Art’s Neighborhood

W♥M059 [download (51 min, 47 mb)]

Subscribe to our show at gcast.com (RSS), more information at podcast.w♥m.com.

BRITPOPCAST #6: THE GIRLS OF BRITPOP (wave 2)

Theaudience - Penis Size and Cars

2 comments

The show was actually longer, but I'm including more Jarvis-stalking festivities until next week. This week is all about the second wave of girls of Britpop (the first wave consists of Powder, Sleeper, Salad, Echobelly, Elastica). Since we've talked so much about them already, I thought talking about the second wave was a little more interesting.

Second wave:

• Kenickie (Lauren Laverne - all girls band)
• Kenickie, believe it or not, was the only all-girls Britpop band.  There was another band called Fluffy around this era, but they were more hard-rock than brit-pop.  While Fluffy's ultimate was branded with "eight tits no talent", Kenickie was more loved in general.  While their music is often more polished punk/pop early on, they shifted their sound to more lounge for their second album.  Obviously the band was still in their infancy ... but eventually broke up shortly after the second album.
  
• Lush (Miki Berenyi & Emma Anderson)
• In early Lush's history, they were two best friends, Miki Berenyi & Emma Anderson.  They were fanzine producers, and started their own band based on their love of shoegazing music with their EPs and debut album Spooky. You can hear their love of melodies as they sing in and out.  Of course, when you have two songwriters, they often clash if they have other interests.  In this case, at the time Split came out in 1994, some of the songs were clearly "britpop"esque.  Even the naming of the album (Split) was an indication, between aggressive pop songs like "Kiss Chase" and "Hypocrite" - the britpop songs would later continue with "Ladykiller" and their ultimate britpop moment with Jarvis Cocker on "Ciao!"  While I did tend to like the Miki songs, Emma did coin a few great pop gems like "Shake Baby Shake" (which is about the love of her car).
  
• When we heard that drummer, Chris Acland committed suicide by hanging himself, we all knew the band would be split up after this.  And it's true, they never quite recover.  I was lucky enough to catch them before the tragedy and continued to follow to see what the band's been up to.  The last I heard, Emma is in Sing-Sing, which had a great pop song called "Feels Like Summer".
  
• Catatonia (Cerys Matthews)
• Since we previously talked about Catatonia in our previous Welsh Britpop bands, I'll only briefly mention them here.  The thing with Catatonia for me was that each of their song was either a hit or miss... no inbetween feeling.  I either hated or love it. But the songs I really love, I really love, so that makes up for them.  I love the way Cerys sings, in fact, all Welsh people have a particularly weird accent to them and it's always a nice earful when you do hear them sing or talk.  It's like they're speaking English, but learned it from another planet.
• Favorite songs: "Mulder & Scully", "I Am the Mob", "Karaokee Queen",  "Road Rage", "Dead from the Waist Down"
  
• Theaudience (Sophie Ellis-Bextor)
• This was a very brief band from 97-99, fronted by Sophie Ellis-Bextor - who went on to have a series of very successful Eurodisco releases.  I must admit, I never followed the band that much - they arrived a little too late for me.  I didn't buy their debut album (it was never released in the US), but managed to get their debut single, "I Got the Wherewithal".  The song is quite good, and even their b-side "Penis Size and Cars" is amusingly catchy.
  
• Bis (Amanda MacKinnon)
• I love this Scottish band.  Although they were far too "kiddish" in their cute unreadable spellings and anime-influence, they were pretty damn cute and catchy.  Songs like "Kandy Pop" topped many playlist around this time, although in retrospect, looking back, it was a pretty mindless dum (dumb as in DUM) song.  Unfortunately, many people, including myself, didn't regard Bis as a Britpop band, but they're often grouped in.  My favorite song: "Action & Drama"!
  

Honorable mentions:

• Black Box Recorder (Sarah Nixey)
• Very catchy/dancey, but not Britpop.  Their bassist is Luke Haines, formerly of the Britpop band The Auteurs.
  
• Dubstar (Sarah Blackwood)
• This British act came out during the birth of Britpop, but they were far too alternative-dance/electronica to be considered Britpop.  The singer is Sarah Blackwood, who, I reckon the band ditched toward their later music releases.
  
• Sneaker Pimps (Kelli Dayton)
• Fluffy
  
• Republica (Saffron)
  
• Fat Les (Lily Allen sings on their last single???)
  

 12/30/2009 03:45:48 ♥ vu () ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com 

Oh, wow... it's still Tuesday. I thought it was after midnight already but it's not. Whaddya know about that?!

