New Month! Here in Glasgow we can that summer has arrived, because the rain is warmer.
Come all ye, gather round, and share with the village what you have been reading / watching / listening to / and generally got up to that you would like to share.
And, is there anything coming up soon we should know about ? (New tv shows, books, records, or any other cultural events)
Watched
I really enjoyed Mud, which features a fine central performance from Matthew McConaughey that mixes charisma with menace. It’s a rich, nuanced movie filled with striking symbolism and imagery. Although it acknowledges its debt to previous films and works of literature it beats its own path as it marks out a coming of age tale. The two young lead actors are wonderful with Ty Sheridan especially strong as a young man taking his first steps into adulthood, discovering the pain of love and yearning for a male role model. It’s a lovely movie; elegiac, sensual and thoughtful.
I’ll start with what’s good about Alien Covenant. It’s better than Prometheus. It’s stylish, atmospheric, nicely scored and features two performances from Michael Fassbender that overshadow the rest of the cast. But it’s really just a rehash of the first movie plus some pretentious nonsense about creation and rationalism vs faith. Made me appreciate that it was all said so much better in the first 2 Alien movies and that nothing much has been added in the intervening decades. Also made me glad that Scott isn’t directing the Bladerunner sequel.
Read
Brooklyn. Beautifully drawn character study of a young Irish woman whose family and priest arrange for her to pursue a better life in America. With lovely, unfussy writing, Toibin presents her gradually maturing as she attempts to unshackle herself from her passivity and embrace her own agency.
Heard
Been enjoying The Brothers Johnson’s Stomp and the HiFi Sean / Crystal Waters track Testify. Tracks that suit the warmer weather.
AOB
The narrative provided by the Conservatives and the MSM has been that Corbyn is shambolic, divisive and out of touch with everyone bar his coterie of acolytes whilst May is the calm and authoritative PM set to guide the UK through these uncertain times. Not what we have actually witnessed in the past couple of weeks.
During May did we witness the beginning of the end of Trump or just the end of the beginning?
I am having a debate with a friend over whether Brooklyn is as trumpeted a great work of fiction, or in fact we’ve all been blinded by the Colm Toibin brand and in fact its a superior piece of romantic tosh @marwood. Would it have won the Costa prize had it been written by Joanna Trollope?
In terms of plot Jane Austen writes standard romantic fare as well, but there is arguably no greater English novelist. Brooklyn couldn’t have been written by Trollope – the strength of the book is not about the plot, but in the quality of the writing and the way Toibin captures the atmosphere of his locations and the inner depths of his characters. I thought it was brilliant.
Heard:
Paul Weller – A Kind Revolution.
PW albums are taking longer than previously to drill into my brain – it’s getting there, but slowly.
Conor Oberst – Salutations remains on the “play at least once a week” list
Conor Oberst led my ears back to Bob Dylan – I forgot how much I like Blood On The Tracks
Read:
Phil Collins – Not Dead Yet.
I’ve long held the belief that he’s a good bloke, just his ubiquity in the 80s led him to being perceived as a smug tw*t.
His autobiog co firms the former belief.
Seen:
Buddy Holly thing on BBC4 was intersting.
Watched In Bruges again – it’s still bloody good
And Withnail and I for the 400th time
Punk 76: Fashion Is Never Wrong on SkyAts.
A sort of re-telling of the same old story with some slight changes to the narrative.
Still good watching, but made me think: How long were the interviews given by Allan Jones, Viv Albertine and Marco Pirroni – they seem to pop up in every Punk doco (same backdrop, different stories)
Additional:
I think it’s safe to say Father John Misty won’t be troubling the RD year end list.
Maybe my hopes and expectations were too high – should I stick with it?
Horizon scan:
New album from Public Service Broadcasting due early July.
Expecting my letterbox to clang on the 7th
I had every intention of buying the new Father John Misty until I heard a couple of tracks. Fear Fun was excellent, I love you Honeybear a pale shadow of its predecessor but still with a couple of decent tracks. This one sounds dreadful – he has become too clever for his own good.
This month I have mainly been listening to…
Mountain Goats – Goths – lovely evocation of sub-culture from the inside
Moon Duo & Jane Weaver – yep will go see you again
– playing Mark Lanegan Gargoyle more than anything else this year so far.
Quiet month for gigs – only Future Islands and Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Both outstanding in their own way.
Was taken to see a live broadcast of “Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf”. Exhausting. technically impressive – but as someone once said – if this e people were in your back garden you would draw the curtains?
Looking forward to seeing Thurston Moore in a few weeks and new Songhoy Blues album.
Prediction; June 9th will dawn pretty much like June 7th.
Watched: GotG 2 was good fun, Diary of a Wimpy Kid 4 was much better than I expected. Well acted. When did Alicia Silverstone switch from sarky teen to mom of sarky teen? Twin Peaks – hmmm, not yet.
Heard: I like what I’ve heard of Izzy Bizu.
Read: Old comics on disc – Savage Sword of Conan, Plop!, loads of David Walliams to the kid – I like them all very much with the exception of World’s Worst Children. He does like a list though, doesn’t he? Page long sound fx too!
