A morning of tab maintenance. Got too many of the bastards open so spinning a few off as bookmarks and dropping a few into the blog.

This has gone all over the Internet by now, but I love me some Shellac so I’m belatedly rambling about it anyway. Steve Albini did an interview with GQ magazine. Most people picked up on the fact that he had a pop at Sonic Youth* and then finished off wishing the magazine would fail. Nice. I’m always drawn to opinionated fucks because they make life on this rock interesting. If Henry Rollins is Seth Gecko then Albini is his younger brother. Him saying, “I don’t rate movies as an art form” is as problematic as leaving Richie Gecko to babysit. I’m still processing this.

But I love that GQ informs its readers that Albini “has a bit of an independent streak”. I don’t think I’ve even glanced at a copy of the magazine before so I have no idea how much irony is supposed to come loaded into a sentence like that.

If you’re still scratching your head as to who the guy is then I heartily recommend You Weren’t There: A History of Chicago Punk 1977 to 1984. A portion of the documentary is musicians calling Albini out as an asshole and you can see how much he got under their skin as a kid. Plus the music is fucking great.

Speaking of which, Albini namechecks Grandfather in the interview. I’ve been listening to their album all week and seeing as its currently up as a free download you’d be dumb not to go grab it.

And I should also mention the continuing epic ‘Women in Punk’ series of articles over on The F Word.

Go read, listen, break something.

*Shellac are actually supporting Sonic Youth at a New Year’s Eve party here in London. If it were any other night of the year I’d go.

I’ve never been happy with the way I’ve used video on this blog, even when it’s stuff I’ve created myself. Seeing as I’m still thinking about what I want this phase of the blog to actually do, I’m taking a few days to play around with how things should look going forward. Embedding video from elsewhere is fine and dandy, but it tends to disappear and I hate going back a couple of months later to find dead links and empty video players. To that end I’ll probably dust off my YouTube account and start self hosting bits and bobs.

In the meantime here’s a little embedded video to see if I’ve taught it to turn up in my RSS stream yet:

Linda, Linda, Linda is one of those films I was talking about with a lot of heart. Aside from that little ditty by The Blue Hearts it also features a score by James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins) and is well worth tracking down. More details here.

Don’t worry it’s not Jack Black’s School of Rock. It’s got more of an All About Lily Chou-Chou meets Ghost World feel to it.

Linda Linda

I wanna be beautiful like a water rat
He’s got beauty you can’t see in a picture

Linda Linda

If I see you and have a talk
Please catch the meaning of love

Linda Linda

Just like a water rat, nicer than anyone else
Just like a water rat, warmer than anyone else

Linda Linda

If I see you and have a talk
Please catch the meaning of love

Even though it may not be love, I’ll never leave you
I’ll get power, the only power nothing can beat

Linda Linda

I’m still digesting the news of a Faith No More reunion tour. I saw Mike Patton a few years ago at the Astoria. He was spitting on fans who were shouting for an FNM song as he set up his gear. They got off light. I’ve seen him quite happily piss on people.

I saw FNM a lot back in the day. They signed my leather jacket one wet Manchester afternoon – I skipped an English lecture to meet them and I remember Patton seemed to be channeling R2-D2. My jacket had the FNM logo on it – he wrote SUCKS underneath. That was around the time of The Real Thing.

The only way I envisaged them back together in the same place was maybe in a courthouse after they pulled weapons on each other. I figured Patton was happy enough with his Zorn projects, Fantomas, Tomahawk and all the other weird shit he’s had me grinning at over the last few years. I’m not at all sure I want to see him back on stage with FNM.

I probably will get a ticket though. Just in case he pulls a knife.

Photo: Elbereth from Rijeka, Croatia with Mike Patton. Accidental double exposure via Riot Clit Shave

PS I love the way their news page just picks up where the last entry left off back in 1998

My mother tells this story that when I first went to school, I thought I was going to help the teachers. I didn’t realise I was going to get educated.

Moon Unit Zappa

I’ve been looking for an excuse to post the Daft Punk ‘body remix’ videos that have been doing the rounds and what better introduction than a Radio 1 documentary that my friend Talia did. You can check it out here.

That’s probably the first time I’ve listened to Radio 1 since the Tommy Vance Friday Night Rock Show back in 1989.

Anyway, here are the vids:

And check out Talia’s blog here. She’s my lifeline into pop. I tend to dismiss everything with very little reason, but Talia introduced me to Northern State’s Can I Keep This Pen? (The one and only time I’ve ever resorted to iTunes – and what a piece of shit experience that was) and The Pierces. Fuck it, it’s Saturday night -let’s post some more vids:

Northern State are great. Think Le Tigre stroking The Beastie Boys. And The Pierces have WHISTLING and a James Bond theme song thing going on which kills me:

And if you’re into podcasts – which I’m not at all, but am learning to appreciate slowly – then you need to check out Podcast Dot Com. It’s a really nice idea and the guy behind it is smart as a whip.

First night in Glasgow we crashed with Boag and then hung out with him again on the way back:

Boag’s a top bloke and currently writing for The Skinny. We first met back in the day on Punk Planet – weird that that place threw up so many friends. Anyway, Boag has now got himself involved with The Evil Eye working on some excellent John Carpenter influenced tunes. From their blog I found these two videos showcasing a couple of tracks from one of my favourite albums, The Director’s Cut by Fantomas:

Easily makes Cape Fear look more watchable (not Scorsese’s best work), but I’d love to watch the whole Godfather trilogy rescored by Mike Patton…

In a perfect world I wouldn’t even be aware of Radiohead.

Like everyone else, somehow I have a copy of OK Computer on CD. Unlike the rest of the world I think it’s a piece of shit. I have no idea how I ended up with the CD, but then again I have no idea how I ended up with a large brick with the word ELECTRICY written on it either.

Over the last few years I’ve found it quite easy to avoid mediocre crap like Radiohead – I don’t listen to the radio and avoid buying anything from quality music outlets like Tesco or service stations.

Long story short I don’t care about their fucking stupid new album and the ‘innovative’ way they released it.

Now I can’t turn around without hearing or reading about it (small mercies, I haven’t heard any of the actual whining on it) which seems to me a little unfair.

But I have a solution.

On their website you need three options. One button that says ‘Download and pay fuckall because I have a low IQ but I’m not THAT stupid‘, another button that says ‘I’m a moron so I’ll download and pay something I feel is hip‘ and a third button for people like me that says ‘We’re sorry for annoying you. Please press here and we’ll deposit $10 in your Paypal account for the inconvenience caused by our parents and their fear of contraception‘.

Someone drop me an email when it’s done, ok.

Not only do they not make ‘em like this anymore ‘they’ never really did:

Thankfully Zappa was never one of ‘them’.

Check out this Newsnight clip from 1983 where Zappa’s music is dismissed as an ‘expensive hobby’ and he gives his opinion on the then newly completed Barbican. Great stuff. Conductor, Kent Nagano, goes on to say:

In some ways this music, I think the fact that we’re documenting it on recording, could be one of the most historical events of this particular century…

YouTube footage via Zappa Internet Jam Sessions.