Smoke Black Mountain

This is a good album for anyone who has an idle wonder about what a jam session between Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, and Can might sound like. After a long spell in Brian Wilson's dope tent.
Sludgey, repetitive Sabbath riffs (a good thing!) abound. The bloke in charge works at a needle exchange facility in Vancouver, and 'Black Mountain' refers to a large pile of herbally extracted recreational compounds. Not that you could tell from the stench emanating from the record...
Another recent album worth hearing, the collaboration between Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan, 'Ballad of Broken Seas'.



She is ex-Belle and Sebastien (no, that didn't set my pulse racing either) and he is ex-Screaming Trees most recently observed lending sinister growls to Queens of the Stone Age.
Other records whiling away my time at the moment, Eighteenth Day of May (mp3 downloads from their website), plenty of Bert Jansch, Davey Graham and John Fahey, and twenty years too late 'Your Love' by Frankie Knuckles.

Station Approach

Went to see Elbow at Rock City last Wednesday - I'm not their biggest fan but Helen is very keen, so I got us tickets. They were very good - and I enjoyed the gig, but I was pissed off by the number of people just blatantly talking over the music or dicking around on their mobile phones, sending text messages etc.
This I don't understand - when I'm at a gig, I'm watching the band, I'm not thinking of sending a bleeding text message to someone, or starting a conversation with my neighbour about tonight's episode of Eastenders.
Young people today have either a) no attention span or b) no access to the kind of bands/acts that demand 100% attention at the expense of all other waking thought...which is pretty sad to see either way you look at it.
Enough old bastard moaning...I know, I know, it was all so much better in my day...

Bob Dylan is cool - official

This startled me - the annual NME 'who's cool in rock' list has Mr Bob Dylan at number 9.

Bob's cooler than Ian Brown! And a bunch of other guys (hmmm...it's nearly all men...well done non-sexist NME) I've never heard of!

1. (New) Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys)
2. (New) Liam Gallagher (Oasis)
3. (New) Kanye West
4. (New) Antony (Antony and The Johnsons)
5. (9) Brandon Flowers (The Killers)
6. (17) Devendra Banhart
7. (=1) Pete Doherty (Babyshambles)
8. (New) Jemina Pearl (Be Your Own Pet)
9. (New) Bob Dylan
10. (=1) Carl Barat (Dirty Pretty Things)
11. (New) Ian Brown
12. (New) Damon Albarn (Blur/Gorillaz)
13. (New) Ryan Jarman (The Cribs)
14. (New) Julian Casablancas (The Strokes)
15. (New) Ninja (Go! Team)
16. (New) Paul Epworth
17. (New) Billie Jo (Green Day)
18. (New) Tom Atkin (The Paddingtons)
19. (New) Henry Harrison (The Mystery Jets)
20. (New) Gerard Way (My Chemical Romance)

That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore

The Helster and I met for a drink after work yesterday, and as so often happens, she accused me - harshly but accurately - of being a 'deaf bastard'. (a congenital wax problem that I suffer with nobility and great patience).
I responded, inevitably, with 'What?'.
I received a punch in the ribs and 'That joke isn't funny anymore' from the Helster. I proceeded to say that there could be a song in this, I felt strange compulsion to grow a quiff and stuff daffodils down my trousers, wear a big hearing aid, and claim to be celibate whilst in fact being as gay as a tree. (ie to be Morrissey).
So, anyway we arrive at Langtry's for a beer, and what song is playing as we sit down? 'That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore' by the Smiths...

Gigs a go go

A couple of gigs last week, of the sit down variety...for a welcome change for my tired old bones. There's only so much beer spillage and toe treading and general shoving around at places like Rock City that one can put up with.
Anyway, Monday was John Cale at de Montfort Hall; only about half full but a good night out. He kicked off with Venus In Furs, and was backed a band of lads who must have been a third of his age.
Better still was Nick Cave at the Conert Hall in Nottm - in the middle of the front row...which was exciting. I was worried that it would be a very sedate evening of gentle piano balladry, but from the off it was rowdy and clattering, a fantastic night. Terrific versions of The Mercy Seat and Abattoir Blues amongst others, and I got to shake the great man's hand. Shame about that moustache though...