george lewis' jazz funeral in new orleans on the tradition label that was it
+
here's to the poets
Friday 24 December 2004
some of my '04 faves
[-typically rather pompous and onanistic list+]
bcos am lame i didn't post anything last yr (there was that small matter of the blog shutting down for months) even though i had pages&pages of tedious notes written up on galleries, movies, books, tunes, etc.
i just didn't (even two years back on an old site i recall anal categorising in numerical preferences in 10 or 20-no. blocks for reissues, comps, albums, and singles that actually got me my first link from SR - yay for solipsistic tales..) ~
well this isn't anything really, just a crock, but it's scribbled on one index card in the early hours of this morning by me (juggling calls to India and foolish family business at time so),
and
FWIW
VISUAL ART
spent an astonishing afternoon in the now closed-to-public space that is the Terra museum [web] in downtown Chicago.
the collection of American art was small but exquisite; they have stuff going on {educational linx etc} in France too.
discovering Fred Williams in February (cheers Andrew Graham-Dixon!) was, frankly, revelatory and easily a year highlight
POLITICIAN
it has to be Dr. Ian Paisley for - on the subject of Republican terrorists destroying their arms - arguing for documentary evidence, saying he wanted photographs and a Sinn Fein (?) suggestion to have clergy witness the process of decommissioning was not good enough.
quote?
"the man in his garden" must be able to see them.
brilliant.
that's proper graft that.
you can't pop to the mini-mart or cornershop and purchase that.
it just is.
FOOTBALL (soccer) SUPPORTER
the golden triumvirate of 'blokes whose first name is their team' are of course all capital fellows (roll call: Millwall Sean, Brummie Dave, the fanatical QPR John, oh perhaps there should be an innumerate mention for the good humoured and wise Scunthorpe Alex) but the honour must go to a pal of our kid, none other than Stuey the Aberdonian {who gets around tho' he lives in Yorkshire}.
he is seeing the Dons at Arbroath in the Cup next month - the ground nearest to the sea in Europe - in Scotland - in January - mm, balmy.
the bloke is a leg and i expect many a tale when he gets my bro and he into Ibrox for the league game between Aberdeen and Glasgow Rangers (Rangers and the Dons getting on so well as any footy fan will tell you)
AWAY MATCH
Altrincham vs Weymouth (Weymuff with their hatred of Yeovil aka Yeovile) in the FA Trophy (the non-league English football FA Cup, in effect) when Alty were definitely underdogs at the end of jan.
basically :-
a three day FUCKING BEANO (the game was incidental, although in beating them two nil we set in place the rot that eventually destroyed Weymouth's title challenge in their own league) in a fine town {via the noble city of Birmingham} - more on the game here - FAR too much drink & banter - one old Weymouth hand said in 30 or 40 years he'd never heard the travelling fans make such a racket [shame we lost to a fairly poor Shrewsbury in the next round at home].
BOOKS
didn't read much of anything, i'm afraid.
the last books i bought were that republished collection of Yann Martell shorts and Gunter Grass, 'Crabwalk', but they were both presents.
haven't a clue but the NYRB was a nice mag (in the year my subs to the Wire finally ran out...)
CLUB
quite possibly this fairly raucous dive of a sports bar in LaPorte, Indiana, bizarre but entertaining conversation with an American bloke whose son-in-law hails from the south coast of England (Portsmouth), blood glass and booze on the floor, and a soundtrack of, q. q. brilliantly, CRUNK if i recall (& q. possibly DJ Casper)
wonderful stuff
ONE OFF MIKE SKINNER MOMENT
IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SO EASY - during the Eastern lash the other week or so - kinda 'had to be there' - but a g. chaucer & son esq. moment and completely appropriate/wondrous/magnifico, really did say it all in a tightly controlled and concise manner like 'Darkness at noon' or Joseph Roth (he looks great in polo shirts also, i mean really great)
FILM
well there was all that Korean (and other Asian/elsewhere inna NOTED style) cinema, some arguably approaching transcendental say some, and another good year for English language and continental Europe fare in a uplifting or other good manner (Bill Murray made me cry fwiw, right at the start of 'LiT', wordlessly so) and perhaps i should say a matinee of 'der golem' (see how i'm being a prick who just wants to show how 'clever' he is here, eh eh, still gotta love it) perhaps but (the pretentious pre-amble is allowed when you read the next line)
- and read into this what you will
and not that it should necessarily say anything about oneself (but a mate with a copy and a playstation 2 meant repeated viewings so ho-hum...) - or other inarticulate 'get out of jail' phrasings heh
cinematic 2004 was defined at somedisco, for good or ill, by 'the football factory'
almost endlessly quotable, words and phrases getting reworked in formal and less formal riffs, eminent yeomen and women of the bar filling their boots with its, er, rich prose-poetry (a Sibelius tone-poem if you will)
so really if you don't know what 'the f. factory' (about soccer hooliganism and assorted pathologies) is then fair dos and if you do, remember,
anyone who runs will get properly served up later on
GIG
Ted Leo and his boys, Chicago Metro, November (granted the one concert i saw all year IIRC)
good good stuff inc. a song about 2-tone,
i especially liked Ted saying of his drummer (a stout-hearted Philly dweller) he travels better than the Eagles (sports banter is always good)
amusing Irish-American support, the Tossers, proper moshpit (i know i know, some big types too), 'Dirty Old Town' (introduced as a British tune with apologies by the frontman because it wasn't, er, Irish, but still he could have laid it on and noted a song about Salford is an English song but that's just mischief), finished with a fine 'irish rover' and started w' a nice acapella trad' arr' thing about Liverpool (or "Liverpool town" as it's never been called surely?).
the odd noxious anti-English shout from the crowd (certainly you wouldn't want to tolerate anti-Irish sentiment of a similar stripe in a similar situation) aside, main support nearly as enjoyable as Ted's proselytising and literate college rock (and easier to write about...).
of course the 'Irish-American' audience were far less Irish than my left buttock and that merely by dint of my Scottish/English/Roma heritage and coming from the British Isles which is nearer the Emerald Isle than the Midwest, but hey...
