Hollow Earth

Friday, May 29

You gotta hand it to the *******.....

posted by Matthew Ingram # 08:50

Thursday, May 28

The Pooh Sticks: On Tape

About a million times more funny that LCD Soundsystem's "Losing My Edge" which trod on just the wrong-side of hipster irony - a proclamation rather than a self-deprecating confession. Maybe the most perfect muso-saddo punch-line ever? Also I suppose, it goes without saying, a picture of those times - Indie as it was birthed from Post-Punk.

On tape? The equivalent of having freely-downloaded mp3s today innit. Sorry for the rather crap audio - had to use Lulu's camera as mine's batteries were flat. Precisely when did "ligging" leave the vernacular?

posted by Matthew Ingram # 08:02

Wednesday, May 27

Some of my groovy 12-Tone LPs

posted by Matthew Ingram # 07:32

Tuesday, May 26

Reading Festival 1989

Somebody at work said to me they saw New Order at Reading Festival. I piped up - me too! I was rather pleased, but somehow the math didn't quite add up. It turns out he saw New Order in 1998. I on the other hand was there in 1989! Reading 1988 was my first festival actually and we witnessed the stuff of legend, Bonnie Tyler being pelted with bottles of urine.

Unlike the previous year (which in fairness did sport The Ramones and Iggy Pop as well) - even today the line-up for this looks fantastic. It has a real air of the zeitgeist about it in the way precious few line-ups these days seem to. Is that fair? This was clearly a Melody Maker festival, and you can see Stubbs', The Stud Brothers' and Simon's fingerprints all over it: World Dom, The Butthole Surfers, My Bloody Valentine, Spaceman 3, The Sugarcubes, Tackhead and PWEI. Even Living Colour I suppose.

Pitchfork readers might be surprised how low MBV are down the bill. But really it was all about The Mission and The Wonderstuff. This was "Isn't Anything"-era, but even later on MBV weren't much of a draw. I saw them a great many times, maybe as many as five? They were always unbearably loud. At the ULU I remember being quite worn out by the decibels. Is one allowed to say they were actually quite shit live?

posted by Matthew Ingram # 20:14

Monday, May 25

WTF

posted by Matthew Ingram # 20:55

Friday, May 22

Mensch

(if you click on most of my pictures they get bigger)

posted by Matthew Ingram # 21:00

Lou Reed: New York

I was just listening to Lou Reed's "New York" in the office. It's the first time I heard it for, I dunno, ages. What a superb LP! What is it with these old musicians suddenly coming into focus years after their heyday? Scritti's "White Bread, Black Beer", Neil Young's "Freedom" (and "Harvest Moon" I suppose) and PIL's "Album" are other examples. Bob Dylan's "Blood on the tracks" - OK, now I'm just yanking your chain.

My brother and I saw Lou doing this LP at Wembley when it came out, but talking to the guy here we realised that we had both been too snooty to go the Velvet Underground re-union in 1993. That was sixteen years ago, sixteen years ago in 1997 was 1977. Sterling and Angus are dead now. So yeah I have regrets about that. Note to self: Musn't be *too* snooty.....

Most of the songs on the album are great. The title track is awesome obviously, but "Common Ground" is another stand-out. Simon was recently (sixteen years ago? lol) lamenting the lack of gritty rhythm in rock and although the sixties and seventies was full of great candidates for kick-ass rhythm sections and truly rhythmic guitarists with the whole ensemble gelling to propel (Crazy Horse, The Kinks, The Fire Engines etc ad infinitum) later on into the eighties and nineties they become a rarer proposition. Actually in this respect Common Ground's groove is similar to The Arctic Monkeys "You Look Good On The Dancefloor" - another yet more recent stand-out.

posted by Matthew Ingram # 13:24

Thursday, May 21

11 Second Club May WIP#4

posted by Matthew Ingram # 22:00

Wednesday, May 20

Robinsons - Bird House

posted by Matthew Ingram # 22:50

Tuesday, May 19

Ghosts

posted by Matthew Ingram # 15:43

Monday, May 18

The Smoky God

Giants from the centre of the Hollow Earth...allegedly. Via my colleagues at The Hollow Earth.

Link

posted by Matthew Ingram # 09:25

11 Second Club May WIP#3

posted by Matthew Ingram # 09:24

Sunday, May 17

Ukrainian Football Pitch

posted by Matthew Ingram # 15:11

Saturday, May 16

Sonic Youth: Sister

I feel bad for Sonic Youth in the midst of all these slightly menacing attacks upon them. Simon's piece in The Guardian was not exactly nasty but he scalped them all the same. Mark on the other hand went for the jugular. I can quite understand the desire to attack "Ver Yoof", I had a bash here, but I have come to regret my hubris.

In truth I have more than a little sympathy for Thurston and his gang. I grasp Mark's intensification of Simon's damning by faint praise, that SY have failed to be a true "portal", have got on the wrong side of the curatorial process, I do sincerely believe he is making a valid point. However at the end of the day whether one chooses to side for or against them depends not on whether one valorises or deplores the kind of Indexification of music that they stand for but whether one thinks they are cool or not. For instance Matmos's "The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth of A Beast" worked in almost exactly the same way as the new Sonic Youth project does, each track celebrating an underground legend, and everyone thought it was groovy.

Umpteen groups/individuals/collectives could be accused of this vile sin of being in thrall to the body of rock, unable to create their own original musical language. As I type this bands of hungry, homeless musicians are cowering underneath abandoned motor-way fly-overs, shivering in front of bonfires of burning plastic cider bottles quaking at the thought of being labeled "Indexifiers"- but most of those musicians needn't worry! They actually have fallen on the right side of the critical dividing line. They're actually cool. It's OK. They can go home.

Sonic Middle-aged People (aka Sonic Youth) on the other hand have made the punishable offense of not dying young (like Mark's example of Darby Crash). They've gotten even older and uglier, and they've ploughed a incredibly consistent furrow. I think they've done good things actually, things which in their own way disrupt the mechanism of the music industry- the first of which being not overdosing on drugs. They never did *really* sell out - you could hate them for sticking to their guns but.....like, so did Sun Ra.

Anyway. I just wanted to say that I don't think they're the enemy. I have many very cool No Wave 7" records, and I know a few of the cool old hardcore No Wave musicians (hi guys!) and you know what, Sonic Youth are also very cool. I haven't heard their new record, but I reckon it doesn't sound remotely like an amalgam of other people's music. I bet a million dollars it sounds like a Sonic Youth record. Also, ok briefly forget EVOL and Daydream Nation, Sister- that is a mutherfucking amazing record. There is not a single false move on that disc. Aight.

posted by Matthew Ingram # 11:36