Don't Trust Brainwashed

Brainwashed's End Of Year Poll results are in here: Clickety-click

Not only does the this-is-pretty-good-but-I-really-wish-it-was-better-I-mean-how-hard-can-it-be? Om record God Is Good make it to number 4 in the Top 10 Albums Of 2009 but Brainwashed reader Anthony D'Amico has this to say about Bellini's The Precious Prize Of Gravity:

"All I remember about this album is that I put it on for a couple minutes, shrugged, and turned it off."

Thanks for that Anthony.

Lungfish Live 1991

Henry Chunklet has decided to digitise and upload a shitload of cassettes that would otherwise be consigned to the great box-under-the-bed-filled-with-dust-and-pubes in the sky. Lots of these came from Chris Thomson but one of Henry's own is this sound-desk recording of Lungfish in Baltimore in 1991.
They do a mighty version of I Don't Live Today by Jimi Hendrix about halfway through too, as if you needed anyore reasons to have a listen...

Brooks Headley

Sam McPheeters profiles his former bandmate Brooks Headley for Vice, with photos by Glen Freidman:
http://www.viceland.com/int/v16n11/htdocs/the-dessert-psycho-223.php?page=1

Headley drummed for Born Against, UOA, Skull Kontrol and Wrangler Brutes among others and is now a renowned pastry chef in New York. No shit. As McPheeters puts it:

"The mystery of tragedy is a staple of news shows—the distraught parents who never thought their child would be capable of murder, the coworkers baffled by an incident of workplace violence. But its correlate mystery—the opacity of talent—gets relatively little play in the media. For me, it’s just as intriguing. How can someone rise to prestige without giving any indications of ambition? What made Grandma Moses take up painting in her 70s? What made G.W. Bush take his life seriously at 40? How do people pull off these radical and seemingly effortless course corrections? Thus was the mystery of Brooks..."

As a huge fan of both desserts and Headley's bands this is a grand read, so go read it...

And while we're at it, here's some of Brooks' drumming from You Tube, just don't read the comments:

I'm Becoming James May

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/columnists/jamesmay/6408789/Its-Ferrari-time.html

Has James May been reading my Blog?
I guess, unlike me, he can afford one at least.

WWRRSSDDRRWWSS

While I am on the Blog-recommendation trail, Sean Wars (Liverpool based illustrator and noise maker) has a Blog mainly concentrating on his splendid poster art: http://wwrrssddrrwwss.blogspot.com/

Go on then...

Silver Currant

Great man of fuzz, echo and wah-frenzy Ethan Miller (of Howlin' Rain and Comets On Fire) has his own blog and here it is: http://silvercurrant.blogspot.com

Monk's rules to live by are awesome:
http://silvercurrant.blogspot.com/2009/03/monks-rules-to-his-band.html

"You've got to dig it, to dig it - you dig?"

A Feast Of Music...

If you're anything like my good friend Ross you'll go all foamy at the thought of some of the bands that came out the US underground in the 80s and early 90s. Despite the constant re-packaging of what was (I presume) a series of beautifully spontaneous outbursts of music into some grand plan re-told on DVD with a Thurston Moore and Byron Coley commentary, there are still some truly killer bands that thankfully remain off the radar for documentary makers and lucrative reformation tours. Kind of like the UK come to think of it. That's another column/book though...
I'll get to the point. Chris Thomson has offloaded all his cassettes onto Henry at Chunklet who has decided to do the right thing and make them available for folks to listen to. First up is a series of MP3s from a demo by Cupid Car Club.
Go here: http://www.chunklet.com/index.cfm?section=blogs&ID=554

"We’re all going to be sick of these by the weekend"

Famous in Notts

http://www.leftlion.co.uk/photo-galleries.cfm/id/284

Bilge Pump - "Rupert The Sky"

When Drowned In Sound redesigned their website, this review got lost. I found it again so here it is:



Aaaah, Bilge Pump.

There exists in the UK a sub-underground culture of bands that make fine music but never stick their head above the trench long enough for anyone to truly notice it. It's not a reflection on the quality at hand but more on the way that people pick up on bands and respond to things like 'hype' on a really basic person-to-person level. The UK has always had a really strong and interconnected network of bands like this, from which a Franz Ferdinand or a Foals has occasionally sprung, again not as a reflection of quality but more a reflection of ambition and willingness (and opportunity) on those bands' part to 'play the game' a little.

Ben Patashnik's comment (in the Dis review) that Bilge Pump have somehow got the potential to "grow into being a fine underground band" is a statement that perfectly encapsulates what I am referring to. If by 'underground' band he means a band like the aforementioned Foals or Mclusky who are 'underground' in the sense of that being a buzzword or a descriptive term of their output (in the same way as 'indie' has become) then he is right. With some 'work' and a little direction then they could become that. I don't doubt it. But those bands are as overground as it gets. The band isn't just the people playing and writing the music, it's a whole network of individuals making it happen for the small cottage industry that is 'the band'. Which is all fine of course but it's not to be mistaken with what this is.

The actual "underground" in the UK is just that. Underground. Self-sufficient. Relatively undisturbed. It exists on a rung way below even the most lowly touring bands that arrive on our shores from the USA. Despite this, Bilge Pump have become not just a fine underground band, but the finest, bar none. The influence of this band, both as a musical unit and as people, is hugely far reaching. Cultish even.

Fortunate then, that the second album from them, Rupert The Sky, is so amazingly, heart-swellingly awesome.