BEARDS
either Ted Leo's drummer or the chap from Iron & Wine, as it happens.
there's a joke somewhere in here about a particular lady and a particular footballer who plays for Manchester United Football Club (sorry Plc) but not in a family publication eh now... ...sorry that was probably in bad taste.
TOUCHING ROCK&POP MOMENTS
certain things to do with the Libertines (my partner being a huge fan helped), "we could have a few decent days and nights", Graham Coxon freakin' out and whatnot, Conor Oberst needing a hug, the postal service/tv on the radio/the shins/even death cab for cutie and the delays all piping up i guess, the NME giving the Manics' Holy Bible a 10 in their re-issues reviews which for old times sake and memory of spare cutting burning fury brought conversational nods of approval, Maroon 5 'This Love', 'Michael' by Franz i guess ('take me out' is grate yes you'll find no arguments here) which and yes for extra-aesthetic reasons which one should shy away from you know (in the strict Paterian sense sez H. Bloom &c) but you know that lineage etc
THINGS THE NME LIKES THAT ARE GOOD
slash, tiefic etc. whatever gets you through the night etc.
THINGS THE NME LIKES WHICH ARE NOT NECESSARILY
all these indie boys wearing eyeliner don't necessarily suit it (alright, Alex Kapranos does and so too Billie Green Day but otherwise a lot don't, let's be honest), also ties (tho' see above)
MULTIPLE CHOICE album question :=
if you could buy (a) the annie; (b) the girls aloud; (c) gwen stefani
which?
probably (c) bcos (b) can get killer singles acquired and i am woefully ignorant in the actual hearing dept of (a)
NAME ONE ALBUM BUYING CHOICE THAT WOULD HAVE SURPRISED YOU AT THE START OF THE YEAR, RELATIVE TO FAILURE TO GET ANOTHER ALBUM IN A SIMILAR NEIGHBOURHOOD
getting Wiley's album (which is just quality even just the instrumental shorts which of course tantalise w'out getting it done - was it k-punk who suggested they should see to that with a full-length list of instrumentals) but not 'Showtime'. still.
COOLEST MUSICIAN
Joanna Newsom i think?
also lazy to say but i do appreciate what Kanye does fashion-sense. and when Jay Sean (pub factoid: Jay Sean is not on the AMG database, AFAIK, tho' Rishi Rich is to be fair, a little) said that sweatbands really needed to be done away with, i wanted to kiss his forehead.
BEST USE OF MUSIC ON TV
that commercial for the Boost mobile phone with the Game, Kanye and Ludacris repping for their hoods, Luda especially in form down in Hotlanta and the girls with the really short skirts, that brilliant jump he has, Game low-riding thru the streets of Angels, West holding it down in the House of Illin'
WISH I READ MORE JOURNOS
Clive Bell, Hua Hsu, Dave Tompkins (if Matt Ingram is which is prolly unlikely reading this last one don't laff) etc - hmm maybe i miss the wire...
REELEST VIDEO
'trick me' or the video for that kidpunk outfit McFly ('room on the third floor' i think?) were both nice but it has to be '99 problems' doesn't it.
just has to be.
NOT GOOD MUSICALLY
not hearing any MIA all year i'm afraid (or Annie)
ALBUMS THE ODD RE-ISSUE AND COMPILATION ETC.
re-issue style
said Eno and the Kinks off the top of my head
actually pitchfork media has a nice re-issues list, e.g. the DNA/A. Russell/'The Third Unheard'/especially the Trax threefer ohwow {i didn't know 'Critical Beatdown' was in a re-issued fashion) etcetc
but really i think this year it has to belong to (save the cheesy black CD cover)
Ready to Die {even just ignore any remastered bumf and treat it as 'Ready to Die' and it's got to be all up in that shit, well}
compilations style
Candi Staton Honest Jons?
does the first volume of DJ Target's Aim High mix count or is that an album? that was one of the three best album length things of this year i heard this year a lot.
i didn't hear 679's 'run the road' unfortunately (living in a room, on my own, in the back) or regrettably the rephlex grime that Sherburne chanted well for and did k-punk coin "Croydon techno"? was it he?
superb.
thee two faves of mine were the college dropout ['family business' makes you tear up] which i love and adore pretty much it must be said, you know more so than any rap album really (though i spent most of the year listening to David Banner's album from 2003, not the screwed and chopped version though just regular it must be admitted)
and the best album-length thing i heard all yr was a compilation cd-r or sumfink of SOCA that silverdollarcircle gave me (i know fuck all about soca but first hearing it tearing around the escarpments and a hilly Cheshire plain, overlooking the port of Liverpool, fields filled with beautiful flowers, was special; there was a bloke on the tram this morning that was the spit of S SDC actually - well enough for a double-take, wearing a Fred Perry trackie top would y'believe)
which was bloody brilliant {i also got some UR mix and some Kompakt mix off the kindly SDC actually which were both quite nice and i recall at the start of the year though they were from last year perhaps that a roots reggae mix off WOEBOT and his superlative 'Brick Door' being played a lot}
stupidly i never bought the junior boys album which is THE biggest gutter actually.
SINGLES
'tipsy' - j-kwon (even if he did claim, perhaps hopefully jokingly, in an interview he didn't know who Raekwon was! alright, j-kwon was only born in the mid-80's but my young cousin was a toddler at the height of the Blur/Oasis feud and he's heard of Lionel Richie and Marvin Gaye etc....)
'see it in a boy's eyes' - jamelia
'toxic' - britney
'overnight celebrity' - twista
'dirt off your shoulder/99 problems' - jay-z
'yeah' - usher & co.
'some girls (dance with women)' - jc chasez
'leave (get out)' - jojo
'the show' - girls aloud
'some girls' - rachel stevens
'lose my breath' - destiny's
'babycakes' - 3 of a kind
'my neck, my back' - khia (cheatingly included because it was released in the UK this year although it was first enjoyed in the USA last year)
didn't buy the fwd. riddim unfortunately.
