New Hings*
By Tim
May 6th, 2009
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Touring with Camera Obscura is brilliant and comes highly recommended. Watching them play is also brilliant and necking booze with them after they’ve played is equally good. Playing The Barrowlands, watching them play The Barrowlands and necking booze with them after we’d all played The Barrowlands was particularly brilliant. Thanks Camera Obscura xWe aired a new song on the tour which seemed to go down a right treat. It seems “Stay Before you Leave” ensures audiences stay before they leave…..I was lucky enough to play pedal steel with C.O. on a couple of their new songs. Their new album is excellent. Go get some…. I got to have a pint with Richard Hawley in Sheffield. He warned me in no uncertain terms that Henderson’s Relish (The Spicy Yorkshire Sauce) is almost certainly better than Worcester Sauce. It seems that i have created a new neural pathway….. With persistent and dogged determination i can now easily complete ‘medium’ level sudoku puzzles in the guardian. Only moments earlier i managed to unblock my bathroom sink which was clogged with 3 razor blade heads, a toothpaste cap and a pair of tweezers.We’re playing Darvel music festival on Friday with our good friends Dropkick and The Primary 5. More new songs afoot…. x T*Things |
Colin’s Sexy Armpit
By Tim
April 23rd, 2009
Shepherd’s Bush Empire tonight. Can’t wait.Tour is lots of fun. Manchester last night was great. Playing to packed out venues which makes for a brilliant atmosphere. Colin was rocking so much last night he tore a big whole in his shirt and all the people in the front rows could see his naked, sexually threatening armpit/bit between your back and your front torso.Currently sitting in the dressing room in Shepherds Bush Empire which is adorned with pictures of Iggy Pop, Elton John, Bono, Liam Gallagher and Macca. This is a venue with some real rock history so we will need to do it justice tonight. Our wonderful tour manager Stevie Dreads has pointed me in the direction of an amazing song. This Mortal Coil’s version of ‘Song To The Siren.’ Beautiful. It’s a constant on the tour bus and dressing room at the moment. I’ve never really listened to the Cocteau Twins before but I’m gonna get some of their stuff I’ve decided.Band is sounding good on stage. Tight yet relaxed at the same time. Maybe we’ve stepped up a level or something. Or maybe we have finally learned how to play our own songs at long last.Top 5 on my Ipod today areSong To The Siren - This Mortal CoilEverything Counts - Depeche ModeCreatures Of Love - Talking HeadsBirthday - SugarcubesMoon and Moon - Bat For LashesCheers,K4:25 PM 0 Comments(Add Comment) |Translate Ed
advice
By Tim
April 17th, 2009
Last night Kev and I went to Edwyn Collins’ art exhibition at the CCA. He’s sketched some great pictures of birds and ‘hings so i recommend going to have a peek if you’re kicking your heels and looking for a sight to see.I think we’ll be traveling to Spain in the late summer to play some shows. That’s nice i’n't it? Details to follow………In the meantime it’s onwards and upwards, blue-sky thinking, run it up the flagpole, it’s not rocket science, swallow the frog, hit the ground running, let’s touch base, mentoring…… getting our ducks in a row, paradigm shifts, bottom fishing, knife-and-forking it, jumping the shark, just add water, solutions. but most of all…. etc. etc…..x T
Self-indulgent Arsepiece on Moronic, Hypocritical rant
By Kev
April 10th, 2009
Imagine staying the same your whole life. How fucking boring!!!
I’m getting fascinated these days by the hypocrisy of music fans. Myself included. Ten years ago I wouldn’t have given bands like Depeche Mode or Fleetwood Mac a moments consideration. These bands were’ shit’ in my opinion, and if you’re ’shit’ then everything you do is rubbish. I wasn’t really judging the music per se, they could have written the greatest song ever, but I wouldn’t have given it a moments thought because what I understood about the band (synthesisers, the 1980’s, gothic self-indulgence) was anathema to a kid growing up with grunge, britpop, 1960’s records and the american alternative scene. So The Bee Gees were shit, the Pet Shop Boys were shit (2 bands I now love), Pop music was shit because ‘they didn’t write their own songs and couldn’t play instruments…’ all this crap that you come out with when you are young and trying to define yourself via the things you love… or supposed to love. Crap that says much more about your own insecurities and fragile sense of who you are than any real judgement call on the bands you are slagging off.
