Joy!

I have a record player once again! It came out of the blue really, my girlfriend called to tell me she had something for me when she came through on Saturday. I was mildly curious, but didn't push for any info as she seemed to want to keep it a surprise. Anyway, as surprises go, it takes a bit of beating. It belonged to her late father, but had been gathering dust for some time. I'd actually seen it at her house, but thought it was just a radio, so thought nothing else of it until I opened the box on Saturday. Let's just say that the importance of being able to play my Flying Saucer Attack albums again cannot be underplayed, and I was rather overjoyed. It might not be state of the art, it might be a glorified dansette, it might sound a bit tinny, but fuck it! Most of the music I own is 'a bit tinny'. It works and I can hear stuff again that I will never track down on CD without bankrupting myself. The downside of this development is that I now have around twenty albums duplicated on CD. I just hate the thought of paying twice for anything.................. Bah! Anyway, Hallelujah! I can now assault the 2nd hand record shops of Glasgow & Leith Walk with impunity and rejoin the legions of vinyl nerds, leafing & sneezing their way through the racks of grimy dust jackets once more..................

Swells

As if last week's Michael Jackson/Farah Fawcett '2 for 1' deal wasn't fascinating enough for a rubber-necking scumbag like me, the news comes through that SHOUTY MUSIC JOURNO Steven Wells has also relocated to a quieter suburb. I don't really remember much of his writing in the NME, though his by-line meant you'd get a few laughs if nothing else. I was more of an Melody Maker chick to be honest. In the intervening years since I gave up reading the weekly music comics, it seems he'd relocated across the Atlantic and was plying his scabrous, contrarian trade over there when he fell ill with cancer. Och! Anyway, just a thought God, but any chance of a similar run this week, but on slightly more deserving targets? I'm watching the Glastonbury coverage on BBC just now, and I can think of at least three of the presenters.........Or possibly the whole of Blur. That would be nice. As I said, just a thought...

Blue Thunder

Galaxie 500 - Plastic Bird I always found that it was best to listen to Galaxie 500 from another room. Dean Wareham's voice has that nagging, abrasive quality that sounds better the further away you get from it. Of course, as you retreat from the speakers, the songs open up and reveal themselves to be lovely discordant pop gems on the sly. (Or shoegazing shite, depending on where you stand on these issues.....................) No more 'Winter Warmer' rubbish. I can't be arsed. There will however be Christmas themed run in mid December. Cheers!

I Want My Money Back!

Greetings!

Forgive my abscence, the past week has taken a fair old bit out of my rheummy old bones. I've also been busy with other little projects which have taken up a fair bit of my time.

I was reminded on Saturday night of two reasons why I don't go out much anymore.

1 - Wetherspoons seems to be the standard meetup joint for these escapades. Yes, the beer is cheap, but when you consider that the standard of service is pitiful and the food is disgusting, you sort of realise why they can afford to sell cut price booze. To top it off, the gorilla in the sta-prest suit that passed as their security actually made a beeline for me and asked that I remove the skip cap I had on. I know it's not exactly the most aesthetically pleasing look in the world, but my hair was in a state and needed to be hidden. I think he was itching to kick fuck out of someone to be honest......................

2- City centre venues can kiss my arse. Went to see some bands with my brother and his girlfriend at the Classic Grand, and to be honest, was bored rigid. Also got scammed at the bar. Twelve quid for three pints!!! It was only when I went to the bar later to find out if there was anything available that wasn't a fiver, that I realised that it was a flat rate of three quid per pint. My brother, never one to let these things lie, had it out with the bar staff and all but accused the girl who served him of ripping him off. Sadly, I think he had a point. How do you pour three pints and think it's four? The music is probably best not discussed. One mob sounded like the anaemic offspring of The Editors and Razorlight. The 2nd lot looked quite good and had a singer that looked like Nick Drake in drainpipes and winkle pickers, but their songs were distinctly unmemorable. The last lot were Arcade Fire without the stage prescence or tunes.

Is this what the kids want? It's certainly what they're given and they seem to lap it up like it was manna from heaven. Dreary, predictable and not worth paying to see. Give me Circle of Tyrants and their malformed thrash metal bretheren any day of the week. Live music should be fun, not a chore.

A Quick One..........

..........Before the off-licence shuts.

As you may have guessed, I'm still broadbandless, thanks to Virgin and their utter, utter cack-handedness. Fuck you and the grinning buck-toothed cunt you rode in on!!!

Understandably I just cancelled it and I'm looking at other options. Any thoughts?

Youtube is Hole. Just after they were unlistenable and just before they thought they were Fleetwood Mac. Absolute Bliss.

The iLL Man Is Listening To..............

Well, nothing right now, but I'll soon change that. Ok, mind the gap, we're going back in time....

