Archive for March, 2007
Monday, March 26th, 2007
Wake Up Sleepy Jean
People talk all the time about how this or that obscure pop song is “an alternate-universe hit single.” And God knows, Larchmont, where I spent my high school years, was nothing if not an alternate universe, with its own decadent manners & mores and its own spit-and-bailing-wire soundtrack. In other words, it was not unlike [...]
11 Comments » - Posted in Studio, The Nightmares by Philip
Monday, March 19th, 2007
Little Things
I don’t generally advocate weeping in public places, but if one were to insist on shedding tears in public, I can think of no better place to do it than on a long train ride in the dead of winter. Listening to music, head against the grimy window, looking out as endless bleak landscapes roll [...]
4 Comments » - Posted in Live, The Nightmares by Philip
Saturday, March 17th, 2007
Look Across the Water
Right now, it’s Amy Winehouse pretty much 24/7 around here. (Liam’s favorite is “Rehab.”) And — I swear this on a stack of Bibles — I fell for her music before I knew even the slightest thing about her absolutely riveting personal life. But I couldn’t have wished for any sweeter icing on the cake [...]
7 Comments » - Posted in Devastationalist Masterpieces by Philip
Friday, March 16th, 2007
Mary
Mary was a real girl. At the time, too real for me, alas. It was Kristian Hoffman who urged me to use real names in my songs. He had a song called “Suddenly I Know a Lot of Dead People” where he sang, “I never thought, I never knew/Anders and Allison, to name just two.” [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Studio, The Nightmares by Philip
Friday, March 9th, 2007
England Made Me
Don’t worry, this is not going to be a long, dreary entry about how Anglophilia has scarred my soul and warped my very existence.
I had meant to post this song earlier, to conclude the recent trio (good things come in threes!) of sloshed live cover songs, but it slipped my addled mind as the [...]
5 Comments » - Posted in Live, The Lockhorns by Philip
Thursday, March 8th, 2007
It’s An Eleanor Day
Where to begin? Well, once upon a time there was a sensitive young man from Greenwich Village named Alex Garvin, and though he was a bit of a prig, before he completely fell off the face of the earth he had at least one undisputably brilliant idea, which was to have a Big Star-esque pop [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Studio, The Nightmares by Philip
Sunday, March 4th, 2007
Thirteen
Next time someone asks me, “What the fuck is wrong with you?” I’ll just play them this. The All-Girl Band live, though just barely.
Harmony
(John/Taupin)
1 Comment » - Posted in Amazing All-Girl Band, Live by Philip
Thursday, March 1st, 2007
Blood Stains the Ivories On My Daddy’s Baby Grand
Some songs you don’t listen to. You fall into them — as you would into a cold, dark ocean at night — and they drown you. This is Joe McGinty’s Baby Steps, from what I think is their first recording in 1994. Absolutely harrowing.
Whiskey and Passion
Baby Steps (Joe McGinty)
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