The Afterword

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1917

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Year: 2019 Director: Sam Mendes

“From the director of Skyfall” yells the poster and the trailer, which is true but not the point.

The story is simple enough, though I won’t go into much detail because it’s hard to avoid spoilers (steer clear of Wikipedia and the trailer, come to that). Two lance-corporals are given the job of slogging their way over nine miles of what may or may not be no man’s land to deliver a message to a Colonel who is due to lead his men over the top in the morning to chase what he thinks is the Germans in retreat. In fact, it’s a cunning German tactical withdrawal and he’s leading his men to certain death.

The much noted “one continuous take” is a bit of a misnomer. What it actually means is that there are no cutaways back to base, or back to Blighty – the story starts at A and continues uninterrupted to Z, where it ends. The action of the film takes, at a guess, 12 hours, so QED. No matter, it’s a brilliant, continually absorbing and gruelling two hours. There were times I just wanted it all to stop, thoroughly gruelled, not » Continue Reading.

Lush Life

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Those of us who are that way inclined can probably agree that Billy Strayhorn was a genius. He became Duke Ellington’s main muse at the age of 23 and collaborated with him for the rest of his life until his early death at the age of 52.

My favourite Strayhorn song, and in my top ten favourite songs altogether, is Lush Life. Top instrumental version is Coltrane’s, top vocal, Ella Fitzgerald or Blossom Dearie, can’t decide. Strayhorn wrote the song, music and lyrics, between 1933 and 1936. That’s 18 to 21…those chords! Those lyrics!

Now this has surfaced – the very first recording, Carnegie Hall on November 13, 1948. Strayhorn on piano, Kay Davis on vox. Another magnificent version to add to the collection. Do give it a listen. H/t to Richard Williams, who retweeted the tweet.

https://youtu.be/GqTDm34vyj0

Heads up guitar nerds!

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Get yourselves over to Beverly Hills on Friday and grab something from Walter Becker’s truly EXTRAORDINARY guitar, amp and pedal collection. Choose from 22 vintage Gibson amps, or grab yourself a reissue Gibson Melody Maker for $100-300. Or a uke for $50-100. Or a Japanese Strat he played on stage $300-500.

He liked a nice Strat or Les Paul, sure, but what’s super-extraordinary is the literally hundreds of custom made guitars, often half a dozen or more from the same maker, and the commercially made guitars from manufacturers you’ve never heard of. And the pedals…as you might expect, he was a bit of a pedal freak.

Do not enter the catalogue if you have somewhere to be any time soon.

http://www.juliensauctions.com/flip-through-catalog?id=296

Alexa, play some cooking music…

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Been knocking up a nut roast for the tinies, their mum and dad, and me and the missus if we’re lucky, and my thoughts turned to cooking music. It’s got to be something I know and love, with no sudden skronking or other unexpected surprises that make me cut myself or bring Mrs thep running to remind me that we have neighbours above and below. But it’s not always that simple. Why? Here’s a technical interlude (can safely be skipped if not interested).

The wifi in my not very big flat is a bit flaky at its farthest reaches, which includes the kitchen. (Sometimes the wifi on passing buses is stronger.) So I’ve installed a mesh network, which has solved the problem triumphantly. But the Sonoi (One in kitchen, Beam under the TV) are still on the original network, which makes controlling the One in the kitchen with my phone a chancy affair – sometimes it just gives up. For some reason, however, controlling it with Alexa works fine every time. So complicated curating is out, the routine is, ‘Alexa, play x’, where x is a single artist or album.

Back to the original question: it has to be » Continue Reading.

Save the Bonzos!

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Some absolute toerag has stolen and trademarked the Bonzos’ name, the name they have been using since 1960-whatever, and they’re no longer allowed to use it. All perfectly legal apparently. Said toerag is now suing them for illegal use of their own name.

They’re crowfunding to fight it, a most worthy cause. I’ve lobbed in some GBP, and it would be good if all like-minded Bonzoids did the same. This aggression will not stand, man.

Full details at the link.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/bonzodogbanned/

The antidote to boredom

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I doubt this will winkle H P Kurtz out of his Mekong hideway, but whatever.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve posted this extraordinary 1962 waxing on here, most recently on the Pre-Beatles tunes thread, and not one bastard has ever to my recollection ever even admitted to listening to it, much less go Wow Mike, that’s amazing.

And it is amazing – the ethereal vocals, the unexpected chord progressions, the energy, all seem way ahead of their time. There’s more than a touch of Jefferson Airplane about it. I bought it when it first came out – one of about 12 people to do so, I suspect – and it still haunts me.

The group cut the two sides as demos for Joe Meek, and then tried them on Norrie Paramor at Columbia. The story goes that Columbia had a choice between the Beatles and Jill and the Boulevards, and may just have made the wrong decision…

Anyhow, it was the only single they ever made and the group went from obscurity to semi-obscurity and back again in no time.

