Listening #2

Dirty Projectors Swing Lo Magellan (2012)

Domino Records www.dirtyprojectors.net

Pretentious is a word that is thrown about alot around bands whose music doesn’t conform to easy to pin down preconceived ideas of genre. I approached this record not knowing much about Dirty Projectors, and I found plenty to like, it’s not all easy to listen to, but that can make the moments of sweet harmonies or guitar wigouts stand out all the more. There is a willingness to try things out, whether they work or not is up to the listener, pretty alt-country harmonies are underpinned by awkward back words sounding drums, and almost chaotic plucked guitar.

Highlights: ‘Offspring Are Blank’, ‘Swing Lo Magellan’, ‘Impregnable Question’.

The Flaming Lips ...And Heady Fwends (2012)

Bella Union www.flaminglips.com

The Flaming Lips have been experimenting with psychedelic alt-rock for almost 30 years now, and this collaboration record is no different with guests as diverse as Ke$ha, Bon Iver, Yoko Ono and Nick Cave. ‘2012 (You Must be Upgraded)’ kicks the album off with psychotic shrill dial-up tone white noise before the more sombre & beautiful ‘Helping The Retarded To Know God’. In places this is one of the Lips hardest rocking albums such as the Jim James collab ‘That Ain’t My Trip’, which is followed by the similarly gnarled ‘You, Man? Human???’ with Nick Cave. ‘I’m Working At NASA On Acid’ is a fairly anonymous Lips by numbers track until Lightning Bolt explodes all over it before it floating back off into space again, the band’s cover of ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’ is something to behold, turning it into a strangely beautiful 10 minute space-dub epic. The Flaming Lips are still vital.

Highlights: ‘Helping The Retarded To Know God’, ‘That Ain’t My Trip’, ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’, ‘Tasered And Maced’

International Alternative Press Festival 2012

The IAPFestival was held at Conway Hall, for the second year, on the weekend of 4-5th August, and I went along with my friends Mark & Tilly on the Sunday. I had heard of the event on twitter a couple of months ago and wanted to go as soon as I heard of it as I have been interested in independant publishing for a long time. At university I wrote my dissertation on fanzines & underground culture and later wrote a music fanzine with a group of friends.

We arrived at the Conway Hall, just as the doors were opening and the stall holders were finishing setting up, which was good as it meant it was easy to move around the aisles of tressle tables. On the otherhand for a shy person like myself, it meant the zine-makers attention was on me, making me selfconcious. There was lots of interesting literature on show from obviously handmade comics and art zines to comic anthologies and books, lots of creativity on show, sometimes it's difficult to know where to start in a situation like that. I didn't find much in the way of what I would call fanzines, that is to say self produced writing about a person's passions, like music, films, books, work or hobbies. There were alot of self published comics though, which made up all of my purchases, which I'll talk about shortly. The festival was alot of fun, and allowed me to indulge in something I don't always get time to. I'm already looking forward to going again next year, and hopefully have more time to spend there, to got to some of the workshops and talks.

As I mentioned before in my Harvey Pekar blog, I'm a newcomer really to the world of comics, so these reviews shoulldn't be given too much weight. With that cautionary warning out of the way let's take a look at my purchases...

New British Comics #3
This is an anthology of short comic strips, between 1 and 10 pages long, there are plenty of different sorts of comics here from the humourous to social commentaries, science fiction to artistic. 'Ink vs Paper' by John Miers is an interesting art-comic that makes use of monochrome black and white to clever effect. 'Here Comes The Neighbourhood' by Matthew Craig & Richard Johnson takes mainstream tv's obsession with reality tv and talent contests to the next level with neighbours competing to move to a better home. My favourite strips in this anthology are Lawrence Elwick & Paul O'Connell's 'Alfred Hitchcock: Master of Suspense' and 'Charlie Parker Handyman', all of three of which are short, and more playful and fun.
80 Pages b&w / £4 / website  / Jon's Rating: 3.5/5

ink + PAPER #2
Ink & Paper is another anthology, this time in full colour which does push the price up, it also written articles. These include a spread reviewing comic books/graphic novels, an analysis of Jinty overs,and interviews with a screenprinter & a fashion illustrator. Again I loved the variety of styles of art and of subject matter, from the existentialism of AJ Poyiadgi's 'On Reflection' to Sean Wilson & Carl Thomson's strip about violence in American/British culture compared to Japan, or Rick Eades simple & cute 'Darth Vader Buried In The Sand' about his childhood caravan holidays, the addition of colour in this book really adds an extra dimension and makes the extra cost worth it. My favourite strips were Jon Riordon's retro sci-fi tale 'The Inventor of Colour' which is about exactly what the title suggests, and Andrew Waugh's series 'Old Lady vs...' which like 'Charlie Parker Handyman' in New British Comics is short simple & fun, in each strip the Old Lady takes on a fictional monster (Nosferatu, A Werewolf, Seamonster) and domesticates them.
96 Pages full colour / £8 / website  / Jon's Rating: 4.5/5

