ZOMG, they all look so young.

Atrios mentioned that he didn't think a new band that sounded just like the Talking Heads would get any airplay today.

It's totally wrong. Arcade Fire? David Byrne has had an enormous influence on the acts that are popular these days. Everything about that video looks like something you'd see on stage today.

An album with the title More Songs about Buildings and Food could not but be a success.

...he didn't think a new band that sounded just like the Talking Heads would get any airplay today.

I fail to perceive why or how this might matter, except in some self-centered -- oh, wait.

What Armsmasher said. David Byrne is the old hipster young hipsters most adore, after Bowie.

1978!

That would be about the time I shoplifted '77 from K-Mart, actually.

Can someone explain what it means that snow is "cut up"?

what it means that snow is "cut up"?

Is this from one of the songs? Does it belong in the drug thread?

the exclamation point after 1978 makes me feel very old.
as in, can you believe anyone alive then, is still alive now?
i saw them that year, in a little room on the college park campus of u.md.
good show; not too loud.

Atrios mentioned that he didn't think a new band that sounded just like the Talking Heads would get any airplay today.

Certainly not on commercial radio, but on college radio and in Volkswagen ads, counterexamples abound.

Link to David Byrne self-interview which I post almost anytime Talking Heads are mentioned, and will continue to post until I know everyone in the world has seen it.

You know who else wouldn't be able to get a radio hit these days? Glenn Miller.

I can believe that people alive in 1978 are still alive. I was, after all, born that year.

Talking Heads == rawk.

Oh, the bassist is just adorable.

2 gets it correct. Also 12.

The singer for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah sounds like David Byrne. At least on the fast songs he does.

14 is a spectacularly good troll.

11 is proof that, while bands that sound like the Talking Heads still exist and do well today, people as weird as David Byrne don't.

I bet Steven Foster wouldn't even be able to get anyone to listen to his demo tapes.

The coda on that version of Psycho Killer is awesome.

as in, can you believe anyone alive then, is still alive now?

I think it's more like can you believe this song is already 30 years old?

Martha and the Muffins live

I can't think of a better female-fronted new wave band. Maybe Blondie. M and the M were drastically underrated.

My boss was a college student in Toronto around the time they were big. I asked if he ever went to shows or anything. He sort of scoffed and said that everyone who went to those shows was on drugs all the time.

20: that's a non-denial denial if I've ever heard one.

You know who else wouldn't be able to get a radio hit these days? Glenn Miller.

A few days before the race, Will calls with the bad news that F. Scott has insomnia - he hasn't slept in four days. If this continues, he will never make the race. Danny tries hypnotism, Keith tries singing the horse to sleep - nothing works. It is learned that F. Scott's groom, Homer Peck, usually sleeps in the barn and plays Glenn Miller songs on his tape recorder. About the same time that F. Scott had stopped sleeping, Homer's tape recorder had broken and he had won enough money to stay elsewhere. Keith manages to fix the tape recorder and as soon as ""Moonlight Serenade"" begins to play the horse falls asleep.

David Byrne from his salsa phase. Awesome.

20 and 21 sort of remind me of when I asked my dad about grad school during the Vietnam era. Apparently he hung out with some of the big organising protesters who were under surveillance all the time, but "no, I didn't feel comfortable talking politics too much as a foreign student." So, ah, what were you guys up to then, daddy-o?

Ogged, could your taste in music be more fey? First the weepies, now this. Good lord.

25: Sure, he hasn't got to `there is a light and it never goes out' yet.

When I try to think of a contemporary band that's analogous to Talking Heads, the name that pops into my head is Belle and Sebastian.

Their music doesn't sound particularly similar, but it seems like a similar blend of rock and self-consciousness.

As far as contemporary bands that are influenced by New Wave, I think of the Kaiser Chiefs, and I see that wikipedia agrees with me.

The group's debut album Employment was released in March 2005, and was primarily inspired by new wave and punk rock music of late 1970s.

Strange fact: the young Billy Graham looked a bit like Morrissey.

Belle and Sebastian?! Not a lick of the Talking Heads' cleverness.

Don't knock the Smiths, soup.

OH MOTHER
I CAN FEEL
THE SOIL FALLING OVER MY GRAVE

Did the Talking Heads get any airplay back then? Sure, they had some hits in the 80's but during their really distinctive period it's not like they took over pop radio.

Shit. GRAVE s/b HEAD.

Oh well. Enough said.

could your taste in music be more fey

oh yeah, and 7 foot tall philosophy professors playin for the orchestra are so... what?

and listening to gangsta rap would definitely totally change all that, right?

