Twat Bubble

Books of 2011 - Part 2 (But it's January...)

2012-01-16T16:10:00.025Z

2011 was a standout year for non-fiction books of all misshapes and argumentative sizes...it's even more difficult to put these into critical context than it is fiction writing.

Nevertheless...

Norton publishing released R P Crease's marvellous 'World in the Balance;' a history of weights and measures, their attribution and their adoption, or not, by various countries. Or not. Crease makes a potentially dry subject highly amusing, fun even, emphasising the differences, highlighting the similarities. Hell, there's even a section on brassiere measurement - and that's incontrovertibly no bad thing.

'Hemingway's Boat,' as reviewed by Allan Massie, is as quixotic a read as the man himself. Tremendously entertaining, the book is, in many ways, similar to Hemingway's own, 'A Moveable Feast,' written when he was a young objet d'art living in Paris (the book begins after Papa's formative years spent carousing there).

What differentiates Paul Hendrickson's book from so many other biographies is that it counterbalances the warts and the all of a man often beleaguered by life, at odds with his crucial self, with his headstrong humanity - in all its rumbustiousness.

Paul Shaw has written a delightful book about an even more delightful subject - the New York City Subway System or, more specifically, its signage. For years, New York's underground signs were an indecipherable mess; difficult to read, nigh impossible to follow. Impeccably researched and gracefully written, it's the story of how a font changed a small, imperfectly formed part of the world for the better and to a new way of seeing.

Paul Shaw 'Helvetica and the New York City Subway System' MIT Press

Jon Ronson has written a number of entertaining, enlightening and informative books. Ronson's latest, 'The Psychopath Test,' follows in these footsteps - albeit following them wearing a pinstriped suit, a pair of Trickers brogues and a mePad. Above all, as Ronson says and writes, it shows how eager many of us are to recognise the marks of madness in other people, and to steadfastly ignore these hallmarks in ourselves.

There have been other great books this year, too:

Daryl Gregory's collection of short stories, 'Unpossible and Other Stories,'

'Dream Repairman: Adventures in Film Editing by Jim Clark with John H Myers'

James Gleick 'The Information,'

In closing, it would be impossible not to mention Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon's magnificent 'Day Tripper,' published by Vertigo. Undoubtedly one of THE books of this or any other year, the story, unlike so many graphic novels, grabs and gripes you from the start and never lets go - Ba and Moon have been rightly compared to another Vertigo alumnus, Neil Gaiman; both in terms of story-telling and, crucially, realisation - but their visions are undoubtedly their own.

So, finally, an end to 2011. And a beginning to 2012.

The message is in the movies...

2011-12-31T09:23:00.004Z

No matter what film historians, movie magazine editors, ordinary Joe's and Jolene's may say about 2011 and its movies, there is a tacitly accepted truism that, every year, about five films are released - usually quietly, often unassumingly - that will stand the test of celluloid time.

2011 is no different.

This year's LA Confidential award goes to Nicholas Winding Refn for his less than subtle re-working (and all the better for it) of 80's Noirishness in 'Drive.' Ryan Gosling, despite some slightly deluded critical comparisons to Steve McQueen, holds the film together nicely.

For those of us more solipsistically inclined, Michel Hazanivicius's 'The Artist,' may well be the film of 2011 - despite it's release date being, um, yesterday... Disney matter. Fans of cinema have been waiting for a film like this for years and, in its unsentimental melodramatic depiction of 1920's Hollywood, the unchecked hubris of its stars and the system they were so in thrall to, the movie compellingly convinces - with an authenticity seldom seen in film-making today.

In terms of sheer spectacle, little came close to startling the senses more than Werner Herzog's 'Cave of forgotten dreams.' It's a film which, quite literally, stops you in your tracks, quietly, yet insistently, caressing your heart with its inspiring message of wonder...

Similarly, from South Korea...

And, from one of the great American movie makers...

Penultimately, another film about the transmigration of the soul...with goats...

In 2011, film fans were also treated to that rarest of things - a television programme about films that was as good as the films that it celebrated. 'The Story of Film,' written and directed by Mark Cousins, was an unbridled joy from start to finish - taking us across time and vividly transacted space, across genres and continents, into the hearts, the minds and the mouths of directors, cinematographers, actors, visionaries.

It is worth spending some of your life watching it.

Here's to 2012...

502. Bad gateway..

2011-12-17T14:42:00.014Z

'If it's all the same to you, I'll stay indifferent.'

2011 has seen a return to musical form for artists new and vehemently old. Some of the best new music was cultivated from some old people - over 25 - some, such as the mightily angry Iceage, made Howard Devoto seem a bit Johnny Mathis. Christmas Johnny Mathis.

I listened to more records this year than I have done in many years. All sizes and shapes, it's been a great year for pushing boundaries downstairs, for pressing Play-Doh into pigeon holes and for artists generally fucking about with genres and the levels of expectation associated with them.

Bill Orcutt and About Group showed that the oldies can still (re)mix it with the best of them - making, then breaking, some marvellous music.

Kate Bush. Fuck me.

Without a doubt, '50 Words for Snow,' is the finest record Kate has ever made - and bookends seamlessly, perfectly, with her earlier 2011 offering - the exquisite 'Director's Cut,' where previously released recordings were reworked and made impossibly more beautiful.

In many ways, Kate is the star of 2011...

But she ain't. This woman is...

'Let England shake,' in all its glory, was reviewed earlier this year on this blog. It's magic, will ennoble your soul. Listen to it. Buy it.

More records shone like pissballs in a hallowless sky...hey, hey, hey...

Beach Fossils John Maus
Boston Spaceships Mark McGuire
Chelsea Wolfe St Vincent
Nicolas Jarr Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Leyland Kirby Oneohtrix Point Never
Aidan Moffat & Bill Wells Roots Manuva

Teebs, like Toro Y Moi, Beastie Boys, Frank Ocean, Death Grips, Thundercat, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble and The Roots also made wonderful records that took established music forms and injected new throbbing, spilling, life and light into them, creating a zoetrope of sound, revolving beats and spinning energy.

So they did.

And, of course, Jim O'Rourke had a new record out...

Career retrospectives abounded. John Fahey's earlier Fonotone recordings were collected, rather wonderfully, rather idiosyncratically, by those autodidacts at Dust to Digital. The 40th anniversary edition of Can's 'Tago Mago,' was released through Mute and Edsel felched 1985 alloveragain with the sweetest honey in any rock - 'Psychocandy,' by a band from East Killbride...(sick).

However...these were the best archive releases of 2011:

El Rego through Daptone Records, 'El Rego.'

Tav Falco's Panther Burns reissued through Stag-O-Lee records, 'Behind the Magnolia Curtain.'

and, Mickey Newbury's marvellous 'American Trilogy album reissued through Saint Cecelia Knows records.

An incredible year. More records?

Richmond Fontaine Richard Swift
Twin Sister Tim Hecker
Willy Tea Taylor The Spaceape
Bon Iver Carbon Based Lifeforms
Kitty, Daisy and Lewis Colin Stetson
Girls M83
I D A H O Tom Waits

The list, I'm sure you're all beginning to think, is bloody endless. But, it isn't. Good years and shit years spew forth the same number of records as each other. Artists, writers, painters, poets, film makers, cinematographers, photographers, pornographers - all work their collective arses to the nub of the bone to make this world a better place, a more gnarly place, certainly more bitter and twisted, calculating, sometimes, cynical, more full of love, loveliness and lovelessness.

Thank fuck for them all.

Books of 2011 - Part 1 (yes, really...)

2011-12-08T15:52:00.033Z

2011 has been, in many ways, a seminal year for books. It's been a tougher than the rest year - full of shouts of disquiet, increasingly loud and discombobulated grumblings about the futures of book-selling, and the remnants of the publishing industry, amid protestations about writing, new and old, being shit and shiteful.

None of this is true - 2011 has seen some marvellous books published.

I've been a fan of Jeanette Winterson since the publication of her semi-autobiographical debut novel 'Oranges are not the only fruit.' A truly terrifying tale of religious fanaticism and emotional sublimation, its horrifyingly personal exigencies are examined and explained further in Winterson's actual recently published autobiography 'Why be happy when you could be normal?'

The mighty Dalkey Archive published the most criminally unsung novel of the year. 'The faster I walk, the smaller I am,' by Kjersti Skomsvold, translated by Kerri A Pierce, is a beautifully unforced gem - 140 pages of unrelenting misery, loneliness and despair. Of course I loved it. (Nothing, in 2011, came barely close - although Patrick DeWitt's glorious, and gorily anarchic, 'The Sisters Brothers,' almost, tantalisingly, very near stole this particular show).

There has been some remarkable fiction published this year - much of it by writers who continue NOT to know better...

Alice Munro continues not to know better. Her recent collection of selected short stories, published by Chatto and Windus, confirms her as a short story practitioner of the first rank - forget about the often and reedy comparisons to Chekhov.

Alice Munro is Alice Munro. Read everything she has written.

Others, whether alive or dead, also continued not to know better....Saramago, DeLillo, Nabokov, Murakami, Foster Wallace and, gloriously so, as per the re-issue of his western themed novella, the young(er) Denis Johnson, in his 'Train dreams;' a wonderful, and wonderfully human, elegy to an America unrecognisable today.

Lynne Tillman's new collection is available to read in its entirety here - 'Someday this will be funny.' It's her first new writing in ages and belies her reputation as a dour and rather rigid post-modernist. It is funny. And it's funny now.

There are three more fiction titles that have destroyed the heart this year...

Yannick Murphy's, 'The Call,' is a magical story. In many ways reminiscent of the 1990's TV show, 'Northern Exposure,' Murphy's novel of ordinary characters drawn into intoxicatingly extraordinary situations, is a readily readable treat.

Donald Ray Pollock's first novel continues the same themes as those contained in his 2008 short story collection, 'Knockemstiff.' 'The Devil all the time,' is very much in the five minute hard boiled bracket of crime fiction - populated by outsiders, freaks and the mightily disposessed...eager to introduce a whole new world of suffering with a shrug and a twisted smile.

This twisted smile becomes an all too profound grimace in the hands of one of the great writers working today. Daniel Woodrell's latest collection of short stories 'The Outlaw Album,' is, at turns, a conflicting and confounding read. Containing all the hallmarks associated with his stark, intense prose, each of the stories jars incessantly, confusingly, with the other, the pieces don't seem to fit. Or fit together. It is this apparent disjointedness, apparent desire for disunity, that makes each of these blazing stories; in all their height and breadth and depth and languorousness of soul, a separate sweet entity in themselves.

And what makes all these books a profound pleasure to read.

Part 2 to come...

Knock, knock...

2011-11-28T23:42:00.013Z

So. 2011? A poor year for comedy? Discuss. No calculators, no books allowed.......

Of course everyone has their own opinions. They are of course entitled to them but, not on my watch. Write your own bloody thing. Jesus, this IS Twat Bubble y'know...........

I digress, because I feel I have to. 2011 has been something of a frustrating year for those of us obsessed with the gilded, slightly deflated balloon, the clown face with the dagger teeth, the captivatingly haunted smile.

I digress again, because, I'm stuck. I don't know what to write.

One post. All year. On comedy.

Oh, dear.

And yet, salvation did come, in painfully small dribs and speckly coated drabs. Although patchy, 'Limmy's Show' pulsed the way in quietly sinister mayhem. In particular, the 'Dee Dee' sketches - some of which were sublime in their unexpected sophistication, in their ability to induce helpless laughter...

