Achtung Baby!

"Frank never did like Rock and Roll"

May 14th, 1998. Ol' Blue Eyes passes away.

+Bono introducing Frank Sinatra at the Grammy Awards 1994

    Frank never did like Rock and Roll
    And he's not crazy about guys wearing earrings either
    But he doesn't hold it against me
    And anyway, the feeling is not mutual

    Rock and Roll people love Frank Sinatra because Frank has got what we want:
    swagger and attitude
    he's big on attitude
    Serious attitude, bad attitude
    Frank's the Chairman of the bad
    Rock and Roll plays at being tough but this guy, well, he's the boss
    The boss of bosses
    The man
    The big bang of pop
    I'm not gonna mess with him, are you?

+Bono & The Edge: TWO SHOTS OF HAPPY, ONE SHOT OF SAD
+Sinatra & Bono - I've got you under my skin

+ 10 years after Frank Sinatra's death, daughter Nancy helps keep the legend alive
+ This American Life: Sinatra

I thought you were Special ten years ago

Version 2.0  by Garbage, Released on May 12, 1998 in the U.S. This is my favorite Garbage album.

"Special" (brothers in rhythym) remix

+ "You Look So Fine" (live) - Epic!
+ "Push it" (live)
+ "Medication" (live)

Ten Years at the Choirgirl Hotel

Tori Amos: "FROM THE CHOIRGIRL HOTEL"
Released in the US on May 5, 1998.

Fact: This was the Tori tour I attended to the most. 3 shows: Austin, Dallas and Kansas City.

Some live performances...
+SPARK
+BLACK DOVE (JANUARY)
+Cruel
+RASPBERRY SWIRL
+Jackie's Strength
+IEEE
+Hotel
+Playboy Mommy
+Pandora's Aquarium
A live mp3...
+Liquid Diamonds

10 years away from a Ray of Light

Madonna: "Ray Of Light", Original Release Date: March 3, 1998.

+ Drowned World live
+ Frozen live
+ Ray of Light live
 

+ "The working title for this album was The Drowned World inspired by the novel by J.G. Ballard."

10 years inside the Little Plastic Castle

Ani DiFranco: Little Plastic Castle - Original Release Date: February 17, 1998.
There is a romance encoded in this album for me. Transatlantic correspondences, long phone calls and a happy outlook infused by youth and foolishness. 

[As Is (live)]

and i've got
no illusions about you
and guess what?
i never did
and when i said
when i said i'll take it
i meant, 
i meant as is

+ Little Plastic Castle
+ Fuel    
+ Gravel
+ Two Little Girls
+ Loom    
+ Swan Dive
+ Independence Day

Still Homogenic After All These Years

Bjork: Homogenic, Original Release Date: September 23, 1997. This Is My favorite Bjork album.

Live performances: Hunter // Joga // Unravel // Bachelorette // All Neon Like // 5 Years // Immature // Alarm Call // Pluto // All Is Full Of Love

10 Years At Ease

I was out of town so I'm one day late with this post. One of my favorite albums ( in the top 5 ) is 10 years old now. It makes me feel old, but it also reminds me of really fun times and great friends that I made that summer. Friends with that I adore and cherish to this day.

[ exit music (for a film) (live) ]

+ 'OK Computer' - 10 years later
+ Deleted Scenes

10 Years of Answering the Boatman's Call

"The Boatman's Call", Originaly released on March 4, 1997 is one of my desert island albums.

"The world is obsessed by Cave and in turn he is obsessed by love, religion and redemption. His are the psalms that bring warmth in the chill of the night, they are the croon of the heartbroken, the cry of the lonely albatross who soars eternally across cold neurotic seas and the strum and weeping of violins that herald pain and loss in its most desperate hour of need.

