Kill Rock Stars, Apart from these ones . .

So, this was on BBC I-Player recently:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01f7y7c/The_Doors_The_Story_of_LA_Woman/

Watching this basically solidified this suspicion that I had harboured for a long time, which is that the Doors are one of my favourite bands ever. I don't know about totally favourite, but they've got a solid place in the top five. Picking favourites is impossible, and kind of a stupid activity.

Anyway, having made that assertion I feel slightly obliged to justify it a bit. Obviously the Doors are pretty established in the canon of great rock bands of the sixties. But I feel like there are some elements of what they were about that might grate on people these days, or make them cringe a bit. In particular, Jim Morrison's status as as one of the central 'rock stars' of the era, and everything that comes with it. I'm already embarrassed by using the phrase 'rock star', so that every time I write it I have to put it in quotation marks.

Some of that might be the fault of the punk movement of a decade or so later, where one of the central tenants was the possibility that anyone could be in a band, and which aimed to break down the barriers between the audience and the performers (supposedly). This attitude culminates in stuff like the label 'Kill Rock Stars' (http://www.killrockstars.com/), at one time home to Sleater Kinney and Bikini Kill, which is a deliberately provocative statement of support for DIY punk values, and basically about getting rid of 'experts' and empowering people to make their own music, driven mainly by passion and inventiveness rather than technical ability. Which is good.

That kind of inspiration for people to do stuff themselves, and to create their own structures, venues, labels and music is great, and I think leads to a lot of interesting and amazing music, that exists outside of bigger, safer labels and media outlets. It's also good as a sort of guiding principle, an antidote to mediocrity, and also to the self-importance and egotism of 'rock stars'.

The original punk explosion could be seen as a reaction to bands like Led Zeppelin jetting around in huge private aircraft from one excessive guitar solo to another:

However, The Doors don't seem to me to fit into this sort of classic rock excess, so it's a bit wierd when cringe-worthy people cite them as an influence or whatever.

They have a wierdness and a darkness in them that isn't the cartoon darkness of classic rock: most famously the Freudian utterance half way through 'The End', which I think was often a bit more explicit live, but also in songs like 'Horse Latitudes' or the apocalyptic lyrics of 'Peace Frog' ('Blood will be born in the birth of a nation, Blood is the rose of mysterious union').

I realise as I write this that there aren't any simple or universally applicable answers to this, because it isn't really possible to counter-poise two opposite ways of making music and say that one is the right way and the other is wrong. So rather than the mind-blowingly incisive conclusion I was hoping to reach, I'll have to settle for a slow grind to a halt, and the assertion that The Doors are really great, (you probably already knew that, or else you don't care). This is the first song I remember hearing by them, in a film called 'The Dreamers':

And this is my favourite poem by Jim Morrison (that's right, favourite poem):

Tender Island Night

Tender island Night

And a promise of fever

& scars that burst

at blossom depths

& more green silver

Us wrestling in the warm temple of summer

beside the temple

cool inside

--He took my hand.

He spoke to me--

Black horse hooves galloping sun

mad chariot race burning

mad fiery chariot race

mad girl & mad boy

My feathered son flew

too near to the sun.

Laish/Park

You can hear the first track of an EP by our friends Laish here:

http://laish.bandcamp.com/album/obituaries-ep

(It's great)

Today I got back from work and played Neutral Milk Hotel covers in my room then sat in a park for a bit, staring into space. Both these things were enjoyable.

Lost in the Trees

We're supporting Lost in the Trees tonight at the Lexington, they sound great, this is one of their songs, called 'Red':

Hope to see you there. .

Non-Sequitur the First: Fugazi

Decided to start a series of little posts about music that I've been listening to and why I like it, focusing on the slightly less expected ends of things. To that end, these are some words about Fugazi:

Fugazi seem to one of those bands that people normally discover quite early on. I only got into them properly in the past year or so. Prior to listening to them I had been aware of Minor Threat for much longer, but whilst I do like them, their music compared to that of Fugazi is a lot simpler and more direct, less complex. Fugazi are a band that I feel I almost feel 'motivated' to like, for a number of reasons. I guess those reasons are mainly to do with their combination of intelligence and integrity, which got manifested in all sorts of ways: the high number of benefit shows they would play, insisting on keeping a low entry fee to all their gigs, starting their own label (Dischord) and running that side of things off their own backs rather than through a major label, their lyrics (obviously), talking openly to the fans at their shows, not acting like rock stars, not producing merchandise or advertising anything ever, etc. etc.

Beyond all this though, their music is really worth exploring for it's own sake. It's punk, and it has distorted guitars and some shout-along choruses, but the way it's arranged, and the way each part of it fits together has a lot more thought involved than other bands from the same sort of scene. So far I've been listening to their first album '13 Songs', a little bit of a couple of later albums called 'Red Medicine' and 'Steady Diet of Nothing' and their last album, called 'The Argument'. 'The Argument' is definitely my favourite, it's the most diverse and considered I think. '13 Songs' does include 'Waiting Room', which is probably their most famous song, and the one to listen to first.

I have an ambiguous relationship with a lot of the things Minor Threat and Fugazi have given birth to, like the straight edge movement, and hardcore in general. As someone who currently doesn't drink or smoke at present, (not permanently, hopefully) I appreciate the fact that there is a straight edge movement. This is the first part of a pretty cheesy American documentary about the whole thing:

However, what I don't like about the straight edge movement, and also about hardcore, is the rejection of mainstream rules and dogmas in favour of a new set of dogmas, which if transgressed lead to disapproval/ostracism. One of these seems to be that most hardcore bands sound (to my ears anyway) very similar.

Fugazi, on the other hand, are constantly inventive with the way they arrange songs, with the noises their guitars make, and with the way they phrase things lyrically. They seem to ally integrity and genuine feeling with originality.

This is Ian Mackaye, formerly of Fugazi and Minor Threat, talking about how he feels when he plays music:

And finally, this is my current favourite Fugazi song:

SHHH Fest

We're playing SHHH fest this Saturday, in Bethnal Green. Should be great, I advise people to come. This is the link for tickets:

http://www.wegottickets.com/event/152096

And here are some tracks from the bands that are playing:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/shhh-all-day-celebration-of-quiet-music-art-and-film/tracks

And this is the awesome poster:

That's all for now.

Lexington, Communion, Hard-Boiled Wonderland

Thanks to everyone who made it down to shows at the Lexington on the 29th December and our first London Communion night at Notting Hill Arts Club on the 8th January. The Lexington in particular felt really good to play, and we've been nervously test running a new song, provisionally titled 'Breathe In'. It's still a little bit scary, but when it works it feels great.

Just finished two books that are related to each other. The first was 'The Book of Imaginary Beings' by Jorge Luis Borges, which is more or less what it says; a bestiary of made-up creatures from all over the world and from different time periods, from the Amphisbaena to the Zaratan. The second book is Haruki Murakami's 'Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World', which is split between modern Japan, and a fantasy city inside someone's subconcious, populated by both people and unicorns. If it sounds twee, it definitely isn't. It's wry and odd, and pretty good.

I'm very into things that combine contemporary reality with uncanny or fantastical elements, but sometimes it's hard to do that convincingly.

GDLI Poster

Yup, should be good.