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Ah, it's that time of year again. The Christmas trees are going up, the Starbucks red cups are back, and everyone is pulling together their album of the year lists. I know that the last thing the internet needs is yet another one, but hey... I've written mine and so I may as well put it up here! It's going to be printed, as some of my ramblings are, in a friends music magazine. I would love to hear your comments / see your lists, as you all have such impeccable taste. Anyway, here it is:
EP of the Year:
3. Twin Atlantic – Vivarium (Red Bull) 1= A Wilhelm Scream – A Wilhelm Scream 12” (Paper + Plastick) 1= The Academy Is… - Lost In Pacific Time (The AP EP) (Fuelled by Ramen) Compilation / Best-Of of the Year: Funeral For A Friend – Your History Is Mine (Atlantic) Album of the Year: Near misses: Moneen – The World I Want To Leave Behind. The Matches – The Matches Unreleased Album 4. Sonic Youth – The Eternal. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz! 20. The Swellers – Ups and Downsizing (Fuelled by Ramen) 19. A.F.I. – Crash Love (Interscope) 18. Bloc Party – Intimacy (Parlophone) 17. New Found Glory – Not Without A Fight (Epitaph) 16. Third Eye Blind – Ursa Major (Geffen) 15. Manchester Orchestra – Mean Everything To Nothing (Canvasback) 14. Tegan and Sara – Sainthood (Sire) 13. Taking Back Sunday – New Again (Geffen) 12. Brand New – Daisy (Interscope) 11. Every Time I Die – New Junk Aesthetic (Epitaph) 10. Dredg – The Parrot, The Pariah, The Delusion (Ohlone) 9. Polar Bear Club – Chasing Hamburg (Bridge 9) 8. Metric – Fantasies (Sony) 7. Thrice – Beggars (Vagrant) 6. Jay-Z – The Blueprint 3 (Roc Nation) 5. Biffy Clyro – Only Revolutions (13th Floor) 4. P.O.S. – Never Better (Rhymesayers) 3. Alexisonfire – Old Crows / Young Cardinals (Vagrant) 2. Say Anything – Say Anything (RCA) 1. Thursday – Common Existence (Epitaph)
What struck me most about this list is how many bands on it are bands that I have really loved for years. If you look, there are quite a few bands here that I remember listening to six, seven, eight years ago – Thursday, Thrice, New Found Glory, Brand New, Taking Back Sunday, A.F.I. That being said, I spent a lot of time while putting this list together wondering if that was reflective of (a) the fact that my musical tastes are stuck in the year 2000, or (b) whether these bands are genuinely still putting out great music. On balance, I am convinced that it is (b), that these are still bands who are absolutely killing it. Sure, if I liked their music back in the day then I am going to be predisposed to like it now, but I don’t think that’s the whole ballgame. ( Commentary... )
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| 2009-02-10 19:43 |
| Still Alright |
| Public |
| Sonic Youth - Dude Ranch Nurse |
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Hey lovelies,
Hope you are all good! Has been a most eventful week or so here, and am going to lazily have to resort to list format to describe it to make sure I capture things. Roughly speaking, the following have been featuring:
- The Superbowl. Had ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) cross_scars over to watch it, was a great evening, which also included some playing of;
- Class Struggle, the worlds leading Marxist boardgame. My parents bought this back from New York in the 70s, and it still rocks. The only board game I've ever played where it takes ages to finish because you have to continually stop to read excerpts from Das Kapital. Anyhow, the night of playing this also led onto;
- a snow day! We had the most snow I can remember in London, about 4 inches or so, which caused transport chaos and meant that Dusty and I couldn't go into work on the post-Superbowl Monday. So we went out and frolicked in the snow, watched some Maury (featuring a woman who was scared of mustard! Awesome!), and generally relaxed.
- Many many trips for work. Probably the less said about these generally the better, as have complained about these enough already.
- Seeing some more of the Oscar movies, including Milk (amazing)
- The news that one of our friends has gotten engaged. To a guy she's know for less than a month. Who happens to live in Italy, while she lives in London, so in reality they've only actually been with each other two weeks total. How could this possibly go wrong?
