That's The Long And That's The Short Of It

Placebo is to release a new album in June this year. They have a new drummer onboard after Hewitt left them a couple of years back, but I doubt that'll have much impact on the sound. As I had Once More With A Feeling on in the background while ironing shirts last night, I unexpectedly rediscovered my love for one of their lesser known tracks - Twenty Years. It was the only new song on their 2004 Best of release, and is rathar similar to Protect Me From What I Want, my favorite song by the band (alongside their brilliant cover of Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill).

Another of Placebo's truly great songs, Without You I'm Nothing, was improved vastly when David Bowie wrote a harmony for it and requested that the band release a coop single. Which brings us onto The Thin White Duke's brilliance in artist collaborations in general. 1985 track Dancing In The Street (w/Mick Jagger) and 1992 track Under Pressure (w/Annie Lennox) excluded, I love it when he mixes it up with other artists. Especially the Pet Shop Boys remix of Hello Spaceboy and I'm Afraid of Americans (the Reznor remix) are amongst my favorites, and if you haven't heard his live performance with Arcade Fire of the latters' Wake Up it is definitely worth checking out. To make this paragraph EVEN MORE interesting (as if that was even possible, and I'm not kidding when I say that) Bowie also did backing vocals on the on several occassions previously mentioned Scarlett Johansson cover of Tom Waits' Falling Down.

With a few sentences I have drawn a line from David Bowie via Mick Jagger and Annie Lennox (who did Love Song For A Vampire for Bram Stoker's Dracula, the movie in which Tom Waits plays Renfield), through Pet Shop Boys (also releasing a new album this year, in March), Nine Inch Nails and Arcade Fire down to Scarlett Johansson and by that tied it all back up with Tom Waits and David Bowie.

Without planning to I just now let this blog into what is more or less the core of my music related geekiness. Add a couple of connections, tie up some red strings, and you have my undivided attention. If all artists were better at collaborating and sharing projects, I would have no free time what so ever. I am a geek. Whoddathunk?

"You're the truth, not I."
Placebo - Twenty Years (Once More With A Feeling, 2004)