Put my first ever political poster in the window. Doubt it’ll make much difference, but fuck me – Theresa May is absolutely fucking clueless, isn’t she? Jesus Christ – what an absolute absence this government is. Anyone who votes for them, really isn’t paying attention.
Edith doesn’t seem to be working so I’ll add here that I finished the S Town podcast earlier and it’s fantastic – intriguing, moving, disturbing portrayal of John B McLemore, genius in a small Alabama town.
No particular theme for this month’s songs in my Write Here, Write Now blog (listening to and writing about one song every night of 2017). However I did decide to do all the songs on Prefab Sprout’s Steve McQueen on consecutive nights, which was a very rewarding exercise. Here’s the list:
Dead Can Dance – As The Bell Rings The Maypole Spins; Leftfield – Release The Pressure.; Bananarama – Cruel Summer.; Prefab Sprout – Steve McQueen (Faron Young, Bonny, Appetite, When Love Breaks Down, Goodbye Lucille #1, Hallelujah, Movin’ The River, Horsin’ Around, Desire As, Blueberry Pies, When The Angels); The Jesus & Mary Chain – Happy When It Rains.; Antonio Vivaldi – Concerto In A Minor: II. Larghetto.; The Eurythmics – Here Comes The Rain Again.; New Order – Subculture.; ABBA – SOS.; The Pretenders – I Hurt You.; Black – I Just Grew Tired.; Primal Scream – First Name Unknown.; Blur – Pressure On Julian.; L.S.G. – Hearts.; Amelia Curran -Wrecking Ball.; Big Audio Dynamite – The Bottom Line.; Pet Shop Boys – Love is a bourgeois construct.; The Beastie Boys – No Sleep Till Brooklyn.; Pop Will Eat Itself – Evelyn.; Status Quo – What You’re Proposing.; Primal Scream – Uptown;
Any suggestions for future songs are welcome – even whole albums (possibly).
Watched
The Handmaid’s Tale
Gripping, horrifying and unbelievably tense. Unmissable.
Bake Off Creme de La Creme
“Love it, love it, love it.” Great judges and Angus Deayton back to his best. If you watched it you will know what I mean.
Master of None
Second series just as charming as the first. If you like that sort of thing.
Veep
Slightly disappointed with new series.
Marvel’s Agents of Shield
Surprisingly strong 5th series incorporating Ghost Rider.
Read
Hierarchical Position Based Dynamics – Matthias Muller
Very dry.
Listened
The New Pornographers – Whiteout Conditions
Massive disappointment. Songs just not there.
Craig Finn – We All Want The Same Things
Excellent. Moving.
Sorority Noise – You’re Not As __ As You Think
Entertaining and wordy emo.
Joan Shelley – Joan Shelley
Lovely, but not quite as good as her last one.
Perfume Genius – No Shape
Pitchfork fodder but really good nonetheless.
But listened much more to:
The Staples Singers – Faith and Grace A Family Journey
Alice Coltrane – Ptah, The El Daoud
Song of the month
Todd Rundgren – Couldn’t I Just Tell You
Re: “Read
Hierarchical Position Based Dynamics – Matthias Muller
Very dry.”
Now, that I do believe.
*applause for Staples Singers and Alice Coltrane*
Listening –
Thea Gilmore, who can sing just about anything and make it interesting, has a new album out called The Counterweight. It’s got some decent songs on it, but the arrangements are a bit bland to this set of ears. Time to ditch the piano and overblown string arrangements Thea, and get yourself a decent electric guitar again. The Counterweight veers dangerously into Radio 2 territory.
John Mellencamp’s new one, Sad Clowns & Hillbillies was an enjoyable listen this month. The erstwhile Mr Cougar is as unfashionable as Western liberalism these days, but his new one, which features Carlene Carter (the woman who reputedly put the c**t into country) ain’t half bad. It even has some old fashioned electric geetars.
Reading –
I’ve just finished David Hepworth’s Uncommon People. It wasn’t quite as good as 1971, but I like his slightly detached tongue in cheek writing style, and even if the central premise of the book meanders all over the place, its nevertheless an engaging and enjoyable read.
Watching –
Well, Twin Peaks is back of course. 27 years on, it’s a different animal altogether – a kind of potted guide to every other David Lynch film, with strong echoes of Eraserhead at least in the first few episodes. Quite where the whole thing is going is anyone’s guess, but a few more scenes in Twin Peaks itself would satisfy those of us who’ve missed the quirky old place for the last quarter of a century. Something tells me that nothing so predictable is on the cards.
SEEN
The Red Turtle. A Studio Ghibli produced animation from Dutch director Michael Dudok de Wit about a man shipwrecked on an island. There’s no dialogue so no subtitles to interfere with this beautiful piece of work. If I have a better cinematic experience this year it’s gonna be really something. Can’t recommend this highly enough.
