Here. It’s an old post from the Hole message board, where Courtney talks about going through Polly Harvey’s luggage backstage at a U2 show in 2001. My favorite line: “I mean, I have like racks and racks and shit everywhere and feathers and sequins and the blood of virgins, etc. etc., and here’s PJ with one tidy-assed bag and I felt very confused.” I also dig how she self-identifies as “a galumph.”
The words “PJ Harvey” and “adorable” aren’t conjoined often in a sentence, but I am going to put a stop to that nonsense right now. Because I love her little boop-a-doop expressions and bouncing as she sings and claps in this video for “The Colour of the Earth,” which is off Let England Shake. It’s just one of a series of videos shot by photojournalist Seamus Murphy for the album, all of which are beautiful and engaging — although I would not call the videos “adorable” either, come to think of it.
Also: she’s wearing Ann Demeulemeester! I bet Polly’s a secret fashionista, don’t you think?
Listening: The Wipers, Lykke Li, any super-cheesy mainstream radio hit from 1987 or previous as part of my Method-writing strategy for my novel. Guess what’s the theme for the Homecoming dance? The song by Jefferson Starship from the movie Mannequin!! ‘Cause that’s the kind of high school that’s in my story. A horrible high school! Watching: DARIA. I really should be “liveblogging” my watching of it. I just watched the ep where Daria gets her bellybutton pierced because she’s in the thrall of Trent Lane and it is such a gem. I’d be in his thrall, too, if I were a teenage girl cartoon living in the suburbs. I just realized I have a fondness for weirdly breathy, raspy monotones in dudes and it is all because of Trent Lane. Reading:Fragile Things, Neil Gaiman. I asked for an e-reader for the holidays. Can’t wait, I realized I stopped buying books recently because the idea of moving and dealing with books was kind of killing my soul. I also realized that I spent approximately one-quarter of this year “on the road” or in “another location,” so moving and dealing with actual books has definite soul-killing potential. Wearing: Layers. I’m going to attempt a run in 10-degree weather soon. Wanting: I want Trent Lane to be real so I can stare at him.
DREAM DUDE: TRENT LANE, SINGING “PSYCHIC REFUGEE”
+ Liz
Listening: the new PJ Harvey song, which is so weird! And “All Sideways” by Scarce. Watching:Black Swan; I wish I was watching The Fighter Reading: Aren’t you glad you’re not the author of this miserable fucking article? I sure am! Wearing: my PJs, it’s late. I might paint my nails red before I hit the sack. Wanting: Last weekend I got a coconut in the mail from Emily Richmond! I want for nothing.
The second-best version of “Yesterday,” after the version in the video I posted here:
+ Laura Jane
Listening:Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake by the Small Faces, “Collibosher” by the Small Faces, “The Champ” by Ghostface Killah. “The Champ” is my major “pumping myself up while walking to work” jam right now, esp. the part that goes, “Sometimes I look in the mirror and want to kiss myself I’m so pretty!” Watching: Holiday Ice Battle Eggnog (Morimoto vs. Flay) Reading: This lil number RAY DAVIES OF THE KINKS wrote about the time he tripped while jogging and then saw Yoko Ono on the street. I don’t want to spoil the ending or anything but John Lennon dies. Wearing: Pink lipstick, hair pulled back with a thousand bobbypins into a fun big nest of hair cuteness, Tibetan prayer beads, jeans and Frye boots, fur hat Wanting: Summer, love, money, dessert (banana bread), new apartment, New York, this dog I met named “Butternut”, this dog I met on West Broadway five years ago who was my spirit dog and we “connected” and I WILL NEVER GET OVER HER luv u girl
I AM IN CONTROL OF EVERY ARENA OF MY LIFE. I WILL ACCOMPLISH ALL OF MY GOALS. I FEEL NOTHING. I AM A MACHINE. I AM A BULLDOZER WITH A WRECKING BALL ATTACHED.
Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to the latest edition of the now-erratic Heavy Rotation! This one is dedicated to beautifully odd cover songs, but is really functioning as a long-desired excuse to put this cover by Depeche Mode of the Stooges’ “Dirt.” Welcome to the blood sugar sex magick right here, buddies.
Japandroids, “Shame”
I’d think many bands would slightly intimidated to cover a PJ Harvey song; I know that I would be, if I were in a band. There’s something mystico-spiritual in her approach to music, and it seems like it’d be a bit hard to replicate Polly’s moon juju, or whatever it is that makes her so special. But I heartily appreciate this cover of “Shame,” by Japandroids. It’s kind of noise-y and dude-y, but that’s probably why it works so well — there’s enough of a distance between the original artist and the interpreter that it pulls your attention nicely away from the source version.