Ladies and Gennelmen, I give you And Now I Cry, by Jill and the Boulevards, the » Continue Reading.

Sid James klaxon!

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…in which our hero displays a hitherto unsuspected talent for Cockney hoofing.

This popped up on Twitter yesterday, and I thought I’d bring some innocent merriment into your dreary lives in honour of Blue Monday, apparently the most depressing day of the year – a perfect day for the Maybot to present a Plan B that bears an uncanny resemblance to Plan A.

The entire movie is available to stream on Amazon Prime. Caution: may be subject to the law of diminishing returns.

https://youtu.be/-eVms_tAN0E

The Great Melbourne Micro-Mingle

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Feels important to let everybody know that Mr thep headed south to, among other things, beard (er…) Mr Wells in his lair. He met the completely charming Mrs Wells, Mr Wells’s legendary music collection, and Mr Wells’s collection of unfeasibly large barbecue tongs (barbie not pictured). Lunch was taken, including fresh not-fucked-up-on-the-barbie-by-Mr-thep whiting, and drink. Speakers were dragged into the back yard, and a good time was had by all, after which Mr thep got on the plane, still smelling faintly of fish.

If you’ve never been driven round Melbourne by Junior Wells while listening to Junior Wells on the car stereo, you haven’t lived.

View post on imgur.com

PSA: PPI payouts

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If like Mr & Mrs thep you were hard up in the 90s, chances are you took out a bank loan or remortgage to try and put things right. Chances are, unless you were less whimperingly grateful than we were, you were mis-sold PPI.

So far, so obvious. I’ve been watching all the ads from people hoping to help you reclaim the hard-earned while hoping to seize a chunk for themselves, but thought the bank (Lloyds in my case) would try to wriggle out of it somehow. Then one day I thought what the hell and got in touch with Lloyds.

Next thing that happened was the arrival of a huge sheaf of forms asking for information I had no hope of finding. So that’s that, I thought.

Next thing, a cheery bloke from Lloyds rings up. We haven’t had your forms back, he said. I told him why. Everybody says that, he said, and proceeded to walk me through some simple questions: address of relevant property, rough time scale (mid-90s was enough) and so on. It was obvious from the way he was talking that I had a case: ‘So I expect you did this, or that, didn’t you’ » Continue Reading.

KARINE POLWART @ THE STABLES, MILTON KEYNES, SAT JULY 28 – ANYBODY WANT 2 TICKETS?

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So I bought tickets ages ago for what promises to be a splendid theatrical show featuring the wonderful Karine Polwart and her beautiful songs.

Inevitably we are now not double- but treble-booked on that night…Stables aren’t interested in swapping the tickets for another night, so I’ve bought 2 more for the Friday night. Have a look at the links and PM me if you’re interested in going on the Saturday. With add-ons tickets are about £30 each. Not looking for face value, but a contribution to the destitute publishers’ whisky fund is always welcome.

https://youtu.be/hEDrKcp3lVk

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/16/karine-polwart-a-pocket-of-wind-resistance-review-stunning-re-created-stage-work-on-nature-and-human-pain

Berlin Babylon klaxon

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This isn’t really a review, more of a heads up – I’ve only watched a few episodes, but I’m in for the long haul. It’s amazing.

We’re in Berlin during the dying days of the Weimar Republic. Our hero is a cop and WW1 veteran plagued by flashbacks and survivor guilt who keeps himself going on morphine. Our heroine is a sparky young woman who works as a police typist/plucky girl detective, with a little light hooking on the side to make ends meet, so to speak. (She’s the one in the front of the audience in the clip.) Ranged against them are sinister proto-Nazis gearing up to Make Germany Great Again, communist revolutionaries (helpfully identified by their Jeremy Corbyn caps), sinister Balkan gangsters – and of course their fellow cops whose motives are not always clear. It’s a glorious high-concept and high-production-value soup of politics, sex and violence, and I’m enjoying it hugely.

16 episodes on Netflix here in Oz (hurrah!), and Sky in Germany and the UK (boo!).

Not least among its pleasures is the music, which nods towards the period without being obsessive about it. A dead ringer for Buddy Guy plays raucous electric blues in » Continue Reading.

A short post of absolutely no interest to anybody except cricket-loving Readly subscribers

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Wisden Cricket Monthly has reappeared after a 14-year hiatus – 3 issues so far. Excellent reading for those that way inclined – good writers, plenty of archive material and of course loads of meat for the Stattos among us.

Best of all, they’ve all popped up on Readly, which is how I know about it. The mag costs 5 of your British pounds in the shops, so that’s half your monthly sub right there. Then there’s also The Nightwatchman, Wisden’s Granta-style quarterly, where you’ll find the likes of Simon Barnes expounding at some length. That’s a tenner a pop. As I keep saying, I don’t understand the economics of all this, but who cares?

