Ian Rankin regularly references Jackie Leven in his books. I never really knew his music. Rankin eventually recorded a CD with him and curated (I think) a free CD that came with a music magazine a while back. That CD was my first exposure to the music of Jackie Leven, and it was pretty good.
More recently, a Leven shaped light bulb went off above my head. I'm not entirely sure why but I decided to listen to some more of his stuff on youtube and some of it really clicked. Tracks like 'My Spanish Dad' and 'The Sexual Loneliness of Jesus Christ' really say something to me. 'My Spanish Dad', in particular, pulls my heart strings and often brings a tear to my eye for personal reasons.
Leven was a great talent but he never became famous. In the late 60s he started to make music, initially releasing an album under the name John St Field, on a Spanish record label in 1975. He then fronted the new wave band Doll by Doll. Sadly their music is not easily available in physical formats not. He was badly assaulted in 1984, losing his voice and he was subsequently addicted to heroin for a while. He collaborated with Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols in the band CBI in around 1988 before leaving the public eye for a while.
He returned to music making publicly in 1994 and released more than 20 records before his death from cancer in 2011. He played folk with a contemporary feel, employing samples with his acoustic guitar.
There is a lot of music and I have certainly not heard much of it. It is worth dipping a toe in. The Rankin curated CD was called 'Heroes can come in any size' and came with The Word magazine. It's also available in MP3 format from Amazon.
He should have been a household name.
Saturday, September 16, 2017
Updates and maintenance of the blog
I've been doing a bit of updating of the blog, I was considering a new theme but I'm going to keep this one for now.
I did update the Cool Stuff section a bit click here to read the updated cool stuff page
Life is busy and I always have a lot going on but I do enjoy playing about with this blog at times.
I did update the Cool Stuff section a bit click here to read the updated cool stuff page
Life is busy and I always have a lot going on but I do enjoy playing about with this blog at times.
RIP Harry Dean Stanton
Harry Dean Stanton had a good innings. He has died at the age of 91 after recently appearing in Twin Peaks: The Return. I remember him best from great films like Repo Man and Alien.
Listening to the tributes on BBC Radio 4 this morning I realise that he has appeared in many more great films. Pretty in Pink is a great film but I don't remember Stanton in it. I don't remember him in Godfather Part II but he was there.
By all accounts he was a great actor.
RIP.
Listening to the tributes on BBC Radio 4 this morning I realise that he has appeared in many more great films. Pretty in Pink is a great film but I don't remember Stanton in it. I don't remember him in Godfather Part II but he was there.
By all accounts he was a great actor.
RIP.
Thursday, September 14, 2017
Tuesday, September 12, 2017
Twin Peaks - The Return
The revival of Twin Peaks has been rather exciting for me. I've gone to fairly extreme lengths to try and see it on a weekly basis and overall it has been pretty satisfying. As a teenager I watched the original Twin Peaks as it was broadcast on BBC2. It fascinated me back then. I think I'd already seen a couple of Lynch films by then and I did my best to see a lot of his other work after that.
The original Twin Peaks finished on a cliff hanger, with Agent Cooper trapped in another detention while his evil doppelgänger, possessed by the evil BOB entity, smashing his head into a mirror.
The show finished and was followed by the Fire Walk With Me film that was a bit of a box office flop. Last year Mark Frost released a great book called 'The Secret History of Twin Peaks' that added a lot of colour and richness to the Twin Peaks universe without giving away much about the new series. The book served to whet my appetite for new Twin Peaks. I was not disappointed.
Lynch is a pretty unique film maker. His work, from Eraserhead on, is different. He views the world in a different ways and he expresses himself differently. In Twin Peak - The Return (TPTR from now on) he has been able to run riot with his creative urges. The initial 2 hours of the series had little relevance to what had happened before although TPTR is a direct continuation of the original storyline. Lynch will let scenes run for longer than many film makers would tolerate, creating new and different rhythms in his work. His use of sound is creative and his solutions for replacing actors who are no longer available (for a variety of reasons) are novel to say the least. One actor he has fallen out with has been replaced with a talking silver christmas tree and the character of Philip Jeffries, played in the Fire Walk With Me (FWWM) film by David Bowie, was portrayed by a giant talking kettle (with the approval of Bowie before he died).
