40 golden fogbanks and one awesome avatar, or maybe the other way round?

the GbV rune, entirely made up of DTS avatars, this awesome t-shirt or poster idea comes from the amazing barthatronic...


(I'm pleased to see my newest one, the rather plain beige cover of 'The Best of Tocotronic' somehow made it on there a couple of times...)








hey i'm turning 40 tomorrow, if you're in the west hampstead area just follow the sounds'n'smells of football and barbecue ;-))

foggy gold

dial another colour
fade from sight but don't forget
it's all deceptive
discover for real
what that noise can do
for you
while laughter still resides
in the foreground
i'm not what you think
but i don't know how to say it right
still
lonely lanes feel quieter
and distant
discoveries
stutter through mainline exposure
distorted sights lead to
nothing, maybe an explosion.
soft tunnels
sunshine drifters what you want is
floored, agreed, but
i've got other plans now
drifting though last orders
and new beginnings
i'm all over these
foggy golden buildings
shine strange sights
for love to share and hills to climb
4ever
type faster
build an escape route
follow me
enlightened hills
reversed shapes
all you backwards procession markers
i'll wrap you all around me
as i stare ahead to lose control
flattering thoughts vanish into these grounds
like water leaking through
for safety nets to gain
a power to survive
i kneel for space
and handle more suspense
though through these eyes i see nothing
but grey walls
occasionally another map sprawls further
and leads me into gardens
out of step
whatever you see
it's real to me
i fear i'm swallowed by the tide
to see you through and bite it off
sombre clear dividers build a picture
and fight back
through moist tunnels
and reversed options
i shall say yes to you

shoot me stranger
become clearer as the wave collapses into
familiar patterns
wave through to the content edge
exploring the rest as if it was
a neverending present
feel good when black edges turn up
for it is here
that you will slip through
confidence kills
the other side
but i remain a willing survivor
of the rage for meaning
control
deliver a parcel
a birthday cake
or wave another direction
you're free

Frances McKee & Eugene Kelly: The Vaselines play an encore

I discovered The Vaselines not so long ago, as part of my random journey , and am still listening, they just had some great, warped pop songs. We were all really into it playing some Vaselines stuff in our chalet at ATP. Apparently 'Rory Ride Me Raw' is about a bicycle saddle, I learned, haha...

So yesterday was the first night of a short tour billed as Frances McKee and Eugene Kelly, where they were both playing solo sets, and then some Vaselines stuff was promised to follow. In the end that meant only about five songs, and despite it sounding more acousticy and a little underrehearsed it was still super sweet and affecting. They played Mollys Lips, You think you're a man (originally sung by Divine), Jesus wants me for a sunbeam (not originally sung by Nirvana :-), (I think) Son of a Gun, Monsterpussy (?) and/or The Day I was a Horse (Love these titles..). The first three were tacked on at the end of Frances set which was low key, quite nice, her all female band included a cello player and her own daughter as backing vocalist, you could hear a certain tone familiar from the Vaselines in there just about but it was more acoustic, and didn't have the same kind of bite and synergy, I guess as in all great bands the sum is more than its parts. We were lounging around in the corner when she finally asked Mr Eugene Kelly on to the stage which created a bit of rush and excitement in the audience, I guess most people were excited about the Vaselines reunion of sorts. It wasn't really much, some false starts ("twenty years in the business..."), didn't sound as mad and maybe seemed a little half hearted, as if they were doing it more to promote their solo records rather than reuniting but as I said, it just made you smile, it was sweet and a little magic. I wish they'd played a full rehearsed set, but this little gesture made it all the more precious i guess. 'Jesus wants me for a sunbeam' was astonishing, probably the highlight. After the last two songs of the encore (and they'd never done an encore in the old days before apparently) Mr Kelly mumbled 'Please forgive us for we have sinned', and stumbled off. Followed by a playback of Velvet Underground's entire 'Loaded' album, which a member of our party knew line by line by heart. Cue drunken, low key dancing. A lovely evening, and I even dreamt about it (and that went on for hours in my dreams, haha)!

some of them are art collectors...

so Bob's original artwork for 'Mag Earwhig' is being sold on ebay
, well, all 5 1/8” x 5 1/8” of it (most of his artwork is rumoured to be very small, he's a master of miniatures after all...a lot of his songs play like miniature rock operas) . It's safe to say 'Astral City Slickers' is one of his most famous and distinctive collages. While people's opinions about the album and its status within the GBV canon are somewhat divided (it is still quite a mysterious record, and in some ways a transitional record too) it's always been said that the cover art for ME is especially good (recently the album's received a bit of a critical renaissance as well, and quite a few tracks from it have been added to the live set). Most of Guided by Voices and Fading Captain releases feature Bobs artwork, and while some are more successful than others, they are striking additions to the music, and there has been talk about putting together an exhibition for some time. I'm a little sad that this is being auctioned without being shown beforehand, but hopefully an exhibition will happen at some point and if it does, the new owner can be persuaded to loan it for all fans to see...well, I'd love to see this and a full exhibition exploring Bob's visual art (even though it's not likely to come anywhere near me) , it would just be such an awesome thing to happen and would probably help market the artwork too. Anyway I won't be bidding here, it starts at $ 5.000. While that figure might shock some, it wouldn't surprise me too much if it reaches at least that target...happy bidding (or not)!

Dublin

part of my 40th birhday celebrations (still coming up)

John, Carmel, Darren, Simon

another lost weekend

so you have these really old pubs in Dublin, where nothing has changed, you even have old cigarette adverts on the walls, and still they're no smoking, definitely haunted and haunted by smoke too, but still... pretty amazing (apologies, smokers, but yeah....)

just outside Dublin, Howth peninsula. We went for an epic walk all around it