John Cale, first album, 1970. I remember a few years ago, Entertainment Weekly of all things, did a little blurb where they asked Nick Cave, of all people, to listen to tracks by John Cale and Nico, among others and solicit his opinion. Regarding Cale, the verdict was; ‘humorless’ – Ouch! Maybe doesn’t have quite the sparkling wit of the Dark One, but he’s not entirely without humor, I think. This is a tiny bit humorful, yes? Just a little bit, maybe.

Everybody’s praying for the rains to come
And the snow is gonna fall, down on me
Lost up in the desert with a gun in my hand
And the locust gonna come to find me.

Started long ago, in my paper cup saloon
And the back-room boys still carrying that same old tune
We’ve just one bottle left, standing on the shelf
I’d better bring it on up, I’d better bring it on up

Time to get the wagon, and in the back of the car
With the sherriff and me, singing out of key
Sooner then than later, I was up behind bars
With that empty bowl laughing right at me

Started long ago, in my paper cup saloon
And the back-room boys still carrying that same old tune
Just one bottle left, standing on the shelf
I’d better bring it on up, I’d better bring it on up

Informazioni sul testo:

- Artista: Jeff Buckley;

- Interpreti: Leonard Cohen’s, Bon Jovi, Elisa, John Cale.

- Album: Grace;

- Anno di pubblicazione: 1994.

Il testo:

HALLELUJAH

Ho sentito che c’era un accordo segreto

Che Davide suonava per compiacere il Signore

Ma a te non importa un granché della musica, vero?

Be’, funziona così, il quarto, il quinto

Il minore scende e il maggiore sale

Il re frustrato che compone Halleluja

Halleluja, Halleluja, Halleluja, Halleluja

Beh la tua fede era forte ma avevo bisogno di una prova

L’hai vista fare il bagno sul tetto

La sua bellezza e il chiaro di luna ti vinsero

Lei ti legò a una sedia della sua cucina

Infranse il tuo trono e ti tagliò i capelli

E dalle tue labbra fece uscire l’Halleluja

Halleluja, Halleluja, Halleluja, Halleluja

Piccola, io sono già stato qui

Ho visto questa stanza e ho camminato su questo pavimento

Vivevo da solo prima di conoscerti

Ho visto la tua insegna sull’arca di marmo

Ma l’amore non è una marcia trionfale

È un freddo ed infranto Halleluja

Halleluja, Halleluja, Halleluja, Halleluja

Beh, c’era un tempo in cui mi facevi sapere

Cosa stava davvero accadendo di sotto

Ma adesso non me lo lasci mai vedere, vero?

Ma ricorda quando mi muovevo dentro di te

Ed anche il sacro spirito si muoveva

Ed ogni respiro che esalavamo era un Halleluja

Be’, forse c’è un dio lassù

Ma tutto ciò che ho imparato dall’amore

È stato come colpire qualcuno che ti ha sfruttato

Non è un grido che si sente di notte

Non è qualcuno che ha visto la luce

È un freddo ed infranto Halleluia

Halleluia, Halleluia, Halleluia, Halleluia

After last year’s successful debut, Soundtrack, Cardiff’s international film and music festival returns this week for another ambitious programme exploring the relationship between sound and celluloid.

Proving that sequels can be a good thing, the 5 day festival kicks-off this evening with an opening night screening of Powell and Pressburger’s sublime and tragic masterpiece the Red Shoes. Ravishing, sweeping and utterly powerful, the Red Shoes tells the story of a lead ballerina, torn between her Mephistophelean impresario and the young, ambitious composer of the prophetic The Red Shoes ballet. It’s an explosion of grace and colour and a perfect opening choice for a festival that aims to reveal the symbiotic relationship between film and sound.

And nicely done too: fresh from winning an Oscar for Powell and Pressburger’s previous classic Black Narcissus, the Red Shoes’ cinematographer was Jack Cardiff.

The rest of the festival programme lives up nicely to its opening night promise. On Thursday Cineworld hosts the world premier of Separado!, Gruff Rhys’ psychedelic western musical in which Gruff takes us on a pan continental road trip in search of his long lost Patagonian uncle, the poncho wearing guitarist Rene Griffiths. The Premiere of Separado! will be followed by a Q&A featuring Gruff Rhys, co-director Dylan Goch and Guardian journalist and author Will Hodgkinson.