Ian Pattison resurrected his finest creation in a new series of 'Rab C Nesbitt.' By turns, good and excruciatingly bad, it was nice to see Gregor Fisher back - if a little older, a lot fatter and a whole lot more stupid.

'Rab C Nesbitt, Series 10, Episode 1'

Vic and Bob returned. Not to terrestrial screens - 'Shooting Stars,' despite stellar (pun intended) ratings, was cancelled due to, well, why was it cancelled?

Anyway, easily the comedy moment of 2011 was this paeon to war, bollards and environmental damage.

For the first time in a long time, The Fringe at Edinburgh offered little of interest. Stand-Up comedy generally seems to be currently plagued by an innate ordariness of late, where tenth rate comics stand behind eleventh rate material. We seem to have returned to the smug, self-congratulating comedic aggrandisement of the 1980's and, especially worrying, to a comedy landscape where questionable commentary and thinly veiled scapegoatism has replaced real insight and courageous words.

I'm not saying comedy should be the new social commentary - maybe I fucking am.

What I am saying, and what I truly believe, is that in a world where war and terrible injustice is everywhere, when the poor and the disenfranchised are more cruelly marginalised than ever before, and where accountability, integrity and basic human decency is dismissed as being trivial and unimportant, comedy, with all its nuances and in all its guises, can help bring people and more people closer together through the unimpeachable, irreducible gift of laughter.

I digress. One last time.

'Stewart v Armando - Television'

My, my, my DeLillo...

2011-11-14T11:15:00.009Z

Donny DeLillo.

I say 'Donny' because, possibly for the first time, in his most recent and first collection of short stories, DeLillo has let his hair down. And let it run excitedly, youthfully almost, inhuming the cautionary excesses of his most recent work.

'The Angel Esmerelda: Nine Stories' is tentatively marvellous. There is a master at work here - as there always has been. With this striking collection however, DeLillo seems to be enjoying himself, swaddling himself in the stickily exotic (and erotic) paraphernalia of living and life.

His characters sing. And each song is starrily alive.

In a recent review of 'The Angel...' for The New Yorker, Martin Amis confessed his admiration for this apparently strident change in DeLillo's direction. I disagree. I think fun and extrospection has always been a part of 'the Don's' work. It's just that underneath all the grimy grimness and importuned propheteering finding the sootily camouflaged mirth has been a tough act indeed.

And 'The Angel Esmerelda: Nine Stories' will be a tough act for Donny to follow. Or anyone else for that matter.

'The Angel Esmerelda'

Black and Blue Velvet

2011-11-05T12:16:00.010Z

Many writers, musicians and film-makers, of a certain age, or as they get older, are often content to produce work that reinforces the views that their already audience has of them. It's an easy way out, and it pays the bills.

David Lynch and Tom Waits are near contemporaries of one another. They each have a rich legacy of work - both commercially and highly critically accalaimed, complex and startlingly involving, which asks, which demands, that you stop whatever unremarkably inconsequential thing it is that you're doing and begin to listen.

Both David and Tom - my very good friends - have released brand new albums.

In Lynch's case, it's really his first full album of songs (in collaboration with engineer and sonic fraudster, Dean Hurley), and it's a fun packed and packaged ride into doom, murder and voyeuristic despair.

Which, of course, makes it a typical David Lynch joint; the inescapable nuances, jarring juxtapositions and bloody-minded 'awkwardness,' seamlessly and searingly equating with his very best film work.

It's marvellous and you must have it.

Tom - one of my very, very good friends - has, in 'Bad As Me,' produced his best album in over a decade, one of his finest in truth.

Waits has often been accused of overrehearsing his rebelliousness and ootsiderishness - and of making music that sounds as though it was propagandised by a poorly paid impersonator; the snarls, grunts and grimaces, mere affectation.

Here though, Waits has returned to the bruised blues for his inspiration - and it has paid off. Big time (ahem).

So, two more albums to get over excited about. Who'd a thunk it?

The first night of the fair...

2011-10-24T21:15:00.006+01:00

Of course, everyone has their favourite...

Today is the release date of the definitive collection of the recordings of The Smiths - from Rhino records.

Rhino make a more than compelling case for the swift purchase of this colossal box-set; undoubtedly it will be a huge success, will quickly sell-out, leaving hundreds of Smiths' completists crying into their luke-warm milk - no doubt allowing some unwell meaning, enterprising young capitalists the opportunity to extort these devotees with alarming alacrity...

Never mind.

The music is all that should ever matter, the format not.

I remember, when I was a clear broth of a boy, poorly limbed, eccentrically excessive - a box-bedroom rebel (Copyright, The South bank Show/Ray Galton and Alan Simpson). The Smiths very quickly became all the music I ever wanted/needed to have.

Here was a big galoot, with flowers in his hands and up his arse, surrounded by more vaguely dangerous boys from the South. I loved them - it was my music, nobody elses, written for me and only for me; I digested it with unreluctant abandon, wiggling my own culpable arse.

It will be John Peel's anniversary tomorrow. Without him, we would probably never have heard The Smiths or the legions of other bands his shows championed. I heard them on his show, head tucked dutifully under the blankets, breathlessly waiting to hear the next wondrous track from these most 'handsome,' of devils.

Thanks John and thanks to The Smiths.

Let's Get Lost...

2011-10-12T14:36:00.012+01:00

This year has been something of a red letter one for fans of Emeralds' near the front man Mark McGuire.

Following on from last year's marvellous 'Does it look like I'm here;' which fans of this site will know was nominated for a Hairy, Mark McGuire's new record is a thing of shabbily glittering beauty - part Frippertronics, part dirty Durutti Column - drone with amplesome attitude.

This attitude conveys itself perfectly in the music, and in its darkly twisted inherent beauty.

Available now from the wonderful Editions Mego label.

'Get Lost'
'A Young Person's Guide'

Rock Hard...

2011-10-03T14:15:00.011+01:00

Def Jam has been the defining record label in Hip hop music for over 27 years.

Much has happened in that time - including, as early as 1988, the departure of co-founder Rick Rubin to set up Def American leaving Run DMC impresario, Lyor Cohen in charge.

The label is synonyomous with many of the great names in rap music. Everyone will have their own favourites - whether dancing to LL Cool J, marvelling at the lipchronicity of Beastie Boys or being moved to anger or action by the turntabling terrorism of the, then, nascent Public Enemy.

The definitive history of Def Jam is packed with anecdotes and recollections from the main players in the story of a record label that, quite literally, from LL to Jay-Z, revolutionised our musical listening...

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This blog entry has chosen to focus on the early years of Def Jam. This is not to
detract from the work that followed - marvellous, genre-defying and creating
records from artists as diverse as Redman, Method Man, Warren G, Jay-Z, Rihanna and....

Return to server...

2011-10-03T13:17:00.005+01:00

Marcus Gray has been writing about The Clash for an awful long time - since 1997 in fact, when the publication of his seminal, 'Last gang in town,' recalibrated the myth and the method for a newer, less tousled generation.

In 'Route 19 Revisited: The Clash and London Calling' Gray has revised the 2009 version of his book, further contextualising, for today's stridently, politically apathetic ageneration, the importance of music and art in changing our inner and outer lives.

Opinionated, political, polemical - much like the record it so unequivocally champions, Gray's book is a marvellous read for fans of music and its heralded abilities to inspire and uplift.

When the night has come, and the land is dark...

2011-08-23T21:01:00.019+01:00

Nicholas Ashford, along with his wife, Valerie Simpson, wrote a string of hit records that defined the soul musical landscape of the 1960's, '70's and '80's.

That landscape was no more epitomised than in perhaps, the greatest, certainly the most joyous, performance of one of their songs - Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's magisterial 1967 hit, 'Ain't no mountain high enough,' undoubtedly one of the great pop moments of that halcyon decade.

Everyone will have their own favourites - whether as a writer or as a performer, Ashford set the benchmark for effortlessly crafted, instantly memorable music. A particular favourite is Aretha's marvellous 1964 recording of 'Cry like a baby,' sweet, pure soul music, expertly and sympathetically created, that brought out the very best in the very best.

It is difficult to imagine a world without the songs of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. They are unquestionably one of the great songwriting teams in musical history - able to break our hearts and, in a vital second, rescue us from our too private despair with the marriage of their unassailably beautiful words and music.

And marriage it most certainly was - Leiber's sharper than sharp lyrics dovetailing perfectly with Stoller's insistent staccato rhythms and similarly hectic counterpoint. Their groove was infectious and it caught the ears and lungs and legs of young America, who listened to and danced to and sang their music, venerating the bands who so fastidiously recorded and performed it.

For this writer, Jerry Leiber co-wrote two of the greatest songs of the Rock and Roll era.

And, courtesy of Youtube, we get to hear those songs, their songs, one more time.

For all time.

For Nicholas Ashford and Jerry Leiber.

Our way to fall

2011-08-18T16:14:00.007+01:00

Crewdson has been mesmerising us with his highly sensitised photorealistic images for the past 25 years. His work shares convincing similarities to that of film-makers, David Lynch and Todd Solondz - unsettling, claustrophobic, hyperreal - and artists, Edward Hopper and Diane Arbus - both of whom contributed their own highly stylised, occasionally nightmarish, versions of an intrinsically American landscape.

Abrams is publishing a new volume of his pictures.

A million more reasons...

2011-08-12T16:25:00.005+01:00

It's been six years since Idaho last released a record. Long years.

In that time, musical fashions have changed, some artists have come and gone. Yet Idaho, and their strangely sculpted musical landscapes, remain.

Just.

Their new record, 'You Were A Dick,' is available, both to listen to and to buy, from bandcamp.

Do your ears and, perhaps, your torn heart a favour and listen to one of the most beautiful bands around...

You didn't understand a word, but you said you did...

2011-08-02T20:27:00.002+01:00

Pauline Black's autobiography has been a long time in the writing.

Lead singer with seminal 2 Tone band The Selecter, it's an entertaining read full of anecdotes about the nature of the music industry and the combustible near contemptibles who inhabit it.

Where the book really comes into its own - and where it so differs from other offerings - is when Black describes her childhood. Growing up mixed race, and adopted to a not entirely empathetic middle-aged white couple, the book describes how she finally came to terms with being who she was, even at so comparatively an early age; a young black girl desperately striving to understand herself and the many cultures she was intrinsically part of and culpably attracted to.

It's a marvellous read.

Sign of the times...

2011-07-24T21:48:00.011+01:00

It was my intention to do a fabulous blog posting on Prince for my 174th piece. You know the kind of thing - lots of links, video, music downloads, the works, right?
After all, it's 30 years since 'Controversy,' 25 since 'Parade,' and 20 since 'Diamonds and Pearls,' musical milestones one and all; the man deserves all over again to be recognised as the genius he undoubtedly is...

Instead, this post is all about the hideously untimely death of the young singer, Amy Winehouse. I never knew Amy Winehouse. However, I was genuinely, emotionally affected by her unerring ability to write great pop songs and her compelling talent in performing them in a way that was both breathlessly intimate and startlingly forthright - my suspicions are that she found it difficult to suffer foods gladly; witness her self-deprecating, bullshit detecting video performances.