Browner Knowle #6
Browner Knowle is a one man affair, written and drawn by Paul Ashley Brown, it is a more artistic maybe existential work. A series of one or two pages pieces that feel like illustrated poems on subjects like watching birds, watching people, break-ups, arguments. There is an overall feeling of loss, sadness that is quite beautiful. There is one longer piece entitled 'Two Years Later'an artist endures the opening night of his exhibition haunted by the meory of his ex, when she appears at the show, it leaves you wondering if it is autobiographical or not.
22 Pages b&w / £3 / email  / Jon's rating 3/5

Spandex #1-6
What can you say about Martin Eden's Spandex? At turn's daft, funny, sad, rude & action packed, his gay superhero gang never fail to entertain. I bought the collected issues #1-6 on the spur of the moment and certainly don't regret it, colourful with short adventures and an overall story arc that builds over the issues it is no wonder it was nominated for a best british comic award. For a newbie like me, it reads like a homage to the well known superhero comics whilst reminding me also of 'Beyond Palomar' which I recently read and (oddly) Kill Bill. I'll definately be waiting for the
seventh and final isssue to complete the story.
26 Pages each Full Colour / £15 issues 1-6 / website / Jon's Rating: 4.5/5

Drawings

I've always enjoyed drawing since I was a kid, going on to study art & graphic design at college and university. But over the years with work and other distractions I didn't really create art, so a couple of years ago I resolved to start drawing more, but then with my mum becoming more unwell I stopped doing it again - now I want to try and draw more again. These are all drawings that I've done in the last couple of years and I'm posting them as much as motivation for myself as for anyone else to see them.

 

House on Hill 11/2/10

The Lighthouse 4/3/10

 

Kerouac at Desolation 9/3-21/3/10

Old Joy 25/3-7/4/10

 

Coast 9/4/-11/4/10

Mountain#2 18/4/10

 

California Coast 27/4/10

Coast#2 13/5/10

Lake 10/7/10

Our Garden 8/8/10

Mountain#3 11/9/10

Harvey Pekar 19/2/11

Hullbridge 21/7/12

Harvey Pekar. Our Man in Cleveland.

Two years ago today, Harvey Pekar died, he was 70 years old and there's a fair chance you haven't heard of him. I hadn't until I picked up the 'American Splendor' dvd in my local blockbuster in 2004.

My drawing of Harvey Pekar

So who was he, and why did he get a film made about him? Harvey was a working class intellectual from Cleveland, Ohio, who in his younger life was unable to hold down a job until he got a job as a file clerk in the Veteran hospital, a job he kept until he retired. He came from a jewish background, was a socialist, a jazz critic in his spare time, suffered from lymphoma, appeared on the Letterman Show, oh yeah, and he wrote comics too.

Pekar became friends with budding comic artist Robert Crumb in the 1960's and as Crumb & the underground comic scene took off and moved away from the traditional superheroes, he realised "comics are words and pictures. You can do anything with words and pictures". He couldn't see a voice like his in the comic-world, so he decided to write a comic about his own life, experiences and views, the first issue was published in 1976. Harvey couldn't draw himself so would write the stories and lay them out with stick figures to show illustrators like Crumb what to draw, which added to the appeal of American Splendor, different issues would often be drawn by different artists.

So why do I like Harvey Pekar & his work? His comics document the ordinary, the everyday banality, the frustrations, and the absurdity of life - American Splendor had a cynical, world weary humour. Despite his intellect, his temperament & skills meant he was unlikely to advance in the world of work, or perhaps he didn't want too, so he looked for a creative outlet, a means of leaving his mark on the world. Which is why I identify with him I suppose, I share a similar frustration at the world for not being the way I thought it would be or indeed should be. That desire or need to leave a mark, to be creative is the reason I'm writing a blog at all.

Harvey is also the reason I've become interested in graphic novels relatively late in life, before I watched American Splendor I hadn't read a comic since the Beano when I was in junior school. Now I've read graphic novels by Daniel Clowes, Alan Moore and Art Spiegelman amongst others, and he's inspired me to want to write & draw my own graphic novels. Which is why when the opportunity came along to donate to his wife, Joyce Brabner's kickstarter campaign to create a memorial for Harvey I jumped at the chance - you can read about that here it's a pretty amazing idea, one day I hope to visit it at Cleveland library.

This is just a short tribute to an endlessly interetsing man, that barely scratches the surface of what he was about, I hope that just one person somewhere reads this and discovers what I did. Why not start with the excellent movie starring Paul Giamatti, like I did?

