'Now it's getting colder, my hands chilled to the bone...'
(Barney and Me, by Boo Radleys)
Lovely, wistful, warming, autumnal feeling songs, both.
Thursday, 12 September 2013
Sunday, 8 September 2013
Station Records opening, The Buszy, Milton Keynes, 29th June, 2013
I went along for the opening day of a new weekly Saturday record stall in the new community venue, The Buszy. There hasn't been an independent record shop in Milton Keynes since Fish Music closed down at in the last decade, so I was really stoked to see Station Records happening in my hometown!
The premises used to be the bus station, and bus drivers' caff! Now a charity project has been installed here, it has all been smartened up, with fancy chairs, lovely café area, dedicated staff, charity shop, plus so many classes and events going on for young people.
Of course I had to go along and get involved and show support for this ace venture. Monies raised from Station Records' weekly record shop go towards the youth charity Make a Difference (M.A.D). I had cycled along with some vinyl donations and brought a selection of mine and others' zines, which Warren of Station Records kindly agreed to have on sale. The All Thrills No Frills Music Bill is on sale on the stall weekly, including one of our most recent issues, which comprises my musical memories of Milton Keynes - venues, gigs, clubs that have long gone, buying my first guitar, etc etc. Here are all the zines:
I met one of the youth workers and had a really good chat about what they do at Buszy for the kids. Loved hearing that some of the kids have been making fanzines! It was really fun to talk to Warren about 'zines - we have both made zines Milton Keynes. His was more recent, within the last decade, and it was called New Pollution. Nice to be given a couple of issues to check out.
So much vinyl on sale! Cassettes and books too.
I was ecstatic to unearth a copy of Ceremony by New Order, on 12", and I bought a few other records too. It's clear that Warren is passionate about record selling, there's a wide range of genres and eras covered, and people were enjoying having a browse as the DJ played. It felt like a really positive community event, nice and relaxed Saturday afternoon, and the free samples of cake and sandwiches was very welcome too!
The thrift shop was something of a wonder too. I had a good look around - interesting clothes, books, records, ornaments, etc. Go and visit, or follow them on Twitter.
The Buszy
401 Elder Gate
Central Milton Keynes
MK9 1LR, UK.
01908 231312
http://www.thebuszy.com/
Hangover music has to be gentle, subdued, pretty... Yann Tiersen, I am calling on you to allay today's legendary, post-party hangover of mine...
I had thought that digging out my Galaxie 500 DVD would be just the cure - musically soothing, gentle, floating, sublime... But some of those videos left me much more unsettled! Frantic fast, fires, things collapsing, injured animals, flashing images, acid eyes, and so much swirling... It was entertaining to watch an old TV interview where Dean Wareham looked so severe as to be menacing. He said something caustic about having the permission to like fish and chips to Naomi.
I loved the surprise of seeing Dean and Britta appear in the film Francis Ha this year, casually hosting a dinner party. The projects the band members have gone on to do - Dean and Britta, and Damon & Naomi - are all so excellent and dreamy perfect. I need to hear Dean's new solo offerings too.
I digress, this is an off-the-cuff post, but weren't they a really cool band? I neglect them sometimes, but I had a really big phase for them in about 2003. Another thing I realise I appreciate them is how they are so clearly influenced by The Velvet Underground, yet they distil that into such a new sound - they're not doing it by numbers just to re-create their heroes - there're the often piercing vocals like a bird in frightened flight, mixed with gentle, slow atmospherics, a bit of moody, buzzing guitar noodling here, and how stripped back it all is; raw. I think Naomi doesn't get enough recognition as a bass guitarist heroine too.
A Galaxie 500 song for you, with superb kazoo use!:
'I think it's okay to wear your own band's shirt onstage during a show, but not for a trip to the supermarket.' - Dean Wareham.
I had thought that digging out my Galaxie 500 DVD would be just the cure - musically soothing, gentle, floating, sublime... But some of those videos left me much more unsettled! Frantic fast, fires, things collapsing, injured animals, flashing images, acid eyes, and so much swirling... It was entertaining to watch an old TV interview where Dean Wareham looked so severe as to be menacing. He said something caustic about having the permission to like fish and chips to Naomi.
I loved the surprise of seeing Dean and Britta appear in the film Francis Ha this year, casually hosting a dinner party. The projects the band members have gone on to do - Dean and Britta, and Damon & Naomi - are all so excellent and dreamy perfect. I need to hear Dean's new solo offerings too.
