Life On Earth

Now I've got the hatrick: book, soundtrack and now the 12 hours and 5 minutes of the original groundbreaking BBC telly series of Life On Earth from 1979 for cheap on dvd. Alert!!!! Sir David has Jeans. Who knew? Also was he always old?  Three years in the making. It's got that awesome late 70s film stock look about it. A kind of faded but in all its clarity still blueish green colour. Like the sound of Boards of Canada if you know what I mean. I'm loving it. Alert!!!! Sir David says 'a females sexual opening'. Who knew spiders had so much sex. Alert!!!!Sir David blows shit up with like dynamite! He says sexual in a funny way and a lot! Hipster checked cowboy shirt alert!!!! Sir David still manages to make it look daggy thank god! The world is still in order. All I need is the badge, poster, sticker and t-shirt. I actually think this trio will do till I see the great man in a week and a half. Expecting very baggy harry highpants in non descript colour, don't mind so much about the shirt. I'm guessing light blue long sleeves. I'll keep you posted.

Pink References

Joe Jackson

This is quite good i'spose. I can't tell if it's offensive or not. Who cares?

Real Men

The Go-Betweens

Spring Rain

Ariel you're not the only one using that guitar sound as a reference point. Hello Dick Diver, Real Estate  et al.  At least AP's not basing a career on it.  I always liked it when they both sang on the same song. They should have done it more!  Err.......Rob & Grant that is.

Cheap Shots V

Welcome to Sunny Melbourne Australia. Just a few kms from here they were recording temps of -4 degrees this morning. Just like Home and Away huh?



Spectral Musical Notes




I always think that pool could have been put to
better use. 



All of these shot in a hurry as I was running late. Didn't have time to tinker with my phone to get maximum potential for these pictures. All shot around Flemington Bridge Station and the nearby Commission Flats.



Ariel Pink's Mature Themes part 37

What the fuck is he on about in Kinski Assassain?

'Australian made something or other'
'Suicide dumplings dropping testicle bombs'
'Bring on the bogan she-males hopped up on meth'

I know he spent some time in Australia this year but even I don't know about bogan she-males!

When i finally get a physical copy of this record I hope there is no lyric sheet. I like the mystery. Something on Before Today was ruined because I read the lyrics in the cover. Anyway then there is the title track Mature Themes which sounds to me like a Joe Jackson song if Joe was good, maybe he was, I only know that one radio song. What is it? Real Men which always seemed a bit wrong to me can't remember why. Does it say something about fags? Anyway Ariel's version I suspect is a bit dodgy too.

'I wanna talk about Mature Things/Taboo things.'

God knows what he wants to talk about and maybe I'd rather not know. Maybe he should have called The LP Taboo Things. On one of the tracks I think he says something about the bad breath of a cross eyed goat. Seriously I haven't dropped acid and well I didn't know it was back in fashion and seemingly readily available on the streets in LA. God knows what Pink Slime is about. What does he say about North Korea in Farewell American Primitive and what the fuck is it about? I like not knowing and just chuckin in my own theories. And fuck me if it's not Robert Forster guitaring on some tracks or whoever played guitar on The Go-Betweens Spring Rain. The ghost of Grant McLennan for all I know and it wouldn't surprise me. He could do entire albums of shit like Nostradamus & Me or slow Jamz like Baby and I would lap it up. I am starting to think it's better than Before Today just maybe.                                        

Blah....

*Pre-Fab Hearts by The Reels was a single for Polygram in 1979 and it was the follow up to their debut single. So Quasimodo's Dream was 2 years after that and their 2nd LP, with Beautifull being the 3rd. Right!

**Alan Lamb was the experimental telephone wires guy and had this record Primal Image. There might be another one but I don't have that.

***Wasn't there a cricketer called Alan Lamb in the 80s?

****Thought I'd mention Ariel Pink again just to say that perhaps Mature Themes is better than Before Today, just maybe.

*****Probably the last issue of Smash Hits I ever bought was this one with Michael Hutchence on the cover and it was a special on the filming of Dogs In Space. Anyway I remember there was a little article on the little bands scene. Then thought 'what there's more people like The Primitive Calculators? That's fucking mental!!' Suffice to say first time I ever heard of Too Fat To Fit Through The Door and Thrush & The Cunts. The later turning up in the movie singing diseases. This was in Smash Hits. I wish I still had that copy, I remember holding onto it for a while. It didn't end up in the incinerator with the rest of The Countdowns & Smash Hits. Although some articles were removed before their fiery death only to die somewhere else later on.

