Thursday, October 2, 2008

TVD Ticket Giveaway | Glasvegas | Friday (10/3) at The Rock & Roll Hotel

If the advance buzz is to be believed:

"So believe it: this is the real thing, no-one's crying wolf, not even Alan McGee. There's not enough hype in the world for Glasvegas. They are an important, amazing, real band that won't let you down. Not because they play real instruments and sing real songs about real people (they'd be just as genuine if they wrote noise collages about interstellar seahorses on MacBooks); they're real because they put their entire hearts and souls and brains into it. And that is rock'n'roll." –NME | "The best Scottish band since Franz Ferdinand sets its sight on America." –nylonmag.com | "If Glasvegas are the most important British breakthrough band of this year, just as MGMT are the most important from America – and the only doubt about that is whether we're talking merely this year, or years – then traditional values of rock'n'roll cool have little to do with it." –The Independent

...The Hotel is the place to be Friday night–and TVD's got a pair of tickets to put you front and center at the 5th stop of their first 6-date tour of the US for the band currently sitting atop the UK album charts. Get our attention in the comments section and we'll choose a winner for the pair Friday at noon.


Official Website | Official MySpace

Glasvegas - It's My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry (Mp3)
Glasvegas - Geraldine (Home Tapes Demo) (Mp3)
Glasvegas - Daddy's Gone (Mp3)
Glasvegas - The Prettiest Thing On Saltcoat's Beach (Mp3)


TVD's Daily Wax

If you've seen one of the many many many history of punk documentaries or read any number of books on the subject, you've undoubtedly come across the story of when Siouxsie and the Banshees appeared with the Sex Pistols on the 'Today' show with host Bill Grundy. At one point during the interview Grundy begins a horrible attempt at flirting with Siouxsie, to which Steve Jones, guitarist for the Sex Pistols, called Grundy several words not approved for daytime television in the UK. Bill Grundy was fired not too long after the show aired but nobody ever talks about that moment, which ruined Grundy's career and impacted the Sex Pistols' future as well, while looking at it through the lens of a feminist perspective. Often the only time you'll hear about Siouxsie is in the context of the Sex Pistols or Bill Grundy's pathetic pick up attempts.

Every story about that day ends in Steve Jones "standing up" for Siouxsie, so to speak, and Grundy getting canned. Siouxsie was, and still is, a strong woman and an awesome singer. Siouxsie may have gained notoriety as a groupie of the Sex Pistols, but she and the Banshees went on to have a career spanning twenty years, surviving the so-called death of the punk movement. Siouxsie's story is interesting, but so are the stories of other female punkers, like Vi Subversa, an anarcho-punk mother of two with a voice more haunting than Marianne Faithful's and more brash than Johnny Rotten's. Vi's lyrics were so powerful and controversial they resulted in her band, the Poison Girls, being attacked by British political parties. Although female punkers like Siouxsie and Vi inevitably get grouped under a small section in some chapter of most punk historical texts, they deserve as much space in the history books as their male counter parts.


Siouxsie and the Banshees - Hong Kong Garden (Mp3)

X-Ray Spex - Oh Bondage Up Yours! (Mp3)
The Slits - Typical Girls (Mp3)
The Au Pairs - You (Mp3)
Poison Girls - State Control (Mp3)

TVD Recommends...

"We Fought the Big One," the monthly DJ night celebrating the finest in DIY post-punk, left-field pop, and off-kilter independent music, returns this Friday night (10/3) to Marx Cafe. Last week's 'First Date' John Foster (aka Sad Croc) guest DJ's and is certain to spin many a tune close to the heart of any TVD aficionado. So, see ya there, right?

"We Fought the Big One" w/Guest DJ John Foster @ Marx Cafe
3203 Mt. Pleasant St. NW, Washington DC
10pm - 3am NO COVER 21+