Kyle Maclachlan, Agent Dale Cooper and alumnus of many Lynch works plays 3 characters in TPTR. Agent Cooper appears only sparingly although the malevolent doppelgänger, Mr C is a more regular oppressive presence throughout the series. Maclachlan also supplies comedy relief in the form of a third Cooper variant, Dougie E, thought the series.
Many of the original cast return and the cult status of Twin Peaks has ensured the presence of many talented actors as well as an excellent soundtrack with performances from Nine Inch Nails and Eddie Vedder amongst others. Lynch himself appears as FBI director Gordon Cole supplying additional comedy.
TPTR made me laugh and cry. It contains genuinely disturbing scenes as well as amazingly heartwarming moments. Lynch does not take prisoners and he does not explain his work. A lot is left open to interpretation and many questions are left unanswered. Overall I was satisfied but greedily I want more. The are endings, one good heroic ending and another bleak, potentially apocalyptic ending. We may have seen the end of the Agent Cooper/Laura Palmer story but there is room for more tales from the Twin Peaks universe. We would all like to know what has happened to Audrey.
I want to watch this again and see if my understanding changes. I feel lucky to have seen this and I can't wait for Mark Frost's next Twin Peaks book 'The Final Dossier' which may answer some stuff.
Lynch and Frost have created a masterpiece that people will struggle to understand for years. Some folk with think it is pretentious bullshit. I'm not sure what it is but I enjoyed the ride.
For an interesting interpretation of the ending look at https://www.waggish.org/2017/twin-peaks-finale/
The original Twin Peaks finished on a cliff hanger, with Agent Cooper trapped in another detention while his evil doppelgänger, possessed by the evil BOB entity, smashing his head into a mirror.
The show finished and was followed by the Fire Walk With Me film that was a bit of a box office flop. Last year Mark Frost released a great book called 'The Secret History of Twin Peaks' that added a lot of colour and richness to the Twin Peaks universe without giving away much about the new series. The book served to whet my appetite for new Twin Peaks. I was not disappointed.
Lynch is a pretty unique film maker. His work, from Eraserhead on, is different. He views the world in a different ways and he expresses himself differently. In Twin Peak - The Return (TPTR from now on) he has been able to run riot with his creative urges. The initial 2 hours of the series had little relevance to what had happened before although TPTR is a direct continuation of the original storyline. Lynch will let scenes run for longer than many film makers would tolerate, creating new and different rhythms in his work. His use of sound is creative and his solutions for replacing actors who are no longer available (for a variety of reasons) are novel to say the least. One actor he has fallen out with has been replaced with a talking silver christmas tree and the character of Philip Jeffries, played in the Fire Walk With Me (FWWM) film by David Bowie, was portrayed by a giant talking kettle (with the approval of Bowie before he died).
Kyle Maclachlan, Agent Dale Cooper and alumnus of many Lynch works plays 3 characters in TPTR. Agent Cooper appears only sparingly although the malevolent doppelgänger, Mr C is a more regular oppressive presence throughout the series. Maclachlan also supplies comedy relief in the form of a third Cooper variant, Dougie E, thought the series.
Many of the original cast return and the cult status of Twin Peaks has ensured the presence of many talented actors as well as an excellent soundtrack with performances from Nine Inch Nails and Eddie Vedder amongst others. Lynch himself appears as FBI director Gordon Cole supplying additional comedy.
TPTR made me laugh and cry. It contains genuinely disturbing scenes as well as amazingly heartwarming moments. Lynch does not take prisoners and he does not explain his work. A lot is left open to interpretation and many questions are left unanswered. Overall I was satisfied but greedily I want more. The are endings, one good heroic ending and another bleak, potentially apocalyptic ending. We may have seen the end of the Agent Cooper/Laura Palmer story but there is room for more tales from the Twin Peaks universe. We would all like to know what has happened to Audrey.
I want to watch this again and see if my understanding changes. I feel lucky to have seen this and I can't wait for Mark Frost's next Twin Peaks book 'The Final Dossier' which may answer some stuff.
Lynch and Frost have created a masterpiece that people will struggle to understand for years. Some folk with think it is pretentious bullshit. I'm not sure what it is but I enjoyed the ride.
