Monday 8 August 2011

Disillusionment

[First post from my phone, downloader the blogger app on Android]

What's going on? If someone said a week ago that there'd be rioting & looting in London, would you have believed it?! It's just madness. Were parts of society just waiting for an excuse to disregard the laws placed on them. Taking from others. Destroying livelihoods. Guess we don't comprehend the reality of poverty & deprivation in some areas, whilst we're living our comfortable lives ... this is how disenchanted/disenfranchised some people are I guess, as it can't just be a select group of criminals. This is on a massive scale. Sad times.

Planetary action, complex interaction. Chemical reaction, magnetic attraction.

Been listening to Deerhoof quite a bit at work this week. Probably my favourite band at the moment.

There most recent album, 'Deerhoof vs Evil' is truly excellent. It's their tenth album, I believe. The main heart of the band is the tension between their rhythmic dense art-rock and Satomi Matsuzaki little girl lost voice, with strains of her Japanese accent seaping through. The two singles ('Super Duper Rescue Heads' & 'The Merry Barracks' ... though I have 'Behold a Marvel in the Darkness' on 7", but I don't seem to be able to find a video for that) are incredible, though it could be fair to say they represent the reasons why this band will never be mainstream ... both concentrating on rhythm and repeated vocals rather than a traditional verse/chorus dynamic as such.

The other two albums I have, 'Milk Man' & 'Friend Opportunity', both have some incredible songs too.

Only been into them for a month or so. Saw them playing 'Milk Man' in its entirity at Alexandra Palace around the start of July, as part of the ATP Don't Look Back series of gigs. It was a great set. They were supporting the Flaming Lips. I'll have to blog about their performance of the 'Soft Bulletin' at some point.

Had a look to see if they had any gigs coming up, ... and found they were playing as part of Congotronics vs Rockers, an amzaing mash-up of tradi-mod African electronica (including Konono No 1 & Kasai Allstars) with indie (represented by Deerhoof, Wildbirds & Peacedrums, Matt Mehlan and Juana Molina), at the Barbican on 12 July 2011. The show arose from an album, 'Tradi-Mods vs Rockers', released at the end of last year on which a load of indie bands (including Deerhoof & the Animal Collective) covered songs by Konono No 1 & Kasai Allstars. The band, consisting of nineteen musicians in total, toured Europe & Asia between the end of June and the start of August ... with just the one gig in the UK. Check out their blog, if any of this sounds interesting ... as well as this interview from The Quietus.

The gig was truly outstanding. People were actually dancing in the aisles, at the Barbican! It was the definition of a party atmosphere. Something special for sure. This is the cover of 'Super Duper Rescue Heads':


If you can imagine, it was actually better when we saw them a couple of weeks later. Of course, the actual gig comprised much more heavily of Konono No 1/Kasai Allstars covers ... using their home-made instruments to blend traditional rhythms into something new. Had decided to persuade a colleague to come with me, pretty much on a whim. It was one of those things were realised we were both so lucky to have caught it.

Anyway, here is a couple of reviews I found:

Picked up the album recently, but haven't listened to that yet. Will also be checking out Pierre Laffargue’s document, when that is released.

Sunday 7 August 2011

Festivals!

Just brought tickets for me & two friends for this year's Leeds Festival. Fairly excited.

Went before when I was in sixth form, back in:

  • 2002 (also known as the year of the riot - though I did sleep through that), when Foo Fighters, Muse and the Strokes were headlining; and
  • 2003, with Blink-182 and Blur ... though the White Stripes pulled out due to Jack White's car crash and subsequent broken hand.

Of course there were many other great bands/artists I saw further down the bill those years. Off the top of my head, ... Hot Hot Heat, the Polyphonic Spree, Ash, Otis Lee Crenshaw, Tommy Tiernan, Feeder, the Vines, Placebo and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were stand outs. So yeah, quite a few.

Haven't been to a festival since Glastonbury in 2004. It's far too long, but plans since then have always gone astray. Last year we decided to go to Latitude, and the tickets sold out the day before I tried to buy them.

Looking through the line-up for this year, I really want to see:

  • Muse, who have promised to play songs off 'Origin of Symmetry' ... by far and away their best album;
  • Pulp, as it seems to have been their summer & they're closing the festival;
  • Madness, as who wouldn't want to get their skank on to them;
  • the Strokes;
  • 2manyDJs;
  • Simian Mobile Disco;
  • Jimmy Eat World;
  • Two Door Cinema Club;
  • Deftones, to satisfy the teenage rocker left inside me;
  • Tim Minchin, who I saw do an awesome gig in Nottingham last December;
  • Crystal Castles;
  • the Kills;
  • Crystal Fighters; and
  • Death From Above 1979.

Probably more than I realised. On first glance it isn't a great line-up. Perhaps that's because the main stage on the day headlined by My Chemical Romance is really poor It's beyond my understanding as to why someone would decide MCR are fit to be headliners - saw them supporting Muse at Wemberly in 2007, on after Biffy Clyro ... it was painful. They did a (horribly misjudged) plea regarding teenage suicide. If this is the sort of music teenagers slit their wrists to, I could probably understand why.

