Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in marcus pingham's LiveJournal:

[ << Previous 20 ]

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
7:03 pm	pop heiress dies... i've been buying/getting a lot of music lately and it's pretty awesome. robert and i were talking about 'cosmic slop' on facebook yesterday and he mentioned "that exciteable-teenager music-means-more-than-life kinda way" and although it gets buried as you get older, it's always amazing when it pops its head out again for just a little while. i fucking love that record. it's so dark, sexy, fun, spacey, angry and joyful all at the same time. all the early funkadelic albums are awesome, very dark and spacey. yesterday i even broke my rule of not paying for something again if i have it on tape to get some of the chainsaw kittens stuff (again). they could sure use the money. man, 'sore on the floor' is exciting. it's a shame they're not on spotify so i can't share them with you all. bought tyson's solo record a minute ago and looking for the other one. got the new sambassadeur. they're brilliant. i saw their first london gig at the windmill. it was like watching swedish interpretations of the 1st 2 new order records. an italian band called "afterhours" which dulli produced but i haven't heard yet. and i was fucking thrilled to realize there are 2 medicine albums i don't own. got "her higness" which i only realized later really is missing that 'h'. it's a bit disappointing but i'm sure there's a reason. "her highness" would be a really good album title. and i spent yesterday grabbing old muses b-sides and the 1st 2 catherine wheel albums. i still remember them closing with "balloon" when opening for the soup dragons in 1992. it was transcendent. also fucking thrilled that debbie harry seems to have covered the rhumba from fellini's "8 1/2" as a b-side to "strike me pink". THIS IS FUCKING AMAZING NEWS. as for some bizarre reason, the rhumba, which is just sexyassawesome (that's new word, start using it now) isn't on the 8 1/2 soundtrack. i really want to watch that film again too, it is perhaps my favourite film of all time. Current Music: chainsaw kittens - "pop heiress dies" (Comment on this)
Monday, February 8th, 2010
2:30 am	love electric... an ABSOLUTE POP MASTERPIECE it seems not many people are aware of: steve: "did you write this?" heh. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, February 7th, 2010
2:31 pm	Hz... as alex pointed out, of all the ridiculous outfits i've been wearing lately, it is strange that the green puffy vest would be the one i'd be called on to defend physically. en route to the camden head, boarding the 29 with norman mailer's 1200page 'harlot's ghost' in my hand, a group of merrymakers (3 dudes, 2 girls) occupy the front seats with a gigantic nearlyfinished bottle of jagermeister. the man holding the bottle: "what are you reading? what are you reading? oh, i've read that...how far are you into it?" i show him and make my way towards a seat in the back and sit down. "i don't mean to ruin it for you but she dies at the end". hilarity follows for the group as they repeat variations on the joke, obviously not having read it. then the drunkest dude shouts: "take off your stupid green vest! it's stupid!" i stand up. "what did you just say?" the man holding the bottle, who seemed a decent sort of chap, jumps up between us. "woah, woah, (turning to him) hey, i like the jacket...(to me) it's cool, man, it's cool. i like the jacket..." i sit down again and continue reading. but obviously the drunk man had no poetry for later on i hear (to someone who's just boarded) "hey, take off your stupid white hood! it's stupid!" black daniel are extremely entertaining. i think i will head out to stoke newington today. buy some records. my body Hz but not as bad as expecting. Current Music: mr solo - "kiss it better" (Comment on this)
Saturday, February 6th, 2010
5:55 pm	oww..... i so shoulda stuck with the plan to go record shopping. but i got sidetracked by 'certain photos' on facebook. texted kate i was gonna lay low instead. but then thinking the sunshine and a bit of exercise would be good for the ongoing depression, i headed up to highbury fields. remembering how i ached for 3 days after just shooting around for an hour last weekend, and really not wanting to be sore for the recording of 'smoked duck' on monday, i gave myself 20 minutes and was then gonna go sit in the park and read 'harlot's ghost'. after that alloted 20, a young kid (23yearold columbian guy who was quite nice despite keeping offering to let's go get stoned) came up and asked if he could join me. sure. but i'm leaving in a bit. we shot a game of horse. i had been missing everything all afternoon and we both agreed it's a terrible rim but still...he won HORSE to HOR. i then suggested one on one, unthinkingly but considered it might be fun. it was pretty even for a while, staying at 2-2 for quite a bit. then i felt the old familiar can't be bothered to jump for rebounds, starting missing easy easy shots, grabbing the rebound and missing again. he soon was up 10-2. i just wanted it to end, i was hurting. but i thought 'no way, man. do this for america ; )' and started singing afghan whigs songs to myself. coming from behind to tie it up at 10. game til 11, win by 2. 11-10 him. 11-11. he hits 2 shots from the outside and that's it. ended up playing for an hour then. i ache. my calves are freaking killing me. racing for a rebound i took a nasty spill cutting my knee, scraping my hand up, and dirtying a good pair of jeans. in short, my body feels much like you would expect it to after the logical conclusion of that photo of me, steve and jamie. Current Music: new order - 'way of life' (4 Comments |Comment on this)
2:30 pm	sugarsugarsugar... last night was really good fun. and i was sober the entire time (well, i did have a few glasses of wine at 3 a.m., a reasonable time to start drinking). the boa and hat really made the rounds. highlights included: steve skipping rope with the boa whilst me and the other american twirled it. impressive. my ian curtis impression of hanging myself with the boa whilst 'she's lost control' was on. (jamie was dancing like ian curtis. we must work these into 'the dons') damn, there were a bunch more. my memory's really going. oh yes, as i was explaining for the umpteenth time about staying in the u.k. and how i won't marry for anything other than love, i rounded off the speech with "...because i'm a twat". that man, simon i think his name was, replied "it's because you're a gentleman." i approve of this. i'm glad steve didn't die whilst sleeping under the hat. though as soph suggested, i could've then brought him to a taxidermist and had him stuffed and put him in a corner of my flat. i was very tempted to make him into a hatstand. my favourite quote of the night - soph: "i love ketchup. i put it on tomatoes." getting to bed at 7, i was so unbelievably tired. as noted on facebook, my flat often resembles on these mornings the aftermath of a psychotic alcoholic childrens' party. that suitcase i had to bring back was really the SUITCASE OF AWESOME containing as it did THE ORANGE COAT, 7 lbs. of trader jose's guacamole, and 5 lbs. of 'funtastic tootsie roll favourites'. and i think some swedish fish. Current Music: curve - "fait accompli" (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, February 5th, 2010
8:08 pm	excess vinyl... tempted to cover an entire wall with the 12" sleeve of siouxsie's "dazzle". just the thought is MINDBLOWINGLY AWESOME. it appears, surprise surprise, that i've overbought. i've got the most amazing little square going on with (clockwise, starting in upper left) - 'the killing jar' (lepidopteristic mix), colour "mrs. peel" drinking champagne, 'dazzle', and rounding off the square with a b&w of steed looking on as emma drills a block of rock. i was originally planning on surrounding it just with goodlooking lp covers picked up cheaply. but i see now, like all fine ladies, this holy square deserves more than that - lavish attention to detail, money well spent, caring hands, and not rushing to finish too soon ; ) and i can't start placing records around it until they're all set and approved. i've got a couple st et 12"s and some mary chain ones (yeah, 'honey's dead'!!!) which will do nicely. but they'll have to wait. and over my 6 lists of song titles towards the middle of the wall, i've placed 'fair warning' and 'seven and the ragged tiger' side by side. PURE GLORY. i saw a number of 'women and children first' lps today. one even said it came with a giant poster of 'diamond dave' "as displayed in (sister ray's) women's loo". i can't remember what poster that is and i'm a bit scared. i really need VHII. it's, like, imperative. Current Music: chainsaw kittens - "sore on the floor" (Comment on this)
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
6:26 pm	the haul... WHO'S UP FOR RECORD SHOPPING THIS WEEKEND? i hadn't forgotten how awesome records look, but i had some forgotten just how amazing it is to do some serious record shopping. that what happens when you strand yourself in london without a turntable. what i picked up at the notting hill record exchange today. to decorate my walls with (all 12"s): siouxsie's 'dazzle' !!!!!!!!!!! 'seven and the ragged tiger' (50p) van halen's 'fair warning' (these will appear next to each other if you can even begin to contemplate that) the house of love's 'never' lush's 'sear' saint et's 'pale movie' (50p) the primitives' 'crash' (50p) saint et 'xmas 93' pale saints' 'barging into the presence of god' mary chain 'far gone and out' box with 'honey's dead' poster inside (one of my favourite alltime lifechanging singles) the problem still remains of what to do with the records themselves. esp. as the inner sleeve of 'fair warning' is awesome. perhaps i'm taking this dulli thing a bit too far. i've just changed my facebook info box to "come and get some, baby". 'i'm a soldier' is rapidly becoming the 'stars are blind' of this year. Current Music: the afghan whigs - "i'm a soldier" (Comment on this)
