Steve State

2008-12-05T17:56:00.002Z

Steve State is now here
Steve State now here
He's now here
Steve State now here
Steve State now here
Steve State now here
Steve State now here
He's now here
Steve State is now here
Steve State now here
Steve State now here
Steve State now here
Steve State now here
Steve State now here
Steve State now here
Steve State now here
Steve State now here
Steve State now here
Steve State now here and has been reading too much David Peace

Free School

2008-12-05T17:11:00.000Z

Free School is music.
Free School is lamb.
Free School is free.
Free School is here.
Free School is 4eva.
Free School is.
Free School.
Free.

Free School is also Free School Wordpress

Destroy Cowboy - new tracks

2007-09-19T11:14:00.000Z

Human blood. Not baboon.

2006-12-29T09:48:00.000Z

So James Brown died on 25 December 2006. I remember listening to Star Time for a few weeks solid back in November, trying to impress on people the importance of the song Get it together. The song is written as the band goes along. The solos, who plays them, the dynamics, its insane. Nothing precedes it. And nothing can or will match it now. Post-modern is a tag that is easy to apply to it. I went to the Apollo in Harlem in 2003. Its lost its authenticity to be honest but its importance is undeniable.

This article, written by Jonathan Lethem, maybe the finest article on music I have read to date. It surely must be the finest piece on James Brown.

The James Brown Band takes the form, onstage, of an animated frieze or hieroglyphic, timeless in a very slightly seedy, showbiz way but happily so, rows of men in red tuxedos, jitterbugging in lock step even as they miraculously conjure from instruments a perfect hurricane of music: a rumbling, undulating-insinuating (underneath), shimmery-peppery (up on top) braided waveform of groove. Yes, it's made unmistakable, in case you forgot, that this is merely a prelude, a throat-clearing, though the band has already rollicked through three or four recognizable numbers in succession; we're waiting for something. The name of the something is James Brown. You indeed fear, despite all sense, that something is somehow wrong: Perhaps he's sick or reluctant, or perhaps there's been a mistake. There is no James Brown, it was merely a rumor. Thankfully, someone has told you what to do -- you chant, gladly: "James Brown! James Brown!" A natty little man with a pompadour comes onstage and with a booming, familiar voice asks you if you Are Ready for Star Time, and you find yourself confessing that you Are....

....Now he explains to the band that it's not going to bother with the track it recorded before he arrived. "Sounds good," James Brown says, "but it sounds canned. We got to get some James Brown in there." Here it is, the crux of the matter: He wasn't in the room; ipso facto, it isn't James Brown music. The problem is fundamentally one of ontology: In order for James Brown to occur, you need to be James Brown....

...Now that the gears are oiled, a constant stream of remarks and asides flows from James Brown's mouth. Many of these consist of basic statements of policy in regard to the matter of being James Brown, particularly in relationship to his band: "Be mean, but be the best." These statements mingle exhortations to excellence with justifications for his own treatment of the men he calls, alternately, "the cats" and "my family." Though discipline is his law, strife is not only likely but essential: "Any time a cat becomes a nuisance, that's the cat I'm gonna want." The matter of the rejected track is still on his mind: "Don't mean to degrade nobody. People do something they think is good. But you're gonna hear the difference. Get that hard sound." Frequently he dwells on the nature of the sound of which he is forever in pursuit: "Hard. Flat. Flat." One feels James Brown is forever chasing something, a pure hard-flat-jazz-funk he heard once in his dreams, and toward which all subsequent efforts have been pointed. This in turn leads to a reminiscence about Grover Washington Jr., who, apparently, recently presented James Brown with a track James Brown didn't wish to sing on. "He should go play smooth jazz. We got something else going. James Brown jazz. Nothing smooth about it. If it gets smooth, we gonna make it not smooth." Still musing on Grover Washington Jr.'s failings, he blurts, "Just jive." Then corrects himself, looking at me: "Just things. Instead of people. Understand?"

Throughout these ruminations, the members of James Brown's band stand at readiness, their fingers on strings or mouths a few short inches from reeds and mouthpieces, in complete silence, only sometimes nodding to acknowledge a remark of particular emphasis. A given monologue may persist for an hour, no matter: At the slightest drop of a hand signal, these players are expected to be ready. There's nothing new in this. The Hardest-Working Man in Show Business is one of the legendary hard-asses: His bands have always been the Hardest-Worked Men in Show Business, the longest-rehearsed, the most fiercely disciplined, the most worn-out and abused. Fuck-ups, I'll learn, will be cold-shouldered, possibly punished with small monetary fines, occasionally humiliated by a tirade...

...The crowd screams in joy when James Brown dances even a little (and these days, it is mostly a little). Perhaps, I think, we are all in his family. We want him to be happy. We want him alive. When the James Brown Show comes to your town -- when it comes to Gateshead, U.K., today, as when it came to the Apollo Theater in 1961, as when it came to Atlanta or Oklahoma City or Indianapolis anytime, life has admitted its potential to be astounding, if only for as long as the Show lasts. Now that James Brown is old, we want this to go on occurring for as long as possible. We almost don't wish to allow ourselves to think this, but the James Brown Show is a precious thing that may someday vanish from the Earth.

I might just save the world...

2006-12-22T09:07:00.000Z

Wednesday 24 Novemeber 2004

1824hrs. Listening to: Ryan Adams: Gold. Wow.

This journal business is becoming difficult to maintain. Been listening to Television: Marquee Moon over the past 2 days. I think its an album that any serious music lover should re-visit every 3 months. For me its the the ultimate album. It has everything. Balls, great lyrics (when discernible), beautifully constructed progressions and compositional techniques, great musicianship (lots of strange time signatures and half-bars which don't detract in any sense from the final product) and the solos. The solos. Space is allotted for the sole purpose of soloing, a dangerous tactic if the solos weren't up to anything. Some songs have 3 separate solos. Boy, do they pull it off. The drummer plays loads of crochet triplets (huge feature of Latin, Cuban music) giving you the feeling that the melting pot of the Lower East Side of NYC influenced his playing. You can't make the perfect album (unless you're extremely narrow-minded). This comes after perfect, whatever judgment that might be.

I've been meeting Arnaud on my lunches. When that hasn't happened, I walk to St Paul's Square. I found it by accident. For so long I have wondered where the hell it was and how to get there. I was walking off Newhall St, to Sound Control (with a Philpotts roast turkey sandwich in my hand...) and I saw a church, which I have seen so many times before and simply walked on by. As I walked towards it the Tarnished Halo appeared on the right, and then the Actress and Bishop on the left, opposite the Mongolian and Sushi restaraunts, a gorgeously subtle Mediterranean restaraunt. Aesthetically wondrous, feels like a London square but reminded me of NYC even though it itsnt like anything in Manhattan (I don't think). The church has a ton of benches and well kept greenenery. The Jam House is there (shoot me if I ever contribute to Jools Holland's considerable pockets). It's a lovely place. Going for a meal at Locanti Piccalilee on Saturday night with Ben.

Avant-garde as such

2006-12-20T13:35:00.000Z

Monday 15 November 2004

2326hrs. Found out yesterday that ODB died aged 36. He collapsed in a Manhattan studio. The cause of death was unknown... Shocker. Rang Si to tell him and he was equally shocked. Some of his rhymes were the most outrageous things I have ever heard. Avant-garde as such. When he (sort of) sang it was brilliant. Reminded me of a be-bop alto sax player (soul, depth, versatility) in the same way Beans reminds me of a be-bop trumpeter (Lyrical, dexterous). Have just listened to his best of album. Some great stuff on there, especially the stuff produced by The Neptunes.
Have Billie Holiday in my head: Lady in Satin. Brings a tear to the eye

What we can achieve as humans

2006-12-19T11:27:00.000Z

Friday 5 November 2004

2308hrs. In bed. I guess I have more inclination to write tonight. Tonight I finally got Mingus. I listened to his box set a few weeks ago. I loved it, it was great and I truly needed to hear it when I did. But tonight I heard I had Mingus Ah Um on the way to the cricket ground and on the way back. I was going into town to see James play a solo gig. The first half of Ah Um was on, Mingus crying in the background as the band crescendos. On the way back the second half of the album played as I ascended the Russell Rd hill. This guy for me is a beautiful example of humanity, of what we can achieve as humans. As he solos, the drummer goes in to double time. A moment. Capturing notes. I love it and tonight I really really got it.

James was really good. He opened with, surprisingly, For The Turnstiles. It was really good to hear a Neil Young song in a different voice, a low, gravelly voice. It worked like nothing else James has sung. I was really impressed. He did songs by Grateful Dead, Buffalo Tom, Townes Van Zandt and this song about Gram Parsons that is apparently on the credits for the Who Killed Gram Parsons film. Its a really good song and James does it well (not having heard the original). I told him he should think about some Johnny Cash covers. It would really suit his voice.

I was also surprised to find that James was the best of the bill and he should have been embarrassed to be sharing the stage with the other two acts. Top of the bill was a relic freak weirdo from the cock-rock days and he does a cover of What If God Was One Of Us?

The guy after James seemed really promising after the first song which was almost Lionel Richie-esque. It was just him and a keyboard. He started introducing songs and I burst out laughing. One was about an ex-girlfriend who thought she was a clairvoyant. Anyway, he dumped her a few days later. And then the faux-strings begin.... The lyrics (I swear) featured the lines "Cosmic sailing, Supernatural failing". It was a scene, man.... Another song was about redundancy (seriously). I'm now starting to question what we can achieve as humans. Mingus, where are you now, huh?

They part ways...

2006-12-15T15:48:00.000Z

Monday 1 November 2004

Wow...I guess that was October. The month of change. The month of the new. As Dylan puts it in My Back Pages:

Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats
Too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking I had something to protect
Good and bad, I define these terms
Quite clear, no doubt, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I'm younger than that now

I saw Oldboy at the UGC Broad St yesterday. Pretty dark stuff covering a range of materials - incest, slaughter, torture, lust, love... It was really good. Went home and watched La Dolce Vita. I can now see why Fellini is regarded as a master. Its not that I've struggled with his previous films but I think you have to have read a little about 8 1/2 and Roma to 'get' them, to let them delve in to your subconscious. The Sweet Life was immediate, even at 3 hours in length. I think there were shots of Via Veneto, right near where we stayed in June. Anita Ekberg is a delight and the Trevi Fountain scene is heart-shattering.

I haven't done a great deal over the past few days really. I went home to mix and master some of my recordings. I rented two great films from Cinephilia. Wild Man Blues follows Woody Allen and his jazz band around the cities of Europe, providing a hitherto unseen insight in to the neuroses of the man. His Milan hotel suite has a swimming pool. It reveals Allen's loathing of flowers (because of the burden it places on the receiver).

Before Sunrise (another one from, unbelievably, Cinephilia) beat even its sequel in depth and emotion. Because of its real-time set up, you leave feeling as though you have been part of the their wonderful evening. This film should be seen by anyone who is sceptical about love, as maybe we all are at some stage of our lives. The film floats along like a dream and yet the actors create an atmosphere that is totally believable, full of awkwardness and gay abandon. You feel for the characters as they part ways. Knowing what happens in the sequel also adds to the interest. Vienna is made to look beautiful almost by accident. I mean, the story and the conversation are always central even when they are commenting on the city or the river or whatever. Therefore, the physical presence and beauty of the city is a by-product of the film.

The sadness falls....

2006-12-14T11:36:00.000Z

Wednesday 27 October 2004

2052hrs Listening to The Early Gurus of Electronic Music. Messaien's 'Oraison', a piece written for an ensemble of Ondes Maternot. Beautiful stuff.

It's so cold in my room that I have had to bring a radiator in. Just sitting here you can feel the draught from the single pane window. I emailed Pete Fairclough today. It was a lengthy email. I checked the last time I got in touch - June 2003 - when I came back from NYC. I'm hoping he will be able to offer me some advice. Of what kind I don't know.

Have done some great recoding over the past few days. I have attempted to increase the experimentation of several existing songs. This is in the hope of melding the organic and the non-organic, the found sound with the traditional, the heart and the mind. I have also written a few pieces from scratch, improvising with myself on the four track. I really enjoyed it - it's a great feeling when you improvise and yet still pull something off that's soulful and has meaning. I will try and master the songs at some point over the next few days.

Robert Frank has been covered a lot in the media this week due to his exhibition starting at the Tate Modern. They interviewed him for the Observer on Sunday. Talking about his artist wife he says, 'I envy her freedom to sit down in front of a blank page and not have some machine get in the way. That is freedom. Photography is not freedom.' Then check this out:

'Robert Frank had captured an everyday America, shrouded in an epic sense of loneliness, a sadness...Some of that sadness was quintessentially American, to do with the vastness of the continent and the struggle to survive that many of its ordinary citizens are engaged in, and some of it was to do with Robert Frank, his outsider gaze. "I think I always had a cold eye. I always saw things realistically. But, it's also easier to show the darkness than the joy of life. Life is not beautiful all the time. Life can be good, then you lie down, and stare up at the ceiling, and the sadness falls on you. Things move on, time passes, people go away, and sometimes they don't come back...Happy is a big word...I guess I got where I wanted to get, but it didn't turn out to be the place I hoped it would be."'

Wow... This is an artist's artist. I need to see this exhibition...

Broken Summers

2006-12-13T13:02:00.000Z

Monday 25 October 2004

Outgoing email to Woo:

DAVID!
How's things?
I've just had an email that Seinfeld DVD Box Set is on its way from Amazon!!!!! Yeah!
My writing has now become the forefront of my musical activities. I am considering doing a Masters in Composition next year either in Birmingham or London. I've been recording a lot recently. I've been trying to improvise with myself using my Korg MS2000 and my Korg Kaos Pad via my 4-track and its produced some really interesting results. Improv is something I would really like to explore further.

I shall be coming down to London one of the weekends in November (either 13th or 20th). Will be going to see the Robert Frank exhibition at the Tate Modern - did you see the South Bank Show on him a few weeks ago? This guy is amazing! May also catch a bit of the London Jazz festival, although a lot of the great stuff is on in the week. If you can, you should go and see Brad Mehldau at Wigmore Hall on the 16th or 17th - he's a pianist. Amazing.
http://www.serious.org.uk/index2.cfm?refid=84&tmpt=tmpt3&tmptID=42

Been to see a lot of stuff recently - are you into James Yorkston (and The Athletes)? If you haven't checked them out yet you would absolutley love him. He's on Domino. Check out Adem if you can as well. They both have their own websites where you can check out samples or whatever. I saw Roy Ayers last month who was superb (doing a lot of his collaborative stuff with Fela Kuti).

The CBSO (through Birmingham Jazz) put on a lot of really good gigs - I saw the Tim Garland Quartet on Friday night He's a white English sax player and he plays with Chick Corea as do the others in the quartet. The bass player was also the bandleader for Jack DeJohnette and the drummer played with Ray Charles. Tim had a goatee beard and a bad orange shirt. They played a Coltrane tune, a Chick Corea and a Miles tune as well as promoting their new album. The guitarist was from NYC and although he was awesome in his playing, he was also a little too keen on 'weird' noises and FX pedals. He destroyed one tune by making his guitar sounding like a marimba. Why? Totally pointless. I am all for using technology to progress music and push the boundaries bit I can't see why you would want make an instrument sound like something else. The technique required to play a marimba is somewhat different to that required to play a guitar and when you have reached the high standard this guitarist had it feels like such a waste. It was a good night, made more enjoyable by being on my own. It was the first time I had been there - it's a really nice space just off Broad St. Got a fucking parking ticket. I parked in almost the exact spot I did the last time I got a ticket. I'm a moron. A moron who could do without spending £30 on a parking ticket. http://www.timgarland.com/

Last night I went to see the Birmingham Electro-Acoustic Sound Theatre (BEAST) at the CBSO. 5 pieces written for cello from different composers from all over the world. Was really good but the £12 entry fee was somewhat steep. The music varied from piece to piece. One piece was kind of scored improv, another explored tunings, another triggered samples from a laptop. Another was inspired by the sound of rolling metal balls on wood which also triggered samples of the very balls the music was inspired by. They turned all the lights off for one piece and they played in the dark. The two female cellists were awesomely attractive. The male one wasn't one - his name was Caspar - you can imagine the type - all goofy grins - he was shit hot on his instrument though. Most of those were students. They all seemed so young but I guess they were 18-20.
www.beastmusic.co.uk

I have been immersing myself in some really good music - Derek Bailey, Nick Cave's new album (it really is brilliant - will be seeing him in Wolverhampton next week - did you know he lives in Brighton? Have we already had that conversation?!) Jim O' Rourke, Greg Davis, Elliott Smith's posthumous album (well worth getting) Elvis Costello's new album, Animal Collective.... There are these improv sessions every other week in Moseley which I shall be attending.

What books are you reading at the moment?
I'm reading one on Edward Hopper and John Fante's 'Wait until Spring, Bandini'. Just finished reading the superb 'Motherless Brooklyn' by Jonathan Lethem.

Watched Ghost World again the other night - I see myself as the Steve Buscemi character which is a little worrying... Don't know whether we've had this conversation or not but have you checked out American Splendor yet - the comic and/or the film? - There is an Anthology book which is stupendous and widely available - you'd love it. Is there a Daniel Clowes book you'd recommend for me?

I've seen so many films over the last few months that there are too many to mention in this increasing lengthy email. I will mention just two though. Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. Saw them the wrong way round. Won't go into them now but if you haven't seen them or don't know anything about them - do some research - you won't regret it! Stunningly good.
Did you see Rollins is touring again? I'm going to the Hammersmith show with my brother in Jan. I have just re-read his latest two books - 'Smile, You're Travelling' and 'Broken Summers'. Great stuff. Inspiring.

Take care David

Stephen

Seek Bird and Dizzy

2006-12-12T12:49:00.000Z

Saturday 23 October 2004

Outgoing email to Rusted Willy:

William
Hope all is well in West Yorkshire. I am ok, although struggling with the 's' key on this keyboard which is somewhat impeding my speed.
Last night I went to see James Yorkston. It was amazing. You have to go to the gig in Leeds, especially with Adem supporting. His fingerstyle technique is quite something and his personality really comes through. Funny-looking bunch of guys, really. The sounds they make are simply wonderful. The registers of each instrument (basically acoustic guitar, double bass, accordion and percussion, with touches of Indian harmonium, banjo and concertina) just complement each other. There was only about 25 people there. They played until about 2305hrs (5 mins after the curfew) and then unplugged and did a song without amplification. It was really, really good.

Have you seen the website - also good. Have you got the new album? I will definitely get it. http://www.jamesyorkston.co.uk/index.htm
They were supported by Jim Moray - bit of a ponce but he clearly has some talent - he re-works trad folk stuff and uses samplers. He does a few terrible songs of his own on piano. Check his website out - Richard Thompson has asked him to support on forthcoming tour and Uncut described him as the most important thing in English folk since Liege and Leaf. Wow. http://www.jimmoray.co.uk/content.php

Really liked Collateral. Really dug the jazz interlude in the middle section. Name checking Mingus in suggesting the club and then the band onstage 'playing' Miles' Spanish Key. I thought it sounded suspiciously accurate for a live band and I was proved right to be so, when I checked the credits and found that they had simply played the tune and the band were miming. Still great though and the story about Miles was great. "Where did Miles learn to play?" "Julliard" He shoots him in the head. "Wrong. Miles
dropped out after a year and went to seek Bird and Dizzy on 52nd St". Wooo! Amazing. I would have said Julliard too! I'd be dead now!

Also buy Elliott Smith's new album - it's upsetting to listen to but it is a truly great album, regardless of the circumstances - I can't stop listening to it.
Please reply soon
Stephen

Pretty (Ugly Before)

2006-12-11T10:17:00.000Z

Wednesday 20 October 2004

1039hrs. I have been thinking a lot about how I express myself artistically. I have been reading about Daniil Kharms, a Russian writer from the first half of the last century, an avant-garde absurdist who wrote various things but is held in high regard for his dramatic fragmentations or incidents. I think in this modern age, with access to so many different things, and MTV (in America at least) introducing to rule of a cut every 3 seconds which has influenced TV and film as a whole, that art should reflect this pattern. My writing seems to emulate this. As long as I am being true to myself, these short stories (whatever you want to call them) are easily 'downloadable'. I don't know, I'm just trying to make sense of my thoughts at the moment.