We are, all of us, culpable, in small ways and large, in Amy Winehouse's death - the media, and our complicitness in accepting what they say as fact, stridently 'encourages' us to accept the unacceptable about people and celebrity - in Amy's case, the blackly choreographed images of the crack smoking, vodka binge drinking, consistently amoral rock star...

Of course, Amy was no angel. More than a passing familiarity with her lyrics will demonstrate that she co-inhabited a dark side, was hugely attracted to it and the casual gratification it could so mesmerisingly offer. Like Blake, Coleridge and Curtis before her, Amy had an undoubted fascination with dissolution, the 'active evil better than passive good,' that so informed her art whilst so misinforming others' conspired opinions of her.

More than anything else, the other real victims in this are her family and friends. Their pain is real and always will be. Her fans, and there are many, have lost not only the object of their love, affection and, often, infatuation, they have lost a part of what it feels like to be young and alive and to love someone who could articulate their most private of feelings in a way no one else could or dared to.

Some magic is now missing from their lives, and from mine.

I never knew Amy Winehouse. By many accounts, she was a shy, fiercely intelligent woman just beginning to mine the first seams of her talents, to show just what, as an artist, she was capable of - it's a tragedy and a travesty that we will never have the opportunity of seeing these talents flourish...

RIP Amy.

Two of a rare kind...

2011-07-07T20:43:00.011+01:00

Mickey Newbury is one of those unique artists who changes your life with every song of his you hear. He is famous for his arrangement of 'An American Trilogy,' recorded by him for his 1971 release 'Frisco Mabel Joy,' even though it's Elvis Presley's 1972 version that everyone remembers...

Newbury's style is almost impossible to categorise - 'An American Trilogy,' is hardly indicative of his, overwhelmingly, devastatingly beautiful, heartbreaking songs of the inevitable losing of love.

More than a thousand artists have covered Newbury songs and his influence on near contemporaries such as Gene Clark, Kris Kristofferson and John Prine, as well as current songwriters of the calibre of Will Oldham, Ryan Adams and Steve Earle is near immeasurable.

A retrospective of his early albums has recently been reissued on St Cecelia Knows Records. If you're a fan of Townes Van Zandt, Bruce Springsteen or David Ackles - and, yes, he more than deserves to be in their company - then treat yourself to the criminally underrated songbook of Mickey Newbury...

Flannery O'Connor is, quite simply, one of America's greatest writers. Later this year, some of her early drawings are to be published in book form - details of the publisher remain unclear at the moment.

The one or two teaser illustrations that have found their way on-line show similarities with her prose - highly evocative, resolutely individualistic, tenderly tragi-comic.

Here's to their publication.

Flannery O'Connor - Guardian 05/07/11

Yes, it IS Giro day...

2011-07-05T11:07:00.004+01:00

Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer have been tickling our skeletons for over 20 years now (can it be?).

In a comedy landscape curently devoid of anything but tired cliche, crass 70's style observational stand-up and mawkish shite, shite, more shite shit-com, Vic and Bob stand out like a very large beacon, thrice painted, with fluorescent yellow paint.

Then painted again.

Vic and Bob represent one of the last bastions of comedy - a truthful, truly unique and highly sophisticated comedy of non-sense. Like the Marx Brothers before them - surely their rightful comedic antecedents - their work exudes a childlike joyfulness/wantonness which, wide open-mouthed, marvels at the silliness-of-it-all.

We look forward to more of their Afternoon Delights.

'...too lascivious for 11 year olds, too sophisticated for BBC2'

2011-07-01T00:03:00.010+01:00

**CLICK on the above picture for something entertaining**

Delia Derbyshire is, unquestionably, one of the great figures in post-war British music. From the very early 1960's; after successfully securing an attachment with the fledgling BBC Radiophonic Workshop, her prodigious talent, coupled with her unbridled enthusiasm for emerging music, was obvious.

Shortly before Delia died, she wrote the following: "Working with people like Sonic Boom on pure electronic music has re-invigorated me. He is from a later generation but has always had an affinity with the music of the 60s. One of our first points of contact - the visionary work of Peter Zinovieff, has touched us both, and has been an inspiration. Now without the constraints of doing 'applied music', my mind can fly free and pick-up where I left off."

For giving us all the opportunity to let our minds fly free, thanks Delia.

Delia Debyshire & Barry Bermange - 'Falling'

Delia, Brian Hodgson and David Vorhaus 'Your Hidden Dreams' from 'An Electric Storm' by White Noise

Minor 1960's TV show theme music...

Interview with John Cavanagh for Boazine 7

For Peter Falk.

2011-06-24T20:49:00.004+01:00

The Angel by William Blake

I Dreamt a Dream! what can it mean?
And that I was a maiden Queen:
Guarded by an Angel mild;
Witless woe, was neer beguil'd!

And I wept both night and day
And he wip'd my tears away
And I wept both day and night
And hid from him my hearts delight

So he took his wings and fled:
Then the morn blush'd rosy red:
I dried my tears & armd my fears,
With ten thousand shields and spears.

Soon my Angel came again;
I was arm'd, he came in vain:
For the time of youth was fled
And grey hairs were on my head.

Thanks, Peter.

'...sensitive breeding, rich bouquet...'

Life with a star

2011-06-22T13:09:00.007+01:00

Outsiders, especially in literature, are rarely accorded the recognition their work deserves during their lifetime.

The Czech writer, Jiri Weil was vilified for his 'cosmopolitan' narrative and characterisation; a common feature of his work, and a common criticism of writers and artists writing and being artistic in those countries formerly ideological satellites of the Soviet Union.

Weil's best work - to date only two of his works have been translated into English - concerns itself with the Nazi occupation of Prague and the unspeakable effect it has on the cities Jewish inhabitants.

'Mendelssohn is on the roof,' his last published work, was made available again earlier this month (Daunt Books). It's a marvellous read - similar to Kafka, in many ways, it quietly summarises the lives of ordinary people attempting to live through extraordinary times.

Weil's novels are about the essential dignity of humanity and about the dehumanising extents to which some people will go to extinguish it. Despite his 'outsider' status, his themes are universal: understanding, compassion and love.

Read all of his books.

She sang like she feel...

2011-06-17T20:28:00.008+01:00

It was Ella Fitzgerald's anniversary on the 15th of June. She accomplished much of musical note (pun hugely intended) in her lifetime: as singer with Chick Webb, similarly, later with Dizzy Gillespie and throughout her rightly lauded solo career.

Her musicality showed itself at its most convivial and convincing best in the landmark Verve recordings of the 1950's. Marking a turning point in her own performing life, which she herself recognised, these 1956/7 Norman Granz produced recordings: 'Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Cole Porter Songbook,' and, '...the Duke Ellington Songbook,' were enormously successful both commercially and artistically.

Ella's astonishing legacy will remain because she was able to; more than any of her contemporaries, certainly far more than anyone performing today, create an otherworld where words and music seamlessly melded into an unimpeachable, and incomparably melodious whole.

As Bing Crosby so succinctly rejoindered, 'Man, woman or child, Ella is the greatest of them all.'

Durham town

2011-06-16T20:56:00.005+01:00

Kitty, Daisy and Lewis recently played in Glasgow to a sell-out, hugely appreciative audience. Ably supported musically by their parents, on guitars and bass fiddle, their music is a highly addictive amalgam of Rhythm and Blues, Rock and Roll and almost every other musical genre you'd care to mention - hell, they may even have invented some...

Still incredibly young, they wear these diaparate musical influences on their beautifuly tailored sleeves immaculately well, without ever slipping into pastiche or irreverence. Their latest record (that's record) is a fine example of music making at its ferociously primal and incandescent best.

Marvellous!

Dog bites Man

2011-06-08T11:44:00.011+01:00

Guardian article - Human Centipede 2

Guardian article - Teen fiction accused of being 'rife with depravity.'

Much has already been written about the BBFC's decision to ban director Tom Six's sequel to his 2010 film, 'The Human Centipede.' The adjudication aside, the decision has reignited the debates surrounding the subject of censorship in the Arts - a welcome thing as it allows complex ideas and conflicting views about gender, sex, race, violence and aspects of morality generally to be discussed openly and, and this is the hope, intelligently and in context.

The prohibition of anything certainly accomplishes one thing. It makes it news. It confers temporary, sometimes longer lasting, notoriety on the film, book, play, whatever - irrespective of how vile, trivial, banal, poorly executed it is.

Crucially, often unfortunately, the same criteria applies to works of importance -
Cronenberg's film of J G Ballard's 'Crash,' Wes Craven's 1972 'Last House on the Left,' and Russell Mulcahy's docupic 'Derek and Clive get the horn,' which was banned on its original theatrical release.

There are many more examples, across all genres, not just films, encompassing all of the means of artistic expression - see the second of the above very recent Guardian articles for more.

TB has not seen Tom Six's film. Based on reports of it it is unlikely that a review of it, good, bad or tantalisingly indifferent will ever appear on these pages - its subject matter just does not appeal. What remains crucially important however, is that if the writer of this blog WANTED to see it, WANTED to review it, WANTED to give his/her own opinion of it, however biased or (ill)informed, then they could.

The BBFC should reconsider their blanket banning decision - at the very least to allow the films flaws, virtues and more to be discussed and to foster genuine dialogue between film fans, commentators and makers.

Film4 - Banned movies

Klutz is the secret password

2011-06-03T22:16:00.006+01:00

Miranda July's films occupy a very strange territory indeed.

'Me and You and Everyone We know,' was the best movie of 2005. Yet, encouragingly, not everyone felt this way. Some critics hated it. Some praised it just the wrong side of idolatry.

And that's what makes art - in all its disguises - fascinating, infuriating, wonderful.

Her new film 'The Future,' will be available to see/avoid from the end of July onwards.

The revolution will be televised...

2011-06-02T12:42:00.009+01:00

The Bob Thiele produced 1970 album, 'A new black poet - Small talk at 125th and Lenox,' was the debut album of one of the most influential recording artists/poets of the last 40 years - an explosive mix of sparse instrumentation alloyed to scathing social criticism.

Gil Scott-Heron, despite his many and often protestations to the contrary, was, like contemporaries Kool Herc and The Last Poets, one of the founding fathers of Hip-Hop.

Of course, he was so much more than an inspiring originator. With Brian Jackson, Scott-Heron made wonderful music that reflected the narrative traditions of blues story-telling and inner-city living, melding this poetic, satirical, lyrical with the existing soul and jazz musical stylings that was completely theirs.

In 2010, he released his first album in over 15 years. 'I'm new here,' showed that he had lost none of his talents for musical and lyrical invention. His influence will remain immeasurable.

Harder, better, faster, stronger...

2011-05-23T13:21:00.011+01:00

Charlie Brooker's article in today's Guardian makes worryingly interesting reading for those interested in movies. In it he argues, correctly to this writer, that Hollywood's current climate of artistic complacency is broadly mitigated by the more wholesome diet (no pun intended) on offer from the television/games industry - witness, in the latter case, LA Noire: intrinsically, as if James Ellroy had penned a Mad Men episode then directed by Sam Fuller.

What is most striking about these recent offerings is their non-patronising attempts to engage and involve those who view/participate (in) them - they are not a replacement for A.N.Other reality but entertaining, challenging, commercially successful vehicles for artists of all persuasions who love what they do and who are bloody good at it - Hollywood should take note.

Congratulations to Terrence Malick on winning the Palme D'Or - which, like all good art, has split critics down the middle (no bad thing there then...).

The God-like genius that is...

