You've loved me before

Dear friends,

Do You Love Me Now? by The Breeders is one of those curdled little numbers where the question is more challenge than plea. Sure the words are straightforward enough but how could you love her when she sounds so childlike and insinuating and uh, creepy? This cover by El Jezel is a little less Whatever Happened To Baby Jane. Jessica Flanagan sounds more reasonable, less wild-eyed nutty than Kim Deal. But given the song's underlying feel, those wobbly guitars, the way it sounds like the room is spinning, that vocal cool-headedness might prove more dangerous in the end. Ladies and gentlemen, watch your hearts!

Do You Love Me Now? (Breeders cover)/El Jezel (mp3)


Tonight is El Jezel's CD release party for their new album, The Warm Frequency. Admission to Crash Mansion is free if you RSVP to rsvp@newyorkunderbelly.com and arrive before 11pm. There is an open bar from 9 - 11 10 PM. In addition to that, visit the El Jezel website to download their Champagne and Cold Coffee EP gratis. A plethora of riches!

For the softer side of this band, check out this brand new hairdresser in love themed video for Champagne and Cold Coffee directed by Chris Brunelle and Phil Rondeau.


The Warm Frequency by El Jezel will be available for purchase on eMusic, iTunes and Insound in the next couple of weeks.

Love, D

It's doing me in

Dear friends,

Friend and Neon Lights alum Olga Bell, winsome leader of the band Bell, is featured today on the mighty Fluxblog and Pitchfork!

Olga Bell is photogenic, among other things.
That's a whole lotta links! Yes, it is. Definitely go listen to her lovely medley/cover of Videotape/The Eraser posted on da Fork, you won't regret it.

Love, D

So much more aware

Dear friends,

Along with a few other well known folks, Soft Communication has been nominated for a bestest music blog EVAH award.


Music blogs make me scream too.

The winner will receive a bar of soap and a hand towel from Hey Nielsen! and Billboard.com. On behalf of myself and everyone who has contributed to Soft Communication, I would like to say thank you for the nomination. If you feel like voting for us, go here.

In honor of this random occurrence, here is a Linkin Park cover done by British R&B chanteuse Jamelia. Can't get weirder than that, can it?

Jamelia wonders what she is doing here; looks coy
Numb (Live)/Jamelia (mp3)*

Love, D

* Check out the back-up singer replicating the spoken word/rap part. Hilarious.

They wanna sing all night long

Dear friends,

1. I need to sell two Björk tickets for next Wednesday's Radio City Music Hall show. If any of you aren't totally broke in a "How am I ever gonna pay for a dentist?" sorta way, holla at me.


This was my favorite outfit from the last show I saw her play. Those red feathers seemed to move away from her as she swayed, moving her arms slowly, like a hula dancer.

2. I have this book; it's wrapped in brown paper. I can't open it because it is part of a limited series and unleashing it would mean decreasing its value. So it just sits there, all bundled up, with the number 25 written on it in black marker. I chose that number, it's been good to me. A friend curated it; it's an art piece of sorts, full of people's drawings, poems, and remembrances in celebration of their friend Allen Ginsburg. Lots of famous names, some new to me, talking about someone they loved. When I look at it now, sitting on the shelf, all I want to do is tear it open. Crease its edges, thumb-stain it with lead, put a coffee ring on it, the WORKS, as long as I get to see what's inside. I think that I'm going to go for it. I think this is the year.

Joe Strummer was one of the participants in said book. Here's a hushed little cover of a Clash number performed by Josh Rouse. It doesn't have the shimmering mamasan guitar-speak but it makes up for it by sounding tender and forgiving.