Finally got From A Basement On A Hill today, Elliott Smith's posthumous album. It's superb but incredibly upsetting to listen to. The lyrics are as dark as hell but the songs are great. It feels like you're prying in to his personal life with every line of each song, trying to figure if it paints a picture of where his head was at before he killed himself. It wasn't a happy place by the sound of things.

You weren't listening...

2006-12-09T08:59:00.000Z

Monday 18 October 2004

0035hrs. Have just watched the South Bank Show on Robert Frank, the photographer/documentary maker. I seemed to be aware of his name though I had no real conception of who he was. Apparently he's regarded as the world's greatest living photographer. He also directed Cocksucker Blues, the unreleased Rolling Stones documentary. His first shots were in New York, though his real work started in Paris and then London. He then travelled accross the US. He has done a few documentaries on the Beat writers, one of his films depicted the beatnik scene, narrated by Jack Kerouac. He has never done an interview because he feels that his work needs no explaining and the reasoning behind each shot is intuitive and impossible to recount. In the first five minutes of the film you can see he wanted to keep his integrity. Frank was in the middle of a general description of how he worked when the film they were shooting ran out. Frank was furious and started to berate the director, telling him that if he couldn't get his staff together then it wasn't going to work and he wasn't an actor and couldn't be expected to be repeat his words (which were studied and cautious thoug intelligent and solemn). His work backed up the sentiments though - his photos were great and I think they're on display at the Tate Modern.

Waiting for Play to deliver Elliot Smith new album. It's received a load of really good reviews. Have been listening to Keith Tippett - 'Dedicated to you but you weren't listening'. It's really good. I must check to see if he has a website. I would love to see him play again. I've seen him twice - both times my musical education was not at the stage it is currently. The first was at Sheffield Uni. I met the Spaceman 3 and Spiritualised drummer Jon. He was really nice. I then saw him at the now defunct jazz club The Vortex in Stoke Newington where I met Spencer who I was in halls with at Uni.

Ikoyi Blindness

2006-12-08T12:17:00.000Z

Friday 15 October 2004

1836hrs. On the stereo: Fela Kuti: Ikoyi Blindness.

Watched A One and a Two today. It was the first film I ever watched at the legendary Electric Cinema which is no longer. That was one great day. Me and Si bought some Chinese cakes in Chinatown and saw some hooligans being chased in the direction of the City Centre - it was Villa vs Coventry that day. Ah, memories…

2116hrs. At home. Fairport Convention on laptop. Best of.

Stayed up to watch the 3rd Presidential Election on Wednesday night on BBC News 24. Started at 2am. Fascinating stuff, really. For all Bush's bullshit in reference to abortion and single-sex marriage (and it is bullshit. Those views are backwards and completely go against evolution), Kerry comes across as 2nd rate. There is no strength of conviction and I know these events are managed to some extent, but he doesn't appear to have a singular vision. The Catholic Church in the US have apparently asked for Catholics to vote for Bush due to Kerry's opinion that a woman should have a right to choose whether she gives birth to an unwanted child. Kerry looked kind of hurt by it as he is a Catholic and because he can't come out and say how fucked the Church's opinion is he appears weak. His views on the war were pretty pitiful. What do I know though?

Going to go watch Costello on Later and then Room for Romeo Brass. Might go see the Metallica documentary tomorrow.

2006-12-07T13:37:00.000Z

Thursday 7 August 2004

Have been listening to some great music. Bjork was live on Gilles Peterson on Sunday, featuring a bell choir from Chester! She continually amazes me. Alice Coltrane 'Transendence'. Brian Wilson 'Smile'. Tony Williams 'Life Time'. Joy Division 'Closer'. Duke Ellington 'Black, Brown and Beige'. I love finally recognising something's beauty - it smacks you round the face; it doesn't care that you didn't notice how good it was; it doesn't possess arrogance - it doesn't need to, it simply smiles and says 'Come and join us'.

Have finished the book on Picasso, one of the finest things I have read. It trod that fine line between high academia and simplicity, just perfect for a layman like myself. Perfectly summed up why he is talked about in such revered tones. I now 'get it'. I think. Moving on the Edward Hopper book. Have been looking at Masters courses. Haven't researched them all by any means but the Birmingham Uni course looks really good. Will have to research funding and such things, as it could be devastating otherwise.

I am looking to collaborate with some experimenters, people who have no regard for genre, no regard for the current crop of feted bands. No limits or barriers. That is what I need and I need to learn of course, but I'm hoping I can be a master's protégé or something. I don't know. I will send some emails off this week in the hope of meeting a few new musicians.

2305hrs. Tomorrow is my last day at work. Thought my last few days would be a breeze but no, they have merely been confirmation of my dismal last few months and the strength of desire to leave. Will be strange to leave. Had to say a few goodbyes today. Dipesh shook my hand and said that it had 'been great knowing me'. Was I classed as past tense now? Evidently. Notable show of emotion for a man's man such as he is.

I have just got off the phone to Tshepi. She is handing her resignation in tomorrow. She is a life force and I have a lot of strong feelings for her. We connect on a lot of levels like brother and sister. Have been reading this downloadable book about creative entrepeneurship that Si forwarded me. Very inspiring. Would like to talk to Tshepi about doing something. She was heavily involved in promotion work in South Africa and she knows her shit.

Also been checking out some Masters courses. The possibilities of a course like that are endless. Jim O'Rourke did a course in Composition in Chicago. So many things to consider...

I live to destroy time. I don't want to live in harmony with it. Since time is going to kill me off eventually I want to fuck it up on the way down the drain. I want to leave it with scars and a limp. I am the monkey on time's back...If you're going to write, then write. If there's plans you have made, then execute them or be damned. Time is your wings, the key. If you let it slip by, it is acid that drips upon your soul...I must maintain this urgency. It is in the rhythm of life. Life is furious. It explodes in foliage and rots in damp heat. Jump in to the river that takes you to it. Otherwise life is a pause before death. I don't comprehend how people have been able to suppress their lives enough to work in the same place year after year while the hate they had for the place that might have saved them by giving them the push they needed to get out, dissipates into complacency and they just toughen up and resolve themselves to a life they don't want. They justify it with things their father told them about responsibility. It's a strength of character I don't posess. That life reeks of death. An unhurried, languid death that doesn't walk, but ambles down the hall. Old footsteps dumbly decaying out of hearing range. The blood thickens and the world slows down. The blues fade and reds become muddy.

- Henry Rollins, 'Smile, You're Travelling'.

2004 got to be black!

2006-12-06T10:46:00.000Z

Tuesday 5th August 2004

Friday night was brilliant. Went to see Roy Ayers and the African Jazz Allstars at the Drum in Newtown. He was great and it was so heart-warming to see such a legend. That was also a negative in one sense, as the Drum wasn't really fit to host the event. This guy deserves a better, more prominent stage. Having said that, I guess the social significance of this black community venue suited the African nature of the set, a timely compliment to the Fela Kuti month being held at the Barbican, where Ayers was due to play the following night. He's quite old but he was jovial throughout and danced, albeit tentatively, at various points. He played Africa Centre Of The World and Black 2000 as well as Everybody Loves The Sunshine and Keep On Trying. I went with Tshepi who loved it so much she couldn't stop thanking me and Sean from work who also loved it.

Sunday night continued my good streak. Went to see Dead Man's Shoes on my own at UGC Broad St. Hugely dark and frankly disturbing, it moved me like nothing else could. I couldn't sleep that night. The music was stunning - Adem, Calexico, Aphex Twin, Arvo Part, Bonnie'Prince' Billy. Paddy Considine is a special actor. It truly depicted the English small town moron thing.

On Monday I went to see James' first gig proper at the Chestnut Tree in Sheldon, a dive of a place if ever there was one. He did ok, a few of his new songs sounded pretty good. He did a Jesse Malin song, Springsteen's Nothing Man. His finger picking wasn't great and it inhibited him from concentrating on his voice, which was really good in places. Made it back for Sopranos and a short film by Shane Meadows.

2006-12-04T13:00:00.000Z

Sunday 26 September 2004

On repeat: No One Seems To Know. An unreleased Neil Young song I have on the 2003 European bootleg that Will got for me.

So don't say you lose
And no one else will know...
Once I was in love
Now it seems that time is better spent
In searching and in finding

2152hrs. Have just got off the phone to Ed. Hadn't spoken to him in a while. He was in his garden nr Bury St Edmonds, with a full moon standing next to the pond. Unfortunately the sweet country air was also matched with a lack of phone signal. He was in good spirits.

Went to the City Council's jobs day. It was held at the council office in Victoria Square - probably the most stately place in the city. What a place. It was gorgeous inside. Went to a seminar in the chamber where they obviously hold votes etc. On the 'desk' in front of you there was a microphone and 'yes', 'no' and 'abstain' buttons. Learnt that it is the largest council in the UK, serving over 1m people and employing 53000 people. Also learnt that my applications I had filled in up to now were useless and almost laughable. In one way that's good because I won't ever fill an application form the same way again.

Bukowski's Women gets better and better although the yearning for beer, wine, whiskey, whatever is slightly disconcerting . Here are some snippets:

There is a problem with writers. If what a writer wrote was published and sold many, many copies, the writer thought he was great. If what a writer wrote was published and sold a medium number of copies, the writer thought he was great. If what a writer wrote was published and sold very few copies, the writer thought he was great. If what the writer wrote never was published and he didn't have enough the money to publish it himself, then he thought he was truly great. The truth, however, was there was very little greatness. It was almost nonexistent, invisible. But you could be sure that the worst writers had the most confidence, the least self-doubt....

I foresaw future problems: as a recluse I couldn't bear traffic. It had nothing to do with jealousy, I simply dislike people, crowds, anywhere, except at my readings. People diminished me, they sucked me dry.

Great Smoothie

2006-12-03T00:09:00.000Z

Wednesday 8 September 2004

On thursday I had another day off and went to James'. Was surprisingly good to see him. Now i've spent time away from him, the facets of his personality, that endeared me to him initially, come to the fore once more. Blue Norther has fallen apart. From what I can gather, this is due to Ben and his immaturity. James played his first gig at an open night at The Rainbow on Digbeth High Street. Looks like he'll be joining a band that play Dylan, Eagles and The Byrds covers. Good luck to him. He leant me Masked and Anonymous. Strange film, but it's induced another bout of Dylan worship. He's great in it. Penelope Cruz is stunning once again. The film is full of huge A-list actors. Written by Larry Charles of Seinfeld fame its a dizzying plot with a distinctly abstract feel. Wasn't amazing but I did enjoy watching it. He also leant me Punk Rock Nothing, a sort of a diary of these two guys.

I met Si and we went to Ken Hom's restaraunt in Soho. Gorgeous setting. I forced down a soup. It didn't need much forcing as it was truly the best soup I had ever had. So tasty: chicken, lime and coconut. Went to Haagen-Daz in Leicester Square. Had an affegatto: a scoop of vanilla ice-cream in a tall glass with an espresso poured over it. Delightful.

On Saturday me, Si and Peps went to the Wolsley for lunch. What a splendid space. Think I saw Stella Mcartney but I can't be sure. Si had steak tartare. I had salt beef and mustard on rye. Peps had a chocolate sandwich (from what I could gather it was french toast and melted chocolate). Got Si a traditional shave for his birthday from this old-fashioned barbers. Watched a bit of the Aston Villa vs Chelsea game at this Sports Cafe. A load of Americans were in there watching this College American Football game.

Then we went off to the Odeon Mezzanine in Leicester Square to watch Before Sunset. It was really good. Paris looked amazing and the tension grew and grew as the main characters both knew their time was coming to an end. The ending was non-commital which I thought was really brave if slightly frustrating. Will endeavour to watch Before Sunrise soon.

We then walked from Covent Garden through the empty City (it was Saturday) all the way to the Barbican. A great walk with the city so quiet. Watched the stage version of Murakami's The Elephant Vanishes, mind-bogglingly good.

Went for brunch at Giraffe @Angel. I love walking around there. Although we had to queue it was real good. Great smoothie.

Another great Hitchens piece:

'The Nation decided to run a piece by Naomi Klein titled "Bring Najaf to New York". If you think this sounds suspiciously like an endorsement of Muqtada Sadr and his black-masked clerical bandits, you are not mistaken. The article went somewhat further and lower than the headline did...Her nasty, stupid article has evoked two excellent responses from two pillars of the Nation family...What gives, they want to know, with a supposed socialist-feminist offering swooning support to theocratic fascists?...I honestly did not expect to find it publishing actual endorsements of jihad. These fellow travellers with fascism are also changing ships on a falling tide: Their applause for the holy warriors comes at a time when wide swathes of the Arab and Muslim world are sickening of the mindless blasphemy and the sectarian bigotry...'

Needle of Ambulance Death Blues

2006-12-01T10:57:00.000Z

Friday 3 September 2004

On Stereo: Fear of Music - Talking Heads.

Have been listening to a Neil Young interview on KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic. He talks about JJ Cale, Bert Jansch and Van Morrison. Young's Ambulance Blues is played directly before Jansch's remarkably similar Needle of Death. Young doesn't hide the fact that he virtually reproduced the song.

Ben came over at around 2000hrs. He told me about this one-night-stand he'd had on Thursday. A classic Ben story. Neither of us were in the mood to go out and so we went to Cinephilia. The guy who runs it is hilarious. Someone had just left the plastic filing contraptions lying on the top. He ran over, unable to hold his shock and disappointment, 'Oh my god!' he squealed. We got Manhattan Murder Mystery out. Not one of Woody Allen's better films. Again, great to see NYC but Diane Ketaon looked awful with these waistband things on everything she was wearing. Some funny moments and great soundtrack - lots of Errol Garner. Then me and Ben had a look for some NYC deals. Cheapest for a week was at the Best Western near Times Square - £420 inc flight. Excited as hell. Checked out the Kenny Kramer tour, this restarount called 21 that Woody Allen mentions in the above film as well the Hotel Carlyle who charge $500 a night for a standard room and $5000 for the top suite. What a city - can't wait.

Finshed reading both the American Splendor Anthology and Motherless Brooklyn. As usual after a good book you feel despondent. I loved them both.

Hospital Beds

2006-11-30T01:12:00.000Z

Wednesday 1 September 2004

Watched the first episode of Alistair Cooke's America documentary. Absolutely fascinating. He started off in New York and then New Orleans and then the Prairies and Massachusetts.

1826hrs. And so with a new month comes glorious sunshine. Apparently an Indian summer is in store for us lucky Brits. Watched Fellini's Roma. Fellini-esque to say the least. I guess he was trying to portray the different factions that make up the city. I think he played himself. I didn't realise he looked like that. Very handsome and seemed so young considering it was 1972. Was great to see Rome again. Really want to go again. Spoke to Ben. Looks like we'll be doing something at the weekend. Hopefully booking a trip away. Si's booked tickets to see the play influenced by Murakami's The Elephant Vanishes. So i'll be in London Town next weekend. Got Bjork's new album 'Medulla', Latin for marrow. Truly breathtaking piece of work. So original, so groundbreaking, so true. It appears that there are beats on there - I think the guy from The Roots did some 'vocal beats'. One of the tracks is really disturbing - I think the Canadian throat singer is feature heavily on that one. Fascinating to hear and so inspiring.

Over the Edge...

2006-11-28T14:47:00.000Z

Monday 23 August 2004

Sopranos was great again. I get so annoyed with Channel 4 though. They have an ad break every 5 mins and then they always have a voice-over during the credits. This is the part where David Chase goes to the trouble to find a song that can sum up the episode; it is, for me, what makes the show so good. It's like a Shakespearean play with the music at the end being another tool of the director to explain what is going on. It puts the show into a context. But Channel 4have to have some moron talking about what's coming up next. AAAGGGHH!!!

Everyone's got a book in them. Bollocks. I certainly haven't. Started to read Jonathan Lethem's 'Motherless Brooklyn' and its stunning. I can't write with anywhere near the same magnitude. I'm no book critic so I won't try to discuss his writing in depth. Although its exhilarating to read, it's also slightly belittling. When my friend Ben had his operation he said he had started to write a book. I suggested reading one first. He hasn't got a book in him either. When he stayed over the other night he said he had written one page. Mmm...not bad for....5 weeks.

On the Random House website there's a load of diary entries from one of Lethem's book tours. It just floats off the page. In New York, he did a reading and interview with Haruki Murakami. Fuck! What a dream! Will learn a lot from how he writes his diary. Hopefully will be reflected in this.

Really enjoying watching Spaced. Have nearly finished watching the second series. It's extremely clever. New albums have arrived from Play: Jane's Addiction: 'Ritual de la Habitual', Dinosaur Jr: 'Green Mind', Yes: 'Over the Edge', and the Joy Division: 'Substance'.

Bop was in the Forties....

2006-11-27T23:30:00.000Z

Sunday 15 August 2004

Great quote from American Splendor:

Harvey Pekar: The stuff he did with Thad on Bluenote in the late Fifties is more modern than that bebop revival stuff he's into now...but you should be playing something besides bop...man, bop was in the Forties...Post-bop was in the fifties..the vocabulary for them has been devloped. You can't do anything creative if you play bop now...it's like some contemporary guy composing like Bach or Mozart.....

Si rang when he got back Portland, Oregon at around 1030hrs. He had only got around 8hrs sleep since thursday. He had a great time. He predictably loved it. He bought a Coltrane CD - Live in Seattle, a Calexico EP, a few Paul Westerberg CDs, a few Mingus albums. He spent a lot of money but it was obviously well worth it. He made a load of contacts and was on the front row of one the rallies (he emailed me the photos - 60,000 peoplethere to see Kerry).

Spoke to Ben - he went to a festival at De Montford Gardens in Leicester and saw Lambchop and Super Furries amongst others. Will hopefully meet up with him next weekend. His wound is now infected - he didn't add much more than that.

Beginnings...

2006-11-24T21:33:00.000Z

Tuesday 10 August 2004

2357hrs. Back from studio. Outgoing email to Donny:

My dear friend Donster
I hope all is well. I am writing this at the late hour of 2344hrs. I have just got back from another night at the studio. My energy is low and yet my spirits are high. I am there every night (inc Friday) and Sat/Sun day.
I hope this email finds you well and that the gigs have gone equally well. Please let me know how they went. I have had a look at the website which is really good.
Although in a previous email I refused to apologise for my inability to keep in touch with ANY of my friends, I feel that the time has come to do so. I have no spare time at all and it is a difficult situation. The bottom line is that I am really enjoying my time with the band and that it is very important to me.
These are exciting times.
As I am sure you are aware and have experienced, it is difficult to fit in to an established set-up, especially when the standards are so high. I am finally beginning to become a strong member with a strong contribution.
I will endeavour to ring this coming weekend although I will be in the studio for the majority of it and also playing a solo gig at a pub.
Take care Donny...hopefully see you and/or speak to you soon
Yours ever-pretensiously
Stephen

A lot can happen in a North Yorkshire minute....

2006-11-23T18:19:00.000Z

Wednesday 4 August 2004

So tired today. Real lack of energy. Went to work. Did some research on my MS2000 during lunch which was rewarding. Will really try and take the manual to bits so I can fully utilise everything. Taught Little Timmy after work. He's only 8 but he really winds me up. He's on his summer holidays at the moment so he's always tired. Having said that, he's always tired anyway, as he never eats during the day. Sue knows about it as well. How can a child function with no energy? He can't. The result is that when I come to teach he can't muster the energy to play. So he sits there moaning that he 'can't do it' and lowers his head in a mock show of tiredness. What a waste of my energy. I have to sit in rush hour traffic on the M6 for half an hour to teach him. Am I too harsh? Didn't get back until 2040hrs.

When I did get back I tuned my Auto Harp. The strings are really old and so they go out of tune fairly quickly. Sounds great though. There is no A major chord though - just an A7 which is a little frustrating. Will have to continue my research in order to get the best out of it. Also had a quick go on my synth. The new things I had found earlier in the day really helped - so many new things to explore on it. It’s a great machine. Really want to use it for my own music. You can really experiment with it and get some great sounds. If I can fuse the sounds with my songs and beats then I think I can really achieve some new music. I have to try at least.

