BTC: Shiny, Shiny, Bad Times Behind Me…
Damn it, my laptop’s power supply cable just queefed and died. I’ll have to be extra quick with BTC this morning before my little external brain goes sreepytime. Luckily, I have just the thing cued up on my playlist:
Scrumptious promo image for HF’s first (and only) album, Battle Hymns For Children Singing. I can’t be the only one who imprinted on Kate Garner’s fashion designs. Stripey, stripey…
Ragamuffin pop duo Haysi Fantayzee *cough* formed in London in the early 80s. Typing out that terrible, horrible, no good, very bad name is like nails on a grammarian’s chalkboard, and the label “Dickensian Hillbilly Rasta” makes me cry blood. Still, I love these guys with a deep, doofy devotion rivaled only by the size of my permaboner for fellow Brit-fops Adam Ant and Boy George.
Performed by Jeremiah Healy and Kate Garner, produced by Garner’s then-boyfriend Paul Caplin, Haysi Fantayzee’s *twitch* UK dance hit, “Shiny Shiny” is quite possibly the most chipper song about the apocalypse ever written (short of Fishbone’s “Party at Ground Zero”). May the antics of these two sexy human fraggles help you dance your cute petudies all the way to work.
A couple more Haysi Fantayzee *gack* clips after the jump.
February 9th, 2009 at 4:54 am
Holy crap, the first boy I ever loved with eyeliner put that on a mix tape for me!
Me = Old
February 9th, 2009 at 4:59 am
Ignoring the many, many questions I have about these delightfully damaged vagabonds, one seems to be the most pressing…
Why was that guy (presumably Paul Chaplin) playing chess with a crow? Seriously, that sequence went on WAY too long for it to not be symbolic of… something. Anyone care to enlighten me on this? For some reason, polishing shoes with pearls makes perfect sense to me, but I’m lost on the meaning of the whole crow/chess thing.
February 9th, 2009 at 5:17 am
A playlist favourite.
The chick from that band is a photographer now, I seem to remember reading.
February 9th, 2009 at 5:48 am
FANTASTIC. and sick. Well, I’m up and at ’em now… Thanks, that really made my day!
February 9th, 2009 at 7:09 am
That + Cold medication = Brain Melt.
February 9th, 2009 at 7:11 am
I had this on vinyl, but found out that only decent way to use it was to put it in oven and bend it to form a bowl…
Yeah… It made a good xmas present.
February 9th, 2009 at 9:12 am
MARQUIS DE SADE!!! MARQUIS DE SADE!!!…
Dunno about the rest of you lot but I feel much better now. So much is going on that WTF?! is not even enough…pure charming madness with a kung fu chop ending.
“…I taste your face your love is mine…”
If that’s not a theme for the week I dunno what is.
All involved went on to do wildly different things later, talk about the universe working it’s odd magic early on.
I encourage all to check out KateGarner.org for quite possibly the creepiest wallpaper ever…I must have it!
@Mer…”….“Shiny Shiny” is quite possibly the most chipper song about the apocalypse ever written (short of Fishbone’s “Party at Ground Zero”)…”
Judy Garland singing “Get Happy” is high on that list too. A beautiful melody and voice wrapped around lyrics that would make any doomsday suicide cult smile with glee.
February 9th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Shiny Shiny! Wow, I loved that song and video… but I was sad when, years later, I re-found the album on vinyl only to discover the reason that that was the only one of their songs that I remembered… the rest of them are truly deplorable.
Clearly though, Kate was a Terminator sent back from 1997 to 1982 to boostrap Cyberdog. It’s the simplest explanation.
February 9th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
As disturbed as I am, I 1)Kind of want to dance and 2)Kind of want to roll on the floor in tears laughing. I say thank you, Mer, but also, AaahhHHH!!!! *runs*
I actually know someone who looks almost exactly like Kate, lip shape and all. Hmm.. But shes young and live in Minnesota.
*shamelessly replays*
February 9th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Wow, is that a young Michael Imperioli playing chess with a crow?
February 10th, 2009 at 7:55 am
Whether it’s Paul Caplin or someone else, it does seem to be a depressed man in the capitol building playing a game of chess (and losing, by the looks of it) to a crow, a symbol of the apocalypse.
A sly bit of commentary from our sexy fraggles perhaps?
Also: this song is now officially stuck in my head.
February 10th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
I figured it had something to do with death and/or the apocalypse. My working theory now is the whole Seventh Seal angle. He has conquered the world of eighties brit-pop, and has challenged death (the crow) to a game of chess.
If he wins, the group gets another gold album. If he loses, he ends up running an internet software company.
Play with fire, you get burned.
February 14th, 2009 at 5:21 am
oh.my.god. I thought I was the only one who knew of that video. It was TOTALLY my favorite on MTV when I was, oh about 8. Of course, I think it was the only video on MTV when I was 8….
July 16th, 2010 at 4:32 am
I thought it was Micheal Imperioli in the video also….it is actually Paul Caplin (Kate Garner’s then boyfriend – and third member or manager of the group)