Category Archives: Music

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy live in Barcelona

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Last night we went to see Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and Matt Sweeney play the Sala Apolo on Paral·lel.

The show was fantastic, but marred very slightly by the crowd. As usual. Thing is, in Barcelona, people go to concerts to chat with their mates. But I go to hear the music and see the performers. I find it incredibly rude when during a quiet bit (and with artists like BPB, the quiet bits are some of the most sublime), crowds of people around you start laughing and chatting. It’s one of those irritating things which if you complain about them, you sound like a loser… but the reason I wanted to go to that concert was to get away from the shittiness of living in a time when it’s practically a crime to take anything seriously.

Ah well, never mind.

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy mostly played tracks from the current album Superwolf, recorded with his cohort Matt Sweeney. Perhaps in a reflection of the many references to the sea in his songs, BPB’s live show seems to rise and fall like the ocean swell. Listening to the music, I was at times reminded of Nick Cave, Arab Strap and even some post-rock bands like Mogwai. His lyrics are bizarre and fascinating, often concerning animals and on this album, death in the sea.

He also played a firm favourite with the audience, Ease Down the Road, which I hadn’t heard before but will remember. Not even the dickhead with his big hair who couldn’t stand still and kept swaying and twitching around in front of me, obscuring my view until I moved, when he would twitch again to re-block my view… not even he could ruin my enjoyment of this concert. Mainly cos we moved to the other side of the room from him.
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and Matt Sweeney at the Sala Apolo – 1 out of 1

Live8 was a revolting sham

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It seems obvious, but I am willing to break into my summer holiday from blogging to note it: Live8 and the Make Poverty History campaign are a shocking abuse of people’s trust and intentions.

Live8 was a shameless day of self promotion by a bunch of people far richer than me parading their high morals in a sort of guilt-cleansing strip show. The idea behind it was even worse: with our rock star heroes, we are supposed to go cap-in-hand to the leaders of the G8, and ask them to make things better. BUT – we’re not allowed to mention, to suggest, that it might be those fat bastards who are to blame for the problems we’re all so upset about. That wouldn’t do.

There is no real moral equivalent for what’s been going on over the last few days but it is a little like asking the BNP to ‘fix the racist issue’ and then just leave them to it.

The leaders of G8 – some of the most powerful men in the world – should not be trusted. They have their power not because they are kings or lords, but because they have risen to power with the backing of big business. He who pays the piper, and so on.

There’s this creepy feeling now that whenever we discuss political change and solving the problems of the world, someone – sounding like the latest looping Coldplay noise – has to say “Oh well, obviously we can’t change the way we live” or “Socialism’s dead, so it’s best to just forget about it” or “There are some things that just never change – lets try and work with what we’ve got”.

No. What we’ve got is rotten and unstable. We’ve built our great nations on the rape of Africa. No one at G8 or at the Live8 concerts is really interested in changing that, because the changes we would all need to make are so huge that it’s much easier to just lie about it or close our eyes.

We need to change the way we live, the way we travel, the way we eat and the expectations we have from life. The reason these facts are being ignored is that our leaders have us hooked on all this crap we have around us at the moment: cheap, cheerful and shallow, but with just enough sugar to keep us going. If you try to take a look at life in 2005 from a distance, it’s really worrying just how flimsy and stupefying things have become. And it’s only going to get worse.

Hey, Live8, Make Poverty History, Angelina fucking Jolie, Tony Blair, Ronald MacDonald, Dido, Bob Geldof, Gordon Brown, Stevie Wonder, and the rest of you: this is one man saying I don’t give a fuck what you think. I am not interested in your warped morality or your perverse charity. You are wrong. Y esta.

Summer brings it

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The failure on my part to do any blogging recently is a result of:

  • having a new job
  • temperatures reaching 35 degrees
  • knocking down a shed
  • the lack of things interesting enough to discuss, often brought on by Summer

For the record, I’m getting GTA:San Andreas next week. I am not interested in Live8. I think it’s only right that they ban smoking in public places. I’m worried about the red meat. I think Neil Michael Hagerty is some sort of musical wonder. I was burnt by the sun yesterday. We’re going to Benicassim this year. If I get the days off from my new boss. I like Saskia and Makosi in Big Brother, but only for their minds. I loathe media types talking about David and Victoria Beckham – the snide snobbery of some people is really too much to take.

