It is (for those lucky enough to be rockinandreelininaucklandnewzealand), the first Friday of a new month.
So, gather round, one and all, please and tell everyone – what have you been listening to / reading / watching this month – and is there anything else you would like to share?
Kid Dynamite says
HEARD
The two records I’ve played more than any others this month are Crumbling Ghost‘s Five Songs, which I love for its psychedelicized doom take on trad folk, and Art Blakey‘s A Night At Birdland Volume One, which I picked up for less than the price of a fancy coffee, and which is tremendous, full of verve and joy. Volume Two is firmly on the shopping list. I’ve also just taken delivery of the new Panopticon record in a rather fetching yellow and black splattered vinyl edition. It is Cascadian influenced USBM of the highest quality, but probably very much a minority taste on the Afterword.
READ
Lance Parkin’s Magic Words is a biography of Alan Moore that was a very entertaining read, but not one that I am sure left me any clearer on its subject than I was before. Still, any one who writes some of the best material the comics world has ever seen and worships a glove puppet snake god is alright by me. The Night Clock is Paul Meloy’s long awaited (by me) first novel after some exceptionally good short stories. His work has the same sense of magic being loose in the world as Jonathan Carroll, but Meloy’s mythology, is far grimmer and wilder, with apocalypse forever looming. A very satisfying debut. I’m currently about halfway through Jon Ronson’s So You’ve Been Publically Shamed, which has been mentioned here many times before. It’s fascinating, a glimpse into this horrible malign engine that’s in all of us.
SEEN
Just last night we finally caught up with Whiplash. I really enjoyed it from start to finish, totally compelling. Also saw Nightcrawler this month, another fine film, but one that suffered a little bit for me in having virtually no sympathetic characters in at all. It’s an admirable film, but one hard to love. Unlike lowbudget British horror film The Borderlands, which has little to admire but so so much to love. It’s found footage, but it works brilliantly, with two likeable leads and a superbly gross ending.
deutschland
borderlands
Kid Dynamite says
That was appallingly proofread. I must apologise. Any chance of an ed-
Colin H says
READ: I’ve been reading ‘Capital Crimes: London Mysteries’, edited by Martin Edwards – one of his tremendous torrent of ‘Golden Age’ British crime reprints/anthologies via the British Library. I’ve alse read about half of his ‘group biography’ of the Brit between-wars crime authors, and am half way through Conan Doyle’s ‘Tales Of Mystery And Terror’, one of his non-Holmes collections – and much better than the standard idea that nothing else he wrote was any good would have you believe.
WATCHED: Father Brown – three weeks’ worth, recorded in the afternoon and watched in the evening. Brian Pern. I wish they’d tone down the effing – it seems forced and unnecessary from some of the actors – but great moments.
HEARD: Mostly Quintessence (nearly there with the 2CD set of unreleased, newly mixed vintage goodies for Hux Records, due out in May), but also the mighty TWANG and repeat plays on a couple of long drives of Feedback-Filemeister’s recent ‘Earth Beneath Our Feet’ album. Two-thirds of it is captivating – luxuriant, soft-focused, slow-burning… I have some of the Filester’s previous works, and may write in more detail in due course…
Gary says
Seen
The Revenant, The Martian, Spectre, Creed and The 33. Hated every single one of them. Thoroughly boring, the lot of them. Not one of them offered anything new or original that I’d never seen before. I don’t think think I’ve seen one film that I’ve really enjoyed since Ex Machina, which seems like ages ago.
I did enjoy Roger Waters’ The Wall a lot. Especially the concert. It’s the only thing I’ve seen recently that I’d happily watch again.
Heard
Mostly been listening to Dis Side Ah Town by Roger Robinson. Fantastic rap/poetry with every track about Brixton. I think it was Tigg who said it’s kinda like an LKJ for 2016, which is true.
Also Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds’ Push The Sky Away. I don’t normally like Nick, but came across an old interview with David Gilmour in which he cited this as his favourite listen at the time and I thought I’d give it a go. And I must say, I was surprised to find I really like it a lot. (Are any of his other albums similar to this?)
And Blackstar, obvs.
Read
The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion. Although it has its moments, overall it’s nowhere near as funny as The Rosie Project and lacks its spark. Main characters Don and Rosie are now married and living in NYC while expecting a baby. The comic scenes and minor characters seem far more contrived this time round and it lacks the spark that the initial contrast between Don and Rosie ignited.
I’m reading Ian McEwan’s Sweet Tooth now. A spy novel with a female first person narrator. I’m quite engrossed so far, which is pleasing as I’m something of a McEwan fan but hated its predecessor, Solar.
Tiggerlion says
Credit where it is due. Duco was the first to advocate the wondrous Dis Side Ah Town.
As for Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, I think there was a step change when he started composing more on guitar rather than piano. The Lyre Of Orpheus/Abattoir Blues and Dig Lazarus Dig!! are both superb.
Gary says
Will check them out, Tigg. Thanks.
Gary says
Just checked out a couple of tracks from each on youtube, Tigg. Not my sort of thing at all and a million miles away from the very quiet, gentle sound of the Push The Sky Away album that appeals to me so much.
Tiggerlion says
Oh I love Push The Sky Away alright. The Lyre Of Orpheus disc is gentle. The Boatman’s Call is too, and many believe it to be his masterpiece. I’m not so convinced. The truth is every Bad Seeds album has its own flavour.
Gary says
I think it’s the almost complete lack of drums that gives PtSA the understated feel I like.
duco01 says
Dis Side Ah Town is indeed a very fine album, but Jahtari sent me a really dodgy vinyl copy. It’s got a massive great warp on it, so that my poor old stylus goes up and down like a bloody jack-in-the-box when it tries to play the LP.
Tiggerlion says
This month I’ve been listening to David Bowie. Nothing else to report.
minibreakfast says
But what Bowie? All of it?
