The best song ever written...

...is Pulling Mussels (From The Shell) by Squeeze.

The song, released in 1980 on the band's third album Argybargy is to me the perfect pop-rock song. At four minutes one might think it clocks in a little lengthy, and perhaps that is why, amazingly, it never broke the top 100 singles charts.

Its starts full on, no slow build up, it just grabs you by the collar and pulls you in with no warning. It features a quality which I love in any song: the perfect balance of intensity and melody. As intense as the verse is, it builds even further on the pre-chorus and lets you down gently on the refrain, only to step on the gas again.

It also contains both a great guitar solo AND a great piano solo. I usually don't dig a piano solo in any song that isn't Madonna, but in Pulling Mussels it fits perfectly, and gives the song a nice jazzy feel right before "two fat ladies" make their appearance.

How are the lyrics? They are great too. It's mainly about random scenes on a beach and I'm pretty sure the narrator is telling us that he had sex with his girl "behind the chalet." I could be totally wrong about this, but theres so much going on in the story lyrically that even though it is totally literal, it could be open to interpretation, especially for me (see: "Party Lights").

Squeeze has had many bigger hits, and a lot of great songs, but Pulling Mussels (From the Shell) is the best song ever written.

The video below is somewhat interesting. The performance is at a considerably slower tempo than the album version.



While the clip above showcases the bands technical aptitude, it is even better displayed in this unembeddable video.

Carrie on My Wayward Son

It's always a good thing to give credit where credit is due.

Here are some mega high fives to Carrie Brownstein. We all know Carrie as the guitarist/singer in Sleater-Kinney, but I have found her to be as much an influence post-SK as while the band was making terrific albums.

Carrie's blog Monitor Mix is essentially the model for Half Of A Wing. I have tried my best to take the humorous yet informative, welcoming yet not too personal style of her blog as inspiration for mine. Even my ipod song reviews of the past are essentially a direct rip-off of her upcoming (hopefully) record review video vlog.


Thank you, Ms. Brownstein.

I used to be quite enamoured with her (I won't even get into "Locker 24"). While I still find her striking, I can look beyond that and really appreciate both in retrospect and real time the influence she has had on my creative output for so many years.

Also, let us not forget THUNDERANT

Grab Bag!

Is it laziness and lack of motivation or simply a lack of focus? I haven't posted in a while but I've had ideas floating in my head for some time. I'm going to tackle them all at once.

First order of business is a Guns N Roses update. I heard a song off of Chinese Democracy. I believe it was the title track. All I have to say is it sounds exactly like "The Everlasting Gaze" by The Smashing Pumpkins. Yes, we waited about fourteen years for a tired Pumpkins rip-off. I wasn't expecting much more than that anyway. Thanks Axl.

Revenge!

I wanted to write an entire post about revenge movies and how much I love them, but I don't mind relegating this topic to a few paragraphs. Last Friday I watched the film Hard Candy, featuring a pre-Juno Ellen Page. I wasn't expecting a revenge movie, but let me back up a bit. I consider a revenge movie to be one in which the main plot point or theme is revenge. This is not to be confused with a movie which has a "gotcha" ending like Michael Clayton. Such movies which fall into the revenge genre are Last House on The Left, I Spit on Your Grave, and the king of all revenge flicks, Kill Bill. In the case of Kill Bill there is pretty much no plot except a former assassin is seeking revenge on her former assassin friends for killing all the people in her wedding party and trying to kill her.

I guess it must be a vicarious thrill for me to see someone on the big screen carrying out revenge on those who did him/her wrong, but for whatever reason, I love these kinds of movies and Hard Candy certainly fulfilled this need for vengeance.

The synopsis of the film, courtesy of imdb.com is "A mature 14-year old girl meets a charming 32-year old photographer on the Internet. Suspecting that he is a pedophile, she goes to his home in an attempt to expose him." That and the promise of a masterful performance from Ellen Page was enough to get me to watch, but the movie delivered way more than promised. Yes, this movie could have been called "Ellen Page demo reel" but without spoiling anything, I'm going to give this film a high recommendation for tension which unfolds in unexpected ways, a revenge theme which unveils itself in a slow, satisfying style, and one of the most cringe-inducing "elective surgery" scenes ever committed to film.

Crystal Castles

If you're reading this, you are probably one of the three people who I know check out this blog (and I thank you guys, seriously). You also know how much I like Crystal Castles right now. I took the cd out of my car today, but I've taken it out before. This album is the only album in recent memory since Tegan and Sara's The Con that I just cannot, no matter how hard I try, stop listening to.


Get this album, asap.

They are, on first listen, just another electronic dance group. But after many, many listens I can testify that whether it is on purpose or not, they create soundscapes which bore their way into your brain like a bag of worms and fester there just long enough for the next track to change it up. Even their slow-tempo tracks are fascinating from start to finish. One of the things I love about them is that even though they have a main vocalist in Alice Glass, you cannot understand a word she says and I do not believe you are meant to. The vocals are more an instrument than a message for the song. For me, album of the year.

Football

Looking back at my baseball post, I see that is dated and irrelevant now, so I'll make this quick and disposable. I was telling a coworker today that I would actually be rooting for the Jets to beat the Titans on Sunday so that there would be no question that the Giants are the best team in the NFL. He posed an interesting argument: what if the Titans went 18-0 and met the Giants in the Super Bowl just as the Patriots did last year only for the Giants to beat them? Well, that would be totally awesome.

Love Will Tear Us Apart

On Tuesday I watched the film Control. It is a movie about Joy Division and their tragic lead singer Ian Curtis. I must say as I write these opening lines, I wish I was watching the movie again. I must admit I am not a Joy Division expert, I am a fan, and you may know my stance on thier peers in the style of late 70s early 80s synth goth. I will argue that The Cure and Echo and The Bunnymen while awesome, are really just darkly dressed pop bands, Joy Division truly delivered a bleak, barren sonic expression of life.

The film, thankfully, follows the cue of the band's music. It is both bleak and barren, but also beautiful. While it doesn't romanticise the rocker-suicide side of Ian Curtis, it sheds light on his personal demons. One feels sympathy for the man and his family without it being tugged out.

This film (directed by Anton Corbijn, the guy who made the "Heart-Shaped Box" video and pretty much every Depeche Mode video) is breathtakingly beautiful from start to finish and is a must see for anyone with even a casual appreciation of Joy Division.

Well, I'm going to wrap it up here. Thanks for reading.