Song to seek:

Straight To Hell/Josh Rouse (mp3)

Love, D

Right here by my side

Dear friends,

1. Song dedication, part one


My friend Marta aka Marts is, to use her own words, a funny kid. She's perpetually amused by the antics of her friends. A chortler by nature; punching you lightly on the arm, rubbing the punch spot and saying "Aaaaw." She's also one of those people that gets lost in listening to others; she squints her eyes and nods slowly in time to some secret music she hears in what you're saying. This makes sense. She's a fine musician and part of her gifts is her ability to get lost in things but still follow. Yesterday was her birthday and while I know she didn't want no parade, I thought I'd throw out this song dedication to her since it is, in Marts-speak, "so EMO."

but first...

2. Song dedication, part two

Photo courtesy of Cracker-CAM

Justin of Crackers United fame and his lovely paramour Dana are taking off from NYC and retiring to the country. Okay, not really. Philadelphia. I hear there are trees there. The Monkey and I had almost arrived at their going-away party (we were at 6th Avenue and 14th to be exact) when my simian hit a wall and told me he needed to go home. I am sad I missed the chance to party with the Crackers crew but what can you do? I shrugged, gave the xylophone player in the subway a dollar and escorted my fellow back on the train. In dedication (and apologies) this song also goes out to another fabulous team D/J. Something to dance to perhaps? Eh no. Neo-shoegaze? Wrong again! Redhouse Painters covering Genesis, of course! Come on, what could be better than a sappy tale of l-u-v this rainy day?

So yeah, for Marts, Happy Birthday +1! and for Dana and Justin, Happy Moving! You are all lovely people.

Follow You, Follow Me/Red House Painters (mp3)

Mark Kozelek has a voice that is as plain as a brown paper bag but given the right setting, it works. The song's repetitiveness creates this lethargic, contented mood and when the muted caterwaul guitar enters the picture at the end, it doesn't seem out of place at all.

Buy Shanti Project Collection/Various Artists (Feat. Low, Redhouse Painters, Hayden).

Love, D

PS Justin and Marts, if either of you read this, you need to see this movie.

Just like in the country

Dear friends,

I have been crippled cracked all week hence my general absence. Also, holidays! Don't cry for me though. I have love AND insurance. That's enough to make me feel safe in this big bad world.

Turkey, anyone?
I've been quietly stalking the The Jealous Girlfriends ever since I accidentally* caught them at Mercury Lounge last year. I'm a sucker for vocal twin-ning and singers Holly Miranda and Josh Abbott definitely have that golden hum sound down.

Song to Seek:

The Pink Wig to My Salieri/The Jealous Girlfriends (mp3)

Buy The Jealous Girlfriends self-titled CD.

I watched Marie Antoinette** this weekend and tried to imagine The Pink Wig To My Salieri inserted in the film, in one of the many scenes where Kirsten Dunst scampers down a hallway looking distressed in period finery. I blame the song's keyboard nod to the New Romantics sound and the titular allusion to Mozart***. Supposedly, little Wolfgang asked the Emperor of Austria for Maria Antonia's hand when they were children and that story, real or not, is sad and sweet.

An extra track from The Jealous Girlfriend for all ye Smiths cover hounds.

Song to seek:

Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want/The Jealous Girlfriends (mp3)

The Jealous Girlfriends play Union Hall on Wednesday, April 11th. Go see 'em.

Love, D

* I say accidentally because I confused their name with another band's and realized my mistake when they started their set.

** Loved the songs used in the film, especially the tiny piece of The Cure's Plainsong playing during the post-coronation sequence. However, I did think it was TOO music heavy at times and wished for silence so I could appreciate the imagery on its own.

*** Well, the allusion is to Salieri, Mozart's fictional nemesis in the play/movie, Amadeus. And while that would imply that this is a song about envy, I can barely hear it. To me, this is the sound of a warm breeze.