Gruff Rhys returns on Friday with Super Furry Animals at the Coal Exchange as part of ‘Recreation’, an evening dedicated to Creation Records, the legendary independent label and subject of Upside Down, which is to be released in February 2010. The film’s trailer will be unveiled at ‘Upside Down: A Creation Records Evening’ at Cineworld earlier in the evening, as well as exclusive clips. The event will be hosted by Director Danny O’Connor and Ride frontman Mark Gardner, who will discuss the movie and Creation’s lasting impression on the modern musical landscape. Gardner will then join Super Furry Animals at the Coal Exchange – I am literally hanging out for Leave Them All Behind.

Friday also feature’s a special screening of American Psycho, Mary Harron’s adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ killer satirical novel. Special in that the writer of the film’s score, Garnant’s John Cale, will discuss his career as a composer before the screening. Cale then returns the following night for an exclusive performance of his haunting, cerebral masterpiece Paris 1919 at the Coal Exchange – the absolute highlight of this year’s Soundtrack.

Preceeding John Cale’s concert will be a screening of Beautiful Mistake, Marc Evan’s ode to a period of Welsh musical history that saw several bands cause so much fuss that the music press cobbled together a make-believe scene and condescendingly dubbed it ‘Cool Cymru‘. Made at the turn of the century Evans’ film portrays these artists  - Catatonia, Super Furry Animals, Gorky’s and the much-missed Derrero among them – more as the serious and meaningful musicians they were, stubbornly staying put in their homeland and refusing to run, as Cale did himself: to New York, John Cage and the Velvet Underground. Performing alongside Cale in the film, Evans’ sets the emergence of so much quality new music at one time against Cale’s early move away from his homeland; both beautiful mistakes in their own way.

Sunday sees the action stick mainly to the projector and the sound on the screen. Kicking off with the first showing in Cardiff of All Tomorrow’s Parties at Chapter. Shot on Super 8, camcorder and mobile phone, the film feature’s performances by many of artists that have played ATP over the last 10 years, including Belle And Sebastian, Daniel Johnston, Boredoms, Slint, GZA, A Hawk and a Hacksaw, Shellac and Patti Smith.

Later in the afternoon director Julien Temple, who has delivered great insight into several complex musical subjects through the Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle, the Filth and the Fury, Glastonbury and Joe Strummer: the Future is Unwritten will unveil his latest film, Oil City Confidential, at Chapter.

Concentrating on Dr Feelgood, “four men in cheap suits who crashed out of Canvey Island in the early ’70s, sandpapered the face of rock ‘n’ roll and left all that came before a burnt-out ruin, four estuarine John-the-Baptists to Johnny Rotten’s anti-Christ,” the film explores the strange cultural vacuum which existed before the coming of punk rock . The screening of Oil City Confidential will be followed by a Q&A with Julien Temple.

Soundtrack’s closing night film is Bunny and the Bull, the first feature film from Mighty Boosh director Paul King. Bunny and the Bull follows Stephen (Ed Hogg) and Bunny (Simon Farnaby) as they leave the dull routine of life in England behind and embark on an extraordinary odyssey, journeying from the industrial wastelands of Silesia to the bull fields of Andalusia and bringing them into contact with a Polish dog farmer (Julian Barratt), a moustachioed matador (Noel Fielding) and a hot-tempered crab waitress (Veronica Echegui) who soon tests how far their friendship really goes.

Paul King will introduce the feature as well as joining producer Mary Burke for a Q&A following the screening.

These are just a few of my must-sees at this year’s Soundtrack. Other highlights include Let Him Be, about two undergrad film students who discover a long thought to be dead rock icon living in a remote part of Canada; Mugabe and the White African, an extremely powerful and intimate feature-length documentary film charting one family’s extraordinary courage in the face of a relentless campaign of state-sanctioned terror; and a Hammer Horror double bill with Hammer experts Marcus Hearn and Dr. David Huckvale delving in to the history of the men whose chilling scores raised the hairs on the necks of a generation of classic horror fans.

There are also a series of workshops and seminars, including a look at Warp films at the Norwegian Church tomorrow.

Soundtrack runs from 18 – 22 November. Full event information and ticket prices are available at www.soundtrackfilmfestival.com

btw – if you don’t fancy the Red Shoes (seriously, it’s a great film) get over to Gwdihw at 7pm tonight for a free showing of The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T. Not sure if this is part of Soundtrack, but it should be

By Jason Diamond

I made this weird realization that 2009 was the first year I can remember that I listened to more solo albums of Velvet Underground members than actual Velvet Underground albums. John Cale’s Paris 1919 may have been the best example of this, as the title track has always been one of my favorite songs ever, it’s the opening track, “Child’s Christmas in Wales”, sharing a name with a Dylan Thomas poem that made me wonder “how much influence did books play in the work of the members of The Velvet Underground?”

