black hole, but on the rare occasions that it actually works out, you feel like the frog prince. You get a surprise bunch of new clothes that you didn't ask for or remember for free. What could be better.

I started taking the same One Day approach to records when I was about 14 years old and saw a DJ spinning for the first time. He was everything I was not at the time: cool, calm, hot, mysterious. But "One Day," I would be. And it all started with records. I remember going into Boom Town Records as a bored teenager and giggling with my pubescent friends over who was the hottest cashier. We pool our money and spend hours pouring over records and sometimes even bravely asking for some help. The tiny fact that I didn't have a record player, didn't mean much at the time. The covers were cool and "One Day" I would have one, and it would be awesome!

I was often scoffed for my predilection towards vinyl. I may not have had a player yet but I still knew a deal when I saw when and I knew a classic album when I saw it in a sale bin for $0.99.
Finally, this Christmas after 13 years of scouring record bins and scooping up free records off dirty sidewalks, my skinny jean dreams of a record player have come true. And it is glorious.

Yesterday I listened to the Dirty Dancing Soundtrack like three times. And then I played a little RedMan and then two Happy Days Albums. Sure I had to keep turning the record over a\every thirty minutes or so and some times the music sounds like it is two chipmunks singing on speed but it's definitely worth it.

My One Day dreams of a record player are now a reality. Now about those skinny jeans.......

Hello, LOVER.......

You are my new favorite. Forget all the others. They never meant anything to me compared to you. You are sleek and small and fast and everything anyone could want. So you're not hot pink. That's okay. Silver is just as nice and prolly a little more grown-up.


Which is prolly something I should try to be. Grown up. Not blowing my paycheque on my lunch hour and buying toys.

But WHATEVER!!! you are sooo hot!

Music is like sooooo....totally awesome!

Sometimes I forget how much music means to mean. Like I am not a musician by any standards although I can throw down a little Stevie Nicks on Karaoke like nobody's business; and I can create a killer playlist or Mix CD and dance like a mofo; but I'm not like aspiring to be in the music business by any means. So why does it stir so many feelings inside of me? How can certain songs get me more amped or more depressed that real situations in life?

This morning I was super tired but just couldn't fall asleep, so I just sat in my big cozy bed and listened to music. Just sat and listened. for hours. It was great. And when I tried to explain to someone how relaxing and euphoric it was, he just didn't get it. On Friday we went to an intimate concert although he said he enjoyed it, i get the feeling.....eh....not so much.

For me music is an unparalleled connection. It's not my livelihood but I definitely could not live without it. At my last job, I used to listen to it so quietly that it was almost like listening to poetic whispering all day long. It helps me concentrate, helps me relax, makes me happy and makesme sad.

It all sounds so trite. I mean there are a million people out there who are all like "Music is my Life, man!" and I would probably laugh and roll my eyes at them with the rest of the too-cool musical elite, but it's true.

It's great to be able to create anything and all art is subjective but music is something bigger than a beauutiful painting or a well-written novel or a superbly-acted movie: music unites people more than any other medium. Look at concerts like Live Aid or Live Earth, charity painting, books or plays rarely succeed as well as charity concerts.

That's not to say there aren't millions of problems with music today, particularly mainstream pop drivel, radio airplay and the music industry as a whole: but at the heart of it, in it's purest, genenist state, music is about connection and relating to universal experiences, and sometimes that is the greatest thing to do on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Posh Spice rulz

So I've always had a passing curiousity with the Beckhams. They sure sound interesting what with their hired present-openeer at Christmas-time and their $1 million birthday party for Brooklyn's first birthday and the sanskirt tattoo that was supposed to be devotion and love but means like Menu Number 6 for Korean Take-out or something.
They sure seem to do some interesting stuff. But now that they've moved to La-La Land, it's on.
They are so hot and so fab and so funny all rolled into one. You know when someone is so everything that is over-hyped and exaggerated about the world but they embrace is so fully and so unabashedly that you somehow end up secretly worshipping them?
That's the Beckhams.

You'll never see Posh complaining about a lack of privacy ( excpet when the flashbulbs give her son Romeo seizures, which is a whole other tragedy, we need to discuss at a later date). You'll rarely see her smile or eat. And she knows it. She goes for it. And she's secretly laughing right along with us.

Plus she gets to sleep with the hotest guy on the planet. I don't care if his voice sounds like he has been inhaling helium since childhood. He is so pretty.

So bring on Beckham-mania. We're ready for it.




If you missed Posh Spice Coming to America on NBC, you are sadly out of luck. Pure Genius! Here's a clip from Youtube: