Geeky stats stuff

I've been playing with the blogger stats stuff. Sad, ego-masturbation but intereting for me. Since June 1808 people have visited this page. The most visited posts are a book review and gig reviews for Jerry Sadowitz, Mogwai, Beirut and Mudhoney. A lot of people have been looking at the Arcade Fire review from last night (21 in 15 hours) and various bits of pseudo-political nonsense.

I guess a lot of the hits on this page will be looking for music to download. Not really my bag because I don't want sued by a multi-national company. Hopefully some folk will enjoy the opinionated bullshit.

Enough egotism.

Arcade Fire live in the Glasgow SECC

The SECC isn't the best venue in Glasgow but it works for some bands. Arcade Fire are one of those bands. I caught them at the SECC on the 'neon bible' tour a few years back and I loved it. Their latest album 'the suburbs' is great so I was very keen on seeing again this time.

Support was from Devendra Banhart who I am only vaguely familiar with. I have one of his CDs from a few years back but I have to admit that I don't listen to it regularly. He was playing some late sixties/early seventies style stuff. He reminded me at different times of the Doors, Lou Reed, Bob Dylan and Santana. It was pleasant but not enough to make me buy another CD.

Arcade Fire are now a very successful stadium rock band. Their music is big and their stage show is big. They still manage to retain the intimate and individual parts of their music in front of a large audience. It's great to be in a large crowd singing along with Month of May, Wake Up and Neighbourhood #1. I guess they are the alternative rock Springsteen or U2. Professional and intelligent.

A great show. I want to see them again.

500 posts

I've just realised that this is the 500th post on this blog. I started writing here in July 2005. It's still fun. 500 posts sounds like a good number.

World's Greatest Dad - DVD review

World's Greatest Dad is an American film starring Robin Williams that wasn't very successful when it was originally released in 2009. I heard about the film in a recent magazine list of under-rated films. I managed to pick up a cheap second-hand copy of the American DVD on Amazon.

Robin Williams is a high school teacher who lives with his son. His son is rather obnoxious and treats Williams like shit. Williams has written several novels, none of which have been published. Everything changes when the son dies in an unfortunate wanking accident (think Michael Hutchence or David Carradine).

Williams decides to conceal the terminal onanism of his son and writes a fake suicide note. The suicide note is beautiful and his son becomes an idol for tortured teens (kinda like Nicky Wire or Kurt Cobain). Much hilarity ensues.

It's a good film. Track it down.

David Cameron and The Smiths

I don't really believe that David Cameron was a fan of The Smiths. I think, as a former marketing twat, he declared his love for them just to hit a target demographic amongst professionals who did not normally vote Tory.

Now Morrissey and Johnny Marr have both come out to say that David Cameron is not allowed to listen to the Smiths. Now, I'm sure that this will not bother him, because I'm sure that he is not really a Smiths fan. However, I would like to think that he is going to bed, trying to sleep, knowing that his musical heroes think he is a wank.

I've also stolen and attached a photograph of a student, wearing a Smiths t-shirt while protesting against the rise in university tuition fees. I don't know who took it but it's a nice photo.

Edit - there was cool photo but it seems to be gone now. Bummer

Second edit - stole it again - please get in touch if you are copyright holder and you want it taken down but it is a fucking great picture and I think lots of people should see it

Political Guilt

I've always voted for the Liberal Democrats because I'm a wooly liberal. I believe in social health care, education, the welfare state and all that warm and fuzzy hippy stuff. All the stuff we aim at.

I always voted for the Liberals because I hate the Tories with a passion. I grew up in Lanarkshire in the '80s and it was nice enough but I remember when we stopped getting our free milk thanks to Thatcher the milk snatcher. Some of my friends used to play a game called 'miner's strike' where they they would fight with each other like the miners and the police. I remember the tories strip-mining our infrastructure and selling off British Gas and British Telecom making the middle class, at least those with money to invest, richer than ever. I remember the adverts for shares in our national resources and the greed is good philosophy of the Conservative government.

I never trusted Labour. I think some of the stuff that they tried to do was good but they were ineffectual in the '80s. Briefly, when the late John Smith was in charge, they may have been a worthwhile party but I never trusted Tony Blair with his New Labour bulllshit. He always seemed to be a bit greasy. As soon as I could vote, I voted for the liberals. After the mess of Iraq and Afghanistan I felt that I'd done the right thing. New Labour also let the bankers get away with murder.

I liked Charlie Kennedy, a Scot who liked a drink. A Glasgow Uni graduate. I could understand him. I also liked Menzies Campbell. Nick Clegg was a bit of an unknown but he seemed to have his heart in the right place. He was a nice, warm, fuzzy liberal who wanted to do the right thing. My vote was safe with the liberals.

