Tag Archives: Cats and Dogs

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.)

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.

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……….