It was this week in 1988 that Pink Floyd's album Dark Side of the Moon dropped off the U.S. charts after 725 weeks (nearly 14 years).
"Dark Side of the Moon, originally released in 1973, is one of those albums that is discovered anew by each generation of rock listeners. This complex, often psychedelic music works very well because Pink Floyd doesn't rush anything; the songs are mainly slow to mid-tempo, with attention paid throughout to musical texture and mood. The sound effects on songs like 'On the Run,' 'Time,' and especially 'Money' (with sampled sounds of clinking coins and cash registers turned into rhythmic accompaniment) are impressive, especially when we remember that 1973 was before the advent of digital recording techniques. This is probably Pink Floyd's best-known work, and it's an excellent place to start if you're new to the band." (Genevieve Williams via amazon.com)
Oh, and I almost forgot, it was this week in 2004, before Bake Town had her "Press Pass," before Bake Town achieved her "Celebrity Status," (clearing throat) before Bake Town EVEN EXISTED, that Bakersfield blogging pioneer Waist High, was answering the tough questions.
Photo courtesy of: eweek.org
Things have calmed down only a little bit up here in P-Town after last week's biggest radio programming shakeup in years. Without her daily Rick Emerson fix Waist High has been:
1. Drooling
2. Listening to alot of Joy Division
3. Continuing to drive her car knowing it has no coolant
And then we've got long time Waist High enemy Bake Town running around the earth talking about her "Press Pass."
I sure hope May brings better times.
"Looking like Sidney Poitier but sounding like Otis Redding," Gift spent his teenage years in "youth theatre, until the advent of punk made music his main passion. As punk gave way to two-tone ska which gave rise to groups like Madness and The Beat, Gift took up saxophone" and began singing in local bands, fronting The Akrylik's, The Bones, and ultimately the Fine Young Cannibals. (mtv.com)
In 1980: "After two years, founding members Nick Rhodes (keyboard) and John Taylor (bass) finalize the Duran Duran line up with Roger Taylor (drums), Andy Taylor (guitar) and Simon LeBon (vocals). They begin work on their first record, titled Duran Duran." (duranduran.com)
Happy 45th one day late.
KRAFTWERK will release a new double CD live album Minimum Maximum on June 6th featuring tracks recorded on their 2004 world tour.
DEPECHE MODE have tentatively scheduled their forthcoming new album for October with a single preceding the release in September.
THE WATERBOYS will release a live album, the band's first, in September featuring material recorded on their 2003 and 2004 tours and featuring material from their full band line-up and their three piece acoustic line-up.
PAUL WELLER is putting together a US tour that will place the former frontman for THE STYLE COUNCIL and THE JAM in the USA for much of the summer and autumn.
All material courtesy of: remembertheeighties.com
I want to know how people end up at Waist High anymore.
Not OK: Jokingly refer to Waist High as a dinosaur.
OK: After realizing the error of your ways, refer to Waist High as a "hot dinosaur."
(Details of the "Harp Incident" removed by author.)
In my hometown and elsewhere that like to get hammered better pray we get rain up here in Waist High territory.
Quoting Craig Big Eagle, Waist High would like to second that emotion: THOSE FUCKING BASTARDS!
Waist High's favorite local radio talk show was ripped from the air yesterday. With no notice. AND PEOPLE ARE ANGRY! My chum Geek In The City included.
Max910 official statement: "With the advent of high definition (digital) radio on the horizon and a marked improvement in AM quality, music formats on the AM dial will become prevalent again. Unfortunately, we say goodbye to MAX910 and the many terrific talk radio talent that made it special: Don Imus, Rick Emerson, Don & Mike, Tom Leykis, Phil Hendrie and more. MAX910 has been a great ride and no doubt these very entertaining personalities will be back on the radio in Portland again soon."
To know the Rick Emerson Show is to love it. Equally missed will be Rick's brilliant Newsman Tim Riley. Although this is a great loss to Portland radio, the staff here at Waist High feel confident that they will find a new home very soon.
You better watch your back (pack that is).
Photo of LTD's backpack courtesy of: Waist High
(Evil witches laugh)
Attention Lovely Teenaged Daughter: If you are going to wear my shirt that I TOLD YOU NOT TO WEAR, be wise and do not take a picture OF YOURSELF WEARING THE SHIRT with the camera we both use.
Gee, and your eye shadow even matches. How special.
Photo courtesy of: a dummy
"Refusing to grow up is like refusing to accept your limitations. That's why I don't think we'll ever grow up." -- Robert Smith
HOWARD JONES, THE CURE, YAZOO and INXS are among thirteen artists from the eighties who have had classic tracks remixed by contemporary remixers for a US compilation Future Retro due for release on July 19th. The remixers involved include The Crystal Method, Scissor Sisters, Richard X and Sparks.