3:13 pm	"telephones & old typewriters..." right right, heading out the door in a moment. but wow. listening back to that lullaby from last night. it's lovely. i am really really pleased. tempted to stay in and work on it but something tells me i should just let it linger and it will emerge of its own accord. a tiny bit reminiscent of stars' "tonight" but as that song always fills me with such a huge sense of beauty, love and loss, that's a good thing. some really lovely chord changes that i would never do, those twists and turns down chimerical alleyways that i'm always so impressed with when i hear other people take songs that way. i am in a much better mood now. lessons learned : always trust your hands. and: IN THE ABSENCE OF PRETTY GIRLS, RELY ON ONE'S OWN GENIUS. Current Music: david devant & his spirit wife - "mr. talent" (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
3:13 pm	dames... so tonight jamie and i are going to start writing A.U.N.T.I.E. into 'the oxford dons'. that's the Anglo University Night Time Intelligence Eunit, 3 hot blondes who kick a lot of ass. i've got the name but that's about it. as usual i find it nearly impossible to write for women, never having any clue as to what they're thinking or going to say. or even what names to give them. jamie's been good with names so far (miss faffingham, the students now being named after shakespeare characters) and i personally like my female names for 'off-license to kill' (cherry waters, miss champagne flute) so hopefully something will come up. but any ideas on any of this would be greatly appreciated. whatever do women say and do? ; ) somewhat related, i now feel i need the 1965 series 4 of 'the avengers' dvds in PAL. i've got them back home for region 1, but i'm sure you understand. that season has it all - 'the danger makers', 'what the butler saw' (where "operation: fascination" comes from), 'the house that jack built', 'the girl from AUNTIE', 'a touch of brimstone', 'quick-quick slow death' (inspiration for 'fancies & goodnights'). i've found a dutch set of them (this is not a euphemism) as they're not being re-released in the uk until august and i can't find them used. nor am i willing to wait. Current Music: the afghan whigs - "i'm a soldier" (7 Comments |Comment on this)
1:50 pm	"i'm a solider, baby"... anyone fancy seeing rose elinor dougall tomorrow at the flowerpot? IT'S FREE! her solo stuff is ace, miles away from the pipettes, much more like broadcast and stereolab. man, i haven't been to the flowerpot since it was the verge. been obsessed with the whigs lately. in particular, "i'm a soldier" and "crazy". have been seriously considering writing some songs in this vein, though perhaps london's greg dulli is already mr. horry. Current Music: the afghan whigs - "i'm a soldier" (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, February 1st, 2010
8:08 pm	"your eyes was blue"... and oh yes, i've been having another of many protracted 'why are new order so awesome when bernard's lyrics are so half-assed and just plain bad' moments. i mean, really. most of you probably know i consider 'love vigilantes' one of the most frightening things in the universe - the one time he actually writes something that kinda makes sense, and it's that? i listened to 'run wild' last night cause i always liked that song and thought it was kinda sweet but seriously, couldn't you have tried just that little bit harder? but 'here to stay', man. that song kicks all kinda ass. as does 'way of life'. fuck yes. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
8:03 pm	vinylla eyes scream... trying to curb my overwhelming impetuousness for spending, i really need to remember things like spotify. for i am unbelievably disappointed in that new magnetic fields album. there is not one song i can think i'd ever care to hear again. and i often give albums a second chance or two. but perhaps i shouldn't be 'disappointed', while 'distortion' has a couple of good songs on it that i've listened to again once or twice, i really didn't like 'i'. the full-length gothic archies is alright but i really didn't like 'showtunes'. it just seems like he's not even trying, that it's stephin merritt by numbers, and not even numbers that add up to the good songs on previous albums. it's all just rehashed filler songs. man... i also bought erasure's "the light at the end of the world", which whilst okay is perhaps not necessary to own. more insomnia. aching after shooting hoops, forgotten muscles remembered. still haven't really made a start on all i want to get done this week. possibilites endless and overwhelming and i'm really hoping won't bog me down into getting nothing done at all. but took a walk up to flashback records earlier looking for the van halen albums with which to decorate my walls. they had 'van halen' the first but that's my least favourite and i don't want to pay more than a couple of pounds for it. plus i realized i'll need doubles of each, as with this, the back photo of roth completely bent over backwards whilst shirtless and wearing leather trousers must be on display on my wall, giving hope thru long, dark, cold nights. i've now decided to just cover my walls with 12" covers of all sorts, and kicked things off with siouxsie's "the killing jar (lepidopteristic mix)" 12". i mean seriously, siouxsie & butterflies, does it get any better? it was awesome buying records again, something i haven't done in years. and once again reminded that if i did have a turntable in london i'd be broke in a matter of weeks. probably won't end up making a giant VH symbol of emma peel pics or constructing the u.s. flag from the vh covers but they are ideas worthy of documenting. a nice walk both ways listening to lullaby oscillator stuff as i plan on recording that single this week. was really impressed by the old stuff, except for the vocals of course. taking the piss out of yourself that you can't do accents is not the way forward. so therefore gone will be the 'bad neil tennant' impersonation and i'll be singing in something approximating my own voice. but i was really happy with it sonically, esp. since i couldn't figure out/remember how i made some of those sounds in mathmaticians' superstitions (the explosion is a hi-hat reversed and compressed to fuck, i remember). but i love those lyrics. and it's all such a lovely spacescape. it's not really loud or anything but i mastered that myself. i thought i had put all that stuff up for free at last.fm but for some reason it's not letting me change it now. hmmm... Current Music: the afghan whigs - "crazy" (6 Comments |Comment on this)
2:05 am	in which 'metal on metal' turns out not to be the kraftwerk song... just finished watching 'anvil'. although i can see how it was billed as such, i found it be the furthest thing from 'this is spinal tap' that you could possibly imagine. i'd like to say i didn't laugh once, but i did chuckle when he called michael schenker 'the beethoven of guitar playing'. personally, i've never liked michael schenker or msg or the scorpians. but man that was gutwrenching to watch. it just hit so close to home*. and i found myself imploring the screen as they were marching to the final japanese gig, just please let there be people there. and my heart being warmed that there were. everyone who's ever played in japan has always said it's amazing and absolutely crazy like that. but 30 years...wow. and you can kinda see why they didn't make it, they just seem like too nice of guys. *for many, many reasons. i often wonder what my life would've been like had i never heard the smiths. a lot happier but less poetic, i'd imagine ; ) (Comment on this)
Sunday, January 31st, 2010
11:37 pm	unforgiving (& dim) rims... 'white belly' is such an utterly beautiful song. it perfectly combines the "pretty and ugly" that tanya always said was why she liked the word 'belly'. the gorgeous melody over the controlled fury of the guitar chords underneath. but for me the best thing on that album, and possibly that they ever did, is 'stay'. it's just so achingly lovely. so glad i bought that album again. lots of excellent stuff on there. 'dusted' even seems quite heavy. still on huge muses and whigs kicks. some modern female-fronted band should definitely cover 'pools in eyes'. it reminds me of 'what the kids are into'. but what do i know? good weekend. black plastic on friday seeing the london debut of the Orange Coat. i'm not sure anything needs to be said about this. pure GLORY. i didn't recognize a lot of the music but when i got there 'map ref.' was playing and we later got the sexxiest song ever ('world in my eyes') and that's good enough for me. mel and pippa both asked me to dj, which made me happy. actually pippa wants alex and i to be a dj team. as she admitted, her plan is for for alex and i to fall in love while we're planning and then playing our set. whatever, i'm gayme. sarll's facebook seems to be constantly down as i've been trying to post on his wall my proposed name for our dj team - "69 RPM". i actually didn't start drinking until 1 a.m. when nikki gave me a sip of her vodka and i thought that it might be 'a good idea' after all. but was disappointed that only 6 measures of vodka (straight) and 1 beer brought on a hangover. sleep disrupted of course. falling so around 7.30, up at 10.30. lie in bed. at noon txt miss paynter can we postpone our proposed tea at fortnum & mason's? but 20 minutes later i rescinded the text, knowing it would do me good to get up and stay up, plus i've been looking forward to tea at fortnum & mason's (a la schultz) forever. checking the website, it said elegance suggested. i donned the green velvet jacket and left the orange coat at home. i really enjoyed it, though we should've split one pot of tea. i was wellwired by the end. discussing ideas for 'the oxford dons' and 'vampire doctors' as the afternoon faded. stories of vaccuuming cocaine, horrorporn, and the like possibly freaking out the laides at the table next to us. scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream. with a chocolate eclair. though next time i'm going for the chocolate cake. fell asleep around 11 p.m. and was up again at 12.45. bored, tired. but i ended up finally watching "kolya", which i thought was quite wonderful. i got all choked up twice, esp. when kolya is calling his babushka from the bathtub. woke up around 1. wanted to make a start on all the things i want to do, as i've got the week off. and as usual, the sheer volume of them contending with one another and me so undecisive, leaves me not able to start any of them. but my flat needed cleaning and i got that done. letting it air out after mopping, i headed up to the basketball hoops i recently found behind highbury fields. shot around for an hour. which was great. though after 20 minutes, it got dark and the hoop was hard to see and then when i went to pump up the ball, the pump snapped. i seem to have drifted into melancholy now. and am hoping to get to bed and stay asleep so i can get up and actually GET SHIT DONE. but i did email ian catt today about recording 'smoked duck' sometime, cause i know it'll never get done if i don't force it. and oh yeah, 3 quotes i really like from reading robert anton wilson's "tsog: the thing that ate the constitution": "Following the path of least resistance is what makes rivers and men crooked." - Anonymous "To enter life by way of the vagina is as good a way as any." - Henry Miller "Fornication - at least that is something good. What else is there to do? Fornicate and take drugs against the terrible strain of idiots who govern the world." - Albert Szent-Gyorgyi Current Music: belly - "white belly" (19 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, January 29th, 2010
4:28 pm	never too soon... holy shit! i think i actually did quite well on that exam. my plan of staying in bed and, once out, stretching, rather than studying too much per se seems to have worked. i wrote continuously for the whole two hours and feel quite good about it. now i have the week off in which i intend to: - demo many more beautiful songs - record lullaby oscillator single of my two best lyrics - procure a lucrative production deal for 'the oxford dons' - watch hella films - SEE DEVANT! - sort out extending visa after october and of course listen to a hell of a lot of throwing muses. i need to write more about this but am continuously amazed at how wonderfully kristin and tanya explore the timbres of their voices, often from line to line. so damn terrifyingly expressive. been listening to the first album tons and also 'the real ramona' (pop masterpiece?) damn if 'not too soon' isn't a perfect perfect pop song and 'two step' utterly utterly beautiful. Current Music: throwing muses - "not too soon" (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
8:10 pm	Hello Kitty is a benevolent cosmic force... fell asleep around 10 this morning. resolved in the early hours, after listening to A LOT of afghan whigs and throwing muses, to actually do something about this as i've been all f'd up. woke up at 12.30 and headed for some acupuncture which seems to have un-f'd me quite a bit. then made my way up to chalk farm as i'd been looking for a pimp hat to complement the Orange Coat (which will be making its london debut tomorrow night at black plastic) and jess hazel said they had a bunch at her vintage store. jess was leaving but she stayed to help me pick out hats to try on, it becoming very quickly evident that i was more interested in ladies' hats than the men's. now i can try on ladies' hats all day but the third one jess picked out quickly drew me to it and despite donning another dozen or so it was this one i knew in my heart i had to have. not a pimp hat by any means, but its elegant angle and the suggested addition of peacock feathers were too much to resist. plus the owner gave me quite the deal on it. i departed and caught a 393 and was reading the economist to see if there was anything i could use for my exam tomorrow. i was sitting up front where the lights were shut off. never the brightest, it took me a while to notice there were lights on in back and and even longer that it would make more sense to read back there. on my way back i noticed jess was on the same bus, chatting to steve no less, who asked me 'what type of vocals i would sing in said hat?' and he would then know what it looked like. the workings of production 'team steve' there. 'pet shop boys' i replied. jess and i chatted til i alighted at holloway road and i went to the library to get a book for my exam. no sooner had i reached into my jacket pocket to get a pen to write down the call number with than i realized the hello kitty notepad i keep in my pocket to write down any ideas was missing! OH NO!!! i was so happy to realize earlier today that it contained a bunch of 'oxford dons' ideas that i would absolutely hate to lose. including the wording of something jamie and i were trying to remember last night and not getting right. don johnson will always be under the assumption that the cold war was still a going concern: "have you ever been to berlin to verify the wall's actually down? or ever set foot inside the so-called 'former' soviet union? how do you know it's not all propoganda?" i hightailed it out of the library, racing down holloway road in the rain. not sure exactly what to do, there's no way i'd catch the bus, possibly wait at highbury corner until its return journey? i phone steve: "can you do me a huge favour?" "sure" "i was just on a bus with jess hazel, can you call her and see if i left a hello kitty notepad on it? it's filled with vaulable 'dons' ideas." (a pause in which you can hear the amusement building) "i'll phone you back in two minutes after i've figured out how to harass you for this." and thankfully she had it! hooray! i really really really didn't want to lose that. esp. as i can't remember the rest of the ideas, most written down sleep-deprived on my return tube ride from heathrow. one had faith that the universe would not let this happen. i'm now cooking a pheasant. Current Music: erasure - 'sometimes' (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