I get high*

Dear friends,

1. As a member of the DraculaZombieUSA East Coast Annex, I get to prance like a pony in front of an audience every now and again. One of my favorite parts of the DZUSA experience is hearing the outro blaring out from Travis Business's iPod at the end of every set. It's a man singing, "Oooh yeah, aaaah-ah-I!" He does this a few times, and then he's sped up Alvin and The Chipmunks stylee; a bright chirping affirmation. It gets stuck in my head, that bit. I always mean to ask the man where it's from but forget. On Saturday, Travis and his lovely lady, Rebecca, jumped the broomstick. After their beautiful ceremony, after the kiss, after they clasped hands and started making their way out, the processional music kicked in. "Ooooh yeah, aaaah-ah-I! ...'ll tell you something! I think you'll understand." OH MY GOD. DUUUUUUH. Of course! I Want to Hold Your Hand! But done by...Al Green? What the? Anyway, I can't believe I didn't recognize those notes, those words, as recognizable as ABC if you grew up on The Beatles. I am slow.

Congratulations Travecca! It was a memorable evening truly befitting a wonderful pair.

Travis and Reverend Al, separated at birth?
Song to seek:

(Consider this a place saver for the Al Green mp3, which I will post tomorrow)
I Want To Hold Your Hand/Al Green (mp3)

Buy The Supreme Al Green: The Greatest Hits by Al Green.

2. Speaking of Beatles-related covers, I rather love this one even if it's a tad cracked. Claudine Longet whispers her way through Jealous Guy and generally sounds like fluffy kitten looking at you with sad, feeeed me eyes. It's almost cute that she's jealous. Of course, the knowledge that in real life this adorable creature took a gun and shot her lover in the back colors things a bit. Le scandale aside, when the song segues nicely into Don't Let Me Down, it makes complete sense. Both are songs of desperation and need, slightly off-putting in their emotional nakedness.

Claudine Longet, femme dangereuse
Song to seek:

Jealous Guy/Don't Let Me Down/Claudine Longet (mp3)

Buy We've Only Just Begun/Let's Spend The Night Together by Claudine Longet.

Love, D

* Yes, I know the lyric is "I can't hide" but Al Green opted for this line instead.

Well, it's no no no no fault of mine

Dear friends,

Busy building dams. Tonight I will be going to The Delancey to see Spy Alarms play their debut gig at 8 PM. They have no album to sell (yet) or even songs available but to satisfy your ear-curiosity, here's a My Bloody Valentine cover they did for my birthday last year with the unstoppable Marta De Leon on lead vocals.

You Made Me Realise/Spy Alarms (mp3)

(I'll upload the proper mp3 tomorrow)

You Made Me Realise/My Bloody Valentine (mp3)

You Made Me Realise/My Bloody Valentine (YST link)


I've written about this old fave before so pardon the lack of words. Just think: amusement park rides in summer, love like bittersweet chocolate, self-righteously indignant arguments and running out of gas before you get home.

Befriend Spy Alarms on My Space.

Love, D

Write it on a piece of paper

Dear friends,

I'm slowly but surely chipping away at all the mixes I owe for various birthdays, holidays and other sundry arrangements that are too complicated to get into. Here are some of the selections.

1. Mix Selection One

Friend X is a cackle and finger point type of gal. She also plays a mean, tippy-toes sneaky geeetarr. And no one does sneak like Polly Jean. I saw PJ Harvey do this song on TV dressed in a fuzzy red sweater mini-dress, her wide crimson lips carefully enunciating all the antics of Automatic Slim and his cronies. It certainly didn't sound "pretty" or make me comfortable but I couldn't stop watching.

Here is that performance:

Wang Dang Doodle/PJ Harvey (video)



I love her covers because she always makes them sound like she wrote 'em. Now if anyone has an mp3 of her doing Captain Beefheart's Dropout Boogie, do send it my way.

Wang Dang Doodle/PJ Harvey (mp3)

Buy The Peel Sessions 1991-2004/PJ Harvey

2. Mix Selection Two

Gonna borrow from this old Soft Communication post if you don't mind:

"I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Four Tet remixes. The song is always stripped down to something breathable and organic. And my ears rejoice, because all of a sudden, a smattering of hidden elements come to the foreground. Like in this case: the bell changes that signal the constant mind-shifts of the song's protagonist."