I digress, this is an off-the-cuff post, but weren't they a really cool band? I neglect them sometimes, but I had a really big phase for them in about 2003. Another thing I realise I appreciate them is how they are so clearly influenced by The Velvet Underground, yet they distil that into such a new sound - they're not doing it by numbers just to re-create their heroes - there're the often piercing vocals like a bird in frightened flight, mixed with gentle, slow atmospherics, a bit of moody, buzzing guitar noodling here, and how stripped back it all is; raw. I think Naomi doesn't get enough recognition as a bass guitarist heroine too.
A Galaxie 500 song for you, with superb kazoo use!:
'I think it's okay to wear your own band's shirt onstage during a show, but not for a trip to the supermarket.' - Dean Wareham.
Saturday, 7 September 2013
Glasvegas
I was beginning to wonder how on earth I'd get a hold of the new Glasvegas album.. Unavailable at local independent record shop (which was first choice, to give my money to the best corporate cause), despite it being the release date... I had headed to the shop as soon as possible on the Monday, to get that new-release day feeling. Can that feeling really be replicated online? Parcels through the door are very nice, but I prefer them from friends - to go into a record shop, be amidst music on sale and music playing, see that new, desired/dreamed-of new album on shiny display, handle it with curiosity, go right up to the counter, buy it, maybe discuss it, then stroll home with it in your swag, hurrying home filled with thrill, the item glowing in the style of the heart in A Life Less Ordinary, almost illicit in its secret, wondrous splendour... I thought I had lost that giddy wonder, but actually, still, nothing can beat that. Even after my teens and my 20s.
Going into my local HMV store at the end of the week was actually more successful in locating this new release item. It was at a cheaper price than as cited online, too, bonus DVD/booklet shebang and all.
I greedily fed on the DVD show, a live concert in a church in Glasgow. It was powerful, the band still move me, the music still soars. The live DVD was the album rendered on piano, more intimate, heart-wrenching. I get a bit of the same feeling from this band as I do from The Cure.
Often the best music is 'that which tells of saddest thought'. I've always felt that Glasvegas moved me with emotion and melody - I've never really overanalysed it, just genuinely enjoyed it - and that overrides any sense of over-indulgent blues that people seem to accuse them of. There is something that runs throughout their work that really gets me every time. Sure, there are weaker moments, but the very best are those that transport me, lift me up high - because fraught, wrought, desperately sad music can be 'euphoric'.
Saddens me that people could write Glasvegas off now, when they still have that tunesome melancholy that lends me air of hope, joy... exhilaration. The emotional vocal delivery, the yearning in the melodies. I feel elated; enlivened.
Press reviews that are disparaging, and/or tell of a band that have dipped/changed are missing all the points. The heartbeat here is impassioned, and so human and heartfelt - the band always cause this huge sense of human emotion/open heart to shine through. If they come across as 'underdogs', that only makes me love them more. But a spectacular new drummer in Jonna has lent a new element of energy - also, the band are still the one that left me reeling years ago. It's in James Allan's surety, commitment, mighty-all in singing, the way the guitars fizz and sparkle still, and the way the band remain exuberant amidst lugubriousness.
Addendum: I interviewed some of the band for the next paper issue of The All Thrills No Frills Music Bill, but unfortunately the digital recording got deleted accidentally (at their gig the same night!). In 14 years of interviewing bands, I have never once lost a recording of an interview to anything - this is the first time. But actually, there was a David Gedge interview on there too. I can only fiercely apologise about all that, especially to the artists - but I can promise the next zine will still sweep you off your feet! Also, after another blow - that is, leaving my tape recorder in a cinema gig (that'll teach me to try and bootleg Robyn Hitchcock soundtracking a Clint Eastwood movie) - The All Thrills now has a brand new recording system. Onwards !
Going into my local HMV store at the end of the week was actually more successful in locating this new release item. It was at a cheaper price than as cited online, too, bonus DVD/booklet shebang and all.
I greedily fed on the DVD show, a live concert in a church in Glasgow. It was powerful, the band still move me, the music still soars. The live DVD was the album rendered on piano, more intimate, heart-wrenching. I get a bit of the same feeling from this band as I do from The Cure.
Often the best music is 'that which tells of saddest thought'. I've always felt that Glasvegas moved me with emotion and melody - I've never really overanalysed it, just genuinely enjoyed it - and that overrides any sense of over-indulgent blues that people seem to accuse them of. There is something that runs throughout their work that really gets me every time. Sure, there are weaker moments, but the very best are those that transport me, lift me up high - because fraught, wrought, desperately sad music can be 'euphoric'.
