Warren Ellis loves music! People, not so much

PREVIEW: VISIT Warren Ellis’s website/blog

This was news to me, but apparently when Warren Ellis isn’t lovingly insulting half the world on Twitter or writing some of the most acclaimed comics of the past two decades (Astonishing X-Men, Planetary, Transmetropolitan, The Authority, Stormwatch, etc.), he’s critiquing relatively unknown music for the benefit of the greater blogosphere.

For anyone who’s initiated in any way to Ellis’s writing (notorious for meticulously layered plots, course dialogue and biting social commentary), it comes as no surprise that he would have just as strong opinions on music in 2009 as he does on everything else he writes about.

In his latest blog post, some highlights he discusses include Zola Jesus (“a beautiful ghost moaning from the shadows of a bombed-out cathedral”), High Wolf (“wet lo-fi tropical dreamstates”), British Sea Power (“the best piece of classical building/soaring postrock I’ve heard since ‘Raise Yr Skinny Fists.’ I mean, flat fucking out…”) and Gary War (“A gorgeous gurgling gargoyle of a thing”).

Sometimes it’s just cool to know that a 40+ year-old misanthrope — who introduced you to higher science fiction and colored your opinions of establishment politics — digs some of the same genres of music.

To ape Ellis’s own words and his tendency to close with brevity: “It is really bloody good, yes.”

– Eric Vilas-Boas, Managing Editor

[NOTE: This post pertains to Warren Ellis the writer. There is another Warren Ellis, a musician and composer who has collaborated with Nick Cave, info on him here]

¡Más difícil todavía! Señoras y señores ¡Pasen y vean! Se rifa el mejor álbum de la temporada 2009 (el top de las mejores canciones del año es este)

Y, como igual ustedes andan perdidos entre tanta oferta disquera del año… yo, humildemente, me he tomado la libertad de hacerles una selección previa.

¡Vota ya! Que el ganador se llevará un perrito piloto (que yo, sacrificadamente, tendré a bien entregar en mano… si ustedes me lo financian)

Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

Bat For Lashes – Two Suns

Bob Dylan – Together Through Life

British Sea Power – Man Of Aran

Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career

Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

Sonic Youth – The Eternal

The Cribs – Ignore The Ignorant

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

 Wilco – The Album

As always, Saturday was taken over by gallivanting.  Isn’t that possibly one of the best words ever created? Gallivanting. I gallivant, you gallivant, he/she/it gallivants. Brilliant. Anyway… Yes, Saturday was a day for cruising round the mill towns of the Peak District; all sparked by a visit to the auction house to pick up my winnings.

Alas, I didn’t bid high enough on the vintage hats (slight despondency at this, but I shall learn how this auction malarkey goes with time – malarkey, there’s another great word of the English language). However, I did manage to win one item:

Avon Fly-A-Balloon Moonwind Cologne Bottle

This little chap is the only thing that I won – for the grand sum of £4. I didn’t realise it was Avon when I first picked it up; I thought perhaps it was some old decorative figurine.  Then I turned it over and read the ‘Avon’ impression on the bottom. Good design, nice materials plus the Avonness… had to be mine, really.

I’ve got a few Avon bits and bobs, but he’s definitely the best one so far. I’m envisaging him sat on a shelf in a bathroom, alongside some of the other bits of vintage Avon.  As always, I’ve researched him as much as I can on the internet.  There isn’t a vast amount to find out: he’s called ‘Fly-A-Balloon’, he’s a cologne bottle for the scent ‘Moonwind’ and he’s not valuable really.

As well as the trip to the auction house, we also visited Holmfirth and Huddersfield to have a look round. We actually got nothing in any charity shops in either place. Actually, that’s a lie: I bought a book for my reading shelf at school.

The reason for visiting Huddersfield was to pick up an amusing Ebay item that my boyfriend had purchased. He’d won some Beanie Baby toys – 31 of them – to sell on the car boot sales next year. Good job he only paid 99p for them as they were covered in dog hair… yuck!

If you’ve never been to Huddersfield before: don’t bother. It’s really not anything to write home about.  The only items of interest were the following:

Cool blue tiles in the midst of a 60s shopping hell-hole… Former shop underneath was called ‘Mobile Mani’. Good to know that basic words are so difficult to get wrong!

The reason for this photo is the shop name: Something Wicked This Way Comes.  We like a band called British Sea Power, they have a song called ‘Something Wicked’ using the line ’something wicked this way comes’; this in itself is a reference to Macbeth (by the pricking of my thumbs/something wicked this way comes) and Ray Bradbury’s book ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’ – subsequently turned into a play. All of which, I like rather a lot.  I did get spotted taking the picture, which earned me a funny look which turned even funnier as I then had to backtrack and scurry past the shop owner to get to a charity shop down the street…

Two videos for your delectation: one, a fan-made video of the British Sea Power song ‘Something Wicked’; the other, a preview (in retrospect!) of the theatrical production of ‘Something Wicked…’ by the Catherine Wheel Theatre Company.