Sure I'll discover more bands when I'm there, as well. Don't know anyone on the BBC Introducing ('new band') Stage, ... but guess I don't read NME anymore, with been twenty-six and all.

Also trying to get free tickets to Wilderness Festival as part of their street team. Have completed eight tasks, and will find out on Monday if I've been successful. So, may be going to that next weekend too. Really want to see the Guillemots, but also looking forward to Toots & the Maytals, Mercury Rev, Laura Marling and Gogol Bordello. It sounds like a rather chilled festival. Fingers crossed I get the ticket then.

Lot's of lists in this post. Should really get to sleep, seem to be content to waste this evening/night away. Have stuff to do tomorrow [sigh], but shall have to see how that goes now...

Spare time, on a Saturday evening...

Just finished watching a film. Got back from the pub at half eleven (catching up with old school friends in the homestead), so what else could be done. Although I probably should have got some sleep, that just didn't really seem to appeal. It's pretty late now, but thought I'd just jot down some thoughts.

The blurb on the box describes 'Evangelion: 1.11, You Are (Not) Alone' as:

    The rebuild of the groundbreaking giant robot anime!

Apparently 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' was a groundbreaking anime series in the mid-90s, ... though I don't really have any prior knowledge of it. The rebuild will consist of four films. My sister brought me the second film for my birthday the other week. It's called 'You Can (Not) Advance'.

In any case, I liked the film. A lot. Though I have little real idea what was going on. As it's the first film in a series of four, I guess that's kind of the point. It could have something to do with the fact I'm completely drained at the moment (and I wasn't paying complete attention at the start of the film), but probably not so much.

The main plot, relating to this segment, was fairly straight-forward. Big robots created by secret organisation and controlled by human (early-teenage) pilots fight 'angels' seeking to destroy the world. Very little about the characters is given away. And lots of 'hints' are given as to future developments, though hints would suggest these would give the viewer any idea as to what is coming.

I'm especially taken with the character 'Ayanami Rei ', the mysterious young evangelion pilot (Unit-00) that the main character 'Ikari Shinji' (Unit-01) must fight alongside.


Obviously, we learn next to nothing about her.

The world seemed fully realised though. Tokyo-3 was an odd mix of underground secret organisation (and by underground, I mean literally based underground) protecting the people living their lives on the surface. Obviously when the 'angels' appeared, buildings were retracted and one/both of the evangelion pilots were sent up to stop them. Not so much was explained, the world is just how it is. I do like when a film/novel just drops you into an alternate reality like that, ... so long as that world makes sense on its own terms, of course.

This world does, although lots of questions are left unanswered:

  • Why have Rei & Shinji been chosen to pilot the evangelions?
  • What are the angels, and why are they trying to destroy humanity?
  • What is the significance of the first and second impacts, which wiped out half the population?
  • Why are there to be 14 (I think, though maybe I mis-remembered that) angels?

And so on and so forth. There is a booklet with the DVD that explains some background, as well as key terms, etc. Maybe I'll have to take a look at that. It's possible that a second viewing, at a more reasonable hour, may help me to understand what the questions are a little better, ... even if the answers are yet to be revealed.

Really looking forward to watching the second film now. Presumably it will start gathering pace, with more secrets to be revealed, background filled in and relationships explained. Should be good. The only problem is ... the third and fourth films haven't been released yet.

Tuesday 2 August 2011

Weekend, part 2

Watched an anime on Sunday evening called '5 Centimetres Per Second'. In terms of creating an atmosphere of pervading melancholy, it was faultless.


Actually it is a very beautiful film. The animation is incredible. It's one of those films you have to allow to just wash over you. Although the plot isn't particularly dense ... basically a character piece with little in the way of actual story, it deals with its themes (first love, growing up and  growing apart, longing for what you had and can never have, etc) with a real deftness of touch.

My only criticism would be that the final act (the film is spilt into three parts, entitled 'Cherry Blossom Story', 'Cosmonaut' and '5 Centimetres Per Second') doesn't really add anything to the story, ... or rather it starts to look like it may, and then finishes rather abruptly. Obviously I gather it's meant to be ambiguous, but it left me feeling a little disappointed more than anything.

Weekend, part 1

Last weekend I went to an interesting exhibition:

http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/2011-06-27_takashi-murakami/

Presumably it was a comment on the sexualisation of young girls in Japanese culture (i.e. through manga/anime), though it probably would've been better if I hadn't gone on my lonesome ... felt a little self-conscious. Did get a flatpack cardboard version of one of this sculptures:


Will have to take a look at constructing it sometime!

First post

Decided to start a blog. Maybe it will act as an incentive to keep track of my thoughts, ... a place to note down interesting things that I see or do. Perhaps it will stand here as a relic to half-remembered good intentions from days of past. Who knows.