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J Frank is removing himself to the Land of the Ice and Snow until July 10, during which time his lobotomy hole will be trepanned and reloaded with Cumberland Farms' green Jungle Koola and Pop Rocks.
Until then, I'm offering an aimless mix of music, save for the topical first track.
Roky Erikson - The Pledge of Allegiance This breaks my heart in 50 places, and not just for the current shape of my country. Recorded by his sister, clandestinely, while Erikson did (another) stint in a sanity-propping facility. Roky Erikson - You're an Unidentified Flying Object Hear the bug zappers? The satellite dishes? The open sky bringing his beloved down to him via a beam of light only he can see?
Crowded House - In the Lowlands I think it was spring 2005 that CH drummer Paul Hester lost a lifelong battle with depression and hanged himself in a park near his home in Australia. A damn shame. Some would think it surprising someone from such a sunny pop band would do so, but do not mistake Crowded House - their soph effort, Temple of Low Men, was a knotty and pleasing bit of complex, dour, and sometimes vicious pop.
Little Willie John - You Hurt Me The liner notes state that the backing band on this cut is 'unknown.' But you can bet they'd been drinkin', even though they said they'd been trying to stop. Which is what five-foot-nothing Little Willie John needed to do, just to avoid stabbing a guy and then later ending up dead, due to guard-fist induced pneumonia, in a Pacific Northwest prison.