1:08 am	every time i spill vegetables all over the floor it makes me think of you (this just happened)... a beautiful, amazing, noisy pop song just came to me in a dream - a la Medicine meets Curve, the kind i'd love to have - but as there was a beautiful, amazing lady in the dream as well, upon waking i have forgotten how the song went. gutted. though such is the nature of songs in dreams. not sure if 'napping' at 8 p.m., having only been up a few hours, was a good idea or in fact the only sleep i was going to get tonight anyway. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
4:32 pm	"all the airwaves are cold at night..." looking back on it now, my previous post seems to be a good example of when comic genius runs amok. insomnia worse than it's ever been. was oh so glad yesterday to wake up at 12.30 thinking that i'd then fall asleep at a reasonable hour and everything would right itself. and was oh so pleased as i drifted off to sleep at 1 a.m. but then waking again at 2. too tired to do anything but unable to fall back asleep. an hour's sleep not enough to last a full day on. a delightful text from reggie_c_king sometime after that, a magnificent twist on the game - "You Onan?". (i was not). watch some armstrong & miller which i'm finding very funny. read some more of 'kangaroo'. but mostly just lie there. occasionally pushing back my alarm an hour further and then an hour again. (exams this week, no real schedule). finally getting back to sleep around 9.30 a.m. crikey. it will all be over on friday and next week i plan to record a lullaby oscillator single of two of my best lyrics. if only i had that prelude. been obsessed with garvy j's "million ways to win" again, as i was when i first moved to london in 2003. and still with mr solo's "yellow jelly babies", such a lovely bleakness that still somehow conveys a stylish rage against death. both use (for the most part) the same chord progression in the verse and they're both in C#. i wonder if there's something about that progression in that key that makes it so special. i fail to understand why things work better in some keys and not others like i fail to understand everything else about music. sitting at the family piano last summer, a flash hit me and i understood Music for about 3 seconds and then it was gone, leaving no trace. i'm always extremely nervous when things have to be transposed to suit a voice better, but then again 'ditch the theory' was originally in E and that seemed to work out fine. i think the movement of last decade can best be shown as going from sometime in 2000 me commenting to sean, "if you're playing a C chord, i see nowhere else to go but an Am, or perhaps an F" to late last year recording 'first kiss lips' and ian saying to me, "you're going to have to tell me the notes, those chords are quite interesting." Current Music: garvy j - "million ways to win" (Comment on this)
Saturday, January 23rd, 2010
4:21 pm	the youth and their youthful milkshakes... dragging my sick sorry ass to kilburn last night as the idea of the vessel orchestrally backed seemed not to be missed. a nice, cheap dinner at small & beautiful then meeting Sizzle in a cafe to head to the gig. foz?'s set was entertaining and some really good songs as well. whenever i see mr solo i'm always reminded just how much 'kiss it better' absolutely rocks. then the orchestra came on, the stage was jampacked. i was hoping it wasn't just gonna be one song and others were murmuring about a full set worth. we got 'pimlico', 'mr talent' and 'one thing after another' (that really is one of the best songs ever). all in all, pretty damn good. i know i'm getting old because i got extremely nervous and worried whenever mikey would perch on a monitor, as at the luminaire the drop to the floor is a lot further, but as pippa pointed out 'mr solo is never going to die'. then i thought i'd just pop in to powers to say hello to alex p. only planned on staying 5 minutes, in the end was there over an hour, dancing to new order and duran duran. FUN. divine inspiration struck: alex: "we should get milkshakes." soph: "where's milkshakes?" alex points across the road. i point. light shines down upon the three of us as we race across the street, nearly getting hit by a bus, to indulge in delicious decadence. lots of surreal comic ideas. still laughing at the 'cougar' joke. and must remember the line "i'm from the american internet". came home, opened a DP project and just improvised for a while, under the name "surrealist milkshakes". fell asleep around 9 this morning. at some point, after listening to a bunch of