From the Socialism album of the year so far...

Check out the rest of the tracks too - as psych as you like...

So someone from the New Yorker makes a valid point that the most preposterous, pretentious band around at the moment are not what one could call 'funky'...

...so, said band decide to post some crazed MP3 bootmash of their stuff juxtaposed with the tracks by artists-of-black-origin that they were 'inspired' by to prove their spurious point. Dudes, give it up - you are The Arcade Fire. Your singer is the son of a Texan oil billionaire (OFFICIAL CORRECTION - his dad is apparently a geologist) who went to the most expensive school in the United States. Fucking get over yourselves. Yes, U2 & Springsteen are strangely absent. Also, I'm not sure that The Beatles really helps your argument, you fucking humourless dimwits.

For Anyone Outside The UK

This was the highlight of Saturday night's shit parade of TV, headed up by the X Factor, a moron fest of the highest order. There's a Welsh fruitcake called Rhydian who blew our minds doing a frankly completely fucking bonkers version of the 'Phantom Of The Opera' theme... sadly, the rest of the show was the usual parade of imbeciles who looked like they'd have difficulty tying their own shoelaces... actually there was a brother and sister who looked like they were banging each other, that might get interesting...

Neu in Concert

Feeling a bit Neu! today...

Sometimes You Think A Week Can't Get Any Better...

...then along comes R Kelly to rock your world...

Loving The New Black Mountain...

The new Black Mountain album found it's way to Socialism Towers this week - it's brilliant. Betraying a love of Deep Purple seems like a deeply insane thing to do in 2007, but hey, they do it and it works. It features "Stay Free", the brilliant mellow as you like track they did for the soundtrack of Spiderman 3 (no, I never heard it on there either, might have been too busy sleeping through it though). It's got what looks like a fucking ziggurat on the cover (very good attitude there). It's very heavy. We're loving it.

VIP Party Night!!!

Saw these chaps at the Social last night. Off any kind of scale that we know of. Genius.

Ain't no party like a VIP party!

Like We Need An Excuse...

Ted found this today, the cover of Kerrang that coincided with the release of the titanic rock opus that was Hear 'N' Aid's "Stars", the Metal Band Aid. So we thought, why not give the video another airing? This shit never gets tired, never stops rockin'...

"I'm jamming out with the Mick Jaggernauts!"

Apple Day this Sunday

Check over at the brilliant Common Ground site for more info and get out cidering...

How good was "Songs From A Black Hole" going to be...

Wow...

Saw the ever brilliant Tunng last night in London town, they finished with a particularly ace acousto-rave (just making this genre shit up now) cover of "Naked In The Rain" by Blue Pearl... digging round on the intraweb, I found it here... not sure how legal it is, who gives a toss, it's ace anyway...

Black Moth Super Rainbow video...

...do we have to tell you how much this band rules? Thought not...

Thanks to Neil for this...

Very Very Into Black Metal Over Here Today

From Wikipedia - "A distinct harsh vocal style, often a very guttural rasp or a high-pitched shriek. This vocal style is nearly universal in the black metal genre. It is distinct from death metal in this respect, as death metal bands employ low-pitched, growling vocals. Often there is a reverberation effect to make vocals sound cavernous and atmospheric." Not sure why but we're loving these chaps over at Socialism towers, but this is the best video we've seen all year...

As Manowar (obviously not Black Metal) put it so succinctly, "Heavy metal or no metal at all/Wimps and posers leave the hall

Thanks to Ted for the links!

Thirty days in the county jail...

Thought For The Day - "What Is Rock?" by Turbonegro

What is rock?
Rock is the area between the balls and the anus of a dog or of a man
What is rock?
Rock is the possibility of choking on your own vomit in the back of a rapist’s van
What is rock?
Denim clad Satanists making love in the sewers of Birmingham during Maggie Thatcher’s prime
What is Rock?
Rock is meeting the grim reaper in a sports arena stampede at the tender age of nine

We keep on trucking why oh why?
Spreading like cancer my oh my

What is rock?
Backwards messages to boys and girls, to bring machines guns to the schools
What is rock?
No I’m not talking about Canadian producer and 5th Metallica Bob Rock you fool
What is rock?
Oh AC/DC, Cleveland, Ohio, Well basically it’s harder and heaver and slightly more blues based than pop.
What is rock?
Historians keep nagging about Funhouse but me? I think Kill City is where it’s at.

After decades of Indian house
6 cats from Oslo killed the mouse

We saved rock n roll, all on our own, and forced the toll on rock and roll
We saved rock n roll, with our bare hands, we saved that god damned rock n roll. So skull!