Tracklisting
New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle (Crystal Method)
Echo and the Bunnymen - Lips Like Sugar (Way Out West)
INXS - Need You Tonight (Static Revenger)
Yazoo - Situation (Richard X)
Howard Jones - New Song (Swayzak)
DEVO - Girl U Want (Black Light Odyssey)
The B-52S - Private Idaho (Scissor Sisters)
Alphaville - Forever Young (Bill Hamel)
Grandmaster Flash - White Lines (Elite Force)
Book of Love - Boy (DJ Irene)
Morrissey - Suedehead (Sparks)
B-Movie - Nowhere Girl (Adam Freeland)
The Cure - The Walk (Infusion)
All material: remembertheeighties.com
Lovely Teenaged Daughter got a quick lesson from Waist High yesterday on the advantages of Bloglines. With a privileged invitation from Bake Town still sitting in my inbox, Waist High has yet to sign up, but has heard it's cool. With limited knowledge, I explained to LTD how it works. We also talked about having a Blog, AND NEVER POSTING. But that's a story for another day.
I explained to her that when you utilize Bloglines, you know exactly how many posts your favorite blogs have added since you last checked in. It will monitor them for you so you don't have to.
Waist High: "So the name of the blog will have a number next to it like a 4 or a 1."
LTD: "So, like, Bake Town's would have a 50 next to it?"
By overwhelming demand, here is what everyone is up to:
(The details of the "Harp Incident" have been removed by author)
KERN COUNTY DRUNKARD: Do not know. Do not care.
RAMPART: Accompanied Waist High and LTD to Acadia, Waist High's favorite restaurant, on Waist High's 37th birthday (3/16). Lectured LTD the entire time. Subjects included, but were not limited to, the value of hard work, sea hags, and his miserable youth in Bakersfield. For the 61st time, Waist High got to hear the story of how he started working when he was 12 years old, "Pulling weeds in the 110 degree heat!"
The next night, Waist High pinched some ska CD's from him which she untruthfully promised to return.
LOVELY TEENAGED DAUGHTER: All in the month of March, LTD got her drivers license, took possession of her father's Volvo station wagon, (which he "gifted" to her for $1,500 if paid in cash, $1,800 if paid in payments), and got a part time job. She continues to maintain a 4.0 GPA, all the while irritating Waist High by doing crap like borrowing Waist High's mascara and then leaving it in a friend's car, not posting EVER on Living With Waist High, refusing to hug me, and COMING HOME AT 4 a.m.
Got a speeding ticket already. IN A SCHOOL ZONE.
Was a little startled to say the least, to find that the IRS and the state of Oregon will regularly take a portion of your paycheck for themselves.
THE STRANGER: Warned Waist High about the "Harp Incident." Told her not to get involved in the situation that ultimately led to the "Harp Incident." Looks out for Waist High. Just discovered Blondie 2 weeks ago.
TRI-TIP: Tri-Tip was the protagonist in the "Harp Incident," which occurred in Nevada. Waist High was told by about 7 people not to go to Nevada with Tri-Tip.
Just as Pratt got rid of his turntable comes word that DURAN DURAN, HAIRCUT 100, THE CURE, ABC, PET SHOP BOYS, DEPECHE MODE and SPANDAU BALLET are all featured on a forthcoming 3 CD album of 1980s remixes. The release, the second in the already popular 12"/80's series, will come out on June 27.
Material courtesy of: remembertheeighties.com
Of Buzzcocks and solo work galore, Pete Shelley was born Peter McNeish in 1955.
"Three bands from the now mythical 1976/77 British punk explosion set the benchmarks for everything that was to follow - Sex Pistols, The Clash and Buzzcocks." (buzzcocks.com)
Photo: imhr.org
Waist High, upon hearing a quotable from someone who does not know the existence of Waist High (and wanting to keep it that way), will tell the individual who utters the quotable that what they have just said "is quotable." Waist High just doesn't tell that individual where exactly they will be quoted. So to the individual who I will quote now: I told you that was quotable.
WH to friend who was getting ready to drive to Waist High's for dinner: "I sure hope you are hungry!"
Friend: "I am. I haven't eaten all day. I'm starving. But I'll be fine. I'll smoke all the way to your house."
Photo courtesy of: outhousegraffiti.com
Say hello to brand new Waist High feature Representing. From the success of Representing Vol. 1, an idea was born. Please tune in every month for just another gentle reminder that you should really stop reading Waist High.
LTD: "What 35 year old wears their high school t-shirt?"
Waist High: "Um, I'm 37 dummy."
After a long and exhaustive selection process, Waist High would like to reveal the first of two replacements for the now permanently retired, much loved, crass, and extremely hateful "Kern County Drunkard Watch."