He's Leonard Cohen on bended knees praying at the shrine; the black crow king swooning to vaudevillian and burlesque strums, a drunken sailor of shipwrecked, bittersweet blues and an evangelist of the sweetest ballads that drinks from the chalice of dark haired nymphets.."
The Boatman's Call Interview [1997] by Jayne Margetts (The I Magazine)

[ Into My Arms, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds ] "I'm not sure which is more lilting about Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' 'Into My Arms': the promise of an ecclesiastic love from a man who doesn't believe in God, or the juxtaposition of Cave's ghoulish baritone with a delicate piano ballad."

{ (Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For? Video } Back in January I had bookmarked the Boatman's Call era live performances on MTV but of course they are now gone, so if anyone has them or can point the way....

[ Green Eyes ] Interview from "Mojo Magazine" [1997]
Nick Cave: ...and Green Eyes is dedicated to Tori Amos. Especially the line about Twinkling cunt...
JM: Are you kidding?
NC: No, I am absolutely serious. Tori rubs sparkles into her pubic hair.

+ the man and his muse, the west country girl...
+ Salon - THE BOATMAN'S CALL Review
+ Nick Cave: Finding The Four-Year-Old - Meeting Nick Cave is not what you would expect.
+ Nick Cave's Letter to MTV
+ Nick Cave's Letter to Gap
+ Grinderman are Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey and Jim Sclavunos...

Boys for Pele turns 10

Boys for Pele turns 10 today.  This is my favorite version of Putting The Damage On

TORI AMOS Video Collection - Fade To Red comes out next month.

+ Tori Amos + Michael Stipe - One of those tracks forever lost to the vaults I guess.
+ Marianne (Live)
+ Caught a Lite Sneeze (Live on SNL)
+ Father Lucifer (Live on Letterman 10-04-96)
+ I'm On Fire 

Happy 10th "The Bends"

"The Bends" Original U.S. Release Date:  April 4, 1995 

[ Nice Dream ] Demo & [ Nice Dream] Live

I recall getting tickets to see R.E.M with Radiohead opening and being disappointed. I said to myself "Those one hit wonders are opening?". Imagine my fate when I saw Radiohead open for R.E.M two nights in a row and experience a future favorite album as a live show first. "Fake Plastic Trees" making it to the "Clueless" soundtrack could only be considered a good thing regardless of what Alicia Silverstone said about it in the movie.

"The Bends was many things, but it wasn't really *chirpy* was it? It was more like a darkness lumbering over the horizon with gun turrets strafing the Britpop hordes with misery. Er, sorry. Got a bit carried away there." - Colin

"We wanted to make this new record a year and a half ago but the U.S. success of 'Creep' kept us from going into the studio. The delay added a seasoned street spirit that probably would not have been there if we had recorded it earlier. It's a lot more relaxed than our first record." - Colin { source }

Ranked #110 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time"
Ranked #4 in Q's "Best 50 Albums of Q's Lifetime"   
Ranked #30 in The NME "Top 30 Heartbreak Albums
Ranked #4 in NME's `Top 50 Albums Of The Year' for 1995. Melody Maker  {source}

Happy 10th To Bring You My Love

"To bring you my love" Original Release Date: February 28, 1995

[ Down By The Water (live) ]

I bought this album without having heard one song on it based on the fact that Flood had produced it and U2's Manager had become her manager. I trusted Paul McGuiness to have good taste. My previous exposure to Polly was one late night viewing of the video for "Rid Of Me" on 120 minutes. It quite spooked me. Minutes after buying it, my friend who gave me a ride tuned in to the local alt rock station and they played "Down By The Water". I knew I'd made the right choice. My friend was not so sure. To me, "TBML" is like a great lost western movie starring this bad ass woman we've never heard of with her long snake moan and her endless search for love.

+ Recollections based on the album To Bring You My Love, by PJ Harvey
+ PJ Harvey Audio including Moon River as performed live by Vincent Gallo, PJ & John Frusciante
+ Video Stills from her videos.
+ Classic Albums: Rid Of Me - "The first choice as producer was Tom Waits.."