The summer listening:
Royal Trux – Cats and Dogs (always at the top of the list anyhow)
The Howling Hex – All Night Fox
The Rolling Stones
Jefferson Airplane, the Worst Of
Jimi Hendrix live at Woodstock
Love Forever Changes
Supergrass, Daft Punk, Basement Jaxx, David Bowie.
(ie all the usual stuff… I like the fact you can get away with guitar solos when it’s really hot.)

Things fall apart, it’s scientific

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I'm wearin'
Fur pyjamas
I ride a
Hot Potata'
It's tickling my fancy
Speak up, I can't hear you

Here on this mountaintop
Woahoho
I got some wild, wild life
I got some new to tell ya
Woahoho
About some wild, wild life
Here comes the doctor in charge
Woahoho
She's got some wild, wild life
Ain't that the way you like it?
Ho, ha!
Living wild, wild life.

I wrestle, with your conscience
You wrestle, with your partner
Sittin' on a window sill, but he
Spends time behind closed doors

Check out Mr. Businessman
Oh, ho ho
He bought some wild, wild life
On the way to the stock exchange
Oh, ho ho
He got some wild, wild life
Break it up when he opens the door
Whoahoho
He's doin' wild, wild life
I know that's the way you like it
Wo ho
Living wild, wild life

Peace of mind?
Piece of cake!
Thought control!
You get on board anytime you like

Like sittin' on pins and needles
Things fall apart, it's scientific

Sleeping on the interstate
Woah ho ah
Getting wild, wild life
Checkin' in, a checkin' out!
Uh, huh!
I got a wild, wild life
Spending all of my money and time
Oh, ho ho
Done too much wild, wild
We wanna go, where we go, where we go
Oh, ho ho!
I doing wild, wild
I know it, that's how we start
Uh, huh
Got some wild, wild life
Take a picture, here in the daylight
Oh, ho!
And it's a wild, wild life
You've grown so tall, you've grown so fast
Oh, ho ho
Wild, wild
I know that's the way you like it
Oh, ho!
Living wild wild wild wild, life.

Wild Wild Life - Talking Heads - True Stories

Max Carlish in Pete in Kate on Channel 4

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Stalking Pete Doherty, Channel 4’s 10 pm documentary last night was one of the oddest and most disturbing TV shows I’ve ever seen.Opinion on Popbitch and the C4 messageboard is surprisingly fairly united: Carlish is obviously seriously ill, and even ‘junkie scum’, grubby handed Kate Moss marrying rock singer Pete Doherty deserves some sympathy for the relentless pursual and harrassment he suffered at the lens of Carlish.

The film was essentially a documentary about the failed documentary that media studies teacher Carlish wanted to make about the Libertines’ ex-singer. It focused more on Carlish and his own increasingly disturbing quest to “have [his] moment of fame” than it did on the heavy drug use and erratic behaviour of Doherty. I was pretty shcoked to see footage of Carlish filming himself (this was actually about 50% of the film), shouting his love for Pete – over and over again, having a tantrum when he wasn’t allowed backstage with some students he’d brought along, crying and sobbing, dancing in his bedroom at his mum’s house to Electric Dreams, asking Pete how it felt to be “more loved than Kurt Cobain” – a highly questionable claim… the man is relentless after the sense of car-crash TV humour died off (about two minutes in), the uneasiness crept in.

I have to say that in retrospect, Carlish obviously needs care and attention, and that in some ways the film should not have been broadcast. Hearing him scream “I know Pete a million times better than you!” at one of Doherty’s friends, or doing his “Max – on Pete – in Kate; Max inside Kate – on top of Pete” bit wasn’t funny, it was pretty embarrassing and made me feel like I was at a freakshow, and should have known better.

Update: Comments closed on this post. While amusing, they were clearly off topic. Feel free to contact me if you feel you’ve got something relevant to add to this. Cheers.

Record companies bitching about money (again)

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Today’s MediaGuradian carries yet another story about how the UK record industry continues to blame P2P filesharing for poor results and falling record sales. A ‘research’ firm has spent ages working how much money would have been spent by British people if they weren’t busy stealing music instead.

