NOW HERE

Dec. 1st, 2004 01:37 pm
j4: (music)
[personal profile] j4
Now that [livejournal.com profile] acronym has reassured me that they're "achingly hip" (and he should know), I can confidently recommend The Secret Machines to my readership. (Website requires SWF, natch, and extreme coolness.) They're playing The Scala on Monday, and I'm sorely tempted. (I mean, King's Cross is nearly in Cambridge, right?) Of course, I'm mainly considering this to take my mind off the realisation that at this late date I may not be able to afford eBayed tickets for either of The Tears' gigs. At which point I will just sneer and say that I liked them better before they reformed. (Honestly, actually playing gigs is so mainstream.)

Meanwhile, there's always Pop Art to look forward to. The last one featured a guest set by the non-blond from The Vichy Government, but the next one beats that hands-down with guest DJ Steve Lamacq. Book your tickets now for another evening of glorious INDIE DISCO.

Back home, I am feeding my Donkey Konga addiction -- yes, [livejournal.com profile] addedentry and I are now the proud owners of a Gamecube. (That's the pitter-patter of BONGOS that you can hear.) It's clear that there could be a huge karaoke-CD-style market for discs of extra songs, or the ability to convert one's own music collection into DK challenges -- remember when all good arcade games included a levels editor where you could quickly discover how impossible it was to create playable games? -- but less clear whether anybody will provide this for a game on a console which will be obsolete in, well ... [checks watch]. [livejournal.com profile] sion_a groaned at my punning suggestion that the final end-of-level challenge before finishing the game should be a Bruce Springsteen song; but if I had the ability to give my own music collection the Konga treatment, I'd be more interested to see people try to drum along with Captain Beefheart.

On a quite different tack, now that it's December I can enjoy Christmas songs and carols without shame. I'll be singing carols with the Portfolio Singers in Cambridge's All Saints Garden Art and Craft Market this Saturday at 1pm (all donations collected will go to a local children's hospice). We'll be doing some of my all-time favourites: Pearsall's fantastic setting of "In Dulci Jubilo", Vaughan Williams' arrangement of "The Truth from Above", Berlioz's "Shepherd's Farewell", Darke's setting of "In the Bleak Midwinter", Cornelius's glorious "Three Kings from Persian Lands Afar". Then, of course, there's all the old standards; you just can't beat the final verse (with soaring descant) of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing".

"But what about more populist popular musical celebrations of Christmas?" I don't hear you cry. Well, there's always some tension between the members of the group who want to expand our knowledge of the Phil Spector canon and those who are more interested in obscure new settings of medieval verses such as the interestingly heretical "Adam lay ybounden"; we're doing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", but only because we feel we have to. I'd put in a bid for "Fairytale of New York", but I suspect that yelling "you cheap lousy faggot" at people might just scupper our chances of extracting cash from them.

In other only-tangentially music-related news, at the risk of blowing my own trumpet, I find myself the flattered but surprised recipient of [livejournal.com profile] bateleur's LJ comments award, a contest of which I wasn't even aware until my helpful delivery daemon pointed it out. At least nobody can accuse me of trying too hard.

Date: 2004-12-01 07:43 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com
"The last one featured a guest set by the non-blond from The Vichy Government, but the next one beats that hands-down with guest DJ Steve Lamacq."

If I were you I'd add a hasty (/sarcasm) to that; Mr Chilton is not a man one wants to irk!

Date: 2004-12-01 07:54 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] j4.livejournal.com
Um, I don't mean to irk les Vichyssoises, because the man's set was good, & the band sound cool enough that I was just about to order the limited-edition apple-green 7" (http://www.verot.net/vichygov/article.php?story=20040720151108136) ... but Steve Lamacq is, well, Steve Lamacq. It's different.

(And frankly, if a flippant aside in a random blog is the closest Mr Chilton ever gets to a bad review, he's got little to complain about!)

Date: 2004-12-01 07:59 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com
I did see Lamacq DJ once and appreciated his honesty when, asked for Arab Strap, he explained exactly why he wouldn't play them. Many DJs, asked for a record they like but weren't planning to play, will simply lie.

Date: 2004-12-01 07:58 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] acronym.livejournal.com
"achingly hip" (and he should know)


ex-cuse me? on what planet have I become an arbiter of taste and style, and shouldn't someone have issued me with a personal stylist (and, oh, you know, a new face) first?

