Gak. Too much beer. Once more I stagger into work feeling fuzzy-headed and furry-tongued after a night of beer and song. It's so fucking hard to concentrate on anything when you really just want to curl up on the floor under your desk and catch up on another six hours of sleep. Tonight, however, instead of sleep, there will be podcasting and then a trip to the Withered Hand, Ish Marquez and Stanley Brinks gig at about eleven. And tomorrow we all get up nice and early and spend the whole day putting together [...]
This Sunday marks Remembrance Sunday, in remebrance of Armistice Day 1918 'The eleventh hour on the eleventh day on the eleventh month.' We did it in school, like a lot of people. I remember doing it aged about eight, via watching a programme called How We Used To Live , a show that looked at a family in Yorkshire. A few years later, on a family holiday in France, we drove along passed the roads where the cemeteries are. Even as a twelve year old, it was quite sobering, and the picture at the top gives an [...]
It's hardly surprising that I find myself saying that Google have turned their old motto , Don't Be Evil, into something of a sad parody, rather than the idealistic mission it once used to be. It's also a little sad that what prompts me to write is not their spineless compliance with internet censorship in China , but something a little closer to home. Ed, writer of 17 Seconds , is the latest to fall foul of Google's draconian, utterly corrupt and morally bankrupt policies towards copyright. A year or so ago Ed [...]
Right, given Dadrock seems to be the enduring theme of the moment, let's poke a little further shall we? Actually, Dadrock in our house was pretty fucking cool. My Dad introduced me to the Waterboys, the Pogues, the Men They Couldn't Hang, as well as the stuff he grew up with: Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen, The Band and various other classics. Mum wasn't bad either: Depeche Mode, Bowie, the Stones and The Pet Shop Boys, as well as some splendidly camp pop such as ABC, Erasure, Kate Bush, Elton John (just the early [...]
I've written about my sheer admiration of the wonderful Richard Thompson before. Today's post is only partly about him, but mainly a reflection of worry about a worsening of the economy, and how it affects so many people. For some, it's a worry about how to pay the mortgage. For some, a worry about how to survive into next week. And still some people think politics is nothing to do with them. Richard Thompson's song 'Last Shift' is reflection on the closure of the Grimethorpe colliery in 1993. The number of mines in the UK has fallen [...]
... is sleep. Well, here's three fantastic tracks. It must be thirty-somethingness, that I want to play these on a Friday night rather than going mad to someting er...faster and heavier. (I'm not that middle-aged, though, I'd rather read The Wire than many of the other music magazines more obsessed with celebrity and/or the past). Joanna Newsom -'The Book Of Right-On.' mp3 Kristin Hersh -'Your Ghost.' mp3 The [...]
I've just recently heard a couple of versions of an old folk song called Barrett's Privateers, and neither quite captured my imagination. Two groups I know - The Men They Couldn't Hang, whom I love, and the now defunct Australian band Weddings, Parties, Anything, whom I quite like - have covered the song, and presumably [...]
Anyone at all surprised? No, thought not. While you sit, either in your office skiving off work or in your dark basements wanking yourselves blind to internet porn, I am down somewhere in the South-ish of England at the End of the Road Festival, enjoying tunes all by myself. All by myself? Well yes, [...]
My short companion and myself are in London for the weekend, so there will be a paucity of posting until perhaps Sunday evening or some time on Monday. I understand how devastating this will be for you all, but such is life. I can't spend all my time keeping you muppets entertained you know. [...]
Red Six. Who was he? What was his like motivation , hm? Who really cares? Well today Song, by Toad cares. Today it is all about Red Six, or that poor anonymous Lieutenant in Star Trek - the one you can be absolutely certain isn't going to survive the episode. Does anyone else remember Porkins from Star Wars with such affection as Mr Toad? This haven for losers, wastrels and ne'erdowells embraces Porkins, the only fat, bearded star fighter pilot in the universe, and today we dedicate some tunes to him. [...]
Ethical officers in mega-corps these days are all the rage. I have lost count of the number of times I have been told by cretinous free market fundamentalists that big business will all act in a morally upstanding manner because consumer pressure will force them to and that is the beauty of capitalism, my friend. Even the sight of the smug smile fading as I ominously raise my shovel, malicious smile on face, isn't enough to eradicate the fury that sort of obvious denial of reality stirs deep down in my little red soul. Despite wearing the [...]
Having mentioned The Men They Couldn't Hang in my previous Thunderegg post I was immediately struck by memories of one of their most thunderous and angry songs. Going Back to Coventry is a raging guitar-folk-punk number from one of their earlier albums - How Green is the Valley. The Men They Couldn't Hang - Going Back to Coventry The Coventry reference reminded me of two things. Firstly, The Specials - fucking brilliant, aren't they? And, secondly, when was the last time a good band came out of Coventry? Coventry, for [...]
Well after all that frothing and complaining I needed something to settle me down and here I have it. Mellifluous is going to be the word of the week and will crop up in at least two more posts before the weekend, so if you have any sort of allergy then I suggest you keep your adrenalin syringe handy. Today's portion of mellifluvium (now that really should be a word!) is served by Thunderegg , a relaxingly familiar bunch of indie slackers (actually I don't know this for a fact, I'm completely making it [...]
Song, by Toad
17 seconds
The Corner Laughers “Poppy Seeds”
