Chris Corsano / BARR at the Luminaire

We first saw Chris Corsano at the Sonic Youth curated day at ATP '04, doing his stunning free jazz inspired drumming with Thurston Moore, Jim O'Rourke, and a veteran avant jazz player whose name i can't recall. Billed as Dream/Aktion Unit, they were playing a high intensity jam/noise set that stood out even on this brilliant day (more highlights in no particular order: Sonic Youth themselves, Lightning Bolt straight after SY in the other corner of the room, Erase Errata, etc...) He's a very young and accomplished player who seems comfortable playing with all sorts of people and in all sorts of contexts. So yesterday I saw him at the Luminaire with this dude
who was rapping frantic and direct streams of his, erm, consciousness to vaguely textured beats from his boombox. Some of the drumming went along with the rhythms of the songs, and at other times he went a little bit wild and it was almost like two separate things at once, though there was always some connection, and it was intense even though i didn't get all of it. I guess they had rehearsed a bit beforehand but a lot of it seemed of the moment, one-off, and it was interesting to see how a semi-improvised set like that can really work. (Corsano I think was rumoured to be playing with Jandek at the Scala that evening, which was cancelled). I would have stayed for most of Magic Markers set afterwards if it wasn't so smokey and the problems they had on stage getting it together were getting a bit annoying. J Mascis was in the audience!

Another good gig at the Luminaire coming up tomorrow: The Lilys and of Arrowe Hill who emerge after some absence and following the release last Halloween of their splendid 'Hexadelica' record. Raw, spooky, 60s inspired psychedelic rock nodding towards both early Pink Floyd and GBV. They coined the immortal line 'On a daytrip to Nighton', hehe, and GBV are certainly fans too! It should be a good evening...

followed swiftly by ATP from Friday (god, gigs gigs gigs), which I'm planning to do very relaxed this year, go to the beach and watch some bands, no big ambitions... we'll see. It'll probably be the usual full on noise rock beach party. It'll be my sixth time in Camber Sands. I love it down there, I love the actual place. Actually, my one ambition is to make the trek to Dymchurch, an old place in the opposite direction to Rye. I read this ghost novel set around the area, we picked it up in a Rye bookshop the last time, it's mostly set there and made me curious. The area has an eerie vibe, Derek Jarman had his famous house nearby, and the beaches are amazing, especially when the tide is out. >>>>>>>>

and finally a great live photo from the Rhythm Factory by Vanessa Robertson...

now playing: joy zipper _the heartlight set_ perfect for the lovely springtime

turning on (the plus signs)

i guess i should write a bit about the Plus gig last week since it was a good night, and raised some questions about where we're at. It got a pretty good response, thanks for coming out, sounded good apparently, and to me felt alright, even though towards the second half I managed to miss getting the lyrics right, i had rehearsed them fairly thoroughly but then got lost in the song and missed the right points of entry, and through that lost the momentum a bit, but managed to find it again by going a bit mental at strategic points ;-) That's how i usually do it in rehearsals, recordings even, go right into bits of lyrics, change them around, find new lines, scare myself even, change the emphasis, do a trip into private language. That's what plus gigs used to be like, messy, a bit anarchic, with sudden shifts in intensity, and never quite the same. i guess people like it though when i'm singing lyrics and am more in control so i'm reasonably happy to try and oblige, i actually quite like some of these lyrics now, the way they put some weight behind the songs is powerful to me too. thing is though, about halfway through we played a brand new number, and i went straight back into wild man mode, and couldn't shake it off afterwards. i actually thought that new number was one of the best of the set, and new ones don't always work for me the first time we play them. so there was a weird balance between rehearsed and improvised, and i think it's okay to do that now, to suddenly let rip, to switch modes, to surprise etc. Whenever we play a set i never quite know which songs will work and which will not, it's like a lottery so i will say the first half was strong and then there was a bit where we lost the momentum a bit but Plus Today, the only old one, was magnificent and brought us back again. I'm getting a bit bored with the old stuff but this one felt alright, was really beautiful, intense and over the top as per usual. Overall i think there was a lot of control even though some of it was loose, maybe because of it, and it had a slow burning, complex, introspective, shoegazerish vibe, where there were several things going on at once and not everything worked equally well.

Here's the setlist:

Shades of Green
Pink City
Tired Eyes
Cold in Summer/When I'm Pretty/? (The new one...)
Seeing Time
Ephedrine Daddy
Plus Today
Teenager

Teenager, a sometimes total monster track, i screwed up a bit unfortunately, it wasn't bad but nowhere near 100 %, but the track before redeemed it, i guess. Wayne, the promoter, played a Virgin Prunes track 'Walls of Jericho' from the live bit of Heresy for me while we came on (he played the rest of it after the set), The Phobics were fantastic, full on garage punk, and GNA did their global noise attack thing for an enthusiastic crowd, so a fun evening out. I'd like us to play at the Rhythm Factory again, nice venue and crowd...good people!

Exit Flagger in New York

We were in New York for all three shows of the 'Electrifying Conclusion', the final goodbye tour of Guided By Voices (hey, it didn't come to London!), parked ourselves for three days and long nights mostly towards the back of the nice Irving Plaza and also the nearby Shades of Green bar, before AND after the shows, hehehe, met a ton of great Postal Blowfish and DTS people, hung out, and enjoyed some truly remarkable shows. I was wearing a different GBV shirt every night, and one of my favourite moments was when Jim Pollard (Bobs brother) pointed at my GBV atom shirt and started to talk to me, and I got to shake his hand. They were hanging out at the bar cos they'd run out of alcohol backstage :-)) I think he was with The Heed but I'm not sure, there were a ton of other old school fans hanging around by the bar at that point and, this is Saturday, when Exit Flagger came on we all started raising out fists together, a great moment. The final show on Sunday was really magical, a bit subdued but very concentrated. When we came back I noticed Simon had only shot one video and it was Exit Flagger from the Sunday show. It looks a bit grainy on youtube but it's a magical little clip for me. So I'll share. Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p08KirA7xms


the photo up there is me on the Monday morning after three GBV shows in a row, sitting in a cafe in the East Village.

random journey of musical discovery no.3: The Pooh Sticks

We're going to Wales now. After The Pastels and The Vaselines, my random journey of musical discovery that leads me from one (new to me) band to another by association or, uh, Amazon recommendations, has now moved out of Scotland with this slightly puzzling band of pop junkies from Swansea in the late 80s and early 90s. In the words of their unofficial site , they present "a bizarre genre-hopping hybrid of two-minute jangle pop, 'enthusiastic' harmonizing, three-chord punk, girl-group cuteness and, beneath it all, a sharp wit aimed squarely at the po-faced indie scene of the time". It took me a while to chose an album out of their discography and I settled on 'Formula One Generation', because it has a Vaselines cover at the end. The liner notes for the CD edition reveal a delicious, nerdy sense of humour, a serious love of pop music, talks about a time and place in a very specific way, and even calls out to future pop historians. The music itself is definitely fun, there's two (!) songs called 'Teenage High' (one of them a John Peel fave, no less), a proggish ballad 'Tonight' (!!), the title 'Soft Beds, Hard Battles' is stolen from another local band, and the Vaselines cover is cool too. However to my ears it sounds a bit weedy, unsubstantial and self conscious at times, though i guess that's part of the idea and the appeal. I like the fact that this little musical journey has taken me already somewhere that seems to reference so much other music, it's definitely rewarding, though I'm not sure how the right way to write about it is. With The Pooh Sticks there's a sense that you needed to be there at the time, know the music, local indie scenes, etc. they seem to reference, take the piss out, worship, to be really immersed in that particual scene. I think they're still growing on me actually, which is always good too. There's no links leading on from that record an Amazon but the liner notes of the album lists people who have been the inspiration for 'Formula One Generation', so what better way to link on... I think it's going to be The Raspberries and their recent Greatest Hits.. Tell me I'm right!

The Plus flyer

Special thanks to models Camilla and Simon, I found them in the gutter in Bethnal Green and they were ready for their screen test ;-)

Plus, Wed 26.04., onstage: 20.15 , Rhythm Factory, Whitechapel, nearest tube Aldgate East, £4.-- with flyer, £5.-- without.

Playing curious, dark'n'messy homebaked avant-rock, mostly from our new album 'Hairy'. I will give out copies of it. Hopefully my voice will be alright too, I've had a cold, we rehearsed, I screamed too much and it sounded a bit bad the next day. It'll be fun anyway...

branded content

battles of meaning, branded for size, style, content, discussed

discarded

foreign investment

false trials, alarm goes off

standing in the shade

discussing

oh...little garden dwarfs,

feeding you to the comments

my guilt expires in time

and i crave meaning where you stood

a ride through blooming buildings

where barren sand ruled

dirty

oversized placards warn you

it's not what you think and

go home early if you can

i turned away from the branding press

no violence

no understanding

just meaningless sludge

drifting through endlesss wastelands

commuting to death but

if i could hold it and see

stare

plant a definition

would i be able to do it?

would it go my way?

Everybody Hates Me no 2

Well, after a while, I used to hate to go to church, and I'd start crying, and my mother would
say, "What's wrong? Why don't you want to go to church?"

dirty wars end on higher planes, i haven't waited for you to get there, but...

And I'd say, "Because of the gorilla."

it's obvious i want you to be here

And she'd say, "What gorilla?"

even though i feel lost saying it

I said, "There's a gorilla at church, and I don't want to see it."

drink another bottle to black out what you've done

And she says, "There's no gorilla at church.

forget it, so it will forget you, or something

There absolutely is no gorilla at church."

but the text will drag you into a hole from where only experienced swimmers escape

So once again, she'd drag me, crying, to church.

this hole will close if you let it, save your face somehow

So we'd get there, I'd get on my knees, the mass would start,

a mass migration of dirty lines

and I'd peek over the pew and look up to the far, far left

riding over you face

and there was the portrait of John the Baptist draped in furs,

starving where i saw you

with a long furry beard, long hair, bushy eyebrows, and so covered in hair.

wanting to be in the circle

Well, to a child of I must have been, I'm like four or five now,

forgetting the rules

and this would have been one of our return trips because to a child of that age,

attempting cruel forgeries

it could very easy look like a gorilla.

back in church

And one of the reasons I mention this story is that,

i tried to touch it but it slipped away and i was left outside of the circle

or me, my first impression of art was both horrifying and absolutely magical,

trying to get out but not really believing i could do it

because I really believed that was a gorilla, and it scared me.

running across the fields, out of breath, out of my mind

I, otherwise, I've never had any fear toward going to church;

getting back again

it was for me an experience to share with parents and especially with my mother.

turning away

But that to me was the first painting because it was a painting;

faking a rhythm

I've gone back to see it and, yes,

letting it go

it's a painting of John the Baptist that confirmed my sense that art can be something almost alive.

a fieldtrip to the other side

And that happened very young, you know, at a very young age. Later on, my exposures were different.

i saw patterns that kept repeating the same image

1992 has been packaged elsewhere.

too many drunk boys riding on a bus

The documentary "Starshaped" is a monument to self-destruction,

in white shirts

a sarcastic 90's version of Staffan Hildebrandts anti-drugs

playing the games of others before them

[alchohol, tobacco and narcotics] films,

innocence slowly corrupted and eroded by an onslaught of paranoia

but more convincing because this is real.

is it following you backwards?

Now you can watch Damon Albarn puke up his tax-free booze

can you see yourself?

at the airport in Hultsfred.

is it allowed to go there?

In ultrarapid. Backwards.

reflecting another direction

"That film...," says Graham, shaking his head ominously.

into hate

"It terrifies me. That's why I never watch it.

crimes

At the same time we've always liked the idea of being weak and put-upon.

forever touching your nose

In the beginning we always were. Then the audience was usually inattentive,

singing weak songs, trying to find the right songs

which made us work harder. But it's hard when they give you too much work to do.

fucking it up

Last year it snowballed, we were constantly on tour

a mansion

and all the time more gigs were being booked.

of lies

After a while Damon started to behave pretty weird,

crashing backwards

the lack of sleep made him over-emotional.

starting to see something grinning at the edges

But we're adults now. We can't act like kids any more.