Saddens me that people could write Glasvegas off now, when they still have that tunesome melancholy that lends me air of hope, joy... exhilaration. The emotional vocal delivery, the yearning in the melodies. I feel elated; enlivened.
Press reviews that are disparaging, and/or tell of a band that have dipped/changed are missing all the points. The heartbeat here is impassioned, and so human and heartfelt - the band always cause this huge sense of human emotion/open heart to shine through. If they come across as 'underdogs', that only makes me love them more. But a spectacular new drummer in Jonna has lent a new element of energy - also, the band are still the one that left me reeling years ago. It's in James Allan's surety, commitment, mighty-all in singing, the way the guitars fizz and sparkle still, and the way the band remain exuberant amidst lugubriousness.
Addendum: I interviewed some of the band for the next paper issue of The All Thrills No Frills Music Bill, but unfortunately the digital recording got deleted accidentally (at their gig the same night!). In 14 years of interviewing bands, I have never once lost a recording of an interview to anything - this is the first time. But actually, there was a David Gedge interview on there too. I can only fiercely apologise about all that, especially to the artists - but I can promise the next zine will still sweep you off your feet! Also, after another blow - that is, leaving my tape recorder in a cinema gig (that'll teach me to try and bootleg Robyn Hitchcock soundtracking a Clint Eastwood movie) - The All Thrills now has a brand new recording system. Onwards !
Sunday, 18 August 2013
Album covers of the month...
Recently found and been startled by the following album cover designs at a record fair.
They certainly don't make them like this anymore...
It's the bonnet on the end of the guitar that adds the final touch (after you've pondered what kind of singer wants to be pushed around town in a home-made go-kart by their mother...)
And I can't help what drugs (and what ideas about women!!) were involved in the design of this one...:
I'll spare you the Foreigner album cover.
They certainly don't make them like this anymore...
It's the bonnet on the end of the guitar that adds the final touch (after you've pondered what kind of singer wants to be pushed around town in a home-made go-kart by their mother...)
And I can't help what drugs (and what ideas about women!!) were involved in the design of this one...:
I'll spare you the Foreigner album cover.
Saturday, 10 August 2013
Luke Haines, The Borderline, London, 30th July, 2013
A trip to the Borderline, a venue off Oxford Street that, mercifully, didn't succumb to Crossrail's clutches - the last significant rock venue left round that area, save the 12 Bar Club. On entering, realise we're 'fashionably late' as we hear ladies exclaiming: 'Why, thank you, Sir John Moore!' at the guestlist - as the dapper, suited man strolls coolly into the venue with them (and he does forever cut cool).
A couple of minutes to get a good spot near the front, and then Luke Haines is up, painted rock n roll animal versions of Nick Lowe, Gene Vincent, and Jimmy Pursey lit up behind him.
The set is entirely Haines on acoustic guitar - with added beats of a small hand drum, the odd keyboard moment (jokes about how he can't fucking play everything at once, if I recall). The set is primarily from the new Rock n Roll Animals LP - which would be a brighter performance had comedienne Julia Davis joined in on her spoken-word bit, surely? She is in the venue, hanging with fellow comedians, and I feel let down that she isn't adding to the performance, instead watching as we are.
Haines in his ROCK/ROLL shades:
There's a powerful moment when Haines reads from a Mick Farren book (rock journalist and musician Mick Farren having recently passed on, and Haines being saddened by his death). Tell of poor Gene Vincent and his ailing leg, followed by his painful death by stomach ulcer. Crowd are laughing, I suppose at the uncomfortable, and also amidst the long, slow, deep, laconic vocal delivery of Haines, and how Haines speaking is somehow comedic whatever he utters tonight. But it's really sad, and I never fully knew all this (sweet Gene Vincent died - aged 36) , and Haines reads with such wonderful, wry, horse, commandeering panache...
Long-term Haines fan with me was ecstatic to hear Leeds United, Baader Meinhof, and Lenny Valentino.. But, tonight, it was also, here we go again, satin wrestler suited feller (probably a drunken John Moore), passing round bonafide liver sausage sandwiches for the crowd, during the 'wrestling album' numbers, not a best Haines album effort to either of us (old fan and new) - albeit there are a couple of great saving graces of songs, and we did enjoy those. But really we wanted oodles of songs from the similarly recent but truly remarkable 21st Century Man album, and didn't get them, bar maybe one. The off-the-cuff seeming song about certain 60s/70s bands/singers being name-checked and all said to be 'righteous' was something I could pass on, if I'm brutally honest.
A quirky gig, with a lot of charm - just cut so short, and in need of more favourite songs.
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