I ought to post more drunken musical rambles!
So, before I say anything else and end up forgetting to mention this, let me just take a moment to mark the passing of Poly Styrene. A short, chubby, mixed-race girl, with braces on her teeth... who was simply beautiful, in absolutely every way that you could possibly conceive, both within and without. "Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard, but I think: oh bondage, up yours!" Yeah, you tell 'em!
As for me, basically, I had a long and exhausting day. And, after my day, I really needed something. And so I went and saw Thomas Tantrum, at the Hoxton Bar & Kitchen.
The first band on made a glorious racket for about sixty seconds... and then the singer started to sing some bloody awful song, and the effect was sort of ruined. Later, smoking a cigarette outside, someone engaged me in a brief conversation. She observed that it had been a bit noisy, and I observed that noise does have a place in life. True enough, she acknowledged, but she suggested that ear-plugs are good, because then you can hear the sound behind the noise. Sometimes, I replied, the noise is better than the sound.
But then I really did rather like the second band. Hang on, I've got some cards... it seems that the first one was called 'Ravens in Paris', and this second one 'Doyle & The Fourfathers'. Lousy band-names, both of them, clearly. But this second one really did play exceptionally well. I was thinking: why, if only they could write some truly great songs, they could be the new Teenage Fanclub! (And you don't need to tell me that Teenage Fanclub were never all that good, or even all that successful -- I know!) (hence the comparison!). But these guys really did play very well indeed; and they're prettier than The Vaccines too. And then they did a cover of...
Well, now that it's been put before my mind, I'm frankly astonished that I haven't been hearing more of this song lately. "Would you like to marry me? And if you like, you can buy the ring. She doesn't care about anything. Would you like to marry me? And if you like, you can buy the ring. I don't dream about anyone, except myself. William, William it was really nothing..." (If you need to be told what band these lyrics come from, well, you might as well just google them for yourself).
How do I feel, myself, about the Royal Wedding? (Why, thank you for asking!). I'm not even sure. I certainly have no great sentiment in favour of the Monarchy, and yet I'm not an ardent Republican either: I just find it hard to care either way. There are bigger fish to fry. As one human being to two others, I suppose I wish them well.
Anyway, they then played another cover version, something that I knew that I knew, but which I couldn't place. But I jotted down the melody as best I could, with pencil and paper on a makeshift stave, and I'll try to figure it out later. This does make me sound more musical than I am: frankly, it could equally well have started on a C or an E, and I wouldn't know the difference. But I think I got the intervals and the crotchets and quavers about right, and I might be able to piece it together when I'm less drunk. For this has worked before! I heard a song in a shop a couple of years ago, very indistinctly, and far too indistinctly to make out enough of the words to google them: but I was able to note down the melody, and I successfully pinned it down a couple of days later to 'Safety Net' by The Shop Assistants. Success!
Anyway, as for Thomas Tantrum, I felt, and I still feel, that theirs was truly the best album of 2008. But I saw them at the time, and I was decidedly underwhelmed by them as a live prospect then. And likewise tonight. I think those tours with Glasvegas have rubbed off on them, but in a bad way: they really need to smile more! Admittedly, I can scarcely blame them for merely going through the motions tonight, having to play to some sixty-odd Hoxton hipsters, only a couple of whom were deigning to move at all to their music. It can't be easy for a band to have to face that. But I don't think I'll bother to go and see them live again. Although I expect that I will buy the next album.
And so then I cycled home. I hadn't intended to be out on my bicycle at all, but that's how it ended up. And I was a bit drunk, and a bit falling-asleep; and it really is quite a long way from Hoxton to Brixton. But there was only one point in this more-than-an-hour-long odyssey at which I actually went in a genuine circle, and found myself back where I'd been ten minutes earlier. Otherwise, I think I did rather well. Oh, but talking of odysseys, I can't believe that I'd never encountered the Portsmouth Sinfonia until this week. This is truly sublime:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpJ6anurfuw
As for me, basically, I had a long and exhausting day. And, after my day, I really needed something. And so I went and saw Thomas Tantrum, at the Hoxton Bar & Kitchen.
The first band on made a glorious racket for about sixty seconds... and then the singer started to sing some bloody awful song, and the effect was sort of ruined. Later, smoking a cigarette outside, someone engaged me in a brief conversation. She observed that it had been a bit noisy, and I observed that noise does have a place in life. True enough, she acknowledged, but she suggested that ear-plugs are good, because then you can hear the sound behind the noise. Sometimes, I replied, the noise is better than the sound.
But then I really did rather like the second band. Hang on, I've got some cards... it seems that the first one was called 'Ravens in Paris', and this second one 'Doyle & The Fourfathers'. Lousy band-names, both of them, clearly. But this second one really did play exceptionally well. I was thinking: why, if only they could write some truly great songs, they could be the new Teenage Fanclub! (And you don't need to tell me that Teenage Fanclub were never all that good, or even all that successful -- I know!) (hence the comparison!). But these guys really did play very well indeed; and they're prettier than The Vaccines too. And then they did a cover of...
Well, now that it's been put before my mind, I'm frankly astonished that I haven't been hearing more of this song lately. "Would you like to marry me? And if you like, you can buy the ring. She doesn't care about anything. Would you like to marry me? And if you like, you can buy the ring. I don't dream about anyone, except myself. William, William it was really nothing..." (If you need to be told what band these lyrics come from, well, you might as well just google them for yourself).
How do I feel, myself, about the Royal Wedding? (Why, thank you for asking!). I'm not even sure. I certainly have no great sentiment in favour of the Monarchy, and yet I'm not an ardent Republican either: I just find it hard to care either way. There are bigger fish to fry. As one human being to two others, I suppose I wish them well.
Anyway, they then played another cover version, something that I knew that I knew, but which I couldn't place. But I jotted down the melody as best I could, with pencil and paper on a makeshift stave, and I'll try to figure it out later. This does make me sound more musical than I am: frankly, it could equally well have started on a C or an E, and I wouldn't know the difference. But I think I got the intervals and the crotchets and quavers about right, and I might be able to piece it together when I'm less drunk. For this has worked before! I heard a song in a shop a couple of years ago, very indistinctly, and far too indistinctly to make out enough of the words to google them: but I was able to note down the melody, and I successfully pinned it down a couple of days later to 'Safety Net' by The Shop Assistants. Success!
Anyway, as for Thomas Tantrum, I felt, and I still feel, that theirs was truly the best album of 2008. But I saw them at the time, and I was decidedly underwhelmed by them as a live prospect then. And likewise tonight. I think those tours with Glasvegas have rubbed off on them, but in a bad way: they really need to smile more! Admittedly, I can scarcely blame them for merely going through the motions tonight, having to play to some sixty-odd Hoxton hipsters, only a couple of whom were deigning to move at all to their music. It can't be easy for a band to have to face that. But I don't think I'll bother to go and see them live again. Although I expect that I will buy the next album.
And so then I cycled home. I hadn't intended to be out on my bicycle at all, but that's how it ended up. And I was a bit drunk, and a bit falling-asleep; and it really is quite a long way from Hoxton to Brixton. But there was only one point in this more-than-an-hour-long odyssey at which I actually went in a genuine circle, and found myself back where I'd been ten minutes earlier. Otherwise, I think I did rather well. Oh, but talking of odysseys, I can't believe that I'd never encountered the Portsmouth Sinfonia until this week. This is truly sublime:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpJ6anurfuw