AWESOME post by Fergus on his blog A dorsal fin breaks the water, recalling the great work of the Touch label. Touch was an intoxicating source of inspiration and mystery to me back in the day. Their beautifully packaged cassettes blew my mind. I never collected the whole catalog, but the stuff I did get remains precious to me still. In fact, I've just been over to the TouchShop and ordered myself the latest compilation Touch 25.
Thanks for the memory jog Fergus.
Weekend just wizzed-by, party-style. Dylan and Harriet were both out at parties on Saturday afternoon. I took Dylan to the local sports stadium for a 'multi-sport' party at which he had a great time. Meanwhile Harriet was up town with her friends taking in a movie and a pizza, very grown up. Sunday Jacqs family came over for the usual get together.
Working in Stafford today as the M6 is closed and it's not worth trying to get up to Manchester. A shorter day but at least I've got an internet connection so I can catch up with some personal productivity as well as the day job. Hence this post.
Music-wise my iPod is churning out a lot of Big Black at the moment. Not sure what triggered this decent into noise as I'd recently been listening to lots of quiet stuff like Eno and Budd. But anyway, Steve Albini owns me right now. Tiny King Of The Jews is the best track ever right now and has overtaken my previous fave, Kerosene.
Last night I went down to see Graham Lewis playing again at the Notting Hill Arts Club. Last minute decision. Mike came too. It was good. The set played seemed the same as before to me. Sounded great, some of the songs are well catchy. A couple of them I've been humming ever since. Didn't see anyone else there from the Ideal Copy list but I did spot Bruce Gilbert. Took a few photos but not as good as the previous set.
Graham Lewis played at the Notting Hill Arts Club last night. Mike and I drove down to London listening to the great Bill Hicks. Parked up in Ealing and got the tube for a few stops. Not many in the club when we arrived. The regular crowd were still enjoying their crayfish. A while later Graham arrived and came over to warmly greet the IC massive in attendance. In conversation it seemed he was considering the gig a bit of an experiment. I was really looking forward to hearing his new stuff especially after Fergus had described it as 'poppy'. Chatting with Graham he seemed to be quite upbeat about the prospect of future Wire activity. This is great news. Fingers crossed.
Graham was playing as a guest of Sci-Fi Skåne who were a bit hit and miss for me. One or two things hit the spot but an ill-advised reggae version of 'She's Lost Control' most definitely did not! The IC troops showed great patience waiting an age for Grahams slot. Eventually the moment came. Shades in place, he took to the stage.
The great man from Wire was in fine form. The first track interrupted the flow of dance beats and put a glorious stop to some of the excessive 'party dancing' that had previously been on display. The beats restarted and the new tracks definitely had a 'pop' tinge with some great tunes being belted out.
With his short set done we had to get going on the journey home. I managed another quick chat and congratulated Graham on the set. I hope he considers the experiment a complete success.
The drive home was long and I'm eternally grateful to Mike for generating some great conversation which kept the mind focussed. Could have done without his rotten arse though!
REALLY impressed with what Underworld are up to on their UnderworldLive website. Don't know why I've never checked this out before. There are some really interesting packages of audio and images available for purchase which I must get around to getting. But also lots and lots of free stuff too. It's well worth registering with them (also free) for a chance to browse through all this stuff. One of the downloads looks intruiging, a zip of 1,700 camera phone photos from a Japanese tour! Excellent stuff.
Trawling around the web tonight looking for info on the upcoming Scritti Politti album for Rough Trade, I discovered some cool stuff. First off, the news that they recently played live, that's LIVE, in Brixton under the alias, Double G And The Traitorous 3. Now, Green is famous for NEVER playing live so that's a big thing in my book. But also, I found out that they are playing another gig at the Hay literary festival on 2nd June. I SO want to go. The timing isn't great but my god, I love this band. I should go. I really should.
Probably won't.
