Oscar (the grouch)

I started watching the oscars then I stopped.  It was bloody awful. That Billy Crystal Shstick came across as old, lifeless and well just plain horrorble.  The banging on about movies touching us blah blah was just unconvincing and what, were we meant to be blown away by a montage of classic scenes/quotes (that climaxed, pardon the pun, with the "I'll have what she's having" quote.) that we'd seen and heard a hundred times before.  Who fucking gives a shit! There is also some wanky american patriotic bad cheese thing that goes along with all of this blurrrgggghhhhh....

Oscar takes a speccy!

You acted, you dressed some actors, you filmed actors with a camera, you gave actors money, I've got a dress on, I've got a suit on, I'm wearing spectacles to look more intelligent,  I made millions of dollars, I'm going to cry

Scorsese's Hugo & Nostalgia for the Future.

Hugo was a paean to the death of the possibility of cinematic magic.  How cinema never quite delivered on its promise.  Even Hugo was framed in lavish cinematography, set pieces and in 3D, kind of mirroring the subject matter's sadness for the moribund possibilities of cinema.

 

Sacha Baron Cohen in Allo! Allo! er sorry... Hugo.


This fits in with all that nostalgia for the future vibe that runs through a lot of pop culture today.  Wanting that feeling,wonder and excitement of how we thought technology and the future was going to be.  Now though being left in a state of anti-climax as that future never arrived.

Was (Hugo the movie) it saying this is it! That's the best we can do! It was exciting once (that was a very long time ago) but come on who are we kidding now?  Could this actually be the subtext of the film.  Given Scorsese's recent comments on how he hasn't got time to be wasting on watching films these days, it does start to make sense.

Black Flag T-Shirts

Hey Adults 40+ wearing your Black Flag T-Shirts!
Ya think that makes you look cool or a bit naff?

Belbury Poly

I was havin' a boring Sunday till I realised this was out. 

How excitement!  I couldn't wait for the record so I just

downloaded it.  Like Belbury Poly of old except with some

live instruments (including guitar, omg!) and voices.  On first

couple of listens, I've gotta' say 'Pretty, Pretty Good!'

GhostBox have done it again! 

Love the artwork as always.

Musicians are not Film Makers!/Martin Scorsese's life is too short to waste time on watching films

*I don't really watch video clips. I put them on my blog just in case you need a reference point for the music I am discussing.  In fact a lot of the time film clips detract from the music. That Ducktails track I loved the other day was almost ruined by the crappy video that went with it. People (er...musicians) aren't as careful with images as they would be with sounds. A group might be very careful not to use/or use specific sounds, structures, textures or techniques in their music but can be quite willing to use images without a thought of their aesthetic qualities and the effect they will have when coupled with their music. Fuck me I'm onto something here. Music has been with us humans forever in one form or another since we crept out of the cesspool, so musicians are quite instinctual when it comes to their art. The filmed image however has only been around 100 years or so, so how sophisticated/instinctual can the art form be to most of us? 

For many years now I've had another idea in my head about how popular/unpopular music, has been culturally successful and the motion picture has not. I've told the Mrs many times there is a great theory there and one day I will write about it seriously.

Do you like my beard ladies?

Martin Scorsese may well be the unlikely catalyst for this article eventually getting written.  The other day in a doctors waiting room I was reading a magazine and he was asked 'Do you watch many new movies?'  He said he tried but they are too long (pot-kettle) and he's getting old so there is not enough time to waste (on a shite 2 hour+ film).  He will give a film 15 minutes then it's either on or off.  I am exactly the same, maybe 11 minutes sometimes.  The interesting thing is: He is a massive music lover and has made many films about the success of such an art form on himself and the greater public. One of the greatest filmmakers ever is supporting my theory. Thanks Marty. The Ronnettes get three minutes to prove themselves and they do.  Thus being a perfect pop culture success. Wes Anderrson gets two hours and fuck me I want those hours back along with a written apology from the turd. There are so many great pop songs and so few great films.  This argument seems so obvious why am I even bothering.  I can see Marty gettin' off on Midnight Rambler or Tommy Gun, I can't see him walkin' out of the 2nd last Harry Potter film goin' 'Shit Yeah! That's what it's all about!'

