Category Archives: morrissey

Let’s Do It Again

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Heard it from a friend who, heard it from a friend who, heard it on NPR. Got the album, listened to it 100 times, love it, realized it’s from 2007. Nina Diaz has the most amazing voice. Her sister Phanie hits the skins, and their longtime friend Jenn Alva plays bass. Joan Jett discovered them and signed them to her label. Morrissey took them on tour. Robert Rodriguez directed one of their recent videos. They’re Girl in a Coma. Here. Have a peek.

Wait – to say the video is directed by Robert Rodriguez sounds like the whole thing was planned.  He is a fan of theirs, went to see them at SXSW, pieced together shots from their performance, and gave them this video as a gift!  Yes, that Robert Rodriguez.  As in, Sin City.  In return, they contributed the song “Yo Oigo” to his film Machete.
The song in the video, “As The World Falls Down”, is from the band’s 2010 covers album.  This one is of David Bowie’s Labyrinth tune.  They also covered one of my favorite songs of all time, Ritchie Valens’ “Come On Let’s Go.”
Because they come from San Antonio and are from Latin descent, they’re being put in the Latino, in the Tejano, in the Alt Latino categories. This sound is Female Punk Rockabilly. I am pretty sure I just made that up. Google that shit. I love it. I want to dye my hair, paint on the eyeliner, and join the band. Or just prance in the background.

The girls are happy with Blackheart Records: It’s a “very low-key, relaxed label, which is perfect for us,” they say.  And you know, I should backtrack a bit.  Joan Jett got to them after they’d been touring a few years – even after Morrissey pulled them out of their little touring van and onto a plane to London.  After they released Both Before I’m Gone on Blackheart, they opened for Cyndi Lauper and Social Distortion.

I love that they have their own sound but do an amazing job of paying tribute to those who influenced their sound. Their second album, Trio BC, is named after the girls’ Grandfather’s band from the 50’s. Then on Adventures in Coverland, there is pretty much a cover from every band or artist that influenced them, including Selena.

It’s hard to pick a favorite from album #1, but I’m going to share “Mr Chivalry” from Both Before I’m Gone and “Come On Let’s Go” from Adventures in Coverland.

Click to Play Girl in a Coma – Mr. Chivalry

Even if death were good

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If you have all of the information..
And you can’t make a decision in 60 seconds….
Then perhaps you do not deserve to reap the benefits that such a decision might bring.

Call it self-help gobbledygook, or more Robbins-style success training… But this advice has been around for almost a century. Andrew Carnegie once said “those who are slow to make up their minds are also slow in carrying out their decisions.”

Well if you can’t decide
Your move you either weep or moan
You waste a year to mull this through

[Ra Ra Riot – Ghost Under Rocks]

Meet Ra Ra Riot. Did you hear the cello? The violin? How is it that I can be a sucker for both the double bass pedal and the stringed instruments? I’m a sucker for ska, too, so what does that tell you. (Absolutely nothing.) As I mentioned in my last post, I am reading Chuck Klosterman’s Killing Yourself To Live in which the author visits the places and ponders the legacy of the deaths of well-known, and some not-so-well-known rock artists. So I found it odd to discover that in the short couple of years that the sextet Ra Ra Riot has been together, they’ve already lost their original drummer to an accidental drowning after playing a show and then attending a house party in Providence, RI last summer. Prior to that show, they wrapped up a 6-week tour with inALLcaps faves The Little Ones. And in December of 2008, they toured the east coast with So Many Dynamos. That would have been a nice show to see.

Listening to Ra Ra Riot is really soothing to me. It sometimes takes me back to The Smiths, and by the end of the album The Rhumb Line I could swear they are as upbeat as Motion City Soundtrack. Like Morrissey they do often mumble their lyrics, so nailing down what it is they’re saying is tough – and as more and more 12-year-olds access the internet, the lyrics websites are plummeting in credibility by the hour. Unlike Morrissey, these guys are American as Apple Pie and don’t sound like they hail from Syracuse, New York. But what they’ve got going on ranges from deep to flighty and it makes me very happy. Soothed. I love it. Try another sample.

[Ra Ra Riot – Dying Is Fine]

In stark contrast to The All American Rejects, I am glad the youth of today has a band like Ra Ra Riot. You have to get this album.

I get nervous every time you speak.