Moose the Mooche says
In my case…. yes.
(except Tonight and Never Let Me Down. I might be grieving but I’m not a maniac).
Tiggerlion says
Pretty much. I’m obviously a maniac.
Bingo Little says
I think you’ll find it’s “damn right, I’m a maniac”, tigs.
Tiggerlion says
Um. Isn’t that the American way of saying things?
Blue Boy says
Heard
Well, lots of Bowie inevitably. Especially Blackstar. It’s magnificent. I can’t think of a ‘late’ work by a major artist I have been so impressed by since Dylan’s Time Out of Mind from 1997. That was also an album shadowed by illness and intimations of mortality, even if Dylan was a mere stripling of 56, and 19 years later is still very much with us.
And my discovery of the month is SF Sorrow by The Pretty Things, from 1968. It came after Sgt Pepper and before Tommy and is overshadowed by both. And yet although they don’t have the stature of The Fabs or The Who, and the record probably doesn’t have any individual songs as good as the best of either of those records, it strikes me as a more unified and coherent record than either. Have only played it twice, but I like it a lot, much more than most psychedelic records I’ve heard from that period.
Seen
Two very enjoyable TV series on at exactly the same time on a Sunday night. War and Peace is great – of course it doesn’t capture the full richness of the novel but that’s not the point – it’s a six part TV series which works brilliantly on its own terms. And with the sad loss of Alan Rickman, is there a better actor alive at conveying creepy sliminess than Stephen Rea? And Deutchsland 83, about a young East German soldier put into West Berlin to spy on the West at the height of the Cold War. It started out a bit like a cross between Life on Mars and The Americans, with lots of fun to be had with period detail and music ( including much of Bowie’s Modern Love – he has been everywhere this month) but has taken a decidedly darker turn in the last couple of episodes. Still on the Channel 4 website and recommended.
In the cinema enjoyed The Hateful Eight, and also The Danish Girl. I thought Eddie Redmayne’s performance in the latter was a tad overwrought and ingratiating, but it’s a well done film about a challenging (at least for mainstream cinema) subject matter.
Read
Over Christmas finally plucked up the nerve to tackle Mark Lewisohn’s first part of his Beatles biography. Weighing in at 850 pages and only getting as far as Love Me Do I feared it would be heavy going and full of too much information, but in fact it’s a great read. Lewisohn marshals his material well and much of it is fascinating – not least in capturing the character of post war Liverpool, and the context in which the Boys grew up.
Other
In this month we have mourned David Bowie, Lemmy, Alan Rickman, Frank Finlay, Paul Kantner, Black, and Terry Wogan amongst others. Is it that most of us are closer to death than birth, and most of the musicians and public figures that mean anything to us are even older? Is this how it’s going to be from now on? Or has it just been a spectacularly shitty month?
drakeygirl says
Seen: After a sparse few months for gigs I was really looking forward to seeing John Grant this week – and big, beardy, polyglot didn’t disappoint (review here). I’m half way through the Netflix series The Man In The High Castle, and enjoying its old-fashioned feel. And I saw the NT Live cinema screening of the stage adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, which was compelling, conniving, and downright sexy. Dominic West was a suitably seductive Vicomte de Valmont, but Janet McTeer, as the malignant Marquise, blew everyone else off the stage.
Read: I’m 180 pages into Peter Doggett’s Electric Shock – From The Gramophone To The iPhone – 125 Years Of Pop Music, which is so far a treasure trove of popular music history. I’m loving the quotes from newspapers, magazines, and historical figures of the day, ranging from the Phonograph Monthly Review Magazine to the Daily Mirror, and from Gracie Fields to Joseph Goebbels(!).
Heard: The barmily prolific Ty Segall has another album out (Emotional Mugger) and it’s full of psychedelic guitars and fuzzy hooks. Other good noise comes from The Savages – their second album Adore Life is a little less in your face than their debut, but it’s still spiky, and moody, and confrontational. Any record from a band featuring both the driving bass of Ayse Hassan and the French-accented intensity of singer Jehnny Beth has a headstart on most others. In addition, Drake Towers is resonating to the sounds of us working our way through the December vinyl exchange – otherwise known as Christmas presents for the grown-ups – including such delights as the Eels’ Complete Dreamworks Boxset (what a joy it is to have the likes of Souljacker and Daisies Of The Galaxy on vinyl); old soul from Esther Phillips; and the funky art-rock of El Vy – Return To The Moon, a side project from The National’s Matt Berninger, where he loosens up and dare I suggest, ‘wigs out a bit’.
Other: Chubby Checking going well. But we’ve been boring you all about that enough as it is…
Moose the Mooche says
Esther Phillips’s voice makes me feel funny in my special place.
drakeygirl says
You let Funny out of your ‘special place’* right now, do you hear? I’ve told you before, that’s kidnap and assault, Moose.
*dungeon
Moose the Mooche says
Oh you’re no fun any more.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Heard: lots of Dave Rawlings and Lucinda. However much I admire Blackstar I cannot actually bring myself to like/love it.
Seen – all the Oscar nominations of which Room is miles ahead of everything else : a most excellent film. Transparent (caught up with Series 1 and halfway through Series 2) is easily the best thing on TV right now.
Read: William Boyd’s Sweet Caress (going by numbers) and JS Galbraith’s Hudson Bay – spectacularly fascinating.
Other: Chubby Checker was going well, not quite so sure after today’s gorging of Adnams and Scotch Eggs: there’s always next week…
Freddy Steady says
Adnams and Scotch Eggs…..Christ!
