SUNDAY NIGHT WITH WOLFSHEIM, JJ72 AND BABY BIRD

In case you were wondering what I might be doing on this Sunday evening... it's going through my iTunes and listening to songs that make me feel really wonderfully european and gay, which is how i spent most of my life until I was about 25... and those were musically, the happiest days of my life.

On constant repeat is Wolfsheim's "Once In a Lifetime." They're from Germany and 92.7 WLIR used to play them all the time, super randomly, in the late 90s. I remember when I had a car and would drive into the city from NJ to my internships or college, I would just PRAY that they'd play this song and usually they did. It was impossible to find in stores, and I don't think I was able to figure out how to spell the name to buy it at amazon.com, or if they even had it at that point. Kids are so lucky to have iTunes. If you're hesitant to listen to it, I will say it sounds exactly like Ricky Gervais' new romantic band Seona Dancing.

Here's the amazingly horrible video:



I also uploaded the song:

Wolfsheim - "Once in a Lifetime"

Another band I've been listening to a lot this evening is JJ72. I may be the only JJ72 fan in NYC (still), but I listen to them A LOT. Like, as much as I did in 2000/2001 when they came out. They're a mix of Muse+Placebo with more of a Smashing Pumpkins lean in the influence than glam or Radiohead. I'm not totally sure why they didn't make it bigger, but fuck did I love them. I wanted to be the bassist because she was gorgeous and elegant and a feminine rocker... and I really loved how the bass sounded in their songs. Their drummer was GORGEOUS in my eyes -- like a broader Ian Curtis. And the singer had this amazing voice and way with the guitar that was the best parts of Billy Corgan without any of the annoying parts (to me at least). I think he's in a new band with my friend Gavin Fox... not sure tho. either way, the rhythm section was 100% joy division and the other parts were all pumpkins and so good.

Anyway, this is the first single "Formulea" off their second album I To Sky:




Not sure when this song, "Always And Forever," came out, but it's also from the second album. If i could come back as a 20-something male, I would want to look and be exactly like Mark Greaney (the singer) in this video. He just looks perfect. I love his teeth, I love his voice, i love the way the guitar swells, i love his hair. I also wonder why he didn't score the soundtrack and star in either Narnia or Lord of the Rings. For real:



Here's a video for "Snow," which i think was their first ever single from their first album... and I think this video was directed by Sophie Muller:


or maybe she directed "oxygen":


or maybe she did "october swimmer"... and maybe that was actually the first single they put out? I forget since it was so long ago and I found out about them cos someone (probably sean from Drownedinsound.com) was talking about them on some message board we met on 10+ years ago... and at the time i could only hear like 30 second clips from their website in WMA format and it took me 30 min to download:


Either way, I think they were done on the same day and the songs don't sound as good as the ones from I To Sky, but Mark looks awesome because just like the drummer, he fulfills some sort of Ian Curtis fetish I have.

Fuck... I'm watching all their videos now. I love this song "Long Way South" because it's like late Joy Division:


oh look! a video for their song "coming home" that was probably on their 3rd album that I dont have. this is when they got a new bassist that was also very incredibly hot. i wonder if mark and (hilary) the old bassist's twin sister broke up (omg, i can't believe i remembered that gossip), and she left. no matter, this new girl was great:


see, she had such great stage presence and sang backup in this live video for "serpent sky" which was also off i to sky, which i'm now finding to maybe be one of my all time favorite albums (???):


found mark and gavin's band together called Concerto for Constantine. according to this video, their style icon is mozart:


and mark covering pet shop boys' "it's a sin" ... which is one of my all time favorite songs:


you can hear the original, inexplicably set to footage of the killers:


[on a side note: last night i had a dream that i got to direct the killers video for "Joy Ride" and it consisted of them driving in an amazing car in the bad parts of NYC or Brooklyn and getting carjacked by a bunch of teen thugs who decide to take Brandon Flowers' expensive car for a joy ride, with the band in it... but oh, shit, the band is stoked and just fucking party in the back just like bowie or mick in the 80s would've. they're like drinking cocktails with umbrellas in them and pick up people along the way -- maybe even 80s era bowie in a white suit and cocaine bodytype -- and just love it up. it would be the opposite of this but exactly the same, and possibly inspired by hoodrat thangs].


Shit, i didn't mean for this to turn into a JJ72 fanpost, but dang, that happened.

Another song I listened to a few times tonight was Baby Bird's "You're Gorgeous":



And "She Said" by the Longpigs, which was such a fucking great song and band:


Even better than that is their song "Lost Myself" ... but unfortunately, I can't embed that video, so here is a link

and more that can't be ignored... my friend mikey and i were obsessed with rialto when we were 18. this song "monday morning 5:19" is sort of the most perfect brit pop song ever:


and "untouchable" is also fantastic:


Oh, and then I was also obsessed with Idlewild. Like, PAINFULLY, obsessed. I managed to somehow convince the band that i wasn't totally loco and we became friends. eventually, the singer, roddy, decided to move to nyc and asked me to help him find a place so i directed him to my best friend karen since she had a spare room in her apt. This was when i was hanging out with josh madden a lot and the four of us became inseperable... but we were all not so secretly obsessed with idlewild. i think roddy kind of enjoys that about his new york friends, to be honest. Here are some fantastic videos from them. idlewild basicaly fulfilled my scotland/trainspotting/REM obsession. i am still obsessed with scottish music.

"these wooden ideas," which is one of their best songs:


in 2005 i convinced ben brown to let me throw a party in his house in austin, tx for sxsw and idlewild played in his livingroom and it looked a lot like this, but it was way more awesome in person (ps, does anyone have an house in austin for me to throw another party in?). this is another one of their best songs... i remember hearing it when a boy broke my heart and i decided to spoon my boombox and listen to 100 broken windows over and over again:


i remember seeing this video for "i am a message" and thinking they were the coolest band and thinking i was really cool for thinking they were really cool:


the band still plays "when i argue i see shapes" live, even though it's one of their oldest songs, and it still sounds awesome:


and if you were't sure if you were in love with roddy as well, all you need to do is watch this video for "love steals us from loneliness" (which has the best line in a song, maybe ever: "my anger is a form of madness and so i'd rather have hope than sadness" actually the whole song has superior lyrics):


speaking of scottish bands, i love slowdancing at home to the Twilight Sad. i wish they had real music videos to share, but they dont. someone did post this video of bogart and bacall set to one of their songs:


and here is them live. the singer is my ideal man, i think:


and some would argue that the best band to ever come out of Scotland is Big Country -- a band i've been listening to A LOT lately, for reasons that only people close to me know.

you may know them from their song "big country":


Apparently they inspired REM and U2 a lot... and I think that the only black man in all of Scotland lived there because he was in Big Country.

I love this song from them as well called "Harvest Home":


and here's a live video of them performing "1000 stars" and looking so fucking rad. bands should dress like this, and right now the only person i know who does dress like this is jordan silver:


ok. bedtime for me. you joined me on my musical escapade of sunday night. thank you!