Wild Tangents
Marc talks about life in Nashville, life as a Catholic and life as a geek.

Here comes those crazy Swiss dudes in Yello with “Oh Yeah”.

Freaky…..

So Lindsey at Theogeo started it with a story about mid-town Memphis at the wee hours of the morning and a video of BeeGees doing Jive Talkin’. Then Ginger posted her own video clip from Saturday Night Fever.

Well, here’s my pick for feel good disco music for the afternoon. Debbie Harry is so punk rock!

But I can’t really end it there. Speaking of punk rock, let’s see some faux disco from Johnny Rotten himself.

I LOVE the glasses..

So what you may not know yet is that I got an iPhone yesterday. That was precipitated by being at a customer site that didn’t provide internet access. There were a number of research items I needed to do on the internet that I couldn’t because of the lack of connectivity from my laptop. That’s how I justified it anyway.

So one of the cool features of this little gadget is the ability to add custom ringtones to your contacts. The ringtones can be song clips and they can be different for each contact. So I set a ringtone for calls from my wife Suzette to be “Lovesong”, by The Cure. I tweeted about it later and got at least one response from Tupelo Rob with what he had set as his ringtone for his wife Kristen. That got me to thinking that this might be an interesting topic for discussion. So I put it out to you all, what would your custom ringtone be for your spouse or significant other?

Someone much more clever than I am came up with this idea. They took the song “Manic Monday” by The Bangles and video from the episode “Monday” of the show The X-Files.

I really enjoyed watching it. Whoever did it did a great job.

Technorati Tags: monday, bangles, scifi, tv, video, xfiles, youtube

…In Iran.

Iran arrested more than 200 music fans at an underground rock concert that one official called a “satanic” gathering and authorities accused the youths of breaking Islamic law.

A witness said Sunday that police raided the concert as it was ending late Wednesday near the town of Karaj, some 30 miles west of the capital.

Technorati Tags: music, news, politics, freedom, religion, rock

And it’s pretty cool video too. The song is “Catch” by The Cure, from the album “Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me“.

I’ve loved that song ever since the first time I heard it. It’s so easy to picture to young people in love spending the time ti takes to learnt he other’s intimacies. You just know they’ll be together forever. Please excuse me while I go find a tissue.

Technorati Tags: 80’s, music, poetry, thecure

(more…)

Two big hangouts of mine when I was in high school were the Mall of Memphis and the Antenna Club. Neither one of them still exist. But memories can be had on the interwebs. Yes, it seems both of them have fans crazy enough to dedicate whole web pages to them.

The Antenna Club’s fan page can be found here.

To put the description in basic terms, the Antenna Club was a live alternative music venue. I know I saw many more infamous than this, but the shows for All (which was a band that picked up the pieces after Milo left The Decendents) and Pigface are the ones I remember most. I also remember an all local band show on Halloween of 1987. Sobering Consequences headlined.

To be honest, the place was a dump. The restroom, aside form being alive stunk up the whole place. But it was “our” dump. Plus we had the Piggly Wiggly parking lot next door that we could “hang out in” when there wasn’t a show. There was also a wall on one side of a parking lot down the street that would always get graffitied. It was a cool place. Of all the similar venue clubs I’d been to in my youth in other cities, “home” was the best. Nobody had anything as cool as the Antenna.

The Mall Of Memphis fan page can be found here

Really I started hanging out at the MOM (Mall of Memphis) well before I started high school classes. We moved into a house just around the corner when I was seven or eight. We moved away when I was fourteen. It was close enough to ride our bikes. I spent many weekends and summer times there.

I didn’t really spend much high school time there. I do remember this one time. A group of had ridden up there with my friend Mike Blumenthal in his car. Well, somehow someone lifted his keys from him and drove the car around to the other side of the mall without him noticing. It was so funny because at first he was freaked out, but then he got a little excited at the fact that he might be getting new car. His car was a piece of junk Chevy Caprice. It was in really bad shape. He was actually disappointed when they guided him around to where they had moved the car. I was of course not in on it. I was with Mike the whole time, so they didn’t have a chance to let me in on the joke. So in a way the joke was kind of on me as well. I seem to recall be a little put out by the experience. I had to get up early in the morning or something. Looking back on it though, it as pretty funny.

So if you have memories of the Antenna Club or the Mall of Memphis, leave them in the comments. I’d love to hear from you!

