Sliding & Driving

Sliding & Driving (1996) Tanya Donelly

I might've mentioned some of this in an older post, but here it goes again: I loved Belly back in the early to mid 90s. Then they broke up and Tanya Donelly went solo. I remember being in the big Tower Records store in Boston back in 1996 and seeing the Sliding & Driving EP in their vinyl single section. it couldn't have been priced at more than $9.99, but as much as I loved Belly (and Throwing Muses), I didn't buy it.

I think I suspected that the music wasn't very good and I based that on the sleeve. I didn't like the colors or the collage style of the images. The lettering was cool but that was it. I also ignored Lovesongs For Underdogs when it came out in 1997. Maybe I decided that I'd pick it up someday, and I did, but that wasn't until 2003.

I'd made the right decision and I'd made a mistake. I was mostly right to ignore Sliding; half the songs weren't that good. But I really missed out by waiting so long to get Lovesongs. It's worth it for "Landspeed Song" alone. Then there's "Goat Girl", "Clipped", and "Swoon" (also included on Sliding).

But there's more that I'd missed out on: if I'd gotten Lovesongs back in 1997 I also would've picked up the CD singles and heard all the amazing B-sides.

"These Days"

"Moon Over Boston"

"Vanilla"

"Bury My Heart" and my favorite- maybe my favorite song ever-

"Influenza"

Anyway, here are some Sliding & Driving images.

Peeptown, PA

Almost ten years ago, one of my oldest friends got married and moved to Betheleham, PA. The town used to be the home of one of the largest steel mills in the country. Production declined over the past thirty years and now Betheleham Steel is out of business.

Now Betheleham is the home of the Just Born Co., maker of Mike & Ike candy and Peeps. My friend lives less than a mile away from the factory. I've wanted to visit so badly so that I could go on a tour and watch the Peeps being made.

Anyway, I came across this painting on Wiki and I like it a lot.

Dizzy

"Dizzy" (1989) Throwing Muses

There's something cool about the images on the "Dizzy" record sleeve. There's a certain hologram/3-D element to the cactus. I'm going to do some watercolor painting over the next couple days and I'm hoping to do something similar. If it's good I'll post it here.

Songs from Little Creatures

"The Lady Don't Mind"
"Road To Nowhere" (1985) Talking Heads

I own the first two Talking Heads albums on vinyl. Originally I bought them on one those "2 on 1" tapes that Warner Brothers used to put out. They did the same thing with some of Prince's early albums- you'd get, say, Controversy on Side A and Dirty Mind on Side B and the whole thing would cost about $7.99.

The other Talking Heads album that I have on vinyl is Little Creatures. A lot of people call it their first big "pop" album but I don't know. Yes, it has catchy songs, but I don't think they compromised anything.

There's one thing I don't like though: I've read a few times that David Byrne felt that the structure of "Road To Nowhere" was too simple so he added the gospel intro. I think that part is lame and it nearly ruins the song. Oh well.

The sleeve for Creatures is interesting. The album came out in 1985 and the style of the sleeve is very similar to Prince's Around The World In A Day. In fact, each albums single record sleeves are alike too as they both use isolated images taken from the larger album picture.

Take Me To The River

"Take Me To The River" (1978) Talking Heads

This is one of my favorite Talking Heads songs- the drums sound do good. The top sleeve is cool; I love it when artists use a variation of the album cover for a single's sleeve.

Lovesongs For Underdogs (1997) Tanya Donelly

I love the tape itself and I think the T-shirt image is an interesting choice.

Lately

Yesterday I was tired and spent most of the day in bed. When I wasn't sleeping I was watching movies, propped up with pillows. Shattered Glass was on so I watched that again.

As always, I'm really looking forward to Christmas and I'm hoping to start shopping the weekend after next. I've been working a lot over the past couple weeks so I'll have a good amount of money.

Do you look forward to Christmas, and what is your favorite part of it?