If you can’t think of anything nice to say, come sit here by me.

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Current Mood:  tired

Finally a break in the rain… hallelujah!  My umbrella(-ella-ella) has been working overtime, but at least my car’s clean now.

Hope you all had a nice Valentine’s (a.k.a. “Singles Awareness Day”).  The Reverend show was great… he played a few new songs that I guess will be on the next album.  Some stuff with a slide, with kind of a “Sleepwalk” vibe.  We ran into some friends there, and ended up in a tiki bar down the street with them afterwards.  I have to mention too that the John Cameron Mitchell event on Sunday was amazing.  I knew basically zero about him outside of the Hedwig movie, but it turns out he’s really funny.  And hearing some live acoustic renditions of some of the Hedwig songs was really moving.

The big news of the week, however, is that the new Moz album “Years Of Refusal” was released.  If I can nerd out for a moment, the album’s got some impressive credits.  Guest guitar by Jeff Beck on “Black Cloud.”  Guest vocals by Kristeen Young and Chrissie Hynde (on one of the b-sides, but still).  Mastering by Bill Inglot and Dan Hersch, basically the godfathers of digital remastering, having done a ton of such work for Rhino Records.  Five songs by Alain, four by Boz, three by Jesse.  On paper, everything looks good.  So how’s the finished product?

I must say that I’m on the fence.  As a big fan, that’s an uncomfortable thing to be.  The stand-out tracks are all great.  My far-and-away favorite is “Something Is Squeezing My Skull,” and he’s crazy if he doesn’t release that as the next single.  After my first couple listens, I was concerned.  The band is at 10 the whole time, and the drums are at 11.  Lots of plain power chords and the sounds of somebody beating the hell out of their drum kit.  There’s some pastiche, and some questionable moments to be sure, but after having listened to it for the better part of this evening, I’m pleased to report that it’s growing on me.  Some of the vocal melodies took some time to appreciate, but I’m getting there.  I had much more to say about it earlier… my less-than-stellar first impressions of many of the songs… but after sitting with it a while, I think I ought keep my mouth shut until I’ve really had a chance to let it sink in.

On a side note, I swear that a few weeks back, I was reading a Moz interview from a few years back, and the unusual phrase “… after years of refusal…” appeared.  I instantly thought this must be where he got the album title from.  Now I can’t find the interview to save my life.  Oh well.  Moz was on BBC One recently, and thus so were Sus and I!  Look at the blue faces in the top left corner at about 1:51 – 1:53.

OK, it’s late.  From nerding out, to oinking out, I’ll leave you with some news on snack moratoriums.  Do you guys know/like Kettle Chips?  They had a flavor once upon a time called “Cheddar Beer” which tasted exactly like it sounds, and it was fucking delicious.  I guess it wasn’t that popular, because they did away with it last year.  Kettle is still the brand as far as I’m concerned, but another in a long line of foods I loved that have gone the way of the dinosaur.  But I told you that story to set the stage for this one… are you sitting down?  Kellogg’s has purchased the bankrupt Mother’s Cookie brand and all its recipes!  And they expect to be back in stores by June of this year!  And with the backing of the same folks responsible for Keebler, I think we’re in good hands.  Hallelujah, indeed!

“Something is squeezing my skull!
Something I can barely describe.
There is no hope in modern life.”

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