HEARD
The Great Un-American Songbook volumes I&II – The Ed Palermo Big Band. The world’s foremost Frank Zappa tribute act take on a whole bunch of stuff including Beatles, Bernstein, King Crimson, Jethro Tull & Traffic. I was made aware of this album when I came across a live gig by the band from earlier this year on Bigozine2. There are several great youtube clips as well although I’d recommend more recent ones because they now feature the talents of (think Don “Sugarcane” Harris) the delectable Katie Jacoby on six string “flying V” violin. My new favorite big band.
READ (Well that’s the intention)
I’ve added Homo Deus – A Brief History Of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari to my unread pile of books. My brother says it’s great which is good enough for me.
WATCHED/WATCHING: Scooting thru’ boxes, have to say I did enjoy I Love Dick for its ridiculousness, before discovering Deadwood. Just about near the end of series 2, and reading the backstory on wiki as I watch , as it is all “true”. Magnificently sweary and fabulous characters. Remember B-b-billy from One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest? He plays Doc, wondrously, alongside Ian MCShane hamming for his life and many other delights. My favourite character has to be Calamity Jane, the foulest mouthed drunk ever.
READ/READING: Had I begun Sylvie Simmons Cohen biog last month? It’s good but slow.
SEEN: Apart from the Whiter Shade of Pale hitmakers, recorded elsewhere, I guess my 2nd jaunt to Bearded Theory was the highlight. In truth more spectacle than aural treat, this years line-up was pretty thin, hence no formal review. But I loved the whole vibe even more, perhaps because, sniffing out unknowns in the smaller stage areas. Main stage my highlight was Ferocious Dog, a Levellers for the noughties, but the Selecter and Skippinish did themselves credit, the latter such an uncharismatic group of earnest school teachers in appearance as to totally belie them in afternoon bopping to their bagpipe-driven skirls. The Dance tent had be hooked with Banco de Gaia, Dub Trees with Jah Wobble (Youth from Killing Joke’s psy-ambient band: the sound of the end of the world being fought in hells deepest station) and, closers for the festival, Transglobal Underground, featuring the return of Natacha Atlas. Wonderful, even if spoilt by some uncertainties as to the time of the curfew. O, and did I mention Madness, main stage closers, the band you could never admit buying a ticket for, yet delighted they are playing? Terrifically competent. All the hits and, after a while, a little oppressively too much jolly jackanapes. Music hall really, none the worse for that.
Finally a brief mention for a band you have to see, midnight on saturday, the ghoulishly garish Bloodshake chorus. Never has a covers band been so much fun, and never have I had so much fun in the moshpit with Dolly Parton and Nancy Sinatra. Here’s an idea, from elsewhere, but you had to be there, the zombie make-up being totally convincing.
(Since this clip they have added spooky keyboards to fill out the sound)
Some of you will be relieved to know that I’ve done nothing in May, nothing noteworthy anyway.
Besides magazines I’ve only managed to read a biography of recently deceased Swedish actor Gösta Ekman, and get through the first halves of two novels (too early to tell if they’re any good yet).
And I haven’t had the energy to watch anything more challenging than “pleasant” TV shows about gardening and antiques…we’re very busy at work and in the middle of a fairly big renovation as well; added to the medication needed to protect myself from the pollen explosion that happened when the weather changed = I’m very tired both physically and mentally.
I haven’t even listened properly to all of the albums I bought in the beginning of the month, because I got caught up in making a year-by-year playlist for my 50th birthday.
But I’ve enjoyed the latest Gorillaz album a lot more than most of their others, and the new albums from Orchestra Baobab and Jake Xerxes Fussell. Not sold on the latest Kendrick Lamar album, a few good tracks but the production is a bit too sparse and dull to win me over, and it’s all quite depressing. The rest I haven’t heard enough of to have an opinion about.
All I seem to want to do lately is eat and sleep, but all of June is packed with tiresome events. There’s a very good reason why I tend to take a couple of weeks holiday in June – unfortunately this year I’m saving it all for late July/August (due to that birthday).
Still, a few fun things to look forward to in June as well, and I’m sure I’ll feel better as soon as I can stop taking these allergy pills!
(Also, unfortunately “my” festival is taking a time-out this year, and the gigs I tried to book to make up for it was sold out by the time I got there, so that’s annoying me!)
Sorry for being very grumpy and dull this time! 🙂
Read
Dodgers by Bill Beverley has, I think, been lauded here, and rightly so. A tight, compact crime novel that reaches as well into characterisation and the hope of redemption as any number of vastly more prolix nineteenth century Russians. Really good. Unlike John Niven’s latest, No Good Deed. Niven has always been a bit hit and miss for me, but I’ve stuck with him because the hits are so worth it. This is definitely not one of his best, though. The subtitle of our friend David Hepworth’s 1971 is ‘Never A Dull Moment’. This turns out to be not entirely true. There’s a review on Goodreads along the lines of ‘Hepworth knows when everything happened, but not why it happened’, which summed up my misgivings – it’s a blow by blow factual account, with little effort to put the music in any kind of social or historical context. Maybe that’s outside the purview of the book, but I think it was poorer for it.