I also got sent the final proofed version of an article I wrote as Barack Obama was inaugurated, which if you so desire you can find at http://ohnosupernova.blogspot.com/2009/02/metaphor-for-insecure.html
Love to all,
DC
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Hey all,
Hope you are all doing very well and enjoying 2009! Thought I would post with some news - for a couple of years now I have been writing columns for a couple of places, including a Californian music magazine who shall remain nameless on here to spare my embarrassment (the picture on their site of me is really, really bad!). Of late I've been told that they are going to delete all archived columns that are more than a year old, and I didn't want to lose everything that I'd put up. So I decided to put up a site of my own to store them on.
Now, I know that the last thing that the internet needs is another site spitting out the misguided ramblings of uninformed amateurs. But hey, I figure one more is unlikely to break the camels back, especially given that it's for my benefit as much as anyone else's. I wasn't going to post anything about the site, for those reasons, but as I know a couple of you follow my Californian adventures I thought I would put up the link just in case you wanted to know, but don't in any way feel compelled to look.
The name is from an amazing Jeff Soto painting, really worth checking out, if you have the time.
http://ohnosupernova.blogspot.com/
Love to all,
DC
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Hello lovelies,
Just to say I hope you all have a really, really lovely Christmas. Dxx
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What is it with band reunions this year? So far we've had Face to Face (though no UK dates yet), Finch, I have tickets to see Far next week, and now The Get Up Kids have regrouped for at least a few shows. And the good news is that they are still as awesome as they ever were, and I totally remember why they have always been one of my favorite bands. If you don't believe me check out the videos of the reunion show at http://www.myspace.com/thegetupkids
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Okay, I will write something proper for here in the next couple of days but please, if you do anything today watch this... just incredible - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=cVUecPhQPqY
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Okay, so for the first time in a long time am writing again, for a "soon-to-be-lauchned" magazine / web magazine being set up by a music site you may or may not know about, and who I can't name at the moment for legal reasons (blahblahblah). They have released a couple of trial issues of the magazine in "regional markets" in the States, and as the columns that I wrote for them won't ever be used for anything else I thought I might put them up on here, just to have them for posterity. Feel free to ignore, as ever!
From July 2008: "Mentor or Tormentor?"
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Hello dudes and ladies,
Hope you are all good and had lovely weekends. I'm at home this rainy Monday having a jetlag-management day after getting back from the lovely Los Angeles yesterday. I'm aware that "lovely" isn't the word that most people would used to describe the city, but I really found it quite charming this time round. I haven't been for any length of time since I was 14 and even then I saw quite a limited slice of it, so the couple of days that I managed to salvage around a work trip this time were more than welcome.
The place is everything everyone says about it - parts of it are a sprawl, are dusty and ugly and bleak, and if you are certain social groups or industries then am sure it can be a cutthroat, difficult, oppressive place. But then so can any large city I suppose. In contrast, however, other parts of it were gorgeous, uplifting, artsy and cultured, deep and in an odd way really quite thrilling. The half-days I spent walking around Silverlake and Echo Park, Santa Monica and Melrose / West Hollywood were just marvelous, aided by the beautiful weather. I didn't really have any focus to things so I just put the headphones in and walked it out. At times the weather, the music and the place just seemed to come together perfectly - I think I'll always remember listening to Jack's Mannequin walking down Melrose in the sun, or stepping through the door of the LACMA modern art gallery to be faced with the giant Jeff Koons "bubble dog" statue on one side and a Jasper Johns American Flag painting on the other just as Explosions In The Sky came on. Magical.
As I've told a couple of people since I got back, the place just felt like the centre of the cultural universe, with all the cinema and music and arts stuff going on. I must plan to get back out there for a much longer period of time, two weeks, something like that. Maybe Dusty and I could combine that with our oft-mooted trip to see the Final Four. Hmm...
Anyhow, am home for three weeks then off on another work trip. Work will be quite busy during that span but I also want to start getting the wheels moving again in terms of finding a new apartment, I started a little while ago but then things got busy, and plans may have changed a little since then, am not fully sure.
