Friday, January 24, 2003
What's spinning through your head? Fed up with lining the pockets of Nipper the Dog, I wandered up to Old Street the other day to visit the specialist music shop, Smallfish. Had a pleasant time stocking up on hard to find out there stuff not normally stocked by your local Virgin Megastore Express (eh?). Got ten quid off and lots of recommendations from the staff. Great work boys!
One disk I got was by The Amonmoanon led by Ned Graham, brother of Will (see earlier posting regarding an excelent gig at the Barbican). Same sort of alt-coutry stuff, though a bit more upbeat than brother Will. Ned was the more feisty of the three brothers (Paul played bass) at the Barbi gig. A new Will Oldham disk is out next week under the pseudonym Bonnie "Prince" Billy.
Meanwhile, I've been scanning my collection for stuff I've ignored for too long. So this morning I listened to "Start Breaking My Heart", the excellent debut from Canadian mathematician Dan Snieth aka Manitoba. Lovely mix of ambient, electronica and bop jazz licks. Sort of a cross between Aphex Twin, Brian Eno and John Scofield. Cheered me up on the late running 0844. (Great web site by The Leaf Label too).
:: Posted by pete @ Thursday, January 02, 2003
Unhappy Old Year. Here's another cynic's (freepie) view of news stories from 2002.
What stands out from 2002? The dumbing down of the population? Spin doctoring by our leaders? Traffic congestion in London? Terrorist bombings? The out of control state terrorism of Israel? Corruption in the former Soviet Union? Corruption in the West (Enron et al)? The erosion of employment rights (retirement age, ever shrinking pensions)? Bloody Arsenal?
Or how about... Calexico at the Barbican? Yanqui UXO? Low at the Bush? Dirty Pretty Things? Argentina 0, England 1? The Vendee in September? Talk to Her? Helicopter ride into Hong Kong? The Trafalgar Tavern on 7 April.
Happy New Year, or whatever. Ain't gonna be much fun according to PM Blair. Never (Churchillian word that!) has the future looked so glum says Blur. Oh well, as we prepare for war, let's tune back into the excellent VMyths web site for another piece of sanity. In this little piece, it seems that the US would be willing to nuke web hackers. Well, that certainly is a comfort.