Thursday, February 26, 2009

RIP Wendy Richard

The beloved film and TV actress was 65. She appeared in numerous comedy films and TV shows in the 60's and 70's including the 'Carry On' films, 'Up Pompeii', 'On the buses', 'Bless this house', 'Dad's army' and as the buxom Miss Brahms in 'Are you being served?'. She later appeared in the BBC soap opera Eastenders for 22 years as the iconic Pauline Fowler.

Wendy Richard on the set of Help!

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

RIP Philip José Farmer

The Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist was 91. Farmer was best known for his Riverworld series and also the World of Tiers series.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Nobodystalking...

Fast on the heels of the disappearance from the terrestrial airwaves of Los Angeles independent music staple Indie 103.1, another giant shift in the sands of local Los Angeles radio has occurred - a change of format for 97.1 FM.

97.1 FM Talk ceased to be on Friday February 20th 2009 - replaced by AMP Radio 97.1 which promises to be "LA’s New Hit Music Channel". In other words, entertaining talk radio replaced by a computer churning out a rotation of Top 40 pop...

There's no doubt the station was hit hard by the departure to Sirius of Howard Stern in December 2005 and one can only hope that shows like 'The Tom Leykis Show' and 'Frosty, Heidi and Frank' can find a similar route into satellite radio that Chris Carter's 'Breakfast with the Beatles' achieved last year...

I used to enjoy 97.1 FM Talk but if I had to listen to the new Top 40 format I'd soon be asking "Blow me up Tom!"

Tom Leykis in action:

ExDetectives/stanleylucasrevolution/David Shane Smith at The Airliner



David Shane Smith continues to amaze me! This is the third time I've seen him play live and each time he throws in 4 or 5 songs I've never heard before - all equally strong. The acoustic songs sounded particularly good last night and I wish he had played a few more to take advantage of the great sound at The Airliner. Anyway, the more electronic songs were good too although David was guilty of a little noodling in places...

David Shane Smith (photography by Cassi Glisper)


SLR also sounded brilliant - best sound Sean has had for a long time. The set was perfect - all the hits and more: 'New Stone 40', 'We Still Love Them', 'Gods Don't Worry' and forthcoming EP's 'Lost on the way home' and 'Demolition 45'. Really tight set - all meat and no fat!

stanleylucasrevolution (photography by Cassi Glisper)


Next band was Young Hunting. I saw them previously at the Echo Curio but didn't stick around then as they were defeaningly loud. Thankfully they were better mixed last night and they opened with a song I remembered - a catchy ditty somewhat Radiohead in style... I lost interest after that - no real audio identity which wasn't helped by much swapping of instruments and singing duties...

ExDetectives were without bass player Meriah but stand-in John(?) did an amazing job to learn the set in a couple of rehearsals. The change in bass player resulted in a more (ahem) ballsy sound which worked well at times but in the quieter numbers Meriah's melodic and subtle playing was missed. Nice to see 'The Crown' get an outing but it's placement at the end of the set made it seem like an afterthought...

A most enjoyable evening!

Friday, February 20, 2009

Of Montreal at The Glass House

Unfortunately I missed all but the last 30 seconds of Busdriver... I guess things start on-time in Pomona!

Of Montreal were excellent - one of the most entertaining live bands at the moment. Some of it is still a little too theatrical and almost veers into Howard Jones territory with the regular masked visitors to the stage. However, the band themselves look great - like a post-Marrakesh Beatles after a paintball session. The music sounded really good - I must admit I haven't heard much of the new cd but if last night was anything to go by is just as strong as 'Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?'. Some of the new stuff sounded like 'Hunky Dory' era Bowie which is no bad thing at all...

RIP Kelly Groucutt



The ELO bass player was 62...

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Mystery Jets at Spaceland

Support band Low Flying Owls wish they were at CBGB's in 1978 - I wish they were too. Sure, their record collections probably contain all the right stuff: Television - check, Talking Heads - check, Stooges - check, but their 'songs' were just one cliched riff after another. This one sounds like 'I wanna be your dog' - that one sounds like 'Gimme Shelter' etc etc. They had a plush sheep on stage - was I alone in seeing the irony? Interpretive art indeed...