PS. You can take a quick look at one of Harvey's last ventures, the Pekar Project webcomic, over at smithmag.net

Listening #1

Many years ago I used to write a music fanzine & website with friends, it was called To Hell With... and I haven't written any music reviews since it ended in 2006 so these are my first attempt. Just a few short views on some of my recent purchases.

Beach House Bloom (2012)

Bella Union www.beachhousebaltimore.com
I’d seen this album mentioned alot on the internet, so listened to a couple of songs on youtube before taking the plunge, Beach House are boy/girl duo from Baltimore, described as dream-pop and Bloom is their fourth album. That dreamlike quality is certainly evident, as the guitar & keyboard combine to create delicate webs of melody that feel like they could break with the slightest breeze. Victoria Legrand’s vocals are seductive yet detached, the lyrics suitably mysterious, suggesting rather than telling. Bloom is one of my favourite albums of the year so far, and a record that could equally soundtrack a gloomy wet day as a sunkissed roadtrip.

Highlights: ‘Myth’, ‘Other People’, ‘The Hours’.

Cornershop Urban Turban: The Singhles Club (2012)

Ample Play www.cornershop.com

I bought this album, having heard the song ‘What Did The Hippie Have In His Bag?’ on BBC 6Music. Like quite a few people of the britpop generation, the only Cornershop album I have before this, is ‘When I was born for the 7th Time’, an album I adored for it’s east-meets-west sitar & tablar tinged indie-funk. Well they’ve moved on from that, adopting a more electronic & eclectic style, that took a while to grow on me, the old funk sensibilities are still there, as are the indian influences, each track here is a collaberation. While I still find it a bit patchy, repeated listening is rewarding as tracks like Milkin’it & Dedicated reveal themselves.

Highlights: ‘What Did The Hippie Have In His Bag?’, ‘Who’s Gonna Lite It Up?’, ‘Milkin’ It’.

Coasting You’re Never Going Back (2011)

M’lady’s http://coasting.bandcamp.com

Coasting are, as best I can tell, two girls from Brooklyn that moved apart (to Portland & Memphis) but still made a record together in Michigan. I was introduced to them by Everett True’s excellent Collapseboard, and the song ‘Kids’, a gloriously joyful indiepop song that makes me want to jump around with a cut n’paste stop motion video to match. The rest of the album is deliciously lo-fi indie-punk with a firm grip on what makes a great harmony, an adundance of energy and vitality and a love of the old quiet-load dynamic that when done well as it is here, never gets old.

Highlights: ‘Kids’, ‘Portland’, ‘Pirates Cove’.

Azealia Banks 1991 EP (2012)

Interscope www.AzealiaBanks.com

Azealia Banks probably isn’t someone you would expect me to like, I was also led to her by Everett True and the song ‘212’ from this EP. She has been compared to Nicki Minaj, not something I can qualify, the Minaj songs I’ve heard haven’t been my type of thing and to be honest the 3 other songs here I find pretty bland and formulaic, fast paced rap-pop to a nightclub beat. ‘212’ however is a different animal altogether, beneath the filthy lyrics is a primitive beat that opens up into a dancefloor beast, that as Banks’ wraps her tongue around the sexual imagery with considerable relish (watch the video) could make even the shyest person bump & grind with the best of them.

Highlights: ‘212’

Shellshag Rumors In Disguise (2010)

Don Giovanni Records http://shellshag.blogspot.co.uk/

Yet another I found from Collapseboard, hailing from Brooklyn, Shellshag are husband (Shell) & wife (Shag) duo. Rumors In Disguise is another minimal punk record, in places reminding me of a more lo-fi grungey Lemonheads, it has all the touchstones that are bound to make me love them, squalls of white noise, stripped down hooks, ‘Resilient Bastard’ could almost be Weezer in their prime, the short sharp burst of ‘Rumor’ comes complete with doo-wop handclaps & catchy as hell "I wanna make it with you" refrain, and dirge of ‘Rock and roll ruined my life’ contrast greatly with bittersweet closer ‘Carry On’. Oh, and it has the best album cover I’ve seen for a long time.

Highlights: ‘Resilient Bastard’, ‘Crashing Rockets’, ‘Carry On’.

Akira The Don ATD28: Unkillable Thunderchrist (2012)

LITF www.akirathedon.com

Unkillable Thunderchrist is the latest from the UK’s most prolific rapper, Akira the Don, his 28th mixtape is full of impossible to clear samples & is better than most artists official releases. What sets ATD apart is the joy he takes in everything he does, even when he’s eviscerating the coalition & politicians on ‘Lemmings’ & ‘Weird & Creepy’. And yes ‘Lemmings’ does sample the classic computer game. ATD’s collaboration with Time on ‘Too Sweet To Be Sour’ is a fitting & suprisingly touching tribute to Adam Yauch, while closing track ‘Wu-Wear & Acid’ is a stunning end to the collection, and shows a man, as the Hunter S. Thompson sample* suggests "riding the crest of a high & beautiful wave", long & far may it carry him.

