REM/Modest Mouse at the Hollywood Bowl

I enjoyed Modest Mouse - slightly less ramshackle than when I saw them a few years ago, although 'Float On' still sounded as if it was being played in the wrong key by at least two of the band... I like the new signing on the right wing though - a talented kid called Johnny Marr... So who is this new boy? Gone is the pudgy junkie look of the (still) ill-advised solo years, replaced by a cool, skinny, sharp-dressed young looking hipster with a sharp haircut... The boy called Johnny was looking as good, if not better, than he ever did in The Smiths... However, like George Best walking out on Man Utd in the 70's (the story is old but it goes on) and ending up with a then 3rd division team (Fulham) - Johnny Marr left the best band in Manchester (best band period!) and settled for lower division mediocrity...

Modest Mouse


1985 seems a long time ago - Fables had just come out and REM were about to become the biggest band in the world (possibly...) Not that there was much evidence of that at Milton Keynes Bowl on 22nd June 1985 (U2 called the event 'The Longest Day' - oops!) REM were still relatively unknown in the UK and Fables had received a lukewarm reception. Playing low on the bill, their jangly pop was blown away by a mixture of a light breeze and the terrible acoustics at MK. And so we come to 2008 - I was talking to a friend the other night about when REM jumped the shark. We concluded that they hadn't jumped the shark or even lost the plot (er - Shiny Happy People anyone?) they just kept repeating the same plot over and over... Apparently the new album is a return to form but don't they always say that? Anyways, I digress. The show itself was good although I was bored after 5 samey songs until they played the wonderful 'Fall on me' about half way through... The second half was better with 'Losing my religion', 'The one I love' and ultimately 'Man on the moon'...

REM

From Hollywood to Natalie Wood...

On Sunday Jose and I finally got round to David Pascucci's place to listen to the mastered cd. David lives off Beachwood Drive, North of the 101 freeway - an area I'm not too familiar with. However, as you leave the freeway and turn into Beachwood you realise you are right under the Hollywood sign! Somehow a fitting location (don't ask me why!) to finish a cd. Well, despite the celebratory mood (buoyed by French champagne and Italian cheese - all very dignified!) we heard a couple or three things that Jose wanted fixed... 'issues' that were not apparent prior to mastering. I probably would have let two of the three go - intentionally dirty/noisy Reason loops that the mastering brought to the point of sounding like something was distorting. The third, however, was a very bassy note in one song that definitely sounded distorted... So I fixed these Monday...

David has asked me to do a couple of songs for his next cd. One is 'The Big Parade' by Jane Olivor (written by Neil Sedaka) which I can imagine being done a la Momus's 'Hairstyle of the devil'... The other song is 'Daisy' by Andre and Dory Previn from the movie 'Inside Daisy Clover' starring Natalie Wood. The vocal version was never used in the movie (presumably because it's a little dark?) The song in it's original form sounds like 'The Divine Comedy' so that is a useful reference point, although I'll probably take it down the Portishead/Massive Attack/Tricky route...

Laura got back from Shanghai yesterday so it was good to see her... she came back bearing various gifts and brought me a book from the Shanghai MOCA, some Saki and a box of cigarettes... However, any plans for a quiet afternoon were ended by some low-flying helicopter action throughout the afternoon. There was a driveby shooting outside our local Rite Aid on Ave 64 and a 14 year-old girl waiting in a car was hit in the head by a stray bullet. The girl is brain-dead and not expected to survive...

Gainsbourg

A couple of Serge Gainsbourg gems... so many to choose from but these are two of my current favourites...

La Javanaise


Je suis venu te dire que je m'en vais (I only came to tell you I'm leaving...)

Those were the days...

A couple of oldies but goodies... The Hopkins clip in particular is a classic - note the terrible camera work/editing and the hand-operted scrolling banner - they don't make em like that any more...

Mary Hopkins - Those were the days


Manhattan Transfer - Chanson D'amour

Jose Promis at The Gardenia

Last night was Jose's farewell to LA show - he leaves to Paris for 3 months in June. The set was made up of songs from his first 3 cd's plus a couple of unexpected covers for the encore (Rhianna's Umbrella and Mary Hopkins' 'Those were the days my friends.') Jose played 5 songs from Promis III and it was strange to hear them back in their original piano style...

Had a good chat with David Pascucci before he disappeared to do the sound and was then talking Jacques Brel with Helene McCardle - a regular at Jose's shows. Helene is an actress/singer who is probably best known for a recurring role as an ER doctor on Grey's Anatomy...

