Last Thursday Dean & Britta performed a set for radio station KCRW’s show Morning Becomes Eclectic. The set mostly featured tracks from 13 Most Beautiful, but slipped in near the end was a cover of Galaxie 500’s Snowstorm. Now Snowstorm is my favourite song, no question. It entered my life at a very important time and did, to a certain extent, play its part in changing that life. I’d possibly suggest that a week hasn’t gone past since I first heard it that I haven’t listened to it, and all that listening hasn’t diminished its effect on me one drop. No other music comes even close to making me feel the way it does.
So, you’d think that hearing Dean Wareham singing Snowstorm would be something that I’d appreciate, and to be honest so would I. But listening to that performance (and an earlier live performance that appeared on YouTube a few weeks previously) made me feel uncomfortable.
It’s always been hard for me to look at Dean’s work with any sort of objectivity, but that’s never been a problem because, well… it has all been great, there’s frankly nothing there which has cause to question my objectivity! I’m pretty certain I’ve never thought, let alone written down, a single jot of criticism of any of his work. Which is going to make the next couple of paragraphs pretty hard going.
I’ve seen Dean & Britta, and Luna before them (and even Damon & Naomi), perform many Galaxie 500 songs and I’ve never been bothered. In fact mostly I have been overjoyed and have swayed blissfully, happy that I can hear these songs again. But for some reason with Snowstorm all the things that have never bothered me in the past really did bother me, and actually they bothered me quite a lot.
Dean’s voice was good, and I think that might be a crucial point in what made it all sound so wrong. Hearing that familiar voice over that unfamiliar backing. The harsher drum sound, the fuzzier guitar, the more intricate bass line, the keyboards… MOSTLY the keyboards. It never had the other worldly, it never took me to that special place that Snowstorm has always taken me. It wasn’t a song capable of changing a life.
I love Dean & Britta and I love that they’re doing Galaxie 500 numbers, and I even appreciate that my attachment to Snowstorm might be quite unique and therefore I am the only one who finds it bothersome. But I do. I hope to get to see Dean & Britta play (a non 13 Most Beautiful show) in the near future, maybe even one of the Galaxie 500 shows they’ve been doing… but I wonder if they’ll take requests?
Recently in one of those Facebook memes when asked to name my top seven albums I put Patti Smith’s Horses on that list. Obviously lists like that change like the weather but it is a great album and fully deserving of a place on the rotating list of great albums that appear in my top n lists whenever I do them. Until last night I had never seen Patti Smith live, it was just one of those things I knew I needed to do but never actually got around to.
Last night she played at the Royal Festival Hall as part of Ornette Coleman’s Meltdown and provided me with a rollercoaster ride that left me in turns frustrated and breathless… and if pushed to rank it on a scale of greatness it would fall comfortably in the ‘pretty damn’ section.
She opened by reading Piss Factory, maybe she opens every show with it… if she doesn’t, she should, Patti’s delivery just sucked the audience in. She then went on to perform a mix of songs and poetry with various guest musicians including Flea from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Adrian Utley from Portishead, her daughter Jesse and The Master Musicians of JouJouka (who the rest of the crowd adored but who set my teeth on edge with their horrid screechy pipes).
However it was when Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra provided backing that the evening pushed relentlessy on into that ‘pretty damn great’ slot. Before the encore Ornette Coleman walked slowly to center stage, muttered some generic platitudes and walked slowly offstage – a bit more involvement from him would have been nice. Patti is a phenomenal woman with more charisma and energy than I could ever dream of having. I’m relieved to have ticked off another great in my gigography. And, even though she didn’t play any of Horses, I’d go again.
Just back from Yo La Tengo’s “Freewheeling…” show with mixed feelings. Yo La Tengo were great, they invariably are. And Georgia, Ira and James are clever and funny people. But the Q&A format of the show made for an uncomfortable and occasionally toe-curling experience. Mostly because of the inane (of the “what’s your favourite…” variety) or just plain stupid (”have you been to Antarctica”) questions that were asked and partly because of an environment (and room acoustics) that discouraged anything more serious or in depth from being asked.
The band coped admirably and managed to rattle through a decent number of songs including a Condo Fucks track and a couple from the new album, and it was nice that Ira managed to wig out occasionally despite the gentile environment, the chairs and the acoustic guitar.
The band appeared to have a Osmonds-like colour-coding thing going on with their shoes (James=green, Georgia=blue and Ira = red)… maybe I should have asked them a question about that.
One positive (for Yo La Tengo) was that they managed to sell at least two tickets for their proper show at the Roundhouse later in the year – because Stuart and I came away not fully satisfied.
As much as I miss my mum I don’t miss her washing. Our school rugby kit was gold with a blue trim and from my second match I played in a murky greeny-yellow coloured kit. I had grey shirts that should have been white and grey-pink towels that once were red. My mum laundered hard!
Sadly I allowed her to wash hard my one Galaxie 500 T-shirt, bought at the show at the Subterania that still tops my best show of all time list.
I’m pretty sure the print on the front lasted no more than one or two washes…but of course I kept and loved it, and yesterday I dug it out of the attic and (gently) washed it and posed in it.
Modelling my 1990 Galaxie 500 T-shirt
It’s still a wee bit tight so it’ll probably be a few weeks before it gets a public outing (maybe I’ll wear it to Dunfermline in July).