For an interesting interpretation of the ending look at https://www.waggish.org/2017/twin-peaks-finale/
Sunday, September 10, 2017
A confederacy of dunces by John Kennedy Toole
I finally got round to reading A confederacy of dunces, finishing it yesterday, on my birthday, on a plane home from Italy. It's a great book and it's easy to see why it won a posthumous Pulitzer prize for John Kennedy Toole. It's also easy to see why the book is considered to be unfilmable. The horror of Ignatius J Reilly would be difficult to capture in the flesh.
I didn't really know what to expect when I picked up the book. For some reason I thought it was meant to be a story about a newspaperman but the actual story of an arrogant fat slob causing chaos in New Orleans was equally appealing. Ignatius is a brilliant character, prefiguring both Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons and internet trolls by several decades.
It's a crazy ride with a constant feeling that the piss is being taken. I'm glad I finally managed to read it and I would recommend glancing at it at some time.
I didn't really know what to expect when I picked up the book. For some reason I thought it was meant to be a story about a newspaperman but the actual story of an arrogant fat slob causing chaos in New Orleans was equally appealing. Ignatius is a brilliant character, prefiguring both Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons and internet trolls by several decades.
It's a crazy ride with a constant feeling that the piss is being taken. I'm glad I finally managed to read it and I would recommend glancing at it at some time.
Monday, August 28, 2017
A music course at East Kilbride Art Centre approximately 25 years ago
I was using Twitter this evening and said 'hi' to Davie Scott of the band The Pearlfishers. He had tweeted a link about Brian Wilson and that brought back memories of a music production course that I attended about 25 years ago (roughly) that Davie taught in the East Kilbride art centre. I loved that course, I learnt a lot and even though I seldom make music nowadays it was a valuable experience.
At that time there was a small digital recording studio in the Art Centre and Davie recorded local bands like Gods Boyfriend. I was a music addict back then and I played in my juvenile punk band with some of my pals. My best friend from school and I signed up to the course to learn more about making music and it was great.
Davie had done some good stuff with the Pearlfishers as well as his earlier group (love and money I think CORRECTION - hearts and minds!) and he was spreading the gospel of perfect pop to the grunge addled minds of EK. He was not the only person of interesting the course. There was an older guy, a drummer, a contemporary of the Jesus and Mary Chain, who had apparently played in an early permutation of the Mary Chain and some band with the guy out of the Wildhearts and sadly suffered from mental health problems. The bloke was a really nice guy with great stories but in retrospect some of his stories may have been delusions. Back then I didn't know much about mental health problems and in the 25 years since then I've learned more through my various professional studies and personal contacts. I like to think that his story was true and he did play with the Mary Chain and that Never Understand was indeed about him trying to explain his psychotic episodes to William Reid.
Davie Scott himself is a man with a deep love and understanding of music and he was able to clearly explain this to the class. Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys was his hero and he taught us about various production techniques, arrangements and the rivalry between Wilson and the Beatles. I remember one session when Davie went through God Only Knows from Pet Sounds chord by chord, explaining harmonies, melodies, lyrics and arrangements, presenting to us a great argument that Wilson had created the perfect pop song. He may be right although 'Wouldn't it be nice' is a bit more catchy.
Music has been important in my life. It is not all of my life but it has been a major theme and a source of pleasure. I've played my guitar a few times this week for the first time in ages, just for fun. I always mean to write and record some songs again but real life and its associated pressures always gets in the way. I have a lot of passions, my girlfriend, music, comic books, neurology, art. I'm a lucky man. I'm lucky to have had such a rich life so far.
East Kilbride was special at times. I remember playing concerts in the Arts Centre, seeing the great Alex Chilton of Big Star play there and seeing my pals play there. My teenage life was at times electric and colourful and it is nice o remembered the good bits.
At that time there was a small digital recording studio in the Art Centre and Davie recorded local bands like Gods Boyfriend. I was a music addict back then and I played in my juvenile punk band with some of my pals. My best friend from school and I signed up to the course to learn more about making music and it was great.