World Domination Enterprises, “I Can’t Live Without My Radio”
I am uncool enough to admit that I discovered World Domination Enterprises as one of the many musical references in Alan Warner’s Morvern Callar, which also coincidentally got me all up in my Scottish slang and saying “rampant” a lot. (“Rampant” sounds so much better than “horny,” don’t you think?) Then I discovered that they popped up in the amazeballs Rough Trade post-punk compilation, and anything associated with post-punk makes me salivate like a trust fund kid on his 25th birthday. I love this cover because there’s nothing really novelty or camp about it, like some covers of hip-hop can be; it’s just as bombastic as the original, really, and WDE attack the song with tons of attitude and snarl.
Depeche Mode, “Dirt”
The Stooges’ “Dirt” is truly one of my favorite songs ever, and Depeche Mode are one of my favorite bands. But the idea of one covering the other always provoked this weirdly physical lurch in me, like, “Noooooooooo, it just doesn’t seem right, nooooooooooooooo oh noooooooooooooo.” But this is a case of a band’s subconscious coming to fore with a cover. Depeche Mode’s persona have always been sleek, stylish and modern (it’s in their name!), but you could always tell there was something beast-like within them, whether it was in the arena-sized ambition of the music or the theatrics of Dave Gahan’s vocals, which definitely seem to luxuriate in the guttural Iggy noises of this song. Yet another illustration of the “opposites attract” theory of cover songs.
It’s fun to speculate what the Stooges’ collective subconscious as a band could be and what songs they’d cover as an extension of that. Judging from the photo above, maybe Iggy really just wants to be Mikhail Baryshnikov? That could be a nice plié, dude.
Shankar Jaikishan, Title Music From Merchant Ivory’s Film Bombay Talkie BUY THIS MP3
In early fall all I ever want to do is watch The Darjeeling Limited and shop the Weird Candy section of Cost Plus, so that’s something that’s happening for me right now. On Monday at the Cost Plus in Satan Barbara, I mean Santa Barbara, I very nearly bought a bag of Darrell Lea “Soft Eating” Ginger Liquorice but ended up with a tin of special-edish pumpkin ginger black tea, which I later brewed in a coffee maker in San Luis Obispo and drank in front of a fireplace while wearing an organic cotton robe and listening to Neil Young plus the soothing sounds of a light rain falling into the mineral-springs jacuzzi on the back deck. My hair still smells like sulfur from the springs, which is cool, gross, and benevolently intoxicating. (Liz)
Speaking of Fall and Food, I brought caramel hot chocolate and Jet-Puffed GhostMallows to this week’s Mad Men night, which was a really smart choice. Incidentally, my maybe-favorite Polly Harvey lyric is the one where she says “Ghosts fly their asses off tonight,” in “Driving.” Polly’s italics, btdubs. (Liz)
The Foundations, “Build Me Up Buttercup”
Sometimes, I listen to this song and think “Why the fuck do I listen to this shit?” Other times, I listen to this song and think, “It will never get any better than this.” The real question is: which time am I right? (LJ)
The Kinks, “This Time Tomorrow”
Raymond Douglas Davies. All the best parts of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison mixed together into one perfect person. In the same way that the awesomeness of “Hey Ya” by OutKast has outlasted Lucy Liu’s acting career, I often feel that my Kinks “Cats on Holiday” foot tattoo has surpassed my love for the Kinks. I was just going through a Kinks phase, and in the mood to get a tattoo that day. But then, this autumn, I fell back in love with the Kinks, and there is no better time to fall in love with the Kinks than in the fall. That’s why “Autumn Almanac” exists, you know? Besides, there is something just so right about me being in love with the Kinks. This October, the Universe is in perfect alignment. If I could change the Beatles in two ways, I would give them all Syd Barrett’s best love songs, and all the Kinks’ most sensitive. I used to have this piece of paper taped to my bedroom wall that said “Music makes you not alone,” but then it fell down, and then I threw it out, because that’s not the kind of thinking I want to promote to myself any longer. But then I hear “This Time Tomorrow” by the Kinks, and I totally see my point. (LJ)
