Johnny being Johnny

Going all retro again, this is rather amusing; P.I.L. on the Dick Clarke show in 1980 (retro also meaning "dodgy video quality" in this case).

Johnny was unhappy that they were required to lip-sync, so he didn't. Instead, the Rotten one amuses himself with the studio audience. We'll all be old when he is.

"I have no time for lies or fantasy, and neither should you.
Enjoy or die.".



Two of my favourite Public Image Ltd. tunes are also online here;

This is not a love song. (A Desert Island disc.)
Rise

Random shit

Johnny's Irish. God save the Queen.

Antony & José

Right, in response to all electronics that are being pushed here, I’d like to point out two bands that recently caught my attention without using any synthesizer or drum computer at all. (At least not as far as this casual listener can hear!)

First of all, the very laid-back, chilled-out and actually ‘simple’ José González. As you would have guessed already, José comes from Sweden. A beautiful song of his, Heartbeats, was used last year in a commercial for the new Sony Bravia. (Apparently and to my surprise, not one ball was computer generated!)

By the way: Heartbeats is a cover from a Scandinavian electronic duo called The Knife... Allmusic.com has a preview of the original. I hope this links works. If not, I'm sure you'll know your way around Allmusic to get a little taste.)

Get a sampling of his easylistening Latin (Easy Latin or Latin Listening?), created with nothing more than a voice and acoustic guitar, on MySpace, or read more about him on his website. A little warning though: don’t listen to his debut album, Veneer, too often. Although his style and songs are very accessible, Veneer tends to bore when listened to too often.

Another artist that got me interested last year is Antony and the Johsons. A little excerpt from Allmusic:

"Growing up in California, Antony felt himself to be the consummate outsider until he came face to face with the image of Boy George on the cover of the Culture Club's 1982 debut album, Kissing to Be Clever. He relocated to New York City in 1990, where he found a world more accepting of his avant-garde sensibilities and sexually ambiguous nature."

Amazingly enough, he now made a song with Boy George. One in which Mr(s) George sings exceptionally beautiful and even 'adult' as well.

Antony self has a unique voice that's heartwarmingly touching and outright kitsch at the same time. You either love it or loathe it - I don't think there’s anything in between. Try and listen three times to the duet with Boy George, You Are My Sister from his (her?) latest album I Am A Bird Now. If you don't like it after those three times: forget it. If you do like it, you now know what I mean.

Finally, since I know at least some of you are frequent users of allmusic.com, here are a couple of nice little plug-in search-engines to be used in Firefox.

Next time, I might share the wonderful world of my favourite cover artist Richard Chees [sic] with you. For now, I hope you'll enjoy Antony & José!

P.S. I heard Tom Vek, and me likey and will likey more! And as Joseph mentioned before: if you like Tom Vek, there's a reasonable chance you'll enjoy !!! as well. Also, I just finished listening to Junior Senior's 2005 album, and... well... I can't tell you yet what I think!

Everything you like now, I liked last year....

LCD are sooooooooo last year........ (what with it only being January).

Our fiendish friend from fascistland pointed us in the direction of these guys when we all met up for Queens Day last year, so I'll have to suggest that perhaps the copious amounts of imbibements erased your memory Lukey Baby. Leo the Lumpy One had grabbed 7 or 8 of their tunes and I found the double album shortly afterwards via the usual sources. The singer and general "Da Man" is James Murphy who was also in Speedking (their material is in very short supply and I've only found 2 tunes from their only album "The Fist And The Laurels").

Knowing now as I do that you like Tom Vek, you're going to love this. It's their first and only album and it's where you'll find Tribulations in it's original form (you may even remember hearing much of the rest of it thru a druggenken haze).

And then there's this. When I was in Am'dam for New Years we caught "!!!" on MTV. Bas tells me that the tune we saw was quite big on Dutch radio a year ago or so and it digged me enough to track them down. The album "Louden Up Now" is the exactly what you have to hear if you've been liking LCD and Vek. (If anyone has their eponomously titled first album then I'd love to hear it - I can't find it anywhere).