Loathe:

• People who return to work after a vacation with as much asshole attitude as when they left
• Other stuff

• A feral/semi-feral kitty has been playing on the roof and in the attic crawlspace, just like Moshi did before I tamed him. On Sunday night, I heard a commotion but thought it was my cats fighting in the bedroom. Last night I was in the bedroom when it happened and it was distinctly coming from the roof and/or attic and I was sure I heard something jump on the water heater cover (again, cause Moshi used to do that). But I didn't know what type of animal it was because I have a decent sized ficus tree next to the heater so something could have been using the tree to get up/down. And there where lots of other noises that sounded like branches being gathered, and stuff being banged around. I figured it probably wasn't an opossum because they're usually more stealth. Around 2am, I got up for a Tylenol (brain wouldn't shut up; partial fail on the sleep med kicking but better than using prescription drugs) and came back to Espressa staring out the window. I thought she saw my reflection but when I turned of the light, I saw a "teenage" looking kitty run across the neighbor's roof. Although it was dark, I thought it looked like a grey kitty - also like Moshi.
• Tomorrow... Wednesday, Dec 30... is CRANKYPANTS birthday

[15 min later] Huh... whaddya know... I lied:

Which seemed pretty odd, considering that I'm wearing my biggest size ever. But maybe it was fat vs muscle (lost muscle, gained fat = gained size but lost weight).

So I stepped on the scale again.
And gained back 10 of those 20 lbs

And stepped on the scale again
And gained back the other 10 of 20 lbs

And stepped on the scale again
And it stayed where it was.
Dammnnnit.

I was just looking up lapband info cause I have a theory that most of the gastric bypass stuff works, largely, not by causing satisfaction but by causing negative effects from eating too much. Primarily nausea, heartburn, and vomiting. Those aren't intake deterrents to me. In fact, most of the time they're triggers to each starchy foods to calm down my stomach.

Truly, truly, truly, the only time I've EVER experienced satisfaction with food was when I was on Fen/Phen. Not the speed part (I didn't take that one), just the pondamin (fenfluramine). Within a day or 2 of starting those pills, I had a totally different relationship with food. I suddenly understood how "normal" people look at food. I could eat a bite, be content, and then stop. It was a revelation!!

Whatever that chemical was, I have NONE of it in me naturally. I know it's totally dangerous and causes heart valve problems but, no joke, if I could find it I'd still take it. I mean, heart risk vs obesity risk vs risk from gastric surgeries? All comes out pretty even to me.

Not that this has anything to do with anything, it was just on my mind. As I sit here with heartburn. Contemplating my morbid obesity and bad knees and what the hell I'm gonna do with myself in 2010.

Only because I'm going to a funeral at 2pm. But I'll take it.

I apparently decided, without thinking about it, to use the time between Xmas & whatever day we go back to work in 2010 (I don't have all that time off, that's just the timeframe) to kick my dependency on sleep aids (primarily Xanax). So far, it's not going well. Didn't matter on the holiday nights but last night, tossing and turning till well past 4am (and resuming at 7am), completely sucked. I'm hoping I'll be so exhausted tonight that I'll just conk out. More likely: I'll end up napping around 7p and tossing & turning when I go to bed.

I am sooooo glad I'm not traveling by air this week. As always, one person is a retard and everyone - all over the world - pays for it. Even though that one person's action proved that all the screening insanity DOESN'T WORK. Evil doers will always find a way to do evil.

I watched 3 more episodes of MadMen (season1) last night. I wanted to watch Extras but I couldn't find the DVDs. During my night of tossing & turning, their MIA location finally dawned on me (table in the dining room, under the curtain that's currently draped over the table (there's other stuff on top of the curtain)).

I never got as far as housecleaning. That sucks. I really really really need to vacuum the carpets and mop the floors. I haven't bothered to look for a new cleaning service yet. And I also haven't called the old one to get my key back.

Okaaaaay... time to shower and get dressed. I don't need to leave here till around 1pm but if I put it off any longer, I'll probably lose track of time.

We had a wonderful Christmas.  Kansas was so excited to see that Santa had eaten her cookies. I hope that you all had a very merry Christmas too.

Nate has the vid and better pics.

Me and the FSM

Playing with The FSM

Spaghetti Pedi?

Actually, I do. SO glad I bought this stupid "slutty pirate" costume when I saw it on sale. I KNEW I'd find a reason to wear it.

Being cold out, I'm also wearing leggings. And simply flats rather than slut shoes. The first pair of flats I donned had cross straps and I looked like some freaky, BAD, ballerina pirate hybrid. Now I just look like a fool (or a waitress at Jolly Roger's.... are those still around? Anyone else remember them?) and fool is what I was going for.

Gonna grab some cheap champagne and head up to Hollywood and hope this food fight goes off.