| (no subject) |
[Dec. 20th, 2005|01:07 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | like i just stepped off the pavement | ] |
| [ | music |
| | My Name Is Nobody - Ennio Morricone | ] |
right, i'm about to disappear for a fortnight thus losing any LJ access. before i'd go, a list of my Top 20 albums of the year, in alphabetical order. this is because life is too short to try to rate favourites, especially when spread across genre like this is. just a few observations: at some point this year - about march i think - i discovered the joy and convenience of the amazon new&used option, so my album intake has increased and also grown more esoteric because of it. so there's a lot of reissues and older records and less current stuff in my 'bought' pile. and i seem to have weaned myself off generic indie music, mostly thanks to the kaiser chiefs whose 'employment' album resulted in maximum listener apathy. i can understand the appeal, i just can't be bothered to listen to it.
angil – teaser for: matter
annie – anniemal
antony & the johnsons – i am a bird now
boards of canada – the campfire headphase
broadcast – tender buttons
buck65 – secret house against the world
vashti bunyan – lookaftering
kate bush – aerial
caribou – the milk of human kindness
earth – hex; or printing in the infernal method
bill fay group – tomorrow tomorrow and tomorrow
fursaxa – lepidoptera
konono no. 1 – congotronics
lau nau - kuutarha
jamie lidell – multiply
m83 – before the dawn heals us
om – variations on a theme
sufjan stevens – illinois
aoki takamasa & tujiko noriko – 28
alexander tucker – old fog
tunng – mother’s daughter and other songs
the second list is best stuff i bought this year*
(*but wasn't released this year)
virginia astley - from gardens where we feel secure
boredoms - vision creation newsun
vashti bunyan - just another diamond day
mara carlyle - the lovely
current ninety three - soft black stars
bill fay - bill fay & time of the last persecution
margo guryan - take a picture
shelagh mcdonald - let no man steal your thyme
nico - desertshore
terry riley - you're nogood |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 7th, 2005|04:16 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | ping pong | ] |
| [ | music |
| | In Canada-B J Snowden-Songs In the Key of Z Volume 1 | ] |
been a while. yeah.
i think harbourcoat have managed two gigs, one with rose kemp and the mighty fine SJ Esau (he's got about 10 songs for download on his site - get 'em now!). and, er, four day hombre. no idea if those boys are any good as i left before they played. they sounded pretty bad in the soundcheck so no doubt they will be massive next year. we did actually get reviewed as part of the rose kemp gig – 'quite alt.country' quoth the cumberland news. that's going on the poster!
have been steadily spending non-essential cash on catching up on the old cd stockpile. which is crazy given the little time i have to listen to them at home currently.
we're recording drums for t' new album at the moment. in a frankly bizarre approach to recording a lot of the instruments have already been recorded and i've got to fit the drums somewhere in an existing mix. not entirely happy about this, so i've expressed my disatisfaction (with the result being we won't be doing it this way again).
trying to flesh this out to make my life sound, if not enviable then vaguely interesting. and i don't appear to be succeeding.
carlisle played host to three decent bands last weekend and because i was ill i missed all of them. so i can't even rail against the brickyard for only getting 12 people in to see the heavy blinkers which was a damn shame. if i'd gone admittedly that would have only boosted the numbers to 13 but at least i could have complained from a position of authority rather than hypocrisy.
mind you if the brickyard was a properly run venue it would have had the blinkers on at a reasonable time rather than the 11pm on a sunday night start time that they got. i couldn't even stay up for 'curb your enthusiasm' at half-nine! ooh, i'm a grumpy old man.
such grumpiness leads me to the ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) audiography mix trade i've contributed to. it's not exactly uncle jezza's happy tunes. i've vacillated to the extent that i did do a much more up-tempo mix but i'm not going to send that out. unless i change my mind overnight. |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 14th, 2005|02:03 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | saaaaaaaadie! | ] |
| [ | music |
| | The Old Fat Robin - Lambchop | ] |
caught myself playing the air harp to joanna newsom's 'sadie' today. |
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| stuff&nonsense |
[Sep. 1st, 2005|03:03 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | tum-ti-tum | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Paulo - Savath & Savalas | ] |
• hopefully exciting news: kate bush is bringing out a new album!
so long as it's more like 'the dreaming' ("my 'she's gone mad' album" quoth kate) than 'the red shoes' (her "a bit dull" album, says i).