Spoke to promoter CM. He's asked me to play his venue again. Will ask if I can play my synth I think. I don't the think the audience will be all for it but fuck 'em. Will definitely play my Auto Harp.

Last time I played there a guy (JP) was playing. The promoter told me he was playing solo 5-string bass in a jazz style. Fuck! I thought, this should be great. When I introduced myself I asked him what he was going to play. He replied "Bit of jazz, bit of blues...I sing as well....oh, and I use a drum machine." Alarm bells rang. I decided to prolong the agony by asking what jazz bassists he was in to. The all time classic response accompanied by a cheesy, sheepish grin was, "Oh you know...all the good ones..." Still undeterred, I continued to probe....I told him I had just finished reading Mingus' autobiography (a lie). Vacant look matched with concurring noises. Told him I’d seen Ron Carter at Birdland in New York last summer. Same response. If this episode wasn't bad enough, he chose to play some songs off his forthcoming self-funded release. Two cracking tunes were entitled, 'The Politician Shuffle' and 'Commercial Blues'. I won't bother to explain the complex themes dealt with by the song's lyrics.

I hope Lambchop, or more to the point, Kurt Wagner doesn't continue to write instrumentals. Listening to a tour-only CD of recent recordings. He keeps singing in a really low voice. One of my favourite bands. I love the way he keeps trying to push the barrier. My widely-derided view is that Is A Woman was the ultimate Lambchop album. Its so good, its hard to top. Aw, Come On and No, You Come On were a little disappointing. They weren't that good live either. Its a disturbing feeling i've got at the moment. I've had so many positive feelings towards Kurt et al, but now.....a few negative ones.

Still reading Murakami. Its really not as good as his later stuff. Here's a nice quote though:

' "I wonder if you need to unclose your mind. I do not understand things of the mind very well, but perhaps yours is too firmly sealed. The old dreams need to be read by you, and you need to seek the old dreams"..... Then she reaches out accross the table and places her hand on mine. She smiles. A smile that promises Spring.'

I Think I'm In Love

2006-11-22T17:39:00.000Z

Sunday 1 August 2004

In London all day. Set off around 0930hrs, parked up at T's. Really nice weather. Got off at London Bridge tube. Went to the Design Museum. Had an exhibition on Saul Bass. He designed the titles for such films as 'Anatomy of a Murder', 'Vertigo', 'Psycho', 'Casino', 'Goodfellas', 'Cape Fear' (Scorcese version) and 'Spartacus' amongst many others. Opening titles were always bland and drab before Bass. They have never been the same since, although of course, many titles do not meet the high standards set by Bass. Great exhibition. Scorcese lent the Museum some pieces and provided a nice quote for the end of the exhibition. Fascinating to see the original designs. I find that a great way to analyse whether something should be held in high regard is to ask how they conceived and achieved it. If that cannot be answered then the work must be of high quality on some level i.e Pet Sounds - Brian Wilson was 22, I know how he arranged the pieces and I know that the final product sounds amazing and I know why it sounds amazing but I will never know he conceived the songs and melodies and arrangements. Bass' work is similar in that respect.

Went to the Tate Modern, hoping to catch the Edward Hopper. Sold out. So disappointed - looked amazing - bought a great book on him for a fiver though. Saw the Luc Tuymens exhibition. Didn't really get it to be honest. Didn't work for me on an aesthetic or conceptual level. His pieces are supposed to show the banality of evil. He takes images from concentration camps and paints the seemingly dull objects within, such as a lamp. His amateur style is supposed to reflect something or other... I still don't get it... I guess you can't like everything. Just because it's at the Tate Modern don't make it good, so to speak.

Went for a drink in the bar on top floor of the OXO tower. £7.50 for some cocktail with bourbon and apple schnapps. Was nice. Felt good to not give a crap about its cost. I am fortunate in that respect. Would rather spend £7.50 on a well made drink on the South Bank overlooking South London than £7.50 on 3 pints of Stella in Stones in Cannock. I have consciously made that life choice. Shoot it down if you can (you can't) .

Went to the Festival Hall. David Viner was on as we entered. Basically a white guy with electric guitar singing contemporary blues songs with ironic lyrics about wife-beating. I get the impression this guy thinks he's quite a hit. He was terrible. How does a guy like this get signed and get to play a legendary venue like this? Although unrelated, it brings to mind a Spinal Tap quote - "Too much fucking perspective" - I don't why it came in to my head, but its a great quote. Pere Ubu were next up. The lead singer (a huge influence on Tiny from Ultrasound) berated his band members at one stage for fucking up. He basically screams poetry over angular post-rock Sonic Youth-esque backing. Quite effective. Will do some research on them. At several stages throughout the set he put on a kitchen apron. Not sure why.

Spiritualized then came on and played for two hours straight. Similarly to when I saw them in Sheffield, they were really disappointing. I Think I'm In Love was stunning. A few others were great. Light show was great. But this man charges £25 a ticket. Has backing tapes accompanying throughout. No horn section, no string section, no gospel choir. Just him and his session players. The London crowd were predictable as ever. More interested in going to the bar than listening and absorbing. Too busy thinking of moronic things to shout out in between songs. I was disappointed and on the verge of boredom but I wanted it to get better and I didn't travel all the way there to not sit there for to hours. Do all these people have Attention Defecit Disorder? Really spoiled an average evening.

Great day though. The Thames looked great in the sunlight. Had a drink on the balcony of the Royal Festival Hall overlooking the river. Great view. Great city.

An English book is a blank book...

2006-11-21T17:37:00.000Z

Monday 27 July 2004

"The fact that for a long time cubism has not been understood and that even today there are people who cannot see anything in it, means nothing. I do not read English, and an English book is a blank book to me. This does not mean that the English language does not exist, and why should I blame anyone but myself if I cannot understand what I know nothing about?"

- Picasso

Been reading a book on Picasso - fascinating... Will the art world ever see such revolution again? I am yet to gain an authoritative voice on art. I have not studied it in any depth. I have no one to teach me. I must read and read. I have a book on Rodin to read as well as a general post-modern impressionism book. Time is hard to come by at the moment.

Recently realised that Lou Reed wrote several songs with a female name followed by the word 'says'. Candy, Caroline and someone else (on the Royal Tenembaums). The first too are sublime. Will have to check out some interviews on the net to see if has expressed a rationale for this...

The Essence of Things...

2006-11-19T17:59:00.000Z

Sunday 26th July 2004

1930hrs. Have just finished watching a BBC4 documentary on the sculptor Constantin Brancusi. Presented by Ben Lewis. What a dreadful wretch this man appears to be. Having seen the Tate Modern exhibition 'The Essence of Things', I was looking forward to gaining further insight into the artist and the man, his methods and theories. However, we are subjected to Lewis' public school drivel regarding the works' spirituality and whether it was a 'con'. Having researched about the presenter on the internet, it appears that he studied Art at Cambridge. Wow.... Surely, the subjectivity of Art would be something drilled into him at an early stage of his learning. Or perhaps, studying the subject itself had the reverse effect. I mean, who chooses what subject to study? Universities and professors subjecting their opinions onto others. Which is, I guess, what Lewis was doing in the documentary. Regardless, how did this man find himself in the position of writing, directing and presenting a documentary for one of the world's most respected broadcasting corporations? I have just wasted 45 mins of my life. It had the potential to be an uplifting, inspirational 45 mins but I find myself filled with bile once more. Essentially, my understanding of Brancusi and his attempt to present 'the essence of things' remains elementary. The presenter spoiled what was probably for many, an introduction to Brancusi's works.

What is the purpose of a documentary about Art/Artists? I don't know for sure but education has to be a principal goal. The recent attempt at introducing 'high art' to the masses hasn't succeeded as far as I can tell. I need to understand as many things as I can. I want to learn more and more. I want to know why Brancusi is considered a master sculptor, a revolutionary modernist. Instead I have to suffer Lewis' egotistical, faux modest, faux simplistic approach. Perhaps it is indicative of the BBC's decline in standards. I watched a documentary last week on experimental music in the 1960's which, too, was spoiled by the aesthetics of the documentary rather than its contents. It seems the BBC sometimes try too hard to break barriers in order to justify its existence when they should concentrate on their considerable strengths.

I watched the Royal Tenembaums last night. I had been intending to revisit the film since watching my brother's copy of Rushmore (further investigation revealed that this film was made in 1998. This seems odd - the film has a late 1980's sheen to it and I could have sworn that I looked at the case in order to confirm this), both having been directed by Wes Anderson. When first watching the film at the Showroom cinema in Sheffield on its initial release, I immediately recognised its originality but felt that the story didn't grab me as much as it perhaps should have. The second viewing confirmed it to be a terrific film, a real attempt at innovation. The soundtrack perfectly accompanies the trajectory of the plot. I remember on its first viewing the emotional impact of Elliot Smith's 'Needle in the Hay' which accompanies Ritchie Tenembaum's suicide attempt. It was the first time I had heard the song. The extras on the DVD were also superb. I like and equally dislike being let in on the secrets of film making. I feel I am learning but also find it hard to watch the next film with the same naivety.

Also watched Everyone Says I Love You by Woody Allen. Realised during the opening scenes that I had seen it previously. I had told Ben, who leant me the film, that I hadn't seen it and my excitement made itself apparent. That excitement soon dimmed. The film's dialogue was typically a joy. I am yet to watch a musical without feeling nauseous (bar Cabaret which is slightly different). I have Porgy and Bess on DVD - maybe that can restore (or should I write store?) my faith in musicals. Although I appreciate Gershwin, I have the feeling that throughout its viewing I will be thinking about Miles Davis' version. We shall see......

2348hrs. Little mommy's boy's mommy across the street must have gone on holiday as him and his little greasy mates are having a band practice. It appears they have chosen this late hour to start it. This is not the sort of behaviour that his fellow Russell Road neighbours condone. I wonder if they will call the police. This is a well-to-do area. And yet, you get the impression, in line with the apparent nature of us English people, that they would rather be kept awake all night and face the inevitable consequence of tiredness and frustration than cause a scene. I guess I am the same. Although I don't have to get up in the morning, I can feel the rudimentary (I'm talking in terms of advancement rather than the style of drumming) drumming vibrating through my window and the bass reverberating my insides. The question is: if the music were any good - would I mind being kept awake? If John Coltrane was playing his soul out with an hour long rendition of 'My Favourite Things' would I be inclined to ask him if he'd mind awfully if he could keep the noise down as one has to be at the office for 8??? Mmmmm.....I hope I wouldn't....

The point is that the music is terrible. I can hear echoes of Ugly Kid Joe, early Radiohead, ..... I saw the greasy specimen (his hair and face was actually greasy; I wasn't using the term in a catch-all generalisation fashion) today. Oversized woolly jumper coming over his hands. An awkward walk that teenagers tend to have (Oh! How I long to be rid of my own teenage memories. That is where my empathy for this guy begins and ends). I wonder if he is acting with deliberate ignorance of those inhabiting close-by properties. Is he simply being a teenager? Do his parents usually let him practice at this time? I don't recall hearing anything previously. Fortunately, I am managing to block out the noise with the aid of 'NYC Man' - Lou Reed. I'll save the discussion of Lou's merits for another time. One thing is for sure - he is addictive as the subject of one of his most acclaimed songs.

Time now is 0057hrs. Time to continue reading Haruki Murakami's Hard Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World before going to sleep. Tomorrow, I'll go into town. Probably watch Richard Linklater's Before Sunset. Haven't seen Before Sunrise though. Whatever. Brother goes to Portland, Oregon tomorrow. Cool.

A few bad bones...

2006-11-18T11:44:00.000Z

Wednesday 22 July 2004

I feel obsolete. Obsolete. How do you weigh a word like that? How do you weigh words? Do I feel as obsolete as some members of the audience of a Neil Young bootleg I've been listening to (Young's Greendale tour, UK, circa 2003)? They begin to clap in time (just about) during the opening few bars of 'The Needle and the Damage Done' and then cease a few bars later. Why did they stop? Did they realise how inappropriate it was? That can't be it. Sure, it's possible some of them felt as though they were contributing to the warm-natured feel of the evening (Young seemed in particularly high spirits) and then the song's content became apparent and they stopped. I can't figure what goes through the head of someone who appreciates Young and his history and yet feels that clapping to a song that has never featured any timekeeping in any form (not even a tambourine) would somehow be the correct course of action. Every audience member there must have had a handle on who Young is; tickets were around Â£40/Â£50 if my memory serves me as it should. They sold out quickly. Only true, authentic Youngites were present. Fact.

Of course, most of the clappers quickly became aware that the majority of the audience were not going to participate in the clapping. That would immediately cause most clappers to stop. On this evening it evidently did, buI'm'm sure we have all been present at some event where clappers tirelessly pursue their cause until the last few notes of the song die out. Perhaps, the moment would have been less excrutiating if the clappers had continued to the brutal end. We will never know.......

(I think I will soon write about whistlers. I don't feel comfortable, presently, about writing negatively about a group of people of which my father is a member)

It can sometimes happen. 'The Needle....' may have had its original emotional power drained from it. That goes for the writer and performer as well as the listener. A song that you love with all your heart; a song that unashamedly made every hair on your body stand to attention; a song that brought a salty discharge to the edge of your eye; a song that helped you through that two week period of dark thoughts and low feelings; a song that you had on 'repeat' for hours at a time; but now......many moments, many years, many loves, many books later, the song can no longer bring emotion to you. No matter how hard you try. That tends to produce a unfavourable mixed and nervous feeling within me. 'Aire and Calder' - Ultrasound. 'Sparky's Dream' - Teenage Fanclub. 'Dolphins' - Tim Buckley version. 'I want you' - Elvis Costello. 'My Blue Wave' - Lambchop. 'Alabama' - John Coltrane. The air of melancholy that these songs contain is enough to weep anyhow, but for them to become redundant to me can be devastating. An exaggeration, perhaps. Hard to explain, I guess......

Repressing Colloquial Barbarisms #7

2006-09-27T14:52:00.000Z

From the Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell 1791

Johnson having argued for some time with a pertinacious gentleman; his opponent, who had talked in a very puzzling manner, happened to say, 'I don't understand you, Sir' upon which Johnson observed, 'Sir, I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding.'

A foppish physician (probably Sir Lucas Pepys) once reminded Johnson of his having been in company with him on a former occasion. 'I do not remember it, Sir'. The physician still insisted; adding that he that day wore so fine a coat that it must have attracted his notice. 'Sir, (said Johnson,) had you been dipt in Pactolus, I should not have noticed you.'

Britten on music

2006-09-25T12:49:00.000Z

It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness and of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love...

- Benjamin Britten

Like Shallow Ghosts

2006-09-19T09:04:00.000Z

I'm on a good-book hot-streak! Drama City indeed. What a blast. Pelecanos just pisses these stories out. Each one feels different in character and atmosphere and yet each novel is essentially the same premise.

All this after Murakami's delightful Kafka on the Shore. If you described Murakami's books to me a few years ago I would never have a read a single page. Yet they draw you in deep, entwining you in the labyrinthian plot and fantasy worlds with hints, just hints, of the modern world with jazz references. His female characters are stunning and I mean that literally (do I? I think I do...), they take your breath away (I only half mean that literally).

I've now moved on to London Fields. You have to love Amis. So easy to mock and mimic. Here is a site that has a Martin Amis diary: AMIS ON AMIS. It was difficult to read the first few pages of London Fields after reading that diary. I've read Money, Yellow Dog and the wonderful and exhilarating Experience. I certainly won't be reading Koba The Dread.

After dedicating a section of a book depicting Stalin's atrocities to the Hitch, the press justifiably ripped him apart. In his Atlantic Monthly review Hitchens takes time to refute Amis' claims:

I am compelled to say where I think it fails. And by "compelled" I suppose I must mean "obliged," since it appears on the author's own warrant that the book's shortcomings are mostly my fault. In the fall of 1999 Amis attended a meeting in London where I spoke from the platform. The hall was one of those venues where the rafters had once echoed with the rhetoric of the left. I made an allusion to past evenings with old comrades, and the audience responded with what Amis at first generously terms "affectionate laughter." But then he gives way to the self-righteousness and superficiality that let him down.

Why is it? Why is it? If Christopher had referred to his many evenings with many "an old blackshirt," the audience would have ... Well, with such an affiliation in his past, Christopher would not be Christopher, or anyone else of the slightest distinction whatsoever. Is that the difference between the little mustache and the big mustache, between Satan and Beelzebub? One elicits spontaneous fury, and the other elicits spontaneous laughter? And what kind of laughter is it? It is, of course, the laughter of universal fondness for that old, old idea about the perfect society. It is also the laughter of forgetting. It forgets the demonic energy unconsciously embedded in that hope. It forgets the Twenty Million. This isn't right:
Everybody knows of Auschwitz and Belsen. Nobody knows of Vorkuta and Solovetski. Everybody knows of Himmler and Eichmann. Nobody knows of Yezhov and Dzerdzhinsky. Everybody knows of the six million of the Holocaust. Nobody knows of the six million of the Terror-Famine.

George Orwell once remarked that certain terrible things in Spain had really happened, and "they did not happen any the less because the Daily Telegraph has suddenly found out about them when it is five years too late." Martin Amis can be excused for coming across some of the above names and numbers rather late in life, but he cannot hope to get away with accusing others of keeping these facts and names from him, or from themselves. I have my own, large differences with Deutscher. But nobody who read his Prophet Outcast , which was published more than three decades ago, could possibly be uninstructed about Vorkuta or Yezhov. In other words, having demanded to know "Why is it?" in such an insistent tone, he doesn't stay to answer his own question, instead replacing it with a vaguely peevish and "shocked, shocked" version of "How long has this been going on?" The answer there is, longer than he thinks.

Here, the Hitch writes a wonderful response letter to his dear friend. I can't believe how well written this piece is.

I wince on my own behalf a good deal as I wade through, but I don't forget to wince for you as well. My sympathy is tinged with annoyance, all the same. What did you imagine would happen if you elected to write on such a Himalayan topic, and then pygmified it by addressing so much of it to me? I find myself embarrassed almost every day at the thought of an actual gulag survivor reading this.

You report on how you took the pedantic trouble to ask me - should it be Trotskyist or Trotskyite? And you add that I told you several times that only Stalinists or ignorant people say the latter. And then you go and call the POUM - George Orwell's party - "Trotskyite". By the way, that's a factual error as well as an aesthetic one, and I wish it was the only such.

You demand that people - you prefer the term "intellectuals" - give an account of their attitude to the Stalin terror. Irritatingly phrased though your demand may be, I say without any reservation that you are absolutely right to make it. A huge number of liberals and conservatives and social democrats, as well as communists, made a shabby pact with "Koba", or succumbed to the fascinations of his power. Winston Churchill told Stalin's ambassador to London, before the war, that he had quite warmed to the old bastard after the Moscow Trials, which had at least put down the cosmopolitan revolutionaries who Churchill most hated. TS Eliot returned the manuscript of Animal Farm, well knowing that his refusal might condemn it to non-publication, because he objected to its "Trotskyite" tone. I think we can say fairly that the names of Churchill and Eliot are still highly regarded in conservative political and cultural circles. You have a certain reputation for handling irony and paradox. How could you miss an opportunity like this, and sound off like a Telegraph editorialist instead, hugging the shore and staying with the script?

London Fields should be great though. In his Atlantic review, Hitchens starts with a summary of Amis' work:

In his superb memoir, Experience, Martin Amis almost casually expends a terrific line in a minor footnote. Batting away a critic he describes as "humorless," he adds, "And by calling him humorless I mean to impugn his seriousness, categorically: such a man must rig up his probity ex nihilo ." A book in which such an observation can occur in passing is a very rich and dense one. Amis has won and held the attention of an audience eager for something very like this in reverse a synthesis of astonishing wit and moral assiduity. Even the farcical episodes of his fiction are set on the bristling frontiers of love and death and sex. With his other hand, so to speak, he has raised the standard of essayistic reviewing, mounting guard over our muscular but vulnerable English language and registering fastidious pain whenever it is hurt or insulted.

