Official Site: Those Transatlantics
Those Transatlantics are just some fun, catchy, well-written pop candy. Love'em! Formed in Michigan around 2003, the TT are a little band that I wish more people would find out about. Those Transatlantics simply seems to be one of those bands that's going to have its little clandestine following but will continually fly under the rader of the general public.
Enjoy the great video awesome hook of "In Your Neighborhood".
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Haysi Fantayzee - Shiny Shiny
Official Fan Site: Haysi Recollections
Just thought I'd turn on the nostalgia machine tonight. As I'm digitizing my vinyl collection, I'd almost forgotten that I owned this! Way back in 1981 Jeremy Healy and Kate Garner along with Paul Caplin created the 'undergroundish' group Haysi Fantayzee. While the group did really well overseas, even breaking into radio rotation, they just never quite caught the mainstream over here in the states for some reason. The only place you could find them was on Mtv's 120 minutes late on Sunday night and that didn't last for longer either. It's rare that I get nostalgic about a band, but Haysi just sort of fit that unique mold that causes them to never quite break out beyond a few ears. Whether singing about the apocalypse or John Wayne's racism, the band's lyrics were probably the thing that kept them a little inaccessible to the mainstream audiences here in the states.
If you're interested in what ever happened to these 'interesting' looking performers, check the links below to see what they're currently up to.
Ladies and gentlemen? Haysi Fantayzee!
Kate Garner
Jeremy Healy
Just thought I'd turn on the nostalgia machine tonight. As I'm digitizing my vinyl collection, I'd almost forgotten that I owned this! Way back in 1981 Jeremy Healy and Kate Garner along with Paul Caplin created the 'undergroundish' group Haysi Fantayzee. While the group did really well overseas, even breaking into radio rotation, they just never quite caught the mainstream over here in the states for some reason. The only place you could find them was on Mtv's 120 minutes late on Sunday night and that didn't last for longer either. It's rare that I get nostalgic about a band, but Haysi just sort of fit that unique mold that causes them to never quite break out beyond a few ears. Whether singing about the apocalypse or John Wayne's racism, the band's lyrics were probably the thing that kept them a little inaccessible to the mainstream audiences here in the states.
If you're interested in what ever happened to these 'interesting' looking performers, check the links below to see what they're currently up to.
Ladies and gentlemen? Haysi Fantayzee!
Kate Garner
Jeremy Healy
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Polyphonic Spree - Running Away
Official Site: Polyphonic Spree
Because I felt bad for posting such a heavy-handed, kinda moody post last time concerning one brilliant Amanda Palmer, five minutes later I decide to post this song by the Polyphonic Spree. Consisting currently of 23 members, this Dallas band performs what they like to call "choral symphonic rock". "Running Away" is the kind of song you put on either like a silly kid goin' to some big event like prom for the first time or when you're older to just forget all the things that begin to weigh you down in this world. It's one of my favorite songs of what I like to call "friends having a good time together montage". You'll see what I mean when you hit play and imagine photos from the past collaging in your head. I've also used this song to show, again in montage, the remodeling of our first home. Somehow the song just kinda fits change when we share that change with friends and loved ones. The video for the song is also a montage. During a ten-day period that the band was on the road, over 70,000 still shots were taken to create what you're about to watch.
Hopefully you'll enjoy this palette-cleansing song and accept my apologies once more for the previous posts' tone.
Let me know if the song inspires YOU to make a slideshow or montage of your own! That'd be kinda cool to see!
Take care,
Tijuana Taxi
Because I felt bad for posting such a heavy-handed, kinda moody post last time concerning one brilliant Amanda Palmer, five minutes later I decide to post this song by the Polyphonic Spree. Consisting currently of 23 members, this Dallas band performs what they like to call "choral symphonic rock". "Running Away" is the kind of song you put on either like a silly kid goin' to some big event like prom for the first time or when you're older to just forget all the things that begin to weigh you down in this world. It's one of my favorite songs of what I like to call "friends having a good time together montage". You'll see what I mean when you hit play and imagine photos from the past collaging in your head. I've also used this song to show, again in montage, the remodeling of our first home. Somehow the song just kinda fits change when we share that change with friends and loved ones. The video for the song is also a montage. During a ten-day period that the band was on the road, over 70,000 still shots were taken to create what you're about to watch.
Hopefully you'll enjoy this palette-cleansing song and accept my apologies once more for the previous posts' tone.
Let me know if the song inspires YOU to make a slideshow or montage of your own! That'd be kinda cool to see!
Take care,
Tijuana Taxi
Amanda Palmer - Oasis
Official Site: Amanda Palmer
This girl, brought to my attention because only because I follow her current beau, Neil Gaiman (yes, THAT Neil Gaiman) on Twitter, has just completely floored me! I LOVE intelligent, strong women with a sturdy opinion and a ferocious sense of who they are, but also have this enchanting, unique charisma that draws you to them sort of like when you see a rainbow off in the distance. Never before have I been so taken in with lyrics, skill at the piano and personality than I have with Palmer. This whole thing may sound biased. Take a listen to the words the girl speaks. You'll know what I mean. There's a brutal honesty that most of us hide from those around us. It's an honesty that, if we could all articulate instead of being so scared to reveal, would make all our lives better for it. While this blog covers mostly pop-type bands, once in a while an artist comes along that you just HAVE to share with others. Amanda Palmer is one such artist.
