Musings on the byways of popular culture
Sums up modern America more than The Residents? Disturbing, frightening, discordant but sometimes beautiful.
The new box set on Cherry Red has only reconfirmed my admiration for this band.
Have the best? version of Satisfaction on me.
We finished a new mag at work today. The name did ring a bell. Who said there are no new ideas?
http://i1328.photobucket.com/albums/w540/ip3329/IMAG0167_zps9r85p21r.jpg
A load of biographies are cheap on the Kindle today including Hooky’s Joy Division one.
Clearing out ‘My’ room today (DVDs in plastic storage boxes, piles of CDs semi filed, Amp, CD player and Record Deck wired up and now with Chromecast Audio) I found 3 iPods, an 80 and two 160GB which may be on sale near you soon and this motley collection. A prize* for anybody that can name them.
And yes I like Sony stuff
*There isn’t a prize.
Venue:
The Dome, Brighton
Date: 25/02/2017
Well, another year another Stewart Lee show to sate the Middle Class Metropolitan Elite which make up all his audience (probably). The writing for this new show was starting before Brexit and Trump and was going to based on the 1818 romantic painting by Casper David Friedrich ‘Wanderer above the Sea of Fog’ and was an attempt to produce a tour that could run until next year. But the crazy events of last year derailed him to a certain extant.
Brexit and Trump are referenced in a very clever way at the beginning of both halves but is only part of the show as Lee mostly gets back on track railing against other comics and how he buys his own DVDs and Books second-hand just to make a few extra pennies. The second half is a bit more structured with most taken up with a smutty section on our Grand Parents S&M practices but is a broadside on how everything is so easy to obtain these days in a consumerist society. Ending on a wonderful call back to ‘Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog’
Now the Lee has had his BBC2 » Continue Reading.
What does it sound like?:
English Weather is another in a long line of compliations put out by Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs of St Etienne fame. Set in the hinterland of the late 60s/early 70s,when Psych hadn’t mutated into Prog and Glam wasn’t even a thing EW is a thing of great beauty.
These artists have accepted that the promise of the sixties has fizzled out and the new decade doesn’t hold nearly as much hope as the outgoing one did. So with heads down and mellotrons turned up they set about making melancholy beautiful sounds.
Some of the people on here are very well known (Caravan, Van Der Graff Generator, John Cale, Camel.) But as usual the least known are perhaps the most interesting.
Orange Bicycle are riding the ‘Last Cloud Home’ a sad wistful goodbye to a new start for the world. Bella Gonzalez has ‘Bottles’ for everyday and even counts them in her sleep, with dramatic strings and a rare female voice on the album it is a fantastic track. Aardvark are lonely but think it’s ‘Very Nice for You to Call’, this is the Jazziest track and best on the album.
What » Continue Reading.
If you didn’t see Sir Rodney on Sky today pulling the balls out for the Scottish Cup draw you missed a comedy masterclass which will be hard to beat in 2017. Does anyone know, does Rod like a drink?!
http://www.skysports.com/watch/video/10739277/rod-stewart-does-the-scottish-cup-draw-
All right thinking people should read Diamond Geezer’s blog and today’s post is particularly interesting. The new Nobel Laureate perhaps hasn’t been entirely straight and there is a rumour that he isn’t that familiar with the easel and brushes has we think.
http://diamondgeezer.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/painted-by-bob-dylan.html?m=1
Author:Alan Connor
This is a very enjoyable romp through the history of Quiz. Alan Connor is the question editor for the marvellous Only Connection and writes in a very fun but in-depth way starting with the beginning of Quiz just before the WW2, evolving from the American ‘bees’ up to today’s Pointless and Only Connect.
Tracing the origin of the word quiz (no one really knows) The first exams (probably the ancient Chinese) The troubled beginning and end of Trivial Pursuits and everything in between. Focusing mainly on the TV quizes but with plenty about Radio, Pub, and board games as well. The dark side of Quiz is also covered with the $64000 question and the Millionaire ‘coughing Major’ scandals.
Also what makes a ‘good’ question, why they don’t give away speedboats anymore and what techniques will help you win.
