'A Quick One While He's Away', live in 1968, the year of my birth, it still takes some beating.
DANG! DANG! DANG! DANG!
Try to imagine any flaky group like the bloody Kooks or bastard Pete Feckin Doherty having the imagination and energy and wit and to knock off something as breathlessly exciting as this...
29.6.07
20.6.07
Orchestra Of Wolves
Apparently Kerrang! and the NME have been hyping this lot for a while now, and they have been picked up by Warners, with their debut LP being reissued with extra tracks this week.
Sounds great to me, and I imagine they are fantastic live...terrific crunching bass and guitars, and unexpectedly catchy tunes, buried under all that bluster.
Makes a good contrast to all that sensitive acid folk I have been listening to this week...
19.6.07
This is a sad fuckin song...
...we'll be lucky if I don't BUST OUT CRYIN!
So begins 'Squirrel Song' by Shellac, from an album a few years back.
There's a new Shellac LP out this week apparently, and as Ady rightly surmises, it quite likely sounds like most of the Shellac LPs which came before it...
'This isn't some kind of metaphor...Goddam...this is REAL!'
Poor old Steve Albini, it must be so exhausting being so aggrieved and so angry.
So begins 'Squirrel Song' by Shellac, from an album a few years back.
There's a new Shellac LP out this week apparently, and as Ady rightly surmises, it quite likely sounds like most of the Shellac LPs which came before it...
'This isn't some kind of metaphor...Goddam...this is REAL!'
Poor old Steve Albini, it must be so exhausting being so aggrieved and so angry.
15.6.07
The World Is Expanding As the Universe Shrinks
A few quick links to some items of interest. At least, they are interesting to me - you, dear reader, must decide for yourself.
First up, from the Mogwai website, via Graham's blog, is Iggy Pop with that 'Punk Rock' speech...I just love this.
Next - there's a new LP imminent from the Broken Family Band - looking forward to seeing them at the Summer Sundae this year, and they have been decent enough to post a full track from the album on their website.
Two new Lps which I picked up today - the new Nick Lowe album, and the one by Meg Baird, singer from Espers.
6.6.07
Move over Rover, and let Jimi take over
Been watching the Seven Ages of Rock on BBC2 on Saturaday nights, or more often than not, downloaded from the tinternet.
The first episode was terrific - using Hendrix as a narrative thread to trace the birth and development of what we now know as 'rock' music. Some great clips, some insightful commentary, it was a very good programme.
The most recent two editions have been less satisfying, in fact the whole idea of 'Seven Ages of Rock' seems a bit flimsy. The episode dedicated to 'art rock' flitted between the Velvet Underground, Pink Floyd, Roxy Music and Bowie, without supplying a coherent theory about where they came from, who they influenced, and what exactly they had in common. I would have thought that Pink Floyd might have sat more comfortably int the Stadium Rock episode.
'Seven Ages of Rock' seems to imply a chronological theory of the development of rock music, but the episodes have a distinct overlap which would appear to undermine this theory. There were events happening in the punk episode which were concurrent with those happening in the art rock episode, and for me the idea behind the series seems a lot less convincing than 'Dancing In The Street', which was procduced by the same folks 14 years ago - in fact some of the interview footage used in this series is lifted from DITS.
The latter series made many interesting insights into the - dare I say it - socio-political history of popular music, especially observations around attitudes towards race and class. For instance, the impact on black American artists of the British Invasion of the mid 60's, and the successful cover versions by white artists of songs written by black groups who were subsequently sidelined by acts more palatable to a conservative white American market.
Seven Ages of Rock doesn't appear to make such insights, and is more preoccupied with a linear account of how Hendrix paved the way for Bowie, then the Pistols, with a random episode about Heavy Metal thrown in, followed by an apparently redundant feature on Stadium Rock, then hey presto a tidy finish with Britpop - job done. All seems a bit convenient really, although there has been some undoubtedly great footage used so far.
The first episode was terrific - using Hendrix as a narrative thread to trace the birth and development of what we now know as 'rock' music. Some great clips, some insightful commentary, it was a very good programme.
The most recent two editions have been less satisfying, in fact the whole idea of 'Seven Ages of Rock' seems a bit flimsy. The episode dedicated to 'art rock' flitted between the Velvet Underground, Pink Floyd, Roxy Music and Bowie, without supplying a coherent theory about where they came from, who they influenced, and what exactly they had in common. I would have thought that Pink Floyd might have sat more comfortably int the Stadium Rock episode.
'Seven Ages of Rock' seems to imply a chronological theory of the development of rock music, but the episodes have a distinct overlap which would appear to undermine this theory. There were events happening in the punk episode which were concurrent with those happening in the art rock episode, and for me the idea behind the series seems a lot less convincing than 'Dancing In The Street', which was procduced by the same folks 14 years ago - in fact some of the interview footage used in this series is lifted from DITS.
The latter series made many interesting insights into the - dare I say it - socio-political history of popular music, especially observations around attitudes towards race and class. For instance, the impact on black American artists of the British Invasion of the mid 60's, and the successful cover versions by white artists of songs written by black groups who were subsequently sidelined by acts more palatable to a conservative white American market.
Seven Ages of Rock doesn't appear to make such insights, and is more preoccupied with a linear account of how Hendrix paved the way for Bowie, then the Pistols, with a random episode about Heavy Metal thrown in, followed by an apparently redundant feature on Stadium Rock, then hey presto a tidy finish with Britpop - job done. All seems a bit convenient really, although there has been some undoubtedly great footage used so far.
1.6.07
Yeah, this is the Killer speakin'
here's one I made earlier, just look at the madness in his eyes...
Not sure about that beard, makes him look a bit like like Eric Clapton.
SHAKE BABY, SHAKE!
Not sure about that beard, makes him look a bit like like Eric Clapton.
SHAKE BABY, SHAKE!
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