• 'campfire songs' arrived in the post yesterday which in theory at last completes the animal collective's available work to date. just in time for the next album to come out.
• my good friend simon has started a blog too, have a look if you want to see how he spends/wastes his time.
• there's a new new order dvd on the way. and another singles collection. after substance, the best of/rest of, international and the box set (light on stuff you want, heavy on stuff you've got) comes 'singles' on warners. if it's got the original 7" version of temptation i'm interested, otherwise i can safely say, "got 'em all on at least one different format". temptation was the first song that ever made me sit up and take notice, and whilst i have the original 7" (which took a while to track down - i was young and still under the impression that covers had the name of the band and song on the front. or back for that matter).
• it's a new month. time for a cut.
( september's here again )
addendum: sylvian's got a new album out in october! it's as nine horses, recorded with steve jansen and burnt friedman and a bunch of other people. especially exciting: stina nordenstam sings on it too. lordy. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 26th, 2005|10:08 am] |
well, i'm glad i did quite on this being british…
Basil Fawlty
Congratulations! You scored 86! | | Wow. You are the king! You not only watch british comedy a lot, you recite it, expose your friends and family to it, and probably know more about it than the people that wrote or acted in it. You've got an amazing collection, and are always looking for more. You have given up looking at amazon.com and netflix, you've started ordering stuff from amazon.co.uk and playing it in the region-free PAL<->NTSC DVD player you bought for that purpose. You probably also regularly check the binaries newsgroups to download digitized versions of stuff that isn't even for sale anywhere, and have a huge collection of CDs with that stuff on there. |  |
My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: | You scored higher than 90% on lupins |
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| eek! nostalgia |
[Aug. 24th, 2005|01:51 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  mellow | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Fox's Glacier Minx Meets the Council of Ants, Parts 1 & 2 - Cowpixie Mixie Volume 5 | ] |
was going through my Unlabelled Tape Pile, and aside from finding one i made and never sent ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) sinistergiraffe - oops, it'll be in the post friday unless you've moved address recently - i found an almost complete collection of loretta stars recordings which i'd compiled from various sources a while back.
loretta stars were my first proper band, in that we recorded songs, played live and had all our demos returned by uninterested record companies. listening to the songs we recorded, very basically - we stuck a microphone in the room and hoped for the best - they are actually pretty good. i should cringe with embarrasment, as it's ten years ago and long in the past but there was a lot of investment in that band and we wrote good songs.
phil smith and ste tottingham had formed a band and then i joined and 'inspired' them to change tack. i did this several ways - one, the name changed from 'zoophycos' (don't ask) to loretta stars, a mishearing of the pavement song. then after introducing them to scotts 1-4 and saint etienne, we moved from having epics like 'smorgasbord of life' to shorter poppier songs. i wrote most of the lyrics, motivated by an unrequited love that ended badly (she left the country) and going out in carlisle from pretty much the only time.
ste and phil wrote the music, i scribbled words about how rubbish life was and what films i'd seen, we got in dave gardner on the bass, and for about six months we were cooking. we supported a band of an ex-member of all about eve at the richmond and nick banks out of pulp was in the crowd. we were scott walker fronting new order. sort of.
i think we were about 8 years too early for the 80s revival. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 23rd, 2005|09:25 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | achy (not breaky) | ] |
| [ | music |
| | The Trickster - Radiohead | ] |
sorted out radiohead and björk b-sides over the weekend and last night.
got 51 radiohead tracks off singles - forgot about a couple of remixes i have lying around.
got 155 björk tracks. that's as many as would fit on a cd, in AAC format. top of the remix pile is hyperballad, with 11. 9 apiece for alarm call and violently happy. this is possibly more björk than one person can rationally cope with. include the album version and say, one live version and i can fill an 80 minute disc with just hyperballad!