And, more to the point, do you think I'm ready for my closeup? :)

Date: 2004-12-01 08:05 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hoiho.livejournal.com
I find myself the flattered but surprised recipient of bateleur's LJ comments award,

Blow away, honey!


Date: 2004-12-02 01:46 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bateleur.livejournal.com
A good general rule for life there.

(Oh and your icon (http://www.livejournal.com/users/bateleur/126211.html?thread=724995#t724995) is done, [livejournal.com profile] j4.)

Date: 2004-12-01 08:19 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] strange-powers.livejournal.com
The Gamecube has a comfortable couple of years in it yet - 2005's release schedule alone is impressive. And! There are already new Donkey Konga sequels on the way...

Date: 2004-12-01 08:23 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] addedentry.livejournal.com
Mr Powers! Thank you for recommending the Secret Machines' previous mini-album September 000 to [livejournal.com profile] verlaine last year and thus, indirectly, to me. It means I can tell [livejournal.com profile] j4 truthfully that I liked them more before they sold out were famous.

Date: 2004-12-01 08:43 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] strange-powers.livejournal.com
haha! If they are "achingly cool" now, then what were they MORE THAN TWELVE MONTHS AGO, zeitgeist watchers?

Victorious once more!

Date: 2004-12-01 09:24 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] j4.livejournal.com
then what were they MORE THAN TWELVE MONTHS AGO

NOT COOL YET.

HTH, HAND.

Date: 2004-12-01 09:26 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] j4.livejournal.com
Ha! It's all coming out now. (Which means you're gay.) I bet you only said you didn't like Gemma Hayes because I WON HER SINGLE IN A REALLY OBSCURE INDIE COMPETITION and SAW HER LIVE before you did.

AND, furthermore, YOU SMELL.

Date: 2004-12-01 09:52 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] addedentry.livejournal.com
My brains?

(Let's make lots of money. We've done this one. Not that it stops me.)

Date: 2004-12-01 09:21 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] j4.livejournal.com
Sequels? *squeals*

Okay, now I can stop holding back on clearing all the advanced levels. ;^)

Date: 2004-12-01 08:27 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tamsinj.livejournal.com
i've multiple times asked for a 'carols cd' specificly with hark-the-herald-angels-sing on it. every time, i've received a cd that seems to have the track, but it's always been mucked around with (from a grew-up 70's/80's baseline) and always missing the descant.

this is very annoying.. because i like it, and i was proud of being the only one in my class who could sing it.

(anyone going to disneyworld who's conservative about carols - don't go to the candlelight processional. it's really mucked about with)

Date: 2004-12-01 09:27 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] j4.livejournal.com
I've got a copy of "Hark The Herald Angels Sing" (with descant) if you want it. Will mp3 it and email it if you like...

Descant into hell

Date: 2004-12-01 09:54 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] addedentry.livejournal.com
And to continue the theme above, I've got a copy of The Fall doing 'Hark!' - incomprehensible Mancunian grumbling over scraping keyboard noises - which I promise not to email.

Re: Descant into hell

Date: 2004-12-01 10:33 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] burkesworks.livejournal.com
The Marquis de Smith wouldn't be able to supply a descant if his life depended upon it AND if there was twenty pints of Robinson's waiting for him afterwards.
Sounds like my kind of Christmas music; wouldn't mind hearing this!

Re: Descant into hell

Date: 2004-12-02 02:14 am (UTC)
juliet: (Default)
From: [personal profile] juliet
AW MAN. Any chance you might email it to *me*, though?

Re: Descant into hell

Date: 2004-12-02 03:42 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] addedentry.livejournal.com
Well, I'm on narrowband till New Year, so it would take too long in both senses; but if you really want it, mail me the address of NewHouse and I'll burn it ...

Date: 2004-12-02 12:54 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tamsinj.livejournal.com
now that'd be very very nice. i do miss that piece sometimes. carols are the only churchy things i ever really enjoyed.. though it required a fair amount of mental sidestepping to not feel dishonest singing them.

Date: 2004-12-01 09:31 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] venta.livejournal.com
Cheat! You're not allowed Cornelius til Epiphany :)

(I'm only jealous because I won't get my carols fix until I get home (=parents' house), a couple of days before Christmas.)

Date: 2004-12-01 06:21 pm (UTC)
ext_8707: Taken in front of Carnegie Hall (southpark)
From: [identity profile] ronebofh.livejournal.com
Back home, I am feeding my Donkey Konga addiction

It's like i don't even know you anymore.

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