2011-05-16T22:55:00.003+01:00

Jonathan Richman is 60 today - can it really be?

Well, it really be so we at Twat Bubble Towers - although no Peel Acres I grant you - feel that the least that can be done is:

1. A picture
2. A record
2. A salutation

Happy birthday, Jonathan.

Eh...?

2011-05-13T19:09:00.003+01:00

Rush are playing tomorrow night at the SECC in Glasgow and....hey, wait a minute....RUSH?

Yes, Rush. Rush. Rush.
Rush.

Rush.

What the hell...?

Well, this writer believes - after having been a lapsed, recovering, in-the-closet Rush fan for many (too many) years - that it's about time Rush received something like their due. Forty years in the business. Over twenty albums. Never part of any scene. Demonised, trivialised, marginalised...

And yet, Rush ENDURE. They're still going strong, despite their many trials and tribulations, stronger than ever in fact - still selling records, still selling out theatres and stadiums all around the world, continuing to influence bands as diverse as Nine Inch Nails, Tool and Primus amongst many, many others.

If you get the chance, go and see them. Tomorrow night, would be a start (however, it's unlikely there'll be any tickets left)....bloody Rush.

as we, advancing in the sun sing "Death to all and everyone."

2011-05-07T22:29:00.012+01:00

In, 'Let England Shake,' Polly Jean Harvey has recorded her defining album. It's a great record full of memorable music and unforgettable lyricism. What separates it from all other releases, however, is the bitter sweet bitter embracing extent of its subject matter - ostensibly war, specifically the First World War. The album delivers a unique, and uniquely compelling, female perspective on those most generous of killing fields; an uplifting and extraordinary balance between raging invective, staring disbelief, communal gentleness in brutality and matter of factness reportage -

On Battleship Hill's caved in trenches,
a hateful feeling still lingers,
even now, 80 years later.
Cruel nature.
Cruel, cruel nature.

Above all, a helplessness but equally resounding hopefulness explodes from these grooves. It is PJ's magnum opus.

To the man who saw the angel

2011-04-27T16:10:00.004+01:00

The 23rd of May sees, for the first time, a comprehensive DVD release of Andrei Tarkovsky's films. In December, it will be the twenty-fifth anniversary of his untimely death - if you haven't seen his films, do yourself a favour and invest in the collective works of one of cinema's true geniuses...

Artificial Eye

little girls should be seen and very definitely heard...

2011-04-26T19:21:00.005+01:00

With the sad news of Poly Styrene's early passing it's important to note her not insignificant contribution to punk music - both Poly and Ari Up challenged the many staid and static musical conventions of the 1970's with their attitude, their enthusiasm and, don't ever forget this, their talent.

X-Ray Spex first album, 'Germ Free Adolescents,' is a small classic, packed full of great tunes, enormous amounts of reverberated sass and a keen understanding of what it was like to be part of a disenfranchised underclass - Poly was all three things the overwhelmingly white, male and middle class music establishment was not and could (and would) never be.

We will not forget her or her music. In some small unobtrusive corner of our hearts, today, will always be Day-Glo.

Thanks, Poly.

'We never asked for miracles...'

2011-04-16T13:17:00.003+01:00

Today is 'record stores day.' What strated out as a bit of fun has metamorphosed into something not entirely unimportant - a way of celebrating music and music emporiums. Emporia. Doesn't matter. What does matter, however, is that small and slightly larger, independent and independently minded record stores are given a platform to say, 'hey, we're still here, how are you today? Buy some records.'

And so we should.

Mono Records
Avalanche Records
Rubadub Records
Volcanic Tongue Records
MixedUp Records
BlackVinyl Records

Thank Christ the 1981 Show...

2011-04-11T19:55:00.005+01:00

Stewart Lee is curating a show aimed at capturing the spirit of the early years of alternative comedy. At Last the 1981 Show will feature Arthur Smith, Norman Lovett, Nigel Planer and Chris Lynam - South Bank Centre, 29 May 2011

And Arnold Brown....

And here he is!

And more. Probably.

Also, the second series of Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle has been given a BBC2 slot on Wednesdays at 11.20pm, starting May 4.

Houses on the Hill..

2011-04-07T12:00:00.006+01:00

Edward Docx's deranged characters in fiction

This is a nice article written by Edward Docx (writer of 'The Calligrapher') in The Guradian.

I suspect many would agree with the characters Docx has chosen as his favourites - they're all wonderful examples. Any of the three marvellous novels written by the late, greatest Edward Wallant feature protagonists whose own descent into madness accompanies an equally strong desire to save others from their own, 'fate worse than life.'

And, of course, there's Robert Wringhim........................

Colin McLaren's adaptation of Gogol's 'Diary of a Madman.'
'Part 2'
'Part 3'

Also,
the wonderful Skip Spence - himself tortured/equally inspired by his own personal demons...
'Diana

This might be a party, this is a DISCO!

2011-04-04T00:49:00.011+01:00

Forget all about 'The Last Waltz,' or 'Gimme Shelter,' or even the '68 Comeback Special,' Jonathan Demme's marvellous 1984 concert movie featuring Talking Heads', 'Stop Making Sense,' is the finest example of the genre - saving of course a certain 1978 grainy recording of a certain bands performance at a certain state mental hospital...

That aside, 'Stop Making Sense,' is concert biographies, and David Byrne's, finest moment. Forget all about the big suit, the bigger suit and the suit that's three sizes too big, the songs, the energy of the performances, the way the whole thing comes enticingly, deliciously together - it's the perfect example of three unforgettable, unassailable nights, sussed images and beyond magical music blended seamlessly together by Demme, cinemtaographer, Jordan Cronenweth and the band, playing more magnificently than they've ever done.

It may be twenty years ago but it seems like never before...

Love is the cure for every evil...

2011-03-30T23:42:00.006+01:00

Farley Granger's career remains synonymous with the two films he made for Hitchcock in 1948 and 1951 - 'Rope,' and, 'Strangers on a Train;' films which, both subtly and unequivocally, reflected Hollywood's increasing anatagonism towards Communism and homosexuality - commom subtexts in many films of this period.

Granger's best performance however, was in Nicholas Ray's marvellous 1949 debut, 'They Lived by Night.' Granger plays the part of, 'Bowie' Bowers who, along with his accomplice, 'Keechie' Mobley, later embark on a crime spree that ends, unsurprisingly, in tragedy.

The film was a huge influence on directors as diverse as Arthur Penn, Terrence Malick and Robert Altman (who directed the remake, 'Thieves Like us,' in 1974).

Farley Granger - star of stage, screen and television for over 40 years.

RIP - Sidney Lumet 1924-2011

Sydney Lumet - Guardian Obituary

There are some boys that never go out...

2011-03-24T11:48:00.009Z

Hailing, quite literally, from Melbourne, Australia, The Lucksmiths were part of a larger conurbation of 'Jangly' pop bands that emerged in the early 1990's. They share similar musical persuasions to The Smiths, fellow Australians, The Go-Betweens and Trashcan Sinatras - esteemed company indeed.

Lyrically, The Lucksmiths remind this, sometimes weary, sometimes jaded, always handsome (copyright Dave McCullough, 1983) writer of early Billy Bragg, early Wedding Present - they comfortably share the same poetic sensibilities, the same obsession with the gloriously ordinary.

Buy all their records.

'Fiction'
'Get-To-Bed Birds

Ask me no question...I play music...

2011-03-18T22:49:00.003Z

Osbourne, 'King Tubby,' Ruddock is rightly regarded for his overriding presence on the development of dub music. His influence on much of contemporary music is incalculable - from reggae to soul, dance to electronic music, current pop to future rap, the legacy of his genius is there for all to hear.

King Tubby, if he had lived, would have been 70 on January. Engineer, erstwhile DJ, producer par excellence, we are fortunate to still hear his silent yet mighty voice in the myriad available recordings of his work.

Dillinger 'Dub Organiser'
Upsetters 'Freak Out Skank'
Lee Perry 'Blackboard Jungle Dub'
Observers 'Rema Dub'
God Sons 'Merry Up'

'What are we doing in there?'

2011-03-14T18:01:00.009Z

Grove Press has been around for over 60 years now, publishing all kinds of books. Ostensibly a hardcover and paperback imprint of Grove Atlantic, its history of championing groundbreaking writing is an illustrious one - Grove's owner, Barney Rosset Jnr, famously challenged and changed temporarily forever the American literary landscape when, in the 1950's and early 1960's, he published Henry Miller's, 'Tropic of Cancer,' and D H Lawrence's, 'Lady Chatterley's Lover.'

Grove continues its iconoclastic tradition of publishing today - witness recent books by such diverse writers as Dubravka Ugresic, Karl Marlantes, Michael Knight and Bryan Charles - whose latest memoir (see above) is often eerily reminiscent of James Brown's marvellous 2005, 'LA Diaries.'

LA Diaries download

TO HAVE FUN WITH.........

ANY BLOODY EXCUSE

2011-03-10T14:33:00.005Z

To play the new video by the best band in the wurld...

Trashcan Sinatras
'Play-along-a-Trashcans!'

'...By hand and by brain to earn your pay...'

2011-03-06T22:34:00.009Z

Thirty years ago, Dick Gaughan released his defining album, 'Handful of Earth.' Gaughan's career and personal life were at something of a crossroads when this album was recorded - it's release was contemporaneous with the early, and many would contend, most divisive policies of the then recently elected Conservative Government.

'Handful of Earth,' was a call to small arms. It was Gaughan's attempt to musically articulate his frustrations and despair at what he saw was the systematic erosion and destruction of the rights of working people - the working people he so intensely emotionally identified with.

It is an album of heartbreak, but also an album of shared solidarity for a newly and increasingly lost and disenfranchised generation of young and old, men and women of every colour, creed and none, in the face of callousness, indifference and no little brutality.

It's a darkly celebratory record and is as painfully resonant and relevant today as it was on its original release.

Musicians' Union
TUC
Z Space

Our kind of woman...

2011-03-01T10:39:00.006Z

Jane Russell was, in many ways, the female equivalent of Robert Mitchum; the male lead in two of her fabulously over the top RKO Radio Pictures distributed films from the early 1950's - 'Macao,' and 'His Kind of Woman.'

The latter especially is a marvellous film - featuring Russell, Mitch and Vincent Price (in one of the most hyperbolic performances committed to film).

Russell was more than just a glamour girl. She demonstrated genuine comedic ability in a number of films, and should be remembered for her talent in transforming mundane movies into watchable, entertaining ones.

Thanks, Jane.

Also, Jill Clayburgh RIP

Let the mysteries be..

2011-02-24T12:27:00.014Z

This is a post celebrating the old-ish and the new-ish in Country music. Belated happy 50th birthday, first of all, to Iris Dement. It's almost twenty years since Philo records released her debut album, 'Infamous Angel,' and it is yet to be equalled by old or young 'uns.

Caitlin Rose reminds this writer of Lucinda Williams - but she is very much Caitlin Rose. Her latest album, 'Own Side Now,' was released to critical acclaim last year. If you're a fan of the aformentioned Miss Williams and Iris herself, then it's a surest thing Caitlin Rose will be for you.

Try some.

Caitlin Rose - Shanghai Cigarettes from LaundroMatinee on Vimeo.

Caitlin Rose@Stereo
Rough Trade Records/Caitlin Rose

The landscape of love...

