9/3 - College

Have you ever looked at a Nagel painting and wondered what the vaguely Asian line drawn ice queen subject's record collection would sound like? Because I...well, okay, I totally have never wondered that. Not even anything close to that. Although I did once wonder why a guy I went home with in about 1998 would have a Nagel print on his wall - and didn't even consider it ironic! Guess what? He was bad in bed. There's a shock. Needless to say, not my finest moment. How exactly does one reconcile oneself the fact that she was chosen as a potential mate who used that same discerning taste to choose Nagel as a worthy subject of wall art in 1998? I shudder to think of these moments in my past.

So, yeah...College. I'm pretty sure the Nagel girl would like this band. It's entirely possible that I'm being influenced by the Ray Ban tippin', voyeur on the CD cover, but all this music kind of sounds a little like a Giorgio Moroder soundtrack to Risky Business. Like something you would hear in your head if you were, say, fucking Rebecca DeMornay on the hood of a Porsche. Or if you were riding a subway to meet up with the other people in your Warriors gang to fight other people with sticks and rollerskates.

Wierder still, I really like it. I think it's just that they get this feeling flat-out dead-to-rights perfect. But, by far, to me the standout is their collaboration with Electric Youth called "She Never Came Back." This song takes all the synthy moodiness and adds some chilly vocals that are almost, dare I say it, catchy. When it comes up on my iPod, I always turn it up. Especially if I'm listening to it in one ear while riding my scooter (yeah, tres illegal, I know), because it makes me feel mysterious - like a Blade Runner android plunked in the middle of a Los Angeles consumed by flames, ashes falling like grey snow on the golf course I pass on the way to work every day.

Oh, and did I mention that College is from France? Because they are.





http://www.myspace.com/collegeoflove