Faceless Techno Bollocks

I am a big electronic music fan but I remember a couple of years ago saying I could never listen to proper bangin' techno again in my life.  That was a glitch in my taste best forgotten about.  Kraftwerk, Cabs, New Order etc. were still OK.  Bomb The Bass, MARRS & S'Express OK too.  Aphex, Seefeel, Boards of Canada, Mouse on Mars and other IDM artists were OK too.  It was the 'faceless Techno bollocks' I thought I could never listen to again like 'ardcore, gabba, jungle, bleep, trance, big beat or anything that was purely designed for you to go mental at a rave, warehouse party or er.. a club whilst under the influence of drugs.  Surely that was all nonsense and I was more mature now.  Last year however I watched the box set of the British sit com Spaced which was written by and starring Simon Pegg & Jessica Hynes.  There was a lot of techno music in the series as well as a character who was a raving bike courier.  In one episode they go to a club and dance to some moronic (in the best sense) tune.  The fun and excitement was captured so well it made me remember Raves fondly for the first time since well I was goin' to 'em.  FUN remember that!  It started slowly but I got out a Pole record and thought this is just repressed faceless techno bollocks- Paraplegic techno.  The real thing was comin' soon.  There was a bit of Basic Channel/Chain Reaction.  Then chillout ie. The Orb, Ultramarine, Global Communication, Woob etc.  LFO, Orbital, Biosphere, Polygon Window followed.  I couldn't believe I was listening to this stuff and loving it.  Then it was Joey Beltram, Marc Acardipane etc.  Next I trawled the net for Belgian hardcore comps  Then I was trackin' down Jungle mixes on podcasts from Woebot, Goldie....... there is a whole bunch of stuff I've never even heard which is waiting for my eardrums and feet in the future.  What a strange turn of events.

Animal Collective and Ariel Pink

just another poker night round at Ariel's

Isn't it funny how fickle we are? For example one of my favourite groups of the 00s was Animal Collective, now I don't think I could bring myself to listen to them even if you paid me.  Is it because of all the turds that followed in their wake.  I couldn't even name them but there was a time I'd put on the radio and every second band seemed to be an acolyte.  Did I just get sick of 'em? Did my tastes change? Dance Manatee, Here Comes The Indian, Person Pitch and some of the others would have featured in my 00s top 100 if I'd done one. Is it because they went overground with their last LP as a collective and all of a sudden your cult band of the last 7 or 8 years was adopted by others outside the cult because a magazine told them to.  Am I that teenage and/or snobby?  My favourite artist of the 00s was Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti and I still listen to him.  Six of his records would have been in my make believe top 100.  His last LP from 2011 went overground and I loved it, so some of those snob theories may have to be dropped.  Lots of people are influenced by him and I like a lot of those artists.  I'm still trying to work it out.  Maybe Animal Collective were the conclusion of something and Ariel Pink began something.

These first two from this classic.

For Kate I Wait from possibly the best
album realeased this Century.

Menopause Man from the best album
of the 2010s!

These last 3 from probably the
 greatest album of this Century.

**Haven't seen any of these videos.  I didn't realise he made so many or any for that matter. The only thing I ever saw was him doin' a crackin' version of Round and Round live on Jimmy Fallon but that's been taken off the youtubes.

YTT & Geordie Shore

I was excited for the first episode of The New Young Talent Time, relishing the thought of "who am I gonna hate the most? Will I like any of them? How long before I switch it off?etc.  It was an anticlimax.  I didn't irrationally or rationally hate any of them.  The contestants were even good.  How disappointing!  I'm sure it'll get worse but I just don't care.

Geordie Shore however, fuck me I hated every single one of them.  Sometimes I liked Charlotte but why did she like that tosser?  What horrible people!  Is it designed to make us go 'gee me and my friends aren't that bad after all!'  That's probably quite clever if that's the idea behind it. It does seem doubtful. Whether it's intentional or not I would say that this is a big part of the attraction of these types of shows for many of their viewers.  I'm getting an idea for an essay here I better stop.  The producers have tuned into the zeitgeist of how their viewers need to feel intentional or not.

Scorched Earth Policy

Johnny Frog Scorched Earth Policy

How good? The video too!

I only discovered this band about 4 years ago.  I don't know how I missed them. I'm a bit vague sometimes, I would have heard them on the various NZ music radio shows I was listening to in Melbourne in the early 90s. I knew the Victor Dimisich Band and the Terminals.  Scorched Earth Policy was kind of in the middle of these two bands existences and contained members from both aforementioned groups.  Anyway what a fuckn' delight it was to hear this record Keep Away From The Wires.  It became an instant fave and remains so to this day.  They were from Christchurch and did a couple of EPs for Flying Nun in 84/85. They were all but forgotten until in '91 Xpressway put out Foaming Out, an archival tape containing studio cuts along with documentation of some live performances. I love their kinda spooky/creepy/malevolent cultish vibe(is that just me?), their unbridled enthusiasm and the girl/boy vocals. Good guitaring too.

Too Far Gone Scorched Earth Policy

.

Turn Your Eyes Away Scorched Earth Policy

Keep Away From The Wires - Scorched Earth Policy (Medication)

This is an update of the Foaming Out tape with extra tracks. Released in 2000. All you need. Track it down.

**The Youtubes didn't have all the tracks I wanted, anyway......

Karl

funny