Lets start with the name of the band. Lou Reed, John Cale and Co. lifted it from a book written by Michael Leigh in 1963. I see a lot of people walking around with shirts that say “The Velvet Underground” and wonder if they know the design (above) has little to do with the band, but more to do with group-sex, S&M, etc.

Then we have the Lou Reed connection to Delmore Schwartz. Reed was a student of Schwartz’s at Syracuse, and Schwartz, who wasn’t much of a fan of rock n’ roll had said to Reed, “”You can write—and if you ever sell out and there’s a Heaven from which you can be haunted, I’ll haunt you.” Reed heeded those words, and is still the same self-absorbed, moody bastard he was back then. Also of noting, “European Son” on The Velvet Underground and Nico was dedicated to Schwartz.

It’s pretty obvious that Reed was interested in S&M. There were the live shows during the Andy Warhol days included a live whip cracker, and of course there is the song “Venus in Furs”, named after the book of the same name written by the man the term “masochism” was derived from, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch.

Literary ambitions are always noticeable in Velvet Underground songs, but if I need to pick the most shining example of this, I’d go for “The Gift” off what I consider one of the three greatest albums ever put out, White Light/White Heat. Just over eight minutes of Cale telling a Reed-written tale about young Waldo Jeffers mailing himself in a box to his love Marsha, who is at school in Wisconsin. Sounds like a brilliant idea, until Marsha gets out the sheet metal cutters to see what the box contains. Hilarity and death ensue.

Cale left the band after White Light/White Heat, leaving Reed as more or less the sole leader of the group. Some might say while the quality of the bands music in terms of willingness to experiment went down, the last two studio albums in the bands catalog might be seen as an exercise in Reed’s writing talent. On the 1969 self-titled album, and the follow up, 1970’s Loaded, Reed penned songs to characters like Candy (real life Candy Darling) and Sweet Jane, as well as the extremely touching song”Pale Blue Eyes” and the sweet “After Hours”.

Later in his post-Velvet life, Reed would pay tribute to another doomed writer, Edgar Allan Poe, on 2003’s The Raven. While the album had guest spots by his old buddy David Bowie, his wife Laurie Anderson, Antony Hegarty (Antony and the Johnsons), and Steve Buscemi. The album didn’t have the critical reception I’m sure Reed wanted and expected.

There’s a certain emptiness to life after you’ve lost a child.  I was watching a show on television last night, and it ended with a bit of the song ‘Hallelujah.’  I’m not sure who the song belonged to originally, and many people have done versions of it.  Still, the one I like best was actually the one played on the show.  The singer is John Cale.

Every single time I hear this song, I stop.  It gives me chills.  There’s a verse that really spoke to the bitterness I’m feeling as the anniversary of Andy’s death grows nearer.  I feel like grief has taken up residence, replacing the version of love I knew before.  I find myself walking the floors of my grief over and over again.  It will definitely get much better than it is now.  January will come.  The holidays will be over, and another death anniversary will have passed.  I’ll have got through it one more time.  Like every other bereaved mother out there, though, in the back of my mind, I’ll still hold a broken Hallelujah:

Maybe I’ve been here before, I know this room

I’ve walked this floor

I used to live alone before I knew you

I’ve seen your flag on the Marble Arch

And love is not a victory march

It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah.

]]> http://nisei23.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/john-cale/ Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:48:28 +0000 nisei23 http://nisei23.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/john-cale/

The Velvet Underground

Lou Reed is often seen as the creative force behind The Velvet Underground, the 60’s experimental rock band from New York. However, most aficionados will tell you that the bands creative flame dimmed after the departure of John Cale, the groups classically trained multi instrumentalist.

Born in 1942 to humble surroundings, the son a of coal miner in Wales, he quickly showed a talent for music in particular Piano and Viola, the latter being used to devastating effect in The Velvets “Venus in Furs”. In the early 60’s Cale enrolled at the prestigious Goldsmiths College in London, using the money from a Leonard Bernstein scholarship he relocated to New York. Cale once said of the city “I like it here in New York. I like the idea of having to keep eyes in the back of your head.” He joined La Monte Young’s Avant garde group The Theatre of Eternal Music and explored the world of microtonal music and at the invitation of his mentor John Cage, once participated in an all day marathon of works by Erik Satie.