Jose Promis

Deer tracks...

My brother in law has been at the house working on our remodelling project. When I came home today he told me he had seen a deer running down the street being chased by a coyote! Naturally I thought he had been on the sauce until a neighbour confirmed it... I'm still surprised at the wildlife in the neighbourhood and saw a snake and a racoon whilst taking our dog Zukie for a late night walk at the weekend...

Whole of the moon...

Jungle Fever

Having finished Promis III (we do the final mastering on Thursday) I am free to pursue my own music again. I plan to write and record (is there a difference?) 10 songs in 10 weeks - all new material - quick and dirty... The Human Jungle

Thirteen stories...

There's only one thing worse than 100f weather - 100f weather inside the office! I understand not running the AC all weekend in a 13 storey office building but at least switch it on early enough on a Monday so everyone doesn't die of heatstroke. I for one feel like throwing myself off the rooftop - but that's another story...

We have 13 songs finished for Promis III... the 14th, "Last Winter it rained every day" I am having trouble getting the vocals to sit well with the track. It's a more conventional pop song than the rest of the album (think The Go! Team writing something for the Eurovision song contest) and for some reason (with a small r!) I can't get it right...

And Deconstruction 13 is up on iTunes... unlucky for some!

Deconstruction 13

It's been a while due to other projects but podcast 13 is finished!! I done most of this over a month ago but then Garageband was crashing when I tried to export it so I had to start again...

I did the backing track for Lisa Mungo's Obey but she chopped it up and changed a few bits... Note Goldie follows as an example of how a Drum&Bass track should really sound - ha!

Merz - Lovely daughter
Can - Yoo doo right (3P mix)
Lymbyc Systym - Fall bicycle
Beck - Paper Tiger
Air - Casanova 70
UNKLE - Rabbit in your headlights
STANLEYLUCASREVOLUTION - Send me a little love some time
MGMT - The Youth
Lisa Mungo - Obey
Goldie - Sea of tears
Trashcan Sinatras - The Therapist
Blur - This is a low

LA's Best!

This afternoon myself and around 100 of my IT co-workers at Mattel volunteered our time to LA's Best - an afterschool program (3pm to 6pm) for elementary schools in under-privilidged area's of LA. We were split into three groups and went off to our allotted schools. Having avoided the two schools in South Central we headed off by coach to Stoner Elementary in Culver City...

Once we reached the schools we went in groups of 5 to work with the the classes we had been assigned. My group were working with a second grade class helping them with homework and then an art project. They all seemed like great kids, full of character and seemed to be impressed that we worked for Mattel! All the classes met in the playground later and we did some dancing with the kids and took photos...

As we were leaving we drove past few streets of projects and they looked pretty depressing. After school programs like LA's Best keep kids off the streets and according to their presentation, kids who attend are 20% more likely to graduate high school and 35% less likely to be involved in gang related actvities... A worthy cause indeed!

Duy, me (mostly hidden) and Ron at Stoner Elementary...

Fake Tales of Scott Walker...

I was interested to hear The Last Shadow Puppets. Tales of Scott Walker, Bacharach, Spector and Morricone influences made the project an interesting concept. I heard a track from 'The Age Of The Understatement' on the way home today. 'My Mistakes Were Made For You' was pleasant enough but one Scott Walker bassline does not a summer (of love) make... Borrowing the bassline from 'The old man's back again' is no bad thing, and with a few Bacharach key changes and some Wally Stott strings the backing track was pretty good. However, any wall of sound was paper-thin and however much reverb you put on Alex Turner's vocal it still sounds like the Arctic Monkeys - albeit at a more pedestrian pace. Turner's strength is his lyrical rat-tat-tat wordplay which works great on a faster song but was nothing special on a slower track. And like so many other records these days it sounded like a 21st century recording trying to sound like it was made in the 60's... Nostalgia ain't what it used to be - ask Scott Walker!

RIP Larry Levine

RIP Larry Levine, the man responsible for creating the ‘Wall Of Sound’ technique with producer Phil Spector. The pair first worked together on The Crystal's 'He's a rebel'...

Matmos - Supreme Balloon

Although a little to too Atari (for me) in places I enjoyed Supreme Balloon... Quite anthemic but not in the U2 sense - think the national anthems of 7 or 8 unheard of countries 'from the former Soviet Union' played on a ZX81 and you get the picture. Not exactly flag waving stuff but good enough to prevent a coup...