Watched
Finally caught up with La La Land. Slightly mixed feelings. I liked it, but I wanted to really like it, and I’m not sure I did. I will say it’s one of the best art-directed films I’ve seen in years. The palette was astonishing, and every location, costume and set looked great. More mixed feelings on Alien: Covenant. It is the best Alien film for at least twenty five years, depending on how I’m feeling about Alien 3 on any given day, but it is still deeply, deeply, flawed, with a terribly rushed final act, a stonkingly obvious twist ending, and an almost-revelation that, if you squint at it right, basically ruins the entire franchise.
Listened
The new Afghan Whigs record is tremendous, and has been pretty much nailed to my turntable since it came out. Honourable mentions also for the new Jane Weaver (proggy psychedelic vintage synth motorik) and Forest Swords (epically smeared modern dub with cut up vocal fragments a la Burial (whose new one turned out to be a bit rubbish)). I’ve only started listening to the Pumarosa record today, but first impressions are that it’s a goody. Imagine an art-rock Kasabian fronted by Siouxsie and you’re on the way.
Like @retropath (who I bumped into several times) I was at Bearded Theory last weekend. I also enjoyed Skippinish and Banco De Gaia, and the Bloodshake Chorus were indeed smashing, the right band in the right place at the right time. Not as keen on Ferocious Dog –
they’re okay, but they don’t have an original idea in their heads, do they? Vintage Trouble had the frontman of the weekend – 100% star quality. My own favourites New Model Army played as good a set as I’ve ever seen from them (and a week later the bruises have mostly gone down), Jaya The Cat‘s punky reggae was great fun in the Friday sunshine. African Head Charge were hypnotically dubby trance inducing stuff, but I did wonder if they might have gone down better in a later slot over in the Woodland. That lovely Woodland Stage was where The Fall played on Saturday night. I’ve never seen so many people streaming out of a gig after ten minutes. To be fair, I wasn’t far behind them. As I was leaving, I heard someone say “Lots of people walking out. This is a good sign.” – a seasoned Fall watcher, I presume. Plenty of other good stuff, but a final mention for Don Letts’ DJ slot on the Thursday night, which was marvellous.
In non-festival live news, we made it over the bridge for Maximo Park, who were tremendous (again). They are honestly one of the best live bands in the country, even if the records are a bit forgettable these days.
Watched
The Handmaid’s Tale. Episode one proper freaked me out. Elisabeth Moss is magnificent and there are many episodes to go.
Twin Peaks. Weird but enthralling. I can’t not watch.
Fargo. Great first episode for series three. My viewing is sorted for the next couple of months.
Read
Uncommon People. Runs out of steam and credibility in 1975. So many missed opportunities after that. The man obviously doesn’t think much of punk and new wave. Sid and Nancy and Ian Curtis fit into his theory beautifully but are ignored. And how does Bonnie Raitt get a chapter but not Patti Smith, Debbie Harry or Siouxsie?
Heard
Sgt Pepper remix deluxe. Wow! The early takes are enthralling but the new mix is astonishing, especially under headphones. Tracks I’d tired of are suddenly extra important. The textures of strings and Indian instruments on Within You, Without You are exquisite. Fixing A Hole sounds beautiful. George’s guitar is perfect but the simple backing ‘ooh’s after the solo are angelic. The vocal playfulness of Lovely Rita shines through. When I’m 64 feels essential. The bass and drums throughout are revelatory. Love the double kick drum action on Good Morning, Good Morning imitating a stampede, contrasting with the dressage clip clop placements for Mr Kite. The other thing that really strikes home is the natural simplicity of the song lyrics, based on whatever they saw around them; a newspaper article, a child’s drawing, a cereal packet, a female traffic warden, a poster for a circus, a domesticated older couple or just simply day-dreaming. It is a peculiar distorted view of a very ordinary Englishness, a kind I can easily relate to. Magnificent.
The tv has me punch drunk at the moment – first the note perfect controlled slow boil of Saul, then the ambitious Handmaid’s Tale and I’ve only just caught up with episode one of Fargo which, after the tightrope walk over the uncanny valley of “There’s only two Ewen McGregors”, turned in a treat of a first episode.
Mark E Smith may, for the moment, be the pre-eminent MES, but I can always think of the …er.. Non-hitmaker without having to bite my fist, which is not something I can say about La Winstead..*
(* also supremely talented in a non-sexist way, though I do think my having no acquaintance with that accent helps suspension of disbelief when watching assorted bods attempting it over the various series and movie..)
New series of Orange is the New Black coming soon too!
Everything you say about Sgt Pepper is a load of b@ll@cks Tiggs, it’s even better!
Seen
Finished “Game of Thrones” up to whenever the next one is, which I won’t see as I’m Skyless but it is good fun isn’t it. Loving “The Good Fight” and “Designated Survivor” and just catching up on the latest “Better call Saul” which is excellent too.
Read
Just had lovely week in a hammock in France and ploughed through Tim Shipman’s book on Brexit which is highly recommended. It’s commendably low on bias though you detect a certain quiet admiration for how Leave pulled it off against all odds, and how Remain were so bloody dismal – Cameron assuming victory and prioritising keeping the Tory party intact for post-triumph re-bonding, and Corbyn doing everything short of anything actually useful whilst the Seamus Milne/John McDonald cordon sanitaire ensures he’s never under any pressure to commit. Also read Frank Gardner’s “Crisis” which is his first novel – much as I admire FG, it really is a dire attempt – lousy plot, lousy dialogue, wooden characters and a damp squib ending. Shot through “Night school” by Lee Child which is Reacher, say n’more. Just reading “I am pilgrim”, recommended here I think, which is much more the ticket – a modern, pacy, complex thriller which I am enjoying enormously.