2011-02-20T22:36:00.010Z

In the commentary to 'Wings of Desire,' Wim Wenders speaks about his then desire to return to Germany, to Berlin, to make a movie about the city, explaining further the duality of his feelings for a rapidly changing, commercially and socio-politically, urban unreality. In the 25 years since Wenders decided to make his masterpiece much, and perhaps, in many respects, little, has changed. What has remained however, is Wenders' singularly unique cinematic vision.

'Wings of Desire,' is one of the great films. It owes some debt to Wenders' first film, 'Summer in the City,' and, especially so, to the films of the great Russian director, Andrei Tarkovsky - to whom the film is partly dedicated. What makes the film great, however, is its convincing ability to make us, the viewers, feel compellingly lost in our own all too human inadequacies, our individual, yet shared tragedies, whilst offering hope and counsel and a collective understanding of our grief, our happiness, our joy at being no more, no less, than alive.

It is magic on film. Watch it.

The burden of love is so strange...

2011-02-17T15:00:00.002Z

Fresh from the mightily canine, 'Alsatian records,' the debut album from Norman Blake and Euros Childs - or, 'Jonny,' as they're now rather convivially known.

Laden with the kind of hooks we've grown to expect from two tunesmiths of the first hors d'oeuvre, it's a nice departure and a welcome return.

Jonny Jonny Ooh...

Teenage Fanclub
Gorky Dispenser

Cool outside...

2011-02-09T12:06:00.002Z

Toro Y Moi/Chaz Bundick has been writing music for almost ten years - which means he's been writing music since he was 15. His output is eclectic to say the least - a mixture of, amongst others, Sonic Youth and Daft Punk - but he's very much his own thing.

This own thing extends itself to various musical reworkings and collaborations - Les Sins being by far, so far, the most interesting.

Toro Y Moi's new album, 'Underneath the pine,' is available from Carpark records on February 22nd. Try some.

'...an album that weaves into reality and stitches the easy letters of wonder...'

Toro Y Moi- Talamak from bryan bush on Vimeo.

Barry town...

2011-02-01T12:02:00.010Z

The John Barry sound was established as early as the 1950's - witness the marvellous, 'Watch your step,' instrumental of 1957 - credited to the John Barry 7.

Since 1960, Barry had been involved in film music, writing, sometimes performing and conducting the scores/incidental music to two British thrillers starring Adam Faith; an artist whose early career, in some ways, he paralleled.

Barry's abilities came to the attention of film producers Saltzman and Broccoli whilst working for EMI records, producing and arranging material for their roster of recording artists. They were impressed. So much so, that they decided to give the 29 year old a chance to work on one of their upcoming EON projects...the rest is history.

John Barry was a musical genius. Notable, not only for his immeasurable contribution to the James Bond series of films, but for his talent in transforming base elements into cinematic silver and gold - often, solely, because of his contribution. It's also impossible to watch memorable films such as, 'Midnight Cowboy,' and, 'Walkabout,' without being affected emotionally by their images and their musical counterpoint.

Thanks John, for your gift of beautiful music.

'Watch Your Step'
'Beat Girl'
'Florida Fantasy'

***The above contains spoilers***

Brooklyn and ting...

2011-01-27T14:03:00.000Z

Three minutes or less...

Japanther - not to be confused with the equally mighty Japandroids - are playing at a small, overcrowded venue near you soon. Their music is typical of the noisy schmoisy fuzz currently emanating from New York; although in Japanther's case they've been plying their nefarious trade for nigh on 10 years.

'Tut, Tut, Now shake ya Butt.' Indeed.

'Radical Businessman'

Bluest velvet..

2011-01-25T12:14:00.005Z

Although slighly late and slightly early - Lynch was 65 on January 20th and Blue Velvet celebrates its 25th birthday later this year, no blog devoted to film-making and great movies could ignore two such significant landmarks.

Blue Velvet was, and is, one of the great films. It continues to appall, infuriate, mesmerise and reduce to helpless laughter - even after numerous viewings, even after the pause and slow motion buttons have broken after over repeated use.

It's magic. And, a quarter of a century later, still is.

David Lynch is completely unique amongst American film-makers. He shares some sensibilities with contemporary Hollywood but his remains a uniquely personal vision and voice. And that's what makes his work so compelling, so eminently watchable. So Lynchian.

The anniversary re-issue of Blue Velvet, it is rumoured, will contain some scenes that producer Dino de Laurentiis considered not integral to the film - Lynch's understandable acquiescence meant that these scenes have earned semi-legendary status among fans of the movie; it will be interesting to see these scenes in context, and to see how they impact on the narrative as a whole.

If you haven't seen the film, JG Ballard's one line description of it cannot be bettered...

Happy belated birthday, David.

'Dumbland'
'Blue Velvet'
'Straight Story'
'Good day today'

“like The Wizard of Oz reshot with a script by Franz Kafka and décor by Francis Bacon.”

Shimmer...

2011-01-19T12:43:00.007Z

It's been thirty years since the formation of seminal American rock band, Throwing Muses. One of the hallmarks of this most original of bands is the lyrical starkness and unaffected candour of one of its main songwriters, Kristin Hersh.

Hersh, early diagnosed with schizophrenia, uses her experiences as a sufferer of mental illness to comment on, amongst many things, stereotypical attitudes towards mental health. These conflicting and contrasting attitudes, and her own familiarity with them, are clarified and enlarged upon in her latest memoir, 'Paradoxical Undressing,'

Evocative, brave and impressively well written, Hersh has written one of the most startling, most impassioned books of early 2011.

'Me and my charms'

Every day isn't like sunday...

2011-01-13T18:51:00.006Z

From the 16th to the 30th of January, the GFT in Glasgow is showing three wonderful films as part of its Cinematic Americana series.

'Wise Blood,' based on the 1952 novel by Flannery O'Connor, is an unheralded classic - featuring magnificent performances from Brad Dourif and Harry Dean (Stanton). Peter Bogdanovich's breakthrough film, 'The Last Picture Show,' released in 1971, deserves its considerable reputation as one of the benchmark films of the New Hollywood era whilst, 'Heartworn Highways,' the third in the trilogy, shows documentary film-making at its most challenging and intimate.

All three films are marvellous examples of the film industry at its most creative and are well worth seeing either individually or as a genre embracing whole.

andalusiafarm.org

Alfred the great...

2011-01-11T13:37:00.005Z

'Seeing things;' the autobiography of the late Oliver Postgate, was released to unanimous critical acclaim (and unconcealed delight) in 2009. Two years later sees the publication of the biography of Alfred Bestall - the illustrator of the children's perennial classic, Rupert Bear.

Bestall's life is chronicled by his goddaughter Caroline Bott and it's a life full of unexpected surprises - Bestall fought in the first World War, and had a more auxiliary role in the second, however, his belief in the unequivocal goodness of humanity shines through, in this generously written, wholly unsentimental account.

Bestall's art, like Postgate's, seems to have a timeless wonder about it. It belongs firmly to the tradition of great children's storytelling - where amazing worlds are inhabited by beautiful princesses, talking animals, and strange, often frightening creatures...

Included in this post is Jackie Lee's wonderful performance of the theme music from the early 70's claymation series.

'Life and works of Alfred Bestall,' by Caroline Bott

Rupert the Bear

Hammock time...

2011-01-07T16:33:00.000Z

One of the most magical records of last year was Hammock's 'Chasing after shadows...living with the ghosts.' There's nothing particularly new or surprisingly innovative in what they do. But what they do; the creation of languid, ethereal soundscapes of undeniable beauty, they do exceptionally well.

Redeye Distribution
bandcamp

'The Backward Step'

Sweet Unforgiveness...

2011-01-05T13:31:00.010Z

Serendipity is a great thing...

Aquarius Records have been in existence for over (just) 40 years. Based in San Francisco, they are an old-fashioned record store with a penchant for the slightly psychedelic, the offbeat and the downright darn weird.

'Gentle Persuasion,' a self-released 2010 album by the intriguingly named Doug Hream Blunt is just one of the albums they stock - and, resting assuredly, it is not untypical of their inventory...

MPEG streams of DHB are available on the record store site.

So, Let's Dance!

Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel...

2011-01-04T15:10:00.005Z

One of the great films of the 1950's was John Sturges' 'Bad Day at Black Rock.' The cast was one of the finest assembled; featuring new and old Hollywood at its reconfigured best. This reconfiguration included a young Anne Francis - who would later excel in other such '50's movie classics as, 'Blackboard Jungle,' and, 'Forbidden Planet.'

Arnold Laven's 'The Rack,' remains her best film. An underrated piece about an ignored war, (Korea) the film includes early (ish) performances by Paul Newman, Lee Marvin and Cloris Leachman. As war movies go, it excels in creating a sense of Manchurian Candidate like tension amidst a backdrop of confused loyalties and disrupted lives.

It's great, and like all of Anne Francis's movies, eminently watchable.

'The Hired Gun'
Interview for tcm

Pete Postlethwaite was, without any doubt, one of Britain's finest actors of his generation.

Every film he was in was in some sense, a Pete Postlethwaite film; his presence on screen was immense, irrespective of the nature of the role he played, and the time, long or short, he spent on screen playing it. To say he was a master of his craft would be an understatement.

Although he made many films his early performance in Terence Davies' harrowing and magnificent, 'Distant Voices, Still Lives,' remains definitive - especially so in demonstrating the full reign of his incredible talents.

'The Age of Stupid'
'Brassed off'

2011 here we come...

2010-12-29T18:26:00.007Z

2011 is already shaping up to be a very nice year indeed.

Dean Wareham will be revisiting his pre Luna roots with a tres nostalgic return to Galaxie 500 territory. Giant Sand are playing as part of the best looking Celtic Connections line-up in many years. Twin Shadow and Sleigh Bells are both playing at two of the tastiest venues in town.

So, a great start to the year. Where's that bloody cheque-book...(old)

Giant Sand
Laura Cantrell
Elizabeth Cook

...is anything else as good as this?

Happy Christmas...

2010-12-23T14:51:00.002Z

The Bishop's Wife was released just in time for Christmas 1947, but its magic stands the test of these 60 plus years. It's always a surprise to find this overlooked gem on the television or as part of an unheralded (pun intended) seasonal release - its sentiment may seem unsophisticated to many contemporary eyes and ears. No matter. The performances are heart-warmingly wonderful, the direction measured and assured and it features some late work by Gregg Toland; one of cinema's greatest photographers.

O Captain, our Captain...

2010-12-18T15:44:00.009Z

The musical influence of Don Van Vliet is everywhere. It is in the music of yesterday, it is inherent in many artists and musicians performing and recording today, and, perhaps most importantly, is parcel part of the musical legacy still to come. The beat poet, Greg Corso once importuned that he had no choice other than choosing the life of a poet. Everything else, was not gravy.

For Don, listening to Rhythm and Blues records was his, 'gravy.' He took this intense and genuine love and appreciation and distilled it into something magical - even calling his loosely assembled band of musical cut-throats, 'The Magic Band;' an epithet frequently lost on his musical detractors.

But, 'Magic,' they undoubtedly were. Capable of creating the most raucous, the most prescient, the most ominous sounds then imaginable by a society incapable, for the most part, of calibrating the true importance of his lovely noise.

But, 'lovely noise,' it was. Invested with an honesty and integrity and a love for and of the music he created. More and most importantly, Beefheart was able to communicate this undiluted, often sonically challenging, musical ideology to so many, to so many willing to embrace it fully and unconditionally - it is difficult to imagine any other artist of the past 45 years who has influenced successive generations of musicians and artists more.