And included in the narrative are 300 quiz questions so you play along as the history unfolds which adds greatly to the enjoyment of the book.
Length of Read:Medium
Might appeal to people who enjoyed…
Any historys of TV, quiz books.
One thing you’ve learned
That the first question ever asked on Mastermind was wrong
What does it sound like?:
Strobes are a new trio comprising keyboardist Dan Nicholls ( Squarepusher and Matthew Herbert), drummer Joshua Blackmore (Troyka) and guitar and synth man Matt Calvert (Three Trapped Tigers) and could in my ears be described as Prog (perhaps!). First track Winder sets the scene, noisy, arhymic, afrocentric beats but full of hooks. But not easy to dance to!
The rest is much of the same, harder edged in places but with the same exciting feel. A really stunning debut recommended to prog lovers with an adventurous bent.
What does it all *mean*?
Who knows? Music can still be moving forward in an exciting way?
Goes well with…
A long day cutting reams of paper and saddle stitching.
Might suit people who like…
Three Trapped Tigers, Battles, The Comet is Coming, the harder side of Gentle Giant. Math Rock. Any ‘out there’ Prog
What does it sound like?:
There is plenty of music out there that has a poor reputation, perhaps none more so than New Age. Hippy Dippy rubbish sold in those shops that sell crystals, incense and books on witchcraft and healing. And the music? Aimless, tuneless and mainly whale song. This of course is crap, New Age probably has no more percentage of trash than any other genre. Light in the Attic has picked some of the best for this new compliation which is the follow up to last year’s ‘I Am The Centre’ which focused on the American side of New Age.
(The Microcosm) is shows the European side of the genre with some well known artists like Popul Vuh, Ash Ra Temple and most famous of all Vangelis, who after reading the copious sleeve notes I learnt that he thought that the rest of Aphrodite’s Child weren’t sophisticated enough for him and a bit ‘boring’.
There’s plenty of new/old on this comp as well the best is probably Untitled by Francesco Messina with some of the most beautiful piano I’ve ever heard. But it is all stunning and a pleasure from start to finish.
What does » Continue Reading.
Phew! Well done Donald, for one minute there I thought you might win. Now you won’t…………………..probably?
Shame I missed this, my wife was terrified of Johnny Winter in the seventies. I would have loved to seen her face opening a parcel containing his beard.
https://new.liveauctioneers.com/item/47573237_johnny-winters-iconic-beard
Year: 2015 Director: Jeremy Saulnier
Green Room is the third feature from Jeremy Saulnier who’s last movie was the fabulous revenge thriller Blue Ruin. This is a thriller/horror which grips from the off and doesn’t let go. It follows punk band The Ain’t Rights slepping around the bars and dives earning next to nothing when they get a gig in the backwoods playing to a load of Right wing skinheads. At this point we get a rather good cover of the Dead Kennedy’s Nazi Punks Fuck Off but after that a shocking discovery ups the ante. From then on the band are in a fight for survival with limited weapons and no way out.
We really enjoyed this in a gruesome watching through your fingers way. The violence is ultra realistic and shocking when it happens. But there is a dark wit running through the film which is very well played. The performances are excellent with the nervous bassist played by the late Anton Yelchin and the cold calculating club owner Patrick Stewart standing out
A great horror that has been pared to the bone and well worth the 90 odd minutes.
Might appeal to people who enjoyed:
Last House » Continue Reading.
In the doldrums this Bank Holiday afternoon? Clive James one of the greatest living writers makes a rare live appearance on the Radcliffe & Maconie show on 6 Music at about 2.30pm
Unmissable I would venture.
Year: 1968 Director: Various
This is a box set of perhaps the greatest ongoing detective of all time along with only the various Sherlocks, Poirot and Morse that match the quality and sheer enjoyment of this series. Columbo was created by William Link and Richard Levinson and played wonderfully by Peter Falk who provided his own raincoat and chose the car and dog that appeared in some episodes. Starting in 1968 with Perscription:Murder the first of two pilots, the second three years later. The fist season proper started the same year with a new upcoming director Steven Spielberg at the helm. It was an part of a strand of police programmes on NBC with McCloud and MacMillan and Wife and because of this there would only be ten or so episodes a series so the writers could keep the quality high and produce slightly longer and more in depth shows.
