A Tale Of Two Cardigans

Years and years ago, a coworker of mine introduced me to the lush sounds of the swedish alt/pop group The Cardigans with a mix cassette of her own devise. The songs she chose were selected from the group's first two releases, Emmerdale, and an album called LIFE. WOW, what a group! Sounding like a mix between the Beatles, George Shearing, and the Pied Piper of Hamlin, this was a VERY unique sounding band!

So after a few weeks of listening to that cassette, I fell in love with their retro, 1950's sound and decided I just HAD to have them on CD! Asking the girl about which albums to get, she told me, "Emmerdale and Life". Sounded easy enough, right? So I ran to the store and picked up both discs, and couldn't wait to blast 'em on my stereo system at home!

Well, It all seemed good, until the time came when I wanted to burn a CD in the same order of that Mix Cassette she'd made for me, and realized the song "Travelling With Charley" was nowhere to be found!
A winsome, quirky tune about a shleppy, unlucky (but determined) detective, this was one of the first songs I liked on the mix, and just HAD to have it on the CD!

So the next day at work, I asked her, "Say, where did you get the song Travelling With Charley? It ain't on either of those two CDs I bought." She thought about it and said, "it was on the Life album." I went like "Huh?" and decided to double check. Went Home, checked the Life CD. Nope, it wasn't on it. "Well, that's where I got it from", she flatly stated the following day. Ermmm, OK...

So my poor CD ended up without that song, and it wasn't until years later (and long since the Cardigans had become a famous, mainstream pop group with their single Lovefool) poking around online that I found out that the version of LIFE that my friend had was an IMPORT version, and that particular release had two or three songs not on the domestic "Mintyfresh" release! Argh! I made my way to ebay, and found an international seller selling a copy of Life right away, and when I finally got the CD in my hand, I was PLEASANTLY relieved to see, listed as track number 7, that elusive Charley Song!

You best believe that I reconstructed that original Cardigans mix right away, and that playlist now lies on my Ipod, ready to play at a moment's notice! And though it's not quite a standard representation of the Band's sound, have a listen to the song that caused all that fuss, the  spacey and airy Travelling With Charley!

Memories of Uncanny X-Men #127

I first started collecting  the awesome Chris Claremont/John Byrne run of the UNCANNY X-MEN starting from issue #125, and by the time the latest issue #127 came out, I'd gotten a few back issues including 123,124 and 108. By this time they were my favorite comic and I lugged them around to read wherever I went, even down to a family picnic down at the beach one evening!

While everyone was congregating , the uncles and aunts talking story and the kids running around on the field, I played introverted anti-social kid and drifted off to a shady area and began reading my comics. My cousin saw me siting under a tree, and asked, "Hey, what's that you're reading?" I proudly gestured to my stack of comics and said it was my FAVORITE comic, The Uncanny X-MEN!"Intrigued, she said, "that sounds interesting...can I take a look at them?"

Handing it over, I saw her immediately take a look at the cover of my newly-purchased issue #127, and then turning the cover to show me, she quizzically pointed at Storm and said, "But this is a LADY."
Ehhh? "Ummm...Yeah, but she's still a member of the team. " She frowned and looked at the cover again, and said "But the group is called X-MEN."

"Um...yeah." I said.

At that point my brothers came up to me and told me they were ready to do some fishing in the canal off to the side of the park, so I left her there reading the comics. When I got back a few hours later, I asked her if she'd read the comics, to which she said an affirmative "yup".

"So...How Did You Like It?" I asked.

"It was okay. That Lady was pretty Cool with the lightning bolts and all."

LOL! Anyway, to this day, whenever I see the cover of Issue #127, I think of that day at the picnic, and have to marvel at the fact that nawadays, X-MEN is SUCH a well-known comic/movie/cartoon,etc that there probably aren't that many people who don't know Storm or the other many females comprising the team. But back then...Wow.

Favorite Songs: "Everyday Is Like Sunday" by 10,000 Maniacs

Perusing W♥M’s review of R.E.M.’s song “Don’t Go Back to Rockville brought back happy memories of 10,000 Maniacs’ “Candy Everybody Wants” Maxi-Single, which featured not only “Don’ t Go Back To Rockville” and “Sally Ann”, but a cover of ANOTHER famous artist…

I used to go out with this girl who had a love of music as much as I did, and at that time, her favorite group was The Smiths, (in particular their enigmatic lead singer Morrisey) while one of my favorite groups (still is, actually) was the awesome Jamestown Alt/Folk band 10,000 Maniacs.

So one day at work, I’m listening to the college radio station, and they’re spinning the latest single from Natalie Merchant and the boys, and I am pleasantly surprised to hear them do a cover of Morrisey’s “Everyday is like Sunday”!

What an interesting choice!!! Listening to it, I just loved Natalie's take on the song, and I just couldn’t wait to go home and tell my girlfriend the news that two of our favorite groups had “connected” somehow! I picked her up after work, and was about to tell her the exciting news, but before I could, she burst out, “Guess what, today I heard some BITCH trying to cover Morrisey’s Everyday is Like Sunday!!!”

Stunned, I defensively said “What?! That was no “Bitch”! That was 10,000 Maniacs!!!”

Then she said, “Oh…really?” 

And I adamantly said “YEAH!!!” Ahahahahahahaaa!!!

Well, I can't remember if she ever gave the 10,000 Maniacs version a chance, although to be fair, she did like quite a lot of OTHER songs from The Maniacs. Too bad Morrisey never did a cover of one of Natalie's songs!