It's not TMBG, it's Polaris

When the early 90s revival arrives in a few years, as it inevitably will, this is one of the few things that will make it survivable. Juliana Hatfield guest stars in Episode 6! She was really making the rounds back then. IMDb also says that Michael Maronna, a.k.a. Big Pete, was once suspended from high school for setting fire to a guitar. That's some inspiring musical juvenile delinquency, that is.

Oh my Talulah Gosh

There don't seem to be any Film Molecules lyrics online so I've had a go at transcribing "That Girl." Tender Trap was Amelia Fletcher's band after Heavenly and it was very brainy (cf. "Son of Dorian Gray") and grrrl-supportive and twee, but in an empowering, Sarah/K Records, girl-nerds-are-punks-too sort of way.

She would never believe what she was taught in school
All of the history and the geography
Better to read Patti Smith and Simone de Beauvoir
To know how things are

That girl, that girl has a second degree in the language of girl
That girl, that girl had a copy of Her Jazz when she was at school

She likes to play Suzi Quatro while she sits and reads
Bought it at Woolworth's for £1.50
She knows the record was made long before she was born
But it speaks to her louder than Korn

That girl, that girl knows all there is to know about record sleeve art
That girl, that girl thinks Yoko was a hero, Lennon was a tart

Her record collection separates women from men
Sometimes she lets them mingle, then breaks it up again

That girl, that girl knows all there is to now about record sleeve art
Tthat girl, that girl thinks that Travis are boring, Le Tigre are smart

How are things on the West Coast?

Paul Banks' vocals sound slightly different this time around. Flatter and more nasal. I like them but I like Pants's facsimile even more. She and I agreed it's not so much a Paul Banks impression as it is Ethel Merman coughing up Fred Schneider doing a Paul Banks impression. Worlds of croaky sprechstimme difference.

Release me

There needs to be a worldwide moratorium on the playing of Kid A in coffee shops. What was once a mere annoyance has Alberto Gonzalesed into a pandemic of unavoidable proportions. Half-caf soy macchiato slurping was not appropriately soundtracked by Yorkers singing "cut the kids in half" in 2000; it isn't today, either.

The untamed shrew

I'm waiting for the irate letters from Hüsker Dü fans asking, What about Zen Arcade?? to come rolling in, but my story on the new Mirah record is up at the Merc.

I proudly bought the NME with the nude Beth Ditto cover today. It's a grand day for punk rock, fat-positive queer feminism and not caring what other people think about you. Seriously--Germaine Greer approves. The sidebar explaining riot grrrl feels a bit forced and tossed off, as if they had to think of something to fill up column inches at the last minute and couldn't quite commit to a Dorothy Allison recommended reading list. But NME still earns innumerable pogo points for gleeful in-yr-face-and-down-yr-pants homoeroticism elsewhere in the issue. Page 18 is all I'm saying. PAGE 18. Perhaps KY Jelly adverts are to come?

Not that 120 Days needed much help to begin with.