I saw a piece the other day about the concept of Umami (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umami). It is Japanese idea concerning a certain combination of flavours working to produce a stronger flavoured whole. The example they used was marmite being spread on bread, under cheese and then toasted. The overall effect was to exagerate the flavour of the cheese. There are other ingredients which, when added to meals, boost the overall flavour. The ones highlighted were worcester sauce, tomato ketchup, and parmesan. They said that the highest form of Umami is expressed through sushi where the flavours are balanced to perfection in order to highlight all the constituent parts.

Yum, sushi!

Somehow this got me thinking about the nature of taste and emotion, how I feel about certain film, music and art. Whether there is an equivalent of Umami in these fields because there are some films that produce an indescribable feeling of contradictions that gives the whole flavour much deeper impact. A life-affirming ennui or hopelessness seems to be the thing that really makes a film impact on me most severely and I can’t always pinpoint why.

Sickert's 'Ennui', from the Tate's Degas, Sickert, Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition in 2006 - which was amazing by the way.

Films like About Schmidt, Donnie Darko, American Beauty, Fight Club, Lost In Translation, Old Boy, Pan’s Labyrinth, In Bruges, The City of the Lost Children, The Motorcycle Diaries, Spirited Away, Clerks, Batteries Not Included (yes, really), Leon, and Ghost In The Shell all bring me this feeling that I love completely but that I find wholly unsettling and disturbing. It is not just in film that it can be found either. The novels of Knut Hamsun, George Orwell, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Franz Kafka, Nikolai Gogol, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Victor Hugo all have it. The art of Mark Rothko, Egon Schiele, Walter Sickert, and Vincent Van Gogh all have it. The music of Radiohead, British Sea Power (Man of Aran mainly), UNKLE, The Strokes, Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin, Doves, Queens Of The Stone Age, Libertines, The Strokes, Ella Fitzgerald, and Billie Holiday all have it at times. What is it that draws all of these together though?

Franz Kafka, does his strange surreal existentialism change the way I think?

For films it seems to be sadness and loss that particularly flick my switches. In literature there are few moments that have moved me so much as Prince Andrei’s death in War & Peace. The death of Jean Valjean in Les Miserables was another emotional one. Crime & Punishment was a terrifying one for me because I could feel it playing with my mind as I read it. I became so involved with Radion Raskolnikov’s plight and mental deterioration that my own mood changed. The starvation of the lead character in Knut Hamsun’s ‘Hunger’ and the Parisian exploits of Orwell in Down & Out make my heart yearn for something whether it’s a mythical and romanticised version of the past or something missing from my own existence and experience. It’s a struggle between these two poles and what balances it all out seems to be love in the middle. It’s hard to find the love in any of Orwell’s books but there is something there, perhaps a love of the poor and downtrodden people of the world. I’m not sure but everything else involves either a woman or God, or both. I’m certainly no Christian but the exhilaration of Jean Valjean’s piety was amazing to me. It invigorated me whilst simultaneously depressing and hurting me. A very strange sensation but one I do revel in when I discover it.

The pious, wandering ex-convict Jean Valjean.

Again and again I go looking for this feeling and it crops up in unexpected places. Certain key changes in a piece of music or a lingering shot of a normal room in a film will trigger it too. Something mathematical and related to the golden ratio I expect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio)? My thinking on this subject is so far only a week old but I will work on it and try to unravel exactly what it is that makes me tick in this respect. Other people must know this particular sensation too, perhaps someone else can help to explain it better than I am?

From the start of Lost in Translation

Do you like rock music? Most probably, yes.

It’s the most expressive medium in human history and provides undemanding employment for many thousands. Rock music is all around us. British Sea Power are a four-man indie rock band from Brighton, England who have rocked the stage on a global scale. They all have two legs, and two arms which makes them look like almost any other famous rock group, but these guys add something special. They have a nostalgic demeanor about  their style, which transports you back in time when music was refreshing and real. These guys seem like your regular “Bills & Bobs”, who know how to play good music, but enjoy life for what it’s worth. The band consists of four guys dressed in knitted wool and one subtle beauty on the violin. I was right next to their manager (who may have had a black eye at the time), and he was very understanding considering the rowdy bunch of laricans i was standing next to. None the less, an excellent night for Rock & Roll ! The Yours (a local group) was the opening act, who did a bloody good job to get things heated up for the main act, and my hat goes off to their attitude and costumes !