as if it was possible

"During the past hour Graham has been slowly and methodically smoking half a packet of Kents,

to forget all this in an instant

gone on with my Silk Cuts and fingered his way through every loose item on the conference table.

forget you're there

Everybody Hates Me no 1

EVERYBODY HATES ME No. 1
Cruising at full speed, I discovered someone told me I was wrong
20.45 Uhr / 29’
Straße der Besten
Saturday night i felt something was touching me on the neck
Die Stalinallee
Going down the wrong way full speed
Reportage von
Turned the volume down to bask in the terror unfolding
Wh. v. 06.08.05
Fit it into a timeslot
Die Reportage erzählt Geschichten von Menschen aus der Stalinallee
Washed the bad taste out of my mouth
, die sich hinter den viel beschriebenen
Turned the volume down and scratched my face
und manchmal beschworenen Mauern abspielen
another play that will lead you to fire
. Denn die Stalinallee – das sind nicht nur Wohnpaläste nach sowjetischem Vorbild,
drowned in the sound
das ist auch und vor allem ein Lebensgefühl.
drone
21.15 Uhr 29’
Hier läuft man über DDR
Forgot what i wanted to say
Der Berliner Alexanderplatz
Done it
Film von xxxxxxxxx
face licked, swallowed, hurt, false beginnings
Wh. v. 06.08.05
Another time slot another red car
Der Alexanderplatz: nach wie vor eines der wichtigsten Zentren Berlins.
Cruising
Die Berliner erinnern sich mit ganz persönlichen Geschichten an die Wandlung des Ortes zurück
Turned away on the other side
. Hier wurde aus dem ehemaligen „Ochsenmarkt” in den 70er Jahren ein modernes Zentrum gestaltet,
marked it with lipstick
das für das sozialistische System als Vorzeigeobjekt fungieren sollte. Die Weltzeituhr,
my watch says it’s time to say no
die Hochhäuser, der Kaufhof und nicht zuletzt der Fernsehturm
cruising with full speed
haben den Alexanderplatz zu einem beliebten Wahrzeichen Berlins gemacht.
faster
Vor allem aber ist er nach wie vor ein Treffpunkt für Jung und Alt.
Noise annoys



interruption
<>?
none
another schedule
begins
can you hear me?
see me?
i'm over there

"a straaaa...aaaaaange day"

The Cure: 'A Strange Day' at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday

Video was filmed by a friend of mine who was sitting on the other side of the stage. I told him about youtube later on the tube station and now it's already been watched 770 times since he's put it up yesterday. that's the interweb for you! What I thought of that particular song was that it's turned into a pretty beefy live number in the last few years wheras before it was this ghostly little weird song.
The Cure were beyond epic on Saturday. Hard to believe, but they actually played most of the songs on the setlist of that 1982 bootleg, and more, and more again. Some surprises, 'The Blood', 'Hot Hot Hot', 'Shiver and Shake', 'The Baby Screams', 'At Night', 'Never Enough' etc. etc. , they just pulled them out of memory lane and played and played. Over three hours, three encores and a forest later we were left back into the real world. Absolutely spellbinding. six out of five! And yeah, Depeche Mode were pretty good too. ..

black spring

I'm listening to a fucking great old Cure bootleg, Paris 1982, the Pornography tour, great setlist and atmosphere. By some bizarre coincidence I'm having a bit of a goth flashback weekend, on one of the first spring weekends too, seeing The Cure tonight and Depeche Mode tomorrow. Both bands mean/meant quite a lot to me:
The Cure were basically my favourite band when I was younger, especially the early stuff, though I don't listen to them that much anymore and that last self titled album really didn't do that much for me, was in fact everything people used to say about them that i didn't really see any earlier, plodding, whining, etc, but maybe it'll be better live. Bloodflowers and that Trilogy Live DVD I both enjoyed a lot though. The Cure in concert is always a wonderful experience, definitely one of the greatest live bands, and it will be interesting to see what they pull out of the bag for this one off set. They haven't played a big show in London for a long time, that last tour basically didn't come here at all apart from this show at the Barfly that was impossible to get into so I was thrilled to score a return ticket the other week. It's a good seat apparently, or so said the guy in the box office at the Royal Albert Hall, I said 'I don't care where it is' as I was coming off the train...
I've had that DM ticket for about six months, and I'm sitting somewhere in Row X Terrace Y or so in the newly refurbished Wembley Arena. Nevermind. I'm so into DM it's ridiculous. I basically got converted about 6 years ago when I was dragged along to their greatest hits tour and then gradually, very gradually got more and more into them. I'm a big fan of all of their Live DVDs (101, Devotional, One Night in Paris), and watch them regularly, they are really relaxing and lush to watch for some reason. I've got a few ace bootlegs too. Apart from that I don't even own all of their records, and I'm certainly not a collector though I know of their obsessive fans. It's one of these things where I don't know why I enjoy it so much right now, and definitely a bit less nostalgia as with The Cure. I guess maybe it's because I got into them late it's still blooming. Weird.