Here’s a top leg-break to get you in the mood. That’s all.

https://youtu.be/_kegK6WSdCM

https://www.wisden.com/wisden-cricket-monthly

Yet another NPR Tiny Desk treasure

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Anybody come across Walter Martin before? Very droll and goofy, and gives a slight impression of making it up as he goes along. School of Jonathan Richman, I guess. His first number, I Went Along on a Solo Australian Tour, is helped along by a barbershop quartet, naturally. He’s a former member of the Walkmen, who have passed me by, I have to say.

Give him a burl, as they say round here.

https://www.npr.org/event/music/567226768/walter-martin-tiny-desk-concert

THE GREAT TRANS-TASMAN AFTERWORD MINI-MINGLE

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Venue:

The Northern Steamship Company, Quay St, Auckland

Date: 13/11/2017

Personnel: this was pretty much a scratch outfit, four expats who happened to be in the right place at the right time. Any fears that they might not gel were dispelled right away by a riff on a shared favourite album which came to no real conclusion but segued into a rollcall of favourite Afterword keywords: Bowie, Zappa, drummers, Stones, Depeche Mode, Stevie Wonder, H P Saucecraft, various aspects of politics, life stories, living in ANZ, and plenty of other things I can’t remember. Drink was taken, toasts were made, and bollocks was talked non-stop for about four hours.

[Interlude] Two nights earlier Nick and I found ourselves in a funky if hard-to-find basement on the edge of the Red Light District (allegedly) listening to a series of piano players doing their thing. Highlights included a young girl with the face of an angel playing Monk, a young Frenchman playing Mernk, and another young chap with a full range of blues faces playing an astonishingly difficult Scriabin piano sonata from memory. The main attraction though was none other than Mousey, playing selections from his Abbey Road album and chatting » Continue Reading.

PSA for Oz mob: Three Summers

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Saw this last night, knowing nothing about it and without any great expectations, but I really enjoyed it. It’s a romcom written and directed by none other than WA resident Ben Elton, with a great script, lots of laughs and a great cast, including Deborah Mailman, Michael Caton, John Waters, Magda Szubanski, and Rebecca Breeds, an actress I guarantee you’ll fall in love with (even if you’re a woman, if Mrs thep is any guide).

The trailer inevitably plays up the feelgood element, but but the movie’s got quite an edge to it too. It was a great couple of hours. Bonus: it’s got theremin playing in it!

Chances of it making it to Blighty are pretty slim, probably… but you never know.

https://youtu.be/H-drhxT1rdI

PSA: NetGalley, ebooks, freebooks

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Folk who like to read and review stuff ahead of publication might be interested in this just-launched site.

Once you’ve signed up (and constructed a not-too-obviously-bogus persona for yourself) you can request proofs (ie ebooks) from a whole range of publishers including Bloomsbury, Penguin, PanMacmillan, Fourth Estate, Granta, Canongate etc etc. You have to be approved by the publisher whose book you’ve requested, and you have to say where you’re going to post a review, but I would have thought several hundred committed book-buyers on the Afterword would constitute a fairly convincing demographic.

So give it a go if you fancy it.

http://www.netgalley.co.uk

Sixties pop stars who possibly took drugs and had a go at reinventing themselves

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A recent thread (can’t remember if it was the cheese one or the unfashionable artists one) got me thinking about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and how they had this glorious disco second coming in the 70s (see also: Bee Gees). Poking around in their back catalogue on Spotify, I came across their 1969 concept album, The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette, a wildly ambitious and personal (and stupendously uncommercial, I should think) take on US life and politics of the time.

It wouldn’t be true to say that they’d gone psychedelic, more that their careers were on the skids, they were chafing under the restrictions of their own history, and they’d taken advantage of the new creative and artistic freedoms that the psychedelic era made possible. The music itself is more in the neighbourhood of MacArthur Park and other Jimmy Webb epics, with a bit of Van Dyke Parks thrown in – and of course the occasional sitar or wah-wah pedal. Have a listen to the title track (complete with Hey Jude quotes) and you’ll see what I mean.

This got me wondering if any other pop stalwarts from the early 60s had taken a similar route. Turns out » Continue Reading.

Is this the worst jazz record ever made?

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I’m no great fan of jazz flute, and Herbie Mann would be right down the bottom of my list of favourite jazz flootlists. He made far too many albums – 42 in the 1960s alone – and plodded down far too many blind alleys, including getting down with ver kids.

But this, which turned up in my Spotify Discover playlist, is beyond appalling, and I felt i had to share. It starts off pleasantly enough – nice guitar by Larry Coryell in the background – but then degenerates into a dreadful noodlefest completely devoid of ideas and inspiration. And it goes on for ever, until it subsides into pleasant enough again.

It was Hunter S. Thompson’s campaign choon when he ran for Sheriff in 1970. No wonder he didn’t win.

Anybody agree/disagree?

https://youtu.be/DJT_acVUjV4