Monday, December 20, 2010

Tis the Season- Day 14- GIRLS | HELLHOLE RATRACE



Tonight you get Girls, another new band that consists mainly of two guys, the lead singer and songwriter Christopher Owens was raised in some religious cult that his father belonged to until getting out as a teenager and ending up homeless on the streets of San Francisco before forming this band and putting out a great album and a new EP that's pretty fucking good, they have influences all over the map, on the record you can hear Motown and 70's am gold, tinges of classic rock, punk, all kinds of shit, i dig it. This song takes me back to a certain point in my life but the lyrics seem timeless, they apply today just as much as they would have 10 or 20 years ago...

This video on the other hand i am smitten with, it makes me all nostalgic for my misguided youth, specifically the years between the ages of 20-30, i remember nights like this, friends hanging out and getting fucked up, from the club kids, to my indie friends, to my gay friends, to the cool kids, eating acid and smoking dope and drinking cheap booze and living, walking streets til the sun came up and stealing candy from the mini-mart, hitting the all night diners or hanging out at the donut shop right after they opened to have a smoke and a cup of coffee before heading off to bed after a gorgeous night, hell even the hot chick who kissed everyone but slept with no one, it's all there, from Ocean City parties, to Cleveland clubs and donut shops, to Pittsburgh bars and apts. and all night diners, and when the camera peers into the mini-mart i get this incredible feeling of deja vu, the acid trip feeling of standing outside zinging along as you watch your friends through the window, realizing how fucked you feel and how fucked up you are and how fucked up they feel and how fucked up they are and it feels beautiful, like running into the ocean at dawn, after a night of song and wine and you look next to you and this pretty girl is smiling at you and the water's cold and the sun is bleeding red and you splash and kiss and shiver on your way up the beach, holding on to each other and the old night and the new day...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

i've had that night. this made me sad - because i'm pretty sure that the person i became can't do that again.

and i can hear all sorts of things in this song - but A LOT of Elvis Costello. love it.

Kono said...

Daisy- That's why i love this video, those nights are burned into my head, yet i know i can't go back and when they were happening it just felt like they'd last forever, that you'd just do it all over the next day and we usually did and then somehow they taper off and then stop and you look around and you got a house and a couple of kids and the friends you had have disapeared or became assholes or ended up just like you, life just happens and it seems i've always been acutely aware of it, hence my memories and ability to enjoy the moments, i went from remembering the sunrise on acid to remembering the sunrise as i rocked my son back to sleep and they each mean different things to me but they both ellicit a distinct feeling of happiness in me...

and if you look close you can see The Smiths Queen is Dead poster in the background in the video.

Rassles said...

It's not just days like that, it's years, and for like two years you're immortal. And you run into people who knew you from the real world and they ask where you've been, what you've been doing, and you talk about the band and they just look shocked because YOU? In a BAND? Yes. They never knew you anyway, fucking idiots. They have no idea who you are and they never knew, and you're shocked at how long it took you to find your this pack.

And then someone dies. His heart bursts, like it actually bursts within his chest, and you all have a funeral to go to, and you try to keep it going, but that's it. It's time to grow up. Everyone goes to law school or gets their MBA, the band breaks up, and you get your first 9-5, because bartending isn't the same anymore and everyone is worried about you.

Yeah. That video captures it well.

Rassles said...

"...realizing how fucked you feel and how fucked up you are and how fucked up they feel and how fucked up they are and it feels beautiful, like running into the ocean at dawn, after a night of song and wine and you look next to you and this pretty girl is smiling at you and the water's cold and the sun is bleeding red and you splash and kiss and shiver on your way up the beach, holding on to each other and the old night and the new day..."

This, as well? This is perfect. Absolutely everlasting and perfect.

sybil law said...

Ooooh, man. The video in particular - definitely brings back flooding memories. In so many ways, I do miss all that shit.
Excellent. Thanks, Kono.

Kono said...

Rassles- sometimes it's like 7 to 10 years, damn near a jail sentence and towards the end you wonder if you've become a caricature of your former self, the funerals though, that's heavy shit, i skipped 'em and went to the wakes, usually held in bars cuz some of the people i knew who died, that was the closest they had to a family, the hoods and hookers and hangers-on... and thank you for the kind words.

... and you know the wake i really wanted to go to i had to skip for fear that the fuzz would be sitting somewhere taking pictures but to this day, now and then i drink a Jack and Coke in his memory.

Sybil- you miss it and you know you can't get it back but if i was still living it i wouldn't be doing this, i'd be waking up on the floor again, besides the hangovers seem to take longer and longer to get over, the hards drugs even longer...