AND sounds like the lovechild of Ziggy Stardust and T.Rex is a work of genius, but I might be biased.)

People know that Bowie and Bolan were friends, right?

Although Bolan probably wasn't too happy when a British mag called Bowie "the thinking man's Marc Bolan."

People know that Bowie and Bolan were friends, right?

Well, *I* knew that, but I'm not vouching for anyone else.

Jilli, I refuse to be ashamed of my MCR love.

I've finally hit that point. I think I was kinda bashful about how much I like them because, well, their "usual" fans are the kids I write a lot of Gothic Charm School for, not to mention most ElderGoths cross themselves and hiss if you mention MCR. I don't care. I think they're very talented, and every interview I've read impresses me.

They're going to be on the next Saturday Night Live, I think.

Also, Hugh Laurie is hosting the 10/28 episode, according to my Tivo.

Btw, Jilli have you heard of I Am Ghost? I haven't heard them but they're compared to My Chemical Romance and Him.

Here's a review

They're going to be on the next Saturday Night Live, I think.

Awwww! I hope the performance hits YouTube quickly.

Btw, Jilli have you heard of I Am Ghost? I haven't but they're compared to My Chemical Romance and Him.

I haven't heard of them, but I'll have to check them out. While I still like HIM, my adoration of MCR is a different thing. HIM is guilty-pleasure GothMetal all about how he loves me so much that he'd die for me, and all the other over-the-top gothic romance clichés. Plus, HIM has always sounded ... slightly contrived (in a good way) to me. They write catchy songs, but I don't know if they're putting their heart & soul into them; I'm willing to bet they have the discussions of "Okay, and now we need a ballad, and then two mid-tempo rockers" when they're working on a new album.

Sean, if you get a chance, scoot over to The Black Parade, and use the embedded media player to skip forward to the song "Teenagers". I'd be curious to know what you think of it.

Jilli, it is indeed made of awesome. I love that they're streaming pretty much the whole album for us. I also love the skeleton drum major on their front page.

The song immediately following Teenagers, called Disenchanted, is also grabbing me.

Jilli, it is indeed made of awesome.

Isn't it? It's one of my favorites so far.

I also love the skeleton drum major on their front page.

Which was probably drawn by the lead singer.

The song immediately following Teenagers, called Disenchanted, is also grabbing me.

I actually haven't found a song I'm 'meh' about yet. The whole album is (IMO) fantastic. Now I just have to decide if I'm willing to buy the import CD single of Welcome to the Black Parade *just* so I can have an unreleased track.

Thanks for the link Jilli! I didn't love MCR's last album, but I think I may just have to buy this one.

oh em gee, guys. The Zero 7 concert was amazing. I loved them already--their albums are ones that never, ever leave rotation on my iPod--but they fucking blew me away live. I am so impressed with the music they make, right there in front of me. They were incredible. Sia was fantastic--to hear that distictive, floor-rumbling voice right in front of you is just an amazing experience. And Jose Gonzales was just lovely.

They played so many amazing tracks that I love, but they came back on an encore with this incredible piano intro to "Monday Night" and then Sia sang "Breathe Me," which was GORGEOUS, and they finished with this stripped-down amazing version of "Somersault," which was unbeliveably wonderful. No one wanted them to leave the stage. My god, what a fantastic show. I don't think I've ever felt that way at a concert before.

Also, Sam Hardaker is an adorable cross between Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds and Beck. So. cute.

I’ve been vacillating on posting this because I AM NOT OBSESSED, WHY ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT?!?!? but what the hey: the website The Great Leap Forward is currently hosting the entirety of Game Theory’s ‘Real Nighttime’

It’s one of my favouritest albums and may be known to some here from its appearance in Hec’s Lost In The Grooves (It may also be known to some here from their knowledge of music that would put God to shame). I’m desperately trying not to pull a list of reviews that call the band’s frontman a genius so I’ll just say that the album is brimming with shimmering guitars, low-key synths, erudite lyrics and gorgeous melodies.

The album, however, is on the site… what do you call that word that’s an anagram of illegalyl (Or at least I imagine it is). If you have a compunction about that, and why should you not?, it’s worth noting that the owner of the publishing rights to the Game Theory catalogue has been approached about reissues and hasn’t cared to sell them. So unless you dole out 50 quid (as I have) for a second-hand copy, you won’t hear this album; the only people that I can see would have their feet trampled on by this are music fans lucky enough to have a copy to sell and an owner that isn’t interested enough to profit from a reissue. And if it still bothers you, and why should it not? take a song or two, give it a listen and bin it, it could well brighten the corners of your day. If you’re going to do that, I recommend ‘24’, ‘She’ll be a Verb’, ‘Rayon Drive’ (though its lyrics are unusually facile in context) or ‘I Turned Her Away’ but I especially recommend ‘Curse of the Frontierland’ or ‘Waltz the Hall Always’. They’re all awesome but the last two are especially so.

I should include one other thing since recommendations are for the people receiving them: the singer’s voice is a self-described ‘miserable whine’ and I know a couple of people that won’t listen to his songs because of it. Also, if the link isn’t kosher, I suck and I’ll remove it.