Six Word Sunday

My words shatter against the ground.

New Wave for the New Week #137

If The Only Ones are only ever remembered for their most popular song, the indispensable "Another Girl, Another Planet," their place in Punk/New Wave history is rightfully earned.  Still, it would be selling the band a bit short, given that they released three very solid albums in their day, all of which are readily available on CD.  Bands like The Replacements or Green Day owe a huge debt of gratitude to The Only Ones. If you missed out on these guys, it's your own fault - and something you need to correct immediately!

Formed in late 1976 by singer/songwriter Peter Perrett and guitarist John Perry with Alan Mair on bass and Mike Kellie on drums, The Only Ones debuted in 1977 with a self-released single, the likeable but pessimistic "Lovers Of Today" ("We ain't got feelings/we got no love/we ain't got nothing to say...").  This opening effort was solid enough to get the band signed to CBS/Epic, and by 1978 they had released their masterpiece as their second single, and along with it their first full length album, The Only Ones.  "Another Girl, Another Planet" is one of those songs that almost defies genre. Searing guitars, driving beat and Perrett's nasally faux-Pete Shelley vocals combine to create a classic that has been covered many times by artists from Greg Kihn to The Replacements to The Mighty Lemon Drops; more recently Blink-182 and Belle & Sebastian have taken stabs at it as well.  It has even been adapted by The Nutley Brass in an easy listening version and interpreted in a 1920's Tin Pan Alley style by The Ukelele Orchestra Of Great Britiain.  How's that for reaching a wide audience?

After Perrett and Kellie took a break to back up Johnny Thunders on his solo album So Alone (specifically on the fantastic "You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory"), The Only Ones released their follow-up LP, 1979's Even Serpents Shine.  While no individual track reaches the heights of "Another Girl," the album as whole is every bit as good as the debut.  Highlights include "From Here To Eternity" and "Miles From Nowhere."   Hoping to crack the US charts, Epic released Special View later in the same year, combining the best tracks from the first two LPs and throwing in "Lovers Of Today" for good measure.  A perfect introduction for those unfamiliar with the band!

1980 saw their third LP in three years, Baby's Got A Gun.  While still a very good effort, it falls about a half-step behind the first two.  "The Big Sleep" is the star attraction here.  The Only Ones stuck it out for another year or two before finally calling it a day in early 1982.

Fast-forward to 2007, when "Another Girl, Another Planet" was revived in an advertisement for UK company Vodafone.  The renewed interest in the single inspired the original band to get back together, and they have been playing live ever since, although they have yet to release a new album.

For this NW4NW entry, here are the classic "Another Girl, Another Planet" and their debut, "Lovers Of Today."  Enjoy!

Six Word Sunday

NaNoWriMo goes slow; blogging again soon...

Well Damn...

So, no sooner do I put up a post raving about One-Eyed Doll and being psyched that they would be playing close enough to Lancaster for me to actually go see them, then this news from Kimberly Freeman herself:

Just my luck.  No word yet on why the cancellation, but the date is off of the band's tour dates page.  That's a bummer.  But, check their tour and if they're going to be near you, go see them!  And tell them they need to come to PA!

Since I won't get to see them live, I'm taking this opportunity to post another clip.  "PAO!"

Still Here! Updates, etc.

Realized that it's been over a week since my last post, so I figured I should bring you folks up to date on a few things happening in this neck of the woods:

NaNoWriMo - Started the month out with a bang, writing like a fiend!  It's much easier to do, I've discovered, when you have a clear goal (1600 words a day) and fellow writers aiming for the same goal with whom to compare notes, celebrate milestones, and cheer each other on past the hurdles.  It's been neat watching my short story grow and take shape, and getting to know the characters who populate the story better.  I have most of the novel outlined now; at this point, I am putting flesh on the bones.  Should be easy, right?  Nope - I hit a wall this weekend and must admit to letting a couple days pass without writing a word.  I'll be back at it tonight, though.  My local writers' group meets tomorrow night, so I better have something to show them!  (Right guys?)

NW4NW & 6WS - The Monday New Wave for the New Week posts and weekly Six Word Sunday entries are on indefinite hiatus.  I don't know whether that's a concern or not: the poll I ran here in October about continuing NW4NW sent me a decidedly mixed message.  The votes that came in were 100% in favor of continuing NW4NW; however, despite there being an audience that includes 234 who follow on Facebook and 933 who follow on Twitter, only 4 (4!) of you voted.   So, for now, I've decided both series of posts are getting a rest.  I am still open to your thoughts and opinions (hell, I'm practically begging for them!), so please post either in the comments field below, or on either the Facebook or Twitter pages.