Heard
Really enjoying the “Songs from the wood” reissue. Introduced Mrs. T to the case/lang/veirs album on hols which she loved so have been dusting off some other Laura which is great too. I listened to the remix of “Sgt. Pepper” which sounds great. Won’t be listening again but I was interested to see what it’s like. Somehow ended up with “Red earth and pouring rain” by Bear’s Den on Spotty download which I like – sort of rootsy folky stuff, right up my alley. Pleasant ambient noodling of the sort you might here in Yankee Candle from The Album Leaf “Between Waves”. Oddly I had a pang for some 80s jazz lite so downloaded a few Crusaders albums and tremendously enjoyed them. “Streetlife” which has a proper hit single of course, and “Those southern nights” with Larry Carlton. In vaguely similar vein I had a hankering to listen to “Jasmine Nightdreams” by Edgar Winter which I probably last played in about 1982 but which sounds brilliant and I have played it daily ever since. Still on Graham Nash jag, and also his stuff with David Crosby. Has a dip into some Julie Fowlis albums which are quite samey but also enjoyable in a deeply folky way. Long drive back from France sound tracked by my mighty Stadium Rock playlist, Jackson Browne, The Jayhawks, Nick Lowe, Carleen Carter, Tom Waits and the first Rainbow album when feeling in need of a wake up.
Other
Will be sitting up to watch the election. Who knows which way it will go – should be exciting. A hung parliament would suit me though that would only result in another election and I don’t think I could face it. As a card carrying LD I know where my ticket is going but the local Tory will win anyway. Also I am quitting Facebook as the endless virtue signalling, whinging, crass comments and fake news circulation plus the knowledge that they flog the lot off so bastards can target more crap at you has finally got to me.
PS Went to the Pink Floyd exhibish with @bartleby which was excellent. Great company too. Also resolved to walk all the way – King’s Cross to the V&A via Macari’s guitar shop and lunch at Pret in Oxford St sitting next to a head studiously down Katie Hopkins. 11 miles all round. Aching feet but loved it.
Yay, Bear’s Den! Good man, Twang! I commend their other stuff, especially the long EP/short CD Islands. At last I am not their only fan here.
A very enjoyable month at a time when I am extremely busy with new developments at work so the leisure side of the month has been very important for me as a source of switching off (not that I can ever totally switch off).
HEARD:
Some completely new artists to me this month –
BNQT – Volume 1 from an erstwhile supergroup. Poppier than I expected it to be but there is a song called Real Love which might be the best pop song I have heard so far this year.
Resistance Radio – The man in the High Castle soundtrack. This is fabulous – dreamy covers of 60’s classics. Produced by the incredible Danger Mouse it has his stamp all over it. This is strongly recommended
Weyes Blood – Front row seat to Earth – heard a track on 6Music and was impressed enough to buy the album. Initial hearings were less than impressive but it has grown on me and is a fine album.
Aldous Harding – Party – another 6Music introduction – uncategorisable. Lazy critics would probably put her alongside Kate Bush – some of her voice registers might put her there but there is a lot of variety in her work. Requires more time.
Americana by Ray Davies – not impressed with the first half of the album on first hearing but another that has got better with repeat listens and it is clear it was a labour of love for Ray. Better than his other recent solo albums.
My favourite new album this month however has been the Penguin Cafe release The Imperfect Sea – absolutely wonderful. Has great meditative qualities and very melodic too.
Old has been Roy Buchanan, Pink Floyd, Guy Clark and Eno/Hyde.
SEEN:
Wife’s cousin came over from Germany with express wish of catching Simple Minds on their Acoustic tour at Birmingham Symphony hall. Never been a huge fan but have to say they were exceptional and had no idea who consummate a front man Jim Kerr is. Excellent.
Also caught a production of Tommy at the Birmingham Rep – both Tommy and his mother were played by deaf and dumb actors which added poignancy to the performance but if I am honest Tommy has never been my favourite Who performance and the play didn’t sway my opinion at all.
Still watching multiple episodes of Nashville each night and really enjoying it. Can I just say I am slightly in love with Hayden Panettiere who plays Juliet Barnes. Not sure I would want to fight Vladimir Klitschko for her though.
READ:
Halfway through Stephen King’s Mr Mercedes which I am greatly enjoying – will be taking the follow upon a business trip to Canada this week as well as Tim Burgess’s Telling Stories.
AOB:
Just come back from a week in St.Emilion – what a wonderful part of France and some truly excellent wine.
I fly to Canada on election day – I am voting by Proxy – just hope my wife follows my explicit instruction. Would like to see the end of the witches reign but I suspect we will end tip with more of the same. If that proves to be the case I only hope she jettisons Boris Johnson and Amber Ruidd from her cabinet as they are both loathsome and inept.
