TOTP

Top Of The Pops, the Brit music show, will make its last broadcast soon. The Guardian interviewed musicians that played on the show. The following is from Paul Ryder, bassist for the Happy Mondays.

When we played Hallelujah in 1989, we never realised that us and the Stone Roses appearing on the same Top Of The Pops would become a seminal moment. But I do remember getting back to Manchester and people telling us all the bars had set up screens specially to watch it, so it was a big deal. I'd wanted to be on Top Of The Pops ever since I was eight and saw David Bowie performing Starman with a blue acoustic guitar. I remember bumping into Tina Turner. We'd been given £1,000 each by the record company to buy new clothes; I spent £300 and pocketed the rest. I think everyone was heavily "sedated". I vividly remember being sat in the BBC garden and Shaun [Ryder] and Ian [Brown] were chuckling, plotting to swap drummers. I think the BBC rumbled it.

Cee-Lo IS Danny Zucco

Then it was over to Avalon, where, for the second night of the stand, 'Grease' was the word. Yes, in keeping with their tradition of dressing up as movie characters, the entire band donned leather jackets, jeans and white T-shirts. Coming out on stage to the strains of the theme song from the '70s classic, Cee-Lo introduced himself as 'Fon Travolta.'

Dear God, I love them. Surely they must be Brits;)

Culture Vulture

Every week, The Guardian arts blog, Culture Vulture, has a post on songs about a particular topic. This week, one-night stands. It's fun to watch the rock snobs attack each other's taste in music.

Imagine my delight when I discovered lyrics from a Tenacious D song, 'Double Team. ' When I was in college, JB (Jack Black) and KG (Kyle Gass) were our late-night, post-bar DVD-friends of choice.



"You step into our room, and then you smell the perfumes,
You lay upon our roundish bed, and then you feel a tickling on your head,
It's KG with the feather, the french tickler, look out baby he's got the tools!
And then you feel something down by your feet,
It's me! It's JB! I'm sucking on your toes!"

KT, Jackson 5

Ooo, I like her version of the J5 classic.

Dead Parrot

Weekly Top Ten-ish songs

According to my iTunes....

1. Janie Jones- Clash
2. 16 Days- Whiskeytown
3. Drive My Car- Beatles
4. Mersey Paradise- Stone Roses
5. Rocking Chair- Oasis
6. Walls Come Tumbling Down!- Style Council
7. The Perfect Kiss- New Order
8. Billie Jean- Ian Brown
9. You Really Got Me Now- Kinks
10. Diamonds Are Forever- Kayne West

Bonus-
Cherry, Cherry- Neil Diamond
I Predict A Riot- Kaiser Chiefs

Anthony

From where I'm sitting, poolside, I can see the airport burning -- the last of the jet fuel cooking off like a dying can of sterno. There's a large, black plume of smoke coming from the south of the city -- just over the rise, where the most recent airstrikes have been targeting the Shiite neighborhoods and what are, presumably, Hezbollah-associated structures. My camera crew and I missed it the first time they hit the airport. Slept right through it. Woke up in our snug hotel sheets to the news that we wouldn't be making television in Beirut (not the show we came to do anyway), and that we wouldn't be getting out of here anytime soon.

Wellah!

A little Modfather to start your weekend off right. Jesus, he's cool. The shades, the scarf. It works for me. Wink.

Glastonbury movie

AKA the movie I intend to obtain a copy of before the summer is over.

Anglophilia

In case I haven't mentioned it, I adore Heather B. Armstrong, the author of dooce.com. Why? This is a selection from one of her most recent posts....

“My best friend from high school had introduced me to Britpop, had given me a stack of magazines and newspapers he’d brought back from England the summer before we started college. At the top of that stack was a cover spread of Liam Gallagher, the notoriously rude lead singer of the band Oasis, and he was making an obscene hand gesture at the camera. I soon found out that this hoodlum could actually sing, and that the Britpop sound was more meaningful to me than any church hymn I was ever forced to sit through. But more importantly, these people liked to drink and fight and call each other horrible names in the press. It was worth it to follow this music if only to see if any of them would end up floating in the Thames without a head.”