People who love music are rightly very passionate about it. But when I think about the amount of great music out there that people hate because of how it’s percieved by the media or their own ‘chosen musical outlook’ it seems kinda ridiculous. Why spend your energy hating something when there is so much great music out there too love and be passionate about. I suppose it comes with growing up as well. Depeche Mode for instance. I have just realised what utter brilliance they are capable of. And I’m interested in the gothic atmosphere of their music now without worrying about some kid at school thinking I’m a self-indulgent twat who writes on his jacket and wears black eye-make up and listens to ‘keyboard music.’ (Me? Self-indulgent?) I can’t believe how limited we are as teenagers. How small our sonic palette is. And now I find myself judging people’s open-mindedness by how limited or not their music collection is. (which is probably just as band as anything I’m complaining about but I can’t help it.)
We were talking in the car the other day coming back from doing some Attic Lights promo stuff and I was defending Girls Aloud, saying how much I admired their song-writing team. The Promise, is a great, great song. Could have been sung by any of the classic Motown bands. Although guaranteed in the 60’s, you had the muso guitar players in every city, listening to Led Zep or The Stones and slagging off The Supremes or any of the output of the Brill Building because of the smooth sound and the fact that the singers didnt write their own songs and couldn’t play any instrumnts. Yet nowadays these bands and songs from the past are considered classics. The same will no doubt be true of Girls Aloud or any pop band these days with a great song. In 30 years time,’The Promise’ will be a classic and all the muso arseholes will claim they always liked it. Or worse, still detest it because ‘they don’t play guitars or write their own songs’ or because they never developed a broad enough appreciation of music outside of their own little world.. Morons! Elvis and Sinatra didn’t write their own songs, or play guitar very well rant rant rant rant rant rant rant rant….
I suppose I’m just trying to say, we all need to open our minds to other sounds a bit more (myself included). And I certainly don’t need to define myself by joining a club and adopting a uniform - Goth, Mod, Metal, whatever… I’ve always hated the idea of being part of a group (Apart from a rock group!!!) I think, basically, and rather pathetically, I hate being told what to do. I hate following someone else’s set of rules. - I know… how very pathetically teenage! It’s at this point that you slap me and tell me to grow up. Maybe I should go finish my homework.
Went to see David Byrne in Glasgow recently. What a great gig. Standing ovation when he came on stage and 4 or 5 encores at the end. Tremendous. There were also great dancers doing amazing choreographed routines all through the gig, leap-frogging over the band and stuff. The set was great and really turned me on to his new album with Brian Eno. I highly recommend getting a copy.
Going on tour in a couple of weeks. Very excited.
So, with that self-indulgent, possibly quite arrogant blog in mind, here are the top 7(!) Ipod tunes blowing my mind this week.
Enjoy The Silence - Depeche Mode
Zero - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Beautiful Girl - INXS
Daniel - Bat For Lashes
Massachussets - The Bee Gees
The Promise - Girls Aloud
Strange Overtones - David Byrne and Brian Eno
Smell my face, you mothers!
K
‘hings i am looking forward to
By Tim
March 1st, 2009
The new Neko Case Record out this coming week - The new Taken by Trees album that i got a sneak preview of but you’ll all have to wait ’til August - Playing 8 dates with Camera Obscura - Finishing a film soundtrack i’ve been doing all by myself - Rehearsing? Yes, rehearsing - Continuing to read “That Old Ace in the Hole” by Annie Proulx and then reading any more of her books - Finishing making a booth in my kitchen made almost entirely from ecclesiastical wares - Finding the paragraph shift function on this stupid blog provider so people reading can appreciate my mastery of punctuation - Not having to write anymore of this blog - xT
Curving
By Kev
February 24th, 2009
Man, I’m tired. Been working flat out writing new material. Got a whole bunch of new stuff but I’m moving flat at the end of the week which is a day less of recording time. I hate been interuppted when the tunes are flowing.