Belle and Sebastian?! Not a lick of the Talking Heads' cleverness.

I'd put it the other way around.

The Talking Heads were smart, but not clever. If they ever did anything funny it was really, really dry.

Oh ben, I'm not knocking --- one of my favourite albums from the 80's. The question was about `fey' though ... which that song has in spades.

28 is true, and odd.

Dry goes well with clever. But I'll admit that it's not the right word.

Whatever it is, though, B&S ain't got it.

Belle and Sebastian?! Not a lick of the Talking Heads' cleverness.

It just depends what you take as the salient feature for purposes of comparison (and, really, which era of talking heads you're talking about).

Since nobody is as clever as the Talking Heads, I was just trying to think about bands that sounds as if they could have met at design school.

Well, I would still expostulate disbelievingly on that score, to be honest.

On which score?

When I try to think of a contemporary band that's analogous to Talking Heads, the name that pops into my head is Belle and Sebastian.

Not all that contemporary, either.

The novelist James Kelman taught a fiction workshop that I attended in college, and one night, at the bar he was asking us what we all knew about Scottish music. Someone brought up Belle & Sebastian, and Kelman said that of course he knew all of them through the neighborhood pub: the drummer, the bassist, both guitarists.

When I try to think of a contemporary singer who's analogous to Tom Jones, the name that pops into my head is Sakis Rouvas.

Okay, fine, I really wasn't trying to say that B & S are the logical equivilents to the Talking Heads, just that it was the first name that popped into my head and I thought the comparison was interesting.

I say again, the real question is whether we're trying to think of bands that (1) sound now like the Talking Heads did in 78, (2) sound to us like the Talking Heads would have sounded to an audience in '78 or (3) have a similar relationship to their genre of pop music that the Talking Heads have to New Wave.

(3) is most interesting to me, but is a comparison that isn't based on the two bands sounding similar.

43: For 3...each of them is/was kind of a genre unto themselves, though.

Are you saying that

B&S : twee :: Talking Heads : New Wave

45: approximately.

Whether or not the analogy is apt, that was the analogy I was trying to make.

For the love of Mike, ogged, The Name of This Band is Talking Heads.

I do not understand your comment, slolernr.

I can't think of a better female-fronted new wave band [than Martha and the Muffins -dd]. Maybe Blondie

similarly, I can't think of a better black golfer than Andy Walker. Maybe Tiger Woods. I can't think of a more famous bloke called "Adolf" than Adolf Loos. Maybe Hitler. You're insane, mate.

48: look up the album on Wikipedia.

I'm annoyed I didn't think of 47.

You are to drop the definite article, sir.

Also, seriously. "maybe Blondie"? Dude. Definitely Blondie. What about The Pretenders, while we're at it?

Is it capitalized, as if it's part of the band's name? I ask you.

It's not about capitalizing it. It's about not using it.

Maybe the ogged always refers to entities by placing a definite article before their names and we'd just never noticed. Ever think of that, the slolernr?

The next time my band plays, I think I'll demand that we all wear a different solid color polo shirt and khakis. RAWK.

The thing is, that would make you sound a lot like a two-in-one appliance.

Ogged's a big fan of the Blondie, for example.

And now Ogged because David Byrne in 11 (2:49). "The Prince, the Sting, the David Bowie..."

Any minute, ogged is going to admit he's wrong. Wait for it....

I'm feeling better.

because s/b becomes

49, there were a whole lot of bands similar to Martha and the Muffins and of a similar level of famousness. But they were the best.

I'm surrounded by David Byrne's willing executioners of the English language. If, say, The Who were called simple Who, would I really write "I wonder if Who would get any airplay nowadays?" I would not. I'm willing to go as far not capitalizing the article, but to do without it entirely, no, I will not go that far, sir.

I don't think the Pretenders were a new wave band.

Also, I reject the suggestion that you can't put "The" before the name of a plurally named band just because it doesn't appear on their album covers. It's ungrammatical, man.

When I try to think of a contemporary band that's analogous to Talking Heads>/i>

Delgados?

dEUS!

I'm still like antediluvian already always. I spect those bands are defunct.

64:Sundays? If they were the same kind of band as M & M's at any where the same time, Sundays were better.

See also Stereophonics. You're nuts, ogged.

I don't think the Pretenders were a new wave band.

Rhino Records disagrees with you.

Okay, I'm not on board with 65. You refer to Oasis as The Oasis, I suppose?

