sundays are supposed to be the silver lining.
set aside to eat gouda or walk to the sea or eat large plates full of brunch or to just sleep in past noon. 
but sometimes they aren’t that. they are treated like any other member of the weekly family and squandered on routine. 

so it seemed like a pretty swell idea to make sure it wouldn’t be that.
i e-mailed mel on saturday night about the idea of a grand list of ten things that are rad indulgences, and how about stuffing them into one day. a sunday.

she climbed on the bandwagon post haste.
and this was our sunday.

our top ten sunday.

1. smoke cigars from amsterdam. 

2. eat chocolate chip pancakes.
one pancake didn’t get a smile because we didn’t have enough chips. ghetto.

3. have afternoon coffee with baileys and timtams.

4. make paper snowflakes.
emily says from the outside it looks like pre-schoolers live here.  

5. write a typewritten letter to someone we love. 

6. take a nap.
ok, so it was 10 minutes long, but still. mel took the top bunk, i the bottom. and we napped. 

7. go take snapshots outside.

we wandered over to the cutest christmas tree lot on arbutus street. it had christmas lights strewn up and fresh cut evergreens waiting to wear tinsel and flannel-clad customers…we stuck our noses into the needles and it smelt like happiness.

8. go for a walk.
we followed the railway line that has been overgrown for what seems like decades. melissa almost stepped in poop. 

9. watch an episode of ‘the office’.

10. enjoy multiple playings of the days theme song, “alright” by supergrass.

“we wake up, we go out, smoke a fag,
put it out, see our friends,
see the sights, feel alright…”

then, check everything off.

it was a very good sunday.

Sono tristemente famosa per una cosa.

La rapidità con cui riesco a incazzarmi e a trasformare la più piccola cavolata, in una tragedia che sembra uscita dalla penna del miglior William in vena di un duplice suicidio.

Ora, quello che sono non lo posso cambiare del tutto, altrimenti sarei un’altra persona e questo non lo vuole nessuno (oddio forse qualcuno si ma cazzi loro) comunque sta di fatto che oggi, per una cavolata, mi sono girate tantissimo le palle. Perchè mi è successa una cosa che è capace di farmi andare via di testa.

Ancora. Damn.

Una cosa capace di farmi gonfiare la vena della tempia. Di farla pulsare.

Un mese fa avrei dato di matto.

Avrei inziato una litigata interminabile, sarei diventata tutta rossa in faccia, mi sarei agitata da pazzi, probabilmente avrei avuto un pò d’asma, mi sarebbe venuto un mal di testa monumentale, avrei staccato skype e mi sarei ridotta a guardare il Grande Fratello, per non pensare, imitando la massa di decerebrati che lo guardano per piacere, non sapendo che il GF serve appunto a rallentare le sinapsi (come lo sciroppo per la tosse, e questa è per chi guarda House).

Ma ringraziando il cielo quella parentesi è chiusa.

Ecco cosa ho fatto.

1) Respirone profondissimo

2) Super sorriso

3) Telefono spento

4) Pranzo con calma

5) Due puntate di How I Met Your Mother

6) Chat con una persona divertentee intelligente. E situazioni imbarazzanti.

7) Cazzeggio su twitter e #outing e un sacco di gente che non conosco ma che ringrazioe perchè spacca.

Inoltre tra il punto 5 e 6 potrei avere ascoltato una canzone che mi rimette sempre al mondo. Questa.

Ed ecco.

Sono felice di nuovo.

]]> http://aslaugok.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/lettelse/ Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:31:34 +0000 AnaMe http://aslaugok.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/lettelse/

Selvsagt. Det måtte jo skje. At jeg deler låta under her.

Rett nok kommer den av ulike årsaker en dag før tiden. Men det kanskje like greit, siden det slett ikke sikkert jeg har nett rett inn i ny stue i morgen. Men jeg vil være i ny stue. Hjulpet av litt andre enn planlagt.

