Merry Christmas, Get Hype!

just one more thing...




Merry Christmas, Get Hype!

Math Head - Get Hype


Math Head on Myspace

we should go down to the mall, look at people, judge them all. judge them before they judge us and leave there feeling bad.

hahahaaaaaaaa i nearly just did a wee.

oooh, mercy. i've got one of those rather nice hangovers where everything is a little bit wonky, and i have nothing i really need to do so i'm quite enjoying it :) plus i had some proper coffee wot made me go a bit strange :S

my brother showed me the following on youtube, and i laughed so very hard i thought i might have needed some Tena Lady.

merry crimbles everyone, i'm having a gay old time swanning about my hometown being merry and drinking lovely cider.

i drank too much last night and now my teeth feel soft. whoops!

i'm getting in the festive mood this morning by listening to music really loud and singing (badly) - at this very moment in time my sister is listening to the mighty Take That, which is grand but that's not what i wanted to share with everyone.

what has been creeping into my psyche and becoming part of my brain is something quite different; a band called The Organ.

imagine if The Cure and The Smiths were one superband...and they were all girls. Haunting, tender, uplifting, sad, gorgeous, penetrating, ace ace ace. That's the only way i can describe The Organ.

the band are an all female fourpiece from Vancouver who, sadly, don't exist anymore. They released Grab That Gun in 2004 and broke up in 2006...(although they released an EP earlier on in the year, as a kind of goodbye)...
although there is a lack of back cat to get excited about and collect, and no new material to look forward to, this means that they will never get old, change/dilute their sound or go a bit crap. they are immortalised in this album.

i'll let you decide for yourself, but this band are my best. i bless Ben Parry for letting me know about this band. he said to me "you can live inside this album"...and i do.

arrrgh i can't choose which track to upload! they're all great - hmmm...
>...>>....>>...>>>..>>>>..>>>>>.>>>...>.......>>>..... - some people who follow The L Word might recognise "Brother"

The Organ - Brother

The Organ - Basement Band Song

i'm going to post a link to the whole album, as the record in it's entirety is magic...and the guys at Let's Share Music are doing a great thing by letting people download it.

The Organ - Grab That Gun LP (from the letssharemusic blog)

Heroes

So Heroes has reached the mid-point of season 3 and the end of ‘Volume 3’. It was definitely a vast improvement on the malaise of the previous series and seems to have got some direction back, but where do we go from here?
Personally I think it has reached cross-roads where it can either choose to kill-off characters and expand the plot or carry on along the road of characters seemingly dying but always returning. I am a big fan of the show (so much so that I don’t download it in chunks as I like to enjoy it every Wednesday night as ‘event’ television) but I do fear that it may just become a parody of itself and go down the same road of utter nonsense as Lost, a show which must surely be the most garbled, directionless tosh ever screened. With the ending of Volume 3 seeing Nathan Petrelli going ‘overground’ to the President of the US (who bears an uncanny resemblance to Barack Obama – did they shoot the scene with a John McCain lookalike too?) it is an opportunity to expand the horizons of the show. Since it started the characters and plotlines have always been very introspective, concentrating on the ‘heroes’ relationships with each other and the battles with the ‘villains’. This has served them well for the most part as it is their battle to save themselves and stop the manipulation of their powers that is the core of the programme – they ARE the story so it is right to concentrate on them. However I think now is the time to ramp it up to the next level – bring them into the open, kill off characters that have run their course and most of all be brave with the writing. I avoid spoilers as much as possible so I don’t know, maybe this is what is going to happen...I sure hope so.


