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The Church now twitters. I guess.

Fountains of Wayne

What with all the Pitchfork 2009 updates I've been getting in the past few weeks, The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne has been much on my mind. It's no surprise I would big up this Oklahoman (it was as an 18-year-old Oklahoma Christian University student that I actually first heard of The Flaming Lips and "She Don't Use Jelly"), having ancestral connections to that rootin', tootin' state myself, now, is it?

But more than that! Wayne Coyne is ever the distinguished gentleman of indie rock. In a story that appeared in The Telegraph last month he credits his wife for helping him bring the hot, hot heat, style-wise. Oh, and it doesn't hurt that he's a fancy-schmancy, high-concept auteur. He has to be the hottest guy named Wayne alive--and there are a hell of a lot of them in Oklahoma.

Photo from nypost.com.

Ra Ra Rad

It looks like Ra Ra Riot is selling out shows left, right, and center! I first heard the Syracuse band's music on NPR and fell in love with "Oh, La," which reminds me of nothing so much as walking around the southern Milwaukee neighborhood Bayview in December. (Something to do with the quality of light looking toward the lake in winter and the tenable melancholy that comes across in Ra Ra Riot's music, I guess.) They play in support of 2008'sThe Rhumb Line in Waukesha, WI, tomorrow.

Image from rarariot.com.

Do It Again/Change Clothes

I'm happy to say Milwaukee now has a boutique-style resale clothing store. (Arizona Trading Company--the premier boutique-style resale store as far as I'm concerned--was and is the rite of passage for every 18 year old who attends the University of Kansas. Ah, the reminisces! One of the best pairs of jeans I've ever had--vintage Jordaches that fit like a dream--was from ATC. I unloaded the Fluevogs that never fit there in, like, 2004.) Conceptually and practically sweet: clothes that are new to you, but not the environment. And it's good finally to have that space in the Alterra building filled.

NoTORIously Attracted To Sin

I simply must big up co-former Christian fundamentalist Perez Hilton object of worship Tori Amos. Her new album, the appropriately named Abnormally Attracted to Sin, is out May 19. Like you didn't know, right?

Photo from Tori's myspace page.

Dittohead

Ha ha! Dittohead--get it? Right now Beth Ditto is the only thing on my mind cuz I'm on a quest to interview her for Curve. "Dittohead" is scarily appropriate because, as I've said as recently as yesterday, I was a teenage Christian fundamentalist. And, actually, I very much wanted to and almost attended church of Christ-affiliated Harding University in Searcy, AR, near where Beth Ditto grew up. (Instead, I attended Oklahoma Christian University, one of Harding's sister schools, my first year of college.) Though, even as an adolescent church of Christer I thought Rush Limbaugh was a great, sloshing douchebag and a racist.

How utterly appropriate that I out myself as a former church of Christ kid in the blog post about the woman who is in all likelihood The Coolest Lesbian in The World. (Visualize a virulently homophobic, anti-woman, bumptiously literal, fornication-obsessed Christian sect singing a capella.That's the church I grew up in!) Having grown up with shared cultural lexicon--adjacent geographical region, similar religious milieux--I'm really interested in her fashion evolution.

Larissa James photo from Gossip's myspace page.

My First Fracas

Yesterday was an exhausting jeans quest. Gil and I covered Gap, Target, Old Navy, Anthropologie, the Boston Store, American Eagle (oy vey!), and Macy's--pausing from our toil only to fortify ourselves with a delish lunch at Swagat's buffet. During our intermezzo in Sephora, Gil signed off on my purchase of a cute little Fracas eau de parfum roll-on.