But for names like "Talking Heads" it sounds clumsy to me to not say "the Talking Heads". So I say it. If you can show me any evidence that people in the band would think less of me for doing so, I will denounce them in the strongest terms.

Also, I reject the suggestion that you can't put "The" before the name of a plurally named band just because it doesn't appear on their album covers isn't part of their name and has been emphatically rejected by them.

any evidence.

Rhino is wrong about X, too.

If you can show me any evidence that people in the band would think less of me for doing so

I repeat, The Name of This Band is Talking Heads.

I still really like the very cheesy, very great Life In A Northern Town.

Yeah. Dream Academy had something, if only Kate St. John. I don't know if we'd like them as much if they'd stayed together and had a string of hits, though.

(said he, to change the subject)

FWIW, in re "Life in a Northern Town," Mrs. Lernr agrees with ogged.

Honestly, I have no clear idea who Martha & the Mechanical Meat Puppets were. Walking on the Sunshine of My Love (dub mix)? I know nothin about music. I'll go google, cause I am banned from All Music Guide.

I'm willing to endorse Ned's compromise position. Will this be good enough for the slavish absolutists, I wonder.

I think an issue is whether you take "Talking Heads" to be a reference to things that exist in the world outside the band, or an identification of each band member. Is David Byrne a Talking Head, or a member of the band Talking Heads? I'd use 'the' in the first case (each member of the band is a Talking Head, together they are the Talking Heads), and not in the second case (no one would call David Byrne a Talking Head, but The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads). And I think the second case applies.

Will this be good enough for the slavish absolutists, I wonder.

No. Ned doesn't even know what a new wave band is.

75:Dream Academy had 2 and a fraction good albums. I really felt that video needed better sound. DA but not DS is going back on the HD, thanks to ogged. Not sure about TH. I keep looking at TH's albums and not remembering songs or sounds. FoM fur sure, but maybe only FoM.

I notice that on the site linked in 72, there are frequent references to one or another individual member of the band as a "Talking Head". If the name can be taken apart and bastardized in that way, it's pure foolishness to suggest that "Talking Heads" is some sort of unconjugatable term of art, like "a;GRUMH" or "Throw That Beat In The Garbagecan!" or something.

I also would consider it acceptable to refer to some emo bands as, say, "Grey A.M." rather than "The Grey A.M.", at least in informal conversation.

74:I freaked out on that album.

Didn't The Sonic Youth put a "The" in their name on some of their releases, just to fuck with pedantic rock nerds?

I also would consider it acceptable to refer to some emo bands as, say, "Grey A.M." rather than "The Grey A.M.", at least in informal conversation.

That's mighty white of you.

pedantic ... nerds

Should we talk about what determines preferred usage between "Batman" and "the Batman"?

That's mighty white of you.

We're totally not allowed to say this, right?

The Pink Floyd, the Radiohead, the Public Enemy, the Faith No More, the nine inch nails, etc.

Who's "we"?

Who's "we"?

Pretty much everyone, yeah?

I think it's fair to say that combining emo and pedantry is a white thing to do.

The group's UK releases during the Syd Barrett era credited them as The Pink Floyd as did their first two U.S. singles. David Gilmour is known to have referred to the group as The Pink Floyd as late as 1984.

Even ironically?

Maybe the ogged always refers to entities by placing a definite article before their names

He often refers to me as the apostropher, despite my About page.

Anyway.

If you spelled "apostropher" with a capital A, maybe we would see it as your name instead of your function.

Also.

I didn't really mean you shouldn't say it, teo, I was just checking that it's really fabulously racist, and not one of those "niggardly" things, which aren't.

8: ROB BUTLER: WELL, OUR SITUATION TODAY, IT'S SNOWED A FEW DAYS AGO, AND NOW WE HAVE GOT SOME DRY SNOW, BUT IT IS CUT UP.

Oh, it's certainly racist.

Just because snow is white doesn't mean it's racist, Teo.

86: "The Goddamned Batman" is preferred.

You just keep telling yourself that, ogged.

Plural of "Pokemon": "Pokemen" or "Pokema"?

FWIW, in re "Life in a Northern Town," Mrs. Lernr agrees with ogged.

I have never before understood slol's pseud, presumably because of the nickname "slol."

Of course, I always refer to him as The Slol.

Should we talk about what determines preferred usage between "Batman" and "the Batman"?

Hell yes!

