Sdtrk: ‘There is nothing I can do’ by The Organ

Right, hands up those of you who coveted, whether openly or in secret, Malcolm McDowell’s gorgeous transparent-and-chrome turntable from ‘A clockwork orange’. Apparently they’ve always been available, as they’re manufactured by a company called Transcriptors Limited (love that name). How come no-one told me?

the Transcriptor Vestigial

[Engineer and designer David Gammon]’s design concept was inspired by old clocks and watches from the 17th and 18th century. David had often asked this question many times over, why put something of engineering elegance into a black case or even worst, into a wooden case, that looked as if it had been made down in somebody’s garden shed. In fact Transcriptors started the trend to expose all the components so that they could be viewed from all angles.

Pretty horrorshow, I’d say. Just do yourself a favour — don’t look at the price

Sdtrk: ‘Variation one’ by Stereolab

Okay, so the Pope is finally dead. I understand that he was engaged in a bitter struggle with Moriarty (aka, the ‘Napoleon of Crime’), and both plummeted to their deaths over Reichenbach Falls, Switzerland. Well, when you die, you should make it memorable, at the very least..

So! Friday’s Performance By A Couple Of Indie Bands wasn’t too bad. Tim, Mike, Jason and I got to the Magic stick in plenty of time, and unlike our experience with the faint, we didn’t have to wait in some interminable line stretching two miles in length. However, it was a good job that Tim picked up our tickets ahead of time, as a couple of signs hastily taped onto the entrance doors indicated that the show was sold out. We got inside, flashed our ID and tickets, went upstairs to the concert hall, and kinda stood around for a couple of minutes. The hipster kids must love their Bloc party, cos there was a pretty lengthy queue for the merchandise corner, which is something I’ve never seen for any group before. A small cluster round the table, yes, but never a line. Tim wanted to buy a shirt, but wasn’t too impressed with the designs on offer, and didn’t want to wait in line besides, so we stood round for a couple more minutes until we collectivey decided to go downstairs for some food, as we were all really hungry.

After waiting about 20min to both order and get our pizza — a large pepperoni, in case you’re curious — the first act, The Ponys, went on, so we shoveled the piping hot slices into our mouths (bad idea), and made our way upstairs. Despite missing the first two songs, we liked what we heard overall. They struck me as a cross between My bloody valentine circa ‘Ecstasy and wine’, and British sea power, minus the lyrics about peregrine falcons and WWI-era writers. Not a bad band, but nothing I’d really pursue further.

We were towards the back of the crowd when The Ponys were playing, and I’d noticed that at that point that the venue was 3/4ths filled. So as you suspect, it was proper packed when Bloc party went on about a half an hour later. Indie kids love their Bloc party. Jason had played a couple of tracks from their full-length Cd before we left Mike’s place, and they sounded alright; the operative term being ‘alright’. I mean, I wasn’t fully concentrating on the music, but I’d heard nothing that made me shout ‘BLOC PARTY FUCK YEAH!!1!’ or anything. Seeing them live, however, was pretty damn entertaining. I’ll give you this, the lads can play. The drummer was banging the skins like crazy, the guitarist looked like Vini Reilly, Kele (guitarist and vocalist) not only has a pretty good voice, but his playing skills were pretty remarkable, and the bassist really impressed me when, during the last encore song, he played with his back to the audience, whilst standing atop the bass drum. Very nice! SNAP COMPARISON: a less glossy, more politically-motivated (lots of rather cool time changes) and slightly more angular Franz Ferdinand. Not bad!

On the flipside, it was really great to see that Bloc party had apparently brought a couple of chavs with them on the tour, cos there were three or four really tall blokes directly in front of us, undoubtedly hopped up on goofballs, and attempting to form a mini-mosh pit. There wasn’t much room to back up, either, cos like I’d mentioned, the Magic stick was as full as t could be at that point. Heh. I love concerts, but I hate crowds. And I miss shows at St.Andrews, where there’s, y’know, a balcony for sitting. Still and all, a pretty good show..

And the highlight of getting round to Jeff’s Saturday eve? Watching ‘Knowing me, Knowing you with Alan Partridge‘. Ah haaah!

Finally, I’m shifting my godforsaken detritus selling articles on the Bay of e. Why not have a look?
Sweet baby James, I’ve had some of this stuff since the first Bush administration, and I’m bloody sick of looking at it

Sdtrk: ‘Roaring blood’ by Guitar wolf

This is a first in my lifetime — society’s recent Death Quadrafecta. You know how celebrity deaths usually come in threes? Well, this time, HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!!

In order of personal importance:

1) Bass Wolf, bass player for Guitar Wolf
Admittedly, I’ve only ever heard two songs by Guitar Wolf in their entirety, but I enjoyed the utter cheese factor that is ‘Wild zero‘. And Guitar Wolf is just a fun band, anyway — they’re like a faster, more feedback-laden, more insane Japanese version of the Ramones. My friend Dave, who sat us all down in Derek’s livingroom a few years ago and showed us his DVD copy of ‘Wild zero’, managed to catch them when they rolled through Detroit only a couple of weeks ago. Now, no-one has any idea if the band will continue.

2) Terri Schiavo, a bulimic-cum-martyr
Yes, she was a fucking idiot for being a bulimic in the first place, but there was absolutely no need for that woman and her husband to go through what they went through. They should’ve allowed her to die (meaning, physically die, as she had been braindead for several years) without publicity or outside interference, end of story.

3) Mitch Hedberg, a standup comic
To be honest, I’ve never heard of the bloke; from what I understand, he was on Comedy central occasionally. I only knew about him cos it was it was mentioned in ‘Overcompensating’ a couple of times.

4) Pope John Paul II, a dictator with a strange taste in headgear
Catholicism makes my bile rise to unprecedented levels. The less said about ‘Mr Infallible’, the better.
Actually, as of this writing, he isn’t dead, per se, cos I’d heard earlier in the day from what I thought to be a reliable source that he died, but checking various news sites, it seems that he’s only near death. COME ON, PEOPLE, ONE OR THE OTHER HERE.

Just wanted to bring your attention to all that, in case you’re like me, and get your news secondhand. I mean, I just found out that Martin Denny died round the beginning of March, which really brought me down.

Right, I’m off to bedness. Later on this week-end, I’ll fill y’all in on the Bloc party show I attended Fri eve

Sdtrk: ‘Onion flower’ by Medicine

I just ate a whole puppy!

April Fools!

I got nothin’. Sorry