Then everything got fucked up. We end up in an economic disaster and a lot of people realise that Labour and the Tories are useless fuckers. In fact, all politicians are useless fuckers. And Nick Clegg is the kingmaker. And he makes a pact with the greater of two evils. He puts his party in Government with the Tories.

In under 7 months we have been hit with a torrent of tory 'I'm all right jack'/'fuck the poor' ideology disguised as 'necessary cuts' to pay off our defecit. Despite the fact that our deficit has often been higher. Despite the fact that large companies like Vodafone get tax-breaks allowing them to keep money that could have helped our society.

So, the Liberal Party has sold me out. I don't know who I'll vote for in the future. A lot of Liberals have decent ideas and a good moral compass. Sadly Nick Clegg is a Tory glove puppet with David Cameron doing the fisting. I hope this coalition splits soon.

Some folk have actually looked at this page

Blogger now lets you know a bit more about people that look at your blog. It's interesting. I seem to have had a few people from America and Europe looking at the page which is nice. It also lets you know which pages have been looked at most. Apparently my most viewed page was a review I wrote about the book 'kill yr friends' by John Niven. I'll have to go back and see if that page is particularly well written.

Anyway, thanks for reading.

Godspeed You Black Emperor live at the Glasgow Barrlowlands

I forgot how good Godspeed! you Black Emperor are. I saw them, over 10 years ago, supported by Sigur Ros at the Glasgow Garage and they blew me away. They mine an instrumental rock vein similar to Mogwai. Mogwai with added anarchy and less commercial potential.

I nearly didn't go to this gig. I'd circled the date in my diary but due to current financial constraints I hadn't bought a ticket in advance. Someone very kindly offered me a spare ticket so I braved the frozen tundra of central Glasgow to make my way to the Barrowlands. I'd already nearly broken my arse and my wrist on the sheet ice outside Bridge Street Underground and the painkillers were helping with the cold.

Support was supplied by RM Hubbert, a local guitar bloke. His music was nice enough.

Godspeed were intense, building and swooping, holding my attention and the attention of the freezing room. I could see my breath in the main hall of the Barrowlands despite being surrounded by around 1800 hipster rock fans. I think the visuals projected behind the band were the same ones they used a decade ago but my memory is fuzzy.

We got 7 songs over 2 hours. The band didn't speak to the room, they focused on each other. The music spoke for the band. Godspeed were used in the soundtrack of the film 28 days later and on a cold Glasgow you can see why. Godspeed would feature on the soundtrack of my zombie holocaust.

Need to catch up with some of their records again.....

The National live at the Glasgow Academy

I was really lucky to see this gig. It sold out in about 5 seconds. Yesterday a friend at work had a spare ticket so he let me have it for free. I was well chuffed.

I own all of the albums that The National have released. I started to listen to them when I was at medical school down south. I think the first thing I bought was 'the cherry tree' ep. They have been a fairly constant fixture on my iPod in recent years. The National have some tunes.

I've always managed to miss seeing them live. I'd heard that they were amazing but I just never made it. After tonight I really wish I'd got my finger out of my arse before this. They are a great live act and very interactive with the crowd.

Most of the expected big songs made an appearence although I don't think they played 'murder me rachel'. The Obama boosting 'fake empire' sounded great. Songs from the new album sound better live than on CD.

The singer jumped into the crowd and sang 'mr november' (I think) from somewhere in the middle of the room. Despite the crowd surfing the vocals were audible and in tune. The gig ended with an unamplified acoustic singalong that was special. Few bands could control a large Glasgow crowd that well.

I was very lucky to see this show

Les Savy Fav - live in Glasgow Oran Mor

I got into Les Savy Fav pretty late, a few months after 'let's stay friends' was released. I caught up with their back catalogue quickly and I listen to them regularly. They write good songs.

I first saw Les Savy Fav at the Primavera festival in Barcelona. Their stage show at the festival was larger than life and perfectly suited to the arena venue. I was keen to see them in a more intimate venue in Glasgow. Oran Mor was the chosen place.

I have mixed feelings about Oran Mor. I lived in a room that overlooked the old church that became Oran Mor for a year in the mid nineties. The concert venue is the converted basement/crypt of the church. The sound isn't great and you can't easily see the stage from some parts of the room.

Les Savy Fav have an energetic live show. Singer Tim Harrington wore two comedy outfits and spent most of the gig in the crowd. He swung from the lights and spat beer over the crowd. Visually this was great and the rest of the band supplied musical muscle. Unfotunately you just don't hear much of the vocals and I like their songs.

So this was entertaining. I'd have loved it when I was 18 but I probably enjoy the CDs more.