I am 27, I am gay, I live in New York City, and I've a sneaking fondness for dinosaurs.
I HAVE TO HAVE THIS. That “Viva La Vida” cover is exceptional; like all the best PSB covers it makes you wonder how any other band could possibly have written a song that was so obviously meant to be a Pet Shop Boys song.
Pet Shop Boys - “The Way It Used To Be” - Yes
If you follow my Twitter page, then you know I went to the Pet Shop Boys concert last night, alone, and that being alone in a crowd of affluent, coupled gay men was pretty depressing for me (I’d just had to flog my second ticket to the show for $50 on Craigslist; it was bought back in those heady days when I had a boyfriend). But then the show started, and it was totally worth all the pre-show grief. I don’t have the brainpower for a full-on writeup, but I would refer you to this Brooklyn Vegan post for the setlist and some excellent photographs, and to YouTube for video of my favorite performance of the night, “Two Divided By Zero” (unfortunately this high-quality video was recorded at a festival performance, so the full stage set isn’t in evidence; refer to the photo post for that). The PSB always have amazing and ingenious stage shows (can’t wait for the inevitable DVD), and I got to hear two of my absolute all-time favorite deep cuts, “Two Divided By Zero” and “King’s Cross,” so I’m a happy camper.
The above MP3 is my favorite song from the current PSB album; it absolutely nails that uniquely gay melancholy that I come to the Pet Shop Boys for, and as a bonus, it’s a very New York-specific kind of song. Plus, it’s just full of awesome hooks. It kills me when Tennant quasi-raps, it really does.
(Plays: 24)
Just spent a lot of money I don’t really have for tickets to two shows: Bat For Lashes on August 12th at Webster Hall, and Pet Shop Boys on September 3rd at Hammerstein Ballroom. See you there?
My favorite music weblog and my favorite pop act? Yes plz.
On April 5, 1985, Neil Tennant left Smash Hits magazine to devote himself to Pet Shop Boys full-time.
Can we please get an official gay holiday created for today? KTHXBI.
Well, that’s that sorted then. Any time this album wants to leak would be perfectly fine by me.
There are kind of a lot of albums coming out in the first few months of the year that I’m really looking forward to (or, in the case of the Morrissey album, already enjoying). I have all of these marked in my Google Calendar, because I am a nerd, but it’s such a noteworthy pile that I figured I’d list them here too for convenience’s sake:
Jan. 13: Fever Ray - Fever Ray (Solo project by Karin Dreijer from The Knife. Download-only date — physical album 3/24)
Jan. 27: Franz Ferdinand - Tonight: Franz Ferdinand
Feb. 10: Lily Allen - It’s Not Me, It’s You; Missy Elliott - Block Party
Feb. 17: Morrissey - Years Of Refusal
Mar. 3: U2 - No Line On The Horizon
Mar. 23: Pet Shop Boys - Yes (UK date; US release TBC)
April 20: Depeche Mode - [Title TBA]
There’s probably gonna be a Scissor Sisters record this year too. I may sniff with some interest at the Bruce Springsteen, Decemberists, and Royksopp records that are coming out in the next three months as well. Now I just need to decide if I’m going to bother buying a physical copy of any of these, or if I’m officially a digital-only purchaser in 2009. This is a much more intense decision than it probably sounds like.
It should start off with some sort of shit acoustic version of a song like ‘Left To My Own Devices’, and then everyone will be thinking “this is going to be shit” and then something big kicks in (‘It’s A Sin’ will do nicely), and then they should do a bit of the new single ‘Love Etc’ (FYI Xenomania should be a ‘backing band’ but sort of in shadows) and then Girls Aloud should come on and join them for a bit of ‘The Loving Kind’ (which will by that point have been an international Number One hit single) and then Robbie comes on to sing ‘She’s Madonna’ AND THEN MADONNA APPEARS AND SINGS SOME OF IT except changes the lyrics to “I love you baby, but face it I’m Madonna” while images of Guy Ritchie flash up on the big screens, and then Britney comes on and does ‘What Have I Done To Deserve This?’ with Neil, and then Bono and Neil duet on ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’, and then it’s ‘Paninaro’ o’clock, and then they ‘slow things down a bit’ with West End Girls and then it’s time for ‘Go West’ with a thousand miners in buckets being lowered down from the ceiling. Actually Xenomania shouldn’t be on stage, it should just be Neil and Chris.
All in the whole medley should last for about 75 minutes.
„ Popjustice on the performance the Pet Shop Boys should give at the Brit Awards.