Everything I wrote when I reached 40 still applies – I don’t feel older, maybe a bit more lethargic… or comfortable… but still happy.
Adam bought me an Xbox game that he’s not allowed to play (Left4Dead), Hazel bought me a couple of lovely prints from Etsy. Elaine & Kiek got me a couple of good looking books. Breakfast was Hot + Buns and chocolate fridge cake. Off for a curry later… today I will put on all the weight I’ve lost in the last six months.
McCarthy and Ballboy pretty much own this list I could have filled it up with either of them…
And Tomorrow the Stock Exchange Will Be the Human Race – (54 characters) – McCarthy
I Don’t Have Time to Stand Here With You Fighting About the Size of My Dick – (75 characters) – Ballboy
Stars of Aviation are singing about the summer, but is it going to be sunny, Carol? (mp3) – (83 characters) – Stars of Aviation
Some Months Later, at a Club in New York City, Marcel Sees Albertine Dancing With Another Girl (With Whom He Suspects She Is Having an Affair) And Leaves, Jealous and Upset (mp3) – (172 characters) – Saturnine
Come Sing Me a Happy Song to Prove We All Can Get Along the Lumpy, Bumpy, Long and Dusty Road – (92 characters) – Bert Jansch
It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine) – (57 characters) – REM
I’m not entirely sure how I became a fan of XTC but for a very short period of time in the early 80s I was. At the time I was listening to, almost exclusively, heavy metal. The two exceptions (that spring to mind) were XTC and Kate Bush. I’ve regularly listened to Kate over the years since but very rarely revisit XTC. My love of XTC covered their Black Sea, English Settlement and Mummer albums, at which point it pretty much stopped. I do own a copy of Skylarking but honestly couldn’t name a track off it and suspect it was bought second-hand in a fit of nostalgia in the late 80s and filed away barely listened to.
English Settlement always felt like the archetypal XTC album: It had their best single (Senses Working Overtime); Their most recognisable cover (the Uffington White Horse); and from title to tracklisting has that Englishness that was XTC.
The last time I gave English Settlement a listen was in 2006 when I took my first (and only) shot at NaNoWriMo. My awful (I mean really awful) novel, Plan 4, featured a chapter where the three protagonists decide to hunt down the chalk carving on the front of XTC’s English Settlement and spend a night there.
“Are you sure it’s a real thing Anna? I mean…they could have just made it up”, Spirit was not convinced of the plan as yet.
“Of course it exists, it’s a chalk carving.”
“But it’s not a photo, it’s only a drawing, maybe they just doodled it.”
I remember being disappointed in it back then, so disappointed that when my characters reached the White Horse they chose to listen to My Bloody Valentine. Listening today though it seems so much better than then. There are annoyances and it occasionally shows its age but for the most part it stands up pretty well, I’ll probably not leave it three years before I listen again.
I’ve pretty much resigned myself to the fact that in the future I probably won’t be “buying” music, the future will be like Spotify or We7 or last.fm. When I want to hear something I’ll just go online and I’ll hear it. Maybe I’ll have paid a subscription or maybe I’ll grit my teeth through the ads but I won’t be “buying” or “owning” anything.
I am happy that I have come to terms with not having to make that commitment and therefore don’t feel concerned about the plastic and paper, the petrol and packaging, the trees and climate change that buying those physical objects involve.
Today I downloaded The Mummers album from eMusic and it’s very typical of my recent buying, I’ll hear a track I like (in this case on “Later…”) and I’ll take a chance on the whole album, but I suspect that this is where the next change will come. I didn’t need to “take a chance” I could have shot off to Spotify and tried out the whole album before I made a commitment to buy. While I’ve managed to fight off the desire for physical declaration of my love, I still love the feeling of gambling, of taking a step in the dark. I know that will probably change but I’m happy with how far I’ve come in the two and a bit years. And while it’s maybe not how I imagined the future would be I think it’s probably a good thing.
I arrived at Hawkwind, obviously, by working back from my love for Motorhead. I never loved Hawkwind in the same way, maybe it was the (very misplaced) hippies mess they got tangled up in, or maybe it was becuase the new albums they were releasing around then, Sonic Attack, Church of Hawkwind, Choose Your Masques, were all actually pretty poor. I saw them at the Guildford Civic Hall three or four times duing the early 80s and the shows were a strange mix of thrilling and tedious. The last time, on the Choose Your Masques tour, my enduring memory of the show was the Silver Surfer animation projected behind them, and the dancers – the music itself is long-forgotten.
Despite all of that in Space Ritual they produced an album that was better than any Motorhead managed. I had a double vinyl copy and I suspect that the Calvert bits diminished my appreciation of it. With vinyl you didn’t have the luxury of programming out the weird arty-farty nonsense and get on with the psychedelic rock music, so I suspect that the album never got the full appreciation then than it deserved. Most likely I’d get frustrated and dig out Overkill instead; no distracting weirdness on that album. Listening now for the first time in more than 20 years, those bits no longer bother me and I can understand their importance to the album as a whole. I was able to enjoy this as the piece of art it was, rather than a collection of rock tracks. I’d forgotten, and still barely notice, that Space Ritual was a live album which is why I never chuck it out as one of my favourite live albums – it may well be the best live album ever.
To be honest I’m more than a little surprised at just how much I love Space Ritual – maybe it’s a quirk of timing and that at some undetermined point in the future I’ll read this back and have a what-was-I-thinking moment.
