A curmudgeon writes.
Duh. Nuh. Nuh nuh nuh. Dunna nunna nun nah nuh nah nah.
Partially related to yesterday’s post, which was supposed to be about album covers but drifted a little: this Flickr gallery of famous album covers as seen from behind is excellently playful.
The Kraftwerk one is a favourite – especially the tape holding things together – but the King Crimson one is pretty great too. Lots of knowing fun if you’re familiar with these discs, so I hope there’s more coming.
Today’s enthusiasm: a Guardian story where they’ve placed famous album covers on Google Maps’ Street View of the location the shot was taken.
It tickles my fancy somewhat, as it brings together two loves: maps and music. I was aware of the PopSpots site chronicling pop-culture locations in New York City (mostly), but it has always been presented as much more of a solid research, go-and-look-and-take-a-photo-of-the-place sort of endeavour. There’s also this piece, showing (amongst other things), how the site of the first Black Sabbath cover shoot looks today.
I suppose that it’s the ability to see something that we think is somehow mystical or not-quite-real – the album cover – in something as commonplace as a Google window. There’s certainly an interest in where these magical cover events take place – just check out this page about how to find where David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust album cover was shot (now the holder of one of those blue historical importance plaques) for an example. I suppose that now there’s an extra level to this nosey-parker stuff: with Street View we can see how things appear now. Or, if not now, then within spitting distance.
Continue reading “On the street where you live”Forty-five minutes of Paul Stanley’s onstage banter because it’s always Friday night in KISS-land. And they said Doctor Rockzo wasn’t real, eh?
It’s worth listening to the end purely so you don’t miss the whole ‘uzi of ooze’ thing. File that one away for your next pick-up session.
I recently went to a shakuhachi ‘blow’ – a group playing event. I’d not played my shakuhachi – and trust me, I’m not very good – for almost a year, and so it was a little intimidating, especially as the only other attendees were accomplished players, including the first non-Japanese grandmaster, Riley Lee. We weren’t playing this piece, but playing with others reminded me how good it feels to share a musical experience with people, even if you’re not on the same level.
This video features the legendary Katsuya Yokayama playing ‘Tsuru no Sugomori’ or ‘Nesting of Cranes’, a sort of sound-portrait. Another performance of this piece (played by Goro Yamaguchi) was included on the golden disc that went into the universe on the Voyager probe. (You can hear that version here, should you wish to.)
I include this video today because it’s been a day of stress, and though I find it difficult (sometimes) to maintain focus through a shakuhachi piece, I really like this one. It’s a pretty popular piece, or at least there’s a lot of different takes on it.
The different versions show how much scope there is for interpretation, and give me the hope that someday I’d be able to play a version, however flawed, of it. Or, let’s face it, of any honkyoku.
The original psychedelic speed freaks. High-volume, icepick-in-ear insanity. Everything good about Japanese rock in one tasty package. A caveat: this track is much less restrained than their usual stuff.
Just the thing I need after dropping an ungodly amount on two tyres for my roadbeast.
I’m pretty braindead at this point, so read some of Julian Cope’s fanatical ramblings on the dudes. It’s worth clocking.
All right, some more. Because you deserve it.
For your consideration: a pipe organ improvisation performed by John Zorn. Drones, throbs and horrific stabs. Good stuff. Zorn’s claimed that the pipe organ was his first instrument, and the soundtrack to Lon Chaney’s silent films was deeply influential. Easy to see that here, though there is a form of weird meditation amongst the clusters.
Fun fact I discovered this morning: from the 1700s, the pipe organ was the most complex human creation until the invention of the telephone exchange. From singular communication to conversation.
Zorn speaks about the performance here:
It’s been a busy afternoon with on-again-off-again rain. There’s a feeling of nothingness around, so it’s perfect weather to be listening to Gaslight Radio and wishing they were still touring and releasing stuff.
I’m not certain what they’re up to – I assume not much as their Facebook page hasn’t updated since 2008 – but I deeply hope that this is just a period of hibernation as they were one of the bands of the 1990s for me, up there with the magisterial Crow and The Paradise Motel for me in terms of heart-on-sleeve, depressed Arts-grad music.
This is one of the only songs of theirs I could find on YouTube. It’s from one of the two early EPs of theirs I absolutely flogged to death. So pull on a beanie and listen to the sound of endless days.
If you’re a Dirty Three or Hungry Ghosts kind of fan, this is going to be right up your alley. Doom-influenced acoustic guitar and violin with no vocals. From Canada. A description?
These are instrumental songs about our bodies, our brains, our nightmares & our failures.
We have buried our most sincere & terrible fears into these melodies & hope you can find the same catharsis by listening that we have achieved through writing them.
GLOOMY TRANS QUEERS FOREVER.
-s. & r.
Sounds good enough to me.
I’ve been off blogging for a couple of reasons – birthday, weight loss, weird viral headaches – but am getting back into the writing in general now, so hopefully a little more will happen around here soon. Until then, enjoy this album which has – quite rightly – ripped nuts off 2014 already.
With Swans’ new release around the corner I assume it’s gonna be a good year.
That kind of day. Their newest is pretty similar to their oldest, which means if you’re after smoky Lynch-styled ambience you’re in the right place.
Yeah nah. 