Jeez Jon

My Head Sounds Like This: Sun Of A Gun

I recently downloaded Oh Land's eponymous album this weekend, and have been listening to it on repeat.  It's like CRACK, people.  Anyway, here's her song "Sun Of A Gun."

 

Great song, fun video. 

 

Shake It 'Til The Butter Melts

One afternoon in my freshman year of high school, I was home from school after rehearsal watching TV.  One of the local channels was playing videos and they played this:

 

I'd never heard of the B52s before, and the video and the song had me transfixed.  The soaring chorus, the beautiful harmonies, the strange but simple imagery: I was thinking "Who are these people?" and "Where can I hang out with them?"  A few weeks later I heard Rock Lobster, and fell in love with every bizarre second of that song.  But it took a couple more years before I would buy any of their music... and that's when Cosmic Thing was released. I bought the cassette from Coconuts Records, flew home, and started playing that out.  I can remember bouncing around in my room listening to that album over and over on my little cassette player and on my Walkman.  I remember watching an episode of Doogie Howser a couple of weeks later where Doogie was sad over his girlfriend dumping him and he played "their song" over and over again.  Here was their song:

 

Yup, "Channel Z".  Love that song.  I love The B52s for so many reasons.  The biggest one? They are a FUN BAND.  They play fun, tuneful, party music.  You can't tell me that if you hear the first couple notes to "Love Shack" that you don't have the song running through your head all day.  They have a quirky sensibility that I love but they aren't pretentious. While they occasionally mix some messages into their songs, their main objective is for you to have a good time.  And since they are completely enjoying themselves, you can't help but smile when you hear their songs. The subject matter of the songs may be strange (party crashers, planets named after women's names, offering a girl fish and candy to a rival to get her man back, et. al) but you can play a B52s song in any party setting in front of any kind of audience and someone will get up and dance.  And also that they do have a rather distinct gay sensibility that's wrapped around a party vibe in such a particular way that they don't seem like "the other" to many people.  And then throw in what talented musicians they are.  Keith Strickland is a fantastic drummer AND guitarist (taking over the guitar when original guitarist Ricky Wilson died of AIDS in 1985), Fred Schnieder is a great showman, and then you have the ladies.  Cindy Wilson (blonde) and Kate Pierson (redhead) have some of the best rock voices in the biz.  And they harmonize beautifully.  In my mind, the B52s is the ultimate party band.

Before this past weekend, I've only been to 5 concerts in my entire life.  The first was They Might Be Giants and Squeeze and my second in 1992 with the Violent Femmes opening for, tra la!, the B52s.  And it was a wonderfully fun concert.  I went with some friends (including the marvelous Pam Turlow, who is the biggest B52s fan I know) and we were maybe 17th row or something, and down in the front was a group all dressed up in glitter and bouffant hairdos grinning from ear to ear and talking in stage whispers about how amazing it is to be there.  Once The B52s went out on stage, they were dancing the whole time.  The eldest of the bunch just stopped during "Private Idaho" and exclaimed "We're not worthy!", which totally made me smile.  It was an amazing concert and it was the last time I saw them...

...until this past Friday.  My birthday happened a few weeks ago, and Tom said that one last present that was coming.  So I waited... and waited... and waited.  And then, last weekend, he spilled the beans on the last gift.  He was taking me to see the B52s in concert at an Indian Casino about 2 hours outside of LA.  But wait, there's more!  In addition to the concert, we were getting backstage passes beforehand for a meet and greet with the band. Let me repeat that: it's a MEET AND GREET WITH THE B52s!  Gahhhhh!  I was floored, excited, nervous, etc.  I didn't tell Pam about it because I wanted it to be a surprise for her, but I did tell everybody else.  Alex, one of my teachers at Steppenwolf, was very impressed and rather envious.  I downloaded a bunch of their music from iTunes, and bought some CDs as well for them to sign.

After driving 3 hours Friday afternoon (the 91 is the purgatory of Southern California freeways), Tom and I finally made it to Temecula.  We got dinner in the casino after scoring our tickets and credentials from the box office.  During dinner, Tom and I split a bottle of champagne and that helped to calm my nerves.  Slightly.  After dinner, we gathered with the remainder of the fellow VIP ticket holders and were lead into the back of the theater.  I was carrying a couple of their CDs and a couple signs, chatting with some of the other people in line. 