radiohead album diary |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 22nd, 2005|02:06 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | bitten | ] |
| [ | music |
| | The Cockfighter - Scott Walker | ] |
harbourcoat live - not a triumphant return to the stage, but not a disaster either.
it would have been better if i hadn't dropped my sticks twice. it's a good job we use the words 'ramshackle' and/or 'shambolic' to describe ourselves when we play live. ste was up to his old tricks by the end, not speaking to the crowd and stomping off. in fact he stomped out the source completely about 20 minutes after we finished. he managed to take the wrong guitar with him too, i've no idea if he's swapped them back. i think we'll draw a veil over that and say 'personal issues', although i can't pretend i know what's going on at the moment. marc and i had a chat about it but i think we'll have to let ste make his own mistakes, and hope it doesn't affect the other people involved too much.
we got onto talking about futures plans too so we've booked a return visit for harbourcoat on the 17th september, and Sounds Of The Sunshine Underground kicks off on 1st October. what we're doing, aside from DJ-ing, i don't know.
there's a smell of burnt rubber and black smoke hanging over the estate this morning, a warehouse nearby is burning - apparently not as empty as first reported, it held a quantity of tyres. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 17th, 2005|03:55 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  awake | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Ullyses - Dead Can Dance | ] |
the sun is shining, the grass is singing.
last night's practise was a good 'un. we nailed the set after swapping two songs around, 'nights of sleep' has picked up much momentum in its new position.
we were rocking but gently (loud for us anyway), when the doorbell went. marc and ste hurried out the back, but it was just a bloke interested in what music we played. "we're not too loud?" asked al to this neighbour "oh no, i was just walking past and saw your microphone" he said.
the obligatory kitchen chat had movement forwards too. decisions were made, which will have no little impact on next year if everything goes well.
the downstairs alarm seems to have been fixed. i have managed two uninterrupted nights sleep, although not actually in the bedroom above the alarm. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 15th, 2005|01:58 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | sleep! i need sleep! | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Dancing With The Moonlit Knight - Genesis | ] |
well the ear seems to have cleared up but the weekend was slightly undone by the downstairs flat's malfunctioning alarm. it went off at 3.40am on saturday morning. not the twenty minute blast of noise but a sonar-like 'ping' every 3 seconds. it went on for 8 hours. then stopped ("phew" i thought "it's been fixed"). i gave up on going back to sleep fairly early on, so was looking forward to an early night - but no, the alarm started to ping again at 11.30pm. had a 'chat' with the bloke downstairs: having only that morning given myself a number one crop and having a slightly manic look in my eyes i'm not sure it was the best introduction we could have had but it did enable me to offer some suggestions to fixing the problem. i even thought he'd sorted it out until 2:20am this morning, when the beeps began again.
i dragged my mattress into the lounge at the back and managed to fit -ooh- four hours in before getting up. having been suffering lack of sleep prior to this weekend i'm now down about… well, a full night's sleep i reckon, and with no guarantee the alarm's going to be repaired today i'm leaving the mattress where it is for a while. otherwise there will be a incident. i will be the "quiet neighbour who kept himself to himself" with no explanation for a "violent psychotic episode". you read it here first!
i must be having a bad day, the eyes are both twitching like herbert lom at the end of one of the latter (and not so good) pink panther films and i'm listening to gabriel-era genesis albums. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 9th, 2005|03:40 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | off-balance | ] |
| [ | music |
| | 100,000 Fireflies - The Magic Whispers | ] |
have got some weird early-morning ear-rumbling at the moment. it's a BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM in my left ear, probably caused by a build-up of catarrh. it settles down during the day, if it persists i might have to get it syringed. eep. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 4th, 2005|05:00 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  sleepy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | The Fat Lady Of Limbourg - Brian Eno | ] |
went to see newcastle v deportivo last night. my first newcastle match, and first european game too - it was the inter-toto cup. a pretty good match, too - deportivo were the better skilled side but newcastle matched them in the first 45mins - two defensive cock-ups allowed deportivo to score and thus most of the second half was a bit flat as there was no way nufc were going to score 3 goals, which is what they needed to go through on aggregate. and newcastle desperately need a forward. they have a strong midfield - emre and scott parker were both impressive which considering neither of them played much last season which looks good for the team. but at the moment newcastle are going to let in a few and not score many. hmm.
