YOU DON'T NEED SOMEONE NEW

i've posted this video before, but i just pulled out my 12" single of this song the other day and i've been playing it non-stop. i'm kind of obsessed with the early 80's liverpool music scene and with this wild swans spin-off band in particular. as you may already know, the wild swans were founded by ex-teardrop explodes keyboardist paul simpson in 1980, releasing one excellent ep (the revolutionary spirit) and a radio session recorded for john peel before splintering into the lotus eaters and care (featuring simpson and future lightening seed ian broudie). the lotus eaters released one full length album (no sense of sin) in 1984 that i'm DYING without.
while i'm at it, here's a video of the wild swans from after they re-formed in 1988 (dig the drummer!) and a video of care that i've posted before and am also OBSESSED with...




interesting side note: all three bands continue to be massively popular in the philippines. good taste over there, i guess...

SPEEDWAY

THE FORCE/ZODIAC

JERK DREAMIN'

i had a vivid dream this morning that i was on the hunt for jamaican food with my friend paul (i assume we were in or around toronto). we were looking for some fabled "best jerk chicken spot" deep in the bowels of a dark suburban shopping mall. when we finally found it, the line up of people and the smells of curry and spice wafting from the back signaled that we had indeed found something special. it was one of those dreams where you can never quite get what you want or get where you're trying to go, so in waiting and ordering and waiting some more, the chicken was always just out of reach. at one point a man came out from the back with a huge tray of fresh fried "johnny cakes", which were snatched up in a frenzy by all the people waiting. i have no idea if they were really johnny cakes or what they were, but they looked like large flat donuts with some sort of intoxicating curry gravy oozing out. i woke up soon after, never having tasted my dream chicken. now i have a hunger- nay, LUST- for jamaican spice with no other option but to try and make it myself. i'm venturing off into new kitchen territory here folks, wish me luck!

BLOCK OF WOOD

"and it doesn't look good
and i'm feeling like a block of wood
so take me away
i know not where..."

ONLY MUSIC SURVIVES (AGAIN)

ONLY MUSIC SURVIVES

where did they find that gross drunk serge gainsbourg-looking bum? oh wait...

MADE IN JAPAN

NO NO NO

ACID

"you had to be belgian..."

ROCK TO THE BEAT

TWO HEARTS

LET THE MUSIC TAKE CONTROL

i know i've said this many times, but... best video ever?

I'VE GOT YOU UNDER MY SKIN

i'm wearing my skin-tight latex outfit and tassle mask and dancing around in my living room right now!

THIS IS THE DAY

well you didn't wake up this morning
because you didn't go to bed
you were watching the whites of your eyes
turn red
the calendar on your wall is ticking the days off
you've been reading some old letters
you smile and think how much you've changed
all the money in the world
couldn't buy back those days
you pull back the curtains and the sun burns into your eyes
you watch a plane flying across a clear blue sky
this is the day your life will surely change
this is the day when things fall into place
you could've done anything if you'd wanted
and all your friends and family think that you're lucky
but the side of you they'll never see
is when you're left alone with the memories
that hold your life together like
glue
you pull back the curtains and the sun burns into your eyes
you watch a plane flying across a clear blue sky
this is the day your life will surely change
this is the day when things fall into place
this is the day Your life will surely change

AFTERALL

RETURN OF THE MACK

a club classic, obviously. i've been jamming this track hard in my head for the last week and i've watched the vid easily 20 times. there's just something about british r&b...

MOON OVER MARIN

The crowded future stings my eyes
I still find time to exercise
In a uniform with two white stripes

Unlock my section of the sand
It's fenced off to the waters edge
I clamp a gasmask on my head
On my beach at night
Bathe in my moonlight

Another tanker's hit the rocks
Abandoned to spill out its guts
The sand is laced with sticky glops

O' Shimmering moonlight sheen upon
The waves and water clogged with oil
White gases steam up from the soil
On my beach at night
Bathe in my moonlight

I squish dead fish between my toes
Try not to step on any bones
I turn around and I go home

I slip back through my basement door
Switch off all that I own below
Dive in my scalding wooden tub
My own beach at night
bathe in my moonlight

There will always be a moon over Marin.

OOOPS UP

I'M DOWN

CUTS YOU UP

you know i love a vampire in a mock turtleneck...

MOSCOVET MOSQUITO

MEDUSA

what is the deal with raccoons?
i'm familiar with the "devil may care" attitude of city raccoons and their complete lack of respect for the usual human being/wildlife code of conduct, but what's up with these country fuckers? did you know that raccoons all shit and piss in a communal "latrine"? that's what they're called, latrines. i googled this shit. there is a giant stinking pile of raccoon shit directly behind my house. there's even a small stack of raccoon-related trade journals beside the pile. maybe a little raccoon graffiti on the tree. what made them choose that particular spot? privacy? they just liked the vibe? did they have a meeting about it where they put it to a vote? they also like to hang out on my roof at night, just walking around, doing who the fuck knows what. weirdos.
and what are these dudes eating? seriously, it looks crazy back there.
anyway, seinfeld...

