my object all sublime

An old acquaintance of mine is going up before the bench today to deal with the consequences of his own perennially poor lack of judgment. I feel bad for the guy, I really do, but the chain of events that brought him to this point is largely of his own doing, and he’s lucky that the situation isn’t even worse.

Not everyone has a president in their ex-boss’s pocket that can bail them out of their personal pools of effluence, so I wish this person the best and hope he comes away from this experience having learned a valuable lesson…even if it’s fifteen years too late.

D’Oyly Carte Opera Company – A More Humane Mikado (from The Gilbert and Sullivan Vintage Collection, 2003) – I was really disappointed that this set did not include “Alone Again (Naturally)” and “Get Down” instead of a bunch of culturally insensitive opera songs.

The Out – Who Is Innocent? (from a 1979 single) – Who? Off the top of my head, I’d say she and he both are.

Classix Nouveaux – Guilty (from Night People, 1981) – Take some punk band alums (X-Ray Spex, in this case), throw in a theatrical frontman (Sal Solo), and season with melancholy synthesizer lines to taste and presto! Instant NuRo goodness!

a non-consensual hallucination experienced by one

I had the strangest dream. I dreamt that I dedicated an entire week’s worth of posts to monkey-related matters…

…oh, damn.

Classix Nouveaux – Is It a Dream (from La Verite, 1982) – Strange to think this band rose from the ashes of X-Ray Spex. This track has nothing on Classix Nouveaux’s Nu Ro masterpiece, “Guilty” (from 1981’s Night People), but its cheesy, over the top mix of disco and synthpop makes for a fun listen.

The promo video for the song is a real gem, and perfectly captures all that was glorious and ludicrous about the era:


Everything goes better with kendo!

The Damned – Is It a Dream (from Phantasmagoria, 1985) – General consensus states that Phantasmagoria and Anything, the two albums the band released after Captain Sensible’s departure, are inferior products and betrayals of The Damned’s punk roots. To hell with that attitude, I say.

I don’t get punk purists at all. How does one celebrate “breaking all the rules” by yoking one’s self to a rigid doctrine? Some time around my twenty-second birthday, I decided to shelve my punk jacket in favor of a warmer and more practical black overcoat. I also quit trying to find new ways to dye and chop my hair, and opted for an easy to maintain crew cut style. Shortly afterward I ran into a vague college acquaintance of mine who wanted to know the reasons for the change.

“It was too much effort to maintain, and it’s better to let go willingly than hold on until you just look foolish,” I told him.

“Fuck the man. I’d never SELL OUT,” he responded.

Apparently The Man’s schemes are furthered by a skinny guy realizing that a leather jacket with a broken zipper is not the wisest outerwear choice during a New England winter. Such pearls of wisdom are gleaned from a thirty-year old burnout that works splits at a liquor store and spends all his free time hawking demo tapes of his amazingly terrible hardcore band.

As for the song, it’s a nice piece of melodic rock that hearkens back to the 60’s pop and garage rock sound that Dave Vanian (and Captain Sensible) obviously had a huge affection for.

Here’s the (unfortunately poor quality) promo video: