A typical night on the Interweb

Yesterday, whilst procrastinating, I had the spontaneous urge to learn "Just What I Needed" by The Cars. With the help of tabs, I learned all but half the solo and thought that be enough for one day. Then I decided to look up some info on The Cars from my #1 music-discovery resource, Wikipedia. As I suspected, the band didn't make it past the 80's and what followed their 1987 album Door to Door were a slew of compilation records.

The last record that Wikipedia lists is The Essentials from 2005. Then I thought I might as well check out what Wiki has to say about "Just What I Needed." To no surprise, it's a heavily covered song; I was already aware of the version by Poison, but was intrigued by one by a band called Replicants. What caught my eye was just their name: it had an edgy punk feel like Rancid while having a sci-fi vibe like aliens pretending to be humans or mercenary clones. Moreover, the album was self-titled, so I just had to check it out.


Replicants was a short-lived alternative group formed by former Tool bassist Paul D'Amour and friends in 1995-96. They released one album, an LP of covers. One of the cover names caught my attention: "Are 'Friends' Electric?" Now, I KNOW this is sci-fi! This song is originally by Gary Numan (before his solo breakthrough) from the album Replicas (more connections!!!). His next album, The Pleasure Principal, featured the synthpop hit "Cars" (don't pretend you don't know it).

One thing lead to another, and I stumbled upon this...

"Cars (Live)" by Nine Inch Nails featuring Gary Numan

I can't find any words to describe this performance, other than "AWESOME!" Maybe after a couple of posts, I can revisit this collaboration and give it the adequate articulation it deserves. And the discovery didn't stop there: this journey had a fork which led me to a band called American Analog Set... but that's a story for another day.

Always at your service,
Kelvin