Talking of a good-book hot-streak reminds me of recent Nick Hornby article, How To Read. So prescient and so damn right, he advises to never persevere with a book you can't get in to. Just put it down. You will never get through all of life's books. Life is short. Enjoy reading. Don't make it a chore:

One of the problems, it seems to me, is that we have got it into our heads that books should be hard work, and that unless they're hard work, they're not doing us any good. I recently had conversations with two friends, both of whom were reading a very long political biography. They were struggling. Both of these people are parents and both have demanding full-time jobs. And each night, in the few minutes they allowed themselves to read before sleep, they ploughed gamely through a few paragraphs about the early years of a 20th-century world figure.
At the rate of progress they were describing, it would take them many, many months before they finished the book, possibly even decades. (One of them told me that he'd put it down for a couple of weeks, and on picking it up again was extremely excited to see that the bookmark was much deeper into the book than he'd dared hope. He then realised that one of his kids had dropped it, and put the bookmark back in the wrong place. He was crushed.)

In my dissertation on Radiohead, I used a Hornby quote that I strongly disagreed with and still do (something about the way Radiohead had betrayed their fans with Kid A/Amnesiac as no one wants to listen to difficult music when they've had a hard day at work). I really do think there's a place for him. I really enjoyed 31 Songs. His plain love for simple, straight-to-the-heart consumption of literature / music is infectious and eloquent.

As is Geoff Dyer's. He seems to be everywhere at the moment. He spreads himself so widely (not thinly however) , that most of the admiration for him seems to arise from a respect for his refusal to be typecast. He has written on an array of subjects including photography, travel, literature and has also written his own novels. One book T has told me about is But Beautiful. Dan Hill of City of Sound discusses it here:

Quite simply, But Beautiful is one of the most astonishing books I've ever read. An impressionistic, semi-fictionalised series of portraits of early jazz legends, it's also one of the great books about popular music, period. Dyer's starting points are first-hand accounts of these great musicians' lives, memoirs and liner notes, and particularly photographs - his destinations are gloriously creative evocations of a time and a sound, of the immense spirit of these extraordinary players, and the cities with which their lives and music became entwined.

He then goes on to quote the book at length. I can't wait to read it...it jumps off the page (screen) at you.

Carl Sandburg Visits Me In A Dream

2006-09-17T07:06:00.000Z

I write this at 7.15am on Sunday morning. I'm not usually awake at this time but the thumping bass of a MOR radio station is descending from the flat above me. Fine. Doesn't matter. I have things to do anyway.

I have one of the finest pieces of music produced in my earphones: Sufjan Stevens - Come on Feel The Illinoise. I've written about him before. His music is at once contemporary and timeless. The scope of his work is huge. Minimalist and maximalist all at the same time. For those unaware, he is attempting to write an album dedicated to each (United) state (of America). Michigan was superb but Illinois is something else entirely. A new confidence can be heard, as if he has accepted his place in the pantheon, his role as interpreter of the history of the US almost. The song titles are literary and add to the sense of timelessness ('A Conjunction of Drones Simulating the Way in Which Sufjan Stevens Has an Existential Crisis in the GREAT GODFREY MAZE'). I wrote this in a post around a year ago:

They represent all that is great about American music. It feels like it could have been recorded at any time since the 1800s. And yet its fresh and progressive. Astonishing.

Anyway, I'm just reading this article in today's Observer. The Who are back. I can't say I'm a huge fan, although I've never checked them out in any substantial way. Rusted Willy has always pestered me to listen to them. Anyway, I found Pete Townshend's blog which fascinates. A truly gifted writer, a voracious interpreter of his past, his mistakes, his achievments, his own canon and the issues surrounding music. I was surprised but any research of the man tells me such a reaction was foolish. The only album I've heard (and I'm starting to get into at last) is Tommy.

Here he depicts his songwriting process, quoting Brecht, Gainsbourg and Weil and his thoughts about the internet. Here, he eloquently annihilates Harold Pinter's frothing-at-the-mouth bile and explains his decision to not let Michael Moore use his song Won't Get Fooled Again in Farenheit 911. Here he describes the decline in his hearing, something that we talk about a lot at the studio and have since resorted to using earplugs. And here he writes about his, yes, you guessed it, charity work. It's an honest account and that goes for all his statements. You sometimes get too much, but it's better than what you get from most artists his age.

His partner is Rachel Fuller. She produces these TV shows from backstage with The Who called In The Attic. The shows have featured acoustic performances and interviews with The Flaming Lips and Eels. Fuller and Townshend both promote online communication and online communities. Her blog reveals all the minutiae of a rock star's life. I couldn't believe that he/they would want that information 'out there' but it's a great mix of shopping/lunches with famous friends, holiday homes in South France, walking the dog etc...Today's article fascinates equally.

(Is it me or do I sound like I read Hello and all I'm interested in is the lives of the rich and famous????? And why have I started quoting my own blog?! What an ego...)

Relapse...

2006-08-26T21:08:00.001Z

Speaking of Spaced, my good friend Ads let me know about Hot Fuzz, the new film by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright. They have video blogs here, filmed during production which has now finished, I believe. Can't wait.

Went to see Grizzly Man, Werner Herzog's latest at the MAC last night. It has such a deep impact on you. I don't whether it's the intimacy that Timothy Treadwell (the documentary's protagonist) achieves with his filming or the drama that Herzog creates (and doesn't have to work to hard to attain). Treadwell's lunacy is as disturbing as the violence of the animals. The highs and (considerable) lows for Treadwell create an uneasiness but its hard to not be touched by the scenes with the fox (who befriend and accompany Treadwell's (nearly) solitary spells in the wilderness). The music is written by Richard Thompson and on guitar and piano is Jim O'Rourke. That wasn't the only reason I loved the film though...

I went back on my pledge to not buy cds for a while and bought the new Thom Yorke, Guillemots, Tapes n' Tapes, Midlake and Lambchop albums.

Going to see Volver at the Electric tomorrow night. Looks amazing.

UPDATE (30 August 2006):

As Ads says:
Spaced is now my favourite sitcom ever. It's got everything. Directorially it's stunning for a sitcom and because it's not filmed in a studio and there's no laughter track it makes it more personal. It's clearly well written and superbly thought out and you can tell that making the move into films was the right idea, can't wait for hot fuzz!

I loves you, Porgy

2006-08-23T13:10:00.000Z

Having exhausted my Larry Sanders and Saxondale and Anually Retentive videos and Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm DVDs I'm now moving on to my Spaced DVDs. Its below the aforementioned works of art but it's up there. Some really clever stuff going on there....Do you like?

Nearly finished my Murakami book. It's of another world which I don't usually dig and don't usually want to go anywhere near.....but I just let Murakami take me there and I'm always glad for it....

I watched Carlito's Way the other day. Much much better than Scarface which i thought was poor in many many ways...dated....sloppily cut...stilted dialogue.... Brian De Palma has a new film out which looks okay. Adaptation of James Ellroy novel.

Went to see A Scanner Darkly last night (hence late night at studio). Was ace if a little confusing and hard to get involved with on an emotional level. I love Winona Ryder.
Saw a trailer for a film about the world coming to an end due to women not being able to have babies anymore. Got Michael Caine and Clive Owen in it. Sounds terrible but looked really good...

Apart from that the only thing I've been doing is getting overwhelmed by YouTube. It can only get better (and more overwhelming). Go to Moistworks and look at this post. As Rusted Willy says, the jazz alphabet runs right from A to U.

Love and other planets...

2006-08-21T20:54:00.000Z

I went to see Animal Collective at Academy 2 in Birmingham the other week with Kieran. They were supported by Kristin from Mum who was playing as we walked in. She was awfully quiet. We got a drink and made our way closer to the stage. She was somewhat shambolic, stopping songs, forgetting words, and slurring them in between songs as she supped her red wine. She sang in what appeared to be a deliberately babyish voice. It all seemed all too cute and I was tired so I stepped back and switched off. She wasn't deserving of anyone's attention to be brutally honest.

Animal Collective came on and the guitarist slated everyone for not paying enough attention to Kristin. He seemed a little pissed, in the American sense...Anyway they played a mostly great set that flowed from song to song. They are truly like no other band out there. In fact, that's exactly what they are: out there. I went home pleased that I had seen a great gig (though not as great as when I saw them supporting Four Tet at the Medicine Bar a few years back).

T told me he was to see them a few days after in London, supported by Battles (in addition to Kristin). Wow. What a show. I had a look on the net and found out that Adem had also been announced! I gleefully informed him and his glee, as a consequence, soon exceeded mine. Boy, was he gleeful.

I'll let Adem take the story on from here ( go read but here's a snippet: AC were insisting that Kria Brekkan (the new addition) go on second, and me first. I totally understand this - of course the Animal Collective dudes want to give priority to the project that is one of their number and his girlfriend).

Dave from Animal Collective responds here (go read comment #14: I or anyone else in AC honestly would never have someone open for us just cause they were somones girlfriend and we were treating kristin as a musician we respected and whos music we really like)

Adem then responds here (go read comment #15: This was never intended to be an issue, and I certainly don't feel that you need to apologise, although I very much appreciate that you recognise that the confusion made it very difficult. Pulling out of a show sucks. I've never done it before and hope to never do it again...I know that you are all friendly, generous guys and I would tell the world the same. Whenever we've met it's been a pleasure, and am sure it will continue to be. I wasn't meaning to lay blame and hope you understand (along with all others reading) that my post is not intended as a vindictive one against you, but a fairly straight account of my reasoning at the time. That said, I sincerely apologise for writing 'someone's girlfriend' etc. looking back it reads very harshly. Having toured with Kristin in the past, I know how fantastic a musician and performer she is and was overjoyed when I saw that she was on the bill with us: I did not mean to infer otherwise and regret prompting any misunderstanding. I'm very upset that I may have offended either of you. I'm gutted and am deeply sorry).

Wow. What an episode. I love the fact that (despite the extraordinarily laborious explanations about nothing much, not too dissimilar to this post actually, come to think about it...) these two artists conversed this way via the net. It astonishes me. Adem, former member of Fridge with Kieran Hebden! Animal Collecitve! It does come accross as really petty. I think Adem did the right thing, for what it's worth...what do you reckon??

Repressing Colloquial Barbarisms #6

2006-08-21T20:38:00.000Z

From the Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell 1791

Boswell: 'Have they not vexed yourself a little, Sir? Have you not been vexed by all the turbulence of this reign, and by that absurd vote of the House Of Commons, "That the influence of the Crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished?"'
Johnson: 'Sir, I have never slept an hour less, nor eat an ounce less meat. I would have knocked the factious dogs on the head, to be sure; but I was not vexed.'
Boswell: 'I declare, Sir, upon my honour, I did imagine I was vexed, and took a pride in it; but it was, perhaps, cant; for I own I neither ate less, nor slept less.'
Johnson: 'My dear friend, clear your mind of cant. You may talk as other people do: you may say to a man, "Sir, I am your most humble servant." You are not his most humble servant. You may say, "These are sad times; it is a melancholy thing to be reserved at such times." You don't mind the times. You tell a man, "I am sorry you had such bad weather the last day of your journey, and were so much wet." You don't care six-pence whether he was wet or dry. You may talk in this manner; it is a mode of talking in Society: but don't think foolishly.'

Visiting This Planet...

2006-07-29T20:52:00.000Z

Check this out! I know I tend to obsess over Mr O'Rourke (goddamit, I've got a link section dedicated to him) but have a look at this, a page tucked away on the Domino site. Wish he'd/they'd have kept this one up...

26/11/03 » Jim O'Rourke
Jim O'Rourke's old favourites that get him excited to go to work...
sparks -propaganda
claudio rocchi -volo magico no.1
juan hidalgo -rrose selavy
geino yamashiro gumi - oserezon
talking heads - more songs about buildings and food
roberto cacciapaglia - sei note in logica
souled american - frozen
supersister - spiral staircase
neil young - on the beach
jackie o motherfucker - the magick fire music

03/06/03 » Jim O'Rourke
ten top tunes turning on the turntable of mr jim o'rourke
cockney rebel "cavaliers"
alex harvey band "action strasse"
jan garbarek "blow away zone"
jay ferguson "thunder island"
tubeway army "listen to the sirens"
tisziji munoz "visiting this planet"
billy mernit "i'm open"
lady june "the letter"
sweet "yesterday's rain"
whitehouse "you don't have to say please"

30/01/03 » Jim O'Rourke
Jim O'Rourke's Current Listening
jan dukes de gray "sun symphony"
conlon nancarrow "etude no. 20"
merzbow "puroland"
michael schumacher "room piece 24"
masayuki takayanagi "variations on a theme of qahafi"

30/01/03 » Jim O'Rourke
Some Of Jim O's Favorite Songs
something in the air - thunderclap newman
rawhide - scott walker
davy the fatboy - randy newman
thank god it's not christmas - sparks
the all golden - van dyke parks
somewhere in hollywood - 10cc
half a chance/where i belong - gerry rafferty
achilles last stand - led zeppelin
lifemask - roy harper
it - genesis
dancing queen - abba
the kiss - judee sill
the man - patto
laughing - david crosby
i'm so confused - mick softley

And if that wasn't enough for all you O'Rourke freaks out there (what? that's just me? oh, ok...) look at this!!!!! Another hard-to-find page tucked away on the Amazon.co.uk site. Mr O'Rourke's fave albums. Here's a snippet regarding Van Dyke Parks: Song Cycle:

I thought for once I'd keep this off a list, but, I'm a good boy, so it's time to do penance at the altar of the greatest album ever made. Yes. EVER. No, I still haven't changed my mind. This is still so ahead of it's time, it'll be some work for some folks, and that's cool and all. Everyone I know who loves this, myself included, finds a new association, a new layer, a new lyrical twist every time. A richer album you can not find. And it's probably only 10 bucks! If there's an Edsel CD, get that one, they did a better job transferring the tape. Shame on you Warner Bros!

Some Fabulous Chocolate Eclairs

2006-07-27T17:26:00.000Z

Armando Ianucci spoke recently at the Royal Philharmonic Society awards. The transcript is here courtesy of The Guardian. As with all of Ianucci, even when he's addressing serious issues he can't help pepper it with humour:

I'm aware that it's easy to fall back on quasi-mystical, pretentious language when trying to talk about one's experience of classical music, but that shouldn't stop us trying. We don't talk about music enough. As someone who's never felt he's had the technical language at his fingertips, I feel all I can do is talk about it in whatever English I have at my command. I want to emote about how I feel. After a concert, I want to grab people by the lapels and tell them how lucky we are as a species that, out of all the hundreds of billions of us who ever lived, one of us managed to come up with the Goldberg Variations. But I don't, because that's not the done thing. So instead I mention that the cafe downstairs does some fabulous chocolate éclairs.

Here he talks of his upbringing and his approach to music:

I loved strange noises. I had no notion of what was considered contemporary or old-fashioned, cutting edge, or period. It was all wonderful and new. I wasn't scared of the avant garde because I had no notion of what an avant garde was.

I realised this a few years ago, taking my son to school. He was eight or nine at the time. A piece of Ligeti was on the radio. Not to put him off with what maybe he would think was a strange, slightly disturbing noise, I tried to draw a simple analogy. 'Sounds a bit like bees buzzing, doesn't it?' I said. He listened for a bit, then said, 'No, it sounds like a lot of penguins fighting for a fish, and one of them's just got it.'

He was right - that's precisely what it sounded like. He was listening much harder than me. And it struck me then that I was worrying about my son being put off classical music by being exposed to something that may have been too difficult.

And that worrying was unneccessary, because labelling the music 'difficult' was a very adult way of categorising the music in the first place. He, not knowing much about chromaticism, harmony or serialism, nor anything about theory, had no reason to label what he was hearing as being significantly different from, say, Handel. It was just a very interesting, very alluring, piece of ordered sound.

The Lack of Eternity

2006-07-27T13:42:00.000Z

Go here to read Hank Rollins discussing Henry Miller, Camus, John Fante, Lautreamont, Baudelaire, Artaud, Rimbaud...

On Miller:

Reading Miller gave me a lot of courage. You know, just to see how completely flat out he was, you know, with his thing, he was so brave. And as a young man reading Black Spring and the Tropics and the Paris writing, of Miller, that gave me a lot of strength too.

On Bukowski:

Bukowski was fun. You know, for a couple of summers when you’re in your early 20s, I think it’s really great reading. I think that to worship him in your 30s is to kind of lose the plot.

A great quote for me is this:

Ben Franklin had a quote, I wish I could pull it out of my mind and say it to you. Basically he said, “It’s okay to have a whole lot of books that you don’t read. Or don’t get all the way through. It’s not a bad thing to be kind of surrounded by books.”

Even better, Rollins paraphrases a Hemingway quote which was actually said as:

“Writing, at its best, is a lonely life. For he does his work alone and if he is a good enough writer he must face eternity, or the lack of it, each day.”

The Ghost of a Toaster

2006-07-27T13:41:00.000Z

And this is one of the great Wayne Coyne interviews from The Observer. I love to read this every now and then. It doesn't have the length and breadth of previous interviews I've posted but it's a great perspective to have on life:

All that heaven and hell stuff sounds like fun. But come on, be serious - nothing happens after you die. When you turn off the toaster, it doesn't sit there longing to make more toast, it doesn't become the ghost of a toaster. When the spark of life is gone, we're just a sack of flesh and chemicals with no ignition. That's why I live life with such enthusiasm.

War and its consequences...

2006-07-27T12:47:00.000Z

Mr Geras talking, once again, with much sense.

I'll put a permanent link on the right when I get chance. In the meantime, take a look at this site, featuring the most astonishing photo essays from around the world. Hardly uplifting, it has to be said, and there is something intrinsically vile about admiring photography of horrific images, when the events captured in the shots are so recent.

Repressing Colloquial Barbarisms #5

2006-07-27T07:13:00.000Z

From the Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell 1791

He had an abhorrence of affectation. Talking of old Mr Langton he said,

'Sir, he has no grimace, no gesticulation, no bursts of admiration on trivial occasions; he never embraces you with an overacted cordiality....Depend upon it, that if a man talks of his misfortunes, there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him; for when there is nothing but pure misery, there never is any recourse to the mention of it'.

Another view from DUMBO

2006-07-26T18:02:00.000Z

Giddy Up

2006-07-26T17:49:00.000Z

Me and Mr Kenny Kramer whose Reality Seinfeld Tour was even better than last time. Perhaps because of the Soup Nazi stop. Allow me to draw your attention to the elderly fellow in the checked shirt walking behind me. It was a hot day. Sweltering. Surely he might as well have worn trousers...bold look though...

Another hilarious photo, like

2006-07-26T17:44:00.000Z

Me in Gay St near Washington Square in the Village. I'm not gay. Anyone who says I am is a liar.

Meat Purveyor

2006-07-26T17:36:00.000Z

And so, another area completely unique to NYC: the meatpacking district. We had some super French fare here and saw some glitz and glamour but the area started to grate after repeat visits. You can't help feel slightly belittled by those who populate the area. The Village and the Lower East Side seemed to hold more appeal as the our week went on.

Hipster Doofuses

2006-07-26T15:53:00.000Z

The view from DUMBO (Down Underneath Manhattan Bridge Overpass. I know, crazy New Yorkers). It's the latest area of New York to be converted from a cesspit into a cooler-than-thou hipster area, full of artist studios and soaring rents. There didn't seem to be much there to be honest. Either a work in progress or me and Rusted Willy were oblivious to it all. This post gives a New Yorker's perspective on and from DUMBO on July 4th.

Repressing Colloquial Barbarisms #4

2006-07-25T23:01:00.000Z

From the Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell 1791

Johnson: 'Poor stuff! No, Sir, Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero (smiling) must drink brandy'

I reminded him how heartily he and I used to drink wine together, when we were first acquainted; and how I used to have a headache after sitting up with him. He did not like to have this recalled, or, perhaps, thinking that I had boasted improperly, resolved to have a witty stroke at me:

Johnson: Nay, Sir, it was not the wine that made your head ache, but the sense that I put into it
Boswell: What, Sir! will sense make the head ache?
Johnson: Yes, Sir, (with a smile) when it is not used to it.