Hope you are all most excellent, let me know what you're up to,
DC
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Hello all! Wonder why I always start posts like that. Hmm… anyhow, I hope you are all doing well and having great summers. The weather has at last moved from “rainy, wet and downright miserable” to “just about bearably warm, though still overcast” here in London. I fear that’s all the summer we are going to get, but we can still hope. Has been a fairly ordinary couple of week, lots of work, done bits and pieces (seem to have had a lot of friends birthdays recently) but nothing knockout. Thankfully work seems to be slowing down – in fact, today I have nothing really to do other than admin so while I sort email out on one screen I have the UnderOath Survive Kaleidoscope DVD playing on the other. Am very excited about finally getting to see them in September, they haven’t played a UK headline show in years and if it’s half as good as the Phildadelphia show on this DVD it’ll be a cracker. The version of You’re Ever So Inviting on here is amazing and To Whom It May Concern, which I think may be my favourite song of theirs, is colossal. “So hold your head up high and know / it’s not the end of the road”. Great line, I know this sounds awfully cheesy but it’s quite an inspiring song. Actually, thinking about it, the whole DVD is excellent, perhaps the best live show concert film I have ever seen. It is filmed in brilliant high definition, and unusually for a DVD the best shots aren’t the flashy wide-angle ones of the whole band or the crowd or the light show but the close-ups on each member. Watching Aaron Gillespie and Spencer Chamberlain is quite something, the effort and determination and sweat and constant motion of it. Will be excellent to hear the new songs too – I love Desperate Times, Desperate Measures which they have put out as their new single. Things should be fun over the next few days though – tonight and tomorrow am hanging with cross_scars and his flamboyant new shoes, which should as always be a blast. We are going to hit up “The Dark Knight” tonight (finally! Months of excitement! Hope it lives up to it!), at the snazzy new 02 Millennium Dome Cinema too. Then we’ll hang in town tomorrow before going to see “Mad Detective”, the new Jonny To film, at the ICA. Cool cool. Then I have a little time to pack before flying out to Los Angeles for the week! I have some work stuff to do out there, then have managed to tack on some time at the end to have for myself in the city. I haven’t been there since I was 15 or so, and it feels like I never really got under the skin of it at all, so am hugely excited. I’m not hiring a car which (a) may not be sensible and (b) means there’ll be a lot of walking to do but I suppose that’s half the fun, just getting totally lost in a place. I have a list of about a thousand things to do, will never have time for all of them but will see how much I can fit in! Then am back for a few weeks, then off to the States again for more work stuff with personal time bolted on. I feel like I need it, work has been heavy this year and I’ve taken almost no time off – hopefully will be going away with Dusty for a bit before the end of the year too, so there’s a lot to look forward to. Anyhow, take care all of you, will see you / talk soon, DC
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Hello all! Hope you are all good, and enjoying the summer. Unless you like in the UK, in which case I hope you are all good and avoiding drowning in the torrential rain. The weather is making things pretty uneventful in these parts at the moment, as people understandably seem reluctant to plan summery things when there's a 90% chance that they'll be washed away. That said, I went along to a couple of birthday parties last weekend which were fun, but that aside it has been slow and steady. Which has been good actually, has let me concentrate on things like getting some of the backlog of work at my office out of the way, planning some work trips (have some coming up over the next couple of months, including one to LA), looking at some new flats to move into. Saw one totally gorgeous flat last night actually, was amazingly furnished, beautifully set up, big for the kind of place and price range I've been looking at - but just too damn noisy. Was over a main road, above a Starbucks, with no double-glazing. So that's a no-go, given that being able to sleep is something of a pre-requisite to finding a place. Anyhow, proper life entry to come, but for now back to "things Dan loves this week":
- anything Against Me! related. I love this band, have done for a while, and have found some more of their stuff this week that has made me very happy. First up were the European bonus tracks added to the French release of New Wave, which are just quality. In particular "Gypsy Panther", "So Much More" and "You Must Be Willing" are great, as good as anything on the album I think. And then someone put on the web some live audio of Tom Gabel performing some new songs at a solo show, which are also great. Lovelovelove.
- Wild Cherry Pepsi. Enough said. Yum.
- Feed The Animals by Girl Talk. I never really got into the whole "mash-up" trend but this album is so much fun, and if it ever gets sunny over here it'll be the perfect summer album
- Californication (TV series). I got this out of curiosity and due to my somewhat odd love of anything with David Duchovny in it (shut up, Dusty), and it really took me by surprise with how good it was. Very well written, funny and wry at the same time, superbly acted, just a great watched. Also finished up the first season of Pushing Daisies, which I've written about before and is just a charming watch.