One thing I do really believe should be done is to wave goodbye to Sylar. It remains a constant source of annoyance to me that a show that can attract actors of the calibre of Malcolm McDowall and Christopher Eccleston has Zachory Quinto as it’s main villain. During season 3 the writers have worked to add layers to the character of Syler and create an awkward empathy with a man who has been manipulated and shaped by the actions of others. This is an act for which they should be commended, the problem is that Quinto does not have the acting ability that is needed to make Sylar a truly legendry screen villain. With him seemingly dead it would be an ideal time for the writers to move on to new storylines and characters, casting better actors as they do it. Unfortunately it is unthinkable that he will not return for Volume 4, especially with Angela Petrelli yet to reveal the true identity of his parents. But this is my point, Heroes can forever regurgitate it’s characters and I get the idea that this is what it will do – play it safe by never killing anyone off. Am I really the only one who doesn’t mind a culling of key characters every now and then?


That said Heroes has been one of the television highlights of the year for me and I can’t wait for the start of Volume 4...may it be all that I hope for.
I’ll try and get the track-listing for the Winter Warmer up before Christmas Day but if I don’t, here’s to lots of merry-making and festive fun!

“It’s just like Woodstock ’99 but without the gang rape.” Neil Hamburger, ATP 2008.

Recovery is almost complete and the haze is lifting off the weekend where Mike Patton and The Melvins thrust their favourite bands and musicians through my face and jammed them noisily in my cerebral cortex. I have mulled over the best way to report my musings on the festival for some time now and it's a near impossible task. There is danger everywhere in trying to translate the happenings of such a weekend into a readable bloggy chunk. This problem is probably why I don't write professionally. Anywho, here is an attempt to put some structure to the bubbles popping out of my brain by writing down some facts I have learned.

The Melvins play the scariest version of My Generation I have ever heard.

Israel has a very interesting band that plays on the crowd rather than in front of it. (Monotonix)

Lead singer of the Butthole Surfers is not averse to slapping a woman when being told to leave an eatery at 4 in the morning after passing out with a bottle of JD.

Gypsy folk bands can cause more moshing than Mastadon.

Tron style suits look very cool on stage.

81 was the age of the oldest performer. And his name sounded like an Italian cheese, Bernard Parmegiani. Mmmmm Parmegiani.

It doesn't matter how much you plan you will never see all the acts you want or intend to see.

More festivals should feature metal, hip hop, country, folk and electronica.

King Buzzo from The Melvins allegedly inspired Side Show Bob's haircut.

I can sleep standing up for several minutes before collapse or being woken up.

A waterpistol shaped like a penis is not a good toy to give to a drunk.

Kool Keith is insane. Not in a nice, "wow, he's crazy," kind of way, more of a, "wow, where is his carer?" kind of way. Yet is still amazing, until he freestyles, then not so good.

Rahzel has actually got some new parts to his set and they’re good.

It is possible to fuse Jazz and Grindcore and make it listenable.

Air hockey is better than table football.

I realise there was not much in the way of saying which bands tickled my fancy or which bands

were a wet fart three miles from home. So for those who want to know, check out if you haven't already - Fennez, The Melvins, Fantomas, Kool Keith (particularly his Dr Octogon stuff), Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, White Noise, The Locust, Junior Brown. I was not overly impressed with Mugisen, Isis, Kill Me Tomorrow and Farmers Market. But then what do I know?

My biggest recommendation is that if you haven't gone to an ATP festival make a considered effort to do so. Regardless of who is hosting it and who is playing they are a treat worth savouring. Enjoy watching bands you've never heard of, enjoy the beach, enjoy sleeping in a bed and having a chalet with toilet. The ATPs I have been to have shown me that I love listening to music live, it doesn't matter what type and can enjoy music that I would never buy when put on stage. Actually that's rubbish, there is loads of tossy music I would never listen to just because it's live. I'm not going start a music hate rant now but I was just trying to make the point or be a bit misty eyed about the whole thing. It would probably be better to say that there is a whole load of great music nestled in genres that I would normally avoid.

Mmmm, Minehead

There are two more taking place in May, one hosted by The Breeders and one with the bands picked by the ticket buyers. Go, stop reading this and book tickets. Now.