Kieran Hebden aka Four Tet laughs WITH you, never AT you
I just found out belated birthday boy, Friend Y, runs. This track is meant for his weekend jaunts into Prospect Park. I know he likes the cock rock but something tells me this is a good one to listen to on the dash as the sun peekaboos through the trees.

Skttrbrain (Four Tet Remix)/Radiohead (mp3)

Buy Com Lag (2Plus2IsFive) by Radiohead

3. Mix Selection Three

Friend Z is owed a mix CD for every month since last June. Gulp. Don't ask. I've actually made most of them and am now up to February. Naturally, since that month is for lovers and companies that make cash money off of lovers, I thought I'd theme it up a bit. This selection was played for me by The Monkey. I don't think he was trying to set a mood or anything, he just put it on and started getting his work clothes ready for the next day. Somewhere between the aching, shivering strings and Peter Green's lazily sensual vocal, I was ready to take J behind the middle school and get him pregnant*. Now, that's a song that does its job. Word.

Need Your Love So Bad/Fleetwood Mac (mp3)

Before Linds and Stevie, Peter Green WAS Fleetwood Mac. You might be familiar with a little ditty he wrote called Black Magic Woman that was covered by a guitar player so bad ass he didn't even have to sing in the band named after him? Not that Green was a slouch in the playing department. Watch below.

Like It This Way/Fleetwood Mac (Video)



Buy The Best of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac/Fleetwood Mac

Love, D

* I'm contractually required to drop Jordanalia every week. Also: "I believe that vampires are the world's greatest golfers but their curse is that they can never prove it."

A crowd of people stood and stared

Dear friends,

I wish I could hang up a "Gone Fishing" sign 'cause in a sense, that's what I'm doing right now. Please bear with me and enjoy these covers.

1. The elegant Captain commands from the dunes.

Mojo magazine decided to get a bunch of bands to cover Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in its entirety and Captain had the nerve to do A Day in the Life. We heard it in the car on the way to New Paltz. J drove the long way just so I could look out the window at the Hudson. As the song came on over a stretch of barren turnpike, I wondered just how it would work on a shoestring. It's lovely really. Like the original in matchbox form. No strings but still shimmering somehow. When the last chord rang out, cutting off sooner than the original, The Monkey said "Lame." I don't agree. Not everyone has simultaneous access to multiple pianos. One does what one can.

Song to seek:

A Day in the Life/Captain (mp3)

Befriend Captain on My Space.

Buy This Is Hazelville by Captain

2. Bryan Ferry has been playing the soulful lounge lizard for years now. I like this crackadoodle cover because I can almost picture the prancing, bored with the Beguine-ing, winking Ferry of Roxy singing it. He gives you a tiny, menacing smile and goes back to his martini without a hair out of place.

Song to seek:

It's All Over Now, Baby Blue/Bryan Ferry (mp3)

Buy Frantic by Bryan Ferry

3. I'll never forget reading an article on Serge Gainsbourg's passing in The Voice and asking my moms what "provocateur" meant. Because of that word, I HAD to find out about this guy and his music. Mick Harvey knows provocation, just give a listen to the sleazy neon cabaret of Crime and the City Solution and of course, his work as a Bad Seed. Harvey recorded a couple of Gainsbourg cover albums sung in English. In theory, they should have been lousy* but weren't. I loved the original paean to Brigitte Bardot that much more once I understood the voyeuristic urgency of the lyric. The way the strings correspond with the movement; the fluttering hair on a beautiful woman as she runs through the street. Both cover albums are fantastic, though I'm partial to the first for this song and also for the seasick carnival swirl of Harvey's Intoxicated Man cover.

Song to seek:

Initials B.B./Mick Harvey (mp3)

Buy Intoxicated Man by Mick Harvey

Love, D

* I'm not opposed, generally, to French to English song translation, but Gainsbourg in English seemed like an especially bad idea.

