9/11, basketball diaries

august 1st, 1949 – september 11th, 2009 I only caught this sad news today over at NØ‘s place. Hiding my head in the sand of late, I have nothing more to add – by way of my appreciation of a fine poet and author – that hasn’t already been stated for the record more eloquently.

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

shift-work

mark e. smith, 2005. The Fall will be performing a two night stint in Glasgow shortly, overtime included. Shiftless though i am, I may yet make it. Written by Craig Scanlon and Mark E. Smith, from their follow-up to the blistering “Extricate“. Lite. No Brix. This one is for Löst Jimmy, who – along with

and the lights all went down

“north end alley“, boston, massachusetts.photograph by william albert allard.The pictorial reference above is not quite Amherst, but at least we’re in the general ball-park, geographically speaking. Produced and written by J Mascis; drums by Murph; mellotron by Sean Slade. Engineered and mixed by Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie. After parting company with Sub Pop

earthman supersmell

breda high security prison. This is something of a momentous occasion. After last week’s post featuring a live version of “Sand” from 1993’s “The Lid” EP, I finally managed to track down an out of print copy of Alabama Kids‘ magnificent second album, “Earthman Supersmell“, released on the Schemer label – a subsidiary of Semaphore

dragnet

nbc, 1951: please dø not adjust your set. For Nathan Nothin’. Who dared ask for more. Ø. ▼ THE GHOSTS: DRAGNET (LIVE) from “The Rehearsal Tapes: 1989-1991” Teac Demos (Maryjane) 1991 (UK) MORE GHOSTS

jesus built my hotrod

sire 0-40211. It’s Saturday. Let there be noise. Written by Alain Jourgensen and Gibby Haynes, with Haynes providing vocals as guest contributor, this is almost as good as the Butthole Surfers. Almost, but no cigar. This is the extended 12″ version not found on the later album release. Play loud. ▼ MINISTRY: JESUS BUILT MY

kankan blues

Quite unbefittingly, this acoustic piece comes not from South Africa but far to the north-west in Mali, on the border with Senegal. Like Baaba Maal, the mood is lazy and fatalistic. ▼ KANTÉ MANFILA & BALLA KALLA: KANKAN BLUES from “Kankan Blues” CD (Out Of Africa) 1991 (Africa) KANKAN BLUES ON AMAZON

a girl named sandoz

sandoz, sandoz… my mind has wings. Eric Burdon‘s move stateside to Haight-Ashbury in 1966 spawned a monumental sea change in both lyricism and target market, often with painfully pretentious repercussions ; but I can forgive our Eric a lot of things. Strange things, indeed. Media darlings, Billy Corgan and chums tripped out on this b-movie

tad: jack pepsi ep

john deere come home. How can you possibly go wrong with an EP glorifying unsafe alcohol consumption and Wisconsin loner sociopath, Ed Gein ? Well, you’d better have deep pockets for a start, and not just roomy enough to stash a bottle of Jack Daniels in. Produced and engineered by Doug Olson and Butch Vig

happy mondays

step on. Two for monday from Tony Wilson’s Factory, and both produced by Paul Oakenfold & Steve Osborne. Shaun Ryder never sounded so good. A much brighter intellect than his media hyped “thug” status suggests, Ryder was once married to my fellow Glaswegian Donovan Phillips Leitch‘s daughter, Oriole. Robert Plant famously implored one and all