Sky Motel: Part Two

Sky Motel has some of Kristin Hersh's best and happiest songs: Echo, A Cleaner Light, Cathedral Heat, and San Francisco. Along with Clay Feet and Costa Rica, Sky Motel is a good CD to take along on your next vacation.

"Cannonball", "Safari", "Tipp City"

I never liked the cover for The Breeders Cannonball EP- the photo or the colors. I do like the back cover. Cannonball has three B-sides: Cro-Aloha- another version of "No Aloha" from Last Splash, and two songs where Josephine Wiggs sings- 900 and Lord Of The Thighs (an Aerosmith cover).

Safari is better. Also it's one of my favorite records. It was the first Breeders record that Kelly Deal played on and the last one featuring Tanya Donelly. In fact, I think she was already gone by the time they played So Sad About Us on Letterman.

All in all, Safari sounds like a break-up record- each song a reference to the end of Pixies (and a goodbye to Throwing Muses): Don't Call Home, So Sad About Us (a Who cover), and Safari. This EP also has the first appearance of Do You Love Me Now whch showed up on Last Splash and the Divine Hammer EP.

Tipp City was released as a single from The Amps Pacer album (there were two videos: Tipp City and Pacer).

Two movie posters, one attractive photo

I don't mean to copy Final Girl- she will, from time to time, do a "Awesome Movie Poster Friday" where she spotlights some film ads she likes, ususally all related to a certain director or series.

I just wanna take a break from record sleeves and show a couple posters that I like. The first is for The Green Mile and features a painting of Tom Hanks- it's sort of old fashioned and different. The other, from the movie The Invasion, is different too in that it seems more focused on being a striking image as opposed to selling the movie.

Also, a while back I was reading up on JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald on Wikipedia and I came across this photo of LHO. I had never seen it before and it caught my eye. That yellow-gold-orange glow from the bottom of the picture is really interesting. If I ever dig out my oil paints in the near future I mean to do a similar portait (not of LHO) with that same glow. By the way, the monitor on my other computer is broken- pictures on it look much darker, and, in most cases, much better. This one especially; I wish you could see it on the other one.

A note about the text

You know how sometimes at the end of a hardcover book there'll be an "About the Author" page? It's usually just a paragraph long- it'll say what other books the author has written, where he went to school, and where he lives.

A couple years ago I came to the end of a book (I think it was Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis) and in addition to the author page there was another- "A Note About The Text". This too was just a paragragh. It said that the text was set in Baskerville and it gave a brief history of the Baskerville typeface.

It seemed odd that they'd add that page. I looked back at the text and didn't notice anything really special about it, but, oh well.

Anyway, about 2 weeks ago I came up with a better way to present things here.

I've been putting album and movie titles in italics, EP titles too. But when I started RJ Battles I put song titles in quotes, which was fine, but I've got a better way.

Let's say we're talking about the Pixies's LP Doolittle. Songs from the album will be in bold print except when they're used as the title of an EP. For example:

"One of my least favorite songs from Doolittle is Monkey Gone To Heaven. I think it should've been left off the album and replaced with "Weird At My School" from the Here Comes Your Man EP."

Notice that "Weird At My School" stays in quotes because the subject of the post is the Doolittle album. If I were writing a post about the Pixies in general, I'd put all their song titles in bold print.

I think this will make posts a little clearer and I've gone back and edited some older entries. I'm not a writer but I'd like to make RJ Battles as easy to read as possible. Plus I think this makes the posts more attractive.

The Breeders "Last Splash": Part One

In 1993 I heard Cannonball on the radio and loved it. It's still one of my favorite songs (and videos- that was a good idea to have the band play with a big mirror behind them and the film equipment all around- it just looks so cool and shiny).

When I listen to the album, Last Splash, it always reminds me of wintertime because I made my friend buy it for me for Christmas.

Last Splash has a lot of good songs and a lot of shitty songs. I get the feeling that sometimes, the goal was to be "experimental" instead of listenable. That's what I think of Mad Lucas. Also, there's a problem with Divine Hammer. I like the song, but it's too subdued. I'll always turn up the volume but it's unsatisfying. I don't know if it's the drumming, or the guitars, but the song never takes off. Songs like SOS, Hag, Invisible Man, and No Aloha are just boring.

Over the years, along with Cannonball, my other favorite is Drivin' On 9, a country cover. It would've been a good single.

Sometimes I'll think about how certain albums could've been better. Last Splash would've been excellent if certain songs were dropped and added and if the order were moved a little.

Last Splash The Breeders

Side One
1. New Year
2. Cannonball
3. Lord of the Thighs [from the Cannonball EP]
4. I Can't Help It [from the Divine Hammer EP]
5. Do You Love Me Now
6. Flipside

Side Two
1. I Just Wanna Get Along
2. Divine Hammer
3. Hoverin [from the Divine Hammer EP]
4. Drivin' On 9
5. Saints

I think I'll burn a copy of this version to listen to when I do some cleaning this week. You should get on Limewire or Soulseek, download these songs and make your own. You'll love it.

March

March is going to be the biggest month yet here at RJ Battles. I've got big plans.

+ For the first time I'm going to participate in the Final Girl Film Club. I've been wanting to do it for a while but it never worked out. This month it's going to be a movie called "The Beyond" and I think the date is March 30.

+ Also, I'm still waiting for questions for my advice column Ask RJ. There's gotta be something I can help you with. Write to me. Send your questions to nowtheyllsleep@hotmail.com

+ I'm gonna try to spotlight some more recent sleeve artwork plus some other designs and photos.

+ There will be some new movie reviews, inluding my review of "Shattered Glass".

+ I'm going to put up a post about editorial cartoons.

+ March is going to be Breeders Month here at RJ Battles too.

+ Plus I've got some surprises in mind. Stick around.

Liz Phair "Supernova" "Juvenilia"

Liz Phair's second album Whipsmart came out in 1994. At that time I hadn't heard Exile in Guyville though I had read about it. I really liked the song Supernova when I heard it on the radio so I got the cassingle. What I really ended up liking was the B-side, Combo Platter, which was a kind of remix of some Girly-Sound demo tapes. It helped that I smoked pot back then. Combo Platter was echo-y and trippy (by the way, part of the song ended up being the song "Shitloads of Money" off the Whitechocolatespaceegg LP) and her voice sounded really pretty on it.

Anyway, I liked the sleeve art even though it was just a photo of that shiny star garland that's used for gift wrapping. A few years ago I found the 45 at a record store and picked it up. I probably wouldn't have, except it's on blue vinyl which I think is cool.

After Whipsmart came out Phair released the Juvenilia EP. Along with six older demos it had Jealousy from Whipsmart and a cover of Turning Japanese.