Some lyrics to your favourite songs (which you may have failed to comprehend previously). Lots of stuff from Thank You.
Category Archives: Music
Festivals and corruption (Barcelona’s never been so much fun)
Finally, I have succeeded in getting around to buying tickets for Primavera Sound (June 1-3). After three years of humming and hawing, I bit the bullet and bought two three-day passes to see such luminaries as Lou Reed, Motörhead, Lambchop, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Flaming Lips and er… Baby Shambles.
EDIT (6th April): I’ve just realised that I really hate the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I now think they’re the worst band I’ve ever heard. Were they made by robots?
This year, we’re also seeing the Rolling Stones (May 27th, Olympic Stadium), and we’ll be revisiting Benicassim for a scorching FIBERFIB 2006. At FIB, we’re looking forward to seeing the Strokes, Scissor Sisters and numerous bands I’m supposed to like but don’t really know much about. I don’t much like Morrissey or his old band, but (the) Pixies should be fun. I’m expecting some more acts to be added to this lineup as we get closer to the summer.
Meanwhile, spring has sprung. ERC and CiU have been caught using some very naughty party funding tactics in the Generalitat. Hmmm… if they were a little more sophisticated they could have used the UK Labour party’s “yes, it’s a problem and we’ll legislate to stop it” line, but unfortunately they look a bit stuck for the moment. This is one of those cases where they’re so patently in the wrong that no one, not within the party or sympathetic to it’s aims can defend them. Drop it, apologise, move on.
I’ve added some new features to thebadrash.com
- Below each post, you can see a couple of icons pointing to popular social bookmarking sites. Click the icon if you want to share the post via Digg or del.icio.us
- There’s now a Contact page for people who want to get in touch, but don’t want to leave a comment which will appear on the site.
- I’ve fixed the sidebar so that its elements appear on every page.
Spring music selecta
This is what thebadrash.com is rockin’ to this spring:
Dr Alimantado – Best Dressed Chicken In Town
Silver Jews – American Water
Royal Trux – 3-Song EP
The Howling Hex – 1-2-3
Neil Hamburger – Raw Hamburger
(looking at it, everything except the reggae is from one record label too… visca Drag City!)
Harmolodics
Aged 13, free jazz was something I couldn’t understand. It sounded to me like Iggy Pop’s description of punk rock: it sounded to me like “a load of trashy old noise”.
I hadn’t realised that it was in fact “the brilliant music of a genius”.
That genius, Ornette Coleman, is one of the key proponents of free jazz and the inventor of harmolodics, a music theory associated with the avant-garde music scene, dedicated to freeing composers and performers from the rigid structures and rules prevalent in the western tradition.
It is a theory employed in rock music too. Yes, this is about Royal Trux. Talking about harmolodics, Neil Hagerty says:
“harmolodics is not a comprehensive controlling or rigid philosophy (at least not to rock and roll) but almost a substitute for that language and efforts to control music (which is an entirely abstract thing) and make a metaphor of it. It returns the composition back to the musician and allows each musician to select functions for their labours rather than solicit a class of intervention because of the misconceptions that always arise when music meets commerce.”
Harmolodics, together with jazz as a whole, deserves recognition as one of the great gifts America has given to the world. It’s about music without the rules, and it sounds all the better for it. For me, its influence on Royal Trux’s music is magnificent: they forced me to listen to music in a new way. I still find it hard to completely understand it, but harmolodic theory lies behind some of my favourite music. So let’s hear it for Ornette Coleman and harmolodics!
Recent music
New-ish records I have been listening to recently:
The Howling Hex – You Can’t Beat Tomorrow
This is Neil Hagerty’s latest album and a sort-of follow up to All Night Fox. he kept the band name this time, but the music is completely different. He’s added some odd syncopated electronic percussion and more acoustic guitar than in All Night Fox. Certainly he seems to be going for a sound that resembles listening to a band from outside the Hall. Favourite tracks: Apache Energy Plan (this is a theme continuing on from earlier Neil Michael Hagerty albums, but I still don’t know what it means); You Can’t Beat Tomorrow; No Numbers.
1 out of 1 – Buy Here Download ‘Apache Energy plan’ from Drag City here.
