Orange Juice//Blokes on 45

Orange Juice (not to be confused with Orange Drink, on plenty of levels) is a pretty hit or miss band for me, but when they hit they are dead on. Revisiting the band's unique brand of disco+post punk+campy lyrics actually makes me understand that Wild Beasts ripped them off quite directly. They really do have many, many similarities. Oh well, you could do worse.

The band started out as youths in Glasgow as The Nu-Sonics, which is funny, because a friend of mine named his band The Nu-Sonics in their honor.

In my opinion, the best part of Orange Juice are their electric guitar riffs, which are bright and catchy. This song came out on a 2005 comp reissue of songs that were meant to be released on Postcard Records (which also released a Go-Betweens album). It incorporates a few other OJ songs/lyrics.

Now, in honor of the word "bloke," I would like to tell you my
Top 3 "You're Speaking British and I'm Speaking American" Moments:

1. On my first visit to the UK, in roughly 1997, my parents and I went to Kew Gardens (not THAT Kew Gardens). There was a class of 7-8 year olds there as well. In the gift shop, I heard a small voice say, "I got a very fine rubber!" After a triple take, I finally realized that the kid was holding up an eraser.

2. On my second visit, circa 2000, I was hanging out with my friend Matt and some of his friends. We were in a stationary store when one of his friends asked if I would hold his fag for him. Hold your derogative term for a gay man? Hold your small bundle of twigs? Hold your something else? I just stared at him in complete confusion, until Matt zoomed in, grabbed the guy's smoke and said, "he means his cigarette!"

3. Finally, while living in London in 2004, I had gone out to a drag show with a friend. She was dressed in drag and we were running for the last train before the tube shut. An old beggar came up to her and started asking, somewhat incessantly, "ARE. YOU. A. GEEZER?!?!" My friend, in a faux English accent, replied, "What?! You think I'm an old bloke?!" I had to explain later that "geezer" is slang for "dude" or "man." And that, my friends, I learned from listening to The Streets.



Blokes on 45.mp3

You must think me very naive.
Taken as true,
I only see what I want to see.