Repressing Colloquial Barbarisms #3

2006-07-23T11:40:00.000Z

From the Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell 1791

Here I shall record a scene of too much heat between Dr Johnson and Dr Thomas Percy, which I should have supressed were it not that it gave occasion to display the truely tender and benevolent heart of Johnson, who, as soon as he found a friend was at all hurt by any thing whe he had 'said in his wrath', was not only prompt and desirous to be reconciled, but exerted himself to make ample reparation. Books of Travel having been mentioned, Johnson praised Pennant very highly.

Percy: Pennant does not describe well; a carrier who goes along the side of Loch Lomond would describe it better.
Johnson: I think he describes very well.
Percy: I travelled after him.
Johnson: And I travelled after him.
Percy: But, my good friend, you are short-sighted, and do not see so well as I do.

Dr Johnson said nothing at the time; but inflammable particles were collecting for a cloud to burst. In a little while Dr Percy said something more in disparagement of Pennant.

Johnson (pointedly): This is the resentment of a narrow mind, because he did find every thing in Northumberland
Percy (feeling the stroke): Sir, you may be as rude as you please
Johnson: Hold, Sir! Don't talk of rudeness; remember, Sir, you told me (puffing hard with passion struggling for a vent) I was short sighted. We have done with civility. We are to be as rude as we please.
Percy: Upon my honour, Sir, I did not mean to be uncivil.
Johnson: I cannot say so, Sir; for I did mean to be uncivil, thinking you had been uncivil.

Repressing Colloquial Barbarisms #2

2006-07-22T14:36:00.000Z

From the Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell 1791

Johnson gave a very earnest reccomendation of what he himself practiced with the utmost conscientiousness: I mean a strict attention to truth, even in the most minute particulars. He was indeed so much impressed with the prevalence of falsehood, voluntary or unintentional, that I never knew any person who upon hearing an extraordinary circumstance told, discovered more of the incredulus odi. He would say, with a significant look and decisive tone, 'It is not so. Do not tell this again'. He inculcated upon all his friends the importance of perpetual vigilance against the slightest degrees of falsehood; the effect of which, as Sir Joshua Reynolds observed to me, has been, that all who were of his school are distinguished for a love of truth and accuracy, which they would not have possessed in the same degree, if they had not been acquanted with Johnson.

I've been bad....

2006-07-22T10:48:00.000Z

Recent purchases:

Mobile Glenn Kotche
Born Again in the USA Loose Fur
The Essential Gyorgi Ligeti
The Milk-Eyed Mender Joanna Newsom
Tropicalia: A Brasilian Revolution In Sound
Drum's Not Dead Liars
Pleïades Iannis Xenakis
Dusty in Memphis Dusty Springfield
Les Illuminations; Nocturne; Serenade Benjamin Britten
Radiance [Live] Keith Jarrett
Laughing Stock Talk Talk
Everybody Loves the Sunshine Roy Ayers
Fishscale Ghostface Killah
French Choral Works Gabriel Fauré
Being There Wilco
Soul Gospel Vol.2
Propaganda Sparks
The Vienna Concert: Recorded at the Vienna State Opera [Live] Keith Jarrett
The Art of the Trio Vol.3: Songs Brad Mehldau
The Koln Concert: 24 January 1975 [Live] Keith Jarrett
Rock Bottom Robert Wyatt
Requiem Op. 48, Gabriel Faure
Off the Wall: Michael Jackson
New Thing!: Deep Jazz From The USA 1970-80
Philadelphia Roots Vol. 2: Funk Soul And The Roots Of Disco 1965-73

I went to see Grizzly Bear at the Bowery Ballroom a few weeks ago now. They were every thing you look for in a band these days: innovation, deconstuction, forward thinking, samples, loops, 4-part harmonies. They have recently been signed to Warp and have a new album out in September. I bought an older album from them after the show. They have a great blog with some great photos. Link is here: Horn of Plenty Grizzly Bear

The following are from Downtown Music Gallery, a fine, fine shop on the Bowery, Lower East Side, NYC.
Tears For Dolphy Ted Curson
Citadel Mike Westbrook Orchestra
Wild Silk Peter Fairclough and Keith Tippett
Xylophonen Virtuosen Jim O'Rourke Mats Gustafsson
The Return of Fenn O'Berg Fennesz, O'Rourke, Rehberg
Carnival Skin

I'm not going to buy anything for a while....

Repressing Colloquial Barbarisms #1

2006-07-22T09:32:00.000Z

From the Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell 1791

He found fault with me for using the phrase to make money. 'Don't you see (said he), the impropriety of it? To make money is to coin it: you should say get money'. The phrase, however, is, I think, pretty current. But Johnson was at all times jealous upon the infractions upon the genuine English language, and prompt to repress colloquial barbarisms...He was particularly indignant against the almost universal use of the word idea in the sense of notion or opinion, when it is clear that idea can only signify something of which an image can be formed in the mind.

An armful of Potassium Chloride

2006-07-20T17:33:00.000Z

Letter to Governor Schwarzenegger:

It must, as you said, have been a very difficult decision to kill Stanley Williams. Very difficult indeed. The governor had to ignore the overwhelming support Mr Williams had received from various so-called humanitarian organizations (as well as the petition signed by over 170,000 of his own Californian constituents asking for a temporary suspension of executions. There's gratitude for you!)....

....Sadly, we have to maintain the appearance of a fair trial by a jury of one's peers. Although I do feel that the scumbags who recently scraped the paint on my car should have been made to fast forward to the punishment end of the judicial system...

...."They'll be back"? Not after an armful of Potassium Chloride, they won't!

Read the letters to ASDA and Dixons here

F-F-Fluttering

2006-07-20T10:03:00.000Z

When the power button fell off Caroline's remote control last night she had never before felt so lonely without the sound of the TV to accompany her nights alone. Resorting to staring into space, or at the unfashionable curtains that her ex-best-friend Kelly recommended, she couldn't remove the nauseating thought that Kelly was now dating her ex-boyfriend.

'I've always got on better with men', Kelly nonchalantly remarked at the outset of their relationship, two and a half weeks ago. Now the thoughts were flooding in…how to resolve the issues that were eating away at both her mind and stomach. She felt a constant presence deep inside her belly, not dissimilar to the nervous f-f-fluttering butterflies most people seem to get from time to time. But this feeling was different, slightly darker, a pervading dread that seemed to be consuming her. Was this depression? She had never considered being depressed before. Always thought it was a fad. Not that she wanted to think about it. Dwelling could only make it worse, and anyway, she was good at putting things to the back of her mind. So, the thought of depression was consciously avoided but the thought of her ex being with Kelly was consciously brought to the forefront.

Her stereo was programmed to wake her up with Wham’s Freedom. As it did so the next morning, she was conscious of feeling only slightly better than she had the night before. Trying not to think about the situation, she poured herself some instant coffee. She preferred instant coffee to the 'bitter' real alternative. After eating a bowl of corn flakes, she checked the post to see if anything interesting had arrived. She was expecting a reply from a recent job application. It was probably out of her league, she thought, and indeed it probably was, but it helped to keep her from thinking of other matters. That was why she loved the TV soaps, as she didn't have to think too much. She always had her routine planned for when she got in from work. She watched every soap on all of the terrestrial channels. However, the remote control problem was something she had to overcome, and soon. Sure, she could physically change the channel at the TV set itself, but she liked to snuggle on the sofa up of an evening from around 7 until 11, when her eyes would become heavy. Anyhow, she put the thought of a night without TV to best place she could think of: some far away recess in her mind…

The Night Sighed With Relief

2006-07-09T12:59:00.001Z

One of my short stories has kindly been posted by Mr Geras here. A nice pick-me-up following the inevitable post-NYC come-down. The short short story comp is announced and explained here. And for those tired of following links, here is the piece:

The night sighed with relief as he went to bed in the early hours. Despite the harrowing uproar created by the early-rising birds that haunted the trees outside his bedroom window, he could no longer keep his eyes open. Equally, he was unable to rudely interrupt and devastate the serene silence that usually pervaded the surrounding streets at five in the morning. For several nights he'd bawled his soul out, screaming for a higher power to strike him down. Although this was a new low, his fear of death prevented him from taking his own life and thus he prayed for a divine, ultimate intervention.

It was not to be, and he woke up the following afternoon feeling around 30 per cent alive, as if he had been sieved and then left to dry in the heat. Many areas of his body, his mouth, head, legs and stomach, felt as though they didn't belong to him, as if stolen from some undernourished, sickly fellow. His tongue... well, he would have liked to be able to feel it, or at least encounter some moisture. This had become a duty, an obligation to himself that he had to fulfil regardless of the circumstances. He wasn't sure when it was going to end, and even if he could control the end. He was certain, however, that the end was not now and that now was not the end and also that he would know when the end had arrived.

The Time Halved

2006-07-09T12:59:00.000Z

The time halved
And nothing was left
The stand marred
And strained at the heft
The life of cards
And the luck so deft
Where the sigh carved
And our lives bereft

The mind broke
And abandoned its line
The ruin of the folk
And the start of the lying
The faint, true croak
And a feeling of mine
The kind spoke
And doubled the time

This mule ain't from Moscow..

2006-05-04T08:58:00.000Z

I often laugh at the things that come out of the mouth of Thom Yorke. He's hilarious. I remember he once said that he loved Autechre because they sounded like the sounds inside his head. Wow. He's so deep. I guess I know what he means, though. Sometimes there's a need to listen to chaos. There is comfort there. On occassions. I listened to Confield last night. And then I listened to Cecil Taylor's Conquistador this morning. I couldn't have listened to either of them two days ago, for instance. But last night and this morning they really worked.

Weedawg has made me listen to Hail To The Thief the past few nights. We Suck Young Blood completely rips off Charles Mingus' Freedom from the The Complete Town Hall Concert album. The slow hand-claps, the Ride cymbal with nails in it, the pace, the piano, the timbres. One of the most important pieces of music from the 20th century. Overstatement? Exaggeration? Go listen to it and then come back... They admitted as much in an interview going as far back as 1999/2000. I included it in my dissertation. So this is a band revered for being cutting edge, ripping off someone else's material and then using re-hashed stuff from 5 years ago. Mmm...Knowing what they know about music (and they know a lot), how can they do that?!!!

Went to see the Flaming Lips at Birmingham Academy last week. They were great but I'm not going to do the obligatory gig review you'll be pleased to know. Hell, you can read it elsewhere. But have a look at the photos on Steve Gerrard's site. He's local to Birmingham. There are some excellent gig photos on there but there are also some great shots of NYC (I know, zzzzzz....) and some really good portrait shots.

Radiohead,Mingus,jazz,Flaming Lips,Autechre,Warp,photography.

My throat gets parched...

2006-05-03T13:48:00.000Z

This is from some time ago now but everyone's favourite New Yawk cabbie, the New York Hack, has secured a book deal. Wow. She writes some great stuff. Not sure what form the book will take but nothing (well, I guess there's a few things) gives me greater pleasure than reading her blog. It's hard to match that feeling I got on the taxi ride from JFK to Manhattan. But she comes close to explicitly depicting the buzz, the atmosphere, the style, the attitude of the city. I'm thinking of going back at the end of June. I just want to be there. Reading Kitchen Confidential isn't helping my yearning either. I went on a lonesome jazz pilgrimage in May 2003 which I think I have mentioned elsewhere on here so I won't go on about it again...

Maybe it's time to check LA out...Now that would be something...Been watching Curb Your Enthusiasm once again and that gives me a real taste for it. Must be a strange place to go. I remember the old Bill Hicks routine about LA. He'd moved there from NYC and had had just about enough:

"I love calling my friends in LA: 'What are you doing?' 'I'm out by the pool! How about you?' 'I'm reading a book! We're thinking back East!'"

Bill Hicks, NYC, LA, blogs, Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Are we not men? We are D! E! V! O!

2006-05-03T12:04:00.000Z

Recently bought the Devo Anthology for a tenner. It's ace. can't believe I left it so long before checking them out. I'm an idiot. Anyway, have a look at this site. It's the documentation of late 1970s mag Synapse which focuses on synths and the electronic pioneers of the time such as Eno, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Stockhausen etc... There was an issue with Devo on the cover but it doesn't seem to be there any more....

Devo, synthesizers, music.

Like a grape on the vine...

2006-05-03T11:31:00.000Z

These photos astonish me. I saw them just before I read Grapes Of Wrath for the first time which gave me a vivid mental picture (which, I'll level with you, I didn't need). I can't get over them. Look at this one. It blows my mind. How eloquent... (Hat tip: Normblog)

Mr Bourdain has a new book out. Bought it yesterday. There was an interview with him in Sunday's Observer. I'm really saddedned to hear that he's split with his wife. He dedicated one of his books to her. He always talked about how put-upon she was. The long hours, the stress, the trips abroad, the vacant staring into space while he thought about a kitchen-incident or a staff dispute or tomorrow's specials. I don't know...

Makes me think of my life at the moment and the time I spend doing the thing I love more than anything: being a musician. It's so fulfilling. But where does that leave your personal life when you have not time or energy and you are constantly on the move and tired as a result? I don't know...The transitory nature of love....(!) Anyway, his new show No Reservations is on the Travel Channel this month with his new show. If you go to their site you can watch loads of great videos of him talking about music, litereature and film. Read the whole Observer interview but here's an excerpt:

'I miss the chef talk. Five or six chefs, all talking away about someone who's a backstabbing treacherous psycho, all agreeing, completely, and then into the anger someone just says, yeah, but he can cook. I miss that. Cooking is such an intimate thing. There's no lying in the kitchen. You can't massage or spin your ability: you can't even lie about your personal life, because problems come through.'

His own personal life began to fall apart not long ago. You could blame the success of the book only in part: it was because of one physical place that success got him, and that was Vietnam.
'I'd read Greene. Conrad. Maugham. And Vietnam was just like the books, just like the movies, only better. The guileless generosity of strangers, waking up smelling those smells, seeing those sights. And having, once, one perfect meal, a confluence of everything good, a source of perfect happiness; I was almost ready to believe in God.

'But there was quite a big downside to all of that.' His eyes are intently on me now, the background chatter receding. 'I knew that my whole previous life was doomed. It was no longer going to be normal. I had seen that ... colour ... and I knew that that had changed me, altered the way I would look at things. And the first time I went back to America, I found I was right. Everything was flat. Everything.' He doesn't go into too many details, but his marriage to Nancy broke up shortly afterwards. 'She was the love of my life. But everything changed.'

Watched Bergman's The Seventh Seal for the first time over the weekend. For some reason I haven't felt like watching it for a long time. I've owned for ages now. Anyway, it was worth the wait. I presumed the purported influence on Woody Allen (I say purported but Allen has admitted as much) would not be explicit. I don't posess enough film know-how to put it into words but it really felt like a Woody Allen film. Here's the Amazon review (how low-brow of me):

Ingmar Bergman's best-known film and deservedly so, 1957's The Seventh Seal is an allegorical study of death, God and the meaning, if any, of human existence. It is a film that every human being should see, addressing as it does our deepest hopes, anxieties, curiosities and fears. Yet it's also a magical and captivating experience, close to the state of a lucid dream. Max Von Sydow plays Antonius Block, the knight who has returned, gaunt, weathered and disillusioned, from the crusades, to find his home country in the grip of the plague. He is met by Death, in the pallid, hooded form of Bengt Ekerot, whom he challenges to a game of chess. The longer he can stave off defeat, the longer he can prolong the existence of himself and his own entourage, whom Block acquires in the form of his cynical squire a young family and a band of travelling players.

film, food, photography, literature, Bergman, love, death, Woody Allen.

Horrid mutation...

2006-05-01T13:33:00.000Z

Christopher Hitchens has produced a fine piece in the Sunday Times as a prelude to his viewpoint on the Euston Manifesto. The piece revolves around seeing the placard 'No War On Iraq. Freedom For Palestine'.

The third reason, not quite so well laid out by the rather 10th-rate theoreticians of today’s left, is that once you decide that American-led “globalisation” is the main enemy, then any revolt against it is better than none at all. In some way yet to be determined, Al-Qaeda might be able to help to stave off global warming. (I have not yet checked to see how this is squared with Bin Laden’s diatribe of last weekend, summoning all holy warrior aid to the genocidal rulers of Sudan as they complete the murder of African Muslims, and as they sell all their oil to China to create a whole new system of carbon emissions in Asia. At first sight, it looks like blood for oil to me.)

Euston Manifesto, Hitchens, politics.

At times...

2006-04-25T16:47:00.000Z

Just re-discovered the Buck 65 website. Wow. It's an improvement. I saw a poster at the Barfly in Birmingham on Saturday. He's playing there on Friday 12th. Must go. Seen him 3 times now. Once here and once here and also at the Custard Factory. Although he doesn't vary the attack too much, he's been different and challenging every time. What always comes accross is what a great guy he is. He's always pushing the boundaries without losing the connection. He's also really unlucky (look at the link above regarding the Bar Academy gig). Go to his website and have a look at the Love Letters. He presented the Juno awards (think it's like a Canadian Brit Awards) and his in-ear monitors broke. Here are some excerpts:

You'll recall in an earlier letter that I refered to '05 as the worst year of my life. It's true. It's too grim to go into, but trust me that a lot of bad stuff happened. And bear in mind that this is coming from a guy who's lost most of his family, who's been in countless automobile accidents, who's body and name have been attacked publically and randomly, who's been cheated and screwed over more than a two dollar ho'...

Get this: Anyone who knows me even a little bit knows that I'm not an extremely materialistic person. But if there's one thing I'm strongly attached to, it's my beloved record collection. I've dedicated my life to this collection. I collected pretty much every hip hop record ever pressed up to 1996. I collected rarities from every genre. 45's. 12"s. 10"s. 78's. The oldest of the old. The newest of the new. My record collection has long been renowned for being nearly impossible to believe. So, a while back I had to move house. Everytime this happens, dealing with my record collection becomes a major dilemma. They take up so much physical space and are so incredibly heavy. I asked a friend in the city I had left if 'they' would mind temporarily storing them for me until I found the time and means to move them again. 'They' seemed happy to oblige.

A few months later I recieved an urgent call from a long-time friend and fellow dj/crate digger... "Dude, are you SELLING your record collection?!!?" "No. Of course not", I replied leisurely. "Why do you ask?" "Because I saw your records in a used vinyl shop here in town today!" "!@#$#@!$%^^&*()(*&^%#$%^&&*!!!!!!!!" That's right. They'd been sold. "They" turned out to be a crack head (somehow I didn't know that) and hawked my stuff so they could score.

If you've ever seen me play live, you may have seen me using a Vestax 07 mixer with a sticker of Bettie Page on the face plate. That went missing too. So if you ever see it in someone else's caress, you know the deal. How's that for luck?

I know there are people who've had terrible things happen to them in their lives, and I don't want to belittle that with my claims of being the world's unluckiest person. The grounds on which I lay my claim is in that crappy shit happens to me over and over and over again. It's more a quantity than quality thing, I guess. But my quality has been pretty high at times too...