Cale, Reed and Warhol

A meeting with the afore mentioned Reed leads to the formation of The Velvet Underground, named after a novel by Michael Leigh, which the bands guitarist Sterling Morrison describes as “a really boring novel about wife swapping in the suburbs.” They came to the attention of artist Andy Warhol, who invited them to perform as part of The Exploding Plastic Inevitable, Warhol’s multimedia extravaganza. The Velvets became his pet project insisting they add German chanteuse Nico to their ranks and insisting on a production credit on their debut album “The Velvet Underground and Nico” because he’d paid for it. However the album was delayed for a year and when it was finally released in 1967 Warhol had lost interest and sales were poor. Now regarded as a classic and an album that influenced a host of bands from the past 3 decades, Brian Eno once remarked that everyone who had bought record went on to form a band.
Cale stayed with the band for one more record, “White Light/White Heat”, he contributed vocals to 2 tracks “Lady Godiva’s Operation” and his dry narration of Reed’s macabre tale “The Gift” The albums centerpiece however was the 17 minute “Sister Ray” which climaxes with Cale’s organ becoming louder than the rest of the band, he later claimed “I kept everything low until a certain point then unleashed the volume I’d been saving.” In late ’68 Cale quit after an ultimatum from Reed who had been encouraged by the bands new manager Steve Sesnick. Cale later said “Lou was starting to act funny. He brought in this guy Sesnick – who I thought to be a real snake – to be our manager, and all this intrigue started to take place. Lou was calling us ‘his band’ while Sesnick was trying to get him to go solo. Maybe it was the drugs he was doing at the time. They certainly didn’t help.”

The Velvet Underground and Andy Warhol

After working on 2 solo record by VU’s former Femme Fatale Nico, Cale turned his hand to production. In 1969 he produced The Stooges eponymous debut; the band fronted by a young Iggy Pop would later achieve legendary status almost equaling the Velvets themselves. He would later produce Patti Smith’s debut album Horses and continue working with a diverse range of artists, both as producer and musician, from the ambient soundscapes of Brian Eno to the council estate dance grooves of the Happy Mondays, there’s no boundaries in his musical world.

Cale performing with Nico

“Vintage Violence” was released in 1970 to rave reviews and launched Cale’s career as a solo artist, after signing to Island records he released several highly acclaimed albums, Cale acolytes refer to this period as The Island Years which include 2 of his best albums “Fear” and “Paris 1919” However by the late 70’s Cale had moved into harder rock and began to appear onstage in a series of outlandish costumes, his increased drug use fueled this erratic behavior. One notorious incident saw Cale decapitating a chicken onstage, an act which forced his vegetarian band to quit. When asked why he would hurt an animal in such a fashion he dryly responded “I didn’t hurt it, it didn’t feel a thing”

Cale onstage in surgical scrubs

The 80’s saw a calmer Cale; he took a break from performing for several years and concentrated on getting clean but still continuing to work as a producer and musician. The death of Andy Warhol in 1987 reunited him with Lou Reed the culmination of this was the 1990 album “Songs for Drella” The “Drella” in question being a nickname giving to Warhol by his entourage. The was very well received and despite Cale vowing never to work with Reed again 3 years later the unthinkable happened, the four original members of The Velvet Underground reformed for a European Tour and live album both received mixed reviews. The decision to play many of Europe’s outdoor rock festivals did the band no favours, playing to large crowds on a sunlit stage did not create the atmosphere of edgy menace that dominated their early performances, the situation was not helped by Reed who insisted on re interpreting his vocals by adding staccato phrasing which was almost comical at times and did nothing to repair his relationship with Cale by introducing Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker and then launching into a song without mentioning Cale. Predictably a proposed US tour never happened with Cale once more refusing to work with Reed again, so far he has kept his word and with the death of Morrison in 1995 the hopes of a reunion are unlikely.

The 1990’s saw Cale become a cult figure, with many young bands seeking his services. Even in the 21st century he continues to experiment, his inquisitive mind re ignited by digital production techniques. To sum him up though it seems fitting that last word should go to Reed:
“I only hope that one day John will be recognized as … the Beethoven or something of his day. He knows so much about music, he’s such a great musician. He’s completely mad – but that’s because he’s Welsh.”

John Cale today

The Velvet Underground “Venus In Furs”

Cale and Reed performing Small Town, taken from the “Songs For Drella” album

Es curioso muchas veces, que en diferentes ámbitos de la cultura, ya sea música, pintura o escultura, muchas de las obras son llevadas al ostracismo por sus contemporáneos, y rescatadas por generaciones posteriores, catapultándolas a la categoría de obras maestras.

Uno de estos ejemplos es el primer disco de The Velvet Underground, que con el paso del tiempo, se ha llegado a considerar uno de los discos más influyentes en la historia, compitiendo con el encumbrado Sergeant Pepper de The Beatles.

