Is there a nation that is more fluent in swear words than Scotland?
I seriously doubt it - somehow the brogue really brings the filth to the forefront.
Earlier this week I was making a mix for Mitchell and I went out of my way (aka digging through boxes) to put on the eponymous track from Murder Inc.
Released in 1992 during one of Killing Joke's many hiatuses, Murder Inc. featured Chris Connelly on vocals and his menace and swagger are used to a beautifully bruising effect when he declares - "Make no mistake, we've come to fuck you over"
21 years later - today - Connelly reaches out on Facebook with that sardonic and self-deprecating Scottish wit:
The Revolting Cocks (well, some of them) are back... now they're COCKSURE! If you ever had nostalgia for the giddy heights of 1987 but still have modern aspirations, you will not be disappointed -- the album is packed with grooves, laughs and dirty words!
In the parlance of our times, instead of a few well placed F-bombs there is a LOT of swearing on this track. Definitely NSFW.
As someone who spent the last two days with Nitzer Ebb's "Belief"* in my car's tape deck, I feel I qualify as one who is open to something that is reminiscent of Wax Trax's glory days with current production values.
"There was a laugh track at my arraignment..."
I like this track and I want the rest of this album to follow suit.
*"Belief" holds up very well, btw. back in the day I played this tape so much that the lettering faded off one side.
Earlier this year, thanks to Mitchell, I saw a duo called Skating Polly play the Empty Bottle. I was blown away by the scruffy charm and intensity from these two stepsisters who were just 12 and 17 at the time.
My courage to write about them back then failed me. Because of their young age I didn't know how to talk about them except to say, "look at these kids play!" which seemed reductive and patronizing. They deserved better than that.
Then tonight I discovered Unlocking The Truth and I was reminded of that excitement I felt while watching Skating Polly on stage. That youthful exuberance is about as close to immortality as we as can hope to get. The lack of fear & the laser focus becomes harder to maintain as we pass through adolescence and into adulthood. Unlocking The Truth - Malcolm Brickhouse & Jarad Dawkins from The Avant/Garde Diaries on Vimeo. As they say on The Avant Garde Diaries: There is a particular moment right before fame strikes a young musician – between the full flowering of talent and believing in a dream so pure and strong as to feel bulletproof – which at the same time is almost imperceptible as it is happening.
How cool would be a collaboration between the Pixies/Nirvana loving girls of Skating Polly and the Disturbed/Metallica fanatical boys of Unlocking The Truth?
Stranger things have happened - we are living in a world where The Judgement Night soundtrack just celebrated its 20th anniversary.
Suddenly I look forward to purchasing instruments and lessons for my offspring. I feel hopeful for the future.
Saw this band at the Bottle with Mitchell, Jeff and a friend of Mitchell's whose name I forgot. They were real good. And the album is a real scruffy charmer. I am seriously considering going back to the Bottle on Friday April 5 when they swing back through...
Learn from my bad judgement - back up your iTunes library, dude. A couple of weeks ago my hard drive crashed. Although I am now up and running again, I am looking at rebuilding a library that was many years in the making. Regardless, I had to make a mix for my good buddy Mitchell. I actually owe him at least three but that is another story. I was meeting him for lunch this week and I was not going in empty handed - dead computer or not. In a way, it was kind of liberating to go back to the actual CDs (most still packed in boxes!) in my physical collection. The composition of this mix was closer to a feverish mixtape making session than anything I have attempted in a long time. Here is what I came up with: 1) Huge Bats - Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas snippet 2) Voyeur's Blues - Fifty Tons of Black Terror 3) Muff Control Unit - Evil Beaver 4) Didn't I Know You Once - Surgery 5) The Drug Cache - Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas snippet 6) Move Over I'll Drive - The Family Cat 7) When I Get Back - Handsome Furs 8) Under The God - Tin Machine 9) The Guillotine - The Coup 10) In This City - Enon 11) Lost Parts Stinging Me So Cold - Melt Banana 12) Biting My Nails - Renegade Soundwave 13) Christiansands - Tricky 14) Bein' Alive is like Vandalizin' - We Ragazzi 15) Another Ride - The Sexy Girls 16) ABC - Coco Solid 17) Dirt - Neneh Cherry & The Thing 18) Blame You - Edith Frost When making a mix for Mitchell, I often try to make sure it is grimy, uncouth and sleazy. I want to make sure he can't pop it in the player when he is driving his wife and kids around. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! Because I mostly only buy vinyl these days I wasn't able to put many 2012 releases on it. In fact, there are only two and that was in part because they included a cd copy of the record rather than a download card. They both come with my highest recommendations though...
The Coup - Guillotine, from their new release, "Sorry To Bother You". Saw these guys a couple weeks ago at Mayne Stage where they TORE. IT. UP. Boots Riley was fond of saying "Hello, Chicago! We're The Coup! We're from OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA! And we came for the CLASS WAR!" before playing another blast of funk rock agitprop.
Neneh Cherry & The Thing - Dirt (Stooges Cover) from their 2012 release "The Cherry Thing". This will definitely be the most inspired collaboration from two very diverse artist to make my end of the year list. I doubt they will ever come to the States to play so I make do with videos of live clips on Youtube like this one.
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After all that noisy nastiness I decided to give Mitchell a bit of a palate cleanser and ended with a stark and pensive tune. Edith Frost'sBlame You is as haunting and plaintive today as when she first released it in 1996. There is no good explanation as to why Edith's work is not more widely known and enjoyed.
So imagine my surprise to find that someone had uploaded it to Youtube just earlier this year. I was the 49th person to listen to it and if you haven't heard it I encourage you to check it out!