In Short Supply

2006-04-24T12:06:00.000Z

To hear your voice
Is to feel like I've been touched by a presence unknown
A feeling not yet felt
A tickling of my every nerve
You whisper and yet
Your soft voice reverberates in my rib cage
(So close to my heart)
My senses alive and eager for more
Of your voice
A voice like a vast fountain
Like the Fontana di Trevi, glistening in the sun
At once playful and yet resilient and focussed and everlasting
Precise and yet easily distracted by the wind or a change of thought

Your back arches
With more grace than any princess you seek to be or become
An 'S' shape like the reptile you shiver at (though you do so seemingly with such glee
and a frantic voice)
Covered and caressed by your golden brown skin
A skin so soft it feels like it could evaporate if I look upon it
And so I touch it gently and with care and with tenderness
(And love)

From my forearm, from my leg, from my chest:
Tears fall
They won't protect you
Why do they fall?
The thought that you are in need
I want one supernatural touch
From me
To protect you evermore
Rest your head
And all the magic it contains
And let me share my warmth with you
So you need never shiver again
Let me absorb your bad cells, your illness, your doubts, your temper, your tears, your sadness
Ensuring you neither need nor yearn for a thing

Now I need some breath
I call for breath
And receive none
It's too short upon thought of you
So clear a space for my new weight
I carry around now
I am two people now

poetry

Firewood

2006-04-23T12:26:00.000Z

Discolouration of the sky
The breeze brought by the second day of spring
Change on the horizon oh my...
What do the clouds hold on this lie?
Yet still the birds do sing

Rule with a flourish to a crowd of mine
What will you do when you become king?
A suit of armour and a chance to sign
One more drink and I'll be fine
To think of the future and what it will bring

Telecast your view to rapturous lines
Your hopes and dreams on which to cling
Maybe I'll commence on time
And feel the love which exceeds mine
And then burn it all for kindling

poetry

Myself From Myself

2006-04-23T11:15:00.000Z

Extracts from Norman Mailer's American Dream:

Did you ever feel the malignity which rises from a swamp? It is real, I could swear it, and some whisper of ominous calm, that heavy air one breathes in the hour before a hurricane, now came to rest between us.

But compassion, the trapped bird of compassion, struggled up from my chest and flew to my throat. "Deborah, I love you," I said. I did not know at that instant if I meant it truly, or was some monster of deception, hiding myself from myself. And having said it, knew the mistake. For all feeling departed from her hand, even that tingling so evil to my flesh, and a left a cool empty touch. I could have been holding a tiny casket in my palm.

The darkness came over like air on a a wound when the dressing is removed. My senses were much too alive...I had one of those anxieties which make it an act of balance to breathe: too little air compresses the sensation of being throttled, but too much - one deep breath - and there is the fear of a fall.

books,literature,Norman Mailer

All My Aesthetic Sensibilities

2006-01-18T19:39:00.000Z

Mr Henry Rollins has now stepped into the blogging arena. It's a must-read.

His radio show, Harmony in My Head is also back up. It's a must-listen. He goes into some depth with annotated notes for each track. All the shows are archived here and are well worth checking out. The play-list on the latest show includes:

Generation X - No No No, Circle Jerks - Beverly Hills, Slim Gaillard -The Hip Cowboy, Brian Eno - Baby’s On Fire, Robert Fripp - Exposure, Louis Jordan - Beware, Minutemen - Split Red, Phil Lynott - Dear Miss Lonely Hearts, Mississippi Fred McDowell - Shake ‘Em On Down, The Fall - Two Librans, Public Enemy - You’re Gonna Get Yours (Getaway Remix).

Been reading lots of old Vincent Gallo interviews. This one is from the Observer in September 2001 where he discusess his Warp album When, P.J. Harvey and Buffalo '66. One from the New York Observer from June 2003 (used to be available here for free. You can see it here if you subscribe) is great. He describes The Brown Bunny thus:

If you see the film and you know my paintings and you know my music and you know my other movies and you understand me aesthetically in any way possible, this is the most clear, cool example of everything that I've been working toward my whole life. both visually, sound-wise, colour-wise and in my concept of how a narration works. How relationships work. How pain in a relationship works. How difficult it is to love and be loved....

...It's a classic example of all my experiences, all my intuitions, all my concepts and all my aesthetic sensibilities and anything I've ever done in my life. And it's 50 times more mature...than Buffalo '66.....I will never be discouraged or encouraged by a guy with a thumb that posints up or down. And I won't be discouraged by a rude audience at a film festival or an impatient audience at a film festival....But I won't be encouraged by that either.

Mr Herring is in fine fine form once again:

She said hello and stood up to greet me and I decided formality was the appropriate response and held out my hand (to shake it, come on I'm not that mad, but if I saw a glint in her eye I could think on my feet and go for her bosom). However at the same time she had decided that a kiss on the cheek was the way to go and moved forward, leading to the worst possible scenario, a kind of kissing version of paper, scissors, stone. I had to retract my hand and mumble something about not having been sure what the correct procedure was as I awkwardly moved from shaking to polite kissing. Would an open-mouthed lunge to the lips now save my embarrassment? Possibly not. I didn't take the chance. Who Dares Wins, is what Lewis Collins and Jimmy Mulville believe, but to be honest neither of them have their own BBC series and I think we can follow the logic through and realise this is solely because they both sexually harrassed TV executives at important meetings.

As is Miss Jellie here. She keeps referencing some really really great stuff. Read her often if you don't already...

Currently listening to:

Iron and Wine & Calexico: In The Reins

Artie Shaw: Best of

Derek Bailey/Pat Thomas/Steve Noble: And (Can't find this anywhere)

The National: Alligator

Wolf Parade: Apologies to the Queen Mary

The Books: Lost and Safe

blogs,gallo,rollins,comedy,music,film.

Dream Comfort Memory To Spare

2005-10-01T12:16:00.000Z

I'm now posting here also with my erstwhile buddy, The Yorkshireman AKA Rusted Willy AKA Rusted Nuts.

Mr Harry has left His Place.

The Million Dollar Homepage continues to astound...

Miss Jellie has now expanded her many talents to painting...

Mr Herring continues to pummel the inanities of any subject that come his way:

The drive from Cardiff to Stratford-upon-Avon reminded me of the coach trips we occasionally took from my school in Cheddar in the early 80s to see various Shakespeare plays at the RSC. In the high street of one of the towns that we passed through on the way there was a shoe shop called “Richard Herring Shoes”. I remember that we all found this impossible and hilarious and that after the first trip me and my friends would anticipate the sighting of the store and there would be a rousing football-style chant of “Richard Herring, Richard Herring, Richard Herring Shoes! Richard Herring, Richard Herring, Richard Herring Shoes!” to a tune that would be very familiar to you, but I don’t know if it has a name.

Now it strikes me that it would have been quite funny if it was a shop that either just sold the kind of shoes that I wore or alternatively would only sell shoes to me. As I was a 13 year old school-boy who lived a hundred miles away at the time, neither venture was likely to be very successful. I can’t imagine many people in this anonymous Midland town, coming into the shop and saying, “I want to wear the same kind of shoes as a nerdy Somerset teenager, what can you offer me?”

They are more likely to have come into the shoe shop and asking for some cool trainers or whatever, only to be greeted by a weary shop assistant saying, “Sorry we only sell black Dr Marten shoes, not boots like Rich’s friends wear, because his mum won’t let him. Just the shoe version. Ironically in a few years time such a shoe will go through a brief phase of being trendy, but as you know, now in 1980 they are laughably un-cool. Do you want to buy some? We only do the one size of course and Rich has freakishly small, yet wide feet.”

And of course had the shop just sold shoes to me it would have had a similar stock, but been similarly unsuccessful. Perhaps cannily the shop owner had opened the shop on the route between Cheddar and Stratford realising that I would pass by in a coach at least once every two years, and that my curiosity was bound to be piqued. Unfortunately he had forgot to factor into the equation that I was going to be in a bus which I had no power to command to stop, that I was a teenager who carried only two pounds maximum, which I planned to spend on ice cream in the interval (or opera glasses if I had forgotten my watch) and that in any case my mum bought all my shoes. (Maybe had he called it Barbara Herring Shoes he might have had a better shot at success.)

Mr Yorke continues to take himself too seriously and continues to portray himself as a morally superior, tortured soul and Mr Greenwood has been delving into dub...

What major work of Alban Berg are you?

2005-09-30T12:13:00.000Z

Take the test! my results are below:

You are Berg's ridiculously complicated Chamber
Concerto. No one will ever figure you out and
when they do, it probably won't be right. (I am the enigma! nobody knows me! Ha!)

What major work of Alban Berg are you!?!?!
brought to you by Quizilla

Anti-Hale

2005-09-18T10:47:00.001Z

I had these in Rome.

Richard Herring (apologies for the length but that's what makes Herring so darn funny):

If I have learned one thing from travelling across Italy by train (and I have only learned one thing) it is this. When it comes to Hale and Pace, the Italian people vastly prefer Pace. Their attitude to Hale is ambivalent at best and I suspect that it is actively hostile.

The reason I can be sure of this is because I have seen, hanging from the balconies or windows of many ordinary Italian homes, the same multi-coloured, rainbow flag emblazoned simply with the words “Pace”. And yet I have not seen a single, solitary sign proclaiming support for Pace’s erstwhile partner in crime, Hale. I haven’t seen any flags that are bold enough to be anti-Hale (“Non Hale” would be my limited guess at how that might be expressed in Italian or possibly “Hale e merda”), but in many ways to ignore him completely is more effective an insult than to actually state indifference.

I must say that I was surprised to find out that the Italians held any such views.

Firstly, I did not realise that the work of the disappointing 1980s double act had reached this far across Europe. I am sure that their clever satire upon the stupidity of bouncers, or their mockery of the chirpiness of children’s TV presenters or… any of the other things that they did, would translate into another language, but I just hadn’t realised this had happened.

Secondly, if the Italians liked the work of Pace, you would imagine they would like Hale as well. The team were very much a double act, but not one with a definite straight man or funny man. So whilst one could understand why someone might like Morecambe and not appreciate Wise (stupidly in my opinion. Wise, despite being the ostensible straight man, was essential to the act and Morecambe on his own would not have worked), or applaud Herring whilst dismissing Lee (in this case a wise decision. Lee clearly held Herring back, as I think history has proved. What, if anything has Lee achieved in the last four years? Nothing. Whilst Herring has written a book about cocks. QED), to watch Hale and Pace and decide that you liked the humour of one of them, but not the other, seems a strange decision to come to. And whilst I can at least admit that it would be possible to have a slight preference as to which one was the funniest, to go as far as putting up a flag to one and ignoring the other seems eccentric at best.

Thirdly I find it quite astonishing that any Italian would be able to differentiate which one was Hale and which one was Pace anyway. It is something I feel that most British people could not do, despite having been exposed to the mindless and childish humour of the ex-teacher duo for the last twenty years. I always think that Hale and Pace could have avoided this confusion by, instead of calling themselves Hale and Pace as they apparently chose to, choosing to be known as Moustache and Not Moustache. Immediately any confusion over identity would have been solved. “Which one’s Moustache again?”

“He’s the one with the Moustache.”

“Oh right, so Not Moustache…..?”

“By a process of elimination is the one without the moustache.”

“Yeah, I get it. There’s a kind of clue in the names isn’t there?”

I think, though, if Hale and Pace had called themselves Moustache and Not Moustache this would have made most of their routines turgid and embarrassing and long winded and shit.

I think it was a good idea for one of them to grow a moustache, so that people were able to at least differentiate between them, even if they weren’t sure which one was Hale and which one was Pace. They could identify them to friends as either, “The One with the Moustache” or alternatively, “The One without the Moustache” or for simplicity’s sake “Moustache and Not Moustache”.

The fourth reason that the Italian support for Pace at the expense of Hale made me pause for thought was that as an expert in comedy I am fairly sure that Pace is the one without the moustache. Or Not Moustache as he is commonly known. So it is weird that the Italians should like him best, because I believe that it is generally acknowledged, even by the people who like Hale and Pace, that the one with the moustache is the talented member of the act. Whilst Not Moustache is being carried a bit. Moustache (Hale) can do a few different characters, has a modicum of comic timing, is good at pulling slightly cheeky faces and corpsing in an attempt to make the audience go with an otherwise quite pedestrian comic idea. Plus he also has a moustache. Which is funnier than not having a moustache.

Pace, on the other hand, looks a bit like a teacher who thought he was funny at the end of the year and used to get up and do a turn which involved miming to a Status Quo record whilst wearing a funny wig. He looks like that, because that is essentially what he is. And unlike all the other teachers who were like that he didn’t have the common decency to restrict his appearances to once a year in front of just his school. He decided we should all have to see them. And on top of all that he doesn’t even have a moustache.

So what is it about the Italian mentality that not only finds Hale and Pace amusing, is able to identify which one is Hale and which one is Pace (without the complicated and long winded moustache method) and then perversely decides that they prefer the untalented Pace to the comparatively slightly talented Hale? Not only that, but they feel it’s such an important issue to warrant the display of incongruously colourful flags. What’s wrong with these people? Aren’t there more important things to argue about?

Don’t they know there are bloody wars going on?

Speaking of which, today's Observer has an excellent account of the Grapple in the Apple and Hitchens has an article in the Telegraph. (courtesy: Harry's Place)

Listening to:

Papa M: Hole of Burning Alms

Some pieces, such as the dusty plains rock of "Wedding Song No. 3", electro bleep and flute soundscape "Mountains Have Ears" and the eerie lo-fi folk of "She Said Yes" are strangely beguiling. Others, such as "Up North Kids No. 2", with its wibbly-wobbly banjos, and club track "Travels in Constants", with its squelchy techno belching, are just strange. Throughout though, the twists and turns from M to Papa M are never less than intriguing. And if nothing else, Hole of Burning Alms asserts that whatever he's called himself, thick atmospheres and sonic adventure have always been the Louisville plodder's calling card.

Dial: Revenge

2005-09-18T09:28:00.000Z

Have just received my free copy of Tonic magazine. Designed to promote Scwheppes, it was publicised in last saturday's Guardian and there was an excerpt in the next day's Observer. I can't tell whether it's a one-off magazine or whether it will be available in the futire. Anthony Bourdain graces the cover. His article can be read here. He discussed his favourite places to go in Manhattan for food and drink. It's hilarious as you might expect:

I'm a New Yorker, so it should come as no surprise that I think my city is the greatest in the world. I like living in the city where so many of my favourite films take place, where nearly every street corner reminds me of some piece of lurid personal or criminal history. 'Crazy Joe Gallo was shot here... Big Paul Castellano whacked there... Used to score there... That place used to be a speakeasy... My old methadone clinic... That used to be an after-hours club...' It may not be the most beautiful city. It's certainly not the nicest city (though it is, sadly, getting nicer). And it's certainly not the easiest city to live in. One minute you're on top of the world, the next - when you wish to light up a smoke at the bar and can't, for instance - you're wallowing in abject misery and self-pity, unable to decide between murder and suicide. But it is exactly those famously manic highs and low lows that make New York like nowhere else. I mean, you can talk London, or Paris, or Barcelona all you like but we're open all night. I can pick up the phone around midnight and get just about anything I want - Chinese food, Lebanese, sushi, pizza, a video, a bag of seedless hydro or a human head - delivered to my apartment in about 25 minutes. Didn't I say we were the greatest?

Sneer at hot dogs all you want but a well-made wiener is a thing of beauty. Actually, even a crap hot dog can be a beautiful thing if you're eating it at Yankee Stadium washed down with warm, watery beer (and if the Yanks are winning). I'll go so far as to say that you will never understand New York, or New Yorkers, until you've eaten too many bad hot dogs and drunk too much piss beer at a night game at the stadium. Similarly, Rudy's Bar and Grill on 9th Avenue serves crap hot dogs too. Free ones. But ambiance counts for a lot and, after a lot of mid-afternoon drinks (never go at night) listening to the magnificent jukebox, watching the daytime drinkers slump over onto the bar, those light-bulb-warmed weenies suddenly seem like a good idea. If you actually want a quality dog, the best is at Papaya King on East 86th Street. Be sure to enjoy it with a frothy delicious papaya drink - and if you put ketchup on your dog I will fucking kill you.

Unbelievably, the magazine features Mechu and Apres in its guide to the best bars in Britain. Equally unbelievable is that both of the above subjects were mentioned recently in this post. Ok, maybe it's not that unbelievable...

Take a look at the Million Dollar Homepage. This guy, a student from Wiltshire, has created a site where you can pay for pixels to advertise your site/product or whatever. There are a million pixels and obviously, if he sells them all, he will be a millionaire. He came up with the idea in order to make some money to fund his studies. Looks like he'll do more than that. His blog is great; the surprise at the success of his idea is really funny and he's getting a little overwhelmed by it all. What an idea...

Listening to:

Bob Dylan: Desire

Mogwai: Rock Action

Rock Action incorporates bristling distortion, propulsive drums, and electronic textures similar to Tortoise's Standards -- particularly on the opening track "Sine Wave" -- but the album's most remarkable moments revisit and reinvent more traditional sounds. Buoyed by lush string arrangements and Fridmann's detailed, warm production, the brooding ballads "Take Me Somewhere Nice" and "Dial: Revenge" couldn't be further from "rock action," but they display the album's refreshing restraint and immediacy. In particular, "Dial: Revenge" -- so named because "dial" is the Welsh word for "revenge" -- benefits from Rhys' emotive yet cryptic vocals in his mother tongue, but the general emphasis on vocals adds to the album's organic, emotive feel. Nowhere is this more evident than the nine-minute epic "2 Rights Make One Wrong": With its lush layers of brass, strings, banjo, guitars, and vocals, it sounds like the rock-oriented cousin of Jim O'Rourke's pocket symphonies.

Mogwai: Happy Songs For Happy People

Indeed, more than any other Mogwai work, sheer bliss appears to be this album's singular aim: even the amp-busting crescendo of "Ratts of the Capital" matches its dark metal pomp with chiming orchestra bells and starburst lead-guitar lines. No sudden banjo interludes or no guest vocals jar with the album's slow passage towards its conclusion

Frank Sinatra and the Count Basie Orchestra: Live at the Sands

Peaches: Fatherfucker

By continuing along her own path she shows the world she is not just a novelty act; and with an album that's as energetic, uncompromising and as galvanising as its predecessor, anyone thinking she was going to clean up her act to appease detractors needs to think again. The album unfolds in punchy bursts of home-cooked computer beats (from hip-hop to electro to dancehall), raw power chords and sneering attitude, with Iggy Pop and Taylor Savvy on board to help out. It's the candour and energy that Peaches invests in her music that moves it clear away from cliché

I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good...

2005-09-15T21:24:00.000Z

Mr Geras has been listening to similar things to me it seems...

Read the post as it has a link to a piece by the ever-multifarious Richard Williams whose book Long Distance Call is superb. It's a collection of his articles on music, featuring Mingus, Chet Baker, Muddy Waters, Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight....

The Black Saint and the Lady Sinner

2005-09-15T11:42:00.000Z

Go here or here for an account of Christopher Hitchens' debate with George Galloway. Looks like Hitch did well by all accounts. He would be disappointed not to win this debate but apparently appeared surprised with the applause with which his comments were greeted... (courtesy Harry's Place) :

He turns up in Damascus! The man's search for a tyrannical fatherland never ends! The Soviet Union's let him down! Albania's gone. The Red Army is out of Hungary and Czechoslovakia. The hunt persists! Saddam has been overthrown and his criminal connections with him have been exposed! But onto the next! [...] To tell the Syrian people they are fortunate to have such a leader. The slobbering Dauphin who they've got, because he was the son of the slobbering tyrant who came before him! How anyone with a tincture of socialist principle can actually speak like this is beyond me and I hope far beyond you and beneath your contempt. Thank you. (Applause)

(Courtesy Matt C @ Saving the world)

Apologies for lack of posts. Been rehearsing for gigs in Manchester, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Leamington with my old band. Bring on the analogue synth through chorus and distortion pedals (my favourite)....

listening to:

Ahmad Jamal: Cross Country Tour (1958-61)
Mingus: The Black Saint and the Lady Sinner:

a masterpiece of sounds and textures, from the astonishing vocal effects of the plunger-muted trumpets and trombone (seeming to speak messages just beyond the range of understanding) to the soaring romantic alto of Charlie Mariano. Boiling beneath it all are the teeming, congested rhythms of Mingus and drummer Dannie Richmond and the deep morass of tuba and baritone saxophone. This is one of the greatest works in jazz composition, and it's remarkable that Mingus dredged this much emotional power from a group of just 11 musicians

Lady in Satin, Footprints and White Noise

2005-09-08T12:44:00.000Z

Alex Chilton was missing in New Orleans at the start of the week, but I've just seen this story stating that he's safe. He was apparently last seen in the French Quarter of New Orleans when his name was put on the missing persons website. Big Star were due to release their first new album since the 1970s later this month, I think...