I'm so glad that I'm an island

Dear friends,

1. It sounds like wind. And it's morning. You are walking along the foggy promenade. The woman whispering in your ear tells you what to do, exactly what to do but also tells you what she would do if she were in your place. Or maybe she's been talking about herself all along and you've become her. No matter, your pace intensifies and becomes a full on run. It is clear you're not going anywhere in particular and you're moving to get this feeling out. That's what the sudden guitar attack is there for. It is there to remind you that change and decision making can be a violent internal affair. And this surely feels like war. You make your choice, set your teeth and resume your walk. Slow down and eventually stop. It turns out what you heard wasn't wind noise at all. It was the sound of all the time you spent trying to make it work and the ghost of that time finally taking its leave.

Emily Haines from Metric* has a voice that can't help but be intimate. Even at her fiercest, she's got a familiar, lilting tone that feels like a friend's hand on your back. So all the things you don't want to hear become more palatable somehow. Empty from Live it Out is song as thought process. One where the feelings involved are so strong, you're half pushed along, half frozen in place.

Empty/Metric (YouSendIt Download)

2. The vaults of Soft Communication

From April 5, 2006…

In darkness with memories

Featuring three live covers:

My World is Empty Without You/I Hear a Symphony/The Afghan Whigs (YouSendIt Download)

Satisfaction/Björk and Polly Jean Harvey (YouSendIt Download)

Go Easy/Beck (YouSendIt Download)

3. Tomorrow a little Boubacar Traoré.

Love, D

* Personal admission #38: I went to see Metric during their last tour. They opened with Empty and while it lost most of its vulnerability, it was still potent. Arch, lithe and lightning quick; Haines was quite a performer. She danced, shot down dudes in the audience shouting I love yous, and played her keyboard all while rocking a spectacularly tight black sheath. Initially, I was down with the punk by way of Vogue posing, after all she could work it AND has the talent to back it up. But later in the show, she started complaining about khakis and why the fuck is everyone wearing khakis in New York. The crowd cheered wildly in response, the way concert crowds do. I looked down at myself, in my usual outfit of rumpled nonchalance, not khakis but jeans and a sweatshirt with a tomato sauce stain, stared around at the various Haines doppelgangers and suddenly felt like getting the fuck outta there. Because no matter how much I love the music, it's hard to swallow fight conformity banter from a skinny, statuesque blonde in designer duds who has just finished singing about whether women are "Are...all designed to be confined." So out I went into the cold and walked home.

& with my half of the ransom

dear friends,

I love covers. my covers addiction is what got me into reading music blogs in the first place & also into instigating DIY cover compilations starring friends & people I'd just met who became friends.

anywho, the monkey secretly organized a covers compilation for me for my birthday last week starring various buddies o' mine. in it, there's a whole lotta silly, a whole lotta serious & a whole lotta love. thank you guys! I heart you all!

four selections:

1. conduit for sale.../hula cougar! (mp3)

two french canadian freaks who like to chastely hump legs & eat bunnies, on a mission to find their missing cougar. that thing's been gone for a while, I'm thinking kitty adoption might be a better option. befriend them on my space.

original artist: pavement

2. you made me realise/spy alarms (mp3)

spy alarms features my friends cris & dan (formerly of june fool,) new member e. lee, & guest vocalist marta (formerly of emma la reina.) love this song & I love hearing those vocals all clear & crisp instead of all patented obscured by echo & reverb mbv stylee. suddenly the violent bash of the original is unmasked for the sad little slice of regret that the lyrics imply.

original artist: my bloody valentine

3. gay bar/dirty sasha (mp3)

my friend alex aka dity sasha is not a musician, he's an emt. when he's not busy saving people's hides, he enjoys riding his bike around, eating san loco tacos, being a goofball & singin' robert wyatt.

original artist: electric six

5. sunflower/botany bay (mp3)

eric s. aka botany bay can usually be found violating guitars, singing sweet, sweet harmonies & occasionally drumming for local nyc indie rocksters, the secret life of sofia.

original artist: low

for more birthday covers cd mp3 excellence*, both goofy & accomplished, go HERE. if any of you want to add to the covers fun, please do! the more the merrier!

love, d

* featuring covers of songs by: the temptations, the kinks, the smiths, gnarls barkley (crazy cover alert!) folk implosion, x, rocket from the tombs, neneh cherry, & richard thompson

nothing in this world

dear friends,

1. morning

yesterday, for breakfast, I ate one boiled egg & two large coffees. remember this dull detail.