DISCOVERY
George Lewis - new orleans jazz thing name escapes me - in a bargain bin - billy bargain
CONCLUSION
Kanye West, soca, singles as per, DJ Target and grime, older 80's Anglo-pop/rap/reggae/funk/soul/African nearly to detriment of anything else.
right it's my last day at work for some time i'm spending most of tomorrow sat on an airplane (you know that Tom Cruise film where he's a hitman in LA? you know how it got generally slated? well silent if you've not got the money for headphones on a plane it looks great although i guess you could say the same of much product but still) you know to go be with the lovely companion (of which i shall not drone on)
shout to all bloggers
have it on NYE wherever you do
just have it
[-typically rather pompous and onanistic list+]
bcos am lame i didn't post anything last yr (there was that small matter of the blog shutting down for months) even though i had pages&pages of tedious notes written up on galleries, movies, books, tunes, etc.
i just didn't (even two years back on an old site i recall anal categorising in numerical preferences in 10 or 20-no. blocks for reissues, comps, albums, and singles that actually got me my first link from SR - yay for solipsistic tales..) ~
well this isn't anything really, just a crock, but it's scribbled on one index card in the early hours of this morning by me (juggling calls to India and foolish family business at time so),
and
FWIW
VISUAL ART
spent an astonishing afternoon in the now closed-to-public space that is the Terra museum [web] in downtown Chicago.
the collection of American art was small but exquisite; they have stuff going on {educational linx etc} in France too.
discovering Fred Williams in February (cheers Andrew Graham-Dixon!) was, frankly, revelatory and easily a year highlight
POLITICIAN
it has to be Dr. Ian Paisley for - on the subject of Republican terrorists destroying their arms - arguing for documentary evidence, saying he wanted photographs and a Sinn Fein (?) suggestion to have clergy witness the process of decommissioning was not good enough.
quote?
"the man in his garden" must be able to see them.
brilliant.
that's proper graft that.
you can't pop to the mini-mart or cornershop and purchase that.
it just is.
FOOTBALL (soccer) SUPPORTER
the golden triumvirate of 'blokes whose first name is their team' are of course all capital fellows (roll call: Millwall Sean, Brummie Dave, the fanatical QPR John, oh perhaps there should be an innumerate mention for the good humoured and wise Scunthorpe Alex) but the honour must go to a pal of our kid, none other than Stuey the Aberdonian {who gets around tho' he lives in Yorkshire}.
he is seeing the Dons at Arbroath in the Cup next month - the ground nearest to the sea in Europe - in Scotland - in January - mm, balmy.
the bloke is a leg and i expect many a tale when he gets my bro and he into Ibrox for the league game between Aberdeen and Glasgow Rangers (Rangers and the Dons getting on so well as any footy fan will tell you)
AWAY MATCH
Altrincham vs Weymouth (Weymuff with their hatred of Yeovil aka Yeovile) in the FA Trophy (the non-league English football FA Cup, in effect) when Alty were definitely underdogs at the end of jan.
basically :-
a three day FUCKING BEANO (the game was incidental, although in beating them two nil we set in place the rot that eventually destroyed Weymouth's title challenge in their own league) in a fine town {via the noble city of Birmingham} - more on the game here - FAR too much drink & banter - one old Weymouth hand said in 30 or 40 years he'd never heard the travelling fans make such a racket [shame we lost to a fairly poor Shrewsbury in the next round at home].
BOOKS
didn't read much of anything, i'm afraid.
the last books i bought were that republished collection of Yann Martell shorts and Gunter Grass, 'Crabwalk', but they were both presents.
haven't a clue but the NYRB was a nice mag (in the year my subs to the Wire finally ran out...)
CLUB
quite possibly this fairly raucous dive of a sports bar in LaPorte, Indiana, bizarre but entertaining conversation with an American bloke whose son-in-law hails from the south coast of England (Portsmouth), blood glass and booze on the floor, and a soundtrack of, q. q. brilliantly, CRUNK if i recall (& q. possibly DJ Casper)
wonderful stuff
ONE OFF MIKE SKINNER MOMENT
IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SO EASY - during the Eastern lash the other week or so - kinda 'had to be there' - but a g. chaucer & son esq. moment and completely appropriate/wondrous/magnifico, really did say it all in a tightly controlled and concise manner like 'Darkness at noon' or Joseph Roth (he looks great in polo shirts also, i mean really great)
FILM
well there was all that Korean (and other Asian/elsewhere inna NOTED style) cinema, some arguably approaching transcendental say some, and another good year for English language and continental Europe fare in a uplifting or other good manner (Bill Murray made me cry fwiw, right at the start of 'LiT', wordlessly so) and perhaps i should say a matinee of 'der golem' (see how i'm being a prick who just wants to show how 'clever' he is here, eh eh, still gotta love it) perhaps but (the pretentious pre-amble is allowed when you read the next line)
- and read into this what you will
and not that it should necessarily say anything about oneself (but a mate with a copy and a playstation 2 meant repeated viewings so ho-hum...) - or other inarticulate 'get out of jail' phrasings heh
cinematic 2004 was defined at somedisco, for good or ill, by 'the football factory'
almost endlessly quotable, words and phrases getting reworked in formal and less formal riffs, eminent yeomen and women of the bar filling their boots with its, er, rich prose-poetry (a Sibelius tone-poem if you will)
so really if you don't know what 'the f. factory' (about soccer hooliganism and assorted pathologies) is then fair dos and if you do, remember,
anyone who runs will get properly served up later on
GIG
Ted Leo and his boys, Chicago Metro, November (granted the one concert i saw all year IIRC)
good good stuff inc. a song about 2-tone,
i especially liked Ted saying of his drummer (a stout-hearted Philly dweller) he travels better than the Eagles (sports banter is always good)
amusing Irish-American support, the Tossers, proper moshpit (i know i know, some big types too), 'Dirty Old Town' (introduced as a British tune with apologies by the frontman because it wasn't, er, Irish, but still he could have laid it on and noted a song about Salford is an English song but that's just mischief), finished with a fine 'irish rover' and started w' a nice acapella trad' arr' thing about Liverpool (or "Liverpool town" as it's never been called surely?).
the odd noxious anti-English shout from the crowd (certainly you wouldn't want to tolerate anti-Irish sentiment of a similar stripe in a similar situation) aside, main support nearly as enjoyable as Ted's proselytising and literate college rock (and easier to write about...).
of course the 'Irish-American' audience were far less Irish than my left buttock and that merely by dint of my Scottish/English/Roma heritage and coming from the British Isles which is nearer the Emerald Isle than the Midwest, but hey...