Anyhow, should actually do some work! Love to all, let me know what you're up to!
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Hey lovelies, how are you all doing? I hope you are enjoying what in London at least is the first genuinely sunny week we have had in a while. Yes, there are still rainshowers and clouds and all the other hallmarks of awful English weather but as of now, as I gaze out of the window, there is sun. Thank our lucky stars. Our company temporarily moved office the other day, so I now have this lovely desk looking over a courtyard, with a wall behind me so I can happily watch music videos / write to you all without fear of anyone walking up behind me. Sadly we have to move back to the Sensory Deprivation Chamber that is our old office soon, but hey... Anyhow, not going to do a proper update on the last few weeks as they have been mainly worky and boring, but here are some of the things that have been rocking my world recently:
- the new Ice Cream Parlour at Fortnum and Mason in London. So much fun, it's like being back in a 50s diner, and their rum and raisin ice cream is just amazing. http://www.fortnumandmason.com/Our-Restaurants/Parlour-Restaurant.aspx
- punk music sung by guys with gruff voices. I know this is a slightly odd category, but it has been rocking my world recently. I think these bands provide the link between punk rock, which I love, and Springsteen-esque Americana rock, which I also love (sidenote: I finally finally got to see Bruuuuuuce with my ma recently, it was just stellar. He and the band played for 3 hours, just stunning). In particular I've been listening to:
- a lot of Hot Water Music, who are still amazing but then you knew that already.
- The Loved Ones, who I've totally fallen for. The vocals are quite abrasive but the songs and the passion with which they are delivered are so powerful. The new video for "The Bridge" is also very snazzy and well worth checking out (http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=36995169)
- The Gaslight Anthem. Perhaps the best of all of these bands. "Sink Or Swim" was a brilliant album if front-heavy - the first five or six songs are amazing, but it tails off a little bit after that. The "Senor and The Queen" EP was even better, far too short but each of the four songs was excellent. And their new (leaked - I know, I know, but I have it on pre-order) album "The '59 Sound" is probably even better. It's passionate and fiery and sad and nostalgic and hopeful and more than a touch Springsteen, but with a very modern twist. The album starts brilliantly, with the opening trio of songs ("Great Expectations", "The '59 Sound" and "Old White Lincoln") setting the mood brilliantly. Then just past halfway through there is another run of straight-up gems ("Miles Davis & The Cool", the incredible "The Patient Ferris Wheel" and "Casanova, Baby!") before it ends with a lovely, melancholy tune ("The Backseat"). A definite candidate for album of the year, although admittedly that's based on only a dozen or so listens. There are also tons and tons of references in the lyrics to people and places and other songs which leads to some fun "where the hell have I heard that before" moment. There's even one totally bizarre Counting Crows reference / lift in "High Lonesome": "Maria came from Nashville with her suitcase in her hand / I always kinda, sorta wished I'd looked like Elvis".
- dinner with friends. Had a lovely pizza meal with Dusty the other day, and now that work has calmed down am trying to sort out seeing other people too
- the Dave Robicheaux novels by James Lee Burke. One of my major frustrations has always been that people tend to dismiss novels that happen to be centered around a detective or a crime as "just crime novels". They can be absolutely as well-crafted and worthy of examination and thought as any of the "serious, literary novels" that the critics love, and the Lee Burke books are absolute proof of that. They are just flawlessy written, atmospheric in a way that very few books I have read are (set in Lousiana, in and around New Orleans), have excellent characterisations and just transport you to some place else entirely.
Anyhow, am going to stop rambling about things I love before the aimless enthusiasm gets wearing, but... hey, if you love something, let it know. Love you all, and now you know too.