(This is “The Yours”, HK band) followed by britishseapower.

-Photography by Henri le payole.

mais uma para o lp ‘do you like rock music?’.
e o arranque desta só não é do cacete porque isso era estar a repetir o post anterior e o meu prontuário ortográfico não recomenda.

só agora reparei que não tinhamos nada destes finocchi.
recomendo, especialmente, o álbum ‘do you like rock music?’ (2008).
o início desta é assim para o arcade fireano (do ‘funeral’).

Asylum was very pleased to contribute to Branchage International Film Festival 2009 and happy to have attended various screenings and shows. The festival programme was very diverse, the quality of films was extraordinarily high, and the lineup of special guests, producers, directors and media experts was starry. Branchage provides a way for artists, musicians, film makers, writers, and all sorts of talented people to come together, make friends, party, network, plan for future projects, and indulge their passions for artistic diversity and cinematic excellence, and this year’s event delivered all that in spades. There is a very nice review of the festival at The Quietus.

Very big thanks to Justin, Fluff, Leonie, Zach, Flavio, Colin, John, Tobi, Tharindu, Sam, the staff of Live Lounge and the bands for helping to make sure our show was a success. What a great team we made! Thanks to Nina, music programmer, Carla, producer, and Philip, festival programmer, for their great work and support. It was especially thrilling for us to have Philip come to the show and introduce All Tomorrow’s Parties.

Click on the images below to view them large.

Brobots!

Whitechapel Murders

Nailed To The Furnace

Brighton post-rock band British Sea Power performed a live soundtrack to Robert J. Flaherty’s film Man Of Aran at Jersey Opera House. Their music was played with treated guitars, bass, trumpet, keyboards, strings and drums, and made up of little motifs, as if phrases from rock music had been sampled, looped and layered, building in intensity and ebbing away. It was an epic concert. Images of waves smashing into cliffs, schools of sharks, and a hard people living with the barest means under enormous, merciless skies contrasted powerfully with the band’s minimalist drones and metronomic pulses. I think taking photos wasn’t permitted but I managed to get one anyway from my seat in the dress circle.

Brobots! were back for the final night of the festival greeting audience members at the entrance to the Opera House. Duncan Jones’ new film Moon, an homage to the eerie, existential science fiction of the early seventies, in which themes of loneliness of space and fragility of identity are explored with masterful narrative skill, had to be postponed until later that evening and relocated to another venue. For those that could attend the late screening it felt very clandestine and exclusive, especially as the director was there to introduce his film.

This morning over breakfast (running to the much more sociable hour of half 10, meaning a 10:25 rise for me) I had a most Interesting chat with a Melbourne lad with Greek parents. There was a joint discussion on SEO, I explained the Blogsherpa program to him and he TEFL to me. TEFL is something I’d heard of before and I may well try and complete a quick online course in it when back in Blighty in December. It could prove useful post Australasia adventure, i.e. Asia.

I saw a Twiiter post (tweet to the initiated) yesterday from the fellas over at Hey! Manchester raving about the KEXP Music That Matters podcast. They are usually on the money so I’ve given it a whirl and have not been disappointed. If like me, you like lo-fi indie and Americana, fill your boots.

I’m having a bit of trouble working out my route at the moment. But I’ve just sat down for an hour and had a go, here’s the latest draft:

Sofia-Skopje-Pristina-Podgorica-Kotor-Tirana-Ohrid

Or in country form:

Bulgaria-Macedonia-Kosovo-Montenegro-Albania-Macedonia (again)

After that I’ll be heading south, ultimately to Athens and then a ferry crossing from Patra to Italy. Route yet to be formalised!

It’s a very overcast day here in Sofia but I’m not going to let that daunt me and shall shortly be going on a heavy duty walk around the city. I’m armed with the excellent Hostel Mostel map that has pretty much everything you could want on it detailed. Jobs a good ‘n.

The sun has come out now and I’ve just sorted my bus ticket to Skopje, 32 Lev with my ISIC. It’s 16:00 and I’ve not ate since breakfast so time to grub up now.

While looking for somewhere to eat I nipped into a supermarket to get some apple juice (which is pretty much as close as I get to fruit nourishment on my adventures). There were 3 kids who were definetely no older than 14 all stocking up on beer, the checkout lady didn’t bat an eyelid. Bulgaria eh.

I’m sat in Cactus and have ordered the Teriyaki duck fillet with coriander rice noodles. I nearly opted for the pork chop and potatoes with barbeque sauce but decided to leave my comfort zone just a little. A pint of Zagorka is the accompaniment. The food was a posh portion (i.e. not that large) but absolutely lovely. The main was about half as much again as it said on the menu, I’m not sure why. I didnt say anything as for what I ate and a beer it came to the equivalent of less than 8 quid anyway, which isn’t bad at all for what I got.