BEARDS
either Ted Leo's drummer or the chap from Iron & Wine, as it happens.
there's a joke somewhere in here about a particular lady and a particular footballer who plays for Manchester United Football Club (sorry Plc) but not in a family publication eh now... ...sorry that was probably in bad taste.
TOUCHING ROCK&POP MOMENTS
certain things to do with the Libertines (my partner being a huge fan helped), "we could have a few decent days and nights", Graham Coxon freakin' out and whatnot, Conor Oberst needing a hug, the postal service/tv on the radio/the shins/even death cab for cutie and the delays all piping up i guess, the NME giving the Manics' Holy Bible a 10 in their re-issues reviews which for old times sake and memory of spare cutting burning fury brought conversational nods of approval, Maroon 5 'This Love', 'Michael' by Franz i guess ('take me out' is grate yes you'll find no arguments here) which and yes for extra-aesthetic reasons which one should shy away from you know (in the strict Paterian sense sez H. Bloom &c) but you know that lineage etc
THINGS THE NME LIKES THAT ARE GOOD
slash, tiefic etc. whatever gets you through the night etc.
THINGS THE NME LIKES WHICH ARE NOT NECESSARILY
all these indie boys wearing eyeliner don't necessarily suit it (alright, Alex Kapranos does and so too Billie Green Day but otherwise a lot don't, let's be honest), also ties (tho' see above)
MULTIPLE CHOICE album question :=
if you could buy (a) the annie; (b) the girls aloud; (c) gwen stefani
which?
probably (c) bcos (b) can get killer singles acquired and i am woefully ignorant in the actual hearing dept of (a)
NAME ONE ALBUM BUYING CHOICE THAT WOULD HAVE SURPRISED YOU AT THE START OF THE YEAR, RELATIVE TO FAILURE TO GET ANOTHER ALBUM IN A SIMILAR NEIGHBOURHOOD
getting Wiley's album (which is just quality even just the instrumental shorts which of course tantalise w'out getting it done - was it k-punk who suggested they should see to that with a full-length list of instrumentals) but not 'Showtime'. still.
COOLEST MUSICIAN
Joanna Newsom i think?
also lazy to say but i do appreciate what Kanye does fashion-sense. and when Jay Sean (pub factoid: Jay Sean is not on the AMG database, AFAIK, tho' Rishi Rich is to be fair, a little) said that sweatbands really needed to be done away with, i wanted to kiss his forehead.
BEST USE OF MUSIC ON TV
that commercial for the Boost mobile phone with the Game, Kanye and Ludacris repping for their hoods, Luda especially in form down in Hotlanta and the girls with the really short skirts, that brilliant jump he has, Game low-riding thru the streets of Angels, West holding it down in the House of Illin'
WISH I READ MORE JOURNOS
Clive Bell, Hua Hsu, Dave Tompkins (if Matt Ingram is which is prolly unlikely reading this last one don't laff) etc - hmm maybe i miss the wire...
REELEST VIDEO
'trick me' or the video for that kidpunk outfit McFly ('room on the third floor' i think?) were both nice but it has to be '99 problems' doesn't it.
just has to be.
NOT GOOD MUSICALLY
not hearing any MIA all year i'm afraid (or Annie)
ALBUMS THE ODD RE-ISSUE AND COMPILATION ETC.
re-issue style
said Eno and the Kinks off the top of my head
actually pitchfork media has a nice re-issues list, e.g. the DNA/A. Russell/'The Third Unheard'/especially the Trax threefer ohwow {i didn't know 'Critical Beatdown' was in a re-issued fashion) etcetc
but really i think this year it has to belong to (save the cheesy black CD cover)
Ready to Die {even just ignore any remastered bumf and treat it as 'Ready to Die' and it's got to be all up in that shit, well}
compilations style
Candi Staton Honest Jons?
does the first volume of DJ Target's Aim High mix count or is that an album? that was one of the three best album length things of this year i heard this year a lot.
i didn't hear 679's 'run the road' unfortunately (living in a room, on my own, in the back) or regrettably the rephlex grime that Sherburne chanted well for and did k-punk coin "Croydon techno"? was it he?
superb.
thee two faves of mine were the college dropout ['family business' makes you tear up] which i love and adore pretty much it must be said, you know more so than any rap album really (though i spent most of the year listening to David Banner's album from 2003, not the screwed and chopped version though just regular it must be admitted)
and the best album-length thing i heard all yr was a compilation cd-r or sumfink of SOCA that silverdollarcircle gave me (i know fuck all about soca but first hearing it tearing around the escarpments and a hilly Cheshire plain, overlooking the port of Liverpool, fields filled with beautiful flowers, was special; there was a bloke on the tram this morning that was the spit of S SDC actually - well enough for a double-take, wearing a Fred Perry trackie top would y'believe)
which was bloody brilliant {i also got some UR mix and some Kompakt mix off the kindly SDC actually which were both quite nice and i recall at the start of the year though they were from last year perhaps that a roots reggae mix off WOEBOT and his superlative 'Brick Door' being played a lot}
stupidly i never bought the junior boys album which is THE biggest gutter actually.