MC Donny OD is no longer a member of Christian Silva. I'm pleased if only for selfish reasons: I want to hook up with him in London and do some stuff together. He was better than the band and he should be a creative force within any ensemble (he was thwarted to a large extent in Silva).

I got a call from my old band, Black Mountain Tapes, in the week with a proposition to play keyboards with them again. Keep you posted...

Easily the saddest record ever: Billie Holiday's Lady in Satin. Her voice ravished by drink and drugs and heartache, she pours her scratchy, weeping voice into Ray Ellis' lush orchestrations. The opening sequence of I'm A Fool To Want You, For Heaven's Sake, You Don't Know What Love Is, I Get Along Without You Very Well and For All We Know just tears you apart.

I was listening to Wayne Shorter's Adam's Apple and thinking of the title track and how 80s Acid Jazz it was. It's surprising that there isn't a big-beat version of it, as far as I know. It would be a massive hit. It's a really under-rated album and has 'Footprints' on it, later to be recorded by Miles. Spoke to T (who turned 27 today) last night and he's just bought one of Shorter's recent albums. How strange...

The Wire is sponsoring an event at the Serpentine Gallery. It looks beautiful. As does the latest architectural commission.

Missed out on tickets for All Tomorrow's Parties which I can't afford to be honest. Every line-up is unique so it's gutting to miss. Jaga Jazzist are playing and here's a review at a great Scotland-based site called White Noise.

Feel the fusion wrath!

2005-09-07T13:07:00.000Z

I've been watching The Mighty Boosh on the net. The series is online at the BBC(3) for one more week. I remember seeing Noel Fielding on a Channel 4 stand-up show called Gas back in what must have been around 1997/8. I think he was doing his Arctic Boosh show at the time. Julian Barratt was in Chris Morris' Nathan Barley recently (Fielding also briefly appeared). I probably can't do the show justice here, but here are some highlights:

There's a flashback sequence where the Bongo Brothers (Rudy Van Disarzio and Spider Dijon) go to the desert to search for a 'new sound'. At one stage Rudy is offended by Spider, points his guitar at him and asks him to: "feel the power of my fusion licks!". They discuss how embarrasing it is to be under the shadow of Carlos Santana and how they were unlucky to have to be asked to clean up after Woodstock (for six days), saying that the Who would never stay afterwards to clean up. They eventually find the new sound thanks to their battle with the obsolete Betamax format. As the credits run, Roger Daltrey comes along with a hoover. Seriously.

Various other episodes mention a potion that mixes Mozart's tears and the urine of Mark Knopfler, there's confusion between the occult and Yakult, dropping some Weather Report into a DJ set to 'blow their minds', modal jazz and the use of the flat 9th chord. There's even mention of George Clinton, P-Funk, Parliament, Funkadelic and Bootsy Collins.

There's an interview with them on the BBC site. Fielding talks about what a nice guy Chris Morris is. Apparently he attends a ton of gigs in London and has an encyclopedic knowledge of popular culture. Fielding went to a Peaches gig with him. Morris was a little underwhelmed and left, just before Peaches covered herself in blood and threw herself into the stage, where Fielding caught her and was pictured in Mojo doing so. Morris was a little perturbed by this. If you go here you can see the music credits on Nathan Barley. There's some great stuff on there from Prefuse 73 to Public Enemy, from Lee Hazlewood to Gang of Four, from Clinic to Boards of Canada.

Speaking of modal jazz and flat 9th chords, I've been listening to:

Bill Evans: Interplay and New Jazz Conceptions ( I love the titles of the classic jazz era: I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good, No Cover No Minimum and You and the night and the music)

Also listening to Choral Evensong on BBC Radio 3. I love the sound of unaccompanied choral music. The history of the form and the ethereal qualities make it sound so special. If you listen carefully it touches your heart in a way that other music can't seem to do...

Your Pawnbroker Roared

2005-08-29T20:52:00.000Z

Marcus over at Harry's Place has posted a hilarious piece on Bobby D's decision to release his latest album via Starbuck's only. The horror!

'Dylan has chosen to distribute his latest release exclusively through that symbol of global capitalism, Starbucks.'

Symbol of global capitalism, eh? Unlike that cottage industry Capitol Records, employees of which knitted each of Dylan's previous multi-platinum selling records by hand.

Read the comments - they're hilarious.

Was listening to the Bootleg Series last night. It still amazes me that he has never released or properly recorded She's Your Lover Now. So biting and although full of bile ('You just sit around asking for ashtrays/Can't you reach?'), it's a prescient commentary on meeting your ex-girlfriend who's with a new man. Also, on the first disc, there's his 1962 version of Moonshiner, a traditional mountain tune. Dylan sings it so beautifully. The liner notes suggest that you should play it to anyone who thinks Dylan can't sing. I first heard the song through Uncle Tupelo (Jay Farrar, now of Son Volt and Jeff Tweedy, now of Wilco). I've played it live before. Dylan holds on to the notes which changes the length of the measures. Truly haunting.

Been listening to Seven Swans again. I was an idiot to say that it wasn't great. It is. In the Devil's Territory is beautiful. Here's a quote from this review.

"In The Devil's Territory" might be the prettiest song ever written about staring down the Beast. Amidst a soaring banjo and organ (not to mention musical saw), and accompanied by the willowy harmonies of Elin and Megan Smith, Stevens sings "Be still and know your sign/The Beast will arrive in time/We stayed a long, long time... To see you/To beat you/To see you at last."

Also listening to:

Derek Bailey/ William Parker/ John Zorn: Harras. Quite a rare find thi one. Got it off ebay. £26 on Amazon. Japanese only release, I think. Recorded at the Knitting Factory, NYC.

Nas: I Am

Perishable Beauty

2005-08-29T13:52:00.000Z

As he sat on the side of his bed he felt the room, the house, and the night as empty. In the next room Nicole muttered something desolate and he felt sorry for whatever loneliness she was feeling in her sleep. For him time stood still and then accelerated in a rush, like the quick rewind of a film, but for Nicole the years slipped away by clock and calendar and birthday, with the added poignance of her perishable beauty...

So delicately balanced was she between an old foothold that had always guaranteed her security, and the imminence of a leap from which she must alight changed in the very chemistry of blood and muscle, that she did not dare bring the matter into the true forefront of her consciousness.

Tender is the night
F. Scott Fitzgerald

There's a new link to Foghorn Records on the right.

Listening to:

Roy Ayers: Virgin Ubiquity
Resonance FM: New Adventures in Modern Music
Gilles Peterson: last night's show

A great article from Hitch. (courtesy Norm)

I've been meaning to quote from Francis Wheen's book and Nick Cohen's article, in yesterday's Observer (which also quotes the book), seems like the perfect reason to do so now. So here it is:

The alluring adjectives 'complementary' and 'alternative' are essentially euphemisms for 'dud': there is only medicine that works and medicine that doesn't. Professor Richard Dawkins pointed out that if a healing technique is shown to have curative properties in properly controlled double-blind trials, it ceases to be an alternative: it simply becomes medicine. 'Conversely, if a technique devised by the President of the Royal College of Physicians consistently fails in double-blind trials, it will cease to be part of "othordox" medicine. Whether it will then become "alternative" will depend upon whether it is adopted by a sufficiently ambitious quack (there are always sufficiently gullible patients).'

The Devil and Daniel Johnston

2005-08-29T13:20:00.000Z

The UK premiere of The Devil and Daniel Johnston is at the ICA tomorrow night. Johnston plays the same venue on Thursday night. There's a Q&A tomorrow night with himself and the director. It won the Best Director at the Sundance Film Festival. Here's an article from the Guardian.

A superb article on LD at the New Yorker. It's the best article I have seen regarding him. He rarely does interviews. Watched Sour Grapes. A tad disappointing. There are snatches of dialogue that are pure David, but sadly not enough to make it a worthwhile film to watch. The acting seems somewhat stilted also. I didn't realise that LD directed it. Maybe that was a mistake. A rare one.

There's an episode of CYE where he's accused of racism (he makes an ill-judged joke about affirmative action). He later bumps into a black woman, played by Karen Bankhead, who tried to get a job with him on Sour Grapes. She says that her experience was ideal and that she was perfect for the job. LD says that he gave the job to one of his wife's friends. She continues to accuse him of being a racist, slating Seinfeld for never having any black characters. Anyway, having watched the film, one of the main supporting characters in the film is played by Karen Bankhead. LD goes post-modern, again...

UPDATE: Daniel Johnston has had to cancel his appearances. Take a look at his website announcement. Looks like his mood has darkened....

Stop Smiling

2005-08-29T12:20:00.000Z

I've had the link to Stop Smiling magazine on here for a while now. You can't get it in the UK, I don't think. Here are the archives which I'm trawling through, slowly. Here's an interview with Brian Wilson by Wayne Coyne. Scrolling down the contents of the magazine just stun you: Matthew Shipp, Ian Mcewan, Lou Barlow, William Parker, Christopher Hitchens, Saul Bellow, John Fahey, Robert Altman, Son Volt... This interview with Wayne Coyne (solo) is a must-read:

(On Brian Wilson) I think he can be a fool, because he needs people to pay attention to him. He’s got the Elvis Presley syndrome. He wants everyone to say, “You’re great! You’re great!” I think he surrounds himself with people who are like, “Brian, the way you eat cereal – you’re a genius. Brian, the way that you wipe your ass, it’s genius.” I’ve found it off-putting at times.
But later on, I was like, “Well, if he’s such a genius, why can’t he… talk.” He’s been asked about his music, like, everyday of his fucking life, so you’d think that he’d have something to say about it, besides, “Well, the Beatles are great.” I know they are, Brian. Now, do you remember any of the ideas that you put into your music?

SS: What do you think of some of these newer bands out there that seem to emulate Wilson in every which way? And not just the Beach Boys, but the entire sound of the 1960s: Phil Spector, George Martin, etc? I don’t wanna name names, but you know who I’m talking about, right?

WC: It’s lame. It’s ridiculous. I mean, here’s an opportunity to talk about your music and to be original and all you wanna do is talk about your record collection. I’ve got no time for that. I’ve got records, too. But I don’t think you can judge a human being by their record collection. A lot of people do that. This sort of stuff is ridiculous and it is the sort of thing that people like to do when they’re young because there’s no gauge on what makes a person cool or not. They could kick your sister’s teeth out, but as long as you have the first R.E.M. B-side record, you’re all good.

When you get a little bit older, you realize how stupid all of this stuff is. Plus, anyone who wants to use equipment that was made in 1967, thinking that it’ll apply today, is ridiculous. If Brian Wilson used equipment in 1968 to record a record that was 30 years old, he’d be using recording equipment from 1938! It would be like one track. My point is this: these people [Brian Wilson, the Beatles] were thinking past their time, and that’s why we’ve applied them at all, especially in art. I can go and buy the Beach Boys records on my own, I don’t need all these bands to tell me about them.

Yes, and no one wants to ever talk money, either. It heightens the drama for these bands. Everybody says it’s for “the art,” because they wanna change the world because it’s fucked. Well, let me tell you something: The world isn’t that fucked. The world is fine without rock ‘n roll; the world wouldn’t be very much different, I think. Your world might be and my world might be, but we would adapt, we’d be fine in no time. It’s something that everyone indulges in. It’s entertainment, really. I don’t see myself as being any different than a guy at a traveling circus: people come, they pay money, good, hard-earned money, to see you, and you should entertain them. And then they can go home, and that should be it.

I’m glad that my audience has a life. Sometimes people go to shows and then they’re like, “God, this band changed my life.” Well, if you’re 14 –that’s fine. But if you’re 24, I hope you are stable enough and secure enough with your fucking identity that a rock band doesn’t change your fucking existence.
You don’t need to emulate these people. Go to your job, listen to music. I don’t think that a guy that works at a bank is any less important than a guy that’s in a band is. He likes banking; this guy likes music. We all have to have something that we enjoy.

Blue...so blue...a pool so blue it was almost grey

2005-08-28T21:55:00.000Z

Silence

2005-08-28T21:50:00.000Z

True silence is evasive
True silence eludes us
True silence...

Silence is yet to be heard
There is no silence in a meadow at dusk
There is no silence in the depths of the Oceans Pacific, Atlantic nor Indian
There is no silence

Yet silence is a worthy goal
And we should be unafraid once we come accross it
For it shall not forewarn us of its presence
We shall not find silence
Silence will find us

In search of Diz and Bird (Part II)

2005-08-27T12:02:00.000Z

Oh dear. I met the most amazing woman last night who has frankly thrown my somewhat hasty and certainly premature 'off women for life' stance into disarray. Wow. Dr. D was leaving to study medicine and so we went for a few drinks on Summer Row, a supposedly cosmopolitan and trendy collection of bars with seats outside. Next to a dual carriageway. With views of a roundabout. Anyway, Dr. D invited his friend who walked into the room like Nicole Kidman at a premiere. Oh, brother...

She has lived in Paris and went to Juillard (see this post, also) in New York for 3 months. She studied Politics at Cambridge and then did a law conversion in London and is now a corporate lawyer (I think). We must have talked about food for about an hour. Despite her breathtaking figure she eats good, real good. I won't bore you with the details but we touched upon the restaurants in Paris, New York and London, the quality of coffee in Paris and Rome, the similarities between Edith Piaf and Billie Holiday. I mentioned A Cook's Tour and that me and T were addicted to it over Christmas. She said she loved Anthony Bourdain ('the Lou Reed of the culinary world') and his programme and that she had been to his bistro in Manhattan. She didn't think it was that special. Go here and here and here. Despite her background, she was grounded. Her love of coffee and cigarettes prompted me to ask whether she'd seen Coffee and Cigarettes. She had. Despite her disdain for Amelie and despite her defence of Irreversible and extreme French cinema, there wasn't a shred of pretensiousness in anything she said. Honestly. Despite, despite, despite...

Eternal thanks to the Yorkshireman for letting me know that Sour Grapes was on last night on Channel 5 @ 3am. Larry David's directorial debut. I think it got panned by the press and I'm fairly sure it didn't reach these shores. Taped it. Will watch it tonight. The 5th series of Curb Your Enthusiasm is out on HBO soon. The 4th series is yet to appear over here for some reason. Ordered the DVD though...

Listening to:

Jim O'Rourke: Bad timing
Lou Reed: NYC Man (yes, still. Incidentally, Lou Reed is modeling some Alexander McQueen clothes in the current ID magazine. Pretty hilarious...)
Wilco: Live bootleg

CountryBlueGrassBlues

2005-08-22T19:40:00.000Z

So Jellie's moving to Stoke Newington. Good luck to her. I've been there just once I think, with T. I went to see Peter Fairclough and Keith Tippett. Pete taught me to play kit and is a true inspiration. He played at the Vortex which is now re-opened albeit in a new location. From what I remember N16 is somewhat quaint and the walk to the nearest tube is a long one. The gig was great. I bumped into my mate Spencer who was on the first year of my degree course. He came down to London Town to attend BassTech. His grandfather owned a jazz label and Spencer played bass (he played good, real good) and trumpet. Should have kept in touch with the guy.

When I was in NYC, I went on a pilgrimage to Charlie Parker Avenue on the Lower East Side and decided to check out CBGBs whilst in the area. I walked past a record shop, Downtown Music Gallery. I looked in the window. It had some great sides. There was a board with recommended releases. At the top was this! Further down was this! I went in and got a ton of CDs. Playing it cool, I approached the counter and said that Peter Fairclough was presently teaching me. The guy just stared back at me and said, "Oh, right..." I guess he was just too much of an NYC Man.

Currently listening to:

Bill Frisell: The Intercontinentals
Sufjan Stevens: Illinoise - Mr Stevens is attempting to record an album dedicated to each United State of America. This is the second one (the first being Greetings From Michigan). They are 2 truly beautiful pieces of work. He also recorded this in between which is good but not great. Illinoise is a lot more uplifting than Michigan. Not having been to either, I'm guessing it has something to do with the states themselves. They need to be heard to be believed. They represent all that is great about American music. It feels like it could have been recorded at any time since the 1800s. And yet its fresh and progressive. Astonishing.

Just watched Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train for the second time. What a great film. It features Joe Strummer, Screamin Jay Hawkins, Tom Waits, Steve Buscemi and the great Youki Kudoh. It's got a great soundtrack (with original music by a band featuring Marc Ribot). Although it's a film as a whole (linked by Memphis and the music of Elvis Presley), it's also presented as little vignettes and it would make a great 3-Act play.

Pet symmetry

2005-08-21T23:43:00.000Z

Have a look at this. Kanye West's College Dropout album fused with Pet Sounds. All Falls Down works the best. It's mixed with Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder). Slow Jamz is mixed with Caroline, No which also works well. The others work less well but it's still an interesting listen. I'm guessing the site will be taken down soon so be quick. (courtesy Yorkshireman)

Saw this piece in the Observer today. Paul Morley discusses Kenny Wheeler's Angel Song which I'm yet to hear but must check out asap:

Kenny Wheeler collaborated with three very distinctive greats from different generations - saxophonist Lee Konitz (who played on Miles' Birth Of The Cool), bassist Dave Holland and guitarist Bill Frisell - for the Angel Song album on the snidily underrated ECM label: every year for the past 36 years ECM has released at least half a dozen neglected classics. Absolutely beautiful, drummerless, delicately abstract hybrids of composition and improvisation , it's astonishing that this piece hasn't become the modern equivalent of Kind of Blue or Love Supreme and crept into the mainstream pop canon. I played it non-stop in Barcelona after buying it in 1997, spending a few days with my partner Elizabeth in the Arts Hotel overlooking the Mediterranean, and every time I listen to it now I hear love, sun and sea, as if the music was written just for us.

What to listen to and when...

2005-08-21T12:56:00.000Z

Thom Yorke and Radiohead are now blogging whilst recording their new album. Should be very interesting. I've kind of lost interest in them recently. Apart from their over-politicized spoutings (maybe I just disagree with them), I was more concerned with blatant rip-off of Charles Mingus' 'Freedom' from The Complete Town Hall Concert on Hail To The Thief. Great source material but not too clever. Not clever at all, in fact. Downright disgusting. My dissertation was entitled 'To what extent were Kid A and Amnesiac a watershed for popular music?'. The answer was to a moderate extent (to sum up 12,000 words). I have to credit them with my a large part of my musical education. I wouldn't be in to the things I'm into now without studying their interviews etc. Learning about Penderecki, Messiaen, the Warp label, Anti-pop Consortium. Their ground-breaking use of the internet really changed how artists use the web to reach their fans (as well as non-fans). In some ways they became experts in marketing, a charge I'm sure they wouldn't be too keen to hear. (Courtesy of here)

This is something I've been meaning to put up for a long, long time. The extent of Elvis Costello's musical knowledge is something I'll never catch up with. Only Vincent Gallo and perhaps Henry Rollins have similar record collections. Of course there are obsessives all over the world whose collections would dwarf all of the above. The difference is that the above are all in the public eye whose music reaches millions of people and the chances of influencing those people are vast (the late John Peel is another one I've just remembered). So, enhance your collection as you progress through your life with this list. You could do a lot worse. It's great to tick off the albums on there that you now own. Trust me. Ok, ignore me. For those are more anal (if that's possible), go here to see Costello's article in Vanity Fair on what to listen to throughout the day.

On a similar level, Martin Carr (formerly of The Boo Radleys and now Brave Captain) has a blog. Have a look at this post where he goes for a walk with his ipod on shuffle. Great... (courtesy of T)

If you haven't checked out Prefuse 73 yet, do so. He has his head screwed on for sure. He has a diary on his site which reveals much although not often. There is also a really good interview on Pitchfork here. On another Warp records link, here's a great interview with Jamie Lidell who is everywhere at the moment.

Nick Hornby interviewed Bruce Springsteen in the Observer recently. Me and Hornby both share the same favourite song of all time: Thunder Road off Springsteen's Born To Run.

Just seen this which should be interesting. Reading about Elliot Smith always makes me sad.

Radiohead,Nick Hornby,Costello,Elliot Smith,ipod.