one interesting note - the fans seemed much more polite and relaxed than at carlisle where there's a torrent of what's commonly called "foul and abusive language" from the crowd throughout. and there were a lot of 5-6 year olds with their dads - i don't know if its like this on a regular saturday. it might have a much more aggressive atmosphere but it was a good evening all round and if it's like this regularly (and i've got a few quid - like, £50 spare) i might go again. and last night was a freebie to boot.
have gone on a cd-buying frenzy recently. oh dear. i will be dancing for pennies by the end of the month. still, got matching mole, tunng, brooks and michael nyman through the post in the past few days - and there's more to come. have cleared off a bit of the amazon wishlist though, think its down to about 50 items. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 29th, 2005|12:52 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | sleepy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Watching Water - Alias | ] |
am currently cat-sitting - whilst the parents are in london packing up my grandmother hilde's material possessions. hilde is coming up to a nursing home in carlisle having been adjudged no longer able to look after herself. in a bizarre turn of events she's going to be living just around the corner so i can pop in and see her - if i was a dutiful grandson. which i'm not. we've never got on ever since i can remember.
the cat-sitting is fine though, little jasmine's staying in my flat for a few days rather than being shipped off to a cattery - my mum said it would be better for me to look after the cat in case they were blown up on the tube. she's pretty old now (20 which is i think 100 in cat years) and sleeps alot. she woke up at 11 last night and went back to her bed half-an-hour later. and she grumbles a lot when she's awake. she's not missing much anyway. the english summer has reverted to type, the grey clouds are everywhere.
only just realised there's a new björk album out - in the shops this week. will have to get that on the way home i think. for some reason i thought it was out in september. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 28th, 2005|04:05 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | loss | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Anywhere Out Of The World - Dead Can Dance | ] |
just heard the sad news that a mate's brother has died in a car crash, the second accident on the same road in 3 hours. the first accident ended with the car on its roof, but all 5 passengers survived, although 2 are in intensive care. the second ended with the car in a field and the driver (the brother) dead.
i only met K for about 30 minutes about 2 weeks ago, when i got a lift off him. and i cannot imagine what his brother, his parents and his girlfriend are going through right now. |
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| and you people all know what i'm talking about… |
[Jul. 26th, 2005|03:24 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | stay awake | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Fame - David Bowie | ] |
so it was the josh rouse gig last night and he was very good - a lot from '1972', and a few i recognised from 'under cold blue stars'. very tight band and good sound (they brought their own sound guy, as opposed to the resident desk-operator who is a nice bloke but tends to make the sound very muddy and the vocals indistinct). rouse sounds rougher live than on disc - there's more than a hint of the tweedy but he can hit higher notes.
no complaints about the music, i turned into mr grumpy-trousers at the crowd though - who pays 14 quid to see a band and then talk all the way through it? well, it seems a lot of people do. but when you're on the stage, all you get is a wall of (white) noise from out beyond the spotlights and it's on the cusp between being very irritating and bloody annoying. i blame the venue layout which does do anybody favours. i'd stick the bar along the back wall rather than the side.
still progressing on the dame dave marathon, attentive playlisters will have noticed. on the track 8s at the moment, and i've got through the worst of it (the spoken intro to 'glass spider'). still going to have 3600+ unplayed tracks left. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 26th, 2005|10:02 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | awake | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Strangers When We Meet - David Bowie | ] |
the Wit
(56% dark, 39% spontaneous, 16% vulgar) | your humor style:
CLEAN | COMPLEX | DARK
You like things edgy, subtle, and smart. I guess that means you're probably an intellectual, but don't take that to mean you're pretentious. You realize 'dumb' can be witty--after all isn't that the Simpsons' philosophy?--but rudeness for its own sake, 'gross-out' humor and most other things found in a fraternity leave you totally flat.
I guess you just have a more cerebral approach than most. You have the perfect mindset for a joke writer or staff writer. Your sense of humor takes the most effort to appreciate, but it's also the best, in my opinion.
Also, you probably loved the Office. If you don't know what I'm
talking about, check it out here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/theoffice/.