YOU'RE THE ONE FOR ME

RAINFOREST

maybe every day i become a little bit more like my parents...

FAR TOO FRAIL

TESTURE

i don't wanna sound like a total fucking loser here, but i have some serious mixed feelings about the neil young and crazy horse concert i went to last sunday night. if i can say anything for sure about it it's that i haven't stopped thinking about it since. i am a fan, obviously, and knew going into the concert that a. neil young and crazy horse had just put out a new record and were touring in support of it and b. crazy horse jams it out live. that being said, i guess i just assumed that neil would be playing a few new songs and then doing a greatest hits set of all the songs i love and wanted to hear. well, the set was pretty heavy on new material and frankly, i wasn't feeling it. don't get me wrong, neil's guitar playing was completely insane, his voice was perfect and the band did exactly what they do best, but... the new songs felt weak to me. and unfortunately kind of cheesy. and they jammed them out FOREVER. can i blame neil for being a creative and amazing musician well into his sixties and wanting to showcase new material rather than just "trotting out the hits"? nope. not at all. the problem with the concert was me and my expectations, for sure. truthfully, i don't really know anything off any album after sleeps with angels and he's released probably 15 albums since then. the classic songs were for the most part absolutely incredible, jammy, but that's to be expected. songs like powderfinger, cinnamon girl, mr. soul and my my, hey hey (into the black) were absolutely mind-blowing to me. and i seriously almost shit my pants when the band went into perhaps my all-time favorite (and most self-relatable) crazy horse song fuckin' up. but then they went and jammed it out in the longest, weirdest and most goofball way imaginable, turning it into a bloated grunting viagra sex-fart. i dunno. but after everything, i didn't leave feeling disappointed. i left feeling stoked that a guy like neil young can pack out a huge fucking stadium and do exactly what he wants to do as a creative musician and not have it seem like a "fuck you" to his fans (like me) who just wanted to hear like a hurricane. the whole thing was simultaneously punk as fuck and as completely unpunk as possible. and i respect that, god damn it! plus it was his birthday and getting to sing happy birthday to neil young with fifteen thousand people was pretty special.

ONCE BITTEN

HIT ME WITH YOUR RHYTHM STICK

EVIL EYE

LADYHAWK - Evil Eye - 2012 from Jeremy r. Jansen on Vimeo.

here's another vid made by the jer-bear...

RUB ME WRONG

LADYHAWK - Rub Me Wrong - 2012 from Jeremy r. Jansen on Vimeo.

here's a vid our friend jeremy made!

EASY GO

skip the first 30 seconds or so...

I'M A WITCH

here's an awesome video our dear friend sipreano made for us. bonus points for naming all the album covers he used...

"LOW-RENT NICKELBACK" COMPLETE TRANS-CANADIAN TOUR

here are a couple new vids for some of the jams on our new album. more coming promptly...

so anyway, we just completed our "big" canadian tour with baby eagle and the proud mothers and it was a blast! good times. thanks to everyone who came out and rocked out and fell over and sang along and cried and sprayed us with beer or champagne or "natural champagne". just kidding. being sprayed with stuff kind of sucks, but i understand and appreciate the spirit behind it. i don't wanna get all ian mackaye about everything.
just sitting here at home listening to the milli vanilli "girl you know it's true" 12" single i picked up in toronto and thinking back over the last couple weeks. it's all such a blur, seems like forever ago that we played that first show in victoria on a quiet tuesday night back in mid-october. all the shows were good in their own way, some were busier than others, but at every one of them the people were there to PARTY (props to the joy road crew for representing and rocking the house at the otherwise zombie-fied kelowna show!). i have made no secret of my overall dislike of touring in the past (and present and future), but it was awesome to see so many stoked people in so many places after not playing there in such a long time. and then there's toronto. for whatever reason, people go completely bonkers at our shows in toronto. it's actually pretty hilarious. very flattering, really. but seriously, we're just an emo band, we're not fucking black flag. ha! looking up and seeing some dude completely upside down and some girl literally flying through the air while geysers of beer erupt in my face and bottles smash against the ceiling is pretty surreal (and actually kind of terrifying). as long as everyone is having a good time and nobody gets hurt it's all good to me. again, i don't wanna get all ian mackaye, i just want the front of our shows to be as inclusive as possible, know what i'm saying? anyway, toronto gets the gold ribbon for rocking the hardest as always. so what's next? who knows? nothing? we shall see...
for now, i gotta get back to dancing around in my sweat pants to this dope-ass kashif record i scored in a bargain bin. more on that to come shortly...
p.s. sorry to any and all ladyhawk fans in the states, we just straight-up ain't coming down there. nothing personal.