Plus it’s a free beer and pasta in the hostel tonight. Geordie joy juice.

Bugger, I have just realised I’ve got teriyaki sauce on my City shirt. Classy eh. Those noodles do tend to lead to a bit of splash back though. Bugger. To disguise my shame I’ve whacked my North Face jacket on but it’s far too hot to be sporting such clothing, 15 minutes to the hostel and with a quick change all will be right with the world again.

I’m a little bit worried about catching the The Villains vs The Citizens game this eve. Hopefully I’ll just buy some cans in and watch it at the hostel but it’s quite a busy place so someone could scupper my plans by whacking a DVD on at half 8 or something, it’s a 10 o’clock KO local time so in theory I’d have to guard the telly from about 8 which would be a right pain.

My plan is to guard from about half 9 and then if someone is already watching Saw VIII I’ll have to leg it to one of the Irish pubs on my map. This in itself is risky as the game won’t finish to getting towards midnight and I think they’ll want to chuck out before then. If it does come to that maybe they’ll take pity on me and let me see it out, especially if Martin Petrov is having a blinder.

Okay, I’ve just made an executive decision; I’m not going to go to Rila Monastery tomorrow. I’m sure it’s very nice and everything but it will save me €20 and give me the chance to do the full on tour of Sofia I intended to do today as it’s a bit late in the day for it now. Also it will give me the chance to have 3 consecutive decent night’s kip in a row for a long long time as I won’t need to get up early. Although I’d really like to see the monastery (and shall do one day), that’s a rather hefty plus column in my book.

To celebrate this decision I’ve just bought six 500ml bottles of different brand beer while listening to British Sea Power. The running order shall be Stella Artois, Zagorka, Becks, Kamenitza, Staropramen and Apuaha.

Hey everyone. I know I’ve really been slacking with the blog lately — not that anyone would notice, since I haven’t had a double-digit hit count since September 24 — but I just haven’t really felt like blogging for whatever reason. I’d like to say I had a better excuse than that for slacking off with this thing, but that’s just how it is.

Anyway, here’s the playlist from the 9/25/09 show. Hopefully one of these days I’ll actually write something more substantial than one of these playlist posts. That, however, would require me to stop being a lazy slacker.

1. Radiohead, “Bangers & Mash” (In Rainbows bonus disc)

2. TV On The Radio, “Golden Age” (Dear Science)

3. Arctic Monkeys, “Fake Tales Of San Francisco” (Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not)

4. Cave In, “Lost In The Air” (Antenna)

5. Band Of Horses, “Is There A Ghost” (Cease To Begin)

6. RX Bandits, “Tainted Wheat” (…And The Battle Begun)

7. At The Drive-In, “A Devil Among The Tailors” (In/Casino/Out)

8. Kings Of Leon, “Notion” (Only By The Night)

9. Interpol, “Slow Hands” (Antics)

10. Deerhunter, “Saved By Old Times” (Microcastle)

11. The Clash, “Lost In The Supermarket” (London Calling)

12. British Sea Power, “Down On The Ground” (Do You Like Rock Music?)

13. Thrice, “As The Crow Flies” (The Alchemy Index: Vol. 3 — Air)

14. Foo Fighters, “Cold Day In The Sun” (In Your Honor)

15. Spoon, “Jonathon Fisk” (Kill The Moonlight)

16. My Morning Jacket, “Thank You Too!” (Evil Urges)

17. Minus The Bear, “When We Escape” (Planet Of Ice)

18. The National, “Secret Meeting” (Alligator)

19. R.E.M., “Near Wild Heaven” (Out Of Time)

20. Pavement, “Major Leagues” (Terror Twilight)

21. Radiohead, “Lucky” (OK Computer)

22. Red Hot Chili Peppers, “She’s Only 18″ (Stadium Arcadium)

23. Muse, “Muscle Museum” (Showbiz)

24. Snow Patrol, “Shut Your Eyes” (Eyes Open)

25. Bloc Party, “Signs” (Intimacy)

26. Weezer, “El Scorcho” (Pinkerton)

27. The Beach Boys, “Wendy” (Endless Summer)

28. The Decemberists, “O Valencia!” (The Crane Wife)

29. Elvis Costello, “Veronica” (Spike)

30. The Beatles, “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” (Abbey Road)

As trains chug deep down into the faded glories of Brighton’s heart, specs of smoke paletted in accordance with the Union Jack drizzle down from the exhausts of the decadent Red Arrows. The murky clouds above threaten to dampen the mundane pavements with far worse and nothing spells disappointment and disillusion quite like the disintegration of the festival season. It is September after all and perhaps not the ideal time to stage a beachside festival. The wind rattles over the curvaceous pebbles of the shore like wet fingers circling the rims of haughty wine glasses in deserted restaurants and the once-sparkling sea’s bracing to the point of pneumonia induction. And suddenly, the glorious heavens pierce through cracks in the cover and Brighton basks in effervescent light.