Så  Kvinnekongen skal riktig og ettertrykkelig takkes for at jeg nå kan puste lettet ut. Før det blir tung bærepust om noen knappe timers tid…

Men aller først altså litt behagelig oppvarming.

It’s getting towards that time of year when the tuneless unlistenable sentimental charity singles that you aren’t allowed to criticise start to mass-singalonging their way out of the woodwork, so what better time to celebrate the most tuneless, unlistenable, sentimental and not-allowed-to-criticise-tastic (seriously – a previous long-forgotten blog post on this very subject drew some extremely stern rejoinders) of them all… Chicken Shed Theatre’s I Am In Love With The World.

Cast your mind back, if you will, to 1997, a year that brought us Blue Jam, Supergrass’ best album by far, and Phil Cool celebrating the eleventh anniversary of drinking some Citrus Spring. This was also the year, of course, of Princess Diana’s fateful flight from the paparazzi, yet weirdly, despite the unwelcome repercussions of the ridiculous outpourings of grief still being felt to this day, the effect of this defining historical moment on popular music was negligible to say the least. The weeks that immediately followed saw The Verve being stopped from being famous, Denim’s offensively upbeat Summer Smash being given a release date of ‘never’, Radio 1 briefly turning into wall-to-wall ’meaningful’ Oasis album tracks, and Elton John releasing poignant tribute Croco-Di Rock, though even that only topped the chart for about three minutes and then… what else?

Well, the answer would be ‘nothing’, if it wasn’t for a certain charitable organisation. Founded in the seventies, Chicken Shed Theatre is a long-running project with the laudable ambition of giving ‘mixed ability’ youngsters the opportunity to participate in the creative arts. This is all truly wonderful stuff, but even that cannot really excuse the woefulness of I Am In Love With The World, issued as a single in tribute to their former patron. This woefulness has nothing to do with the performance; oh no, you can only admire the gutsiness of the contributing youngsters, particularly that lead-singing girl who despite an endearing lack of technical ability has the guts to roar like an eighties ‘rawk’ power-balladeer without the slightest shred of self-awareness. It’s just the song itself, an utterly empty anthem-by-numbers with ridiculous phatic cliched lyrics. Worse still, or worse still for anyone who wasn’t particularly fond of hearing it, it was promoted as ‘Diana’s favourite song’ on account of the fact that she had heard it once, which in all fairness means that Georgie Fame could have re-released Wake Up Morph under a similar pretence. Still, as a cultural snapshot of that curious weekend in that curious late August, it’s right up there with the blase Fred Harris-remembering launch of TV Cream, and that local radio DJ who accidentally played Fall On Me by REM instead of Everybody Hurts when he was trying to be ‘reverential’. Though anyway, the version by The Curious Orange on This Morning With Richard Not Judy was better.

So, there, I’ve said it. Go on, kick off in the comments box. It’ll make a change from all the people shouting about Stewart Lee or Russell T Davies betraying the glorious legacy of Mission To Duh. And if you’d rather sing along at home, here’s those lyrics in full:

I am in love with the world, and its failure to commission a third series of The Tripods
I am in love with the world, and its blatant underuse of Maury Parkman and Adam Monroe on Heroes
I fell in love with the world, when it refused to release series 3 of KYTV on DVD
Let your heart fall in love with Tony Hart
And Morph
And The White One Too

Una vita intensa divisa fra qualche partita sulla fascia sinistra e molti concerti con i Supergrass

Menswear – I’ll Manage Somehow

Supergrass – Mansize Rooster

And still so much more of the obscure stuff I need to obtain.

I’ve been having a thought recently on songs I love, that if they came out between ‘77 and ‘81 would be deemed as Punk Classics. To me they all have the right combination of noise and attitude and have carried the musical side of Punk into other genres.

I know that they will not be everyones choice of a Punk tune, and I am not saying that they are…just that they would have been if they had come out in 1977.

Here is my list, let me know if you agree or not. Come up with a top five and I will post it as a seperate topic.

