the stranglers

remember how i'm basically in love with hugh cornwell? and that's because he was in the stranglers for a bunch of years before he quit and continued doing his solo stuff, which is really good, but let's face it, it's not the stranglers.

the first night i met him he mentioned to me that the stranglers still tour, with a new singer/guitar player, obviously. i said that if i ever saw them i would feel like i was cheating on him somehow and he laughed and put his arm around me. all of the times i've spoke with him, he's never said a bad word about the guys in the band, to his credit. from what i've read about the split, it seems like there is some bad blood between him and the other three guys, but you wouldn't know it from talking to him. all he said was that they don't tour over here anymore because of jet black's health. jet black is the drummer for the stranglers. dude is 74 fucking years old.

so i guess i expected to never see the stranglers and that i would just keep going to see hugh and that would be enough, and really, the friendship i have with him is pretty much the coolest thing i have to talk about ever. but the other day i saw via slicing up eyeballs on twitter that the stranglers had announced the u.s. release of their new album, giants (click on that link to stream it) and also a u.s. tour.

i actually did that thing where you hear something surprising and leap out of your seat. i did. pretty similar to what i did the first time i saw that hugh cornwell was playing in philly. i saw that the stranglers would be playing a date in philly, at the union transfer, and i completely lost it. there was a lot of jumping around and shouting at my cats, who promptly hid from me.

so, my friends, on wednesday, june 5, i will be seeing 3/4 of one of my absolute favorite bands of all time. i mean no disrespect to their new singer guy but, sorry baz, i'm just not that into you. expect a very lengthy and fangirly post around that time. in fact, i will be doing the whole vip thing, because that is how much this means to me. meeting jet black might be the greatest thing to ever happen to me, aside from the time i met clem burke. for real.

i have yet to inform hugh of this infidelity, but i'm sure he will understand.