My mind appreciates puns, apparently...

My mind works best with the appropriate music in the background. Lately, I've been working on a sequel to a novel that I'm currently shipping out. Both novels deal with the forces of good and evil in the form of angels and demons (with nary a hint of Tom Hanks to be seen... cue rimshot). The characters involved include a noir detective and the obligatory half-human half-demon heroine. So what does this have to do with the price of rice in China? Well, nothing, if you want to take that question literally. But, my point is that the CD I'm currently listening to is called Demon Crossing by a band called Yellow #9. If you haven't heard them then the best way to describe them is this.
Imagine a nightclub, circa 1945. Onstage is a woman in a sultry red dress, with a sultry voice that has been weighted down with whiskey and cigarettes. The band is unobtrusive, as the singer is front row center with her sparkling red gown and elbow length black gloves.
You know, your typical film noir type nightclub scene.
Why do I ask you to imagine this? Simple. Because this is exactly the scene I picture in my head, down to the smoke rings circling the toughs in fedoras and shoulder holsters in the front row, every time I throw this CD in. Don't know why, either. It's just one of those things that happens every time. The song Lust in particular sounds like something that the sultry songbird would sing in a tough-talking detective story. And I've actually built a scene in my head around a song called Jackie to put into one of books in the series I'm working on. The song actually has nothing to do with the scene other than the demon that my detective runs into at the bar is named, in fact, Jacky.
Not everything on the album is perfect, however. You can safely skip over Bad Girl, one of the few missteps on the album. Bad Girl is a 30 second bit of what sounds like a drunken hobo saying, “She's a bad girl. Don't know why she's bad. She's a bad girl.” That's it. Whee.
Hair of the Dog puts the album back into strong form, although it keeps up the pace with a few other notable mentions (ICFCFBM, despite the fact that the lyrics are terrible, and Seven Addictions are both strong entries, although without the same feel that inspires little film noir movies to run in my head). Hair of the Dog in particular has an interesting jazzy, nightclub-just-before-closing-time feel to it. So, if any of this fascinates you, or you think that you want to write demon-oriented noir as well, check out Yellow #9 and Demon Crossing. It's interesting, to say the least. And if you don't like it, well...



Tough shit.