Friday, May 06, 2005

My Meme...It's One Of Them.

I don't know if my readers really want to be subjected to this but since I was asked to do this by "Not So Sweet Jane" Hamsher, the producer of Natural Born Killers and Permanent Midnight - one's a cult movie (I just watch it for Robert Downey Jr.) and the other should be a cult movie (Ben Stiller as the drug-addicted Alf TV writer) -- I must comply.

Who knows? I may score a bit part as a demon in an upcoming movie.

However, I'm not going to "tag" anyone. If you decide to contract this "meme" and post about it, let me know and I'll add a link to the bottom of the page - or put your picks into the comments below.


Five Lyrics that "Move My Heart" - I was thinking this was some sort of reference to Satanic Death Metal but I guess it means five lyrics that make me cry like a little fucking baby girl.

"Mercy Seat" (excerpt) - Johnny Cash / Nick Cave
I began to warm and chill
To objects and their fields,
A ragged cup, a twisted mop
The face of Jesus in my soup
Those sinister dinner deals
The meal trolley's wicked wheels
A hooked bone rising from my food
All things either good or ungood.

And the mercy seat is waiting
And I think my head is burning
And in a way I'm yearning
To be done with all this weighing of the truth.
An eye for an eye
And a tooth for a tooth
And anyway I told the truth
And I'm not afraid to die.

I hear stories from the chamber
Christ was born into a manger
And like some ragged stranger
He died upon the cross
Might I say, it seems so fitting in its way
He was a carpenter by trade
Or at least that's what I'm told

"Simple Twist of Fate" - Bob Dylan (excerpt)
He woke up, the room was bare
He didn't see her anywhere.
He told himself he didn't care, pushed the window open wide,
Felt an emptiness inside to which he just could not relate
Brought on by a simple twist of fate.

He hears the ticking of the clocks
And walks along with a parrot that talks,
Hunts her down by the waterfront docks where the sailers all come in.
Maybe she'll pick him out again, how long must he wait
Once more for a simple twist of fate.

People tell me it's a sin
To know and feel too much within.
I still believe she was my twin, but I lost the ring.
She was born in spring, but I was born too late
Blame it on a simple twist of fate.
"Save Me" - Aimee Mann

You look like
a perfect fit
For a girl in need
of a tourniquet

But can you save me
Come on and save me
If you could save me
From the ranks of the freaks
Who suspect they could never love anyone
"The Engine Driver" - The Decemberists

And I am a writer, writer of fictions
I am the heart that you call home
And I've written pages upon pages
Trying to rid you from my bones
I am a writer, I am all that you have home
Home
And I've written pages upon pages
Trying to rid you from my bones
My bones
My bones

(And if you don't love me let me go)
And if you don't love me let me go
(And if you don't love me let me go)
And if you don't love me let me go


"hast thou considered the tetrapod" - Mountain Goats

you are sleeping off your demons
when i come home.
spittle bubbling at your lips,
fine white foam.
i am young and i am good.
it's a hot southern california day.
if i wake you up,
there will be hell to pay.
and alone in my room i am the last of a lost civilization
and i vanish into the dark
and rise above my station.
rise above my station.

but i do wake you up and when i do
you blaze down the hall and you scream.
i'm in my room with the headphones on
deep in the dream chamber
and then i'm awake and i'm guarding my face
hoping you don't break my stereo
because it's the one thing that i couldn't live without
so i think about that,
and then i sort of black out.
held under these smothering waves
by your strong and thick-veined hand
but one of these days
i'm gonna wriggle up on my land.