Slumped half way between the cobbled sea front and its neighbouring road like a beached whale, White Air boasts an entirely unfathomable amount of extreme sports ranging from utterly breath-taking (60-foot diving boards targeting oversized paddling pools) to the entirely bemusing (rolling metal fibre surfing). In amongst the modest rabble clawing for sleep-deprivating energy shots and Rowntrees Randoms intertwine remote-controlled skateboards and it becomes devastatingly apparent that the extremity of musical debauchery takes a rare back seat. Quite honestly, Friday’s bill is something of a hodgepodge, albeit a rather spectacular soldering of genres and infamy that don’t quite stick; 90s indie guitar hero Evan Dando and his Lemonheads fall prey once more to bizarre bookings, placed below hometown hedonists British Sea Power and doom-pop pretenders White Lies. His extreme sport fanaticism extends to “skateboards and sex” and from then on, a fine line is struck in the sand. Taking to the stage before the suited and booted of the south coast have had time to rip off their ties and in the words of contemporary Scottish Saint Calvin Harris, put on their shoes ready for the weekend, Dando’s fairly merry band of ragged gentlemen ought already have taken to the stage. Although they’re delayed as Evan disappears off into the sea. Apparently…

Tonight, well, this afternoon, Dando exorcises a subliminally lo-fi set of indie inspiration plunging primarily into the seminal waster anthemia It’s A Shame About Ray. Whilst the likes of Bit Part, Confetti and a barnstorming rendition of the oh-so-apt Rudderless sew the seams together, the trimmings come thick and fast from Varshons and beyond. The contestable highlight comes in a heart-shaped box, as a rousing run-through of Big Gay Heart, is, predictably and endearingly dedicated to the jewel in the Sussex crown. Layin’ Up With Linda explains somewhat the slightly contrived latest covers outing yet it’s at home that Dando strikes the home runs, with Into Your Arms cajoling flailing limbs and heart-wrenching howls right back into his wavering, wind-swept goldilocks. Once a fallen angel, these days he’s an underground hero cowering in the corner seeking serenity, evading the mainstream martyrdom that’s dogged him perilously previously.

British Sea Power flood the stage with military paraphernalia and half of the shrubbery of Westonbirt Arboretum before Wurlitzer sirens and smoke turn proceedings into something of a steam train convention. Musically sound but never spectacular, flagging followings and conventional-turned-conservative songwriting have transformed BSP into something of a festival formality, although Remember Me still tugs on a heartstring or two. Dashing over in a helicopter seemingly temporarily borrowed from the special services, White Lies jet over from supporting Coldplay at Wembley to blare out their expired hollowed melodrama as the sun sets on the strip. Almost an hour late and out of tune, heartbreak may triumph if their disaffected monotony were in any way anticipated.

“Help me be Captain of our crippled disguises. I won’t show what’s underneath, it’s time for surprises” soothes Simon Neil of Biffy Clyro on the crass-pop follow-up to tonight’s megalomaniacal opener That Golden Rule, The Captain. And just for tonight, he steers the sails of White Air from the winds of despair into triumphant waters. Surprises are thin on the ground with Bubbles offering the singular glimpse into the Ayrshire trio’s fascinating future, yet they pulsate through a pop-pummelling set to rival Girls Aloud, albeit in a parallel universe. Glitter and Trauma injects venom into a devastating and devious forty-five minutes filled with more thrills and spills than the precarious pier rollercoaster. Following an incendiary Who’s Got A Match, Love Has A Diameter raises hairs on necks like pins into the hearts of beloved voodoo dolls before 9/15ths lurches into view and Mountains brings their adrenaline-fuelled guitar jolts and jerks crumbling to the ground in disjointed cacophony. Shrouded in delays and missed trains, White Air’s predominant failing was in its vague neglect of Britain’s only true heart-on-sleeve rock behemoths.

1 2 3 4 5

Bands soundtracking old movies can be a bit of a hit and miss scenario. Too often they fall into the trap of pretentious and dramatic flourishes and try to create an ambient or pseudo-classical sounding collection of music. British Sea Power have done just that but in their case they are working with a piece of film that calls for just that response.

Man Of Aran is a partly dramatised 1934 documentary about the people of the Aran Islands off the eastern coast of Ireland. Shot in stark black + white it tells the story of families fighting the elements and living off the land and ocean; harvesting potatoes and hunting basking sharks in wild seas.  Many of the practices seen in the film had long been stopped by the islanders so director Robert J. Flaherty used locals to act out many of the scenes where traditional methods, like the shark hunting, were used.