And yesterday I went back to the Electric Ballroom after a brief pint in the Dev, London's slightly ridiculous Goth pub, for my workmate's 30th birthday celebrations. I do love the space and the loopy vibe of the ballroom though I haven't been there since they made the Friday more rock and metal. They used to play a wonderful crossover blend of goth/trance/electro, but apparently people complained after a few years that they were always playing the same records. I miss the music, it wasn't as good as the old days, but it was still good to be back. There's a remote corner in my head that will always remain a part time goth, however small and remote that part maybe, I have to admit, though really I'm a musical omnivore. I just can't explain it.

This is the setlist of that Paris 1982 bootleg :

M
The Drowning Man
A Short Term Effect
Cold
At Night
Splintered in her Head
Three Imaginary Boys
Primary
One Hundred Years
Play for Today
A Strange Day
A Forest
10:15 Saturday Night
The Figurehead
Pornography

Here's hoping they will play a few of those classics tonight. Black>Out!

Die Kultinsel

Valle Gran Rey from Barranca del Agua















evening in Gomera















Valle la Laqa

















wooden gargoyle















green fingers

(Garajonay National Park)

I've wanted to go to Gomera for a while, and we finally did it a couple of weeks ago. It's good for walking and it's got some spectacular scenery, that's for sure. I first became aware of the island through The Time Out Book of Country Walks near London. I've been using this book for a while and quickly learnt to respect and admire the people who researched and wrote these walks down. Anyway they've also published a book on Gomera, saying that it is one of the best and most beautiful islands for hiking. I ended up not using their book which i believe details a very strenuous round walk once around the island, but we had a couple of other books. There's no shortage of trails, a lot of them old donkey trails, and a national park in the middle of the island, Garajonay, which is an ancient forest and a World Heritage site. It looks like a Lord of The Rings kinda haunted forest, mossy trees everywhere that look like gargoyles or messengers, in all sorts of wierd shapes (see above). We ended up walking around in there quite a lot. Gomera is easy to reach by ferry from Tenerife which is a lot more developed. The quite extreme mountaineous scenery in Gomera has probably prevented it, it's difficult to drive around, and not a lot to do apart from hanging out and hiking, so there's a lot of outdoorsy (predominantly German) people around, and still a few hippies down in Valle Gran Rey.

some more photos from Munich back in February

The Johnny Cash wall in the X-Cess, right next to the turntable. I think he gets played there rather regularly. Joerg was a bit late collecting me from the tube platform because 'they played a Johnny Cash song'. I think there was even an autograph among those...
















Ilona and Joerg in the excellent Brotraumhttp://brotraum.de Cafe near Muenchner Freiheit. Ilona moved from London to Munich with her boyfriend recently and works there at the moment, it's run by her boyfriend's brother, they bake their own bread, cakes, pizzas, confectionies, etc. on the premises and sell them from there, from what I sampled it's all very high quality, we had a nice lunch there. Plus it's a smokefree place which is extremely rare in Munich in my experience.














