Darth Phil's credit card bill is spiralling out of control, I suspect this is mainly due to Japanese game consoles... The Bastards! But it may also have something to do with the vast amount of CDs that I buy - like these ones.

Monday Morning Music...

Old Man Gloom - Seminar II - The Holy Rites of Primitivism Regressionism
Companion piece to the other Old Man Gloom Seminar CD I got a while a go, slightly less daunting as this one splits the tracks into 16 rather than one massive piece. Same sort of music though, basically a mixture of sort of ambient mystical drones with full on balls out metal. Jolly good it is too.

MP3: Meditations in B Parts V and VI.mp3

Akron/Family
One of those bands that could be absolutely massive given the right opportunites, they kind of remind me of a more folky Radiohead, not so much for the style of music but for the way that they have a very liberal attitude to instrumentalisation. It's all plucked banjos one minute, then suddenly it goes all electronic and weird, and thats before you get to the four part vocal harmonies parts. A very good, nope strike that, excellent CD.

MP3: Afford

Book recommendation time...

This is Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland. He's written many books which I've enjoyed, my favourites being Microserfs and Hey Nostradamus! I maintain to this day that Microserfs should be read by any one in the I.T. industry before they get too jaded and bitter, and Hey Nostradmus! somehow manages to be an incredibly uplifting account of a high school shooting incident in America.

What I like about his writing is his honest and non-cynical approach to writing characters, even if sometimes his narrative flow goes a bit off. Case in point this book: it's about a lonely 40-something woman who lives by herself, who has never been married or even been in love for that matter and who is suddenly contacted by her adult son who she gave up when she was a teenager only to find he has muliple sclerosis. Not the most fun-filled premise, but somehow it's not a depressing read even if it's one of those books where nothing really happens...

Easier to read than this bloody H.P. Lovecraft book I'm also reading, honestly there is only so much wailing and moaning I can handle, even in short doses like the stories in this book.

Next on the reading list (well next book that isn't a comic book): If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor by Bruce Campbell.

Questions...

This is a joke isn't it?

And why does my head still hurt? This is punishment by Karma for drinking too much yesterday and waking up on my lounge floor isn't it?

I seem to have tickets to go and see Nine Inch Nails again, gives me something to look forward to for July I guess...

A couple more tunes are over here; one weird, and not so weird. Is anyone listening to this stuff? I'm just curious as to how my plan to subvert people into listening to the same music that I do is going... Not very well it would seem.

notapathetic.com
I've always voted Labour, but I won't be voting for them in the next election - I've completely lost faith in a government that has to be shamed into feeding school kids decently by a celebrity chef, and the other parties are either too horribly racist/fascist or just completely useless to contemplate voting for. And do not get me started on the whole mess in Iraq.

this weeks new stuff

Mark Sandman - Sandbox
Mark Sandman was most known for being the frontman for the drums, 2 string slide bass, sax trio that was Morphine. They were fantastic, sort of bluesy I guess but not really, I think Mark Sandman described the stuff he did as 'Low Rock'. He knew that the bass could be used as a lead instrument, that the more interesting side of the piano keyboard was the left hand side, and he wrote lyrics that could contain these brilliant mini naratives that would keep you enthralled. He was also very prolific writing and performing in many other groups such as Treat Her Write and Either/Orchestra. Sadly he had a heart attack on stage in 1999, this double CD and DVD set collects some of his unreleased work from all of the bands he was in, I think it makes a fitting tribute to his work...

MP3: Cocoon

Fantamos - Suspended Animation
Another CD from Mike Patton - The Wire had a big interview with him this month, hence the sudden interest in his work. If you know of the Naked City album that was released on Earache (I can't remember the name of it, but it had the best song titles ever - Jazz Snob Eat Shit springs to mind) you'll love this: it's a thirty track tribute to April which basically mixes thrash metal with incidental cartoon music. It also comes with a wonderfully illustrated one month calendar, today is Motherhood and Beauty Day in Armenia apparently!

MP3: 04/07/05 Thursday