A (partially) hypothetical conversation:
Q: If punks were so non-conformist, why were all the iconic punk frontmen clean-shaven and short haired?
A: It wasn’t rebellion for the sake of it. It began as a musical rebellion against stagnant pop and prog rock. Prog was, of course, made of hair. In the late 70s, your dad probably had collar-length hair and an embarrassing beard. Short hair and a shaved face was more of a statement then than you realise. Besides, Lemmy had enough hair to make up for the rest of the punk kids.
Q: Lemmy? Motörhead weren’t a punk band.
A: …
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Mainly culled from things I’ve linked to elsewhere to prompt me to look into them further.
“Neo-Tribalism is the ideology that human beings have evolved to live in a tribal, as opposed to a mass, modern society, and thus cannot achieve genuine happiness until some semblance of tribal lifestyles has been re-created or re-embraced.”
Modern Tribalism “We set out on a crusade to document, to learn and hopefully to inspire. We treated our interviewees as the wise elders who would guide us on our way, and the modern tribalists as our fellow warriors — unenlightened but pure of heart. What we learned about ourselves in the process is as important as what we have brought to the screen. The result is a film that is part ethnographic field study and part rite of passage, set to the hum of technolgy and the beat of a tribal drum.”
“Dunbar’s number is a theoretical cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. These are relationships in which an individual knows who each person is, and how each person relates to every other person. Proponents assert that numbers larger than this generally require more restricted rules, laws, and enforced norms to maintain a stable, cohesive group. No precise value has been proposed for Dunbar’s number, but a commonly cited approximation is 150.”
Deadly Vibrations. A Brief History of Sonic Warfare “Human beings respond to certain categories of sound in a number of complex ways involving auditory perception and psycho-physiological response mechanisms rendered through the brain. Certain species of sound above (ultrasound) or below (infrasound) the levels of human auditory perception would theoretically prove most effective within the crucible of warfare.”
Sonic Warfare “Goodman concludes with speculations on the not yet heard—the concept of unsound, which relates to both the peripheries of auditory perception and the unactualized nexus of rhythms and frequencies within audible bandwidths.” Also, blog site instigated by the book release.
“London Necropolis Railway Station was a special railway station constructed by the London Necropolis Company for funeral trains, specifically to serve their Brookwood Cemetery.”
The Cemetery Railway “Radio 4 broadcast a thirty minute documentary “One Way to the Necropolis” on the cemetery railway on Monday 7th February 2005 at 8.30pm.” - Wouldn’t mind hearing that.
London’s Necropolis Train “LNC justified the higher fares it charged for First Class coffin accommodation by pointing to the higher degree of decoration provided on its First Class coffin cell doors and the greater degree of care which First Class coffins were given at both ends of the journey”
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I don’t think I had even listened to Les Paul musically until I heard one of the old Les Paul Shows on archive.org. I knew of him because he had his name on guitars, obviously, but through my own background I was well aware of how he was also the innovator of recording techniques that paved the way for how we listen to music now. Until digital recording came along we were using versions of the techniques developed by Les Paul, and even now we’re doing the same thing but in modified ways. Multitrack recording, overdubbing, tape delay – he was at the forefront.
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“Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness,Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fring’d legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?“
Ode On A Grecian Urn [extract] – John Keats (1795 – 1821)
If Keats were alive today, it is unlikely he would revel in conjuring out the imagery contained in contemporary dishware. Sadly, our pallid Ikean pastel washes will never compare to the intricate tales that would unfold from a simple combination of glazed clay and paint. With this void of inspiration apparent, Keats and others like him would need to uncover a new muse. An inspirational outlet with a comparably contrasting combination of simplicity and intricacy. A source of endless joy to behold for all. For them, and for you, I would recommend Kieronononon.
Entitled Three Man Party, Kierononononon’s latest work is one of the greatest examples of post-modern auditory expressionism imaginable to contemporary mankind. Where the Ancient Greeks would use mere clay as their base, Kieronononononon lay down a backbeat to rattle the Parthenon. In place of the intricately painted strokes there are soaring guitar lines and the potter’s indistinct caricatures replaced by bowel-threatening sub frequencies. Where the Grecian urn would tell just one tale of amazement, Kierononononononon tell several.
Six, to be precise.
From the moment the disjointed percussion of opening track, …And You’re Not James Bond Either, coasts into the consciousness of the listener it is already clear that this work possesses a quality far surpassing that expected of ordinary musicians. As the sounds of the rest of the troupe roll in, a deep sense of euphoria can be felt as the voice of Goatboy enters your ears, gleefully stylised as if being re-broadcast from the halcyon fields themselves.
*cough*
Apparently I’m not allowed to write a proper review.
Anyway, the new EP is pretty good.
Decent production, well structured & whether you particularly like the music or not, it’s genuinely interesting to listen to.
If I was going to give it some kind of arbitrary rating so that you can judge it by my opinion then I’d give it some stars out of a few. There’s some trendy buzz words like mathcore or artrock that you might find useful if you rely on genre specifications to define your tastes, similarly there’s probably some comparison to established artists like Mike Patton & Mr. Bungle to be made if you’re too cautious of trying something new.
Whatever you might think from that, it’s worth the three quid they’re asking for the CD.
Check out the video to …Eventually He Did from the EP.
Three Man Party by Kieronononon
It’s only £3. You can get it at the Roxxor2 Shop by clicking right here.
Other things you should look at and listen to:
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The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die
The Prodigy & Last.fm have just started a new approach to the whole album preview thing. They’ve got the whole album up and streaming, but each track is interspersed with the band talking about the track that’s playing. It’s actually quite interesting. Helps with identifying some of the samples too.
Last.fm : Invaders Must Die + Band Commentary
]]> ]]>It’s a ‘unique’ way of playing cassette tapes (and floppy disks) on a record turntable.
]]>Digital Needle – A Virtual Gramophone
]]>The city of Batman in Turkey is attempting to sue Christopher Nolan for using their name without permission.
They’re not trying to sue the estate of Bob Kane for creating the character, they’re not trying to sue DC who owns the character, and they’re not trying to sue Warner Brothers for the publication of the film series. I honestly have no idea why they chose Nolan as the target for this, and I fully expect it to get laughed out of court. It’s a bit of a shame, because it would have been hilarious to watch it all unfold/unravel.
]]>Simon Pegg has written an article in The Guardian explaining (in true fanboy detail) why Zombies do not run, and why this spoiled Dead Set for him. While I don’t have the same loathing for the sprinting undead, I can pretty much agree with every point he makes and it’s definitely worth reading.
Article:
The Dead and the Quick – Simon Pegg, The Guardian 04/11/08
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