Moose the Mooche says
*opens blog window*
Jeff says
*climbs out, retching*
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Just one more pint of Mosaic and one of them scotch eggs and it’s off to bed for me (parp)
Freddy Steady says
Adnams have a really big range these days, used be just bitter and an old ale . Quite like Ghostship and spindrift but haven’t come across Mosaic..what’s it like?
mikethep says
Heard
Nothing stands out, particularly – since buying the Sonos I’ve rediscovered all the stuff I uploaded to Google Play, just about my entire jazz collection for one. There’s a nifty random playlist feature, so I’ve had it on practically all day for the past few weeks. Ahmad Jamal at the moment.
Read
Jon Savage’s 1966: Thoroughly enjoyable, though as I said elsewhere there’s occasionally a slight sense of shoehorning to fit his monthly themes. The book puts you on to a lot of music I never heard at the time, even though I considered myself pretty on top of things. The stories behind the music are fascinating too.
The Glass Canoe by David Ireland: Was tipped off to this by the Swedish chapter. A most extraordinary book – still digesting it, to be honest. Not so much a novel as a collection of vignettes, set in and outside and occasionally on the roof of a run-down Aussie boozer, peopled by as fascinating a collection of drunks you could ever hope to meet. As so often when drink has been taken the conversations can get quite profound, though frequently interrupted for fights and sometimes quite startling sex. The Great Australian Novel?
More Please by Barry Humphries: his autobiography, picked up on a whim in an op shop. Loved this – the first half of the book, dealing with his early years in Melbourne with his stuffy and snobbish middle-class parents (his mother in particular, who was definitely a source of inspiration for Dame Edna) are brilliant and easily as funny as Unreliable Memoirs. The second half, once he gets to England and eventually gets famous, is less appealing – a lot of names are dropped, and his increasing alcoholism make him a bit of a pain in the arse. Inevitably with such a clever man there’s a certain air of self-satisfaction, but recommended nevertheless.
Seen
Carol: disappointed by this. Looks beautiful of course, but we both found it rather dull – Mrs thep was threatening to walk out after 5 minutes. Too many rather claustrophobic close-ups of Cate Blanchett, and the brief scene of hot lesbo action seemed irrelevant to the main, er, thrust of the story.
Occupied: on Netflix (in Oz, anyway). Norwegian series, set a bit in the future, in which Norway, with an idealistic, not to say naive, Green government elected in the wake of a terrifyingly destructive climate-change type hurricane, decides to convert – overnight – to an exciting new mineral-based source of power and turn off all the oil and gas. So far so good, but they decide to shut the taps off to the rest of Europe too. Cue major energy crisis (no Middle East oil because they’re all fighting each other), the EU is on the warpath, the US is looking the other way – and enter Russia, which decides the only thing to do is take over Norwegian gas plants and oil platforms. Not since the Nazis invaded have the Norwegians behaved so badly…unlikely maybe, but riveting stuff.
Hinterland: been dipping in and out of this rather glum Welsh cop show, featuring your standard haunted copper back in Wales after some unexplained crisis, and the standard crew of uncomprehending underlings. Broadchurch, look you. North Wales looks sensationally depressing, littered with corpses and gigantic bearded men of few words. Loving it.
The Rocket: marvellous Aussie film set in the highlands of Laos, about a small boy (born a twin but his sibling died at birth) trying to beat the superstition that twins bring bad luck. Beautifully acted (especially the boy and the girl he makes friends with) and shot, and profoundly moving. Don’t suppose it made it to UK, but you never know – we saw it on iTunes.
thecheshirecat says
Read : A history of the National Clarion Cycling Club; it turns out a fair bit of that history was made in the lanes around where I live, which added interest. First chapter heading – ‘Cycling and Socialism’. Now that grabs my attention!
Seen : Two Bridgewater Hall concerts plus my first visit to the fountainhead of English folk at Cecil Sharp House to see Chris Wood and Andy Cutting. Their gigs are slightly but not much more accessible than hen’s teeth – maybe one per year, so you grab your chances. They scratch my current itch for restrained English instrumental folk,
Heard : Talking of which, just as the month closed, so arrived two eagerly awaited new releases, including that Andy Cutting fellah again playing his part in Leveret’s second CD. Let’s just say I played it 6 times through last Sunday. But that and Songs of Separation will belong to the February Takeover.
Locust says
Heard:
Blackstar, obviously. Brilliant. You all know that by now!
Tinariwen – Live in Paris is a tight and energetic performance of their beautiful hypnotic music, with guest performances from singer Lalla Badi. Wonderful.
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – Paper Mâché Dream Balloon is a bit hit and miss, but more good than not. It’s a surprising mix of subtle melodies and jazz flute, unusually quiet nuances of psych and “funny” titles and lyrics. A bit of a grower, this one.
Beach House – Thank Your Lucky Stars is full of beautiful and gentle dream pop, but uplifting and not depressing. Their best for a while.
Villagers have another album out called Where Have You Been All My Life?, but no new songs (unless you count a cover of “Wichita Lineman” and a track written originally for Charlotte Gainsbourg). Recorded live in the studio in few takes it has slightly different versions of tracks off the three albums (especially the latest), and if you’re a fan you will love it. These recordings sound warmer and there’s some lovely harp action going on occasionally!
The Afterword’s own Colin Harper makes music as mellow and warm as a hug on the album Sunset Cavaliers, and it’s full of earworms. Very nice!
Thanks to Colin I’ve also listened to the box set from Turtle Records, where the album by John Taylor has given me the most joy so far; nice and melodic and reminding me of the kind of jazz that accompanied almost every TV show in Sweden when I grew up in the early 70s.
Mike Osborne and Howard Riley are of the more skronking variety of free jazz, and more of a challenge – but I’ve enjoyed challenging myself with both of them!
Thanks to Carolina of this blog I’ve also enjoyed albums from Chantal Acda, John Southworth, Luluc, Roddy Frame and Zervas & Pepper – all of them very good, and also the rather lovely In the Magic Hour by Aoife O’Donovan.
