Talk to me now:
♦ OLD!!! Text message me
168 characters only, please!
♦ Sign my guestbook
♦ Leave me a note
♦ Send me mail
♦ IM me
Lemme talk to you:
Powered by the magic of
NotifyList.com
Diaryland is calling.....
X-Ray Spex vs The White Stripes
04/03/2002 - 4:14p.m.
Filth and double filth.
I had a wicked good entry all typed away in the box here, and then some schmutzy piece of junk called Yahoo Messenger took over the browser window when I told it to go to my Yahoo mailbox, and then, when I navigated back to the entry page, Andrew was all fixing the derned Diaryland database and my entry was lost in space. And then I didn't have time to get back to it till now, which is 4 hours later! I know, I should write it in Word or Notepad and then paste it into the Big D, but I like to live dangerously! I'm rebellious like that.
Fooey.
><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
Sooner wrote the first comment, so he gets the prize. I dunno what it is yet, though. Send me yer mailing address, Soon. By the way, speaking of Sooner, if you haven't read his hilarious Theresa Chronicles yet, what are you waiting for? A passel of mighty fine reading awaits you! The rest of his diary is pretty snazz as well.
Btchy made a very good point about how Diaryland may now have too many communication media, what with Notes, Guestbooks, NotifyLists, Email links, and now Comments, but... well... I say - the more ways for folks to stroke my ego, the better! Love me, for I am an attention slut! Then again, maybe she just has SuperGold envy!
><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
This morning as I was leaving the house, I said to myself, "Red, you need some new tunes in your car, so go look on yer seedee shelf and see what you can see." So, off I went, and my eyes were caught by the one and only X-Ray Spex disc, and I realized I hadn't listened to it in many many a moon. What an error, because it is one of the finest records ever!
As some of you know by now, I'm like old and stuff, old enough to have actually bought this record when it first came out, way back in the bad old days, when there was no internet, and there was no underground press to speak of, except for Creem magazine and Trouser Press and handmade xeroxed zines with names like "Murder Yourself" and "Sniffin' Glue" and it was effing hard to find music that was interesting and exciting. It was a tough situation for a kid who was as nutty about music as I was, but I dealt with it. I read as much of the music press as I could, and every once in a while I would head to the Big City with my carefully hoarded allowance and money I'd earned at odd jobs. I'd go to the various record stores and chat up the clerks, asking them to point out (and maybe play, if I was lucky) the hunky new punk records of the day. This is how I discovered a lot of the soundtrack of my youth, including the afore-mentioned X-Ray Spex.
Not that anybody told me about X-Ray Spex - I bought 'em sight unheard just because of the cover. I went to New England Music City in Harvard Square, straight to the "Import" section (remember, kiddies, this was in the old days, and "Import" was synonymous with "punk") and started pawing through the stack. "Hmmm, yeah, 999, got that, Clash's first, when are they gonna release that domestic, Alternative Fricking TV no thanks, cripes, who do they think is gonna buy an import of 'Never Mind The Bollocks,' fifteen bucks for a slightly different cover is just stupid, holy cow what the heck is this?"
In my hands was one of the weirdest-looking records I had ever seen. 5 obvious weirdos, not necessarily wearing the "punk" uniform I thought was de rigeur at the time, but dressed oddly, in various shades of day-glo, and trapped in giant test tubes. "Wow, Red, who are these freaks? X-Ray Spex? Huh. Well, I dunno." Money was tight, and import records were expensive, so I put it back in the stack and kept looking.
It wasn't going to be that easy though. As my time in the shop passed I kept flipping back to look at the cover, and every time I did I could hear The Voice telling me to put it on my Definitely Buy stack.
You know The Voice, don't you? It's the one that says "Why don't you turn up this street?" just when that girl or boy you're so keen on is coming down it. It's the one that, when you're broke, tells you there just might be a twenty in the pocket of those pants you haven't worn in a year - and is right! It's the one that says "Hey, why don't you bring your umbrella?" on that clear sunny day that turns into an unexpected tropical downpour.
Anyway, The Voice kept telling me to put the record on the pile, and, finally, I did. it was getting late, and I had to go meet my mom so we could go home, so I went up to the counter, and the guy rang me up. He didn't look like the kind of fella who'd be into punk music, but when he saw the X-Ray Spex, he said, "You'll enjoy this one." "I was in a rush, so all I said was "Oh, yeah? Cool," even though I would have liked to talk with him about other records to check out.
We drove home, and I listened to a couple of the other records I had bought, of which I have no recollection now. I probably still own them, but I don't remember what they were, because after I played the X-Ray Spex record once, I didn't listen to any of my other purchases for at least a week. I liked this record so much I just kept playing it over and over and over. Drove my mom and my sister crazy. It's still one of my all-time fave-raves, but I hadn't listened to it in a long time because, well, just because.
Anyway, I have now officially rediscovered it, and am super-pleased about that. And, for those of you who are curious, here's the record cover in question:
Doesn't look like so much now, but when The Voice speaks....
><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
Oh yeah - tonight I'm going to see the White Stripes, and meet a couple of the girlf's pals I haven't met yet. That should be swell, because at least one of them is alleged to be a big pile of fun.
><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
There's some very scary dark clouds outside - maybe the thunderstorm we were promised for this afternoon is finally showing up......
Music to contemplate my attention whoredom by:
X-Ray Spex - "Let's Submerge" (Germfree Adolescents)
"It's dark and eerie and it's really late -
Come on kkids don't hesitate!
We're going down to the underground!"
See what I did there? I went and moved my diaryring to a rings and reviews page!
about this entry?
Spill it, kitten!!
0 kittens have spilled it thus far!
More Fun with Red
♦ Find out a wee bit about little ole Red
♦ See what state my current contest is in
♦ See what diary rings I am associated with
♦ See my photo gallery
♦ Visit my real-live website (not available in all areas)
♦ Hear some music I wrote (not available in all areas)
♦ More fun coming soon....
Use this ginchy little piece of elven magic to enter the
Wht Th' heck Did Red Mean?!?!?!?Contest!
Make your guess....
Contest status:
OPEN!!!
Enter at your own peril!!!!