Unrest, “Cherry Cream On”
When I listen to Unrest’s Imperial F.F.R.R. record, I have these strong sartorial memories involving the only time in my life I ever wore gingham. Indie rock in 1992-4 is pretty much the only time I have or ever will wear gingham in my life, when I was most vulnerable to the fey, regressive innocence of indie twee and the like. Whew, thank God someone gave me a Heroin 7-inch and saved me! Everyone says Unrest are pervy, and I guess there’s something in their lyrics that speaks of things filthy and hot. I like things to sound pervier, I suppose. I’m much more inclined to songs about banking that sound like fucking than vice versa, but still, Unrest made some pretty great pop records and this is one of my favorite songs by them. (Kat)
Britney Spears, “Radar”
I have no excuse for putting this song on HR, really. I mean, you could make an argument that Brit-Brit’s post-breakdown electro-influenced oeuvre is often intriguingly dark and her producers on this track, Bloodshy and Avant, are a modern apotheosis of Scandinavian pop production genius. But I really only put this song up because I like to sing it during Wii karaoke with my 4-year niece. It’s almost the perfect song for Wii karaoke, and they even change the “animal in the sack” line to the slightly more benign “Yeah, I can handle that” to protect the tender, innocent ears of childrenzzzzzz. Which is good, although it’d be funny to explain “animal in the sack” line as “fighting in bed with your Pillow Pet.” By the way, I’m oddly obsessed with Pillow Pets now — I want the bumblebee one, so if anyone out there wants to make me REALLY REALLY happy, you know what to do. (Kat)
This is probably my most favorite Nirvana song of all time, the one that you hear and it feels like seeing a friend you haven’t seen in years. You kind of just hug them and hold out for dear life and bask in each other and feel life-affirmed all around because you’re just so excited to see/hear them again. It’s like a life-affirmation circuit of love and friendship! Which is so ironic, because “Drain You” is kind of about the dark, toxic side of the life-affirmation friendship circuit. Oh, Kurt, how wonderfully perverse you were. (Kat)
I’m really excited for the Warpaint album to come out in October. I’m predicting that it will be in my Top 5 Records of 2010 List, because you could not engineer a band more appealing to me on paper. Cat Power-y dark fragility + early Cure-ish post-punk + girls with a mysterious, otherworldly bent + minimal production = KAT WOULD BE IN A BAND LIKE THIS IN REAL LIFE. In fact, it’s almost worrisome that it’s SO PERFECT on paper, because then you miss the element of unpredictability that a truly great, beloved band has. I honestly think this is why I have such a distanced, studied relationship with Sleater-Kinney, because on paper they should be everything I wanted a band to be, but in real life I only genuinely admire them, I think. I seriously was worried that Warpaint will fail the “off-paper test,” but listening to “Billie Holiday,” from their Exquisite Corpse EP, I can’t help but love the fact that they covered Mary Wells’ “My Guy” in their beautifully spooky way. I have a feeling that Warpaint will not let me down for awhile to come. Seriously, guys, I KNOW many, many of you out there will love this band. You will so NOT regret getting on the Warpaint train before anyone else. (To get another taste of Warpaint, go to this old Heavy Rotation, where I put up their “Krimson” track.) (Kat)
On Tuesday this cool thing kept happening where I’d be listening to Rid of Me in the car and people on the street would accidentally dance along. Really it only happened twice: The second time was just after dark and I was playing “Missed” and some eight- or nine-year-old girl on the corner of Waterloo and Sunset was standing on a wall and swaying her arms and shoulders and long mermaidy hair around in this funny hippie way like she was all “lost in the groove”; the first was in the middle of the afternoon and involved some big bald dude who looked like he was from that scene in Weird Science when the Mad Max-y biker gang crashes Gary and Wyatt’s party. I was playing “Man-Size” and the big bald dude was standing under a tree and waving a black bandanna up above his head and snarling for no apparent reason, and it was kinda terrifying yet completely awesome. I see that dude everywhere lately.
