At Long Last ...Disgracing the Family Name, by Skafish

This song helped me survive adolescence. Not as angry, not as bitter as I once was. Thanks for the catharsis, Jim Skafish. I still love this song


Even though these days, I am making the family name.......

Secret Origin of SNICKS!

I first became aware of the young man known to the world as Snicks a few years ago, when I subscribed to my first ever blog (see link section for Snicks!) after meeting him at a secret lodge (the Concilium Campus Foculus) where we are both initiates. Truly a modern renaissance man, his stellar example of blog Godhood led me to abandon MySpace and xanga for Blogspot in the first place. His take on pop culture, his tastes in 80's New Wave and other music, and his wit are legendary. Although I miss his Snick's Lost 80's, Snicks (a High Priest of WhiteWingedDovism) has been spreading his white wings a bit further these days stimulating brain cells and humor at the same time.

He's been writing for AfterElton, has assembled a playground with his family, (an eerie yet sublime dreamscape, certain to inspire the kiddies of today with a view of the world through a funhouse looking glass, darkly), monitored truly heinous plastic surgery disasters and political candidates, exemplifies the perfect role-model for uncles and pet-lovers, Tilda Swinton promotion, and male-enhancement expose's, yet still manages to keep us apprised of the most interesting reflections of the world around us, supplying the most interesting pop-culture apocrypha available on the web.

One might ask, then, who is Snicks...and how does he do it?


Some say it is his devotion to WhiteWingedDovism, a modern offshoot of the ancient Keltic Traditions following Rhiannon, Goddess of Horses in the Welsh Mabinogian. Growing up, young Snicks led a somewhat sheltered life. Although young Snicks dreamed of a career in wrestling, and simply being in the lockerroom caused his red american blood to throb in his veins, he was dismissed as too "bookish" by many of the young men he dreamed of challenging "on the mat".



One night, alone in his room, Snicks was dancing in his underwear with the lights off. The light of the full moon cast his dancing shadow on the wall as a haunting sound reached his ears... whoo, baby, whoo, baby, whoo... Grabbing his robe, Snicks ran to the hall "Me, baby, me, baby, me?" he cried aloud, thrown back by a blast of salty welsh air and a fluttering of white wings.



Snicks, his robe in tatters, slowly turned, and a vision of the Goddess Rhiannon loomed above him.


" Well I see you doing... What I try to do for me With the words from a poet... And a voice from a choir And a melody... nothing else mattered"

"Believe in your dreams", she cooed. "Carpe Diem, joke' em if they can't take a fuck, and get out there and have fun!"

"It's like I always say...just like the white winged dove... Sings a song... Sounds like shes singing... Ooo baby... ooo... said ooo Just like the white winged dove... Sings a song... Sounds like shes singing... Ooo baby... ooo... said ooo.

and, umm, take this gift and spread the word, Snicks, my favorite child.....




"Ummmm, What?" Snicks said, grabbing a handful of Funyuns. Then, suddenly, the light faded and Snicks stood standing in the hall, his tattered blue robe draped artfully from his desklamp, and a faint scent of Gypsy Rose perfume and onion powder lingering in the air. Snicks looked everywhere, but the only lamp left on in the house was his desk lamp, a blue lamp.

And indeed, Snicks has carried the message of the white winged dove in his heart, demonstrating it in his actions each and every day. The guys in the locker room notice the twinkle in his eye, the spring in his step. And though he masquerades as a mild mannered library consultant by day, he entertains the world by night and weekend at who knows what by night. Snicks, wherefore art thou?

Mark Kjeldsen, the lost voice of Power Pop

Music, when soft voices die
Vibrates in the memory -
~Percy Bysshe Shelley

A few posts down I wrote about the Sinceros, one of the great overlooked power-pop bands of all time. Mark Kjeldsen, the man who fronted the group wrote most of their songs. He had one of the most beautiful voices in power-pop, vibrantly illuminating the songs he wrote for the Sinceros and on a 7' single he released. Falling In and Out of Love, from Pet Rock, simply sparkles, and was later covered by Tracy Ullman. There is more on the net these days about the Sinceros than there used to be, but still little is known about what happened to this band. The band was poorly promoted, it seems, and whispers of creative differences can be found. The sad discovery that Mark died of AIDS in the 1990's after working as a cabbie in Holland, comes across as a mere footnote in articles at Wikipedia and the few places you will find if you search for him.

For what it's worth, it's more than a footnote to me. I was living in a small Kansas town when the New Wave was at it's height, though I was fortunate (and resourceful) enough to find the music I discovered through Saturday Night Live, HBO's Video Jukebox, Rolling Stone magazine and the Readers Guide to Periodical Literature ( yes there were information resources before the Internet) through mail order, and trips to Lawrence and KC (and God love my Mother for helping me find it. She didn't understand the music, but she understood how important it was to me). And so I had New Wave, I had the Sinceros, and Pet Rock inspired me to hang in there and be true to myself and I felt free, and hopeful.

Mark Kjeldsen was a beautiful man, and he made beautiful music. The spark his music nurtured in me, and in others, lives on. New Wave for me was the promise of new beginnings in a world which felt isolated and far from the world I wanted , and the lesson that life is full of new beginnings, if we have the eyes to see it. Power Pop, indeed.





 UPDATE: July 01, 2015  Amazon now has 2 versions of "Pet Rock"  by the Sinceros available for download! Lots of extra cuts!

Sinceros "Pet Rock" at CD Universe!