Me: I brought a couple CD's for them to sign.

Fellow Fan: Oh. They're not signing anything tonight.

Me: They aren't?  Oh, okay.

Fellow Fan: You could always ask.  They are doing pictures.  I did double check on that.

Me: Okay, cool.

I put aside the CDs and Tom and I held onto the signs.  After a few minutes of waiting, the band's stereotypically British manager entered the room.

Manager: All ri'. 'ere's the deal. You get ONE photo wif the band PER GROUP.  'N I'll take the pitcha. Righ'?

All of the Fans: Righ'!

Tom [sotto voce]: We'll each hold one of the signs.

Me [sotto voce]: Cool.

And then, the band came out and waved to us.  They were all pleased to see us but were ready to get this over with since they had to do a show in a few minutes.  One by one, people ahead of us in line were lead up to the band where you'd shake hands with them, the manager would take their picture, you'd say thank you and take your camera and leave. That's it.  Which is fine, honestly.  They have a job to do, they've been doing this for a long time, I get it.  Then finally, it was Tom's and my turn. We walked up with our signs and said hello. I shook Kate Pierson's hand (eeeeeee!) and Keith Strickland's (eeeee!).  Tom was on the side with Fred and Cindy.  They looked down at our sides. 

Me: Oh, some friends of ours couldn't make it to the concert, so we thought it bring these signs in for them. 

Kate then peered over at my sign and laughed a bit.  Kate: "That's clever." 

The manager ended up taking two pictures of us with the band, and this is the 2nd one:

This is exactly what I wanted.  I do love how Kate is completely playing along, which just makes it all the better.  I said thank you, shook Kate's hand (eeeeeeeee!) and then Tom and I walked off.  Sorry, Tom walked off and I floated away. 

The concert itself was amazing.  We were 3rd row center.  THIRD ROW CENTER!  They played non-stop for 80-some minutes, and considering they are all in their late-50's to early 60's, they looked and sounded fantastic.  They did some of their new stuff as well as all their classics.  It was a fantastic time and an amazing evening.  And that photo above really says it all. 

Here are some of my favorite songs of theirs. Let's start with "Give Me Back My Man":

 

"Private Idaho"

 

"Party Out of Bounds"

 

And of course, "Rock Lobster"

 

I love The B52s.

My Head Sounds Like This: On Shuffle

I've been working intensely over the past month or two on Season 3 of Jerseylicious, which has been fun if all-consuming.  Combine that with my acting class and dealing with a severe bout of allergies (which culminated in a 4:30am drive to a CVS to get eye drops to douse my burning eyeballs), I haven't had much time for the blog here.  But, I've been listening to a whole bunch of music lately, so I thought I'd share.  I'll set my mental Earworm mix on shuffle, and here's what my head sounds like lately:

Bruno Mars -- Grenade

 

My niece Alli introduced this song to me via Facebook. I'd heard of Bruno Mars before but never heard of his music.  I think this is a dynamite song about how long love can linger past reason.  And it's catchy as hell.

La Roux -- Bulletproof

 

This is how I like my dance music: the vocal is front and center, it's uber-catchy, and the artist has a signature sound.  After my birthday, I'm planning on picking up whatever CDs La Roux has to offer. If they're anything like this song, I'll be one happy camper.

Mumford & Sons -- The Cave

 

A complete change of pace from La Roux, Britain's Mumford & Sons is all about the acoustic guitar, bango and soaring harmonies.  I listened to their album driving around LA one Saturday afternoon and had to fight against tearing up 'cause their songs? Are powerful and gorgeous.

Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross - In Motion (from The Social Network soundtrack)

 

This score is fantastic and this has to be my favorite track from it.  Reznor & Ross won the Oscar for Best Original Score, and they deserved it.

I'm hoping to come back up for air soon.  Until then, enjoy the music.