Heard: I like the description of Perfume Genius as ‘Pitchfork fodder’ – agreed, but it has really won me over. Also on a Pitchfork-style tip I have been enjoying the Mac De Marco album. Having never paid him much attention, mentions here and elsewhere have pointed me towards the last two Jason Isbell albums which I am really enjoying, a way with a tune and a lyric.
Watched: Unlike a previous correspondent, I have really enjoyed Veep. I thought it may have run its course, but I think they’ve found interesting things to do with a great group of characters. Jonah remains a hero. On the other end of the spectrum, Little Boy Blue wasn’t an easy watch but it was really well done. Stephen Graham is a national treasure, but the parents were beautifully played too. Have been binge-watching Billions, can’t help feeling it is a bit soapy and I don’t like many of the characters very much, but it is very well done.
Read: Quicksand by Steve Toltz kept me going for most of the month. Really liked a lot of it, a rare book that actually made me laugh, but I thought it lost its way for a spell towards the end.
AOB: Agree with the posters above who think that Fr John Misty has jumped the shark. I loved the first two albums, I am really struggling with this one. It sounds like many (very long) variations of the same dull song.
Agree @monsignorbonehead – The Mac De Marco album is really quite lovely.
Seen
Fargo and Handmaid’s Tale are both further instalments in the new Golden Age of Television – but we’ve been enjoying going back to where the modern police thriller arguably began – Prime Suspect. Its 1991 and another world – people smoke everywhere, at their desk, in the car, in the pub – much of which is buried in a haze. Everyone appears to be wearing a shade of beige or grey to work, and Helen Mirren’s ride is a Citroen BX. Her brilliance is undimmed – Don’t call me ma’am, I’m not the queen, and Tom Bell’s malevolent sexism if anything is more shocking today than when broadcast. The plot devices – seeing the suspect’s life outside of the police station – may have become commonplace but the procedural still holds up very well. And it’s in 4:3!
listened to 1)The Mountain Goats.. lovely witty tribute to singers youth.. e.g.funky delightful song called ‘Andrew Elditch is moving back to Leeds’.. this from a north carolina rock n roll band.. its fantastic 2) ‘Mental Illness’ – Aimee Mann.. songs about depression but not so much a “Woe is me”, more an aloof “oh you poor bastard” observation with glint in the eye.. “the tragic often a hairs breadth away from the absurd” – Uncut.. Read: 1) Small Town Talk’ – Barney Hoskyns.. just great musical history of Woodstock 2) Goneville – Nick Bollinger.. wonderful recollection of Wellington (NZ) mid 70s – early 80s within framework of touring covers band & NZ liquor licensing laws (I was there).. Saw 1) ‘Their Finest’.. wonderful old fashionedish story about London WW2 bombing blitz & making propaganda film to encourage US to join war.. Bill Nighy just great. 2) ‘Get Out’.. terrific social commentary about racism in US that ends up being horror & droll comedy too.. fantastic
Heard
Wow, loads of stuff I like this (last) month. Reissues of Leftfield and The Heart Of The Congos. Roger Waters’ new album is the best thing anybody out of Floyd has done since The Final Cut, great new Saint Etienne album, fantastically ghostly new single from Burial, brilliantly grimy Fabriclive mix from Preditah, sublime DJ-Kicks mix from Michael Mayer. Still enjoying Slowdive, Coldcut, Gnod, Gas..
Read
The Mailman by Bentley Little. It’s okay. As a result of listening to The Congos I’ve also been dipping into People Funny Boy, the mammoth Lee “Scratch” Perry biog, but it’s still as disappointing as ever.
Seen
Er… this screen, mainly, for work reasons. On edit: no, wait, I saw the Katy Perry film, the one where she gets dumped by Russell Brand midway through the film. It was, frankly, brilliant.
The Fall.
No, not that woman from the X Files talking without moving her face on BBC2. The actual band(s). I’m becoming obsessed. (see my comments on the recent Top 5 Fall Songs thread). Basically I started with the 50,000 Fall Fans compo, got the bug, and have started making my way through the studio albums. Wow! I’m sold!
It’s like… for thirty years you’ve been living across the road from someone you vaguely fancy but don’t take a lot of notice of, and then you suddenly have a torrid fling that becomes all-consuming…
(I don’t think I’ll be sharing that analogy with Mrs Moose)
Yay! Excellent news-ah!
Poor old MES is in a state at the moment. Have a look at this from 0.52 to 1.10.
Poor lad.
One of the revelations of my down-the–rabbit-hole research over the last few weeks is that… in the second half of the 80s, in some photos at least, MES actually wasn’t bad-looking.
I mean, look at this:
http://thefall.org/news/pics/89jul29_nme.jpg
…get those lashes, heart-face!
Seriously, it’s worth it just to read the interviews. The dude shits gold.
I’d thoroughly recommend Steve Hanley’s mad book on his time in the band M. The Big Midweek is easily the best rock music biog I’ve read. And what a story…
Dude, it’s on me Christmas list.
