son suomit pale; Ekova
Northern Star; Hole
Final Hour; Lauren Hill
This is Love; PJ Harvey
Stand on Your own Head; TMBG
January Girl; Tori Amos
Don't Answer the Door; BB King
Head Like a Hole; Nine Inch Nails
Ripe (with Decay); NiN

I read yesterday's entries and decided I want to continue with some of the entries.

Radio Shack sucks. There isn't that much to add to this. I avoid shopping there because in 14 years nothing my bought from there has made it through its first month without breaking, it's not nearly cheap enough for the crappy products and brand names it sells, it's customer service is crap when you obviously have a broken product on your hands and though it sells durable goods it cycles through them so fast it is often impossible to get a replacement part for an item you bought from them five years ago.

So there.

Who the hell doesn't know who PJ Harvey is?!?

hmm when I wrote the first entry I was a bit miffed because one of the guys at work had walked up behind me and peered at my computer for a few seconds and then asked "who's that?" referring to the image of the woman with the guitar on my desktop. That's PJ Harvey. "She in a band?" She leads a band. "Oh." and he wandered off with a shrug. So I was left wondering how the HELL does anyone not know who PJ Harvey is?

Well the answer's pretty obvious, she's far from popular, I doubt she's ever made a video, she's never been on the cover of Rolling Stone. She opened for U2, and who listens to opening acts? So what that she rocks harder than a lot of the guys on "rock" radio? Six albums, a "pure" demo EP, a major collaboration and constant adulation from British press and European (and British) awards and America still ignores her. WTF?

It's not like she's determinedly indie, she signed with Island ages ago. But American media has such a short attention span. Her first two singles were on an indie label along with her first album, Dry. It made number one on a lot of Best of the Year lists, including Rolling Stone's. Her next album Rid of Me was produced with Steve Albini under Island Record's auspices and got a lot more critical attention. You try comparing Rid of Me or Man-Sized to some what of is laughingly call modern rock. Creed would hear Snake and run for their mommies. Eminem would listen till a sneer until Rub til it Bleeds came on then he just might piss in his pants. Puddle of Mudd?? Excuse me?

Of course taking time off always messes with a career and after Rid of Me PJ dissolved her trio and went back to the drawing board. In this time her only release was 4-Track Demos, which, frankly, rips WAY harder than Rid of Me *because* they are so bare-bones. Of course the quality isn't that great but...well it's rock....

Then came To Bring You my Love which I tend to think is the most over-produced of her albums. But since it's the one that turned me onto her I can't say much about it. She did nearly all of the instrumentation and co-produced it with Flood. Two singles came out of it, Down by the Water and C'mon Billy. They weren't such great hits as I think Meet Ze Monsta and Working for the Man would have been, but the extensive touring made up for it. She got artist of the Year from Rolling Stone, among others.

Another four year break during which she did a lot of collaborating and wrote and album with/for John Parrish called "Dance Hall at Louse Point" Interesting, I guess, but not quite what I'm after. (The murder ballad she did with Nick Cave, Henry Lee, was closer.)

Then she came back with Is this Desire? Which is considerably softer than, say, Rid of Me. It's also a little more intellectual as the songs are charicatures of women she felt like writing about. It's hard to say if the women are fictional, historical, out of legend, out of art or pieces of her psyche. But they are beautiful songs. If you can, dig up The Sky Lit Up, and Catherine.

And her last album, which continues to kick my ass was Stories to from the City, Stories from the Sea. Words fail me on this. It's like being in love. It's like walking down a road you've been a million times and had stopped noticing any of the details a long time ago, but this time, because you're with someone that you are madly in love with you notice every tiny detail, every crack, every flower, everything. And it's just all wonderful. Check out One Line and This Mess We're In.

I have to go for now. I guess I'll have to tell you about the stupid motherfuckers some other time. };>