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.

Mervyn Peake & Bush Hall

Apparently this year is the centenary year of Mervyn Peake's birth. I've nearly finished the first book of the Gormenghast trilogy, 'Titus Groan'. It took some getting into, as it's quite dense and descriptive, and peopled with eccentric and bizarre characters, but it's worth it.

http://www.mervynpeake.org/gormenghast/index.html

The whole atmosphere of the books is humorous and sinister simultaneously, in that they present you with all these things that are sort of farcical, but then persuades you to take them seriously.

All this is unrelated to the fact that we played Bush Hall supporting Peggy Sue last night, we did alright I think, and they were amazing, they've got even better whilst they've been on tour. There was a good crowd too.