I do like the story, apocryphal or not, about the roadie being fired for ordering a salad. That’s going to feel oddly appropriate when I’m mainlining brandy sauce on Boxing Day.
Sounds plausible, which is all you need for a good MES anecdote.
Interesting that he talks about his face swelling up, which it seems to be doing now…
Say, you could do worse than hunt out his spoken-word albums. Two of them, both great. And also (he said, warming to his theme) the album he did with Mouse On Mars as Von Sudenfed. Oh, and this!
Read recently:
Roger Wilmutt’s superb history of British Variety 1918-1960 ‘Kindly Leave The Stage!’ (1p on amazon marketplace), written in the mid 80s.
Graham McCann’s terrific biography of Morecambe & Wise.
Two recent British Library Crime Classics reprints of books by Anthony Rolls – both good.
Currently reading:
Billy Bragg’s ‘Roots, Radicals & Rockers’, billed as a history of skiffle. It’s very good – though I feel the title/subtitle may be not quite right. He rightly majors on Bill and Ken Colyer as the wellsprings and charts Ken’s winding path to inadvertently inventing skiffle (sort of) in great detail. It’s page 73 or thereabouts before Lonnie Donegan is mentioned, though thefirst chapter is a brilliant history of the song ‘Rock Island Line’. The two major sources on Ken’s life – his own autobiog and a later biography – are both now rare. I’ve got the former, but haven’t yet managed to find an affordable copy of the latter. Billy draws from them substantially in the early chapters, but he writes well and, as I say, most people – especially if they’re drawn by Bragg’s name rather than being diehard skifflers – won’t be familiar with the earlier books. I’ll probably write a full review when I’ve finished it – I have a feeling Bill’s book will do the subject a really good service by relocating the music as a cultural phenomenon whose impact has been much deeper and longer lasting than might at first be supposed – rather than just a momentary fad and a footnote in various rock histories – and also by shining a welcome light on the 50s trad jazz era, before it became a TV Light Entertainment cliche. I’ve been spending a lot of time lately trawling the same period journal sources that Billy clearly has, and I’m excited to read the rest of his book. In the meantime, I recommend it to anyone interested in music history and a well-told tale.
Listening:
Mahavishnu Orchestra (working on a second McLaughlin book…)
Fleetwood Mac ‘Boston’ – nicely priced 3CD representation of the three nights of Mac concerts recorded in Boston in Feb 1970 – 30 tracks, great sound.
Ian Anderson’s Country Blues ‘Stereo Death Breakdown’ – terrific late 60s curio, on Fledg’ling.
Jethro Tull – Songs From The Wood 5CD box set – wonderful, and amazing value!
Mike Westbrook – Live 1972 (Hux) and Marching Song 3CD edition (RPM) – Brit-jazz essentials.
Ken Colyer Skiffle Group EP ‘In Hamburg’ – forgot I had this, listened to it coincidentally just before the Bragg book arrived. lots of period reviews mention how poor some of the sound balance/quality is on early Colyer releases, but this EP sounds great.
Hardchargers forthcoming album tracks – something I’m involved with. One mix to go, album release later this year.
Roger Wilmut is like the Lewisohn of British comedy. His books on Hancock and the Goons are very nicely written as well as being astounding feats of pre-digital research.
Just bought the Wilmot* (Wilmutt?) book, thanks for the heads up. It’s shot up to 19p now, although I splashed out an extra penny for a Very Good copy 🙂
*that’s what it’s listed under, anyhow
Edit: The Internets say Moosey’s spelling is the correct one.
Yes, you’re thinking of Gary Wilmot.
But then, aren’t we all.
It’s one of those names that just looks wrong, isn’t it?
See also Roald Dahl, Noam Chomsky, David Walliams, Ben Dover…
…er….
Ian (A.) Anderson, eh? Intersting dude. I have some of his slightly later English Country Blues Band stuff. It is good stuff but his vocals grate, being so english grammar school boy. I know that may have been his point, but that timbre, a bit like when Ashley Hutchings decided he could sing in the Albion Band, just sounds so naff.
IAA is of course, for this that don’t know, on the cover of You Came All Join In but not on the record, whereas IA of Jethro Tull, who is, isn’t. Whoops.
And editor of the intermittently excellent F(olk) Roots magazine.
In fact, have some IAA:
I haven’t done one of these things before, but this is what’s been occurring at Bartleby Towers:
Heard:
Been on a bit of a Little Feat path of late after picking most of the catalogue up on vinyl in recent months. God, Lowell George was talented. Sad that his trajectory in the 1970s seems to have followed Elvis’s quite closely, in particular his inspiration/enthusiasm and waistline – it’s a shock to see what a dude he looked in 1969. Other than the Feat, I’ve caught up on a few missing Zappa releases, the best of which have been One Shot Deal and Philly ’76. I’ve finally got round to listening to Elvis Junior’s Mighty Like a Rose and it’s nothing like what I expected. I loathed Spike, so avoided MLAR for years. But it’s actually pretty damn good. Silly me.The Songs From the Wood boxset has been played a fair few times and the remixed Sgt Pepper has had the odd spin too, I may have mentioned…
Read:
I’ve been bingeing on anything late 60s related for a while now. Dominic Sandbrook’s White Heat, covering 1964-70 has been a superb, and much highlighted companion. I’ve also been digesting Dominic Pedler’s Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles and Alan Ayckbourn’s Crafty Art of Playmaking.