Song 2 – Blur

I can feel myself going absolutely mental as the chorus kicks in. Whoo Hoo.

I Predict A Riot – Kaiser Chiefs

It contains the word riot – always a good start – and the immortal line ‘if it wasn’t for chip fat she’d be frozen’, absolute genius.

Buck Rogers – Feeder

Fuckin stupid lyrics but a great riff, a real jump about tune.

Headshrinker – Oasis

The Gallaghers have a definate Punk attitude and some cracking tunes alongside some absolute shite. Headshrinker is one of their best.

Creep – Radiohead

Sums up my teenage years…or at least what most people thought of me. Still am a weirdo.

Killing In The Name – Rage Against The Machine

Political, Purposeful and Powerful. An amazing tune that builds to a great finale and captures the Punk attitude to life in general.

Richard III – Supergrass

Simply great pogo music.

Fell In Love With A Girl – White Stripes

This song could have been written by Pete Shelley. It would not have been out of place in 1979.

Supergrass – Movin

Became one of my fave songs ever, when the record came out 10 years ago (!)

-ZF

Tonights list is dedicated to songs that come in all shapes and sizes, literally. The criteria for the list required having a shape (or reference to shapes) in the song title or the artists name. Some songs are quite long, the New Order track clocks in at just under 7 minutes and there are a few short ones, namely the track by The Octagon and the song “Tommib” by Squarepusher which is barely over a minute long. The avid film fans among you may recognise that particular Squarepusher track from the film Lost In Translation. The particular scene that it’s from is a perfect example of music and cinema coming together to create a beautiful moment.

MP3’s
I Change Shapes Just To Hide In This Place…
————————————————————

1. Testicicles – Circle Square Triangle
2. Idlewild – When I Argue I See Shapes
3. Squarepusher – Tommib
4. New Order – Bizarre Love Triangle
5. Boards Of Canada – Turquoise Hexagon Sun
6. The Models – Bend Me, Shape Me
7. The Octagon – Suicide Kings
8. Nirvana – Heart Shaped Box
9. Russian Circles – Hexed All
10. Circlesquare – Hey, You Guys

Bonus tracks…

Two songs from absolute classic albums. both with Shape in the titles.

from The Shape of Punk To Come..

MP3: Refused – New Noise

and from The Colour and The Shape…

MP3: Foo Fighters – Hey, Johnny Park!

VIDEO: Supergrass – Diamond Hoo Ha Man

And thats it for another week.

“Colours answer feeling in man, shapes answer thought and motion answers will”

S.I.T Wolf X

Yes indeed, it’s that time again, and in honour of this momentous occasion, Out On Blue Six presents five amazing facts you never knew about Britain’s favourite defunct provider of third rate sub-Amicus/Hammer horror flicks:

- despite winding down operations in 1976 for absolutely no suspect reasons whatsoever and subsequently having a nice day out at the seaside with a vicar (we will of course not be naming the vicar), the Tyburn Films name was briefly revived in 1984 for a project entitled Batty!, a movie based on the incident in which popular puppet rodent Roland Rat was hit with a cricket bat; this failed to get off the ground when the film was seized before production as a ‘Video Nasty’, though it was later released as a blank disc in a box set of former Nasties alongside Threads: Just The Swearing, Ghostwatch Smeg-Outs and some bloody ITV wartime drama that even Network considered ‘too obscure’. Lawyers have asked us to emphasise that Tyburn Films were never involved with any prospective films about erstwhile celebrity puppets.

- in 1972  Tyburn Films were the recipient of a prestigious ‘Uncle’ award, given out by Fans Of The Silents in recognition of contributions to the genre, in response to their soundless presentation of Frank Zappa’s over-droned-on-about concert at the Royal Albert Hall where he phoned Mary Whitehouse and called her a “Swizzlewick silly” or something, which many noted was vastly improved in the absence of the audio track, though this has posthumously been withdrawn after it was discovered that the master tape was recently recorded over with the Supergrass ‘mockumentary’ Glange Fever, and the original was unable to be recovered even from an off-air recording retained by superfan Ian Levine. Lawyers have asked us to emphasise that Tyburn Films have never even met Frank Zappa and were on holiday when it wasn’t made.