SINGLES
'tipsy' - j-kwon (even if he did claim, perhaps hopefully jokingly, in an interview he didn't know who Raekwon was! alright, j-kwon was only born in the mid-80's but my young cousin was a toddler at the height of the Blur/Oasis feud and he's heard of Lionel Richie and Marvin Gaye etc....)
'see it in a boy's eyes' - jamelia
'toxic' - britney
'overnight celebrity' - twista
'dirt off your shoulder/99 problems' - jay-z
'yeah' - usher & co.
'some girls (dance with women)' - jc chasez
'leave (get out)' - jojo
'the show' - girls aloud
'some girls' - rachel stevens
'lose my breath' - destiny's
'babycakes' - 3 of a kind
'my neck, my back' - khia (cheatingly included because it was released in the UK this year although it was first enjoyed in the USA last year)
didn't buy the fwd. riddim unfortunately.
DISCOVERY
George Lewis - new orleans jazz thing name escapes me - in a bargain bin - billy bargain
CONCLUSION
Kanye West, soca, singles as per, DJ Target and grime, older 80's Anglo-pop/rap/reggae/funk/soul/African nearly to detriment of anything else.
right it's my last day at work for some time i'm spending most of tomorrow sat on an airplane (you know that Tom Cruise film where he's a hitman in LA? you know how it got generally slated? well silent if you've not got the money for headphones on a plane it looks great although i guess you could say the same of much product but still) you know to go be with the lovely companion (of which i shall not drone on)
shout to all bloggers
have it on NYE wherever you do
just have it
god i love blissblog [here on IDM &c]
{TBH, my fave ever Planet Mu release or the one that means the most to me is frankly, remaining above larger or more well thought of affairs, is Paradinas/Spatula's 'Full Sunken Breaks' - i used to just rinse that focker bigstyle)
{TBH, my fave ever Planet Mu release or the one that means the most to me is frankly, remaining above larger or more well thought of affairs, is Paradinas/Spatula's 'Full Sunken Breaks' - i used to just rinse that focker bigstyle)
and another list that does matter is that musical obituaries one that The Rambler posted {in a small, small way i guess a link is a homage ja - huh you think somedisco?!}
Thursday 23 December 2004
actually you know in his marvellous marvellous list Jess admits he is a rap rockist and just has never recovered from NYC being knocked off its perch well in a recent issue of Vibe (Ashanti cover) there was a fascinating article about radio play in the hot100 sense and about 70% of songs were from the South or the Midwest now on the US stations with a slimmer remainder from the east coast or the west coast so it's the south of course mostly but also the midwest running things at the moment so there we have it but there again it's perhaps not surprising about the paucity (vocab ?) of the left coast given Guerilla Black is repping for there at the mo and isn't the jury still out on him
+
i don't know
+
i don't know
comment or links to three webmags, a blog, a mag
Sherburne on Dark on IDM
i think Pitchfork deserve credit for putting Iron & Wine in their top 50 albums even if The Arcade Fire is a bit too much (though as American indie goes, the Animal Collective are OK i guess). the first two lines of their thoughts for Estelle's '1980' are a bit unfair and perhaps also lazy tho' the same writer loves 'Toxic' so one shouldn't be mean&pompous... [Simon has it]; - 'Strict Machine' into 'Some Girls' too mind gets brainstormed but again that writer likes Annie so one shouldnt etc, but damn there's some good choons in that write-up.
i think Stylus deserve credit for their fine editorialising on lists (and there's a certain rugged charm in putting C-Lo, Stina Nordenstam and John Frusciante above Girls Aloud in their albums chart; i wuv that comment from Nick Southall that "The lettering on FF t-shirts is always backwards. This is because their fans spend an inordinate amount of time observing themselves in mirrors.")
i think Dusted deserve credit entirely for their solid year in review, not least such pieces as Ben Tausig on Ethiopiques: Volume 17 and Matt Wellins' faves.
i don't think the NME deserve any credit for their capsule in the most recent edition about ten things to come out of the ODB's death. tongue in cheek or whatever and presumably over-sensitivity on this part and if you don't know what one means then you won't get any more bored here but
frankly,
offensive
[again i know this is to simplify and create crude problems and juvenile finger-pointing where there is a world of complexity and differences of opinion to be cherished but it was uncomfortable reading that one of their most rock'n'roll moments of the year was 50 Cent getting bottled at Reading: yeah, a load of mostly affluent white camping kids throwing receptacles of urine at ghettoed African-Americans but eh oh i suppose you wouldn't put tv on the radio high up the bill at an rnb festival]
Sherburne on Dark on IDM
i think Pitchfork deserve credit for putting Iron & Wine in their top 50 albums even if The Arcade Fire is a bit too much (though as American indie goes, the Animal Collective are OK i guess). the first two lines of their thoughts for Estelle's '1980' are a bit unfair and perhaps also lazy tho' the same writer loves 'Toxic' so one shouldn't be mean&pompous... [Simon has it]; - 'Strict Machine' into 'Some Girls' too mind gets brainstormed but again that writer likes Annie so one shouldnt etc, but damn there's some good choons in that write-up.
i think Stylus deserve credit for their fine editorialising on lists (and there's a certain rugged charm in putting C-Lo, Stina Nordenstam and John Frusciante above Girls Aloud in their albums chart; i wuv that comment from Nick Southall that "The lettering on FF t-shirts is always backwards. This is because their fans spend an inordinate amount of time observing themselves in mirrors.")
i think Dusted deserve credit entirely for their solid year in review, not least such pieces as Ben Tausig on Ethiopiques: Volume 17 and Matt Wellins' faves.
i don't think the NME deserve any credit for their capsule in the most recent edition about ten things to come out of the ODB's death. tongue in cheek or whatever and presumably over-sensitivity on this part and if you don't know what one means then you won't get any more bored here but
frankly,
offensive
[again i know this is to simplify and create crude problems and juvenile finger-pointing where there is a world of complexity and differences of opinion to be cherished but it was uncomfortable reading that one of their most rock'n'roll moments of the year was 50 Cent getting bottled at Reading: yeah, a load of mostly affluent white camping kids throwing receptacles of urine at ghettoed African-Americans but eh oh i suppose you wouldn't put tv on the radio high up the bill at an rnb festival]
MY LOVER IS A HOOSIER WITH THE MOST REMARKABLE EYES
Geeta means Von's here, which is indeed rather nice.