PEOPLE LIKE YOU: Jon Stewart - Woody Allen - Ricky Gervais |  |
My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: | You scored higher than 54% on dark | | You scored higher than 9% on spontaneous | | You scored higher than 0% on vulgar |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 25th, 2005|04:00 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  tired | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Christmas With Jesus - Josh Rouse | ] |
yesterday, had a listen to the first batch of demos.
finished 'everything is illuminated'. lack of sleep is punishing the critical faculties however, so i'll just say i enjoyed it.
tonight somebody i want to see is actually playing a gig! woo-hoo! i hope there's a decent crowd… |
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| full of number twos |
[Jul. 22nd, 2005|04:16 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | not loud at all | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Hallo Spaceboy - David Bowie | ] |
this is it, the final part of this survey
Get Duffy - Primal Scream from Vanishing Point
this random search has thrown up a surprisingly high number of noodly instrumentals from otherwise vocal albums. hmm… 0/1
Afternoon Guy - Ovuca from Wasted Sunday
oh it's OK with kiddy samples and pretty tunes floating about but there's better later on 0/2
Hounds Of Love - Kate Bush from Hounds Of Love
here's a future survey - on which albums are the title tracks the best ones? 1/3
Crying - Björk from Debut
all björk sounds great to me. i think maybe my ears are getting tired and this is just the cure 1/4
The Negatives... - Hood from Outside Closer
this is the second surprisingly poppy track by hood i've had today 1/5
Catch A Wave - The Beach Boys from Surfer Girl
what the…? again? it couldn't be pet sounds could it? no, it's so early in their career it's got david marks on the front! 1/6
Can't Run But - Paul Simon from The Rhythm Of The Saints
marimbas! woo-hoo! 2/7
A Street Scene - Bark Psychosis from Hex
if this was 'devastating singles from the mid-90s' then yes but it's 'favourite track on the album' so no. 2/8
Railway Jam - Saint Etienne from So Tough
again with the instrumentals! it's probably this sort of thing that stopped the Saints from crossing into the pop mainstream 2/9
Thrillseeker - The Divine Comedy from Fin de Siecle
and so we come to a close. not hannon's best album but the only one i've got signed. it's arch and lacks the warmth of 'commuter love' 2/10
so the round up: is brett anderson right? is track 7 on albums always the best?
01: 4/10
02: 2/10
03: 3/10
04: 1/10
05: 2/10
06: 1/10
07: 3/10
08: 2/10
09: 3/10
10: 2/10
hey! it's in the top 4! maybe there is a kernal of truth in this. i should contact my statistitian buddies. |
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| four! |
[Jul. 22nd, 2005|03:38 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | two even louder | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Get Duffy - Primal Scream | ] |
as we reach the final stages… here's my outside punt. number 4.
I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself - The White Stripes from Elephant
nope, it's not a great cover in my opinion, outshone here by the original songs. 0/1
Help Me Somebody - Brian Eno & David Byrne from My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts
i prefer the tracks with the algerian vocalist, although this is very good 0/2
Dead Horse Alive With Flies - Harold Budd from By The Dawn's Early Light
unsurprisingly, not much happens, but it's nice enough i suppose 0/3
Feel Flows - The Charlatans from Up To Our Hips
sounding all the more ballsier for following harold budd, but… hmmm, this isn't going as i thought 0/4
There Goes The Cure - One Dove from Morning Dove White
dammit! i've already picked one off this! what is it with dot allison? 0/5
Carey - Joni Mitchell from Blue
well it's never going reach the peaks of this album is it? 0/6
Me Plus One - Annie from Anniemal
it's great it really is. but it's no 'chewing gum' or 'heartbeat' 0/7
Contratempo - Lali Puna from Scary World Theory
great! no, wait - this album's got nin-com-pop hasn't it? oh yes it has 0/8
Khom?s - Leafcutter John from The Housebound Spirit
just when it was looking really bad, leafy john returns to save the day 1/9
Persephone - Cocteau Twins from Treasure
it's the paperchase one. but there's nicer melodies on 'treasure'. dammit, another theory gone. 1/10 |
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