Monday, March 17, 2008

Lonely is as lonely does...

Lonely is an eyesore.

This first video is one of my favorite songs and videos ever. It's barely music--it is somehow transcendant. My best friend Monique aquired a compilation album called Lonely is an Eyesore around 1987 or so, and this song, 'Fish' was on it. I don't know if it was every released on any other Throwing Muses album--I can't find it anywhere. They used to play the video on 120 minutes. Some wonderful person somehow has found it and posted in on youtube. 1+2+3+4+5+6+6+6+6+6+6....
If I could get one of those recorded message things attached to my gravestone, I would want the noise she makes at 4:06-4:09 to be the message. If I wasn't immortal I mean.



This one below is extrememly hard to find. It's a great video, and even better song. Monique and I saw this video on 120 minutes or Nightflight, and went to 'World Records' in Topeka soon after, and quite unbelievably, she found the 12 inch LP. She had the BEST music luck in the world. Except for the unmentionable "Crucifux" incident in Kansas City that should probably not be explained in full. I'll just say my mother's 'omen' prevented me from being present, and a 'wire wisk', van, and the movie Faster Pussycat Kill Kill and a couch were involved. Although maybe that was good luck after all. Also, being the parent of a teen now, I'm not sure my mother's omen had to do so much with psychic phenomena--perhaps hearing the name of the band "crucifux" may have had a bit to do with it.


Find more videos like this on Loud Old Guys

2 comments:

Regan Lee said...

That was GREAT Richelle.

BoneFolder said...

I went on a trip to Europe after I graduated high school in (ahem) 1987. I was at the Tower Records in Picadilly Circus when I found the LP of Lonely is an Eyesore. It listed the bands on the 4AD roster on the front and I knew of several of them, and it was a big fat thing so I though it was a really varied compilation.

When I got it back to the hotel I opened it. While I was irritated that it was only one LP, the elaborate packaging was a revelation. Obviously I didn't have a turntable so all I could do was examine the packaging. The graphic style was a revelation and I could not eliminate its influence on me if I wanted to. The only lyrics in the package were from "Fish".

I have a fish nailed to a cross on my apartment wall/it sings to me with glassy eyes and quotes from Kafka…

Holy crap. I'd never heard lyrics like it. And when I finally heard the music, nearly a month later, well, I must say that was the most expensive compilation I'd ever listened to. I proceeded to spend all of my spare cash on pretty much anything on the 4AD label.

I still listen to it regularly -- just in the last month I've listened to Throwing Muses, Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil, Pixies, Bauhaus and His Name is Alive. (I see you've posted the astonishing Brothers Quay video for that last.)

Pixies and Throwing Muses, in particular, occupy a very unique place in my life.

Thanks for reposting this video, which is indeed hard to find.