"Joyride"

Or: "How I found something great and learned to shoegaze from a mediocre movie".

And when I say "mediocre" I mean "I liked it!". Last week, on thursday, I was looking through the movies on OnDemand's FearNet channel. After watching "You Better Watch Out!", a christmas set horror movie with a killer santa clause, I thought it'd be cool to watch "Joyride", don't ask. Thinking I was about to watch that one scary movie with Paul Walker and the semi-truck, the "Joyride" I was actually about to watch was very, very different. It's this 1996 film starring Tobey Maguire and that one girl from Felicity (Amy Hathaway!), and this other guy. It's about this teenaged motel clerk (Maquire) who steals one of his guest's car one night with his friends, for a joyride, and the car turns out to be that of a female assassins!! No joke! Very 96, about a step up from the trash level of "The Doom Generation", and the acting is funny. So I enjoyed it very much. The best thing about it though was its SOUNDTRACK, which is just awesome. I liked a few of the songs throughout the movie and when the credits rolled I figured I should see who some of the artists were for fun. I wrote down like, all the names, and noticed that pretty much every artist was signed to 4AD, which is the label that originally took in the Breeders, and I was intrigued. Long story short- I did a few amazon seaches, dl a ton of albums, read some stuff, dl more, and noooow I'm like a bona fide shoegazing shoegazer!! Haha, the soundtrack included artists like Lush, Pale Saints, Spirea X, and Swallow. I didn't know it then, but these are all bands that were pretty well loved in the shoegaze community around the early 90s, and have all made some really incredible music. From there I got into Rollerskate Skinny, Chapterhouse, and Slowdive, also very popular with the shoegaze kids, and also all very good. I can't get enough of them! And I feel I've only scratched the surface of this thing called Shoegaze. Not like it's hard to love though, it's all washey and dreamy and noisey, with beautiful melodies and whispers and all, but it's sure got me hooked. It's pretty funny, last thursday I hadn't even heard of any of these bands, and now I prob couldn't live without em. And all from some cheap movie on tv that I had no intention of ever watching! It's great!! I love movies!!

Where I'll go from here I have no idea, yeah i'm a changed man now. Well not really haha, but it's still awesome the things movies can do for you, even when you don't expect it. It's all magic...

Donnas! Forever!

Here's a description of the Donnas latest project, announced last week:

The Donnas are excited to announce their latest project: a detailed retrospective collection of their illustrious 15 year (and still counting) career. It will contain remixes and re-recorded versions of classic songs from their extensive 7 album catalogue, unreleased B-sides and rarities, as well as brand new songs. To add to the decadence, the package will also include video footage from the Donnas archives, past to present! The band is ecstatic about this collection and hope to have it out by Spring '09. It will be released on their own Purple Feather Records and distributed by Redeye Distribution. Please stay tuned for further updates.

Fun! Haha, I'm excited. I've always thought it'd be cool if they rerecorded some of their old songs now with they skilllll just to see what it sounds like. I can't wait to hear it! Plus, new songs are always great. I love that they have their own label now because they can do cool stuff like this simply because they want to haha, it's good!!

Then they updated us with this message on Tuesday:

"Helloooo from the studioooo!
Isn't it great that they gave us such a great deal to record at Abbey Road, for free!! All we have to give them are autographs, which is so hard and draining but it's worth it right?! Ok, just kidding, we're still local, but we are in the studio, and we're having a great time recording some tunes from the past and giving them new life! It's kind of crazy like therapy, bringing back all kinds of memories, like when we used to hide radishes from Happy Taco in each other's bags!! Anyway, we hope these things are as fun and nostalgic for you too.Rock awn! Luv,The Donnas"

So it seems to be in full effect now. I'm assuming itll be out around may when their bandiversay is, haha. I want to know what they're rerecording!! They haave to do Rock n Roll Machine, and if they do Leather on Leather I think I will DIE, I go crazy for that song. Their bratty, kitchen-recorded early early stuff should prob remain as they are, songs like We Don't Go and I Wanna Be a Unabomber, which are perfecto the way they are and MAGIC of their time. They might not work so well polished. Songs like Shake in the Action, though, would sound incredible with what they can do now. Whatever they decide to do it's gonna be awesoome, oh yeah.

Truly one of the most underappreciated bands of all time, whats it gonna take to make people listen??