Music Trippin'

Heidi-ho, ladies and gentlemen! It's your long silent friend Kateri Joe at the keyboard tonight. I've been plugging away at revitalizing Peculiar Curiosities! Oooh, you guys should see it...it's going to be bizarre! Two words: Victorian laboratory. *giggles*

Speaking of the upgrade, the Etsy storefront will actually be changing on September 14th! We'll give you more details on that in a later post.

Today's topic is about a fun little exercise that Jonathan and I seem to do all of the time: The epic event of venturing down memory lane to the music, both good and bad, of our life so far.

So, here I present to you a small representation the music of my life. It's going to be a gruesome journey, but insightful to say the least.



First song in my memory: Billy Ray Cyrus Achy Breaky Heart
At the age of three or four, this FANTASTIC train wreck of a song became a constant on the airwaves in Arkansas. Being young and impressionable, somehow I managed to find my four-year-old self singing this song (and dancing to it) one random Sunday after mass to my father. Yeah, Dad, don't break my heart...my achy breaky heart. Never again will I sing country music with such Arkansan pride.



Somewhere around the age of nine: Natalie Imbruglia Torn
I'm the youngest kid in my family. I have six older siblings, all of which were pretty much out of the house by the time I was seven years old. With that age gap, none of them were consistently in my life. So, when this song started playing during one of the rare occasions of alone time with my older brother Ben, it was kind of awkward. Maybe I didn't help by humming to it...maybe.



On the edge of my freshman year of high school: Dirty Vegas Days Go By
Pubescent Kateri was showing signs of growing into her skin. Yeah, I still love this song. I played it for hours in my fake Walkman CD player while on a family road trip, with the rolling scenery of the Southwest playing in front of my eyes from the backseat of a Jeep. Imagine the oranges, yellows, and blues running together while this song droned on with it's killer beat. Heavenly.




A year ago, just before my 3rd year in college: H.I.M. Venus Doom
Tired and usually annoyed, this song (and the album matching it's name) played in my car rides to and from working a full day at my university's academic advising center. Yes, I'd sing this song at the top of my lungs in the car after a day of being chewed out by misguided parents over the phone who just KNEW that I, being the office student secretary, somehow messed up their precious, and dependent college student's schedule. It seemed to ease some tension, I'd say.

Eh, that's just a taste of my musical timeline. Somewhere in the mix, you could throw in some Marcy Playground, Savage Garden, N*Sync *groan*, The Teenagers...but this is an overview. Billy Ray Cyrus is pretty rough, huh?

Until next time,
-Kateri Joe

Snazzy Dream

'ello Peeps, of the human kind!

I had the most AWESOME dream last night.
Two words: Robert Smith.

Mr. Smith, himself

Let me set the scene. I'm wandering around at this Woodstock-like scenario, sans the stereotypical sex and drugs. A tour bus pulls up and, low and behold, The Cure band members step out. I see Robert, complete with lipstick and eyeliner, and somehow I catch his eye. My dream skips scenes, and the next thing I know, I'm sitting beside him. We're chatting it up, and becoming acquintances of some kind. It was a colorful conversation, but I don't recall any details. It lasts for hours, until he has to depart back on his tour bus. But, at the end of the conversation, I know that we're some kind of friends.

Now, for those of you who aren't familiar with Robert Smith, he's the face of the band known as "The Cure". Famous for little diddies like "Friday I'm in Love", "Just Like Heaven", and "Lovesong", this band has been on the scene since the late 1970's...like 1976 if I'm not mistaken. While the line-up changes, one member has always remained - Robert Smith. Traditionally done up in his cherry-red lipstick and Einstein-like hair, Smith is often considered to be The Cure by himself. His voice defines the band - if he weren't the lead singer, the band wouldn't be The Cure.

The Cure is my all time favorite band, hence why this dream is so snazzy. And Robert Smith is just an icon for me. He's an artist who just DOES what he wants to, without hesitation.