What's The Name of That Song? - Still have yet to discover the title and artist for the remaining mystery song posted here a month ago today. Please take a moment to listen - someone out there has to know who and what this is!  It's still driving me crazy, and - no promises - but there just may be a reward in it for you:


mystery song #1
Recent Discoveries - A couple of nifty websites and a truly awesome band have landed on my radar screen in the past few weeks, and, as always, when I find the neat stuff I share it with you!  The two websites are actually Tumblr blogs, and have been added to the blogroll on the lefthand side of the screen here (keep scrolling down; you'll find it! And while you're there, check out some of the other sites I have linked there).

First is Things Could Be Worse, a wonderful collection of dryly yet wickedly funny drawings by Benjamin Dewey, referred to as the "Tragedy Series."  Almost like a virtual set of trading cards, these one-panel webcomics are brilliant visualizations of Dewey's warped reminders that, no matter how bad your day is going, someone else somewhere at some point in time has had it worse.  One of my faves:

Those of you who follow my posts about my challenges with Social Anxiety will join me in celebrating the second site, Social Anxiety Things.  Most of the entries are simply that: brief descriptions of those moments all of us who battle Social Anxiety Disorder know all too well.  For those who live it every day, it's a bit of the constant reassurance we need that we really are not alone; for those who are fortunate not to suffer such anxieties, the site offers a bit of a window into the worlds of those who do, which may help you better understand friends or family who experience it.  The site takes submissions from readers, so scattered among the regular items you will occasionally find folks sharing stories of both anxiety attacks and successful "wins" when they overcame the hurdles anxiety threw into their paths.  The occasional video shows up as well, and suggestions for coping skills are offered.  Together, these varied entries make up a reassuring and wonderful site, and I for one am glad it exists!  As an example, here's a recent Social Anxiety Thing that I certainly relate to:

And now, my "band of the moment": My friend JK introduced me to Austin, TX's punk/metal/awesome duo One-Eyed Doll about a week ago, and they are all I have been listening to since!  I have become utterly smitten with singer/guitarist/driving force Kimberly Freeman, who, together with drummer "Junior" (Jason Rufuss Sewell, who also does most of the production work), is putting out some truly original, highly enjoyable, often hysterical and always intelligent material which ranges from death metal screaming to pretty pop balladry to children's-song chanting and back again, often within the same song.  Not ones to sing about the mundane, One-Eyed Doll tackle lyrical subjects like the difficulties serial killers have in making friends ("Be My Friend"), the troubles with dating the undead ("You're A Vampire"), the joy of video game victory ("Battle On"), and the sheer delight of being insane ("Committed").   As luck would have it, One-Eyed Doll will actually be playing near here (The Crocodile Rock Cafe in Allentown, PA, to be exact) on November 25th.  We will be there, and you'll be treated to another road story afterwords!  Meantime, here's One-Eyed Doll's fantastic "You're A Vampire":



OK, that should about catch you up from my world.  More neat stuff coming up in the near future!

And So It Begins...

The calendar flips to November 1st today, which means it's time for me to put up or shut up.  I've talked a lot about being a writer and wanting to write more, about wanting to be held accountable to the task of putting words down on paper, and about getting past my own loud, progress-stopping inner critic and just put my writing out there to stand or fall on its own merit.  This month, I shall bring all three about.  I am participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).

What is NaNoWriMo?  For those of you unfamiliar, it's described as well as anyone could on the NaNoWriMo website itself:

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing on November 1. The goal is to write a 50,000 word, (approximately 175 page) novel by 11:59:59, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. This approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that’s a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and—when the thing is done—the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.

Now, celebrations that frighten small animals and children are the kind of thing I can really get into! But 50,000 words in 30 days seems a daunting task.  That means an average of about 1660 words a day, give or take.  Every day. Every damn day.

Confession time: I'm hedging my bets on this project just a wee bit.  I am showing up with the core of a story already in place.  I submitted a story to the Gloaming Gap website (if you don't have Gloaming Gap
bookmarked already, do so! It's a fantastic site where writers contribute short stories with either a horror or supernatural plot, or, like mine, something of a more psychological Twilight Zone-like bent), which will be appearing there after the turn of the year.  In this nascent form, it's about 1400 words - the right size for Gloaming Gap, but hardly enough in which to really explore the potential for the characters and the story.  Ever since I wrote that short story version, it has been nagging at me to do more with it.  So, I will.

