Beard!

Hey this Darkness cd
won't play on the computer here (lovely model 1998 or so). The Man is copy protecting the rock 'n' roll revolution! Anyway a picture of those Atkins diet successe..

darkness (7k image)

eamonn posted on 29.07.03 @ 05:12 PM GMT [link] [No Comments]

Big Dumb Movies
are mostly what I watched in New York. Certainly no art-house stuff.

On the Saturday after I arrived, after I'd decided not to follow the opsophagoi over to Coney Island, I returned to were I was staying to find my hosts were out for a bit, I waited around, thought about going out to the cinema, then met them as they were considering going to see Finding Nemo. It's a fish-based comedy from Pixar. It's better than Monsters Inc, though not as good as Toy Story 2. The last isn't a serious problem: TS2 is one on the ten best films of the nineties. Like the Aardman animation films, the Pixar film seem like anachronisms: the technology is cutting edge, but the films themselves are made by people who share an aesthitic with film-makers of the pre-MTV age. The script's funny, the voice cast is excellent, and it contains a moment as strange and jarring and brilliant as Cowgirl Jessie refusing to go back into storage.

Then on Wednesday I made it my mission to go see Pirates Of The Caribbean, but I missed the early showing, and then I had to move back to Manhattan, so by the time I finally went to see it, in the enormo-theater in Times Square, I had to buy a ticket for the showing after next, and go see Terminator 3 in the mean time. T3 isn't a very bad movie, but it certainly isn't a good one. There's a chase scene at the start of Arnie vs a bunch of police/ambulance vehicles that would be pretty impressive it if didn't share a world with Grand Theft Auto III. And there's a lot of scenes where the cold robotlike face of the plot shows through (ha!), like when people who known each other all their life handily describe the key aspects of their relationship in a few snappy sentences. There's some cool stuff as well, but nothing you couldn't come up with if you sat down to write a third Terminator film yourself. But you'd probably rewrite the stupid bits.

Pirates of the Caribbean is actually a film that I have less to say about, as I don't want to spoil, and I don't want to overhype. It's a fantastically entertaining action-adventure film, in a Raiders of the Lost Ark sort of way. Which it's better than (so much for the hype).

Thursday I had an hour and a half to kill, so I saw Charlies Angels 2, which was playing every hour just across from the internet cafe. It has both Firestarter and Breathe on the soundtrack, and that actually says a lot. Many films would think twice before adding two songs from same band, let alone the same album, let alone an album that came out 6 years ago. But CA2 knows that both those songs are actually great, and it doesn't care what it has to do to entertain. Dirt Bikes, Surfing, Strippers, helicopters, it's all in there. The actual deductive elements that are meant to shuttle the plot from one cool scene to another are ridiculous, and sped through so fast that their wafer-thinness becomes a source of more entertainment.

And on Friday I got up extra early to see League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which was, it's safe to say, a mistake. I you forget everything about the "team of Victorian-era literary heroes" comic that inspired it, and forget everything about the original adventures (Dracula, Allan Quatermain, Henry Jekyll, The Invisible Man, Captain Nemo, Dorian Gray, Tom Sawyer), then you still have a deeply wretched film, full of sound and fury and lazy scriptwriting (see T3, but worse).

And I attempted to wash it from my head by going to see Sinbad later. It's certainly a pretty movie: the mix of handdrawn characters and CG backgrounds fits the subject well, and it's a pretty good Sinbad movie, in that it moves smartly from start-monster-monster-monster-oh look that girl that hated him loves him. It's even got a great line where after a particularly talky bit (about how the girl is actually engaged to his best friend) we zoom way out to where the Goddess of Chaos is watching that part of the globe: "Less talking. More screaming". But it's happy to be no more than an updating of an old movie. Like T3, you could do the same yourself.
andrew posted on 26.07.03 @ 08:55 PM GMT [link] [2 Comments]

Drunken discussion
Me and Andy (the brother - not the other Beard!) were talking after the pub and we came up with two things

a 2 many DJs set that finished with Johnny Cash's version of 'Hurt'. Everybody raises the hands, cries and hugs. What more would you want?

Headliners for Glasto next year (well it will have to be the year after seen as Prince and Paul Mc have more or less got the nod) a reformed Pixies on Fri, Madonna on Sat and U2 or New Order on Sun night

eamonn posted on 25.07.03 @ 02:57 PM GMT [link] [No Comments]

it's just this razor, he's left it on your shelf, I'll throw it out myself.
So I went to New York and came back with very little in the way of new Albums, but I finally got around to listening to The Wedding Present's newly remastered Bizarro, and fuck me this is great great great. The songs are all bitterness, and jangle, and David Gedge's voice, which was what always pissed me off about them. 10 years later, it sounds great.

The songs themselves are about as varied as indiepop 89 was, which isn't very (about 5 minutes into Take Me! the jangle drops away leaving only the backing, and fuck me it sounds like Status Quo).

It's a measure of how much I enjoy the sound that, although they can clearly get in and get out with no messing (Crushed and Thanks are both under three minutes), I don't mind when they jsut lose the run of themselves (The aforementioned Take Me! is over nine minutes, and there are a couple more over five minutes). The cool thing about the long songs is that it's clearly just luxuriating in the sounds they're making: There's no words on any of them past about three minutes in.