Quote of the Day

"Religion used to be the opiate of the masses, now it's the crack cocaine of assassins"
- Lydia Lunch

Paisley Park was in his mind... but it was also a Family Affair

The eighties were an interesting time for the man from Minneapolis known at various times as Prince, Prince Rogers Nelson, that ostentatious and ultimately annoying symbol, and eventually, back to just Prince. He started the decade with the brilliant troika of Dirty Mind, Controversy and the double LP 1999, which launched him to superstardom. Hot on the heels of 1999, the movie and album Purple Rain cemented his stature as a musical genius. He reveled in creating controversy and a baffling whirl of uncertainy about how much was his work, and who did what. Was he or wasn't he really Jamie Starr, engineer on Dirty Mind, producer of The Time and Vanity Six, derided by Prince himself on 1999's dancefloor classic D.M.S.R?


As Alexander Nevermind he wrote the delightfully risque Sugar Walls for Sheena Easton. There's no doubt the man is a bona fide musical genius, though he had the advantage of having excellent musicians to work with as well. Some of the projects which burst from the Prince scene were clearly Prince projects with guest vocals, (most notably Vanity Six), others such as the Time had first rate musicians behind the helm (in this case Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis) who generally didn't last long in the world of his Royal Purpleness. Jam and Lewis went on to success producing R&B hits for S.O.S Band, Cherelle, and Alexander O'Neal, ousted from the Time early on to be replaced by Prince pal Morris Day. Other people ousted from the early Prince phalanx included the very talented Andre Cymone (out after Controversy), Dez Dickerson, even Vanity, (replaced by Patricia " Apollonia" Kotero for Purple Rain). Many just passed through, seemingly without controversy, to careers of their own. Two of my favorites, Wendy Melvoin & Lisa Coleman (recording as Wendy & Lisa, their Revolution monikers), simply left on their own (after Parade), releasing a number of under appreciated albums yet working steadily and successfully through the nineties, later recording as the Girl Bros. They have also established themselves as composers in film and TV Dangerous Minds, Soul Food, and TV's Crossing Jordan, and the brilliant soundtrack to Heroes. An essential part of the chemistry that drove The Revolution, they have remained friend's with Prince, performing with him from time to time, reuniting with him on last year's Planet Earth, one of his best releases in ages.

It was around the time of Around the World in a Day and Parade that Prince founded Paisley Park Records. Serving as a launch point for protege's like Jill Jones, Ingrid Chavez and Mazerati, as well as established artists as diverse as Mavis Staples, George Clinton, the Three O'Clock, and Dale Bozzio (from Missing Persons) Paisley Park also released Carmen Electra's only cd to date (sample lyrics- "I'm like a spider in heat in this web of love you've spun", "Oh, Speak American, NO! Speak Carmenese" "You stepped left, so I left your butt", and of course "Funk is in my round buns, baby") proving that with nothing to work with, the Purple One does not have the Midas Touch.


One of the most overlooked, and sadly, difficult to find projects. was the second release from Paisley Park, The Family. Although apparently they only performed one concert, and the self-titled first release was all there is, it's a great album. It has a couple of uptempo funk songs (the spirited High Fashion, and Mutiny) Beautiful ballads(Nothing compares 2 U, and my favorite, the beautiful Desire) and New Wave influenced tracks like River Runs Dry and the single Screams of Passion). Nothing Compares 2 U was a smash for Sinead O'Connor but for the most part this album went nowhere. The Family was formed from the ashes of the Time, and suffered from poor promotion. The single got little airplay and the video got very little exposure, which is a shame, since it's one of the most cohesive things (in and of itself ) Paisley Park put out. Around the World in a Day and Parade had some great tracks (Raspberry Beret, Pop Life, Kiss) that kept him in the charts but was uneven as a whole, and ended the golden age of critical and commercial acclaim he'd been riding. The Family was well crafted, with a lush orchestral feel, and a noir-ish look that Prince would later explore in Under the Cherry Moon. Formed in the wake of The Time's disintegration,The Family featured Paul "St. Paul" Peterson (who joined the group as keyboardist for Purple Rain and the the accompanying Time release Ice Cream Castles) as lead singer, and adding Susannah Melvoin, (Wendy Melvoin's sister) as vocalist. Paul Peterson left the group to seek more creative freedom, and Prince simply absorbed the remaining members into the expanded Revolution. According to St. Paul's website, the Family is reuniting with most of it's original line-up,

Bobby Troup and Julie London in the house...

Get your kicks with Bobby Troup and his lovely wife, the incomparable Julie London

because sometimes you need to just sit back, relax, and let the music flow through you.

Happy 50th Birthday Sylvia Stone

Whether you are here on earth or not, thank you for the love, and for being my angel.

The Sinceros

I first became aware of the Sinceros as Lene Lovich's backup band on her premiere album Stateless. This was around the time their second album Pet Rock was released, and it became one of my favorite album's of the early Eighties. It featured the wonderful song "Memory Lane" and the haunting gem "Disappearing" All in all, one of the most overlooked bands of all time, a group well worth remembering. Currently out of print, with a small but growing internet fanbase of bloggers willing to spread the word. Till there is a real release (after all, Elton Motello, The Dancing Cigarettes, Holly and the Italians, and other hard to find bands are finding new life in CD release and mp3 downloads at iTunes and Amazon, so surely there's hope) here is a video and a link to "Memory Lane". The YouTube Video below is a performance of their first single "Take me to Your Leader" from the album The Sound of Sunbathing. Enjoy! And help keep the music alive.



One of the best Sinceros tracks, lead vocals in this case attributed to Don Snow, later keyboardist for Squeeze, most recently performing as Jonn Savannah  (Links expired, working on getting new ones.  NOTE: Last.FM  now has 4 Sinceros tracks available!

Also, Pet Rock is now available at CD Universe!
Sincero's "Pet Rock" at CD Universe MP3's!