Realm of the Wombat

This is the fifth release from the Detroit based duo of Jack and Meg White. If you’re familiar with the preceeding albums, well put those out of your head entirely. Get Behind Me Satan is clearly a venture into new territory for the Stripes. Sure, it opens with the punkish first single “Blue Orchid,” but after that the electric guitar only comes back only twice more. If “Blue Orchid” is typical Stripes (and it’s not), “Nurse” is off the charts weird, featuring melodic marimbas and sporatic raucous cymbals and guitar. The adventure continues with the catchy piano and drum laden “My Doorbell,” back to marimbas with piano on “Forever for Her,” followed by the ho-down “Little Ghost.” And that’s just the first five tracks. “Take, Take, Take,” a commentary on celebrity, might be the best track on the album, and is followed by the Stripes unplugged on “As Ugly As I Seem.” With it’s ridiculous variety, Get Behind Me Satan might be my favorite album of 2005, which is saying a lot with competition from Beck and the Eels. I really can’t listen enough.

For even more Berkeleyesque cars see the Flickr: Art Cars Pool at Flickr. Currently, there are quite a few from the Houston Art Car Parade, although I consider this type of collection cheating.

In my current reading of The Power and the Glory, the word ‘darn’ came up outside of it’s usual usages as an interjection or substitute for damn, unless Miss Lehr has something against socks. In relation to clothing, ‘darn‘ has a different meaning:

darn
verb
To mend (a garment, for example) by weaving thread or yarn across a gap or hole.
noun
A hole repaired by weaving thread or yarn across it.

The Decemberists [official site, allmusic bio] are a band that I’ve been interested for some time, but it wasn’t until they were recommended simultaneously by Wil Wheaton and Amoeba that I finally picked up one of their albums. Front-man Colin Meloy’s country-alternative background and Jenny Conlee’s accordion distinguish the Decembererists from other indie-pop artists. Despite several references to San Francisco landmarks on the album, interestingly Meloy is from Montana and the band was formed in Portland. C&C covers a fair amount of ground, from the lively “July, July!” to Melissa’s favorite, the folksy “Legionaire’s Lament.” Based on the strength of C&C, I’m almost certain to pick up 2003’s Her Majesty and this year’s Picaresque.

Odie started singing “Send Me an Angel” the other day and I wanted to know who sang it. We went to our ’80s authority, DAndy Malec, who didn’t know off the top of his head, but promised to report back in short order. True to his word, I received this information a short while ago:

The answer to the trivia question yesterday, who sang “Send Me an Angel,” is Real Life, a band from Melbourne, Australia. They didn’t have the staying power of AC/DC or Men at Work, but nevertheless produced a great hit. The song was later redone by several bands including Scorpions, Thrice, and a host of punk bands.

When you don’t have the staying power of Men at Work, that’s saying something.

I think I first heard about Lisa Germano [official/allmusic] from her affiliation with the Eels and then came across her name again when list-lover Volgraf directed our attention to Piero Scaruffi’s 100 Greatest Rock Albums, of which Geek the Girl is rated #15 all time, and Love Circus is also highly regarded. With such glowing praise as E’s opinion, I picked these albums up on consecutive New Music Fridays. Stache asked me if it was fair to describe her as the female E. I think it’s a reasonable comparison. They evoke similar moods with personal lyrics, unusual instruments, and suboptimal, but well used voices. I guess I would say Germano delves more into folk, while the Eels rock.

Here’s a word that Jim O’Donoghue used the other day, but neither his wife nor his son believed it was truly a word. Well chalk it up! Dictionary.com notes that it’s “chiefly British” and derived from Australian slang.

wonky
adjective
1. Shaky; feeble.
2. Wrong; awry.

I’ve been quite lax about updating my ‘New Music Friday’ selections, so all this week I’ll be posting my recent musical aquisitions. On tap:

• Lisa Germano - Geek the Girl / (Excerpts from a) Love Circus
• The Decemberists - Castaways and Cutouts
• The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
• Foo Fighters - In Your Honor
• Sleater-Kinney - The Woods
• Transplants - Transplants

EST is Cory Doctorow’s second novel, and as with Magic Kingdom, the setting again is a world slightly more advanced than our own, but not unimaginable. The twist this time is that tribes exist throughout the world not based on race or religion, but instead on common way of life of a particular time zone, regardless of where the members actually live. While I find this an intriguing (and plausible) premise, the major effect is messing up sleep schedules. Thus, a considerable amount of time is explaining tribal life with little impact on the plot. What’s left of EST is sort of a love story, corporate sabatoge, and a debate of happiness versus inteligence. It was enjoyable enough to read, but I had higher hopes for this book.