Mis-Shapes is a club in New York. By now, perhaps everyone has heard of it. Maybe it's a good club, maybe it's not. I don't know. This post isn't about the club. It's about the song.

Last night at Underground, Dia played "Mis-Shapes" and it was one of best dancefloor moments of the night. At one point, this Pulp number was a Brit pop staple. Dia, Chris B., Larry and I all played it probably more times than we can count. As for me, I always liked to play "Mis-Shapes" late in the night. It has the sort of slow intro that lets the crowd think that you might actually be giving them a chance to rest (as if, dude, we're there to make sure you can't walk the next day), then it burts into a pogo-hopping call to action.

"Brothers and sisters can't you see, the future is owned by you and me. There won't be fighting in the street/they think they got us beat/but revenge is going to be so sweet."
-- Jarvis Cocker

After the song, we were sitting outside, talking about Brit pop in Los Angeles. I had brought a new friend with me, a Rockit writer who has lived in the city for less than a year, and Anthony and I were telling her about how the Brits ( and Scots, Welsh and Irish) pretty much dominated the underground from the time we were kids until a few years ago. Even bands as obscure as The Divine Comedy had a club hit in Los Angeles ("Generation Sex"). Now, the L.A. indie club scene is a completely different place.

"Did I tell you that Supergrass cleared the floor for me last week?" I asked Anthony.

His jaw dropped.

Okay, so "clear the floor" is an overstatement. Still, it didn't do that well, paricularly considering that "Alright" was always a no-fail club selection.

We started to tell my friend that the we knew the Brits were losing the stranglehold on Los Angeles a few years ago. At that time, Pulp, Blur and Placebo had all released new albums, all of which essentially tanked on the dancefloor, save for a remix of "Trees" from Pulp that I always played at the very end of the evening. Since then, well, there's basically Bloc Party and Franz Ferdinand and that's about it. I still wonder why it is that people are now more inclined to dance to tunes they can hear on the radio at any given moment than freak out to import singles that might make a splash a year from now. There is nothing more shocking to the ears of discerning music fans than the knowledge that Justin Timberlake will do better on the indie dancefloor than The Futureheads. [End rant.]

Last weekend, I went to the Tower by my house to get the new Lily Allen CD. It wasn't there and the girl told me that they were unable to order anything for a few weeks. Also considerably odd was the fact that 80% of the magazine shelf was out dated (the Tower in Northridge always had a good sized, well stocked rack). Now I know why.

Tower Records is going out of business.

Liquidation sale starts tomorrow.

Has anyone else noticed that the TV trailers for Marie Antoinette feature music by New Order and The Cure?

Sofia Coppolla has chosen contemporary music to score the film, and some critics see the film as a stylized music video with Kirsten Dunst being a teenager.

I have nothing interesting to write today, unless you really want to hear my rant about proper use of apostrophes when referencing decades, i.e. 1990s not 1990's and '80s not 80's. Instead, I suggest you read Joel Stein's column about those darned kids and how they can't rebel. It's almost as funny as his piece on conducting business lunches at American Girl. Almost.

So, I'm doing one of those reading things next weekend. Having never done one before, I have no idea what to expect. I do know that I will be reading a humerous tale of the misadventures of goth kids in the Valley, circa 1992.

The reading is actually the last date of a book tour for Todd Taylor (of Razorcake) and friends. Here are the details. I hope you can make it.

Sunday 10/08/06 8 p.m.
Mountain Bar
475 Gin Ling Way (Chinatown)
Los Angeles, CA
90012-1712
*Also reading: Joe Meno (author of Hairstyles of the Damned), Todd
Dills, Mickey Hess, and Liz O.)
Vermin on the Mount is pleased to announce the book release party for
Todd Taylor's novel Shirley Wins. Joining him are a trio of
Midwestern writers: Mickey Hess (Big Wheel at the Cracker Factory),
Todd Dills (Sons of the Rapture) and Joe Meno (Hairstyles of the
Damned, The Boy Detective Fails). The Mountain is located at 475 Gin
Ling Way (directly across from the Wishing Well) in Chinatown. Fun
starts at 8 PM.

Tonight, I finally figured out how to work the DVD DJ machine. This is considerably odd given that I probably own a grand total of 4 music DVDs and frequently find myself bored whilst watching Fuse. But, the DVD gizmo was there, as were the DVDs and I figured why not? I still prefer vinyl, mostly because I like to mess around with pitch and all that good stuff. I would presume that you could do that with DVDs as well, but right now I'm just happy to be able to learn how to turn it on and off. Here's the set:

Nightmare of You-- I Want to be Buried in Your Backyard
Kill Hannah-- Under the Milky Way
She Wants Revenge-- These Things
Lifestyle-- My Favorite Song
Flatpack-- Sweet Child O' Mine
CSS-- Let's Make Love and Listen to Death from Above
The Sounds-- Song with a Mission
Hot Hot Heat-- Middle of Nowhere
VHS or Beta-- Night on Fire
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah-- By the Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth
The Stills-- Still in Love Song
Shiny Toy Guns-- Don't Cry Out
Bloc Party-- Baquet
Teddybears-- Cobrastyle
The Faint-- I Disappear
White Stripes-- Denial Twist
Franz Ferdinand-- Do You Want To?
The Killers-- Mister Brightside
AFI-- Miss Murder
Yeah Yeah Yeahs-- Date with the Night
Louis XIV-- Finding Out True Love is Blind
Goldfrapp-- Train
Fischerspooner-- Emerge
MIA-- Galang
Lady Sovereign-- Random
The Rapture-- House of Jealous Lovers
Gorillaz-- Dare (DFA Mix)
LCD Soundsystem-- Tribulations
Le Tigre-- Deceptacon
Blur-- Girls and Boys
Supergrass-- Alright
Elefant-- Misfit
She Wants Revenge-- Tear You Apart
Interpol-- Evil
The Bravery-- Fearless
Editors-- Munich (Cicada Mix)
Starsailor-- Four to the Floor (Jacques Lu Cont Mix)