En una época donde la revolución hippie, cargaba de positivismo sus letras, Lou Reed (guitarra), John Cale (bajo y viola), Maureen Tucker (batería) y Sterling Morrison (guitarra), componentes de The Velvet Underground, aterrizaron con sonidos estridentes y letras sobre drogas, prostitución o sadomasoquismo entre otras cosas.

Un claro ejemplo de ello, es Heroin, que os dejo subtitulada, para entender mejor, las letras tan arriesgadas para la época. Siempre que oigo esta canción me viene a la memoria el libro Yonqui de William Burroughs, que os recomiendo para quien no lo haya leído.

Los inicios de la banda,  se remontan a un pequeño local neoyorquino, y quizás nunca hubieran pasado de aquí, si no hubiera sido por el gran paso que supuso el apadrinamiento de la banda por parte del artista Andy Warhol.

Con la imposición de la díscola modelo Nico por parte de Andy Warhol, la cual por cierto, nunca fue bien recibida por el grupo, grabaron su primer disco. En la célebre portada del disco se deja bien claro las reticencias a la incorporación, ya que reza en el mismo The Velvet Undergroung & Nico. La portada del mismo, casi más conocida que la música que alberga, fue obra de Andy Warhol, y en ella se puede ver un plátano para pelar.

Lo curioso, es que la banda pensaba que la producción y diseño de la portada por parte de Andy Warhol iba a suponer una publicidad increíble para el disco, aunque luego las listas de ventas se encargaron de demostrarles lo contrario.

En el disco podemos encontrar canciones cantadas por Nico, que contrastan en tono de voz y melodías con las cantadas por Lou Reed. Aqui os dejo Femme Fatale (subtitulado el video) cantada por Nico.

Dejamos para otras entradas el resto de la carrera de The Velvet Underground, ya que la historia de la música considera que fue este primer disco el más influyente de su corta carrera musical.

Morning pages 10.31.09*

John Cale’s tinkling piano was a great addition to the sound that the Velvet Underground dragged out of the factory and into the consciousness of all deep thinking musicians.

John Cale, Pisces two, somehow the weaker. Weaker? I love the cello, the violin, the drone.

Left alone, I don’t sense the depth but everybody has a part to play.

I am awake and I have done my 10 miles on the fakebike after a couple of days off. Virus made my body achy and fatigued but not too bad.

Today Frank and I will go to Colleen Barry’s Halloween party. Time has worked things around so that the artist I’ve admired most in Redding has invited me to a gathering.

Beings of light and the powers that be have sent energy through time and here I am on the receiving end.

The sun is shining, I’m in my work space by the windows, looking out on the yard, listening to Lou Reed sing Heroin cuz I am tuned in to all the Velvets songs on my iPod. It’s a good morning.

“I’ll be your mirror,” sings Nico. “Please put down your hands, cuz I see you.”

I am waiting for iTunes to load up a new version of something. I just wanted to import the Velvets third and most holy album to my nano. I wait.

Earlier, I danced down the walkway outside the house while listening to I’m Waiting for My Man, a little double stepping to come down from the fakebike high, sloowly.

There are certain things we assume these days about staying alive. We assume that money is essential. We assume that we must go to work in exchange for money. We aren’t providing for our own needs. We aren’t growing everything we eat. We have been largely driven away from the agrarian format. We accept a lot of middle men in our lives.

“I’m waiting for my middle man.”

“Dear Landlord, please don’t take away my ____.” My what? Can’t remember Bob’s line. John Wesley Harding is a good LP. It’s been a long time.

Oh, no. It’s “please don’t put a price on”  something. On what?

Google, memory’s middle man, will help me out.

Oh, yeah “Dear landlord, please don’t put a price on my soul.” How could I forget? That’s what I’m taking about.

*Please forgive my self-indulgence. I’m trying out Julia Cameron’s free write experiment. This is my first day.

Max Richter – Memoryhouse

A reissue of the astonishing debut recording from Max Richter, a composer whose mastery of tonality and melody place him alongside Arvo Pärt, Henryk Górecki and Michael Nyman in the modern classical catalogue. there are other elements of Max Richter’s work that recall Gavin Bryars, John Cale’s soundtrack projects and even Brian Eno in his use of electronics and ‘found’ voices. Memoryhouse is an invocation of old Europe, the ghosts of Sarajevo, even Versailles can be heard, orphaned voices reaching through the static, the faded grandeur of fallen empires and doomed campaigns. This is a work about reclaiming lost beauty, breathing new life into a past which has been devalued, a history that has been forgotten.