Top Five Instrumentals
  • "Flight of the Bumblebee" - Al Hirt (thanks to Jane's pal, Quentin Tarantino for one of the best film-music sequences of last year)
  • "Funeral For a Friend" - Elton John
  • "The Shining One" - Black Sun Ensemble
  • "The Hill" - Unrest
  • ...the less instrumentals the better

Top Five Musical Experiences
  • Replacements on Saturday Night Live - Just watch Tommy Stinson in the video to get what I mean
  • Reptile House at The Marble Bar, Baltimore, mid-80s - A svelte Daniel Higgs in all his Lizard King glory
  • Sonic Youth at The Complex, Washington DC, mid to late 80's - Attended the show with members of Psycodrama who got thrown out for harrassing Kim Gordon
  • Tex and The Horseheads at Jules's Loft, Baltimore, mid-80s - Tex got me stoned in the van with the band. Talk about creating fan loyalty.
  • Lisa Suckdog and Costes (and Debbey Puff) at dc space, late 80's? - They smeared kitty litter on my coat jacket

Five Artists You Think More People Should Listen To
  • Yo La Tengo
  • Great Falls Swimmers
  • Akron/Family
  • Six Organs of Admittance
  • Cocorosie

Top Five Albums You Must Hear From Start to Finish

  • Jesus Christ Superstar - Original Cast Recording
  • Yoshimi vs. the Pink Robots - The Flaming Lips
  • EVOL - Sonic Youth
  • London Calling - The Clash
  • Kings of Oblivion - The Pink Fairies

Top Five Musical Heroes

  • Greg Sage
  • Steve Albini
  • Bob Mould
  • Tara Key
  • Mark E. Smith
So - in honor of Jane, I'm adding a new category:

Top Five Rock Lit Books That Should Be Made Into Movies In Order to Counteract the Devious Influence of Almost Famous

  • Let It Be - Colin Meloy (recommended for an Afterschool Special)
  • Edie: American Girl (edited by George Plimpton)
  • Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of The Satanic Metal Underground -Michael Moynihan, Didrik Soderlind
  • We Got the Neutron Bomb - Marc Spitz
  • Tommyland - Tommy Lee
First a nap and then off to The Decemberists' show...

10 comments:

Jane Hamsher said...

Great job, Jim. Astonishing breadth & quality of choices. Thanks for the insights!

RE Edie -- every couple of years someone tries to mount that project, every New Young Actress that comes down the pike wants to play her, but in the end I think filmmakers get intimidated by the prospect of trying to dramatize the whole Factory scene. Then there's the whole "happy ending" thing that makes studios so nervous. Maybe one day.

Anonymous said...

Psycodrama? Wow. I remember being fascinated by them when Gerard Cosloy went on about them in Conflict - any chance of a post on them some day?!

Mat Brewster said...

Hey, wow. Good stuff there. And some stuff I don't know, looks like I've got some tunes to seek ou tnow. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Nice One!
I love watching this thing spread.
Thank you for your participation.
Another list to "follow the leads!"

Jim H said...

All the 'Mats are having a grand old time. My Pronto Pop has a clip here - introduced by none other than Harry Dean Staunton. They performed "Bastards of Young" -

Alas, the sound in this clip is pretty horrid. The backstory is that they were drunk (which is true to form)... Paul says the "F-word" (this was 1986 so he beat Axl by several yaers) on national TV and Lorne Michaels was pissed ...

One of the lyrics of Bastards is "trash the baby boom" and that they did ...

The show never was repeated on NBC.

Black Charles said...

I'd add "Please Kill Me" to your list of rock lit books. Absolutely essential if you care/ are interested in punk rock at all.

Jim H said...

Dan - haven't read it but I see Lexicon Devil has recently reviewed so I'm interested. For that matter, though, I haven't bought or borrowed Tommyland, only did the "search inside" read on Amazon and got the general insane gist of it.

Re: Psycodrama... I knew them for a couple years, did an interview and traveled to Atlanta with them and went to a few shows with them. Never a dull moment.

Anonymous said...

I think it's time for a Psycodrama piece as well...I just re-read your Atlanta tour diary in LowLife. it's amazing how polarizing they were.

Anonymous said...

POLARIZING? YOU SOME KINDA HOMO OR WHAT? BUB.

Anonymous said...

TANK HAGGERTY ASKS BUBBA DID YOU GO TO NEW HAMSHIRE TO SEE SUCK'S SATANIC SON????