[partial] edited highlights
- jewels, bangles, baubles, bracelets and smelly stuff
- rather good Neruda anthologies/Pessoa/political thought/Saramago/'Latin American' studies &c
- some bargains to be had in the country, roots reggae and free jazz sections
- staff (well, some of the males in my experience) of both the DANCE and INDIE/ROCK variety wanting to abuse solitary English travellers with good cheer and questions of soccer inc. a genuine interest in reactions back in the day to England losing to the USA at the 1950 World Cup
- free and good (tracky, likes Carls Craig & Cox, quite meaty) mix cd-rs off the techno boy behind the counter who was all about his forthcoming Motor City allnighter with a certain Mr Hawtin
- GO BOILERMAKERS
Geeta means Von's here, which is indeed rather nice.
[partial] edited highlights
- jewels, bangles, baubles, bracelets and smelly stuff
- rather good Neruda anthologies/Pessoa/political thought/Saramago/'Latin American' studies &c
- some bargains to be had in the country, roots reggae and free jazz sections
- staff (well, some of the males in my experience) of both the DANCE and INDIE/ROCK variety wanting to abuse solitary English travellers with good cheer and questions of soccer inc. a genuine interest in reactions back in the day to England losing to the USA at the 1950 World Cup
- free and good (tracky, likes Carls Craig & Cox, quite meaty) mix cd-rs off the techno boy behind the counter who was all about his forthcoming Motor City allnighter with a certain Mr Hawtin
- GO BOILERMAKERS
Xmas sitcoms
there can be few finer moments in their history than that bit in the Blackadder effort where - on the tale of the Crucifixion - the Prince Regent describes it as
that terribly depressing one about the chap who gets born on Christmas Day, shoots his mouth off about everything under the sun, and then comes a cropper with a couple of rum coves on top of a hill in Johnny Arab land.
"you mean Jesus, sir"
Barabas a rum cove, love it {note also the absolutely perfect timing with which that episode ends}.
there can be few finer moments in their history than that bit in the Blackadder effort where - on the tale of the Crucifixion - the Prince Regent describes it as
that terribly depressing one about the chap who gets born on Christmas Day, shoots his mouth off about everything under the sun, and then comes a cropper with a couple of rum coves on top of a hill in Johnny Arab land.
"you mean Jesus, sir"
Barabas a rum cove, love it {note also the absolutely perfect timing with which that episode ends}.
Friday 17 December 2004
speaking of the newspapers i think this past week or so that ol' slum dunk presenting funk carioca [mr bongo] is the first piece of plastic and digipack jewelled case compact technology that all the main UK press (call it overground, call it Delingpole in the Telegraph, call it Marcus Dunk in the Express, call it David Mellor in the Mail on Sunday, call it what you want) has reviewed that could qualify as favela funk or whatever you want to call it.
so at least four people that wouldn't have known - and after the Love Shack burnt down! - have been alerted to Marcello's rather good (OK, frankly brilliant) top ten albums thanks to my badgering and i'm still peakin off the Jess list.
it's {probably} just my prejudices ["probably" : - who am i kidding? shyeah right!] aligning with his but damn right to all the boo urns for dance-punk and electro (but you're so cool electro, oh yes we're still cool), the bigs up for Infinite Livez and Lil Jon (this year's Neptunes is right tho', innit, although if you only read the likes of the NME, Guardian, or [free commuter] Metro you'd think it were Kanye...) and DJ Target and Ted Leo and Futureheads [the actual noise that has made me happier than any other this year is quite possibly the l/c shouting WE COULD HAVE A FEW DECENT DAYS AND NIGHTS]
and TBquiteH i don't think any sentence in 2004 has made more sense to me than 'was anyone honestly waiting...the new Chingy?' {sorry Chingy, i like your videos but let's get down to tacks}
it's {probably} just my prejudices ["probably" : - who am i kidding? shyeah right!] aligning with his but damn right to all the boo urns for dance-punk and electro (but you're so cool electro, oh yes we're still cool), the bigs up for Infinite Livez and Lil Jon (this year's Neptunes is right tho', innit, although if you only read the likes of the NME, Guardian, or [free commuter] Metro you'd think it were Kanye...) and DJ Target and Ted Leo and Futureheads [the actual noise that has made me happier than any other this year is quite possibly the l/c shouting WE COULD HAVE A FEW DECENT DAYS AND NIGHTS]
and TBquiteH i don't think any sentence in 2004 has made more sense to me than 'was anyone honestly waiting...the new Chingy?' {sorry Chingy, i like your videos but let's get down to tacks}
Thursday 16 December 2004
I very much hope the Government won't appeal - that would be a callous act
+
an editorial in yesterday's Daily Express commenting about legal opinion on events at the military base in Darul Dhyafa last September where hotel worker Baha Mousa was allegedly tortured to death by British troops was particularly foolish and embarrassing.
something else that's a bit embarrassing (for the UK govt) - as well as long overdue - is this.
coupled with this it's not been the best couple of weeks for the Home Office (ahem).
+
an editorial in yesterday's Daily Express commenting about legal opinion on events at the military base in Darul Dhyafa last September where hotel worker Baha Mousa was allegedly tortured to death by British troops was particularly foolish and embarrassing.
something else that's a bit embarrassing (for the UK govt) - as well as long overdue - is this.
coupled with this it's not been the best couple of weeks for the Home Office (ahem).
Wednesday 15 December 2004
"Other Music Yuletide Special ...
TUESDAY 21ST DECEMBER, 8pm
!! FREE ENTRY !! Well, it is Christmas.
