[Weekend] Music, Food, and Exercise

So after our midmorning jaunt over to our seaside Safeway (the Pacific was over there somewhere, I think...I couldn't tell, it was foggy), we chose to head over to the Haight for some food and some musical purchases, and maybe some walking as well.

Purchases:
Sara Bareilles, Kaleidoscope Heart
Flogging Molly, Live at the Greek Theatre
Brandon Flowers, Flamingo
Goo Goo Dolls, Something for the Rest of Us
Heart, Red Velvet Car (heard this online...it's quite good)
Linkin Park, A Thousand Suns (ditto...I'm really liking this one)
Scott Pilgrim vs the World OST (still looking for the score album, tho)
Street Sweeper Social Club, SSSC EP (Tom Morello's side project)
Weezer, Hurley
...and three Studio Ghibli dvds: Castle in the Air, Tales from Earthsea and Whispers from the Heart.

Plus, down the street, Scott Pilgrim vol 2 and Markos Moulitsas' American Taliban at Booksmith.

Stopped to eat at Martin Mack's for lunch and college football...probably our favorite place to eat in the Haight, partly because it's a fun sports bar and partly because we're not big fans of the neighborhood and this is probably the cleanest-looking place there. ;)

And so, after debating whether or not to wait for the 33 to bring us back to our neighborhood, we ended up walking partly through Golden Gate Park to Sixth Ave and then down Geary for some last minute shopping and some tasty iced toffee mochas at Starbucks. Yum!


So yeah...spent a bit more than expected (this is probably the most I've ever spent in one go at a record store, if you can believe that), but we did get some serious walking in, probably a little over two miles of varying terrain and traffic, so we won't feel guilty for not going out tomorrow due to rain and more football. :p

shadowboxing with yourself just seems to get you nowhere

I've been on a serious Damned kick lately, interestingly enough. I think it started when I was perusing my collection of 1987 tracks and came upon my copy of The Light at the End of the Tunnel, their career-spanning compilation that my friend Eric lent me back in '88. There's some well-known tracks on there like "Love Song" and "Wait for the Blackout". It didn't have head58's favorite "Jet Boy Jet Girl" (yes, they still do it live!), but that track was the impetus for me to buy Another Great Record from the Damned at Al Bum's in Amherst (I'm pretty sure I bought it there...it may have been Main St Music in Noho though).

They've had a very interesting history, with way too many lineup changes (including the departure/reunion/departure/ad nauseum of one of its major songwriters, Captain Sensible), as well as its change in sound from punk to goth punk to Sisters of Mercy-esque goth to poppy punk and back again. Not to mention that singer Dave Vanian is now married to Patricia Morrison (ex Sisters/Gun Club and my inspiration for Cassandra in Love Like Blood).

Thankfully I've found most all of their stuff via the internet, because it's hard as hell to find their stuff in stores aside from the odd compilation. Most of their 1976-1987 discography has been released in expanded editions so I was lucky to find most of their stuff. They're definitely worth checking out.

I've always liked this particular track, originally from Phantasmagoria:

In fact, I taught myself that opening on the keyboard pretty early on (on the harpsichord setting, of course--that's the only way it'll sound right).

Or one might know their great cover of Love's "Alone Again Or" from Anything:

This one popped up on one of my Untitled compilations in '89, and got me interested in the band Love (well, them and Hooters' great cover of "She Comes in Colors").

The song that got me into this present kick:

"Curtain Call" (from their experimental Black Album but also found on the CD and cassette version of Tunnel) was very odd for them to do at the time, very experimental and epic at seventeen-plus minutes, but I've been listening to this repeatedly lately. Great track. Think of it as what it would sound like if they'd done a cover of Pink Floyd's "Echoes". ;)

And of course, I had to share a song they wrote specifically for The Young Ones, from probably the funniest ever episode where they rent a "video nasty":

Definitely a classic band to check out if you have the time and patience to find their stuff.

And also

Ah, the things you find on the internets... :p