This video is from his album “Songs From Before” – see what you think…

I’ve been listening to John Cale’s first solo album.  The chorus of this song is really what he does best.

Speaking of vintage violence, my vintage store is unfortunately, basically, no more.  I pitched all my vintage into a big dumpster a few weeks ago, for reasons I’d rather not get into.  It feels good to have way less shit!  So, I’m going to be doing more writing instead, and here, writing about writing.

Shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather
Whiplash girlchild in the dark
Clubs and bells, your servant, dont forsake him
Strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart

Dos versiones, de dos maestros, cada una mejor que la otra, la letra de Lou Reed y el violín de Cale, la primera canción de rock con el tema del fetichismo y los látigos y el cuero allá en el 66…

Bueno, a mi me llama la atención y me gusta eso de las botas, el cuero…y un poco de masoquismo y sadismo… Todos tenemos nuestro lado oscuro y para vivir felices las parejas (dicen, porque a mi se me diluyen muy rápido) deben ser muy elegantes para afuera y muy sucios en la cama…algo así? Conmigo funciona.

Que usen botas…sin nada más puesto, unos rasguños, unos mordiscos…un antifaz? buenazo… y me tendrán a sus pies…

Mientras tanto, kiss the boot of shiny, shiny leather and taste the whip…

Strike, dear mistress, and cure my heart.

]]> http://suburbanhomeboy.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/mmmm-70s-punk/ Sat, 24 Oct 2009 10:27:06 +0000 suburbanhomeboy http://suburbanhomeboy.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/mmmm-70s-punk/ http://bajolainfluencia.es/2009/10/21/covers/ Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:20:04 +0000 drvicious http://bajolainfluencia.es/2009/10/21/covers/

El post de hoy se trata exclusivamente de un top 5 de covers, espero sean de vuestro agrado y también espero vuestras listas, Abrazo a todos.

5. Legião Urbana – on the way home/rise

Solamente un maestro como Renato Russo y sus Legião Urbana podían combinar a Neil Young con los PIL y para colmo de males… en acústico!!! Una belleza.

4. Hurt -  Johnny Cash

Un clásico moderno en la voz de un clásico eterno, el lamento de Trent Reznor cobra otra dimensión cuando el hombre de negro canta esos versos, nunca voy a estar lo suficientemente agradecido con Rick Rubin por ser el productor que recupero del olvido a uno de los músicos mas grandes del siglo 20. El video es increíble.

3. Wild Horses  – Flying Buritto Brothers

Aquí Gram Parsons y sus secuaces se adueñan del clásico de los Rolling Stones y lo hacen tan propio que ya no sabemos a quien pertenece la canción, espero que la disfruten tanto como yo.

2. Hey Joe – Willy de Ville

Jimi Hendrix en plan mariachi y que suene bien? solo fue posible gracias al gran maestro De Ville, lo perdimos este año, pase por la puerta del hospital donde murió en NY y se me piantó un lagrimón recordando los buenos momentos que me hizo pasar con sus canciones, el rinde homenaje al gran Jimi y yo le rindo a el mi humilde recuerdo.

1. Hallelujah – Jeff Buckley

Las bellas oraciones de Leonard Cohen en la voz de un ángel como Jeff Buckey deberían ser de escucha obligatoria para toda la humanidad, John Cale tiene otra gran versión de este tema, pero Jeff me puede y me arranca lágrimas con tanta facilidad que merece ser mi favorito.

Del álbum The Velvet Underground and Nico (Verve Records, 1967)

Robin Maconie en el prólogo a su libro “La música como concepto” (Acantilado, 2007) dice, en una sencilla pero certera definición, que la música resume el arte y la experiencia de escuchar y comunicar por medio del sonido. Y, cuando es buena -la música-, esta comunicación alcanza niveles impensables para otros medios de comunicación. Porque podemos llegar a experimentar sensaciones o a sentir emociones que no son nuestras como si lo fueran. Es decir, podemos empatizar con el mensaje a un nivel mucho mayor que con la simple palabra.

Nunca he probado la heroína, y en principio no me apetece hacerlo (habida cuenta de los riesgos que conlleva). Sin embargo, Lou Reed y los suyos logran con una grabación de hace más de 40 años que comprenda lo que debe pasar por la mente de un heroinómano (él mismo) cuando se mete un chute. Cuando esto sucede puedo comprender que los puritanos hayan tratado desde siempre de limitar el arte musical y poético, dada su capacidad de hacer sentir cosas “pecaminosas”.