When you stare at the light...

If anyone asks you to make an LP with them, think twice and then say no... The first 17 months were good fun but the last month not so much... Like a marathon (I'm guessing here) the first few miles are relatively easy but the last few miles are a real test of character... I've made every mistake in the book (and invented a few new ones) but so far have been clever enough to cover my tracks... I'm waffling I know, but don't worry my cab will be here in a minute - room for only one in the back...

RIP Robert Rauschenberg

Premier Symptomes

Some pictures from the screening of 'Next Tooth One Mile...'

Beth, Laura and myself walking the red carpet...


Me with director Cassi Glisper...

I keep mine hidden...

With the advent of MySpace and Facebook nothing is secret any more.. Or at least is as secret as you want it to be... We have friends on Facebook whose life is updated daily with photos of their exploits and others who don't even have a profile picture... Personally, I keep mine hidden but it seems news of my birthday has seeped out into the digital arena... I was never a fan of Level 42 but for the next 12 months I will make an exception - just don't expect to hear 'Livin it up' or 'The Chinese Way' on my podcast. I might slip in 'Heathrow' though, just for old times sake!

Next tooth one mile!

Yesterday was Cassi's screening for her excellent documentary about diastema called 'Next Tooth one Mile...' Cassi herself was a 'gapper' who opted to get her gap fixed and the documentary tells not only the story of her procedure but includes anecdotes by many other gappers. Her interviews were filmed in various parts of the US and Europe, and in Africa, where gaps are held in higher esteem than other cultures... I contributed a couple of BBC style voice-overs and some incidental music to the project...

Elbow at The Avalon

A lot of people seem to like Elbow. This is fine but I've always found them a little bland - instantly forgettable with no real musical identity. I was wrong! They do have a musical identity but unfortunately it is someone elses... Sounding like Talk Talk is no bad thing, especially when the majority of people aren't too familiar with them other than 'Life's what you make it' (isn't that by No Doubt asks young hipster!) But it's a pale impression of Talk Talk, watered down and a little boring. Actually, it's not all Talk Talk, there are definite nods to Blue Nile and Trash Can Sinatras in the quieter songs and when they play a heavier song it's Doves lite... It wasn't all bad - 'Leaders of the Free World' and 'Grounds for Divorce' at least caused a flicker of interest to the listener... So how was it overall? A little boring actually...

Elbow

The Third Man...

Promis III


Due to the fact it has taken 18 months to do the music, I declined to be involved in the sleeve design for Promis III... It didn't turn out how I imagined it but I'm getting used to it...

I did however have to contribute my 'thank you' credits yesterday. I kept it short and sweet, thanking people who worked with me on the project and a few friends who have inspired and supported me over the last couple of years...

Promis you a miracle...

I have been working with David Pascucci who has been assisting with some EQ and mastering on Promis III. I've met David a few times at Jose's shows and David usually does a great version of a song called 'Ordinary Man' which appears on Promis III as 'My Wildest Fantasy'... Anyways, isn't the internet a wonderful thing (especially for a sociophobic like myself) as I can just send him the WAV files and he does his thing and sends them back... No doubt we'll get together at some point but until then...

The Wedding Album...

Bit of a hectic weekend culminating in Wendy and Johan's wedding yesterday. We had a good time and were sitting at the 'Paul Hastings' table - ie Cassi, Andrea, Won-Me etc... I wonder if it was intentional that it was table 13!

Saturday night I was dog-sitting as Laura and her friend Nicole went to see Duran Duran at Santa Barbara. They got great seats (6th row center) and Nicole thought Simon Le Bon kept looking at them - I said he was probably thinking 'look at those two old slappers!'

Unknown Pleasures

Went to check out The Unknown Theater in Hollywood last night. A cool space with a very large stage (it is a theater!) and about 10 rows of banked seating. Thursdays are hosted by a band called Elemenope (think about it... L,M,N,O,P) - a couple of guys who rotate between acoustic guitars, drums, bongos and whatever else they can lay their hands on all in the space of one song! Think Tom Green and Jack Black on speed and you get the idea. One song blended seemlessly in and out of Bowie's Young Americans without missing a beat... Overall though, two guys using all that equipment on such a big stage and having the other artists play in the bar seemed a little self-indulgent - and the modest crowd reflected this. Now if I was running a night down there...