Solarized

2005-08-19T18:43:00.000Z

So there I was at Dunstall Park (above), the racecourse in Wolverhampton, for a corporate 'do'. We were taken out by one of our clients who came up from Southampton. For the first time I met Dan Bierton, a guy I speak to on the phone regularly. I won't go into details but his job is a fairly mundane role within the legal sector. We got on well and didn't concern ourselves with the 'action' down on the track. He then slipped into the conversation that he used to work in a recording studios in London. I asked him which one (pre-judging Dan to have merely had 1 weeks work experience in some under-exposed back street studio used by advertising companies or something). He said, 'Do you know Sarm(Trevor Horn's studio)?'. So, it turns out that he was an engineer there who worked on some big records. In particular he helped out on Ian Brown's first solo album. He got on so well with him that ended up co-writing a few tunes on his subsequent albums and became his tour drummer/keyboardist. He then moved to the south coast to raise his family while Ian Brown took time out. Astonishing. He offered to put me in touch with some of his contacts when I move down to London Town. He still writes for West One Music who put forward his work for TV and adverts.

Currently listening to:

Jim O'Rourke: Halfway to a Threeway
David Axelrod: Songs of Experience

Ian Brown,David Axelrod,production,Trevor Horn.

Atonement

2005-08-19T17:44:00.000Z

My good old friend MC Donny OD has just been signed to Something In Construction. He plays guitar in the band Christian Silva. They have a mini-album out in September which was recorded in France. They're playing accross London regularly. I saw them at the Varsity in Wolverhampton at one of their first shows. Queen and Muse immediately sprang to mind. I'm not a huge fan of either and it's certainly has a pop edge. Indeed, the album has been produced by James Sanger who produced Keane's album. I really hope they can utilise Donny's influences more than they currently do. Donny has some great credentials and an encyclopedic knowledge of music. The label have also mentioned Bowie and Talk Talk in reference to them and I guess I can see that. Christian's voice is very similar to Thom Yorke's. Go and download Why Should I from here or here. It's really good.

The Electric Cinema continues to be the arbiter of creative cinema-going. To celebrate the release of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory they have asked Chouchoute to produce a chocolate fountain and they're also serving chocolate cocktails all week. What an amazing place it is. I don't know another cinema like it. They also have this upstairs. There are bound to be some great ones in London and I've been to The Coronet in Notting Hill which reminded me of the theatre in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. I reckon The Electric competes with anything London can throw at it though...

Woo has a great post. He's waiting for the new Stevie Wonder album. How has he decided to title his post?....... 'Signed, Sealed.....Undelivered'!!!! YES!!! Brilliant......

Pitchfork has the tendency to be annoying but it has its moments. Here are two great interviews with Ryan Adams and James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem and DFA.

Broadcast appear in this month's Wire. They take part in the Jukebox feature which is ridiculed in the pre-amble to the above James Murphy interview. They mention Cinephilia which I previously mentioned in this post (or see my profile). Its an astonishing place and, again, you would struggle to find a better place to rent films in the entire country. Broadcast must live fairly near to me. They have a studio at the Custard Factory.

cinema,music,David Bowie,Stevie Wonder,Ryan Adams,Birmingham.

Cielo, Provocation and Money

2005-08-18T23:07:00.000Z

Richard Herring, formerly of Lee & Herring and Fist of Fun, has a great blog. He's currently at the Edinburgh Festival and he's chronicling his up and down times there. I don't remember the his TV show that well to be honest but I do remember catching little snippets and laughing as he played the Morecambe to Lee's Wise. Stewart Lee wrote an article for The Wire a few months ago which I was very surprised to see. It was essentially about him experiencing a comedic awakening at a Derek Bailey gig. I loved this post of Herring's. It's a great example of a comedian taking a potentially controversial suject and ridiculing the reaction to it.

If I had a brand spanking new bike I would have to cycle everywhere shouting, "I
was going to buy this anyway, it's not because of terrorism. I am not a pussy.
Like all the other new cyclists that you can see in front of me. The terrorists
have not won"...We're all more scared of the police now anyway. It was a bit of
a nippy morning today and I couldn't find my leather jacket so was considering
putting on my long winter coat. But then I thought that the police might see me,
be suspicious of me wearing inappropriate clothing for our wonderful British
summer and execute me in the street, just in case. I do have a beard as well
after all. And there would be quite a hefty bulk under the coat that anyone
would assume was a bomb rather than the result of guzzling pizza and beer.
No-one would blame them for the mistake. So I just went out in my shirt instead.
People shouted at me, "You coward! Going out without a coat on. The terrorists
have won."

Have just finshed reading Martin Amis' Money. And also Paul Auster's New York Trilogy. Both courtesy of T. I can't profess my love for New York City enough (Money is set there as well). Have been listening a little too much to Lou Reed's NYC Man compilation, a fine, fine album if ever there was one. Coney Island Baby, Street Hassle, Pale Blue Eyes, Caroline Says II. T pointed me in the direction of this book. It's now on my wish list.

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's latest work Extras is currently on BBC2 on Thursday nights. I hold both of them (particularly Gervais) in such high esteem. Gervais constantly references my favourite shows: The Larry Sanders Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld (I admittedly obsess over all three to an unhealthy extent). Gervais credits George Costanza as the finest sitcom character ever. And he's probably right. Extras is influenced to a considerable extent by The Larry Sanders Show (as was I'm Alan Partridge) but, again, Gervais takes it to another level (as did Steve Coogan), making it universal and British all at once. Gervais and Merchant have had a show on XFM for a good few years now. It's really worth accessing the archives here.

Go see the Asian Provocateur: 'Life. Love. And a little bit of luxury'. Actually, its better than the by-line. Much better. She pointed me in the direction of this site, some great quotes from New Yorkers. Also, she went to see a DJ at this place, based in the trendier-than-thou Meat-Packing District in Manhattan which I visited (the district not the club) when I was there in 2003 (it's also referenced in a Seinfeld episode).

Go see Painter Girl. She's somewhat Anglophile in her tastes. She's paints good (as Gallo would say) and best of all, she lives in New York.

extras,ricky gervais,comedy,New York,Edinburgh,Seinfeld,books.

Gallo @ Koko

2005-08-18T09:28:00.000Z

Mr Gallo entertained me and T for just over an hour last night at Koko in Camden. He was joined by Woody and Theresa who was pregnant. They swapped instruments although Theresa was mainly on kit and Woody on guitar. Vincent seemed relaxed for a change. I was at work in Birmingham in the day and then travelled down to Camden. The venue, now called Koko, used to be the Camden Ballroom and its former title befits the grandeur of the place. It's beautiful (although I would imagine that it's slightly less beautiful when holding Trance nights). Vincent played most of his When album, a few new tunes, a version of what I think was a Yes track and he came on for an encore of Moonshine (King Crimson). He went down well and it looked like the place was sold out. Gallo cracked a few funnies about girls in pants, how he wished Theresa's baby was his and then when the crowd begged for more at the end (perhaps more out of feeling short-changed) he said that he usually gets booed off after the first few songs. Then the three of them stood on stage deliberating what to play. Gallo protested that Moonshine was the only other song that they knew. Theresa wanted to play a tune where they 'rocked out' but Gallo wasn't keen. T thought it was Vincent's best gig. I think the RFH gig was the best (PJ Harvey and John Frusciante came on to do 'Moon River' for the encore). The less said about this gig the better.

Meanderings and musings...

2005-08-16T22:54:00.000Z

So, reasons for delay in posting: holiday in Spain, wedding in Barnsley (stag do in Skegness), cricket, up and down to London... So there you go...

Go see Jelly at Shocking Blues and Mean Reds. She's a big fan of Vincent Gallo (we'll both be at the Gallo gig @ Koko on Wednesday), Cat Power and, especially, Audrey Hepburn. She publishes a fanzine of the same name which has her writing in it. Read all about her kooky goings-on in loveley Brighton. There's nothing like women...

Issue #2 has a great little article about mix-tapes. I can still remember the first one my brother, T, made for me. Dinosaur Jr, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Nick Cave, Thelonious Monk, DJ Shadow, Curtis Mayfield, Gram Parsons, Robert Johnson. This tape was monumental in my learning. 'Nuff said... I think I read in the latest Wire that Thurston Moore has just released a book documenting the importance of mixtapes in the development of music in the 80s. I think Jim O'Rourke (as well as others) has added his favourite mixtape from his youth.

I got a Candi Staton compilation from T for my birthday. Whilst being reminiscent of Aretha Franklin (indeed, Staton rips off the backing girl parts of 'Do Right Woman, Do Right Man' in 'Another Man's Woman, Another Woman's Man'), Staton's raspy yet velvety vocals reveal more pain and emotion than Franklin (not that that's a competition that sounds like it's worth winning). It reminded me of Billie Holiday as opposed to Ella Fitzgerald: both awesome but you can just get a little more out of the former, knowing the heartachingly rocky life she lived. Worth getting anyway and very cheap. I love the following line from 'Mr and Mrs Untrue', what an image:

I keep my shades on Johnny,
The hotel is kind of crowded tonight

Also bought the new Jamie Lidell album 'Multiply'. It's superb and you should reject any pre-conceived notions of a white person singing soul. Apart from being offensive and simply wrong, such critics would, I'm sure, fail to criticise a black person singing opera simply because black people have no history in that culture. He recorded it in Berlin and although one minute it can sound like the Four Tops (and I mean exactly like the Four Tops), the next minute it's as progressive as Squarepusher. Lidell has said that he didn't ever want to become part of the 'Space Race', which is a great term for those such as Aphex Twin, Autechre and the aforementioned Squarepusher who pursue the latest fucked-up sounds.

I have also been playing cricket for the work team. We play at Moseley Ashfield CC's III team pitch. It's a great ground, overlooked by the stunning Britannic Assurance appartments. Playing recently, I was fetching a ball from under a car when I heard a guy ask if I needed a hand. It was Heath Streak! He staying in one of the little maisonettes while playing for Warwickshire CC. We also played in Regent's Park recently, right by the zoo. You can see the BT Tower and just see the London Eye from the pitch. Anyway, we're doing well...

cricket,blogs,soul,

2005-08-16T21:01:00.000Z

l-r: 'Five Dances', Mr and Mrs Dickson, the photographer (or bus driver depending on how you see his jacket)

2005-08-16T20:00:00.000Z

Villa Jasmine, Javea, Spain

Royal Festival Hall

2005-07-10T22:34:00.000Z

This landmark venue is now closing for major renovation work which will take years. This is where I saw the second ever performance of Brian Wilson's Smile in Feb 2004 and Vincent Gallo (with Jim O'Rourke) in April 2004.
London

Starless and Bible Black

2005-07-10T22:23:00.000Z

Currently listening to a narration of Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood accompanied by Stan Tracey kindly taped off the radio by my Nan. Splendid. Nice to listen to after watching the last of the Picture of Britain series on BBC1. Dimbleby went to Wales and the West Country. Under discussion were Thomas as well as Turner, Constable and Daphne De Mourier.
jazz,poetry,britain,art

Houses of Parliament

2005-07-10T22:18:00.000Z

London

London Eye from Embankment

2005-07-10T22:12:00.000Z

London

Rodin - Borghers of Calais outside Houses of Parliament

2005-07-08T17:39:00.000Z

London

Be Not So Fearful

2005-07-08T11:26:00.000Z

And so the day after the attacks on our great city of London... It felt strange getting on the bus this morning. I'll leave it to others to comment on the events of yesterday. In particular Christopher Hitchens and Norman Geras can write far more succintly and presciently than I. Harry's Place, Johann Hari and Andrew Sullivan are worth reading as well. I will soon post some photos of the city from a recent visit if anyone needs a reminder of just how great the city is.

Ian Mcewan has a great article in the Guardian. I have just started reading his Saturday and Henry Perowne, the novel's protagonist, comments on the terror threat and how he feels about his beloved city. It's stunningly well written. Now is not the time, but I'm going to post again regarding Francis Wheen's book. There are several literally jaw-dropping excerpts to choose from but the post-9/11 comment from the so-called political left is perhaps the most galling. And yet, mere hours after the event, we have the same untruths bandied about.

I had several listens to the below song this morning. I guess the fact that Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) sung it after 9/11 may give it a more vulnerable, poignant feel. It's a lovely, lovely song...

Be not so nervous
Be not so frail
Someone who watches you
You will not fail
Be not so nervous
Be not so frail

Be not so sorry for what you have done
You must forget them now it's done
And when you wake up you will find that you can run
Be not so sorry for what you have done

Be not so fearful
Be not so pale
Someone who watches you
You will not leave the rails
Be not so fearful
Be not so pale

Be not so sorry for what you have done
You must forget them now it's done
And when you wake up you will find that you can run
Be not so sorry for what you have done

Be Not So Fearful
Bill Fay

London,terrorism,fascism,Wilco,literature

When shadows take your hand...

2005-06-24T15:48:00.000Z

Bumped into an old friend, Maz, on the bus yesterday. She runs Chicks Dig Jerks (the title of a Bill Hicks song off Arizona Bay, I think), the Birmingham gig promoters. They have put on Quasi and Franz Ferdinand on in the past and their new fanzine is out now at Swordfish Records and The Sunflower Lounge. Within it has an interview with the ever-eloquent James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem and DFA Records.Maz is DJing at the Camden Lock soon, where I went fairly recently and they played Elliot Smith's XO from start to finish.

Went to see Buck 65 on Sunday at Bar Academy in Birmingham. My mate LCE came up from Bury St.Edmunds. We actually went to see him last year at the Custard Factory and I saw him at this years ATP. This review sums it up pretty perfectly to be honest.

Buck 65 is not a happy man. He has broken his mixer, and as the man says "For a
DJ, that doesn't leave a lot. Maybe I'll try and dance a little". During the 2nd
song, he actually does try and dance - this causes his backing CD to skip. It's
not going well... he then reveals that his backing singer has chosen that day to
leave the tour "It's a long story... don't try and sleep with people you work
with".Luckily this is Buck 65, and the small venue is full of people for who
this man can do no wrong. In the end, all he can do is rap to a backing CD, with
little room for improvisation given the broken mixer, but it's still going down
a storm. We don't even care that the end of almost every track is accompanied by
Buck saying that "There'd be some awesome turntable effects right here"... It
doesn't really matter though, a Buck 65 concert is all about the poetry of road
trips in beat up cars, dead end jobs, and small towns in the middle of nowhere -
it doesn't need a light show. Go see Buck 65 - I'll see him again, after all,
maybe everything will work next time...

Too right...

The Bill Fay fansite now seems to be up and running and its excellent with some good Jim O' Rourke links and the lyrics to his first two albums. The quality of any lyric can vary when viewed on paper. It would be interested to hear the views of others when reading the lyrics to 'Til The Christ Come Back, below. They are ingrained with the music for me, so it's genuinely hard to objectively assess their quality:

When soldiers spoil your sleep

And writers steal your dreams

Don’t strain to hear the screams
When the light goes out

When the light goes out

Pain was all you knew

But I think you’re coming through

Like applause inside a zoo
When a lion gets out

When a lion gets out

When shadows take your hand

And mist is on the land

Hold on to your minds

Finally finished F.Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night after 5 years and several aborted attempts. I think it was the quality of his short stories that inspired me to persevere with it. And it was worth the wait. I feel like a philistine to mention it but Dick Diver always sounded like a porno actor's name to me. The story is exhilirating and harrowing all at once and the urge to be in Paris or on the Riviera is now even stronger. Highly recommended.

It's my 25th birthday tomorrow and I have to say that it means nothing to me. It has no relevance in my life at all. Strange, really. I wasn't going to bother going out for a meal with friends or whatever, but then their reaction sort of forces you to. Going to the new Tapas place in Moseley with T, Evans x2, Sholto, BB and others. Should be interesting.
literature,Buck 65,songwriting,lyrics,fanzine,gig reviews

The Sweetness of the Water

2005-06-18T14:20:00.000Z

All About Jazz (a Californian magazine, I think) has a PDF review of the criminally underpromoted Spring Heel Jack's The Sweetness of the Water here on pages 9/10.It mentions Sander and Edwards again who are coming back to haunt me, it seems, daily (see here).

Sweetness of the Water has John Coxon and Ashley Wales at times light as sunbeam
lint, possibly a result of guest Wadada Leo Smith’s input - the structure more
like a Smith project, or even Evan Parker’s Electro-Acoustic Ensemble.
Collaborators also include veteran rhythm section John Edwards, double bass,
Mark Sanders, drums and timpani, and the returning Evan Parker, reeds. Occupying
a familiar crux point between hyper-melodic and tuneless, Parker warbles
circular breath over Coxon’s glowing vibraphone. Coxon and Wales continue to
prove themselves flexible and supportive hosts for some of improvised music’s
most adventurous voyagers.

The issue also gives a mention to Spring Heel jack's monthly club night Moposmoso at
The Red Rose Club,129 Seven Sisters Road, North London, N7 7QG on page 14.
jazz

Ascension,Improv,Cybernetic Jazz....

2005-06-18T12:30:00.000Z

Listening to Jazz on 3 last night and caught the last part of an interview with Oscar Brown jnr. Found out that he wrote the lyrics to Mongo Santamaria's Afro-Blue, a tune that Coltrane played regularly. Speaking of which, the next item featured Evan Parker interviewing John Tchicai, who played on the Ascension sessions. Parker said that he was revered for having only seen Coltrane played live, whereas Tchicai was held in even higher esteem for having played with Coltrane. Presenter Jez Nelson revealed that there were scuffles outside his first live performance at the Red Rose, in North London, where Spring Heel Jack's John Coxon and Ashley Wales put on an Improv night. You can listen to the show for a week. If you all you can manage is a 5-minute listen, fast forwad right to the end of the 60-min show to hear Tchicai read a poem accompanied by Spring Heel Jack. Blew me away, anyway...

A great interview with Spring Heel Jack can be found here, from around the time just after the release of the Amasses album, talking about their juxtaposition of Amercan and European Improv giants with their own blend of electronics and also touching on Bach, dub, William Faulkner, Korosawa and Luciano Berio. Related to the above paragraph, they discuss Ascension and the physicality of the playing of Evan Parker, John Edwards and Mark Sanders. DJ Spooky also gets a mention:

The reason the records we have made work well and are interesting to listen to,
is that we haven't set ourselves up as propagandists for the electronic idea.
Like DJ Spooky's idea of “21st Century Jazz”. It is propaganda and is
irrelevant. Twenty-first centuries jazz exists without him or with him. It
doesn't make any difference. Evan Parker will be blowing saxophone, and that is
21st century jazz. And if he lived to the 22nd century, it would be 22nd century
jazz. Propagandising something smacks of record companies trying to sell
records, and that is what I hate about it. The notion of new electronic jazz has
got to be resisted. The truth has got to be told. It has got to be said that it
is not something new.

Been reading more of DJ Spooky at his website. I've read his Rhythm Science, a beautifully designed book and accompanying cd, which discusses his thoughts on micro-culture and musical hybrids. He invents his own terms to depict the changes going on in culture. There is a lot to gain from reading the book yet he strays into nonsense territory in some chapters, where his creative use of hybrid words becomes incomprehensible, to me, at least ('cybernetic jazz', for instance, or 'illbient'). The interview with Matthew Shipp is a good read though, Spooky going off on tangents, topics including Xennakis, Rimbaud, Charlie Patton and Duke Ellington.

Thanks to the Yorkshireman for pointing me in the direction of Salon.com which has a great selection of free mp3s from Dylan to the Animal Collective, from Richard Thompson to Four Tet, from Sun Ra to Teenage Fanclub, and from Albert Ayler to Teenage Fanclub.

Simon Reynolds' blog can be found here. Worth a read despite the following drivel which is a perfect example of what I was going on about here.

...made me think of Sontag’s angle on literary modernism and pornography. The
extreme focus (sensory, psychological, cinematic) entailed in the erotic
transactions here depicted lends itself to a certain avant-garde
intensification, most apparent in the stereo-placement and ultra-vivid
chromaticism of the vocals, which tripped me out on the first few listens.

Music critic (for The New Yorker) Alex Ross' blog can be found here. He draws attention to a lovely little piece On Messiaen's Quartet Pour La Fin Du Temps.

jazz,john coltrane,blogs,Improv,spring heel jack