Songs

Apparently, the Oasis compilation that will be in stores at some point this fall, will have 18 tracks. As I am all about the lists, and we already know that it will contain

1. Wonderwall
2. Half The World Away
3. Supersonic
4. Acquiesce

let me say first, YAY to those choices, and that the following, should be the other 14. In my opinion, of course.

5. Cigarettes and Alcohol
6. Don't Look Back In Anger
7. Let There Be Love
8. Stand By Me
9. Stop Crying Your Heart Out
10. Rocking Chair
11. Cast No Shadow
12. Whatever
13. The Masterplan
14. Rock and Roll Star
15. She's Electric
16. The Importance Of Being Idle
17. Some Might Say
18. Champagne Supernova

Sadly, I've thought about this A LOT today. I am so going to make that track listing into a CD right now.

champagne supernova

Dear God, I love this song. Oasis and Weller? I'm in heaven.

Beckham. Speedo. Questions?

While I am somewhat violently against any non-Olympic swimmer-type persons wearing tiny swim trunks in public, I'm sometimes inclined to overlook this.

Especially when confronted with pics of
David.
Freaking.
Beckham.
In.
A.
Speedo.
I need a smoke.

pic from perezhilton.com

Oooo- looky!

Dear God, I can hardly wait!

Although the tracklisting for the double album is a closely guarded secret, it will feature the classic singles 'Supersonic', 'Wonderwall' and 'The Importance Of Being Idle'.

Also featured is 'Acquiesce', the b-side to 'Some Might Say' that many consider to be one of the band's finest songs.

Hell yes, 'Acquiesce' is one of their finest! Please God, include 'Whatever,' 'Round Are Way' and 'The Masterplan,' too. Thank you:)

Oh, YouTube

Thank you for giving me the material to explain my love for various non-American musicians to my partners in crime. And for this lovely Smiths clip.

Songs o' the week

1. Sweet Jane- Velvet Underground
2. Mamma Mia- ABBA
3. I Don't Mind- Buzzcocks
4. We Used To Be Friends- Dandy Warhols
5. Oh My Sweet Carolina- Ryan Adams
6. Rebel, Rebel- Bowie
7. This Is The One- Stone Roses
8. Tied Up Too Tight- Hard-Fi
9. Digsy's Diner- Oasis
10. I Believe In You- Kylie Minogue
11. Crazy- Gnarls Barkley

Bonus-
Sub-Culture- New Order
Molly's Chambers- Kings of Leon

Mr. Brightside

His seedy charm aside, there is no way I'd personally pick Eric Roberts over Brandon Flowers. Even in a video.

Jake and Ana in Spain

I am so excited for this album! Hard to believe. Snerk. But look at their costumes! Could they be more fabulous? I think not!

If I were both gay and a man, I would SO be all about Jake Shears. Even as a straight chick, I'm have a fairly purient interest in him. Can't imagine if we 'played' for the same team. So pretty! Also, no one is as fierce as Ana Matronic.

Okay, fangirl moment over. Seriously.

pic from nme.com

Why

do I read the Mirror's website daily? Snark like this.

ORDINARILY, when a supermodel is approached in the street by an unshaven dweeb with a dodgy haircut, she calls for help...

But in this case the dweeb is James Blunt and the supermodel is his stunning Czech girlfriend Petra Nemcova, 27.

I can't stop giggling. Unshaven dweeb, indeed.

Sublime or ridiculous?

I want to see pictures of Ashley (footballer for Arsenal- for the time being) Cole and Cheryl (Girls Aloud) Tweedy's wedding, more than I could coherently or rationally explain.

The bridesmaid dresses were apparently orange, with Zebra detailing. I saw a headline entitled, "The Bride Wore Bling." Her dress was something around 200 thousand pounds.

She used Posh and Beck's wedding as a 'how-to' example. Posh wore a corset that knocked her waist down a few inches to 18. David and Victoria sat on actual thrones at the reception, y'all.

Oh. My. God.

There are some things that are so extraordinarily tacky, they venture into the sublime. When I get my hot little hands on a copy of OK! Magazine this weekend, I'll be able to determine if that's the category the Tweedy-Cole wedding fits into. Goody!

All snark aside, though,they are a cute couple.