Not going to talk about the electoral apocalypse just yet.
I’ve always vaguely known that the Sisters of Mercy/Terri Nunn song Under The Gun is a cover/reworking of a Billie Hughes song, but I only just looked it up. Holy guacamole! It’s so 80’s synth-ballad it could be from the Ladyhawke soundtrack!
I am – as always – astonished at the level of talent that allows Andrew Eldritch to turn what we have above into a masterpiece while simultaneously being a complete (although highly entertaining and often surprisingly justified) dick to everyone around him.
Have found myself mildly obsessed of late with the extremely creepy ‘Black Star’ by Lustmord. Fifteen minutes of droning base, blaring horns and terrifying roars/screams. It’s downright elemental.
My earlier post about the Protomen’s album The Cover Up and their version of Iron Maiden’s The Trooper with each instance of “Russian” replaced with “Robot” got me thinking about what a more extensive conversion would look like. So I wrote one. Here ’tis.
You’ll take my life, but I’ll take yours too You’ll fire your maser, but I’ll run you through So when you’re waiting for the next attack You’d better stand, there’s no turning back
The siren sounds, the charge begins But on this battlefield, no one wins The smell of acrid smoke and diesel fumes As I plunge on into certain doom
My cycle engine roars, we break to run The mighty roar of the robot guns And as we race towards the android wall The screams of pain as my comrades fall
We hurdle bodies that lay on the ground And the robots fire another round We get so near, yet so far away We won’t live to fight another day
We get so close, near enough to fight When a robot gets me in his sights He pulls the trigger and I feel the blow A burst of rounds take my bike below
And as I lay there gazing at the sky My body’s numb and my throat is dry A mess of wires where my arm had been I never knew I was one of them…
And if that’s not enough desecration of a metal classic, check this out…
Yes, you can put out a kickass album of covers, but wouldn’t you rather put out a kickass album of covers, claim it’s the soundtrack to a movie from a parallel universe, and imply the plot with your song choices?
I don’t know much about the Protomen, but I know that their version of Silent Running blows the original out of the water (and that The Trooper sounds even better with the lyrics tweaked to be about robots).
I happened to catch Planet America last night and was extremely pleased that Cheeto Mussolini’s stupid shoes provided the perfect excuse to repeatedly play clips from Herreys’ 1984 Eurovision winning Diggy-Loo Diggy-Ley – a song that I am inexplicably and entirely unironically fond of.
Behold the official English version, which includes some classic 1980’s CGI – the creation of which probably took several weeks in Quantel Paintbox.
And if that’s not charming enough for you, here’s Herreys’ performance 31 years later at the Eurovision 60th anniversary concert. They’ve still got it! (Or at least still had it back in 2015).
I chow down on a bowl of mari, Marinara, marinara sauce, Then just another bowl of mari, Marinara, marinara sauce, If you choose to down it hastily, It will tickle you internally, And I see nothing wrong with that…
Barely survived the first heatwave of summer. Not that it’s technically summer here until the end of the week. Thank you climate change!
The heatwave lead to sleep deprivation which lead to an odd obsession with Mike Batt’s musical version of The Hunting of the Snark. It’s very good but I’ve listened to it far too many times over the last week, to the point that I’m mentally throwing around casting choices and mumbling fragments of verse under my breath. “But at first sight, the crew, were not pleased by the view, which consisted of chasms and crags…”
This caused me to dig out my copy of the poem – purchased on a whim from Elizabeth’s bookstore in Subiaco in its old location out the back of the markets in around 1990 – and discovering that it’s one of only 1,995 collector copies of the Centennial Edition, published in 1981. I hopped online to check out the value and it’s worth about $100 in good nick – not that mine is in particularly good nick, and I wouldn’t consider selling it anyway. But it’s nice to know that it’s somewhat exclusive.
I’ve also become obsessed with building a 40k scale model of the epic Siegfried Light Tank. I’ve scoured the internet for photos (there ain’t many) and have managed to get a design together for every part of it except the back. I rather suspect I may have to buy one on eBay which while not massively expensive is still a bit of an investment for a tiny piece of metal. And for a model that – if history is any judge – I’ll never get finished. Although maybe if I spend money on it it’ll actually motivate me to finish it. Hmmmm. I wouldn’t bet on it.
Oh, and over the weekend when I was supposed to be getting other stuff done I did an update of my Warhammer 40,000 according to the Simpsons bit of nonsense. The current version is revision 4, but I’m already thinking I need to add the Men of Iron, and know exactly what screenshot to use. In any case here ’tis for your edification and enjoyment.
Need to add those Men of Iron…
Now that things have cooled down, maybe I’ll be able to get some sleep. I wouldn’t count on it mind you…
