Dude, you rock!

I look back at my youth, making mix tapes, and I think I've romanticized the whole thing.  It was labor intensive, and the people I gave the mixes to never quite seemed to get all the hidden messages I was putting in with my song selections.  Either that, or I regretted my song decisions later but it was so much work making the tape that I just gave it to them anyway.  I remember once I made a mix tape for a girl that I kind of liked.  One of the songs I put on there was by this Dallas band called Last Rites that was playing in the late 80s/early 90s.  I found them on a compilation album that I picked up cheap at Hastings, called "Dude, You Rock!" Actually, here's the track list from that cassette:

Course of Empire - God's Jig

Three On A Hill - Overdrive

Decadent Dub Team - Makin' Funky Money

Rigor Mortis - Grudge F---

Loco Gringos - Texas Ranger Man 

Scam - The Culprit

Shallow Reign - Walk With Me

Sedition - Sedition

Lithium X-Mas - Love Buzz

Hash Palace - Let's Get Lost

Reverend Horton Heat - Speed Demon

Last Rites - You're So F-----n Great/Train Girl

End Over End - Bringin' It Down By Hand

Anyway, I put "You're So F'in Great" song on the mix, because it's chorus was basically "You're so f'in great, but I suck!"  About forty times in a row.  It kind of summed up how I felt about her.  But then I was worried that she would think I was trying to say something with that song, so then I wrote her a letter explaining that that song didn't have anything to do with anything.  It was one of those "the lady doth protest too much" moments.

I wish I could find that song, but so far it's not coming up anywhere, on youtube or anywhere else.

So I think I'm a convert to the CD burning mix list world.  Super easy.  Easy to change the order, to add or subtract, to think about it for a few days and get back to it, to throw something together for a drive, to toss some tracks on a disc to introduce someone to a band you like.  Maybe I like that it means less - then I don't worry that I'm sending a message with the medium, as it were.

Here's "Texas Ranger Man" by the Loco Gringos, from Dude, You Rock!

I kind of wish I still had this cassette, since some of the songs don't seem to be available any other place.  Apparently it was also released on red vinyl - that would be pretty cool to have.

Dark Day

I just discovered Dark Day a couple days ago.  Reminds me of Tubeway Army, a bit.  I wouldn't mind picking up this album.

Rakta, Chastity Belt

Found a couple of all-girl post-punk bands that I'm enjoying a lot.  One is the sort-of local Seattle-ish band Chastity Belt (yeah, go ahead and search for them on ebay without narrowing to "Records" first.)  They're pretty awesome.  Vinyl is on the way in the mail as we speak.  The other is a Brazilian all-girl band called Rakta.  Kind of doom, kind of chant, kind of noise, kind of awesome.

Here's the official video for "Time To Go Home," by Chastity Belt:

Now listen to the new 7" Single from Rakta:

Awesome, right?  Right?

3 Girls Bakery music

I was in Seattle not too long ago, and went for a mosey down at Pike Place Market because, you know, tourist.  It's hard to decide what to eat down there - especially in the late afternoon on a Saturday when various things are shutting down.

We went into Three Girls Bakery, which has been there for a long time, apparently.  I got the last last last last bowl of chili out of the chili pot.  I don't know if that was a good idea.

I got the chili because they were out of french bread, so the french dip sandwich I wanted was kind of off.  It's hard to have a French dip on regular bread.

As I ate the chili, I couldn't help enjoying the music that was on.  Kind of hard rock, kind of punk, kind of something I felt like I should have heard by now.  Not having Spotify, I was forced to talk directly to the people working there, and found out it was Thin Lizzy's final album, "Thunder and Lightning," from about 1983.  It reminded me a lot of AC/DC, Van Halen, and the like.  Arena-sized guitar rock.

My familiarity with Thin Lizzy up until then was their early stuff on Jailbreak, which I used for a scene in my novel, and with some of their hits, like "The Boys Are Back In Town," which makes me think of a cross between The Cars and Elvis Costello.

Anyway, the end result of all this is me exploring this band that's gone through some significant evolutions, with different band members cycling in and out, and moving from one sound to another, which is good for me to think about as I write the stories about my fictional band.

Thin Lizzy - Thunder and Lightning: