Friday morning the following email arrived while I was at work. It was about an hour until I saw it, and as such I missed what probably sold out in .0003 seconds. Sender was PIXIES, subject heading LA TONIGHT;
Hello
We are playing a special warm up show TONIGHT in LA.
Doubly so after last week's early surprise with the last minute drop of EP1 (so last minute the press release didn't go out until until the small hours the day of.
Thanks to Gigwise for posting this footage. Still wish I as there - the Echo is SO small. 300 people tops I think.
I've been meaning to post this for days, but it's been hard to find time to do anything other than work on my writing, which is something I am definitely not complaining about. I've already talked in these pages about how unexpectedly pleased I was with King Animal after expecting it to suck based on that awful audio-slave-ish song Soundgarden had in the Avengers. Halfway There's definitely not my favorite song on the record, but it's good and it's very reminiscent of the tone the singles on Down on the Upside - which I love - had.
Yeah, that's a bold statement and a damn hard pick, but I'm having a Stones Sunday, well have been having a Stones week really, and these are the three I ALWAYS hold in the highest regard.
I bought Sticky Fingers at Rolling Stone records (no connection) on Irving Park Road in Chicago back when I was a Junior in High School. Or a Senior, I forget. I was a metal head and on the same trip I bought another all-time favorite, Type O Negative's Bloody Kisses (the superior, digi-pak version). I probably also bought more metal. And my girlfriend at the time probably bought all metal. I say this to illustrate what a departure this was for me. By this time I knew and loved a lot of Stones songs from the radio, liked some and disliked some. I had a pretty thorough knowledge of classic rock in general thanks to WCKG and I had already been a Zeppelin fanatic for years thanks to my Aunt Dottie generously gave me the Zeppelin box set for what was probably my fifteenth or sixteenth birthday. But Zeppelin has, somewhat enigmatically with hindsight, always been more of an analogue to metal. While I liked the Stones it was a limb I went out on spending some of the little money I made at the time on a CD I was unsure of.
I was instantly justified upon hearing Sticky Finger, esp. Sway.
The 70's. Funk. Disco. Espionage. Coke. Fingerprint File. Who's Listening? Who indeed. For my money this is the funkiest, dirtiest the Stones ever got.
image courtesy of the artist's site joeinfurnari.com
OH! I'm loving this digital-only comic from two creators I was totally unfamiliar with until about two months ago. Read about it in this week's Thee Comic Column on Joup, right here!
I've not yet read Warren Ellis' novella Dead Pig Collector (available here), but it's on the list (and what an enormous list that is). Stumbled upon a great interview with the author today via twitter where he talks about the 'playlist' for the writing of the book. This is on it. Mr. Ellis has written some of my favorite comics and the one novel of his to-date three (I think - someone please correct me if I'm wrong) that I've read was fantastic. Crooked Little Vein. Mmm good.
Anyway, here's the link to the full article on Large-Hearted Boy's wonderful music blog. And you can purchase this wonderful music here.
Wow. There's a strong amount of garbage-can funk in that guitar riff that comes in and out to mock a chorus. Reminds me a bit of 'Strugglin' from Maxinquaye. Wicked.
As an aside, the Real Rock n Rolla from Guy Ritchie's Rocknrolla - Johnny Quid - he's just gotta be based on Tricky.
Here's another band I've only just discovered and basically know nothing about. Silian Rail is named after the business card Patrick Bateman uses to impress his "friends" - only to then be outdone by ah... it's been awhile, I forget. Paul Allen?
Anyway, you can imagine me googling Silian Rail and not only finding the bandcamp I was hoping for after hearing a song by the group on KXLU 88.9's Morning Cup of Tommy but that it's also a reference to one of my favorite books.
Silian Rail has a definite "post-rock" vibe. I hear shades of Daemien Frost - one of my all time favorite bands - but also a touch of the Mogwai, and a whole lot of their own personal touch. Really digging this band and if you like what you hear follow the link above to the bandcamp and the digital is $7, vinyl a meager $12. The entire record is great, might I suggest skipping directly to Shapes which is just likely to haunt me all day.