Marquee Moon by Television was the first vinyl record I ever bought. I remember it well, wandering into Fopp records and seeing it staring back at me on a display rack, four intense looking young men in shabby clothes and suffering from what looked like some kind of nasty skin complaint. Turns out it was a xerox of one of the band photos Robert Mapplethorpe had taken. It was weird, it sounded so old.....It still does in some ways. Very 'classic rock', very mannered and clean, nothing like what I was listening to at the time(Pistols/Nirvana/Sonic Youth). The beautiful guitar interplay of Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd should have been enough to send my sixteen year old self running for the sanctuary of the nearest Ramones album, yet............Verlaines lyrics just did something to me..............They were elliptical, atmospheric, delivered in a neurotic yelp, words as texture, inextricable from the music that carries them............It was what had turned me onto Nirvana too, that "What is he singing about?" thing.

I still put it on with disturbing regularity. Most cd's I buy have a playing life of a few weeks. The very good ones get the occasional outing, maybe get obsessed over for a week or two before disappearing off the radar again. Marquee Moon hasn't been away from the side of my CD player since I bought it (for about the third time)

Because Of The Times by Kings Of Leon is awe-inspiring, not least because I used to think they were fucking terrible. Their previous output had never impressed me, but this...........wow! Maybe I haven't been listening to them properly......

Forever Changes is another one in the Marquee Moon mould. Not sonically as such, just in that it's always there and it's always welcome in the room on a leaky Wednesday evening while I contemplate the universe and it's contents and come to the conclusion that you wouldn't get much for them at a car boot sale. Mariachi horns, string arrangements to die for and some disturbingly surreal lyrics..............

"Well, the snot has caked against my pants............"

Indeed!

At this moment in time I am listening to the rather fine 'Ballads Of The Book', in which some Scottish musicians put the words of various Scottish writers and poets to music. Musically speaking, it's the usual suspects like Norman Blake, The Trashcan Sinatras, Sons & Daughters, Malcolm Middleton and Aiden Moffat, along with a gaggle of lesser known names....The writers whose texts have been chosen include Edwin Morgan, Alasdair Gray, Ian Rankin and A.L. Kennedy. I'm still working my way into it, and the 'localness' of the bands involved means I have to get over petty jealousy's (Them?!! They're Fuckin Shite!!! Buncha Wanks!!, that sort of thing......)

So, what is it that everyone else has on permanent rotation in their lives? Not just what yr listening to just now.....What music is it that's never out of reaching distance and gets played come what may.....The music that never grows old.

Yr Friendly Friday YouTube.....



Bon Nuit Mes Enfants.............

I Was Here All The Time You Know......

After spending the last week or so slowly disappearing up my own arse, I've decided to return and blog properly. The short story thing is ok once in a while, but I'm sure most of you are fairly non-plussed by them. I smell a new blog in the offing.......

To be honest, I sometimes find it easier to write something fictional(or at least semi-fictional) than to sit and let you all know what I've been up to, or what's rumbling around my head, or whatever it is that very good bloggers do to entertain their readers. It's time I stopped being so bloody evasive and engaged with the world.

Ok, first up, some blogging news. Clairwil is still obsessed with Councillor Terry Kelly and I have to say, I am too. I think you'll agree, he has a unique and alarmingly peculiar style of debate. We could all learn so much from him.

Flying Rodent is in fine form at the moment, what with this post and this post putting me in what the youngsters call a 'ROTFLMAO' situation. I believe it's popular amongst the under fives.....

Sandra, who used to be Over Here is going back 'Over There'. There is speculation about what what she'll call the blog now that she's back in Northern Ireland but hopefully she'll take no notice of my suggestion that she rename it 'Dr Danger & The Ketchup Incident'.......



Sunday saw me slope into Fopp to do some CD comfort buying. Two compilation albums were bought. One being a sort of round up of Glasgow bands old, new and obscure. It's ok, but I haven't the heart nor the patience top listen all the way through. The other comp cd got even shorter shrift. It's a collection of what the packaging rather enigmatically dubs "Soft Pop". basically it's sugary sweet sixties AM radio 45's released by Warner Bros. Fine in theory, I like that sort of thing in small doses, but to be honest a lot of it's utter dreck. Track one, 'Come To The Sunshine' by Harpers Bizarre (written by Smile co-writer Van Dyke Parks) was as far as I got. The next three tracks almost had me sick on the carpet.

Also bought a Buffalo Springfield album. Love Neil Young, not so sure about Steven Stills. Sorry.

Scott 4 was also picked up for a fiver. That whole baroque pop thing can be a little hard to take when it's done really seriously but I think it'll fall into that "when I'm in the mood" category. failing that it'll get played twice and never again, I'm fickle like that.....

The last purchase was Marquee Moon by Television. I will make no excuses for my utter love and devotion to this album. If I had to listen to only one Rock'n'Roll record for the rest of my life, this would be it. I have it already on CD, but for once the bonus tracks swayed me and the chance of hearing Little Johnny Jewel outweighed the inevitable disappointment of the "Alternate Takes" also available. Alternate take? Oh, you mean the shit version they did just before they got the song right? Well worth the cd space if you asks me......

Right, I'm off to do the dishes....