Mystery Jets need to sack their stylist - sequins are not a good look. They may aspire to be as well liked as Coldplay and Keane but these aspirations should fall short of dressing as badly... Anyways, Mystery Jets are at their best when they sound like an updated slant on Orange Juice - call it post-Postcard if you will... Unfortunately though, most of it was bog standard indie-dance, stuff which is done infinitely better by bands like The Black Kids...

Friday, February 13, 2009

David Shane Smith at Bedrock Studios



Despite some technical difficulties that required a swift retreat from the stage to the DJ's desk, DSS played a great set at Bedrock Studios. David played 3 or 4 songs from 'Cloud Pleaser' including 'City of the future', 'Empty Action' and 'Brand New' -which was an acoustic affair rather than the sampled version I first saw him play a few months ago. The songs I hadn't heard before were great - more electronic at the start of the set with some early Beck type rapping and then more acoustic towards the end... He hilariously sampled Christian Bale's rant during one song...

RIP Estelle Bennett

The Ronettes singer was 67. With her sister Veronica (Ronnie) and cousin Nedra Talley formed one of the most iconic and influential bands of the 60's...

Estelle is on the right:

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Factory Communications...

Factory Records has to be (short of possibly Motown) the most written about record label of all time... Three more books related to Factory/Anthony H. Wilson/The Hacienda are in the works:

First is 'You're Entitled To An Opinion - The Lives and Times of Tony Wilson' by Dave Nolan. Nolan wrote the snappily titled Bernard Sumner biography 'Confusion - Joy Division, Electronic and New Order Versus the World.' and 'I Swear I Was There: The Gig That Changed the World'. The latter is about the legendary Sex Pistols gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester on June 4 1976, hosted by The Buzzcocks and attended by Morrissey, Tony Wilson, future members of Joy Division and that ginger twat from Simply Red. The author is obviously a big fan of Manchester's musical history and short book titles...

Next is another book about Wilson, this time by another great bastion of the Manchester music scene - Paul Morley. Morley's effort is snappily titled (do I see a common thread here?) 'Fuck Em: The Complete Truth and Other Lies about Anthony­ H Wilson by Everyone Who Knew Him and a Few People Who Didn't'... Morley wrote for the NME in what many consider its golden years from 1977-1983.

Finally, is Peter Hook's hilariously titled 'The Hacienda: How Not to Run a Club' - sure to be plenty of good stories in this one...

Until these books are out, I recommend Anthony H. Wilson's marvellous '24 Hour Party People - What the sleeve notes never tell you'. I'll just say Barabbas - if you know what I'm talking about fine, if not that's fine too, but you should probably read more...

The Rhone Occuption, ExDetectives & The Tail at The Airliner...



The Tail played a stripped down set with just Ted and Maiana. It would have been nice to see Ted playing an acoustic to change things up a little and although he laid off the usual pedals for the most part, his style was the same as with the full band. As a result the songs sounded a little fragmented and empty...

I don't think ExDetectives were at their best but fortunately Alex held things together (quite literally at one point when there were a few problems with the bass cutting out...) I enjoyed the two new songs I'd heard last week at Tribal Cafe - particularly the one with keyboards. 'Golden' also sounded good as did the other songs from their forthcoming EP such as usual favorites 'Won't Stop' and 'Closing Bell'...

The Rhone Occupation were again excellent. They do sound like Radiohead but isn't that better than being like Coldplay (aka Sgt Paltrow's Lonely Hearts Club Band...) OK, so there may be 100 bands in Silverlake that sound like Radiohead but you'd find it hard finding a better one than The Rhone Occupation. Someone commented they sounded like U2 without Bono (thank god!) and I'd take this as a compliment unless they were referring to the dreadful new single they played at The Grammy's.

Monday, February 9, 2009

RIP Dewey Martin



The drummer and singer who helped found the pioneering country rock band Buffalo Springfield with Neil Young and Stephen Stills, has died age 68...

Sunday, February 8, 2009

The past is written...



Grant Gee's 'Joy Division' and Julian Temple's 'The Future is unwritten' are excellent and comprehensive documentaries of Joy Division and Joe Strummer respectively. Much of the footage has been seen before but these documentaries will be seen as the definitive article.

