Song of the Day: 'Invisible' by Duran Duran

What do you think of the new Duran Duran single? I think it's pretty catchy -- and critic Bryan Reesman seems to feel it's the best thing since sliced bread!

If you thought the guy on the right in the picture above was some much-younger new member added to the band you'd be wrong: That's original drummer, Roger Taylor, still looking like a teen heartthrob!

Song of the Day: 'Electric Barbarella' by Duran Duran

Heard the new Duran Duran single yesterday and it got me to suddenly appreciate this other "new" one ... from 1997. 

I'd Tumble 4 Them

Loved Michael Musto's list of the 10 Cutest Guys From the 1980s New Wave. Did my own and found we had surprisingly little overlap.

Simon LeBon and Nick Rhodes were all the girls at Dobson High ever talked about. But Roger Taylor was the stud in the band for me. 

Bono who? Larry Mullen Jr. was all I was looking at back in U2's heyday ...

The Kemp brothers were handsome, but Spandau Ballet saxophonist/jack-of-all-instruments Steve Norman (and Larry) had me doubting I wasn't "into blond guys." 

Kooky-looking Dale and Terry Bozzio were the focal point of Missing Persons, but guitarist Warren Cuccurullo (left) was the sexy one ... 

and he only got sexier when he joined Duran Duran and started dabbling in home-made pornography.

Easy to see why Boy George was so lovesick back in the '80s -- his bicurious drummer boyfriend, Jon Moss, could cause anyone's self-esteem to take a tumble.

Pretty boys aren't usually my thing, but Adam Ant had just the right hint of masculinity mixed in to make him irresistible.

Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet is the dictionary definition of tall, dark and handsome.

Annabella Lwin was an underage sex kitten, but I barely noticed she was in Bow Wow Wow with David Barbarossa behind her on drums.

Michael Hutchence was definitely sexy, but I always thought the hottest man in INXS was Jon Farriss. Maybe I have a thing for drummers.

Lloyd Cole's face was almost as sexy as his brain.

BONUS BOYS:

Not that I'd kick John Taylor out of bed for smoking cloves.

  Nick Heyward was the pretty-boy face of Haircut 100. But percussionist Mark Fox -- who became lead singer after Nick's nervous breakdown -- was my love plus one.

He was a pretty boy, indeed, but KajaGooGoo singer Limahl was too cute to resist.

UPDATE:

Billy Idol should have been on there, huh?

On the Rag, Vol. 352

A weekly look at what's making news in the free gay mags:

Grab (Chicago): I love you, Victor / Online edition HERE.

Next: This week's #SummerStyle issue showcases the perfect accessories for showing some skin / Read HERE.

Metro Weekly (D.C.): Alex Newell on coming out, life after "Glee" and supporting the Trevor Project / Read HERE.

Metro Weekly also ranked Duran Duran's albums from worst to best HERE. They even included Arcadia! 

EDITOR'S NOTE: I was away for a family emergency, but it looks like I didn't miss much last week. Get Out! seems to have skipped publication -- or I'd prematurely posted the new one two weeks ago -- and Echo (in Phoenix) appears to have shifted from biweekly to monthly. New roundup tomorrow will have lots, though.

Dateline: Planet Earth

While I have recently confirmed that I was no Durannie, I can't say I was completely disinterested in bassist John Taylors' new memoir, "In the Pleasure Groove: Love, Death, and Duran Duran." (John was the hottest member by far.) The stuff about him bitching his proud parents out for saving a bunch of fan mail that had arrived while he was away on his first tour sounds pretty harsh -- “I emptied the sacks in a rageful frenzy, dumping the contents violently on the floor . . . frothing at the mouth, tearing up the envelopes unopened. My parents watched the rampage, their mouths agape. ‘Don’t you get it, you two? I don’t f - - - ing care about any of this!’ ” -- but if nothing else, all the sex and drugs (and PHOTOS!) might be worth a look! Read HERE.