- amongst numerous Tyburn Films projects that were abandoned during production were Mutiny On The Pipkins, Eli Culbertson Vs. Pterodactyls, The Furious Windcheaters!, Spangles Galore and The Waltham Green East Wapping Carpet Cleaning Rodent And Boggit Extermination Association Live At Somewhere They Couldn’t Fit This Billing Onto The Marquee. Lawyers have asked us to emphasise that Farewell To John Denver has been removed on legal advice (and also because it wasn’t funny).

- the Wikipedia page on Tyburn Films is one of the most rigorously maintained on the whole of the site; moderators waste no time in removing unverifiable claims that the company existed, operated in the early seventies and made films, while ensuring that vital information such as “Tyburn Films is not to be confused with Milburn, who worked in the cafe on Last Of The Summer Wine, which sounds a bit similar” is always present and correct. Lawyers have asked us to emphasise that [CITATION NEEDED].

- Sendhil Ramamurthy, TV’s Mohinder from Heroes, considers Tyburn’s output to be “full of exemplary acting”. Lawyers have asked us to emphasise “Sylar!” in a ’shocked’ voice.

Hello, dear readers. The end of the decade best of list is proving tougher to finalise than I thought it would be, so that’ll have to wait just a little longer. As part of this process, I’ve been revisiting some of the reviews I’ve written over the past six or so years and thought it might be interesting to post them here and see if I was on the money, wide of the mark or simply babbling incoherently. I should say before I start this, I’m not overly thrilled with all of these and they will be the original texts as I submitted them to the magazines, and so any bits that got subbed by my erstwhile reviews editors will still be here.

To kick off, a review of Supergrass’ best of, from 2004. I’m in the middle of doing a piece about their charming new extra-curricular project, The Hot Rats, so I thought I’d drop this one out there.

SUPERGRASS – SUPERGRASS IS 10

(Parlophone)

The grammatically correct but aesthetically depressing title aside, this particular retrospective is something of an unknown history. After their tumultuous arrival in the midst of Brtipop, Supergrass’ star has appeared, through no fault of their own, to have been on the blink. Seemingly rather keen to point out that it wasn’t all cavorting on bikes and bendy-legged Muppets videos, this set gamely attempts to represent both sides of the ‘Grass. .

The soul of Britpop hasn’t lost any of its vigour when it reappears on a fair wedge of tunes culled from the band’s debut, ‘I Should Coco’, a spirit that is reprised on tracks from their underrated and notably under-bought last album, ‘Life On Other Planets’. There is a slight feel, however, of being down the indie-disco and the dreaded fear that Shed Seven might pop up at any time is never far from your mind. Where this record really strikes gold is in highlighting the band’s knack for contemplative, melodic acoustic tunes such as ‘Late In The Day’ and the glorious ‘It’s Not Me’. The parent album of this pair, ‘In It For The Money’, remains their finest achievement and is as deserving of the moniker ‘The Best Of Supergrass’ as this particular compilation.

Hugely enjoyable current single, *Kiss Of Life* comes on like a cross between The Charlatans and T-Rex with added silly noises, while other obligatory new track, *Bullet* offers a heavier sound but manages to forget to add a melody. Where they go next is unknown, but what they’ve already done bears some repeating.

VERDICT: Enjoyable nostalgia, but all you need is their superlative second album.

KEY TRACKS: Grace, Going Out, It’s Not Me

Originally published in Word Magazine 2004

***

I largely stand by this, five years on, although there’s a slightly snide reference to Shed Seven there that’s helping nobody.

The other one for today is simply proof that I’ve always known what I was talking about.

ELBOW

Leaders Of The Free World finds Elbow delivering a work of global majesty.