Although both compelling, Strummer's story is a better movie - probably because Temple had more options with the large amount of footage shot of The Clash and Strummer; concerts, TV appearances etc. Indeed Strummer 'narrates' much of his own story via excerpts from interviews and the soundtrack in skillfully lifted from Strummer's World Service show 'London Calling'... There are many interviews from family, friends, and band mates - although Paul Simonen is a notable exception. The soundtrack is excellent with a diverse selection of world music, dub, reggae and rock 'n' roll, although the most electric moment is at the start of the film when Strummer is in the studio singing 'White Riot' - the gnarled acapella version suddenly jumping to blistering life when the audio swaps to the finished record.

Unfortunately, footage of Joy Division is scarce and indeed all of the concert footage that does exist is of very poor bootleg quality. However, the grainy live footage presents a stark contrast against the excellent quality TV performances! In particular, the 'Something Else' performances of 'Transmission' and 'She's Lost Control' are stunning and in the couple of months between the 'What's On' and 'Something Else' TV appearances Curtis has evolved from an intense but somewhat shy front man into an idiot-dancing maniac. The change in Curtis in two months is incredible - a recurring theme in the documentary (particularly during interviews with the other members of Joy Division) was that more could and should have been done to help the ailing Curtis. However, as Peter Hook in particular tells us: they were just kids who wanted to play music in a great band. Also, no-one was fully aware of what was happening to Curtis, either medically (with his epilepsy) or emotionally, with the breakdown of his marriage and guilt over his affair with Belgian journalist Annik Honore. Ms Honore appears in the documentary and speaks candidly about her relationship with Curtis and how she seemed to be the only person who realized the lyrics to second LP 'Closer' were tantamount to a lengthy suicide note. Also of interest are Bernard Summer's legendary regression tape that he made with Curtis shortly before he died, and interviews with Kevin Cummings and Anton Corbyn, whose photography did much to shape the public image of Joy Division.

Many of the Manchester locations in the Joy Division story no longer exist and this is ironic as the late Anthony H. Wilson credits JD being a catalyst in the rebirth of Manchester as a great city. Wilson died before the documentary was released and indeed the ultimate JD story would have also included interviews with the late JD/New Order manager Rob Gretton and the late legendary madcap producer Martin Hannett...

Friday, February 6, 2009

Deconstruction 20



Episode 20 of Deconstruction features:

01 Intro
02 The Indelicates - We hate the kids
03 The Happy Hollows - Lieutenant
04 Warpaint - Stars
05 ExDetectives - Won't Stop
06 David Shane Smith - Miserablism
07 John Martyn - May you never
08 The Protagonist! - Psychic Self-Defence
09 Idle Tigers - Light Entertainer in Prison
10 Stereolab - Self-Portrait with 'Electric Brain'
11 The Go! Team - Fake ID
12 Low Motion Disco - Things are gonna get easier
13 Jean-Claude Vannier - Les Gardes Volent Au Secours Du Roi

For your ears only!

Deconstrucion podcast on iTunes

Thursday, February 5, 2009

RIP Lux Interior



The frontman of iconic punk/rockabilly/surf legends The Cramps was 62...

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Razorlight at The Troubadour



A well known blogger (whose name I will not mention for fear of setting off a flurry of Google alerts) wrote recently about the need for artists and bands to challenge the medium of music, otherwise it will become an interpretive art - the new classical music. Razorlight should take note...

Everything about Razorlight is average - if they were bad they would at least be interesting or have some room for improvement. Unfortunately, they are just average and as their dwindling star shows (bet they will be playing Spaceland on their next trip to LA) even the kids want more than average these days... The music (if you can call it that) is a mish-mash of misguided 80's influences - Elvis Costello and the Attractions, The Clash (lite), U2, Springsteen and even The Alarm for god sake! One wonders how they even got signed - guess it was in the day when the labels were throwing money at anyone fronted by a skinny white boy with a little charisma...

Razorlight? The kids have decided already - spare tickets were being thrown around outside like confetti...

Monday, February 2, 2009

ExDetectives at Tribal Cafe

Tribal Cafe is a cool little coffee shop in downtown/Echo Park - not the greatest area, as evidenced by the three cop cars that were stopped opposite questioning a suspicious looking group of transients... Good sound for a small venue though...

ExDetectives were cool - played a couple of new songs which sounded ok, including one where Chris played some proggy keyboard stuff... Best songs of the set were 'Don't Stop' and the always wonderful 'Closing Bell'...