2. evening

beg yr pardon #9 aka my birthday party was amazing. I don't care what other places were telling you about where you should've been instead*, I wouldn't have been anywhere else. thank you so much for coming out, friends old & new. it was wonderful to see you all!

3. thank you djs!

sheila b started off the night & played a fabulous set of 60's pop. I boogied from my door perch & wished I could speak french so I could understand all those ye ye song lyrics. rachael underrated & jeff k cage matched for the rest of the night & it was a perfect blend of complimentary styles. extra special thanks to jeff k for being such a good sport as I heckled him mercilessly & also, for playing ring the alarm. you, sir, are the best.

4. thank you bands!

tiny masters of today were felled by bronchitis so they didn't get to play. ivan, I hope you're feeling better!

the vandelles played first & won themselves a number of brand new fans with their tremolo & feedback drenched ditties about love & other things of import. I love that surfin' jamc sound so I was blissed out, doing an alarming & involuntary to & fro shimmy. thank you vandelles! you were wonderful.

if you missed them because you were at one of the other five trillion shows, do yourself a favor & catch them at pianos this sunday, september 30th.

then dzusa! I can't really say anything about something I'm part of but hey! o'death liked us & that makes me happy. what also makes me happy is how great my co-dzusa folks are. they are the shiz.

o'death. wowza. they fill me with a fire. they make me wanna climb trees & make my own liquor. not at the same time but maybe after a reasonable distance. they holler, break strings with the sheer ferocity of their playing, their drummer chews on his cymbals (I didn't see him do this but I'm sure he does, I saw bite marks!) & the violinist is definitely looking for a soul to steal. they play tonight with the wonderful the big sleep at the spiegeltent. go check them out! or if you don't, check 'em out at goodbye blue monday on friday, october 6th. those guys are busy. busy being badass. do not miss them!

5. thank you friends!

I have a lot of you! how cool is that? I got some great presents! thank you! I will eat, listen, read & wear everything. & in the case of contributor therese's monkey in a monkey in a monkey tchotchke, laugh myself silly over it every night. you are fantastic.

6. thank you monkey!

j decided to lose his mind & try his hand at being an exec producer & got a few of my friends to cover & record some of my favorite songs. on the sly. I knew he was being shady & had my suspicions but when he didn't hand anything over on the 25th, I thought I must've guessed wrong. sneaky simian!

I have a lot to say about my covers cd but I shan't until we can put up the mp3s. when that happens, I will provide track by track commentary in many, many awkward & effusive paragraphs. as for the tracklisting, there's some my bloody valentine, pavement (two tracks!), richard thompson, the smiths, the kinks & OF COURSE, the ubiquitous gnarls barkley. pretty hot stuff.

7. night/morning

later, after getting home & listening to my cd & purring on j's sleeping form, my stomach suddenly made an alarming krakatoa-like rumble. I had forgotten to eat. I am an ass. a lucky one.

love, d

* crimes against grammar daily here at soft communication! whoo!

Give a toast to now

Dear friends,

Christmas and 'cause, '05 edition:

1. 'Cause Navidad with Moms means catching up on films about animals, dancing assassins and snarky but sexy british police inspectors of a certain age.

Baby penguins are very cute. Antarctica not so cute. Mothers like baby penguins. These things are connected.

2. 'Cause trial and error is a good thing.

Speaking of Moms, she makes a mean Cola de Mono*. Below is a list of ingredients. (Don't worry, this is a holiday anomaly. I'm not a recipe person. I leave that to the professionals.)