Highlights: ‘Lemmings’, ‘Too Sweet To be Sour’, ‘Wu-Wear & Acid’.

*Well actually a quote from the Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas film.

The Art of Arranging Your Music Collection

We at long last bought new cd storage after two frustrating years of living out of crates, which brought up the age old music geek conundrum - how should I organise my music? In the end I simply transferred my cds as they were already organised, the Traditional Alphabetical by artist, then alphabetical by album title. Simple but effective. Below is a picture of our new shelves which we purchased from http://www.i-cubes.co.uk/ , they are rather gorgeous I think, and I would like a more elegant way of arranging my cds in them.

But what other ways are there?

One of the other most popular, that several people I know use, is by Genre. Punk, Hip Hop, Indie, Soul etc each of which can then be arranged alphabetically by artist and then album title or chronologically. A pretty good system, which makes it easy to find a type of music that fits your mood but which brings its own problems in my opinion. What about sub genres, artists that straddle two genres, or move from one genre to another? This flaw is what has always put me off despite the
appeal of being able to see all my electronica fix in one place.

Then there is Autobiographical or the 'High Fidelity Method', made famous by the book & film. Autobiographical entails arranging your music in the order you got it. I'll let that sink in. For example in High Fidelity, Rob says "If I want to find the song landslide by Fleetwood Mac, I have to remember that I bought it for someone in the fall of 1983 pile but didn't give to them for personal reasons". For most, myself included this would prove impossible, my memory simply isn't good enough for this - I could do it by year from a certain point - when i started keeping a spreadsheet of my albums (yes, I know), but doing this for 80% of my collection simply wouldn't be good enough. If I ever meet anyone who has done this they will be my hero forever.

Lastly there is the most out there system, it's been in my mind to do it at some point, it would look amazing but would be virtually impossible to find anything you wanted. Colour. Yes, by colour, being a graphic designer arranging by cds this way appeals greatly but would make finding what you wanted extremely frustrating. So for now feast your eyes on some who have done exactly this...

Both above pictures from apartmenttherapy.com

So for now it seems I'm stuck with my safe alphabetical system, if you know of, any other ways to arrange a music collection, please do tell me!

Watched #1

The Descendants was an interesting movie, the kind of bittersweet indie-style comedy that I like. Which shouldn't be suprising as it is directed by Alexander Payne, who made Election & Sideways. The story centres around two main threads, Matt King's wife is in a coma after a boating accident and he must prepare his family to say goodbye when he makes a shocking discovery, the second involves his family's ancestral land and the decision of who should buy it - which is timely as this week billionaire Larry Ellison bought 98% of the island of Lanai. George Clooney occupies the principal role which is ideally suited to his comic talent, Clooney has long been one of my favourite comic actors in movies like O Brother Where Art Thou, Burn After Reading, Up In The Air, but in this film there is more emotional depth.The theme of the development of Hawaii is one that reminded me of Hunter S. Thompson's Rum Diary where businessmen want to build hotels & developments in a beautiful setting, oblivious to the fact that they'll be destroying what they're trying to take advantage of.

We also watched The Artist, which obviously comes fairly well laden with expectations after it's haul of awards. I knew the basic plotline before I started watching, how a silent movie star career struggles as 'the talkies' take over, but it wasn't quite what I was expecting. All the hype did make it disappointing, films like this will always struggle to live up to their billing. I did also however enjoy it in ways I wasn't expecting, writing it down it seems obvious, but the use of sound, in a film about the transition from silent films to speech, is very clever, and there are a number of surreal moments too. Those two elements combine particulalry well in a dream sequence that illustrates his fear of being left behind in the new era of movies. It made me think about parallels with modern cinema and the coming of 3D, arguably the biggest revolution since talking, there seemed to me in the film to be suggestion that in using speech they were somehow dumbing down, or losing something which echoes how many feel about 3D.

Finally this week I watched my new copy of Seven Samurai, the 1954 film by japanese director Akira Kurosawa. I've seen it before several times but haven't owned a copy despite it being one of my favourite films. The plot is pretty simple, a poor village attacked by bandits hire seven samurai to protect them - if that sounds familiar it's because the western The Magnificent Seven is based on this film. To me it is the embodiment of what a good action film should be, it takes its time and doesn't force fast paced action on you, it builds to a climax and provides laughs and intrigue along the way. I had forgotten how funny it could be, with pretty much all the laughs provided by the character Kikuchiyo played by Toshiro Mifune one of the most famous japanese actors of his time, who provides very physical comedy as well as funny lines. This a pretty short & simple review of a much more complicated film that rewards repeated viewing.