But it ain’t for free, we gotta group that are our employees
They need to be catered, got their own nice bus
They got worthy lives thanks to us

And this wait at the airport to pick up my bags
Feelin' so tired, I could lay down and die
Runes walkin’ on stage and plays the wrong chord
Roadies laughin’ so hard they're wiping their eyes
Many of them skilled musicians, multiracial and tattooed
But we're the main attraction goddamn it those guys ain’t got a clue

After the show sometime on Friday nights, together in the talkback lounge
Pat each other's shoulders try to groove on a feeling, digging the old school sounds
We ride and ride into the night and the temperatures getting hot
But somehow the chemistry's ain’t that right
Coz we're doin' blow and they smoke pot!

We saved rock ‘n’ roll, all on our own, and forced the toll on rock n roll
We saved rock ‘n’ roll, with our bare hands, we saved that goddamned rock n roll

Where do we go from here, what can we do?
We can go left, we can go right?
Or you can go down on me
What are we doin’ here? What’s important in life?
My generation? My wife? Wowwwww what is rock? I don't care!
Where’s the cash, Where’s the cash
The money/The money/The money/Money/Money
The money/The money/The money/Money/Money

Turbonegro website

"On a muggy August afternoon in Baltimore, trash scuttle down Guilford Avenue, the breeze smelling like rain and asphalt. It was the last week of shooting for the fifth and final season of the HBO drama “The Wire"... great New Yorker piece on The Wire creator David Simon here

Brandy Snaps

Friend of Socialism Pete Fowler (and friend of Pete Fowler, DJ Cherrystones) have a podcast type thing going - click here to access it...

The Recycled House

Went to The Recycled House yesterday, which is down a leafy sidestreet in Sydenham, near Crystal Palace. The house is completely furnished and decorated with salvaged items and materials collected from skips, roadsides, car boot sales and markets. The aim is to illustrate the possibility of living elegantly with minimal environmental impact, as well as being an anti-consumerist statement. What this means in reality is that you arrive at a semi-detached house from the 1930s where the door is wide open and friendly looking types nod approval as you pass.

As you go up the stairs you discover the heavy flock wallpaper has been painted over in watercolours to make it feel less like the set of 'Keep The Aspidistra Flying'. On the walls are over thirty discoloured mirrors of various shapes and sizes, arranged in a manner which is strangley comforting. The front room, meanwhile, features a crimson Ottoman sofa salvaged from a Belgian car boot fair, a car bonnet on the wall, a stuffed eagle in a jar and – yes, I peeked - a copy of Kula Shaker’s second album amongst the CDs. I didn’t want to leave. The kitchen, meanwhile, had pages from a French novel as wallpaper (sourced from a junk shop in Hay On Wye), an old door as a dining table (complete with brass knocker) and walls stripped of wallpaper to show off the letters - rescued from a printers - all over the fridge.

The owners, artist Mark Hill and Kate ship, explained that recycling comes in various shapes and sizes. With the mad rush to get what’s new, people are missing out on the beauty of the past. They’re off on aroad trip to Eastern Europe in November. “We’re going in that rusty caravan outside” laughed Mark, gesturing to a charabanc straight out of 'Please Sir', the movie.

Hats off.

Monday, Monday

First up, we're loving the Socialism Map Of The World. Great to know there are people in places as far afield as Brazil, Florida and Billericay logging on... hopefully we'll fill in some more gaps in the next few days, thanks for yr time anyway.

Secondly, this...


Third thing - records we're currently loving - Caribou "Andorra" (esp "Niobe", 9 minute throb trance baroque pop crossover); Black Moth Super Rainbow; Catcall; the Black Mountain track off the Spiderman film (film was crap tho wasn't it?); Martin Denny and all Tiki music; the new Underworld record; Rush; Turbonegro; Stereolab; Lawrence Arabia and Flight Of The Conchords.

Lastly... last week it was Radiohead and The Charlatans. Now there's news that Ocean Colour Scene are to offer their next single as a free download. We're just sat here wondering whether we are about to get to the stage where people can’t even give their music away anymore?

Burn, Baby Burn...

When Good Interviews Go Bad

Natural gibberish

From the Guardian Arts Blog - very good point

They Totally Lied To Us When They Said Free Beer, Dude

Great Poster on Hanway Street...

Anyone got any idea who/why ? Great attitude!

Land Of My Fathers

Last Saturday, Wales lost out to Fiji in the Rugby World Cup. Pretty sad day for myself and my fellow countrymen, every Welshie I've spoken to since has been weirdly maudlin about the whole thing. Personally, I've come down from my insanity rage, caused by the ITV commentary on the match, which was disrespectful and borderline racist. Like to hear them talk about Scotland, Ireland or England the same way and not get Ofcom complaints. Anyways, not going to crap on too much, just wanted to alert any saddened Taffs out there to Rick Smith from Underworld's spectral take on a traditional Welsh hymn... brought a tear to the eye and a hefty dose of hiraeth to the heart...

underworldlive.com