Read:
All charity shop finds. First I read Groucho (The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx) by Stefan Kanfer, a fairly big brick of a biography. Nothing new about his childhood and early professional life, if you’ve read other books about the brothers, but quite interesting once he got to his marriages and children, and especially the strange final years of his life and the aftermath of his death.
Now I’m half-way through My Early Life by Winston S. Churchill, very entertaining in all sorts of strange ways.
On my commute I’ve started to read the debut novel by Silvia Avallone: “Acciaio” is the original title, “Stål” in Swedish, so probably called “Steel” in English? (if it’s been translated)
It’s good so far, but I’ve slipped back into my habit of nicking the culture section of the morning paper from work on my way home, so I don’t seem to get much further into it at the moment!
Seen:
Thanks to having a bad case of the flu two weeks ago I returned to television (albeit on the computer) and also caught up with a few DVDs.
On DVD I finally saw season 3 of American Horror Story: Coven. As OTT as the first two, but perhaps not quite as good. If it wasn’t for its wicked sense of humour, the gore and sadism could easily get a bit tiresome. Nice soundtrack, but I got the feeling that Stevie Nicks’ manager drove a hard bargain to allow the use of her music in the plot…not only getting her a part but also the chance to perform a few songs (putting everything else on pause rather unnecessarily IMO…) Next up on DVD is season 4: Freaks – looking forward to it!
I also saw – inspired by the Groucho biography – a few of the early Marx Brothers’ movies again, for the first time in a long while. Duck Soup was better than I remembered it, very funny. Animal Crackers was very uneaven and doesn’t use the brothers enough, as if anyone really cares about any of the other characters…!
I’m finally watching season 2 of The Returned, which I missed the first time it was available to see – still only four episodes in (so no spoilers, please!) but although it’s a bit Lost in the sense that the questions are many and the answers few, I do love it so far.
I’ve seen an odd selection of documentaries, David Bowie – Five Years, Soul Boys of the Western World (about Spandau Ballet, not really my cup of tea, musically speaking – and the documentary didn’t really change my mind), Lost Songs: The Basement Tapes Continued (which made me go back and listen to the original album again, and actually made me want to buy the tribute album that the documentary is about), Shoah (no, I haven’t lasted all of the 10 hours…I sat through two of them and I’m not sure I’m going back for more), a French series of documentaries about comedic geniuses (some good, some not so good), among others.
My flu also chased me back to season 8 of the long gone Swedish soap Rederiet after a two year break. It’s hilariously unrealistic and offers a constant joy of discovering famous actors in bit parts before they became famous – the latest episodes I watched had a very young “Saga Norén” from The Bridge trying to frame her estranged dad for attempted rape. 🙂
Finally, I’m enjoying a Danish show called “Dear Diary” where adults reads excerpts from their teenage diaries to an audience, causing much mirth. Adrian Mole but real life…the highs and lows of emotions swinging wildly and the drastic wordings are both touching and hilarious and very easy to identify with.
AOB:
I’m awaiting the delivery of my second original Pencilsqueezer any day now!
Thus ensuring that February will be a fabulous month. 🙂
Locust says
“uneven”. 🙁
thecheshirecat says
Blinking heck, another Villagers album already? I haven’t assimilated Darling Arithmetic yet. Not enough hours in the day.
I have a mate who reckons that what I need is a body double, whom I can send off to work for me, clean the house etc, while the real me gets on with all the interesting stuff.
Dodger Lane says
Heard: Like others, went back to Bowie and the one I kept returning to was Aladdin Sane. Oterwise, two new enjoyable collections; early ska in Coxzsone’s Music, the new Long Ryders re-packaging of their music (which I already had). They were a fantastic band, powerful & melodic sound, all very traditional but great listening. Hopefully going to see them in May, and looking forward to that. I received the 1966 collection to accompany the book and there was stuff on there I hadn’t heard before. It’s a good compilation with interesting notes by Jon Savage.
Watched: The two new Walter (who he ?) presentations on Channel 4. Really enjoying Deutschland 83. It’s a very well done drama, the lead is excellent, a lot of moral ambiguity, and believable nasties. It is a little cartoonish, but all intentional, and I don’t think it’s to be seen in the same way as something like The Lives of Others. The French drama, Spin, is worth watching as well. It’s more serious, very French and has Nathalie Baye who I’ve had a crush on for years.
Read: My xmas presents; Sick on You by Andrew Matheson. This is hilarious and finishes very poignantly. Anyone who who hasn’t read this should, it made me laugh out loud more than once. Top tip: Never wash your knackers in neat Dettol. Higher brow stuff with Signs of Lost Children by Sarah Moss. It has one of the loveliest book covers and is a good read, moving between Cornwall and Japan in the 19th century. Given that I haven’t enough books, I’ve taken to buying old paperbacks; old Penguins and Pelicans. Can’t believe how small the type is (maybe it’s my age), but the covers are great. Amongst the titles are Border Country, Hons & Rebels, Major Thompson lives in France, and one I had never previously heard of called London, the unique city by Steen Eiler Rasmussen.
AOB: Really chuffed with my new Cambridge GO wireless speaker and I survived a visit to the Apple genius bar, or whatever they call it.
Blue Boy says
what – Nathalie Baye is in Spin?! Why didnt anyone tell me? *gets the vapours and swoons*
Kid Dynamite says
I enjoyed most of Sick On You, but I have to say I didn’t find the ending poignant – I was quite disappointed that it slid into bitterness as he started having a go at those who can after the Hollywood Brats (did Mick Jones steal his girlfriend or something?). First two thirds were really good, though.
mikethep says
I collect old Penguins and Pelicans too, @dodger-lane, often rebuying books I once owned and got rid of. It’s hard in Australia, because they don’t respond well to the heat and the damp and the termites, so I buy anything in good nick I come across. God knows what I’m going to do when we go back to Blighty, where I also have a collection.