The Fall – Fall Heads Roll
I really like this album. Mark E Smith sounds a bit more like Shaun Ryder than he used to, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that he’s managed to produce a tight, thumping album. Out of ‘new Fall’ records, this is one of the best. The big single: I Can hear The Grass Grow is pretty melodic, but then it’s a cover. Actually, the version I have on my Complete Peel Sessions is markedly better. Anyway, both of these albums are perfect listening for the fade to winter: they inject a little bit of summer into every listen. But just a tad.
1 out of 1 – Buy Here
The Kills – Barcelona
My brother and I went to see The Kills play at Sala Apolo on Saturday night, at exactly the same time as FC Barcelona were ‘killing’ Real Madrid. We all know how the football match went, but not so many people are aware that Saturday’s gig by The Kills was an energetic, explosive and eventually awesome performance which matched at least one of Ronaldinho’s magical goals.
I took some photos of the gig, but to be fair, they’re all a little blurry. This is because we were stood right next to the stage and I didn’t want to use my flash too much. I’ve put the least bad pictures online in the gallery which you can access by clicking here
I’ll try and put a better review together when I’m not working, but the high points were certainly VV prowling around the stage like a tiger, Hotel ‘shooting’ VV with his shotgun-guitar, the pair of them singing “The Good Ones”, Hotel drinking from a glass of wine, VV taking some sort of… medication while onstage, and being so close to the speakers that I still cannot hear properly. We also met their crew after the gig – nice bunch of people, but we didn’t want to stay and make a nuisance of ourselves.
All in all, a wicked night well deserving 1 out of 1.
New music
Which band has been descibed as the ‘new Rolling Stones’ by the NME?
Answer:
The Arctic Monkeys (aka Don’t Believe The Hype)
Headphobe – new album!
Headphobe (aka my brother) has just unleashed his first album on the world of music. Metanoia is a combination of a lot of mental music like gabba, breakcore and more! The press release:
Headphobe (aka Ned Clarke) has been rinsing the underground scene at clubnights, parties, and raves here in Bristol and across the southwest for the past 3 years.
Headphobe has headlined nights at The Thekla and The Black Swan, his music has had people dancing in a frenzied state for hours and hours to his unique dancefloor sounds at all the best local underground clubnights including… Epoch, Kuantum_Window, Plummet, Toxic Dancehall, Dissident, DMT, Monkey!Knife!Fight!, P.R.A.N.K., Kuntz… supporting many highly respected producers including… Venetian Snares, Hellfish, Crystal Distortion, Chris Clarke, D’Kat, Hammer Damage, Black Sun Empire.
This week Headphobe is performing at Plummet in support of Mu-Ziq.Headphobe will be performing around the UK in the coming year to promote his debut 12″ vinyl ‘Metanoia’, while he works towards his follow up release in 2006.
Headphobe will also be contributing some new tracks to the upcoming 1 MAN ARMY RECORDS 2xCD Compilation.
‘Metanoia’ is the debut Headphobe release and pulls together the raw atmosphere and the excitable energy of Headphobe’s live set onto record for the first time.
Go to 1 Man Army and buy it now, suckers.
The site does now support e-sales!
Music this autumn
According to my high expectations, this autumn looks to quite awesome for musical enjoyment. Specifically, there are two albums and a handful of concerts to get radical about:
1 The Howling Hex – You Can’t Beat Tomorrow
2 The Fall – Fall heads Roll (actually out now I think)
3 The Kills – Barcelona next month
4 Mercury Rev – Barcelona some time
5 Supergrass – likewise
As you can see, a rich and towelling tapestry of rock, roll and rock.
The Kills play Barcelona 19th November
Those crazy Kills are coming to town. They were going to be supporting American ladies (and erstwhile friends of the late Elliott Smith) Sleater-Kinney but unfortunately, the main act have pulled out.
I’m not really bothered because I really like The Kills. My problem is that no one wants to go with me because it’s the same evening that Barça play Madrid for the first time this season. And Gemma’s going to manchester.
So if anyone nice wants to accompany me to the concert, please contact me. In fact, even if you’re not nice, I’d be interested.