Thanks Don.

'Moonlight in Vermont'
'Ice cream for crow'

'The artist formerly known as Captain Beefheart' 1/6

Christmas saturday night at the movies...

2010-12-10T11:05:00.015Z

In what was a disappointing year for film and film releases; increasingly the best, the most innovative, talent seems to be involved in television production, there were still a few movies worth getting over-excited about...

Werner Herzog released two films towards the end of 2009/beginning of 2010. Although not a re-make as such, 'Bad Lieutenant, Port of Call, New Orleans,' and, 'My Son, My Son, What have Ye Done?' were two very different examples of his peripatetic approach to film-making - one, big budget and theatrical, the other, art house and very theatrical. The same technique and attention to gratuitous detail is there in both films; however, it does seem as though Herzog has abandoned somewhat his obsessive-compulsive tendencies - a positive, in favour of a less improvisatory style - a negative? Only time, and future film projects - will determine Herzog's preferred direction.

Werner Herzog

Jeff Bridges deserved his best actor Oscar for his fine portrayal of Otis Blake in Scott Cooper's, 'Crazy Heart.' It was a typical bravura performance from Bridges - one of recent Hollywood's most charismatic and capable actors. 'Crazy Heart,' itself is a fine film, deserving of its many plaudits, and is a greater work than the platitudes bestowed upon it would suggest; it's far more than an accommodating vehicle for a singularly excellent acting performance...

And now, to Alton Towers

Chris Morris delivered the funniest film of the year in, 'Four Lions.' It was billed as a, "controversial," film by the many who hadn't seen it, yet, it proved to be the film comedy highlight of the year - a film that went out of its way to make you laugh, laugh and then laugh some more. Like all the best comedy however, the film was more than just a convenient prop to hang jokes on...it exhibited moments of real pathos, genuine tragedy and, above all, was stridently non-judgemental about what convinces ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

cookdandbombd

Christopher Nolan's 'Inception,' proved to be the blockbuster film of 2010. Nolan is quoted as saying he was influenced by the work of the Argentinian writer, Jorge Luis Borges, and, certainly in subject matter, the film owes something of a debt to him and, also, to William Gibson - the conception that our dreams can be misappropriated and manipulated is a ready conceit of Gibson's novels of speculative fiction.

It is the most satisfing of Nolan's films and elevates him to something beyond that of genre film-maker.

Other films to catch the eyes in 2010 included:

Winter's Bone
The Killer Inside Me
Looking For Eric
American: The Bill Hicks Story
The Infidel
Kickass
Toy Story 3

Gratuitous

One of the most exciting films of 2010 was Giorgos Lanthimos's, 'Dogtooth.' It's difficult to describe the full majesty of its charged eroticism, its beckoning horror - the laziest way to do so is to imagine Jane Campion's 'The Piano,' remade by David Lynch and George Romero.

It's THAT good, it's that GOOD. And that's iT.

Trash Humpers
'Three Little Devils'
Harmony Korine - Work
FUCK ME

Wrapped in plastic...

2010-12-03T21:22:00.011Z

Although we shouldn't really be reading anymore, for those of us who still are 2010 has been something of a transitional year. New books by Philip Roth and Don DeLillo were entertaining rather than soul changing (although DeLillo's book was funfully fun.) Jonathan Franzen surprised less than a few people by writing probably the most highly regarded novel of the year - scabrously funny in parts, a call to a farewell to arms, it's scope and eloquent grandeur was not surpassed in 2010...

...except perhaps by the collected stories of Lydia Davis.

Some of the best books of 2010 were not fiction titles. Bill Clegg's 'Portrait of an addict as a young man,' was a startling memoir - a wholly unsensational account of addiction and the tragedy that accompanies and encompasses it. Susan Compo's marvellous biography of Warren Oates - one of the finest actors ever to act finely - was an undoubted highlight of the year as was Stewart Lee's, 'How I escaped my certain fate,' a book about how to be a stand-up comedian whilst sitting down...

The Dalkey Archive published some of the most interesting fiction of the year. In, 'Dolly City,' by Orly Castel-Bloom, a son named, "Son," is saved from a premature end of life by the eponymous Doctor Dolly...the resulting satire is as ingeniously grotesque as it is hilarious. John Toomey's, 'Sleepwalker,' invaded and occupied similar territory - the Patrick Bateman styled protagonist lurching from one barely concealed catastrophe to another...

Patrick Ness, Sam Lypsite, Daniel Clowes, Kenzaburo Oe, Willy Vlautin, Philippa Perry, Gilbert Hernandez...Roger Sterling...all wrote books of varying degrees of excellence in a year of contrasting quality.

However, somewhat surprisingly, two of the incontestably finest books of the year were music titles. Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton's story of Dance Music and its DJ's, 'The Record Players: DJ Revolutionaries,'was as encyclopedic as it was readable - a real labour of turntabling love - containing honest and intimately revealing portraits of the culture, its progenitors, and its accompanying hedonism.

Alex Ross was roundly applauded for his magnificent 2007 treatise on modern music - 'The Rest is Noise.' 2010 sees its successor in the form of, 'Listen to this,' published by Fourth Estate. This is the music book many of us had been waiting for - scholarly without being rarefied, entertaining without being superficial, a masterly account of music and musicality in its many and myriad forms. From Bach to Bjork and then Bach again...er...

So, 2011, only 28 days to go...

This post is dedicated to all book-sellers past and present - for all their hard work, their dedication and their loyalty and for making the world, if only for an instant of an instant, a better place.

The Rest is Now...

2010-11-22T17:06:00.038Z

It's been a great year for new music and new records. Every magazine reviewer, newspaper columnist, their comparable on-line equivalents and, inevitably, blogs and bloggers of every size, shape and preference, have their own favourites of the year.

This one is no different.

Amongst the majority of the bigger circulation music magazines the albums of both Arcade Fire and Joanna Newsom held considerable critical sway - interesting in itself as the albums and the artists are very different. Intriguingly, there has been a return to guitar based music - with more than a gentle nod to the 1980's; itself a decade undergoing renewed critical re-evaluation.

Favourite records then included:

The Books, Hammock, Emeralds, KORT, Twin Shadow, Fang Island, Sleigh Bells, Jonsi, Hoat Chip, She & Him, Teenage Fanclub, Tindersticks, Beach House, The Fall, Janelle Monae, Errors, The Gayngs, Alasdair Roberts, Best Coast, Kurt Vile, The Bambi Molesters, Eric Chenaux, Swans, Richard Skelton, Tame Impala, Darwin Deez, No Joy, Twin Sister, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Ruth Theodore, Glasser, Wildbirds and Peacedrums, Barn Owl, Oh No Ono, Pocahaunted, Girls, Caribou....

Janelle Monae
Carolina Chocolate Drops
Pocahaunted
The Bambi Molesters
Barn Owl
Emeralds
Girls
Hammock

There was also a wealth of re-issues and special editions of albums (no doubt dreamt up at the record company party) released including career retrospectives/compilations - Orange Juice, Dylan's Mono Recordings, Jon Savage's recently released introduction to late 1970's California Punk - to Springsteen's marvellous, 'The Promise,' The Velvets' 'Quine Tapes,' and the definitive re-release of Miles Davis's 'Bitches Brew.'

Bruce Springsteen
The Germs

Wire Marketplace
Volanic Tongue
Mono
Leaf Records
Domino Records

And that's it. Here's hoping 2011 provides the Swampabilly revival we've all been waiting for...

Mark Lamarr

***RIP Peter Christopherson and Leslie Nielsen***

seriously..

2010-11-13T11:41:00.011Z

Most people are driven to drink on a bicycle with scratched paintwork, twisted and immovable handlebars, and a seat that's seen better days and nights... Richard Hawley, however, arrives at his destination - in this case, the Glenfiddich whisky distillery in Dufftown, with a pannier ful of musical loveliness that's incontestably great. It's difficult to think of anyone else currently making such soul achingly beautiful music so consistently.

''and I'm not afraid to use it.'

2010-11-11T14:21:00.011Z

TWIN SHADOW IS NOT MOSS FROM THE I.T. CROWD...TWIN SHADOW IS NOT MOSS FROM THE I.T. CROWD...TWIN SHADOW IS NOT MOSS FROM THE I.T. CROWD...TWIN SHADOW IS NOT MOSS FROM THE I.T. CROWD...TWIN SHADOW IS NOT MOSS FROM THE I.T. CROWD...TWIN SHADOW IS NOT MOSS FROM THE I.T. CROWD...

BUT WHAT IF HE WAS.................................

...educate, inform and entertain...

2010-11-11T13:37:00.003Z

It was something of a pleasant surprise to see the return of, 'Getting On' to BBC4's Autumn schedule - rarely has a sit-com been willing to exhibit such resolutely dark tendencies, such a complete lack of artistic compromise, such quality in writing and performance. Jo Brand, especially, has been a revelation. The same, although in a very different way, can be said of Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan's, 'The Trip;' now showing on BBC2. It's a wonderful, gently sardonic little gem - full of melancholic insights into the world of celebrity and the hubris associated with it. New comedy on television worth getting excited about...who would have thought?

'Getting On'

'The Trip'

Word, up...

2010-11-04T15:41:00.007Z

By the sounds of it, Richard Ayoade's debut feature could be a small classic in the making. An adaptation of Joe Dunthorne's acclaimed novel, 'Submarine,' the film, which is yet to be given a UK release date, is a love story - but the kind of problematic love story you would expect from the co-creator of the still criminally neglected, 'Garth Marenghi's DarkPlace.' It's not a surprise that Ayoade's film has been so lauded: his music video work with the Arctic Monkeys, Vampire Weekend and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs showed rare comedic touches - it was obvious, even then, that he was destined for greater things. In the meantime...

'Mr Smanks'

'Oxford Comma'

'Dean Lerner - Women'

Warp Records

Additional - 2011 saw the general release of Ayoade's film. The film has garnered many positive reviews along the way - see the film and judge it for yourself. It is reminiscent of Wes Anderson and the later fims of Richard Linklater. Sadly, however, from the point of view of this observer, the film is a huge disappointment - lacking any cohesive narrative, with poorly defined acting performances, bereft of any real direction, and is, at best, good naturedly contrived, at worst, a waste of time, intelligence and money that could have been directed somewhere more deserving. A shame.

I danced in flames and drunk in the depths of love...

2010-10-28T00:29:00.011+01:00

This year has seen the passing of one musical great after another...

Gregory Isaacs, the 'Cool Ruler,' himself, one of Reggae music's true innovators - the personification and life-affirming embodiment of Lovers Rock - joins one of his producer's, Sugar Minott, in that great Dancehall in the sky.

Also, unbelievably sadly, the loss of Ari Up of The Slits at the cruelly early age of 48. For many, The Slits were the epitome of the Punk D-I-Y aesthetic - couldn't play, boorish, uneducated, raucously self-righteous, quintessentially full of themselves. What rubbish. What truth. The Slits first album is one of the most deliciously subversive records ever committed to plastic - bone raw, it rocks with a sensuality and ribald rebelliousness - and, in Ari, they had someone with the personality to pull it all together, to pull it all off.