Technorati Tags: 80’s, eighties, malls, Memphis, punk, web

I’m bored…..But I haven’t been bored while in the shower the past few days. The way I overload myself with podcasts, I don’t get much time for music. Only the rare occasion that I am just driving down the street (too short a drive to get started good on a cast) or taking a shower (no, that’s not a rare occasion - the driving thing is the rare occasion) is when I usually use those files on the iPod that are considered “MUSIC”. Here’s a list of the last ten songs played. I’ve included ITMS links when the song is available. iTunes software is required for the links to work.

1. Getting Away With It - Electronic

   
   
   

   The simple “electronic” melody and catchy lyrics of this one have always lifted my spirits and put a spring in my step. I don’t care what anyone else says about it!

2. I Won’t Be Home No More - Hank Williams

   
   
   

   I love Hank. I wish he was still around.

3. I Have A Dream - 7 Seconds

   
   
   

   Nothing beats an anti-racism punk rock ballad.

4. Games Without Frontiers - Peter Gabriel

   
   
   

   Peter Gabriel is one of the greatest songwriters of all time. This is one of his greatest songs.

5. Depression - Black Flag

   
   
   

   Another punk classic, this one a little less upbeat.

6. Close to Me - The Cure

   
   
   

   Have you ever felt boxed in, like there’s no way to get out?

7. In The Ghetto - Elvis

   
   
   

   One of the most touching songs ever recorded. You really feel for the mother.

8. What am I Doing Hangin’ Round? - The Monkees

   
   
   

   Yes, it’s a Monkees song. But give me a little credit. It’s one written and sung my Michael Nesmith. i am not afraid to admit that I love to sing along to this one either!

9. Mexican Radio - Wall Of Voodoo

   Unfortunately iTunes doesn’t have anything from Wall of Voodoo except the album “Index Masters”. This means they don’t have “Call of the West”, which is the album this song was on. Bad iTunes! You are missing one great album.

10. Ich Bin Ein Auslander - Pop Will Eat Itself

    
    
    

    Near the top of my favorite bands list is PWEI. This is a great song by them.

So there you have it. Feel free to make fun of my eclectic taste in music all you want. I’ve had this problem all my life, so I m used to it.


Technorati Tags: itunes, music

There’s been a lot of talk about the new announcement Steve Jobs is flying into London for today. Some have said it’s that The Beatles (among others) will be added to the iTunes library. Others are now saying it’s that the entire EMI catalogue will be added to iTunes “DRM free”. Both of these are significant. First there has been a long standing dispute between the record label founded by the Beatles called “Apple” and what was formerly known as “Apple Computer” that now calls itself “Apple Inc.”. The reasons for this dispute, while petty should be obvious, especially when you consider how Apple has become such a music powerhouse with the advent of the iPod and the iTunes music store.

So what’s it going to be? Will Jobs and EMI both put their money where their mouths are and go DRM free? Or it is the long awaited addition of the Beatles to the iTunes collection? Only time will tell and unfortunately I’ll be on a plane when it happens, if it happens. Let’s not forget that yesterday was April Fools Day.

UPDATE: DRM free music from EMI. get the scoop here.

Technorati Tags: Apple, geek, iPod, itunes, music, pop, tech

I haven’t done it in awhile, but it’s back. The random iTunes playlist. I just put iTunes (in this case, not the iPod) on shuffle and played. Here’s what happened. I’ve put a button to the iTunes music store after the song. You have to have iTunes to use these buttons.

1. Cold Cold Heart - Nora Jones

   
   
   

2. I Hear Your Name - The Dead Milkmen

   
   
   

3. Theme From Magnum, P.I. - Mike Post

   
   
   

4. Send a Picture of Mother - Johnny Cash

   
   
   

5. Primary - The Cure

   
   
   

6. Eternal Flame - The Bangles

   
   
   

7. The Man Who Sold The World - Nirvana

   
   
   

8. Heaven - Los Lonely Boys

   
   
   

9. Listen to the Band - The Monkees

   
   
   

10. I don’t Wanna Hear It - Minor Threat

    
    
    

There you have it. I hope to do these more often as they’re fun to look back on.

I didn’t make any comments on these. I’d like to hear what anyone reading this might have to say about any of these songs. Please leave your comments!

Technorati Tags: music, itunes