Let's see, 1400 words already in means I only have to average 1620 words a day. Yes, that's much more manageable.  *headdesk*

Anyway, you can follow my daily progress here by clicking on the "Stats" tab (you can also see a brief description of the story and a short excerpt here).  Eventually there will be a widget here on the blog as well to let you know how I'm progressing, and I will surely be sharing my ups and downs through the process here as well.  Why? Well, I'm hoping you all will both cheer me on and keep me honest! A few "attaboys" will go a long way this month, I'm sure; similarly, a few kicks in the butt to get moving and get writing will be needed, too.  The more folks supporting me that way, the better!

So, it begins.  If all goes well, I'll have something of a novel by November 30.  As I said when signed up for this project, quoting David Byrne, "...my God, what have I done?"

"The Children of the Night, What Music They Make" - 10 of My Favorite Halloween Songs

Several years back I made an annual series of mix tapes for friends around this time of year, gathering ghoulish delights and ghastly tunes into a bubbling cauldron of Halloween music I called Altogether Ooky, in honor of one of my all-time favorite TV shows, The Addams Family.  One day, I will lay out for you the irrefutable arguments as to why The Addams Family was leaps and bounds better than The Munsters (I hear the naysayers gnashing their teeth already!), but for now I share with you ten terrifying tricks and treats - some of my favorite Halloween songs.  Listen, if you dare....MUAHAHAHAHAHA!

1. The Birthday Party - "Release The Bats"



2. HorrorPops - "Ghouls"


Horrorpops - Ghouls by xMalicexKittyx

3. Landscape - "Norman Bates"



4. The Fuzztones - "The Witch"



5. Screaming Tribesmen - "Date With A Vampyre"



6. Persian Claws - "Ghostified"



7. The Fleshtones - "I Was A Teenage Zombie"



8. The Misfits - "Vampira"



9. Social Distortion - "Mommy's Little Monster"



10. Siouxsie & the Banshees - "Halloween"

Obviously, there were many great tunes I left off the list (hell, you could pull a decent list of ten from The Misfits alone!), so now it's your turn. What are some of your favorites?

Let's Knife!

Baltimore is quickly surpassing Philly as my favorite destination if I must travel to see a band. Of course, I'd love to see more bands come to Lancaster. Some do, but the trade off we make here in south central PA is that Harrisburg, Philly, Baltimore, New Jersey and - in a pinch - NYC are all within easy access. As a result, the pickin's are pretty good around here when it comes to shows - you've surely gathered that from earlier posts!

Last night I was back in what seems to be the general go-to place in Baltimore, The Ottobar, to see the awesome Shonen Knife, who are currently on their 30th anniversary tour.  What a great night of music it was:  three opening bands plus Shonen Knife, and only ten bucks to get in - wot a bargain!

Now, history dictates that once you go past two opening acts you're getting into questionable territory as far as band quality, especially when all of the openers are local bands.  Baltimore, however, has a pretty decent scene going these days, and in last night's case the rule did not apply.  The openers were great - not a clinker in the lineup!

I admit to going out on a limb saying that about The Degenerettes, who were up first, only because by the time we arrived we really only caught the last two and a half songs of their set - not really enough to make a true assessment, but what we heard was very good.

Plurals

I can say without reservation, however, that the next band, Plurals, were outstanding! With five band members perched on the not-so-roomy Ottobar stage, Plurals blasted out a nifty set of originals and one cover (of sorts): in the midst of their poppy-punky wall of sound, I caught myself realizing I recognized some lyrics but couldn't place them at first.  It took another cycle through the verse before I realized I was hearing the words to The English Beat's "Save It For Later," or at the very least a close approximation.  The one drawback to Plurals' set was that the vocals were mixed a bit too low. Still, this is a band I want to hear more of.  Couldn't find a website for them (with a name like Plurals, Google doesn't help much; searching "Plurals band" leads me to a similarly named trio from Lansing, MI) and their Facebook page is not a band page but rather a regular profile. 

The Quarantines

The final opening act was The Quarantines, an excellent pop-punk trio with a curious tendency to sing about robots.  Their set was loud, rockin' fun, and they were clearly the most polished of the opening acts.  I am kicking my self today for not picking up their record at the merch table last night!  Great stuff.  The Quarantines are a band I think we'll all be hearing more of in the future.