Beardy, Mancunian melancholia is an integral part of the modern music scene. Where previously local rivals such as Doves have stolen a march on them, Elbow have set about fulfilling the promise that was so clear on their first two albums. Initially purveyors of more muted, atmospheric efforts, this time out the band seem far more confident of their sizeable talents

Mostly set in the urban wilds of Manchester, the brief global view attempted in the title track proves to be a remarkably successful – now say this quietly – ‘political song.’ The beauty of lines such as, “passing the gun from father to feckless son,” in neither being too blatant nor too pious ensures that the ham-fisted, vacuous efforts of many before them are not repeated in this gem of a tune.

The album maintains its quality throughout, two of the latter songs amongst the best things I’ve heard all year. ‘The Everthere’ employs similarly muted percussion to that of Blur’s charming, ‘Out Of Time’ and is one of frontman Guy Garvey’s finest vocal performances on the record. This is only surpassed by ‘Great Expectations,’ which tells the tale of an imaginary wedding on the last bus home between our man and a hitherto unknown young lady, for which “a call-girl with yesterday eyes was our witness.”

Such endearingly well-imagined lyrics are typical of ‘Leaders Of The Free World’, an album that comes good on Elbow’s previous hints at greatness and which will surely rank amongst the finest releases of the year come December.

Leaders Of The Free World is on V2

Originally published in Word Magazine 2005

***

What can I say? I was playing the vinyl of this the other night, having just listened to the deluxe edition of ‘Asleep In The Back’ and was reminded that they’ve always been great, it just took the public a while to pick up on that fact. The rather lovely Jude Rogers, who was my reviews editor at the time, was part of the judging team who gave the Mercury Music Prize to them for ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’ and she later told me that after falling in love with their fourth album, she was reminded of me banging on about how great they were and that I was right all along. Quite so!

The final show from Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey of Supergrass and The Hot Rats.

25th October 2009

Earlier this year I explored Brit Rock starting from The Killers and other artist suggested by friends.. Friendly Fires, Whitest Boy Alive, Just Jack, The Streets and Sondre Lerche. I love the accent! When I had this web project in Ortigas, I sneaked out in one of the drives and saw this mp3 folder named Euro Rock.. I’m a thief! I copied those files to my iPod =) cool finds..

• Travis
• The Libetrtines
• We are Scientists
• Supergrass
• Futureheads

I even got Trip Hop tracks from Hooverphonic, Snicker Pimps, Massive Attack and Portishead. Now I wonder who owns this playlist.. maybe i’ll like him haha.

With Gaz Coombs and Danny Goffey of The Hot Rats / Supergrass choosing their favourite tracks.

18th October 2009

Tracklisting:

Television — See No Evil
Neil Young — Walk On
Graham Nash — Military Road
The Strokes — Meet Me In The Bathroom
Jimi Hendrix — Spanish Castle
Can — I’m So Green
The Hot Rats — Up The Junction
Lou Reed — Rock And Roll Heart
Ian Dury and the Blockheads — You’ll See Glimpses
David Bowie — Moonage Daydream
Lodger — I’m Leaving
Grace Jones — Pull Up To The Bumper
Dennis Wilson — River Song
Supergrass — Fishing In Windows
Serge Gainsbourg — En Melody
Talking Heads — Crosseyed & Painless
Bob Dylan — Hurricane
The Hot Rats — Bike
The Ronettes — Be My Baby
Radiohead — Reckoner
Harry Nilsson — Jump Into The Fire
Siouxsie and the Banshees — Happy House
Elliott Smith — Son Of Sam

If your like me you appreciate it when artists make their music available for listening to for free on their websites.  Although you cannot download the songs (unless you are a techno-wizard which I am not) you can listen to them multiple times over on their player. 

The Hot Rats is a side project from Supergrass singer-guitarist Gaz Coombes and drummer Danny Goffey.  While Supergrass is recording their 7th studio album due out in early 2010, these two decided that a side project was cool as well.  You can listen to 5 tracks on The Hot Rats website; the second song Big Sky is pretty cool cover of the Kinks classic, I love it! Check it out and let me know what you think!