Davie had done some good stuff with the Pearlfishers as well as his earlier group (love and money I think CORRECTION - hearts and minds!) and he was spreading the gospel of perfect pop to the grunge addled minds of EK. He was not the only person of interesting the course. There was an older guy, a drummer, a contemporary of the Jesus and Mary Chain, who had apparently played in an early permutation of the Mary Chain and some band with the guy out of the Wildhearts and sadly suffered from mental health problems. The bloke was a really nice guy with great stories but in retrospect some of his stories may have been delusions. Back then I didn't know much about mental health problems and in the 25 years since then I've learned more through my various professional studies and personal contacts. I like to think that his story was true and he did play with the Mary Chain and that Never Understand was indeed about him trying to explain his psychotic episodes to William Reid.
Davie Scott himself is a man with a deep love and understanding of music and he was able to clearly explain this to the class. Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys was his hero and he taught us about various production techniques, arrangements and the rivalry between Wilson and the Beatles. I remember one session when Davie went through God Only Knows from Pet Sounds chord by chord, explaining harmonies, melodies, lyrics and arrangements, presenting to us a great argument that Wilson had created the perfect pop song. He may be right although 'Wouldn't it be nice' is a bit more catchy.
Music has been important in my life. It is not all of my life but it has been a major theme and a source of pleasure. I've played my guitar a few times this week for the first time in ages, just for fun. I always mean to write and record some songs again but real life and its associated pressures always gets in the way. I have a lot of passions, my girlfriend, music, comic books, neurology, art. I'm a lucky man. I'm lucky to have had such a rich life so far.
East Kilbride was special at times. I remember playing concerts in the Arts Centre, seeing the great Alex Chilton of Big Star play there and seeing my pals play there. My teenage life was at times electric and colourful and it is nice o remembered the good bits.
Thursday, August 24, 2017
things that happened that I would not have expected 20 years ago
The world is a strange place and you can't predict the future. I've been about for a while now and I realise that a lot of unexpected things have happened.
Some of the oddest things - in no real order
Preacher being made into a TV show
Ant Man being a live action film
Guardians of the Galaxy being a live action film
7 Star Wars films being made in the last 20 years
Twin Peaks returning to TV after 25 years
Mogwai going from playing the Key Youth Centre in East Kilbride to playing the Hydro in Glasgow
Rangers Football Club going into administration
Woolworths and Safeways no longer being on the high street in Scotland
Netflix and youtube
Every song ever being available instantly on the internet
Me doing the job I'm doing and living the life I'm living
The world in a strange and brilliant place at times
Some of the oddest things - in no real order
Preacher being made into a TV show
Ant Man being a live action film
Guardians of the Galaxy being a live action film
7 Star Wars films being made in the last 20 years
Twin Peaks returning to TV after 25 years
Mogwai going from playing the Key Youth Centre in East Kilbride to playing the Hydro in Glasgow
Rangers Football Club going into administration
Woolworths and Safeways no longer being on the high street in Scotland
Netflix and youtube
Every song ever being available instantly on the internet
Me doing the job I'm doing and living the life I'm living
The world in a strange and brilliant place at times
Conor Oberst at the ABC in Glasgow 2017
This was the third time that I had seen Conor Oberst live. I never managed to see Bright Eyes but I've seen him play solo shows and with Desperadicos. I was slightly late to the Bright Eyes game, only really getting into their stuff in 2004 when I was living in Coventry but Oberst has soundtracked much of my life over the past 13 years. I rate him fairly highly.
This is the third gig that I attended with my girlfriend/significant other/better half this month and it was possibly a harder sell as Oberst is not a big name. I managed to get her to the show, overcoming her doubts, and by the second song she turned round and said 'this is amazing'. She was right.
Oberst is a talented guy. He writes great songs and he plays several instruments. He sings like a dream and he does an excellent Bob Dylan impersonation. He seems to have fun on stage. He delivered an amazing apology for Donald Trump (combined with some Trump family history). Beyond Conor himself the rest of the band was great too.
The set included 8 Bright Eyes songs including a duet on Lua with Adrianne Lenker, singer from support band Big Thief. Another 8 of the songs were from the Ruminations/Salutations set that has come out over the past year. The more recent stuff is amongst his strongest material in recent years.
Basically, this was a great show. I want to hear more new music and see him play again at some point in the near future. Oberst should be much more successful and famous.