What’s been happening recently…? Some images… Colin and I, 5am at Glasgow airport, flying down to London, you can see the sunrise from the plane as we curve across the earth. Beautiful. Snow on the streets of London but none in Glasgow. Felt kind of topsy turvy. The amazing architecture in London. Different decades, centuries and architectural styles all mingling together in one of the most amazing cities on earth. Weather starts getting a bit warmer. Walking about Glasgow. A toddler humming ‘She’ll Be Coming Round The Mountain’ as he plays in the grass in the face of the first warm sunshine to hit our skins for months. Sounds like the most beautiful tune I’ve ever heard. Puts a massive smile on my face as I pass by, reminds me why I love music so much. New songs, lots of hard work writing and recording. Colin’s flat as the evening comes on after a long days work. Slight hint of spring in the air walking home through the park in the half-light. Usual self-analysis of where my life is going. Guess it’s not just a teenage thing I’ll grow out of. Morality, mortality, metafiction. I need to read more. I’ve lost my hunger for reading. Or perhaps I’ve just been too busy. Nah, fuck that, If I sit and watch tv I should read a book instead. Need to find something that I really want to read though. Sometimes your life feels like it’s hurtling out of control. Sometimes I kind of like that feeling. Sometimes I don’t. Still. Better than it being immobile. As long as you have a feeling of potential. That’s also one of my favourite things. The excitement you see in potential. In a song, a person, an idea. Right now, I’m potentially getting hungry so I’m going to stop writing and go make some food. Spin on that!
Top 5 Ipod tunes at the moment
We Are The People - Empire Of The Sun
French Navy - Camera Obscura
Summertime In England - Van Morrison
From A 1st Floor Window - Attic Lights
Moment Of Surrender - U.2.
Cheers,
K
Bury me in a hand rubbed walnut, velvet lined Royale please, undertaker
By Tim
February 10th, 2009
It feels as if i’ve been spending all my time in a darkened room with loud noises and looming shadows….. and i’m not even a helpless child suffering from heinous neglect and abuse, i’ve just been going to the cinema a lot. Interesting aren’t I?I’ve seen, em, The Wrestler *****, Eh, Frost Nixon ****, Em, Revolutionary Road ***1/2, and er, Valkerie **and tonight i’m off to see Milk starring one of my favourite actors, Sean Penn.When i’m not at the cinema i’ve been recording attempts at a film soundtrack that my friend Paul is making. I think he’s going to be disappointed…. That’s enough isn’t it?(Yes) T �
More Hedged Bets
By Tim
January 30th, 2009
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Hello Readers….We’ve been tending to the fruit of our musical loins in the rehearsal room these last few weeks. It’s been a precious mixture of excitement and frustration as the five of us try and tease the best out of the ideas we’ve come up with. Or just tease them. It all depends really. Anyway, I’m not sure how long it’ll be before we’ll get things into shape for you to hear but there is more west coast promise afoot…..Otherwise, i’ve been watching Deadwood - it’s Deadgood.I’m certain i’ll see The Wrestler before the weekend’s out.I think TV on the Radio have the worst band name since…..em….. attic lights? (that’s diplomacy that is….)and like many who chase me down the street for just a glimpse, I’m looking forward to the new series of Minder….. Am I though?.. Yes, I really am.x T |
Cerys and Noel, up a tree….
By Kev
January 26th, 2009
Ouch! My head. My body. I’m not sure what time I got home last night but my January booze ban has come crashing down. I blame it on Cerys Matthews. She played Celtic Connections last night and we went along to sy hi. Show was reat. I’ll never get used to how amazing her voice is.
Noel got up on stage to play tamborine with her for the last song. You would never know he had been drinking at an all day Burns supper. Stunning tamborine playing. Award winning! Was kinda funny though as the song was coming to an end and Cerys walked off stage to a round of applause while the band continued playing and Noel, lightly sozzled, standing in his Guns’N'Roses T-shirt, suddenly found himself centrestage and to his horror, the centre of attention. We were killing ourselve slaughing. You could see the panic on his face.
After that, it all gets a bit blurry. We ended up backstage for a bit then at the Festival club till God knows what time in the morning. I think I’ll phone Tim and see if he knows how I got home.
Top 5 Ipod tunes today are
Darko - Booka Shade
Lullaby - The Cure
Isobel - Bjork
Rikki Don’t Lose That Number - Steely Dan
1979 - Smashing Pumpkins
Cheers,
K