Isaacs and Reggae music, particularly of the late 70's/early 80's, shared the same musical and cultural sensibility as Punk, and, often, similar levels of undiluted critical opprobrium. In the work of both Gregory Isaacs and Ari Up, music became, in effect, a call to arms, a unifying rallying cry. It was this overwhelming desire to communicate their musical ideas, and the success they had in doing so, that ensures their legacy.

Babylon Lovers Rock. Oh Babylon Lovers Rock.

'Mr Cop'

'Love Forever'

'So Tough,' and 'Instant Hit,' from Peel Sessions

The golden stereo...

2010-10-22T15:12:00.006+01:00

Genius. Genius was easy for him.

Twat has long regarded Kurt Wagner and his seminal Nashville based band, Lambchop, as one of the great contemporary music makers. Released on October of this year, Kurt's latest release features a renewed collaboration with Cortney Tidwell - they recorded together in 2006. Tidwell is the granddaughter of Slim Williamson, who ran the 1960's countrypolitan record label, Chart Records - home to Lynn Anderson amongst others. It's a wonderful recording, full of understatement, sadness, joy and more than a little yee-ha. It is easily the best record of 2010 and, if TB were wont to produce an end of year best of list, then it would easily feature at number six. Buy it. Buy it now, y'all.

Mini-doc

Connie Eaton 'Morning Blue'

Karen Wheeler 'Cry'

Remember, remember...

2010-10-21T00:51:00.008+01:00

On November 5th, it will be the 50th anniversary of the death of one of Hollywood's most remarkable, most resilient character actors. Ward Bond was, and is, synonymous with the films of John Ford - together they made in excess of twenty features. Bond brought an ineffable charm to these movies - his expansiveness and generosity shine throughout. What is often overlooked however, is the craft he brought to the process of film-making. Like his on and off screen friend John Wayne, Bond made it all look so easy. Yet, this is to do a disservice to his talent and to the work he put in to making his many and varied roles, for most of Hollywood's Golden Age of director's, seem as effortles as they do.

'Gentleman Jim'

'The Searchers'

Il dolce suono...

2010-10-12T13:00:00.004+01:00

Joan Sutherland will be remembered as one of the great operatic performers of the last hundred years. She performed and recorded extensively - her bel canto repertoire interpretations in particular are considered amongst the finest of extant recordings. Her impeccable soprano was especially suited to baroque music - it was during a performance of Handel's 'Alcina' at La Fenice in Venice, where she gained the sobriquet, 'La Stupenda;' an appellation, even at such an early distinction, that she thoroughly deserved. Her legacy as one of modern opera's greatest popular exponents is assured.

'Three baroque arias'

'Spargi d'amaro pianto'

'Sous le ciel tout etoile'

A new box of truths...

2010-10-05T14:54:00.015+01:00

Although the scheduled release for 'Nemesis,' is October 5th, any new Philip Roth release deserves to be given an early mention. His last three novels, some of which have engendered no little hostile criticism, involve similar themes of loss, physical and emotional impairment and psychological estrangement. Overlying 'Nemesis,' is a humanity that extends beyond the usual Rothian boundaries of tentative secularism and incisive social commentary - in fact, it is one of his strongest, even affable yet. Roth has always been overtly autobiographical in his writing - something which has tempered the sometimes savage satire central to many of his works. For those more at ease with his version of American idealism, 'Nemesis;' with its central tenets of community and the role the individual plays in ensuring the community endures, will prove a satisfying read.

Golden Boy

2010-09-30T12:57:00.013+01:00

For Tony Curtis, acting, and by close association, life, was supposed to be fun. A star in over 120 films, he brought an essential joie de vivre to them - his participation rescued the more banal and ordinary, his professionalism and early recognised 'star' quality' contributed enormously in making some of the great films he was in, just that.

From early films, regularly alongside Piper Laurie, Curtis quietly grew into the assured performer that he became. His filmography is well known, but special attention should be paid to his 1950's output - 'The Sweet Smell of Success; The Vikings; The Defiant Ones; Some Like it Hot,' and, in 1960, the role of Antoninus in 'Spartacus.'

Curtis was more than just the prettiest of faces. One of his greatest roles; and a role for which he, in the public's eyes, appeared particularly unsuited, was that of Albert DeSalvo in Richard Fleischer's 1968 film, 'The Boston Strangler.' Although the film received mixed reviews at the time, Tony's performance stands dramatic test of time - assured, artistically uncompromising - an unflinching portrayal of a brutalised man.

For all of his films, and for his contribution to making life for those who only knew him on the big and small screens that bit better, thanks Tony.

'Sweet Smell of Success'

'Some Like it Hot'

'The Defiant Ones'

Sex Happens...

2010-09-26T17:50:00.004+01:00

It is very welcoming indeed to see the publishing again of Marshall Berman's seminal work on modernity, 'All that is solid melts into air.' Berman spent ten years writing his defining work - a treatise on the multifold aspects of modernism and modernity, specifically, but not entirely, concerning itself with the social and economic conflicts created by it. As Berman asserts in his introduction, 'to be modern is to live a life of paradox and contradiction.' That he attempts to illustrate and demonstrate these through interpretive literary devices - examining Marx and Marx's writings, for instance, to illustrate the inherently self-destructive nature of modernism - without self-aggrandizement, gives the book one of its many accomplishments. It is, quite simply, unique. Verso are to be congratulated for this re-issue.

'Preservation Institute

doxiadis.org

Same as it ever was...

2010-09-17T23:04:00.001+01:00

Although 'Fear of Music,' is rightly acknowledged as one of the defining albums of the 1970's, 'Remain in light,' released almost 30 years ago, stands as Talking Heads' greatest artistic statement. The album was recorded in the Bahamas and features a stellar alumni - with Byrne, producer Brian Eno and engineers Stephen Stanley and Dave Jerden melding the disparate musical elements together into a cohesive genre defying, genre creating whole. Listening to the album again now it's impossible not to be struck by how little the album and its individual artistic concerns has dated. The music sounds as joyously alive as any music created since, whilst the lyrics retain a forbidding prescience that contorts and confounds as it inspires.

'I'm ready to leave-I push the facts in front of me'

'The Great Curve'

'Remain in Light...'

The big subject...

2010-09-13T17:30:00.002+01:00

Claude Chabrol was more than just a film director. In many respects he was the originator of a new kind of cinema - turning away from the traditions of contemporary French films towards a more realistic depiction, free of studio restriction and the unmitigating shackles of the uncompromising star system. Chabrol was instrumental in the careers of many of his fellow Cahiers du Cinema writing contemporaries: Rohmer, Godard, Rivette and Truffaut, to name a concelebrated few. His own work reached its zenith in the late 1960's/early 1970's when he made a number of oustanding films - many starring his wife Stephane Audran - culminating in the classic, Hitchcock influenced 'Le Boucher;' for many his defining moment. Chabrol was ultimately a conventional film-maker but one who took sensuous delight in examining and satirising the very conventions that made his films so watchable, so unique, and so quintessentially French.

'La Femme Infidele' 1/9

An intelligent attention

2010-09-09T20:47:00.009+01:00

John Szwed is a highly regarded academic and writer. For almost 15 years he has been writing, fairly exclusively, about music - from an ethno-musicological point of view and also straight biography - some readers may be familiar with his scholarly, yet eminently readable books on Sun Ra, Miles Davis and Jelly Roll Morton - for which he won a Grammy award. Most recently, Szwed has turned his attentions to one of America's most important musical anthropologists - Alan Lomax. In, 'Alan Lomax: The man who recorded the world,' Szwed examines Lomax's legacy: from the early field recordings of rural music, to the 1930's/40's, when many of the artists he championed, both black and white, gained their greatest recognition. Written with authority, clarity and not without humour, Szwed's book is an entertaining account of an, at times, controversial figure, but, undoubtedly, an extraordinary one.

'American Folklife Centre'

'Association for Cultural Equity'

folkstreams.net is a wonderful site.
'folkstreams.net'

I ain't nothin but a gorie hound...

2010-09-06T21:41:00.014+01:00

Twat Bubble loves The Gories. Formed almost 25 years ago they were/just about still are part of Detroit's golden age of rawk. That they rock and blues more than any other sonic funsters on the planet - including Dead Canary's Bassholes, the fabulous Dirtbombs and, hey, hey, The Cobras themselves is no small cheat. Check out the video below featuring Mick Collins and some fellow Detroit musicians...

+ (Gratuitous/Tenuous)

Yes Yes Yes

2010-09-01T13:28:00.003+01:00

Always the bears knees when cover versions of classic songs are made - especially so when there is ample potential to hack and piss off a sizeable majority of people. Zola Jesus have been around for a while now - check out their/her website/myspace site.

'No No No'

Zola Jesus@MySpace

notnotfun

She loves me, she loves me not...

2010-09-01T11:49:00.005+01:00

Oh, and the fourth series of Mad Men starts on September....

This is an exceptionally interesting and entertaining article written by Adam Curtis for his BBC blog. Curtis is one of the most insightful documentary film-makers currently making insightful documentary films - the peerless, 'The power of nightmares,' being just one of his investigative cinematic forays into our increasingly unreal world. Curtis is obviously a fan of Mad Men - how could you not be? His interest goes further and deeper however, recognising the appeal of nostalgia and reminiscence for a disjointed, unreassured public - the 'old wound that doesn't heal,' whilst examining more closely today's telegraphed infatuations with the banal, the freakish, the striving to overachieve. Now, where did I put that TV Guide....

'Don Draper's book shelf'

'Man in the grey flannel suit

'madmenunbuttoned

Young at heart...

2010-08-19T12:05:00.004+01:00

Although it is the epitome of poorer journalism to rota a band's influences, in the case of Dominant Legs we'll be happy to...

A frankly timeless amalgam of 70's/80's guitar romp and beautified 90's tweeness, 'The Legs,' seem destined for outright stardom. Their record label, Lefse, has some of the most interesting bands around at the moment - check out the label site/alley by the railway station for some self-validation...Etc.

Good Books...

2010-08-17T17:46:00.011+01:00

Their first album in five years sees a return to sonic form for the mighty Books. The Books are unusual in the sense that they have successfully eshewed all critical attempts at pigeon-holing them. They're not part of a scene, they don't court small or large controversy and they don't sound quite like anyone or anything else - with the possible exception of Laurie Anderson...doesn't matter, if you're a fan of the uncommonplace then The Books might be for you. Or, your brother.

The Books

Golden Wonder!

2010-08-17T17:16:00.010+01:00

Appearing at the unjustifiably small 'Stand,' venue at this year's Edinburgh festival - Ladies and gentlemen, the unfashionably, the unfeasibly great Stewart Lee. It says much for the ego of the man that he spends his pre-gig time handing out fliers advertsising his own (and others) comedy wares. This year's show - and we would never spoil it for those yet to attend - is split disproportionately into two parts. Each proportion, however, is suspiciously beautifully formed, one, about six feet, the other, an equally startling five feet four. Which is about the size of it. And the median size of the comedy God that is Stewart Lee. If you miss out on his appearances this year you could do far worse than buy his latest book - available from the website.

'About the size of it'

More than one good use for your heart..

2010-08-12T22:46:00.014+01:00

One of this planet's loveliest top pop stars the mighty Milky Wimpshake return with some brand new tunes about old and new and slightly broken love. If songs about zoom and buzz are for you then so are the 'Shake.

Buy their bloody marvellous records.

Norman Records

We need that record!

2010-08-12T22:29:00.006+01:00

I can also think of many more things to be concerned about than the closure of yet another crummy Independent record store...Hey, now hold on a minute.