The documentary won the Grand Prix at the 1935 Venice Film Festival and British Sea Power have attempted to give the film a suitably grand musical soundtrack. They dispense with many of the rock trappings that characterise their sound and utilise piano, strings and haunting percussion and effects. In a nutshell this is post-rock of the Mogwai, Godspeed variety with some Dirty Three flourishes thrown in, especially when the tempo lifts during the steady build of The South Sound.

One of three 11 minute pieces, The South Sound is rich with measured, almost krautrock drumming and some incessant violin playing which heightens the mood. When heard with the accompanying DVD it reflects perfectly the wild and dramatic environment of the islands. The wind and waves crash and swirl, as does the music.

The DVD really is essential viewing as a piece of cinema and also to do justice to the music. Heard alone, it has its peaks like The South Sound but it can tend to drift a little too much and lose focus. With the stark monochromatic images adding another level to the music there is a real connection and the subtler passages become all the more effective.

The rise and fall of actions and emotions in the film are matched by the music. During the shark hunting scene the monstrous rollicking Spearing The Sunfish pounds on with barely controlled chaos before relief is found in the soothing and beautiful melodies of Coneely Of The West.

The final track No Man Is An Archipelago encapsulates all the themes and styles that British Sea Power use through the album. It swells with an epic sweep much like Mogwai and Sigur Ros at their finest and it symbolises the triumph over adversity theme that is at the centre of both the film and its music.

Experiencing the band playing the soundtrack live at a screening would no doubt be a moving experience but thankfully in this digital age we still get to experience what Flaherty and British Sea Power have created. It is a testament to both that the result works so well, even if the creation of their art is separated by 75 years.

Yesterday I went on my 2nd bargain bin trip in the past week and it was also a great success. I remembered the other day that I had searched through a pretty cool bargain bin at this book store (seriously probably 7 years ago) in

West Chester. Since Helen, my girlfriend, loves books I figured it was an easy sell to drag her along to. I actually think yesterdays finds were better then last time at Disc World.

The music store portion of Chester County Book Company actually had a cd-singles bargain bin… which is like (for me) the highly coveted bin of bargain bins. There were some gems I had to skip over because I just felt they weren’t worthy enough, like a Placebo single & a Deftones single (which had another live version of my own summer, GAH!)

So today I found a really really awesome single from British Sea Power’s 2nd LP “Open Season” along with a mediocre single for Weezer’s “We are all on drugs” (i wanted to hear the beverly hills remix) and lastly Sons & Daughters with “Taste the last girl” with a b-side I didn’t even know existed

so (quickly) here some new bargain bin love… don’t expect another one of these for a little while.

British Sea Power “It Ended On An Oily Stage” Single
When I Go Out (evangeline session)
Crystal Horse

Weezer “We Are All On Drugs” Single
Beverly Hills (urbanix remix)

Sons & Daughters “Taste The Last Girl” Single
Stranger Song

Word

gadabout [gad-uh-bout] n. 1. a person who moves about restlessly or aimlessly, esp. from one social activity to another 2. a person who travels often or to many different places, esp. for pleasure

Birthday

Claudius Clavus (1388), Johann Michael Haydn (1737), Hamlin Garland (1860), Harry Sinden (1932), Walter Koenig (1936), Larry Brown (1940), Joey Heatherton (1944), Sam Neill (1947), Beth Neilsen Chapman (1958), Wendy Thomas (1961), Faith Ford (1964), Dan Cortese (1967), Tyler Perry (1969), Robert Ben Garant (1970), Kimberly Williams-Paisley (1971), Nas (1973), Amy Winehouse (1983)

Standpoint

Oh, man, yesterday was the first Sunday of NFL season, and, Christ, could it have been more dramatic for the Philadelphia Eagles and their fans? I’m completely sure the answer is no.

Yesterday afternoon, Donovan McNabb ran in for a 3rd quarter touchdown, putting another nail in the coffin his team was busy building for a supremely shitty Carolina Panthers football team. And then some 300-lb. dude named Damione Lewis landed all of his significant weight on McNabb’s rib cage, causing some sort of damage, the extent of which is not yet fully determined. 

Suddenly, as McNabb was writhing in pain on the turf, and FOX Sports was already showing the live feed of Michael Vick up in some luxury box, it wasn’t hard to envision the lightbulbs go on over the collective braintrust that is Philadelphia Eagles fans everywhere.

Later, as Kevin Kolb entered the game and did just a tiny bit better playing quarterback than, say, a robot I might make in my basement out of old stereo components, it wasn’t hard to conjure what every die-hard, bleeding-green member of Eagles’ nation was thinking.