One addresses the Dark Knight directly as "Batman" or, if one prefers to use his first name, "sir." Civilians and low-level criminals to whom he is the almost legendary, always feared deepest darkness of the shadows refer to him as "the Batman." Mid-level criminals and upper-level criminals who have not encountered him face-to-cowl also tend to refer to him as "the Batman" initially. With familiarity, the definite article fades.

The Joker calls him "Batman. Darling," according to Frank the Tank Miller.

Also according to Frank the Tank, he refers to himself as "the goddamn Batman."

I'm with 102. For example, snow tends to avoid the areas of the world with the most black and brown people. This is especially evident when you compare US states by looking at snowfall and Latino population.

I sat near David Byrne at a movie. I was very excited. But my ex, who played in a TH cover band in college, was trembling like a leaf.

Flipp beat me to answering 86. Speaking of Frank, though, whatever happened to his "Batman versus Osama bin Laden" warnography project? That was going to be awesome.

Oh, and "Yes" on "Life in a Northern Town."

I was a preteen living in Miami when it came out and, even though I knew they were British, the song evoked my Yonkers early childhood and the gloom of the Rustbelt wonderfully.

98. I'd have thought it meant cut up by ski tracks. But if not I'd go with it having formed a crust that cracked into pieces. Both leave the snow cut up.

108: Still supposedly in progress, subject to filming of The Spirit and Sin City 2, last I read was told by some pitiable geek.

I haven't read this thread, but is Atrios on crack? The British charts have had pretty much nothing but bands that sound a bit like early Talking Heads for most of the last 2 years.*

* I exaggerate slightly, but that whole post-punk/funk sound has been ... everywhere.

re: 41

I used to share a flat with a member. They are pretty ubiquitous.

who played in a TH cover band in college

Do you mean The Heads?

I have never before understood slol's pseud, presumably because of the nickname "slol."

The archives explain it all.

But anyway, David, if that's an idiomatic expression I've never heard it before. Your guess is as good as mine.

114: No, just a little art-nerd contingent at a liberal arts school. He was pretty sure they were terrible.

Slol cheats. The relevant comments begin here.

Of *course* "that's mighty white of you" is fabulously racist.

Oddly, though, it really is one of (the only?) fabulously racist thing from the past that has gotten to the point where it is only ever possible to say it ironically.

You're the whitest man I know, b.

Speaking of music, I'm just back from seeing CSS [who were excellent, and very christmassy].

I haven't read this thread, but is Atrios on crack? The British charts have had pretty much nothing but bands that sound a bit like early Talking Heads for most of the last 2 years.*

A lot of discussion here seems to have missed Atrios' point: the post was titled "Rock Radio." Rock radio in the US plays the whole gamut of music from Led Zeppelin to White Stripes. And, for some reason, Talking Heads is also in there. His simple point was that the rock radio stations that play Talking Heads wouldn't do so with a new band playing those songs, nor with a comparable new band, such as The Decembrists or whoever. And, indeed, the notion of The Decemberists on rock radio is comical. Yet someone above said that they were somehow comparable to TH and also popular. Thus missing the original point.

Of *course* "that's mighty white of you" is fabulously racist.

Hey, I don't know. I mean, "white rhino" apparently doesn't have anything to do with color, it's to do with the Boer word for "wide." Maybe they're talking about the legendary generosity of fat people, who can say.

Are we allowed to say "fat people" anymore?

Crosby Stills & Sade?

The Spirit

That's a shame, Eisner's originals are gentle and kind. Frank's good, but neither of those things.

116:I'm pretty sure they mean cocaine (cut as in cut into lines).

122: Ah, that makes sense.

And now I believe this decade's exception to the rock radio format would be the Shins. "Phantom Limb" got a lot of play on The X early this year.

The Collective Soul Sucks?

Crunkin' Social Scene?

Cansei De Ser Sexy

I saw CSS open for ESG.

130: Isn't it a quote from Beyoncé, of all people, translated into Brazilian slang? Something like "I'm sick of being sexy."

Yes, but it's "tired."

131 Cascading Style Sheet; Expanding Sphere Generator.

A woman who's so sexy that she's tired of being sexy is one of the few women that can excite the jaded Brazilian imagination.

Are we allowed to say "fat people" anymore?

Only as a purely descriptive term. Not if you mean it pejoratively.

re: 131

Cool. ESG are/were great.

Anyway, CSS had a stage decorated with tinsel, band members dressed in Christmas wrapping and friends dressed as presents and Christmas trees dancing on stage. And gold sequinned catsuits were rocked.

So for instance, to say "Tyra Banks is fat" is OK because it's simply descriptive. It implies no judgment.