The DVD about the film about the TV Shirt about the way of life....Of course the world needs more record shops and this film attempts to give some of the reasons why.

Brendan Toller

'I need that record'

Sexclusive...

2010-07-28T16:59:00.007+01:00

Always one to support new bands; especially those with a connection to (former) New Order alumni, however tenuous, meet the slightly mighty Sex Education. Hailing quite literally from Liverpool their album is out now - a download being readily available from their myspace site.

Sex Education

Native New Yorkers...

2010-07-20T21:15:00.014+01:00

Somewhat terrifyingly, it's 33 years since the creation of Tony Fletcher's seminal, real bible of the beats, 'Jamming!' magazine. This was a magazine which catered for all tastes; most importantly, TB's own imperfectly formed, fiercely prejudiced ones. The cover shown was possibly 'Jamming!'s' most successful issue featuring an almost frightening array of PROPER POP STARS.....(that's enough nostalgic reminiscences).

Fletcher has also recently written a rather wonderful history of the music of New York City - from 1927-1977. It's unique in the sense that it successfully attempts to properly put into musicological context the city's pre-eminent position as the music entertainment capital of America. That it does, again very successfully, against a backdrop of changing musical styles, thwarted and realised ambitions and apathy from an all too often anatagonistic City Hall, gives the book its real resonance.

Ella Fitzgerald 'All the things you are'

The Chantels 'Maybe'

Tito Puente 'El Cumbanchero'

The Fugs 'Kill for peace'

Ramones 'Judy is a punk'

He gave the people

2010-07-15T12:45:00.010+01:00

Sugar Minott will be remembered for many things - not least among them the ability to successfuly translate his musical ideas over four decades and a plethora of distinctive styles. Most memorably however, was his decision to work with Reggae legend Coxsone Dodd pre-empting the subsequent revitalisation of Dodd's incomporably influential 'Studio One' record label. Minott also played a huge role in developing young Jamaican talent; among them Tenor Saw, Tony Tuff and Garnet Silk. His distinctive voice, which effortlessly brought joy to his many devotees, will live forever.

...repulsive beyond belief...

2010-07-13T23:08:00.010+01:00

It was with great sadness that the death of Dame Beryl Bainbridge was received last week. Bainbridge was one of England's most entertaining writers. Her work carried through it a characteristically mordant, self-deprecating streak, typical of many writers from the North of England - where hopelessness and haplessness are doled out in equivalent addictive measure. Although not perhaps her best novel 'A quiet life,' written in 1976, has all the hallmarks of her very particular fiction: familial alienation, thinly veiled despair and, that old familiar, barely concealed violence; of one kind or another. In common with most great artists her work retains and confides a marvellous humour and it is this overriding quality, which she ably demonstrated throughout the bulk of her work, which remains central to her story-telling.

Kevin Eldon - almost live...

2010-06-28T22:36:00.013+01:00

This is any excuse to show Kevin Eldon, Mark Heap and Amelia Bulmore together. Jam was a quite extraordinary programme. Ostensibly a comedy sketch show, many of the episodes contained little in the way of traditional comedy narrative - instead the content was jarringly surreal, at times, genuinely unsettling, but always, and this is the important bit, incredibly funny. Eldon will be titting about in Edinburgh, as part of the comedy fringe, from the 6th of August 'til the end of the festival. Get your tickets now - if only to see one of this country's finest comedy actors in his stand-up 'kind-of' debut.

The wrath of Gods...

2010-06-24T22:21:00.003+01:00

David Lynch producing a Werner Herzog film? Who could resist...

Timperley mourns...

2010-06-24T21:33:00.009+01:00

Of course, Frank Sidebottom was an acquired taste. Papier-mache headed comedians have rarely been in vogue, incredibly more so even now - his brand of reverency appears entirely anachronistic when compared to today's sickly, glitzy diet of pomp and no circumstance. Chris Sievey's creation was everything that conventional pop music and Royal variety performance wannabe's could never be - genuine. And, often, genuinely funny. Thanks, Chris. And thanks too, to Frank.

Showing at a DVD player near you...

2010-06-13T17:58:00.007+01:00

Hal Hartley has been making feature films for over 20 years. The furrow he has continued to plough is similar to that of the Coen Brothers and John Sayles - with success strikingly contradictory to theirs. Hartley often concentrates his film-making energies on short films, even music videos - witness his continuing relationship with Microcinema International, who distribute and promote his latest releases. Hartley is an enigma. His films have very much a populist agenda - good storylines, great acting performances and wonderful, wonderful music - often written and performed by himself and artists such as Yo La Tengo and Sonic Youth, yet they attract only a very small, dedicated audience. Artificial Eye have recently issued a box-set; containing three of his most memorable films: Trust, Henry Fool and The Girl from Monday - if incisive social commentary and pitted black comedy is for you, then so is Hal Hartley...

He's a walking contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction....

2010-05-30T22:06:00.009+01:00

In a way, the sad passing of Dennis Hopper brings ever nearer the eventual end of the Rock and Roll era. As a very young man, Hopper played an important role in the movies that defined this decade - the 1950's - starring in both 'Rebel without a cause' and 'Giant;' both films which starred James Dean and which ushered in a newer, less prosaic cult of celebrity - that of the lionised dead one.

After these landmark movies, Hopper played the role of Billy Clanton in John Sturges' epic 1957 release, 'Gunfight at the OK corral.' It remains one of his best performances - deliberate and methodical, understated and reflective - many would say wholly uncharacteristic of much, indeed all, of his later work. Dennis Hopper was not the greatest actor the world has ever seen. In some ways he is reminiscent of Robert Mitchum decades earlier - a maverick, a one-off - someone who really shouldn't be making movies - and throughout his career he did what he could to avoid making them...

Hopper saved his best performances for characters he could really identify with. In Wim Wenders sprawling 'An American friend,' Hopper played the part of career criminal Tom Ripley - an outsider much like himself - which provided additional scope for his flawed genius. 'Apocalypse now' offered a glimpse into the real Dennis Hopper, at any rate his particular brand of mania, where everything can and does go - willing to introduce a new world with a shrug or tainted word.

Hopper's best two films were made 17 years apart. The existential hubris of Peter Fonda's 'Easy Rider' provided a template for counter-culture film-making for years to come. Hopper's pot-smoking, flag hating stereotype was the epitome of late 60's cool - analagous and antagonistic to Brando's portrayal of Johnny Strabler in Laszlo Benedek's 'The wild one.' It's a great film and Dennis Hopper's performance makes it great. Without question Hopper's crowning achievement was his portrayal of Frank Booth in David Lynch's 'Blue Velvet.' It is one of the truly great cinematic performances and shows how versatile Hopper really was. His terrifying portrayal of such a psychopathic monster has yet to be bettered in modern cinema - it was typical of Hopper to completely see himself as Frank - a man corrupted by demons, out of control, yet someone he could relate to and someone, he felt, he could bring to life.

In all of his films, and thoughout his career, Dennis Hopper brought the characters he played to gasping, fatal life.

Dennis Hopper 1936-2010

'Blue Velvet'

'Easy Rider'

'Apocalypse Now'

Out of this world...

2010-05-28T22:42:00.002+01:00

The 5th Galaxy Orchestra are one of a handful of bands, from all over the world, currently engaged in a competition to see who can most sound like Air. What separates T5GO is their applique approach to pop music - and the evident humour that very importantly accompanies it - check out their rather wonderful 'My Ultra Space Nintendo world,' also on YTube - that's enough abbreviations...

'My Ultra Space...

In Bill we trust...

2010-05-16T16:13:00.009+01:00

Bill Hicks - comedian. There, we've said it. The recent docu-pic , 'American: The Bill Hicks story' chronicles the incredibly full and rich life of one of America's greatest performers. Bill's life and contribution to stand-up comedy has been well documented. However, this most recent film shows a side to Bill that few will have been privy to - that of the relationships with his family and friends and how these relationships comprehensively defined him. It's a story absolutely about love. Love of, and for Bill - more though, about the things that Bill was passionate about, consumed by, moved to tears and fury over. One of his most celebrated comedy monologues begins with the oft quoted phrase, 'It's just a ride.' Watching this film is exactly that - just a ride. A ride that lasted, for Bill, just 32 years. What never fails to move and inspire though is that his work NEVER seems to date. The performance never fails to exceed even the most jaded of expectations. The words, and the truth inherent in those words, is never lessened by Bill's inability to breathe with them. Bill Hicks - comedian. There, we've said it again.

Grand Prix...

2010-05-04T11:16:00.009+01:00

Scotland's very finest release their brand new album,' Shadows,' on May 31st. It will of course be all the things that a Fanclub album usually are - i.e. better than everything else. It's been a while since their last recording - 5 whole years in fact - and, if the taster from 'The Official Website is anything to go by, then we are all in for the most treatable of treats. It's also nice to see the BBC giving them some exposure for the new record - here's hoping the soon to be ensconced Tom Ravenscroft will, like his father, twenty - yes 20! - years ago, will play some tracks. With luck, at the wrong speed... A national tour will coincide with the release of the album from the 27th of May to early June. Go and see Scotland's greatest ever band....

..not, not waving, but not, not drowning etc..

2010-04-30T22:55:00.007+01:00

Carrying on the lip-synching tradition of Darwin 'among the best 30 minutes slots in the history of King Tut's' Deez, one of the mighty Wave Pictures' best songs and videos - available now, very probably everywhere, for not very little. 'The sun came in like a pack of orange spaniels.' Class.

Slicker than most...

2010-04-22T12:23:00.004+01:00

Gang Starr are often cited as being part of the 'Golden Age' of Hip Hop; the music produced between the late 1980's and early 1990's. It was an incredibly fertile and innovative time - every new release seemed to be reinventing the genre; almost on a daily basis. Gang Starr were very much part of this - their second album release in particular; the heavily Jazz influenced 'Step in the arena,' remains one of the periods, and genres, defining records. Gang Starr's legacy is particularly potent, especially lyrically, as it paved the way for talents such as Wu-Tang Clan, Nas and Outkast to communicate their own musical philosophies.

Keith Elam (Guru) 1966-2010

'Take a rest'

'Kissed the world'

'Loungin'

Take it from somebody who knows...

2010-04-12T18:20:00.010+01:00

John Miller has been writing and performing music for over 100 years. Few contemporary Country musicians - most certainly in the UK - can hold a candle to him and his band - they're the real deal. If you, or someone you know and care for a whole, whole lot, are a fan of genuinely uplifting, at times, heartbreaking, but always sincere, well crafted Hony Tonk Country music, then John and his Country Casuals will inspire and delight.

'The Folk'n'Western Recording Co'

Don't worry be happier...

2010-04-12T16:39:00.006+01:00

It's always gratifying to see a, relatively, new artist praised and pilloried in equal measure. Darwin Deez has been writing and performing for some time now. His music is an interesting mix of New York rock and disco - a marriage not made in heaven but not necessarily forged in hell. Ahem. It's good times music for those of us to whom the concept is worryingly alien. Deez is not pretending to be something that he isn't - his music is stridently unfamiliar yet occupies the same noisenik space as early Strokes, earlier Devo even. Darwin Deez is performing as part of the nascent NME Radar 2010 tour - tickets for shows are available now - check Deez out; if anything to show your support for new music and new music that sounds a little bit like Beck.