Waist High, no longer wanting to GO TO HELL, would like to present:
"Living In The Eighties News," which 1. Begins today. 2. Promises to keep you up to date on everyone from Haysi Fantayzee to Waist High pal Dave Wakeling. 3. Will steal it's material almost exclusively from Remember The Eighties News, on a weekly basis.
Vol. 1:
THE CHURCH will release a new album Uninvited, Like The Clouds in September and are to have their back catalogue reissued by EMI shortly.
THE DAMNED have tentatively scheduled a June 16th release date for their forthcoming Machine Gun Etiquette 25th Anniversary DVD filmed in Manchester last year.
DEPECHE MODE have started work on their new album, the follow up to 2001's Exciter. The band are in the studio in Santa Barbara with producer Ben Hillier working on the album which is being tentatively lined-up for an autumn release.
NEW ORDER's classic single "Bizarre Love Triangle" has been remixed by The Crystal Method and is included on their new album of remixes CS2 Mix. The remix will also be released as a vinyl only 12" single in the USA.
PAUL WELLER's classic Stanley Road album will be reissued on May 30th with a second CD featuring nineteen unreleased demos, alternative versions and studio sessions.
BAUHAUS frontman PETER MURPHY will release a new album Unshattered via Artful on May 9th.
All material courtesy of: remembertheeighties.com
"Eighties" lyrics courtesy of: Killing Joke
Photo courtesy: teencancer.org
Hey Bake Town: we forgot to tell our readers that we both got carded when we dined at Mexicali in Bakersfield California last week!
Waist High has been thinking that although it seemed annoying at the time, it quite possibly meant that we look so young and so fabulous that our server wasn't quite sure if we were yet 21. And to a couple of 37 year old broads, that is a good thing.
Lyricist, writer, and producer, "Chris Difford has been writing lyrics for over twenty five years most notably with Squeeze." (chrisdifford.com)
Of Tattoo, and The Skids, but best known as the lead singer of Big Country. Born in 1958, Stuart hanged himself in a Hawaii hotel in 2001.
The Crossing is a staff favorite here at Waist High, and furia believes that Big Country "were the best rock band there has ever been."
RIP.
Now the largest West High School photo collection in the world.
Please support the school's scariest obsessive stalker and check out the latest updates. Or, check out Dogpile's new #1 hit for "West High Vikings," the West High School Vikings Class of 1986 site.
"Born in New York City and raised in Long Island, Brian Setzer started forming rockabilly acts such as his Bloodless Pharaohs in the late 70's, finally putting together the Stray Cats (then known as the Tom Cats) in 1978."
The Stray Cats continued to "break up and regroup every few years, recording their final EMI album, Blast Off, in 1989."
Setzer, as solo, released "Live Nude Guitars in 1988, but it was several years later that he put together a 17-piece orchestra in the style of the old big bands and began to play classic swing with the Brian Setzer Orchestra, releasing their self-titled first album in 1994."
Whether performing with the "Orchestra or the more stripped-down Brian Setzer Trio, he has developed a reputation as the hard-rocking king of swing with jazzy rockabilly, country and blues chops that just keep getting better with age."
All material courtesy of: fenderplayersclub.com
One of the most influential DJ's of the 1970s and 1980s, the former Kevin Donovan has been credited with bringing the "talking-in-rhymes" (furious.com) style of music to the world.
1984's "World Destruction" by Time Zone, (a.k.a. Afrika Bambaataa and John Lydon) was the first hip-hop/electro/punk/heavy metal single.
From abc7.com comes the brilliance of William Idol: "Pushing now might not be a bad idea considering today's 80's rock revival. 'Everybody is trying to come back, I know,' (says Idol), 'with what's going on in the world people want a sense of fun cause they are concerned.'"
Check out this week's Remember The 80's news and you will see that Mr. Idol isn't lying, and I am not crazy.
The Waterboys and Gene Loves Gezebel on tour? Roxy Music back in the studio? The Human League possibly recording new material? Bananarama releasing a new single?
RE-VIVAL! RE-VIVAL! RE-VIVAL!
Well, your favorite sour puss is back from a 9 day vacation not to be forgotten any time soon. Two days at The Venetian in Las Vegas, a very high speed drive across the Mojave Desert, some good hang time with my pal Bake Town which included dinner at Mexicali, some nice but brief time with family, and the obligatory slithering around of the campus of West High School.
I met some of Bake Town's friends and they are quite fabulous. Last Sunday I enjoyed a get together party at her house and had one of the tastiest suppers in recent memory. Prepared by Bake Town herself. She is a damn fine cook. It was during this meal that Bake Town schooled us on the advantages of (and the disadvantages of not) recycling. The above title of this post refers to a quote from her angry tirade on what happens if you do not reuse grocery bags.
To my loyal readers, I continue to thank you for remaining loyal even when there has been extended periods of no new posting. My promise to you is that I will resume entertaining you as soon as possible. Just as soon as my sinuses recover from the dust.