I’ve got the Rasmussen book about London – interesting perspective on the city before the Germans and the town planners got hold of it.
ganglesprocket says
HEARD!
I have joined the 21st century and actually got a smartphone now with spotify. I never get to play music in the house anymore and I have no time to get to record shops. There’s no room for CDs and my itunes is buggered so I gave it a go. I have been seriously reconnecting with music! I’m only going to mention two things though
1) Rival Dealer by Burial This is just the best thing I have heard in yonks. By turns gloomy, life affirming, haunting, ravey, dancy, doomy it’s just got every emotion in it. And it’s bloody dubstep? Really really good.
2) Syro by The Aphex Twin. Now that Richard D James appears to have gotten that crap drum and bass out of his system he’s only gone and reminded me why I got to love his stuff in the first place. Ignore the lack of titles, this is just great.
SEEN!
Just watched the first series of The Walking Dead and I liked it enough to continue. On the hunt for “something decent.”
READ!
I have literally just finished a re-read of The Atrocity Exhibition by JG Ballard. Normally stuff I loved in my late teens doesn’t stand up to a re-read as a grown up (Looking at you Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas. Two idiots are rude to hotel staff? Fuck that). But this does. It’s still haunting, shocking, disturbing and insane. I cannot imagine what it must have been like to read it in 1971.
Also Swimming With Sharks by Joris Luyendijk. Which is an attempt by a journalist to understand the culture of banking and a really interesting way of looking at how the crash of 2008 happened. It will turn you grey. Banking truly is a world of its own with no internal consequences. I recommend it highly.
Limonov by Emmanuel Carrere- Biography of a minor Russian poet turned neo fascist political leader. Sounds shit? Actually brilliant. One of Limonov’s books was called “The Russian Poet Loves Big Negroes.” Going from near dereliction in the US, to being a butler to a highly wealthy ,am to founding the “National Bolshevic” party in Putin’s Russia, this is a mind boggling book.
Dodger Lane says
I sas wondering about this Limonov book. It was given good reviews, may give this a try now. Thanks for the tip.
bungliemutt says
Listening –
I like the new Lucinda Williams, although it took a few listens before I was convinced. Other platters that have mattered this month include New View by Eleanor Friedberger, and Wilco’s Star Wars which I finally got round to. It’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be, but that’s as far as I’m prepared to go. Jeffrey Foucault has a new one out, Salt As Wolves, which is quite hard to get hold of, probably because it’s not been officially released in the UK. It’s rather good too. Also finally released is a 1986 radio recording of Bob Dylan and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Both are on impeccable form, and The Heartbeakers’ playing is tight as a drum. It features mostly Dylan favourites, but the final version of Knockin’ On Heaven’s door is fantastic and has been on my most wanted oist for 30 years.
Like everyone else I’ve been playing Bowie this month. I’ve never been a great fan but I can understand why others are. On the other side of the coin I’ve dug out a few Eagles albums and invested in The Long Run which I’ve never had on CD. By then the sheen had well and truly tarnished, but Hotel Califonia remains a high point.
In contrast to all of that I have enjoyed listening to all Mozart’s String Quartets and Quintets on quite heavy rotation.
Watching –
Saw 13 Minutes which is an excellent German film about Georg Elser, the man who attempted to blow Hitler up in the 1939 Bierkeller plot. Despite some stomach churning torture scenes it is an intelligent and well crafted film that had me gripped for every one of its 109 minutes.
Michael Portaloo’s new series of Great British Railway Journeys has just finished on BBC2 to be replaced by the first in a series of Great American Railroad Journeys. It’s perfect telly for miserable February evenings, and the first programmes about New York were particularly watchable. Despite years of doing these programmes and mingling with the great unwashed, Portillo never seems entirely at home unless he is sipping fine wine and listening to opera, but his slightly patronising offishness with the plebs, subtly camp delivery, and inappropriate brightly coloured jackets and pink trousers have all become a comfortable trademark.
Reading –
I’ve never really liked thrillers or spy novels, but encouraged by a friend I went back to the early days of the genre and took a punt on Eric Ambler’s Mask Of Dimitrios. It’s a mercifully short yarn, but its technique of telling great chunks of the story through one character reporting events to another had me reaching for the eye-propping matchsticks.
Master historian Ian Kershaw is writing a 2 volume history of Europe’s 20th century, and To Hell and Back which covers 1914 to 1949 was published last year. I’ve only just started it, but Kershaw has a lucid writing style which seems to make sense of convoluted events with perceptive analysis. Looking forward to the rest of it
bungliemutt says
That ‘oist’ was a ‘list’, by the way.
bungliemutt says
Forgot the link as well. Jeez!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jPg2M1UYgU
bungliemutt says
That should have been the Burgerbraukeller, not Bierkeller, which was something else altogether. FFS. I’ll get me coat.
Carolina says
Heard
This has been a bumper month for music, thanks to generous friends and Xmas vouchers, First I bought three Country/Americana records Holly Williams The Highway Zoe Muth World of Strangers and Ashley Monroe Like a Rose which were all terrific. Also listened for the first time to the idiosyncratic, witty and melodic Magnetic Fields 69 Love Songs and a lot of wonderful Roddy Frame. New music favourites were by Dylan LeBlanc A Cautionary Tale and Lucinda Williams epic new album Ghosts of Highway 20. Her singing, songwriting, and especially the guitar playing on the album mentioned by other people were magnificent. Elsewhere on the blog I have extolled the new album by Aoife O’ Donovan In The Magic Hour. Her voice is silken and it is a rich, complex and engaging listen. I enjoyed greatly Natalie Merchant’s revisiting of Tigerlily, never having heard the original. I have also done a major volte face on Joanna Newsom’s album Divers. Now I am firmly in the camp it is a work of genius but to me it is like fine Scotch whisky, best appreciated in single doses, a track each evening. (I haven’t actually ever tasted whisky, mind!) Thanks to Locust sending me some fabulous Best of Year and other compilations I have heard great music from many countries, especially Sweden – I even managed a whole Kendrick Lamar track!