Song of the Day: 'Come Undone' by Duran Duran

 Whenever I meet fellow '80s music geeks, one of the first things I hear is "Why aren't you more into Duran Duran or Depeche Mode?" It's a fair question -- they were two of the biggest bands of my high school years, and even spawned a movement of teenage girls known as "Durannies," which was definitely a pejorative in the crowd of punks and mods I knew. (I fell into none of these categories; I was known more as "that guy who looks like Howard Jones.")  The obvious answer is my penchant for (fun) girl singers, something evidenced by the fact that Blondie and the Pretenders are my two favorite bands, and that I prefer the Cindy and Kate songs to Fred by 100 to 1. But I did have my share of men I adored, like Paul Weller, Richard Butler (Psychedelic Furs) and Chris Isaak, to name a few. And I was an early fan of Duran Duran and Depeche Mode, too. My brother brought home the first two Duran Duran albums after seeing them open for Blondie in 1982, a concert I still have nightmares about missing (even if the concert looked like it was a nightmare!). I was always an album person, but right from the get-go I found myself only interested in the singles. (Couldn't hum a note of "To the Shore,"  "Careless Memories," "Night Boat," "Sound of Thunder," "Friends of Mine" or "Tel Aviv" if my life depended on it, although I'm fairly certain the latter is an instrumental.) "Rio" took off shortly thereafter, so I heard a lot more of that one. But after "Hungry Like the World" and the titular track, the secondary singles didn't do much for me. (Everyone I know loved "New Religion," but I didn't get it.) By the time "Is There Something I Should Know" came out on the re-released debut album, even their singles stopped exciting me. "The Reflex" and "Union of the Snake" were both pretty awful, although they redeemed themselves a bit with "New Moon on Monday," but then I wasn't too wild about "Wild Boys," 

Depeche Mode were an entirely different case. I loved "Speak and Spell" from beginning to end, and even bought the two-disc reissue a few years ago. But once Vince Clarke left (forming Yaz and later Erasure), I slowly lost interest. Many hardcore fans think the band really came into its own under the leadership of Martin, but with the exception of a few early post-Clarke singles -- like the stellar "See You," which I suspect was Martin trying to mimic him, as well as "Everything Counts" and "Blasphemous Rumors"  -- but I hated the increasingly dark sound the band adopted. But unlike Depeche Mode, Duran Duran has still occasionally dazzled me with a new single every so often -- "Skin Trade," "All She Wants Is," "Electric Barbarella"  -- none more than the hypnotically moody "Come Undone," from their triumphant "Wedding Album" comeback, which was somehow even better than the brilliant Beatles-esque "Ordinary World." To cut a long story short (quoting another male singer I adore!), I would see Duran Duran in concert today, but would pass on Depeche Mode ... unless Vince has a one-night stand with the boys.

UPDATE: Earlier today, I had accidentally posted "Ordinary World" in the headline and the video while writing about "Come Undone." My apologies for the confusion.

Music Box: Duran Duran

Surprising as it may be, I was never a Duranie. Have gone to high school from 1982-1985, the halls were littered with 'em, yet I morphed from Limahl to Howard Jones to Paul Weller during my years at Dobson High. (That's not to say I didn't think they were adorable, especially Roger and John.) I remember my brother Bill first discovering them right before they hit it big in America with "Hungry Like the Wolf" -- he saw them open for Blondie at Pine Knob in Detroit, a concert I was slated to attend but wasn't able to -- but always found their albums to be a bit tedious. Their singles, however, were great, and certainly didn't need to be sought out, as they were ubiquitous on the radio and MTV back then. The band's popularity eventually dissipated -- with various members leaving and rejoining over the years -- but they did have that big "comeback" moment in 1993, when the single "Ordinary World" exploded on the radio. While I took notice of that wonderful Beatles-inspired hit, it was the follow-up, "Come Undone," with its seductive lyrics and slinky musical arrangement, that really struck me as something special -- so much so, in fact, that hearing it against the band's hits from its heyday -- "Wolf," "Rio," or the god-awful "Wild Boys" or "The Reflex" -- makes me think in retrospect that it may just be their finest hour three minutes on Planet Earth, an honor I used to reserve for "Girls on Film." (FYI: "Skin Trade" is another post-original-lineup fave.)

What about you, what's your favorite Duran Duran song?

Earful

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