Kelham Island Tavern, 62 Russell Street,
Sheffield S3 8RW (see below for venue details)
TATSUYA NAKATANI (percussion)
MARTIN ARCHER (reeds etc)
New York-based Japanese percussionist, has recorded with
Assif Tsahar, Billy Bang, Peter Kowald etc.
"infallible intuition ... a brilliant percussion improvisor,
capable of a wide range of sounds and qualities ... His work
dances full of thought with an overall easy clarity and
earthy groundedness." - Maria Klein, Boss-Improv
"Discussing all that beauty would take more roses than would
fill this space" - Stu Vandermark, Cadence Jazz Magazine
http://www.hhproduction.org/TATSUYA_NAKATANI_WORKS.html
Tatsuya will perform a solo set, followed by a duet
with Sheffield improv maestro Martin Archer.
--------------------
VENUE INFORMATION:
http://www.kelhamislandtavern.co.uk/
The pub is near to both the Shalesmoor tram stop and bus
stops served by numbers 13, 14, 81, 81A, 82, 87 etc. The
web site includes a link to a map of the immediate area.
It's also been deemed the best pub in Yorkshire, by CAMRA!
The other room in the pub will be hosting a traditional music
session, just in case you have non-improv-liking friends."
TUESDAY 21ST DECEMBER, 8pm
!! FREE ENTRY !! Well, it is Christmas.
Kelham Island Tavern, 62 Russell Street,
Sheffield S3 8RW (see below for venue details)
TATSUYA NAKATANI (percussion)
MARTIN ARCHER (reeds etc)
New York-based Japanese percussionist, has recorded with
Assif Tsahar, Billy Bang, Peter Kowald etc.
"infallible intuition ... a brilliant percussion improvisor,
capable of a wide range of sounds and qualities ... His work
dances full of thought with an overall easy clarity and
earthy groundedness." - Maria Klein, Boss-Improv
"Discussing all that beauty would take more roses than would
fill this space" - Stu Vandermark, Cadence Jazz Magazine
http://www.hhproduction.org/TATSUYA_NAKATANI_WORKS.html
Tatsuya will perform a solo set, followed by a duet
with Sheffield improv maestro Martin Archer.
--------------------
VENUE INFORMATION:
http://www.kelhamislandtavern.co.uk/
The pub is near to both the Shalesmoor tram stop and bus
stops served by numbers 13, 14, 81, 81A, 82, 87 etc. The
web site includes a link to a map of the immediate area.
It's also been deemed the best pub in Yorkshire, by CAMRA!
The other room in the pub will be hosting a traditional music
session, just in case you have non-improv-liking friends."
oh 4 x 4
grime
i geddit
oh mrs grime
how your children so good
+
I DON'T WANT TO ARSELICK BUT
when Matt Ingram recently wrote "It's with great sadness that I reflect that that small part of my brain where I'd go looking for the blogging thrill, the part of my cortex which glows in excitement when I ponder the fun I'm going to have writing here, feels like a spent ember. If this particular neck of the woods had a demi-semi-historic moment it lay between the dominance of NYPLM and the ascendancy of the mp3 blogs, pretty much coinciding with the rise of blissblog."
it really struck a chord with me.
it was at Luke's suggestion this blog was started and in the early days of this blog's existence the quartet of blogs i really looked up to were WoP, blissblog, heronbone and woebot, soon followed by an appreciation for lots of your other faves (naming no names but if i've ever read a music blog then i keep it up so that's loads of folk, though admittedly mostly of an continental Euro-Brit Isles-Aussie-Yank-Canuck flavour).
of course more recently there's hundreds and hundreds of ace music blogs you can check, all over the place, but on what you might call the 'familiar with the (peerless) dj martian/freaky trigger [i certainly read a recent Tom Ewing lament w' a sympathetic eye]/peking_o cathy's favourites/people who've heard of so and so or etc' list {well i do, that is my blogging fix save a few politics blogs etc such as my boy Harm}
i don't want to sound like a brown-noser above btw!
but anyway, er,
yeah!
but hundreds of brilliant music blogs on many different areas abounding is still something good and even though i've been personally really unenthusiastic about blogging for ages and ages (and even though this blog itself was never anything it did at least use to have more energetic and longer and more frequent posts etcetc) now i'd like to think the incomparable Erase The World might have jolted me awake with his round-up of the other day,
especially the sentence
Someone even said, I overheard him in a popular indie dive, saying that The Zombies were a better band! The Zombies!...go boil your head and hang out in Mono less, you vegan cunt
=
which just made me crease up/
so, er, yeah,
big up your chests
grime
i geddit
oh mrs grime
how your children so good
+
I DON'T WANT TO ARSELICK BUT
when Matt Ingram recently wrote "It's with great sadness that I reflect that that small part of my brain where I'd go looking for the blogging thrill, the part of my cortex which glows in excitement when I ponder the fun I'm going to have writing here, feels like a spent ember. If this particular neck of the woods had a demi-semi-historic moment it lay between the dominance of NYPLM and the ascendancy of the mp3 blogs, pretty much coinciding with the rise of blissblog."
it really struck a chord with me.
it was at Luke's suggestion this blog was started and in the early days of this blog's existence the quartet of blogs i really looked up to were WoP, blissblog, heronbone and woebot, soon followed by an appreciation for lots of your other faves (naming no names but if i've ever read a music blog then i keep it up so that's loads of folk, though admittedly mostly of an continental Euro-Brit Isles-Aussie-Yank-Canuck flavour).
of course more recently there's hundreds and hundreds of ace music blogs you can check, all over the place, but on what you might call the 'familiar with the (peerless) dj martian/freaky trigger [i certainly read a recent Tom Ewing lament w' a sympathetic eye]/peking_o cathy's favourites/people who've heard of so and so or etc' list {well i do, that is my blogging fix save a few politics blogs etc such as my boy Harm}
i don't want to sound like a brown-noser above btw!
but anyway, er,
yeah!
but hundreds of brilliant music blogs on many different areas abounding is still something good and even though i've been personally really unenthusiastic about blogging for ages and ages (and even though this blog itself was never anything it did at least use to have more energetic and longer and more frequent posts etcetc) now i'd like to think the incomparable Erase The World might have jolted me awake with his round-up of the other day,
especially the sentence
Someone even said, I overheard him in a popular indie dive, saying that The Zombies were a better band! The Zombies!...go boil your head and hang out in Mono less, you vegan cunt
=
which just made me crease up/
so, er, yeah,
big up your chests
Friday 10 December 2004
Thursday 9 December 2004
when i was 18 i had a Dimebag Darrell poster on the wall of my room.
the damson and purple hair streaks and the big smile made for a cheerful face.
from Texan titty bars and enjoying his bourbon to the appreciation of barbecued food and providing much of the crunch in 'Walk' Dimebag clearly knew what he was on about.
here then, was a bloke who could play guitar.