This is the third gig that I attended with my girlfriend/significant other/better half this month and it was possibly a harder sell as Oberst is not a big name. I managed to get her to the show, overcoming her doubts, and by the second song she turned round and said 'this is amazing'. She was right.
Oberst is a talented guy. He writes great songs and he plays several instruments. He sings like a dream and he does an excellent Bob Dylan impersonation. He seems to have fun on stage. He delivered an amazing apology for Donald Trump (combined with some Trump family history). Beyond Conor himself the rest of the band was great too.
The set included 8 Bright Eyes songs including a duet on Lua with Adrianne Lenker, singer from support band Big Thief. Another 8 of the songs were from the Ruminations/Salutations set that has come out over the past year. The more recent stuff is amongst his strongest material in recent years.
Basically, this was a great show. I want to hear more new music and see him play again at some point in the near future. Oberst should be much more successful and famous.
Wednesday, August 09, 2017
The Pixies at the Kelvingrove Bandstand, Glasgow
I started listening to the Pixies in 1991 or 1992 around the time that they broke up. I initially heard Doolittle on tape, borrowed from the library in East Kilbride. A neighbour gave me a copy of Trompe Le Monde and I bought a second hand copy of Surfer Rosa, looking for Big Black style Albini kicks.
They didn't click with me immediately. I got the REM and Velvets references on 'Here comes your man' but it took a while to fall in love with them. Eventually I got there.
I first saw them live in 2004 at T in the Park and since then I've seen them in the SECC and at Primavera in Barcelona. Generally they deliver and I was keen to see them again at the Kelvingrove Bandstand which is a great venue and usually ned free. Sadly there was a bit of a ned problem last night which is often an issue in Glasgow. Drunken twats are like scabies in Glasgow and I encountered one last night.
The pixies played a great 31 song set, starting with 'where is my mind?' and including 'wintering', 'caribou', 'nimrod's son', 'broken face', 'wave of mutilation', 'here comes your man', 'gouge away', 'planet of sound' and 'debaser'. They also played a bunch of new stuff I didn't recognise. They were tight and the new bass player did well. We also bumped into a bunch of pals which was nice.
Sadly our personal space was invaded by a drunken twat who thinks it is ok to be verbally aggressive to women. Another concert goer was wearing a 'rudimentary peni' t-shirt and on reflection, I feel that it should be gifted to that drunken idiot as a warning to the general public. After some razor sharp with and repartee, we left the venue during the last song to avoid me getting my ass kicked by the aforementioned intoxicated misogynist. We listened to the encore of 'into the white' from the car feeling sorry for anyone who needs to interact with that dude on a regular basis.
The pixies were good and assholes are, sadly, everywhere. Even at pixies concerts. If wankers could fly we would never see the sky.
Minimum alcohol pricing may well make Scotland a better place.
They didn't click with me immediately. I got the REM and Velvets references on 'Here comes your man' but it took a while to fall in love with them. Eventually I got there.
I first saw them live in 2004 at T in the Park and since then I've seen them in the SECC and at Primavera in Barcelona. Generally they deliver and I was keen to see them again at the Kelvingrove Bandstand which is a great venue and usually ned free. Sadly there was a bit of a ned problem last night which is often an issue in Glasgow. Drunken twats are like scabies in Glasgow and I encountered one last night.
The pixies played a great 31 song set, starting with 'where is my mind?' and including 'wintering', 'caribou', 'nimrod's son', 'broken face', 'wave of mutilation', 'here comes your man', 'gouge away', 'planet of sound' and 'debaser'. They also played a bunch of new stuff I didn't recognise. They were tight and the new bass player did well. We also bumped into a bunch of pals which was nice.
Sadly our personal space was invaded by a drunken twat who thinks it is ok to be verbally aggressive to women. Another concert goer was wearing a 'rudimentary peni' t-shirt and on reflection, I feel that it should be gifted to that drunken idiot as a warning to the general public. After some razor sharp with and repartee, we left the venue during the last song to avoid me getting my ass kicked by the aforementioned intoxicated misogynist. We listened to the encore of 'into the white' from the car feeling sorry for anyone who needs to interact with that dude on a regular basis.
The pixies were good and assholes are, sadly, everywhere. Even at pixies concerts. If wankers could fly we would never see the sky.
Minimum alcohol pricing may well make Scotland a better place.
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