...And I'll Blog If I Want To

Growing up, I wasn't very familiar with Lesley Gore.  Sure, I'd heard a couple of her songs here and there, but it wasn't until I was an adult that I really developed an appreciation for her music.   They are 60's pop confections that sound cute and bouncy but really have several things going on at once.  Every now and then, I'll scroll to her Greatest Hits album on my iPod and just smile.  Here's a quick tour through my favorite songs of hers:

It's My Party

 

I first heard this song listening to an oldies station with my folks back in the early 80's.  I remember bouncing my head to the beat, and humming along.  Then a couple hours later, I started processing the lyrics.  Her boyfriend dumped her and is now going with some slag and it's totally bumming out her birthday party.  The chorus is a bit self-indulgent, I admit, but I can imagine many teenage girls in the 60's acting out this song whether they were conscious of it or not.  The sight of all these kids dancing around as Lesley sings about being rather humiliated is a sort of cognative dissonance that I can get into.

You Don't Own Me

 

A better feminist ballad than "I Am Woman", You Don't Own Me is bold.  Pretty ballsy for 1964 for a woman to very loudly put her foot down and say she's going to do whatever she pleases.  Being the 80's kid that I am, I first heard the Blow Monkeys' version and then heard Gore's years later.  While I like both, I way prefer Lesley's.

Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows

 

The first time I heard this song was while Tom and I were watching The Simpsons where Chief Wiggum and Homer are chasing a runaway Marge. Wiggum needs some chase music and accidentally plays this song.  Tom laughed and laughed.  I had never heard it before and I didn't really get the joke.

Tom: You don't know this?  This is definitely your theme song.

I'm a rather upbeat person with an optimist's view on things, so this song gets me in more ways that one.  And it's also super catchy.

California Nights (song starts at the 1:10 mark)

 

Lesley Gore made a guest appearance on Batman back in the 60's as Catwoman's ward Pussycat, a frustrated singer who ends up under Catwoman's wing.  During the middle of Catwoman's lair, she busts out her single, a whistful number about the wonders of the Golden State.  There's a level of melancholy to the song, a whistfulness that gets me in just the right place. Probably my favorite song of hers.

Judy's Turn To Cry

 

The spiteful single to "It's My Party", Johnny's now back with Lesley and now it's time for that bitch Judy to get what's coming to her.  I'll get this song going through my head every now and then (like yesterday, which was the impetus for me doing this post in the first place). It's kind of a mean song, and a bit messed up due to how Johnny broke her heart earlier, but you are most likely too busy pogoing to notice.

If you can, drop the $10 on her greatest hits and pick up some Lesley Gore for your iPod.  Trust me, it'll be a breath of fresh air in a library full of earnest indie rock and plaintive 80's pop songs. 

Pirate Jenny's Blind Prophecies

While I'm neck-deep into the new job, I've been sampling some pretty killer music... some old and some new (well, new to me).  Ever since I watched Watchmen a while ago, I've had a few songs from the soundtrack in my head.  The first would be the Nina Simone cover of Pirate Jenny:

Funny how your subconscious gives you signals: I had this song on heavy rotation when I worked on The Bachelor back in '04.  Should I say overworked and grossly overpaid.  After reacquainting myself with the song, I now realize why I was listening to this over and over again. It's about a put-upon lowly worker at a hotel, abused by her bosses who eventually wreaks revenge on everyone with her pirate minions.  Funny, no?

Also from the Watchmen soundtrack has been Philip Glass' "Pruit Igoe and Prophecies", both original tracks from the amazing Koyaanisqatsi (which deserves a blog post all on its own) that are used brilliantly in Watchmen.

Last Tuesday I was driving to work after pulling a very long shift, and I was driving down Gower street right by Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles. A white Escalade was right in front of me and stopped in the middle of the street.  In my lack of sleep haze, it hit me that the Escalade -- currently pumping some awfully generic hip-hop -- was going to make a left and didn't signal.  Of course.  I honked my horn in disgust and pulled up to the red right at Sunset.  The Escalade, foiled in its attempt to make a left turn into a strip mall parking lot, then pulled up next to me in the left-hand turn lane.  The three white guys inside the SUV then cranked up their shitty bland hip-hop.  In turn, I was listening to this Philip Glass track.  I stared ahead, tired and crabby from my former 16 hour work day.  Then, I smirked.  With the Escalade's sound system booming to my left, I put my finger on the humble CD player in my silver 2003 Saturn Ion, and cranked my Philip Glass all the way up.  Oh yeah boooyyeee, I was booming that shit.  Within 15 seconds, the Escalade turned off their music completely.  I slightly turned in their direction and out of the corner of my eye I saw their slack-jawed faces.  The light turned green and off to work I went. 