Mrs. D's Cola de Mono, ingredients list

Milk (or Lactaid, if your tummy can't take it)
Sticks of cinnamon
Coffee
Scotch
Grated nutmeg
Sugar (or Splenda, if you can stand it)
Vanilla extract

You heat all the ingredients until the concoction boils, then you stick the results in the refrigerator until it chills. I don't know what the amounts are. Improvise! That's what I do to varying degrees of success. Go on, you can do it.

3. 'Cause charity is good. And if good music comes with it, even better.

Things I bought myself for X to the Mas because I am/was a weird only child and therefore prone to such idiocy:

The Broken Social Scene record (more on that shortly) which I had bits and pieces of but needed to own.

A ridiculously large almost rapper style necklace (not gold or platinum though, hence the almost) with a big "D" hanging from it in freakin' CROSS-STITCH.

The recent War Child collection, Help: A Day in the Life, on import featuring the new Radiohead song, I Want None of This, which falls neatly into the familiar, vaguely-threatening-whispers-on a-darkened-street territory that Mr. Yorke and Co. like to frequent. Hell yeah, I like it. It's gentle somehow despite the menace. Half the time I think Yorke is trying to tough-love himself, not the listener.

Song to seek:

I Want None of This/Radiohead (mp3)

Buy Help: A Day in the Life by Various Artists

4. 'Cause it's good to listen to your friend's recommendations.

Covers. The Monkey steals one kind. I collect the other. Somehow it works.

One of my favorite songs this year isn't a new one, but an oldie that he introduced me to: Death On Two Legs by Queen from A Night At The Opera. Apparently, Mr. Mercury wrote this vicious little song about their former manager and it's a corker ("Do you feel like suicide?" followed by helpful, multi-tracked "I think you should"s). Invective has never sounded so reasonable.

There's a new Queen tribute out called Killer Queen which has some truly terrifying, not in a good way, interpretations of various Queen classics. However, it also has a band I never thought much about**, Rooney, covering Death On Two Legs in a way that's thrillingly, astonishingly faithful to the original without sounding like a sub par copy***. If you want to hear some operatic high dudgeon, go find that cover or the fabulous original, STAT.

Songs to seek:

Death on Two Legs/Queen (mp3)

Death on Two Legs/Rooney (Sadly, my mp3 is un-postable. Happy hunting!)

Buy A Night at the Opera by Queen

5. 'Cause hipster ignorance is bliss.

Cognoscenti favorite Me and You and Everyone We Know is my kind of movie. It seems that I'm not the only one who thinks to make up impromptu eulogies for the goldfish of strangers. I don't know what liking this movie says about me but it can't be that I'm a hipster because I only scored a 1 on that Gawker Hipster Quiz that Contributor Bryan linked on his site.

It's true. I don't know anybody whose last name is one letter besides that guy from Interpol with the empty gun holster and that's only because he's Hispanic or half-Hispanic or something. I'd say sorry but I'm not sorry. And whoever can write a song with that refrain wins a special gift.

6. 'Cause starting ahead of time IS a good idea.

To those of you who haven't gotten my double live mixes. They're a'coming, I promise. I'm slow. At least some of them got out though.

7. 'Cause it's the end of the year and you know you want to celebrate.

And in conclusion, Broken Social Scene. I would scrub the stables of Broken Social Scene. Also, I would willingly wear a baby blue satin jacket with "Broken Social Scene" written on the back while I do it. And mirrored shades. And a 'tache. Their self-titled record does all the things a record is supposed to. Make you think about possibilities, dance, feel elated, stare off into space, stick your hand out of a car window so it can dance, make you want to fuck like a cheetah or just sleep, your arm curled around the one you love as you fall into their quiet breathing; the car alarms becoming smaller and smaller particles of noise until they're gone...

If you didn't bother getting this record, go now and buy it.

Buy Broken Social Scene by Broken Social Scene

Love, D

*Literally "Monkey's Tail"

** No, I ain't feelin' the OC

***Queen fans, listen for the inside joke at the end.