I was thinking of not going to the John Peel Day gig at the Jug Of Ale as Mike and Paul had both dropped out. Then Paul of the IC list mailed and we agreed that even if the bands were shite (which they were) it was worth attending in memory of the man.
Whilst propping the bar and discussing various music matters, I was approached by Brendan! Haven't seen him for about 10 years. He looked really well (the bugger) and it was very good to catch up a little with him. I hope that now we have bumped into each other that we can catch up a bit more some time.
All in all a good night. Not the greatest gig but still enjoyable to be back in the local gig scene. Must keep looking out for more interesting events. Check my upcoming page for the latest.
Great night last night at Editors at the Irish Centre. Mike and I went into town together. I enjoyed walking through the city centre. The evenings now dark but the store lights still on, reminded me of Christmas. It's so rare that I walk around town that every visit brings new discoveries. I'm constantly looking around in wonder.
Met up with Paul at The Kitchen within the Custard Factory. Nice bar. Nice art on the wall by Beat13. Had a couple of drinks before heading off to the Irish Centre. The place was heaving. Sold out. It had been ages since I'd been to a 'proper' gig like this. Queuing to the bar and crushed in the mosh pit. The support was ok, We Are Scientists from NY. When Editors came on the place went wild and it was fun allowing myself to get swept up in it all. Joined in with the mosh pit and had a great time leaping about. So hot in there, the occasional flung pint came as quite a refreshment. I was hoarse from shouting in ears to chat and singing along with the songs. The band played well and the crowd loved it. All in all a top gig.
When we piled out of there I had that lovely post-gig deafness as we walked around the streets of Digbeth looking for a last drink. Eventually we gave up on that idea and made our way back through town to the bus. It was quite a serene journey home which I suppose is odd for a Friday night. The parts of town we walked through, the bus, the Bearwood high street, all quiet.
A second day working at home. My neck was stiff this morning (and still is now) so I gave the commute a miss. I was planning on going to see Githead tonight at The Garage in London. But laziness got the better of me. I don't expect that the set has changed much since the QEH gig so I'm probably not missing much. Would have been good to catch up with the IC massive but it's a long way to drive on a wet evening just for that.
Listened again to the session on the drive to work. If anything, it sounded even better today! About 20 minutes into it things really worked for a solid 30 minute block. Sounds moved in and out of the mix, fitting smoothly or jarring interestingly. I'd previously talked about this kind of composition / structure but my attempts had come up short. This though is the real thing. Like strands of a story going off in all directions. Like a splintered image. I'm reminded of Black Dog and it sounds every bit as good.
Session over. Just dropped Mike back home. Up too late now for a weekday night, but still buzzing from the session. Every bit as good as expected. Just throwing loops and sounds for 90 minutes. No talking, just the occasional nod. Recorded the whole thing so now I have a rather large mp3 to listen to on the journey to work. Looking forward to hearing it.
Had a nice idea today for a completely un-cynical title, 'Good Luck With Your Life'. I like it, not sure if it's suitable for anything we did tonight but it's worth noting down.
Had my temporary crown fitted today. Needles in the roof of the mouth don't half hurt!
Received a CD in the post yesterday from Fergus. Another on his 'Room Temperature' label. This was was titled 'Unmoor'. The music was impressive collage of industrial drones and scrapings. Intense listening. The music packaged in a cute 3" CDR in jewel case. Nice presentation. Inspiring. Wish I could channel that inspiration and generate some outputs of my own.
Saw Mice Parade at the Jug Of Ale last night. Nice gig. First one in ages admittedly. Depressed by all the usual trappings of the pub gig experience but elated by the noise that Mice Parade made. Post-rock jams in a tortoise style. Mike said he heard Laika in there which I thought made a lot of sense.
At the end of the set I picked up their first CD. Mike got one of the others so we can trade. Adam Pierce seemed like a nice bloke. He liked to use the word 'awesome' lots. Which in their own way, they were.
