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The Spice Girls are apparently reuniting. If I scanned it right, it’s not for money but because it feels so good. They were a guilty pleasure of Don V when they came out in 1997, Mike and I gave him a rash of you-know-what for it.

I’ve been looking for a context in which to post this appropriately terrible cover of their first hit. I’m sure it was intentional . It’s done by a band called Peter Parker, all I know about them is their from Seattle and broke up years ago. I got this .mp3 before Napster so that should tell you how long I’ve had it.

If y’all want to remind yourself of the original, flush a toilet. The sound is strikingly similar.

Take that Don!

Signed,

Vixen Boy

Last Thursday at work I was kind of having an Office Space moment.  Specifically, I didn’t feel like working.  I had some extra PTO, have a great boss, so I left early.  After that, I don’t know if it was the heat, my mood, combination of, but I had a sudden need to hear the London Quireboys.

The London Quireboys (now simply ‘The Quireboys’) were a band from England who wore their Rollings Stones influence on their sleeves, and we loved them.  I first heard them, if memory serves, when Scott and I arrived at the Gartner’s house one evening and heard this as we headed downstairs to Dave’s domain.  KSHE had started playing the song ’7 O’Clock’ but I hadn’t heard it.  I don’t remember who bought what, but between Mike and Dave they had the tape/cd ‘A Bit Of What You Fancy’ and a cassette single for ’7 O’Clock’.  It was awesome, a trip to Streetside ensued directly.  I still listen to the album with some frequency (enough that it’s not on my trade/sell pile).  A fun record, not trying to change the world, just making it a bit fun. 

I don’t keep the cd in my car, but I did have a mix with 2 cassette single b-sides that I converted to digital.  I impart them unto you now.

Please rock out to Mayfair and Pretty Girls.

Step 1. Download/open this here mp3.
Step 2. Listen to Jessie laugh when I say, “Ah Choo!”
Step 3. Enjoy the instant happiness and accompanying smiley smiles.

One of my music club pals sent this Grace Slick interview recorded sometime last week at Channel 5.  It’s 5 minutes long, check it out.

She’s awesome.  I want to hang out with her. 

Jessie has proven to be an early lover of music, even more than we recall Porter being.

There are 2 musical things that will get her to boogie, the Beatles and hip hop (Goin’ Back To Cali and Shake Your Rump are favs).  She also loves to hear Darth Vader’s theme from the Holy Trilogy and smiles and grooves when I hum the saxophone part to Madness’ ‘One Step Beyond’.  You get the idea.  Baby girl loves her music.

So to broaden her horizons I thought it would be interesting to see how she reacted to some Metallica.  First I played her some old Metallica.  Pre-Black Album, the themes dark and music complex.  After that I played her some post-Black Album Metallica.  Themes not as dark as the band may think, music not very complicated.  I prefer 80′s Metallica far and away.

Does Jessie feel differently?  You can see her opinions here.

Emotional reaction to old Metallica   
Emotional reaction to new Metallica

I think she’s got them figured out.

Thanks to Shag for the inspiration.

As many of you know, I’m a big ‘ol Pearl Jam fan. Aside from a song here and there they aren’t a part of my regular listening though. I prefer to save up my energy for week long personal Pearl Jam fests. And I sense one fast approaching.I came across this Pearl Jam Family Tree on my hard drive and thought it would be fun to post it. As into PJ, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains (and others less so) as I was it’s interesting to see how incestuous a local scene can be. Seattle in isn’t the only town where that happened (St. Louis in the mid-90’s comes to mind) but seeing how intertwined such an influential scene was provides some additional perspective. Full disclosure, I didn’t create this tasty tidbit but don’t remember where I got it from.

If you donned your flannel and followed that scene you’ll see a lot of names you recognize. A former GNR member pops up as well as a drummer called Matt Chamberlin I mentioned in my recent Tori Amos post. He was Pearl Jam’s drummer for only 1 month, but it was the right month! He appears on this live version of Alive done in Seattle 8-3-91.  I got this from a Japanese import EP.  See how I created a logical reason to post one of the best rock songs ever?

Maybe more to come, maybe not.  I hope.

Enjoy.
 

I almost forgot to post this newish podcast.

The tunes are probably in a guilty pleasure sort of vein, the second half of it for sure.

Enjoy guiltily.  

On this day in 1967 the Beatles released Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band in their home country.

I’ll leave people who know more about the Beatles than I to talk about it, but the nutshell is that for it was a landmark for rock music. The band had decided to stop touring and started using the studio for tremendous experiments.

Even if you aren’t a Beatles fanatic (I’m no expert) but everyone has heard half of the songs at minimum. Here’s the track list.

Side A
1. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
2. With a Little Help from My Friends
3. Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
4. Getting Better
5. Fixing a Hole
6. She’s Leaving Home
7. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!

Side B
1. Within You Without You
2. When I’m Sixty-Four
3. Lovely Rita
4. Good Morning Good Morning
5. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
6. A Day in the Life

Sometime ago I found a couple of studio bootleg cuts taken from an acetate of the sessions. The vast majority of the Beatles bootleg market are studio outtakes. Parts of these probably appeared on one of the 2nd Anthology (which mixed parts of different takes together) but this was hastily put together and didn’t do my full research. Someone has though, and he/she has posted the Beatles thoughts on the record.

Strawberry Field Forever(Take 7)
A Day In The Life (Take 6)
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Take 10)

Have a nice weekend y’all.