The final song that's been infecting my brain lately has been a dance track.  Hercules And Love Affair is a dance-music collective from Brooklyn that's been on the edge of my awareness for a few months now.  A good chunk of this is due to their DJ Andrew Butler looking like this:

I am not made of stone, people.  Helloooooooo, Andrew!  So, I started listening to their stuff on YouTube and it's pretty fantastic. They rotate different vocalists and below is the video for their song "Blind" with vocals from Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons.  Please, to enjoy: 

Too much fun, right?  Yes, I'm right.

How Not To: Come Out

I'm christening a new feature here at Jeez Jon:  How Not To. Things have been happening lately that serve as examples of how to do something and then how not to do something.

The inspiration of this was when Ricky Martin came out of the closet last week.  He handled it with some grace and style, and a bit of modesty.  He also did it pretty simply: he made a statement on his website. 

Today is my day, this is my time, and this is my moment.

These years in silence and reflection made me stronger and reminded me that acceptance has to come from within and that this kind of truth gives me the power to conquer emotions I didn't even know existed.

What will happen from now on? It doesn't matter. I can only focus on what's happening to me in this moment. The word "happiness" takes on a new meaning for me as of today. It has been a very intense process. Every word that I write in this letter is born out of love, acceptance, detachment and real contentment. Writing this is a solid step towards my inner peace and vital part of my evolution.

I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am. 

Now, in this day and age, when a celebrity comes out of the closet, it's really not that much of a shock anymore.  The nation's gaydar has gotten a lot better over the years, so when Ricky Martin finally said he's a "fortunate homosexual man", we as a society greeted it with a collective "...duh!"  Barring the coming out of Meredith Baxter late last year, I have yet to be surprised by a celebrity who admits he or she is LGBT. 

While the argument can be made that Martin's admittance is a bit too little-too late, I do feel that people coming out is a good thing.  It's not like he's been staunchly anti-gay before; he's maybe a bit late to the party than we'd like, but at least Ricky Martin's gay debut is done with a bunch of class. This is an example of how to come out.

And now, here's where the "How Not To" kicks in.  Not much hay was made a few weeks ago when Will & Grace actor Sean Hayes finally came out to the Advocate. Really, are any of us surprised?  No.  Like Martin, Hayes danced around the subject for years and years.  Pardon the pun, but he really wouldn't give a straight answer about his sexual orientation.  He would give either really stock answers (like "I want to protect my privacy") to being downright coy about it.  Now, years after Will & Grace ended, he's finally come out... bitter, party of one:

Finally, Hayes gets to his true point: “I feel like I’ve contributed monumentally to the success of the gay movement in America, and if anyone wants to argue that, I’m open to it. You’re welcome, Advocate.”

"You're welcome"?!  Seriously?  Yes, Will and Grace was a ground-breaking show.  Yes, it helped shift the culture back in the late 90's, especially since it debuted soon after Ellen Degeneres came out on her sitcom. But seriously, let's break this down. Hayes is not a gay rights advocate, a politician or a volunteer at a non-for-profit clinic.  Hayes was an actor on a show. His performance as Jack McFarland was marvelous and wonderful and deserving of every award he received.  But fundamentally? He's an actor on a show.  He didn't create the character, the writers did.  So, if he didn't get cast in the role, some other actor would have, and would have contributed to the gay rights movement, Sean.  He claims that he was being coy about his sexuality in the press because he didn't want to be typecast. This is right after he admitted that he got the audition for Will & Grace after the producers saw him play a gay character in Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss.  So, seriously, it was the very typecasting that he was claiming to avoid that got him 8 years on a hit sitcom, his current success starring on Broadway and a fucking Emmy.  So, while the rest of us gay plebians were doing the yeoman's work of actually living our lives from day to day, being out, doing our work, putting ourselves out there, here was Sean Hayes playing a gay character, making millions and doing a douchey dance around the subject of whether or not he likes boys.  

