Psychic Ills >> Your eyes looked gray in the rain

Psychic Ills - "January Rain"

(The Social Registry, 2005)

(Note: This is not a cover of the song of the same name by the Aussie band Hunters & Collectors.)  January Rain would be a great pornstar name, almost as good as Allysin Chaynes or Avy Lee Roth.  (The latter actually claims to be an illegitimate child of David Lee Roth.)  This is the poppiest song on their first album, and maybe the poppiest thing they've ever done, though I haven't really paid attention to them since seeing their second album.  I saw them live in spring '06 opening for the very mediocre Blood On The Wall.  They definitely stole the show.  I don't think I got any pics or video clips, unfortunately.  They opened for the Butthole Surfers at House Of Blues a year or two later, but I didn't even consider going, so deep is my loathing for the Surfers and for reunion tours in general.

I wish the Ills would do more songs like "January Rain" rather than the drugged-out meanderings that they are so fond of, though those meanderings are pretty thrilling live.  British bands are always singing about rain, so it's no surprise that a band with a lot of U.K. influences would do it too.  The opening lines of the song go something like "I saw you today, there was nothing to say / Your eyes looked gray (in the rain), I've felt the same way."  This is surely Psychic Ills' best-known song, since the Social Registry website has offered it as a free download since way back when the album came out.

Winter rain is really bad for cacti / succulents, since they essentially go dormant at that time of year, and excess water around their roots can lead to lethal fungal infections.  Hence the main reason I got a greenhouse: more for protection from the rain than for protection from the cold.

Undated (probably ca. 2006-08) live photo from TVPRTY.com, titled "Psychic Ills out in Bed-Stuy on Saturday night"; no PHTGRPHR is credited

Note: I added this pic of the concert flyer on 9/18/12

The Saints-Lions game last weekend, the one Saints game I got to go to the whole season, turned out to be pretty epic.  We went with the owner of Mosca's restaurant and his wife.  It was pretty much tied at halftime but we dominated in the second half en route to an NFL playoff-record 626 total yards of offense, breaking a 49-year-old mark.  Calvin Johnson is completely unstoppable, though, piling up almost 500 yds. receiving in his last two (yes, two) games.  He and Fat Matt Stafford could shatter every NFL passing/receiving record eventually.  I almost brought my Barry Sanders jersey along to try to sell it to some intrepid fan who had come down from Detroit.  (I actually passed a car on I-10 that day with Michigan plates that was being driven by a dude with a towering blue mohawk, so I have to give Lions fans props for their loyalty.)

Might I suggest that you download this photo (photographer unknown) and use it as your desktop image, like I am currently doing?

In regards to my recent touting of Guinness Draught, I have to put out an urgent do-not-buy alert in regards to the bottled version of it.  Guinness recently took out the nitrogen widgets from the bottled version, ruining its taste.  I guess they did it to save $.  So stick with the canned version, which still has the widgets and is of course much larger.  It's basically a health elixir like tea, since it's just a bunch of plant parts dissolved in water and allowed to ferment a tiny bit (4% ABV).

Beezow Doo-Doo Zopittybop-Bop-Bop, 30, Arrested By Madison, Wisc. Police

Planets with similar climates: Pearl Harbor / Puro Instinct - "California Shakedown" (~2009), CAN - "Oh Yeah" (1971), Catherine Wheel - "She's My Friend" (1990), Indian Jewelry - "Excessive Moonlight" (2010), Plexi - "Change" (1996).