Earlier this year I found the website http://www.psychopedia.com/. On the site they have several films and art projects including the likes of Mellisa Auf Der Maur, The Like, JT Leroy, Kirsten Dunst and interesting others. My favorite features on the site are Dusk to Dawn (where people make videos concerts),the Denim White Pages and the Road Test series. The Road Test's will give you truthful insight on what really deserves your money. Musician's and artist's try out restaurants, beauty products, spa's, jeans, electronics and anything else that permits the thinning of your wallet. I was especially delighted to see Nick Zinner, The Raveonettes, Annie Hardy and Trash and Vaudeville's Jimmy Webb road testing. I especially liked the article where they had a few girls of different heights and and sizes try on the same jeans to see which jeans worked for them. Its safe to say that Psychopedia is far from psychotic.
When I named this blog I quoted one of my favorte songs "Think you look good today/Pretty in black you've got it down" -Sleepwalking. The Raveonettes stole my heart with they're Chuck Berry era and shoegaze tunes that tell tales that are always too dark or too sunny. I can't help but do the twist whenever I hear one of their danceable songs. The contrast of Sharon's sweet voice intertwined with Sune's sonic insanity have something new to show to rock n' roll. Whenever shoegaze is incorporated into the rockabilly sound it creates a creepy tune but manages to still fell like something Marlon Brando would have listened to in The Wild One. In one song about an unhealthy relationsip Sune murmurs "And if you and me/Should ever go to hell/ C'mon lets go/ right now/I can't feel a thing/But I'm sure you can/Warm summer's night red tan" and shivers inch they're way up my vertabrae. They're cover of "My Boyfriends Back" as well as the California tune "Ode to LA" (feauting an original girl group star, Ronnie Spektor) break up the morbid storytelling. They defy the half full glass of modern rock sonically as well as visually. Sharon is always in a dress and heels or black slacks while Sune favors an Elvis Costello look in a goth palette. They are always stylish whether they're all dolled up or undone in a James Dean kind of way sporting wing tip shades. This too-cool-for-school group are most definitely pretty in black and they better stay that way.
