Sublimation

My Dear Fellows & Dear Princess Normal,

When Feefs moved in with us, it was Xmas 2002. She stayed almost a whole year and probably my abiding memory is of her washing up. 

She would take her CDs into the kitchen with her. She LOVED Muse and Placebo. Plug In Baby and Pure Morning over and over again. But more than anything else, she played Sublime, who I'd never heard before.

It's odd. They were a ska band, and I love ska, and came up out of the same scene as No Doubt, who I also like. I'm not sure how I missed them. But actually whenever I mentioned them to people in the UK, they seemed as clueless as me. I don't think they were ever that big over there. Here in NZ, they are still HEEEYUGE. Whenever you walk by a bar you are likely to hear...

I don't cry when my dog runs away
Don't get angry at the bills I have to pay

I suppose it is because they just have this sunny, laid-back groove that fits well with the NZ vibe. Actually, they were from California in the early 90's and their lyrics have that same sleaze-in-the-sun feeling that the Chili Peppers have. A lot of their lyrics are about the Californian underbelly; about prostitution, drugs and shootings. Their song Santeria would fit really well in "Breaking Bad: The Musical". 

Sublime didn't last long. Bradley Nowell, their lead singer, felt that to be a true rock star, you had to be on heroin and he overdosed just as they were on the verge of making it big (which is why he appears as a ghost in their music videos). He's also sometimes substituted by Lou Dog, who was Bradley's Dalmation and the only dog band member I've ever heard of.

So that is today's blip. I thought I'd talk about music in the absence of anything interesting having happened at work today. Enjoy.

S.