So, this is “Reeling,” the non-4-Track Demos version, from the “50ft Queenie” single. I wish it’d made the Rid of Me cut instead of that “Highway ’61 Revisited” cover I never ever want to listen to. (Liz)
Also on Tuesday I decided I’m only going to listen to Rid of Me and The Predator by Ice Cube from now on, which lasted about a half-hour. The unifying theme is “boots as toughness metaphor”: the leather boots in “Man-Size,” the big black boots in “When Will They Shoot?” I have big black boots but they’re fake leather but they’re so killer-tough anyway. (Liz)
The Pretty Things, “She Says Good Morning”
Today (yesterday), I ate Teriyaki Experience on my lunch break, which was really exciting to me at the time. When I arrived back at work, however, the back of my right leg broke out in insane hives. It was so gross and terrifying. Not that gross, I guess, but I’m kind of squeamish when it comes to impromptu hives breaking out on my body while I’m “on the job,” not that my job is any way hard. I have the easiest job in the world, actually, which in some ways justifies the way it pays it shit- but not all the ways. So, anyway: five hives. They are sort of in honeycomb formation, not that that description makes any sense or anything. The overarching point I’m trying to make here is that today I learned I’m allergic to either teriyaki sauce, yakisoba noodles, bean sprouts, broccoli, carrots, or whatever other vegetables are included in that mix of vegetables they give you at Teriyaki fucking bullshit NEGATIVE EXPERIENCE. Fuck that. Fuck being allergic to any of that. Anyway, today was also a good day, so that’s why I’m choosing “She Says Good Morning” to be the song that’s the soundtrack to it, in the movie. If I were going to make music at this point in my life, I would like it to sound a lot like “She Says Good Morning” by the Pretty Things, only uglier, scrappier, contemporary, less overtly psychy, and way more brilliant. My favourite lyric is “Coughing on my way to work”, because I extremely relate to it. (Laura Jane)
The Dandy Warhols, “Godless”
I am writing this on my patio while wearing this plaid shirt/minidress thing that functions in my life as both “real clothes” and “jammies,” and my “house shoes,” which are disgusting. It’s warm for being late September, so I’m making the best of it. I’m writing on my patio, because soon it’s going to be winter, and I won’t be able to sit on my patio anymore. I’m making sure that I’m enjoying it while it lasts. It’s sort of stupid to like the Dandy Warhols, but “Godless” is my favourite song in the world right now. I like to listen to it and think about all the people I hate. I hate a lot of people. But some people I hate more than others, and this song is dedicated to them. It’s an amazing sentiment, “I swear… [you're] Godless,” because it implies that the person singing it (Courtney Taylor-Taylor/me) is not. Which I think, in a way, is a killer way to consider your enemies. If there is a perfect God who is morally the way I think morals are and should be- God would love me, and he would hate my enemies, who I hate too, because God and I abide by the same moral code. Therefore: you have no God, Motherfuckers. Is that really how I feel? I don’t think so. How I feel is that I have such amazing “people I hate” in my life; they are so fun to hate and seriously the worst people in the world. I would be so sad if I didn’t have such hateable assholes to hate on in my head all the time. This gorgeous song is dedicated to all you soulless pussies out there who have fucked up my life in either glorious or uninteresting ways over the course of my life thus far. I am honestly so stoked to watch your shitty lives unfold miserably. I’m not sorry, and I forgive you for nothing. (Laura Jane)
Madonna, “Justify My Love” / PJ Harvey, “A Perfect Day Elise”
My favorite fashion-centric videos center around a sub-genre of YouTube that I henceforth christen “ladies going kind of batshit in strange hotels.” It’s proof that the perfect setting can elevate the most mundane outfit into something iconic, and what can be more perfect than a hotel room as a backdrop? It speaks of intrigue, sexuality, mystery, solitude and private indiscretion all at once. Plus, the second-best accessory for a lady of independence and singularity is a suitcase. (The first would be a guitar or camera or some other sturdy instrument of creativity.)
To this end, I therefore pick two genuine icons occupying different poles of the music spectrum to represent my favorite fashion-inspiration vids: PJ Harvey’s “A Perfect Day Elise” (1998) and Madonna’s “Justify My Love” (1990). The differences between the two women and videos are easy to parse and I leave that work up to you, dear reader. But I love how the two videos bookend the 1990s: there’s the Fellini-couture influence of Dolce & Gabbana in the Madonna video (not to mention a spot-on “Night Porter” reference), which segues nicely into the vintage-flavored shapes and dilapidated grunge touches in “Perfect Day” that remind me so much of the heyday of such labels as Voyage and Blumarine. (This video is one of my favorite Polly looks, by the way. No one really talks about Peej as a style chameleon, don’t you think? Someone should get on that. Perhaps I will…) Either way you have it, both videos make me want to pack all my best clothes into a battered suitcase and stay in some grandly disintegrating hotel where weird people float around and involve you in vaguely suggestive exploits. (And both videos feature really cool necklaces.) And yes, every time I watch the Madonna video, I still hear Garth’s voice from “Wayne’s World” in my head exclaiming, “Look at the unit on that guy!” Because, yeah: LOOK AT THE UNIT ON THAT GUY! (Kat)
Highlights from The Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus:
According to pop folklore, the Rolling Stones vaulted the madcap festivities of their 1968 psychedelistravaganza,The Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus, for forty long, cold and torturous years because their performances were so lackluster that they felt like losers about it (for freaking once in their dandy, fabulous little Rolling Stoner lives!) I have watched The Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus enough times to have officially deduced that this is most likely true. The Rolling Stones are upstaged by absolutely everyone else involved, including the Druid-costumed audience, and Jethro freaking Tull for crying out loud.
