Sun, 22 June: Weekly Review 67

I’m enjoying reading the Bangles biog Eternal Flame. A nice little factoid came up about their first single as The Bangs (soon to be Bangles), a song called Getting Out of Hand. It’s described as sounding a bit like the Mamas and Papas. I then realised this is the song they must have re-recorded and put out during their Doll Revolution comeback. I’ve heard it on Spotify and I had thought it was an old Mamas and Papas song they were covering, but no, it’s an original that was their first song. And it’s really good! I’m up to the bit where they record their first self titled EP with earlier bassist Annette Zilinskas. I have this EP and it’s pretty good. I especially like the song I’m In Line, sung by Debbie.

I started listening to the Power Pop playlist on my Thomson player in the car today. It works fine and the sound is good. My definition of powerpop is fairly open, including bands like Nirvana, Fur, Queen and even Aerosmith. I think each of those bands had at least some powerpop in them. I must include The Jam’s The Bitterest Pill and Queen’s Long Away, which I forgot to add – great PP songs. More songs keep occurring to me as I do this. I’d like to add more Raspberries, besides Go All the Way, but I don’t have any more. Must get some of their albums.

Speaking of powerpop, I’m still reading that Bangles biog. There was an interesting detail about their first US tour as the Bangles with the British Beat. It seems there were some romantic entanglements, including a dalliance between Susannah Hoffs and Rankin’ Rogers from the Beat. Rankin’ said he had a case of premature ejaculation over her. It’s good to see the book giving us some dirty goss, coz most of it feels pretty airbrushed. All the accounts given of Annette Zalinskis’ departure suggest it was amicable and down to her wanting to do a duo country thing with her boyfriend. But I smell a rat. Bassist Michael Steele admits she was being a bit opportunistic by moving in with Vicki Peterson at the time, like she wanted the gig. Many of their managers express surprise at Annette wanting to leave just as the band were on the cusp of big success. Was she pushed? Did The Bangles pull a Pete Best?

Read some more of the Bangles biog, Eternal Flame. The chapter about the Different Light album focused quite a bit on Manic Monday. So many conflicting accounts of how they came to record it, it was like something out of Rashomon. Or, as the author writes: ‘There are many different renditions of how Prince first became aware of the Bangles…and exactly how “Manic Monday” originally got into the band’s hands’. An interesting detail was the suggestion it was Apollonia, the protege of Prince, who supplied much of the lyrics. She talked about how he was prone to stealing other people’s lyrics, including hers. She seemed proud of them, citing them as ‘poetry’ or haikus. Hard to reconcile that with what’s there in the song. ‘C’mon honey, let’s go make some noise’. It ain’t exactly poetry. And it definitely sounds more like Prince than the Bangles. Susanna Hoffs hated that line so much that, to this day, she doesn’t sing it. When I saw them perform it at the Palais in 2004, she had the audience do that (which we did, happily).

I finished reading the Bangles biography, Eternal Flame. Although it satisfied some curiosity I had about the band and their career, it was overall a disappointment. The author, Bickerdike, clearly was not interested in discussing the music and spent way too much space featuring quotes from people in the Bangles’ retinue who were clearly not reliable. At one point she quotes NME journalist Barbara Ellen at length only to have her testimony questioned in a footnote because she, the author, knows what is written doesn’t jibe with what she knows about the Bangles personally. So, why even feature the quote? Keyboardist Greg Hifman mentions working with the Bangles ‘several times’ in Australia, which is puzzling, because the Bangles never played Australia (I should know – I had tickets!). As the narrative later mentions, their tour was canceled over some union strike (I actually recall it being because they broke up, but never mind). Then there’s the over repetition of complaints about the industry’s misogyny and their press-obsessed ‘rivalry’ with The Go Go’s. There was a nice anecdote about the Simon & Garfunkel song they covered, Hazy Shade of Winter. They left out a verse from the original about vodka and lime and so sent Paul Simon a case of vodka and limes to get his approval of the song – which he gave.

So, not a great biog but okay. They come off as a band struggling with the push and pull of wanting to be successful, and willing to make the compromises needed to do that, but also wanting credibility within the industry and to be true to themselves. You can hear the former on the hit singles; but the latter (and the real heart and soul of the band that every true fan knows) can be found on those deep album cuts like Dover Beach, Angels Don’t Fall In Love and Make a Play For Her Now. Check ‘em out!