mr solo, i decided i wanted to hear the rock stone song when i c u. and i then listened to most of the rest of the album. and a lot more rock stone. that song always seemed very pale saints to me. barring the lyrics/vocals on the record, i still really like it. it's close if not at times spot on the music i've always wanted to make. GIGANTIC SOUNDSCAPES. DREAMY CHAOS. notes disintegrating even as they come into being. and some of it is just downright ballsy, 'cotton candy' for instance. with my recent decision to definitely learn how to play the piano, i remembered that i actually have played on quite a few songs. h bird's "sour martinis" most notably but lots of the rock stone stuff too. and its either rhodes or wurli with no midi capability so i had to play all one take. one of my favourites too, and one of my favourite most glorious sounds ever, is me at my most suede with she sobs softly. i remember leaving colin to fiddle with an old juno, a juno 6 i think it was, as i went to get pizza. and coming back and just hearing THAT. but i also became obsessed in the wee hours that i needed a sequential circuits prelude. man, those things are awesome. when rick loaned me that and the six trak back in 2002/2003, i got so much done. barring the bitter, opyum-addled lyrics (and the spinning the wheel on the drum machine), this heaven (original aug demo) is really close to a type of music i'd like to be making. that string sound is so freaking awesome. i really need to start picking up more equipment. have an idea to rent a car and drive around the countryside where you might find used stuff that people don't really know what it is. Current Music: rene berg - "the leather, the loneliness and your dark eyes" (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, January 22nd, 2010
4:53 pm	films!!... the one good thing about being ill/hit with this intense malaise is that it's given me time to watch films again. i really love watching movies/going to the cinema (something i haven't done in ages), tho with all the 'hecticity'* of the past few months i haven't had the chance to see anything. barely had a chance to at home, though series 5 of 'the office' is absolutely amazing and i really enjoyed 'whatever works'. first finishing off two films i had begun months ago: novios - which was pretty good. i think i have spent far too much money following my candela peña obsession. but the $30 or so for the dvd was so worth it for the discovery of "sono tremendo". and the foot fist way which had some really hilarious moments. danny mcbride is awesome. he does *that* kind of character so well. then telstar. i had wanted to see this in the cinema but it seemed to come and go in a matter of seconds. excellent film though. though, as i mentioned before, hardly ideal to watch when you're having doubts about the future of your own music. especially if you live on holloway road. the ending and the info of what happened afterwards i just found so incredibly bleak, the way life always seems to work out. but i had no idea so many others were involved in that whole scene, like ritchie blackmore for instance. i have never liked deep purple because i think their music ruins a good name and colour. but the guitar work on that joe meek stuff is ace. next up was one of the best films i've seen in a long time. the party and the guests. "banned in czechoslovakia forever". i've never been big on political satire/commentary but this really really impressed me. i first became aware of this film because it's the name of one of kevin wright's projects. i was especially impressed, though i hated the man knowing so many types like that, with the young eccentric cowardly bully who immediately becomes grovelly when the (adopted) father enters the picture. the father is the picture of feigned benevolence but still cannot stand the fact that one of the guests has disappeared of his own free will, spoiling the whole party. another thing i liked about it was that the dialogue was very true to life in that in a lot of parts you'd enter in mid-conversation and not really know what they're talking about and lots didn't follow sequentially, just like actual dialogue is. i've often thought this was something missing from art. anyway, it's only 68 minutes long. i highly recommend it. then ultranova, a belgian film, which i enjoyed. reminded me of early jarmusch films. watched that and uzak very late at night. picked up 'uzak' years ago at fopp but only now had the chance to watch it. it was good, lovely shots of istanbul, though incredibly slow. i kept checking the time thinking at least 20-30 minutes had passed and the clock always showed that only 6 minutes had gone by. so a list then rather than reviews as i am still too ill to bother much. but seriously, 'the party and the guests'. and oh yeah, 'host' is 'guest' in czech. i am always confused and amused when a word means its opposite in another language. though for the life of me i can't think of any other examples right now. *quoth christina aguilera circa 2001, i've always liked this word Current Music: van halen - the whole glorious 'fair warning' album (Comment on this)