Watched
Have been finally able to watch TV again after 3 months not being able to tolerate a moving picture, so that has been great. I started off with what I thought would be a cosy Agatha Christie And Then There Was None. It was horrifically grisly like a televisual equivalent of Munch The Scream, but brilliantly done and very compelling. Don’t know what Dame Agatha would have thought of all the f-words. The other highlight has been War and Peace. As a pretentious 14 year old I did read the book but skipped through a lot of the War bits. I think I thought it was the intellectual equivalent of climbing Mount Everest. But it has meant I do remember the characters if not the complete plot and has added to the enjoyment greatly. Beautifully filmed and acted but I’ve had to make sure the heating is on when I watch it as all those deep snow scenes with actors in heavy furs can make you feel very chilly. The rest of the month has been spent watching easy detective drama, catching up on the last series of Lewis, enjoying the spectacular scenery of Shetland and marvelling at the bonkers plots of this season’s Endeavour. The worst of these culminated in a man-eating tiger stalking Morse and assorted cast members through a maze in a Country House estate. How the actors kept a straight face I will never know. Also saw a gripping An Inspector Calls.
Tiggerlion says
Well done, getting through a Kendrick Lamar track! Which one was it?
Carolina says
King Kunta – was very funky.
Kaisfatdad says
You’ll be amused to hear, Tiggs, that my son does a rather impressive impersonation of Kendrick. A useful skill for a 12 year old?
Jeff says
I felt Natalie Merchant’s Tigerlily redux was…uneven, somehow – didn’t enjoy it as much as I’d expected / hoped to.
Joanna Newsom’s Divers was great though, every bit as good as I’d hoped. And Tracks 7 -11 in particular, on repeat, got me through painting the dining-room, which was mind-bendingly tedious. I’m sure she’d be pleased to know that her hard-won craft, nay her Art, inspired me to complete a mundane domestic task.
Carolina says
Well that’s a new take on Painting By Numbers!
On The Fence says
Listening- Like almost everyone, been listening to BLACKSTAR in a whole new light. It´s a masterpiece. Never been a big Neil Young fan but LIVE at THE BLUENOTE is rollicking, rowdy good fun.
Reading: BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME bty Ta- Nehishi Coates is a must-read. Powerful and poetic and downright brilliant. Halfway through James Ellroy´s PERFIDIA and am still undecided.
Watching: CALL ME LUCKY, an extraordinary doc on Barry Crimmins, comedian and activist. Bobcat Goldthwait´s film makes you glad that they are people like Barry out there. WHILE WE´RE YOUNG plays like vintage Woody Allen and AMERICAN HORROR STORY´s latest was as weird as always. Much was made of Lady Gaga´s acting chops ( or lack of ) but Kathy Bates and Dennis O´hare steal every scene.
AOB- Two weeks of snow led to my over-active four year old taking on ever more frightening slopes on his sled. Back to normal now, which is a blessing , as the day he slid out on to the frozen lake took years off my life.
Marwood says
Read
Rumble Tumble and Captains Outrageous – Books 5 and 6 of the Hap Collins
and Leonard Pine series by Joe R Lansdale. Each one of these insanely
readable crime thrillers is, to me, like a good pulled pork sandwich;
tasty, messy, vulgar, satisfying, savoury and moreish.
I got over half-way through Kolymsky Heights when I admitted to myself that
I had just had enough. I just wasn’t engaged by this story – I didn’t
believe in the protagonist (a sort of genius cross between Bear Grylls and
the Tom Cruise character from Mission Impossible). And I was bored with his
trip to Siberia (by the time I stopped he was working in a haulage company
and was stealing a jeep bit-by-bit from the spares held in the warehouse).
I’ve since looked up a plot synopsis and have to say that the denouement
sounds utterly ridiculous.
Trigger Mortis – A terrible title for a rather good take on the Bond
franchise. A sequel of sorts to Goldfinger (Pussy Galore is still with
Bond as the book opens); this features Nazi scientists, car and motorcycle
chases, a shoot-out in a motel and a memorably sadistic baddie.
Watched.
The new Star Wars movie. Some Proustian moments – the story scrolling up
the screen as the music blares, the first sight of the Millennium Falcon –
helped make this an enjoyable trip to the flicks. Close examination is
probably not advisable (ANOTHER Death Star? Isn’t this just a retelling of
the original Star Wars?) Just go with the flow on this one – it was good
fun.
Amy was perhaps the exact opposite – sad and shocking and rather
depressing. The final few moments of the film felt terribly intrusive and
made me very uncomfortable – but then I suppose that was the whole point.
Heard.
James Hunter – an Essex boy playing American Rock and Roll. The Bellfuries,
California Honeydrops (who sound like they are a riot live). These are all
new to me (found via the Gnoosic site). Have also been listening to The
Lemonheads’ “It’s a shame about Ray” for the first time in a long time –
it’s been like meeting up with an old friend. They have all been making a
pleasing racket as I have pottered about in the kitchen.
mikethep says
I published the Hap & Leonard books. If I was still in the business of writing blurbs I would grab your pulled pork quote and use it on the cover – with full attribution, natch. Hats off.
Marwood says
Why thank you!
Lansdale is some writer. I ripped through the first 4 H&L books during a rainy week in August. Are/ were you at Black Lizard?
mikethep says
No, Victor Gollancz – was publishing them in the UK from 1995 or so.
I met him once when he came over for a book tour. I was expecting someone deranged like Hunter Thompson, but he was the perfect Southern gentleman, mild-mannered, courtly and soft-spoken.