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Well, it has been quite the week, I have to say. Sticking with my plan to cut back my working hours and to actually get out and do stuff, it has been busy and filled with awesome concerts. In chronological order: Thursday: Armor For Sleep - Water Rats, King's Cross This was a great night - met up with Dusty earlier, was great to catch up with him after not hanging out for a couple of weeks. We had some dinner then went to the Water Rats - which turned out to be a pub. AFS were playing in their tiny back room. The support bands didn't sound appealing and we wanted to chat a bit more, so we went to a nearby pub, then headed back for AFS. In spite of the sound being absolutely terrible, to the point of being painful, it was actually an awesome show. The band were really animated, played a great set with real energy, and in short were just much more impressive than when we caught them on Warped Tour. Excellent. Weekend: Give It A Name Festival - Earl's Court So much has been written about this by other people that I won't do a full thing, but highlights: the return of Finch (phenomenal), GlassJaw (as original and excellent as ever), Envy On The Coast (surprisingly stunning), Alkaline Trio (love 'em love 'em love 'em). No surprises there. Tuesday: Finch - Scala, King's Cross What a gem of a show. Finch were always one of my absolute favorites (I even adore the much-disputed "Say Hello To Sunshine") and there music is so good live, atmospheric and heavy and totally cathartic. Seeing them again after their two-year hiatus was hugely exciting in prospect, and the evening was not a let down at all. The venue was lovely, first time I've been there in ages, and despite a slightly limp crowd Envy On The Coast and Armor For Sleep (again!) were good supports. But this was all about Finch, and they just killed it. A really generous selection of "What It Is To Burn" songs got the crowd going, the cuts from "SHTS" (Ink in particular) went down brilliantly, and the two new songs they played sounded hugely exciting. In particular Daylightt was stunning, a really good blend of the melodicism of the early stuff and the experimental bits of "SHTS". Just a solid hour and a bit of total crowd participation, singing along, fantastic performance... awesome. Great to hang out with Dusty and the bro too. Thursday: "The Movielife", Set Your Goals, "Gabe Town Low", All Time Low - The Peel, Kingston This was a phenomenal surprise. I had seen a while ago that Vinnie Caruana was going to play some kind of Movielife tribute show in London, but I hadn't been able to find out the details or when it was. However, my little brother is more resourceful and for my birthday had snagged me and him a ticket for this show, and what a classic it turned out to be. It was at the Robert Peel in Kingston, which is yet another pub with a big back room for shows, but it was much more suited to it than the Water Rats. Held a couple of hundred people, and was packed from the moment doors opened. In order, the performers on this evening were: All Time Low: had seen them at Give It A Name and thought they were a little generic and I guess they are, but playing their punkier songs in a small venue they were a blast. Really enthusiastic, very passionate performers, hooky songs. A great warm-up band, and was nice to see them live up to their reputation. And they had one amazing surprise up their sleeves, which was... "Gabe Town Low": at the end of the ATL Gabe Saporta from Midtown / Cobra Starship came on stage (Cobra... have been touring with ATL). He then took the bass from the ATL guy, strapped it on, and announced that he was going to play a Midtown song backed by the band. Which he did, blasting through Become What You Hate with amazing enthusiasm and a huge smile on his face. Vinnie Caruana came out to sing backing vocals, and it was just phenomenal. Made me realise how much I had loved Midtown, how important they had been to me... Just a total blast, left everyone grinning for ages. There's actually a really good video of it on the web (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv-Jy9wHHQo), you can see how much Gabe got into it. Set Your Goals: I have to confess that I find these guys a little samey and repetitive, but they played a really good set tonight, lots of enthusiasm, a great reception from the crowd too. "The Movielife": First, a confession - I'm not going to be very objective about this. I loved The Movielife so much (in the same way as Midtown actually). They were around and at the top of their game just as I was getting seriously into music, they were one of the first bands I listened to when I "discovered" the kind of melodic punky stuff that became my favorite genre of music, and "This Time Next Year", the "... Gambling Problem EP" and "40 Hour Train Back To Penn" remain some of my favorite records (as do "Save The World, Lose The Girl" and "Living Well Is The Best Revenge"). They had also blown me away the few times I had been able to see them live before. Thus I was inclined to enjoy any chance to see the songs played again, but they way they were done on this night just made it even