Hot Rats U.S. Tour Dates:
1/12/2010 – Music Hall of Williamsburg (Brooklyn, NY)
1/14/2010 – Bowery Ball Room (NYC)
1/19/2010 – Spaceland (Los Angeles, CA)
1/21/2010 – Troubadour (West Hollywood, CA)

Da la casualidad de que ayer puse la tele y mi querida hermanita  se había dejado puesta la MTV.

Bien, pues casi me da algo cuando vi en medio del aparato toda la cara de Cabano (que por cierto, este chaval no sé si tendrá algún amigo que le haya dicho que se pusiera así para la foto, pero si lo tiene creo que es un poco cabrón).

Fue entonces cuando me vinieron a la cabeza todas las tardes que me había pasado yo (hace ya bastantes añitos), bocata de Nocilla en mano, tragándome todo lo que ponían hasta que empezaba “MTV Select“. No importaba en absoluto perder la tarde entera delante de la tele, porque la verdad: por entonces, aparte de los deberes, ¿qué tenia que hacer? Ya os lo digo yo: nada de nada.

Incontables los videoclips que vi, pero los que voy a poner ahora fueron de los que más me marcaron:

Los Planetas – Himno Generacional #83

Considero muy, pero que muy importante el momento en que vi éste por primera vez. Supongo que sabía que habían unos “Planetas” o algo así por ahí, pero ese día flipé demasiado, por ponerlo de una manera que se ajuste a mi reacción.

Supergrass – Pumping on Your Stereo

Con éste aprendí una cosa muy importante: Te pueden fallar tus amigos, te puede fallar tu novio, te puede fallar hasta tu perro, pero Supergrass, nunca.

Bueno, aquí igual exagero, pero admito que con mis precoces once añitos ver unos tíos salidos de Barrio Sésamo tocando de esa manera me dejó sin habla. (A veces soy tan impresionable…)

Y para acabar, el último de esta corta pero (“¿Por qué no decirlo, Carmen?”) enriquecedora etapa de vicio a la MTV de mi vida:

Resulta que por las noches había un programa, “Kabuki“, donde invitaron a ese hombre que se hacía llamar “el Koala“. Pues bien, el tío montó un numerito con el que además de quedarme yo con cara de tonta, creo que dejé de ver la tele durante muuuuucho tiempo, ya creía que lo había visto todo.

(Más tarde me pusieron Internet en mi cuarto)

This just kicks all kinds of ass!  This is the Foo Fighters performing at Vh1’s “Rock Honors” for The Who.  They do Young Man Blues and then bring out Supergrass singer Gaz Coombes to kick mucho ass on Bargain.  Enjoy!

With Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey of Supergrass / The Hot Rats.

11th October 2009

Tracklisting:

The Doors — Hello I Love You
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band — Yes I Do
Happy Mondays — Lazyitis
Elvis Presley — Trying To Get To You
Shuggie Otis — Strawberry Letter 23
The Hot Rats — Lovecats
The Jesus and Mary Chain — April Skies
The Byrds — All I Want To Do Is Be With You
The Who — Real Me
The Holy Modal Rounders — If you wanna be a bird
The xx — Islands
David Bowie — Sorrow
T. Rex — Dream Lady
The Sonics — Psycho
Radiohead — House of Cards
Supergrass — Roxy
The Cure — 1015 Saturday Night
The Hot Rats — Up The Junction
The Bees — Ghosts
The Modern Lovers — She Cracked
The Kinks — Victoria
Curtis Mayfield — People Get Ready
The Action — Love Is All
Lou Reed — Oh! Sweet Nuthin
Gene Clark — Life’s Greatest Fools
Love — Daily Planet

With Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey of Supergrass / The Hot Rats. Coming from Gaz’s basement studio to re-discover old gems and introduce some impressive new tracks.

4th October 2009

Nearly as hedonistic as Skins…