Shonen Knife

A little before 11:00, Shonen Knife hit the stage, opening with an enthusiastic Japanese-language version of Cheap Trick's standard set-opener, "Hello There" (here redone as "Konichiwa").  Over the next forty-five minutes or so, they treated us to a sampling of their best tunes. "Devil House," "ESP," "I Am A Cat," "Super Group," "Redd Kross" and more were greeted with knowing cheers from the crowd, and the girls seemed to be having a blast onstage.  After a searing run-through of "Antonio Baka Guy," Shonen Knife left the stage and left the crowd chanting their name and begging for more.

The Osaka Ramones!

After a few moments they returned, but now they were dressed in leather jackets and jeans.  No longer Shonen Knife, they were now in full character as The Osaka Ramones (a name they played under for a Ramones tribute concert many years back, and also the title of their newest CD in tribute to the Ramones.  Legend has it that Joey Ramone himself would always refer to Shonen Knife as "The Osaka Ramones").  With bassist Ritsuko Taneda playing the Dee Dee Ramone role, counting off each song "1-2-3-4" in quick succession, they ran through "Blitzkrieg Bop," "Beat On The Brat," "The KKK Took My Baby Away," "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker," "I Wanna Be Sedated," and "Pinhead" before closing with "Rock & Roll High School."  All the while, the crowd pogo'd and sang along.  Somewhere, Joey, Johnny and Dee Dee were smiling.

It was a stellar night, start to finish, and I highly recommend seeing any of these bands if you get the chance.  Shonen Knife, of course, was much fun, but it was nice to be so pleasantly surprised by Plurals and The Quarantines as well.  As usual, additional pics will be up on our Facebook page later today.

Catching Up and Coming Soon

As you may have noticed, it's been a bit busy around the ol' blog in recent weeks.  There have been a number of very cool out-of-the-norm posts up lately, and I wanted to take a moment to highlight them to be sure you didn't miss anything - or in a few cases remind you that your participation is welcomed and encouraged!

First of all, today is the day the episode of The Lancast on which I am honored to be the guest goes live!  You can read all about it here: Talk Talk.  You can listen to the podcast by clicking this button:

I hope you will enjoy the conversation.

Over the past two weeks I have presented both a mystery and a challenge to you all.  The mystery involves two mp3s I found in my collection which had no identifying information on them, and I asked for your help in figuring out who/what they were.  One of the two was quickly ID'd (thanks, Jeff!) as "Tiger Tiger" by Scruffy The Cat; the other remains unidentified.  Can you help?  Oh please can you help? Really, you have no idea how much this is driving me batty! You can find all the info here: HELP! Identitfy These Songs!

The challenge I presented to you on Saturday, and I'd like to keep rolling throughout the month.  If you are on Spotify, you are challenged to come up with your own Frankenstein Playlist and share it with us all! What is a Frankenstein Playlist, you ask?  Read all about it here: Spotify vs. Frankenstein. You'll see there are already a couple very cool playlists shared in the comments section.  Looking forward to seeing what diabolical creations you mad scientists come up with!

Mike Essington, a/k/a Mike E. from the blog Strange Reaction, has written a fantastic book called Last One To Die.  I cannot recommend this one highly enough, folks - simply a must read!  Please check out my review of the book and find out where you can get yourself a copy here: Recommended Reading: Last One to Die.

There is also change afoot around these parts.  Assiduous readers have already noted that the long-time New Wave for the New Week series of posts has been put on hiatus.  After two and a half years, I've just gotten a bit burned out on them.  But I will leave it up to you - do you want me to continue the series or have you gotten burned out as well?  There is a poll in the upper left corner of the blog where you can vote "yes" or "no" to more NW4NW posts.  Voting ends 10/31.

I'm also going to begin sharing with you my journey through NaNoWriMo.  NaNoWriMo is shorthand for National Novel Writing Month, a challenge put forth throughout the month of November to write a 50,000-word novel from scratch.  I've been looking for ways to create some accountability for my writing, and as you'll hear me discuss on The Lancast, there's a story that has been floating around in my head demanding to be written.  So, with the support of my local writing group, I am diving in.  What am I nuts?

Finally, I'm considering some aesthetic changes to the blog itself.  I think it's time to spruce things up around here. Change the layout, maybe create a new homepage, link to some of the other things I'm doing online, etc.  Your feedback on these things is greatly appreciated, whether here in the comments, on the Facebook Page or on Twitter.

Hope to hear from all of you!

Six Word Sunday

Autumn chill, hot coffee. Perfect morning.