El chute al que asistimos en “Heroin” pasó relativamente desapercibido en su época. Si pensamos que la música de más éxito venía de la costa Oeste, del movimiento hippie, las comunas y el sexo libre, de la psicodelia por la que todos los grupos pasaban, y sobre todo que las drogas de moda eran las psicotrópicas, es lógico que unos neoyorkinos vestidos de negro y con sobrias gafas de sol que hablan de heroína, de la ciudad y de perversiones sexuales no conectase con la juventud del 67. Sin embargo, se estaban sentando las bases de una música que dominaría la escena musical una década más tarde, con la llegada del Post-punk, la New Wave y, por supuesto, el Noise rock y la No wave neoyorkina.

Pero centrémonos en la música que nos ocupa. A la guitarra, el bajo y la batería tradicionales del pop se adhiere la viola eléctrica de John Cale, músico curtido en la escena vanguardista que ya había trabajado con autores como el minimalista La Monte Young o las performances de Fluxus. La apertura mental que esto supone permite desarrollar el nuevo pop que nacía con este disco, y que se nota también en aspectos formales como la falta de estribillo o los cambios de tempo.

La música está conectada íntimamente con el texto. Y digo conectada, no condicionada, porque la realza y la carga de nuevos significados. El texto nos relata, como ya he dicho, un chute de heroína en primera persona. Y los sonidos y el ritmo de la narración aceleran o se ralentizan dependiendo de las sensaciones que el protagonista va sintiendo. La importante dosis de improvisación y de caos de muchos momentos cobra sentido y nos conecta aún más con ese personaje y sus emociones.

Mucho más tendré que hablar de este disco, para mi una de las piedras de toque del rock y el pop a partir de los 70. De momento me dejo en el tintero toda la historia de Andy Warhol, el diseño (polémica incluida) de la portada y su “producción”, porque lo importante no es lo “modernito” que resultó entonces, sino lo francamente moderno que resulta hoy.

After about twenty minutes into the film parts of the audience started to walk out. Either the camera work had got to them or it was clear to them that the Velvets weren’t about to break into a chorus of Sweet Jane. What did these people expect from an Andy Warhol film? Hadn’t they heard The Velvet Underground playing Sister Ray? People continued to walk out throughout the film. I was chilled in the front row with TC, tranced out with the droning electric guitars that seemed to have more in common with the dust and scratches on the film than the black and white images of Nico or Lou Reed.

The Velvet Underground and Nico: a Symphony of Sound was filmed at the Factory in January 1966. Even though music video clips had not been invented yet this 67min film features many of what have now become clichés of music videos, including the use of rapid zooming and panning in time with the music. Even the plot for a music video is remarkably familiar: band is playing live and the cops turn up. One NYC police officer suddenly appears in shot, smiles at the camera and turns the music down. The band plays for a bit more – “that’s still too loud” says a voice off camera. The cops talk to Andy and Gerard Malanga, his studio assistant, And the band packs up.

Eventually the camera runs out of film, end of film. Although the camera remains in a fixed position throughout the film and there is only one shot. It appears that Andy, or who ever was behind the camera (because Andy is in front of the camera at the end), was endlessly playing with the camera rather than doing what Andy Warhol was famous for a static shot with no pans or zooms. If only they had done a fixed shot the film would have been a lot better.

The Velvet Underground and Nico: a Symphony of Sound was part of a series of films by Andy Warhol showing at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI). I went with my old friend TC who played guitar in a garage band with me. We are both fans of the Velvets; we used to play cover versions of Sweet Jane and Venus in Furs. Later I played in a Velvet Underground cover band, Edie Sedgwick’s Overdose with Ron Rude. Although, we were both fans of the Velvets, neither TC nor myself had seen the film nor heard the music. This was a rare screening of the film. Except for footage from their revival tour I have never before seen The Velvet Underground playing. I have seen a few still images from this film but never the moving picture.

Although I had never heard the “symphony of sound” before the music was not unfamiliar. It was not unlike Sister Ray but without any vocals and an hour long – something like the performances that the Velvets would later do in the afternoons of Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Mo Tucker’s ever steady drumming was holding the droning sound of guitars and electric viola together. At one stage John Cage appeared to play some amplified long steel springs with a table knife but it was difficult to see what he was doing as the camera was mostly on Nico (tambourine) or her 3-year old son, Ari (maraca).

Phoenix is the sweatiest city in America.

“Stranger In Moscow.”

Sydney and the light rail.

Augmented reality in London.

The ghost in the field, and RFID chips.

What will happen when London is flooded?

“Berlin” in Paris.

Interracial couple denied marriage license in Louisiana.

Soft robots and DARPA.

Moscow’s mayor promises a winter without snow.

Paris Syndrome and Jerusalem Syndrome.