Everywhere in central Munich you see at least one of these cutesy lions in all sorts of colours and arty decorations. In my hometown of Ulm it's the sparrow, we've got the sparrows everywhere too. It reminds you where you are, should you wake up in the street and not know. Anyway, Joerg really hates them so when I tried to make him sit on this one to take a photo, he decided to give it a good kick instead...hahaha

smokefree station in Munich. Well, mostly. In fact, all stations in Germany have these banners now. It might look like things are changing over there too, but unfortunately when it comes to pubs, bars, cafes, restaurants, clubs etc. in Germany, there are still ashtrays everywhere, and hardly any non smoking areas, proper ventilation, let alone totally smokefree places for going out. Public opinion may be shifting, at least when you look at this excellent site

my little niece

Paulina Sophie. She's a little sweetie. Since the last time I saw her, she has grown a lot, is already walking and is starting to speak a bit as well. She likes dogs and other animals...















There was so much snow in Munich. Apparently it had been there since November, wheras in London we haven't seen any real snow this year at all. They live near a huge forest in the southern (?) outskirts of Munich where you can walk for miles and miles. I need to go there in the summer sometimes.

slave time

zero effort required
mental zones are defined, refined, formed by request, taken abroad, taken inside
felt up
and thrown out again to see the new sun
and a leak behind the ocean means
waterfalls will swallow you whole
as you dance
in slave time
downstairs by the river lodge
the window opens
for stranger requests
to be taken in
and swallowed whole
in slave time
furious wake up calls follow
time's running out on your scheme
colour awaits rejection
done it without thinking
forced it to hide
touched it at the base but then it slipped
i stumbled
where is the lightswitch in this room
have i followed you here by mistake
i want to walk now
crawling
talking into the timeslits by the wall
to another future that's been preserved for ages
a dialogue opens up
but i'm a captive
to slave time
have i touched my own line
so you trip over
and leave by the other door
or is everything
alright again
i ask as you swallow
but i'm forgotten too far ahead
too early
so all you get is words
defined and spoken
in slave time
my brand new morning
laughs in your face
as we ponder the options
hidden in the caves
tried without rhythm
left outside to dry
burnt to reflect glory
spoken until guilty
a trial without words
my best option
is to submit
and forget
unless i take it further one day
but when will it come
hey! we are back
slave time

confused icebreaker

nutshells, further wrecked but sleeping,
trying it all out again,
for safety follows you, inside your
growing time machine, to
swallow
lies when you see them
and make conversation
all the other times to see
whether anyone can get away with it
this time,
a smile for your wedding day,
a revolution but not
as far as i can see,
to lick it off and spit it out,
to fake a rhythm in the booming corridor,
to step aside for
rhythm control,
issues you have, and had,
to stare too far,
to lie there sleeping, to multiply, just to
say it like it is
but

fragments of what you said are just a
hello inside a dungeon,
and outside wishes that remain faceless
and nameless, to
vanish inside the circle,
but i never saw it like that,
to fire away until you
stand still beside the booming envelope.
focus on the guitars
or stand still anyway
before it comes closer and
licks your hidden glue line,
to seal it but I interfere
and throw you
a confused icebreaker,

so now we're even you think
and relax
but this road is deeper below the surface
and it keeps twisting and turning away,
a fork inside your face,
dividing lines,
a wakeup call,
so early i can't see it,
my forcefield collapses
and sweats it out
but here i am
asking a question
will you do it?
or not?
it's only a game
when i thought so
but somehow
it's finished without.....

i can hear you now....

Phillip Boa & the Voodooclub at the Garage

I last saw them about twenty years ago in Berlin (!), though they still sound the same (in a good way). It was half full but a real cult atmosphere as most of the crowd in the front seemed to have travelled from Germany and elsewhere. Made me a bit nostalgic of the new wave times in the 80s in Germany. Boa is a genuine survivor though.

Coombe Hill

Monument to the Boer War, towards the end of Walk 52: Princes Risborough to Wendover, mostly along the Ridgeway path. It's an eerie monument, standing on the top of the hill with vast views all around. It was very windy...

One very important thought "Now that the show is over, and we have jointly exercised our constitutional rights, we would like to leave you with one very important thought: Some time in the future, you may have the opportunity to serve as a juror in a censorship case or a so-called obscenity case. It would be wise to remember that the same people who would stop you from listening to Boards of Canada may be back next year to complain about a book, or even a TV programme. If you can be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you can be told what to say or think. Defend your constitutionally-protected rights. No one else will do it for you. Thank you." [