Rambling on Music, Depression, and Eras Gone By

I'm kind of depressed today. It's that "should be productive" kind of catalyst, though. Something good will come of it. Ever have those depressions? You know it's totally sucking, but it's sucking in a way that's going to be a good thing 'cos it'll give you focus?

Blah! So, I'm listening to The Happy Mondays' Thrills, Pills, & Bellyaches. It's one of those albums I was smart enough to buy but never in the mood for. Now, in my 30s, I get why it gave me cachet back in the day. That Jon Spencer, Nick Cave. I'm so 1994, it hurts.

I watched Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hr Party People today. My boss, of all people, recommended it to me. We tend to have pretty kosher movie tastes. I still remember her falling totally for Go a few years ago. I don't know how this movie flew under my radar. It's fucking great.

All about the Manchester scene and the underrated genius who was key in seeing it all happen, Tony Wilson. Quite well done. Funny, wry, full of good tunes.

This whole not-getting-the-job thing was a big downer. She handled that highly shittily. She could've jumped to that conclusion sooner and saved me a couple weeks of grief. Shitty deal, truly. But it is what it is. It's a good catalyst at this time of year. I'm mad now. Pretty mad.

It's a different kind of thing to prove, I guess.

I've been downloading music again. Can't remember what. It was late and on a whim. (I entered "best" as the search item and then scoured the thousand titles it came up with and clicked on a bunch of random ones, about 20 or so. Heh. Pixies, Tom Waits, '80s, Moby, James Brown (RIP, et al), Woody Guthrie... Yeah. All over the place. "Best Number Ones in the World EVER!" too, which is an amusing list of 60 number one hits. Clearly a UK perspective. Wet Wet Wet? Not a lot of North Americans would say "Love is All Around" is in that realm of, say, "Beat it", which didn't make the list (nor did any other Jackson number). I think it's more a list of the improbables from the Limey perspective.

North America's list would have stuff like "Love Shack" by the B-52s, "Sledge Hammer" by Peter Gabriel, "No Rain" by Blind Melon, "I Just Called to Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder, "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Walk Like an Egyptian" and a few others. Any of a few by U2, something by the Police (King of Pain?) would've worked on either list but would probably make neither, for some strange reason. Givens?

Pretty big musical differences on each side of the pond. A movie like this is so cool that way.

It's weird. You see movies like this that are taken at a time when you were vaguely aware of it all coming down. I was a New Order fan but never really got into Joy Division. I was more of an OMD girl, anyhow. But I was into all this shit the first time around. I never really realized what kind of a scene-shattering build-up happened before it all took hold, though, across the pond for folks like me.

See, back in 1994, I was living in the Yukon. I made friends with a couple guys from the CBC who'd opened an indie record shop in Whitehorse. It was called Grizzly Discs. It was literally a cubby hole and every square inch was filled with discs, most of them having been sent to the guys as DJ samplers over the years. I arranged a deal where I'd order shit in after reading it in all my magazines, from RS to NME to Spin and Q and so forth. I'd circle the reviews that interested me the most, drop by, show the guys, and the deal was, anything I took a chance on and they never heard, they'd open the packet, copy it for themselves, and give me 20% off the suggested retail price.

And I still have most of those discs today, too. I went back there on a vacation in 1996, and Grizzly had shut down. Seems like I was in my own right place at the right time back then. I had some of the coolest tastes in the North back then. That summer was my summer of music, ergo summer of drugs. Ah, the north. I need to tell you people more of the stories.