What might have been a more suitable topic for research is: How much more money would British people have spent buying records if the UK record industry spent any money at all on a realistic and genuine effort to pursue new music?

What seems to have happened is that the record company execs looked at the unpredictability of 1990s pop music (first it’s acid house, then Nirvana, then Oasis then Kylie) and thought they’d like a period of stability. Hence, funding went to Coldplay, U2 and their clones… but these new AOR/MOR bands were marketed as ROCK. Which, of course, ain’t the truth. And yeah there was loads of shit around in the 90’s (drum & bass; trance; Dodgy et al) but the same culture that gave birth to (and nurtured) the Red Hot Chili Peppers, also gave birth to Royal Trux.

What I’m trying to say is that I can take all the crap music, if there’s something else being sold which I believe is genuinely ‘independent’, ‘avant-garde’ or just ‘good’. At the moment, the UK record industry is promoting almost no really good music. I’m only 24 so this isn’t an age thing… and i know that there are loads of tiny indie labels out there… but it’s not just independence in terms of money. The UK record industry decided not to gamble on new music… and the UK record buying public has responded in kind. Wake up, BPI: we’ll invest in you when you invest in music.

Wire: Stay glued To Your TV Set

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It must be the good weather rolling in, but after a lull of two months where I practically only listened to ‘Cats And Dogs’, ‘Elliott Smith’ and ‘Let’s Dance’ oh and ‘Bad Behaviour’ by the Super Furries, I am suddenly revelling in the dusty contents of my iPod and the CDs that slipped to the back of a pile.

Recently rediscovered albums:
Wire: Pink Flag
Spiritualized: Ladies and Gentlemen…
Stuff by Quasi. Other things including stuff I don’t know the name of.

All-Night Fox reviews

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The day I received Neil Michael Hagerty’s last album: The Howling Hex, I immediately got on to “my people” at amazon.co.uk (much cheaper/faster than buying from Drag City, at least for me), to order All-Night Fox, the new album from his new band The Howling Hex. OK so his band is called the same as his last album… it must be some kind of trick? Or is it MagicScience?

Yes and now I have the album. It’s good. HH is good because it has some great songs on it. ANF is good because it’s concept without being unlistenable. I’m not going to wax all lyrical here because frankly I can’t get most of the lyrics. But then I’ve only listened to it about 3 times. I just dig the rock music.

There are some silly/wordy reviews around spouting blabbering-crap as per usual. Don’t try and get revisionist on us, Billy Fields, cause you ain’t the bee’s knees. Any punk who starts a “hey the Trux sucked” sort of piece ought to be careful he isn’t getting a little too big for his boots. Billy Boy. In fact, after re-reading his tripe, I must say it’s good. Check out his other reviews cos this boy don’t know shit, but he can write just like anybody else!

The Howling Hex

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Just got the seemingly ancient Neil Michael Hagerty album The Howling Hex. Oh believe the hype, boys and girls. It’s great. Even the wacky violin tracks. EVEN the bit that sounds a tiny amount like Manu Chao. This is an album I can enjoy summer to. So this morning, I only went and placed an order for the apparently even better All-Night Fox.

I feel all the anti-Transmaniacon emotion now. Cos while Jennifer has come up with some passably decent spoof-metal songs, and she has the skulls to prove it, The Howling Hex continues The Royal Trux better than anything Jennifer has come up with. I guess I could put on Transmaniacon and we’d sit round and sort of giggle at the OTT guitar and autotuning… the killer riffs and the ripped-off lyrics (from two great Trux songs, Shockwave rider and Sweet Sixteen no less). Maybe it’s got to do with the way I only really listen to Cats and Dogs these days, but the Howling Hex manage to continue the jazzy, rock’n’roll free music feel, the lyrics are good, and sadly I don’t even miss Jenn’s singing. Maybe her next work will be a bit more honest and less posture. She said all this shit recently in an interview about listening to the Rocky IV soundtrack for two months or something. “I like winners” she said. Well the Howling Hex is a fuck’s sight better than RTX.

So summer evenings aren’t far away… they get into your blood and lift up your soul. Girls in skirts, warm mornings, sultry evenings, beers on the terrace, tending my roses, late night sessions at Plaça Reial and the chiringuitos… Here we go……….