We had great covers, though I say so myself.
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/g401/mikethep/bad%20chilli_zpsqvrkbkxm.jpg
mikethep says
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/g401/mikethep/bad%20chilli_zpsqvrkbkxm.jpg
mikethep says
you’ll have to click for yourself 🙁
el hombre malo says
Heard
Nothing new of any note – partly because I have started to thin out my CD collection, which has been a liberating process. I realised that for a bunch of them, I’ve enjoyed buying them and listening to them but I don’t need to keep them forever. So I traded a bunch in to a local record shop and I’ve been taking vinyl home instead – mostly second hand, some ZZ Hill, some Gerry Mulligan. The pick of the bunch is Ornette Coleman’s Tomorrow Is The Question. I think I will be repeating this process.
Read
Elvis Costello- Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink – bit of a slog, ater a while. Some very poignant writing on his dad, but filled with stories about hanging out with famous people, many of which finish with “and then I went off to Paris to support Bob Dylan”.
Danny Gatton – Unfinished Business. A great guitarist, who didn’t make the most of his talents but this book never really got under the skin of the man, or the guitarist. It felt like an extended magazine piece.
Seen
We’ve been enjoying Blind Spot – tighly plotted nonsense and hokum, very well done.
SteveT says
HEARD: This month has been dominated by Highways. Lucinda’s Ghosts of Highway 20 and Peter Case’s Highway 62. Love Lucinda’s album, her voice gets wearier and dustier and the guitar playing on the disc is fantastic. I first heard Peter Case’s debut in 1986 when I was living in Florida. It remains one of my favourite Americana albums of that time along with Steve Earle’s Guitar Town. I lost track of him for a number of years and then got his first 2 albums on cd a while back which reunited my interest in him. This latest release is closer to his debut than other recent releases and is none the worse for that.
Also really enjoyed The Long Ryders set. On the other hand the release of John Cale’s Music for a New Society coupled with a reworked new album M;Fans was slightly disappointing. It is clear that my memory of the original release was tinged by rose tinted spectacles. I had the album on vinyl and my guess is that I only ever played one side because half of it I couldn’t remember at all. There are in reality 3 very good songs on it i.e.. Chinese Envoy, the definitive version of Close Watch and The thoughtless kind. The rest are experiments that don’t necessarily come off. The upgrades are also very similar in terms of results but sonically very different. Again a couple work, most don’t. I had eagerly awaited this release but reality is I may not play it very often at all.
I had never listened to Joe Bonnamassa – for some reason his name was a stumbling block. Somehow his name conjured up a speed merchant guitarist akin to Satriani. Cue later with Jools Hollands Hootenanny. It was predominantly a pile of poop but I loved Beth Hart and Jeff Beck’s rendition of Nutbush City limits. Not available on cd as far as I know. However she had a live album with Bonnamassa where they did a cover. It was reasonably priced so I decided to invest and it was really a great surprise. He is no Jeff Beck but I thought he was lyrical and lots of splendid moments throughout.
SEEN: Like others I have been greatly enjoying Deutschland 83 – an interesting plot with lots of twists and turns. Compelling viewing. At the cinema The Hateful Eight which after a slow build up was very enjoyable. On stage Patty Griffin who was excellent. First gig this year although February will be busier as I have 4 gigs lined up starting with Joe Jackson this coming week.
READ;; Shamefully nothing except the mags. I have a pile to start – just finding the time. Work is so damn busy by the time I get home I just want to veg out.
AOB: The death of Bowie shocked us all. I watched in disbelief the news after getting a phone call at 7 in am that the rumours were that he had passed away. After the BBC finally announced it the first person they interviewed was Emma B. I was very upset to listen to her flaky comments about how important he was in her life and how her favourite record of his was ‘Ground control’. Thankfully they quickly got more sensible people to speak about him. Still, it was very poor.
Also, just joined a Rock Choir – the taster session was huge fun and I have signed up. Uplifting and I look forward to a public appearance in due course.
ganglesprocket says
A rock choir? Sir, that surely deserves a thread of it’s own? If not now then in due course?
ip33 says
HEARD
Obviously Bowie has been the main listen this month of course. Blackstar was the main focus, has an album ever changed in regard and meaning in a couple of days? It is a masterpiece that stands with all his others. The brilliant seventies albums have been spoken about by far better people than me but I’ve enjoyed going back to the sixties and surprisingly (to me anyway) I’ve enjoyed Outside and Earthling more than I remembered back in the day.
Fitting in around Bowie has been Slaves-Are You Satisfied? (loud, tuneful and witty) Sunn O)))-Kannon (it’s not going to win over anybody who’s not a fan but they still do this stuff better than anybody else, drone metal at it’s best) Laura Cannell-Beneath Swooping Talons (wonderful medieval folk played on fiddle and two recorders simultaneously, marvelously evocative stuff) John Cale-Music for a New Society/M:FANS (a re-release of the 1982 dark,ugly, personal therapy album but with it’s strange 80s sheen and a re-recorded 2015 version with a more world-weary Cale with some radical re-workings, both brilliant)
SEEN
Beasts by Nigel Kneale, A strange 70s six-part written by Kneale. Six stories of varying quality forget the Martin Shaw dolphin ghost story ‘Buddyboy’ but the supermarket poltergeist tale starring a very young Pauline Quirke,a marvelous creepy cursed mummified ‘Baby’ and best of all ‘During Barty’s Party’ a couple terrorised by an unseen hoard of Rats with sound effects that will stay with you for days,
READ
Not much this month, Still enjoying The History of Rock mag last month’s 1971 was the best yet with wonderful old interviews with The Stones, Lennon, McCartney,Roger Walters, Curtis Mayfield and John Peel.