The bonus material includes the single version of Brassneck (their first Albini track!) and the B-sides, including a fantastic version of It's Not Unusual. Next stop is probably Seamonsters, though I might get the Hit Parade collections of singles that they released one per month in 1992. I always thought that was a brilliant idea.
andrew posted on 22.07.03 @ 04:06 PM GMT [link] [4 Comments]

Really losing my edge
The Darkness are at No. 2 in the UK album charts, Kings of Leon are at 5. What the fuck is going on? I have not heard either of these bands, I am behind the times. I am out of step! I'm the sort that thinks music news is about things like the Pixies possibly reforming.

eamonn posted on 14.07.03 @ 01:58 PM GMT [link] [No Comments]

White Stripes not playin' Witnness => Beard! not attendin'
Jack's poor liddle finger

well SFA would be nice to see and Kings of Leon but it costs 80 euros for ticket and transport just for Sun so maybe not.

What else. I have to say I really enjoyed the Playlouder webcast of Interpol at Glasto. Little else, must talk about Anthology of American Folk Music, must talk about the worst album of the year The Ataris so long, astoria (they have been mentioned as the band that inspired the Bitch Slap diaries by Mixerman).
eamonn posted on 11.07.03 @ 02:39 PM GMT [link] [1 Comment]

Glasto (the long bit)
I probably said half a dozen times over the weekend that festival bands are to bands what airline movies are to movies (or internet downloads to singles): if it looks like it might be a good idea, there's no reason not to try it. You're hanging around anyway, right?

So people go to stuff, and wander into to stuff, and experience things they hadn't intended to (cause that's the point, maaaan). So there's probably no reason to imagine that everyone at the Vice Party on friday night (in what used to be the Rizla Tent) was there to listen to Erol Alkan, or the Audio Bullys or because it was a great time last year, or even because it was open after midnight. It might've been some or more or less of these, but they were there to dance.

And Erol slapped on the chart hits, and at some point a serious bassline was heard, and whooping started. Everyone liked the hell out this, whatever it was, and it was going to start. And it was White Stripes's Seven Nation Army, and everyone went on loving it. And singing. And dancing. And dancing.

And then it was Saturday Night, and 2manyDJs, and the continued search for that moment again. And they play Seven Nation Army to an equally loud reception, and then a few minutes later, the guitars play a song I've known for ten years, and me and my friends are rocking out to The Cult's She Sells Sanctuary, and so's everyone. DJ Swamp had the slot before and was rubbish, playing a trick-heavy set that included murdering Smells Like Teen Spirit. As luck would have it, 2manyDJs are packing Lithium, and they show how to do it.

And then it was Tuesday back in Dublin, and I'm dropping by a computer game store on the way into work, and they're playing a bootleg of Bootylicious over Smells Like Teen Spirit, which I've heard before, and thought it was pretty clever, and I realise that it isn't just clever, it's great. I used to love one, and now I love the other as well, and I'm not alone. Both the songs have ascended to the same heaven, and they're still not the same song. It's girls versus boys and both sides win.

(Ironically, Erol's proper set in the Dance Tent was pretty much identical to the Vice one)
andrew posted on 03.07.03 @ 08:40 PM GMT [link] [3 Comments]

Glasto (the small bits)
This'll just be a rundown, guided by the always-handy Guardian Guide. I think I have a longer piece coming up later.

(actually I just realised that the great Audio Bullys track is only 2:17 long. Possibly it'd wear out its welcome if it was longer. Maybe their second place status (in my head) is related to the fact that they're a rapper and a DJ rather than a bedroom wizard)
andrew posted on Thu, 03.07.03 @ 07:35 PM GMT [more..] [No Comments]

Massive Attack
are playing the Point on 21st August. Where is the best all round online music listings? I hate looking at Ticketmaster, http://www.thingsthatyourmissing.com/ has mostly very small or avant garde stuff, {{ http://www.roadrecs.com/scene/gigs2.html Road}} is too selective. The Event Guide only has a portion of its listings online (it seems to me).
eamonn posted on 03.07.03 @ 02:24 PM GMT [link] [No Comments]

Wot I saw at Glasto
Very potted
Music

Mogwai sounded good but having them on the Pyramid stage on Fri afternoon didn't engage people the way they did as last band on the other stage in 2000.

The Frames really enjoyed themselves (Glen Hansard announced that he had cancelled his flight home and was looking for a tent. The following night he was spotted up at the stone circle in a relaxed state. They played each of their last 5/6 songs like it was going to be their last. I can live without them but it was fun especially with the die hard fans like Dermot, Emma and Nodlag jumping around to them. They did the the Willy Wonka bit, Celebration Time, Revelate, Motherfucker and so on.

REM I spent a good deal of REM trying to get in touch with Andy (ultimately failing) who was nearby so I can't really comment objectively. I didn't think it as good as their previous time (2000?) even though they played Fall On Me etc.

