A Winner from Wimbledon

In tennis, the term 'love' is used for scoring zero points in a game. Before a few hours ago, I had no clue about tennis' scoring terminology, nor did I know much about the history of the game in general. Thanks to hours of free time and a decent internet connection, I know a few more useless facts. We'll get to Jamie T in a second, so read on.

Now the history of 'love' is a flimsy one, but that might be why I like it. Apparently, it's all thanks to ridiculous Frenchmen {and women, I guess, even though I don't think it was legal for them to have opinions at the time} and what Freud called 'psychodynamic theory.' For all of you who don't want to Wikipedia it, 'psychodynamic theory' is a fancy way of saying free association.

See, 0 {zero} looks like an egg. "L'oeuf" is egg en Francais and it is pronounced "leuf." Say it aloud and you'll notice that "leuf" sounds like an apathetic cartoon dog saying "love." And THAT is the history of "love" in tennis. Sounds like a bad game of telephone, but that's how the French roll, I suppose. Hell, Simone de Beauvoir got her life-long nickname of Castor because her last name sounds like "beaver" and castor means beaver in French. And also probably because she was half-gay.

Nothing in the three paragraphs previous is relevant to Jamie T, save for his hometown of Wimbledon. They're almost complete opposites. I couldn't care less about tennis and Wimbledon, and Jamie T gets me through the week feeling a little lighter. Mr. T {ha} is a twenty year old bruiser who has been called a "one man Arctic Monkey" and is forever being called "cheeky." He's got a really heartbreaking music video I watch every week or so {thanks YouTube}, and his full-length debut release Panic Prevention is asymmetrically potent. Though it's release was only in the United Kingdom, it's pretty easy to acquire Jamie's music. Three of the tracks have already been released as singles {"If You've Got the Money", "Sheila", and "Calm Down Dearest"}, and they're fucking bold. I've been pimping him out to my friends since this summer, and he's great summer driving music. There's an inescapable sing-a-long quality to his songs, and this live version of "If You've Got the Money" is sure to suck you in.

Jamie T - If You've Got the Money {live}

Also, in the studio version of the track, this guy samples Inner Circle's "Sweat {A la la la la long}", one of my favorite songs. It's got some of the best lines in music history:

Girl I want to make you sweat
Sweat till you can't sweat no more
And if you cry out
I'm gonna push it some, more, more

post-script: He's only got two US dates. If you're near Los Angeles on March 19th, congratulations, he's an opening act at a free show at Spaceland. If you're near Manhattan on March 21st, swoop some tickets now and thank me later.