bleedin’ aida

glengarry glen ross. There was a time, a couple of decades ago maybe, when I rather fancied to have the Stooges’ “Gimme Danger” played at my funeral. Well might you chortle. These days I am no longer quite so given over to melodrama. At a push I often feel Lieutenant Pigeon’s “Mouldy Old Dough” would

after balloon burning…

The wasted tail fin hovers under the radar. Peeling decals fluttering. The cockpit has been hosed down and the instruments crackle on autopilot; a rusting colossus immune to nagging; neglect; and niggardliness. “So far as I’m concerned, the early 70s were the Pretties’ finest twinkling hour. Ladbroke Grove was their acid drenched stamping ground, home

brian and dennis, wilson and wilson; sans charlie

‘dirty doll“. photograph from here. From the second disc of Pavement’s 2004 re-release of “Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain” – L.A’s Desert Origins – featuring previously unreleased material which was subsequently rerecorded for their third album, “Wowee Zowee“. I met Steve Malkmus once on stage at a village hall in Belgium during Sonic Youth’s “Dirty” tour.

S&M ?

“shy boy in soyapango, el salvador“. photograph by donna decesare. Any allusion to a large UK supermarket chain’s commandeering of this piece through its television advertising is lamentable. But sadly inescapable. I detest food pornography, and it is a fairly safe assumption that Carlos Santana does not need the bread, however finely baked or dressed.

widdershins

“de sole et vento“, aesop’s fables. detail from illustration by francis barlow, 1666. wid•der•shins |ˌwɪdəʃɪnz| (also with•er•shins)adverb chiefly Scottishin a direction contrary to the sun’s course, considered as unlucky; counterclockwise.ORIGIN early 16th cent.: from Middle Low German weddersins, from Middle High German widersinnes, from wider ‘against’ + sin ‘direction’ ; the second element was associated

why we never hired a wedding singer

don gibson and reprobate accomplice, 1972. Alright. A Don Gibson number recorded, of course, by Faron Young in 1956 and Patsy Cline in 1963. It was Louisiana born crooner, though, Tommy McLain- one time time member of the Vel-Tones, alongside country singer, Cline West – who scored a #15 hit on the U.S. Billboard charts

earthman supersmell: sand and sod

A time to reap, a time to sow August is fallen upon us and the hour is ripe for harvest. Several months back as winter settled in, I exhumed 1991’s “Earthman Supersmell” from Eindhoven collective, Alabama Kids, a group justifiably lauded in their native Holland at the time as deserving of major league status. I

sans cowbell

Written by Donald ‘Buck Dharma’ Roeser. “Agents of Fortune” line-up:Eric Bloom: vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion, cowbell;Albert Bouchard: drums, vocals, acoustic guitar, percussion, harmonica;Donald Roeser: synthesizer, guitar, percussion, keyboards, vocals;Joe Bouchard: bass, guitar, piano, vocals;Allen Lanier: bass, guitar, keyboards. Patti Smith: guest vocals (“Vera Gemini“);Randy Brecker & Michael Brecker: horns. Produced by Sandy Pearlman. ▼ BLUE

it’s a rainy day, sunshine girl

Well. I am a married man; it is a done deal, brothers and sisters. The well is flowing over. Well and truly. By morning last Friday, the rain began to fall. By noon it became clear this was no ordinary precipitation. Those raindrops were the size and colour of bright pennies, bouncing back up from

this little piggy went to market

son of sam says… Man. Those leathers don’t fit me any more. Not even the act of cutting Jim Morrison darts in the waistband is gonna help. No sir. I had hoped the diet might have gotten me closer, but given the liver no longer functions as it ought to, there was fat chance. Mid

sno doz, the city which never sleeps

Meantime… up near the eaves, waiting to drop like a stone, it was close to business as usual. Norris Gable, sometime broker in scrap iron – and officially the groom – paced the floor cagily and threw coffee after coffee down his throat. Outside the occasional siren wailed and the constant jackhammer in his head

litterbugs

detail from “les très riches heures du duc de berry” by the limbourg brothers, circa 1413.On the littered waste ground my apartment block looms over I spied a woman in a white jacket. She was on her knees, still as death, feeding a gathering of pigeons. Or observing them intently. In much the same way

reup: from the gorbals to stonehenge

roger kynard erickson’sall-seeing eye, or some outlandishly fiendish occult plot ? This song was recorded in Roky‘s manager’s office in Marin County, California during an acoustic solo performance in which the Aliens were notable by their absence.“from the gargoyles to stone hengefrom the sphynx to the pyramidsreligious temples praising the devil right to the devils

sans palmolive, without lubrication

Oh, well. It’s now or never. In less than a fortnight I shall be officially married – road traffic accidents and strokes, excepting – a convention I have studiously avoided in the thirty odd years since I legally ‘came of age’. Out of atypical modesty, I have thus far resisted the urge to announce said

smile a little smile

Delightful schmaltz from the UK production / songwriting partnership between Tony Macaulay and Geoff Stevens; better known through their association with The Foundations – “Build Me Up, Buttercup” – and Pinkerton’s Assorted Colours. Owing a massive one farthing debt to “Penny Lane” era woodwind flourishes and cow lashed McCartney-isms, one also harbors a secret admiration