Dogs? What dogs? I sort of remember something about Michael Vick and dogs. I kind of remember there being some kind of negative attention he may have attracted to himself involving something he did with/to dogs. It’s all a bit fuzzy. Let’s move on.

Couple of superb truths are about to be brought to light regarding “the best fans in football.”

One, this city seems to get its rocks off on when a guy, who’s done nothing but smile through all the massive amounts of shit we’ve hurled his way, gets physically injured. (I’ll elaborate more on the McNabb/Philadelphia relationship in tomorrow’s post.)

Two, all the clowns who were so “outraged” by the Vick signing are going to find that feeling suddenly replaced with outright panic over who’s going to quarterback the football team they’ve dedicated endless hours revolving their lives around.

Instantaneously, this city is about to change its tune. Because, while the pointless slaughter of defenseless dogs is, yes, a crime, it doesn’t come close to the potential atrocity of not making the playoffs.

Quotation

I’m always concerned that I’m not being nice enough. You know, people have told me I’m unfailingly polite….But I think those people are all pieces of shit. ◊ Michael Cera

Tune

Listening to tons of really good stuff the past couple of weeks. At least 15 new albums, mostly because of eMusic giving me 50 free downloads for some reason or another. The best of the bunch is, hands  down, Touchdown by brakesbrakesbrakes, known as Brakes in its native UK, featuring members of British Sea Power, Electric Soft Parade and The Tenderfoot. I may be digging on it so much because there are certain parts of the album where the band seems to be channeling Rogue Wave. And that’s fine by me because if there are two bands out there who can gracefully twist an turn through an album like that, all the better. Try “Worry About It Later.”

Gallimaufry

 → I’ve never been a huge Jim Carroll fan, but definitely had a boatload of respect for his body of work. Very sad to learn that he died this past Friday night from a heart attack at the age of 60. He was someone who two of my personal heroes, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, recognized as a viable voice. his poetry and prose never really appealed to me, but, being the music geek that I happen to be, I’ve always loved “People Who Died” – one of the only great songs to come out of Carroll’s foray into music.

→ I’ll be the first one to tell anyone who’ll listen there isn’t an abundance of interesting people up here in the suburbs. Exception to the rule are my friends who run Liberty Tattoo in Skippack. Talented, cool folks. Definitely worth a drive up from wherever the hell it is you are to get some quality work done on your person.

→ I’ve made an important life decision. If you and I are to be friends, I’ll need to be convinced you have a firm grasp of the important contribution Calvin and Hobbes made to our society. If you’re smart, you’ll start using this as a meter for determining worthwhile individuals. Don’t worry, if you’re already my friend and you don’t enjoy Calvin and Hobbes, we can still hang out. I won’t stop being friends with you. After all, it’s just a comic strip, right? Wrong. That was just a test. Hopefully you passed.

I know what you’re thinking. “Hey, what the hell is this? Two 9/11 posts in a row? Wasn’t this blog supposed to be about music or something?” Well, don’t you worry your pretty little heads. This is a totally different kind of post relating to 9/11. I did my first show of the fall semester yesterday, and here’s the playlist…