Oh well, Mick- at least you looked sexy. You’ll always have sexiness.
Here are three mind-blowingly good videos from the Circus. And when I say “good,” I mean, ” decidedly better than the Rolling Stones.” 1. Marianne Faithfull, “Something Better” (than the Rolling Stones)
It’s rare that you get to see footage of somebody this totally messed up on heroin, but let’s be honest and/or vapid for a second here- Marianne totally works it. I tend to really feel Marianne Faithfull, and no, it’s not because we’re both abnormally breathtakingly gorgeous human beings. It’s because we’re both often misconstrued as being frail little angels when really we are gritty old souls deep down. Poor us. The low point of this video is that they don’t show enough of Marianne Faithfull’s outfit, but she’s doing a pretty fabulous pre-Klute, vaguely Liza Minnelli cabaret-prostitute-chic thing, and her necklace looks like Christopher Kane for Swarovski.
2. The Dirty Mac, “Whole Lotta Yoko”
At least Keith Richards got to weasel his dirty little junkie-monkey paws into this filthy explosion of extreme awesome. “The Dirty Mac,” a band name which may or not be an ill-intentioned dig at Paul McCartney, was a one-night-only supergroup consisting of John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Keith, Eric Clapton, some unfamous drummer named Mitch Mitchell (okay, whatevs, he was Jimi Hendrix’s drummer, but I live on a sunshiney Anglo-centric cloud where Jimi never existed, so that’s fine), and Ivry Gitlis, apparently the punkest violinist who ever lived. Sometimes I am at a loss for words when it comes to explaining the arrant coolness of John & Yoko to the world; this is one of those times. Just watch it, and then spend the rest of your day mooning over how you’ll never be cool like them, which you won’t. I promise. Not even close.
3. The Who, “A Quick One (While He’s Away)”
Well, really, all I have to say about this bad boy is that it is the best live performance of any song ever, ever, forever, and that watching it is exactly equivalent to snorting fifty-five lines of cocaine, freebasing thirteen pounds of speed, shooting Jolt cola into your eyeballs, and then shotgunning a can of sugar-free Red Bull, just for fun. And also, I think that if I had a twin brother, he would be Keith Moon. We’d run our wee impish selves around the world, engaging in screwball antics such as tying one another to train tracks and seeing who’d wet him or herself first and/or ingesting boxes of sugarcubes and then racing homemade go-karts. And then the Universe would explode from the sheer damn scrappiness of it all, but it would have been worth it. (Laura)
ZZ Top, “Legs”
This came out when I was about six; I remember watching it afterschool in my grandparents’ living room and thinking that adulthood meant getting to hang around the heavily biker-populated strip-mall burger joint all day everyday. If only! I’d love to spend my weekdays at the biker burger joint, even with the rampant harassment. Anyway, the fashion here is mostly bad/dated as all get-out, but I’m a sucker for a shopping spree. Especially when it’s all about empowerment! Those magical strutty/bouncy girls in the red car really know how to get shit done. Maybe that’s what happens when you walk around with your hands on your hips all the time.
So, while I don’t really lust after any of the Strip-Mall Cinderella Girl’s stuff – especially those god-awful widdle-gurl ruffly ankle socks – I do really dig the white-fur-covered guitars and maybe also the mean girl’s sleeveless sweatshirt and scarf. But really the look I’m most into is the proto-grunge dreamboat fry boy’s: He’s so my type. I’m on the fence about that sweatshirt hoodie vest thing, but I think he makes it work with the plaid button-down and blue jeans. If we were going out I’d borrow the shirt all the time, roll up the sleeves to the elbows, and we’d be good to go. (Liz)
NOGOODFORME.COM is Kat and Liz. We write about style, fashion, music, film, art, photography, pop culture, celebrities, and more: all the good stuff of life. Subscribe to our RSS newsfeed and our comments feed to keep up with our latest stuff!
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