THE CANON LOGIC

The Beatles would have driven around in an SUV too if such a thing existed…

Playing in Richmond tonight at Capital Ale House, for all you Virginians.

Growing up a fan of britpop, I couldn’t help but be intrigued by the long standing BBC top 40 hit show, Top of the Pops. It stopped airing in 2006, just in time for me to stand no chance of ever performing (miming) on it. And since my access to it was always limited, it didn’t dawn on me until recently how ridiculous the show actually was. Thank you YouTube. The key to this show’s awesomeness is that everything is performed “live”. I leave you with 3 videos, progressing form semi-believeable to just plain stupid. The last one is Live from LA via satellite, in case there was any confusion.

Roxette is a band I stumbled upon while watching a tv commercial a few months ago. I think it was a commercial for one of those Grand Theft Auto games with a hip, semi-retro soundtrack. The song caught me offguard, sounding oddly like that terrible Savage Garden song from the mid 90s, but loaded with so much jangly guitar that it was totally not at all like that song, it was good. Actually, I had heard this song before… and it was totally ace.

In their Swedish gone US gone international debut hit single, “The Look”, Roxette addressed the age old question: “What in the world can make a brown-eyed girl turn blue?” I don’t know, you tell me Roxette. Do you think if I knew the answer, I’d still be a traveling colored-contact-lense salesman?

Roxette is one of the better unknown success stories of my era. Sometime circa 1990/91, an American kid from Michigan was really digging on “The Look” while abroad in Sweden. He brought it back to the States with him, where it was immediately well-received and given some local radio play. You know what happened next?… International F’n Superstardom. And who could blame the world of the year 1991?… Roxette were so awesome that their cool alone completely transcended planet Earth’s doomed, fickle culture.

Hey you, the video is done. I know, you just can’t believe 4 minutes went by that fast. Go ahead!.. watch it again. I know, right? Without even hearing the rest of the Roxette songs in this post, it’s safe to say that this is their best song. That’s not to say the next 2 tracks aren’t totally killer. It’s just… that was the best song you have ever heard. Do you have what it takes to make ends-meet? Well, I’ve got one tip for you young scalawag, you can start by donning your finest hounds-tooth skinny jeans:

Wow! Another song about a girl going out into the world against all odds. How does Roxette continue, song after song, to perfectly nail this once popular theme? Equally intriguing, why is each one of these songs about the exact same topic? The short answer: who cares, these songs rock. The long answer: a lot of it probably has something to do with socialism.

That is pretty much all you need to know. You’ve already recognized at least one of the songs above, as I had with “The Look”. Isn’t it odd that you once knew Roxette, and yet, you almost entirely forgot about them? Well, behind every good question is a good government conspiracy. Over the past 13 years, close to $900 dollars of federal taxpayer money has gone into keeping Roxette’s radio airplay limited to afternoon slots on 97.3, The Breeze FM. But why would the government be so dishonest? I can think of one reason and one reason only: giving Roxette more airplay would result in uncontrollable fun. And you know what they say about uncontrollable fun, right? It’s the seed of anarchy.

Roxette is Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle.

I leave you with one of their mega ballads, “It Must have been Love”.

Lately I’ve been obsessing over classic television theme songs, particularly those from ABC’s TGIF group of sitcoms. It’s amazing how well-written some of these songs are – my favorites being the themes from Step by Step and Family Matters. Both of these were written by a Mr. Jesse Frederick. Sometimes I wonder where this man might be – right at this very moment, and what he must be up to with his life…besides sitting on a boatload of cash. Here are the vids:

Incase you don’t have Twitter, or you’re not on our Mailing List, you can now download our Christmas song, ‘Kiss Me On Christmas’, right here, for free:

Happy Holidays!

After previewing “The Avenue of Criminals” on our myspace for a few weeks, we wanted to share another tune off our upcoming album, one that may not be quite as familiar, though many of you may have heard us play it live or seen video from MTV2 battle of the bands. We decided to share another track off our soon to be released full length album, called “Dark Maid”. Click the link to listen on our myspace.

Feel free to pass on the good word. Good day.

Shot was taken by Kelly Polignano (thank you Kel!) at Piano’s, May 2nd. Tim Kiely on guitar playing Dark Maid live.

Head over to our myspace page to hear a preview of the song “Avenue of Criminals” from our forthcoming album, due out later this year.

This is what happens when one starts messing around with a Korg Triton.  It is a dangerous thing.

Enjoy.

The Avalon 

Somewhere in between recording our new album and adjusting our Fantasy Football rosters, we squeaked out a little thing called Pas De Deux – a collection of unreleased songs that we want you all to hear, but won’t be on the album. We figured…what better way to keep you all occupied until our release party?

So we took Pas De Deux and packaged it up with our critically acclaimed EP, The White Balloon (check out our band page for some of the critics’ quotes) and put it up on our website for you all to download, for free. Just goto this page, and its all yours. Nine songs in total, topping out at somewhere around 30 or 40 minutes.

Send the link to all your friends!

Enjoy.

What do you do when you have hundreds of songs in your archives that are not being heard?  You post them on your blog.

This track is from our days in Philadelphia. Josh and our crony, John Clay, were headed over to my mother house to pick me up for a little joy riding.  Knowing that their trip took roughly 30 minutes, I ran to my basement to lay down a quick track.  Upon realizing that I was without most of my instruments I decided to see what I could with the gear I had (Taylor 12 string, Fender bass, microphone).

Soaked in reverb and harmony, the song is capable of being both pleasant, and, dare I say, strange.  Enjoy.

The Tentative Titles: Strange