Ricky Martin comes out proud and happy; Sean Hayes comes out petulant, bratty, and douchey.  Marin for the win here. And Sean, this is how not to come out.

The Gold Vests Make It

Given my love for Lady Gaga's "Poker Face", you can imagine how I feel about this performance of the song by the UC Berkeley's a cappella group Noteworthy:

Pretty flippin' awesome.  [H/T: JoeMyGod]

Playlist-y For Me

Things are chugging along fine right now.  Nothing too crazy or too exciting to report, so I thought I'd talk about my iPod.  Ever since I got an iPod Nano for my birthday, I've been using it a lot.  And because I have been making music mixes since my friends and I started trading mix tapes in high school, I have several playlists on my iPod.  Two playlists, however, have been getting the most use, so I figured I'd share them with you right now.  

The first is cleverly called "Jon's New Workout Mix".  As you can see, there are a lot of high energy stuff on there:

1. New Order, "Fine Time"
2. Phoenix, "1901"
3. Madonna feat. Justin Timberlake, "4 Minutes"
4. Kelis, "Milkshake"
5. Nelly Furtado & Timbaland, "Promiscuous"
6. The Killers, "Somebody Told Me"
7. Muse, "Uprising"
8. The Postal Service, "Brand New Colony"
9. Pet Shop Boys, "Sexy Northerner"
10. Jesus Jones, "The Devil You Know"
11. Garbage, "Shut Your Mouth"
12. Eiffel 65, "Blue (Da Ba Dee)"
13. from South Park, "Kyle's Mom's A B**ch"
14. Franz Ferdinand, "Michael"
15. Lady Gaga, "Poker Face"
16. Kinky, "Mirando De Lado"

I usually won't make it the whole way through the mix during my workout.  My maximum time for a workout, counting a ten minute cooling off period of walking on a relatively steep incline, is usually an hour.  And during the cooling off period, I'll usually just shift over to listening to Lady Gaga's "The Fame."  

I also made up a mix for me to listen to while I'm doing chores. It has the highly creative name of "Cleaning The House":

1. Bjork, "Army of Me"
2. Editors, "An End Has A Start"
3. Bloodhound Gang, "The Bad Touch"
4. Dead or Alive, "You Spin Me 'Round (Like A Record)
5. Lady Gaga, "Poker Face" [Oh sue me, I love the song -- ed.]
6. Lily Allen, "Smile (Version Revisited)"
7. Aaliyah, "Try Again"
8. Erasure, "Chorus"
9. Amy Winehouse, "Rehab"
10. Erykah Badu, "Tyrone (Live)"
11. Depeche Mode, "Everything Counts (Live)"
12. Gnarls Barkley, "Crazy"
13. The Killers, "Somebody Told Me" [again, love love love the Killers and the song]
14. Kim Wilde, "You Keep Me Hangin' On"
15. Matisyahu, "King Without A Crown (Live)"
16. Muse, "Undisclosed Desires"
17. Pet Shop Boys w/ Dusty Springfield, "What Have I Done To Deserve This?

Yes, there are some crossovers.  As someone who loves both the Killers and Lady Gaga, how could I not have songs from both of them on some mixes?  Maybe I'll mix things up and listen to the chores mix as I do cardio tomorrow morning.  I dunno.  

One final note, as a lover of the Pet Shop Boys, Lady Gaga & the Killers, I'd be remiss in not including the following clip of PSB at the Brits earlier this year, doing a medley of their songs.  Helping them out during this?  Brandon Flowers of the Killers and of course, Lady Gaga. 

Enjoy!

The Best Thing I've Seen In Ages

The Muppets covering "Bohemian Rhapsody."

You're welcome. [H/T Movieline]

My Head Sounds Like This: Heads Will Roll

I'm a bit slow on the pick up when it comes to "new" or "hip" music.  I like what I like, and that's about it.  One song that has been haunting me lately, and I mean, HAUNTING, is "Heads Will Roll" by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.  It's got a great driving beat with some pretty awesomely menacing lyrics. 

It's from a performance from Jools Holland's show on BBC.  As you can imagine, I put the latest Yeah Yeah Yeahs CD on my wish list.  So good...