Non-Kate stuff about World Party, &c

[estephen@netcom.com (E. Stephen Mack)]

[Waving fan vigorously.]  My but it's hot in here.  Maybe I can persuade
some of you to move over here to some new subjects?

ITEM:
Well, I'm in love with the new World Party single, "Is It Like Today?".
I don't know much about World Party (like what other songs they've done
that I might have heard of, what part of England they're from, etc.).  I
saw some of you mentioning them earlier, and hoped you'd share some
information.  Please?

ITEM:
I like the two or three songs that I've heard from the Cranberries.
A little like the Sundays, who I also like.  "Blind" (the Sundays'
second album, at least in the U.S.) is a very good album, highlghted
by "I Feel," "Love," and a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses."

ITEM:
The album I'm listening to a lot right now is the eponymous first
release (I assume?) by The La's.  You've probably heard "There
She Goes," a popular song.  It's very jangly.  All the music I
like right now seems to be jangly.  Or grungy.  Unless it's Kateian.
Two other songs got airplay here (in the San Francisco Bay Area, on
the station KITS 105.3, "Live 105"): "Timeless Melody," and "I Can't
Sleep."  The La's are from Liverpool, I'm told.  The album was
produced by Steve Lillywhite.  The last song, "Looking Glass" reminds
me a little of the Boomtown Rats and PJ Harvey simultaneously.

ITEM:
PJ Harvey's new album will be released soon, I've heard.  I am breathless
with anticipation.  Today, in Hapkido (a Korean martial art), a black
belt was applying a chokehold to me so that I could practice defending
myself from chokeholds.  I was exhausted from the rest of the workout,
so that I was unable to defend myself (*); instead, the floor seemed to rise
above my head and I almost passed out.  That was exactly the same feeling
that I had upon hearing PJ Harvey's first album, "Dry."  Intoxicating,
mesmerizing, powerful.  Other adjectives.

(*) I survived.  Don't worry, he apologized afterwards, and tried again;
this time I was able to throw him and pretend to kick him and break his
arm.

ITEM:
The next album that I buy will probably be Dinosaur Jr.'s "Where Ya
Been?"  The first single, "Start Choppin'" is great; give it a listen.

ITEM:
Shonin Knife, a bubbly-gummy, post-punky, all-woman group from Japan
played here recently, but I didn't seem them.  Their first single,
"Let's Knife" is all the rage at certain dance clubs.  Perhaps I am
mispelling "Shonin."

ITEM:
Read "White Noise" by Don DeLillo.  It concerns a professor (of Hitler
Studies) and his family, dealing with the concerns of post-modern life
and toxic disasters, among other things.  A little like Generation X
by Douglas Coupland (a Canadian, also the author of Shampoo Planet) but
more mature and a little funnier.  Check out Generation X, though,
because it's the first novel I ever read that depicted the lives of
people in *my* generation in a fashion that was accurate (or at least
the way life *should be*).  It's a postmodern novel with sidebars.

ITEM:
There's a U2 song featuring the refrain "she's dancing very close" and
"here I go but I don't know why" that's not on any of the regular albums.
It was covered by Jane Siberry?  Can anyone tell me the name of this
song, what U2 album/single it's on, and if Jane really did cover it (and
if so, where)?

ITEM:
Speaking of Sinead O'Connor, what did you think of the "Visions Of You"
song that appeared on the latest album from Jah Wobble and Invaders From
The Heart?  I liked it the first twenty or so times.

ITEM:
Scorpio Rising's new single, "Silver Surfing" is not on their first album,
"Zodiac Killers," but the two singles "Watermelon" and "Saturnalia" are.
Is it just me that noticed how similar "Watermelon" is to Adorable's
"Homeboy," both thematically and musically?

ITEM:
If you eat Pop Tarts right after they come out of the toaster, you'll
almost always burn your mouth; everyone knows that.  But now they have
warnings to that effect right on the box.  I think such self-censorship
is a shocking trend, and should be vigorously discouraged.

ITEM:
Toronto band "These, The Fleas" have a new single that samples one of
the non-Kate Utah Saints songs.  I don't know the name of the single or
which song is sampled.  Kate probably endorses it, though.

ITEM:
That's probably enough for now.  Gee, my fifth post here in eight years.
Doug Alan, good to see you.  I was worried because no one ever referred
to you anymore and there was no sign of you.  Like you were a dirty secret,
somehow shunned, like "The Amazing" Randi and CSICOP.

[estephen]		E. Stephen Mack		estephen@netcom.com