San Francisco and the 1906 earthquake.

Rebuilding New Orleans.

from here.

“City Of Blinding Lights.”

A possible glimpse at our future space cities.

America’s most expensive cities and most impoverished cities.

FOX promises to air all 13 of the already ordered Dollhouse season two episodes.

Speaking of which, Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard’s The Cabin In The Woods being held back a year to be switched over to 3D.

“Magnetricity” observed for the first time.

A map of your future mega-cities and megaopolises.

“When the lights go down in the city…”

Sensing the immaterial-material city.

Cities underground and cities tsunami-resistant.

City Of Shadows.

The ruins of Chernobyl, over 20 years later.

“Cities In Dust.”

GTA IV: Inherent Vice City.

“Silver City” and “Sad, Sad City.”

Why all cities are haunted.

The mind of a city (and how our brains are similar).

The cityscapes of François Schuiten.

Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem.

The city is a battlesuit for surviving the future.

Phantom City: See the city that could’ve been.

“…when we reach the city.”

“I have come to wound the autumnal city.”

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

“I’ll take the coral reefs as my metaphor. Though hardly so beautiful. If the essence of life is information carried in DNA, then society and civilization are just colossal memory systems and a metropolis like this one, simply a sprawling external memory….”

-a quote from Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence, a movie that I was watching the other day and just first stirred the pot on several thoughts I had locked up. Thoughts about human beings and boxes we live in.

Warren Ellis had created a comic book character years ago called Jack Hawksmoor, the “king of cities.” Jack was a normal human who had been abducted by city-empathic aliens from the future and repeatedly operated on and “upgraded” to have city-specific powers for use with fighting some unknown future threat that was coming.

Jack Hawksmoor, the King Of Cities.

Hawksmoor, who’s name was inspired by both Spring Heeled Jack and Nicholas Hawksmoor, couldn’t survive for very long outside of an urban environment, but when he was in any city, he had powers specific to that city, including things like superhuman strength and agility, but also psychometry and the ability to control and alter architecture and infrastructure. I don’t think the character was ever utlized by successive writers to his full potential, but I do remember in one story where Hawksmoor had to fight a powerful villain, he made sure that the fight took place in Mexico City, the larged city in the world, to maximize his abilities.

Quarantined in utopia.

“There’s no one to know. There’s nothing to do. The city’s been down since you’ve been gone.”

Climate change and warfare.

“Black And White Town.”

Scientists create “sexual tsunami.”

12 sexist vintage ads.

What’s left of the Roman city of Dougga.

Futurism vs. Science Fiction.

Futuristic steampunk urban recycling.

The little town that Los Angeles killed.

Speaking of which: Future Los Angeles.

Future Chicago.

Future New York.

The saddest blow job story ever.

“History Of A Boring Town.”

Russell Brand not capable of monogamy.

10 most amazing ghost towns, including Prypiat.

“Everything In It’s Right Place.”

Scientists develop “brain to brain communication.”

As time progresses, the future will literally devour the past: WW2-era statue with added cell tower.

“Last Stop: This Town.”

En sólo unos días las reproducciones de vídeos en el Canal de La Edad de Oro en YouTube se han lanzado (ver la curva ascendente en el gráfico) y es sólo cuestión de tiempo que alcance un número altísimo de reproducciones diarias.

Es curioso ver en el gráfico de barras que los conciertos de La Edad de Oro están atrayendo a dos segmentos muy específicos de la audiencia. Por un lado los jóvenes entre los 13 y los 34 y por otro lado los nostálgicos que éramos jóvenes y vivimos aquella época y que ahora estamos entre los 45 y los 64 años, con un vacío entre ambos segmentos. El gráfico de sexos muestra un alto interés de las féminas para el tipo de música del que se trata, e incluso algunos días han sido la audiencia mayoritaria.

El mapa de audiencia muestra en un verde más intenso los países que le están dando mayor atención a los vídeos de La Edad de Oro, España, USA, UK, Italia y México son los que más visitan el Canal.

Como se ve en la imagen de abajo ya hay una buena cantidad de conciertos subidos, separados en Listas de Reproducción para fácilitar que se puedan ver conciertos completos. Algunos grupos españoles como Siniestro Total, Derribos Arias o Los Coyotes ya están publicados, con otros que estarán publicados en las próximas horas. Aún queda bastante material por subir y cuando todos los conciertos estén arriba pasaré a completar los programas enteros en un nuevo Canal que se surtirá del material ya disponible en el de Kigonjiro. Los proyectos se van solapando y apoyándose unos en otros. Comentare aquí los progresos.