Who can't respect that?

I'll leave you now with two of my favorite songs.
The first is from earlier in the life of The Cure.

"Why Can't I Be You" by The Cure from 1987



And this lovely song is from their most recent album.

"Underneath the Stars" by The Cure from 2008

Tell me, have you been having some awesome dreams lately?
If so, you're a lucky devil. This was the first good dream I've had in a long time. :-P
But how awesome it was...

Until I come out of hiding,
-Kateri Joe

P.S. In the first video, can you catch the naughty reference during the music video? See if you can catch it...

D'espairsRay Redux!

So, I was running through some of our older posts and I realized that I more or less just half-assed the D'espairsRay musical inspiration entry! Just threw the video up and said, "Hey, I like them! Watch the video!" Such an awesome band like D'espairsRay deserves far more respect than what I gave them. And so do you fine people. Like I said, I tossed the video up and told everyone, "Watch!" and didn't even say a single thing about D'espairsRay. Who they are, why I LOVE their music, and so on and so forth. Everyone ready? Fasten your seatbets, cuz we're off like a hooker's clothes!

The members of D'espairsRay are:


HIZUMI (vocals)


Karyu (guitar, vocals)


ZERO (bass, vocals)


Tsukasa (drums)

Now that they have all been introduced and gotten the "Who they are?" out of the way. We have come to the "Why I LOVE their music." Well, ladies and gentlemen, the answer is quite simple. D'espairsRay satisfies all of my musical needs. Their songs vary from fast and aggressive to slow and depressing. The song above, "Trickster", is about middle of the road when comes to their sound and style.

While I am learning Japanese, I know very little (probably just enough to get myself into trouble, haha.) Hizumi sings in a mixture of Japanese and English and though is a language barrier. The emotional way Hizumi sings, at least in my mind, shatters that barrier. What's that saying? "A smile can overcome any language barrier." I think the same principle could be applied here as well.

Until next time! Everyone have an awesome weekend!

-Jonathan

Random Interest: Solanin

As I'm sure it's now obvious, Jonathan and I love to strive to show you guys something that you might not have seen before. And today is no exception!

Today's topic, ladies and gentlemen, is that of Solanin by Asano Inio.


(The cover of Solanin)

A vibrant twist on the mundane day-to-day of a young 20-something, this illustrated story deals with that scary realization every person deals with: This is it? This is MY life? Centered around Meiko, a recent college graduate who finds herself struggling to enjoy coorporate slavery, Solanin documents her journey to break away from the social standards of having a stable job. She choses freedom over stability, and over the course of the book, she discovers herself through music.

Also weaved into the plot is a love story, a story of friendship, and a story of an artist. But, I'll spare you all of those summaries.

(A page from the manga.)


Totally void of age-old plastic characters and dead storylines, Solanin is purely a joy to view. I fell in love with it, and finished it in maybe four hours tops. I guess the story is a bit relatable, haha.

What do you think? Have you seen this before?

Until later,
-Kateri Joe

Musical Inspiration: Mindless Self Indulgence

What can I say? Jonathan and I are inspired people.

This week's musical muse comes in the form of MSI, or Mindless Self Indulgence.

Sprouting from Jimmy Urine's solo album known as "Mindless Self Indulgence", the punk rock project - later a full-fledged group -came around two years later with the addition of Steve Righ?, Vannessa Y.T., and Kitty under the same name as Urine's original endeavor. Still raging on over ten years later despite line-up changes*, MSI packs a punch that leaves grandma twitching on the floor beside her rocker. Their music, often politcally incorrect and deviously playful, is the industrial sound that just tickles my fancy.

(*Vanessa Y.T. was later replaced by Lyn-Z.)

Give them a listen. The repetitive lyrics with that rushing bass are sure to soothe your angry soul.





Opinions?

Until we meet again,
-Kateri Joe

P.S. -- Here's a fun fact for any comic connoisseur: That video in this post was directed by Jhonen Vasquez.