better. The band for the evening was Vinnie Caruana backed by Set Your Goals, with backing vocals from Gabe / All Time Low / whoever else could get near a mic. Tastefully, it wasn't billed as a Movielife show, it was billed as "Vinnie and Set Your Goals playing Movielife songs", and there was a really lovely vibe of respect and adoration and love in the place. But this wasn't just a tribute show, it wasn't punk rock karaoke - this was an absolutely stunning performance. The band played brilliantly and Vinnie proved again just how fantastic a frontman he is. He was everywhere, bags of energy, clearly getting a huge kick out of playing the songs again. And the crowd reacted appropriately, going absolutely crazy. The small venue was totally filled with movement, dancing, crowd surfing, plenty of arms-in-the-air singing along to every word of every song, but all done in a hugely friendly way. I know this sounds cliché, but it felt like a reunion, it was just wonderful. They played about 10 to a dozen songs selected from across the albums. From what I can remember we got 10 Seconds Too Late, Once In A Row, Pinky Swear and This Time Next Year - an absolute evening highlight - from "This Time Next Year", Hand Grenade and Walking On Glass from the EP and Face or Kneecaps, Hey, Sailor Tattoos and Jamestown from "40 Hour...". They ended with a truly amazing and totally chaotic Jamestown - there were people on stage, there were endless crowdsurfers, mass gang singing, all the members of all the bands on stage singing, just ridiculous. And it was so nice to see even the other band members just having a blast and clearly loving being there - during the second or third song of the set a crowdsurfer game over, so you look up and it turns out to be Gabe Saporta. Who then spent most of the rest of the set either crowdsurfing, singing backing vocals or, for 3 or 4 songs, just standing in the middle of the pit with everyone else, going absolutely crazy. That kind of encapsulates the vibe of the evening - as Adam put it, it was just a huge brodown, a chance for people to hang out and just celebrate the music they loved and the scene that gives them so much. As you can tell, I loved the show to bits, and it was the perfect end to an absolutely brilliant week of music. Was great to get to see people, to hang out, to relax away from work. Yes, am now ready for a sleep, to rest my massively aching back and bruised ribs, and to eat something other than fast food. But holy hell, what a time. Love you all, miss you all, hope you are all good. DC xx
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Okay, we interrupt your regularly scheduled programming with this, one of the best live performances I've seen and just a great way to mock the incredible awkwardness of most band performances on US chat shows -
http://www.redlasso.com/ClipPlayer.aspx?id=16869727-f821-49e5-8c5e-fdddf9d81b9e
Brilliant song too...
Okay, you may now return to your day. Thank you for listening.
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| 2008-01-29 17:46 |
| Awesome news |
| Public |
| Chris Walla - Geometry Etc. |
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Okay, this is just amazing news, and comes only days after I was watching their "Everything Is Everything" DVD and wishing that precisely this would happen. Maybe there is someone listening after all!
From ap.net:
"After breaking up in 2003, Face to Face will be reuniting for some upcoming live shows. There are no immediate plans for a full scale tour, but they will be playing select festival dates in the US and internationally, the first being Bamboozle Left. The band will consist of Trever Keith, Scott Shiflett, Chad Yaro and Pete Parada. Also, singer Trever Keith has completed a solo album which he plans on releasing digitally through his website in the coming weeks, entitled Melancholics Anonymous."
Please let one of those "international" dates be in the UK... Please... Seriously, Chad Yaro is back.
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Okay, loads of time on trains has given me some time to watch some movies, and the conclusion that I've come to is that (a) Almost Famous still stands up so well and (b) it is still my favorite movie. Ever. Have written about it so many times before that am not going to do it again, but... too good.
"The only true currency in this bankrupt world... is what you share with someone else when you're uncool"
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Okay, so I have never really listened to the bands who I guess you'd call the "emo pioneers". The Promise Ring really didn't do much for me, likewise for Braid, same for Mineral. I like some New End Original, but not hugely. There is in general something about the almost universally terrible production ("Ummm... engineer? If it sounds like it's recorded in a basement by a kid with a ghetto blaster, that ain't "lo-fi", that's "unlistenable"), yelping vocals and tendency to "mature" by making godawful indie-ish records that put me off a bit. However, I was having a look around a record store a couple of weekends ago and on an impulse bought "Do You Know Who You Are?" by Texas Is The Reason.