Below you'll find the addictively 'poppy' Oasis. The second video dwells on a much more serious subject. Just listen to the words and each one of you will find something different and very personal in those lyrics. The third video I highly suggest you watch. It's Amanda Palmer, in a bar, with a ukelele performing an impromptu version of Radiohead's Creep. If, for some reason, you doubt my rambling about her charisma? Just imagine yourself doing this! Would YOU have that special something enough to quiet an entire bar of rowdy drunks? Would YOU be able to make a moment like this happen? We all know we're creeps in one way or another and that we're just tryin' to fit in somewhere...anywhere. Palmer is just letting you know that it's okay because there are others just as lost as you.
Next post? Maybe in the next five minutes? Something MUCH less heavy. Don't be angry with me, please. I just felt that everyone should get a chance to hear this amazing performer in all her modes!
Enjoy and take care,
Tijuana Taxi
Enjoy the beautiful, stunning and way-too charismatic Amanda Palmer.
This girl, brought to my attention because only because I follow her current beau, Neil Gaiman (yes, THAT Neil Gaiman) on Twitter, has just completely floored me! I LOVE intelligent, strong women with a sturdy opinion and a ferocious sense of who they are, but also have this enchanting, unique charisma that draws you to them sort of like when you see a rainbow off in the distance. Never before have I been so taken in with lyrics, skill at the piano and personality than I have with Palmer. This whole thing may sound biased. Take a listen to the words the girl speaks. You'll know what I mean. There's a brutal honesty that most of us hide from those around us. It's an honesty that, if we could all articulate instead of being so scared to reveal, would make all our lives better for it. While this blog covers mostly pop-type bands, once in a while an artist comes along that you just HAVE to share with others. Amanda Palmer is one such artist.
Below you'll find the addictively 'poppy' Oasis. The second video dwells on a much more serious subject. Just listen to the words and each one of you will find something different and very personal in those lyrics. The third video I highly suggest you watch. It's Amanda Palmer, in a bar, with a ukelele performing an impromptu version of Radiohead's Creep. If, for some reason, you doubt my rambling about her charisma? Just imagine yourself doing this! Would YOU have that special something enough to quiet an entire bar of rowdy drunks? Would YOU be able to make a moment like this happen? We all know we're creeps in one way or another and that we're just tryin' to fit in somewhere...anywhere. Palmer is just letting you know that it's okay because there are others just as lost as you.
Next post? Maybe in the next five minutes? Something MUCH less heavy. Don't be angry with me, please. I just felt that everyone should get a chance to hear this amazing performer in all her modes!
Enjoy and take care,
Tijuana Taxi
Enjoy the beautiful, stunning and way-too charismatic Amanda Palmer.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
A personal moment of remembrance and other peoples' hopes for you.
I posted the Invisible Cities link just a moment ago and said it the melancholy feeling I was experiencing. Why the melancholy? Today I came home from work to find a large, flat package on the kitchen counter addressed to me. Upon opening it, I just stood there in disbelief and a wave of sadness brought tears to my face.
Several months ago I was informed that a teacher I'd had in high school, Mr. Allison, had passed from a heart attack. I was saddened by the loss of someone who believed in all of his students no matter how idiotic they could be at times. In 1987, I'd drawn a really bad caricature of Ronald Reagan for some class project. Mr. Allison really enjoyed the drawing and asked if he could hang it on the wall of the trailer that was our classroom. I had no idea that that picture would hang there for the next twenty-two years.
It was that drawing that I was now holding in my hands. They'd started going through his trailer to clean things out and found the drawing. My mother, who works at the school, was given the picture by co-workers who thought I'd like to have it back.
I never knew just how important that simple, badly-drawn image would be two decades later.
This is for you Mr. Allison.
Toad the Wet Sprocket - Nothing Is Alone
Several months ago I was informed that a teacher I'd had in high school, Mr. Allison, had passed from a heart attack. I was saddened by the loss of someone who believed in all of his students no matter how idiotic they could be at times. In 1987, I'd drawn a really bad caricature of Ronald Reagan for some class project. Mr. Allison really enjoyed the drawing and asked if he could hang it on the wall of the trailer that was our classroom. I had no idea that that picture would hang there for the next twenty-two years.
It was that drawing that I was now holding in my hands. They'd started going through his trailer to clean things out and found the drawing. My mother, who works at the school, was given the picture by co-workers who thought I'd like to have it back.
I never knew just how important that simple, badly-drawn image would be two decades later.
This is for you Mr. Allison.
Toad the Wet Sprocket - Nothing Is Alone
Friday, September 4, 2009
The Invisible Cities - Watertown
Tonight I'm feelin' kinda melancholy. Listening to The Invisible Cities' song, Watertown just seems right tonight. If you'd like to hear more of them, you can actually download their entire album for free. Visit them at their official site: The Invisible Cities for more information and the free download. Make sure to leave a comment letting them know that you found about them from Tijuana Taxi and this blog. I'd appreciate it! Enjoy!
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Monsters Are Waiting - The Last Goodbye
Since 2005, Monsters are Waiting have been putting out some really dreamy indie-pop that just makes me wanna open the windows all over the house on a cloudy autumn day to hear lead singer Annalee Fery's voice mix with the rain and distant thunder. Andrew Clark's (guitar/bass) riffs remind me of much older bands like New Order, Flesh for Lulu and Echo and the Bunnymen. Trust me, once you start listening to the little band from Echo Valley, California...you won't stop. Here's one of my favorites, The Last Goodbye from their first full-length album, Fascination. Please visit their official website and purchase their stuff. Make sure you let them know you found out about them from this blog and Tijuana Taxi! As always enjoy and care,
Tijuana Taxi
Tijuana Taxi
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