Flat out simply, I may be late to the game on ADRIAN BORLAND, and that applies to any project he’s ever fronted or been involved in, but I’ve yet to hear anything with him that was less than great. This one is no exception. A few of the songs, by the way, are the best Stooges songs that The Stooges never had anything to do with, except the obvious influence. There are similar David Bowie influences but who in the post-punk/coldwave scene wasn’t drawing directly from the Bowie well to at least flavor their work?

I was thinking about it yesterday and I believe that I have to confess that I started ignoring a lot of the new wave/post-punk/coldwave bands back in the 80s as MTV flooded the United States with bands that I deemed plain innocuous and soft. Also, there seemed to be a class thing here in the States that put me off. A lot of it was the well-heeled middle class kids and artsy sorts that embraced all of it with the fashion and the clubs — it required a bit of money to fit in. In that respect I believe that hardcore grew in response to a lot of that. I think it’s pretty safe to say that while punk turned to synths and fashion plates, those of us who didn’t fit in went harder and faster in the other direction. It wasn’t just a question of not fitting in. They pretty much rejected us unless they wanted to go slumming or buy drugs. I don’t know if the UK had the same class division as it applied to popular music.

So…

in any event. Adrian Borland.

And Father’s Day. My grown-ass sons took me out to dinner last night. It was a great time and it humors me that ten years ago I lamented “What did I do to deserve this?” and now I celebrate and wonder, “What did I do to deserve them?” Must be karma from a past life, because I haven’t been an angel in this one.