So am not going to sit here and go "my god it's good, you all have to go out and buy it" because you probably all already have it and think it's awesome too. I'm at least a decade late in figuring out it's awesomeness, so I won't preach to the choir. So instead my question is this - WHY DID NO-ONE TELL ME? How have I been going to shows for this long with a range of people whose knowledge of music goes from the extensive to the holy fuck, and no-one has forced a copy of this on me? Having listened to it all of twice, you can see that the songwriting and the lyrics and the vocal style have inspired / been ripped off by so many of the bands I've loved over the past ten years (seriously, Funeral For A Friend, I've finally figured out where your lines come from). You can see that it's an "important" record. And you can hear it rock your face off. So again, to conclude - how could I not have figured this one out earlier?
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Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Love D
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Well, I had quite the time of it yesterday. I had to go to Birmingham for the day for work (interviews with people working in hospitals and health authorities) and it all got a little eventful. My train on the way up was emergency-evacuated due to a bomb threat – literally, they had us out onto the platform at some random station in the middle of nowhere, in the freezing cold. I’d managed to grab all my stuff as I hadn’t unpacked yet, but a lot of people left coats and bags onboard – only to watch the train eventually pull away, with the promise that “we’ll sort the stuff out in the end and get it back to you”. As if. Anyhow, that was only part one. Transport part two happened on the way back home – the same line, the same type of train, once again we pull out of the station to… stop dead. “Ladies and [crrrk]tlemen… we reg[crrrk] to inform you that [crrrk] lorry has driven into a bridge on the line [crrrk] bridge inspector will arrive in half an hour”. In actual fact we just sat dead for two and a half hours before being moved onto another line to complete our crazily slow journey home. I could have flown to Geneva in less time. But transport part the third was the most shocking – yes, have saved the best to last. This actually happened in the middle of the day, between our meetings. A colleague and I had to hustle from one part of that grim Northern town to another in time for an appointment, so jumped into a taxi. Looked normal, guy asked us where we wanted to go, noted that this would take us right through the “dying heart of the city” – we thought this was a little odd, but let it go. Then, as we progressed, he proceeded to unleash the most amazing torrent of vicious, bigoted racist bullshit that you have ever heard. When driving through a Muslim area we had all sorts of comments about “ragheads”, “ground-kissers”, “darkies”, “freaks in headscarves”, “ignorant bastards”. Think of the worst BNP-approved shit, and that’s what we got. And he just would not stop, no matter what we tried to say (he only paused for breath to rip into Birmingham City fans, who apparently are “thick as shit” and “deserve to be put down”). Now I know that some people will have heard this or, worse, been subjected to this before. But it was a real shock for me. The only racism I’ve really been exposed to before has been of the “mild” (I know it’s never mild, but you know what I mean) background radiation elderly-relative type. I’ve always been lucky enough to have mixed-raced friends, I’ve just never really thought about as much as I clearly should have. But this guy… my god. At the time you had to fight the immediate reaction to laugh at the pathetic notions this guy had bought into, but after a little while you just… I didn’t know how to react, honestly. I should have argued with him more, or got out of the cab, or… done something. But I didn’t, which I really regret now. I didn’t agree, I certainly didn’t encourage him, but I did just sit there and listen. Tyranny flourishes when men stand by and all that. A thought-provoking day all round really. Hope yours were better, or at least slightly more full of peace, love and understanding!
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Dear lord, it is cold today! He says, stating the blindingly obvious to anyone living in the UK. Will try to keep warm while thinking back on what has been a bit of a crazy week. In no particular order, it featured:
- many, many trips to random places in England to talk to health authority people for work
- A lovely evening with Dusty and the charming clientele of the Cafe Pacifico Mexican restaurant in Covent Garden. The chili is good there...
- Seeing a truly amazing Ryan Adams and the Cardinals show in Hammersmith on Friday. Not just a good show for him, not just a good show, but one of the best shows I have ever seen. Much, much better than the Koko show a few months ago, just superb
- Did I mention work? Lots and lots and lots of work
Next week figures to be much the same - lots of work, with snatched moments of fun where possible!
Love to all
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I just listened to the Queen's Speech (for those foreigners out there - every year the Queen gives a speech that has been written for her by the government, announcing what legislation is coming up) and it was the same bunch of meaningless rhetoric, the re-announcement of stuff they have already announced, and total fluff that we've been getting from this Labour government since about 2001. I know the Conservatives would be no better, but... jesus. Don't we have the right to ask for more than this?
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