******How about incinerators and that we used to just burn everything!

******* "a rats toss bag" was a Malcolm Blight tongue.

On the Hi-Fi

So I ended up going back to The Velvets Loaded and you know it's ok but you know compared to the first 3 ??? I'd prefer to listen to those 2 records put out in the 80s VU and Another View (another gone missing). Anyway this somehow got me onto Coney Island Baby, Lou solo and I've been diggin that. So it's all win/win really. I don't really know if people rate this Reed LP and I couldn't really give a rats toss bag. These are all top records!

Now in the unlikely to be listenin to this now category that I guess Stereolab were in a while back there. Moonshake's big good angel ep from 1993 and weren't they a funny band sort of at an intersection of post punk, post MBV and (for want of a better term) post rock. They were kinda 2 bands in one but it was that dichotomy that made them so compelling. There were so many ideas going on it was fantastic. The possibilities seemed endless but I guess something had to give and the band split in two. Callahan kept the name and continued on and I must admit I never heard those records but I think he had label mate PJ Harvey guest on a couple of tracks. Anyway Margaret Fiedler's songs on big good angel were a prototype for Laika her next project which is where I'm at now with the first ep Antenna where the claustrophobia and spaciness meet. They were a fine band. I guess I'll be diggin out the first couple of LPs soon once I stop being Oneohtrix Point Never.

Then there is like five records I've hardly got to. Today Fabulous Diamonds 3rd record came out. They called it Commercial Music, so maybe they're a comedy band after all. Sounds pretty good so far. I dunno if there are any jokes in there though. If Peaking Lights can be somewhat successful I can't see a reason why Fabulous Diamonds can't do the same. I'm thinking this is as good as the first one and oh they really have sold out, there's song titles on Commercial Music. Trip out on these groovy drones man. 

                                                        

Then there is this download from bandcamp that I have only listened to once but sounds awesome and a little spooky. It's called the Ghosts of Bush House by The Fog Signals. When I first saw that title I thought what they named a form of house music after one of the Bush Presidents? and now it's coming back into vogue?. How wrong I was. Bush House was apparently a BBC building with studios, offices and whatever. Anyway The building was quite resonant and some guy has gone and done some recordings there. Experimental gear like that Australian guy who recorded telephone wires in the outback. What was his name? I've got the cd somewhere............

The Fog Signals

Finally there's two bargain bin bewdies I've not even touched yet but can't wait to listen to. The first being Supermodified by Dave Graney & The Lured Yellow Mist.

So this is a period of Graney's career I missed I think. There are gaps baby, who was I in the early 00s? It's remixes, obscurities and retakes of tracks from the early to mid 00s as far as I can gather. Should be interesting as always. $5! Larry Emdur stylee.

I liked them when I was little! I wonder what I'll think of them now. We had the Beautiful Album on K-Tel if I recall correctly which must have been after this. Wasn't there a song Prefab Heart I loved that. Anyway who knows where I'll stand on this today? I remember tangled telephones and channels in hairdoes, all very new wave of course and appealing to preteens. New wave was great for that age.

No Posts

No I don't have Olympic fever, since I heard Blur on the opening ceremony i have not set eyes on the thing. Who cares? It was only on because my mother in law was here and she's from the UK and all that.  And it's not that I've got  nothing to say it's just that I've discovered Garage band on the computer belonging to the Mrs. So now after teaching myself about 1% of how to use the fucking thing I think I'm some kind of genius. I'm up there with you know James Ferraro, Oneohtrix, Emeralds and Panabrite in my mind at the moment. I've got a kosmiche EP called Cosmic Storm and a single collaboration with me known as Space Monkey V (me as) Space Debris which is more bassy if you know what I mean. If  I ever figure out how to upload stuff onto the interweb I might unleash some of it upon you. On my i-pod it's got covers and everything. It was a little weird listening to me on the train this morning. Once Cosmic Storm finished I thought now I'll compare it to something modern. I played it next to Skyramps (Oneohtrix/Mark McGuire collaboration) Flight Simulator and well that bought me down to earth a little. Fuck that track has so much electricity powering through it it's fantastic.  Note to self compare ones self to lesser lights.

Friday Night-The Smiths

One of the best Smiths songs ever!

You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby

underrated!

More Ariel Pink

Just read The Wire cover story on Ariel Pink and loved it. Well done Nick but you seem to think there were only 3 records previous to Before Today as well as Thrash and Burn, the early experiments, which I must admit I have rarely listened to but you know there was Sacred Famous, Lover Boy, FF>> etc. which are, I reckon, just as good as the ones released on Paw Tracks but always seem to miss getting attention in articles on Ariel. Don't worry AP  you won't be getting a soundcloud track sent to you from me. You are a Star! The best thing from LA since Arthur Lee and just as awesome.

LA's Finest

LA's finest
Old Skool

Dave Graney & The White Buffaloes

That great tune I was talkin about Robert Ford on Stage circa 1989/90 

by Dave Graney & The White Buffaloes.

Great film clip

Great mo/beard combo