I borrowed a nice Modesty Blaise graphic novel today. It’s a story called Mister Sun and is a compilation of the comic strips for that story. It looks fabulous. I’m still reading the first novel, and at the moment Modesty and her lover Paul Hagen are in a bit of strife with a tough guy. I know they’ll get out of it, but how? Will Willie Garvin save the day? Stay tuned!

Watched some Youtubes, including the latest Twice ASMR featuring Jeongyeon, Jihyo and Chaeyoung as they decorate character cards for Kpop Demon Hunters. They bicker and chat about the OST song they did called Takedown whilst decorating their cards. It’s ultimately a promo for the film, which I’ll be watching on Netflix when it comes out in two days time. As mentioned earlier, I made purchase of the expensive single recently. I haven’t even heard the song yet! The ASMR approach with them all whispering seemed to break down towards the end as they all got excited over their creations. It was a soothing, laidback time.

I watched the first couple of episodes of an anime called Nadesico. It was a lot of fun. A mecha satire from around 1996 that was very meta, referencing Gundam and Macross with an anime within the anime that was straight out of those shows. One of the pilots is inspired so much by it that he takes on the heroics of a Roy Fokker type with a similar fate. I loved how the captain of the ship Nadesico was a young woman who’s a bit of an airhead. This was fun, but I only have the first four episodes. I must seek out more.

I had a good conversation with Jeanette, one of my colleagues at work, about bands we’d seen. It was like one of those fisherman’s yarns, as in who has the most scars. I mentioned Paul McCartney, then she mentioned Coldplay. She said she almost saw The Rolling Stones, I mention I almost saw the Bangles back in the day (though saw them eventually). Then she said she saw Queen around 1986, which impressed the hell out of me. And she saw Prince on his last tour of Australia just before he died! I countered with David Bowie in 1983 on the Serious Moonlight tour, but I knew I’d been licked.

Watched the anime film Appleseed Alpha on Netflix. This was the third film in the series, and I’ve seen the other two. The 3D animation is a step up from the other two, looking almost photo realistic at times. The story has lead girl Deunan and lead rabbit-eared android Briareos helping a couple they encounter defeat a mega mecha that’s destined to destroy New York. On the way they hope to discover the utopia city of Olympus. So this is a prequel to the first two stories, where they’ve already discovered Olympus. I liked the gritty post-apocalypse setting and the gunplay was pretty impressive and fun. A nice side plot involved a gang boss called Two Ears who was expressively rendered. His allegiances kept shifting between Deunan and Briareos and his own goals, but he turned good in the end. A likeable Han Solo type rogue.

Watched the animated show Kpop Demon Hunters on Netflix. It just came out today. It was a really fun combo of Sailor Moon and Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a trio of Kpop stars at the heart of it. It’s their music and singing that pushes back the armies of demons that threaten their world. But one of the members, Rumi, is secretly part-demon and she’s conflicted. The only person she can share her troubles with is Jinu, but he’s the leader of a demon boy band who’s out to destroy Rumi’s band, Huntrix. Early on there’s a scene where we glimpse Twice’s song Strategy on Rumi’s phone music playlist, then it gets played on the soundtrack. Love that! As mentioned earlier, three of the members appear on the featured song Beatdown, so I guess there was always going to be a Twice connection here.

The show was fun but I felt its treatment of the demons was a little ambiguous. They are the bad guys but most of them are so clearly enslaved by the Big Boss demon that you feel sorry for them. Then there’s the fact that Rumi’s part demon aspect is hidden from her bandmates, who never have realised what she is. It’s not really convincing. And the bandmates get very little back story. It’s mainly about Rumi and Jinu. But I liked it a lot, the songs were great, and I intend to watch it again soon.

I started reading my K-On manga. It’s nice but pretty bare bones compared to the anime, which fills the story up with song and movement. I really want to re-watch the anime. I have the film, just not the TV show.

I watched the latest Twice Date ep on Youtube. This one was Momo and Tzuyu with their dogs at a ‘dog farm’. Between the women and the dogs it was a cuteness overload. They were very comfortable with each other, which is not always the case with Momo. And Tzuyu can be a bit reticent, but not here. The fact that both are dog lovers and had their dogs with them helped a lot. Tzuyu’s little light coloured dog is called Butter, which is the cutest thing, especially when she calls her that. This was a nice soothing laidback time.