So have we tired of anarthrousness?

Anarthrists of world, unite!

138: Except that it's factually inaccurate.

Why is this conversation even happening? I blame Ogged.

I do love it when you fatties argue about who to call a fatty.

(I was kidding, I actually think it's an excellent example of how judgmental the descriptive use can in fact be.)

I'll be even fatter after I eat some of this delicious halibut chowder I've got cooking. Mmmm, smell the bacon.

I do love it when you fatties argue about who to call a fatty.

That's mighty fat of you.

125: "What are you, dense? You retarded or something? I'm the goddamn Spirit."

OT, but I thought some might find this interesting.

Here is a choice quote (at approx. 5:30):

It immediately enters the viewer's most intimate zone.
[It] right away develops a level of intimacy
that normally we would reserve for a lover, not for a general stranger.

He often refers to me as the apostropher

I, on the other hand, simply refer to ogged as "my babydaddy".

I am jealous of all of you who saw CSS, especially those who also saw ESG. Mighty phat of you.

If a band sounded just like Talking Heads, they'd be a Talking Heads cover band.

You know who ruled (/rules)? Mission of Burma

Acknowledge the rulingness, people.

My son is playing the 1972 Zep concert film for me right now, and it seems like a million years ago.

I still like the albums, but that concert ambience seems like a strange tribal thing to me now even though I used to do it myself.

I never heard of them before clicking on chopper's link, but The Embarrassment rule too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycKvGHia5Ms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX2I3UpmloQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWm6-htMu4U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9DOs0yT_os

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePJb9kmJk1A

152: Who are those old people, and why are they covering a Moby song?

The Embarrassment rule too

I somehow missed the year, so I was two songs in and thinking they were a contemporary group and a pretty solid one.

A big part of that misimpression is the four-on-the-floor drumbeat: so, so common in lots of current indie rock bands (and referred to as a "disco beat," at least in my circles, which seems to suggest some self-aware retro- thing).

Of course, the giveaway was that they had a left-handed drummer, and we rounded all those dudes up long ago and made them play auxiliary percussion. Not because they're bad people, mind you. But they're a royal pain in the ass to share a drumkit with.

You know who rules and is old? Michael Hurley.

FWIW, I agree with Ned about articles. Sometimes it's awkward to omit it even though it's part of the name, sometimes awkward to include even though it's part of the name. Compare:

I like The Rolling Stones. (correct!)
This is the best The Rolling Stones song. (insanity!)
This is the best Talking Heads song. (correct!)
I like Talking Heads. (not quite insanity, but dispreferred.)
I like the Talking Heads. (perfectly acceptable!)

Talking Heads sucks. (acceptable!)
The Talking Heads suck. (also acceptable!)

As you can see, I go both ways when it comes to band names being singular or plural.

More on slols. Somewhere in there it changed from Moldovan to Moldavian, apparently.

I like The Rolling Stones. (correct!)
This is the best The Rolling Stones song. (insanity!)
This is the best Talking Heads song. (correct!)
I like Talking Heads. (not quite insanity, but dispreferred.)
I like the Talking Heads. (perfectly acceptable!)

Talking Heads sucks. (acceptable!)
The Talking Heads suck. (also acceptable!)

There are structural reasons for most of these judgments, which I could go into if I either didn't hate syntax or could remember any of the syntax I allegedly learned in college.

omewhere in there it changed from Moldovan to Moldavian, apparently.

Are you trying to maintain there's a difference?

I believed for a minute or two that CSS must stand for, yeah, you know.

Didn't ESG just play their last show? Sad I missed that one.

From the Let's Go: Eastern Europe guidebook that my mom gave me for Chanukah:

Moldavia and Moldova are not the same place. While Moldavia is the northeastern part of Romania, Moldova is a separate country between Russia and Romania. The distinction is further confused because the region of Moldavia is known as "Moldova" in Romanian.

Also, to answer Ned upthread, the plural of Pokemon would be Pokemon, Japanese having (almost) no plural construction.

There's a separate, informal syntax for bands, though. So you can say, "This is the best Rolling Stones song", but only in the sense that you could say, "This is the best Stones song." When one says "The Talking Heads suck.", you're changing your referent, as only "[no def article] Talking Heads" refers to the band. Otherwise, you are describing specific heads that talk (and suck). Same with "I like the Talking Heads. "

Wasn't there an earlier thread for the singular/plural issue? E.g., The Talking Heads are/is [whatever]. Can't find it.