1. Bloc Party, “The Marshals Are Dead” (Silent Alarm B-sides)

2. Cave In, “Come Into Your Own” (Tides Of Tomorrow EP)

3. Spoon, “The Way We Get By” (Kill The Moonlight)

4. Band Of Horses, “Weed Party” (Everything All The Time)

5. Pavement, “You Are A Light” (Terror Twilight)

6. Radiohead, “These Are My Twisted Words” (Wall Of Ice EP — just kidding, it’s a single)

7. Blur, “M.O.R.” (Blur)

8. Arctic Monkeys, “When The Sun Goes Down” (Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not)

9. The Fall Of Troy, “I Just Got This Symphony Goin’” (Doppelganger)

10. Titus Andronicus, “My Time Outside The Womb” (The Airing Of Grievances)

11. Green Day, “Murder City” (21st Century Breakdown)

12. Minus The Bear, “Memphis & 53rd” (Menos El Oso)

13. My Morning Jacket, “What A Wonderful Man” (Z)

14. The National, “Available” (Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers)

15. RX Bandits, “One Million Miles An Hour, Fast Asleep” (…And The Battle Begun)

16. Dead Confederate, “Shadow The Walls” (Dead Confederate EP)

17. Queens Of The Stone Age, “Tangled Up In Plaid” (Lullabies To Paralyze)

18. Kings Of Leon, “Soft” (Aha Shake Heartbreak)

19. Radiohead, “Subterranean Homesick Alien” (OK Computer)

20. Nirvana, “Stay Away” (Nevermind)

21. British Sea Power, “Trip Out” (Do You Like Rock Music?)

22. White Rabbits, “Percussion Gun” (It’s Frightening)

23. Green Day, “21 Guns” (21st Century Breakdown)

24. Muse, “Uprising” (The Resistance)

25. Silversun Pickups, “Panic Switch” (Swoon)

26. Thom Yorke, “The Present Tense” (live @ Latitude Festival)

27. Grizzly Bear, “Two Weeks” (Veckatimest)

28. The Beatles, “Taxman” (Revolver) — played to fill dead air

Well, that covers it for my first show of my last semester here at the University of Maryland. As always, keep tuning in every Friday from 4-6 p.m. on WMUC2 and keep watching this space for more updates and fun stuff.

British Sea Power; another band I have only recently got my ear-chops around. What have I been DOING all these years!? Anyway, I seem to be getting this song in my head a lot at the moment. Probably because I can’t find an mp3 of it anywhere, and am seriously contemplating spending major cash on a very rare hard copy of it. Oh well, loan in t-minus two weeks!

Obviously though, if anyone can get it to me for free, it would make me rather jolly.

With British Sea Power live.

9th September 2009

Tracklisting:

Wall of Voodoo — Mexican Radio
Noisettes — Wild Young Hearts
De La Soul — The Magic Number
Bad Lieutenant — Sink or Swim
Tilly and the Wall — The Freest Man
British Sea Power — Canvey Island (Live)
The Doors — Touch Me
Paloma Faith — New York
Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions — Thinking Like That
Was (Not Was) — Walk The Dinosaur
Madonna — Celebration
British Sea Power — Come Wander With Me (Live)
Madness — Embarrassment
The Asteroids Galaxy Tour — The Golden Age
Toro Y Moi — Blessa
The Rolling Stones — Start Me Up
British Sea Power — Atom (Live)
Dionne Warwick — Walk On By

It’s been ages. I was looking down my “Recently Played” playlist trying to decide where the cutoff should be; 10, 20, 30 or 40. Then I thought, well I guess it depends on how much commentary I put with each track.

So I’m going with a Top 40. Reason – I have several new CDs to review so I’ll save my energies for that. This will be a list. Just a list. No comments.

This goes from most recent to most distant!

1. Why Does The Rain – The Loft
2. Help You Ann – The Lyres
3. The Smallest Church in Sussex – British Sea Power
4. Killed By Death – Motorhead
5. Ten Feet Tall – XTC
6. Games of Diamonds – Deerhunter
7. My Sex – Ultravox!
8. Easy – The Beta Band
9. We’ve Got Time – Broadcast
10. French Tickler – Sonic Youth
11. Got To Get The Nerve – Field Music
12. Jacqueline – The Durutti Column
13. Ignoreland – The Forms
14. Atrocity Exhibition – Joy Division
15. Unlit Hallway – Mark Kozelek
16. Insight – Joy Division
17. So Far Gone – The Early Years
18. Honey – Spacemen 3
19. Babys – Bon Iver
20. Pumpkin Gets A Snakebite – Animal Collective
21. Everyone – The Aliens
22. Ten – The Soviettes
23. Voodoo Ray – A Guy Called Gerald
24. Mt. – Super Furry Animals
25. One Half Hour Ago – Rain Parade
26. The Bells of Dunwich – Stone Angel
27. Fade Away – New Age Steppers
28. Macbeth – Ciccone Youth
29. Went Crazy – The Teardrop Explodes
30. Oh Lonesome Me – M. Ward
31. Concrete Heaven – Blitzen Trapper
32. Last Words – 23 Skidoo
33. Senor Nachos – Dustball
34. No Motion – Dif Juz
35. You Used To Call Me Sadness – Stereolab
36. Remember Me – British Sea Power
37. It Was A Pleasure Then – The Velvet Underground
38. Falling Down Around Me – The Teardrop Explodes
39. And Then Again – A Certain Ratio
40. Married, 2 Kids – The Fall

Woosh. Done. I’ll pick a few out of these to comment on tomorrow. Settling down now to watch England vs Croatia!

P

This week’s episode is certainly not for the faint.  It’s a sort of musical whiplash, but it all make sense to me at this time in my life.  I hate living from one extreme to the next, but I enjoy the music that accompanies the ride.  So take a trip inside my head for twenty-four minutes.

1. Dr. John – Big Chief (1972)
2. Bruce Cockburn – Southland of the Heart (1994)
3. Billy Cobham – Anxiety/Taurian Matador (1973)
4. British Sea Power – Favors in the Beetroot Fields (2003)
5. Blues Project – If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody (1968)

Radio Free Raytown Episode 8 – 8/28/09