Listening to the new Gorillaz record Demon Days, as well as some classic Damon Blur in "Tracy Jacks" (the song that washed me away into anglophilia), i'm reminded of the one morsel of wisdom that ever passed Noel Oasis's lips:

"That c*nt is like, 'Is there a bandwagon passing? Park it outside my house.' He'll be in a heavy metal band next year when it's fashionable. He's nothing. And it's fitting that he ended up as a cartoon. He always was a cartoon."

Something about the most recent Nine Inch Nails single "Only" had been bothering me, until i realized i could play it on top of Pretty Hate Machine's "Down In It" in my head and the two lined up perfectly. Seriously, when i try to think of one or the other now they end up as one garbled mass in my head. But the funny thing is that it's not really garbled, the two sync perfectly. It seems Trent is now plagiarizing himself, throwing in a bit of synth noise à la the Faint to make it sound fresh. It's a mash-up waiting to happen. Which reminds me, one of these days i need to sit down and write my treatise on why mash-ups are the lowest form of art in modern society, marginally below ribbon dancing in gymnastics.

i'm becoming less defined, as days go by

kinda like a cloud i was up, way up in the sky

fading away, well you might say i'm losing focus

and i was feeling some feelings you wouldn't believe

kind of drifting into the abstract in terms of how i see myself

just then a tiny little dot caught my eye, it was just about too small to see

there is no you

i was up above it

there is only me

now i'm down in it

Speaking of plagiarism, Veronica hit the nail on the head recently in her assessment of indie up-and-comers She Wants Revenge. Their single "Tear Me Apart", getting significant airplay on Live 105, is Bauhaus's "Bela Lugosi's Dead" sung by Ian Curtis. I had previously mentioned the Joy Division similarities, but V correctly pinned down the instrumental relationship to Daniel Ash, David J, and Kevin Haskins. So in response to my previous dilemma, i think we've established that their self-titled record is in fact the ultimate in poseurdom.

A sore throat kept me sidelined for most of the weekend, perfecting my technique in FIFA 06 and Sniper Elite, revisiting Winning Eleven 8 International, picking up a bunch of Goldfrapp records, and watching the excellent four-hour documentary The Crusades: The Crescent and the Cross on the History Channel. Naomi spent much of the weekend with us, hitting New Wave City with Veronica on Saturday night. My state of health prevented a reenactment of the previous weekend's events, particularly our foray into karaoke with the PS2's Karaoke Revolution. I gave everyone a good laugh with my rendition of "Flashdance", as well as a more respectable offering of Simple Minds' "Don't You Forget About Me". Geoff and Naomi each tried to sing the impossibly difficult "ABC" by the Jackson 5, while Veronica gave a respectable version of Britney Spears's "Oops! I Did It Again". Pure hilarity. V is trying to get her hands on the newly released Guitar Hero, another musical video distraction, this one featuring a full-size guitar controller for use in rocking out to a selection of current and classic tracks. Another Samba de Amigo, perhaps? We'll see.