Kid Dynamite says
It’s not the most obvious candidate for one, but there’s been a remix album of the Laura Cannell record!
http://thequietus.com/articles/19499-laura-cannell-swooping-talons-remixes-review
ip33 says
@Kid-Dynamite Bought and Downloaded! Many thanks.
badartdog says
Heard: Bowie on Spotify. I’d never heard the Reality album before. It has by far the shittest Bowie sleeve ever, but is a good collection of songs.
Seen: Still watching Dr Who, off and on. Watched Home with the lad – it’s fantastic! TONS better than -say- Inside Out. Highly recommended. Just started on How I Met Your Mother which I’m enjoying so far – but soon may episodes.
Read: Lots of the Image Humble Bundle highlighted on this site. Stepjan Sejic’s Sunstone won big on a comic podcast awards show I listen to, but I thought it a bit underwhelming. I loved Phonogram Singles Club and Outcast though. Not included in the bundle but of a similar ilk: Harrow County is a scary American rural horror tale and Paper Girls is an 80s set adventure – 3 issues in and I’m not sure what’s going on, but it’s soooo beautiful.
Sewer Robot says
Paper Girls issue 1 is in the bundle. That’s dominated my reading too (Thanks again, Kid Dynamite!). I couldn’t get on with Phonogram at all but am well into Descender, Trees, Wolf and Citizen Jack actually drumming my fingers in anticipation of new issues in some cases – something I haven’t done for decades).
Viewingwise, I’m digging The Brain With Dave Eagleman on BBC4 – a lot of stuff I’ve been reading about collected and presented really well for television.
I fell asleep listening to Blackstar and woke up to discover the man was dead.
Haven’t really listened to it since. I’m looking forward to the day when I can check out the stuff posted here on the many post-event threads and enjoy them for what they are..
I was hoping the sumptuous cover of Suede’s Night Thoughts was indicative of a return to sound of their debut. I’m not a musician or a producer, so I’ve never understood how, with Ed Buller consistently behind the mixing desk, some of their records sound so tinny or murky or cluttered to these ears, but their debut sounds so “spacey” and “crisp” (I said I’m not a producer). My pet theory was that the “scrawly” font used on everything since “Coming Up” had some sort of influence on the sound – hence my excitement over the new cover. Alas, the new one sounds very compressed and noisy to these ears which, to be fair, does serve some of the songs well.
Is this something that bothers anyone else or is another one for the rather enormous “Just Me, Then” file…?
Sewer Robot says
Meant to add – it was well worth going onto theComixology site, just to pick up the free tasters of the Hip Hop Family Tree comics..
Kid Dynamite says
Have any of the other Humble Bundle readers got to Wytches yet? It’s really good, a horror comic that’s actually scary, with nightmarish bad-trip psychedelic art and an unnerving setting. Brrr.
Lando Cakes says
Heard
I have been listening a lot to The Complete Basement Tapes. A lovely package, great sound, many songs I hadn’t heard before in good quality sound (plus a 6th disc of hissy ‘historical interest’ tracks). Basically, this is the lot. I read the updated version of Sid Griffin’s Million Dollar Bash in conjunction. excellent.
My Grateful Dead jag continued apace with Wake Up to Find Out, a 1990 show featuring jazzer Branford Marsalis. Loving this.
Saw
John Grant. He was beezer.
Watched
The Revenant. Grimly fascinating. At Edinburgh’s premier fleapit, The Dominion (it has couches!) the performance was enlivened by someone heckling (or perhaps just thinking out loud), at the scene where the horse goes over the cliff “He is one unlucky bastard!”. No, it wasn’t me but it it does kind of sum up the film.
Read
A couple of Kindle sale purchases:
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr An absolutely engrossing tale that found me identifying with a blind French girl and a Nazi engineer. The component parts sound unpromising but the peculiar alchemy of the author makes it into something marvellous.
Possibly even better was The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton. It gets somewhat mixed reviews and I can understand why – there are questions left unanswered for the reader. I loved it though and found the world of 17th century Amsterdam enchanting.
Lando Cakes says
OMG I’ve killed the Blogger Takeover thread!
duco01 says
Re: the Grateful Dead’s “Wake Up to Find Out”.
Yes, that Uniondale show on 29 March 1990 is something else.
As you probably know, the only number that the Dead rehearsed with Branford Marsalis was “Bird Song,” towards the end of the first set. That was supposed to be his one guest appearance.
During the intermission, the band invited Marsalis to stay and sit in right through the second set. He’d never heard “Dark Star”. He’d never even heard OF “Dark Star”. But the whole second set gelled wonderfully, in a triumph of extended improvisation. The version of “Eyes of the World” is the absolute highlight, I think – no wonder it was selected for the “Without a Net” live compilation initially made from the tour recordings.
Phil Lesh started off at college as a free jazz trumpet player, and the Dead sounded very much at home working spontaneously with a top jazz musician – I wish they’d done a bit more of it!
Lando Cakes says
Thanks @duco01 – I didn’t know the back story and that just adds to its wonderfulness. I am currently waiting the arrival of the first Dave’s Pick of the year but – should you find the time – would love to read your top 10 of available GD live releases to while away the time.
mikethep says
An up for the Anthony Doerr book – great read.
Lando Cakes says
Aye, @mikethep – it passed the “Oh, it’s not much after midnight, I’ll just read one more chapter.” test. Your Hang Wangford recommendation is working its way up the pile.
Native says
Reading;
Finally reading The Girl On The Train. And I’ll be honest, only reason is because I’ve seen so many people reading it on the morning commute – and they usually look immersed! I’m about halfway through, and as thrillers go, it’s very readable.
Watching;
I’ve watched the first two episodes of Mr.Robot on Netflix, and have to say, really enjoyed them. Looking forward to finding the time to complete season one.
Listening;
Enjoying the new Suede album, plus the Bloc Party and Daughter albums too.