Columbo’s investigations mainly involved the rich and famous which the writers deliberately did to play the scruffy, dishevelled Columbo off against them, in fact writers said their ideal murderer would have been Noel Coward. Always coming out on top against his supposed betters Columbo has been described as the most » Continue Reading.
I have stayed away from ‘political ‘ threads mainly for the sake of my mental health but I have to get this off my chest.
Last week at the Democratic conversation Khizr Khan and his wife Ghazala stood and paid tribute to their son Captain Humayun Khan who was killed serving his country. It was a dignified, emotional and powerful speech that showed the Trump’s proposed ban of Muslims entering the USA is constitutionally and morally wrong.
Of course Trump has responded which is his right of course, but saying “If you look at his wife, she was standing there, She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say. You tell me.”
I don’t know where to start with how wrong this is, I would hope if a British politican had said this he would told to retire from public life and never return but I can see that Trump supporters are just cheering him on.
I’m asking if there is a point that he will finally say or do anything that will cause his supporters to desert him, or was that point reached months ago and nothing happened.
And yes » Continue Reading.
This looks interesting. At least it makes a change from yet another documentary about the bloody sixties.
Author:Stan Lee/Jack Kirby/Steve Ditko/Wally Wood
This set consists of 10 of the Marvel Masterworks series which have been running for years. In the big and heavy box you get the 10-15 first isues of Amazing Spiderman/ Fantastic Four/Davedevil/The Incredible Hulk/Doctor Strange/Iron Man/The Mighty Thor/The Avengers/The X Men (or the comics they were first featuredfeatured in) and for the first time Not Brand Echh, Marvels answer (sort of) to Mad magazine.
This is an amazing set, beautifully presented in a large box depicting the Avengers mansion. The books are available separately but these are bound with new covers.
The stories inside are simple and naive but are totally charming and the artwork is fantastic. Steve Ditko’s artwork on the early Spiderman and especially Doctor Strange is mind blowing.
Completely recommended to comic fans.
Length of Read:Medium
Might appeal to people who enjoyed…
Any comics from the last 50+ years
One thing you’ve learned
That Steve Ditko was the Da Vinci of Comic books
For fans of early electronica there a rather good piece on the BBC site about Oram and her attempts to build a mini version of her Oramics machine and the researcher that finally finished it.
And heres the lady herself.
https://youtu.be/hLYVFnQzjtI
At the risk of repeating myself last weekends Freak Zone was brilliant yet again. With a very interesting interview with top sound recordist Chris Watson.
Also included was this fantastic, spooky, poignant track from Chris Hughes.
A rather fine Freak Zone last night (Faust, Gentle Giant etc) and an interview with Laila Skovmand about Aquasonic and their marvellous, beautiful and slightly scary to watch underwater music.
The video is quite stunning I think.
Poking around on the taxdodgers and this was recommended. At £3 you can’t say no.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B018EHR7GK/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
In a moment of madness I’ve decided to rip some (not all, I’m not that mad!) with EAC and turn them into Flac’s. But have a couple of questions.
Is this the best program? Is Flac the best format? And does anyone have any tips in using EAC?
Many thanks in advance.
Year: 2016 Director: Dan Trachtenberg
A rare trip to the pictures for us this afternoon and to see a film that was released that day! Unheard of! But only because we are on holiday and what a pleasure it was.
Trailed as a ‘blood relative’ to the 2008 found footage film Cloverfield (which was OK in a cheesy, aren’t this people really annoying way) this is Dan Trachtenberg’s first directors job.
Basically a three-handed starring John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead & John Gallagher Jr with Goodman & Winstead (who generally lifts the films she appears in, see The Thing prequel) turning in top rate performances.
There isn’t much I can say about the plot except you will change your mind about the Goodman’s true nature and whether the world is as he says. There are three times we jumped out of our seats and the suspense is ratcheted up to breaking point in places.
Some may feel the final act is a massive gear change too far but we both bought into it and walked out with smiles on our faces.
This a brilliant movie with a great performances, superb direction and a gripping story.
Might appeal to people who » Continue Reading.
