Beware the Ashtray Girl

In my lifetime of mindless adoration of depressing, glam, whiny brit-pop such as the Smiths, Suede, Ride, My Bloody Valentine, and the Manic Street Preachers, I got bored with it. Bernard Butler left Suede, and they became sort of a caricature of themselves. The Smiths broke up, Morrissey went on to release solo work almost as good as the Smiths, and Johnny Marr shrunk into the shadows of studio work with Billy Bragg and Electronic. Ride got lame and turned into a Creation-worship band (not that there's anything wrong with Creation), then broke up, singer-guitarist Andy Bell moved on with Hurricane #1, which mostly sucked, and now he's playing with Oasis, endgame. My Bloody Valentine hasn't put out a proper record in 200 years, although guitar alchemist Kevin Shields has done several remixes, but nothing especially noteworthy. Lastly, Manic Street Preachers, the band who said that all bands should break up after releasing one album. In 1995, the Manics' lyricist/guitarist Richey James disappeared from his hotel room, his car was found abandoned on a bridge known for suicides. The next year, the band released their biggest album yet "Everything Must Go" without James. Now, don't get me wrong, it was a great album, but not their best, and everything since Richey disappeared has been real lame. They should've taken their own advice. Around the same time, there was a similar band just starting out: Placebo. I remember them being played on college radio in the late '90s, but I didn't pay much attetion. I was DJing a few weeks ago, and someone asked me if I had anything from them, and I said no. So, of course, the next chance I had, I went and downloaded some. Holy crap. Whatever was left behind by Marc Bolan, David Bowie, the Smiths, Suede, and the Manics is what Placebo scraped off the bathroom floor. They give true evil glamour and sex appeal (thanks, Nikki). If you've ever seen the film Velvet Goldmine, you've seen this band, they're the ones doing the cover of T Rex's "20th Century Boy." And, they do it well, so well that I think it's almost better than the original. And, I know you've probably heard their single "Pure Morning," I think it was a minor radio hit: "A friend in need's a friend indeed, a friend with weed is better, a friend with breasts and all the rest, a friend who's dressed in leather." Yeah, a million twenty-something fag-hags got wet when they heard that androgynous voice. David Bowie was so jealous of the band that he asked them to play his 50th birthday party at Madison Square Garden a few years ago. I don't know how I could've missed this band. If you like any of the bands mentioned above, go check out Placebo.