Interpol first band of Sat, broke into a run when I heard untitled, they played nearly all of the songs off their album and nothing else. About the only thing they said was 'It's fucking hot up here' - they were in their shirts, ties and v-neck pullovers. Devoid of personality (touring that album for 2 years would do that to you?) but I liked hearing the songs. There was a dust devil behind the sounddesk the during their set.

2 Many DJs starting off with The White Stripes 7 Nation Army is good. Mixing Nirvana into Daft Punk is even better. Later on in their set we got more familiar stuff from the album such as Dolly Parton and Iggy Pop. Generated a good bit of excitement for the only time I was in the dance tent (which needs a new look inside - those psychedelic dreamcatchers are passé).

Bill Bailey Had to raise the sides of the tent to see this, he is a very funny man, the pirate radio version of Coldplay's Clocks, doing Slayer, Portishead etc.

Super Furry Animals My highlight, they were beset by problems with the sound and with their projectors "We are Super Furry Animals and out projector is fucked", and the crowd wasn't that great, thinning out past the sounddesk (it would have been much bigger when they played earlier in the evening 4 years ago on the same stage). But you can't deny brilliant songs, Juxtaposed, Northern Lights (with the mysterious 4 lights in the sky over Radiohead - turns out that was glowsticks attached to helium balloons), Mountain People ("We are the Super Furry Animals and these are songs from the last century"), 2 yetis came on to beat the kettle drums at the end of this, Herman Loves Pauline, If you don't want me to destroy you, Run Christian Run, Receptacle for the Respectable and a host from the new album. And then The Man Don't Give A Fuck, starting with a Bill Hicks rant, and going on for 20 minutes with Cian creating a techno monster in the middle of it and all the rest of the furries returning in yeti suits at the end. I haven't jumped up and down so much in ages. Pity I can't find any photos of the yeti suits.

The Sugababes with band and singing well live. It wasn't perhaps the perfect communion of pop and a big Glasto crowd on a Sunday afternoon that I had dreamt of but it was pretty good to see them live all the same. They're getting better at the smiling and dancing. Lots of jumping for Round Round. Ex-Sugababe Siobhan Donaghy was in the New Bands tent at roughly the same time.

Sat on the grass outside Acoustic tent for Cerys Matthews and Beth Gibbons, CM drew a big crowd which makes it a nice comeback for her.

Sigur Ros on the other stage were good but I should have gone up further rather than be distracted not far from the back. At least they flung a guitar around and pushed over some of the drums at the end. And a big collective bow.

Buena Vista Social Club was a nice end to the whole thing. Again should have gone up further.

Other stuff

Seeing 3 or 4 bands a day seems to be the maximum I can do nowadays what with getting tired from running around, not liking being out in the sun for a long time and hanging out with other procrastinating, indecisive, people. Plus sitting around is what you want to do sometimes.

I must get a mobile phone and one that lasts the full 4-5 days. On the other hand so much time was sepnt trying to get in touch with people (and in queues to get phones charged) I wonder is it worth it.
Wish I had seen Lemon Jelly. Their music is ok but the new bands tent looked like a UFO had landed in the middle of it when I passed it on Friday evening.

Damien Rice seemed to be getting a great reaction from where I was sat near the glade, the following band had to cancel so he kept getting time for another song. Another irish band who wen tdown well was The Thrills who had a huge turnout, well pass the sound desk.

Meccadonalds was pretty good the 2 nights I went to it, once sort of Asian bhangra dance stuff, the other a UV diddley eye techno sort of band.

Those metal sculptures by the Mutoid Waste Company were brilliant.

Andrew Beard!'s side cartwheels were great especially since he would leave his coat on and do it in the middle of a cafe.

There was a tragic death at Glastonbury. A mother of 1, 33 old Vicki Jarvis had an asthma attack on Sat, the distressing thing is that her partner didn't wake when she left their tent and she died without anyone she knew around her. More about it here. There have been reports of other injuries, usually caused by stupidity, people climbing trees, scaffolding while out of it but luckily I don't think anyone else died.

Here are links to other peoples photos

eamonn posted on 03.07.03 @ 01:08 PM GMT [link] [No Comments]

Seconds away!
Just listened to the Buzzcocks' Singles Going Steady, which I remember buying because I read about someone as a teenager lying on his bed listing to it over and over, which sounded great (not least because it's a great title for a record). So I was listening to it just now, and it's a great collection of songs, no two ways about it, but all the way through I was thinking "Hey, I own an Undertones singles collection, don't I? I really should listen to that some more."

I'm also listening to the Audio Bullys, which suffer a little in comparison with The Streets (they're so going to come around and beat me up for that), but do a fantastic job of sampling Elvis Costello's (Don't want to go to) Chelsea.

Also I cannot believe this happened on a million viewer show. All Hail t.A.T.u! All Hail!
andrew posted on 03.07.03 @ 11:27 AM GMT [link] [1 Comment]

Andrew WK will cheer us up (after Glasto)
with his new single 'Tear it up' and news of an album 'The Woof' in Sept plus a European tour....
all here
eamonn posted on 02.07.03 @ 09:17 AM GMT [link]