All of this talk only strengthens my desire to set up an ftp resource so we can appreciate what everyone else is banging on about before we go out and spend our hard earned cash on buying cds........

It was so hard to keep a straight face whilst writing that. I nearly wet myself. Seriously.

Junior Senior - Damn that pop music!

Wonderfully camp and cheerful, you'll recall their tune 'Move your Feet' from 2003 which is in equal parts annoying & brilliant - feeling after just the first listen that you've already heard it too much (evidenced by it rattling around in your head for days).

I had never considered they could be worthy of a second listen until I stumbled over their last release (now 2005), 'Hey Hey My My Yo Yo'.
This is achingly good unashamed pop music, and I mean POP, so don't go expecting anymore than that from these guys. If you can imagine Bananarama were gang-banged by The Beach Boys, The Jackson 5 and Donny Osmond, then the bastard offspring might sound like this.... it's that good. Brace yourself for the god-awful rapping by Danish white boys on the opening track (without disallowing yourself an appreciation of its kitschness next time round).

It's actually so good, I'm boldly suggesting that this should be the happy album of the summer; if you don't get it straight away, please dig it out again when the sun is shining. It's guaranteed to do something to you. Fuck your musical sensibilities.

Some further digging reveals that they were quite active in 2003 gigging and festival-going; playing Glastonbury, Leeds/Reading and Am'dam (not sure where!?) - so I was wondering if anyone has seen them live? I can imagine they're a fun set.

Their website (with built-in disappointing audio & broken video links) is here Junior-Senior

Cut Copy / Crazy P et al

Right lads (possibly ladettes too, don't want to exclude anyone)

Good thinking Joseph, considering we barely use Messenger anymore.

Right can't stay long, in the middle of Den Dolder in the Netherlands on a very unstable wi-fi link, so I'll cut to the chase...
Check these out on www.allmusic.com (unfortunately not a hell of a lot of info but you can listen to samples if you must)

Cut Copy - Bright Like Neon Love:

Aussie band, Electronic Rock/Pop... Download a copy of this if you can, start with Track 5 - Going Nowhere (catchy, very catchy), then listen to the rest.

Crazy P - A Night on Earth:

Previously or otherwise known as Crazy Penis. Again, Electronica, but this one reminds me somewhat of Les Nubians sans the French bit.

Jamie Lidell - Multiply:

Good bit of Funk/Electronic, the title track is very catchy (if not repetitive, but effectively so). The rest is a bit of a grower, still getting into it.

Maximo Park - Apply Some Pressure

Just check it out, bunch o' lads from Newc'astle

That's all for now, more to follow

Genesis

....and with no sign of the short & bald annoying one.

Thanks for turning up. I've no idea if you're going to be posting but please help yourself if you get the urge. I like to share what I'm enjoying and hope you will too.

And so then, to the topic in hand.I saw a video recently on www.boardsmag.com of a song by Londoner Tom Vek and enjoyed it enough to check out the album which is splendidly different and cool.











If you can imagine all the notes that Beck doesn't play with David Byrne being strangled on vocals and you're somewhere near by - there's lots of stuff, videos etc., at www.tomvek.tv if you want to check him out.

And then there is this courtesy of www.pistolwhip.com Jimi Hendrix playing Hey Joe, which really doesn't need anymore of a description than that. It does beg the question though, if Jimi were still alive would he be all gums and no teeth?










Hendrix at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967

And finally a couple of short animations just to prove it's not all about the music. Yes, I know that kinda underminds the blog name, but you all know that was just me thinking I'm being clever and hilariously ironic.
Again.

Firstly finally, there's a short film that you should just watch and not worry about the fact that I haven't posted an image. It's smart and it's here.

And finally finally this was previously nominated for an Oscar and is part of this years Sundance Film Festival. Gopher Broke.









The Sundance Film Festival


The first post has felt much like a first date. Have I tried to hard? Seemed desperate? Have I made you uncomfortable because now you think I expect more that you're willing to give?

I hope not, I was only trying to fill the page....

Enjoy!