(there was an Anselmo interview in Metal Hammer once which memorably described as "horseshit" some demos he and some buddies had made when they were messing around, with Anselmo on drums. he was always interested in the New Orleans sludge scene.
now there went a band)
the damson and purple hair streaks and the big smile made for a cheerful face.
from Texan titty bars and enjoying his bourbon to the appreciation of barbecued food and providing much of the crunch in 'Walk' Dimebag clearly knew what he was on about.
here then, was a bloke who could play guitar.
(there was an Anselmo interview in Metal Hammer once which memorably described as "horseshit" some demos he and some buddies had made when they were messing around, with Anselmo on drums. he was always interested in the New Orleans sludge scene.
now there went a band)
Wednesday 8 December 2004
Sunday 5 December 2004
Wednesday 1 December 2004
reading Simon's piece on 679's grime comp, firstly in the editor cut to be fully invigorated, i was reminded why - like a fair few by the numbers music publications (i bet that man 86400 is with me on this) - i've not got a massive amount of time for the OMM.
it's not the smug little pen portraits or the general lameness/one's-trumpetness of such asides as, re. grime, we were far from lagging behind the times, but a 65-year old grandfather had beaten us [let's be fair, you and Peelie were lagging behind 1Xtra and the blogs though], i don't really know what it is.
it's all just too much, er, much.
anyway, back to blissbog and the night advertised sounds rather tasty; for a Chi spin on UKG saw an interesting flyer {front, back, more details here} t'other day, bit intrigued by the flyer line-up (no one didn't make it), "speed garage and 4x4", "grime/sublow and 4x4", what is that 4x4, house?
i dinnae understand (tho' DJ Sushi is known as a Stateside UKG head it's true).
oh, btw, if you're into fanzines then this from the same site sounds niiiice
out of other rote mags (as, you know, opposed to always good ones like URB or songlines or the wire yea despite its faults), i think my fave recent moments in some of them include a recent Q if only for a notable/funny Stipe interview (in which he gets in a huff cause they rudely ask about his orientation), a Spin from last summer (July, if memory serves), in which someone compares M.O.P.'s 'Ante Up' to Carmina Burana, and seeing Dele Fadele wax lyrical about Go Betweens re-issues in the NME was nice, for memory's sake anyhoo.
i must admit, re. the NME, although slash is nice and all, not being someone who is overly enthused to hear which male member of the NME staff is making it with which bassist from which London guttersnipe punk outfit at the mo, the last genuinely exciting NME moment (i apologise for repeating myself) for me was quite possibly a frankly inspirational and really rather good review of that Big Youth threefer Blood & Fire once put out, by Dele Fadele (and that release is a few years old now i think), so...
speaking of Big Youth, the wonderful Simon SDC has a fab tee shirt with the mug of said chap on it that his mate made and i want one
having said that, the re-issues page here, on some Ali Farka Toure products, i know it's a honest mistake but "How very November 1967. But this was their masterpiece, and deserves its lavish repackaging, complete with outtakes, albeit no original acid blotter."
er, Ali being a solo artist, but hey nevermind...
it's not the smug little pen portraits or the general lameness/one's-trumpetness of such asides as, re. grime, we were far from lagging behind the times, but a 65-year old grandfather had beaten us [let's be fair, you and Peelie were lagging behind 1Xtra and the blogs though], i don't really know what it is.
it's all just too much, er, much.
anyway, back to blissbog and the night advertised sounds rather tasty; for a Chi spin on UKG saw an interesting flyer {front, back, more details here} t'other day, bit intrigued by the flyer line-up (no one didn't make it), "speed garage and 4x4", "grime/sublow and 4x4", what is that 4x4, house?
i dinnae understand (tho' DJ Sushi is known as a Stateside UKG head it's true).
oh, btw, if you're into fanzines then this from the same site sounds niiiice
out of other rote mags (as, you know, opposed to always good ones like URB or songlines or the wire yea despite its faults), i think my fave recent moments in some of them include a recent Q if only for a notable/funny Stipe interview (in which he gets in a huff cause they rudely ask about his orientation), a Spin from last summer (July, if memory serves), in which someone compares M.O.P.'s 'Ante Up' to Carmina Burana, and seeing Dele Fadele wax lyrical about Go Betweens re-issues in the NME was nice, for memory's sake anyhoo.
i must admit, re. the NME, although slash is nice and all, not being someone who is overly enthused to hear which male member of the NME staff is making it with which bassist from which London guttersnipe punk outfit at the mo, the last genuinely exciting NME moment (i apologise for repeating myself) for me was quite possibly a frankly inspirational and really rather good review of that Big Youth threefer Blood & Fire once put out, by Dele Fadele (and that release is a few years old now i think), so...
speaking of Big Youth, the wonderful Simon SDC has a fab tee shirt with the mug of said chap on it that his mate made and i want one
having said that, the re-issues page here, on some Ali Farka Toure products, i know it's a honest mistake but "How very November 1967. But this was their masterpiece, and deserves its lavish repackaging, complete with outtakes, albeit no original acid blotter."
er, Ali being a solo artist, but hey nevermind...
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