Every song is a microscopic world filled with ideas (both musical and lyrical) that lesser bands could extend to entire concept albums. Musically it swings and rocks as hard as Zeppelin at times, as a 3 piece band they have a natural psychic ability to make absolutely anything, no matter how noisy, possess an irresistable groove. It's humorous but never wacky, noisy but never blustering, complicated but never pointless. The lyrics are a series of perfect little snapshots, like some strange haiku. Lines like

"We were genuine happy children, but our Dad was a miserable cove. His parting shot... spread his brains across my frock"

are as bizarre as they are rich in their knack for setting a scenario that would be far less complete were it described in any more detail. Couple this to a musical language that is entirely their own and any notions of comparing Bilge Pump to other bands seems somehow redundant.
When people talk about bands existing out of the mainstream or being independant it's usually an 'angle', and more to the point you're usually being told that by a manager or a journalist thus making the whole statement something of an oxymoron. In a way, it's a shame Bilge don't make more of their history, lineage and influence on others as maybe listing a series of celebrity fans of the band might make it easier for shitty journalists to fill a few hundred words and maybe it'd give people an 'angle' on them. But at the same time, it's what makes them (and this record) so amazing.

The only reason I didn't give it 10 is because there's not enough of it and I'm gutted that I'll have to wait another couple of years for the next one.

Kurt's Guitars Now

http://kurtsguitarsnow.blogspot.com/

Awesome, geeky guitar website about Kurt Cobains equipment and where it is now. Also includes stuff that didn't belong to him that his missus sold to the Hard Rock Cafe anyway.

Ultrapenis

Having promoted gigs since the late 90s, I've noticed a few changes to the way things work with bands coming over from the USA. It used to be that the bands were largely the same as me, they were involved in similar exploits to me back in their hometown and it had the cosy feeling of camaraderie.
Then the booking agents got more plentiful and the guarantees got more unrealistic. Then the bands themselves started seeming like alien creatures who no-one could relate to operating in microcosms of the larger mainstream rock industry.
Somewhere along the line of ATP reformations, NME-covered guerilla gigs and 'emotional hardcore' becoming the musical norm, the tag "DIY" has shifted from meaning "do it yourself" to being more of a term of description for a musical style or, worse still, a type of dress. If this all makes me sound like an old fucker then fair enough.
The economic climate and the way money is made from music means that bands can't live off touring and recording anymore. And by 'live' I mean make a minimum wage, barely. So the bands that tour are people with some financial security and it's fucking the music world right up. Because of the intense documenting of behaviour that the internet affords, gigs become almost tribute nights. Even the photographers at the front are there to replicate something they already saw from a gig that already happened. Couple this to only seeing bands who are fortunate to be able to afford to live out fantasies of bands they liked when they were growing up and you can work out why I'm grumpy.
Worst of all is American bands using the DIY network to further their own asses. The worst of the bunch is Wavves. Maybe I misread them? Maybe I got the wrong end of the stick? Could be.

But read this:

"I think in the back of my head I knew I wasn't exactly mentally healthy enough to continue to tour the way I have been since February. Honest truth is this has all happened so fast and I feel like the weight of it has been building for months now with what seems like a never ending touring and press schedule which includes absolutely zero time to myself. I'm sorry to everyone who has put effort into this and to everyone who supported me. Mixing ecstasy valium and xanax before having to play in front of thousands of people was one of the more poor decisions I've made(duh) and I realize my drinking has been a problem now for a good period of time. Nothing else I can do but apologize to everyone that has been affected by my poor decision making. I made a mistake. Not the first mistake I've made and it for sure wont be the last. I'm human. Don't know why I chose the biggest platform I could imagine to loose my shit, but that's life. You live and you learn."

and tell me you don't want to punch the face right off this overpriviliged, typically-American little whiner.

Calling All Video Experts

Can someone who knows what they're doing make a looped version of this video for David Wm Sims? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4JV507F8d8

Mixtape

I did a mixtape for the Egoeccentric Blog last year and it's available as a single download file: http://egoeccentric.blogspot.com/2008/10/lords-pick-egoeccentic-hangover-mixtape.html
When it gets to Pressure Drop by The Maytals, listen to the version from the video posted below though, not sure where they got the one on the mix from...

Blogs

Apparently 99.6% of Americans have a Blog. That might not be true. Here are a handful that are worth adding to your 'Favourites':

The Loom Of Ruin: Sam McPheeters used to sing in Born Against, Men's Recovery Project and Wrangler Brutes. Now he's sacked off playing music to concentrate on writing with some occasional spoken word shows. He might be on to something.

Too Big To Fail: Newly-hatched blog by Scratch Acid and Jesus Lizard bassist David Wm Sims. Good way to work yourself into a frenzy about having paid out something like £160 to see the Jesus Lizard play in May only to find out everyone else who bought a ticket voted for Sufjan Stevens.

Ideologic: Links to art, articles and music provided by Stephen O'Malley of Sunn 0))) and KTL. The art links are always work a look...

Pink Hollers: Obtuse and cryptic musings from Dead Child and Slint guitarist David Pajo accompanied by obtuse and cryptic mobile phone snaps.

Stereo Sanctity: Great blog of music reviews, news and musings. Always right on the money and funny too. Regularly updated, always worth a cup-of-tea's worth of your time.

and of course Diskant: The original and best. Loads of people with not-so-much-time-on-their-hands-as-they-used-to-have talk about culture and get their ideas stolen by The Guardian. True!

Hi

I decided to finally get round to using this Blog. I'll be posting internet links and various articles and crummy cameraphone pics when the mood strikes. Feel free to link me.