Seen:
Haven’t been to a live gig for a couple of months, but saw An American in Paris and 42nd Street in the theatre. The former was much overhyped, I thought. The latter was superb, with Sheena Easton a proper singing revelation. At home I’ve been working my way through – and thoroughly enjoying – Sons of Anarchy (Northern Irish season aside). Now I’m forcing myself to watch various musicals I (deliberately) missed over the years for research purposes. Cats, Miss Saigon, Evita, the works. Give me Grease, the Cat in the Hat and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang any day…
I’ve been trying to watch old movies whose soundtrack LPs litter car boots and chazzas up and down the country, e.g. Carousel, Gigi, etc. I haven’t got very far yet, but boy, isn’t South Pacific ORANGE?
You’re right. South Pacific has this awful faded yellow filter applied throughout. Whatever reason they had at the time (some weird attempt to conjure up exotic Pacific aura?), it hasn’t aged well and should have been fixed prior to DVD release.
Carousel is quite good tho.
Forgive the suggestion Bart, but if you’re into reading books on the late 60s you’d probably enjoy the middle third of my McLaughlin book – late 60s London, no particular McL interest required. 🙂
Sounds right up my street Colin. Possibly not the other 2/3 tho! What’s it called?
You’re kidding, right?!
The first third is London in the *early* 60s!
So that’s two-thirds of the book. Once he hops on a plane to New York in February 1969 you can donate it to Oxfam.
Sorry, for some reason I thought the late 60s bit was sandwiches between bits about JM, for some reason. What’s it called man?!
The Beast With Two Necks.
‘Bathed In Lightning’.
Here’s a few paras re: 1966…
On Friday September 9 1966, with Ronnie Scott’s Club having relocated to larger, more upmarket premises on Frith Street, his old place became the Old Place. The lease on the Gerrard Street premises still had 18 months to run, and Ronnie was keen to give it to the younger generation of players in London as somewhere to gig, practice, experiment and develop. Ronnie had asked John Stevens to give up the Little Theatre Club and manage the new venue, as Stevens recalled:
He made this offer because if nothing was going on at the premises the landlord … would take possession of the property, and the Scott Club wanted to hold onto it so that it could be turned into a Chinese gambling club. Ronnie said to me, ‘I don’t know how long it’ll be – it could be two weeks or six months. That’s the chance you’ll have to take.’ … I refused to take it on, because we had a place which might go on forever and it felt strong to me. … Anyway, I said I wouldn’t do it, and the funny thing was that two weeks later it was, ‘Good old Ronnie! – Opening the first club for young musicians and really encouraging them!’ There was a list of people who would be playing there, and my name was on it!’
There may have been self-interest in Ronnie’s apparent generosity but, as it transpired, the Old Place lasted the full term, until May 25 1968: music was happening six nights a week, with an all-comers jam on Mondays. The Little Theatre Club continued as a place for exploring the outer reaches, and would do so – as John Stevens rightly surmised – well into the following decade. In the view of one commentator, ‘Musicians constantly migrated between the two venues … feeding ideas back and forth in a dialectic of healthy interaction.’
In more prosaic terms, however, musicians were getting £3 a gig at the Old Place, and maybe a few shillings at the Little Theatre; fairly solid groups would coalesce at the Old Place, while the Little Theatre remained more a place for individuals to come together in looser groupings for music more characterized by spontaneity than formal practice.
Doug Rouse and John Jack were the men to whom Ronnie entrusted the Old Place. By the beginning of 1967, Doug could tell the media that the venture was commercially shaky but musically very successful. A number of hugely talented, creative musicians were playing there regularly – names which would forever be associated with the place, like pianist/bandleader Mike Westbrook and baritone saxophonist John Surman.
Having seen the old-school modern jazz scene crumble almost overnight with the onslaught of the R&B boom in 1963–64, for Westbrook, and no doubt for many others of his generation, ‘the years before the Old Place got going were like dark ages, really’.
Westbrook’s band played the all-nighter at the Old Place every Saturday for its 18-month duration. ‘In the early days of the Old Place there was a tremendous feeling – it was packed out and you really had to make it,’ he reflected in 1973. ‘Somehow we did. … Even then we couldn’t earn a living. We got something like a fiver each for playing all night. … All through the period at the Old Place I was earning my living by teaching art … [but] suddenly there was a British jazz scene and it had a focal point, and I think it’s a tragedy that even that was under-appreciated [by audiences at the time].’
Another attraction at the club was South African pianist/bandleader Chris McGregor, whose group were resident on Tuesdays during its early months.
‘McGregor’s is the only really avant-garde group we present,’ said Rouse, at the beginning of 1967. ‘He seems very sincere about what he is doing and I don’t exactly like to ask him for an explanation as to what it’s all about. Anyway, I must be getting used to it. I don’t get these terrible headaches any more.’