Also, Moldova has a little breakaway republic called Transdniestr or something like that, where they change the nominal value of existing currency by fiat to help their residents cope with inflation. They wouldn't have any chance at independence at all if their "country" didn't happen to be the 500 sq miles surrounding a Soviet weapons depot.

164: Good maps of the arrangement at various times the Wikipedia entries on Moldova, Moldavia and Bessarabia.

When one says "The Talking Heads suck.", you're changing your referent, as only "[no def article] Talking Heads" refers to the band.

Would you actually be confused, fm, if you heard someone say "the Talking Heads suck"? Would you ask them "which talking heads?"? I put it to you that you would not, and that "the Talking Heads", in this context, refers to the band.

I was going to post 165 a while ago, but I decided against it, thinking it should show my age.

I can show it now, though, by noting that "Pokemen" is not a plausible pluralization of "Pokemon," as Pokemon, in fact, is short (in an odd way) for "Pocket Monsters."

Both 159 and 170 have convinced me that Ben has gotten laid.

172: The Ben?

It cannot be.

The Ben's standards are slipping. I have no other explanation.

The Ben's standards are slipping

...ever since he took up lifeguarding and playing bass in that shitty band.

Would you actually be confused, fm, if you heard someone say "the Talking Heads suck"?

I'd affect to be so, yes. Wouldn't you?

Best concert I've seen at the Hollywood Bowl was David Byrne with Arcade Fire. The Arcade Fire were great -- I think the time to hear them was the first time you heard them -- but Byrne's show was interplanetary. He brought the Ex/ra Ac/ion Marching Band down from the Bay Area and they played "Crazy In Love" with him. A friend of mine who played with the marching band had been in Bolivia shooting a documentary. I got him to come back for the show, and we walked around the afterparty giving people coca leaves. Didn't have the skirt to introduce myself to David Byrne, though.

Both 20 and 49 are wrong. It's the B-52s.

Hey, I was there too! I didn't get to go to the after party, though.

Marching Band, Hollywood Bowl, Crazy In Love

Surely the B-52s are a male- and female-fronted band, and don't qualify in the category discussed above.

And I would say they aren't better than Blondie, but I know a lot more Blondie songs than I do B-52 ones, so it's not really fair of me.

164: What is now the country of Moldova is just part of one of the two main principalities, Moldavia and Wallachia, that became present-day Romania. Much of the rest of Romania comes from Transylvania, which was mostly under the Hungarian crown from about the 1000s. (Notable exceptions include Mongol invasions and various rebellions). See also Szeklers.

Anyway, what is now Moldova was known as Bessarabia (though note lack of actual Arabs). It was Ottoman for centuries, then ceded to Imperial Russia. After WWI, the Romanians got it; Stalin grabbed it back for the USSR in 1940, and there it stayed until 1991, when independence suddenly arrived.

Historically, Bessarabia was the area between the Prut and Dniestr rivers. Funny guy that he was, Stalin slapped a little bit of territory from the other side of the Dniestr (hence Transnistria) into the Moldovan SSR. That area had mostly Russians, Ukrainians, heavy industry, military bases (as alluded to above) and a whacking good cognac distillery (I recommend "Viktor"). Like similar moves in other parts of the USSR (Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia, Fergana Valley), Stalin's approach to map-making is paying dividends of conflict into the 21st century.

So yes, there's a difference between Moldovan and Moldavian, but not all that much, as the foregoing will have made unclear.

I can't think of a better female-fronted new wave band.

There were a lot of female/female-fronted bands at the time: X-Ray Spex, The Bush Tetras, The Slits, Lene Lovich, Siouxsie Sioux, Hazel O'Connor, etc. (I'm really partial to that Hazel 'O Connor song; I loved Breaking Glass when I was a kid.)

Yeah, I was thinking Siouxsie and the Banshees deserved at least an honorable mention, too. Was Til Tuesday considered a new wave band?

The problem with Duncan's argument though, is that to make it, he has to ignore college radio stations--which do play music at least as ambitious as Talking Heads--as well as satellite radio, and internet radio, etc. So the argument that he's really making is that a lot of commercial radio stations have a fairly dull playlist. Which is true. And a platitude.

I want to confess that I still really like the very cheesy, very great "Life In A Northern Town."

No apologies! That's a great song.

I'd affect to be so, yes. Wouldn't you?

No, because, though I may be a little bitch, I'm not a tool. Note that it's perfectly possible to respond to "Talking Heads suck" with "really? all of them? or just in general?".